For two thousand years, Lilith had been a halfling demon bound to Lucifer, serving him first with righteous fury, damning the worst of humanity—until her anger had turned to brittle cynicism. Hugh had grown from an idealistic knight to one of the finest Guardian warriors to a man who’d finally lost all faith and hope when he’d discovered the only way to free Lilith from Lucifer was to destroy her . . . and he had.
Michael hadn’t been surprised when he’d learned that death hadn’t stopped Lilith—or when she saved Hugh from the living death that he’d fallen into after slaying her. He had been surprised by how handily she’d manipulated Lucifer into releasing her from their bargain and tricked Michael into giving her his sword. But their lives were well worth the loss of that weapon.
And a Guardian could do worse than to measure himself against them. Both humans again, Lilith and Hugh no longer had to follow the Rules, but they both believed in them as strongly as Michael did. They didn’t always agree with each other and never employed the same methods, but if Lilith balked at a proposed act, it was too horrible to carry out. If Hugh couldn’t find compassion for someone, that person wasn’t worth caring about.
What Michael had done to the demon who had been searching for Andromeda had crossed both their lines. That didn’t trouble him as much as it should have. He knew it troubled them and the Guardians.
But then, they were all better men and women—better humans—than he’d ever been.
The practice came to an abrupt end with the point of Lilith’s sword at Hugh’s neck. She grinned. Hugh did, too—he enjoyed it when she won. In the space of a heartbeat, the air charged with sexual tension, and just as quickly turned to frustration. Lilith didn’t hide her resentment when she looked to Michael.
He sighed. Sex could be pleasurable, but so was eating a peach. He’d survived millennia without either one; she could survive a few minutes. “I won’t stay long.”
She nodded and gave Hugh her sword. “Got towels for us, pup?”
A pair of thick cloths from the hellhound’s cache appeared in her hand. She offered one to Hugh and began to wipe the sweat from her face and neck. A brief athletic top and short pants offered range of movement and exposed most of her skin. Michael knew that she’d resent that, too. She liked her costumes. She was a dangerous woman and preferred her appearance to reflect that.
Michael didn’t need to see her costumes to know it. “Lucifer has purged the Pit.”
Lilith paused in her wiping, looked at him. “All of it?”
“Yes.”
Hugh frowned and pulled a shirt over his head. Unlike Lilith, he dressed for modesty, but still chose clothing that wouldn’t offer any advantage to an opponent. “What does that mean?”
“That whatever he plans, it won’t be long before he carries it out.”
Lilith loosened her braid, fingers stabbing through the black plait and dragging through. “What the fuck is he planning? He has to know that Anaria’s army will eventually overwhelm him. Perhaps it would take a thousand years, but it would happen. He was afraid of that very thing. He didn’t just want to prevent us from freeing you from the field. He was worried about all of those halflings who were no longer bound to serve him—and invincible.”
Fierce satisfaction bled through her voice. She liked knowing that Lucifer’s power over the halflings had been turned about. Through sheer will and cleverness, Lilith had never become one of those halflings in the frozen field. She was the only halfling who had escaped that fate.
But she hadn’t escaped unscathed. Lucifer had ripped her demonic abilities away and transformed her to human again. Not a terrible outcome, except that Lilith had reveled in those powers. Michael knew that she would rather cut off her own fingers than admit how much she missed them, however.
No, that wasn’t correct. Lilith would rather cut off everyone else’s fingers than admit it.
“He must have his gaze set upon Chaos,” Hugh said.
Lilith nodded. “Yes. Not just because it gives him access to Earth, and not just because Anaria’s army can’t take physical form outside of Hell. He’s pissed that Michael won the wager forcing him to close the Gates. What better way to make Michael pay than burning the world that he is sworn to protect?”
“And to make you pay for tricking him,” Hugh said softly.
The rest he left unfinished. If Lucifer reached Earth, he would hunt down both Lilith and Hugh. There would be no quick death for them. He’d torture them slowly—and he’d make the other watch.
“We’ll try to avoid that.” Lilith had been tortured in the Pit before. She knew what would be in store for them. “And it might take him a while to get to us. There must be a line of others who have failed him. How many demons did he send out to open a new portal? Now here he is, forced to do it himself. That must piss him off even more. Forced to burn the Pit to charge up the power he needs to blast through—and now everyone knows that he didn’t have enough power to begin with.”
“To blast through the frozen field, but not to Earth,” Michael said. “Any portal to this realm must be opened from both sides.”
Sudden worry lined Lilith’s brow. She must have jumped to the same conclusion that Michael had: The most likely targets would be Colin Ames-Beaumont, Lilith’s closest friend—and Savi, Hugh’s adopted sister.
“We’ll need to focus on stopping it on this side,” Hugh said.
“I agree.”
“Is there any way to open a portal except by using dragon blood? Or the blood of those who have been tainted by it?”
“No.”
“Shit.” Lilith tossed her towel to the pup, who vanished it in midair. “Savi’s already asleep. I’ll give Colin a call this morning. They’ve got good defenses, but we’ll head over tonight after she’s awake and offer a few more layers of protection. Sir Pup, you might have to stay with them a bit more often.”
The hellhound gave a little whine.
“I know,” she said. “I don’t like it, either.”
“You will need to assign protection to Colin’s human family, as well,” Michael told her. “To Anthony Ramsdell’s descendants, in particular, because they carry the taint from my sword.”
Hugh frowned and glanced at Lilith. She looked surprised, then admiring. “That sly little fuck. I knew there was something strange about Geoffrey Blake.”
Sir Pup chuffed, as if in agreement.
“And you.” Lilith narrowed her eyes at the hellhound. “You knew, too. You went off with the butler when Colin’s niece went missing. Blake came back with her. So what is it? He’s not really blind?”
Sir Pup grinned, three jaws opened wide and his tongues lolling.
Lilith shook her head. “And to think that I was going to bring a big, bloody beef shoulder home for you. Not anymore, you traitor.”
With a despondent heave, the hellhound lowered his heads again. All play-acting. Michael could feel the pup’s anticipation—the hellhound knew that Lilith would bring him a treat, regardless, and was already salivating for it.
The pup didn’t need to eat to survive. But he’d been created from the ravenous wyrmwolves in Chaos, and the same hunger burned within them as it did in the dragons.
It burned within Michael now. A constant need—but after eight thousand years, easily ignored. The hunger was simply there, like the beat of his heart. It only sharpened when Michael fed it.
So he didn’t.
“What about Alice?” Hugh said. “Belial carved a symbol into her with the sword so that Jake couldn’t teleport her out of Hell.”
“She is free of the taint.” Michael had burned it out himself.
Lilith looked doubtful. “Would the demons know that?”
“No demons on Earth could know that she was tainted to begin with. They can’t communicate with those in Hell.”
But even if they did, Alice was quite capable of protecting herself with any weapon. A strong, clever Guardian, she also created webs of razored silk harvested from spiders that sh
e’d fed vampire blood. No demon would expect those.
“Your Guardian sign language was supposedly a secret, too,” Lilith said, “yet I figured it out after stalking Hugh for a while. We can’t assume that a demon hasn’t overheard some mention of her visit to Hell. So I’ll talk with her. Before Jake realizes she might be a target and starts electrocuting anyone who looks at her sideways.”
Michael nodded. Jacob was devoted to her. “You may find it difficult to convince him not to hover at her side.”
“Impossible to. He’s like a puppy at her feet.”
“Then perhaps you shouldn’t dissuade him,” Hugh said. “If any demons know enough to target her, then they might know what she’s capable of and be prepared for it. Jake gives her an edge. And if nothing else, he could teleport her away from any danger.”
“If you put it to her like that, Alice is reasonable enough to agree,” Michael said. She would also welcome Jacob’s company—unlike the Guardian who Michael would protect.
“Then it will be best coming from Hugh.” Lilith looked to Michael. “We’ll need to move Taylor back to Caelum. I’ll explain to her mother and Preston that it’s necessary for now. They won’t like it, but they’ll agree.”
“You won’t need to. She woke a few hours ago.”
“She did?” Lilith’s brows shot up. “And you thought Lucifer was more important than mentioning that?”
No. But Michael didn’t want Lilith to know what he considered most important. Some vulnerabilities needed to be hidden, even from friends. Especially friends like Lilith.
“I had just come from the Pit. That news was foremost in my mind.”
Now Hugh’s brows lifted. Lilith glanced at him and saw that Hugh had read Michael’s lie.
Michael pinched the bridge of his nose. Foolish. Unguarded. Because Andromeda was always foremost in his mind.
“It is possible that Lucifer’s demons were already looking for her.” Michael saw the wary shift in their stances as he reminded them of the demon he’d torn apart. “I will protect her.”
“That’s not really necessary, is it?” Lilith’s gaze had sharpened. He’d already revealed some of himself; she’d try to dig more out of him now. “You’re not psychically linked to her, so she’s a novice again. She’ll be training under Hugh at headquarters, and there are always enough Guardians there to provide protection.”
Michael tamped down his flare of anger. Lilith deliberately needled him, but she was right.
And it didn’t matter. “I will train her.”
“Has she agreed to that? Because the last time I spoke with her, she was desperate to be free of you.”
Even more so now. “It is necessary.”
“Oh, that’s funny. Six years ago, it was necessary for Hugh to train the novices, because you didn’t have enough time to do it yourself.” She had her teeth in him now. “Yet with Lucifer on the verge of breaking through to Chaos, when there are a million other things that need to be focused on, suddenly it’s necessary for you to start mentoring again?”
“It was truth, Lilith,” Hugh said softly. His gaze hadn’t left Michael for a moment. “He meant that it was necessary for Taylor to be with him . . . or for him to be with her.”
Not so amused now, Lilith frowned at him. “Even though you know she might not agree?”
That would grate on them all. Both Hugh and Lilith believed in the importance of free will. So did Michael—he believed it above all else. Yet he was prepared to disregard Andromeda’s choice. “Yes.”
“Why is she necessary, then?”
He didn’t respond, because the answer he gave would not be the truth. He gave another reason instead, turning his back to them and vanishing the toga. Hugh couldn’t read the symbols burned into his flesh, but Lilith’s sharp breath said enough.
When he faced them again, Lilith’s expression was frozen and her dark eyes glittering. “How long before you’re dead?”
“Khavi has said a few weeks. I think she is correct.”
Hugh was frowning. “What happened? What are the symbols for?”
“After playing dragon, he came back with his psychic scent all fucked up. His body and his soul won’t mesh. So the symbols are binding them together.” She stalked to the end of the room and back. “A few weeks. Fuck me. You’re not much good to us now, are you? We should have left you in the fucking frozen field. Taylor was stronger and she fought just as well with you in her, and we didn’t have to deal with you scaring the shit out of the others and making them wonder if there’s more dragon left in you than is good for us.”
She bit off each word as if ripping off a piece of his flesh and spitting it out. Lilith was very good at being a demon, at finding the cruelest things to say. She wasn’t good at losing.
Much like himself. He just had more practice not letting it out.
Sir Pup padded over to her, pushed a head gently into her stomach, rubbed another against her leg. Comforting her. She stopped pacing and scratched his ears.
She finally looked at Michael again. “You stupid fuck.”
“I’m sorry that I made you feel grief,” he said.
Lilith snorted a laugh, shook her head. Hugh watched him with a quiet sorrow that Michael felt as keenly. Their friendship had spanned eight centuries, first as mentor and pupil, then as equals. Nothing needed to be said now to acknowledge the depth of that loss.
“At least that explains what happened to the demon.” Lilith’s expression had turned to wicked amusement again. “You must have been moving from denial to rage when you tore him apart.”
No denial. Just rage.
Rage that the demon had been searching for Andromeda. Rage that Michael wouldn’t have known of the danger if a computer search hadn’t exposed it. Rage that Lilith and Hugh hadn’t pushed hard enough for answers. Rage that tearing the demon apart resulted in nothing.
And he’d raged that Andromeda had still been lying in bed—because of what Michael had done to her. Of what Khavi had done to her. He’d raged at how helpless he’d been, because he couldn’t help her.
He was still raging—because he had so little time, because there were still so many demons left to kill—but now he was expending more effort to hold it in.
Hugh collected his eyeglasses from a shelf and slipped them on. “Now Lilith hopes that you’ll soon move on to bargaining.”
Yes, she would relish that. Demons—and former halfling demons—loved nothing so much as making bargains. “I believe she has spent her life in that stage.”
“I’m still in denial. And I have at least a hundred years before I’ll come anywhere close to acceptance.” With a shake of her head, Lilith steered away from her own mortality and returned to his. “So what difference does Taylor make?”
“She might extend my life. Not long.” That was not the only answer, but it was true. And he would not give them false hope.
“It has to be her choice.”
Michael nodded, though he knew Andromeda wouldn’t choose it. “I hope that you will help persuade her.”
“Tell her that you’re dying?”
“No. I don’t want my life to be an obligation and a burden for her to carry.”
“It didn’t bother you before. She carried your life and your body around for over a year.”
It had bothered him. “If I’d had any other option, I would have taken it before linking her to me.”
“Truth,” Hugh said.
Her eyes narrowed. “What will you do if I assign her to Hugh?”
Lilith had her own vulnerable points. Michael didn’t often prod them, but there was only one possible reaction to this. “Then I will consider killing him.”
“Truth.”
A smile accompanied Hugh’s announcement. His friend heard what Lilith would not—that Michael would consider killing him. Lilith only heard the threat.
As Michael had hoped, a furious gleam hardened her eyes. “If you would kill him, how can we be certain she is safe with you?”
“I would never hurt her.”
“Truth.”
“It doesn’t fucking matter if you’ll hurt her or not. She’ll have the final say.”
“Yes,” he agreed.
Andromeda would reject anything related to him. But she had vulnerabilities, too—and a fierce temper. Yet although Andromeda’s anger burned hot, it quickly flared out. Michael would have more of a chance if he spoke with her then.
“Shall we tell any of the others how little time you have?” Hugh said. “We can keep Taylor from knowing the effect she has, so that she won’t feel responsible for extending your life. But do you want it known?”
“No,” Lilith said. “Nothing remains secret, but we ought to keep this secret as long as we can. You saw what happened before, when he went into the frozen field. We can’t risk the same despair among the Guardians now, not with Lucifer so close. It ate away at so many of them then—but this time, there is no hope Michael will return. Is there hope?”
“No.”
Lilith looked to Hugh.
“Truth.”
“I prefer not to let it be known,” Michael said. He had too many good-byes to make, and no time for them. Not when there was so much else to do.
And he did not want any of Andromeda’s responses influenced by the knowledge. He did not want to win her forgiveness through compassion and pity. He would rather her anger and hatred than that.
“It is your choice,” Hugh said.
Lilith faced Michael again. “Is that your only reason for keeping Taylor near to you—she might keep you alive a bit longer?”
“Yes.”
Michael immediately regretted his answer. He should have remained silent. But once again, he’d been protecting his vulnerabilities, concealing how desperately he wanted to be at Andromeda’s side, and the response had been an impulsive one. It was the nature of the dragon—not buried as deeply as it should have been.
Hugh said nothing, gave no indication to Lilith. But beneath the other man’s sigh, Michael heard the echo.
Lie.
Guardian Demon (GUARDIAN SERIES) Page 9