The Devil's Due (25 page)

It was only by force of will that I was able to sound relatively calm. “I’m having déjà vu,” I said to Raphael as Dom rushed to Adam’s side. “This is the part where you change sides again, isn’t it?”

He smiled at me. “No. This is the part where we cut through the bullshit and get this over with in something less than five years.” He put the Taser away. He was still holding the trigger for the stun belt, so Tommy wasn’t going anywhere, though I’m sure he must have been enjoying this evidence of dissension in the ranks.

Dominic, after confirming that Adam wasn’t injured, took a menacing step toward Raphael. I grabbed his arm, but he was a lot bigger than me, so I wasn’t stopping him if he was determined to play macho man. It wasn’t typical behavior for him, but he was as capable of going Tarzan as anyone when his lover was hurt.

Raphael snorted. “Trust me, Dominic. You don’t want to start something with me.”

“Come on, Dom,” I said, pulling on his arm. “Let’s not make this any worse than it already is.” I noticed suddenly that Lugh hadn’t made an effort to surface, which he usually would have done the moment there was even the slightest hint of danger. I wondered if that meant he knew where Raphael was going with this and didn’t object. I hoped so.

Raphael turned to Tommy once more. “We haven’t been properly introduced. My name’s Andrew Kingsley, and I used to host Raphael.” Tommy’s face paled at the mention of Raphael’s name. “Let me lay it out for you simply. These folks,” Raphael said, jerking his thumb in our general direction, “may be badasses in the torture department, but I make them look like pussycats. Raphael taught me everything he knows, as it were. And as you’re probably aware, he knows a hell of a lot. Dominic, do you have a fire extinguisher in your kitchen?”

“What the—”

“Just answer me!” Raphael snapped.

Dom’s olive skin had paled more than I would have thought possible. “Yes.” Of course he did—his kitchen was practically professional grade, except for the pedestrian appliances that came with the house.

“Get it.”

Dom looked to me for confirmation. I nodded, and Dom hurried out.

“Now,” Raphael said, turning his attention to Tommy once more, “you might be wondering why I need a fire extinguisher. Let me clear that up for you real fast.” Still holding the stun belt trigger in one hand, he fished a flask out of his pocket. Man, he’d really loaded up for this. You could tell he’d worked in a lab before, because he had no trouble twisting the cap off the flask with one hand.

Smiling evilly, Raphael blew over the mouth of the flask, spreading the distinctive scent of gasoline throughout the room. I’d thought Dominic was pale; Tommy looked like he was auditioning for a part as an albino.

Dominic returned to the room, fire extinguisher in hand. His face went from white to green when he sniffed the air.

“You might want to get Adam out of the way,” Raphael said. “We don’t want him getting singed.”

Please, God, let this be a bluff. Only I knew Raphael too well. He wasn’t bluffing. I could see it in his eyes, and I bet Tommy could, too.

Dominic looked like he wanted to argue, but one look from Raphael banished whatever he’d been about to say. He put down the fire extinguisher, then grabbed Adam under the arms and pulled him away from Tommy.

“I’m sure if they thought they could take me, Morgan and Dominic would try to stop me from lighting you,” Raphael said to Tommy. “Adam would even have been able to do it, but he’s not available to come to your rescue just now. So here’s the deal: you tell me where those children are, who’s holding them, and how many of them there are, and I’ll let Morgan exorcize you.

“Otherwise, I start toasting marshmallows and lead Dominic and Morgan in a rousing rendition of ‘Kumbaya.’ Which would you prefer?”

Tommy didn’t answer immediately. I think he was on the verge of hyperventilating. It seemed he hadn’t been prepared to face threats of death.

Raphael splashed some gasoline out of his flask onto Tommy’s lap. Tommy yelped and tried to get away, but Raphael held up the trigger.

“I wouldn’t if I were you. Who knows? The stun belt might not react well with gasoline. Now tell me where the kids are. If I have to ask you again, I’m going to light you.”

Tommy was trembling, and I didn’t think all the liquid that stained his jeans was gasoline. “If you kill me, you’ll never find those children,” he said through chattering teeth.

“If you’re willing to let me kill you rather than tell me where they are, you’re no good to us anyway.” He splashed out a little more gas, and Tommy started to cry.

“Okay, okay!” he said, and it was practically a scream. “I’ll tell you. Just don’t—”

“Don’t waste time telling me you’re
going
to tell me. Just tell me.”

“They’re in the basement of Claudia’s house.”

Raphael laughed. “Yeah, right. Try another one.”

“They
are
!” Tommy insisted, white showing all around his eyes. “We took them to a safe house overnight, but none of us wants to take care of a couple of screaming, sniveling brats. So we went back to the Brewsters’ place with them. That way Claudia can feed them and clean up after them while we keep them … contained.”

Raphael looked skeptical, and Tommy’s voice rose even higher. “I swear, I’m telling the truth! We’ve got a hostage to spare, so if Devon or Claudia try anything stupid, they know we can kill one without losing our leverage. They wouldn’t dream of risking those kids’ lives.”

“Hmm,” Raphael said, still not looking entirely convinced. “Just how long are you planning to keep them there, anyway?”

Tommy swallowed hard. “Three months.”

“What happens in three months?” I asked, though I already knew it wouldn’t be anything pleasant.

Tommy didn’t answer immediately, so Raphael splashed out a little more gas. That loosened Tommy’s tongue.

“After three months of Claudia seeming to accept me as legal, there won’t be so much of a spotlight on me.”

“That’s not what I asked,” I said.

Tommy wouldn’t meet anyone’s eyes. Maybe that meant he felt some remorse. “We were going to shut them up permanently. There was going to be a fire at the house. Since Claudia and Tommy would have been on seemingly good terms by then, no one would suspect me, especially when we left evidence that Tommy’s God’s Wrath buddies had targeted him.”

If Raphael felt any moral outrage at the plan, he didn’t show it. “How many demons are in that house?”

“There’ll be at least two or three demons in there with them at this time of night. If you try to rescue the girls, you’ll just end up getting them killed.”

Raphael sneered. “That’s not so big a deterrent when you’ve already admitted that you and your friends are going to kill them anyway. But thanks for the advice. You’ve been most helpful.”

It sounded exactly like what the bad guy would say before he carried out the threat he’d promised not to. Apparently Tommy thought so, too, because he closed his eyes and sobbed.

“Don’t you dare!” Dominic said from across the room. He was sitting on the floor with Adam’s head on his lap. He’d have to dump Adam back on the floor if he wanted to get to the fire extinguisher.

Raphael chuckled. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to light him. He might be helpful in getting to those kids.”

Tommy snorted, amusing Raphael even more.

“Oh,
you
won’t be in him when he does. Morgan will take care of that.” He frowned. “I suppose we might want to get you out of those wet clothes. Morgan uses candles for the exorcism ritual, and I think that might be a bad idea just now.”

Actually, I used vanilla-scented candles, and I didn’t exactly carry them around with me at all times. I wondered what the chances were that Adam and Dom had some lying around, but I figured they were slim. I bit my lip, wondering if I’d be able to get into the necessary trance state without my traditional trigger.

I averted my eyes as Tommy took off his wet clothes. My eyes landed on Adam and Dominic. Adam was beginning to regain control of his limbs, but Dom wasn’t letting him sit up yet. If Adam wasn’t strong enough to fight Dom’s restraint, then he wasn’t ready to sit up.

“Someone should get a trash bag for Tommy’s clothes,” I said to no one in particular. Raphael was busy menacing Tommy, Adam was still too weak, and Dominic wasn’t about to leave his lover’s side, so I slipped out of the room.

I made an educated guess as to where I might find trash bags and headed for the kitchen. It wasn’t until I tried to open the cabinet under the sink that I realized my hands were shaking. I supposed Raphael had saved us a lot of time—and, in a strange sort of way, saved Tommy a lot of suffering—by his methods. That didn’t mean I liked them. I shuddered and tried not to think about what it would have been like in there if Raphael had lit the fire.

I found the trash bags, but then took a minute or two to splash some cold water on my face and pull myself together as best I could. Yeah, I was a real badass, all right.

By the time I got back to the room, Adam had recovered enough to sit up. Dom helped him to his feet, and Adam struggled over to the big black bed, sitting down heavily when he reached it.

“You going to be okay?” Dom asked, and Adam nodded.

Dom took the trash bag from my hand, stuffed Tommy’s clothes into it, then took the bag away. The room still reeked of gas, and I wasn’t sure lighting candles would be a good idea, even if Adam and Dom had the requisite vanilla.

“We discussed logistics while you were gone,” Raphael said. “Dom’s going to get the candles.”

“I don’t suppose you’ve got vanilla,” I muttered at Adam.

He looked a little woozy from the Taser shot still, but he managed to smile at me. “Actually, we do. Candles can be a lot of fun, and vanilla’s an erotic scent.”

I must have looked as clueless as I was, because, of course, Adam had to elaborate.

“Think of it as a kind of erotic hot wax treatment,” he said, then waggled his brows at me.

Predictably, my face went hot. I admit I’m pretty naive where the practices of S&M are concerned, and I’d have been perfectly happy to stay that way. Dominic returned with the candles, saving me from having to think of the perfect reply.

“Move away from the wall,” Raphael ordered Tommy.

Tommy didn’t seem to have any fight left in him. He just did as he was told. Without me having to ask, Dom started laying out the candles in a circle around Tommy. The circle isn’t really necessary for the ritual, but I knew this was going to be a particularly tough exorcism, and I was happy to fall back on tradition.

I wasn’t overly concerned that I wouldn’t be able to exorcize Tommy’s demon. It was what would happen next that had my stomach tied into knots.

Would I really give Tommy over to another demon? In a rare flash of insight, I realized part of the reason I’d been so desperate to exorcize Tommy’s demon was my inability to exorcize my own. If I couldn’t be free of the demons, at least I could free one other lost soul.

Take one problem at a time,
I advised myself, but I’m lousy at taking advice, even my own.

Considering what scum the demon who’d taken Tommy was, in all probability, he’d come out the other end of this exorcism brain damaged, maybe even brain-dead. Would it really be so wrong of me to let Raphael or Saul take him then? If he was going to be a prisoner in his own body anyway …

The scent of vanilla drew me out of my tumultuous thoughts, and I saw that Dom had started lighting the candles. Needing to
do
something, not just stand still and think, I took over the candle-lighting duties. Though I dragged my feet a bit, all too soon the last candle was lit.

Everything was ready for me. The only question was, was I ready myself?

Hell, no. But that didn’t stop me.

Trying to still the clamoring of my mind, I sat cross-legged facing Tommy. He looked much younger now than he had before, with his red-rimmed eyes and pale skin. He’d drawn his knees up to his chest and wrapped his arms around them, whether because he was cold or because he was trying to cover his nakedness, I didn’t know. I felt a tug of pity, then shook my head.

This wasn’t Tommy Brewster. This was a demon who’d taken over Tommy’s body. And I wasn’t going to hurt the demon—more’s the pity—I was just going to send him back to the Demon Realm.

Taking a deep breath and hoping my nerves would steady, I let my eyes slide closed. The warm scent of vanilla enfolded me, and I felt my muscles begin to relax—a conditioned response for which I was very thankful at the moment. It took me longer than usual to get myself into the trance and open my otherworldly eyes, but I managed it.

In my otherworldly vision, I can see only the living. They show up as patches of bright, primary colors in a never-ending sea of black. Demons glow bloodred, and I had a moment of primal terror as I cast my vision around the room and saw the three red auras that hovered so close to me. Only Dominic showed up in the human blue that I thought of as “normal.”

I shook off that moment of fear and concentrated on the aura I knew was Tommy’s. I gathered my will, my power, whatever it was that gave me the ability to exorcize demons, waiting until I’d drawn in every ounce I could find.