Devil May Care

by Patricia Eimer

  “So have I,” the voice in the phone said, sounding amused.

  “What?” I pressed the phone back to my ear and tried to squirm free of my best friend’s grip of death.

  “You didn’t show up to work last night. Andrea said Lisa had called you in sick and that it had to be something serious because you never missed your shifts. So I did a little hacking into the computer and found out you’ve never taken a sick day, in the four years, eleven months, and twenty-two days since you were hired at Rogers Hospital.”

  “I hesitate to ask this but why were you so concerned about seeing me?” I croaked.

  “I have your purse.”

  I sat up and pulled the phone away from my ear, staring at it for a second before pressing the receiver back to my ear. “You have my purse? How did you get my purse?”

  “You left it sitting in the conference room. I found it when I went back to teach my next security seminar,” he replied.

  “Oh. Well when and where can I meet you to pick it up?”

  “Don’t worry about it,” he said. “Since you’re sick I thought I’d be a nice guy and deliver it myself. Nice shade of peach, by the way.”

  “What?” I looked over at Lisa and then at the curtains. What the hell was he doing outside my building?

  “I’d have expected blackouts since you worked the graveyard shift but those are much prettier. Very feminine,” Dan continued.

  I scurried out of bed and threw back the curtains he’d just called feminine. I saw him leaning against the side of his black Triumph motorcycle and he held my purse up, waving it at me.

  “What are you doing here?” I shrieked, still feeling about three seconds behind in this conversation. Which was pretty good considering I’d been without coffee for almost four whole days.

  “Returning your purse, of course.” He dropped it back onto the motorcycle’s seat. “What else would I be doing? Are you busy?”

  “Am I what?” My jaw dropped and I stared as he smiled back up at me from the window.

  “It sounds so much better than what are you wearing?” He sat on the bike and crossed his ankles, his smile going from charming to downright smug.

  “Agh!” I backed away from the window and threw the curtains closed, then got a look at myself in the mirror. My hair looked like a tornado had ripped through it, and I was in rubber ducky pajamas. Green rubber ducky pajamas.

  “Now don’t be that way,” he said. “All I want to do is return your purse. Possibly talk a bit.”

  “Talk about what?”

  “You haven’t read the papers? Or talked to the police?”

  “Look.” I combed my fingers through my blond tangles. “It’s not a good time right now. With my brother missing and everything. I’m just—”

  “They’ve found a suicide note in Dr. Cosgrove’s personal effects. He confessed to killing that pediatrician who was found in the Dumpster. They also found the stuff to make bombs that link him to some other case here in Pittsburgh. It looks like Emily’s poor, bankrupt parents might have been into something more sinister and unpatriotic than we first thought.”

  “What? Dr. Cosgrove was a terrorist?” There had to be some mistake. Dr. Cosgrove, the guy who quoted poetry and wore a Professors for Peace button, was supposed to be some nut trying to overthrow the government?

  I looked over at Lisa, whose eyes focused on my comforter, and whose shoulders curled inward, and suddenly I just knew. My stomach curled up into a knot and all I wanted to do was throw up.

  “According to my administrative assistant there are federal agents all over MEDTECH looking for clues to link the Cosgrove brothers to any number of criminal organizations. She says she can’t sneeze without one of the government guys trying to test her for viral pathogens. ”

  “I still don’t believe it,” I said and narrowed my eyes at Lisa. “You said that he confessed to killing Dr. Winslow? Maybe Dr. Cosgrove killed him because he was afraid of getting caught with the morphine. Maybe Dr. Winslow confronted Dr. Cosgrove and he killed him to get away. I don’t know. But I just can’t believe he was a terrorist.”

  “Why? Because he was a middle class white guy who taught English Literature?”

  “No, because terrorists aren’t the types of guys who comfort the nurses when a child dies. They don’t sit up with other parents keeping vigil over terminally ill kids. I don’t care if he had a PhD in Chemistry and every piece of clothing he owned was covered in gun powder, Dr. Cosgrove was a good man.” Tears welled up in my eyes. “He was a decent guy and I refuse to believe he was a terrorist.”

  “I don’t want to argue with you and for what it’s worth I think you’re right. I never got the whole terrorist vibe from his brother, either, and I’ve worked for him since I was a junior in college.” Dan said. “Look, why don’t you come for a ride with me and we’ll talk about it? Maybe, between the two of us, we can figure out something that the investigators might have missed.”

  “I can’t.” I shifted my weight from one foot to another. “I need to stay here in case we hear something about my brother. But thanks for the offer.”

  “What about your purse?”

  “Give me two minutes to get dressed and I’ll be down to get it.”

  “If that’s really want to you want.”

  “Yes, it is.” I hung up the phone before he could argue. I turned and saw Lisa staring at me, her face filled with guilt.

  “Faith, I’m sorry about Dr. Cosgrove. I know he was a good guy and we all felt terrible about what happened to his daughter. But you’ve got to understand—”

  “I don’t have to understand anything.” I put my hands on the top of my dresser and bent my head, unable to even look myself in the mirror even though I didn’t have a part in this. “Just tell me that you let me sleep because you found Tolliver.”

  “Nope.” She picked at the seam of my peach comforter. “No luck yet. But your dad and the rest think they’ve narrowed down a trail to follow. He said to let you sleep until you had your power back. Plus he was worried that you might get upset about the whole thing with Dr. Cosgrove.”

  “And you agreed? I should have just slept while my brother was missing and you were smearing the memory of a dead man?”

  “I couldn’t have woken you up even if I’d wanted to.” She hopped up from the bed, pacing. “Your mom and I tried and you didn’t even move. Hope and Malachi both said you were drained. Whatever that stuff was, it was nasty. We finally had to get your uncle in here to help. According to Hope, He may have saved your life.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Whatever that stuff was the Alpha said it wasn’t meant for Tolliver. It wasn’t some sort of residual gunk left behind by the sprites,” she said. “He said it was some sort of nasty hex, specifically tuned to attack you. Whoever left it behind meant for that magic to take you out.”

  “Shit.” I walked over to my closet and searched for a pair of clean sweatpants. What was it with people and trying to kill me all the time? I’m the most harmless demon there is. I pay my taxes and donate to the local fire department. Hell, I work with sick kids for a living. I even buy Girl Scout cookies. In bulk. But no, it’s always me people try to kill.

  “Yeah,” she said. “After the Alpha had finished taking care of you your dad sent Malachi and a few other demonlords to find Matt’s mom and Brenda. Mal’s got the two of them separated, questioning them.”

  “What?” I turned to look at her, my search for clothes abandoned. She stopped pacing and sat on the side of the bed, staring at her hands.

  “The Alpha and your father think the Angale had something to do with the attack on you and Tolliver. Malachi and Jesus have Brenda in Hope’s apartment, and Karathian has Matt and his mom locked up together in his apartment. They don’t think Matt had anything to do with it but they’re hoping he can somehow make her see sense before this turns into an all out war.”

  “Damn it,” I muttered and turned back to my pile of clean clothes. I grabbed a T
-shirt and a pair of black sweatpants and hurried into the bathroom, not bothering to close the door all the way. “I have to get over there.”

  “You don’t want to do that,” she warned me.

  “Why? What haven’t you told me?” I stripped out of my pajamas and hurried into my clean clothes.

  Lisa came over and leaned on the doorjamb. “Trust me on this.”

  “Why?”

  “When your dad found out Valerie and the Angale might be behind Tolliver’s disappearance, and your accident, he had one of those…what’s he call it? Oh yeah. A moment of anger. Matt was the closest Angale he could get to.”

  Oh great, first I’d gotten into an argument with him, and now my dad beat him up? The odds of salvaging this relationship were dwindling into single digits. I should have stayed unconscious. “How bad?”

  “Not terrible.” She reached over to pat my shoulder, still avoiding my eyes. “Your dad just picked him up and shook him, yelled a bit.”

  Liar. “What aren’t you telling me?”

  “Then Matt lost his temper and essentially told your dad off.”

  “Oh brilliant.” I grabbed my sneakers and pushed past her to sit on my bed and put them on. “Anything else?”

  “Then he said some rather unflattering things about demons, so your father told him if he felt that way he should just stay the hell away from you. Matt told him that wouldn’t be a problem in the slightest. To consider the two of you through. That was when your father pretty much kicked his ass. The Alpha tried to stop it. He’s sure that Matt was under the influence of the same gunk that was affecting you and it was making him irrational, but you know how your father is—he tends to punch first and ask questions later.”

  Great. I’d been dumped via a conversation with my father by a guy who may or may not have been under the influence of a nasty bit of magical mischief. You’d think that wouldn’t be such a surprise given my life, but nope, this was actually a first. Well at least it didn’t end with the guy in question in a psychiatric ward. Score one for me.

  “Shit.” I finished tying my shoes and stood, leaving my shattered heart scattered across the floor. “Is he okay? Matt, I mean? Dad didn’t kill him, did he?”

  ”He was a little bruised but he healed quickly. But how are you? Are you going to be okay?”

  “I’ll be fine. Let me go get my purse from Dan and then I’ll go talk to Matt. I’m sure with a bit of screaming and a few smacks to the head I can make them both see reason. Then, instead of beating each other up, they can get back to trying to find Tolliver.”

  “Do you think that will work?” She followed me out of my bedroom and down the hall to my empty front room.

  “I doubt it but I’m all out of better ideas right now. So if you’ve got another suggestion…”

  “Nope.”

  “Right.” I hurried out of the apartment, ran down the steps, and pushed open the front door of the building.

  “That might have been the longest two minutes of my life,” Dan said when I stopped in front of his bike. He held out my purse and waved it back and forth.

  “I’m running short on clean clothes that match.” I took my purse and slung it over my shoulder. “Thanks for dropping this off. I appreciate it.”

  “No problem.” He grabbed my free hand. “Are you sure about the ride?”

  “I need to stay here in case we hear something about my brother. But thanks for the invite. Maybe next time.”

  “Sure,” he brought my hand up to kiss the back of it.

  I pulled away from him and turned away, not bothering to look back. Dan was my past and—even if my relationship with Matt was over—no good had ever come out of regretting the life you didn’t get the chance to live.

  I ran up the front steps and entered the front door to my building, my head down. Inside I smacked into a solid, muscular chest. I looked up and found Matt staring down at me, his face filled with hurt.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  “Must be one hell of a software update if the computer guy’s got to drive over here a second time to see you about it.” Matt’s shoulders were tense and his jaw was clenched.

  Guilt flooded through me, and I tried to remind myself that I’d done nothing wrong. I’d told him we needed to talk but we hadn’t actually had the chance to. Our relationship was strained already and he’d caught me in what looked like a really compromising position. Which was not how I wanted this conversation to go, but now I didn’t have a choice anymore. I had to tell him the truth. I’d put it off for way too long and now it was so much worse than it should have been. “That’s Dan.”

  “The Dan, I take it?”

  “Yeah. I’m sorry. I tried to tell you that he was in town before but we never sat down and just talked. And nothing happened between us. I mean he wanted something to happen but—”

  “Well at least I know I never had a chance with him in the picture. Maybe it’ll make it easier knowing the game was rigged before someone bothered to tell me we were playing for keeps.” He looked out the door, refusing to meet my eyes, and I could see that he was grinding his teeth together.

  “Maybe that’s the real problem, Matt. You can’t seem to understand that I’m not a prize to be won.” I walked past him and Nahamia, who had been watching him from the first step. “Besides, you didn’t want me anymore. I’m just like the rest of them, remember?”

  “One mistake and there’s no coming back from it, is there? One bad reaction to a spell that was loaded down with negative energy and that’s it. We’re through. Why? Because Faith Bettincourt’s tender mercies don’t rain down upon those of us who might not live up to her standards of perfection?”

  I didn’t even bother reminding him that it was him that dumped me, not the other way around. What was the point? He’d already decided who was to blame in this situation.

  Besides, what was he doing lurking in the vestibule anyway? I thought he was under lock and key with his mother inside his apartment.

  I walked upstairs and opened the door to my apartment. My father sat on my couch next to Lisa, while Hope tinkered around in my kitchen and Malachi and Jesus talked quietly on my couch. Everyone turned to look at me, and almost as one, they all found somewhere else to look, like they wanted to do anything else but make eye contact.

  “So.” Jesus looked around at everyone else and shifted his weight on the couch like he was trying to find a way for this to not be a massively uncomfortable moment for all of us. “Are we going to discuss the big white elephant in the room, or are we going to pretend it doesn’t exist?”

  “If you’re talking about the fact none of you can bother to call before you drop in, then sure, let’s talk about it. If you want to talk about my love life—”

  “We don’t want to talk about your love life,” Dad interrupted. “But we do need to talk about Matt.”

  “Why?” I asked.

  “Because Matt may know where Tolliver is,” Lisa said.

  “Excuse me?” I stared at her, stunned. Did she say what I thought she just said?

  “He knows where they’re keeping Tolliver,” Hope agreed. “Once he quit being pissed off at Dad for kicking his ass he started thinking about it and put the pieces together. He thinks he might know where the Angale have hidden Tolliver. So, the two of you are going to go get him. Together.”

  “You want me to do what?” I stared at my father. He’d beat Matt up yesterday—or was it the day before?—and now he wanted me to tag along with him on the off chance that we might find Tolliver? I wasn’t the darkest demon in the flock, and I could see serious issues with this plan.

  “We’re going to Biloxi together,” Matt said from the doorway. “Actually, about five miles outside of Biloxi. If they’re keeping Tolliver anywhere, it will be close to Neaveh.”

  “Neaveh?” I asked.

  “The Angale compound,” Jesus said.

  Matt nodded. “The others figured since the two of us had phased together a few times before it would be easie
r to control if you were the demon they chained me to.”

  Nahamia opened his hand and a pair of blue-black bracelets appeared. He grabbed Matt’s wrist and slapped the first cuff onto his left hand and then stepped forward and lowered his head in front of me. “Your Highness?”

  I lifted my arm and he fitted the bracelet around my wrist. Celestial power surged through the link and I sucked in a deep breath, shocked by how intimate it was to be able to wield Matt’s powers.

  “The Angale’s power is yours to control,” the archdemon said, and backed toward the door. “Should he do anything unwise, my recommendation would be to drain his physical body, banish his soul to the Grey Lands, and then leave the carcass for his own kind to deal with.”

  “Noted.” I felt imps fluttering in my stomach.

  “Are you ready?” Matt asked, acting like he hadn’t heard Nahamia’s advice.

  My heart clenched at the dull look in his eyes. “As I’ll ever be.” I closed my eyes, focusing on the place he was picturing in his mind. A phase portal slid open and the image on the other end wavered, then solidified. “Is that the right place?”

  “Yeah.” Matt walked through the window between realities, and I followed.

  We were in the front yard of a white farmhouse with boarded up windows. The paint was faded and the mailbox next to the front door was covered in rust. A swing in the front tree rocked back and forth idly in the breeze and the grass shifted against my knees.

  “This is the headquarters of the fearsome Angale army?” I asked, skeptical.

  “No.” He shook his head. “This is where it all started for us. This is where my mother grew up.”

  “So you think she stashed Tolliver here because…?” I glanced at the house and then back at him.