“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Gabriel said, but he didn’t look her in the eye, “or what you think you saw—”

“I saw you,” Lily said, “tossing four guys around, one hand each, like they were rag dolls.” She knew she wasn’t crazy. She wasn’t sure she was entirely sane, either, but that was not the point right now. What he’d done wasn’t possible. “No one is that strong.”

“I am.”

“No one normal is that strong,” she insisted. “And I’m not talking, like, ‘Oh, I work out.’ What … what are you?”

The question hung in the air, like it had a life of its own. Just by being spoken, the words divided her life; there was the part up until now, when things were how they’d always been, and the part from now on, where she admitted there was more to the world than she’d known. Because what had happened went beyond abnormal. What he’d done wasn’t something a human being could do.

Until now, her world had been … regular. Now, her world held the unhuman.

Maybe being so quick to accept it meant she watched too much television; if that was the case, then so be it.

Gabriel wasn’t human.

He also wasn’t answering her question, so she asked it again. “I said, what are you?”

He didn’t meet her eyes. “That’s an odd way to phrase a question, Lily.”

“It’s the exact right way to phrase the question,” she shot back. “If I’m gonna be inside an episode of Supernatural or whatever, fine. I can live with that. What I can’t live with is not knowing, being ignorant. I want you to tell me the truth, now.”

“You don’t know what you’re asking.”

“I do,” she said. “And I’m telling you, if you don’t answer me now, I’m walking out of here and never coming back. Someone will wire me plane fare.”

“Lily—”

“Stop it.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “Whatever instinct you have to lie to me right now, to tell me some story—get over it. I know something is going on, something that most people would say is crazy, and impossible, and straight out of a movie. And I’m telling you I’m ready to believe you … and more than that, I won’t believe you if you try to put me off with some excuse. I know what I saw, Gabriel. What are you?”

He sighed, and he finally met her eyes. “You don’t know the word for what I am.”

“Try me.”

“The technical term is cambion.” He ran a hand through his hair. “Does that mean anything to you?”

Deflated, but only slightly, she shook her head. “Okay, no, I don’t know that word. What does it mean?”

“It means one of my parents—my mother, in this case—is a demon.”

She swallowed, her throat suddenly very dry. “A … demon.”

He nodded. “You said you wanted the truth.”

“I did,” she said. “I do. What about your father?”

“A human,” he said tersely. “I don’t know why my mother chose him, and I don’t know why she chose to leave me to be raised by him. My mother doesn’t talk about things she doesn’t choose to talk about. What I do know is, she came back for me a year ago and told me what I was, and what I could do.”

“Which would be?”

“You saw what happened in that parking garage. I’m strong.”

“And?”

“And a host of other things.”

“What other things? Can you read my mind?” She wasn’t sure why this was the first and most pressing thing that occurred to her, but she was quite sure she’d die of embarrassment if the answer was yes.

Though what difference did it make when all he had to do was ask her a question anyway?

“I can’t read minds, no,” he said, and she was more than a little annoyed to see he looked amused.

“Promise?”

“I swear.”

“Then how did you find me?”

“I—” He faltered. “I’m actually not allowed to tell you.”

“Not allowed?”

“That’s what I said. And if you leave it alone and don’t badger me about it, I promise I won’t yell at you for leaving your phone behind when you went out to wander around an unfamiliar city.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out her phone, handed it to her. “I texted you after you left, and I just about had a heart attack when it went off in your room.”

She said nothing. It had been a stupid and thoughtless thing to do.

He waited a second, nodded when she remained silent. “But I can assure you, my abilities do not include mind-reading.”

“Then what do they include?”

“I’ve hardly got the time or the inclination to sit here and catalogue every inhuman ability that comes with my heritage. And, honestly? There may be some I don’t know. It’s not entirely normal for someone like my mother to procreate.”

“What is your mother?”

He looked away again. “My mother?”

“Yes, your mother,” she snapped, wracking her brain for Sunday school tidbits and coming up pretty blank. “You said she’s a demon. What kind of a demon? Are there even different kinds? Different levels?”

“You don’t ask much, do you?” It wasn’t a question, the way he said it. “Yes, there are different types.”

“What is your mother?”

“What makes you think you’ll know that any better than cambion?”

His very unwillingness to answer told Lily she very much needed to know. She repeated the question a third time. “What is your mother?”

Gabriel sighed. “She’s a succubus.”

Lily went icy cold, then flushed. “I live in the world, you know. I’m not an idiot. Of course I know what that is.”

“What is it, then?” he challenged.

“It’s….” She floundered a bit, then recovered. “It’s a sex demon. Like, a temptress.”

“That’s simplistic.”

“They make people desperate to have sex with them.” She could tell from the heat of her face that she was beet red right to the roots of her hair, but she refused to back down. “They give off some kind of … sex vibe. And people just fall all over them.”

“I suppose that’s a workable description—” he began.

“Workable, my ass!” She clenched her fists. “You’ve got it, too.”

“Some of it,” he conceded. “Notably, I have … persuasive abilities.” He smiled a little. “I suppose I could have made those guys leave, rather than tossing them around like that.”

“Persuasive abilities?”

“Yes,” he said. “I can … make people do things. If I concentrate, if they’re not naturally resistant. There are people who are. There are some ifs. Nothing is foolproof.” He grinned again, a little feral this time. “And I wasn’t really in the mood to reason with them anyway. I was in the mood to break bones.”

She shuddered, but forced her thoughts away from it. They’d got what was coming to them. She wasn’t going to be squeamish about it; she knew what they’d had in mind for her.

What mattered right now what that he’d been fucking with her head.

“And what else do you get from your mother?” She moved in close to him, which was actually a mistake, because as soon as she did a little jolt of something very like electricity tingled along her nerve endings. She stepped back. “What about the sex demon stuff?”

“I have some of that, yes.”

“Yeah,” she said, furious. “Some of that. You’ve got a lot of that, and you used it on me.”

“No—”

“Yes!” She took two more careful steps back. “You’ve got some kind of thing that makes girls….”

“Makes girls what, Lily?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Makes girls behave in ways they usually wouldn’t, and get fired from their very nice jobs for immoral behavior?”

“That’s not what—”

“Miri was right.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “You sat there and looked at me like I was crazy for suggesting you slipped something in my drink, and you knew the whole time that you basically just roofied me with your mind. It’s the same thing!”

“This is ridiculous.” He stalked over and took her by the shoulders. “That first night isn’t relevant, and I told you the truth about that day in the light booth. I wanted you; you wanted me, too. That’s as simple as it gets.”

“I didn’t have any choice.” The fact that she was leaning into his chest rather than pulling away did not escape her, but there didn’t seem to be a whole lot she could do about it. “You’re doing it now.”

“It’s not like that,” he said. “I’m not doing anything.”

“Yes, you are,” she said, weakly. “You touch me and … I can’t think. I don’t like it. I don’t like what you’re doing.”

“I’m not doing anything,” he repeated. “I can— I have, before, even with you. That first night, when I took your hand, I made you dance with me.”

“So you admit it?”

“No, what I’m saying is, since then? I haven’t forced a single thing on you.” He ran his hands down her arms, raising gooseflesh there, and it was all she could do to even listen to what he was saying. “And even that night, let’s not forget, you walked away. I didn’t know that could be done, and you did it. You’re the only woman who ever has.”

“Fat lot of good it does me, when I just keep coming back,” she said. “That has to be coming from you. Why would I keep doing something if I didn’t want to?”

“What if you do want to?” he asked. “Can’t it be just that simple?”

“How can I know? The minute you’re in the room, I just … fuzz up.”

“I don’t have all the answers. Maybe there’s a certain element of it that just happens, because of what I am.” He shrugged a little. “I can’t help being what I am, any more than I can help wanting you.”

“But why do I want you, too, so much?” she asked.

“Is it really too much to imagine it might just be because you do?”

“I’ve never felt like this before, not with anyone. And it gets a hundred times worse if you touch me.” She shook her head again, wished she had the strength to shove him away. “It’s not normal. It’s because of what you are.”

He sighed. “Then I suppose it is. But if being what I am, and wanting you, makes you want me, too … what am I supposed to do about it? Cease to be?”

“So because you want me, I don’t get a say?” she protested. “Do you not even see how dicey that is, for you to take away my right to decide like that?”

And just like that, he wasn’t touching her anymore.