âYou shouldnât use superpowers against me.â
Hugh laughed and shook his head. âI didnât need to read the truth to know it for a lie.â Short, dark mahogany hair, a powerful formâbeautiful, though he didnât take her breath away. He did Lilithâs. When they were together, it was like being in a statically charged atmosphere.
Heâd changed since Lilith had come back into his life; though always intense, he had been tightly contained, focused on academia and books. Now he had a darker edgeâthe eight-hundred-year-old warrior who no longer denied his nature.
Lilith hadnât created that edge; sheâd only torn away the layers that had hidden it. A strange couple: the woman who lied and the man who saw truth. Yet they were absolutely and completely devoted to each other.
Savi fought the urge to cover the matrimonials; concealment would draw their attention more quickly than openness. âSo what is it?â she asked instead, and wrapped her arms around her middle. âYou want to know what I do? Itâs pretty simple; I get a list of transactionsâcredit cards, bank accounts, plane tickets, phone records, property acquisitions, whateverâand I have to change them. I donât even know what they are from. Most of them are probably from ordinary citizens, to keep me from guessing.â
And the others were the governmentâs way of protecting its agents and covering their movements. A credit card purchase for a pair of sunglasses twenty minutes after a political assassination in the Middle East? She didnât want to know about it, she just transformed it into a baguette in Paris. Savi wasnât the only one in the network; she imagined there were many others across the country in dark little offices, doing exactly the same thing. Changing transactions that sheâd changed, just to make the layers deeper.
âThat isnât our concern, Savi,â Hugh said. âYou donât do it for the money; you have more than enough from your parentsâ trust and from DemonSlayer. And you arenât capable of holding a job like this.â
Savi pressed her lips together before she said, âYou think Iâm unreliable?â
âNo. But only because you donât commit to anything you canât follow through on. You wouldnât have accepted this job and stayed for so long except under duress. Your interests change too quickly.â
Lilith smiled thinly. âAnd it really, really upsets me when people I care for serve against their will. Sir Pup, may I have Auntieâs file?â
A much thicker folder appeared in Lilithâs upturned palm.
Her heart pounding, Savi looked from Hughâs face to Lilithâs. âWhatâs the point of this? I canât lie to you. Youâre trapping me into somethingâif youâd just tell me the reason, this would be a lot easier. You donât have to do this to me. Not you two.â Her voice thickened. âOf all people, not you two.â
Lilith turned her face away for a moment, but Hugh didnât flinch. âOf all people, you should have come to us. Weâre doing it this way because you didnât.â His gaze softened. âAuntieâs resident alien status was revoked just after you turned eighteen. We can see that in her file. Also, that her applications for reinstatement were denied. Then sheâs given citizenship, though she never took the test or fulfilled the preliminary requirements. You did that? Or they did?â
âThey did,â Savi said tightly. âIâd have never left the rest incomplete.â
âIt was a different administration then; Homeland Security didnât even exist,â Hugh said. âWhy didnât you try to get out?â
âBecause I brought it on myself with those fake IDs, and I have to consider these consequences. They might let me go; I donât know. For all I know it was a demon
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