Standing before his office mirror, Nate smoothed his white tie and slipped into the pinstriped suit jacket Jessie had selected for him. She’d decided he would be a mob boss for Halloween. He told her to change into her costume in the privacy of his office, but she’d declined, saying one thing would lead to another and…

She would’ve been right.

But damn, he didn’t want to be away from her for one minute after what they’d shared downstairs in the sanctorum. He’d never taken anyone in that special room where Guardians hid their ancient, holy relics and burned demonic items.

And where he went to think.

In the sanctorum, his existence had purpose and meaning. There, redemption felt possible.

He should’ve been spending more time in there thinking about how to be honest with Jessie about everything. The sooner the better so they could get on with the binding ritual so he could abolish this unsettled feeling. Somehow going back to decapitate the Nephilim he’d buried in Mason’s neighborhood had only ramped up his anxiety.

His inability to locate Mason for the last twenty-four hours didn’t help either. He’d arranged for Kat to exorcise Jessie’s uncle this afternoon, but since they couldn’t find him—

His office door flew open so forcefully it cracked against the wall. “Are you out of your bleeding mind?”

Nate settled a black fedora on his head. “What’s the matter, Spencer? Got the collywobbles about opening night?”

Katherine followed Spencer into the room. Spencer slammed the door and stormed to the bar without a rejoinder, which communicated to Nate just how exquisitely pissed the tall Brit was.

“What were you thinking bringing her to the sanctorum? Oh wait, you weren’t,” Katherine’s pursed lips took him back to 1903 when he was thirteen years old and caught swiping a silver chalice in St Monica’s by a young nun in full habit. He remembered the year well because he’d learned the fine art of cunnilingus from her that Christmas Eve.

Ah yes, organized religion.

“Jessie approved of the room’s feng shui, Kat. Looks like your lessons from Jinx are sinking in. Aren’t you tickled?” Nate approached the wall to enter the code that slid the paneling back on the mirrored glass. Jessie still wasn’t at her station at the bar.

“I don’t know what makes you so stupid, but it really works.” Katherine took a second glass of brandy out of Spencer’s hand and drained it.

“Did you show her the relic?” Spencer’s shirt collar was unbuttoned and his tie hung loosely down the front of his shirt. Had he walked in here like that? The man never walked around unmade.

Nate frowned at him. “Do you really have to ask?”

Katherine raised an are you sure you want me to answer that eyebrow which would normally amuse him.

Not today. “The relic is safe. I didn’t actually take Jessie behind the bookcase. I merely wanted to share my appreciation for the space with her.”

“No humans are ever allowed in any of our spiritually warded rooms. Not even those who know about us and what we do. That has been a Guardian rule for centuries, Nate. It was bad enough when Sonja saw the demon paraphernalia. If Dorian hadn’t replaced her memories with something innocuous, who knows what kind of mess we’d be cleaning up right now.”

“You’re overreacting. I knew Dorian would take care of it.”

“You’re missing the point, Nate. If humans discover these rooms house the relics, it wouldn’t be long before demons find out. And if they get to the relics, you know where they’ll take them.”

To Hell.

Where they’d stockpile the holy items until they generated enough power to break Lucifer out of his cage. The prison into which the Archangel Michael had cast him when Lucifer had originally rebelled in Heaven. How many relics would it take to unlock his prison? Ten, five, two? It’d be nice to know.

However many it took, when Lucifer was set free, the Apocalypse would officially begin. Heaven’s Archangel Army would fly down from the friendly skies to battle Lucifer, his archdemons, and their incalculable legions. At that point, millions—billions?—of humans would be screwed as supernatural beings engaged in a world-wide smack down.

So yeah, keeping the relics safe was pretty high on a Guardian’s to do list.

This job blows.

Nate took off his hat, plunked down into a chair, and sighed heavily. “Jessie healed my death scar.”

Spencer raised his eyebrows, toasted Nate silently with his glass, then swallowed his brandy. “Congratulations, ole’ chap, you’re ruined.”

Katherine closed her eyes and shook her head. Nate glared at her perfectly straight nose. “The hell is your problem, Kat?”

She opened her eyes and glared back. “Human compars die, Nate. We may be living in our own versions of Purgatory, but a human lifespan is a drop in the bucket compared to our long, miserable existence. Experiencing an attachment like that and then losing it…”

Katherine and Spencer exchanged a meaningful look, and Nate knew they were thinking about how heartbreaking it was for their leader Alexios to be bonded to a human.

At least Alexios’s compar was reincarnated through the ages.

He couldn’t even imagine a world without Jessie in it. He rubbed his chest where his heart thwacked against his rib cage. “Thank you for your shockingly optimistic outlook, Kat, but I don’t care what either of you think. I’m not going to deny my time with Jessie. Even if it is one measly human lifespan. Now get out, and don’t let the door hit your asses on the way out.”

Spencer raised an eyebrow. “Your tantrum is breathtakingly unattractive, Nathaniel.”

Nate lurched out of his chair and slammed Spencer into the wall, choking him with his own tie. Spencer recovered quickly, shoving Nate so hard he stumbled backward, pulling Spencer down with him. They rolled around, grappling and knocking into furniture until Spencer got the upper hand, pinning Nate with a forearm against his windpipe. Nate saw Katherine’s form move as his vision grayed. His fingers curled and clawed at the arm that was blocking his airway. He swung wildly, his fist exploding in pain as his punch landed with a crack.

His lungs expanded on a ragged intake of air as Spencer crumpled from the blow. Nate blinked, able to see the room once more…Until he was catapulted to his feet and slammed into the glass wall. He braced for Spencer’s incoming fist when a wall of icy water blasted through the air, forcing him and his combatant to their knees. The water’s onslaught sent him into a frenzy. He threw his arms up to shield his face, but he nearly drowned as he called upon the potted plant next to the bar to sprout riotously to form a vine and leaf wall protecting both him and Spencer.

As the plant began multiplying in front of Nate, the water’s onslaught ceased.

Nate and Spencer slumped to the floor, back to back, soaked to the sinew and struggling to catch their breaths.

“S-s-stuff you and your d-dastardly water element, Katherine,” Spencer finally managed.

“Gee, I’m sorry. I’d like to see things from your point of view, but I can’t seem to get my head that far up your ass.” She turned off the spigot at the bar where she’d obviously generated the water weapon from hell. How she did that goddamned water cannon thing Nate would never understand.

He shook water out of his hair and stayed on the floor, but he caught one of Katherine’s rare smiles. He wished she could find someone who made her feel like Jessie made him feel.

Too bad she was such a bitch.

She smoothed a hand over her perfectly styled chignon. “If either of you were my mate, I would poison your tea.”

“Madam, if you were my mate, I’d drink it,” Spencer retorted. Dripping wet from his head to the tip of his classy Ferragamos, he rose to his feet with more dignity than most men could muster in the company of Her Majesty the Queen. He extended a hand to Nate. “The violence make you feel better then, scallywag?”

Nate’s knuckles smarted and the whole left side of his face pulsated with his heartbeat, but he’d never admit it. “Quite.”

“Jolly good.” Spencer punched him in the arm, and they both grimaced on contact.

Katherine stared at them in that way of hers that made grown men feel like lads. “Well, this day is turning out to be a waste of makeup. Are you two schoolboys ready to continue our discussion on human compars?”

Spencer pulled a match from his pocket, struck it and used his fire element to manipulate the small flame into a large, levitating fire with enough heat to dehumidify their clothes, the floor, and the furniture.

Katherine rolled Nate’s desk chair closer to the fire and sat down primly. “I don’t necessarily think your relationship with Jessie would follow the same trajectory as Alexios and Sophia’s because the key factor for Guardian selection never applied to Alexios. Michael just wanted him.”

That much, Nate already knew. Whereas the rest of the Guardians had been unethical human beings, in his life as an ancient Spartan warrior, Alexios had been a pillar of honor and valor. Supposedly anyway.

Nate had never dwelled on it, but now it made sense why Alexios had so many more capabilities than the rest of them…

Besides being two and a half thousand years old, he was the Archangel’s favorite.

It also brought home how much Alexios had sacrificed all these millennia as their leader, because he’d had nothing for which to atone.

“So my point is, Alexios’s situation isn’t a reliable predictor of yours,” Katherine continued. “What we do know is that Guardians have several potential mates, yet the bonding process is free will. Therefore, both parties have to choose one another in order for their souls to bind. Does Jessica even know what you are?”

He should have known this was coming. “No, but I plan to tell her tonight after we get home.” He stared down into the club through the one-way glass. Jessie should definitely be at her station by now. Where was she? The doors were opening in fifty minutes, for chrissakes. He turned back to face his closest friends, his allies against the horrors of hell. “Look, I have a club to open. Can we talk about this sloppy stuff later?”

Katherine shook her head. “The benefits of Guardian-to-Guardian bonding include an exponential increase in elemental powers. For instance, if you, an Earth element, bonded with a Guardian possessing air powers, you would each share both powers. But with a human compar, what does it mean? Will Jessie get your Earth element powers? Will yours simply grow stronger? Or will she weaken you? With the growing disquiet in the Ether, we really need to prepare for the eventuality of what may arise should you bond with her.”

Nate rubbed his palms on his trousers. “Does it really matter? We’re but one pair. That’s hardly cause for concern in the war against demons.”

Spencer extinguished the fire now that everything was dry again. “I happen to agree with Katherine, Nate. There are too few Guardians the way it is. Especially Purifier Guardians like Katherine.”

Nate looked at Kat who avoided his gaze. He often forgot what she was capable of, and just how much she hated the power. Besides her water element, she was one of the few extraordinary Guardians who could exorcise humans who were possessed by demons. It was riveting—and horrific—to witness.

For years, the Guardians had tried to understand why there were so few Purifiers, but so far, the archangels weren’t sharing their so-called infinite wisdom. Cocky sons of bitches.

The walls of the room shook. The three Guardians reached out for the nearest piece of furniture to steady themselves. The hairs on the back of Nate’s neck stood up as Archangel Michael’s deep laughter rolled through the space.

“I thought you were on our side, Archangel,” he yelled.

I am ever your servant.

Katherine’s eyes widened as the three of them clamped their hands over their ears.

“What am I to do about a human compar?” Nate asked.

If you ask about Alexios, you’re dead, Katherine mouthed silently.

If I give you the answers, it’s not free will, Michael said.

“Free will is best exercised when all the information is at hand.”

Michael suffused the room with weightlessness which had the three Guardians floating in mid-air. Free will sometimes requires a leap of faith.

Show off. It was no use arguing with the Archangel. Michael always had to have the last word.

Not always, came Michael’s reply.

“Oh, bugger off!” Nate yelled, and the three Guardians suddenly dropped to their feet as Michael released them.

Katherine’s glare told Nate to put a lid on it. “Can you tell us if the Seam will open tonight, Archangel?”

There are battles on the horizon. Stand at the ready, Guardians.

Nate glanced at Katherine and Spencer. Their expressions mirrored his flourishing anxiety.

If Michael was warning them, shit was about to get serious.

“How shall we prepare?” Katherine asked.

Let there be no division among you.

“That shouldn’t be much harder than finding a scorpion in a whale’s belly.” Spencer’s lip curled mockingly.

“Spencer,” Katherine chided.

Nate laughed, but felt like driving a nine iron through the drywall. Michael’s presence disappeared much more fluidly than it arrived. Nate wanted to go back to the beginning of the week with Jessie. He didn’t want to think about soul mates and death and a Seam opening up, spewing God-knew what hordes of demons upon the Earth to torture and terrorize innocent human beings.

Heavy footsteps clunked down the hall toward his office. Nate’s stomach dropped. Something’s wrong. Three clipped raps sounded on his door. “Enter!” he bellowed.

Dorian Scott, Guardian for only five years, yanked open the door, his dark chocolate skin perspiring heavily at his temples. “There’s at least four hundred people in line outside, and we don’t open for another half hour.”

“Crowds don’t normally spook you, Dorian. What’s the matter?” Nate asked, fairly certain he already knew.

“I think we got a possession out there.”