Dominic sobered and met Adam’s eyes. “Are you ready to take me back?”
Adam’s brow furrowed, and he looked around the room as if searching for something. Then he shrugged. “I can’t see any pressing reason why I should hang around.” He turned to me and smiled, not looking in the least perturbed at the idea of once again being a passenger in his own body.
“It was nice talking to you,” he told me, holding out his hand for me to shake.
Not knowing what else to do, I took it. “Uh, yeah. You, too.” The awkward truth was, despite the many differences I had with Adam, I kind of wanted him back in his own…that is, his original body. Things were just too…weird this way.
Dominic heaved himself out of the recliner and came to stand near Adam. “Ready?” he asked, holding out his hand for a very different reason.
Adam let go of my hand, nodded briefly, then clasped Dominic’s.
I held my breath for a moment as they stood there, holding hands and not speaking. I couldn’t help worrying that Adam had been wrong, that somehow this time Dominic wouldn’t be able to stand losing his demon.
Until Dom made a fist with the hand Adam wasn’t holding and punched him in the shoulder.
“Ow!” Adam complained, letting go of Dom’s hand to rub his shoulder. “What was that for?”
“For being a pain in the ass,” Dom said, but he didn’t look terribly pissed off, despite his words. And it was clearly him speaking, not Adam the demon.
“How was I a pain in the ass? I thought I took damn good care of you.”
Dominic looked at me with a grimace. “I’ll forgive him eventually, but I just had to listen to twenty-four straight hours of lectures about how I shouldn’t have come charging down the stairs like an idiot. I’d hit him again if I didn’t know he’d like it too much.”
I grinned, feeling like at least one tiny corner of my world was back to normal. “Would you like to hear my version of the lecture now?”
He groaned theatrically, then covered his ears and started singing “La, la, la, I’m not listening.”
Adam grunted. “And he says I’m a pain in the ass.”
I pulled one of Dominic’s hands away from his ear. “Welcome back,” I said.
“Thanks. Now, since Adam was so busy lecturing me he didn’t cook dinner, let’s retire to the kitchen so I can remedy that situation.”
I didn’t think what I came to ask about would make good dinner conversation. Nor did I think I’d want to eat afterward, no matter how tempting Dominic’s cooking was. Unfortunately, with his Italian upbringing, he would be mortally offended if I didn’t stay.
“Is it okay if Adam and I have a little chat before we join you?” I asked.
A look that I couldn’t interpret passed between them.
“Sure thing,” Dominic said. “I could use a little time off for good behavior.”
Adam cuffed him playfully on the side of the head, and for a moment I feared this was going to turn into a wrestling match. Or a make-out session. But then Dominic retreated to the kitchen, leaving me and Adam alone.
Adam gestured me toward the couch, and I sat reluctantly. My civilized self was horrified at what I was planning to say. And do. I licked my lips and tried to figure out how to get across what I meant without actually saying the words.
“I hope you don’t play poker,” Adam said.
I’d always had a habit of wearing my emotions where anyone could see them, and I didn’t suppose that was going to change anytime soon.
“We have to question Bradley Cooper,” I blurted, and we both knew what I meant by “question.”
Adam nodded. “I have no problem with saying I told you so.”
“Yeah, you’re a fucking genius.”
Each word coming with an effort, I told Adam what Lugh had made me remember. I also told him about Raphael’s refusal to shed any light on the situation.
I concluded with “Maybe it’s not that important…”
“You don’t believe that any more than I do,” Adam said. “If it weren’t important, Raphael wouldn’t give a damn if Lugh knew. Whatever it is, it’s so important that he thinks Lugh will punish him for it, despite all the help he’s been giving us.”
That made me frown. “Punish him how?”
“We have our own system of laws,” he answered vaguely. “Assuming we can ever get Lugh back on the throne, he’s going to be exercising a lot of them.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
One corner of his mouth lifted in a lopsided smile. “It means ‘ask Lugh.’ I don’t get to decide which state secrets to share with you.”
I shook my head in disgust. “The way you guys act, what you had for breakfast is a fucking state secret!”
“Ask Lugh,” he repeated, not perturbed by my pique.
I bit back any number of responses. I forced myself to change the subject back to that which I didn’t want to talk about.
“So I guess it’s important enough that we have to talk to Cooper.”
“Yeah,” Adam said, almost gently. “It may not be as bad as you think. You’ve met him. You know what a weasel he is. When you confront him with what you remember, he may break down and tell you everything.”
It made a nice fantasy.
“Intimidation also makes for a very effective interrogation technique,” Adam tried again. “One I’m very good at, I might add.”
Why he was trying to soothe my conscience, I didn’t know. I gave him a sad smile and patted him on the shoulder. “I appreciate the effort, but the damage is already done. Even if we don’t have to lay a finger on him, even if all I have to do is tell him what I already know and he spews out everything, I know just how far I would go, and it’s not a good feeling.”
“When the idea starts to get to you, just remember what he was willing to do to you as a thirteen-year-old girl. And ask yourself if you could possibly be the only child he’s ever hurt.”
I winced. Was it terribly egocentric of me to think I was the only one? Or was it merely naive? “No one deserves to be tortured.”
To that, Adam had no answer.
CHAPTER 23
Cooper lived in a charming Victorian house in the suburbs. When Adam and I pulled into the driveway, I felt a pang of longing for the house I had lost in the fire.
Of course, Cooper being a high muckety-muck in the Spirit Society, his house was on a different scale than mine had been. He was twice divorced, with no children, and I couldn’t imagine what he did with all that extra space. Maybe he held Society meetings there.
His car was hidden in the garage, but there were lights on in the house, so we figured he was home. Adam turned to me when we brought the car to a stop.
“Are you ready for this, love?”
I grimaced. “No, I’m not ready. I’ll never be ready.”
He reached over and patted my leg in a way I would have objected to if I weren’t so freaked out. “Then you’re as ready as you’ll ever be.”
I grunted something he took for agreement, and we both got out of the car. My skin was clammy with sweat, and my mouth was dry. Thoughts collided and fought in my brain, and I wished I could think of some reason to stall. With Adam standing beside me as if to block my escape, I rang the bell. As we waited, I bit the inside of my cheek to try to moisten my mouth.
When I’ve described Cooper as a weasel, it hasn’t been just because of his personality. He’s tall and thin, with small beady eyes he makes even beadier-looking with his round-rimmed glasses, and buck teeth he should have had corrected when he was a child. His hair had been gray and thinning for as long as I’d known him, and no one had told him the comb-over didn’t actually camouflage incipient baldness. It was no surprise that, despite his reverence for demons, he’d never had the “privilege” to host. Who the hell would want to spend a lifetime looking like that?
He blinked a couple of times when he saw me on the doorstep, his nose twitching in his most weasely manner. His eyes went wide when he looked past my shoulder and saw Adam standing there.
“May we come in?” I asked when it became clear he could stand there in silence for hours.