“Can you touch your right finger to your nose?” the doctor requested.
“Of course.” Shay’s finger landed on her upper lip.
“Must be that alcohol she’s not drinking, or the drugs she’s not taking,” the sheriff muttered.
Blue eyes—Laredo—chuckled. Shay’s temper burned. No one laughed at her. She’d show him the consequences of his error. You fall to your knees, sobbing as you beg forgiveness. She blinked, implanting the thought. Nothing. It bounced right off his mind. Fuming, she turned to the sheriff. You itch terribly between your legs.
The woman continued to scribble notes on her notepad. Shay felt the first tingles of fear. What had happened to her powers? She felt as disoriented and defenseless as a gladiator standing in the middle of the arena who just realized he’d left his weapons behind.
“Hey, Laredo,” the sheriff said. “Doc Fogg says you pulled her out of the wreck and resuscitated her. That’s hero stuff.”
Laredo shrugged off the sheriff’s compliment.
“Just doing your job, I know. Consider me impressed. When I hired a demon hunter, I thought I was getting a killer not a lifesaver.”
Shay’s gaze whipped back to Laredo. Satan’s stones! He was a demon hunter? How could she have let him get this close without sensing what he was? Then it hit her that he didn’t recognize what she was, either. If he had, he would have killed her, not revived her.
He wasn’t completely fooled, though. He acted suspicious but not certain—but to a demon hunter, a demon of her caliber should have been obvious. It was clear something had neutralized her dark powers.
“You landed in the damn fountain.”
She remembered Laredo’s words with sudden unease. Lucifer had warned her to stay away from Mysteria’s wishing fountain. This was why. The “damn fountain” had stolen her powers and rendered her helpless. Well, if not quite helpless then very much human.
Human . . . Something inside her leaped at the thought. All her long existence had she not fantasized about being human? Mortal. Craved the thrill of feeling real emotion, of knowing she walked along a finite road of destiny under the constant threat of death? How exhilarating it was to pretend; doing it for real was another thing entirely. The vulnerability was breathtaking.
Terrifying.
And most certainly terminal.
“I will find you, and end you.” Lucifer’s threat strangled her silly daydreams and dragged her back to her senses. “You cannot hide.” Panic gnawed away at her composure, worsening her all-too-human headache. This condition had better be transitory, or she was history. Literally. How could she complete her mission if she was weak and had—she cringed—emotions? Hell’s bells, she’d been bawling only moments ago, thinking Laredo was Swift River. Ugh—how weak! How human. Even now her heart—or what passed for a heart—leaped every time their eyes met. Which was every damn time she glanced his way.
Even as she formed the thought, Laredo was watching her, hard—and not because his heart was leaping (or any other part of him) with the sight of her, she’d bet. He wanted to kill her, not kiss her, and wouldn’t hesitate if she gave any hint of being a demon. In her weakened state, he might very well finish the job.
A woman squeezed past the people surrounding the scene. “Hello, honey.” The woman dropped to a crouch next to Shay and took her hand in hers. She had creamy brown skin, black curly hair shot through with copper highlights, and a smile that could melt glaciers. “I’m Reverend Harmony Faithfull. How can I help?”
Shay’s gloom vanished in a poof. Harmony Faithfull. The mother of the child Lucifer wanted destroyed had walked right into her clutches. What a stroke of devil’s fortune, she thought with a slow smile. Suddenly, things were not as bleak as they seemed. “You already have helped, Reverend. More than you know.” Yet, the thought of hurting Harmony or anyone else gathered around left her feeling sick to her stomach.
Once she got away from the damn fountain, she’d be fine. By morning she’d be able to commence her mission.
As the doctor checked Shay’s blood pressure and other vital signs, Harmony took out a cell phone. “Is there someone I can call for you? Your family? A husband?”
At the mention of a husband, Shay felt Laredo’s stare sharpen. Jealous, was he? She ignored him, trying to project instead a quiet sadness as she shook her head. She needed to throw her whole being and many millennia of lying into convincing Harmony to trust her around the babe. The thought made her stomach clench and her mouth go dry.
Before she had a chance to answer, the sheriff returned. “I ran your plates, Miss Shay d’Mon.” Shay cringed at the surname she’d chosen. It had seemed a good idea at the time. Now she regretted it. Laredo’s suspicious stare was fierce. She didn’t want that man making any connections between her and the underworld, especially not while her demon powers were down. “Your record’s clean. Nothing on you at all. Yet, here’s your car, swimming in our fountain. What did you do? Fall asleep at the wheel?”
Shay’s gaze shot to Harmony’s. She couldn’t have the woman thinking she was irresponsible. I’m hardworking, honest. I’m the perfect woman to trust around your son. She blinked, planting the thought in Harmony’s head.
The minister’s expression remained exactly the same. Serpent’s breath! Without her legendary powers of mental persuasion, she’d have to rely on her wits. She was sure she had some; she’d just never had to rely on them before.
“Aw, honey. It’ll be all right.” Harmony took her hand, squeezing it. Her gaze intensified as she held fast to Shay’s fingers, conjuring the unsettling feeling that the minister saw much more than she let on. Shay’s instinct was to pull her hand away, yet there was something so compelling about the reverend’s regard that it kept Shay in place. In Harmony’s gaze, she felt accepted, forgiven . . . good. Yes, good. In that breathless moment that seemed to hang still in time, Shay was no longer evil.
No longer a monster.
Then Harmony patted her hand, breaking the spell. Her eyes were moist; a sheen of perspiration shone on her forehead. She appeared almost as unsettled as Shay. “You have a soul,” she murmured. “A good and sweet soul.”
Shay covered her appalled snort with a fake coughing attack.
“Leave her be, Reverend Faithfull,” Dr. Fogg scolded. “This young woman needs to rest. She’s in shock.”
If she wasn’t in shock before, she sure was now. Shay hoped Lucifer wasn’t eavesdropping on any of this. Withering warts, a soul! And not just any soul, a “good and sweet” soul. Bat bugger. She hoped to hell the condition wasn’t permanent, merely a trick of the fountain.
Some trick. If it could implant souls in demons, the fountain was more dangerous than she’d thought. Lucifer should have been more specific. Unless he didn’t know. If he didn’t, and these mortals did, it could prove the undoing of the entire dark empire.
Well, no matter. If a soul got in, she could get it out. She’d worry about that tomorrow. As long as her master didn’t know anything was wrong, she was fine.
Harmony stood. “I’ll be out of the good doctor’s hair now, but if you need anything, call.” She smiled once more before disappearing in the crowd.
At the doctor’s direction, the ambulance crew transferred Shay to a stretcher. Going to a hospital was a delay she couldn’t afford. What choice did she have? She didn’t know how severe her injuries were. Without her demon powers, she’d have to rely on the mortals to repair her. Then again, Harmony Faithfull was coming to her hospital room in the morning to see how she was doing. Shay didn’t have to lift a finger to lure her there.