"Yup. I have a plan. It hinges on me being able to pull a rabbit out of a hat, so to speak, but all in all, I think it will work."

Jim shook its shaggy head. "We are so doomed."

Chapter 24

"There are times when I think I just can't get a break."

"'And then there are times when we know you're cracked"

I pointed to the lawn at the end of the verandah. "Go. Now. Sit. And don't give me that look. You've been fed, watered, walked, and if you're feeling well enough to make smart-ass comments, you're well enough to lie twenty feet away in the shade."

Jim, wise enough to know when it had pushed me beyond the limits of sympathy and understanding for the night it spent in the doggie hospital, lumbered off to lie in the grass. I gave Nora an apologetic smile. "Sorry about that. Both the whining on my part and the demon's comments."

Nora looked after Jim, a thoughtful look on her face. I was pleased to see that a reapplication of Gabriel's fix-it gel (the source of which I did not share with Nora) had healed the abrasions and scratches to the point where they were easily covered by a little judicious application of cosmetics. "That is a very interesting demon you have. It's not like any other I have seen."

"A pain in the butt, you mean?"

"Evil," she corrected, giving me a mild look.

"Oh. Yeah. Jim's not that. I think that's why it was banished from its former demon lord's legions, to be honest. It never really has talked about why it was kicked out, and since it gets kind of embarrassed whenever the subject swings that way, I've let it go."

A variety of emotions mingled in her eyes, but in the end humor won out. "You have a unique relationship, one that you should value. I can't think of another demon that demonstrates such loyalty as Jim does to you."

"Loyalty? Are you kidding? Do you know what it did? It blabbed to Monish that the Venus amulet was inscribed with two pentacles, and while it's true the damage was already done when I slipped up and told Monish about the incubi visiting me before Drake and I did the oath thing, Jim definitely did not help the situation by mentioning just how powerful the amulet was."

"On the contrary," Nora said, leaning back so Zaccheo, with many fervent and poignant looks at me, could clear away the lunch plates. "Jim telling Monish that indicates the demon's belief in you. It knows, as does Monish, that if you were destroyed, it would suffer the same fate. For a demon to present such a damning piece of information—damning at first look, that is—when it knew you were at risk showed that it knew you were innocent. I'm sure you plead most eloquently, Aisling, but I suspect Jim's show of loyalty gave Monish pause for thought and is likely what changed his mind."

"Well, how do you like that?" I said, glancing fondly over to the big black lump stretched out on the lawn. "And here I thought it just liked to see me in hot water."

Nora laughed. "I'm sure it does. It is a demon, after all. Just not a terribly effective one, so to speak."

"I see what you mean." We fell quiet for a moment, enjoying the summer breeze as it caressed us, the afternoon air heavy with the scent of jasmine, Around us, people talked and laughed and ate, as many different languages audible as there were voices. Everyone seemed to be having a wonderful conference—but then, they weren't once again cast in the role of murder suspect number one, I hated to ruin such a peaceful moment, but the clock was definitely ticking, and I had a lot to talk over with Nora. "Tiffany said something today that had me thinking, but I'm not sure what to make of my deductions. There is a very wise woman in Paris who, when I was having difficulty seeing the obvious, told me that I wasn't looking at all the possibilities."

"Ah. Yes. That is an important part of being a Guardian, and one of the hardest elements to learn." She hesitated for a moment, her fingers tracing the edge of her iced tea glass. "I feel as if I know you well, Aisling, so I hope you will not take offense if I speak frankly."

"No, of course not." Uh-oh, She looked serious and uncomfortable. That didn't bode well.

"I... the truth of the matter is that I am not sure why you are desirous of seeking a mentor. You know much of the things that apprentices do not learn for several years."

"But there's more that I don't know," I pointed out, warmed by her praise despite the fact that I knew she'd definitely wiped me off the candidate list. "I couldn't close that portal that opened during the dragons' lunch. And I don't know a lot of the stuff that the rest of you guys seem to have learned when you cut your teeth. I had no idea that incubi really existed until one of them showed up in my bed!"

"Yes, but you dealt with them well. Almost instinctively, you solved the problem before it became too great. With the incubi, you sought refuge in a place you knew they would not follow. With the demon at the lunch, you had it held hostage before it could harm anyone. I don't doubt that had you had an appropriate grimoire, you could have returned the demon to Abaddon and closed the portal."

"I'm not very good at controlling Drake's fire. And I don't feel like I have a handle on even a tiny fraction of the Guardian stuff. And I don't know how to draw wards."

"All things that will come to you with practice, Aisling. The elements of knowledge are there within you— you simply have not recognized them."

I thought about that for a minute, but decided that was a conversational path that I really didn't wish to go down. "Thank you for the cheerleading, Nora. Given the ineptness you've witnessed, I appreciate it."

She smiled and kindly changed the subject. "What did Tiffany say?"

I gave my lower lip a little nibble as I worked out how best to explain something I didn't fully grasp. "She said that maybe the things that have been happening aren't really connected after all, Maybe they were meant to look like they were, but really weren't."

"Hmm." Nora looked thoughtful. "I see why that made you stop and think."

"Yeah.Monish is ready to swear that Moa and Theodora, the two Guardians, didn't know each other. He said you told him you'd never met them."

"I hadn't. I saw Moa talking to you that first evening here, but there are some seven thousand registered Guardians worldwide—I know only a very small fraction of that number."