Demon Bound by Meljean Brook

Ethan, then Irena’s plate, heaped with seafood and potatoes. After the waiter’s brief hesitation, Charlie pointed at Alice, and he put Jake’s hamburger next to her wine.
    “Perhaps I shouldn’t have done it,” Alice said once he’d moved on. Irena’s laughter had faded to a low chuckle, but Alice hadn’t missed the curious glances it had brought their way. “Someone might have seen him disappear.”
    Irena liberally salted her potatoes. “No one did, Alice. If they had, we would have sensed it.”
    “Even if they did see it, they’d talk themselves out of it. No sane person would believe it for long.” Ethan didn’t reach for his food, but studied her face with a slight frown. “And I’ve never seen either you or Jake grate on another body so much, or him run his mouth on purpose like he was. You two have an altercation I should know about?”
    “No.”
    “One I shouldn’t know about?”
    Alice smiled and shook her head.
    “He is an odd one,” Irena said. “He should be irritating, but I only want to rub his head.”
    Alice did, too. Her fingers curled into her palms.
    “And he’s got a good brain in it. Picks up everything I have to teach him right quick. Aside from his specializations, there ain’t much left that he needs but experience.” Ethan clenched his jaw, and Alice recognized the worry he projected. It was the same worry she’d often had for her own students. “He’s just too damn young to be getting it by going up against demons.”
    “Someday I’ll get used to the idea of sixty years old being young,” Charlie said.
    “Well, some of it’s maturity. You’ve earned yours by the bucketful.” His gaze warmed when he glanced at her, and when he looked back at Alice, his eyes were glowing amber. “Jake, now—a year ago, I couldn’t have said the same. But what happened to Charlie hit him hard.”
    “As it should,” Irena said.
    Ethan shook his head. “He’d been out of the warehouse less than a day when Sammael went after them. That the demon got to Charlie is on me.”
    “And which Guardian would ever see it that way, Ethan?” Alice asked. “If it had been us, newly returned to Earth and untried in combat—and failing our assignment?”
    “Not a one, I suppose. Still, it ain’t on him.”
    “But don’t take the responsibility away from him, either. Particularly if it forces him to be more careful in the future.” Alice drew in a breath, scenting the fried potatoes and hamburger sandwich. How very wasteful it would be, should they go uneaten. She pulled Jake’s basket closer. “It is just as damaging to be overprotective.”
    Ethan heaved a frustrated sigh. “Yes.”
    Charlie’s fingers moved over Ethan’s fist, and she squeezed before letting go.
    And a single touch soothed his worry. It was absolutely lovely—and if Alice hadn’t already been fond of Charlie, she would have been then. “And you remember when we were his age, Ethan. Our mentors despaired we would ever be mature enough to return to Earth, yet we survived.”
    “ We? Way I remember, I just got dragged into whatever you were doing. So it seems to me they was mostly worried about you.”
    “That is true,” Irena said.
    “There, you see?” He turned to Charlie. “I never seen anyone so inclined to study and practice, but also so inclined to give our mentors shit for it. She’d screw up her face like she’d been sucking lemons, then repeat every bit of advice they gave to us, or start reciting passages from the Scrolls.”
    “Come now, Ethan. Lemons?”
    “Hugh once described you as a ‘challenge,’ Alice,” Irena said. “He was being kind.”
    “Oh, dear. Thank you so very much for your aid.”
    “And she’d start in on me for saying ‘ain’t’ or ‘shit’—then go transcribe the kinky books in the Archives and pass them out as instruction manuals. I still got one.”
    A rolled-up sheaf of paper appeared in his hand, and he gave it to Charlie.
    “Ethan, no,” Alice