Demon Night

though they never talked about her weight loss, as if discussing her recovery might jinx its progress, the worry on Ethan’s face seemed to lighten as the days passed.
    Then they left for Cole’s, where Ethan’s predictions held true; each evening brought in new vampires. Some only sat and listened, but others came up to the bar for a brief word or a long conversation. And after a few days, Charlie noted, they’d already picked up regulars.
    Closing time found them flying to various locations in the city, visiting with as many vampires as they could, alerting them to the nephilim and seeking information about Jane. By the second week, Charlie knew by sight almost every vampire in the community, except for Manny and his girls. Ethan’s first destination each evening was Manny’s house, claiming he had questions for the vampire, but Manny had never been home. And Ethan had shaken his head, smiling, when Charlie suggested visiting him wherever he worked.
    And every night, she and Ethan returned home with no word about Jane—every night, the tension of not knowing wound tighter and tighter.
    Charlie thought it must be like getting fuzzy. It was never overwhelming at the beginning of the evening, but by the time Ethan set her feet on the deck at home, she was ready to scream from it, ready to go off at the slightest provocation. Ethan must have felt it building in her—and perhaps the frustration was rising in him, as well. After the second night, he’d cut the time they remained in the city by an hour, returning home to engage her in an exhausting training session. The sweat and contact inevitably led them to bed, always hot and rough—and where she finally found release, laughter that didn’t have an edge of guilt, and the impenetrable bliss of falling asleep within Ethan’s embrace.
    But Ethan never stopped working. They’d reported Jane missing, and every night over his whiskey at Cole’s, Ethan updated her on the progress of the—equally slow—police investigation. Jake remained at the house when Ethan had to leave, but kept in constant contact from the tech room, researching locations and names whenever Ethan required the information.
    So far, they’d only been asked to break through the spell once. Charlie had recognized the blond Guardian who walked into Cole’s, and she’d tapped on the one-way mirror. Less than a second after Old Matthew relieved her at the bar and Ethan rushed Charlie through the back door, they’d been standing in front of a burning house.
    Two minutes later, she and Ethan were back at Cole’s—and to her surprise, Ethan had truthfully answered one vampire’s question of why they both suddenly reeked of smoke.
    And Selah hadn’t been the only Guardian visitor; a few others had dropped by. If not for Ethan’s introductions, Charlie wouldn’t have realized they weren’t human: a hard-edged female who sculpted a tiny metal piano with keys that Charlie could play with a toothpick; a brooding male whose unblinking stare gave Charlie the creeps, but who managed to crack a smile while speaking with Ethan; another woman who reminded Charlie of a crow, who seemed to surprise Ethan simply by coming in, and who talked music with Charlie for almost two hours.
    Nothing about the Guardians was similar, except that they all sized Charlie up, and they all appeared to relax in Ethan’s presence.
    Before she and Ethan had returned to Seattle, she’d mostly seen him fighting, or with the novices; she hadn’t realized how good he was at putting people at ease—even when they had no reason to be so. A few days into the second week, he convinced the two scientists who’d left Legion to join Ramsdell Pharmaceuticals—though, he told her later, not on his own. Savi’s partner had flown up from San Francisco, then had left for the airport once they’d finished their negotiations.
    Charlie hadn’t met Colin Ames-Beaumont since her encounter two months before, but she could easily imagine what had taken place when Ethan recounted the meeting over the bar that evening.
    “We offered them a real nice position, and what with Ramsdell investing in a lab here in Seattle, didn’t even have to ask them to relocate—but I reckon all of our sweet-talking didn’t matter much,” Ethan said, his gaze holding hers. “They took one look at his pretty face and that was it.”
    Charlie had to hide her grin, and let the sound of his soft laughter roll over her. She didn’t know how Ethan