Demon Night

created such an intimate atmosphere between them with just a low tone and that intense focus, but when he spoke to her like this it was as if they were alone.
    And similar to those moments before dawn and after waking from her daysleep, it pushed the helpless anxiety away, just for a while.
    But her stomach tightened when Ethan paused and said slowly, “And as tomorrow’s your day off, I set Jake up for a date with Mark Brandt.”
    Charlie blinked, but it still didn’t come together. That he intended for Jake to copy Charlie’s form and meet with Mark was clear, but not why.
    Special Investigations had been treading carefully with the Brandts due to the senator’s status. Ethan had called it pussyfooting when Lilith had told him to stand by—but he had agreed that a strong response would give the Brandts reason to think themselves more of a threat than they were.
    Charlie knew SI was tracking Mark’s purchases, and that he’d been spending most of his vacation at his father’s house in Bellevue. But Ethan hadn’t yet approached him, except to fly over the property and get a feel for the location.
    Charlie’s gaze fell to the counter when a short stack of papers appeared beside her hands.
    “Colin brought these up,” Ethan said. “Savi got onto Legion’s e-mail server last night, and downloaded quite a bit before they caught her and booted her off. SI’s still sorting through the messages, but before she went into her daysleep, Savi wrote up a list on the front page detailing what she’s found so far.”
    “But why is Jake—?”
    She broke off as Vin slid in front of her with an order, and as soon as she’d placed the foaming mug on his tray, Ethan continued.
    “Brandt’s name showed up, and after reading what he tried to send to Jane, we thought we ought to talk to him.”
    “ Tried to send?” She glanced up from the bulleted list on top of the printout.
    “Sammael screened all of her incoming mail; these never got to her.”
    “The asshole,” Charlie muttered, but she didn’t rush ahead to the e-mails; she made herself read all of the first page. “What’s this about IP addresses and mailing lists? What does that mean?”
    Ethan’s smile was broad. “It means we have a real good idea of the aliases several of Belial’s demons are using, and their locations around the country. And there appears to be a demon-only list within Legion, which doesn’t include near as many demons as we’d been led to believe. Here in Seattle, there’s only Sammael and three subordinates…although one of those, I’d wager, was the demon that the nephil killed.”
    That all sounded like great news, until she read a little more. “The messages they send one another are encrypted?”
    “Yes,” Ethan said, and tapped the papers. “But Brandt’s aren’t.”
    The messages dated a month previous began simply—and were exactly what Charlie would have expected to read from an old acquaintance looking to renew a friendship.
    But after two weeks, the tone changed, and they weren’t directed to Jane anymore. Halfway through the fourth, Charlie glanced up at Ethan. “Did he figure out that she wasn’t getting the messages? He doesn’t open with a name, and just says ‘You’…like here: ‘You can’t hide behind your mask forever.’ And all of these ‘I know what you are’ and ‘Humans deserve the truth’ statements. I can’t see him saying that to Jane.”
    Ethan was wearing a slight frown, and he absently swirled his whiskey. “Neither can I, Miss Charlie.”
    “Actually, I can’t imagine anyone saying that,” she said, looking at the e-mail again. “It’s kind of movie-of-the-week. But I guess since he’s a politician-type, maybe he reduced it to sound bites.”
    “Yes.”
    Charlie blinked; Ethan’s reply had been terse, and his jaw was like steel. He let out a long breath, turned in his seat.
    She hadn’t been listening. But all of the other vampires in the lounge must have been—everyone’s attention was on Joel. He didn’t have his laptop that evening, and he wasn’t drinking a screwdriver—and the man with the thick neck who was crowding in on Joel’s space apparently didn’t like having his expectations blown to hell.
    More emotions hit her, now that she was focusing on the two men. Anger that bordered on violence, arousal, a need to dominate. Joel pulled away, said no—and was crowded a little more.
    Ethan stood, but Charlie was already over the bar, striding across