...The day of the attack, she was one of the ones who brought in Willow Fields. I’m sure it was her this morning, even though her hair was different. She showed me a badge and started questioning me about that terrorist guy who came running in. She sure seemed anxious to find him. She gave me a card and said to get in touch day or night if I thought of where he might have gone. I haven’t told the police yet, I just feel better going to an angel with this information...

The phone did a vibrating dance on his desk. Charmeine. Raziel lunged forward, snatching it up. “What’s going on?” he demanded.

“I’m fine, thank you for asking,” said Charmeine’s voice, sounding weary. “I’m in Mexico City. I don’t know if you heard about it from your contacts or not, but the Council came here early, with hardly any warning.”

Raziel didn’t correct her assumption that his communications with the Angel Killers went both ways. “I’ve known for two days!” he gritted out. “I’ve been going mad, waiting to hear from you – what happened? Did they find out there was a security leak?”

She sighed. “Yes – our darling little Luis. He let slip to a woman in the office how curious his girlfriend is about the Council, and that he’d promised to get her and some friends in for a private audience.”

Raziel groaned aloud; remembering the earnest face he’d seen in Charmeine’s thoughts, he could just picture it. The warning not to tell anyone about Kara must have worn off in the time that had passed since Charmeine’s encounter with him. Or else the lad had been so dizzy from angel burn he’d forgotten he wasn’t supposed to talk.

“Anyway, the woman told the preacher, who went straight to the Council,” went on Charmeine. “Apparently there’d always been a contingency plan in place. They switched to it just to be on the safe side.”

“The Twelve didn’t get hold of Luis, did they?” asked Raziel warily.

“No, they didn’t. Do you think I’d still be around talking to you if they had? He’d gone to visit his family for the weekend; by the time they figured it out, I’d whisked him away.”

Raziel’s shoulders slumped with relief. If Luis had been turned over to the Council, they’d have seen what had happened in seconds. “So what did you do with him?”

She snorted. “What do you think? I wasn’t going to keep him as a pet.”

He nodded to himself; Charmeine might be maddening at times, but she never balked at necessities. Something about her tone worried him, though. “Are you all right?” he asked abruptly.