Nate frowned fiercely to himself as his finger scanned over the dusty texts in front of him. It wasn't the texts themselves that were the problem - he still had much of the scholar in him and had no problem poring over ancient and crumbling papers. He actually enjoyed the musty scent and the delicate textures, could spend hours locked in his study reading for his own pleasure. He viewed knowledge as a gift, one he enjoyed receiving as much as giving. The problem was that none of the books he toiled over could tell him why Charmian had been named guardian to a mortal when she was not a guardian and never had been. They couldn't tell him why no matter how long he went between reincarnations her charge always seemed to fall in love with her at first sight.

If there was one thing he'd learned in his tenure working for the light it was that everything happened for a reason. The ways might have been mysterious but they did not lack logic. Yet what was going on between Charmian and Michael - now Justin - defied all reason. Though humans had overly idealised images of them that they wrongly called angels, they weren't totally off base when it came to the set up and the soldiers of good forming different ranks. Each of the immortals had a specific purpose assigned to them, and although all of them were in their way warriors for the forces of good never did they moonlight in other roles. He had been a guide, a purveyor of wisdom; his purpose had been to arm the mortals with the knowledge and wisdom that would allow them to resist evil for themselves. Charmian was an avenger - she brought justice to the wicked.

Guardians, however, were the opposite; their role was to protect the potential victims of evil from ever falling prey to it, not to give them justice after the fact as an avenger did. Of all extra curricular tasks for her to have been given guardianship was the most contradictory, but the rules were the rules and once you became a mortal's guardian you were their guardian for all their lives. It simply made no sense for Justin's to have been picked from the wrong team. For one thing, it was dangerous; guardians had different powers than avengers, as Charmian had in the past found to her cost. She'd been given the gig but not the tools.

As for the doomed love aspect, that left him even more flummoxed. It wasn't that immortals were incapable of falling in love, it was rare but it happened; it was simply the nature of the thing that made no sense. Mortals didn't stay with the same souls all through their various lives, the idea of some fated 'soul mate' being a romantic idealist's wishful thinking. He admired the hope in it and it was a harmless idea, but simply incorrect. Yet without fail Justin's soul always seemed to instinctively recognise Charmian, scuppering any hope of her being able to put aside her own feelings. It was natural that she should always recognise him since guardians always could with their charges, but for it to happen the other way around even once had been unprecedented. Nate hadn't seen Charmian since her previous visit in order to ask if she'd had any more encounters, but if he stayed true to form Justin's streak would be at nine and counting.

"Damn it," he said aloud to himself, slamming the book shut.

"Now, now. You're in a church."

"Well." He replaced his pen in the desk tidy without looking behind him, trying to reorganise the papers he'd been reading and his own messy notes into some kind of order. "I don't see any of you in years and now I see two within as many weeks."

"Nathaniel, dear heart, you know I adore you but I don't have the time for witty repartee. Charmian said she came to you about this whole Michael thing."

"Justin, now," Nate corrected her. "And yes, she did. I'm sure she's already told you what I said."

"But if I know you, you didn't stop there. What you found?"

Sighing deeply, Nate twisted in his chair to face Carmel. "Nothing. Just like the last however many times I've tried to research this. I can't explain it."

"I'm worried. We're getting deep signs on the street and the demons are behaving oddly, I can't believe it's a coincidence that whatever mojo you worked on the boy suddenly failed us."

Nate ignored the urge to retort that the magic hadn't failed; it had been sheer bad luck that caused Charmian to touch and therefore recognise Justin, a quirk of guardianship that the magic had never been allowed to erase. If only they hadn't shaken hands, she'd be none the wiser. Still things did happen for a reason - on hearing the demon news the hairs on the back of his neck had immediately stood up, as they always did when he sensed imminent trouble. Sometimes he wondered if taking the option to retire had been smart. Few immortals did; an eternity of moving around place to place trying to fit into a human world they didn't truly belong in didn't appeal for many. Not to mention the hassle of trying to conceal the lack of aging. Most figured if they had to live forever they might as well be useful.

"Oddly? How so?"

"They're out in numbers. I checked; it's strictly Los Angeles they're convening on. And it's weird, their auras are coming off way stronger than the demon that's actually inside when we get the kill. Not to mention Anton's shown his nasty little face above ground."

Pursing his lips, Nate clasped his hands together as if in prayer. Although he knew that the being in charge was not actually the Christian God that he as a priest purported to believe in, he found it oddly comforting to go through the rituals.

"They ever done this before?"

"Occasionally they like to go after somebody famous in some style like with Marilyn. We thought maybe it was Lindsay Lohan or somebody but we did the checks on the celebrities and any demons they got are their own, not the real kind. We can't explain this; it wouldn't bother me except Anton's a slimy bastard and after the way he screwed up they would not let him back up unless they got something in the works."

"You know what, I think you're right. This can't be a coincidence." Nate tapped his fingers nervously against the arm of his chair. "Maybe they're after Justin and that's why Charmian was tapped?"

"Wouldn't that mean this was a pattern, though? Since we all know he has a tendency to live fast and die young, if demons are after him now surely that can't be new?"

"Oh I've always thought there was a pattern, it's pinning the bastard down that's the trouble," he complained. "Mic… Justin, I mean, has always been a creative force. Always charismatic, somebody people flock to. He's always been just on the verge of fame before he died, and I will kill you if you tell Charmian this but I wonder if maybe this time it's the fact that he's been cloaked from all of us that's allowed him to actually reach that fame."

Carmel chewed on her lip, mulling this thought over. "That's true. Like when he was running around with Byron, wasn't he about to start getting his own poems published?"

"Lord, for the days when all we worried about was if she could keep him away from Byron long enough to prevent syphilis," he snorted. "But that's not my point; the point is that it never changes. Neither does his early death or the fact that he worships Charmian. Is it possible there's been demon activity in this pattern the whole time? Anton was at that party for him?"

This time her eyes narrowed and her shoulders stiffened, almost as if she was preparing for a physical attack. "But we checked that over a thousand times. You know we never found a demon involved."

"Not seeing one doesn't necessarily mean there wasn't one, though. This whole thing with the pair of them is so outside the box it's not impossible the dark ones have managed to break some rules too."

"Outside the box?" She sniped, beginning to pace. "It shattered the box. It blasted the box into smithereens, there is no more box."

"Not their fault."

"I know, don't mean to sound bitchy but this shit's just annoying. Still…" She kept thinking as she stomped the floor. "Just going with you and your crazy lunatic idea for a second, theoretically speaking… if they did have some funky new thing that broke rules, would that maybe explain why she got tapped to be his guardian in the first place? Like, maybe this thing needs an avenger's touch more than a real guardian's, and that's why we keep losing him because we're flying blind trying to turn her into a guardian when she just needs to be her usual smiting happy self?"

Slowly he nodded. It certainly made more sense than any theory he'd been able to dream up. "Well, if you need an avenger Charmian is definitely your woman. No disrespect to your fine talents, of course."

"None taken." Carmel waved a hand dismissively.

It was true; Charmian was the undisputed Queen Bee of their kind. She had managed some take downs that were legendary both in human and immortal history - though naturally the humans were unaware that the credit ought to be hers. Carmel's personal favourite however was one that had left the humans mystified and unsure if one had even happened; nobody human had ever caught up to Jack the Ripper, but Charmian had and she'd given him a creatively painful end. Avengers were known for being hard hitters but even by their high standards Charmian was a force to be reckoned with - except when she was heart broken over the man she kept failing to save. Then she got kind of limp and downgraded to adequate.

"Still, theoretically speaking I'd agree with your logic." Nate scratched his head thoughtfully. "Of course that still wouldn't explain the Romeo and Juliet complex, but it covers the guardianship."

"Well it's the Romeo and Juliet complex worrying me right now because we have to hit a party tonight to go after what looks like a big one and I just got told he'll be there. Hence my pit stop to see my old pal."

He shrugged. "Nothing you can do about that. She's been in love with him for centuries, if he falls for her again there's nothing we can do about it and nothing that will keep him away. I'll say this much for him, the boy's a persistent little masochist the way he keeps finding her. Most humans stupid enough to fall for an immortal don't make the same mistake twice."

"He's not most humans."

"Indeed."