Demon Night

right,” she said softly.
    Jane’s neighborhood slept below them. Charlie opened herself to the sounds—the sparse traffic, the televisions and music, a few voices—and pushed them away before it became too much. So many families, couples, lovers.
    She closed her eyes, shut out the vision of her sister’s perfect house, and thought of Ethan’s brother. “You’re going to kill Sammael, aren’t you?”
    Ethan took a long second before answering. “Probably not tonight. But eventually, it’ll come to that. He’ll kill me, or I will him. I admit I’m looking forward to slaying him, and if an opportunity arises, I’ll take it.”
    Tears pricked behind her eyelids. When she finally stopped thinking of Sammael as Dylan, and when she could separate the demon she’d met from the man she’d thought she’d known, Charlie imagined that she wouldn’t regret it either.
    Except for one thing.
    “Jane loves him. I know who he’s pretending to be isn’t real, but her feelings are.”
    “Yes.” His arms tightened around her. “She’ll need you.”
    “Yes.” She turned her face against his shoulder. What would she do if it was reversed? How would that tear her up, leaning on a sister who was with a man who’d brought such pain…however good his reasons for doing it? “I don’t know how she’ll take it, if you’re feeding me and she still loves him. I don’t know if you being around will hurt her.”
    Ethan’s jaw looked as hard as the knot of dread in her belly. He didn’t reply until they were hovering over Jane’s eerily silent house.
    “Well,” he finally said, “if it comes to that, then it’s fortunate that I’m real good at sneaking through windows in the middle of the night.”

CHAPTER 14
    From their positions behind the sliding door, Sammael and the second demon could likely smell the gasoline fumes, but they probably thought a Guardian was too sissified to light it.
    Charlie obviously had no doubts. She took one sniff and backed away from Sammael’s fancy SUV, unease rolling through her psychic scent. “Are you sure Jane won’t be trapped in there?”
    “Yes. The security system has a fire alarm, and it’ll blare something fierce when smoke starts moving in—the spell can’t stop air, smoke, or fire. And Sammael will wake her up if it doesn’t ring loud enough.” Ethan yanked his sword out of the gas tank and stood. He’d shoved the SUV as far onto the backyard patio as it’d go, and the driver’s side was almost flush with the glass sliding door. “My most pressing concern is how big a chunk Lilith’s dog is going to take out of my ass when she has to find a way to cover this up, too.”
    Eyes narrowed, Charlie backed up another step. “Are you enjoying this?” She sounded on the edge between falling into laughter and flying into a temper.
    God Almighty, she sure was something. Despite everything that had come at her, how bad it had knocked her around, she’d gotten right back on her feet. Not perfectly steady, but fighting. And he figured it did him good just to look at her, to hear her voice, to breathe the same air.
    “I’m enjoying it a bit,” he said easily. “Now you step back a little farther. A spark won’t set you aflame, but this much heat will leave a burn on you.” Him, too, but it wouldn’t pain a Guardian as much as it would a vampire.
    She was across the backyard within a blink. Ethan vanished his jacket; no need to singe it.
    He pulled her pack of cigarettes and her lighter from his cache. “You want a smoke, Charlie?” he called softly over his shoulder.
    “Thanks, but I’m trying to quit.”
    Ethan grinned. Mostly amusement filled her reply now, and that was just fine. “I used to roll my own cigarettes.” He slipped one between his lips, tossed the rest through the missing passenger door. Charlie’s blood stained the seat’s leather upholstery. “It was more manly that way. Out west, only dudes smoked store-bought. But the rest of us, we rolled our own, and used live rattlesnakes as suspenders.”
    Charlie was choking on her laughter; Sammael was frowning at him through the window, starting to shake his head. The demon at his side was smaller in stature, not as pretty, and was backing away from the door.
    Now, that was interesting. Appearances mattered to demons. He was likely subservient to Sammael, then.
    “You cover your ears, Charlie. It ought to just flare up pretty good, but if it blows, it’ll set them ringing. And when