“A very powerful demon who has a grudge against Morgan,” Brian said, looking worried. “Is there any chance it’s Dougal?”
Raphael snorted and gave Brian a disdainful look. “Gee, wouldn’t that be convenient. Leave the safety and power of the Demon Realm to take a jaunt to the Mortal Plain where we can get our hands on him and eliminate his threat permanently.” He shook his head. “Neither of my brothers is an idiot.”
Brian’s face turned red, and in the past, I’d have jumped in to defend him. I felt no compulsion to do so now.
“Since we know the demon isn’t rank and file,” Adam continued as if his speech had never been interrupted, “we should send two demons after him.”
Raphael laughed. “Hmm. Two demons, and one of them isn’t you.” He looked at Saul and cocked an eyebrow. “Just you and me, son?”
“No,” I said emphatically. “Considering you two were about to rip each others’ throats out, I’m not sending you out together.” Listen to me, I thought, talking about this as if I were actually in charge of anything. I managed not to laugh at the idea.
“I beg to differ,” Raphael said with exaggerated politeness. “If you’ll remember, I did not leave my seat. My temper is under better control than that.”
“Enough with the needling!” I said.
“You misunderstand. My point is that, although my son and I do not get along, we aren’t in any real danger of killing each other. I can hold my temper even if Saul loses his.”
Saul looked like he was on the brink of losing his temper right this minute. However, everyone seemed to be responding to my Master of the Universe impersonation, so I fixed Saul with my most imperious look. “No encores. Stay in your seat and keep your mouth shut.”
I thought for a moment I might have a mutiny on my hands, but Saul managed to get himself back under control. None of this was exactly building my confidence that they could work together. Maybe they couldn’t actually hurt each other, but they could kill each other’s hosts if they decided to fight, and I don’t think I’d be able to survive the guilt if they did.
“Like I said,” Adam piped in, “we don’t know how powerful this demon is.”
Raphael shrugged. “He’s unlikely to be more powerful than me.”
This wasn’t arrogance speaking—as part of the royal family, Raphael was one of the most powerful demons in existence.
“True, but are you powerful enough to subdue him by yourself without killing his host?”
Raphael’s face told me everything I needed to know. He couldn’t care less if the hapless intern died. In fact, he might prefer it, since that would eliminate a witness.
“You’re not going anywhere near him,” I decided. Even if he and Saul were working together, and working together well, there was no guarantee Raphael wouldn’t take matters into his own hands. And Saul wasn’t powerful enough to stop him.
“But—” Adam started to protest.
I cut him off with a slashing gesture. “I agree we need two demons. But it’s going to be Saul and Lugh.” I shivered at the idea, not exactly excited about letting Lugh take control for any length of time. It wasn’t something that would ever come easily to me.
“No,” Raphael said. “We can’t involve Lugh in something that involves risk to your person.”
I glared at him. “Having a psycho demon constantly on my ass very definitely involves risk to my person. Besides, however powerful this asshole might be, he’s just one demon. And I do have a Taser.”
Raphael crossed his arms over his chest. “Absolutely not. It’s too dangerous.”
“You’re not in charge here,” I retorted.
“Neither are you! Why don’t you ask Lugh what he thinks?”
I didn’t need to ask, because Lugh took that moment to make his opinion known.
Raphael has a point.
“But—”
But so do you. I suggest a compromise. Raphael and I together should have no trouble subduing this demon, no matter who he is. I assure you, Raphael won’t kill the host while I’m there to stop him.
I didn’t like the idea of having Raphael anywhere near the intern. He had always been a ruthless son of a bitch, and if he thought Lugh would be safer with the intern dead, I doubted he’d hesitate to make it so. Then again, there were plenty of problems with the other alternatives.
Lugh, will you promise me you won’t let him kill the intern? Lugh was a hell of a lot nicer and more compassionate than Raphael, but that didn’t mean he was an old softie. He was perfectly capable of killing if he felt the situation warranted it.
I give you my word.
I thought about it a little while, aware of the others watching me, waiting for the verdict.
“His Majesty has decided that he and Raphael will go after the intern,” I finally said.
No one looked happy with the decision, but no one was going to argue with Lugh, either.
“Adam, how long will it take you to get us a name and address?”
“The time it takes me to make one phone call.”
That didn’t leave much time for stalling, but that was probably a good thing. “Make the call.”
He didn’t seem to object to me giving orders, although he did excuse himself and duck out into the hallway to make the call. I’m not sure why. Perhaps his informant was confidential.
“I guess this meeting is adjourned,” I said, eager to get the lot of them out of my house, even if it would leave me with Raphael on my hands.
CHAPTER 17
I stared at the piece of paper Adam had handed me with the intern’s name and address scrawled on it. It was near Penn, not surprisingly. If I’d had a working automobile, we’d have driven there. As it was, I had to call a cab.
I was still trying my hardest not to think too much. If I did, I’d keep replaying the moment right before Brian walked out the door.
I hadn’t been able to resist reaching out to him, wishing that he would give me some reason to hope that the damage could be repaired.
“Brian, we need to—” I’d started.
“Not now,” he’d answered. “Maybe not ever.” And then he’d walked away from me once again.
I was sure Raphael was going to give me a hard time about it, poking at my open wounds. I was more relieved than I could describe when he didn’t.
We had twenty minutes to wait before the cab was due to arrive. I wasn’t all that eager to have a conversation with Raphael, but I started one anyway, with my usual tact and diplomacy.
“What did you do to my brother?” I asked, remembering once again the gaunt, haunted look on Andy’s face. He hadn’t said a single word throughout the meeting. That wasn’t like him at all.
“I didn’t do anything to him,” Raphael said.
I wanted to hit him. “You sure as hell did! Don’t lie to me.”
He let out a dramatic sigh. “Why bother to ask the question if you’re not going to believe the answer?”
Raphael had told so many lies, sometimes I wondered whether he even knew what the truth was anymore. I’d rarely, if ever, managed to get him to spit out the truth when I didn’t have him backed into some kind of corner, but that didn’t stop me from trying now.
“I’m supposed to believe it’s just a coincidence that he was fine before you took him, and now he’s a wreck since you left?” Actually, Andy hadn’t really been “fine” beforehand, but he’d been in a lot better shape than he was in now.
Raphael gave me one of his infuriating mocking smiles. “What can I say? He misses me.”
I leaned back into the cushions of my sofa and crossed my arms over my chest. If I kept my arms crossed, I wouldn’t be able to deck the son of a bitch. “If you’re going to keep pulling shit like this, then stop getting your panties in a twist when we treat you with a certain amount of…”