Demon Moon

lips parted on a painful gasp, and she fought the tears that sprang to her eyes. “Jesus, Lilith. Why don’t you just fucking rip my lungs out?”
    Regret slipped across Lilith’s expression before her features hardened. “Because you always act without thinking of the consequences. You had good intentions when you translated and printed Hugh’s book, but you did it without asking him, and without knowing the dangers of it. And you created the DemonSlayer card game based on the book, again without asking. At least you talked to him when you developed and licensed the video game, but that was a bit late. You’re brilliant, Savi, but you do the stupidest things with it.”
    Savi clenched her hands to conceal their shaking, though there was no point in hiding; Lilith would see the gesture and know the reason behind it. Both she and Hugh always saw too much.
    “Are you talking about the flight, the nosferatu? Because I was right, and you know it. We would have all been dead. Ten minutes later, Nani and I would have been at the bottom of the Atlantic. Michael and Selah were too late, and Hugh told me the nosferatu confirmed its plan had been to destroy us.”
    Savi didn’t want to know how the nosferatu had been convinced to talk. There were places her curiosity didn’t extend.
    “No. I’m talking about this.” Lilith waved her hand at the computers. “Sir Pup, can I have Savi’s file?” A thin manila folder appeared on the cushion beside Lilith’s boot. She picked it up. “There’s very little in here.”
    Savi didn’t reply, and Lilith sighed. “ Too little. The ruse with Selah taking your approximate form and place in the airplane’s bathroom last month worked—for the most part. We still had to go in and remove physical evidence, the passenger lists and airport video surveillance, change your flight date to the day before in the airline database and credit card records—”
    “And your guy left his fingerprints all over the place,” Savi said. No reason not to tell her; obviously Lilith had figured most of it out. “I had to go back in and clean them up.”
    “I know.” Lilith tapped the file against her palm. “But that’s not my point. Your data doesn’t have any blocks, but there’s nothing there. Not a single connection to Auntie, or to Hugh. And I wasn’t the only one looking. It’s not necessarily a problem, because it serves our purpose for the investigators to find what they think they’re looking for—”
    Savi’s brow creased. “What does that mean?”
    “It means that Special Investigations is too new and our responsibilities too undefined for anyone to be certain of us. Most of those looking at the data are accepting appearances: that a terrorist who looks a hell of a lot like you duplicated your info and tried to bring down a flight, but failed and was caught in New York. And Selah’s escape from maximum security two days later only confirms it for them: a powerful organization pulling strings. But the other half sees your lack of data and reaches the same conclusions I did: you’re already working under an agency—probably Homeland Security. So they’ll assume that the assassination on board was to stop the flight from going down, and everything else is a cover-up. There’s enough conflicting evidence that they’ll believe whatever they want to believe.” Lilith pursed her lips. “All that really matters is that the public bought the capture and escape story, because it makes the DHS look like fucktards and the focus is away from SI.”
    Savi rubbed her forehead, laughing a little. It was all too convoluted for her taste; she concealed by making appearances very simple and straightforward. “So you know what I do here, or you don’t? And what is your point?”
    “Your juvie record is missing, but I know you have one. Hugh mentioned it once—that you’d created fake IDs for your friends when you were all still underage. Good IDs. That you got into the state Vital Records, Social Security, and DMV. But you were caught.”
    She met Lilith’s gaze, and said evenly, “They offered me a job.”
    “Did you take it?”
    “Yes.”
    “You’re lying,” Hugh said from behind her. After closing the door, he strode silently across the room and stood next to Lilith.
    “That was unfair,” Savi said, rising to her feet. “You shouldn’t use superpowers against me.”
    Hugh laughed and shook his head. “I didn’t need to read the truth to know it for a