The Devil You Know

CHAPTER 3

The doctor on call wanted Andy to stay at the hospital at least one more night for observation. My parents were disappointed, but far be it from them to argue with the doctor. Not when he was another Spirit Society member whom they obviously respected.

I left them to get reacquainted with their real son. I would call Andy when he was out of the hospital and my parents were nowhere to be found. Then he and I could talk some more.

It was nearing dinnertime when I stepped out of the elevator into the hospital’s lobby. My stomach was growling at me for skipping lunch, but when I considered my various options for dinner, none of them seemed terribly appealing.

All thoughts of food fled my mind when I saw Adam standing at the information desk.

Being gorgeous was something of a job requirement for a demon host, and Adam was no exception. He was a little shorter than Dominic, though his swagger always made him look like the biggest guy in the room. If Dominic was tall, dark, and handsome, Adam was tall, dark, and dangerous. No matter how much I didn’t like him, I couldn’t say I minded the view. Now if I could only put up a wall of bars between us and duct-tape his mouth shut, I might almost be happy to see him.

As it was, the sight of him made a hard day even worse. I scowled at him as he grinned and met me halfway to the exit. I had managed to avoid him ever since the night he shot my brother, but apparently my lucky streak was at its end.

“What are you doing here?” I growled, my hand itching for the Taser I didn’t dare draw. “You sure as hell better not be following me!”

He gave me a look of mock innocence. “Who, moi?”

At my savage expression, Adam dropped the phony innocence and shook his head. “Actually, the fact that you’re here, too, is merely a happy coincidence.”

I snorted and headed for the door, not at all surprised when he fell into step beside me.

“I heard the news about your brother,” he said. “I’m glad he’s doing better.”

“No thanks to you,” I muttered, then wished I’d kept the thought to myself. This wasn’t a conversation I was anxious to have with Adam. I glanced at my watch. “It’s been less than an hour. You must have a damn good informant.”

It figured Adam would have someone keeping an eye on Andy. If my brother had blown our cover story, Adam would have been in the worst trouble of us all.

He shrugged benignly. “It was in all our best interests to know if and when he snapped out of it, and I couldn’t count on you conveniently being by his side when he did.” He held the door for me like a gentleman, and protesting would have been more trouble than it was worth. I stepped out onto the sidewalk just as a bus was pulling away from the stop in a cloud of exhaust fumes, reminding me why I’d always preferred living in the suburbs.

Before I had a chance to start walking toward my apartment, Adam took hold of my arm and steered me in the opposite direction. Naturally, I tried to jerk my arm out of his grip, but he didn’t let go.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

“It’s time for you and me to have a talk,” he said, still gripping my arm.

Now I did reach for my Taser, though it was an awkward reach with Adam holding my right arm. He noticed what I was trying to do and rolled his eyes.

“Don’t assault a police officer, love. You could get in trouble for it.”

True, but I was still mighty tempted. “Let go of my arm.”

To my surprise, he did. “Better?” he asked, turning to face me.

It was still rush hour, and the tide of pedestrians wasn’t happy that the two of us had stopped. They walked around us, but I was aware of the dirty looks cast our way as we disrupted the flow of traffic.

I didn’t answer him, but I started walking in the same direction he’d been leading me. “So, where are we going?”

“How about to my car? I believe Dom said he was cooking chicken cacciatore tonight. I’m sure there’ll be enough for three.”

I hated my traitorous stomach for growling the way it did, but I knew from personal experience that Dominic was a fantastic cook, and I couldn’t help but be tempted. Until I thought about hanging around with Adam and Dom together. I have no problems with gay people—I have a lot of prejudices, but that isn’t one of them. What I do have trouble with is public displays of affection, and I swear Adam loves nothing more than making me squirm. Dom’s a little more modest, but not so modest that he ever refuses Adam’s advances. They’d probably be all over each other the moment the door closed.

“Thanks, but no thanks,” I said, hoping I wasn’t blushing at the mental images that came to mind, trying to pretend that it was their making out itself that made me uncomfortable around them, rather than my own involuntary reactions to it. Because, you see, no matter how uncomfortable they made me, they were both seriously sexy guys, and seeing them together never failed to arouse me, and to create fantasies in my mind that I’d rather not acknowledge. That was the last thing I needed right now, with my hormones already bitching at me for being celibate since I’d broken up with Brian.

For once, Adam resisted the urge to tease. “It’s important for us to talk. I promise Dominic and I will be on our best behavior.”

I flashed him a sardonic grin. “And with you that means what? You’ll keep your clothes on while you paw each other?”

He laughed. “We do have some self-control, love. I think we can avoid the temptation to make you blush for one evening, no matter how much fun it is.”

I gritted my teeth against a retort. Both Adam and Brian got quite a kick out of making me blush. With Brian, it was because he found it funny that a tough broad who wears a total of seven earrings and has a tattoo on her lower back blushes like a schoolgirl at sexual innuendo. Adam just does it because he knows it pisses me off.

“Why should I trust you?” I asked instead.

“Because whatever you might think of me, I’ve never done anything to betray your trust.”

He didn’t say “unlike you,” but we both knew that’s what he was thinking. Admittedly, I had called the police on him and accused him of murder. But then again, he had actually murdered someone—my former best friend, Val, who’d turned out to be part of the conspiracy to kill me. With a little time and emotional distance, I had to admit to myself that he hadn’t had much choice at the time. But I would never admit that to him.

I once again annoyed the harried pedestrians by bringing us both to a stop. I looked up into Adam’s eyes and tried to decide whether I was up to dealing with him and Dom tonight.

“If I say no, will you actually let me go, or am I going to find myself in handcuffs?” I finally asked.

He didn’t give me the evil grin I was expecting. “You’ll have to talk to us eventually,” he said. “You know that as well as I. But no, I won’t drag you along by force. Not tonight, anyway.”

Maybe I was being a pushover, but I believed him. And because I believed I had free will, I found myself able to agree.

“All right,” I said. “I’ll come with you on one condition.” He raised an eyebrow and waited. “Let me enjoy Dom’s cooking in peace. We can talk business after dinner. Deal?”

He smiled. “Deal.”

Adam has more money than I can explain for a government employee. His house is huge, by Center City standards, and doesn’t share walls with the houses around it. Which is a good thing, considering just what his neighbors might hear if they were too close.

The scent of garlic and peppers and Italian spices hit me as soon as I stepped through the doorway, and I took a deep, appreciative breath. My mouth started watering immediately, and I almost forgot the distasteful price of admittance.

Dominic was in the kitchen, naturally. I saw the kitchen table was set for three, and I gave Adam a dirty look.

“You were that sure I’d come, huh?”

He grinned. “Only an idiot would pass up the chance to eat Dom’s chicken cacciatore.”

At the stove, Dominic chuckled. He was modest by nature, but I knew how much he appreciated the praise.

“It’s almost ready,” Dominic said over his shoulder. “Want to pour the wine, Adam?”

“None for me, thanks,” I said, holding up my hands. I’ve never been able to figure out the appeal of fermented grapes.

Adam poured for himself and Dom, then pulled out a chair for me. I gave him another dirty look—I was good at those. He shrugged and took his own seat. When Dom brought the food to the table, I followed like a dog desperate for table scraps.

I should have known Adam wouldn’t honor our agreement to wait until after dinner to talk shop. Unpleasant conversations never seemed to sully his appetite, unlike mine.

“I presume Andrew isn’t contradicting our story, or you would be in a more agitated frame of mind,” he said.

I stuffed my mouth with chicken so I didn’t have to answer right away. And I took my time chewing, too. I probably should have kept right on eating. He couldn’t force me to talk when I wasn’t ready. But then, maybe I’d find talking to him easier with Dominic’s cacciatore to help it go down.

“He knows how important it is to keep the truth to himself,” I said when I finally swallowed.

“Good.” Adam shared a look with Dominic. One of those looks that suggested they knew something I didn’t.

“How much did you get to talk to him?”

I narrowed my eyes. “Why don’t you come right out and ask me what you want to know instead of beating around the bush?”

He shrugged. “Okay. I was wondering how much he knows about what Raphael learned during their years together.”

That thought didn’t exactly bring a smile to my face. It hadn’t even occurred to me to ask, but of course there were many questions we had for Raphael—questions he hadn’t been willing to answer. Odds were, he’d kept Andy from learning anything he didn’t want him to know—a demon could prevent its host from seeing or hearing when it wanted to. But then Raphael had expected to be in Andy until Andy died, so perhaps he’d been careless. Of course, Andy hadn’t volunteered any information.

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “Things were kind of awkward and emotional.” Especially once my parents made their appearance. “We didn’t really talk much about what happened.”

Adam and Dom shared another one of those looks, and I had to grit my teeth to resist the smart-ass comment I wanted to make. It was never a good idea to let Adam know when he was getting to me.

“It’s occurred to me that we aren’t the only ones who might suspect Andrew knows more than he should,” Adam said.

The delicious chicken turned into a lump of lead in my stomach. “You think he’s in danger?”

Adam shrugged. “Maybe. It’s hard to know. We have every reason to believe that we’ve wiped out the cell that Raphael had infiltrated. If that’s the case, then there’s no one who knows just what a VIP Andrew was hosting. And what that VIP might have wanted to keep secret.”

My stomach cramped again. “Except Raphael.”

Raphael had returned to the Demon Realm when he’d fled my brother’s body, but he’d intended to find another host and return to infiltrate another cell of Dougal’s revolutionary army. While Raphael was on Lugh’s side, and therefore technically one of the good guys, I didn’t exactly trust him. He wasn’t what you’d call a nice guy, and I somehow doubted he and I shared the same moral code. He’d also made it clear that he knew more than he’d been willing to have me hear, and when Lugh refused to block me out, Raphael had clammed up.

Adam nodded. “Exactly. You might want to ask Lugh tonight what he thinks the chances are that Raphael will come after Andrew.”

I didn’t need to wait until night, because at that moment pain stabbed through my head, a nasty ice-pick-in-the-eye sensation that—so far—was the only way Lugh could communicate with me while I was conscious. Before I even had a chance to wince, the pain was gone.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” I mumbled, and Adam gave me an inquiring look. “Lugh can give me a headache when I’m awake,” I explained. “He just did it, so I’m guessing that means he thinks Andy could be in danger.” I frowned, realizing once again how little I, as a supposed demon expert, really knew about demons. They were incredibly secretive by nature, which is one of the reasons I’ve always distrusted them.

I knew demons were summoned to the Mortal Plain via a ceremony where the potential host spoke a kind of incantation. I also knew that if you learned a demon’s True Name, you could summon it specifically. But I had no idea how the demons determined who would answer a generic summons, assuming it was more than just random luck of the draw.

“How would Raphael go about finding a new host?” I asked, and as I did, I also realized how thoroughly I’d tried to shut out the realities of my new life in the last several weeks. There were so many questions I should have asked before now, but in my desperate quest for denial, I’d suppressed them all. “And do you think he’s already back in the Mortal Plain?”

Adam shifted uncomfortably and stared at the tabletop. “I can’t answer that,” he said. “Not without Lugh’s permission.”

I grunted in frustration. “If you want me to cooperate with you, you’re going to have to give up some of your precious secrets.”

He met my eyes. “I can’t. Not without Lugh’s permission. He’s my king.”

Lugh wasn’t giving me any headaches at the moment, but I decided that was because he knew Adam wouldn’t believe me if I said he was. But you can bet your ass I’d have a bunch of questions to ask him tonight—assuming I ever managed to fall asleep.

“Can you at least answer my second question about whether you think Raphael could be back yet?”

Adam nodded. “It’s possible.”

“Then how do we keep Andrew safe?”

“For tonight,” Adam said, “I’ve put a guard on his room at the hospital. That’s why I was there. Running into you was only a happy coincidence.” He gave me a cheesy smile, and I snorted.

“Yeah, as evidenced by the fact that Dom made dinner for three.”

The cheesy smile remained in place. “Perhaps a not-unexpected happy coincidence.”

“So for tonight, he has a guard. What about tomorrow?”

“That’s the big question,” Adam said. “He can’t just go back to his apartment, and I doubt he’d be any safer staying with your parents.”

I sighed, realizing where this was going. “You want him to stay with me.”

Adam shrugged. “You do have a guest room in your new digs, right?”

“It’s not like I’d be much use as a bodyguard. Not against a demon, at least.”

“You would be if you let Lugh take charge.”

I shuddered, and every hint of appetite fled. I shoved my plate away from me, then pushed back from the table, fighting an urge to run like hell.

I had let Lugh take control of my body when I was about to be burned at the stake, but though he’d been kind enough to give me back control when everything was over, I still remembered with a shiver of panic the terrifying minutes when I was a helpless passenger in my own body. Being possessed, being helpless, had always been my worst nightmare—there was a reason I’d chosen exorcism as a profession—and though Lugh had saved my life by taking possession, it was not an experience I hoped to duplicate. Ever.

The panic continued to beat at me, and I rose to my feet. I think I would have run away if Adam hadn’t grabbed hold of my arm.

“Sit down, Morgan,” he said. His voice was conspicuously gentle. His ability to be gentle when he usually had such a hard edge to him always surprised me. The surprise lessened my panic, and I lowered myself back into the chair. “It was just a suggestion,” he continued. “But even if you’re not willing to let Lugh take control, Raphael might hesitate to attack your brother if he’s staying with you.”

I supposed that was true. Raphael might not realize that I wouldn’t voluntarily allow Lugh to surface. Besides, while there was admittedly bad blood between the brothers, Raphael appeared to have at least a modicum of respect for his king, and he might consider Andy staying with me as a sign that he was under Lugh’s protection.

“I’ll see if I can arrange it,” I said, wondering if Andy would even be willing to stay with me. We had established beyond a shadow of a doubt that I still loved him, but that didn’t mean things were ever going to be easy between us.

The enticing scents of dinner coaxed my appetite out of hiding, and I began to eat again. Dominic smiled knowingly at me, and I gave him a light kick under the table.

“Yeah, you’re the world’s greatest chef,” I said with my mouth full. “Don’t get a big head over it.” Adam chuckled, and I heard the double entendre in my words. I probably blushed, but luckily for everyone Adam let it go.

It wasn’t until after I’d eaten the last crumb of Dominic’s homemade tiramisu that Adam brought up the subject I’d been dreading since the moment I’d laid eyes on him. He got out the words “So are you going to talk to” before I cut him off.

“No!” I snapped. “I told Dominic no, and I’m saying the same thing to you. My mom and I are barely on speaking terms, and I’m not going to question her about whatever it was you dug up.”

His face darkened. “You know how important this is.”

“I don’t care,” I said stubbornly. “Even if I asked her, she wouldn’t tell me anything, I can guarantee that. And that’s my final answer.”

Adam’s cheeks flushed with anger, but Dominic laid a soothing hand on his arm. “Let it go,” he advised. “We’ll just have to find our answers some other way.”

I looked at him suspiciously. He was a hell of a lot nicer and had better people skills than Adam, but I knew from experience that he could also be a sneaky little bastard. His easy agreement suggested to me that he had something up his sleeve, but if he did, it wasn’t showing in his face.

Adam’s face clearly said he didn’t like it, but he let the subject drop. Dominic flashed me an innocent smile, and my gut knotted with worry.

It could be that he was really on my side, that there was no hidden meaning behind his words, no hidden agenda. But I knew unease would be clawing through me for the foreseeable future as I wondered if the two of them were up to something I didn’t want to know about.

All told, I suspected I should have resisted the unbearable temptation of that free, home-cooked meal.