He sighed. “One wonders why I bother helping you and Lugh when all I get for my troubles is scorn and insults. I’m doing the best I can, but that’s never good enough, is it?”
“Every time I start to feel sorry for you, I remember some of the terrible things you’ve done and the feeling goes away.”
“Bitch,” he said, but he sounded more resigned than angry. “If I had any sense, I’d give up on you and throw in with Dougal for real. It certainly would make my life easier.”
“So why don’t you?” I asked, genuinely curious.
He laughed. “That’s the million-dollar question, isn’t it? If I figure it out, I’ll let you know, but right now I’m not in the mood for soul searching. I thought you should know that Der Jäger won’t be bothering you again anytime soon. His orders were to kill Lugh and to be inconspicuous, and he’s failed on both counts. Dougal has locked him up again, and I suspect this time he’ll throw away the key. One less thing to worry about, though I’m sure Dougal will come up with something else unpleasant. He’s nothing if not creative.”
That should have been good news indeed, only it opened up a whole other line of questioning. “How the hell would you know that? There’s no direct communication between the Demon Realm and the Mortal Plain.” At least there wasn’t as far as I knew.
“True, but there’s plenty of indirect communication, and when you’re the regent’s brother, you get the best gossip. Perhaps this will remind you why it’s a good thing to have a man on the inside, even if the things I do to keep my cover don’t meet with your wholehearted approval.”
I wisely let that one slide. “We still need to talk.”
“So talk.”
I shook my head, even though he couldn’t see it. “This isn’t a conversation to have over the phone. Can you come to my apartment?”
“I can. But I won’t.”
“Excuse me?”
“How exactly am I supposed to explain that I’m popping in to visit with you? Andrew’s no longer staying with you, and I’m no longer Dr. Neely.”
“You can say you’re coming to force me to tell you who’s now hosting Lugh. Or who hosted him right after me.”
Raphael chuckled. “So I should come over to torture you? Sounds like fun.”
“It’s not like it would be the first time,” I said before thinking it through.
I hoped he would assume I was talking about the burning-at-the-stake incident, but the deafening silence on the other end of the line told me no such luck. I listened to the drumbeat of my heart as I tried to think of some way to explain away my words, but nothing came to mind. I sighed.
“I guess we’ll do this on the phone after all,” I said.
“I gather you’ve been doing some digging.”
I couldn’t tell from his tone of voice what he thought about my digging. Was he worried about what I’d learned? “Lugh helped me access some repressed memories. Your name came up.”
“There are times when I fervently wish neither of my brothers had been born.”
“I’m sure the feeling is mutual.”
“I never tortured you, Morgan. I may not win any Humanitarian of the Year awards, but even I would not stoop so low as to torture a child. It hadn’t occurred to me that a drugged thirteen-year-old would actually resist. I didn’t know the methods Cooper and Neely used until afterward.”
“Ignorance is bliss, huh?”
“For what little it’s worth, I’m sorry. As you know, I have no qualms about necessary evils, but what they did to you was unnecessary. You did not have to summon a demon yourself for the purposes of the experiment.”
That wasn’t even worth “little.” It was worth nothing. “Are you sorry you tried to have a child forcibly possessed? Or doesn’t that count as torture in your book?” He didn’t answer, but I didn’t care. I had more important questions. “Why did you do it? Who or what was my father? Why was it so important to try to have me possessed?”
“This has nothing to do with the issue at hand. I’m not answering your questions, either on the phone or in person, so you might as well forget about it and move on with your life.”
“Oh, no. You don’t get off that easy!”
“Yes, I do,” he said, then hung up on me. I don’t think anyone has ever hung up on me as often as Raphael.
I tried calling back, but I wasn’t exactly shocked when he didn’t answer. I figured I could have Adam trace the number and find out who was hosting Raphael at the moment. But I knew Raphael had been telling nothing but the truth when he said he wouldn’t answer my questions. I doubted even the demon Adam’s most ruthless methods would persuade Raphael to talk if he didn’t want to.
Of the people who I knew were directly involved in whatever had happened in that hospital, my parents were MIA, Dr. Neely was dead, the demon host was a mystery man and would probably stay that way, and Raphael wasn’t talking. That left only Bradley Cooper.
With a shudder, I had to admit to myself that my kinder, gentler methods had failed to give us the information we needed. Which meant it was time to call in the big guns, no matter how badly my soul recoiled at the idea.
I spent a lot of time brooding, trying to come up with some alternative other than questioning Cooper with Adam at my side. No brilliant ideas leapt to mind. I considered going out to Cooper’s place and interviewing him on my own. I even went so far as to call a cab to take me out there. Then I called back and cancelled. If I talked to Cooper, and he refused to tell me anything, he could vanish before I ever got a chance to sic Adam on him. After all, I’d already seen how fast the Spirit Society could make someone disappear.
Resolved to my course of action, I’d have loved nothing better than to rush to Cooper’s house immediately and get it over with. Unfortunately, the demon Adam was currently inhabiting Dominic’s body. If I was being honest with myself, I had to admit that the chances were frighteningly high that Cooper might not survive this interview. However, if Adam did let him live, it wouldn’t do for Cooper to know Dominic was possessed, even temporarily. That would officially brand Adam as an illegal demon, and that would be…bad.
And so I had to bide my time, waiting until Adam had had the chance to heal Dominic’s body. To keep myself from thinking too much, I spent the afternoon dealing with some of the endless hassles involved with trying to get my life back on track after having my house and all my earthly possessions burned to a crisp. It didn’t do much for my temper, but at least it kept my mind off torture and death.
I had taken the tape off my fingers when Raphael told me Der Jäger was in prison once more, but paranoia had me putting it back on before I went out. I believed Raphael was telling me the truth. Despite all his flaws, even Andy, who hated him the most, said he was loyal to Lugh. But I would feel like an idiot if Der Jäger had told his comrades all the little details of his interrupted interrogation.
It was slightly less than twenty-four hours since Dominic had been hurt when Adam opened the door of his house and let me in. At first, I wasn’t sure which Adam it was. He ushered me into the living room, where Dominic lounged on a recliner. I never thought of myself as being particularly observant of body language, but it didn’t take more than about fifteen seconds for me to know that the demon Adam was still in Dom. Something about the way he sat, or the facial expression…
“How’s Dominic?” I asked, and Adam answered through Dom’s mouth.
“Much better. We’ve been discussing when I should move back into Adam.”
I had to suppress a shudder. It was just too weird hearing Adam’s words coming from Dominic’s mouth. “What have you decided?”
Dominic grinned one of Adam’s grins. “I think Dom’s ready to get rid of me. He tells me I’m a little too much of a good thing.” He frowned. “I think there’s a compliment in there, but I’m not sure.”
“Only you would think that,” his host grumbled, but he smiled when he said it.