“Did you truly tell Morgan everything you know about the Houston project?” I’m sure Raphael could hear the skepticism in Lugh’s voice as well as I could.
Raphael’s shoulders stiffened, but he answered civilly enough. “Yes, I did. There are at least thirty-five or forty facilities scattered throughout the world. I know very little about their day-to-day operations.”
“Am I really supposed to believe that when you were so intimately involved with the project at The Healing Circle?”
Raphael visibly bristled. “I thought I’d just passed your test of loyalty. Apparently, I was mistaken.”
“I believe in your loyalty,” Lugh said with a sardonic smile. “Your honesty, however, is still very much in question.”
To my surprise, Raphael laughed at that. “You’ll make a good king if we can ever get you back on the throne,” he said, and there was no longer any animosity in his voice.
“I’m glad you think so. Now, about the Houston facility. .”
Raphael heaved an exaggerated sigh. “I’m telling the truth, hard though that might be for you to believe. The Healing Circle was something of a pet project for me.”
“But you were overseeing the campaign to breed a better host,” Lugh protested. “You were in charge of the whole thing!”
Raphael shook his head. “Dougal was in charge. I was merely his emissary to the Mortal Plain.”
I didn’t believe him, and I don’t think Lugh did, either. But it seemed there was little point in pushing the issue any further. Raphael wasn’t going to admit the lie. But I’m sure Lugh was as curious as I about just what his brother was hiding this time.
“All right,” Lugh said, though I’m sure Raphael heard the hint of skepticism in his voice. “I’ll accept that you don’t know what was happening in the Houston facility. But you must have known who was in charge. Surely there was some communication between the facilities?”
“Why are you so interested in Houston anyway? Nothing that happened there is important in the grand scheme of things. What’s important is figuring out how to outwit Dougal.”
But Lugh shook his head. “Figuring out what he was up to on the Mortal Plain, and what progress he made, is also important to me. We’ve allowed ourselves to interfere with humans too much already while our monarchs have kept themselves blissfully ignorant. I won’t allow that to continue during my reign. So contact some of your old friends in the breeding business and find out what was happening at the Houston facility. I want to know why Tommy Brewster is so important that a demon would take the risk of possessing him illegally under such suspicious circumstances.”
“Aren’t you forgetting something? I’m an outlaw at the moment, in as much danger from Dougal and his supporters as you are. My contacts have all dried up.”
“Like hell they have. Or are you telling me that Dougal has the means and the desire to inform every demon on the Mortal Plain that you are no longer his sidekick?”
From the look of him, Raphael was about to explode with frustration, but he managed to keep it under control. “Fine,” he said, his voice flat. “I’ll see what I can find out, and I’ll report back to you. Do you have any other orders, Your Majesty?” With that flat voice, it was hard to tell if the honorific was meant as sarcasm or as a term of respect. At least it was hard for me to tell. Lugh would know if it was traditional for his brothers to address him by title, but he wasn’t letting on one way or another.
“Only to be kind to Andrew, no matter how much you dislike him.”
Lugh stood up, and Raphael did, too. They had another one of their staring contests, and I had no idea what either one was thinking.
Um, Lugh? If you’re all done, can I have my body back? I asked. I’d been interested enough in their conversation to forget for a while just how uncomfortable it was to have Lugh in control, but it was coming back to me fast. It took a lot of willpower to keep myself from trying to break free of his control.
Lugh didn’t answer me, but he held out his hand. Raphael stared at him for another second, then shook the offered hand and nodded.
“I’m glad we had this little talk,” Raphael said, and once again I couldn’t tell if he was being sarcastic.
Lugh made a little snorting sound that could have been agreement, amusement, or disdain. Then he jerked Raphael forward and gave him one of those back-thumping hugs men are so fond of. Raphael stiffened for a moment, then responded in kind.
It was all very touching, but I was getting more and more antsy as every second ticked away. I wanted control back, and I wanted it now. I lost the battle against my nerves, and found myself trying to close my mental doors without any conscious will.
And then suddenly, Lugh was gone, and my body was my own once more. I could tell from the frost in Raphael’s eyes that he’d noticed the difference immediately. He and Lugh might have made some kind of peace with one another, but that didn’t mean things were all right between the two of us.
Raphael opened his mouth as if he was about to say something, then shook his head as he thought better of it. Without a word to me, he turned his back and strode out of the room. Seconds later, the front door slammed, and he was gone.
CHAPTER 19
After Raphael left, I fell back into bed and slept like the dead. When I woke up, the bruises had well and truly set in, and my entire body ached. I downed a handful of ibuprofen, then took the world’s longest hot shower. I felt marginally better afterward.
While I was in the process of figuring out what to do with myself all day, I checked my phone messages from the office and discovered I wouldn’t have to go looking for things to do after all. I was absurdly grateful to be able to schedule a routine exorcism for the middle of this afternoon. Maybe for just a little while, I could pretend my life was normal. At least, as normal as an exorcist’s life ever is.
I caused a bit of a stir, showing up at the courthouse with my ostentatious bruises. I told anyone who asked that I got mugged. It was a whole lot simpler that way.
The guy I’d been hired to exorcize, one Jordan Maguire, had been a legal demon host for five years. He’d apparently run into trouble when he’d split with his girlfriend, with whom he had a two-year-old daughter. They’d been arguing—loudly, according to the neighbors. When the demon stormed out of her apartment, the girlfriend had called the police and accused him of assault. She even had the bruises to show for it.
If he’d been human, there would have been a protracted inquiry into what had happened. However, demons have few rights, and the legal system tolerates no hint of impropriety. I felt kind of sorry for the demon, who swore he hadn’t hurt his girlfriend, that she’d been two-timing him with another guy and that it was the other guy who had hit her. But he’d already been convicted and sentenced, and I knew I was only sending him back to the Demon Realm, not killing him, so my guilt only went so far.
Maguire’s demon was a bitch to cast out, but I managed it.
The guilt evaporated completely when the demon was gone. About eighty percent of hosts whose demons are exorcized end up as vegetables afterward, but every once in a while, it was even worse. This was one of those times. As soon as the demon was gone, the host’s brain completely shut down, no longer capable of directing such vital bodily functions as breathing. He wasn’t just brain damaged; he was brain-dead.
He was taken from the courthouse by ambulance, and would be admitted to the hospital until his family could be notified. Then they’d take him off life support, and he’d be dead. I shuddered to think what the demon must have done to him to make him shut down so completely. And I prayed Raphael wasn’t treating my brother the same way.
Depressed as hell, I went to my office and filled out the paperwork. I hadn’t heard from Adam, and, being the impatient sort, I tried calling him. I went straight to voice mail and didn’t bother leaving a message.