My lip curled with distaste. “So what you mean is they’re sending out Tommy to act as a stud, and most likely if any of those women get pregnant, they’re going to suddenly disappear, never to be heard of again.” Bad enough that the demons were raising humans as lab rats. At least those humans wouldn’t know any better. But to snatch some unsuspecting pregnant chick and stick her in some kind of sick breeding facility. . I shuddered and gave Raphael another glare of disgust. His lips thinned, but he had no answer for my accusation.
“So what about the cancer?” I asked. “Why does Tommy want girls with cancer in their families?”
“I don’t know,” Raphael answered, “but I can take a guess. It may be that they’re trying to harness and accelerate the rapid cell division that comes with cancer. If they can make the cells divide at super speed, then maybe they can heal faster.” He shrugged. “It’s sort of what we do when we heal our hosts now, only we’re limited by what the human body is capable of.”
I shook my head. “Remember when you were trying to tell me how breeding these hardier hosts was actually to those hosts’ benefit?”
Raphael squirmed a bit and didn’t look at me. “I could be wrong. I’m just guessing what the significance of the cancer is.”
“Doesn’t matter! There’s no way it’s good for anyone to have their chances of getting cancer genetically increased. We are so exorcizing that damn demon.” I no longer cared if it was illegal. If it was the last thing I did, I was sending that creature back to the Demon Realm. It sure would be nice if I could just kill it, but much as I disapproved of Tommy’s life choices, I wasn’t ruthless enough to burn him to death to kill the demon.
Adam shook his head. “No, we are not.”
I shot to my feet, an indignant response on my lips. Brian, who was sitting next to me on the couch, grabbed my arm and hauled me back down. I was so surprised I just sat there and stared at him.
“I doubt jumping up and down and yelling is going to be very effective,” Brian said reasonably, though far be it from me to be reasonable when my dander was up.
I wasn’t sure who I was most pissed at right now, Brian or Adam. I chose Adam. I stayed in my seat as I prepared to ream him out, but he beat me to the punch.
“If Tommy suddenly shows up sans demon, who do you think is going to be the prime suspect?” he asked, sounding as reasonable as Brian.
I clenched my teeth. I already knew that, had already made the same argument to Claudia. But, damn it, I couldn’t just sit back and do nothing! I had to stop that demon from making any number of women into broodmares with cancer-riddled children. And I had to stop his buddies from hurting Claudia’s daughters.
My heart pounded with my fury, and my nails dug into my palms as I tried to think of an argument that would convince Adam and company that it was okay to perform an illegal exorcism. After we gently convinced Tommy’s demon to tell us where the children were, that is.
“So maybe he shouldn’t show up sans demon,” Raphael said, and we all turned to him. His expression was studiously neutral, but I thought I detected a hint of excitement in him.
“Explain,” Adam urged.
But I was pretty sure I knew what Raphael was about to say, and it was hard to hear him over the sudden pounding of my heart.
“I agreed to move out of Andrew if I felt safe enough to do it and if we could find me another host. I believe Lugh and I have reached a formal peace, and that Morgan wouldn’t kill my host just to send me back to the Demon Realm. It therefore occurs to me that Tommy could fulfill the latter requirement for me. After all, considering his rather extreme prejudices, I expect he is not faring well with his current demon and is unlikely to be intact after an exorcism.”
No one said anything. I don’t know about the rest of them, but my mind was yammering at me nonstop. I could save my brother and save Tommy’s herd of broodmares all in one fell swoop. All I had to do was give up a God’s Wrath fanatic who would cheerfully burn me at the stake if he had a chance.
Brian put a comforting hand on my back, and, despite my audience, I leaned into the touch. There were so many problems I could solve just by letting Raphael take Tommy. And yet my conscience balked at it. I wanted to scream in frustration and confusion. Then Adam went and made things worse.
“There is another demon we’ve been hoping to find a host for,” he said, and I couldn’t suppress my groan.
My head felt too heavy to hold up, so I lowered it into my hands. This wasn’t fair! Sure I was a control freak, but it was only my life I wanted to control. I didn’t want to have to make life or death decisions for Andrew, or Tommy, or Dominic. And yet even with my head buried in my hands, I felt the weight of everyone’s expectations.
I don’t know whether it was merely because I was hosting Lugh, or whether it was because I was so naturally bossy, but somehow all three of these strong, decisive, confident men had handed the reins of leadership to me. How was I supposed to make a decision like this? Lugh? I pleaded. A little guidance, maybe? Of course, I didn’t hear a peep out of him. Either he, too, considered this my decision to make, or my subconscious had once again shored up my defenses.
“I seem to have missed a memo,” Raphael said, interrupting my pity party. “Who is the other demon in need of a host?”
I’d forgotten Raphael wouldn’t know about Lugh’s decision to summon Saul to the Mortal Plain. Luckily, Adam saved me the discomfort of having to explain.
“Ah,” Raphael said when he was finished. “So my brother would have both me and Saul serving on his council. Well, it certainly won’t be boring.” He answered my question before I even opened my mouth to ask it. “Let’s just say that Saul and I don’t get along and leave it at that, shall we?” Adam made a sound between a cough and a choke, and Raphael gave him a quelling look. “And because of your attachment to Dominic, you don’t wish Saul to return to him. Is that the situation?”
“Yes.”
I heard the edge in Adam’s voice, so I forced myself to sit up straight and get ready to intervene should things get ugly.
“I would have expected you of all people to put your duty above your own personal desires,” Raphael said to Adam.
I laughed. I couldn’t help it, though the laughter took on an edge of hysteria. Both Adam and Raphael glared at me. Brian, my rock, simply rubbed my back in silent support. I bit my tongue to stave off the hysteria.
“Sorry,” I said. “But you’ve gotta admit, Raphael pontificating about duty and self-sacrifice is pretty damn funny.”
Adam made a snorting sound that might have been agreement, laughter, or a burp. Raphael stuck with the death glare. Okay, so maybe it wasn’t funny to him.
“It’s not Adam’s decision anyway,” I said, meeting Raphael’s glare. “It’s Dominic’s.”
“So you would prefer to summon Saul into Tommy, when he already has a demonstrably compatible host available to him, and leave me in your brother? And here I thought you cared.”
I was about to snarl at him, but Brian startled me into silence.
“Aren’t we getting ahead of ourselves?” he asked. “Perhaps we should worry about what to do with Tommy after his demon’s been exorcized—and after we’ve figured out what to do about the children.”
Ouch. I guess I shouldn’t lecture Raphael about being self-centered after all.
Adam visibly relaxed, stepping away from the edge of battle. After a moment, Raphael did the same, and some of the weight lifted off my chest. The issue wasn’t going away, and I felt sure I would have to face it again soon. But “soon” was better than “now.”
I looked at Adam. “May I assume you agree that we’re better off handling this off the books?”
He waved a hand dismissively. “Of course.”
“And may I also assume that you’re not going to argue we need to sacrifice those kids for the greater good?”