Demon Moon

need a partner,” he said dismissively. “He’ll find another.”
    “A woman like this, you figure he’s mighty attached.” The female and the human vanished into the Guardian’s cache, and Drifter stood. “She may have been a murderer, but she was a fine-looking one.”
    “And even murderers need affection.” Colin’s smile was mocking.
    “That we do,” Drifter replied easily, and scratched his great anvil of a jaw. “Seems to me that you ought to have least found out who he was, explained the Rules, and warned him not to retaliate.”
    “Against me? Don’t be absurd.”
    Drifter’s brows rose. “Word around SI is you’ve been coming in every day, which you’ve never done before. And you’ve been visiting Miss Savi in the tech room regularly.”
    Colin straightened up from the wall. His voice hardened. “What is your point, McCabe?”
    “Just that if I have heard where your interest lies, just passing through, it won’t take long before others know it. Such as those who’ve been watching you.”
    The vampire community? Colin shook his head. “They wouldn’t dare threaten her.” And if they did, he’d kill each one of them.
    “It may be you’re right.” Drifter shrugged and moved back to the center of the alley, forming his wings. “And this vampire I’ve got in my cache is a powerful indication nothing will come of that interest, anyway. It gives me quite the advantage.”
    “How is that?” Colin asked softly. If Drifter thought to capture Savi’s affections for himself—
    “I figure it’ll only be another day or two before the novices at SI start up a wager, placing bets on when you transform her. So when I write in ‘Never,’ I’ll be guaranteed a win—though I reckon I’ll have to wait an eternity to collect it.” Drifter smiled; a wide-brimmed hat appeared over his hair, and he tipped it in a mock salute. His wings arched, and with a single beat lifted him straight into the air, high and quick; in the dark, no human would likely have noticed the movement or, if they had, been able to determine what it had been.
    A violent gust of air followed in Drifter’s wake, swirled the alley’s odors around. Colin returned to the street, and looked for the one who had appealed to him before. Gone.
    Blast. He ought to have just immediately contacted SI instead of confronting the female. It wasn’t his responsibility to police the vampire community or to slay those who broke the Rules.
    Colin plucked a rose from a vase on a sidewalk table as he passed it, crushing the bud in his hand, erasing the stink of the alley. Apprehension uncoiled in his stomach. Savi would undoubtedly learn of his killing the vampire. What would she think of it, when she was conflicted over the execution of a nosferatu?
    He shook his head, a reluctant smile pulling at his lips. As absurd as her concern for the nosferatu was, it had been the first indication of dissent she’d shown against Castleford and Lilith, and it had surprised him. Colin had seen her siphon knowledge from them but never question their methods or the morality of their decisions. And although he usually found discussions of morality unbearably tiresome—humans and vampires tended to wax on and on about The Big Picture and Meaning—coming from Savi, it had been intriguing, startling.
    Perhaps it shouldn’t have been surprising. She’d attacked a nosferatu against Lilith’s and—she’d thought—Castleford’s request. And Colin knew she’d never shown any conflict or doubt before that evening because she was certain he’d use it against her. Colin had been waiting for such an opportunity, but he’d not thought that when she finally exposed a vulnerability, it would be regarding a sodding nosferatu. She’d let him in, but—
    Oh, Christ. She’d let him in . Colin stopped, let the rose drop to the pavement. She’d finally trusted him again—and he’d lost his temper and frightened her.
    What a bloody fucking mess he’d made of it.



CHAPTER 8

    Demons and Guardians must abide by the Rules, which are really pretty simple: They can’t deny a human’s free will, and they can’t kill humans. I suppose they could hurt a human, but only if the human wanted it .
    —Savi to Taylor, 2007

    The clash of swords and thuds of flesh against flesh filled the gymnasium at Special Investigations—vampires and fledgling Guardians, hacking and swinging at each other in practiced routines.
    Colin spotted Savi at the back of the room,