Demon Night

Guardian, they don’t stay long.”
    She opened her mouth, then closed it and shook her head with a small smile. “All right.”
    Disappointment slipped through him. He’d have bet anything that she’d been set to make up a story about vanishing clothes, but she must not be feeling comfortable enough to tell it. “You hungry?”
    At Charlie’s nod, Selah asked, “How do you take your coffee?” and Charlie recited a list of preparation details and flavorings that had Ethan wondering if he’d been deprived as a human, drinking coffee so bitter that even fine white sugar couldn’t sweeten it, instead of something that sounded like dessert.
    Selah teleported an instant after Charlie finished.
    “Ah,” she said, blinking quickly.
    “You all right?”
    “Just…surprised.” Her dark gaze moved to Jake, who’d taken a seat at the deck’s dining table, then to Ethan. “I think I’m going to sit, too. Why didn’t you do that last night?”
    “I can’t teleport. It’s her Gift. Some Guardians are Healers; others teleport or talk to spiders or play with metal. Other abilities, too, mostly depending on what they did when they were human.” Ethan scooted Charlie’s seat out, then tucked it under her before taking the adjacent chair. Fortunately, it wasn’t one of those tiny café sets, and he could sit without rapping his knees beneath the table every time he breathed.
    “What can you do?” she asked when he was settled. In the daylight, Charlie’s brown eyes were a bit more hazel, the sun bringing out the green. Her loose tumble of curls looked as if she’d just lifted her head from her pillow, but he knew she usually spent a good fifteen minutes styling her hair just so.
    Ethan figured it might take him about thirty seconds of hard loving to get it to the same state.
    He cleared the roughness from his throat. “I fiddle with locks.”
    Jake snorted. “He’s being modest. He does a lot more than fiddle. Which reminds me…” A large roll of blueprint paper appeared on the table. Jake leaned back and grinned. “I got the schematics for Legion’s security system. A custom design—but you’re already familiar with most of the components.”
    Hell and damnation. He’d planned to lead up to this. Ethan glanced at Charlie; she lifted her gaze from the schematics to his face, and kept her eyes steady on his, but he could hear her fingers rubbing the fabric of her jacket, each stroke rough and irregular.
    “What’s your Gift, Jake?” she asked softly.
    The novice was eyeing her uneasily. The maturity of a twenty-year-old, but still sharp and observant. “I dunno,” he said slowly. “I haven’t gotten it yet.”
    “That’s too bad. Do you have my phone, Drifter?”
    His jaw clenched. He’d given her that name, knowing it would act as mortar in the wall—he hadn’t expected that when she used it, it would go on so thick. “That I do. I had to make a call last night. If you’re charged for it, you’ll be reimbursed.”
    “Thanks.” Though her expression didn’t change, an agitated flush spread over her skin. Unlike her tone and her features, she couldn’t control that—and Ethan was glad of it, glad of any indication of her emotional state. She picked up the phone from the table. “Is there anything I shouldn’t say? Something that I don’t know yet about my sister , or that might put my sister in danger?”
    Pissed off, for certain. “Just see if she’s home. And if not, when she will be.”
    “And if she’s at Legion?”
    Jake groaned quietly, as if he’d just realized what Ethan had yet to tell her.
    Don’t ever try to pass on your woman-handling skills, Jake signed.
    That decided it for him. Ethan didn’t figure that Charlie wanted—or needed—to be handled. After the initial shock of the vampire attack had worn off, she’d taken every blow he’d landed on her—even given him back some.
    He’d rather have laid this one on a little easier, though.
    “I reckon you shouldn’t tell her she’s working for a passel of demons,” he finally said.
    The flush fled her skin, left her pale. “But they can’t hurt her, right? You said demons can’t hurt people.”
    “No, but if they lock a door, it’s going to be mighty difficult for her to get out. Pins and tumblers don’t have to respect free will. And I can open it up, but fighting my way through is something entirely different. Nor can I force her to leave, because I’m bound by the same Rules the demons are.