“Justin.” Nathaniel’s voice betrayed no surprise but the visitor was certainly unexpected. “What can I do for you?”

“Hi, umm, is Charmian around? Sorry to show up unannounced but she wasn’t at her apartment.”

“They’re training in the backyard,” he said. “Forgive me, Justin, but I’m not sure your presence here is wise. We did send you away for a reason.”

Justin scratched the back of his neck, feeling awkward. “Yeah, I know, I don’t have any other way of contacting her though. She never gave me a cell number or anything like that.”

“It’s urgent?”

That depended entirely on what you defined as urgent. He didn’t think he was in any more mortal danger than usual but he was extremely itchy and worried and barely sleeping. The trouble with knowing you were at the centre of some evil demonic plot was that it made it hard to switch off the paranoia. It made it hard to switch off at all, he was freaked out twenty four seven. It was getting to the point where he was barely functioning and he was hoping a chat with Charmian might put his mind at ease. Maybe it wasn’t apocalypse scale urgent but to him it mattered.

“Kind of.”

“I’ll see what I can do, come on in.”

Justin wasn’t sure why but Nathaniel intimidated him. That was strange since he wasn’t one of the many strapping and muscular warriors roaming around the place who could kill him as easily as they could blink. Maybe it was the quiet wisdom that constantly emanated from him – he got the impression that this guy had everything and everyone absolutely figured out. It didn’t matter that he was softly spoken and that he looked like somebody’s cuddly grandpa, all that gravitas made Justin feel very young and small and frivolous.

If he had expected to be taken into the backyard then he was mistaken. Nate beckoned him to follow and instead of heading for the door he went to the stairs. No matter how long he’d spent cooped up in the house it was still hard to reconcile Lucas’s lifestyle with Charmian’s. She lived in a small apartment; he lived in a house to rival to Justin’s. The staircase looked like it belonged in Gone With The Wind.

They eventually stopped on the third floor, where Nate ushered him into a small room at the back of the house. It would have been an attic if anything had been stored there, but instead it housed a single bookcase and some chairs. Nate gestured Justin to the window.

“They’re fight training.”

“Wow… there’s so many of them.”

The avengers formed a large circle on the lawn; there could easily have been forty or fifty of them. Justin could barely make out the expression on Zac’s face and the strain in his muscles as he fought off a particularly nasty looking broadsword.

“These are but a few of the crowd, worldwide. Zac’s opponent usually patrols in Bulgaria.”

“And Charmian’s in charge of all of them?”

“She doesn’t directly command every team but she does outrank all of them yes.”

“Wow.” It took a moment to process that. He still found it hard to grasp that such a formidable package came in such a petite and delicate looking wrapper. “So do they often do this?”

“No. Unfortunately we’ve learned that one of our fouler foes has resurfaced so she’s taking them all through hand to hand as a precaution. They do get used to sparring with their own teams so fresh opponents sharpen up the reflexes. You see how aggressively Katerina is on the attack?”

“Yes.” It was difficult not to notice. She looked like a thing possessed, the determination was practically neon. It was hard to believe this was simply training and not for real.

“She’s about to learn from her mistakes. She’s expending too much energy, Zac’s merely wearing her down and she’s starting to telegraph punches. Give him just a… oh, there he goes.”

Justin winced as he saw Katerina – a dark lidded and willowy brunette – take a brutal stab to the stomach. He knew that it wouldn’t kill her and that she’d heal within seconds but it was still excruciating to watch.

“I thought being aggressive was a good thing?”

“It is, when properly directed,” Nate answered. “But she was so desperate for the win that she lost focus, failed to conserve her strength and started giving herself away. And if she’s doing it here when the only thing at stake is her pride, you can imagine what might happen when it’s life or death.”

“Yeah, I get it. Guess that’s why people practice.” Suddenly another thought occurred to him. “Why you showing me this?”

Nathaniel smiled, his eyebrows shifting slightly upwards. “You are a smart lad. You ask the right questions.”

“You don’t plan to answer me though.”

“Again, smart lad. Well now… this should be interesting.”

Turning his attention back outside, he saw Charmian now nonchalantly standing in the middle of the ring. For somebody who was about to begin a vicious fight she seemed utterly unconcerned.

“Who’s that?”

“That is Alexander.”

The cogs whirred in his head. Hadn’t Lucas mentioned him? “Isn’t he that guy who’s like, major jealous of her?”

“Yes.”

Silently they watched. As she whipped her sword around her hand in a way he’d only seen on TV Justin nearly let out a whistle. He would have, but he didn’t want Nate knowing how utterly uncool he was.

Alexander wasn’t so obviously desperate as Katerina had been but there was no doubt that he had a point to prove. It was in the way he gritted his teeth, the way some of his hits had a little too much force to them. He was certainly an excellent fighter; Justin’s eye was untrained but it was obvious. He was smooth, assured, precise and nimble. The problem was that Charmian was simply more so. She could have been made of liquid. Justin mused that it was like watching Michael Jackson and his back up – a stage full of brilliant dancing and yet still one person was outshining all.

Her face remained utterly impassive save for a look of concentration. Her eyes were constantly on Alexander, clearly anticipating his movements. The dark ponytail whipped back and forth almost rhythmically as she spun, kicked out and threw punches. The dancing analogy became even funnier as she dropped to the floor and slid beneath the swing of Alexander’s sword. It would have looked awesome in a music video. Kicking Alexander’s feet out from under him, in one move she then rolled over to pin him, relieved him of his weapon and had a blade pointed at his throat.

The crazy thing was that aside from some slightly messy hair she looked like she’d exerted no effort at all. It would have been hilarious if not for the dark shadow passing over Alexander’s face. Clearly somebody was not a good loser.

While Justin was watching Lucas address the group, offering an analysis, Nate was silently speaking to Charmian.

“Bravo.”

“Thanks. Zac is getting better. Have you been watching?”

“For the most.”

“What did you think of Adili?”

“Green, still rough around the edges. Seems hesitant.”

“He’s only a few centuries. They plucked him out of the lower echelons of his tribe and put him in Alexander’s care.”

“Ahh.” Nate implicitly understood. A lowly young man plucked out of a strict hierarchy and then placed under Alexander’s care was likely to be hesitant. He ruled with an iron fist and kept a strict pecking order within his team. That worked for some and Alexander had certainly produced some disciplined and well trained avengers, but a young man used to being treated as nothing was unlikely to start finding his strength through yet more submission and demotion. Some people needed a regimented approach, others needed some nurturing. “Is that temptation I hear?”

“Temptation for what?”

“Last time I heard that tone Zac arrived shortly thereafter.”

“I can hear you laughing, old man.”

“Deny it.”

“Nope. He’s got something. Maybe once this Justin crap is done I can turn my attention his way.”

“Speaking of which, you have a visitor. Quiet room.”

Justin was startled by Charmian’s sudden appearance. He was even more startled by a complete lack of sweat. It was ridiculous that his throat had gone a little dry – she was in sweatpants and a shirt, nothing special. He was getting along swimmingly with Annabelle and that was far preferable because it was his choice and not people telling him that he had some great destined love.

Yet he couldn’t help wondering how the hell she’d managed to fight in a strapless shirt and no visible sign of a bra. Did immortality also defy gravity?

“Hi.” She twisted her leather wrist guard absently around her hand. “Wasn’t expecting you.”

“Sorry, I, uhh, didn’t have your number.”

“No worries. Can you excuse us, Nate? Maybe perturb any other visitors?”

“Certainly. Good day, Justin.”

“Bye.”

Charmian wandered back over to the window, her attention still outside where it was the turn of an unfamiliar avenger to be lecturing the group. It was times like this where he almost thought they were lying to him about the past history. She didn’t seem like she was desperately in love with him or anything. As a matter of fact she seemed totally disinterested in him.

“So how can I help you?”

“Umm… I just came for, I don’t know, a progress update? But I guess you were probably busy.” Lord he felt awkward. He was shifting compulsively from foot to foot and his ears were hot. “Nate said you were having a bit of a crisis.”

“Yeah. Actually it’s good you came, I need to talk to you about that.”

“Oh.” That was not reassuring. Finally her attention was on him and for all his previous mental complaining now he had it he didn’t like it.

“Did Nate tell you what we were doing down there?”

“Training because of some bad ass who showed up.”

A quick smile passed across her lips, corners perking up. “Yeah. Problem is that we discovered that when we were tailing you.”

It was amazing how all the air seemed to leave the room at once. He hadn’t seen any of them following him. And there was a demon following him too?

“Don’t worry,” she said as if that were possible. “This particular demon hunts avengers, not people. But I’m a little concerned that he got so close to you so I just wanted to remind you to be on your guard around absolutely anybody new, even if it’s somebody who you wouldn’t normally think twice about. Journalists, chauffeurs, anybody.”

“Boy that’s not comforting,” he said weakly. “I was hoping you’d say you hadn’t been in contact because you had nothing to report.”

“I’m sorry if I wasn’t clear before about my absence. I can’t be seen near you either from the demon standpoint or our own personal politics. I am watching but I have to do it quietly. Besides,” she smiled, “you don’t need me cramping your style.”

“Yeah, about that.” The conspicuous lack of any seeming concern or hint of emotion was really starting to irritate him. He’d see how little she could react to some provocation. It was childish of him but she was grating on his last nerve. “I’m kind of seeing someone and I’m a little concerned about her getting possessed.”

“Annabelle’s clean, we already checked. We’ll keep checking auras on everyone around you purely as a precaution but I’m not worried. The presence of this new threat means they know we’re watching. It’s unlikely they’d attack such an obvious target knowing that, so rest assured you can go to dinner safe in the knowledge that your date is the one in her own driving seat.”

Oh. So she already knew all about it and wouldn’t react at all. That was fine; it wasn’t like he cared anyway. It simply would have been nice to see some kind of familiar human reaction out of her. What had happened to the woman who’d trashed the house in a rage because he’d found out her secret? Her replacement didn’t seem to give a shit about anything, least of all him.

Maybe it was crazy of him to be so irked. He’d firmly rejected this whole destiny nonsense and although he understood demons were real and they were after him he was eschewing the rest of the mess. He did not need to care about some higher being’s plans for him when he had his own. Still, even though he’d decided not to venture into anything beyond the professional with Charmian he had an odd desire to understand what it had once been. If he was supposed to have loved this woman across time he wanted to know why.

It was difficult to see when she was so detached. It was hard to imagine her ever being romantic or being wooed by anyone. It was also difficult to see how he could love her if her emotions only ran between irrational rage and utter indifference with nothing else on the spectrum. It wasn’t a particularly attractive quality – it was driving him crazy. The fact that it could even register when he had the entire underworld after him and bigger things to worry about was really quite something; that was just how annoying she was.

“So… you kicked jealous guy’s ass back there?”

“What, Alexander?” Justin nodded in response and Charmian looked at him curiously, wondering what the tone was for. He sounded almost indignant. “He holds his own.”

“From what I understand he deserves an ass kicking.”

Was that… protectiveness she heard? No, it couldn’t be. She was indulging in wishful thinking. “Alexander may have a bit of an ego issue but he’s still one of the good guys. He gets the job done and he’s a good leader; he’s just got flaws like the rest of us. We’re immortal, not perfect.”

Justin was about to challenge her to name her own, in that case, but thought better of it. If she hadn’t shown any glimmer of emotion after he’d taken both the Annabelle and Alexander shots she wasn’t going to.

God that was infuriating.