A muscle in his jaw twitched as he clasped his hands together on the table. “And when you arrived at the Den and found him actively torturing someone, why didn’t you neutralize the threat?”
“Again, what was to keep the demon from jumping? Or worse, slaughtering everyone because I opened fire from the door?”
“The same way you kept it from jumping downstairs, I assume.”
She couldn’t tell him about the spell or her father. “We had the cell downstairs. We needed the demon contained to do what we did.”
“I will ask you again: when you saw the demon in control of Thomas Kendrick torturing others, why did you not follow protocol and destroy the host in an attempt to be rid of it?”
She was pretty sure she’d already answered that question. “You ever face a first-level demon, Ben? No, of course you haven’t. None of us had before this. I did the best I could with the knowledge I possessed. You know, like watching the cursed thing walk off in a corpse. What was to stop it from doing it again?”
“The fact that your sword is specifically enchanted against demons, perhaps?”
She leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms over her chest. They weren’t going to come to an agreement on this so there was no point arguing with him.
“I’ll tell you what I think. I think you allowed your feelings for Kendrick to cloud your judgment. You allowed it to interfere with your job.”
“Bullshit.” She closed her eyes and took a deep breath to rein in her temper before speaking again. “The demon wasn’t rampaging or irrational. When it saw I was there, it stopped what it was doing and turned its attention to me.”
“Then why do we have a dead vampire?”
She sucked in a shaky breath. She’d forgotten about Tony. Well, not forgotten about him so much as pushed the sorrow to the back of her brain to deal with later. It had been easy when she had to focus on saving Thomas, but now there was nothing else she needed to do. Nothing else to take her attention. And what upset her more than anything else was Ben was right.
She’d made a decision and it had cost her friend his life. If she killed Thomas, Tony might still be here. She’d had to choose between the two of them and she’d made the selfish choice. And she couldn’t say she wouldn’t do it again.
“That happened too fast to stop, and I was already in the process of getting the demon to the cell.” She’d lost some of her bravado with the memory of her friend’s final moments and her voice was quiet.
“And what if the demon had turned on the humans? Would you have killed it then?” He was baiting her. Trying to get her to react.
“It didn’t.”
He slammed his hands palm down on the table. “But what if he had? What if it had tied a human to a chair and cut off pieces? Would you have stood there and watched? Would you have stopped it then or would you still have looked for a way to save your lover?”
She resisted the urge to tell him Thomas was her mate, not her lover. That would shut him up for a couple of minutes anyway. She put her own hands on the table, stood and leaned toward him. “The demon didn’t go after the humans, and I am not going to speculate about what I may or may not have done. You know that it’s impossible to say what might have happened. We’re done.”
“No. We’re not.” He stood so they were looking each other in the eye. “That’s the point. Your feelings for Kendrick are interfering with your ability to do your job. You’re one of the best agents I have, but I won’t have you putting yourself and others at risk for one man no matter who he is. Do you understand me?”
She straightened. “Yeah. I understand. I understand the Council and I kept you from killing Thomas. Not one thing would be different if he died except your orders would have been followed. But they weren’t and you’re pissed and taking it out on me.”
His face burned red. “That’s it,” he said and held out a hand. “Give me your badge. You’re suspended. Three weeks, no pay.”
She stared at him in disbelief for half a second. “Fine.” She slipped the badge off her neck and slammed it down on the table. “Take the cursed thing and choke on it.”
“Juliana,” he said, stopping her at the door. She didn’t turn. “I’m doing this for your own good.”
“Don’t make this about me. This is all about you. Don’t think I don’t know it.” She stepped out of the room and slammed the door behind her.
Nathaniel, Jeremiah and the vampires were all waiting in the hall for her.
She turned to Jeremiah. “Tell Ben he can have his report in three weeks. I’m not doing it if I’m not getting paid.”
“He suspended you?” Nathaniel asked, his mouth dropping open.
“Got it in one.” She turned to Michael and Thomas. “Let’s get out of here.”
They took a portal back to Michael’s and he poured them all a drink. They sat silent for a while. Thomas watched while Juliana sat cross-legged on the floor and cleaned his blood off her sword. He had wanted to take Juliana home, but she’d insisted on coming here first at Michael’s invitation. He wasn’t about to let her go without him. “So your father is the dark fae god of death?” he said more to break the silence than anything.
His bride and his second shared a smile. “Yes, that’s my father. And before you ask, I still don’t know my mother. My father claims he couldn’t possibly be expected to remember who she was. He only found me when I died—nearly died—the first time.”
“You knew already,” he said to Michael. It wasn’t a question.
“Yes.”
Thomas swirled the liquid in his glass. “When I first discovered that you two were sleeping together, it bothered me, infuriated me actually.” Juliana made a choked sound and he held up a hand to stave off her protest. She shook her head and Thomas waved a hand through the air in dismissal. “None of that. I’ve known since the beginning. My reasons for saying nothing about it are my own. But since I have returned I am finding that it is the incessant, never ending stream of secrets that bothers me the most.”
“If we’re going to talk secrets, exactly how long have you two been United?” Michael asked.
Good, Michael was just as irritated as he was. “Jealous?”
“Just wondering why it wasn’t mentioned.”
“It was none of your concern,” Thomas answered.
At the same time, Juliana said, “He left.”
“Things might have been different if I’d known,” Michael insisted, his voice quiet. Thomas’s little bride had gotten under his friend’s skin more than even the man himself was willing to admit. Or perhaps he didn’t know. But Thomas knew, could see all the signs. It was an affliction he suffered from himself.
“Not to change the subject,” Thomas said, meaning to do exactly that, “but why precisely did you get suspended?”
Blood rushed to her face and she looked down at the sword in her lap. “Not following protocol.”
Michael snorted. “You never follow protocol. What’s so special about this time?”
She shook her head. “Ben says I allowed my feelings for Thomas to cloud my judgment. Really, he’s pissed the Council interfered and he’s taking it out on me.”
“He’s right,” Thomas said. “You should have killed me.”
She frowned at him. “I would have done the same for Michael. Or Jeremiah. Or even Ben. That’s just how I operate.”
Fury spiked through him. “Did your father’s revelation that you are not immortal escape your notice?”
“No it didn’t but I can’t say I wouldn’t do the same things all over again.”