“Come on, you don’t think this is a little off of us?”

“It’s our job.”

“Really? And here was me thinking this whole mess was about the fact it’s her job.”

“Oh quit whining, Katherine,” Micah said impatiently as he took the long jump between the hotel and the office block. They were fifteen levels up and he’d just jumped a thirty feet gap like it was nothing. With a scowl on her face, Katherine followed suit.

“You don’t feel even a tiny bit strange about stalking Charmian’s charge?”

“He needs guarding. Every time Charmian gets near him to do it she falls to pieces and he don’t get much guarding. We are guardians. You see my logic here?”

“I don’t like tailing her boyfriend.”

Micah frowned. “Oh. She’s given in? Thought she was avoiding him.”

“No… you know what I mean, it’s just easier calling him her boyfriend than her ‘impossible soul mate who keeps dying on our asses.’ And I still say we shouldn’t be following him.”

“I say what we should or shouldn’t do was shot to hell in his case a few centuries ago.” His brow creased into heavy, worried lines as he kept his gaze firmly on the pop star they’d been hunting for ten blocks now. He’d been stopped by a group of fans and was signing autographs, blissfully unaware he had people tailing him. “I just keep thinking this all comes back to him somehow, and somebody needs to watch his ass. I know it ought to be Charmian, but since I can’t blame her for deciding that proximity gets him killed I’m going to step up.”

This shamed Katherine into silence. She couldn’t help it; she’d been so close to her for so long that it was hard to disengage from the whole thing as she could with any other mortal. It was hard to look down from the rooftop and see Justin Timberlake as any other human being when she was aware how much he’d defied everything they knew. Katherine had never been in love, never really given so much as a thought to it, but it was impossible to listen to Charmian talk about him without feeling a stab in the chest. Not two days ago she’d witnessed her fighting tears as she talked about how he’d watched over her all night, having no idea that the woman he watched was immortal and in no danger of anything except a headache. That was dedication; it was more than obvious that the boy was as in love with her as ever, even if he himself had no idea how or why. She had a feeling that it wouldn’t be very long before temptation got too much and the doomed pair were back together.

Micah sighed. “Sorry, I don’t mean to be pissy. I’m just stumped.”

“I know.” Katherine shook her head out, trying to clear the gloom she felt whenever Justin turned back up on the radar. They’d failed to save him so many times she found it hard to muster any kind of positive thinking. “But following him doesn’t seem to be helping. Have you seen any demons around?”

“No. It’s weird, the avengers are all telling me they’re on overtime lately but I’m getting nothing. Which makes no sense, because the demons have to be feeding off somebody and that means innocent bystanders - so where are all the backs we should be covering?”

“My best guess? Either there are so many that innocent victims have become an endangered species or they’re cloaking themselves somehow. Neither of which fills me with joy.”

“If they were cloaking themselves surely the avengers wouldn’t see them either?”

“Good point.”

“GOD.” Micah smashed his fist into the fire door, leaving a sizable dent in the wood. “None of this makes any fucking sense. It’s wrong and I feel it and I can’t… fuck.”

“I know, I know. We all do.” She tugged at his arm as Justin waved goodbye to the fans and started back along his way. “Did you speak to Carmel? Nathaniel come up with anything else?”

“No.” He folded his arms, smirking a little at one of the fans who looked as thought she was going to faint. “He’s still convinced there’s some demon involvement we haven’t caught.”

“His business he’s certainly surrounded by enough of ‘em.” She chewed her lip thoughtfully. “But how would they manage to cloak that?”

“That’s the sticking point,” he explained. “Nate’s trying to work it out.”

“I thought he was retired.”

He shrugged, raising his palms. “Feels guilty, I think.”

“Ugh.” Katherine almost kicked a bucket off the roof, before remembering at the last second that it would attract unnecessary attention. “He can join the club.”

“Why should you feel bad?”

“I don’t know, because she’s my friend and she’s stuck doing our job when she’s not supposed to and it keeps costing her the love of her life? And if something’s after him I ought to have seen something more useful by now instead of spending the last few hundred years looking dumb-faced and telling her I know jack shit.”

“Great. Now I feel guilty too. Thanks, Kat.”

“I just… ugh!” She began pacing, still keeping one watchful eye on the scene below. “This whole thing makes no sense to begin with. We all know he shouldn’t remember a thing about her, let alone still be in love with her.”

“Hmm…” the cogs started turning gradually in Micah’s head. “That’s right.”

“Yes, you know that’s right,” she replied rolling her eyes at him. “No shit, Sherlock.”

“So how come we’re not concentrating on that?”

She stopped. “What do you mean?”

“We keep concentrating on why he keeps dying, right? And why Charmian’s his guardian, and why the demons might want him?”

“Yes.”

“Maybe we’re putting the cart before the horse. Maybe we should be asking why he remembers her at all. Because if there’s something special about him it shouldn’t exactly be a surprise that the demons would figure he’s a catch, you follow?”

Katherine nodded slowly, starting to catch onto his logic. “And if we can work that out, we might be able to narrow down who specifically might want him.”

“And if we can figure that out, it might make more sense why the big dudes upstairs would put Charmian on the fucker’s tail rather than one of us.”

“So all this time,” she said with exasperation, “that would mean we’d been looking at this from totally the wrong angle and we’d managed to let him die eight times before we worked out we needed to concentrate on him rather than her.”

“In our defence, she’s a much more obvious candidate to be a major player than some unpublished poet.”

“You know…”

“Yeah, yeah, I know, no human is ever insignificant and we should never assume anybody’s too unimportant to be a target. But still, Charmian’s a legend and you know they’d give anything to take her out of the game. It wouldn’t be that much of a stretch if all they wanted was to just grind her down until she gives up her sword.”

She snorted. “They underestimate her.”

“No, I really don’t think they do. We’ve all seen what she gets like after he dies.”

“She does fine!” Katherine responded defensively, bruised on her friend’s behalf.

“Exactly. She does fine, which by Charmian’s standards is actually pretty crap. Even of all they can do is knock her down to adequate rather than awesome like usual, that’s still a huge gain for them.”

Katherine was no longer paying any attention. She was squinting down at the ground, trying to make sure she was seeing what she really thought she was seeing. In some ways she hoped so, because it was a lead. In other ways she prayed not, because it was a sign of trouble.

“Micah?”

“Yeah?”

“Am I dreaming or are we not the only ones stalking Justin Timberlake today?”

Immediately Micah’s gaze turned in the direction of Katherine’s outstretched index finger, golden eyes narrowed dangerously. It took him a moment, but his mouth soon dropped into a small ‘o’ and his forehead creased in anxiety.

“Okay. That’s a demon.”

“It’s not any old demon, either. Look closer.”

He strained his eyes, peering out at the figure. “Sorry, you got better eyesight than me.”

“It’s our old pal Anton.”

“Anton?” Micah spat out in disgust. “I thought that mother fucker was still being roasted on a spit somewhere for his last screw up.”

“Charmian ran across him the other day. Wanna guess where?”

“I despise guessing games,” he replied, glaring at her.

“At the party where she first clocked Justin.”

“But I was at that party!” He exclaimed. “She never mentioned it!”

Katherine gave him a pointed look. “You think she might have got a little distracted?”

“Oh. Good point. So, this is the second time we’ve found the little shit close to Justin?”

“Yep.”

“Hmm. I’d say that warrants further investigation… wanna call Carmel and have her torture the bastard?”

“Oh I really, really do.”