We race-walked through the crowd and it was a good thing Creede had hold of my hand, because there were even more people here than last time, if that was possible, and I never could have made my way through the crowd without his help. Matty was sitting on top of a steel drum, in serious discussions with three other priests and Archbishop Fuentes. I didn’t know Fuentes personally, but I’d seen him on the news plenty of times.

Bruno was painfully putting his shirt back on. A wide surgical patch of gauze was covering his chest and another strip of white covered the side of his face.

I didn’t even have to pull away from Creede. He just released my hand when he noticed my reaction to Bruno. That simple act made me turn to look at him. I couldn’t tell what emotion was swimming behind the fire in his eyes. He was a solid blank wall. I touched his hand with my fingers and gave him a wink. That earned me a small smile before he turned away to head toward Matty and the others.

“Bruno!” I rushed forward just as he looked my way. Relief made his whole body slump. He opened his arms and smiled. I didn’t throw myself at him because I imagined that would hurt. Instead, I stopped just before we touched and put a hand on either side of his neck. “I was worried about you.”

“You and me both, Celie.” I put my lips against his and he pressed forward, opening my jaw with his. He reached for my waist and pulled me in tight. If it hurt, he didn’t give any sign. I hadn’t kissed him like this in a long time and wasn’t sure what it would feel like—especially considering how Creede had just turned me into butter.

But Bruno had a whole different kissing style than Creede. It made me feel warm and safe and left me wanting more without feeling frantic or out of control. If Dawna asked me which I liked better, I’d have to struggle and probably wouldn’t give an answer.

“I knew you’d come, Celia. I’ve been waiting.” The words boomed through the air, silencing all conversation around us. Bruno abruptly released me and we all stared at the figure of a man, at least eight feet tall and completely naked, watching me from the other side of the barrier. He was … excited, too, which made me turn my eyes away.

You’d expect a greater demon to be hideous—uglier than the lesser ones. But no. He was gorgeous. A beauty so perfect that statues should be carved of his likeness and paintings hung down from the ceilings of cathedrals. He had wings of luminous pearlescent feathers like every cheesy Halloween costume ever made. Except real and perfect and … beautiful.

But it was all for show and I’d seen it once already. “Why don’t you drop the act and show everyone what you really look like. Nobody here buys the fallen-angel story.”

I saw a man in a charcoal suit speak into his hand: “It’s made contact. Get the vice president.”

The demon chuckled low and I hated that the sound pulled at things deep inside me. He definitely had my number. “Perhaps this form would be more pleasing to you?”

I flicked my eyes up and then down again because now he looked like Bruno, down to the gauze, in all his naked glory. The demon looked just the way Bruno did just before really good sex. It was … impressive. “Sorry. Try again. No sale.” Bruno was likewise watching the ground uncomfortably, because that’s not really the sort of thing you want displayed to a few thousand people. Nobody was jeering, though; it was too scary. But a week from now, after we’d all survived? It would be all over the tabloids. “I can’t believe you’re going to all this trouble just to try to get me here to kill me.”

He made a clucking sound with a long tapered tongue that seemed really freaky coming out of Bruno’s mouth. “Celia. I didn’t do this for you.” The form changed again. I could tell from the feet. This time it was even worse and I had to throw up my hands and turn around with a blush. Now he looked like Creede. And wow, if his representation of Creede’s body was as accurate as his version of Bruno had been … just wow. “But you will be my first stop when the barrier’s down. Though … maybe you’d prefer even fresher meat.”

“Who the hell?” Bruno’s anger was immediate, so yeah, I had to look. But oh, jeez!

I looked at Bruno and now Creede, who were both staring at the vision of Gaetano’s war-scarred, heavily muscled body. They both looked at me with raised brows. I had one arm across my stomach and the other hand was shielding my gaze from the heat in burning eyes. Finally I threw up my hands. “Fine. He asked me out! But I don’t even know his first name.”

“Christopher!” a woman yelled from the crowd, and a few people tittered. Yay. My humiliation was complete.

Then both Creede and Bruno let out sharp, simultaneous gasps and blood splattered across my arm and face. The demon was back in his demonic form, complete with red skin and tail. He was clawing a long line through the magic barrier while the men I cared about cried out in pain. I didn’t dare look at them to see what had been damaged. It would only make me crazy.

“Stop it!” I shouted, and finally stared right at the demon, stepping closer to the barrier and drawing a blackened knife. “Leave them out of this. If you want me dead, bring the fight to me.”

His smile was a leer of razor-sharp teeth. “This is bringing the fight to you, Celia. They’re the two most powerful mages here. If I kill them, the shield will fall and then I’ll have you. What could be simpler?”

Put that way, he was right. Damn it. “You’re starting to bore me.” I channeled my old drama teacher to give him the look of a snippy head cheerleader being asked to the prom by a nervous freshman. “When you get new material, have someone find me.”

It was the hardest thing I’d ever done to turn and flounce away from that barrier, the demon, Bruno, and John. Matty stared at me with undisguised anger until I shot him a c’mon, let’s get out of here, we need to talk look and stabbed my thumb toward a battered canvas tent that I’d noticed was housing the triage for the priests.

As I walked past, he leapt off the barrel and tried to grab my arm. I shook it off and turned the knife on him. With his eyes locked on mine I spoke directly into his mind: We need to get the horns ready to blow. Call my cell phone and tell Okalani, “Now!”

He should recognize her name. A single nod and he pulled his hands off me in a mock surrender that made it seem like he was afraid. In reality, Matty could probably kick my ass to town and back. Nobody else stopped me until I reached the tent. In fact, a few people cleared a path. The demon let out a howl of rage that I would dare walk away from him. My heart was pounding like a trip-hammer, fearing he would simply make an all-out effort to break the shield.

Instead, he quieted down, so by the time I was enclosed in the cool white cotton shelter I could breathe and take a moment to close my eyes and regroup.

“Celia.” When I opened my eyes, I was facing the third naked man depicted by the demon. Of course. Why wouldn’t I expect to see a medic in a triage tent?

“Gaetano.”

He let out a small smile before turning to an IV unit to adjust the amount of fluid dripping into the arm of a priest. “Might as well call me Chris.”

I was saved from responding when Matty walked into the tent. There wasn’t any way he couldn’t notice my blush, along with the cause for it a dozen paces away. Matty patted my arm with actual sympathy and handed me the handkerchief from his pocket to clean up the blood that had spattered on me before speaking: “If you survive the day, we probably need to talk.”

My weary sigh sort of said it all. “That would be nice.”

“Ms. Graves?” I looked up to see Vice President Marion Lovell briskly walking toward me as I spit on my arm and rubbed it with the now-pink hankie. “Could we speak?”

Can you actually refuse to talk to the vice president of the United States? I wasn’t sure, considering all the Secret Service agents at her sides. “Sure. Why not? What else can go wrong today?”

22

I felt amazingly vulnerable in the wide circle. The whole area had been deserted. Troops and police had pulled back fifty yards to a newly constructed outer barrier. There was no question that the one a mere twenty yards from me was going to fall. Everybody knew it, so it made sense to create a new one, tied to hundreds of mages, rather than just a few—so no one man could be hurt as badly as Bruno and Creede and the others had been. I’d never seen that much magical firepower in one location before. Just the residual bleed from it made my teeth feel like they’d been chewing on live wires.

The demons all knew something was up. They were standing all along the flickering casting circle, just waiting. I was going to be between the barrier that was about to drop and the new one that had to be raised—with the horn.

Matty was with me in the circle. He’d volunteered once the archbishop said I’d probably only survive if someone was constantly praying for my salvation.

“I feel like I want to throw up.”

“You ate, right?”

I hate night? Huh? I pulled the noise-canceling headphone from my ear. “Sorry. What was that? I can’t hear a thing with these on.”

He looked appropriately chagrined. “Sorry. You’re not supposed to hear. I asked if you ate.”

Oh. “Yeah. Dawna gave Okalani a couple of bowls of that awesome broth from the barbeque place. I should be good until this finishes, but if not, there’s a spare in the backpack.” I motioned to said backpack with my toe. “How about you?”

“Filet mignon and fresh asparagus,” he said appreciatively. “The Feds are really good about last meals.”

“It’s not.” I had to believe that and stared at him hard, willing him to believe it, too. While Matty and I hadn’t really ever gotten along during my engagement to Bruno, we’d seemed to have come to an understanding in recent weeks. Matty was thinking of me less like a really annoying person and more like a person really annoying things happen to. “You want to go over the plan again?”

He pursed his lips and whispered, “Seems pretty clear to me. The first barrier goes down and all the bad guys race toward you, me, and the other priests—the fresh meat.”