The Devil's Playground mk-5

by Jenna Black

  “Believe it or not, I’m doing Andrew a favor. I told you he likes to beat himself half to death with guilt. He’d have had a field day if—”

  “You’re the one who laid the guilt trip on him, asshole!”

  “Yes, I laid a guilt trip on him while he could still do something about it. If I hadn’t said anything, he would have allowed Lugh to ‘volunteer’ Dominic and would have drowned in guilt afterward. He needed a swift kick in the ass, and I gave it to him.”

  Lugh made a grunting sound that could have been amusement or annoyance. “Even when you’re doing what is arguably the right thing,” Lugh said, “you manage to be cruel about it.”

  Okay, that sounded more like annoyance.

  Raphael shrugged. “If I’d tried to be nice about it, it wouldn’t have worked. I may not like Andrew, but I understand him.” He turned to me. “Honestly, Morgan. Hosting me for another couple of hours will do him no harm.” One corner of his mouth tipped up. “And since he took me voluntarily, it might remind him that, even if his shining armor is dented and rusty, he still has it.”

  What could I possibly say to that? I couldn’t deny that Raphael knew Andy better than any of the rest of us did. I’d tried my own version of “tough love,” and it had been an abysmal failure. Raphael had been even more brutal, but he’d prompted Andy into doing something I would never in a million years have expected. Maybe he really did know what he was doing. Even so, I just didn’t have it in me to trust Raphael.

  “Let’s talk about the meeting with Dougal, shall we?” Lugh asked.

  It felt weirder than I can explain to hear Lugh’s words coming out of Tommy’s body. Even when I was hearing his voice in my head, I always pictured Lugh as the gorgeous stud muffin he made himself into in my dreams. To hear him talking out of what had only minutes ago been Raphael’s body was …

  uncomfortable.

  I sat on the arm of the couch, feeling a little too weak and shaky to stand. I was still fighting the headache and nausea, but there was another pain, too, a hollow cold ache in the center of my chest. I found myself rubbing my breastbone absently, but it didn’t ease the ache.

  “Raphael,” Lugh said. “I want you to stay here with Morgan and Dominic.”

  Raphael sat up straight and gaped at his brother. “You must be joking! You’re not going to meet Dougal with only Adam at your side.”

  Lugh arched an eyebrow. “I’m not going to bring a couple of helpless humans into Dougal’s range, and we’ve already established that I don’t want him to know about you.”

  I was sitting close enough to Lugh to give him a sharp kick in the shin.

  “Ow!” he protested, giving me an affronted look.

  “There are no ‘helpless humans’ in this room,” I informed him. “And we’re not expecting a melee in the food court. That was Dougal’s whole point in choosing to meet there, right?”

  “And if you show up with only Adam in your entourage,” Raphael said, “you’re going to make yourself look weak, like you have no supporters.”

  “I want Dougal to think I’m weak. I want him to underestimate me so he’ll make a fatal mistake.”

  Raphael shook his head. “Tell me you’re not really planning to go through with this whole duel thing.”

  “Why not? I might have more supporters than I was planning to let Dougal know about, but we all know he’s got many more supporters on the Mortal Plain than I do. If you’re thinking we can somehow hunt him down and get to him without putting me at risk, you’re delusional.”

  Raphael was agitated enough to stand up and start pacing. “But Lugh, there’s no way to know who would win if the two of you fought. And Dougal’s too smart to set up the duel in any way that would let you get an advantage.”

  “Someday, somehow, it’s going to come down to a fight between the two of us,” Lugh said, his voice low and soothing. “You know that, even if you don’t want to admit it.” He turned to me. “And in case you or anyone else is worried, if we do succeed in setting up a duel, I’ll fight it in Tommy’s body, not yours. We have to assume that Dougal will have taken a superhost of some sort, and I would be at a severe disadvantage if my host were a normal human.”

  I’d have worried about what that meant for Andy, since no doubt he’d be Raphael’s temporary host once more if Lugh marched off to battle in Tommy’s body. But if Lugh fought with Dougal and lost, I had a feeling Andy’s emotional well-being was going to be the least of our troubles.

  Raphael still didn’t look convinced. “We’ll argue about whether you’re going to duel Dougal or not later,” he said. “Let’s finish arguing about who’s going with you today, first.”

  Lugh smiled wryly. “Adam and I are going alone. There’s nothing to argue about.”

  Raphael stopped pacing, and the look in his eyes made the hair at the back of my neck prickle. I could almost smell the testosterone in the air as Lugh unfolded from his chair and met Raphael’s glare with one of his own. I wasn’t sure if this was about to get ugly, but just in case, I started backing away toward my dining room table, on which my purse currently sat. I had a Taser in there, and I was beginning to suspect having it out and armed would be a good idea. No one paid any attention to me, not with Lugh and Raphael facing off as they were.

  “You’re not going without me,” Raphael said with quiet menace.

  “Raphael, I am your king, and I am giving you an order. Stay. Here.” Lugh was getting that eerie, pissed-off glow in his eyes.

  Raphael shook his head. “To you, you’re my king first, my brother second, and that’s the way it should be. But to me, you will always be my brother first. So you can give me as many orders as you like, but don’t expect me to crumble in the face of your royal authority.”

  I’d gotten to my purse by this time, and I fished out my Taser.

  “I really hate to say this,” I said as I armed and pointed the Taser, “but in this rare instance, I agree with Raphael.”

  All eyes turned to me. Lugh’s jaw dropped open in shock to see me standing there pointing my Taser at him.

  “There are too many things that can go wrong,” I informed him. “You can’t go with no backup other than Adam.” I kept my eyes on Lugh as I spoke to Adam. “You’re damn good backup,” I told him,

  “but you’re only one person. You can bet Dougal’s going to have more than one minion with him, and we need to have more than one person there to defend Lugh if push comes to shove. You know I’m right.”

  Lugh had told me once that even the most loyal of his council members would defy him if they thought it was for his own safety. I was gambling that he was right and that Adam would see things the same way Raphael and I did. If I was wrong, this was a lost cause. Yeah, I could Taser Lugh, and Raphael would be able to keep Adam and Dom from interfering. But superhosts were able to shed the effects of a Taser jolt faster than mere human hosts, so it wasn’t like I could keep Lugh down long enough to miss the rendezvous.

  Lugh turned his fearsome glare to Adam, who looked very unhappy to be in the hot seat. He thought for a long, agonizing minute, then sighed.

  “I’m afraid they’re right, Lugh,” he said, his head bowed with regret. “All Dougal has to do is kill your host, and victory will be in his reach. If you look too vulnerable, he might be willing to risk trying it even in the middle of a crowded mall.”

  Lugh’s glare would have had more effect if Adam had actually been looking at him.

  “I know I’m only a ‘helpless human,’” Dominic chimed in, “and you probably don’t much care about my opinion, but I have to agree. I understand you want to minimize the risks to the rest of us, but meeting Dougal with only Adam to guard you would be just plain reckless.”

  Lugh winced, as if Dom’s words had hurt him. Maybe they had. Lugh slowly lowered himself back into his chair, and I lowered my Taser. I didn’t put it away, though. I knew how fast demons could move.

  “If I didn’t care about your opinion, Dominic,” Lugh said, “you would
not be on my council.” He looked around at the rest of us, and a wry smile played on his lips. “I had hoped that without the full council here to back you, I might be able to browbeat you all into seeing things my way. It appears I was mistaken.”

  Raphael laughed, a genuine, hearty laugh that broke some of the tension in the room. I disarmed the Taser and shoved it back into my purse.

  “You thought you could browbeat me?” Raphael asked Lugh, still laughing. “Being housed in human flesh has addled your mind, big brother. In what alternate universe would that actually work?”

  Lugh’s lips twitched. I think he was suppressing a smile, though he gave Raphael a halfhearted snarl.

  “Just so we’re clear,” I said. “We’re all going. Right?” Everyone nodded. “Okay then, what’s the plan?”

  And it was a good thing Lugh had kept the rest of the council members out of this, even if things hadn’t turned out as he’d hoped, because even with only four of us there to argue with him, it took every minute we had left to agree on how to make the approach to Dougal.

  twenty-six

  THE GALLERY IS A GINORMOUS, SPRAWLING URBAN mall that, under normal circumstances, I’d avoid like the plague. Crowds are not my best thing, but the Gallery and crowds go together like chocolate and peanut butter. At least we weren’t within spitting distance of a holiday, or the place would have been unbearable.

  We entered the mall at the street level. The babble of too many voices made the throbbing in my head worse, and I still felt that weird … hollow feeling in my chest. I remembered how Dom had rubbed his breastbone after I’d exorcized Saul, and now I understood why.

  The food court was on the top floor, but we didn’t want Dougal and company spotting us until we were good and ready. Adam went up first, to make sure Dougal was there in the flesh, so to speak, and to make sure our meeting place was as secure as possible. Dom watched anxiously as Adam rode the escalator up. As a police officer and demon hunter, Adam put himself in danger on a regular basis, and Dom had to know that. But I guess knowing it in an abstract way was easier than watching it unfold.

  After a very long few minutes, Adam called Raphael’s cell phone and let him know that he and Dougal were ready for us. There wasn’t anything on the face of the planet that could force Adam to give us the all clear if he saw something hinky, but that didn’t stop me from feeling a nervous flutter in my stomach. Dougal had been the bogeyman for so long now that I couldn’t help being scared shitless at the idea of meeting him face to face.

  There wasn’t a whole lot of breathing room on the escalator, and I was glad I wasn’t claustrophobic. The four of us stayed close together, doing our best to keep the shoppers—and the teenaged mall rats—

  from getting between us.

  The food court, naturally, was mobbed. I looked at some of the lines in front of the restaurants and wondered why anyone would want to wait in line that long to get fast food. If I’d been in one of those lines, I’d be expecting nothing short of a filet mignon by the time I got to the counter. Though considering the lingering nausea from the control change, even a filet would have made me hurl.

  Despite the mob, we had no trouble spotting Adam waving at us. Raphael and I led the way, one final layer of protection between Lugh and Dougal.

  There were three people already seated at the long table, though I was pretty sure that the four people at the neighboring table belonged to Dougal’s entourage, too. They weren’t watching us, and they had food in front of them, but they all had the stereotypical demon good looks, and they were more playing with their food than eating it.

  The three at the long table were all also demon-beautiful. There was a tall, slim Asian woman with shiny blue-black hair that trailed halfway down her back. There was a solidly built man who dressed like an MIB wannabe and whose face held the most neutral expression I’d ever seen.

  And then there was contestant number three, a striking blond guy with piercing blue eyes and sensual lips. He slouched casually in his chair, while his two companions sat rigidly straight, their eyes busily scanning the area. Gee, I wondered which one was Dougal.

  Apparently, Lugh blended in better than Dougal, because I could tell from the way Dougal looked from one of us to the other—mostly skipping me—that he was trying to figure out which one of us was Lugh. A long, silent staring match ensued, during which I noticed the foursome at the next table had stopped playing with their food, though they still weren’t overtly watching us.

  “Everyone keep your hands where I can see them,” Adam said. “If I see anyone reaching for anything, I’ll shoot you.” His hand rested firmly on the gun holstered at his side. It was a good thing his superiors had merely pressured him into taking a vacation, rather than taking away his badge and gun. “I am a cop, so I can get away with it even if you’re just pulling out a hanky.”

  My eyes darted around at the people sitting at nearby tables, but the noise level in the food court was so high it would be hard to hear anything unless you were listening closely.

  “So paranoid,” Dougal said with a mocking smile. “I’m here under a flag of truce, remember?” But he laid his hands on the table, and gestured for his two companions to do the same.

  “Them, too,” Adam said, jerking his chin toward the four at the other table.

  Dougal rolled his eyes as if all these precautions were ridiculous. But he glanced over his shoulder and nodded at the demons at the other table, and they all kept their hands in plain sight. Dougal then turned back to the rest of us.

  “Now, which one of you is Lugh? We have much to talk about, so let’s not waste time posturing.”

  Lugh pushed past Raphael and me and stood towering over his brother. The rest of us kept up our careful scans of the people around us. We were each armed with a Taser, but this being a public place, we didn’t dare have them out. That didn’t mean we weren’t ready to draw them at a moment’s notice.

  Lugh didn’t say anything, just held out his hand. To the human beings around us, it looked like a handshake that went on for an abnormally long time, but I knew they were checking each other’s auras, confirming their identities, although Adam had been tasked with confirming Dougal’s presence before calling us to come up.

  “Sit down, all of you,” Dougal said when he let go of Lugh’s hand. “We can’t have a civilized conversation with you all looming over me like that.”

  Lugh raised an eyebrow, but took the seat directly opposite Dougal. The rest of us took that as a cue and sat as well, except for Adam, who was keeping an eye on Dougal’s minions.

  “There’s only so civilized this conversation can be, considering you’ve been trying to have me killed,”

  Lugh said. Even in Tommy Brewster’s body, even with the effort he made to hide it, I knew Lugh well enough to hear the edge of pain in his voice. He refused to admit it—I’m not the only one who’s good at denial—but his brother’s betrayal had wounded him.

  Apparently, Dougal knew him well enough to hear it, too. He lost his mask of polite disinterest and leaned forward, regret clear in his eyes. I was betting Dougal was as good an actor as Raphael, but there’s always a chance it might have been genuine.

  “It was never anything personal, Lugh,” Dougal said. “I want what I want, and you’re in my way. If there had been a way to take the throne without harming you, I would have done it.”

  Lugh snorted. “How very thoughtful of you. That makes it all better.”

  “If you’d be willing to abdicate the throne in my favor, we could end this without any further bloodshed.”

  Lugh actually laughed at that. “Come now, brother. Surely you don’t believe I’m that stupid. I’d have to return to the Demon Realm to formally abdicate, and I don’t for a moment believe that you wouldn’t have your friends summon me back to the Mortal Plain for a bonfire. Even assuming I’d be willing to entertain the idea in the first place, which I wouldn’t.”

  Dougal smiled and held his hands out to his sides in a “Well,
it was worth a shot” gesture. “I had to at least ask,” he said. The smile leaked away. “But I suppose there is no hope that both of us can survive this little squabble. It’s a pity. I would be happy to kill Raphael with my own two hands. But I’d prefer not to kill you if I could think of a way to avoid it.”

  It took some serious effort for me not to glance at Raphael and see how he took that news, but I managed it. Which was a good thing, no doubt, because Dougal’s lieutenants were obviously searching all our faces, trying to figure out if one of us was Raphael. I’m pretty sure Raphael’s poker face held, since no one seemed to be staring at him in particular.

  Lugh cocked his head to one side. “Is that so? I seem to remember William saying something about how you wished you could be here in person to watch me burn.”

  Dougal waved that off. “I was angry when I said that.” He gave Lugh a wry look. “You’ve made this all rather more difficult than I was planning.”

  “So sorry to be a bother.”

  “Yeah, I’ll bet you are.” Dougal swept the rest of us with a glance. “So where is our baby brother anyway?” he asked, and he made no attempt to hide the hatred in his eyes. Apparently, Lugh wasn’t supposed to take it personally when Dougal betrayed him, but it was okay for Dougal to take it personally when Raphael did it to him.

  Lugh made a face, and his voice dripped with contempt. “I have no idea where he is, and I don’t want to know.”

  Dougal’s eyebrows shot up. “Is that so? Had a falling out, have you?”

  Lugh was still scowling. “He tried his best to cover it up, but I found out what the two of you were doing in your labs.”

  “Ah,” Dougal said, and I had a feeling Lugh had just made a very convincing argument. “You do love riding on that moral high horse of yours, don’t you?”

  “If I couldn’t convince Raphael that what he did was wrong, I certainly don’t expect to convince you. But what the two of you were doing was unconscionable.”