Nate stood in the anteroom waiting for the garage door to close. When Jessie was gone, he streamed to his room via molecular teleportation to change into jeans and a dark gray t-shirt. In the weapons chamber beyond his closet, he selected a few shuriken throwing stars and the bagh nakh, a weapon with powerful claw-like blades inspired by the armature of big cats. Weapons master and fellow Unholy Inc partner, Jinx Tanaka had designed it to fit over his knuckles. It could slash through bone, which made it an effective weapon when going up against the milky-eyed, skeletal Nephilim.

The Rephaim and Nephilim were two classes of fallen angels who manifested their own physical forms, so they didn’t need to take a human host. Demons, on the other hand, had to occupy human bodies to carry out their nefarious activities. The Rephaim tended to make their human targets instigate social chaos, creating serial killers and suicide bombers, while the Nephilim assailed a human’s mind, crumbling the individual from the inside out. The Nephilim’s objective was mental illness, and unless a Guardian got to the human in time, self-harm usually culminated in suicide.

But no matter what evil incarnation the Guardians fought, all of the Devil’s pawns had one ultimate goal—to keep the Guardians so busy protecting humanity that they’d eventually slip up and leave their holy relics vulnerable. If too many of these religious artifacts found their way to Hell, Lucifer’s cage would be unlocked by their holy power. The kicker was, no one knew how many ‘too many’ was. So even the loss of one relic would be disastrous.

Distractions were therefore unacceptable.

Moments ago, Nate had seen a Nephilim lurking in the woods watching Jessie, which distracted him to no end.

After three days, his death scar had still not returned, which indicated she was his compar. Every interaction, every hour spent with her reinforced the truth. The urge to protect and possess her stayed with him every moment, and he exhibited the hallmark advantages of a Guardian fortunate enough to find one of his potential soul mates—amped up senses and faster, easier energy recharge. Once soul mates actually pledged themselves to one another in a binding ritual, these advantages multiplied synergistically. For most Guardians that included sharing one another’s element.

Those who never found a soul mate—or peevishly chose to deny them like his Unholy Inc partner Katherine—gradually weakened, becoming more and more susceptible to a darkness that inevitably bled to madness. As the millennia wore on, Alexios seemed to be slipping closer to this gloamy precipice.

But Nate had a human soul mate. Why? What was the point? Humans couldn’t battle demons on any large scale. She was a dangerous distraction. Especially with the forecasted Hell-Earth Seam rending. If the Nephilim ever got wind of this, they’d never leave her alone. It made his palms sweaty thinking about it. At least Lachlan hadn’t returned. The sex demon knew he liked Jessie, but there was no way he could know she was Nate’s compar.

Still, something didn’t feel right.

Demon activity in a hundred-mile radius around TERRA had gone noticeably quiet in the last few days, which was never good. It generally portended bigger, badder shit because it meant the demons were gearing up for something.

So, experience—and the archangel’s visit—suggested that the vicinity around TERRA would be ground zero for one of Satan’s first line children to break the veil between Earth and Hell on Halloween, when demonic power was at its crest.

Jawahar, Nate’s temporary security adviser on loan from Alexios, had helped add several dozen Devil’s Traps inside the club. The two archangel-forged swords that Michael had given Nate and Spencer would also help level the archdemon playing field.

One could hope anyway.

Nate’s skin needled with aggression as he streamed down the stairs past the tantra chair in front of the fireplace where he’d warmed Jessie in more ways than one. Last night she’d joked that she’d start mooing like a heifer if their nightly ice cream trips became a habit. He’d noted the anxious tone underlying her flippant remark, but sensed she wasn’t open to talking about it. But he would. Tonight, he’d ask her why she had such a troubled relationship with food.

With relentless memories of an empty belly as a child, he couldn’t bear the thought of her denying herself the pleasure of food.

They’d talked about so much in the past few days, but he wanted to know more. What made her feel so strongly about protecting the elderly? Why law school? What had happened with her mother? How and where and when had she met Emily and Dante? She described them as feisty, loyal, and champions to underdogs. They sounded like people he wished he would’ve known in his human life. But then, he probably would’ve taken advantage of them because that was how he’d rolled.

Being kind and concerned for the welfare of others made you vulnerable. Nate had always been able to pinpoint that weakness in people. And he’d always used it to his advantage when the time was right. The recollection increasingly bothered him, which was remarkably annoying.

She interested him on so many levels. Her outspoken thoughts, well-considered convictions, heart-felt emotions, even the way she slept—so quietly, like a real-life Sleeping Beauty. Never before had he met another human being who genuinely cared about people—even strangers—as deeply as she did.

Nate laid his hand on the door handle leading to the garage, looking over his shoulder at the kitchen where he’d shared more about his life with her than any other soul—living or long dead. His house was brand new, but it was full of her now. Carried her scent. Beat with her energy.

It wouldn’t be the same without her.

He stepped into the garage and reached out with his Earth element, but the Nephilim in the long gray cloak was gone. Earlier, Nate had had no inkling of disquiet in the ether around his property. Why hadn’t his element alerted him to the Nephilim in the woods? The roots, grass, and plants normally sent minute vibrations of any foreign beings trespassing in his territory.

Had Jessie somehow masked the Nephilim’s presence? Compars were supposed to enhance their mate’s powers, not degraded them. And why was one here in the first place? Couldn’t be because of Lachlan. Though they were both fallen angels, the Incubi and Nephilim didn’t associate.

He’d let Jessie leave the house without him only because he’d layered her with wards and ashes made of blessed palms during last year’s Passion Sunday. If the Nephilim attempted to worm into her mind, what little skin clung to their gaunt frames would go up in flames, and it would take hours for the holy fire to burn itself out.

Enough time for Nate to find the dastardly creature and decapitate it—the only way the damn thing would die.

He grabbed a tomahawk from a garage cabinet, inhaling and exhaling slowly to calm the swirling in his gut. He wanted to control the situation—control Jessie—in order to protect her from what she didn’t even know could hurt her. Was that selfish? Moral lines could be so vague. Would he ever understand it all? Mayhap one day he’d reawaken in twentieth century London to discover all this had been a shocking dream.

He telepathically checked in with Spencer and Katherine at TERRA to let them know he’d be in some time after lunch to go over the spreadsheets. Then he streamed to a thick stand of trees behind the gym where Jessie worked out. The sky was thick with bundles of slate-blue clouds promising rain.

A tall blonde co-ed at the front desk looked up when he walked into the gym, her eyes going wide, her hand fluttering at her high ponytail. He smiled, moving into the weight room. It took him less than a minute to realize Jessie wasn’t anywhere in the gym. His chest grew tight. She couldn’t have already worked out.

That meant she’d lied to him, or something had happened on the way.

He exited the building and crouched down to touch the grass. There was still a layer of frost, but the ground would register her spirit for several hours if she’d so much as passed by here. By now, he knew her essence.

It wasn’t there.

The good news was, there’d been no Nephilim in the vicinity recently either.

Where are you, Jessie?

He waited for a moment, knowing he hadn’t pushed the question into the ether very hard, but wishing she would answer anyway. But how could she? She didn’t know about any of this buggery business. Didn’t know about Guardians, fallen angels, demons, or soul mates. How could she actually believe someone was in her head talking to her?

If he pushed any more thoughts into the ether at her, she might wonder if she was falling off her trolley.

Nate stood and walked back into the trees. Katherine, are you at TERRA?

Just pulling up, she responded.

Any other cars there?

No.

He could feel Katherine’s unasked question, but he had no intention of answering. He didn’t think Jessie would be at the club, but he wanted to check before stopping at her grandparents’.

He disconnected from Katherine and closed his eyes to focus his other senses. There were always hidden pieces to a puzzle if you were still enough to gather them. He walked into the heavily-forested, undeveloped area behind the gym, placed his hands on a smooth birch tree trunk, and opened his Earth element to the natural world around him. The moist, decaying leaves around his feet fluttered, raising a soft groan from the dank earth. The voice floated across his skin, raising gooseflesh, the muted echo of a crime yet unsolved.

Some unnamed victim lay beneath his feet, and for the first time in his entire existence, it bothered him. He turned the disquietude over in his gut, curious about it, not sure he liked it. It made him feel responsible, obligated…

Uncomfortable.

He cleared his throat and knelt down to drag his fingers through the hard-packed, cold soil knowing he would return later to do what Jessie would do.

Give voice to the victim.

He’d also call in some free-agent Guardian buddies to track down the perpetrator. Guardians didn’t do the cold case thing very often because they had enough to worry about riding herd on Hell’s demons. But this case should be a snap since the Earth’s insect ecology told him the body had been buried less than six months ago. With their Elemental super powers, the Guardians were nearly flawless detectives.

For now, though, Jessie was his primary concern.

Nate streamed in behind the detached garage of Tillie and Walt Jacobs’ house, located in an older, yet vibrant development in a suburb east of Minneapolis. Stroking the grass, he immediately sensed that a Nephilim had been in the area recently. Most likely last night. Demons generally hid during the day when their powers were weaker.

He slid the claw-like bagh nakha over his knuckles and removed the tomahawk from its harness against the small of his back under his jacket. If the Nephilim was still around, at least Nate wouldn’t have to worry about the neighbors. One of the fallen angels’ useful tricks was temporal freeze—stopping time while they played their treacherous mind games.

Nate moved soundlessly along-side the house hoping to spot Jessie’s car when he came around to the front. Her essence prevailed strongly here, but since she spent a lot of time at this place, he couldn’t discern how recently she’d actually been here. Damn. No car. He eased to the back of the house to listen for voices. Hearing nothing, he peered in a window. Then another. No one was home. Jessie must’ve already picked them up.

But the Nephilim scent was all over the place. At least one was looking for her then—even though it was daytime and it risked being set on fire by Nate’s ash wards. That meant the fallen angel had no choice. In other words, it was on a mission for an archdemon.

Blast.

Where are you, Jessie? He pushed his question into the ether more forcefully this time. Bonded pairs could reach one another anywhere telepathically, but of course, he and Jessie weren’t bonded yet. She would actually have to know and accept that she was his soul mate first.

Before that, she’d have to accept that he wasn’t human.

That might take some time, and four more days probably wouldn’t cut it.

Desperate times and all that bullshit. He tried reaching out again, this time adding an extra push with her full name. Jessica Anastasia Blaze, where are you?

Immediately her beguiling citrus scent wafted through his senses overlaid with a fear pheromone. Was she scared because of his mind touch or—

Are you okay?

No answer. His chest squeezed. It’s me, Jessie. Are you with your grandparents?

He heard her heart rate speed up. Bugger it all. How was he going to do this? He started moving toward the woods behind her grandparents’ house. If he managed to see where she was, and he recognized the location, he could stream there instantly. It’s alright, Jessie. Look around. Let me see through your eyes.

Like an old-time movie, flickering images scrolled through his mind before it all went dark. She was at her uncle’s. Nate scowled. He’d made it his business to know everything about Mason Jacobs before he’d purchased the nightclub that was targeted for shutdown by the Minneapolis police narcotics unit and a DEA task force.

Mason didn’t do drugs himself, but he’d looked the other way for years when dealers sold it in the murky corners of his club. Mason walked away without any jail time thanks to the agreement he’d cut with the feds by squealing on the dealers. Even now, the feds were planning their end game. But Mason would never get another liquor license. Stupid duffer should have realized that before he’d plunked Nate’s buyout money on that strip mall lease.

Yesterday while Jessie was at class, Nate had been unable to enter Mason’s house due to dark magic a demon had laid down. It had been a while since he’d come up against powerful black arts like that. Mason and whatever demon he’d promised his soul to weren’t messing around. Hopefully Katherine could heal Jessie’s uncle before she found out Mason was cavorting with devils.

Or he self-destructed.

Or worse yet, before he put Jessie in jeopardy.

Heart in his throat, Nate streamed in behind Mason’s red brick two story in a new subdivision to the north. He relaxed when he didn’t feel demon energy or see Jessie’s car in Mason’s driveway. She must have projected her planned destination. She hadn’t come and gone because he didn’t sense her recent presence.

Trying to sense disturbances in the ether that might indicate this was where the Seam would open, Nate streamed around the neighborhood so fast he was invisible, though no one would have seen him anyway because a gobby Nephilim had frozen time in a three-block radius. How could it access that much power during daylight hours? And where the hell was it?

There were fall decorations in the windows, faux tombstones in the yards, and spider webs and pumpkins on door stoops. For maybe the first time ever, Nate’s gaze lingered on basketball hoops, the children motionless on bikes and scooters, and…

A young couple—happy smiles pinned on their faces—frozen in the act of pushing a stroller and walking a dog.

He’d never be able to share that kind of life with Jessie. Even if he could, it would be unwise. Fatherhood and demon-hunting didn’t mix.

But did she want children?

The ferment in his mind was quickly replaced by concentration when a strong whiff of Nephilim came over the breeze. He streamed behind Mason’s house once more to observe. The neighborhood remained temporally frozen, yet a mailman halfway down the block approached a middle-aged woman stooping for her newspaper at the end of her driveway. Across the street, Nate identified the gray-cloaked, skeletal Nephilim who’d hijacked this neighborhood and purposely unfrozen just these two.

Here we go.

It was Nate’s Guardian obligation to thwart this sort of conflict, but it was a first-rate inconvenience right now. He’d always been a selfish dick, and dammit, wasn’t it God’s fault that his vices didn’t go poof when he’d been wrenched violently back to life?

It would have been much easier to fight evil if he wasn’t touched with so much of it himself.

Do the right thing.

Nate gritted his teeth when the mailman got in the woman’s personal space and plucked at her robe. She patted her curler be-decked head, her cheeks and neck red with agitation. The mailman drew her into his arms and planted a ribald kiss on her lips as her front door opened. A balding, thick-waisted man’s bellow preceded his thunderous advance toward the pair.

Nate groaned. The Nephilim had unfrozen the husband to make this even hairier. Now Nate would have three minds to wipe, taking him that much longer to find Jessie.

The postal worker grabbed the woman’s ass, hoisted her legs around his hips while the incensed male from the house drew back a meaty arm. The postman pivoted at the right moment, and the husband’s punch landed on the side of his wifey’s head.

Nate took three steps from behind Mason’s garage and raised his hand to awaken the tree roots nearest the Nephilim. The earth rumbled and shook, raining leaves from all the trees on the block as pale brown elm roots pushed up from the ground to cage the fallen angel who was causing such a rabble. The Nephilim’s bony fingers snaked through the roots of his prison, his mind control making the mailman shove the woman so forcefully at her husband that her body stopped him in his tracks, their heads knocking together with a terrible crack.

“Enough!” Nate pulled the tomahawk from its holster, holding eye contact with the Nephilim until it arched its neck back to release an ear-shattering shriek. Nate shook his head to diffuse the pain. The three humans crumpled at the noise, rolling as they moaned, holding their heads, blood running from their ears.

The Nephilim’s scream shredded its prison bars like they were paper instead of six-inch tree roots. As the fallen angel fled across three yards, Nate closed his eyes and opened his senses to the Earth. To the deep wealth of minerals, stones, sand, clays, and organic matter. To the heat of the gases and liquids, the micro- and macro-organisms that help support life. He reached into the skin of the Earth, asking for it to open. And it obeyed, swallowing the Nephilim whole.

Nate shielded his eyes as the sun reflected off a car’s chrome when it drove by, the neighborhood suddenly released from its temporal freeze. The fallen angel wasn’t dead yet, but buried by that many cubic tons of Earth, it wouldn’t be able to call for help or extract itself for at least an hour.

Not that any of his fellow demons would bother to help him.

Nate would come back later to finish the job with the sword Michael had given him. But first, he needed to replenish his Guardian powers. Moving that much earth required a good meal and maybe a nap. Taking the head off a demon who’d try to make you use your weapon against yourself required even more.

Gorging himself on Jessie’s body would re-energize him faster than anything.

Find her. Now.

But he couldn’t stop from glancing at the three dazed humans across the street. Jessie would never leave them like this. He cursed vilely as he walked to their driveway. He lifted the injured woman into his arms. He’d simply let them into their house and—

“Nate!”

Blast and borg. Why had he gotten involved? It wasn’t like these humans wouldn’t have come out of their stupor on their own eventually. They might just have a few months of bad dreams.

Or a lifetime.

Nate turned around slowly, the robed woman still in his arms. Jessie ran across the neighboring lawns toward him, slack-jawed, her purse flapping against her side.

“What are you doing here?” Her gaze dropped to the battered woman, her eyes widening. “Oh my God.”

Think fast. Jessie’s grandparents emerged from her car in Mason’s driveway. “I came to see if your family wanted a private tour of TERRA before the grand opening. I found this woman lying on the ground and…” Shut the fuck up, Temple.

She looked around. “Where’s your car?”

Right. That was a human’s normal mode of transportation. Nice of her to point out that minor detail. She was going to make a brilliant attorney one day. He jerked his head to the right. “A couple blocks back. I had the wrong address, so I started walking. Nice day and all, you know. Stay out here and call the paramedics, okay? I need to get these huma—uh, folks inside.”

Jessie dug her phone out of her purse, helping the husband to his feet as she voice dialed 911. By the time they’d gotten the three inside, the Nephilim’s targets were babbling about a screeching skeleton. Splendid.

“A voice in my head was telling me to do bad things with him.” The woman pointed at the postal worker. “Then kill him, my husband, and myself.” Her husband rocked in his chair with a vacant look. Jessie knelt beside the woman and put a hand on her shoulder. When she raised troubled blue eyes to Nate’s, he knew he had to fix this.

“Post traumatic stress is a bitch,” he said. “I’ll stay with them until help comes. Go see to your grandparents in case the perpetrator is still in the neighborhood.”

The beautiful rosy hue fled from Jessie’s cheeks, and she left immediately. He hated to scare her like that, but if he didn’t wipe these three minds, there’d be a hell of an uproar. The woman shivered as he laid his hands gently on the sides of her temples to access her memories.

Humans were vulnerable to demonic meddling when they voluntarily opened their spirits to evil or when they were beaten down by strife—be it physical, emotional, or spiritual. Nate staggered at the knife’s edge of pain slicing through this woman’s psyche. She’d been vulnerable to the Nephilim because she and her husband had recently lost their college-aged son to a drunk driver.

“Rest easy, human. You were assaulted in a random act of violence, but you’re okay now. It was a human, and he will never bother you again.”

Lies were so often humane.

It was for the best that he’d never be a father. He would have a bloody hard time laying down the law because he very rarely saw things in black and white.

After he wiped the two men’s minds, he warded the couple’s house against subsequent attacks. A squad car arrived moments before the paramedics. Normally, he would have left before law enforcement showed up, but Jessie would expect him to do what a normal, caring human would do.

As he gave his report to the officer, he kept an eye on Mason’s house. He knew Jessie would fail to find her uncle, and the feeling deep down grew even stronger—that this was the calm before a very ugly storm.