Light, during the day before sunset. I am not a demon."
"Show yourself," he repeated, his finger trembling over the trigger in readiness to squeeze off rounds.
"If you fire, the bullets will go through the wall and could hurt one of your brethren. Disarm and I will comply."
He didn't lower the weapon, but extended his trigger finger as a compromise. Slowly a deep toffee hue filled in the glowing places where the entity's white robe revealed skin. Thick, long dark hair washed over her shoulders. Her face became recognizable, and he backed up farther, stunned, knocking over colognes and deodorant on his dresser. "Raven . . ." he whispered.
She shook her head. "Christine. Raven is dead, and I am who I had been before I was ever turned." "Oh, shit! Marlene--"
"It will hurt her to see me. Don't." A sad expression filled the entity's beautiful eyes. "Please."
Dan slowly lowered the weapon, but didn't abandon it. "I cannot go to my mother without stirring up her old pain. I cannot go to Damali now, even though I owe her for the gift of release into the Light. She is in a very bad place within her mind.... And I cannot go to Carlos for a number of reasons. I do not know that he will ever forgive what I did to his brother and cousin or his human friends from his old life... or forget that I was his first sexual conquest when he first turned vampire. Too much pain." Her voice drifted around the room in a soft echo that seemed to be everywhere at once. "Sense me, Daniel. You're a tactical Guardian. Do I feel like a threat?"
Dan now held the weapon at his side. What she'd said was logical, and he felt no pending attack. Still, this was Raven. "Why me? I'm no seer. If you've got a message from the other side, then one of the older seniors--"
She placed her finger to his lips to still his argument. "I chased you when I was that which shall not be named. If I hadn't, who knows? Maybe then you might never have been inducted into the Guardian life. I owe you, and I'm trying to earn my wings, trying to clean up the life disasters my poor choices created. So, I came to you."
Dan could feel adrenaline-induced perspiration making his T-shirt cling to him. "Yeah, well, I guess it was fate. I'm here, woulda been brought in one way or another."
Her tone was so sad and her gaze so gentle that a sudden calmness filled him. The gun dangled in his loose grip by his side.
"Dan, tell me, is the Guardian life so bad?"
He looked away from her out the window, unable to immediately respond. "What's not to love? My parents think I'm in Israel on a kibbutz," he said, laughing sadly. "Rabbi Zeitloff handles the correspondence between us, and has people check on them to bring me word, sends them pictures.... It's all a bizarre ruse, but for their own good. They're happy, with parental bragging rights." He glanced away from the window and nervously ran his fingers through his hair. "So, how about you? How's the Light treating you?" Then he stopped and stared at her hard. "Seriously, all jokes aside, what's it like where you are?"
"Free," she whispered. "There is no way to describe the peace."
He nodded. "That's very cool and real good to know--especially since on any given day or night, any of us on this team might find ourselves over there with you. Glad you got somewhere safe. I know Mar rests better knowing that you did."
Dan's eyes held Christine's, compassion wafting through her body and covering his skin from where she drifted across the room. "She's real good people, Rav--I mean, Christine. Is like a Mom to me, too. Really, she's like that for all of us, except maybe Shabazz.... You know what I'm saying, since she sleeps with him, how can she be his mom? But, I'm... oh, shit, I've never talked to an angel before, so I don't know what I'm supposed to say or not."
Christine nodded and her expression remained serene. Then she smiled. "I'm not an angel, just a very lucky spirit that wound up on the first ring of Light. I have so much to learn, so many things to correct, and who knows how many incarnations to go through before I get it right. But thanks for the compliment."
"Oh, well... that's cool, too, I guess. Reincarnation is