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because humans have a problem with winged creatures.”
    Lucas wasn’t all that surprised. “I’ll go over there in a few minutes.”
    “He’s starting on Christmas next. You might want to hurry.” Micah flashed away.
    Lucas wanted no part of whatever the guardian taught in his classes, but the nerou didn’t need that kind of misinformation. He couldn’t begin to fathom what the archangels were thinking when they decided to have Kerbasi work at the training center. Perhaps they just wanted to keep the annoying guardian far away from them. If only he had that option.
    Heading down the hallway, Lucas entered the room at the far end of the building. Emily stood at the back with a hand over her mouth, snickering as she listened to the guardian speak. She shook her head at Lucas as he came to stand next to her.
    “Did you guys have to let him teach this class?” she whispered.
    “He wanted to,” Lucas replied.
    He was beginning to think allowing Kerbasi to handle the sex education class they had scheduled for next week was a bad idea as well. Lucas just hadn’t wanted to do it and Micah refused after he had to give a lecture on feminine hygiene products. That left the task to Kerbasi.
    He was a former guardian from Purgatory who’d abused his prisoners, including Lucas, for centuries before the archangels found out. To say he’d been ruthless and cruel would have been an understatement. Last year, they sent him to Earth as punishment with the stipulation he couldn’t return until he found his humanity. Melena had been working with him on that until she was taken away. She’d done better than expected, but Kerbasi still had a lot of room for improvement.
    Now, the hulking man with silver eyes and long black hair served his sentence at the nerou training facility. He had a way of getting under people’s skin due to his lack of tact or consideration for others. Melena had been the only one who could handle him. Without her around…well, Lucas couldn’t hold his anger in check against the man who’d once maliciously tortured him. He’d tested Kerbasi’s immortality several times in recent months, but it appeared nothing could kill him, yet.
    The obnoxious fool stood at the front of the room, pointing to a slide show photo of a Christmas tree. It was the one Melena and Emily had put up in their home last December. How had the guardian obtained a picture of that? And managed to put it in a slide show? They’d showed him how to use PowerPoint for his classes, but Lucas hadn’t thought Kerbasi would learn the program well enough for photo insertion.
    “This is what humans call a Christmas tree,” Kerbasi said with a sneer. “For reasons I’ve yet to comprehend, they like to cut these innocent trees down from the forest and decorate them.”
    “Decorate them with what?” a male nerou student asked.
    The guardian’s expression turned grim. “With shiny baubles and lights. Yes, I know…” he paused, throwing his hands up, “it’s ridiculous.”
    “What’s wrong with that?” Olivia asked. The slim student with shoulder-length blond hair was Micah’s daughter. It was still hard for Lucas to imagine having a niece, but after getting to know her these past months, he’d come to truly care for her. “We used to decorate our living quarters with whatever we could find.”
    Lucas had seen their austere dwellings in the underground tunnels of Purgatory. It was depressing to think of anyone growing up in such a cold and dark place, much less innocent people who’d never committed a single crime except being born to the wrong parents. It was no wonder the nerou had tried to make what improvements they could to their homes. When they’d escaped, almost every one of them had some sort of handmade object they’d insisted on bringing with them such as necklaces or small figurines.
    “This is different.” Kerbasi’s lips thinned. “Decorating a tree is an abomination of nature. Much like a certain