their strength in the last few weeks. Slowly, I backed up out of the living room toward a nearby hallway. Cody, catching my mood, followed.
"I hate it when Mom and Dad fight," I commented as we retreated away from the divine bickering, seeking a safer locale. Looking in doorways, I saw a bathroom, a bedroom, and a guest room. Somehow I didn't imagine the demon hosted too many overnight guests.
"This looks promising," observed Cody as we turned in to an entertainment room.
More leather seating surrounded a massive, absurdly thin plasma screen hanging on the wall. Sleek, beautiful speakers stood in strategic spots around us, and a substantial glass case displayed hundreds of DVDs. This room, like the others, had been sacked. Sighing, I threw myself on to one of the ripped chairs while Cody checked out the sound system.
"What do you think of all this?" I asked him. "The new developments, I mean, not the entertainment setup."
"What's to think? It seems straightforward to me. This nephilim character warms up with lesser immortals and now decides to take on the higher ones. Sick and twisted, but well, that's the way it is. On the bright side, maybe we're out of danger now - no offense to Jerome or Carter."
"I don't know." I tipped my head back, thinking. "Something still isn't right to me. There's something we're missing. Listen to them in there. Why is Jerome being such an idiot about all of this? Why won't he listen to Carter?"
The young vampire glanced up from his perusal of the movies and gave me a sly smile. "I never thought I'd see the day when you advocated for Carter. You must have gotten really chummy this last week."
"Don't get any romantic delusions," I warned him. "God knows I have enough of that on my plate already. It's just that, I don't know. Carter's not as bad as I used to think."
"He's an angel. He's not bad at all."
"You know what I mean, and you've got to admit, he has a point. Jerome should be taking appropriate measures. This thing trashed his place and left warnings - even if they're obsolete charms or whatever. Why is Jerome so convinced he's safe?"
"Because he thinks he's stronger than it is."
"How would he know though? Neither of them have gotten a good feel for it - even Carter didn't the night he saved me."
"Jerome doesn't seem like the type to dismiss things without a reason. If he says he's stronger, then I'd - holy shit. Check this out." His serious spiel melted into laughter.
Getting up, I walked over and knelt beside him. "What?"
He pointed to the bottom row of DVDs. I read the titles. High Fidelity. Better Off Dead. Say Anything. Grosse Pointe Blank. All John Cusack movies.
"I knew it," I breathed, thinking of the demon's coincidental resemblance to the actor. "I knew he was a fan. He's always denied it."
" Wait'll we tell Peter and Hugh," crowed Cody. He pulled Better Off Dead off the shelf. "This one's his best."
I pulled out Being John Malkovich, my tense mood momentarily relaxed. "No way. This one is."
"That one's too weird."
I glanced up at the plasma screen, a huge gash slashing across its surface. "Normally I'd suggest we have a showdown to settle the point, but somehow I don't think there'll be any viewings for a while here."
Cody followed my gaze and grimaced at the massacre. "What a waste. This nephilim's a real bastard."
"No doubt," I agreed, standing up. "It's no wonder - "
I froze. Everything froze. A real bastard.
"Georgina?" asked Cody curiously. "You all right?"
I closed my eyes, reeling. "Oh my God." A real bastard.
I thought then about the entire trail of nephilim events, how from the very beginning Jerome had been warning us away. Ostensibly, his actions had been to keep us safe, but there had been no reason not to explain nephilim to us, no real danger to us in understanding the nature of our adversary. Yet Jerome had stayed tight-lipped about it, growing irrationally angry when any of us got too close. When Cody had first posited the "rogue angel" theory, I had written the secrecy off to embarrassment from the other side. Yet, it wasn't their side that had something to hide. It was ours.
Click, click. Once started, the dominoes in my head tumbled forward in a rush. I thought about Harrington's book: the corrupted angels taught "charms and enchantments" to their wives while their offspring ran wild... Charms. Like the obsolete one on