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"You intend to make him wait?" Abraxos said it slowly as if the words tasted like acid going down his throat. Which, Sarah thought, was probably accurate. "That's not a no, Sarah."

"I never said I was telling him no." Sarah tamped down her irritation and tucked the parchment into her waistband. Her hands threatened to shake and give away her fear. She needed to take a stand with Abraxos now. She realized when Ithuriel was talking to her that he was her mate. She cared deeply for him and wanted to make a life with him, but she wasn’t willing to allow him to dictate her life to her. "I said I wasn’t answering him. I want him to sit and stew for a while. Sue me for not handing you a tidy answer before breakfast."

"I'd rather you handed me the truth." His wings flared, scattering a fine mist of ichor off the porch boards. The look he leveled at her had none of the warmth from an hour ago. "You're not going near that demon. I don’t care how long you make him wait. He wants to force you to do his bidding. He thinks he injured your friends or painted you into a corner where you have no choice. He didn’t. No one was seriously hurt. We have more warriors we can call on, if we need to. We can fight him. Tell me you understand that."

"You’re talking to me like I'm one of your recruits." Sarah crossed her arms and held her ground, even with her pulse hammering. He wasn’t wrong about all of that. She needed to set a precedent with him now, though. "I haven't agreed to anything yet, Sparky. I'm not going to agree to anything standing on a porch that smells like a demon buffet."

The sky picked that exact moment to ruin the argument for both of them. Light came up fast over the hedges. The gray-gold was climbing, and made Izzy freeze beside them as if someone had just run a live wire down her spine.

"Oh, come on!" Izzy threw both hands up as if the sunrise owed her a personal apology. "We need to clear the porch still. I don’t want to smell demons after they’ve been left out in the New Orleans sun for hours."

"Get inside. Now." Zander's voice cracked across the lawn. He was her father first and king second. Neither role left room for anybody's opinion on the matter. "We are no’ adding a charred vampire to the mess."

"I'm going. Amelia will need to glamour the front so the humans don’t see this massacre." Izzy backed toward the blown-out doorway with one hand shading eyes that had already started to water at the edges while she looked over the scene one last time.

"You act like you have to do it alone. You don’t." Donovan fell into step beside her, close enough to act as a shield against the rising sun. "I've still got two working hands, and the younger angels have even more. Let somebody else clean up for once."

"I'm perfectly capable of cleaning demon guts. The sun is the only reason I can’t." Izzy shot the words over her shoulder, though she kept moving. She was done arguing about going inside.

"Never said you weren't." Donovan matched her pace without rushing her. "I said you didn't have to be the one doing it."

"Inside, sweetheart, and quick as you can manage." Elsie waved her hand and gestured to the left of the entryway. The vampire queen held the door frame as if she meant to physically block daylight through sheer force of will. Sarah could see where her daughter got it from. Like mother, like daughter. The second Izzy and Donovan cleared the entrance, she followed close behind.

“Hurry up, Zander. Unless you want to go up in flames,” she called back over her shoulder.

“Shite, doona bitch at me, a ghra. I’m coming.” Zander threw one last look at the lawn before he darted inside.

Sarah knew the vampire king hated leaving even a blade of grass undefended. The mark on her palm gave a low, ugly throb that had nothing to do with magic. What the hell was that? Her gaze traveled over the street. It would be just like Lucifer to attack at such a vulnerable time for them.

Abraxos's hand found the small of her back. “It’s okay, love. There’s no one out here. The junior angels are on rotation. They’ll alert us if that changes.” He prodded her over the splintered frame with a gentleness that didn't match the tension still locked through his jaw.

"I don't know how you people do this every night." Sarah stepped over a chunk of the wood door frame. "Fight demons, patch the walls, fight the next day again. It's a really violent version of home renovation."

"You get used to the rhythm of it." Abraxos guided her past the wreckage, close enough that she could feel the heat radiating off him. "Eventually."

"That's supposed to be comforting?" she asked.

Abraxos graced her with a sexy smile. "I wasn't going for comforting. I was being honest."

“Thanks for the warning,” she teased.

Sarah rushed to Amelia’s side when they made it to the war room. Her friend had slid down the wall. She was pale as old paper and looked twice her age. “Are you okay?” Sarah crouched in front of her and picked up one of her hands.

Amelia shook her head. "I feel like I ran a marathon and lost a fight with a bonfire somewhere around mile ten." She pressed the back of her free wrist to her forehead as if she had a migraine.

"You fought a dozen demons for an hour while pouring energy into the house wards. It was smart to keep the house safe like that, but it took a lot of energy," Elsie told her as she joined them. The queen took her wrist and checked her pulse with the same affection she'd used on Donovan's ribs a day earlier. "That's not something many witches could do, Amelia. That's the reason this house still has walls."

"Next time I protect the mansion against demons, remind me to bill somebody for it. Pain like this should really come with hazard pay." Amelia let her head drop back against the wall, managing a half smile despite it.

“Abraxos, get her some water. Maybe an electrolyte drink as well,” Sarah told her angel. Abraxos nodded and headed for the kitchen

Two young angels arrived, hauling lumber and a bundle of iron fittings before Abraxos returned. One of them was fair-haired and green enough around the edges to look nervous just standing near Sarah. Did he think she might go off without warning?

"We have a temporary door to install. I’ll pick up permanent ones tomorrow." The fair-haired one set his load down with more care than the wreckage probably deserved.

Abraxos handed her a bottle of water. "Fix the door and window both, before resetting the wards again.”

Amelia took a drink, then waved the water bottle. “If you guys can extend the wards to the base of the porch stairs, Sarah and I will strengthen the ones we set around the perimeter of the property."