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ask flatly. Az glances at me, a question in his eyes, but stays silent.
    “The number is too high to be calculated,” he answers me, unconcerned. “The children weren’t the only ones who died. Humans could not handle the poison of demons. Human men were weak, and the women were poisoned by the potent demonic blood of a full strength demon. They also died during childbirth. The pain was too much for them and their bodies would give out. That is why demons can’t procreate; there is nothing living within them but death. Lilith was the one exception. She was the only host who wouldn’t kill the men or the children.”
    I close my eyes and try to imagine the deaths of the children, mothers, and men. A small part of me, buried deep in the shadows of myself that I hide from everyone, finds it disgusting. Why would Hell continue to try to mate with humans if they knew the result? How many times did they try? The deaths seem unnecessary and repulsive.
    Michael’s voice returns to me. And maybe one day you’ll see that.
    I shake the thought out of my head and focus on what Gus is saying.
    “It didn’t take long for the Nephilim to wipe out the Lilim. After seeing all of her children slaughtered, Lilith didn’t want to have any more daughters of her own. So she stole the newborns of humans and killed them. It was her own small revenge on the angels who took away the only family she has ever had. She stopped creating Lilim.” He brushes the stubble on his jaw. “Until now.”
    “Very spooky,” Azael says in monotone.
    “The Lilim are back.” I’m thinking out loud, trying to untangle the knot of information. Lilith had children. Lilith lost children. Lilith is creating children again . “You said it was a virus?”
    “The new Lilim are different. Lilith is stronger, and now so are her children. They can now be created by blood, not birth. Her blood is powerful enough, potent enough, that it has been transformed into a kind of virus that can effect both males and females. The infected are at the infancy stage of changing into a Lilim. The virus festers in the veins of its victim until everything pure is eaten away—the soul, their humanity… It’s faster and more efficient this way. Their past is slowly erased as the virus—”
    “That explains why the soul’s memories were gone!” I interrupt, able to make sense of at least one small part of the strange puzzle.
    He looks at me sharply and continues. “Their past is erased and their future is given one purpose: to continue to spread the virus. It is a primitive need to keep their race alive and growing. Lilith can create the Lilim by injecting them with her blood or having them drink from her vein. Once infected, they can spread it themselves. It is most commonly transmitted human to human by a bite.”
    I recoil slightly and glance quickly at Azael. His neck is unscarred now, but I can’t forget the tear my teeth left in his flesh. Transmitted by a bite .
    “Not every bite is successful, of course. These newborns,” Gus pauses and searches for the right words in his notebook, “frequently lose control. When they feed, they are consumed completely and can sometimes kill their victim instead of changing them.”
    “So what is this?” Azael asks, shifting impatiently on his feet. “Another secret plan of Hell that we’re kept in the dark about? Like with Michael?”
    “And why has Lilith begun making Lilim again?” I scoop my own questions on top of Azael’s. “Why remain dormant for so long only to resurface now?”
    “I helped create the virus from her blood decades ago, but Lucifer wanted to wait to use it. I wasn’t informed it was being reintroduced to humans again.” Gus stops for a minute to think, consulting the small, graphite-smeared pages of the notebook. He skims the scrawled letters that I assume make some semblance of sense to him and pulls absentmindedly at his lip. “It has to be Michael,” he concludes. “He is the catalyst.