Angels of Darkness

talk to me and my friends.”
    His face stilled, a quietly dangerous expression hardening his eyes. “About what you did yesterday morning?”
    Another silence was followed by a long, indrawn breath. “Kind of. No. My friend said . . . said you might be a Guardian.”
    Had Brand already told Jessica, and she’d passed it on? Maybe.
    She saw the same question in Marc’s eyes, but his voice didn’t betray it to Miklia. “I’ll talk to you. What do you want to know?”
    â€œNot on the phone. Not where someone might overhear.”
    â€œWhere would you be comfortable? The library?”
    â€œNo. It’s . . . it’s closed.”
    Radha met Marc’s gaze. The girl broke into a vampire’s house, but worried about a closed library?
    â€œThe football field,” Miklia said. “No one’s here right now. And it’s open.”
    Wide open, a public space, free of witnesses—and apparently, the girls were already there. Radha’s instincts were telling her that something was off.
    â€œWhen?” Marc asked.
    â€œCan you be here in ten minutes?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œWe’ll be here. Thank you.” The girl rang off.
    Radha shook her head. “You’re in their way. And you can’t touch them, defend yourself. Not without breaking the Rules.”
    Marc grinned. “And they’ll stake me?”
    All right. Put that way, her worry was ridiculous. He wouldn’t let them get close enough to stake him—and humans simply couldn’t match a Guardian’s speed. He could run across that football field faster than any of those girls could blink.
    His grin faded. “This might be the only chance to set them straight. If not for that, I wouldn’t bother. I’d just wait for the sheriff to catch up to them. But once he does, no one will tell them the truth about vampires and Guardians. It will all be cast aside as nonsense.”
    True. “I’m going with you.”
    â€œOf course you are—though I’d prefer they don’t see you. If they brought a gun instead of a stake, and they get lucky enough to knock me out with a head shot, I’d like someone to pull me out of there.”
    Because a bullet anywhere else would hurt like hell, might slow him down, but it wouldn’t kill a Guardian. A bullet to the brain wouldn’t kill him, either—but lying unconscious on a football field probably wasn’t how Marc wanted to start the day.
    â€œSo I watch over you?” She liked that.
    â€œIf you have to. But I think it’s more likely that we’ll just need a few of your illusions to back me up.”
    Either to drive a point home to the girls or to scare them straight. Radha grinned. “That sounds fun.”
    â€œI hoped you’d say that.” His own smile faded quickly. He tilted his head back, closed his eyes. “A demon could have impersonated her voice.”
    â€œAnd that’s what you’re still hoping for?” Radha had to admit that she was, too. “That he’s trying to lure you there?”
    â€œYes. Or that maybe of all the girls, just one of them is. But if one of them is a demon, he shouldn’t have chosen to face me on a football field. He should have chosen the protection of the library, of concrete and stone.”
    Because of his Gift. And when he turned his face toward her again, Radha almost didn’t recognize the change that came over him. That quiet, dangerous look—but intensified. Marc, the Guardian warrior. Hardened with experience, determined to win.
    So damn sexy. And, thank the heavens—no longer celibate.
    She’d make sure he was even less celibate when they were done with the demon and she got her hands all over him again. Forming her wings, Radha leaped off the building’s edge.
    â€œLet’s hurry, then.”
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    M arc obviously didn’t intend to mess around. As they flew in over the field, he lashed out with a psychic probe strong enough to pierce even Radha’s shields—but unless one of them was a demon, none of the girls waiting in the middle of the field would feel it.
    â€œAll human,” he said softly. “And no one else is here.”
    Damn.
    But, human or not, Radha wasn’t messing around, either, and she wasn’t taking any chances. Marc could speak to these girls, he could do this his way . . . but he wouldn’t be where they thought he