Jenna Black - The Devil You Know

“Like you have mine, you mean?” I retorted instantly.

He gave me one of his coldest looks. “As you know perfectly well, I don’t give a shit about you. But I do have Lugh’s best interests at heart, and you’re his host.”

I really hated the hurt that stabbed through my chest at his words. It wasn’t like he was telling me anything I didn’t already know. And it wasn’t like we’d ever been anything even resembling friends. I didn’t really care if he liked me or not, but the calculated indifference stung, and it took everything I had to keep from lashing out.

“Unfortunately,” Adam continued as if he hadn’t just taken that nasty jab at me, “with the original host catatonic, we have no idea who’s hosting Raphael now—if it really is him—and we don’t know what exactly he’s up to. He no longer has any reason to keep us in the dark about his plans, so you’d think he’d have contacted us as soon as he crossed to the Mortal Plain—unless he was up to something he knew Lugh wouldn’t approve of.”

Yeah, that sounded like Raphael, all right. “Better to ask forgiveness than permission?”

“Something like that.”

I frowned. “But Raphael agrees with Lugh’s stance on possessing unwilling hosts, right? So why would he come into the world in one body and then transfer to someone else?”

To my surprise, it was Andy who answered. “Because he’s a demon,” he said bitterly. “He might agree with that idea in theory, but if he thinks it’s to his advantage to misplace his morals, he’s more than happy to do so.”

Adam raised an eyebrow at him. “I gather yours was not a blissful union?”

Andy just scowled at him.

“I’m sure you know perfectly well we’re not all the same, just like all humans aren’t,” Adam said. “Don’t assume we’re all like Raphael.”

“But you are,” Andy countered. “You all believe the end justifies the means. You’d cut out the heart of your dearest friend if you saw the angle in it.”

Adam had as much as admitted that to me once before, but now he shook his head. “It isn’t like that.” He saw my incredulous look. “It isn’t!” he insisted. “Yeah, we’re more pragmatic than humans, and Andrew’s right, we do believe the end justifies the means. But that doesn’t mean we have to plow through every obstacle in our way. There’s always more than one way to reach an end. Raphael has always had a tendency to choose the easiest way and damn the consequences. Some of us try a lot harder than that.”

Andy leaned forward in his seat and glared at Adam. “Oh yeah? What would your host say about you if he was ever allowed to speak?”

Adam glared right back. I was glad to see I wasn’t the only one who was able to inspire that furious look on his face. “My host and I have our differences now and again just as any two human beings would. But he’s never regretted hosting me.”

“So you say, but we only have your word for it.”

Adam’s face was turning red with rage. Apparently, Andy was really hitting a sore spot. There was a time when I thought Adam didn’t have much of a temper, but I knew now how terribly wrong I’d been to think that. I didn’t want to stand up for him, but I was afraid if I didn’t, things might get ugly.

“You can’t know how Adam and his demon really get along,” I said, “but you can know about Dominic and Saul.” It occurred to me suddenly that although I knew the names of Dominic’s and Andy’s demons, I had never once asked Adam what his demon’s name was. After all that had happened, I felt like I knew him pretty well—and yet, I didn’t even know his name. I shook the thought off.

“From everything I can tell, Saul seems to have treated Dominic decently,” I finished.

Andy frowned at me. “Since when do you defend demons?”

I feigned a casual shrug. “I’m not going to make a habit of it. I’m just saying that Adam’s probably right and they aren’t all like Raphael.” What I didn’t say was that there was a big part of me that was really hoping Lugh wasn’t like his brother. You see, despite the fact that he’d possessed me against my will, I couldn’t help liking Lugh. I hoped like hell my warm fuzzy feelings toward him were genuine and originated from inside of me, rather than being constructs of his manipulations. But there was no way to tell, and I would be forever aware of that.

Andy’s face told me I hadn’t convinced him of anything—not surprising, since I hadn’t actually convinced myself, either.

When in doubt, change the subject. “So, if Raphael is back and he’s in an unknown body, what do you think he’s up to?”

I directed the question at Adam, but it was Andy who answered. “I thought we’d already established that. He’s coming to kill me. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that he shows up in the Mortal Plain the day after I come back to myself.”

Adam shook his head. “Not true. He came back into the Mortal Plain a couple of nights ago. It was last night that he changed bodies. If he was really coming after you, I suspect he would have done it as soon as he got here. It wouldn’t have mattered to him if you were catatonic or not. He knew you could recover at any time.”

“So you don’t think he’s here to kill Andy?” I asked.

“I wouldn’t go that far. I’m just saying there might be other possibilities. I’m going to try to interview the family members again, and I’m definitely going to have a word with Bradley Cooper. I doubt he’ll tell me anything, but it’s worth a shot.”

I frowned. “Why wouldn’t he tell you anything? You’re a demon—doesn’t he worship the ground you walk on?” Cooper was one of those people—like my parents—who acted shocked when anyone used the word “demon.” To them, “demon” was an ethnic slur. Adam and I were possessed not by demons but by “Higher Powers.” It made me want to gag. It also made me want to ask if we should start calling the Demon Realm the Higher Power Realm, but fanatics like Cooper never found my jokes funny.

Adam stood up, and I was relieved to realize that meant he was leaving. “Mr. Cooper respects me as a demon, but my profession makes my loyalty to the cause questionable in his eyes. However, I’ll see what I can do. Maybe I’ll get lucky and he’ll tell me who he ordered Henry Jenner to summon. And why.”

That line of questioning spawned a slew of other questions in my mind, but I stifled them. I doubted Adam would answer, even if he knew. Besides, if he was really about to leave, I didn’t want to give him any excuse to stay.

“Meanwhile,” Adam continued, “if you’re unwilling to talk to your mother about who your real father might have been, maybe you’ll find that Andrew can give you some more information.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Andy’s jaw drop. I think my own heart stopped beating in shock. Adam grinned to show how much he’d enjoyed dropping that bombshell—and Andy’s and my reaction to it—then let himself out.

“I guess I should have followed my first instinct and Tasered the hell out of the son of a bitch,” I muttered under my breath.

Andy neither laughed nor smiled. He merely sat rigidly in his chair and stared straight ahead. I couldn’t tell whether he was shocked because what Adam had said had come as a complete surprise, or whether he was shocked because Adam knew. Earlier, I’d assumed Andy knew nothing about the circumstances of my birth, but now I wasn’t so sure. He said Raphael had kept him from learning any deep, dark secrets, but I couldn’t say I really believed him. Maybe it’s just my natural, suspicious nature. Or maybe my Spidey senses were telling me something was off. Hard to tell.