The Devil You Know

CHAPTER 5

By the time I got Andy properly installed in my spare bedroom, I wasn’t only late for the exorcism, I’d missed it entirely. I’d called the courthouse to let them know that a family emergency had come up. The judge kindly refrained from slapping me with a contempt of court charge, but she assured me I’d used up my one and only get-out-of-jail-free card. I was very polite and professional—don’t laugh! — and rescheduled for mid-afternoon.

My parents weren’t so easy to defuse. They were furious with me for taking Andy away from them—I think they were hoping that they could brainwash him into hosting again if they got to spend lots of “quality time” with him. My mom demanded I allow her to speak with him, but he communicated to me with a shake of the head that he didn’t want to. I told her he was sleeping.

After the phone call from hell, I made lunch for Andy and me. I’m not much of a cook, so this elegant lunch consisted of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches washed down with skim milk, but Andy didn’t complain, and I figured PB&J counted as comfort food. Something we both needed.

Afterward, I helped Andy drag himself to the living room couch. I should have set out for the courthouse, but instead I sat beside him on the couch. He looked at me warily, and I cleared my throat.

“I was wondering,” I started, then almost talked myself out of the question. But the fact was that Lugh’s comments last night continued to ricochet across my brain and I wouldn’t rest easy unless I asked. Of course, I wasn’t likely to rest easy even if I did.

Andy raised his eyebrows, but otherwise waited patiently for me to continue.

“You remember when I was thirteen, and I spent a week at The Healing Circle?” I asked. Andy was three years older than me, so I figured there was a chance he might know something I didn’t.

“Yeah,” he said cautiously. His caution immediately triggered my suspicious nature.

“Did anything…weird happen while I was there?”

He frowned at me. “You mean other than you almost dying?”

Don’t ask me why, but something about the look in his eyes or the expression on his face made me think he knew exactly what I was talking about. My first impulse was to go into overdrive and demand he tell me whatever it was he knew. But though I’d always thought of Andy as a strong, tough guy, the man sitting in my apartment was not the big brother I’d once known. There was something distinctly fragile about him, and it wasn’t just his gaunt frame. I did my best to rein myself in and be gentle.

“I mean I don’t remember a thing about my stay,” I said, and I think I managed not to sound impatient. “Lugh says there’s something hinky about that. He says that he can’t access those memories, and that it has nothing to do with me having been drugged to the gills.”

Andy shrugged and shifted uncomfortably on the sofa. “Every time I saw you, you were too out of it to even recognize me,” he said, his gaze fixed on the floor. “I don’t think it’s surprising that you don’t remember.”

I narrowed my eyes at him, but since he was so fascinated with my exciting beige carpet, he didn’t notice. “Lugh thinks it’s surprising.”

Another shrug, and still he didn’t look at me. “Maybe it is. Or maybe he’s got some hidden agenda.” He finally raised his eyes to mine. “Once upon a time, I trusted the demons. Now I know better.”

The haunted look in his eyes made me long for the opportunity to beat the crap out of Raphael.

“What did he do to you, Andy?” I found myself asking, though I wasn’t sure I wanted to know. “He seemed pretty convinced he was one of the good guys.”

Andy laughed bitterly. “Yeah, right.” He shook his head. “He knows exactly what he is, and he doesn’t give a damn. Never make the mistake of trusting him, even when he seems to be on the same side.”

“Do you have to talk in riddles? Can’t you just tell me what the hell happened?”

Andy shook his head again, and his chin took on a stubborn set with which I was intimately familiar. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

It took a lot of tongue-biting, but I managed to let the subject drop, reminding myself that he’d been through ten years of hell and maybe he needed me to give him a break for the time being. Besides, I’d told Lugh I didn’t want to know if anything fishy took place while I was at the hospital.

Too bad just knowing that my memory was fucked up in a way even a demon couldn’t understand made me too uneasy to let the questions go.

I managed to be late to the rescheduled exorcism, which didn’t exactly endear me to the judge. I held my breath, fearing I was about to be fined to within an inch of my life, but she let it slide. It was my lucky day.

The exorcism went smoothly, my power easily forcing the demon out of its unwilling human host. And to top it off, the host was one of the lucky twenty percent whose mind remained intact after the exorcism. Traumatized as all hell, probably needing some serious therapy, but alive and sane. I wished I didn’t know the truth about demons, wished I didn’t know that exorcism didn’t actually kill them, just sent them back to the Demon Realm. It meant the son of a bitch who’d possessed this poor guy could come back to the Mortal Plain for fresh meat anytime he felt like it.

One of the many unpalatable truths I’d learned from Lugh was that, while possessing a human host against his or her will was most definitely illegal in our world, it wasn’t in the Demon Realm. That was the status quo Lugh had vowed to change when he’d ascended to the throne, and it was the reason Dougal and his supporters had staged their palace coup. I might not feel like much of a hero, but I truly believed that in helping Lugh, I served a worthy cause. Of course, I was also in it for self-preservation, seeing as Lugh’s enemies wanted him dead.

I made a couple of stops on my way home, to pick up Andy’s things from the hospital, and to stop by his apartment to pack up some clothes and other essentials. I rushed through everything, feeling edgy even as I told myself Raphael couldn’t have found Andy this fast, even if he was on the Mortal Plain.

When I let myself into my apartment, I was not what you’d call pleased to discover that, while I was right and Raphael hadn’t killed my brother while I was gone, Andy did have a visitor.

I let the door slam closed behind me, tossing my keys onto a side table and counting backward slowly from a hundred. I took another look at Adam and decided to start at a thousand instead.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, ever the gracious hostess. Habit and longing made me glance quickly at the answering machine, my baser nature hoping Brian had called no matter how much I told myself I didn’t want him to. But there were no messages.

Adam had made himself at home, settling into the couch, helping himself to one of my bottles of expensive birch beer, and propping his feet on my coffee table. Andy, tension radiating from his every pore, sat on the love seat with his arms crossed over his chest and his gaze fixed on the carpet.

At least Adam hadn’t shot him again, I thought sourly as I once again fantasized about Tasering the hell out of Adam. He liked pain, but he felt it was far better to give than receive, and I was sure he wouldn’t enjoy the Taser. Certainly he hadn’t seemed to the last time I’d used it on him.

Adam swung his feet off the coffee table and sat up straight, but he drained the remains of the birch beer before answering. He sighed in satisfaction as he put the empty bottle down. “Almost as good as a real beer.”

I started counting backward again, this time from a million. I figured I could go all the way down to zero without feeling much less irritated.

“Unless you’d like me to practice some innovative uses for empty bottles,” I growled, “you’d better tell me what the fuck you’re doing in my apartment.” I gave Andy a dirty look, wondering why he’d let Adam in.

Andy held his hands up in surrender. “I didn’t open the door,” he said. “Your friend got a key from the super.”

Adam’s eyes gleamed, and he ignored the interplay between me and my brother. “Just what kind of innovative uses do you have in mind?”

Naturally, I blushed like a little girl. “Cracking it on your head seems like a good idea.”

He exaggerated a frown. “And here I thought you were creative.”

“Adam…”

“Come sit down,” he said, patting the couch beside him.

I figured I had two options. I could Taser him and drag him out into the hall, or I could sit and listen to whatever he had to say. I’d prefer the Taser option, but since he’d gotten into the apartment once without my help, I supposed he’d be able to do it again, so all I’d accomplish was to piss him off.

I took a seat next to Andy, who still showed no inclination to acknowledge Adam’s presence. I put my hand on his shoulder.

“You all right, bro?” I asked softly.

He nodded, but didn’t answer. I couldn’t blame him for being reticent around the man who’d shot him. Of course, I also knew the level of brutality Adam was capable of. If he suspected Andy knew things he wasn’t telling…

I gave Adam my best marrow-freezing glare. “If you ever hurt my brother again…”

He gave me another one of those faux-innocent looks in return. “I can’t imagine what you’re talking about.”

I gritted my teeth. “Like hell you can’t! Now tell me what you’re doing in my apartment before I get impatient with you.”

He snickered. “I don’t have a time machine.”

“You’re in my place—I’m the only one who gets to be a smart-ass here.”

His expression told me he was sorely tempted to continue the comedy routine, but he managed to control himself. “I have news for you.”

The way my life was going, I subscribed to the “no news is good news” theory, but I was running out of excuses to bury my head in the sand. Tension thrumming through my body, I sat up straighter and waited for him to continue.

“This may have nothing to do with us, or with Lugh,” Adam said, “but we’ve had a rather…strange case come up.”

“By ‘we,’ do you mean Special Forces?” I asked.

He nodded. “This isn’t anything we’re sharing with the general public, so I hope you’ll be circumspect and keep it to yourself.” He waited for me to nod my agreement before he continued. “A brand-new demon host was found in an alley late last night. The ceremony to invite his demon in was only two days ago, but he was found catatonic, very obviously no longer possessed.”

I shivered in a nonexistent chill. “What happened to him?”

“Good question. I interviewed his family to see if there was anything unusual about his situation. I found out the Grand Poobah of their chapter of the Spirit Society had instructed the host to invite a specific demon, using his True Name.”

By “Grand Poobah,” I assumed Adam meant the Regional Director, a man by the name of Bradley Cooper. A close personal friend of my mom and dad, and one of the slimiest bastards I’d ever met who wasn’t a politician or a lawyer. But for all that I couldn’t stand the guy, I’d never heard of him taking that kind of a personal interest in one particular member of the Society. Nor had I ever heard of him wanting to summon a particular demon by name.

“You think it’s Raphael,” Andy said in a voice barely louder than a whisper. “You think he’s come back and abandoned his host so no one will know who he’s in.”

Adam shrugged. “The thought has occurred to me.”

“Lugh didn’t think Raphael would trust his buddies enough to tell them his True Name,” I said.

Adam frowned at me. “Lugh must know it, and if he knows it, then I can’t imagine Dougal doesn’t.”

I cocked my head curiously. “Why must Lugh know it?” I asked, racking my brain to remember whether Lugh had out and out denied knowing, or if he’d just led me to believe he didn’t.

“Because he’s the king,” Adam replied, as if that were all the answer I needed.

“And the king is omniscient?”

But Adam seemed to realize he was on the verge of volunteering information and gave me a tight-lipped glare. “The number of demons who have True Names is relatively small. Only the truly extraordinary—like the royal family—earn them.”

“Have you?” I asked before I had time to think better of it.

He smiled. “If I had, I doubt I’d tell you. We may be working together, but you don’t exactly have my best interests at heart.”

“Like you have mine, you mean?” I retorted instantly.

He gave me one of his coldest looks. “As you know perfectly well, I don’t give a shit about you. But I do have Lugh’s best interests at heart, and you’re his host.”

I really hated the hurt that stabbed through my chest at his words. It wasn’t like he was telling me anything I didn’t already know. And it wasn’t like we’d ever been anything even resembling friends. I didn’t really care if he liked me or not, but the calculated indifference stung, and it took everything I had to keep from lashing out.

“Unfortunately,” Adam continued as if he hadn’t just taken that nasty jab at me, “with the original host catatonic, we have no idea who’s hosting Raphael now—if it really is him—and we don’t know what exactly he’s up to. He no longer has any reason to keep us in the dark about his plans, so you’d think he’d have contacted us as soon as he crossed to the Mortal Plain—unless he was up to something he knew Lugh wouldn’t approve of.”

Yeah, that sounded like Raphael, all right. “Better to ask forgiveness than permission?”

“Something like that.”

I frowned. “But Raphael agrees with Lugh’s stance on possessing unwilling hosts, right? So why would he come into the world in one body and then transfer to someone else?”

To my surprise, it was Andy who answered. “Because he’s a demon,” he said bitterly. “He might agree with that idea in theory, but if he thinks it’s to his advantage to misplace his morals, he’s more than happy to do so.”

Adam raised an eyebrow at him. “I gather yours was not a blissful union?”

Andy just scowled at him.

“I’m sure you know perfectly well we’re not all the same, just like all humans aren’t,” Adam said. “Don’t assume we’re all like Raphael.”

“But you are,” Andy countered. “You all believe the end justifies the means. You’d cut out the heart of your dearest friend if you saw the angle in it.”

Adam had as much as admitted that to me once before, but now he shook his head. “It isn’t like that.” He saw my incredulous look. “It isn’t!” he insisted. “Yeah, we’re more pragmatic than humans, and Andrew’s right, we do believe the end justifies the means. But that doesn’t mean we have to plow through every obstacle in our way. There’s always more than one way to reach an end. Raphael has always had a tendency to choose the easiest way and damn the consequences. Some of us try a lot harder than that.”

Andy leaned forward in his seat and glared at Adam. “Oh yeah? What would your host say about you if he was ever allowed to speak?”

Adam glared right back. I was glad to see I wasn’t the only one who was able to inspire that furious look on his face. “My host and I have our differences now and again just as any two human beings would. But he’s never regretted hosting me.”

“So you say, but we only have your word for it.”

Adam’s face was turning red with rage. Apparently, Andy was really hitting a sore spot. There was a time when I thought Adam didn’t have much of a temper, but I knew now how terribly wrong I’d been to think that. I didn’t want to stand up for him, but I was afraid if I didn’t, things might get ugly.

“You can’t know how Adam and his demon really get along,” I said, “but you can know about Dominic and Saul.” It occurred to me suddenly that although I knew the names of Dominic’s and Andy’s demons, I had never once asked Adam what his demon’s name was. After all that had happened, I felt like I knew him pretty well—and yet, I didn’t even know his name. I shook the thought off.

“From everything I can tell, Saul seems to have treated Dominic decently,” I finished.

Andy frowned at me. “Since when do you defend demons?”

I feigned a casual shrug. “I’m not going to make a habit of it. I’m just saying that Adam’s probably right and they aren’t all like Raphael.” What I didn’t say was that there was a big part of me that was really hoping Lugh wasn’t like his brother. You see, despite the fact that he’d possessed me against my will, I couldn’t help liking Lugh. I hoped like hell my warm fuzzy feelings toward him were genuine and originated from inside of me, rather than being constructs of his manipulations. But there was no way to tell, and I would be forever aware of that.

Andy’s face told me I hadn’t convinced him of anything—not surprising, since I hadn’t actually convinced myself, either.

When in doubt, change the subject. “So, if Raphael is back and he’s in an unknown body, what do you think he’s up to?”

I directed the question at Adam, but it was Andy who answered. “I thought we’d already established that. He’s coming to kill me. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that he shows up in the Mortal Plain the day after I come back to myself.”

Adam shook his head. “Not true. He came back into the Mortal Plain a couple of nights ago. It was last night that he changed bodies. If he was really coming after you, I suspect he would have done it as soon as he got here. It wouldn’t have mattered to him if you were catatonic or not. He knew you could recover at any time.”

“So you don’t think he’s here to kill Andy?” I asked.

“I wouldn’t go that far. I’m just saying there might be other possibilities. I’m going to try to interview the family members again, and I’m definitely going to have a word with Bradley Cooper. I doubt he’ll tell me anything, but it’s worth a shot.”

I frowned. “Why wouldn’t he tell you anything? You’re a demon—doesn’t he worship the ground you walk on?” Cooper was one of those people—like my parents—who acted shocked when anyone used the word “demon.” To them, “demon” was an ethnic slur. Adam and I were possessed not by demons but by “Higher Powers.” It made me want to gag. It also made me want to ask if we should start calling the Demon Realm the Higher Power Realm, but fanatics like Cooper never found my jokes funny.

Adam stood up, and I was relieved to realize that meant he was leaving. “Mr. Cooper respects me as a demon, but my profession makes my loyalty to the cause questionable in his eyes. However, I’ll see what I can do. Maybe I’ll get lucky and he’ll tell me who he ordered Henry Jenner to summon. And why.”

That line of questioning spawned a slew of other questions in my mind, but I stifled them. I doubted Adam would answer, even if he knew. Besides, if he was really about to leave, I didn’t want to give him any excuse to stay.

“Meanwhile,” Adam continued, “if you’re unwilling to talk to your mother about who your real father might have been, maybe you’ll find that Andrew can give you some more information.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Andy’s jaw drop. I think my own heart stopped beating in shock. Adam grinned to show how much he’d enjoyed dropping that bombshell—and Andy’s and my reaction to it—then let himself out.