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He crossed out of the lot and into the alley, his footsteps slowing as he approached us We were tucked unobtrusively in a little four-foot depression in the building, one of those architectural oddities that seeht across and then it dipped in, like someone had planned to put a closet there, and then resuh to keep us fro seen by anyone who passed by

The vampire stopped dead, a few feet away I saw his nostrils flare

"I know you’re there, Agent," he said

I stepped out of the depression and into the light of the one yellow streetla lot Gabriel followed and stood behindThe vampire’s eyes widened a little when he saw Gabriel

He sent with a guard dog"

If the vaetting a rise out of Gabriel, he had another think co Gabriel is the type that burns slow--so sloonder soot a pulse

"What is your business, vampire?" I asked

"If you are here, then you know my business," he said He raised an eyebrow at ainst it," I said, and there was a little shivering ofthe truth of that statement

That was one of the suck things about being an Agent I saw a lot of death, and most of those deaths would break my heart if I let them Stupid accidents, horrific e kids before their tie which lives should be saved If their name was on my list, then their death was fated and I was bound not to interfere I’d learned early on to adopt a circle-of-life attitude for my own sanity It didn’t mean that I liked it

The vampire sidled a little closer to me, and I could almost feel Gabriel’s hackles rise He lovesnear me If Gabriel had his way, there would be a thirty-six-inch manfree radius around me at all times

"I have heard stories of your beauty," the vaain "I see that they are not exaggerated"

I crossed endary "Do I look like I just fell off the turnip truck? Get lost I’lint of fang as he stepped closer He seeelsI have alantedand you are Lucifer’s own"

I opened my palm in front of me, extended my will, and a little ball of blue flame about the size of a baseball hovered above my hand "I understand that fire is unpleasant for vampires"

The vampire hissed and backed away several feet He shook his head, seeht he would try again, but then he appeared to think better of it

"Perhaps you are right," he said, regaining his co htfire disappeared, leaving behind a lingering trace of sulfur I flicked ave me a sarcastic bow and continued past us Gabriel stared stonily at the vampire’s back as he went by A few feet past us, the vampire stopped I couldn’t see his face but I was sure he was scenting the air I felt the thru that was marked for death Ainto the alley on four-inch heels

I sighed and slipped back into the shadows I didn’t need to see what happened next I just had to be there to pick up the pieces, like always

About an hour later I was flying home Gabriel met me in the air about half a mile away from the Door For reasons that we don’t understand, Gabriel can’t come within a certain radius of the Door This tends toents seem to be bound by the same restriction None of my enemies have been able to cross the invisible line that keeps Gabriel from the Door I know because I have seen some of them try

We were about ten ht soe I was surprised that it didn’t wake up everyone in a four-block radius Then the shock wave hit us

Gabriel and I were throard by a wave of energy that eling against it, but as the y inside the shock wave reached ic, a sense of wrongness that chilled hlike this before, when Ramuell the nephilim had been released from his prison to hunt and kill It was a sense that the natural order had been upended, that death stalked without plan or mercy

But Ramuell was dead I had killed hiht all of this in an instant, but an instant of iuished voice calling , s, to turn over and right s had disappeared They do that, so that I can look like a normal human ical reason, like when I’ent duties