Demon Night

the lounge. She leaned her hip against the table, crossed her arms. Joel wouldn’t meet her eyes, so she settled her gaze on his date. The guy was completely ’roided out: acne, overdeveloped muscles, and she could practically smell the testosterone.
    “Leave,” she said quietly. “Right now.”
    The musclehead barely spared her a glance. “Fuck—”
    She had his arm up tight behind his back before he could finish, forcing him to stand. “That’s the second word that starts with ‘F’ that I’ve heard you say tonight, and I’ve only been listening for a few seconds,” she said, not caring that his veins were throbbing at his temples, his teeth were grinding, and pain was screeching from his psychic scent. She shoved him toward the exit without releasing his wrist. “This hurts, doesn’t it? I haven’t even broken or torn anything. Next time you walk in here, I will.”
    She passed Melody, whose eyes widened before she rushed past the hostess podium and pushed the front door open, then held it wide.
    Charlie considered planting her foot in the musclehead’s ass, but wasn’t certain if she’d misjudge the force—and injury might bring her more attention than this guy warranted. She marched him across the street instead, through drizzling rain, and left him groaning and holding his arm in front of the Heritage.
    Ethan stood at the door with Melody, a deep smile creasing the corners of his eyes. “I aimed to be all menacing and formidable until he ran away.”
    “He’d have tried to get a few punches in first,” Charlie said with a shrug. “My way was faster and easier.”
    She slid her arm through Melody’s as they walked back into Cole’s, then left her at the podium with a brief squeeze and a thanks.
    “That it was, Miss Charlie. And I reckon it answered a question for most everyone here.”
    “Everyone” must have been the vampires; as she walked through the lounge she couldn’t miss the tension and unease pouring from them.
    “What answered what?” she asked after she’d checked in with Joel and returned to the bar, wiping the last of the rain from her arms.
    “Well, Miss Charlie,” Ethan said as he took his seat, “I haven’t slain you.”
    “Oh, my God.” Her stomach lurched, gooseflesh rose on her skin. “I broke the Rules.”
    “That you did. And I figure if you made a habit of twisting a man’s arm up behind his back, hurting him for no good reason, we’d be having some real strong words between us. But you had a good reason, so I ain’t all that riled up about it.”
    Her heartbeat regained its normal pace. Ethan was sitting in his easy sprawl, facing her across the bar, yet his words were obviously for everyone.
    But he was going about it indirectly. Charlie shook her head, and said, “I thought we had to follow the Rules.”
    Ethan watched her face for a long second; then he sat up a little straighter and nodded.
    “All right. For vampires, they’re more like real important guidelines, and the ‘not killing’ part the most critical one. You’re stronger than humans, quicker—most times, no matter what he’s threatening, you can get around a human without resorting to killing him. And so long as you don’t abuse your strength, we’ll be all right. I sure ain’t going to slay a vampire for defending someone, or for doing her job.” His lips curled slightly. “Though maybe next time, you might jump over that counter a little more human-like.”
    She smiled, pulling the stack of e-mails back in front of her. “If they’re just guidelines, why does it matter so much if demons and Guardians break them?”
    “They ain’t just guidelines for us; for a demon or a Guardian, they’re absolute. If I’d done what you did, Michael would soon be showing up to give me a choice to Ascend or Fall.” He was silent until she met his eyes, and his tone became intimate. “I’d be Falling—which only means that I’d be transformed back into a human to live out the remainder of my life. I’ve got too much to atone for to visit an afterlife just yet. But you ain’t got to worry if it ever happens; once I became a human again, you could turn me, so as I could continue providing for you.”
    She dropped her gaze to the printout again. Ethan, a vampire? She couldn’t even imagine it. And though it would mean he would need her to feed him, too…she wouldn’t want equality to come that way.
    “I like the wings,” she said finally. “So if you run across a human