Demon Moon (26 page)

“Colin, love, open your beautiful eyes and tell us what you see.”

Lilith's voice was soft now, and he barely heard it over the screams. When had he closed his eyes? Had he lost consciousness?

“Colin,” Selah said. “You've got to come back.”

Come back from where? He was so tired. When would
she
come back? She'd promised not to leave him, but she did.

No, he'd told her to go. To find Michael. And she had, but not before the wyrmwolves had found him—

“Colin! Goddammit, you fucking pantywaist, sit yourself up on your beautiful ass and look!”

Christ, but she had the devil's own tongue. “Sod off, Lilith,” he said hoarsely, and her relieved laughter pushed the screams away. A pleasant memory surfaced in their place.

The night before, Savi had called it spectacular. Though tears had brightened her eyes, she'd been laughing, and the delicious scent of her blood had filled—

No. Don't make her part of this
.

He gave his head a hard shake, and the screams poured back in.

“Colin, what are the nosferatu doing?” Michael's melodic voice was impossible to ignore.

He didn't want to look up, but he did. The shrieking filled his brain, but he didn't allow himself to see the dangling bodies, only the pale creatures that flew between them. “Still writing.”

“Is it intact?”

“Yes.” Colin dropped his chin to his chest, closed his eyes again. On his hands and knees like a fucking dog, but it was better than falling.

“And the wyrmwolves?” Castleford asked quietly. “Can you see them?”

Colin lifted his head, slid his knee forward, then his hands. The ground below sped by with dizzying speed. An inch here, miles in Chaos.

Or he was just so tired he couldn't tell the difference between speed and sickness.

There. A writhing mass. A pack moving across a plain of solid black stone, at the base of a towering mountain. It had been that mountain in which he and Selah had found the caves, where they'd clawed their way to safety.

Safety, for a time.

“They're still congregated near the mountain. All of them, moving together.” Almost aimlessly, it seemed—but they hadn't formed such a large pack when he and Selah had run from them. Or flown, rather—Selah carrying him until they reached the mountain. In the caves, her wings had been useless.

Don't leave me here alone
.

The screams built and built, and his lips trembled with the effort of keeping them in. He shook his head, fought a wave of exhaustion and vertigo.

“That's enough for now, Colin,” Michael said quietly.

Colin stared blindly at the mountain. Somewhere behind that black pile of stone, a sheet of tinted glass, they all stared back.

Damn them all.

Savi ran up the steps to the second level of the warehouse; Drifter's footsteps fell heavily behind her on each metal riser. Though she'd only asked the Guardian for directions, he'd insisted on leading her there.

But he wasn't in as much of a hurry as she was.

She hadn't needed to bring the sheaf of papers she held in her hand; every detail buried itself in her memory. But Colin would want to see. As would the others.

On the landing, Drifter drew even with her. Ready to provide protection from Colin, she assumed. Perhaps because Hugh had been Drifter's mentor—now he felt obligated to protect her, even though she'd insisted she didn't need it. Always the little sister.

She forced her resentment away. “Are Colin's shields still down?”

“No, Miss Savi. He's raised them again; it was just those few moments.”

Colin would hate that. Even if it was only a few moments, he'd hate knowing that whatever the mirrors did to him, each of the Guardians and vampires in the vicinity—even the imprisoned nosferatu—would feel it, too.

Not out of concern for them, but that it allowed them more of himself than Colin wanted to give.

The layout upstairs was less utilitarian than the first floor, and the rear portion was used for tiny dormitory-style living quarters and common rooms. Drifter guided her to the northwest corner via a narrow, unlit corridor. The solid wooden door at the end hadn't been marked with anything as obvious as a
NO ADMITTANCE
sign, but everything about the approach stated it clearly.

Drifter stepped in front of her, and she heard the click of the dead bolt. He opened the door and silently signaled to Michael. She looked beneath his arm, taking a brief second to see into the room, to prepare herself. But it wasn't a scene of terror—more like a waiting room. Calming blue paint, soft lighting, and an overstuffed sofa that Sir Pup had taken up with his enormous form. The only unusual feature was the large, darkened window that took up most of one wall of the room….

Not a window, a two-way mirror. Like the observation glass in a police interrogation room.

Colin stood in front of it, leaning against the pane as if he needed it to prop him up, his eyes closed. Exhaustion and despair sat in the line of his body, the slump of his shoulders. His face was taut and pale, his mouth compressed into a thin line. Beneath the flat front of his trouser pockets, she could see the outlines of his fists.

Tired and furious.

Selah was beside him, speaking quietly. She paused as Savi entered the room, as did Hugh, Michael, and Lilith. Judging by their stiff postures, the anger on Lilith's face, they'd been arguing.

She barely heard Drifter leave and the door close behind him.

Hugh's expression softened into concern. “What is it, Savi?”

Savi glanced back at Colin; he'd opened his eyes. Her gaze briefly locked with his, then his lids lowered into a predatory stare.

He eased away from the glass.

Savi's heart climbed into her throat, seemed to pound the blood into her head at a dizzying pace.

“Oh, fuck,” Lilith breathed.

Savi silently echoed the curse. She'd been so careful; her shields were up, impenetrable. No scent could have leaked through to tease him, yet there was no mistaking the rapacious hunger that pulled his lips back over his fangs, that darkened his features.

Stay there, Colin
.

“Savi,” Hugh said, his voice studiously even, “can this wait until later?”

Colin's lashes flickered as he stole a glance at the three standing by the sofa. Selah moved in front of him, but wasn't tall enough to hide Savi from his sight.

He met her gaze again. “Are you afraid, my sweet Savitri?”

“No,” she said, shaking her head. “Not
of
you.”

She only added the last for Hugh's benefit; she didn't know if his ability to see truth would differentiate between specific fears. She was afraid, but not that Colin would attack her.

He was deliberately provoking them. Why? And did he think they wouldn't realize it? Hugh could read truth as easily as he could read words on a page; one verbal slip on Colin's part and Hugh would know. And Michael…who knew what Michael could see.

She turned to Hugh. “It can't wait. I need to talk to him before he goes home.”

“They won't allow you near me,” Colin said, leaning back and bracing his shoulders against the glass again. He didn't appear predatory now; instead he looked and sounded as if this were all a tedious bore. “Lilith and Castleford fear my reaction, for I'm nothing more than a dog on a bitch's scent. And Michael worries as well, though with more compelling reason: he knows what I did to you in Caelum.”

Her heart stopped. He was
punishing
them. Why? For the mirrors—or for their lack of trust in him? Or something else?

“Michael, get him out of here,” Lilith said. Her gaze moved warily between Savi and Colin. “He doesn't know what he's doing. Let him sleep it off.”

“Before I say something I regret?” Colin said silkily. “I daresay Castleford would regret it more than I would.”

Hugh's jaw unclenched, and he turned his head to stare at Savi. His blue eyes were glacial. “What happened in Caelum?”

She'd never heard such a tone from him before—cold and deadly. Even knowing it was in him, she'd never seen it brought to the surface. A killing edge, one that called for execution, if the offenses were terrible enough.

She was going to be sick. If he'd still had his Gift to force truth, she was certain she'd be spilling out a simple confession:
We had sex; I offered him my blood; he took it, and taught me a lesson. Michael only knows because he healed the puncture wounds before Nani saw me
.

But it hadn't been that simple.

Swallowing hard, she said, “Nothing that wasn't of my free will. I allowed…opened myself to…
welcomed
everything we did together. It was all of my free will.”

It wasn't really an answer, but it was the only thing she could think of that wouldn't result in bloodshed. The Rules stipulated that Guardians and demons had to honor a human's free will; though Lilith and Hugh no longer had to, they followed the Rules almost to the same degree. And but for life, Hugh held free will above nearly every other ideal—had Fallen to regain his.

And Savi watched helplessly as Hugh's anger shifted, turned back on himself. Now he likely blamed himself for not warning her.

As if she'd have listened. It was stupid.

She opened her mouth to tell him so, but Lilith caught her eye and gave a quick shake of her head. The tightness around Savi's lungs eased. Lilith had known Hugh for eight hundred years; she'd work him out of his guilt.

Why did Colin have to push it that far? Dammit. But if Savi couldn't ease Hugh's mind about the past, then she could at least in the present.

She took a deep breath before looking at Colin again. He stared disinterestedly back at her. “I'm going to walk over there and show you this,” she said, gesturing with the papers. “Are you going to hurt me?”

A sharp smile curved his mouth, then froze as he flicked a glance over at Hugh and Lilith. A muscle in his jaw flexed.

He couldn't lie. He could posture and threaten silently, but the moment he spoke a lie, Hugh would know it. As it was, his hesitation had already given him away.

“Bloody hell,” he relented, and his voice was thick with exhaustion. He sagged a little more against the glass. “Even if I weren't so tired I'd fall down if I tried to chase you, I couldn't hurt you.”

Selah turned her head. Though Savi didn't glance that way herself, she assumed the Guardian was looking to Hugh or Michael to confirm Colin's statement. A moment later, Selah stepped from in front of the vampire and the tension in the room all but disappeared.

Colin's gaze remained on Savi as she approached him. His eyes narrowed slightly with amusement. “You've become as manipulative as the rest of us.”

“It's not manipulation, but an increasing sense of self-preservation,” Savi said. “You can triumph; I learned it from you.”

“Be certain I shall triumph wholeheartedly and in the most fashionable way…when I'm up to it. Until then, please allow that I'm an old man who can barely stand.”

“Then brace yourself,
dadu
.” From the top of the sheaf, she pulled out the photo she'd downloaded from the DMV database. “Look familiar? The original is in color; this is just black and white because of the printer. It's a perfect likeness.”

Colin blinked. “That's not me,” he said with certainty.

“Of course not. I found your old photo—it was a picture of a painting?” She waited for his nod before continuing, “I had to zoom in pretty close to tell. Whoever forged the ID for you did an excellent job. But this one is a real photo, and a real license; it was taken two weeks ago in a Los Angeles DMV. A replacement for stolen ID, or so this person claimed.”

His brows drew together, but there was no surprise in his tone when he asked, “A demon?”

Savi nodded. Only demons and Guardians could shape-shift, but there was little danger of a Guardian trying to impersonate him.

“Fuck,” Lilith said. Savi glanced over at her; Lilith was still on the other side of the room, though now she sat on the sofa arm. Hugh sat on the cushion next to her; Michael and Selah remained standing. “What's the damage?”

Swallowing, Savi turned back to Colin. “So far, seventeen million siphoned from your established accounts into newly opened bank accounts. Credit cards to a P.O. Box, and the physical address given is always Norbridge Medical. The Navigators? Fifteen of them through Norbridge.”

The corners of Colin's mouth turned down, and the cords of his neck stood out as if he'd had to quickly suppress a violent reaction. “He's using the vampires to watch me? And my acquaintances?”

Behind her she heard Lilith and Hugh talking with Michael, their voices tight with quiet alarm, but she ignored them.