Demon Marked

you think?”

“I would if I were her,” Ash said.

Lilith smiled thinly. “Me, too.”

The waiting was endless. Ash tried to busy herself by looking through SI’s budget, by buying up more of Nicholas’s shares. Only a few hours had passed since Lilith had left her room, but the time already sat like a rock in her chest, weighing, weighing.

She wanted to go now. Wanted to leave these Guardians and their crumbling city and their shattered king behind, and just go. Wanted to hear Nicholas’s voice, to find out where he was, whether he was all right. Wanted to find him, find and kill Madelyn, and do everything she’d planned—and now, save his life, too.

God. What was going to happen to him?

Her phone’s ring shot her heart up into her throat. Ash stared at the glowing screen in disbelief. Snatched it up.

“Hello? Nicholas?”

“Ash.” A novice’s voice. “Lilith said to put him through if he called, and he’s on the other line now. Do you want to take it?”

A choice to be made, now.

Fuck that. There was no choice at all.

“Yes,” she said, and then—“Nicholas?”

“Don’t hang up, love.”

“I won’t. I—” Oh, God. He’d never called her “love.” And the accent was all wrong.

Now she couldn’t hang up. But she could toss the phone away—

“Keep listening. Ah, there’s my girl. I can almost hear your heart pounding. Been hiding from me, have you?”

Ash didn’t answer. She didn’t have to answer. Not unless told to.

What now?

Get help.

“Don’t move. Don’t go anywhere. Don’t alert anyone. Is anyone with you, within hearing distance? Answer me.”

“Yes.”

“Answer me truthfully.”

Panic caught at her throat, almost prevented any answer at all. But no. No. She had to be quick. She had to be clever. She couldn’t lose her wits.

“I’m alone,” she said. “How did you find me?”

It didn’t matter. Not really. But Ash needed to stall, needed to think.

“Well, love, it was the oddest thing. I saw you on TV, and so I flew to Duluth to see this Rachel, who was grieving her parents so deeply and putting their effects in order. And I thought: Oh, my poor little Ashmodei. Lucifer didn’t rip out as much as he should have. But while I was standing there, I happened to overhear a very nice sheriff talking to one of the city police about a visit he’d had from two federal agents, who thought Steve Johnson might have been someone else. So I wondered, ‘What kind of federal agents go looking into such a cut-anddried case?’ The answer seemed simple: Guardians posing as federal agents. So I started looking at Special Investigations. And since you’re here, not in London where Rachel supposedly is, that’s probably a good thing, too.”

“I see,” Ash said.

“Good. You do know what I did to your parents, don’t you, love? Answer me truthfully.”

“Yes.”

“And how did you feel about that?”

Evade. “I didn’t remember them.”

“Oh, that’s too bad. Well, my effort wasn’t for nothing. They screamed so well. Your father tried to protect your mother and failed. It was so very lovely.”

The edge of the desk cracked under her hand. Beneath her, Ash’s seat trembled with the force of the rage shaking her body. And she’d thought she’d hated being a puppet? It was nothing to the hate she felt now.

She hoped Madelyn told her to get up, to go to her. Ash’s boomstick was in her cache, and by God she would use it.

“I don’t suppose you know where Nicky is? Answer me truthfully.”

“He was in Montana a few months ago. I don’t know for certain now where he is,” she said, managing the truth. Might be heading toward New York wasn’t certain.

“Oh, that’s too bad. A pity, but we can do this without him. Now, listen carefully to me. Shield your mind, so tight that no one can sense any emotion from you.”

God. Fuck. Why hadn’t she thought of that? Every Guardian and vampire in the warehouse would have felt her terror, her rage, would have known something was wrong. Now they wouldn’t.

“That done? Good. Now, at no time are you to attempt to kill or injure me, or encourage anyone else to do the same. Understand? Answer me.”

Ash dragged in a ragged breath between her teeth. “Yes.”

“All right. Now dump all of the weapons out of your cache. You will not collect any others, or vanish them back into your cache.”

Oh. A mistake. With relief, Ash set her shotgun on the floor. Everyone knew that she wouldn’t go anywhere without her boomstick. The moment they checked her room, they’d know something was wrong.

But how long before they checked?

“Now, do exactly as I say. When I give you the order, leave the warehouse and walk directly to the cafe that you were at with the hellhound today. Do not tell anyone that you’ve spoken to me. You will not give any indication that something is wrong. If they ask, you will only tell them that you talked to Nicky, and now you are going for a walk, that you need to be alone, because you need to think. You will not ask anyone to accompany you, and you will discourage anyone who offers. You will not stop for any reason, you will not write any kind of message, you will simply leave. Do you understand? Answer me truthfully.”

“Yes.”

“You will be at the cafe in one minute. Hang up and go now.”

Ash cut off the call, stood up. Think. She’d leave the door open, but it was possible that no one would look into her room to see the boomstick until much later. Lilith expected her to leave SI after Nicholas’s call, so she wouldn’t believe that Ash was truly just going for a walk, but she’d also have no reason to think that Madelyn had been the reason Ash had left.

All right. Okay. Ash couldn’t leave a message . . . but she could let everyone know that this was a very special occasion.

She vanished her clothes, walked out of her room. The low murmur of conversation died when she passed through the novices’ common area. They stared at her in surprise, jaws dropped, eyes wide.

No one said anything until she’d almost reached the stairs. “Ash? You okay?”

“Fine,” she said. “I’m just taking a walk. I just finished talking to Nicky, and I need to think.”

“You want company?”

“No, thank you. I want to be alone.”

Down the stairs, her breasts bouncing at every step. Come on, someone. She needed to run into an older Guardian. Any older Guardian. Even now, the novices were buzzing between themselves about her strange behavior, a thread of unease in their voices, but they wouldn’t act quickly enough.

She didn’t meet anyone through security, just answered the same questions when the novice at the desk saw her. Are you okay? Do you want me to call someone to go with you?