The Devil's Playground

twenty-two

THE PRESS CONFERENCE STARTED AT A LITTLE AFTER three that afternoon. I doubt that Adam gave the reporters much of a preview, but they obviously knew he was going to say something very important, because they interrupted the local programming to televise it. For all I knew, they interrupted national programming as well. After all, it was quite a bombshell he was about to drop.

Andy and I watched in my living room. The tension was getting to both of us, and we hadn’t spoken a word to each other in about three hours. Probably just as well. Tension makes some people act like asses, and I’m one of them. If we both kept our mouths shut, I would have much less chance of sticking my foot in mine.

Adam looks great on TV. I’d seen him give a press conference before, but this time I was struck again by his masculine good looks and by his aura of quiet confidence. He was dressed in a dark suit with a conservative striped tie, his bad-boy qualities completely buried beneath a layer of respectability. It was a side of Adam I rarely saw, and it made it easier to see how he’d risen to such an exalted rank within the Philly PD.

Cameras flashed as he stepped up to a podium that sprouted microphones like runaway weeds. The voices that had been murmuring in the background before he stepped up faded to nothing, as if the crowd were holding its breath to see what he would say. He laid a sheet of paper—his prepared statement—on the podium, then took a quick look around the room. I guess he was waiting to see if anyone was going to try to stop him at the last moment, but no one did.

“Good afternoon,” he said, sweeping the assembled press before him with one last searching glance before he lowered his eyes to the paper on his podium.

“As many of you know, I am a demon. I am Philadelphia’s Director of Special Forces, and am an official citizen of the United States. However, as a demon, I remain a citizen of the Demon Realm as well.

“Just as the United States is governed by individuals with differing opinions, so is the Demon Realm. And just as the laws and attitudes of the United States change when there is a change in government, so do they change in the Demon Realm.

“The Demon Realm has recently had a change in leadership.”

The crowd wasn’t quite so silent anymore, a low, urgent murmur starting up. I realized I’d clasped my hands together in my lap tight enough that my fingers were turning white, and I forced myself to relax.

“Because of this change in leadership,” Adam continued, as if unaffected by the rumblings of the crowd, “I have been tasked with explaining to you a misapprehension that the United States—and other countries—has about demons. A misapprehension that our former leadership fostered and encouraged in an attempt to protect the demons who walk the Mortal Plain.”

The rumbling in the crowd was louder now. If they hadn’t guessed before that a bombshell was about to be dropped, they did now.

Adam looked up from his prepared speech, facing the crowd head-on as the flashes of photos being taken intensified. He swept the crowd with his gaze, then focused on the camera, like he was looking straight through it into the living rooms of all of us who were watching on TV.

“For the protection of our own people, we have allowed you to believe that exorcism kills us.”

At this point, Adam had to raise his voice to be heard over the crowd. I saw the tightness in the corners of his eyes and mouth. This press conference couldn’t be easy for him, and I wondered how much danger he was putting himself in by doing it. Dougal’s supporters might already be gunning for him, but as the conveyor of this devastating news, he was probably going to attract the attention of every fanatic—both pro-demon and anti-demon—out there.

“The truth is,” he continued, still looking straight at the camera, “that when we are exorcized, we are returned to the Demon Realm. Unharmed.”

The place erupted, everyone shouting questions at once. Adam held up his hands for silence, but it was a long time before he got anything that even vaguely resembled it. The background noise was still pretty loud when he began to speak again.

“I realize that this information comes as a shock. I also understand that many of you will be troubled by the idea that demons are not punished for their crimes in the way that you have always thought. But rest assured that there is a system of justice within the Demon Realm, and just because we are not killed by your exorcisms does not mean we are not punished.”

I had a feeling Raphael had advised Adam to add that last part. There certainly was no punishment now for demons who’d committed crimes on the Mortal Plain, but I supposed if Lugh ever got back on the throne, that would change.

The crowd noise rose in volume again, with more questions being shouted. Adam simply raised his voice to be heard over them.

“I ask you also to keep in mind that the vast majority of demons who are currently exorcized are exorcized for crimes that would fall far, far short of the death penalty if the perpetrators were human.”

The questions now were coming so fast and loud that Adam would have had to shout to be heard over them. He said something else into the microphone, but I couldn’t make out the words over the crowd noise. Then, with a handful of police discreetly guarding his exit route, he left the podium and slipped through a door off to the side.