Her smile grew. "What do you think? I have two demons in my backyard who are in an arms race. Both are getting attention from demons outside the Northwest." I didn't like the sound of that and recalled Cedric affirming as much. "You think I want to be involved in that? You think I want to be played the way everyone's playing you? My territory's small, and I'm weaker than both Jerome and Cedric. I don't want them to decide to annex Portland while they play their cosmic game of Risk. I want them to leave me alone." Her voice was hard, but I heard a bit of worry in there too, and I realized what was going on.
"You're here to…" I considered "suck up" or "beg" but thought better of it. "…negotiate with Cedric. For protection. To keep you out of it."
Nanette looked away, unwilling to acknowledge this in front of a succubus. Just then, the door opened and Cedric stepped out. He glanced around. "Kristin's still gone? I wish she'd hurry up and bring back those donuts."
"Tim Hortons?" I guessed.
He gave me an incredulous look. "Of course." He turned to Nanette. She'd stood up, and he kissed her hand in a polite, antiquated way. "Sorry. Phone call with Tech Support. You know how that is." To me he said, "We'll talk later."
I took it as a bad sign that he said "later" and not "soon." Settling into my chair, I braced myself for patience. Ten magazines later, Cedric opened the door again. Nanette was nowhere in sight, so I presumed she must have teleported back to Portland.
I took my same chair in Cedric's office, noting that his screen showed Match. com rather than Wikipedia today. When he saw what I was looking at, he hastily minimized his Web browser.
"So, what have you found out?"
I gave him a report of my morning with Evan. "They're ridiculous," I declared as my final assessment.
"I already knew that," he said. "You think you can put an end to this? Soon?" The impatient sound in his voice made me wonder if he'd expected me to cinch things up already.
I thought about it. "Yeah, pretty sure I can as soon as I meet the others. This guy looked like he might crack on his own. But I won't see them until Saturday."
Cedric tipped back in his chair, face thoughtful. "All right. They probably won't do anything before then anyway. Go to their meeting and work over the rest of them. In the meantime, you might as well head back home."
I straightened up in my chair. "Really?"
He shrugged. "No point in you sticking around unless you want to sightsee. Just come back Saturday."
"But…" I hesitated. "Jerome sent me here because he was mad and didn't want to deal with me. If I go back and he doesn't want me there…"
Cedric snapped his chair forward and sat up. "He can take it up with me. I'll tell him I didn't want you here either." There was something mischievous in his eyes, like he almost hoped Jerome might pick a fight. Uneasily, I remembered Nanette's words. You're being played from every angle and don't even realize it.
"Okay," I said finally. "Thanks."
Cedric glanced toward the door, his expression lightening. "Ah, Kristin's back." A few moments later, I sensed the imp's signature as well. I stood up, and he gestured me to the door with a smile. "Have a good drive. And grab a donut on your way out."
CHAPTER 5
Jerome was waiting for me in my apartment as soon as I stepped through the door.
"You have some nerve," he growled.
I set my suitcase down. Normally that tone of voice would have set me hiding, but I was in no mood to listen to him now after my long drive-or rather, lack of a drive. There'd been an accident that had put traffic at a standstill, and I'd sat in my car for a very long and very annoying time.
"Look, Cedric told me to," I said, crossing my arms as though they might actually shield me from him. "I didn't do anything wrong."
"You're not supposed to do what he says." Jerome sat on the arm of my couch and flicked his cigarette over a nearby ashtray, which I took as a great courtesy on his part. "You're supposed to do what I say."
"He told me to go home. He didn't have anything for me to do until the Satanists had their breakfast meeting."
Jerome's glare momentarily faltered. "What are you talking about?"
"What are you talking about? I'm talking about Cedric sending me home early."
"And I'm talking about your failure to notify me of his little stunt last night."
Last night? I racked my brain. Last night I'd been killing time shopping and destroying a man's self-esteem. To my knowledge, Cedric had done nothing after I left except continue his quest to destroy Wikipedia's informative empire.
"What'd he do?" I asked. "I didn't even see him."
Jerome didn't answer right away, his face thoughtful. I realized then he was reassessing his initial anger. It wasn't my early return that had upset him.
"There was a vampire brawl last night," he said finally. "Somehow, a few of them thought their hunting ground lines had been rearranged. So they started roaming into others' areas…"
"…and bad things ensued." Vampires were as territorial as demons in some ways. Vampires had specific areas that they guarded to stalk victims and were very touchy about other vampires using them. The archdemon of a region usually drew up vampiric lines and enforced them through force and will.
"Unfortunately, yes. Grace and Mei are still sorting it out."
A panicked thought suddenly struck me. "Are Cody and Hugh okay?"
He shrugged. "A little bruised and battered, but nothing that won't heal on its own."
My fear was unfounded, of course. Lesser immortals, like vampires and succubi, couldn't kill each other, and we healed extremely quickly. Still, the instinct to worry about my friends was one that would never leave me. "Why were you yelling at me over this? I certainly didn't have anything to do with it."
"Because the vampires who thought they'd been reassigned got official notification that said they had: a stamped and sealed demonic missive. They thought it was from me."
"But it wasn't," I guessed, seeing where he was going with this. Jerome had the area comfortably parceled out and would have no desire to change the status quo. He was too lazy. "There was no name?"
"No, clearly. But they don't need it-not if the seal is good. It was, and only another demon could have drawn something like that up."
"And so you assumed Cedric did it," I finished.
Jerome nodded. "Yes, and I'm going to let him know exactly what I think of this. I'm not happy over that-or you slacking off in reporting his activities to me."
"You're giving my spying ability more credit than I deserve here," I warned. "It's kind of limited. He's not really sharing his inner secrets with me, and anyway, he already knows that's what you want me to do."
"Of course he does."
I sighed. "Look, if you want my opinion…" The look Jerome gave me suggested he really didn't put a lot of stock in my opinion. "…I don't think Cedric's the type to do anything like that. He's more interested in Web surfing."
"After all this time with demons, you really should know better than that, Georgie." Jerome smashed his cigarette into the ashtray and stood up.
"Yeah, yeah, I know, you sound just like Nan-" I frowned. His wording had tickled a memory. "Oh, I do have some info for you. Cedric was meeting with Nanette."
Jerome had been straightening his sleeve, but his head jerked toward me at the mention of the archdemoness's name. "Nanette?" The word was carefully enunciated, icy in its tone.
I relayed what I knew. Jerome's face grew dark as I spoke. Whatever his thoughts on the new development were, however, he didn't share them with me. "Looks like you might be doing your job after all." He paused. "But why are you back?"