Demon Night

“Perhaps that will change, now that Brandt has been killed.”
    “But we’ve no way of knowing if another of the nephilim won’t just take up where he left off.”
    “Yes,” she said. “And so we’re alerting all of the communities, and we’ll be assigning a Guardian to any city where the heads have been slain. Do you want Seattle?”
    There was no way in hell he’d let anyone else take it. “That I do.”
    “Then it’s yours. When Michael returns—again—I’ll clear it with him, but I can’t imagine he’ll disagree.” She crossed her arms, a tiny line appearing between her brows as she watched Jake concentrate, as the thrum of his Gift pushed through the room, and he still didn’t get anywhere. She made a signal, and Sir Pup took off running. “Does everything have to be dragged out of you?”
    Ethan nodded in satisfaction when Jake disappeared an instant before Sir Pup chomped down on his ass, then he turned to Lilith. “By that, I take it you’ve heard about my jaunt to Hell, and you’re wondering what happened there.”
    “I know what happened: You opened the nephilim’s prison, and Michael killed the only one left inside. What interests me is the little twitch at the side of your neck when I say Michael’s name.”
    Ethan stared down at her, trying to figure if she was lying about the tell and just fishing, or if he really had given something away. When she bent to rub her hellhound’s heads, telling him what a good boy he was for scaring the puppy, Ethan decided that it didn’t matter.
    “I may have heard something regarding Michael that gives me concern,” he said finally. “But I’m thinking it over, wondering if that ain’t exactly what the one who said it intended.”
    Lilith’s expression was suddenly serious. “A demon?”
    “Yes. But if what he said is true, I reckon it only means that I jumped to conclusions about Michael.” When her mouth turned down in confusion, Ethan explained, “I always figured he possessed some innate goodness and some natural ability to forgive. After all, he chose a man with my history to become a Guardian—”
    “And never killed me,” Lilith murmured.
    Ethan nodded. “But now I’m thinking that goodness might be something he picked up along the way.”
    “So he wasn’t born with that stick up his ass, but deliberately shoved it up there. That’s wonderfully twisted,” Lilith said. She then added over Ethan’s laughter, “Colin tells me you offered to transform several thousand dollars into several million. How was a man of your history planning to do that?”
    “Vegas,” Ethan said. “Lots of poker tables, very few demons.” There was far too much wagering going on for their comfort.
    Her eyes brightened with interest. “Would you have cheated?”
    He considered that. It would have been so Charlie would have a home she loved, and there wasn’t much he wouldn’t do to provide for her.
    Not much he wouldn’t do, except push her so hard it frightened her away. But maybe a little push wouldn’t hurt—and if it didn’t work, he could come up with another way.
    “Only if I started losing,” he finally said.

    Ethan came in late again, and the knot in Charlie’s stomach slowly began to relax. He’d left almost immediately after dropping her off at the lake house the night before. And although she knew by the faint scent in the sheets and the impression on the pillow next to her that he’d spent part of the morning in bed, she had no memory of his presence there.
    A few minutes a day with him just wasn’t enough. But this was what she’d dealt herself and forced on him, so she’d suck it up until they worked through it.
    He sat, but waved away the bottle before she could pour his whiskey, and clasped each of her hands in his.
    “Is it marriage?” he asked quietly. “I’ll stand up with you.”
    Charlie’s heart swelled, huge and full in her chest. “No. You called us partners once; that was enough for me.”
    “Hell and damnation.” He blew out a long breath. “I thought for sure that’d be it.” His head tilted as he studied her, the lines at the corners of his eyes deepening. “Is it something kinky? We’ve done everything you showed me that once, but maybe there’s something you hid. Something real dirty.”
    “No,” she tried to say, but she was choking on her laughter.
    His voice roughened. “Maybe you have a fantasy, climbing up here on this bar, sitting right in front of me with all these