by Jenna Black
Adam brushed a stray lock of hair off Dominic’s face, an undeniably tender gesture. I wondered whether he intended it for Adam, or for Dominic.
“He’ll be fine.” His eyes swept over Dom’s body, and he actually laughed.
Like a moron, I followed his gaze and saw that even out cold, bleeding from a gaping chest wound, Dominic had a very enthusiastic boner.
“I’d say Adam’s making sure they both enjoy the healing process to its fullest.”
Adam’s strong, even without his demon, so he had no trouble picking Dom up and carrying him upstairs to the bedroom. Andy, Brian, and I hung out in the living room with Dr. Neely’s body.
“What the hell happened?” I asked no one in particular.
“The phone call I got,” Andy said. “It was from Raphael. He was ordered to take a new host so that Der Jäger could ride Dr. Neely to this meeting.”
“Why did you tell Neely you’d told me everything?”
“That’s what Raphael told me to tell him. He said Der Jäger wouldn’t give a damn, and I could use that as an excuse to ‘realize’ it wasn’t Raphael—while still letting Raphael keep his cover.”
Frighteningly enough, that made sense to me. “And how did Dominic end up getting shot?”
“When you stomped on Neely, Adam took a shot and missed. I was trying to keep Dominic and Brian out of the line of fire, but I’m still not up to full strength. Dom got in the way.”
And then Adam fired a second shot, killing Neely. I remembered how close together those two gunshots had come, and I felt a little queasy. I guess I was glad Adam was a demon, because a human might have had at least a moment or two of shock after accidentally shooting his lover, and that might have been enough to let Der Jäger recover.
We had lapsed into silence by the time Adam came back downstairs.
“How is he?” I asked.
“Resting comfortably,” Adam assured me.
I looked at Dr. Neely’s body. “And what are we going to do about him?”
“I’ll take care of him.” He looked grim. “I know where Adam hides the bodies, as it were.”
I shook my head. “Do me a favor and just call him your demon. It’s too weird to hear you talking about ‘Adam.’”
“Have you never known two people with the same name before?” he asked with a very Adam-esque grin.
I decided to let the subject drop, seeing as it wasn’t even remotely important. Of course, considering that what was of top importance right now was disposing of a dead body, I kinda wished we could stick to the unimportant stuff.
The only remotely good news was that for the moment, Der Jäger wasn’t on the Mortal Plain anymore. But I sure wished I knew how long that would last.
Chapter 19
Not surprisingly, the police paid us a visit before long. There’d been a rumor of gunshots in the neighborhood, but when Adam explained it had been a car backfiring, the cops believed him. After all, he was a cop himself. Convenient at times.
Adam hauled the body down into the basement while Andy and I did our best to clean up the blood on the floor. Brian was still sitting in a chair, looking sick and shell-shocked. He hadn’t looked up or even blinked—as far as I could tell—when the police had come to the door. I wished I had some idea what to say to him. All that came to mind was something like “Welcome to my world,” but I figured that probably was insensitive.
I noticed with a chill that my hands weren’t shaking and I didn’t feel an urgent need to puke. I was cleaning up blood from the floor while Adam hid the body of a man he’d just killed, and I was taking it all in stride. How scary was that? I should have been as freaked out as Brian.
For a while, there was no sound except the sloshing of water and the rub of a scrub brush against the carpet. I didn’t think the carpet was salvageable. Yeah, we could get the worst of the blood out, but there would have to be a significant stain when we were done. And calling in a professional carpet cleaner wasn’t exactly an option. I kept scrubbing anyway.
“Why aren’t we calling the police?” Brian asked eventually.
I looked up from my scrubbing and saw that some color had returned to his face, and there was a spark of intelligence in his eyes again. At the moment, I wasn’t sure that was an improvement. Brian is very much a law-abiding citizen, and I worried we’d have a battle on our hands if we wanted to keep him from blabbing to the cops.
“Adam is the police,” I said, stalling while I tried to think of what to say.
Brian nodded. “And if I understand things correctly, he’s even now hiding the body of a man he just shot to death. What the hell is going on?”
I sighed. Beside me, Andy was studiously ignoring us, scrubbing away as if he couldn’t hear a word we said.
“There’s a reason I’ve been trying to keep you out of this,” I told him. “It’s…complicated. And we can’t afford to have the police involved.” I was having a hard enough time figuring out how to answer Brian’s questions. I couldn’t imagine how we could explain all this to the police. Not without drawing way too much attention to ourselves and making our lives even harder. Based on all the violence that had happened around me when Lugh had first taken over, I was probably already on some kind of secret police watch list.
“That’s not enough of an explanation,” Brian said sharply. “Stop putting me off and tell me what’s going on! I’ve done a pretty good job of keeping my mouth shut so far, but I’m not going to sit quietly by and watch a man get killed and do nothing!” Yeah, the color was coming back to his face, all right. He was turning an unattractive shade of red. “Not to mention that Dominic is now possessed by an illegal demon! Do you realize how many laws that demon just broke?”
I’d been so relieved that Dominic wasn’t going to die that I hadn’t even thought about that. Aside from the fact that Dom hadn’t signed all the appropriate consent forms, transferring via skin-to-skin contact was strictly forbidden, no matter what the reason. The general public found that comforting, though several advocacy groups for the sick and dying continually fought the law in court. I didn’t think that was a battle they’d win anytime soon. I was far from the only person who wasn’t as a general rule overly fond of demons.
“I’d rather he break laws than let Dominic die,” I said, my voice rising. I’d been doing pretty well at holding myself together up until then, but now something inside me snapped. “And he wouldn’t have been hurt in the first place if you two hadn’t come charging down the stairs like macho morons! What the hell were you thinking?”
Brian stood up, shoving the chair away from him. I wasn’t about to argue with him on my knees while holding a scrub brush, so I scrambled to my feet as well.
“We heard fucking gunshots!” Brian screamed at me, towering over me and leaning into my personal space. I flinched, because Brian almost never uses curse words. “What were we supposed to do?” he continued. “Cower upstairs like little girls?”
“Yes!” I answered, poking him in the chest for no good reason. “You should have stayed upstairs like we told you. You could have both gotten killed.”
“So could the three of you.”
“At least two of us had demons who could heal us, unlike—” I didn’t even realize what I was saying until Brian’s eyes widened with shock. I replayed my own words in my head, then felt the blood drain from my face.
Brian looked at Andy, who’d quit pretending to scrub the floor. “I thought…” Brian shook his head. “Your demon is gone! Or were you actually faking catatonia all that time?”
“No, my demon is gone,” Andy said, ignoring my pleading look.
I swallowed hard, my heart throbbing in my throat, as Brian stared at me in horror. I could see him struggling for words, failing to find them. And I knew that no matter how badly I wanted to protect him from the truth, there was no way I could hide anymore. Three cheers for my fucking subconscious!
“Yes, Brian,” I said. “I’m possessed. But it’s all very weird. My demon i
s kind of…hidden. He can’t seem to get control of me except when I’m sleeping. He’s one of the good guys, but there are a lot of people who want him dead.” I let out a long, slow breath. “I didn’t want to tell you. I didn’t want you caught in the middle of this. My life isn’t my own right now.”
I watched Brian trying to absorb what I’d just told him. And failing. I’d left a hell of a lot out, but based on the almost glassy look in his eyes, I figured that was just as well.
Silly me. When I’d thought about—and then rejected—the idea of telling him the truth before, my rationalization had always been that telling him would drag him into the middle of the demon civil war. It hadn’t occurred to me that he might hear what I had to say and decide he wanted nothing more to do with me. But that’s what the look on his face suggested at the moment.
“It’s a lot to take in, I know,” I said as gently as I knew how. “You could probably use a little time to figure out what you think and feel about it. You should be safe, at least for the time being. Maybe you should go home and sleep on it. We can talk again tomorrow, and I can answer any questions you have.” Of course, I’d be very picky about which questions I’d answer and how. “The only thing I’d ask of you tonight is that you don’t call the police. And don’t tell anyone about any of this.”
“The only thing you ask,” he said, laughing bitterly. “You’re asking me to be an accessory to murder.”
“I’m asking you to trust me. You know how I feel about demons. But this one,” I said, patting my chest, “I need to protect. Please.”
He thought it over for what felt like twelve hours, then nodded. He fixed me with the coldest, most implacable stare I’d ever seen. “I won’t call the police. And I won’t tell anyone you’re possessed. At least not yet. You’re right that I need a little time to think. So I’m going to go home, and I’m going to think. Then tomorrow, we’re going to talk. And Morgan, I’d better like your answers.”
I hated having him look at me like that. I hated the hurt that pounded in my chest, and the tears that stung my eyes.
We all jumped when Adam cleared his throat from the basement doorway. He was standing between Brian and the front door, and though he was trying to look casual, his hand was hovering near his gun.
“Um, do you really think that’s a good idea?” he asked, looking back and forth between me and Brian.
The hair on the back of my neck prickled with unease. I didn’t much like Adam the demon, but I didn’t know anything about Adam the human. Was he as much of a badass as his demon? He didn’t have the hard, scary look on his face that Adam often had…but then his hand was near his gun.
Trying to look casual, I edged forward to put myself in the line of fire. The slight raise of Adam’s eyebrows showed me I hadn’t been as subtle as I’d thought.
“If Brian says he’ll keep this to himself, he will,” I said. “He’s not one to break promises.”
Adam chewed that one over for a bit. “A—My demon wouldn’t let him leave. You know that.”
I nodded slowly, because there was no question what Adam the demon would have done. “But he’s busy right now, and you’re in charge. Brian’s an innocent bystander, and he’s given his word. I have more to lose than anyone. I could be burned alive if I’m wrong. I’m that confident he’s not going to break his word.”
Adam grimaced. “Well. My demon’s going to have some choice words for me about this, I’m sure.” His hand moved away from the gun, and he stepped out of the way so Brian could move past him.
Brian didn’t say a word to anyone. After one last look at the bloodstains on the carpet, he made a bee-line for the door. He slammed it when he left.
We finished cleaning up the carpet with as little conversation as possible. Adam had some enzymatic cleanser he poured onto the remaining stain, and he swore that after it sat and worked for a while, we could soak it up and the carpet would look as good as new. I didn’t want to know how he knew that.
“Well,” Adam said when we were as done as we could be for the time being. “I don’t know about the two of you, but I could use a stiff drink after all that.”
“Thanks,” Andy said, “but if it’s all the same to you, I’d like to go home for a while. I’ve had about all I can take.”
I noticed that his hands were shaking, and I had to fight off a ridiculous urge to throw my arms around him and assure him that everything would be all right. I glanced nervously at the ceiling, then back at Adam.
“Do you think Dom will be all right alone while you drive us back to the apartment?”
Andy interrupted before Adam could answer. “I’ll call a cab. And I’m going back to my apartment. Der Jäger’s out of the way, at least for now, and I want to take advantage of the reprieve.”
I frowned. “Yeah, but you were staying with me because of Raphael, not Der Jäger.”
Andy’s face took on a grim set. “I’m not going to spend the rest of my life in hiding. I’m a lot stronger now and I can take care of myself.”
“Andy—”
“Are you forgetting our conversation earlier today?”
The words hit me like a slap in the face. I guess I sort of had allowed myself to forget. If our positions had been reversed, I don’t think I’d have much wanted to go home with me, either.
“I understand why you did it,” Andy said, “but that doesn’t mean I forgive you.”
And then he, too, left in anger. Once again, my eyes started burning. I hate crying, and I do it as little as possible. But right now, I wanted nothing so much as to bury my head against someone’s shoulder and bawl my eyes out.
I jumped when Adam gave me a pat on the back. “Come on,” he said. “Have a seat and I’ll get you that drink.”
“I should get home,” I said hoarsely, but when he gave me a little push toward the couch, I went.
Adam disappeared into the kitchen. Moments later, I heard the distinctive whine of an espresso machine. Not the kind of drink I’d been expecting, but probably better in the long run. I like some of the fruity, froo-froo drinks where you can’t taste the alcohol, and I can choke down a rum and Coke in an emergency, but I’d expected him to give me some kind of manly-man drink like Scotch on the rocks. I felt miserable enough that I’d have forced it down, but I wouldn’t have liked it.
He returned shortly with two steaming mugs. The aromatic, slightly bitter scent of espresso blended with the sweet scent of hazelnut. He put the two mugs down, and I saw that mine was heavily creamed while his was black. I wrapped both hands around the mug and inhaled deeply.
“Hazelnut espresso, eh?” I said. “I didn’t know there was such a thing.”
He smiled as he picked up his own mug. “There isn’t. Your cup’s heavily spiked with Frangelico. I know you’re not really fond of hard liquor, but that stuff ought to be sweet enough to be drinkable.”
I blinked at him. “You know my taste in drinks?”
He took a sip of his coffee. “I know just about everything Adam…er, my demon knows about you. He almost never shuts me out.”
I sipped my own coffee. He was right—the liqueur was so sweet, and the espresso so strong, that I barely tasted the alcohol. “This is really good.”
“Thanks. But drink it slow. It’ll sneak up on you if you let it.”
For maybe five minutes, we sat together on the couch in companionable silence, sipping our coffees. I might not taste the alcohol much, but I definitely felt its mellowing effects. I wondered just how much Frangelico he’d put in my cup, then decided I didn’t want to know.
“Don’t you have some questions you’d like to ask me while my demon’s not around?” Adam asked.
Usually, I managed to squelch my curiosity about Adam and anything demon. But either I was desperately in need of the illusion of friendship, or the liqueur had mellowed me more than I realized, because just this once, I gave in to temptation.
“Yeah. I guess I do, if you don’t mind talking.”
He settle
d more comfortably into the couch. “Not at all. I’ve got about a twenty-four-hour sabbatical. I’d like to take advantage of it.”
“Do you want him back?” I blurted before I could think better of it.
Adam smiled. “Yeah, I want him back. We make a pretty good team.”
“So you actually like him?” I sounded incredulous, even to my own ears.
Adam stared into his cup, swirling the remains around absently. “I’ve known him a lot longer, and I know him a lot better, than you. I don’t always agree with his methods, and I know his people skills could use work at times, but he’s a really good guy. So yeah, I like him.”
“Even though he almost never shuts you out? Which, by the way, is not the same thing as never.”
He shrugged. “He can be a horse’s ass sometimes. But then, so can I. The only time he’s shut me out for any significant length of time was when you told Dominic that Saul wasn’t dead.”
I winced. That had not been one of my most diplomatic moments. As far as most humans knew, demons died when they were exorcized. So when I performed the exorcism on Dominic—whose demon, Saul, had gotten a really bum rap—Dominic had mourned him as dead. Because it was against demon law to tell him the truth, neither Adam nor Saul had told him that exorcism would merely send Saul back to the Demon Realm, not kill him. I’d blurted it out at an inopportune moment, and had caused terrible strife in their relationship.
Adam had made Dom take the whip to him that night in penance, and it hadn’t been for anything like pleasure. Worse, Adam had refused to heal the wounds.
“I told him he was being a dickhead,” Adam continued, “and that he should just heal.” I must have looked horrified, because he hastened to reassure me. “I didn’t feel a thing. He was punishing himself, not me. Anyway, he wanted to wallow and he didn’t want to hear my opinion, so he shut me out until you brought him to his senses.”
There wasn’t much left in my cup, and what was there was lukewarm at best, but I took a sip anyway.
