Demon Night

Danvers had said he’d keep a bargain. I didn’t believe him, but we had nothing to lose by negotiating the terms of it.” He took a long breath. “And that was that. I drank the poison, and pushed Caleb the hell out of there. It killed me sure enough—but next thing, Michael’s there, giving me another choice. I figure Sammael must have run to the next town as soon as Michael showed.”
    Charlie’s gaze dropped to his chest, and she tried to process it all. She wasn’t sure she could. “Sammael still thinks it was your fault, doesn’t he? He said something at the bridge—about you having to pay for Eden.”
    “I reckon he does. Which suits me just fine, as I got a few things to settle with him.”
    She blinked up at him; he’d said that as easily as if he’d announced he was paying a tab. “You don’t seem angry, though.”
    He sidestepped, swinging her with him until they were walking side by side again. “I figure I’m like those townspeople. Just simmering.” He slanted a glance at her. “I want Sammael’s head for plenty of reasons. I’m feeling mighty vengeful, Charlie, but if I rush on in and get myself killed, there’s other things that won’t be provided for. Atoning is more important than revenge. Being a Guardian and protecting the living is—and so is making certain you don’t need for anything.”
    That he’d placed providing for her on the same level as atoning and being a Guardian filled her, warmed her, left her struggling for something to say; but she couldn’t respond except to nod. And although she didn’t want to be one of his obligations—and wanted to assure him that she intended to support herself as quickly as she could—to protest that she didn’t need anything would be silly and ungrateful and trivialize everything that he had given her.
    She’d have done anything just to give him a little in return. She managed to offer in a thick rasp, “I’ll hold him down.”
    Ethan’s laugh rumbled through her, and he dropped a hard, closed-mouth kiss against her lips. “I’ll let you take the first stab, if you like.”
    “Okay. Or sucking on him might be a good payback—but don’t let Jane see me do it.” She blinked, grimaced. “Never mind. That sounded weird and just wrong .”
    Ethan’s laughter deepened, though he was shaking his head and apparently trying not to imagine that, as well. When it faded, he glanced down at her, a perplexed expression lurking in his gaze.
    She drew back to see him better. “What is it?”
    He hesitated only a second. “I just can’t figure you, Charlie. You’re joking now, even though Jane laid a terrible blow on you today, staying with Sammael even after seeing the truth for herself. And I also can’t figure how it was Old Matthew had you crawling over to my lap, when you made it through Jane’s call just fine. Do you want him to come for you?”
    “No.” Wherever Ethan was, that was where she wanted to be. But she looked away from him, unsure she could explain.
    A small shelf jutted out from the mounded pile of rocks; she carefully tucked the tails of the shirt under her bare bottom before sitting on its flat surface. The stone was still warm, like a lingering touch of sun.
    She took a deep breath. “It was just that Jane, she didn’t seem to notice…” Her throat closed.
    “How much you were hurting,” Ethan said, coming to sit beside her.
    “Yes.” She tilted her head back; the stars were blurry again, and she blinked them into focus before looking at Ethan. “But Old Matthew heard it, somehow. Or he was listening for it, even though he has no real reason to. Aside from, you know, caring about me. Even though he has no real reason to do that, either.”
    Ethan’s brows drew together. “That’s the most damn fool thing I’ve ever heard,” he said softly.
    “Thanks.” A short laugh slipped from her, and she drew up her legs, wrapped her arms around them. “I was about to wallow in a lot of really old self-pity, and I don’t mean to.”
    “I know you don’t, Charlie—but you’d best explain what you do mean.”
    She nodded, and gathered up the story. Unlike most, it didn’t come easily, but more like an engine that had to be choked to start. “Old Matthew said when he hired me that, because he took on so many ex-cons, he had to be careful. And that his employees could keep their private lives private—but if he found out that any of his employees was lying to him about something that affected