“Are you sure it was a good idea letting Zac go off on his own?”

“The boy needs to let off some steam. He’s smart, he’ll be careful.”

“I know, but this poison’s got me really frickin’ jumpy. The kid’s like my little brother.”

“Relax. He’ll be fine.”

Carmel looked unconvinced but commented no further as she strolled along the golf course with Charmian. It was a beautiful day and the scenery was picturesque but she couldn’t relax. Relaxing probably wasn’t a good idea anyway since they were on the job, but usually she wasn’t so tense.

“Seen anything yet?”

“No,” Charmian said. “Nobody infected, no sign of Anton or anyone else, I’m starting to think this was a waste of time. Except from the getting out of Dodge perspective.”

“Yeah. Seems like the only person who needed to get out of there more than Zac was you.”

“Heh.”

Charmian politely applauded with the rest of the crowds when the celebrity made a respectable first swing. She’d never paid any attention to human sports apart from those that were useful for combat training so she had no idea what golf was supposed to be about. From what she could gather it was an excuse for men to make business deals, but Justin was currently putting it to use for charity and she was here on demon lookout. They’d been quietly keeping tabs on him for a fortnight but had yet to spot any suspicious activity around him. A small part of her was hoping that meant nothing was really happening but she knew better. Things in their line of work were never truly quiet – if it looked that way it was only because somebody was busy laying the groundwork before popping back up to cause trouble.

In truth she’d have preferred Lucas to Carmel. That was no aspersion on Carmel; it was just a reflection of how much longer she’d been working with Lucas. They had long since got their ‘couple on a date’ disguise down pat and when the stakes were high his presence was like a comfort blanket. Since however the crowd was mostly female and Lucas had a habit of attracting female attention from mortals she had considered it wiser to bring her instead. Lucas had been unhappy about this since it left him home alone to deal with the political situation but Charmian couldn’t pretend to be sorry. She really had needed to leave.

“I’m as sick of dealing with Alexander and his cronies as Zac is. We’re on a holy mission here, I don’t have time to deal with him being butt hurt that I hired somebody else. It’s been a few thousand years and he needs to get over it already.”

“Yeah, I still don’t understand why the rest of them care. It was Alex who got passed over not them.”

“Why do you care when people get pissy with me?”

“Because… oh. Good point.” Carmel smiled. She supposed it was easy to start taking slights against your boss personally when they had your loyalty.

“Alexander never quite got rid of his mortal vanity streak. He knows that I chose Zac because I think he’s more innately talented and I hurt his pride.” Charmian rolled her eyes and brushed a mosquito from her arm. If only it would be so easy to deal with Alexander.

“He should get over it. The dumb thing is he wants to work with you and be taken seriously by you so bad, but he doesn’t seem to understand that the whole petulant brat routine is counter productive. Sometimes I really wish Michael would just come down and kick his ass.”

“Let’s be careful what we wish for, I think we’re as much in line as anyone for a good Michael ass kicking,” she muttered.

“Yeah, speaking of… how much longer we keeping him in the dark?”

“I don’t know how much longer we can.”

Charmian scowled. Carmel wrongly assumed this was because of the topic, but in reality she was cursing her shoes. The wedged espadrilles might look cute and might fit her ‘groupie trying to attract celebrities’ disguise but they were hardly practical. She wasn’t a big fan of fighting in sun dresses either, but sometimes blending in necessitated impractical outfits. On a personal taste level she simply hated floral motifs, but Zac had thrust the item at her and pointedly told her that was what the young girls were wearing whether she liked it or not.

“I wanted to get a handle on Anton first before I told him, but we’re getting nowhere. Tailing Justin isn’t coming up with anything.”

“Apart from making you grouchy. Oww!” Charmian was glaring at her, and Carmel rubbed her arm where she’d just taken an impressively brutal slap. “Teach me to say things out loud.”

“We’ve had this conversation. The only thing stopping me from being fine is people insisting that I can’t be fine.”

“The love of your unnaturally long life has passed you over for some Hollywood bimbo with a massive yet oddly still secret drug problem while you’re trying to protect him. It would be deeply worrying if you were fine.”

“Well it’s hardly like being with me has ever been good for his health, so I figure it’s time for a new approach,” she snapped.

She was really starting to get irritated with everybody for refusing to let it go. Lucas kept insisting it was dangerous to allow anybody at all close to Justin for security. Carmel kept insisting that Charmian could not possibly be okay with it emotionally. Zac kept insisting she should be with him regardless to scare off demons. The only person who was keeping his mouth shut was Nathaniel and even he had disapproval written in his eyes.

Was it honestly so difficult to see where she was coming from? Being romantically involved with Justin in his previous lives had failed to offer him any further protection. On more than one occasion his attachment to her had made him do something stupid and on one horrific occasion it had been the direct cause of his death. Being with her was inherently dangerous, and worse it made Justin behave dangerously in misguided attempts to protect her. Perhaps he might not have done so if he’d known that she was impossible to kill but she wasn’t taking the chance; she’d lost him enough times that she was happy to settle for ‘alive but uninterested.’ She really didn’t approve of his choice but it wasn’t up to her.

“Hmm.” Carmel looked sceptical but at least knew better than to keep pushing for the moment. “I suppose at least it should keep him off of everybody else’s radar. I still keep expecting one of them to start yelling me any minute about why I didn’t tell them that he’s really Michael in a new identity.”

“Tell me about it.” The pressure of the big secret was starting to take its toll on the four of them. They didn’t have the same luxury Nate did of staying away from other immortals. “But it’s better this way. Not only does it mean Justin’s moving on and keeping away from my jinxed ass, Annabelle is a brilliant cover. The demons wouldn’t expect Michael to be with somebody else and neither do our guys.”

“If you say so.” Carmel sighed.

It was unlike her to be particularly romantic or starry-eyed but she couldn’t hep believing that the two were destined. Why else would he always remember her when no other human ever did? Or maybe she was too eager to see her boss get handed some happiness as a nice change from all the tragedy. It probably didn’t help that her human marriage hadn’t been for love and she’d never felt it as an immortal so there was a small amount of vicarious living going on.

Finally they were strolling past the man himself, and both fell silent as they went into total work mode. Though their eyes keenly scanned everyone in the near vicinity all the auras looked like they were supposed to, not a possession or infection in sight.

“This lack of demonic activity really ought to be more reassuring,” Carmel sent a mental broadcast to Charmian as they halted on the edge of the crowd. There were now fans within earshot so they couldn’t talk shop openly.

“Too quiet. We know Anton’s up to something, so where is he?”

“Hiding somewhere plotting terrible things that are going to give us major stress headaches?”

“Must be,” Charmian surmised grimly. “Otherwise he’d be on him like flies on shit.”

“Is it just me or is she impossibly pretty?”

The glare didn’t need to be telepathic. “In Hollywood they’re kind of paid to be.”

“I’m just astonished. Most crack heads I know don’t look that good in direct sunlight, they need the airbrush.”

“Charming. Leave her alone, she’s fine.”

“I’m not just being a bitch. Okay, maybe a little, but I am serious. She looks too perfect. I’ve scouted a lot of the beautiful people but she’s…”

“Really Mel, I appreciate the sisterly loyalty but it’s fine. She’s just like every other Hollywood waster who has hundreds of thousands of dollars in the beauty budget to hide their excesses.”

“And I’d keep arguing but demon at eleven o’clock!”

Charmian’s head whipped around to see the thing she dreaded. It wasn’t even an infection – it was a full blown possession and they were going to have to commit a bloody homicide in the middle of a very crowded charity event. Worse still, the possession wasn’t just any regular Joe. It was the local news reporter. He wasn’t nationally famous but he’d certainly be missed in a hurry and in a high profile way.

“Ostendo sum vestri,” Carmel whispered as loudly as she dared. The spell barely reached the offender but sure enough a bright symbol began to glow on his forehead.

“Oh fuck.” Charmian wasn’t so restrained.

The symbol was written in an ancient demonic language. The spell Carmel had cast was designed to identify demons by displaying their names, and this particular demon was known as Bob. That wasn’t the name currently lighting up his forehead, however. The avengers had stated calling him that to counteract the incredibly depressing effect of calling somebody Punishment. It was his raison d'être to try and take down avengers as retribution for the bosses downstairs; while of course he hadn’t managed to kill any of them he’d certainly captured a few who had never been seen again. They knew what that meant and nobody could face thinking about it – hence Bob.

“What the hell is he doing here?”

“I don’t know. Have you seen anybody else here?”

“No, it’s just us and we definitely weren’t followed.”

“He’s not even looking at us.” It was rare but Charmian was starting to feel a little panicked. She’d never crossed paths with Bob – whether because he was scared to target her or simple luck she didn’t know – but he was like an avenger bogeyman. He scared them all, even her. “When have you ever seen him do anything except hunt us down, what the fuck could he be doing here?”

“Oh God.”

“This is not the time for dramatic pauses Mel, spit it the fuck out.”

“He’s doing what we are.”

“What?”

“We’re watching for demons, he’s watching for avengers. Somebody knows.”

“Shit, shit, fuck.” The little panic immediately exploded into a full scale mental meltdown. Had she still been human she’d probably be hyperventilating. “You think they worked out who he is?”

“I don’t know but they definitely know we’re trying to protect him. Shit, we have to go Charmian.”

“What? We can’t let him live!”

“Look around, boss.” Even in her thoughts Carmel sounded like she was on the verge of tears. “There’s no cover anywhere and hundreds of witnesses, we can’t kill him here but he can still zap us straight to the pit. We can’t win.”

“You expect me to leave this demon of all demons with Justin?”

“What other choice do we have? Bob doesn’t target humans who aren’t in his way but he will target us and we can’t protect Justin stretched out on a rack in Hell!”

Carmel forcefully grabbed her arm and started marching her away at speed, looking for a private enough spot to teleport. With every step Charmian’s fists balled tighter and tighter. If it hadn’t been for instantaneous healing, her nails would have been drawing blood from her palm.

“When I get hold of Anton he’s going to wish he’d never crawled out of the pit.”