City of Demons

Richelle Mead

Chapter One

There is a time and a place for a skimpy white nightgown. A misty island in the middle of winter is not one of them, but I’d certainly done stupider things to get a guy’s attention.

“Hey,” I yelled for the third time. I leaned one hip against the doorway, hoping to offer a better view of my figure. “You’re going to freeze to death out there.”

The man I addressed was sitting back in a lawn chair, posture easy and relaxed, with his long legs propped up and a laptop balanced in front of him. In the distance, early morning fog hung across the still water, nearly obscuring the dark shapes of other islands. After several more moments, Seth Mortensen—who dubiously carried the title of my boyfriend—slowly looked up from the screen and focused on me. Soft sunlight glinted on his brown hair, giving it a slight coppery glow.

“I don’t know,” he said thoughtfully, eyes lingering on my chest. “You look like you’re the one who’s freezing.”

I petulantly crossed my arms, careful to leave my breasts and their attention-seeking nipples visible. “Are you coming inside or not?”

“I have a coat. I’m fine.”

“You promised me breakfast.”

“I just need another half-hour to finish this chapter.”

“That’s what you said a half-hour ago.”

“I mean it this time.” He looked back down. I was losing him. Damn it. This nightgown was one of my best. “Half-hour.”

“Fine,” I snapped. “Take all the time you want. I don’t care. I’m going to go take a shower. A really long, slow, and sensuous shower.”

No response.

“With lots of hot water and soap to make sure I get every inch of me clean. I’ll probably have to do a lot of rubbing.”

No response.

With a huff, I spun around and went back inside the bedroom, slamming the door loudly behind me. The cottage we were renting on Orcas Island only had this one bedroom, and it was small, with a messy, quilt-covered bed taking up most of the space. The front of the house had a kitchen smaller than my closet at home, and the bathroom here was tinier still. But this place had been ours for the weekend, and it was cozy and quiet and romantic. The kind of place you and your beloved could go to escape the world. To grow emotionally closer. To have mad, passionate, backbreaking sex.

If, of course, you could actually have sex with said beloved person without dire, soulaltering consequences.

With a sigh, I turned on the shower and waited for the water to heat up. I tossed my nightgown onto the bed and paced around naked, pondering not for the first time how an awardwinning succubus could be so ineffectual—especially around a guy that was allegedly in love with me. Of course, the fact that said guy and I couldn’t touch in any meaningful way kind of made things difficult. Being a succubus meant I was immortal and could shape-shift into any form I chose. The cost of that was that I had to steal energy and life from other people—through sex. So, yeah, that sort of put a damper on our romantic escapade here since I refused to consummate our love and shorten his life.

Halfway through my shower, the curtain jerked open. I yelped and saw Seth standing outside. He still had that same casual posture, but there was a glint of something very warm and very male in his brown eyes as he surveyed me.

“After writing white nightgown ten times, I decided it was time to quit.”

“Well. You’re too late. I took it off.”

“I can see that.” He didn’t sound disappointed.

With deliberate slowness, I let my slick hands run down my body, wiping away the last of the soap. His eyes followed. Then, with feigned haughtiness, I snapped the curtain closed in front of him.

“Go away. I need another half-hour.”

He opened the curtain right up again and reached into the tiny stall to shut the water off, oblivious to his own clothes getting wet. “You’re done.”

“Am not.”

“Are too.”

I pointed to the towel hanging on the bar. “Look, you’ve displeased me this morning. Immensely. But, if you apologize profusely and beg my forgiveness, I might let you dry me off. Might.”

A wicked, playful look shone in his eyes, and I loved it. Seth was normally pretty shy and introverted. Seeing his dark and passionate side surface was always a treat. He grabbed the towel and stepped back, waving it tauntingly, like a matador.

“You aren’t the one making demands here, Thetis.” Thetis was his nickname for me, in honor of a shape-shifting nymph from Greek mythology. “If you beg, then I might let you have the towel.”

“What kind of a threat is that? I can just shape-shift—”

“Is this a bad time, Georgie?”

My mouth clamped shut as I stared beyond Seth. There, standing on the other side of the small bathroom, was my boss. Jerome was a demon— arch demon, in fact—who controlled all hellish activities in the greater Seattle area. He also looked like…well, John Cusack. Seriously—

if you gave him a boom box to hold over his head, he would have been a dead ringer for the star of Say Anything. Out of instinct, I wrapped my arms ineffectually around my nakedness. It was very Garden of Eden.

“Please,” Jerome said, rolling his eyes. “You have no idea how uninterested I am in your body.”

Seth meanwhile had noticed my deer-in-the-headlights expression. He looked at me, glanced back to where I stared, and then turned back to me. “What’s wrong?”

Jerome was invisible to mortal eyes. Only I could see—or hear—him.

“So what are you doing here then if you aren’t spying?” I demanded. Seth opened his mouth to say something else, and I waved him off with my hand. He stayed quiet, suddenly realizing something immortal was afoot.

Jerome pulled a large manila envelope out of his black suit jacket. “I’m here to give you your plane ticket.”

“My—what?”

“You’re going to Los Angeles for me.”

“Am I?” I attempted a little cockiness, but mostly I sounded confused. Because I was.

“Yes,” he replied. “I was summoned for a tribunal. You’re going to go in my place.”

“What kind of tribunal?”

He waved his hands in a dismissive gesture. “Fuck if I know. Some duel. A demon got destroyed or some such idiocy, and they’re having a hearing to figure out who did it.”

I fell silent, processing the implications of what he was saying. “So…what? You got jury duty and you’re pushing it off on me?”

“I’m reminding you that you work for me. And I’m telling you that you’re going to Los Angeles.”

More moments of silence. “They summoned you,” I argued. “They aren’t going to use me instead.”

“They will. Hugh filed the paperwork this morning.” The demon tapped the envelope, indicating the appropriate forms were inside.

“Why? Why me?” I asked.

“Because I have better things to do. And you always seem to be so interested in other people’s business.” He paused, face suddenly thoughtful. “And you might actually have something useful to offer.”

That last sentence piqued my curiosity, but I didn’t pursue it. “When am I supposed to go?”

“Tonight.”

“I can’t.”

Jerome’s dark eyes narrowed. “I’m sorry, Georgie. It almost sounded like you were defying me.”

“I was. I can’t go. Not tonight.” I threw my hands up, indicating the cottage as a whole.

“We have this for the entire weekend. It wasn’t cheap.”

He closed his eyes, and I had the distinct impression he was counting to ten. Jerome holding his temper was a rare thing. This might be a more serious affair than I realized. Meanwhile, Seth was simply watching and listening, no doubt trying to parse what was going on based on only hearing one side of the conversation.

Jerome’s eyes opened. “Your weekend in a shit cottage on a shit island is none of my concern.”

“I see,” I said angrily. “So, it’s okay for you to inconvenience me so long as it’s convenient to you.”

“Yes.”

“No. I’ve done a lot for you lately. You owe me.”

“I owe you nothing, Georgie. You’re an unruly employee, and you’re lucky I tolerate you.”

That wasn’t entirely inaccurate. Not only did I feel guilty about sleeping with Seth, I also didn’t like to sleep with nice guys in general. They didn’t deserve to lose their life energy and get wiped out. Of course, those were exactly the kind of guys Hell wanted damned, so my employers didn’t appreciate me only going after corrupt men. I had “improved” recently for the sake of my career, but Jerome really had put up with a lot from me in the past.

“It’s not fair,” I growled.

Jerome snorted and spoke in a simpering voice. “Oh, oh. You’re right, Georgina. It isn’t fair. Thank you for helping me see the error of my ways.”

I glared. “You’re a real asshole, Jerome.”

“That,” he said seriously, “is the first reasonable thing you’ve said since I got here.” He tossed the envelope onto the toilet lid. Seth jumped as it became visible. “This is neither an option nor a request. You will go to L.A. tonight.”

Jerome turned, and I knew he was about to disappear. Anger and frustration flared inside me, mainly because there was nothing I could do. Suddenly, he stopped and sighed. He glanced back at me, annoyance all over him. A rectangular piece of white paper materialized in his hand. A plane ticket. He tossed it on top of the envelope.

“Take the human with you.”

Jerome vanished.

After almost a minute of silence, Seth finally figured out that our visitor was gone. “You okay?” he asked.

“Yeah,” I said shaking my head to clear it. “I think so.”

Seth pointed to the papers. “What is that? What’s going on?”

I took the towel from him without challenge and wrapped it around me. “This trip’s about to take a different direction.”

“Oh? How?”

“We’re going to the City of Angels.” I paused and reconsidered. “Or rather, the City of Demons.”

The great thing about Los Angeles, at least, was that it was warm. And when you were just starting December in Seattle…well, even smog and urban sprawl seemed like small sacrifices for sun and surf.

Our flight down was uneventful. Seth worked on his laptop. I browsed through the papers in the envelope, trying to figure out what I’d gotten myself into. When we’d landed and retrieved our baggage, I hailed our cab and gave the driver the address. Seth, still engrossed in whatever novel he was writing, didn’t pay much attention to the ride. So, he was kind of surprised when we arrived and he stepped out of the taxi.

“A Marriott?” he asked, looking up at the building in front of us.

“Yup.”

“But…” He frowned and took a suitcase from the driver. Seth’s reticence in conversation usually came from a need to choose his words carefully. I could tell this particular moment called for special care. “You’re going to some kind of demonic council, right?”

“Yes.”

“And it’s at a Marriott.”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

Luggage in hand, we walked into the lobby. It was wide and round, with a faux marble floor and a huge, gaudy chandelier that looked shabby and cheap. I was willing to bet its sparkling shards were made of plastic, not crystal.

“Why not?” I returned. “They’ve got to hold it somewhere.”

“Yeah…but why not around a bonfire in the middle of the woods? Or at least a Masonic temple.”

I walked toward the desk and crooked him a grin. “No room service.”

Our room was nothing special, but that didn’t matter. I’d gone into this weekend wanting to spend time with Seth, and now we could have it. Sort of. In fact, depending on how long this absurd tribunal went, we could be spending a lot of time together. But, the trial didn’t start until tomorrow, so for now, it was just me and him. The thought filled me with happiness, and I was almost able to forget I was here against my will.

Feeling saucy, I patted the bed. “Want to break it in?”

Seth raised an eyebrow, and I immediately felt stupid. Of course we couldn’t break it in. The joke had risen to my lips without thinking. Suddenly, like that, the bubble of joy burst, and reality slammed into me. It didn’t matter if I was on a cold island or a queen-size bed with a plaid comforter. Seth and I could never reach the intimate levels we both craved. I don’t know why it hit me so hard just then, but that’s how it was. Sometimes I could deal with the hands-off nature of our relationship; sometimes it killed me. But, regardless, it was better than killing him.

Seth, noticing my mood change, smiled gently. The physical limitations we faced saddened him too, but he dealt with them with infinite patience. I’d told him he was welcome to get cheap sex anywhere since I was certainly busy myself with succubus “duties,” but he never took me up on the offer. He always said he wanted to be with me and me alone. He wouldn’t be budged. His strength continually amazed me.

Ignoring the awkwardness created by the joke, he shook his head. “I’m too tired to break it in. But you, Georgina…well, if you want to…”

The dangerous smile was back on his face, and I could feel a similar one coming onto my lips. We might not be able to touch each other without serious repercussions, but I could touch myself without any sort of loss.

And Seth…well, Seth loved to watch.

Chapter Two

The next morning, Seth and I headed downstairs to the trial. I stifled a yawn in the elevator and leaned my head against his shoulder. He slid his hand down to my lower back and brushed an absentminded kiss into my hair.

“This is going to be a long day.” I sighed.

“Did you read up on the…case?” The catch in his voice showed how weird he still found all of this. I didn’t blame him. When I nodded, he asked, “What’s it about?”

The elevator reached the lobby, and I waited until we had stepped outside and were away from the other occupants.

“Murder,” I said, yawning again.

Seth looked at me.

“Murder,” he repeated flatly.

“Yup.”

We started walking toward the hotel’s meeting rooms. After several moments of silence, he finally spoke again.

“I can’t believe you just yawned while saying that.”

“It’s not very exciting.”

“It’s murder. And aren’t we…aren’t we dealing with immortals here?”

We reached a long corridor and suddenly slammed into a wall of people. There were a few humans mixed in with the bunch, but most were immortals. Demons. Vampires. Imps. Even a few succubi and incubi. I rarely spent time around this many immortals, however, and nearly staggered from the force of all those signatures—auras, if you will. It was heady and oppressive. Like breathing in too much perfume.

I peered around them. “Jesus. This is the line to get in.” I hated lines.

“Georgina.”

I turned back to Seth. “Huh?”

“Murder? Immortals?”

“Oh. Well. It can happen. You know that.”

“Yeah, but the last time it happened, you weren’t this calm.”

He had a point, and I shivered involuntarily, recalling the incident he referred to.

“Well…that time involved a serial killer taking out immortals at random. And who, um, had a crush on me. No one knew what it—he—was. This time, it’s pretty obvious what happened. A demon destroyed another demon.”

It was something demons did from time to time. And honestly, when you considered demons’ selfish and prickly natures, it was a wonder it didn’t happen more often. Sometimes demons would set up formal duels. Sometimes one would just get pissed and incinerate the other. Demons varied in strength, and two who were matched in power mostly just tended to circle and scuff each other up. When the power levels varied wildly…well, things ended pretty quickly.

Regardless of how it went down, destroying each other was not looked upon favorably among our masters. It was disorderly and annoying and created a lot of paperwork for the personnel department.

“If it’s obvious, then why are you here?” Seth wanted to know.

“Because they don’t know which demon did the, uh, smiting. All the evidence shows a demonic attack; there’s no question about that. What they have to figure out here is who the murderer is, so they can make an example of him or her.”

“An example? Like capital punishment?”

“Not exactly. But trust me, you’re really happier not knowing any more than that.”

An imp standing in front of us turned around. He’d apparently overheard us.

“She means torture.” He grinned at the two of us, revealing a mouth full of gold fillings. With his green suit and feathered derby, I think he was going for some kind of pimp look. Mostly it put me in mind of a porn star Robin Hood. Robin of Cocksley, maybe. Or perhaps Friar Suck.

“Me? I’m guessing flaying, but my buddy Roger swears it’s going to be disemboweling. I was just talking to this other guy in the bar last night, and he thinks Noelle’s pissed enough that they’ll actually flay and disembowel the poor bastard. Thinks they might even get some wraiths to do it—and you know how those little buggers are. They really get into ripping out intestines. Fuck, I don’t even think they care about eating the entrails. They just play with them half the time. Spin ’em like lassos. Wear ’em like boas.” He winked at me. “We’re starting a pool. You want in, sweetheart?”

“No, thanks.” I glanced over at Seth who wore the kind of shocked look accident survivors had. “Demons heal,” I said hastily. “None of it’s permanent.”

He swallowed. “And so, they flay…or whatever…this guy, and that’s that?”

Our new friend the imp answered before I could. “Well, you gotta understand that the flaying or disemboweling takes a long time.”

“How long?”

The imp narrowed his eyes thoughtfully. “Oh, I don’t know. Three, four centuries. Maybe five, depending on how bad a mood the judge is in.”

“Five centuries?” Seth exclaimed. “And that works? Stops repeat offenders? Discourages others?”

“No.” The imp and I spoke in unison.

“But it certainly makes them think twice,” I said.

The imp stood on his tiptoes, trying to see the front of the line. “Yeah, some of the punishment’s public, so it sets a pretty harsh example. Pretty cool, really. Too bad we’ll have to wait days to see it. It’d be a lot easier if they just did a reading and got it over with.”

“Reading?” asked Seth. “What’s that?”

“It’s something immortals can do to each other. It’s a way of…” I grasped at words for something I barely understood myself. “…viewing someone’s mind and soul. More than a viewing…it’s almost like a union with them. You can see their experiences, know if they’re telling the truth. You feel them.”

“Whoa. Wouldn’t that be a lot less trouble then?” he wanted to know. “And wouldn’t it make sure the wrong person wasn’t flayed?”

“It’s soul rape,” said the imp.

Seething Seth’s puzzled look, I explained more delicately. “Letting someone look into your soul is pretty invasive. It completely exposes you—opens up everything inside of you. And from what I hear, it’s a pretty horrible experience, so no one does it willingly. A more powerful immortal could force it on someone else, but even demons don’t like to cross that line. It’d be like…”

“Soul rape,” repeated the imp.

I could tell from his expression that Seth still didn’t quite follow. “And so, even though that would reveal the truth right away…it’s still easier just to go through this whole process?”

“Yeah,” I told him. “Demons want to hide their souls. Besides, with the way they lie, one could look inside another and swear they saw something that wasn’t actually true. So then they’d have to get more demons to find out what’s real. Makes everything a mess.”

“This is going to be some trial,” muttered Seth, shaking his head.

“Technically,” I said, “this won’t be a trial at all—at least not in the sense you’re used to. It’s more like a…a tribunal, I guess. There are suspects—but they don’t get lawyers. They just get examined by the prosecution and the jury. The jury decides who they think is guilty. A judge keeps everyone from killing each other in the meantime.”

“No lawyers?” Seth considered. “Let me guess. You guys are the ultimate guilty-untilproven-innocent group.”

“No. Well, I mean, yes, but that’s not why. Really, in the grand scheme of things, this is kind of a small dispute. Anthony—the guy who got killed—was a minor demon. They threw together this tribunal because no one wanted to go to the trouble of having a formal hearing. If they did, then that would have a lot more procedure and whatnot. It’d probably take place in Hell itself too. Not a Marriott.”

“I hear that,” said the imp in disgust. “This place is a dive. Last time I went to one of these, it was at a Hyatt.” He shook his head, clearly appalled at the collapse of Hellish civilization. “Fucking cheapskates.”

When we finally made it to the head of the line, the demon working the door gave me a hard time. His eyes flicked coldly over the paperwork I handed him. He promptly handed it back.

“You aren’t Jerome.”

“I’m his proxy.”

“A succubus can’t be a proxy.”

He started to turn to the person behind me, but I jabbed him in the arm with my finger. He glared.

“Well, obviously I can, or he wouldn’t have sent me. Read it again.”

I actually hadn’t read the document. When Jerome had given it to me, I’d assumed everything was in order and devoted my attention to actually figuring out what this case was about. I had, however, seen my name on the last page and figured that was the important part. I opened to that sheet and pointed.

“See?”

“It’s invalid.”

“You didn’t even read it!”

“I’m sure he read it,” a voice nearby suddenly said. “Because surely, surely, Marcus, you wouldn’t offhandedly dismiss a potential juror—particularly one sent by one of the more powerful archdemons in the country. Not only would that be rude and likely incur his wrath, it would also create chaos here when we realized we were down a juror. And that, my friend, would incur my wrath. Now, surely, surely, that isn’t what you want.”

All three of us turned to the speaker. He was a demon, like Marcus the bouncer, but even a mortal like Seth—without the benefit of reading signatures—could immediately assess the difference in strength. The newcomer radiated power, and it wasn’t just his six-foot-five height and broad shoulders.

“Er…well…” Marcus jerked the papers away from me, suddenly unable to read them fast enough. He practically dropped them in the process and stared at the bundle a full ten seconds before realizing he held the sheets upside down. He flipped the stack upright, scanned through it, and then handed it back. “My mistake. You’re cleared.”

Seth and I walked into the crowded meeting room, the largest one the hotel had. It was one of the ballroom-size ones that wedding receptions were often held in. My benefactor fell into step beside us.

“My, my,” he said pleasantly. “What is this world coming to when they let succubi sit on juries? It’s like we have no standards left at all. Might as well put the suspects’ names in a bag and draw a victim—er, culprit—at random.”

We stopped walking, and a grin crept over my face. “They’re trying to add a little class to these things, Luis, that’s all.”

He grinned back. “‘Class?’ Is that what the kids are calling it these days?” The giant demon leaned down and hugged me. “Nice to see you again.”

“You too,” I said.

Luis’ gaze fell on Seth. “It’s apparently a sign of the times too when succubi have human minions.”

“He’s my boyfriend.”

Luis shrugged. “Same difference.”

Rolling my eyes, I introduced them. “Luis used to be my boss,” I explained. “Like Jerome. Only more fun.”

“And sterner with unruly succubi,” Luis added.

I thought about Jerome’s recent behavior. “Debatable.”

“Well, we can battle it out later.” He glanced at his watch. “Right now, I’ve got to go take my place.”

“Are you a juror too?” I asked hopefully. It might make this thing a little more entertaining.

He gave me an incredulous look, like I’d just insulted him. “Me? On a jury? Come on, you know me better than that. I’m the judge.”

Chapter Three

The other jurors had reactions similar to Marcus the doorman’s when they saw me.

“This isn’t the Junior League, doll,” one of them told me. “You can’t just sit here and look pretty. This is serious business.” The demon who told me this appeared to be drunk. Considering demons could sober up at will, he was purposely staying inebriated. Serious business indeed.

A few made uncomplimentary remarks about Jerome. One expressed jealousy over not thinking of sending a proxy herself. Most simply ignored me. The only one who treated me in a semi-friendly way was a guy who followed up his greeting with a proposition involving a whip, a waterbed, and peanut butter.

“I only use the organic kind,” he added, as though that would make a difference.

Hoping he referred to the peanut butter, I ignored him and turned my attention to the rest of the room. Blue linen covered small round tables set with pitchers of water and surprisingly cute flower arrangements. I’d left Seth at a table with a bunch of incubi, figuring that would be safest. Most incubi (and succubi) swung both ways, but the incubi would be more interested in hitting on human women. I hoped. I’d mainly wanted to keep Seth away from vampires and imps. The former would go after his blood, the latter his soul.

The jury of thirteen sat at the front, facing the crowd from a long rectangular table. Luis sat at a raised table to our left, looking bored. On the other side of him, another long table held three very unhappy-looking demons. A few empty seats separated them from a demoness and an imp that I believed to be the prosecution.

After scanning the room, my gaze fell back on Luis. He had an elbow propped up on the table, letting his chin rest in one hand as he too studied the room. His chin-length black hair fell forward and shielded his face like a curtain. Seeing him stirred a number of memories, most of which were good. He’d been my archdemon long ago, back when I lived in colonial Massachusetts. I’d gone there because I’d liked the idea of moving to a fledgling group of settlements; it had seemed like an adventure.

Luis had been a good boss, ready with a smile and scrupulously fair. He did not tolerate any slacking, however. That easy smile could turn fierce in the space of a heartbeat, and those who angered him didn’t get second chances. Fortunately, I’d performed my job well.

But in the end, even a cool boss like him couldn’t change my mind on one thing: colonial America was a dive. I’d soon lost interest in it and requested a transfer back to Europe, deciding I’d check back on the New World in a few centuries or so. Luis had been sad to see me go, but he knew a happy employee was a good employee and had expedited my transfer.

Watching him now, I saw that same instant transformation take place. One moment he was slouching and bored; the next he was straight in his chair, banging the gavel and demanding attention.

The hearing started.

I realized then what Jerome had meant when he said I might have something useful to offer. It soon became clear that I was the only juror paying attention. One leafed through a copy of Harper’s Bazaar. Another played sudoku. Two talked in low whispers, falling silent like guilty schoolchildren when Luis barked at them to be quiet. One demon at the end of the table had his eyes open, but I was pretty sure he was actually asleep.

As I had told Seth, this was mostly an opportunity for the prosecution to lay out their suspicions and evidence. The demoness I’d spotted at the end of the table was indeed Noelle, poor Anthony’s supervisor. Beauty among demons meant little since they could change their shape as easily as I could. Nonetheless, Noelle had chosen an especially gorgeous form in which to walk the mortal world, one I paid attention to for future shape-shifting inspiration. Not that I had plans to copy her identically, of course. Demons weren’t big subscribers to imitation being the sincerest form of flattery.

Her face was a perfect oval, framed by tumbles of jet-black ringlets that fell almost to her waist. Her skin was smooth and clear, a coppery tan color that set off the blue-green of her large, long-lashed eyes. She wore an ivory skirt and jacket, stylish yet professional, matched with goldbuckled high heels I very much coveted. After Luis, she was probably the most powerful demon in the room. Something about her reminded me of him, like perhaps she too was eager to smile and laugh. But also like Luis, business came first. She certainly wasn’t smiling now, nor did she seem likely to anytime soon. Those lovely eyes were narrowed with anger as she studied the three suspects. I’d heard that Anthony had been a particularly prized employee of hers.

Noelle did little talking, however. She left that to her imp, a shrewd-faced little woman named Margo. Imps were the administrative assistants of the demonic world, and I was willing to wager good money that Margo had been a real estate agent when she was human. She had the look of someone willing to say—and do—anything to get you to buy that haunted fixer-upper on the fault line.

Margo called up the first suspect, a demon slimmer than Luis but every bit as ripped. He had a shaved head and skin so dark there was no way he could walk out among humans without getting double-takes. Definitely not natural. Still, he made a striking, handsome figure, and I was a bit disappointed to learn his name was Clyde. It didn’t fit. I wanted him to be named Nicodemus or Shark or something cool like that.

“So, Clyde,” began Margo, “do you know why you’re here?” She spoke in a voice of utter boredom, like he was so beneath her as to barely deserve notice. I raised an eyebrow at this. She might technically be in the position of power here in the courtroom, but at the end of the day, he was a demon and she was an imp. There was no question about who sat at the top of the universe’s food chain.

From the look on Clyde’s face, I wasn’t the only one who’d noticed the condescension. The look he gave Margo would have sent me running.

“Yeah,” he said in a rumbling baritone. “I’m here because you guys have no clue who took out Anthony and need a scapegoat.”

Margo’s smile was thin and utterly fake. “Oh, I see. So, you’re here for no reason at all. It’s completely unfair. You have no connection whatsoever to Anthony that would make you a possible suspect. No reason at all that you would have wanted to kill him. You were just plucked out of your everyday life and dropped into this room because the world is cruel and unjust. Poor, poor Clyde.”

“Margo,” said Luis, his smooth voice sliding through the room like a blade. He didn’t even need the gavel to get attention. She jumped. “Stop your posturing and get on with this. If you want to get melodramatic, you can go join the community theater’s production of Our Town.”

I heard a few snickers, and Margo blushed. She turned back to Clyde, face sober as she became brisk and businesslike.

“You work here in Los Angeles?”

“Yes,” he said.

“Noelle’s been your archdemoness for almost a century?”

“Yes.”

“Which is about the same time Anthony worked for her?”

“Yes.”

“So,” she continued, a bit of that swagger returning, “when Noelle needed to appoint a new lieutenant, it was pretty clear to everyone that it’d be either you or him, based on seniority.”

The set of Clyde’s face turned hard. “Yes.”

“And when the time for her decision came and she picked him, that must have been terribly disappointing.”

He didn’t answer.

“Particularly since, by all accounts, you are—were—much, much more powerful than him. Am I right?”

Clyde remained silent, and I didn’t blame him. An acknowledgment of how much stronger he was than Anthony just proved how easily Clyde could have destroyed his rival.

“Answer the question,” said Luis in a firm voice.

Clyde grimaced. “Yes.”

Margo made a great show of flipping through some papers, but I had no doubt she already had everything in them memorized.

“So…let’s see.” More paper flipping. Down the table, the juror I’d suspected was sleeping began snoring. The demon beside him hit him in the arm, jolting him awake. “Okay,”

said Margo. “According to what I have here, you had nearly double Anthony’s power. That would have been a neat, easy kill. Over before anyone noticed it—which, from what we can tell, was exactly what happened.”

“I wouldn’t have destroyed him for that,” growled Clyde, his temper clearly rising.

“Noelle made her decision. That was that.”

“Not exactly.” Noelle spoke for the first time, and heads turned. She had a sweet, lilting voice. Like music. Even some of the other jurors started paying attention. “You came to me after I appointed him, and you were not happy. In fact, I recall you saying some very…ugly things to me.” She spoke crisply, all business-like. Even in the heat of an event like this, it was clear professionalism and calm were important to her. I admired that.

Although it was impossible to tell, I got the impression Clyde was blushing now. “I…was out of line, Noelle. I shouldn’t have said what I said, and I apologize for it. I apologized then, after the fact.” The words came out stiffly, but I got the impression they were sincere. Demons apologized. Who knew? “Although…not to place blame, but you were already upset when I walked in. You were in a bad mood, and it fed mine…and made what I said far worse than it might otherwise have been. Made me angrier than I normally would have been.”

“You admit you were angry.” Margo seized on this, a mongrel with a bone in her mouth.

“Angry enough to insult and talk back to your archdemoness. Angry enough—according to witnesses—to ‘exchange words’ with Anthony too.”

I could see Clyde’s chest rise and fall as he took a few deep breaths before speaking. There was a temper there behind those dark eyes—again, not surprising for a demon—but he was working hard to stay calm.

“Yes. I had a few…confrontations with Anthony. He wasn’t exactly humble about the promotion. We got into a few arguments.”

“Because you were angry,” reiterated Margo. “Angry enough to explode. Angry enough to kill him. You probably couldn’t blow him apart fast enough, could you? Or maybe you ripped him up…tore him limb from limb or something before incinerating him. Anything to sate the bloodlust inside of you, right?”

He narrowed his eyes. “Honestly? It’s been centuries since I had any bloodlust to sate. Funny thing, though…” He gave her a cold smile. “You’re inspiring me to maybe rip something apart after all.”

Luis sighed heavily and gestured to Margo. “Do you have anything else to add?”

The imp smiled smugly. “I think I’ve proven my point.”

Luis glanced over at us. “Does the jury have any questions for the suspect?”

We all sort of sat there a moment, squirming under the room’s attention. Then the demoness beside me raised her hand. Luis gave her permission to speak.

“So, did you call Noelle a bunch of names or something? What were they?”

“Yeah,” piped up another demon. “Did you call her a ladder-climbing, self-serving cunt?

That’d be a good one.” While I admired Noelle’s professional demeanor, it was obvious that others among us did not. I had the distinct impression my fellow jurors wanted to get a rise out of her.

Clyde’s angry face registered momentary surprise. Luis snorted.

“Don’t answer that,” said Noelle, nodding to Clyde. Her face was still composed.

“Ooh,” said my neighboring juror. “Then he must have called you a cunt, if you don’t want us to know.”

“I don’t care if you know what he said,” explained Noelle in exasperation. “But I’d rather you ask questions that are actually useful. This isn’t The Jerry Springer Show.”

“I agree,” said Luis, giving my neighbor a censuring look. “Does anyone have any questions that will actually facilitate this matter?”

Silence. I have to admit, I felt kind of appalled. Demons were demons, evil by nature. But they also tended to be very efficient and business-like. The apathy around me was disheartening, even among our ranks. Whoever had thrown together this jury had picked low-ranking demons, ones who were completely self-absorbed and would never rise up in the ranks. They weren’t shrewd like Jerome or commanding like Luis. They were bottom-feeders who’d be doing crappy jobs in Hell for the rest of eternity. They didn’t care about this case. They were probably only here for the free food.

Tentatively, I raised my hand, needing to ask a couple of things that I honestly couldn’t believe hadn’t come up yet.

I thought I saw amusement in Luis’ eyes when he noticed me. “Go ahead, Georgina.”

The silence in the room grew even heavier. I don’t think many of them had noticed there was a succubus on the jury until now. Even the center stagers—Noelle, Margo, and Clyde—

seemed surprised to see me.

I put on my customer service face, hoping I looked as calm and confident as Noelle.

“Where were you when Anthony was killed?”

Clyde didn’t answer right way, and I could tell from his gaze that he was appraising me in a new way. I don’t think he’d expected any sort of reasonable questioning in this courtroom. I don’t think anyone had.

“I was at home, watching a movie.”

“Was anyone with you?”

“No.”

“No alibi,” said Margo happily.

She was right, which didn’t help his case. On the other hand, I felt pretty confident a demon like Clyde could have gotten some low-ranking vampire or imp to lie for him and play alibi.

“Any other questions?” asked Luis.

“What movie did you watch?” asked the drunk juror.

Luis glared at him, then flicked his gaze back to me. “Any other questions?”

I thought about it. “When was the last time you saw Anthony?”

“That morning. He was leaving Noelle’s office while I was coming in.”

“Did you talk?”

“No. Well, cursory greetings…and even that seemed to piss him off. He was angry and in a hurry. Was kind of an asshole.” I had a feeling he might have elaborated, but Clyde probably realized trash-talking the guy he was accused of killing wasn’t too smart.

I nodded and looked back at Luis. “That’s all I’ve got.”

“Why did no one ask those questions right away?” Seth asked me later, back in our room. There’d been a little more procedure, and then the court had recessed for the day. “Those are, like, the most basic courtroom questions ever. ‘Where were you when this happened,’ etc., etc.”

I shrugged. “I know. None of them care.”

“Yeah, but there’s a five-century disembowelment on the line.”

“They’re demons,” I told them. There wasn’t more I could offer by way of explanation, and Seth seemed to understand.

“So, what about the other suspects?” he asked. “When will they be examined?”

“Tomorrow and the next day. Nobody wants to work too hard at these things, so they spread it out. In fact, most of the people watching are only here for the social aspect. It’s the party of the century.”

“Literally,” muttered Seth.

I laughed and brushed my lips against his cheek. “Well, speaking of parties, there’s one right now up in the penthouse. Wine and appetizers for dinner.”

A wary look crossed his face. “And you want to go.”

“It’s a party. And not everybody here sucks. Luis is cool.”

Seth was silent a moment, and I could almost see the wheels turning in his head. “Luis was…nice.”

“So, you want to come with me?” I asked. “It’ll be fun. I saw you packed your Moon Patrol shirt, so you can even dress up.”

He gave me a wry look at the shirt joke. “You know how I feel about parties and groups of immortals. This would be like…”

“A five-century flaying?”

“Yes. Exactly.”

“Coward.”

He caught me in his arms, pulling me to his chest. “Around this sort of thing? Yes. I make no pretense to bravery.”

“What are you going to do instead?” Like I didn’t know the answer.

“Are you kidding? There are five coffee shops around the corner with free wi-fi. I’ll have a new novel done by the time you get back from the party.”

I didn’t doubt it. And honestly, I couldn’t believe Seth had gone this whole day without getting any sort of writing done. It was truly a sign of his love for me.

But then, a wistful look appeared in his eyes, one that indicated that maybe writing wasn’t the only thing on his mind. “But I’d much rather spend time with you,” he said.

A pang of guilt thudded in my chest, and suddenly, I felt bad. This was supposed to be our getaway, and here I was, blowing him off for a party. But I did want to get a feel for this case and knew there’d be other opportunities for us to hang out.

So, I let him go on his way, with promises to get in touch later tonight. As for me, I set about figuring out what to wear to this shindig. I might not respect most of the demons here, but I wanted to be respected. I wanted to look like I could actually add some value to that jury. And, yeah, I just also wanted people to think I was hot. Demons are selfish. Succubi are vain.

I’d packed lightly on this trip so I wouldn’t have to check luggage, figuring I could just shape-shift on whatever I needed. Standing in front of the mirror, I conducted my own fashion show, trying on and dismissing a dozen different combinations. As much as I would have liked for Seth to go to the party with me, I was kind of glad he wasn’t here to see me trying on more outfits than a teenage girl.

Finally, I decided on a white charmeuse trapeze dress, the kind of dress that looks like a bag on anyone except a model. I had a model’s body but still cinched the dress with a wide, black leather belt that better defined my waist. Part of my light brown hair I pulled up into a high bun, the rest I let hang down my back. I was admiring the effect of black stilettos when I decided the white was too stark. I shifted the dress red, decided that was overkill, then settled on a pale gold shade that complimented the hazel-green of my eyes.

“You should have stuck with the white one,” a gravelly voice suddenly said behind me.

“It made you look angelic.”

Chapter Four

I spun around, swallowing a yelp. Who the fuck was in my room? I peered into the darkness. There, practically blending into the corner shadows, stood Clyde.

“Holy shit,” I said, as the demon stepped forward.

He smiled. “Sorry to startle you.”

“It…it’s okay.” I forced a smile of my own, trying to play cute succubus and not act like I was freaked out that a demon—possibly a demon murderer—had materialized in my room.

Then, it hit me.

“How can you be here?” I exclaimed. “Aren’t you under arrest?” I took a step backward.

“Oh, Jesus. You didn’t break out, did you?”

Still smiling, he shook his head. “They don’t keep me behind bars, Georgina. They—”

He paused thoughtfully. “Do you go by Georgina? Or do you prefer Gina? Or Georgie maybe?”

“Georgina,” I said. Bad enough there was already one demon in the world who called me Georgie. I’d told Jerome a hundred times not to call me that, but he never listened.

Clyde nodded, pleasant and cordial. There was no sign of the angry and frustrated demon I’d seen earlier. It was like we were already at the party, making small talk.

“Okay, Georgina. As I was saying, they don’t lock me up. I’m bound to this area, though. I’ve got about a three-mile radius around this hotel that I’m confined to. I try to leave, and believe me, they know.”

“Do they cut you off from your powers too?” I asked, by no means comfortable with this situation.

“Some, not all. If you’re worried about me blowing you up or something, don’t. Aside from the fact that I can’t, it would really hurt my case if I destroyed one of the jurors.”

Fair point.

“Okay,” I said, feeling only a little better. I still had my arms crossed in a weak attempt at protection. “Then what are you doing here?”

“Just thought it’d be nice to get to know you,” he said with a shrug. “Seeing as we’ve never met. A little chat to pass the time. I was very impressed with your performance in the courtroom today. I appreciated that you didn’t ask my underwear size or my favorite color.”

Disdain replaced the last of my fear. “You having chats with all the jurors tonight?”

I swear, that grin grew almost twice as wide and was reflected in his dark eyes. “You’re too smart to be here, Georgina. You might be the only one who actually cares about how this turns out. Well, aside from me and the other two.”

I shook my head. “If you’re here to bribe me, it won’t work.”

“No?”

“No.”

“Everyone can be bribed,” he countered. “It’s how you sold your soul in the first place. It’s just a matter of finding out what you want now. The other jurors? They have plenty of things they want, things I can deliver on once I’m free and back in power.”

“So, what? They’re all on your side?”

“Depends on what Starla and Kurt offer them. Believe me, every demon on the jury who casts a vote will do it based on a bribe. The question is, which bribe will each one take?”

“That’s…horrible.”

“We work for Hell, Georgina. You want fairness, go to the other side.”

“Luis is fair.” I spoke without thinking.

Clyde tilted his head, studying me from another angle. “If you’re thinking about running to him and telling on us, forget it. He knows what’s going on, knows he can’t stop it.”

I chewed on my lower lip. I had been thinking of going to Luis.

Clyde came closer. “So, what do you want? What’ll it take to get you to acquit me?”

“I told you, I don’t want anything—nothing badly enough to free you if you’re the one who did it.”

His face hardened, a serious look crossing his features. “That’s the point. I didn’t do it, but that doesn’t mean anything out there. They want someone to hang—literally and figuratively—and they’ll take whoever’s convenient.”

He sounded sincere again, but I wasn’t fooled. Demons were superb liars.

“Please go,” I said, hoping he hadn’t been lying about being unable to hurt me. That too had been convincing. “I’m not taking your bribe.”

“You’re a succubus,” he mused. “You don’t need money—that’s what Starla’ll probably offer you, by the way. But I’m guessing you’ve got plenty of your own—or can get it from some dying old man. Kurt…he’s smart. He might offer something good. Not sure which way he’ll go. But me…let’s see. Pleasure. That’s what you want.”

I choked on a laugh. “Pleasure? Baby, do you know how often I get laid?”

He waved his hand dismissively. “Probably more than me. But that doesn’t mean you like it.”

It was true. I didn’t always like it. Sometimes the act did it for me; sometimes not. But there was one part I always liked.

“I get my life from it,” I said honestly. “And when that happens—that rush—that transfer. That’s pleasure. That’s amazing. Better than the sex.”

“But wouldn’t it be nice to experience sex that was better than the transfer?”

I stared incredulously. “You’re trying to bribe me with sex? You’re trying to bribe a succubus with sex? ” Maybe he was the killer. He was clearly deranged enough. “That’s the most—”

Clyde reached out and touched my forehead with his fingertips. I gasped at the jolt of power that shot through me.

Suddenly, I wasn’t standing in the hotel room anymore. I was in another room, a room from antiquity, on a bed covered in plump pillows and silk sheets. The silk slid against my back, and Clyde’s body slid against the bare skin on my front.

Our limbs were entwined, his mouth on mine in a kiss that was all fire. He was fire. His skin was literally hot—so, so hot. It was a demon thing. I seriously thought it would scorch mine, but my skin stayed whole and unmarred. He moved against me, bringing his mouth down and trailing more of those burning kisses down my neck. His lips found my breasts, taking turns with each nipple. He sucked hard on them, his teeth biting in a way that danced a very thin line between pleasure and pain. For now, it just barely kept to the pleasure side.

But his mouth and the fire of his skin weren’t what drove me wild. They weren’t what made me moan and arch my body up to his, pushing as much of myself forward as I could.

It was his hands.

Because everywhere they touched, they poured life into me—that beautiful, blissful silver life energy I stole each time I slept with a human. It was the glittering energy that filled the soul, the power that usually coursed into me at the end of sex and sustained my immortality.

But now, that energy was coming from the palms of his hands as he ran them over my body. He moved slowly too, dragging out that ecstatic agony. It was almost like he was massaging oil into my skin. That life covered me, saturated me, and soaked in. It was more than I’d ever gotten from a human—even the purest, noblest soul. Ten times more. Maybe a hundred. Who could tell? My body became one enormous erogenous zone. Really, there’s no way to describe that energy to anyone who hasn’t directly experienced it. It’s, well, life. The universe. The touch of God.

One of those glorious hands danced down between my thighs. His fingers slid along my flesh, slipping through my wetness. His skin still burned against mine, and coupled with that continued flow of life, I almost couldn’t handle it. I writhed under his touch, whimpering as his hands teased and taunted, promising much but not yet delivering.

I knew this wasn’t really happening, but I also knew he wouldn’t show it to me if it wasn’t a possibility. This was his bribe.

“How…” I gasped out. “How…can you do this? How can a demon have this much life…? Energy and souls…that’s only for humans and angels to deal in.”

He removed his hand so that it and his other one rested on my hips. Shifting onto his knees, he pushed into me. The pleasure and pain line blurred for me again, and it wasn’t just because of his size and hardness—both of which were considerable. Nor was it the fierceness with which he thrust away—which was also considerable. It was that fire again, the heat that coursed through a demon’s skin. It was like a flame spreading up and into me.

It hurt, yet I exulted in it. And as that fire continued to sear me, his hands stroked my breasts and upper body with that glittering energy. It was pure delirium, cool and crisp in a way that compensated for the heat of his body. We were fire and ice.

“How can a demon have this much life?” he asked, echoing my question. He continued moving forcefully into me, each powerful stroke pushing me closer and closer to being suffocated by all that lovely life. The rapid pace appeared to take no toll on him. His dark face watched me thoughtfully, and if I squinted just right, I could barely discern horns on his head and flames in his eyes. They shimmered in and out, like a mirage. “You don’t know? Haven’t figured it out?”

Some part of my brain said if I thought hard enough, I could figure it out. But I didn’t really want to think too much just then. “No…no…”

The words came out as a moan, and I felt only a little embarrassed at my loss of control. Wasn’t I supposed to be the sex professional here? Fuck it, I decided. There was so much life energy in me now that I doubted any more could even make a difference. I was drowning in it, high on it. And I could tell by his motions that he was going to come soon. A demon exploding inside of you is like fire too, and while it hurts horribly, it’s also insanely pleasurable at the same time—so much so that it almost always triggers an orgasm in return.

I was going to come, and it was going to be good. My body was practically ready on its own, but I wanted to wait for him to finish it.

“You’re forgetting something,” he said softly. His strokes were long and controlled. Very purposeful. He was close, and I had no clue what he was talking about anymore. Fire and ice. That was all I knew.

“Forgetting…what…?”

He leaned over me, putting his face right next to mine, and I cried out as the shift in position allowed him to take me at a different, deeper angle. Fire and ice.

“The reason demons can have this much life…”

I was almost there. So close, so close. His voice was low. It was velvet on my skin.

“…is because…”

I was on the edge, ready to fall over. Fire and ice.

“…we used to be angels too.”

Fire and—

He pulled out and sat back on his heels. Suddenly, all that pleasure, all that bliss…it was gone. Bam! I was empty and aching. It was like being thrown into cold water. All ice now, and not even the good kind. No more fire. I jerked upright.

“What the fuck are you—”

I blinked and looked around. No silk-covered bed. No Clyde, even. I stood alone in the hotel room, still in front of my mirror. The dress was white again.

“Remember this,” a voice whispered through the air. “We can finish it…”

Chapter Five

I went to the party, a bit dizzy on the idea that I’d just had virtual sex with a suspected murderer. Naturally, I had had sex with actual murderers in the past…but, well, this wasn’t something I wanted to make a habit of.

Luis found me right away and handed me a drink. “You okay? You look like you’ve seen a ghost. And I know that can’t be true since they stay away from these kinds of soirees.”

I shook my head and took down the drink. Appletini. A bit froofy for my tastes, but hey, it had alcohol in it. I wasn’t about to knock that after what I’d seen today.

“Long story,” I said evasively.

“Okay.” He sipped his own drink. “So, how’d you like your first day in court?”

“It’s…depressing. Nobody cares. Someone was asleep on the jury.”

“Only one?”

“Luis, I’m serious.”

“I know,” he said unhappily. “And so am I. That’s how these things work.”

I stared off across the room, absentmindedly watching a couple of demons who seemed to be…very close friends. One appeared to have an astonishingly long tongue. Like, Gene Simmons long. I looked away with a shudder.

“I realize we’re evil and all that.” I recalled Clyde’s comment about me and my nature.

“And yeah, I’m here because I gave into temptation. So is everyone, even you guys. But, well, I don’t know. I’d like to think there’s some nobility in all this.”

“There is, here and there. Some have given up and completely given into their dark sides. Some are like you, still in possession of an annoying yet adorable sense of right and wrong. Semi-good people who only made one mistake, a mistake they regret, so they still try to live with some semblance of their old selves.”

I frowned. “Are you like that? Regretting your one mistake?”

He laughed, finished the drink, and set it on a nearby table. “Oh, it’s different for us. Mortals are faced with daily temptation—as well as the uncertainty of what’s really out there in the world. Is there a God or gods? Is human life all there is before oblivion? Are you alone in the universe? I’m not saying that justifies falling, but it’s certainly easy to do. If you believe there’s no real higher calling in life, why not give into temptation? Why not take the easy way out and seize your deepest desires? Maybe damnation won’t be that bad…then, you realize it is. Some embrace it. Some, like you, hope that maybe holding on to that one spark of goodness will redeem you. Get you salvation.”

“I don’t think that,” I said obstinately.

He winked. “Don’t you, though? Somewhere, buried deep inside, is a hope that maybe things can change. Because again, mortals—or mortals turned immortals—just don’t know for sure. Now us…higher immortals…” The brief amusement faded. Darkness clouded his features.

“We know. We know the truth, what’s out there, what’s beyond life and the universe. We’ve seen divinity, seen the rapture…and we still turned away from it. It’s lost to us. It’s a fleeting dream, the kind you wake up from in the middle of the night, one that leaves you gasping and mortified because it’s only a phantom…a fading memory that’s forever denied, blocked by a wall through which there is no passage.”

A chill ran down my spine. I was used to lighthearted Luis and all-business Luis. This Luis—troubled, philosophical Luis—was frightening. I could see the longing in his eyes, the remembrance of that which he still longed for and could never have again. It was a haunted look, a look filled with things too big and too powerful for a succubus to understand.

He blinked, and some of that otherworldliness faded.

“And that, Georgina,” he informed me, bitterness in his voice, “is why so many demons have completely given themselves over. When you lose what we’ve lost, when your hope is gone…well, for most of us, there’s no point in trying to reconcile our old selves with our new selves. It’s too late.”

“But not you. Not entirely.”

“Hmm…I don’t know. I don’t know if there’s anything good in me anymore.”

“But you want to see this trial conducted fairly,” I pointed out.

His smile returned. “Wanting to know the truth isn’t necessarily being good. Maybe it’s just curiosity.”

I didn’t believe that. I liked to think there was some glimmer of that angelic nature left in Luis. We used to be angels too. Clyde had proven that they still burned with the power of life. But maybe I was just being naive.

“And some of us,” Luis continued, “seek the truth simply for vengeance.”

He inclined his head over to a table set with food. There, Noelle and Margo conferred about something. From the grim look on the demoness’ face, I could only presume it was about the murder.

“Don’t be fooled by her alleged concern for a fair trial,” Luis murmured in my ear. “And don’t be fooled by her pretty face. She’s dying to punish someone, dying to rip someone’s head off with her own hands. Destroying one of her demons is an insult—and whatever other fancies you want to believe about us, never doubt for a moment that we’re controlled by pride. Hers has been slighted, and she wants someone to pay.”

“But does she want the right person to pay?”

“She’d certainly like that, less because of fairness and more because she hates the thought that whoever did this to her might walk away unpunished. But if we can’t figure out who did it…well, she probably wouldn’t be too picky so long as she got to watch someone suffer.” He paused. “Plus, I think she…‘liked’ Anthony. If you catch what I’m saying.”

“Ah.” Noelle’s anger suddenly took on a whole new meaning for me.

He nodded. “That’s also why she didn’t ask to simply look inside them, I think.”

He was referring to the same “soul reading” that Seth had asked about. If Noelle, who had brought this case to court, really pushed, she could have maybe convinced the authorities to force readings on the suspects. It might be taboo, but sometimes Hell resorted to it.

“She claimed something about how they didn’t need to go those extremes and how the jury would decide in an efficient way,” he added. “It sounded quite noble. But I think that’s bullshit.”

I thought about it. “Because if it turned out none of the suspects had done it and there were no other leads, she wouldn’t get to take her revenge out on someone.”

“Exactly.”

Wow. He wasn’t kidding. She really was out for blood.

I spent the rest of the party socializing with Luis and others, smiling and flirting in a way that came second nature to me. I had become something of a novelty—the only lesser immortal on a demonic jury—and a lot of people wanted to talk to me.

I also received a fair number of solicitations, but that was pretty common for a succubus. We were viewed as the call girls of the immortal world. Fortunately, none of tonight’s offers involved peanut butter.

After the party, I found Seth in a diner a few blocks away, a place I never would have suspected of having wi-fi. He sat in a corner, focused entirely on the laptop in his usual way. His devotion to his work was infuriating at times, but it was adorable too. Watching him, I felt a sudden desire to run my fingers through his hair and make it messier still.

He hadn’t noticed me entering, and when I had almost reached him, one of the waitresses stepped up to the table. She was young, lower twenties, with her blond hair pulled up into a high ponytail. Underneath the blah uniform, I could see a perfect hourglass figure. She had the good looks of a struggling actress, but I half-suspected she wasn’t anorexic enough to meet today’s starlet standards.

“You want more?” she asked, holding up a pot of coffee. The orange rim signaled decaf. Typical of Seth.

I waited for him to ignore her, but to my surprise, he looked up right away. He smiled at her. It was the cute half-smile that always made me melt.

“Sure.”

She filled the cup, leaning over to do so. And then—I swear it—Seth’s eyes hovered briefly on her cleavage before looking away. Impossible. Seth almost never checked women out. I stiffened.

“What chapter are you on now?” she asked.

“Thirteen.”

“Thirteen? Are you taking speed with that decaf? You were on eleven last time I checked.”

His smile twitched. “The muse is in a good mood tonight.”

“Well, send her to my place. I’ve got a ten-page paper due tomorrow.”

“Is that the history one?”

What kind of question was that? Had he learned her life story after only a few hours?

She shook her head, ponytail swaying. “English. Gotta analyze Dracula.”

“Ah, yeah.” Seth considered. “Vampire stories. Slavic dualistic concept of life and death, light and darkness. Harkening back to pre-Christian myths of solar deities.”

Both the waitress and I stared. Seth looked embarrassed.

“Well. Not that Stoker used much of that.”

“I wish you could write this for me,” she said. “You could do it in five minutes. I can’t believe you wrote all that. Where do you get all those ideas?” She grimaced. “That’s probably a stupid question, huh?”

“Nah. Someone I know thinks that, but honestly, it’s a good question. I just don’t have a good answer, I’m afraid.”

That “someone” he referred to was me, and I didn’t really appreciate being delegated to a non-specific pronoun. The appropriate designation would have been, “My stunningly brilliant and beautiful girlfriend whom I adore beyond all reason…”

She laughed. “Well, if you figure out the answer, let me know. And let me know if you need anything else.”

I swear, there was a subtle inflection in her voice when she said that, like she was offering more than just coffee. And Seth, amazingly, was still smiling at her, even regarding her admiringly. He’d also been almost comfortable in chatting with her. Usually his shyness took over with new people, and you could barely get two words out of him—and even those came with a heavy dose of stuttering.

I swallowed back my jealousy. Seth and I had our arrangement. He was perfectly entitled to go after cheap waitresses if he wanted. Besides, I was above such petty insecurities.

The waitress passed me on her way back to the kitchen. Beth, her nametag read. Alliterative with bitch.

Okay. Maybe I had a little pettiness.

I strolled over and sat down across from Seth.

“Hey, Thetis,” he said. He smiled at me, but it was a leftover smile from Beth.

“Hey,” I returned. “Think you can drag yourself away?”

“Let me finish this page, and I can. Cady’s about to figure out who the culprit is.”

“Too bad she can’t help me with this trial.”

He looked up from the screen. “No insights at your party?”

“Someone tried to bribe me.” No need to get into specifics. “And Luis concurs that the whole thing is corrupt.” I smiled. “You going to come back tomorrow to see more antics?”

He typed a few words. “No…if it’s all right. That whole thing freaked me out. And I’m kind of on a roll here. This place has a good vibe.”

“Yeah,” I said carefully. “That waitress seems pretty nice.”

“She is,” he agreed, eyes still on the screen. “She reminds me of you.”

I kept smiling, but I wasn’t entirely sure if I should feel complimented or not.

Chapter Six

Whatever resentment I held toward Seth and the waitress faded pretty quickly when we got back to our room. He held me as securely as ever, kisses light on my skin and affection radiating around him like an immortal signature.

I let him sleep in the next morning as I blearily dressed and headed downstairs for day two of the trial. To my surprise, there were a lot less spectators than the previous day.

“They saw what they wanted to see and went home,” Luis explained to me. We stood near the entrance to the room, drinking coffee. “A lot of this is just sensationalism. The thrill is gone, though some might come back for the sentencing.”

I glanced over at the jury’s table. “At least none of them left. I kind of expected it.”

“Nah. They know better. There’d be serious consequences if they took off from something like this.”

Apparently, though, none of the demonic jurors felt they had to do more than just be present. They proved just as negligent as yesterday. The suspect today was a demon named Kurtis.

“Kurt,” he corrected Margo.

“Kurtis,” she said, “can you tell us about your relationship with Anthony?”

“Relationship? We barely had one date. I’d hardly call it that.”

A few people laughed at his joke. He’d chosen a lanky form and pale skin, with hair that kept falling into his face. If he was concerned about being accused of murder, he didn’t show it. His chronic smile indicated how silly he thought all of this was, Margo most of all.

She glared at his impertinence. “What I mean, Kurtis, is how did you know Anthony?”

He opened his mouth, and I would have bet anything he was about to crack another joke. Just then, he happened to make eye contact with Luis, and the accused demon’s face sobered a little bit.

As the story unfolded, we learned that Kurtis had once been Anthony’s archdemon. This perked the jurors up a little bit. Archdemons, as the leaders and power players in our world, tended to be better at self-constraint. Luis, Noelle, and even Jerome were good examples of that. If archdemons did take on others, it was their peers—not underlings. If Kurtis had indeed destroyed Anthony, it would be a juicy scandal. An archdemon undergoing a five-hundred year flaying would be equally compelling.

“Nothing’ll happen to him,” murmured the demon sitting beside me, as though reading my mind. He was the one who was into peanut butter. “He’s here because they wanted to make it look like they had a full group of suspects. You know, like they’d really researched all the possibilities. There isn’t enough evidence against him.”

I was surprised to hear something so astute from one of my colleagues. “That must be why he’s so laissez-faire about all this.”

“Yup.” The demon’s eyes studied Kurtis, then gave me a curious look. “What about Nutella? You into that maybe?”

When Anthony had worked for Kurtis, the two had apparently had a fair amount of tension between them. It wasn’t entirely clear if Anthony had done something to warrant the antagonism or if it was just a personality conflict. Regardless, Kurtis had taken retaliatory measures against his unruly employee.

Margo was pretending to read her clipboard again. “So, let me get this straight. You burned him alive?”

Kurtis shrugged. “If you can call it that. I mean, it didn’t do any permanent damage. And really, are we alive? Don’t we just exist? Or, in his case now, not exist?”

“And you locked him in a box at the bottom of the ocean for a month.”

“It was a roomy box.”

“And you decapitated him.”

“No.”

Margo looked up from her clipboard, eyebrow raised. “I have several witnesses who say otherwise.”

“I only partially decapitated him,” Kurtis countered. “His head was still attached…technically.”

Margo continued to go through a laundry list of assorted tortures Kurtis had inflicted on Anthony. Horrible or not, I had to admit the archdemon was pretty creative. Anthony had finally filed a complaint with higher authorities and gotten a transfer. He’d also gotten in very good with a high-ranking demoness. She’d made arrangements to ensure Kurtis was punished for his transgressions. No torture, though—well, at least not in the physical sense.

He’d been transferred to Belgium.

The mention of this dimmed Kurtis’s humor a bit. The transfer was still a bitter point with him. It had happened four centuries ago, and he was no happier about his current locale than he’d been then. He’d apparently spent these last four hundred years being quite liberal in his slander and criticism of Anthony.

“And you’re up for a possible transfer now, aren’t you?” asked Margo.

“Yes,” he replied.

“Hmm. Coincidental timing.”

He snorted. “Hardly. Why would I destroy him now? You think I’d want to risk getting in trouble when my review comes along?”

“Or,” said Noelle, suddenly speaking up, “maybe you wanted to make sure he wouldn’t be able to influence the review committee.”

Kurtis gave her a tight, mirthless smile. “That’s your own wishful thinking, Noelle. You have no fucking clue who did this, and you’ll take anyone you can find.”

“I’ll take whoever’s guilty,” she replied. She’d matched the steel in his voice but still wore her usual composure. “And I’ll make sure they pay.”

I left the proceedings that day with mixed feelings about Kurtis. With his history of violence and casual attitude about said violence, he did make a suspicious figure. On the other hand, I had to agree with him about the danger of taking out Anthony with the transfer hearing so close at hand.

Just like the day before, I was the only one to ask any real questions. I wanted to know when Kurtis and Anthony had last seen each other and if Kurtis had an alibi. He did, but again, I didn’t doubt a demon could come up with any number of people to lie for him.

Post-trial parties held little appeal for me today, so instead, I decided to go straight to Seth’s diner. The notion of just hanging out and doing something mundane like watching a movie had astonishing appeal. Besides, I was feeling guilty about my neglect.

When I stepped inside the elevator, I was surprised to see Noelle riding down as well. We stood there in that awkward silence elevator passengers often have, our eyes trained on the numbers as we descended. Daring a sidelong glance, I again admired her pretty features and remembered what Luis had said about her loving Anthony.

The words were out of my mouth before I could stop them. “I’m sorry about Anthony.”

Her sea-colored eyes flicked from the numbers to me. Bitter amusement glinted in them.

“You’re the only one, I think.”

I thought so too. “I…I know it’s hard to lose someone you’re close to.”

“Close, huh? You’ve been talking to Luis. He might be the only other person who cares about this too.” A small frown wrinkled her brow. “But I believe you. You do know what it’s like. That’s the thing with you lesser immortals…you’re always around humans, getting caught up in their muddled emotions. Loving them. Losing them. Getting betrayed by them. You’d be better off staying detached from all that. Save yourselves a lot of pain.”

I wanted to tell her that if she’d loved Anthony, then she wasn’t a very good role model as far as emotional detachment went. Instead, I said something completely asinine.

“Well. I don’t think you can really have happiness if you don’t have pain too.”

Something like a snort caught in her throat. Noelle’s eyes swept me, and I felt as though she suddenly could see my life story without the benefit of a reading.

After several moments, she replied, “You must have a lot of happiness then.”

I held back a glare and left the elevator when it opened, murmuring a polite good-bye as I stepped out.

I walked down to the diner and caught sight of Seth through the window. He sat at the same table, and so help me, that fucking waitress was there again. The door was propped open to let in the nice weather. I started to step through, hesitated, and then retreated. There was a small overhang around the side of the building, obscured from the rest of the street. I sidled over to it and shape-shifted into invisibility. Returning to the front door, I crossed the threshold, hidden from mortal eyes.

Beth was laughing when I approached. “Really?” she asked. “You get love letters?”

“Sure,” he said. The abandoned laptop sat before him. Didn’t he have deadlines or something? “Not sure I really deserve it…but they show up more than you’d think. I’ve actually gotten poetry too.”

“Like dirty limericks?”

“No, thankfully. Got some haikus once, though.”

She laughed again. “The more you tell me, the more I really want to read your books. I’ve got to go pick up one.”

Seth shrugged. “No need. Give me your address, and I’ll send you a couple.”

“Oh, no. You don’t have to…”

He waved her off. “They send me boxes of them. It’s not a problem.”

“Wow, thanks.” She grinned. She had a cute smile for a shameless tramp. “That’d be great. Maybe…maybe I could get you coffee as a thank you. I mean, coffee not from here.”

Seth didn’t quite catch it at first, then I saw the surprise register on his face. “Ah,” he said. The social ease and banter he’d just had abruptly shut down. “Well. I…” He hesitated, and suddenly, suddenly, I wondered if he was hesitating over whether to accept rather than choosing words to refuse her. After what seemed like an eternity, he shook his head. “No. I can’t. Not…no. Not really. I’m, um, probably busy.”

Her face fell a little. “I understand.” A moment later, she mustered a smile. “Well…let me check on some tables, and then I’ll be back.”

She sauntered off across the restaurant, and I wished that dress wasn’t quite so snug on her ass. Seth’s eyes followed her, a bit regretful.

Suddenly, I didn’t want to talk to him quite so much after all.

I left the diner, my emotions in a tangle. I discretely shifted back to a visible form and headed down the street, moving toward the hotel but not really sure I wanted to go back there either.

“He likes her,” a voice suddenly said beside me.

Startled, I turned to find Kurtis walking along with me. He’d appeared out of nowhere. I didn’t bother asking what he’d just seen. Demons could move around with their signatures masked, and I supposed it was time for his bribe.

“No, he doesn’t,” I said immediately.

Kurtis laughed, the same unconcerned laugh I’d heard in the courtroom. “Of course he does. She’s hot.”

“He loves me,” I said.

“Love doesn’t stop people from betraying each other.”

It reminded me a bit of my conversation with Noelle. We passed near a bakery, and he beckoned me toward it.

“Come on,” he said. “Let’s talk. This place makes great éclairs.”

Which is how, five minutes later, I found myself sitting at a table and eating a cinnamon roll the size of a car tire with another potential killer.

Kurtis didn’t speak until he was halfway through his second éclair. “So. Where were we?

Ah, yes. Your naive belief that love can keep a man from cheating on the one he loves.” He fixed me with a knowing look. “Honestly, I never thought I’d hear that from a succubus. You of all people should know better.”

He was right. I did know better. I couldn’t even keep track of how many men I’d lured away from the women they loved. Affection and reason tended to get a little murky when the body and its hormones took over.

“Seth’s different,” I responded.

“Of course he isn’t. He’s a man. He likes women, and that woman wants him so bad, her panties get wet each time she refills his coffee.”

“Doesn’t matter. She’s not his type.”

“She’s the female type. And she’s pretty.”

“She’s a waitress. Seth wouldn’t go for that.”

“She’s a waitress using her shitty job to put herself through college. You saying a geeky guy like him wouldn’t respect that?”

Yes, Seth would indeed respect something like that. But I still didn’t want to go along with any of this.

“He still wouldn’t do it.”

“Why? Because he’s getting it somewhere else?” He gave me a pointed look.

I honestly shouldn’t have been surprised if he knew everything about me. Still, I had to ask. “How do you know that?”

Kurtis licked chocolate icing off his fingers. “How do you think, little one? That guy’s got a soul brighter than a five-hundred-watt bulb. If he was sleeping with you, it’d show. And if you were going to do it, you’d have already done it.”

“He’s above physical needs.” It was quite possibly the stupidest thing I’d ever said, more so than the happiness and pain comment in the elevator.

“No one’s above physical needs. Not even demons. Look at Noelle and her insane obsession with all this.”

I tossed my hair back, putting on my best bland look. “Well, I don’t care if Seth wants to sleep with that girl. Not like he’d leave me for her. Besides, we have an arrangement. He knows he can get sex on the side if he wants. I don’t care.”

Kurtis threw back his head and laughed. “The fuck you don’t. I don’t have to be an angel to know you’re lying. It would kill you if he slept with someone.”

“It wouldn’t,” I said, even though he was right.

“Have you noticed that their names rhyme? It’s pretty cute.”

“Look,” I said angrily, “will you just leave my personal life alone and get on with whatever bribe you’re here to offer me?”

“Actually, your personal life is why I’m here. And I’m here to bribe you too.”

“Yeah? With what? Your compelling relationship advice?”

“Nah. You wouldn’t listen to it. I’m here to give you what you really want.”

“Yeah. Clyde said the same thing.”

“Clyde’s full of shit,” he scoffed. “I can give you the real deal. You don’t want to hurt your guy? I’ll give you a night with him, consequence free.”

I stared. The room seemed to stop moving.

“You can’t do that.”

“Of course I can.”

“How?”

“You belong to Jerome, right? I’ll get him to block you off from your power for a day.”

I blinked. I’d never thought of that. Hell, in its complicated love for hierarchies and chains of command, had a weird organizational system. An archdemon’s underlings were connected to him in such a way that their divine powers were “filtered” through him. It kept him in control of his subordinates and also gave him a sense of their whereabouts and well-being. It was also sort of like a string of Christmas lights. Take out an archdemon, and it’d cut off his lesser immortals from their powers until a new system was established. I’d never considered the notion of an archdemon willingly blocking someone out of the immortal chain.

The appealing fantasy quickly shattered for me. “Jerome would never do that. He doesn’t approve of my relationship with Seth.”

“Jerome owes me a favor.”

“He does not.” I had a hard time picturing my boss being indebted to anyone.

“He does.” Kurtis held his hand out to me. “I swear, if you vote for one of the other suspects, I’ll make sure you have a night with your guy during which he’ll suffer no damage to his soul.”

I felt the slight crackle of a demon offering a bargain. They could lie and swear about the most extraordinary things…but they were bound to their deals.

I swallowed, a brief image of being naked with Seth flashing in my mind’s eye.

“I can’t,” I said slowly. “I won’t vote because of a bribe. How do I know you didn’t do it?”

“Please. The evidence against me is ridiculous, and you know it. I could see it on your face at the trial.”

“Then why are you worried? Why do you need to bribe me?”

“Because there are plenty of jurors who’d enjoy convicting me just for the fun of it. I need to make sure that won’t happen.”

Temptation, temptation. The story of my life.

“I…can’t.”

He shrugged. “If you say so. Keep an eye on your boyfriend and that waitress, and you’ll see that I’m right about that. I bet he’s a great tipper, and I bet if he starts getting it somewhere else regularly, he might find it isn’t worth sticking around you. But, if you sleep with him sooner rather than later, you’ll keep him from straying.” He pushed his chair back and stood up. “Think on it. You vote for one of the others, and I’ll make good on my promise.”

His hand caught mine as he spoke, and a jolt shot through me. He’d sealed his vow.

I didn’t know what to say; my mind was a blur. Kurtis recognized that and grinned. “See you around.”

He walked out of the bakery, but I just sat there picking at my cinnamon roll, suddenly no longer hungry.

Chapter Seven

The third day of the trial brought out the last suspect, a demoness named Starla. She was a tiny little thing, all doe eyes and long golden hair. She was also a new demon, one who must have recently fallen. She had apparently been a lesser-ranking angel in her pre-Hell days because she was relatively weak now as far as power went. So weak, in fact, that there was absolutely no way she could have blown Anthony away.

However, as the questioning went on, it became clear she might have blown him in another way.

“You had a romantic relationship with Anthony?” Margo asked. She said “relationship”

like it was dirty word. She probably hadn’t had sex in centuries, and honestly, if there was anyone I’d ever met who needed to get laid, it was her.

Starla was fragile looking, but she was a demon, weak or no. And even a weak demon was still a force to be reckoned with, particularly for an annoying lesser immortal like Margo.

“Yes,” said Starla, her voice calm.

“So why’d you do it then? Jealousy? Lovers’ quarrel?”

“I didn’t do it.”

“It’s always the ones who are closest to the victim,” continued Margo, glancing at us jurors. “This shouldn’t be a surprise.”

“I didn’t do it,” growled Starla.

“Were you afraid of losing him maybe? Sort of a ‘If I can’t have him, no one can’ thing?”

“I didn’t do it,” the demoness repeated. “I couldn’t have done it. You know that.”

“You could have easily gotten someone else to,” retorted Margo. “And while we’d like to find and chastise that person too, there’s no doubt that you’re the mastermind.”

“Except that I’m not.”

Margo brought out her idiotic clipboard again. “I understand that Noelle told you two to end your…relationship. She thought it was interfering with your work.”

A flash of anger gleamed in Starla’s eyes as she glanced briefly at her archdemoness. “It wasn’t.”

The imp shrugged. “So you say. But again, that would certainly lend credence to the ‘If I can’t have him…’ theory, hmm? Someone like Anthony wouldn’t have stayed lonely for long…there were certainly other ports he could have docked his ship in. But you? Who are you?

Some minor, struggling little antisocial demon…so fresh from angelhood that you might as well still be wearing a halo. Not really worth anyone’s attention unless it was someone who wanted to break you in. Anthony was your first, wasn’t he?”

“That doesn’t matter,” said Starla tightly.

But apparently it did because it brought my fellow jurors to life. They showered her with questions, digging out as many personal details as they could. I could see Luis’s ire growing, but it was Noelle who cut things off.

“We don’t need to hear any more personal details,” she snapped, sweeping the jury with those turquoise eyes. They radiated fury.

“I agree,” said Luis. “If you guys can’t ask anything useful, then don’t say anything.”

Unsurprisingly, the other jurors fell silent. I raised my hand. Starla regarded me warily.

“Did…do you have other friends? Aside from Anthony?”

She looked surprised by the question. “I have colleagues.”

“Any that you’re close to?”

“No.”

Margo grinned broadly. “More proof as to why you’d have such a psychotic reaction to being separated from Anthony.”

Starla glared at me as though I’d purposely just set her up. But I hadn’t. Margo had called Starla antisocial earlier, and Starla herself admitted to having no close friends or colleagues. She could be lying, I supposed, but I didn’t think so. The friendless thing only made her look more desperate; she wouldn’t have purposely furthered that image by admitting to it. And if she was friendless, then I wondered who she could have gotten to kill Anthony. It was possible she could have made a business arrangement with someone. Maybe she had something to offer, but I doubted it.

Nonetheless, she found me afterward, just like Clyde and Anthony had.

“Wealth,” she told me, standing with me in the hall by my room. “Money.”

“Yeah,” I said. “That’s generally the definition of wealth.”

She crossed her arms over her chest. “I’m offering you a great thing here. I mean, not like piles of gold or anything, but we’re talking serious cash. Investments. Accounts in the Caymans. Stuff like that.”

I shrugged. “I don’t believe in bribes. And even if I did, I don’t need the money. I’ve got my own stockpile. Besides, not like I couldn’t find someone to give it to me if I wanted.” It was exactly what Clyde had said.

I waited then for anger, for snippiness. What I didn’t expect, however, was for her to suddenly start crying. I’d seen demons do a lot of things over the centuries. Torture. Destruction. Betrayal. Never, ever had I seen a demon cry. I didn’t even know they could do it.

I started to reach for her in some sort of awkward attempt at comfort but thought better of it.

“Look,” I said uneasily. “I’m sure there are other jurors who’ll take the bribe.”

She sniffed and shook her head, running a hand over her wet eyes. “No. Not from me. I don’t have anything to give—not like Clyde and Kurtis. Everyone on the jury’s stronger than me. There’s nothing I can offer that they can’t already get themselves.”

“Well…I mean, I don’t know. I guess you just have to wait for justice to run its course.”

A harsh laugh cut off one of her sobs. “Justice? Here? There’s no justice with this group. Even you can’t be that naive.”

I didn’t answer. I knew she was right.

Starla exhaled heavily and leaned against the wall, tipping her head back. “For all I know, Noelle’s giving bribes out for them to vote for me.”

“Noelle wants to punish the person who did it,” I pointed out.

“They’re never going to find that out. There’s both enough and not enough evidence on all three of us. No clear decision. In that case, she’s going to just take it out on me. She hates me. Hates that Anthony…” She trailed off, and I was pretty sure she’d been on the verge of saying

“love.” Something else I didn’t expect from a demon. “…that Anthony and I were involved. When she told him to end our relationship, he argued against it. He wanted a transfer, and she was going to try to block it; that’s why he was so angry the day Clyde saw him. You can’t imagine how jealous that made her—that Anthony would stand up for me. So, if she can’t figure out who did it, she’ll settle for seeing me punished. She’ll do it out of spite.”

“I’m sure she wouldn’t…” But I wondered. Demons did stuff like that. And I’d seen Noelle’s face when she talked about Anthony. His death had hurt her. When people get hurt, they tend to lash out to make themselves feel better. Torturing a romantic rival was just as good a way as any.

Like Noelle, Starla didn’t need to use any powers to know what I was thinking. “You know,” she told me. “You know she can do it. And you must know what it’s like…being hated by other women.”

A few moments of silence passed, then the demoness took a deep breath. She opened her mouth, swallowed, then said with great effort: “Please.”

I stared. My mind couldn’t handle any more demonic discoveries. “Please” wasn’t in a demon’s vocabulary. I was pretty sure they spontaneously combusted if that word crossed their lips. Maybe that was what had happened to Anthony.

“Please,” she repeated, blue eyes wide. “Please help me with this. Maybe I can’t offer you anything now…but someday I could do you a favor. Please. Just vote for one of the others.”

Her pain made my own chest ache. “I want to…but I have to make sure…make sure I’m making the right choice…”

“It wasn’t me,” she said, eyes locked on mine. “I don’t care what idiocy Margo was babbling about. That ‘If I can’t have him…’ line is absurd. I l-loved Anthony. Why would I hurt him?”

I wanted to believe her. I wanted to believe in love and all the noble ideals it entailed. I shook my head.

“People do stupid things for love. Especially if they’re afraid of losing the ones they love.”

Starla stared at me for several more seconds, sighed, and then vanished.

Seth showed up later that evening, looking rather pleased with himself. I was lying on the bed, watching a reality dating show. The conversation with Starla had left me introspective.

“You get a lot of work done?” I asked.

“Tons.”

He set the laptop on the desk and lay down beside me. His hand found mine, and he squeezed it contentedly.

We watched those poor, pathetic souls on TV for a while, but soon, I couldn’t take it anymore. With great effort, I kept my voice as level as possible.

“Where’d you work today?”

Seth’s eyes were on the screen where some girl ranted about how her boyfriend had slept with her mother. Most of her tirade was bleeped out.

“Hmm?” he asked. A moment later, he processed the question. “That diner again.”

The fucking diner. Fantastic.

“Ah,” I said. “You must like that place.”

“They have good pumpkin pie.”

And good company, I thought. Beth’s cute face and jaunty ponytail flashed into my head. It was stupid. I had nothing to be insecure about. She was nothing in the grand scheme of things. Seth wasn’t going to run off with her. Even if he did want to do something physical with her, it’d be nothing. Cheap, meaningless sex.

Suddenly, it was as though Kurtis was leaning over me with his laughing face.

It would kill you if he slept with someone else.

Gritting my teeth, I reached for the remote and turned the TV off. Seth glanced over at me in surprise. Shifting onto my knees, I crawled over and straddled him.

“What’s this?” he asked, amusement in his voice.

“I’m tired of watching other people’s love lives.”

I pulled my shirt off over my head and tossed my hair back. Seth, still with a half-smile, watched me. His eyes drifted down to where a black velvet bra held my breasts. A cute little gold clasp unfastened in the front. I had better breasts than that whore waitress, of that I was certain. Better shape, better size. Grabbing his hands, I slowly slid them up my stomach, careful to avoid the breasts themselves. It was always a delicate balance, this pseudo-making out. Too much, and we’d be courting danger.

My skin tingled as those fingertips slid across it. I brought his hands to the clasp, and he deftly unfastened it. Carefully, he peeled it away, and I wriggled it off my arms. His hands immediately withdrew, staying clear. Balance, balance. Always balance.

I slid off of him. Standing by the bed, I slowly and deliberately pushed my skirt down my legs. I wasn’t wearing any stockings today, only a matching black velvet thong. It was my own creation. I’d searched high and low for one for a while. No luck, so I’d used my own resources. Shape-shifting was like a never-ending shopping trip.

My suitcase sat near the bed, and I rummaged through it, bending over as I did to give him a full view of my ass. Seth, I had long since discovered, wasn’t a breast man or an ass man or anything like that. He was non-discriminatory. He appreciated it all.

Soon, I found what I wanted: a bottle of rosemary-scented oil that I’d brought along. Turning back to him, I poured some of the liquid on my hands, rubbing them until they were slick and shiny. I set the bottle down and brought my hands to my breasts, stroking them at an agonizingly slow pace—not unlike how Clyde had spread the life energy onto me. The memory made me shiver. The spicy scent of rosemary drifted around me as I leisurely rubbed the oil into my skin. My breasts took on the wet, gleaming look my hands had.

After several lifetimes of countless lovers, it always surprised me that I could turn myself on by doing this to myself. I think, however, it had less to do with my own skill and more with the act of being with Seth.

He still looked mildly amused, hands folded across his stomach as he watched me. I met his gaze full-on, knowing mine was smoky and full of sex. His was alert and interested, though I could read little beyond that.

When my breasts and stomach were finally oiled to my satisfaction, I moved one hand down, slipping it inside the front of the thong. A cry that wasn’t faked left my lips. I was warm and slick between my thighs, hardly in need of any oil. My fingers stroked me slowly, then found their way into me. In and out I moved them, attempting to quench a desire for him that would never really be adequately fulfilled. My moans came soft and low as I got myself off, my mind ablaze with images of Seth’s body moving against mine.

I didn’t realize my eyes were closed until I had to open them. Still touching myself, I regarded him curiously.

“How do you want me to finish it?” I asked in a breathy voice. “Keep standing? Lay down?”

His eyes traveled down, watching my skilled hand. Sometimes he would touch himself when I did this; sometimes he’d wait until afterward. Since his hands were still folded, I assumed it would be the latter.

“Actually…” he began, hesitation in his words. The half-smile was gone. “There’s, um, no need.”

My hand froze, oblivious to the rest of my body’s outrage.

“I…what?”

Sheepishly, he shrugged. “I mean, you’re beautiful. Like always. Sexy. Really sexy. But, well…I’m not really into it tonight.”

I stared, unable to speak. What kind of guy isn’t into a succubus masturbating in front of him?

“You can finish for yourself, though, if you want,” he added hastily, helpfully.

My brain started working again, and I pulled my hand out. “No…” I said slowly. “It’s fine.”

I shape-shifted away the velvet and oil. Jeans and a T-shirt took their place. Returning to the bed, I settled down beside Seth. This time, we didn’t touch.

“I’m really sorry,” he said. “I’m kind of…tired.”

“It’s fine,” I repeated. I reached for the remote and turned the TV on again.

Neither of us brought the matter up again, but I was reeling. I’d just been rejected. This had never happened with us before. And what was up with the tired line? That was the lamest excuse in the book.

Beth, I thought. It had to be that goddamned waitress. But how, exactly? Had he fucked her in the diner’s bathroom? I found that unlikely. Too unsanitary. Maybe she was just on his mind. Maybe that working girl image was what turned him on now, so much so that my seductive attempts were about as effective as a cold shower.

No, I thought. There was nothing wrong with me. I had no reason to feel insecure, not when it came to stuff like this. No way was he not attracted to me.

Seth turned his head to look at me. I must have had a troubled look on my face. He lightly brushed my cheek.

“I’m tired, Thetis. Really.”

“It’s fine,” I said.

Chapter Eight

If Seth had any lingering feelings from last night, he didn’t show it. He showered and packed up his bag like normal, called me Thetis, and regarded me with all the affection he normally did. I watched him as he moved toward the door.

“You going to that diner again?” I asked carefully.

He glanced up, face momentarily distracted. I could tell he was already getting sucked into the whirling plots of his stories.

“Hmm? Ah, no…they’re closed on Sundays. Gonna go over to that coffee shop across the street.”

“The one with the pig on the front? It looks horrible.”

“Yeah. But just because it’s not kosher…”

I groaned. “Oh my God. I really sleep with you?”

He grinned, one of the rare, genuine ones that flashed across his face like a sunrise breaking over the horizon.

“Yes. Happily.”

He brushed a kiss over my mouth, then headed out. I stared at the door a few moments, felt a smile of my own cross my lips, and left shortly thereafter, suddenly feeling cheery about life again.

That cheeriness faded when I reached my destination for the day. The trial was over, the ballroom empty. No more court. Now it was time for the jury to deliberate.

Apparently, Hell had decided it couldn’t spring to pay for another conference room in the hotel. The thirteen of us instead found ourselves crammed into one of the jurors’ rooms. Admittedly, it was a nice room, but there wasn’t enough space, and I chose to sit cross-legged on the floor. No one paid any attention to me, so I tried to make myself small as I listened to the conversation.

“I’m telling you, the internet is going to send more souls our way than the Inquisition and the Pill combined,” one demon was saying. He had slicked-back brown hair and a weak chin.

Peanut Butter Guy shook his head. He looked remarkably alert today. “The internet’s taking souls from us,” he argued. “People don’t have to sin in the real world anymore. They can do it virtually.”

“Doesn’t matter if they’re actually doing it,” said Weak Chin. “So long as they feel guilt from it. You don’t think a married minister looking at gay porn isn’t doing mental selfflagellation? Besides, the internet’s a gateway sin. Experience it enough virtually, and eventually you crave the real thing.”

“Let’s not forget child predators,” piped up a demoness who was idly flipping through channels. She had full lips painted glossy and bright with magenta lipstick. “You think they’d have as much access to thirteen-year-olds without the internet?”

“Oh, fuck,” said Peanut Butter. “I love when Chris Hansen does those Dateline specials.”

“Oh yeah,” said Weak Chin excitedly. He appeared to have forgotten his earlier argument. “Did you see that one last week? With that guy they caught again? ”

The entire room grew enthusiastic.

“That was fantastic! How could he let Dateline bust him twice? How stupid do you have to be?”

“Guys like that are keeping our coffers full.”

“Yup, that and craigslist.”

There was a pause, and then they all burst into laughter.

I sighed.

Eventually, the rest of the jurors showed up. I straightened, figuring we’d get down to business now. Instead, the newcomers simply joined in on the internet conversation, which had now strayed into MySpace and stealing wireless internet.

After about a half hour of this, I took advantage of a momentary lull to ask, “Um…so, are we going to talk about the trial?”

Twelve sets of eyes turned to me. Silence.

I shifted uncomfortably. “I mean. Isn’t that why we’re here? To reach a decision?”

Weak Chin finally spoke. “Already reached mine. Clyde.”

The demoness with magenta lips glared at him. “Starla.”

“Kurtis.”

“Starla.”

They went around the room. Four, four, and four.

“What about you?” asked Magenta Lips.

“Um, well…I don’t know. That’s why I figured we’d be discussing it.”

“Nothing to discuss,” said another demon.

“How can you guys be so—” I stopped myself. “Oh. The bribes. That’s why you’re voting.”

“Of course,” chuckled Peanut Butter. “Why else?”

“I don’t know…to get to the truth.”

They all started laughing again. Even more than when craigslist had been mentioned.

“Darling, you’ve got a lot to learn.”

“What do you expect? Putting a succubus on a jury.”

“Well, yeah, but fuck. That was brilliant. Jerome’s drinking mai tais somewhere while we have to put up with this shit.”

“And a goddamned Marriott too.”

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. A moment later, I opened them.

“Okay,” I said. “Even if you’re voting by bribe, we still have to reach a unanimous decision.”

They considered, and then, the whole room burst into noise. Arguments broke out as everyone tried to convince/bully others into voting their way. It was dizzying. Most of them tried to do it by offering bribes of their own. There was more negotiating than in a game of Monopoly. Some, however, tried to do it by force. As I’d noted earlier, this wasn’t the most powerful group of demons I’d ever seen, but they could compete with each other. As tempers rose, I felt power flare, filling the room like static before a storm.

I shrank back, briefly considered turning invisible, but knew it wouldn’t matter with this group.

Finally, after a few more hours, our deliberation ended for the day. We dispersed, off to do our different things. No decision had been reached.

I left the room, nearly dizzy. Fuck. What had that all been about? We weren’t going to reach a decision any time this millennium. I’d be stuck in Los Angeles forever. Seth would marry Beth and have ten kids. I’d have to move in furniture to the Marriott.

Speaking of Seth, I decided seeing him was exactly what I needed. That calm nature would help soothe my frazzled nerves and forget the day’s insanity.

I’d reached the lobby when I felt someone walking with me.

“How’d it go?”

I glanced over at Kurtis’ laughing face. I sighed. So much for forgetting the insanity.

“Not so well.”

“Hmm. Not surprised. Bribes have been flying fast and furious. What’s the split right now?”

“Four, four, and four.”

“Really? I’m surprised it isn’t even more split.”

I stared. “How could it be more split than that?”

“Write-ins.” He grinned. “What’s your vote?”

“I don’t have one.”

His eyebrows rose in mock astonishment. “Really? Even with all the lovely things you’ve been offered?”

“I told you. I don’t go for that.”

“How are things with your guy?”

“Fine,” I said automatically. “We have a great relationship.”

“But not the kind where you wrap your bodies around each other and break out the handcuffs.”

“Will you stop this?” I asked. “I already told you I’m not going for any of that. You’re wasting your time.”

“If your relationship’s so great, then why isn’t he here?”

“Because he’s working.”

“With Golden Girl.”

“No,” I declared loftily. “He’s not even at that diner today.”

“Why? Are they closed?”

“I have places to be,” I snapped.

“Of course you do. Off to beg for his attention, right? Make him notice you with your stunning wit and charm, hoping desperately to keep him captivated while his eyes and thoughts stray to other women…”

In normal circumstances, I never would have walked out on a demon. But Kurtis was powerless to hurt me just now, so I picked up my pace and stormed out the front doors. I knew he could have easily reached me again, but fortunately, he didn’t.

I crossed the street over to the coffee shop Seth had gone to and paused in front of the window. He sat there working, no cute waitresses in sight. I breathed a sigh of relief.

My insecurity embarrassed me. There was no reason I should let Kurtis’ words get to me. I knew that. I trusted Seth. I trusted his love. Yet…the demon had been effective. Not surprising, of course. He was, well, a fucking demon. And Seth had refused my advances last night.

I stared at Seth, willing the queasy feeling in my chest to go away.

Hoping desperately to keep him captivated while his eyes and thoughts stray to other women…

Not tonight, Thetis.

I swallowed. And then…I did the craziest thing I’d done in a while. I slipped into the coffee shop, carefully avoiding his line of sight. Not that it would have mattered. He was so engrossed, like always, that a marching band could have come through without him noticing. I went straight to the bathroom, shut the door, and changed my shape.

Into Beth.

A barista gave me a startled look when I stepped out. I think he’d seen me go in in my usual shape. But a few seconds later, he shook his head, apparently deciding he’d imagined it. That’s how mortals were. They didn’t expect the fantastic in their lives, so they tended to rationalize it when it happened.

Clad in blond, hourglass glory, I walked over to Seth’s table.

“Hey,” I said, hoping I had her voice right. I’d only heard her a couple of times.

There was a delay, as usual, then he looked up. “Hey,” he said, clearly surprised. But he didn’t look displeased. “What are you doing here?”

I shrugged. “Was walking by and saw you. I need some coffee…mind if I join you?”

He frowned. “I thought you didn’t like coffee.”

Fuck.

“Once in a while I do,” I said evasively. “The only way I can get a real caffeine kick sometimes.”

He nodded, thankfully not questioning it too much. After getting a cup of drip, I sat down across from him.

“So, how’s progress today?” I asked.

“Slow,” he admitted. “It happens sometimes.”

A lapse of silence fell. I tried to think of something that idiotic fan girl would say.

“Slow for you is probably ten times faster than what I can write.” Recycled material, but what could you do? Praying they hadn’t had this conversation before, I asked, “How’d you get published in the first place?”

He smiled. “Slush pile.”

“What’s that?”

“It’s where unimportant aspiring authors go when they’re trying to get published. It often gets ignored. Or sorted by interns.”

I frowned. “Then how did you get noticed?”

“Mmm…well, agents still go through it. They just take a while sometimes. Or sometimes you get a savvy intern.”

“I thought only actors have agents.”

“Everyone selling themselves has an agent.”

“Is yours good?”

He nodded. “She’s got me some great deals.” He paused. “I’m not convinced she has a soul, though. The best ones never do.”

“You know a lot of soulless people?” I asked glibly.

He flinched. “Um, yeah. Some.”

Then, just like in the Robert Frost poem, two paths diverged in the woods. I could either make Beth sound completely idiotic and see if Seth would lose interest. Or, I could aim for compelling and captivating to see if he’d go for it.

I wasn’t really good at idiotic.

“I dated a guy once who I’m pretty sure didn’t have a soul.” Beth’s fictitious past rolled off my lips like it was my own. “He was a lawyer. I swear, I used to hear him mumble in his sleep at night. I think he was chanting Doors songs backwards.”

“That’s evidence of being soulless?”

“You seen Jim Morrison? That guy was so hot that there’s no way he didn’t have some deal with the devil.”

Seth laughed genuinely, and I saw it. The interest in his eyes.

I pushed forward, chatty and funny, trying to do it in a way that was interesting but didn’t sound like a Georgina clone. To my dismay, Seth forgot all about the laptop and displayed none of his usual reticence in conversation. He spoke to Beth as easily as if she were, well, me.

An hour or so later, I made my move.

“I know you’ve got a girlfriend,” I said hesitantly. “And I know you couldn’t do coffee the other day…but…I’d love to keep hanging out, and I’m really hungry. Do you think maybe you’d like to go grab some food? I’m starving, and I know a great place. And it’d be just as friends.”

Seth’s good humor faltered. “Well…I would…but, well, I’ve got to meet her later on. I don’t have the time. I mean, but I would otherwise. It sounds fun.”

This was true. Seth and I had made dinner plans. He had a legitimate excuse. But what if he didn’t…?

Stop this, Georgina, I told myself. This trial’s unhinging you. You’re moving into psycho territory.

“Okay. No problem,” I said, smiling and open. I stood up. “Hey, I’ll be right back.”

I headed into the bathroom and pulled out my cell phone. I dialed Seth’s number.

“Hey,” he said when he answered.

“Hey,” I returned, back to Georgina’s voice.

“How’s the jury thing going?”

“Ugh. It sucks,” I grumbled. “Finally wrapped up for the day.”

“Ah, cool.”

“But, I’ve got some bad news. I got sucked into some dinner thing. I’m not going to be able to see you until a lot later.”

A long pause.

“That’s okay…I can fend for myself.”

“I’m really sorry…I feel like I’ve been neglecting you.”

“Nah, it’s okay. Really.”

“Cool. I’ll catch you later.”

We disconnected, and I walked back to the table, fully in Beth mode.

“Back,” I said, returning to my chair.

Seth smiled. This time it was the bemused, pensive smile he got when he was thinking hard about something. Finally, I saw a decision snap into his eyes.

“So…hey. Maybe we can do dinner after all…”

Chapter Nine

The weirdness of technically being out on a date with my boyfriend and another woman wasn’t lost on me. Nor was the fact that this sort of insane, paranoid behavior was typical of the kind of women you hear about on TV who drive themselves and their children into a lake.

“Georgina” never followed up with Seth on when “she” would be back later. This gave him no immediate reason to go home, and the night turned out to be a long one. The two of us ended up walking down the street to some cute little French café. It had outdoor seating, which was absolutely perfect for the balmy evening air. The tables were tiny and round, made of patina copper. Christmas lights, strung merrily along the roof’s edge, twinkled down at us. Seeing them reminded me of my earlier metaphor about demonic power hierarchies. Kurtis only had to pull out one “light” in my string to give me a night with Seth, a night that could possibly stop insanity like this night from happening again. Pondering that brought the trial back to my mind. The thought of going back to the jury deliberation tomorrow made my brain hurt.

Beth’s past still poured forth with ease, but then, I’d been making up identities my entire life. I also knew enough about Seth to adapt her perfectly to him. I could say exactly what he wanted to hear. Dinner flew by, the conversation fast and furious. Afterward, we wandered over to a beachside park and spent a long night continuing our conversation. A number of times, I had to remind myself to stay in character. Being with him and talking like this just felt so natural and so comfortable that it was hard to remember that he and I just weren’t out on a normal date. He was with Beth. What was disturbing was that he treated “Beth” just as sweetly and familiarly as he would have treated me.

For all I knew, Seth might have stayed out all night, but I eventually made up some excuse about needing to go home and do homework. We didn’t touch—no kissing or hugging—

but Seth regarded me with genuine pleasure.

“This was really great,” he said. “You’re…very easy to talk to. Thanks for asking me out.”

“Thanks for joining me,” I replied. “It beat doing homework.” I tilted my head curiously.

“So, tell me again: how long are you in town?”

He shrugged. “Still not entirely sure. Another few days at least.”

“Ah. Okay.” I put on a look of demure shyness. “Well…I don’t suppose…I don’t suppose you’d want to maybe catch dinner again before you leave?”

He turned thoughtful, conflict in his eyes. “I don’t know,” he said. “I’d like to…but I mean, I don’t know what my schedule’s like.” A palpably nervous pause followed.

“Could…could I call you when I know for sure?”

Crap. No. He couldn’t very well call Georgina’s number.

“I lost my cell phone,” I told him.

“Well…I’ll probably be at the diner tomorrow. We could talk then.”

Oh, yeah. Even better. The real Beth would be pretty surprised to hear about what a great night they’d had. Frantically, my mind whirled.

“A couple other friends have been coming in lately too, and my boss is getting annoyed that I keep talking to people during my shift. Might actually be better if you work somewhere else. I need to keep this job,” I added, hoping I sounded like Pathetic Struggling Student Girl.

“Why don’t you just give me your number and I’ll check in with you tomorrow?”

He scrawled it on a scrap of paper, and we walked off in separate directions. A few minutes later, I became invisible and caught up to him, following him back to the hotel. I let him go into the room first, waited several minutes, then walked inside in my usual form.

“Hey,” I said, smiling. He was on the bed, watching some kind of improv comedy show.

“You’re still awake.”

He smiled back. “Crazy night?”

I rolled my eyes and flounced onto the bed beside him. “You have no idea. What’d you do today?”

His eyes flicked back to the TV. “Wrote. Ate dinner.”

Flirted shamelessly with another woman, I supplied.

“Same old, same old,” I said instead. “Doesn’t it ever get boring?”

He ran his fingers along my arm. “You’re enough excitement for both of us.”

I snuggled against him, and we watched TV in silence. When, after a little while, I made a few amorous suggestions, he again refused.

“No…it’s not you. I’m just not up for it.”

“You don’t have to do anything,” I teased. “I do all the work.”

“I know, I know. It just doesn’t…doesn’t hold much appeal at the moment.”

“Me naked and getting off doesn’t hold much appeal?”

He held up his hands in innocence. “It’s nothing personal, I swear. It’s just well…it’s not the same as sex, as that union, you know? Don’t get me wrong…I like it, and I’m not saying I don’t ever want to do it again. But…I mean, it’s icing. You and me…our connection is what matters. We know the physical doesn’t really enter into it.” His hand found mine. “It’s just enough to be with you.”

I sighed and hoped he was right.

I didn’t bother asking Seth where he was going to work the next morning. I kind of wanted to forget last night; it had been stupid of me. Nothing I should repeat. I hoped he’d take

“Beth’s” advice and just go somewhere else. If he planned on going back to the diner, I didn’t want to think about it and the ensuing complications when they checked their stories against each other’s.

Besides, I had other complications to occupy me. That fucking jury. Until this deliberation process started, I’d been pretty sure there could be no professional experience more painful than the time my bookstore boss made us attend a seminar entitled How to Turn a Minimum Wage Job Into Maximum Fun. I’d left that class wanting to drill a hole in my head to end the pain. Suddenly, though, I could have sat through that whole god-awful workshop again rather than face my “jury of peers” once more.

To my surprise, I was the last juror to arrive. I glanced at the time, wondering if I’d miscalculated and was late. Nope. I was a couple minutes early—which meant the others had arrived earlier still. Casual conversation sparkled around the room, but I saw a few sets of eyes turn toward me as I entered and sought out my corner from yesterday.

Once I was settled, the demoness with magenta lips who’d envied Jerome’s brilliant proxy idea immediately started business. Everyone fell silent and paid attention. My apprehension grew.

“So,” she said briskly, “let’s get this over with, shall we? Who has thoughts to share on the case?”

My peanut butter friend spoke up right away. “Well, it seems pretty obvious to me. There’s no way Kurtis could have done this. He wouldn’t want to screw with his review, and besides, he doesn’t live anywhere near here.” I wanted to point out that a demon could transport from Belgium to L.A. in a heartbeat, but the others were nodding along eagerly, like his reasoning made perfect sense. “And anyway, it’s been a long time. I think he’s given up the grudge. I mean, Hell, if that whole thing he did to Anthony with the boars and cannibals wasn’t enough revenge for him, I don’t think obliteration would be much of an improvement.”

The others laughed appreciatively.

“You’re totally right,” someone piped up. “He had nothing to do with this.”

“Agreed,” said another.

From around the room, more confirmations of Kurtis’s innocence followed. After several minutes of this, Magenta Lips moved us on to the next stage. I could only stare, wide-eyed, astonished at this brilliant show of order.

“Right then,” she said. “What else do we think?”

The demon with the weak chin jumped in this time. “Well, Starla seems like the logical choice to me.”

Starla honestly seemed like the least logical choice to me. Uneasily, I remembered her words about how she made an easy target. She had the least to offer in the way of bribes. I mustered the courage to protest her guilt but was cut off when the discussion took an even more bizarre turn.

“I agree,” said a demon across the room. He put a lit cigarette to his lips, despite the little sign on the end table politely asking him not to smoke. “Of course, we all know she couldn’t have actually done it herself. Which leaves only one explanation.”

“Right,” agreed Weak Chin. “Clyde.”

“It is the only reasonable explanation,” mused Magenta Lips. “Starla decides to kill Anthony, figures out the logistics, then gets Clyde to do it.” Anthony had been incinerated. I didn’t really know how much logistical planning that took.

“And we all know Clyde wanted to do it anyway,” added Peanut Butter. “He probably didn’t even need her provocation.”

I looked from face to face, suddenly feeling terribly out of the loop. I felt like I was the understudy in a play. Everyone already had their lines down, and I was desperately unprepared.

Just as with Kurtis’ acquittal, everyone in the room concurred with this theory. Immediately, twelve sets of eyes turned on me, their gazes smoldering—and not in a sexual way.

“What about you?” asked Weak Chin. “What do you think?”

“I…” I swallowed. “I think we don’t entirely have enough proof to say for sure that Clyde and Starla worked together.”

Peanut Butter scoffed. “Who needs proof? We have deductive reasoning.”

“We need a unanimous vote,” said the presiding demoness warningly. “We’re all in agreement. You’re the only one who isn’t.”

The faces that I’d hitherto seen bored and playful were suddenly hard and cold. Menacing. They watched me with angry expressions, daring me to disagree.

Something had happened last night, clearly. While I’d been out being psycho stalker girlfriend, Kurtis had apparently done some serious lobbying to get the jury to agree with this theory. The quality of the bribes had to be off the charts. It was funny, though, that he hadn’t come to me. Of course, considering the deal he’d already offered, he probably figured there was no greater reward he could give me. He was right. He also probably figured there was no point in swaying me because I wouldn’t be able to stand against all these angry demons.

And for a moment, I thought he was right on that too. This group was scary as fuck. It would be so easy to agree with them, so easy to cast my vote for this unsubstantiated theory. I didn’t want to have twelve servants of Hell hating me. I wanted to go home and end this insanity. I wanted to take Seth away from waitresses who might lead him into temptation.

And so, I think it was a surprise to everyone—including me—when the next words out of my mouth were, “I…don’t think that explanation is right.”

The following hours were horrible.

They yelled at me. They raged at me. They threatened me. None of them actually hurt me—the rules of this whole operation forbid it—but they came close. And sometimes, mental abuse can be worse than the physical kind anyway. I heard more creative options than Kurtis had come up with for Anthony.

I was almost in tears when salvation came in the form of Luis. He stuck his head in the room, having expected such a lazy jury to have recessed earlier. Seeing the demons gathered around me so threateningly, he arched an eyebrow and said, “Why don’t we call it quits for the day?”

He escorted me downstairs, holding on to my arm. It was only when we walked into the bar that I realized I was shaking. We sat down, and he ordered me a vodka gimlet.

“You okay?” he asked, not unkindly.

I took a deep breath and told him what had happened. Little expression showed on his face.

“Clever,” he finally said, once I finished the story.

“Clever?” I exclaimed, beckoning for a second drink since I’d inhaled the first in under two minutes. “That was fucking insane! Do you have any idea what they said to me? What they said they’d do to me?”

Luis shook his head, still looking unconcerned. “They’re trying to scare you. And yeah, it’s working, but you know they can’t hurt you. You’re protected under all the rules of this trial, and anyway, Jerome would string up any and all of them if they laid a hand on you. They’re flies compared to him.”

“It was horrible,” I reiterated with a shudder. “I can’t believe they all latched on to this idea. It’s insane.”

“Not really.” Luis downed his own drink, bourbon and soda. “Kurtis has the most to offer, so his bribes would be the best. And this option also curries the most favor with Noelle. She hates Starla. Noelle would be happy to see her suffer. And Clyde was uppity when he got pissed off over the promotion thing. That had to have hurt her pride too. This way, he’s taught a lesson about what happens when you talk back to your superiors.”

I groaned. “So the jurors get their reward and earn brownie points with Noelle.”

Luis nodded.

“What are the odds of the jurors changing their mind?”

“About as good as a snowball’s chances in Hell.”

I glared.

“Sorry,” he said, looking chagrined.

I restrained myself with the second drink, instead stirring the ice around and around.

“What can I do?” I asked bleakly. “I’m pretty sure Clyde and Starla didn’t do this.”

“You do the only things you can do. You either agree with the jury or stand against them.”

I choked on a bitter laugh. “You think I can stand against them?”

“If anyone can, you can.”

“Sure. That would be my ‘annoying yet adorable sense of right and wrong,’ right?”

He grinned. “It’s what makes you so entertaining.”

I turned back to my drink. “I can’t stand against them. I’ll go insane. And this thing will never end.”

“Then cast your vote.” I got the impression Luis’s interest was now more in observing the moral snafu I was in, rather than seeing how the trial ended.

“Don’t know if I can do that either.”

He stood up and patted my shoulder. “Well then, darling. You’re fucked. But if you survive all this, you can come work for me in Vegas anytime.”

Luis left the bar, and I followed a few minutes later. As I did, I passed Kurtis. He smirked and started to join me.

“I don’t want to talk to you,” I snapped.

“I hear there was a little dissension in the jury.” He chuckled. “But only a little.”

I stopped and turned on him, forgetting for half a second I was squaring off against a demon more powerful than me physically and magically.

“I can’t believe you did this! Arranged this. It’s bad enough you wanted to bribe people, even if it made the wrong person suffer. But this? Now two people will suffer.”

“I hear it’s a pretty sound theory, though,” he said glibly.

“It’s horrible.”

“We work for Hell, little one.” When I didn’t respond, he continued, “Besides, if it goes my way, I’ll still make good on our deal. This is a win for you.”

“I don’t need your deal.”

“Right. Because your boyfriend is proving true and stalwart against Blondie.”

“He is.”

Kurtis shook his head, still wearing that annoying smirk. “Georgina, Georgina. No wonder Luis likes you so much. You’re adorable.” He took a step toward me and lowered his voice. “I know about last night, and from what I saw, your guy didn’t seem to do that good a job against your—I mean, her—charms.”

“You followed me?” I cried. This got worse and worse. I bit back a stream of obscenities.

“Well, it doesn’t matter. He didn’t try anything. He didn’t offer anything.”

“Well, it was only the first date,” pointed out Kurtis.

“It wasn’t a date.”

He rolled his eyes. “Semantics. Okay, then. You think he could be so noble again? On the second da—whatever?”

“There isn’t going to be a second da—whatever.”

“Are you sure? Would he refuse?”

“Of cour—” I stopped because suddenly, I wasn’t sure.

Kurtis laughed at my doubt and stepped away. “Go and see.”

I watched him go. A thousand emotions rushed through me. Fear and frustration over the jury. Doubt and jealousy over Seth. Kurtis was a very good demon, I realized. And by good, I meant evil and despicable. Once again, he’d thrown me into the kind of state that’s led mortals into temptation for millennia. My stress and anxiety from the jury debacle only intensified matters.

Which is why it shouldn’t have been surprising when—despite my promises not to repeat last night—I called Seth and told him I’d be busy tonight. A half hour later, I found a lobby phone and called him as Beth, asking him for dinner again.

To my supreme dismay, he accepted.

Chapter Ten

I’d had pretty bad hand-eye coordination when I’d been a mortal, but centuries and centuries of practice will pretty much perfect almost any skill set.

“Whoa,” said Seth, wide-eyed.

A Ping-Pong ball sailed from my hand and landed neatly into a glass filled with blue water. About twenty other glasses sat pressed together around the blue one, some with clear water and some with red. I eyed my target and launched another Ping Pong ball. It too landed in the blue glass. It was the third time I’d hit my mark.

The guy running the game booth shook his head. “I don’t see that very often.”

Seth turned and grinned at me—or rather, he turned and grinned at Beth. We’d taken a cab to this small, beachside carnival and had spent most of our evening playing games and spinning around on rides that caused me only a little more nausea than jury deliberation had. After all that demonic bribery and intrigue, impersonating another woman in order to test my boyfriend seemed downright mundane.

“That was amazing,” said Seth. “You play sports or something?”

“Now and then,” I replied enigmatically.

“Here you go.” The game attendant shook his head again and handed me a large, stuffed dragon. I handed it to Seth, who already held a unicorn and a bear.

“You sure you’re okay with all that?” I asked him as we walked away.

“Hey, I’m not winning anything,” he replied, shifting his hold on the animals. “You’re doing all the work. I figure I should just help out the best I can.”

I laughed. It was such a typical Seth thing to say. If his arms weren’t full, I might have been in danger of reaching out and holding his hand.

“I can’t keep those,” I told him. “You want to take them home?”

“No,” he said promptly. “Too much trouble.” I wondered if he was contemplating the difficulty in fitting them in his luggage or the difficulty in explaining to his girlfriend how he’d acquired another woman’s midway winnings.

Fluffy clouds of pale pink caught my eye, and I honed in on a cotton candy vendor. I bought a clump of it, and Seth and I sat on a nearby bench so that he could deposit his burden and eat the spun sugar with me.

“Good God,” he said, putting a piece into his mouth. “I can feel myself getting diabetes already.”

I didn’t respond right away, instead luxuriating in the way the billowy sugar melted away to nothing on my tongue. “You look like you’re in shape,” I told him a few moments later. “I don’t think you’re doing any permanent damage.”

“Not at the moment, no. But I can’t make this a regular thing. I swim and jog, but considering how much time I just, well, sit around…yeah. Gotta watch this stuff.” He tore off another piece. “But not right now.”

I chuckled. “I hear you. I have to go to the gym every day and…” I paused. What trendy fitness activity were mortal women doing these days? “…and pay homage to the elliptical machine. Pain in the ass—no pun intended. I mean, I hate those people who can eat anything they want and never gain a pound.”

He nodded. “Yeah, my girlfriend’s like that—” He cut himself off and abruptly looked elsewhere.

“It’s okay,” I said. “You don’t have to avoid talking about her. We’re just friends, remember?” Several awkward moments passed. We weren’t making out or anything, but no one in their right mind was oblivious enough to think this outing had no romantic overtones. “So?

What about her? Is she in really good shape?”

“Um, yeah,” he finally said. The dangerous topic had triggered some of his usual hesitancy. “Really slim.”

“Cool,” I said. “And she doesn’t work out or anything? She must have good genes.”

Seth choked on his cotton candy a little. “Yeah. Great genes.”

“How long have you guys been dating?”

“A couple months.”

“Is it serious?” He didn’t reply. “Look,” I said hastily, “if you don’t want to talk about it, it’s fine, really…”

“No, no.” He sighed. “It’s just…I’m sorry. This is just kind of weird for me. Us. You and me.” He gestured toward the happy people mingling around the carnival attractions. “This. I just don’t…I’m just not sure…I don’t know.”

“You feel guilty?” I asked.

He considered. “Yeah. A little. I mean, we’re in town for her…thing, so it’s not like I’m neglecting anything of my own by being here tonight. I got my writing in. She’s busy. And, um, I like hanging out with you, but the whole thing is…”

“…weird,” I finished.

“Yeah.”

“I understand. I know it’s hard…men and women being friends always are. And I don’t want to cause any trouble for you. We can go now if you want.” I paused meaningfully before going in for the kill. “I mean, especially if you guys are having problems or anything…probably best if we don’t…”

Seth stared off at the gray line of the Pacific. “Not problems. Just a few kinks here and there.”

I waited for him to say more, but he didn’t. So. Seth didn’t think everything was perfect with us. No surprise there. I sure didn’t. Hearing him acknowledge it—to a woman he hardly knew—yanked painfully at something inside my chest.

But, he didn’t seem like he was going to elaborate on it, which was good. He also didn’t seem like he was going to get up and leave, however, so he wasn’t taking my—Beth’s—offer to end tonight’s awkwardness. I tried to think of what some ostensibly helpful and secretly lustful woman would say. God knows I’d played this role plenty of times in the past. Nothing like a helpful confidante to pave the way for seduction.

“Anything you want to talk about?” He glanced over at me, and I offered a small smile.

“Want a woman’s perspective?”

He provided a small smile of his own in return and shook his head. “It’s more than that. The prob—kinks we have…well, they’re just little cracks here and there in what’s otherwise a…” The wheels of word choice spun in his head. “…a work of art.”

“Little cracks can eventually destroy a work of art,” I pointed out.

“Yeah,” he said wistfully. “But for now, it’s so beautiful.” More silence fell, and at last, Seth straightened up from the slouch he’d fallen into. “You know, maybe we should go. I’m sorry…I don’t mean to…”

Relief flooded through me. Seth was walking away from this situation.

“No, no, it’s okay,” I assured him, crumpling up the cotton candy paper. “It’s getting late anyway.”

We stood up, and Seth gathered my winnings again. Frowning, he glanced down at them and then let his eyes drift off to the people walking up and down the midway, watching and playing games. I followed his gaze and knew him well enough to immediately know what held his attention.

A woman—mid-thirties maybe—was walking through. She had two grade school children, a boy and a girl, walking with her while she pushed a stroller holding a toddler. The boy was pointing toward one of the games. I couldn’t hear what he said, but he sounded excited. They passed near us, and I heard his mother’s words clearly.

“No one ever wins those things,” she told him. “It’s a waste of money.”

They kept going and then paused in the shadow of a crazily spinning ride, so she could kneel down and fuss with the toddler’s bottle.

“Be right back,” Seth told me.

A smile crept onto my face as I watched him stroll over, bearing the stuffed animals. They were too far away now for me to hear, but I watched him speak to the woman and present his offerings to the children. My heart fluttered, and my insides turned wispier than the cotton candy. Seth was amazing. There was no one else in the world like him. No one as sweet. No one as kind.

“Do you know,” a voice suddenly said in my ear, “how easily the bolts in one of those cars could come loose? And at the speed they’re going…wow. Yeah. It’d be pretty bad for anyone in the car—not to mention anyone it hit on the ground.”

I turned jerkily and looked into the cold eyes of Magenta Lips from the jury. Weak Chin stood beside her. A slight shimmer to their appearance told me they were invisible to mortal eyes. Damn. For half a second, Seth’s sweet nature had made me forget about my woes. Now, here they were, right in front of me.

“And did you also know,” Weak Chin added, “how many people in a crowd like this are armed? Guns, knives. So easy for things to go awry if some would-be thief tries to steal from someone. Hell, there doesn’t have to be a crime involved. A trivial fight breaks out, someone pulls a gun, some bystander in the crowd is in the wrong place at the wrong time…”

“And yet, even that’s not as dangerous as the ride back,” mused the demoness. “People still don’t believe those statistics about flying being safer than driving, but it’s amazing what can go wrong on the road. Drunk driver. Brake failure. Really, it’s a wonder mortals live as long as they do.”

“Fortunately,” pointed out Weak Chin, “we aren’t mortal, so we don’t have to worry about anything like that.” He turned from me, and I followed his eyes to where Seth still stood talking to the family. “Poor bastards.”

“Are you threatening me?” I asked in a small voice.

Magenta Lips’ magenta lips turned up in a cruel smile. “Of course not, sweetie. You know the rules. We can’t harm you. Wouldn’t dream of it.” But her eyes were on Seth now too.

“Look, if you guys think—”

“Oh, look at that,” interrupted Weak Chin, glancing down at his watch. “We need to get back. Still got more deliberation in the morning, and I’m sure we’ll all want a good night’s sleep if it turns out to be as long as today’s was.”

“Well,” said Magenta Lips crisply. “Let’s hope it isn’t.”

They vanished. A minute later, Seth walked back over to me, smiling broadly. It was another of those full ones I loved so much, but I couldn’t even appreciate it.

“Now there are some people who really value a good throwing arm.” The smile faded as he peered at me. “Are you okay?”

No. No, I wasn’t. I could barely focus on his face, and I felt cold all over, despite the warm weather. The two demons’ words had ripped into me like shrapnel.

“I…yeah…” I swallowed. “Just not feeling so great all of a sudden. Let’s go back.”

I didn’t sleep well that night. “Not well” meaning “not at all.” I tossed and turned and alternated between staring at the ceiling and at Seth. Apparently he’d gained no sugar high from the carnival food because he’d been fast asleep when I’d arrived back in my normal body. He slept heavily and peacefully throughout the night, a content look on his face. He didn’t look like a guy who couldn’t touch his succubus girlfriend or who had a death threat hanging over his head.

Surely…surely they wouldn’t do it, I thought. They were bluffing. Trying to scare me. They couldn’t do it.

Except…they could. As a juror and demonic “property,” I was untouchable. But nobody in Hell’s hierarchy would care what they did to Seth. He was a mortal, one who didn’t play much of a role in anything that concerned them. No one would raise an eyebrow if he died under mysterious—or mundane—circumstances.

The thought that they would try to do this to me made me ill. And yet, I knew I had no reason to feel so wronged. I was a fucking succubus. I worked for Hell. Everyone who was part of this insane spectacle had given into temptation and sold their souls out for greed, jealousy, or some other vice. There were no morals here. No sense of honor. No need for justice. No one cared about Seth. No one cared if Starla and Clyde were guilty or not.

Except, of course, me.

When morning came, I went to the deliberation room like someone sleepwalking. The others had already gathered, just like yesterday. When I entered, they all looked up, and the sight of those smirks and knowing looks made my stomach roil. I averted my eyes, looked straight ahead, and sat in my corner.

“All right then,” said Magenta Lips. An image of her eyes on Seth last night flashed into my head. “Shall we wrap this up? Who’s in favor of convicting Starla and Clyde?”

“Me,” said Peanut Butter.

“Me,” said Weak Chin.

Around the room they went. And just like yesterday, it all came down to me again. Twelve demons, eyes boring into me. Maybe it was my imagination, but I thought I could smell brimstone in the air. I hunkered back into my corner.

Just say the word, an angry voice in my head said. Agree with them. End this. Go home. Keep Seth safe.

Seth. Seth was what mattered here. Whatever happened to Starla and Clyde wouldn’t kill them. It would hurt. Oh, yeah. It would definitely hurt. Like, five centuries worth of hurt. But they’d survive. Not like Seth. Seth was mortal. One accident would kill him. And whereas both Starla and Clyde probably had a laundry list of other atrocities they deserved punishment for, Seth did not. Seth was good. Seth gave stuffed animals away to children. Seth came clean about his girlfriend with another woman he was attracted to. Seth did what was right.

Seth always did what was right.

The words hurt coming out when I spoke to the demons.

“I’m…not…convinced…yet…”

They’d been surprised yesterday to hear my dissension, but they were really surprised today. I don’t think this many demons had been caught off guard since the Reformation.

The demon who’d lit a cigarette yesterday lunged for me. “Why, you little—”

Peanut Butter caught him. “Don’t.”

Another demon took up the cause. “But you heard her! She—”

“Yeah!” interrupted another. “Some succubus slut isn’t going to keep me from being a lieutenant in Monaco—”

“Quiet,” snapped Magenta Lips. Silence descended. Her eyes fell on me, and it was like frost spreading along my flesh. Her immortal signature swirled around me, cloying and fetid. Like greenhouse flowers starting to rot. “She’s not convinced yet.” Her voice was very calm, very steady.

“I’ll convince her,” growled the restrained demon.

The demoness gestured slightly to Weak Chin. “Explain our logic again, please.”

He did. There was an edge of annoyance to his words as he spoke, but otherwise he wound through the whole string of bullshit reasons that they’d contrived yesterday. When he finished, he looked at me expectantly.

Seth, Seth, my inner voice whispered. What are you doing?

I trembled as I started to speak. “I—that is—”

The demoness cut me off with a raised palm. “No, don’t answer yet. Just think about what we said. Let’s break for lunch, and meet back in half an hour.”

I gaped. The others shared my surprise. Lunch? We’d been here for fifteen minutes. But this group, as impatient as they were for me to succumb, also welcomed the opportunity for a break. They scurried out or simply vanished. As they went, I expected someone to hold me back and issue a few threatening words, but none of them did.

I headed downstairs alone, uneasy and perplexed. I didn’t feel hungry, but I hadn’t eaten all day, so I figured I should at least have coffee and a doughnut. In the elevator, I found Clyde waiting for me.

“Don’t talk to me,” I said wearily.

His face was hard. “I’ve heard what’s going on. They’re setting us up. Starla and me.”

“Yeah, I kind of know that,” I snapped. “I’ve had to put up with twelve demons yelling at me over it for two days now.”

“We didn’t do it,” he said fiercely.

“I know, I know. No one did it.” God, I wanted to be anywhere else. A warm beach or my bed would have been optimal, but honestly, I wasn’t picky at this point.

“You can’t let them convict us. It isn’t fair.” Fear and desperation hung in his voice, surprising me. He always seemed so tough, like a five-century disembowelment wouldn’t faze him at all.

“Fair? Fair?”

We stepped out of the elevator. On the other side of the lobby, I saw Seth about to leave for the day. He’d paused to talk to the concierge and caught my eye. I held up a hand to tell him to hang on, and then I turned back to Clyde.

“I’ll tell you what isn’t fair,” I said. “You see that guy over there? That’s my boyfriend. He has nothing to do with any of this. He just came here to keep me company. But since I decided to take the high ground with your case, those bastards on the jury are threatening to kill him if I don’t vote their way. That’s not fair.”

Clyde’s face grew less angry. A sober, grim look took over. “They wouldn’t do it.”

“Wouldn’t they? And anyway, even if they don’t and I still manage to keep up with this nobility, I’m never going to sway them. This’ll just keep going. Kurtis’s bribes are too good. He offered me…well, something I’ve always wanted. And he apparently promised to make some other demon a lieutenant demon in Monaco. God only knows what else is on the table.”

Clyde snorted. “He’s lying then. Kurt’s powerful, but he can’t do that. You think he’d still be in Belgium if he could pull strings for a Monaco transfer?”

Great. Fake bribes. As if this thing wasn’t bad enough.

“Well, even so,” I argued, “that demon on the jury sure believed it. That’s all that matters.”

“So…you’ve given up.”

“You act like you’re shocked by that!” I exclaimed. “Why is it okay for everyone around here to have black souls, yet somehow I’m held up to a higher standard?”

He’d grown solemn again. “Because there’s something in you that isn’t gone yet. A glimmer of goodness.”

“A glimmer of goodness?”

“Yes. And around here, that means some—”

That’s when the chandelier fell without warning.

There was no shaking, no trembling. No sign that it was starting to slip. Bam! The same chandelier hanging over the lobby that I’d mocked for cheapness came crashing down and hit the hard floor in a spectacular explosion of glass. Shards of all sizes spread out in a glittering radius throughout the room. Apparently it wasn’t plastic after all. It was like watching a production of Phantom of the Opera, except with better special effects.

We couldn’t suffer any real injuries, but Clyde grabbed my arm instinctively and jerked me back. We stared at the mess, stunned. People were shouting. Somehow, inexplicably, no one had actually been directly under it. It was a miracle—ironic, considering most of the hotel’s current guests. The spraying glass had done a fair amount of bodily damage, however, and almost everyone around the lobby had sustained some kind of cut.

Including Seth.

I broke out of Clyde’s grasp and tore off across the room, circling around the wreckage. Seth still stood by the concierge’s desk. He’d dropped his messenger bag and held a two-inch shard of glass in his hand. Blood coated one end of it, and I saw the complementary slash in his cheek.

“Oh my God,” I gasped. “Are you okay?”

He grimaced. “I think so. Are there any more? It doesn’t feel like it.”

Tiny pieces of glass and a fine crystalline powder covered a lot of his clothing, but I saw no more stuck in his skin, fortunately. It was warm out, but undoubtedly out of habit from Seattle, he’d headed out today with a flannel shirt over his Lynda Carter T-Shirt. The long sleeves had protected him, as had the thick fabric.

I studied the cut on his face with dismay, resisting the urge to touch it.

“You should get that looked at.” Clyde had walked up behind me.

Seth shook his head. “It’s not going to need stitches or anything. Lots of people worse off than me here.”

“You’re so lucky that’s all you got,” I breathed, looking around the lobby at others who’d undoubtedly need medical attention. No one seemed to be dead or anything, just scratched up. This whole trip’s increasing rate of awfulness was astounding, but Seth being hospitalized because of a falling chandelier would have defied belief. “I can’t believe—”

I stopped. My eyes had fallen on four people standing directly opposite me. Four people who hadn’t been injured at all. Four demons. Four jurors.

They watched me, malice in their eyes. Magenta-colored lips twitched into a knowing smile. Suddenly…suddenly I knew.

I turned back to Seth, my heart turning to lead as I squeezed his hand. Clyde, having noticed what I’d seen, looked at me with widened eyes.

“Georgina—”

I shook my head. “I’m sorry,” I said, meaning it. “But glimmers of goodness really don’t mean anything at all.”

Chapter Eleven

Kurtis found me in my room later that day, after the jury had turned in its unanimous vote. He simply appeared out of nowhere. I was lying on my bed, staring at the ceiling while on TV, Oprah gave away a car to someone in need.

“I can’t wait to go home,” I told him nastily. “At least then I’ll get some privacy. No one seems to respect it around here.”

He leaned against the desk and tossed his messy hair out of his face. “That’s why I brought you these.” He reached into his pocket and produced a set of keys. He threw them over, and I caught them. The keychain’s tag had an address on it.

“What are these?” I asked.

“Condo by the beach,” he said. “I snagged it for you. Figured you’d want someplace nicer than this for your big night tonight.”

I closed my eyes and groaned. “No. I don’t want it.”

“You earned it. I keep my promises.”

I remembered what Clyde had said about Monaco. “Not all of them. You promise things you can’t deliver on.”

He frowned. “No. I keep my promises. All of them.”

I shook my head. “Whatever. It doesn’t matter. I don’t want your blood money.”

“You might as well get something for selling out your principles,” he said cheerfully.

“Besides, you’re never going to get this chance again. And you can save your crumbling romance at the same time.”

“It’s not crumbling. Seth told me—er, her, that he couldn’t do anything that made him feel guilty about us. We don’t need to have sex for me to keep him around.” But oh, good God, did I want to have sex. It was hard to lie there and tell Kurtis I was throwing his gift back in his face.

“I don’t believe it. If that waitress offered—if he was in a position where he really could do it with her—he’d do it. That is, he’d do it if he still wasn’t getting any from you.”

“He doesn’t believe in cheap sex. Staying faithful to me is part of his morals, and unlike everyone else around here, there are still some people in the universe who hold to their beliefs and actually have a sense of right and wrong.”

Kurtis straightened up. “Sweetheart, everyone sells themselves out in the end. Keep the keys. The reward’s still yours, whether you waste it or not. But—be warned. The clock’s ticking, Cinderella. Offer expires at midnight. Of course, then you’ll be just in time to see the show.”

Ack. There was going to be a public display back at the hotel of Clyde and Starla’s first round of punishment. I had no idea what exactly that would be, but it was going to be horrible and disgusting. After that, they’d be sent off to somewhere in Hell for the remainder of the sentence. The spectacle tonight would satisfy the sadistic and sensationalist natures of those who had journeyed to the trial. The perfect encore. I had absolutely no interest in going.

Thinking of that horrific display—as well as Kurtis’s smug condescension—suddenly made something inside me snap. It made me sick that he could do this, sick that he could bribe and flatter others into getting whatever he wanted. I jerked myself upright from my defeatist sprawl.

“You don’t think he could do that? Resist? Well, here’s a deal for you. What if I can prove you’re wrong? What if I can prove that Seth really does hold to his standards in the face of temptation?”

He rolled his eyes. “Whatever.”

“You see?” I said, attempting the same smugness he managed so well. “You aren’t sure. You’re not the great judge of human nature you claim to be.”

Those laughing eyes suddenly hardened. It was never a good idea to mock a demon.

“Careful, little succubus. You don’t want to go down this road. Take your boon, fuck your guy, and leave it at that.”

I lay back against the pillows. “Okay. I get it.”

“Get what?”

“That you’re all talk. You really don’t know for sure that Seth would succumb.”

“In the face of that woman half-naked and going after him? Yes, darling. He’d succumb.”

“Then let’s bet on it.”

“What do you want?” he asked warily.

“The truth. I want the truth from you about whether you really killed Anthony.”

He shook his head. “I’ve told you a hundred times I didn’t.”

“Yeah, and you promised Julius a house in Monaco.” Kurtis blinked. “I don’t believe anything you tell me. When I say I want the truth, I want the truth. You know what I’m talking about. I want to see inside you.”

“What’s that going to accomplish? Even if you found out I’d done it—and I didn’t—it wouldn’t hold as evidence.”

“I know. But I just want to know, once and for all, the truth about just one thing in this whole tangled mess. Let me look inside. Just to be certain about something.”

He stared, actually caught off guard. As I’ve noted before, to look inside another immortal was no small thing. It was traumatic, for both parties. Powerful. I honestly didn’t know the full extent of what I was asking, but I liked the shock on his face, and honestly, after days of deceit, I just wanted something real.

“I’m not letting a succubus look inside me.”

“Doesn’t matter if the whole thing is a moot point.”

He glowered. “What do I get if you’re wrong about him?”

“What do you want?”

He considered, then a slow smile swept over his face. “I want you to fuck him.”

“I—what?” My growing confidence promptly withered into confusion. I jingled the keys.

“Isn’t that what I’m already supposed to do?”

“No. I mean, fuck him after the gift expires. In all your power. Break that kindly naive notion you have of sparing his life and soul.”

I felt the blood drain from my face. Sex with Seth? With no protective promise? No. No way could I do it. I’d promised myself that the instant this relationship started. I couldn’t steal his energy for my own gain, couldn’t shave off part of his life to feed my immortality. The thought made me queasy, and Kurtis could see that.

“Guess you’re not so confident about him after all,” he chuckled.

My heart hardened. I was angry about this trial, furious about what I’d been forced to do. And I was pissed as hell at Kurtis and his high-handed, arrogant attitude. Just once, I wanted to make some demon uncomfortable.

“It’s a deal,” I said.

“Really?”

I sat up. “Yup. Let’s work out the details.”

You couldn’t ever make an open-ended or vague deal with a demon. Otherwise, they’d find any loophole possible to wiggle out of their end. So, Kurtis and I hashed out exactly what would be required to win the bet, what I’d have to do, and how each of us would have to pay up. By the time I was done, I felt like I’d done a pretty good job at covering all the contingencies. Probably not as good as if I’d had an imp present…but I felt certain it would suffice.

When we finished, Kurtis and I shook hands. Power crackled around us, sealing the deal. He vanished.

I climbed out of bed then and glanced at the clock to see how much longer I had succubus freedom.

It was time to go seduce my boyfriend.

The cold insanity of what I was going to do hit me a little while later. I was a total hypocrite. I’d made all these claims about the honesty and goodness between Seth and me, yet here I was about to entangle him up in a web of trickery which involved me deceiving him in order to test his fidelity—fidelity, by the way, which he wasn’t even really forced to adhere to.

But I’d made my deal with Kurtis, and now I was in. So, I tried not to dwell on my guilt and instead attempted to focus in on how I would win this bet. After all, if I did, almost everything else would become irrelevant. Seth would prove faithful, I wouldn’t have to sleep with him (how wrong did that sound?), and Kurtis would have to suck it up and do something he didn’t want.

Still, I felt kind of bad blowing off Seth for the night. To make matters worse, I even did it a little coldly. I wasn’t mean or anything, but I was definitely brusque with him in the hopes that my attitude would make him accept another Beth invitation.

It did. Of course, who could say? Maybe he still would have accepted if I’d been perfectly nice. Regardless, after “Georgina” took off for another party, “Beth” called Seth with an offer to come watch a movie we’d talked about at the carnival.

“Look,” I said on the phone, “if it’s too weird…I understand. I mean, I got what you were saying last night, and really…I don’t want to cause trouble for you or anything. I mean you and your girlfriend probably already have plans, but I thought I’d check since my roommate actually just rented it…”

There was a long pause, and I could perfectly picture the look on Seth’s face. “I don’t have any plans…” More silence. I held my breath. “Okay. What’s the address?”

I gave it to him, rented the movie, and got to the condo ten minutes before he did. That turned out to be a good thing because it took me about that long to recover from the shock of the place. Maybe Kurtis hadn’t been bullshitting. When he delivered on his promises, he delivered. The condo had two floors and sat right on the edge of a stretch of gorgeous, private beach. Wood floors and leather furniture gave the place a swanky, sexy feel, and a fully stocked bar completed the image of a pimped-out bachelor pad—or in my case, bachelorette pad.

Of course, I realized the problem right as I let Seth inside. He stared around at the luxurious accommodations, at the six-figure sculptures and teak end tables.

“I thought you were short on money?” he asked in amazement.

“Er, I am,” I replied. “This is my roommate’s…place. Her family pays for it, and I rent a room from her.” I didn’t add that that room would technically have to be the bathroom since there was only one bedroom in the place. I had checked it out in my initial examination. The room had a round bed and mirrors on the ceiling. Honestly, Kurtis might have been trying too hard.

Seth looked a little skeptical, but I distracted him by asking about the cut on his face. Later, I found popcorn and tea in the fully stocked kitchen, and we settled down on one of the sleek black sofas to watch the movie. It was an independent film I’d seen several years ago and thought was amazing. I’d wanted him to see it for a while now; I never thought it’d be under these circumstances.

As we watched, I covertly maneuvered myself nearer and nearer to him. I used reaching for the popcorn as my excuse and pulled off the moves like a pro—because, well, I was a pro. Eyes on the screen, he didn’t even realize what I’d done until the lights came up and we were sitting thigh to thigh and arm to arm. We weren’t exactly groping, but we’d clearly moved past something platonic.

Seth noticed then, and he shifted himself away a little—but not too far away.

“What’d you think?” I asked.

He leaned his head back against the couch. Those long-lashed, amber-brown eyes stared off thoughtfully as he processed his opinions. In some ways, it wasn’t hard playing Beth. Seth made both of us melt.

“Pretentious,” he finally said. “But it had some good points.”

“Pretentious?” I exclaimed.

We launched off into a critical analysis of the movie, very much like the ones we usually got into. I became so consumed that I didn’t even notice the time passing until my eyes ran over the clock on the DVD player. Ten-twenty-seven.

The clock’s ticking, Cinderella. Offer expires at midnight.

I hastily wrapped up the movie discussion, even conceding a few points to him. Moving on to the next stage, I brought us into personal matters.

“I’m really glad you could come over tonight,” I told him, leaning against the couch in a way that made the space between us more intimate. “I was really afraid to call after last night…I mean, not that it was bad…but well…”

“Yeah, I know. But I’m glad you did call. Nothing else was going on.”

Seth’s eyes studied me in an appraising way. Then, as though realizing what he was doing, he averted them in a way common to him.

“You keep saying you’ve got a girlfriend,” I teased, “but I’m starting to wonder if that’s just a line to keep me away. You always seem to be free.”

He flinched, undoubtedly reminded of the way I’d abandoned him tonight.

“Oh, she’s real…mostly. She’s just been really, um, busy.”

“Is she, like, working tonight?”

His brow furrowed slightly. “She might very well be,” he muttered in a dry tone.

“What’s she do?” I asked innocently.

“Um…she’s in…customer service…”

“Wow. I didn’t know jobs like that ran so late.”

“Well, it’s a conference kind of thing…”

“Oh, yeah. That’s right. So, she’s, like, schmoozing. Like…working the room?”

“Something like that.”

“Why aren’t you with her? Seems like you could go to parties with her, even at a work function.”

“I’m not much of a party type,” he said. “Especially these parties.”

I tilted my head and met his eyes with a knowing look. “Is that really the truth?”

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t know. With the way you keep seeing me…and the way you talk. It just kind of sounds like you’re avoiding her.”

“Er, no, no,” he said. “It’s not that…”

“But you said you have kinks. Maybe you’re avoiding her and don’t realize you’re avoiding her.”

“No, I don’t think so…”

“Oh? Well, then, what are these kinks? You guys have trouble talking to each other? Not much in common?”

“Nothing like that,” he assured me. “We have lots in common.”

I arched an eyebrow. “Sex?”

His mouth opened to form a protest, but he stumbled on it.

“Ah,” I said sagely. “I see.”

“No,” he said firmly. “It’s not what you think…”

I studied him—face and body—and made it very obvious that I was doing so. I nodded with appreciation, liking what I saw.

“Well,” I finally said. “It must be on her end. Nothing wrong with you. And here I’d had this image of this slim, gorgeous model with great genes.”

“She is gorgeous,” said Seth. I was happy to see him come to my defense.

I frowned. “Then…wait. Do you, like, have problems…”

The faintest flush showed in Seth’s cheeks. It was a rare phenomenon, one I would have found adorable under other conditions.

“No,” he said. “No problems like that.”

“Then…will she not…?”

Again, he took too long to answer.

“Oh,” I said.

Silence fell. I could hear the ticking of a shiny, silver-rimmed clock on the wall. Elevenoh-seven.

At last, I spoke. “I don’t want to be harsh here or overstep my limits…but well, she’s an idiot.”

He shook his head. “It’s complicated.”

“Is it? I mean, you say you guys have stuff in common. You’re gorgeous. She allegedly is. You want to do it…I mean, if she’s got some hang-up…”

“It’s not that, not exactly.”

I sighed. “Look, I won’t lie. I like you. I really like you. But even if I wasn’t interested in you like this, I’d still be telling you you’re crazy. You shouldn’t waste your life on someone like that, shouldn’t waste your sex life…”

Again, he shook his head. “It’s about more than sex.”

I shifted closer and put my hand on his bare arm, trailing my fingers along his skin. He jumped but didn’t stop me.

“When was the last time?” I asked.

“The last time what?”

“You know.”

No answer.

“Seth,” I said in exasperation, still touching him. “This is crazy. Do you hear yourself?

You make it sound like you can go without sex for the rest of your life. Can you? Can you go without being kissed? Can you go without having someone’s hands slide up your chest? Can you go without touching a woman? Can you go without throwing her down and peeling her clothes off? Can you go without being wrapped up with— in—another person? Having that union? That passion?”

Seth was staring at me like he had no clue who I was. That was reasonable since I was pretty sure I’d slipped out of Beth’s personality and into my own. At the same time, I think my words and the lust in my voice had kindled something in him. I could see it in his face—a doubt over what he’d been trying so hard to believe all this time and a yearning for what he’d wanted.

That was all I needed to see. I made my move.

Pushing myself over him, so a leg draped over his lap, I kissed him. In the fraction of a second before our lips touched, I realized it was fully possible Kurtis had screwed with me this whole time and that I was about to suck away part of Seth’s life.

But I didn’t.

There was no rush of power, no flow of his thoughts or energy into me. It was just a kiss, an ordinary kiss like any two mortals might have. Well…except that it wasn’t ordinary. Not for me at least. It was Seth. Me kissing Seth. And so help me, he was kissing me—Beth—back. His lips were as warm and soft as they’d been every other time we’d had our brief kisses, but this time we didn’t pull back. It was…amazing. And that was when I learned that whatever shyness Seth might show in conversation did not translate to physical actions.

He returned the kiss with intensity, lips and tongue caressing my own, filled with an untamed energy that just barely managed to keep control. I pulled myself completely onto his lap, straddling him, and wrapped my arms around his neck. His own arms encircled my waist.

“How long?” I asked between kisses, my voice breathy. “How long since anyone’s kissed you like this? Been on you like this?”

He didn’t answer, but the hands on the small of my back caught the edge of my shirt and lifted it over my head. I’d dressed casual tonight—plain black T-shirt—but the bra underneath was red, and the hourglass figure made it look great.

I yanked his own shirt off and felt the heat in my own body increase as I took in the smooth, lightly tanned skin of his chest. I’d seen it many times, of course, but now—being able to kiss it and really touch it—I looked at in a totally different way. I leaned in and kissed him harder, pressing my breasts up to his chest. His hands were on my back again, but when they didn’t unfasten my bra, I did the honors.

I saw his gaze travel from my face to my breasts, instinctual male desire filling his face. Pushing him over, I forced him to lie back as I crawled on top and continued straddling him. My hands found the edge of his jeans and unbuttoned them. Then, I took a hold of his hands and placed them on my stomach.

“Don’t you want me?” I asked. “Don’t you want to touch me?”

I didn’t know who exactly I was speaking for anymore, Beth or Georgina, but it didn’t matter. I’d forgotten the whole reason for this. All I knew was that we were going to do it. Seth and I were going to have sex. I had about forty-five minutes—forty-five precious, golden minutes—in which we could do anything we wanted with no consequences.

And what I wanted right now was for Seth to run his hands over me. He wasn’t, though I could still see the longing all over him. And when I laid down on top of him and ground our hips together, I could feel the longing. I kissed him again, furiously, and then pulled my mouth back just a breath so that I could speak.

“We’re going to do this…and it’s going to be good. Very good. You…inside me. Good, so very—what?”

Seth suddenly struggled up, pushing me—not harshly—off of him. Once he was free, he stood up and backed away from the couch. He ran a hand over his eyes.

“Oh, God. I can’t believe this is happening.”

“It’s happening,” I told him, practically panting. “Come back—”

“No.” He shook his head. “I can’t.”

“But you—you started to—”

“I know, I know,” he groaned. He buttoned his pants. “I got caught up.”

“You wanted me,” I growled. “You still do.” I stood up too and wriggled out of the jeans I wore, pulling my panties off in the process. Standing before him naked, I fixed him with a challenging glare. “Tell me you don’t. Tell me you don’t want to have sex with me.”

Those serious brown eyes swept the length of me, of all my curves and smooth skin. The desire was still written all over him, but a hard glint in the depths of his eyes showed he was fighting it. The flesh was willing, but the spirit was weak—or rather, the spirit was strong.

“I’m sorry,” he said, reaching for his shirt. “You’re very beautiful. Very beautiful. And hanging out with you is fun. There’s something about you—it’s almost like—well.” He shrugged the thought away, though I had a good feeling what it had been. “But I can’t. I can’t do this. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have come here tonight.”

“But…” My lower lip trembled as I attempted confusion while still looking sexy. “She won’t…she won’t give you what you want…”

“I want her. I want to be with her.”

“You can still have her,” I argued. “And tonight you can have me. Then you can go back, and she’ll never know. She probably wouldn’t even mind.”

“I would know,” he said. He pulled the T-shirt on and smoothed it. “That’s what matters.”

“I don’t…I don’t understand…there are no strings attached…”

“I love her,” he told me, moving toward the door. “I can’t explain it any better than that. I’m sorry.” He turned away. The door opened, then closed.

I stood there in the living room, naked, staring at where he’d last been. Kurtis materialized beside me.

“Well, well,” he said, following my gaze to the door.

“Was I convincing enough?” I asked. Part of the conditions had been that I couldn’t do a half-ass seduction job.

“Very,” he said wryly. “So much so that I’m guessing there wasn’t actually a lot of acting going on.”

I tore my gaze from the door and looked at the demon. Clothing and my Georgina shape materialized onto me. “But he did it. He resisted and held to his beliefs.”

Kurtis smiled. “Disappointed?”

I thought about it, thought how it had felt—however briefly—to have complete access to Seth. The possibility of actually having sex was tantalizing and bittersweet. Of course, if we’d done it, it wouldn’t have really been me and Seth. It would have been him and…an illusion. That wasn’t how I wanted sex to be with us.

“A little,” I answered. “But not enough.” I sighed. “This was stupid of me. Testing him like that. I never doubted him…not really. I don’t know why I had to prove it.”

“People do stupid things for love,” he told me. I’d said the exact same thing to Starla.

“They do stupider things when they’re jealous.”

“What are you, a shrink?”

“Just an observer of humankind.”

I sighed again. “I wasted a once-in-a-lifetime chance tonight.”

He cut me a look, and I noticed then how agitated he appeared. “Maybe not.”

I glanced back. “What do you mean?”

“I told you, I always keep my promises.” With a resigned sigh, he extended his hand.

“Ready to look inside?”

Chapter Twelve

I jerked back, suddenly uncertain. This whole bet, just to satisfy my curiosity over whether or not Kurtis really had killed Anthony, had paled somewhat in my eyes. I’d proven he was wrong about Seth…but what did that really matter when compared to how stupid I’d been in the first place about Seth?

Kurtis’ eyes widened. “What’s this? Cold feet? After everything you went through?” He shook his head, amused. “What is it with you? Don’t you accept any rewards?”

“I don’t know…I’m just so…I shouldn’t have done this tonight…”

“Oh, good grief,” he groaned. He was playing lax and silly, but I could see how the idea of me looking inside scared him. “After I braced myself for this all night?” He made a big show of looking at the clock. “Well, decide fast because I don’t want to miss the main event.”

My anger kindled once more at being reminded of poor Starla and Clyde meeting a potentially undeserved fate. “Okay. Let’s do this.”

He attempted his cocky smile, but I could see the sweat on his neck and along his hair. His pupils were large. Wow. He was afraid. Really afraid. I wondered if I should be too. Closing his eyes, he held out his hand again. I grabbed hold of it and…

I was in.

I was in a place of white light, dizzying and blinding. It was filled with something—

something I simply couldn’t perceive. It was like a blind person staring at the color red. I could not comprehend what I was missing because it appealed to a sense I didn’t have. In a flash, that surreal moment was over, and I stood on familiar territory, with sights and sounds I could comprehend.

I was on a battlefield at night, mud and bodies lit by a full moon and a star-clustered sky that had never seen city lights. Scraps of fighting still lingered around me, on the periphery of the battlefield. Groans of the dying field the air. I looked around, disgusted.

Then I was in a city, an ancient city I didn’t recognize, a city that had existed ages before my mortal life. I watched the town’s life unfold, watched as the tyrant who ruled it trampled the citizens and abused them for their labor, denying them food and life when it was convenient. In the end, it didn’t matter because a raiding army eventually came and destroyed the town, killing, raping, and enslaving its residents.

Scene after horrible scene flew past me in fast-forward. It was like the proverbial life flashing before your eyes. Humanity suffered, and I watched it through Kurtis’ eyes, felt his pain and frustration, until finally he couldn’t take it anymore. Then the white screen was back, the whiteness that meant nothing to me and everything to him. He tore it asunder, and it was like tearing himself in half. Then, there was no more light, only blackness and a hole in his soul.

After that, Kurtis’ demonic career unfolded before my eyes, and I watched him commit atrocity after atrocity—some worse than the ones he’d broken with Heaven over—simply because he didn’t care anymore. I felt his pain, felt his emptiness, felt his apathy. The events blinked past me in seconds, an abridged version of a timeless life.

I saw his time with Anthony, saw the tortures that had been described in the courtroom. And as the present tumbled forward, I felt Kurtis’ anger toward his former employee cool—and I felt his surprise when other demons hauled him off to the trial. I felt his frustration and fear, his desperate attempts to lobby and bribe for his innocence. His relief when Clyde and Starla took the fall.

And then, it was all over, and we were standing together in the condo.

Kurtis hadn’t killed Anthony. He’d been telling the truth.

I broke contact and reeled from what I’d seen. I understood then why this wasn’t done very often, even to prove a point. It was enough to live with the power of your own soul—or, in my case, of your leased soul—but to experience the emotion and intensity of another’s was too much. The fact that I was a lesser immortal viewing a higher immortal made it that much more powerful.

I staggered backward and fell to my knees, arms wrapped around me. Kurtis grabbed an exquisite blue glass bowl, veined in gold, and held it to me.

“You gonna be sick?”

It certainly felt that way. I leaned over, feeling the bile rise in my throat as I squeezed my eyes shut. The room spun. I carried a lot of pain with me, almost a millennium and a half’s worth. But I knew then, knew without a doubt that it was nothing compared to the scope of what angels and demons went through. Even the shadow of what he felt was wreaking havoc with me.

Swallowing, I pushed the nausea down and looked back up at Kurtis. His long face was serious, his eyes infinite and knowing, even as he shuddered and tried to master his own reaction. The experience had been rough on him too. Rougher.

Looking away, I breathed a grateful sigh that the sensations were already fading, that horrible loss of an angel who’d turned his back on Heaven because he was angry at the way the powers-that-be let humanity suffer.

“I’m sorry,” I gasped out.

“For what?” he asked, a sardonic smile on his lips. There was a tight set to his face that said even if he had a chipper persona, he would still feel the effects of me reading him for some time.

“I don’t know.” I could have been apologizing for anything. For making him open up. For what he’d given up in anger millennia ago. For what he’d had to do in the intervening time. For being accused of a crime he didn’t commit.

Kurtis seemed to understand. He set the bowl down and helped me up, even though he was a bit unsteady himself. “Will you be all right?”

“I think so.”

“Look at that,” he told me. “Eleven-thirty. You have time to go back to your guy.”

He was right. I had thirty minutes, thirty minutes in which to go back to Seth as myself and share a few precious moments with no treachery or subterfuge. Now that I knew Kurtis was innocent, the sting of his bribe had faded.

Suddenly, I frowned. The memories of looking in his head were disappearing rapidly, but while inside of him, I’d seen the events of the trial through his eyes. I’d seen him approaching other jurors, making his offers.

“Monaco,” I exclaimed.

“What?”

“You didn’t offer Monaco.”

He tilted his head and studied me. “You might have gotten hit harder than I thought.”

“No! When you offered people bribes, you didn’t offer to transfer that guy to Monaco. Clyde said you didn’t have the power.”

“Of course not,” snorted Kurtis. “You think I’d be in Belgium if I could arrange that?”

“Who did then? Who offered bribes to acquit you and convict Clyde and Starla?

Someone else was working with you. But, I mean, not with you.” I could say that with some conviction because I knew for sure now he’d had no ally that he’d been aware of.

Kurtis frowned, face lost in thought, then it cleared. “Noelle.”

“She’s powerful enough?”

“Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Makes sense too. There wasn’t enough evidence to have a clear decision, so she pushed for a quick ending and got her cathartic revenge. Punished two people who were pissing her off in the process. Very neat. Nice way to do it if you can’t nail the right suspect.”

It made sense. Starla and Luis had confirmed the same ideas. And yet…something wasn’t making sense…

I blinked. “That’s because the right suspect wasn’t up there.”

Kurtis’ face registered mild surprise. “Oh?”

“It was Noelle. Noelle killed Anthony.”

“Her own employee?” he scoffed. “Not likely. Especially since, as his supervisor, she could legally inflict any number of punishments.” He grinned. “I of all people know the loopholes there. Besides, she had the hots for Anthony.”

“So did Starla. A lot more than the hots, actually. Yet everyone thinks casting her as a murderer makes sense.”

“Okay, you get points for that, but what else have you got, Sherlock? You can’t just go accuse a major archdemon of murder.” He made a face. “Unless it’s one who’s been sentenced to Belgium.”

Scraps of conversation from the last few days began fitting together in my head. “Noelle was jealous of Anthony and Starla. He’d refused her advances, and it must have driven Noelle crazy that he preferred a new, weak demoness over her. She tried to split them up, right? Said it was interfering with his work. And that’s when he lashed back. Starla told me how he wanted to transfer. Probably figured he could still date or whatever Starla without work problems. But Noelle said she was going to fight it—she didn’t want to lose him. She loved him. And they had this huge, horrible blowout that made them both really mad. Clyde passed Anthony on his way out, and Anthony was furious. Then Clyde talked to Noelle, and she was livid too.”

“So she kills Anthony over an argument?”

“No,” I said. “Well, yes. More than that. The argument was the culmination of a lot of things. His rejection of her. The fact that she was likely going to lose him. Remember Margo’s comment? ‘If I can’t have him…’ That was Noelle’s line of thinking.”

Kurtis let out a low whistle. “That’s quite a theory, little one. And a lot of circumstantial evidence.”

“It’s why she’s been so angry over all this. It’s not revenge. It’s anger at herself for what she did—and fear to close this up fast and cover her own tracks. That’s also why she didn’t push to look inside any of you guys. She made it sound like she didn’t want to violate you, but really, it was because she knew you’d all be proven innocent.”

“Well, you’ve made some good leaps, I’ll give you that.” He pointed at the clock. Twenty minutes until midnight. “But there’s nothing to be done for it, even if it’s true. It’s almost time. That group’s in a frenzy by now, waiting for the torture. They’re probably selling balloons and hot dogs. No one’s going to listen.”

I stared blankly at the window. “Luis would.”

“Maybe he would.” When I didn’t answer, Kurtis laid an almost friendly hand on my shoulder. “Look, you really might be on to something, but it’s too late. You’re burning up time. At the very least, get in one kiss with your guy. Chase after this theory, and you blow any moment you have with him.”

Kurtis was right. And I had already blown most of what time I could have had with Seth. I’d wasted it in the guise of another woman. But if I acted soon, I could have him now as me. I could have him, and Starla and Clyde would suffer. I’d noted before that they’d probably committed enough other crimes to deserve punishment, but it occurred to me that like Kurtis, they might have initially fallen from grace for more than just selfish reasons.

I looked up and met Kurtis’ penetrating gaze. “Will you transport me back to the hotel?”

He was right about the spectacle. The ballroom-turned-conference-room was packed. The whole gang was there from the first day: imps, vampires, incubi, and demons. Kurtis and I pushed our way through the excited crowd. People slapped him on the back in congratulations as we passed. They made lewd comments to me.

Near the front of the room, a demon in black sharpened long, bladed instruments. Near him stood Starla and Clyde. The two “guilty” demons didn’t move, though no visible bonds held them. They were frozen, trapped through some magical means. I averted my eyes from them.

“Help me,” I told Kurtis. “Help me find Luis.”

It was an impossible task. There were too many bodies mingling and moving. Luis was a big guy. I’d hoped I might find him simply by virtue of him being taller than others, but that seemed unlikely now.

Kurtis stopped walking. “He’s not here.”

I stopped too, nearly running into an annoyed vampire. “How do you know?”

“He’s one of the strongest here, stronger even than Noelle. If he were in this room, we’d feel him, even above all this.”

He was right, I realized. We fought our way back out. Once outside, Kurtis stood and looked around like a hound sniffing the wind. “Got him.”

We found Luis sitting in the bar, stirring his bourbon over ice. He appeared to be the only one of the demonic congregation who wasn’t in the other room making balloon animals or getting face tattoos. Feeling us enter, he looked up in surprise.

“You have to help us,” I said. Immediately, I sat down and spilled the whole story, laying out the evidence—circumstantial though it was—about why I believed Noelle was the killer.

Luis listened with an unreadable face. When I finished, he pretty much said the same thing Kurtis had. “There’s no way to prove it.”

“But it makes sense! Luis, they’re five minutes away from punishing the wrong people.”

“Georgina.” Luis sighed. “Unfair things happen every day in the universe whether you live on Earth, in Heaven, or in Hell. If you’re right, it’s unfortunate, but well…that’s that.”

“I thought you wanted the truth,” I accused.

“Then I have it. Your idea makes sense. Noelle did it.”

“But it’s not justice!”

“I didn’t come for justice.” He gave me a kind, sad smile. “I’m not the one with ‘an annoying yet adorable sense of right and wrong.’”

“I don’t believe that! You must still have something.”

“Look, I’m not happy that Noelle could get away with this, but it’s too late. And this isn’t a Christmas special where I suddenly see the error of my ways. I’m a fucking demon. I spread evil in the world. I am evil.”

I figured fighting that would just get me accused of more cheery good will. And honestly, I did believe Luis still had a sense of right and wrong…but if his life had been like Kurtis’, he had good reason for apathy.

“If you call her out,” I said finally. “You’ll get accolades. Big promotion.”

Luis’ face registered surprised, then broke into a grin. “You’re bribing me now?”

I looked between him and Kurtis. “I hear that’s how it works around here.”

Luis’s smile faded. “There’s no way of proving her guilt.”

“Well,” mused Kurtis. “There’s one way…” He’d perked up at the mention of promotion. I think he hoped being in on Noelle’s takedown could help his Belgium transfer.

He and Luis locked eyes, and something passed in those glances.

“No,” said Luis. “She wouldn’t agree.”

“You’re strong enough…”

Luis grimaced. “If I do that, and she’s not guilty, I’m the one who gets flayed.”

“She is guilty,” I said, having no clue what they referred to, only that something big was on the line. “Luis, please.”

The clock ticked. One minute until midnight.

Luis studied me for a long time. He exhaled and stood up.

“I can’t believe I’m about to do this.”

Kurtis gave him a friendly punch. “Don’t worry. I’ve got your back.”

“Really?”

“No.”

Powerful presence or no, not many people noticed when Luis entered the ballroom. At least, not until he grabbed Noelle and slammed her against the wall.

Dead silence filled the room, except for Noelle’s outraged cries as she fought against him. But he held her pinned with more than physical strength; she couldn’t match his magical power.

“Are you out of your fucking mind? What the hell are you—?”

She quieted and blanched as he pressed his hand to her forehead. He paled as well, and I heard a collective gasp around the room. I realized then what he was doing. He was looking in her, just as Kurtis had allowed me. Only, Luis was doing it by force. It was a mental, spiritual rape of sorts.

I shuddered, remembering how it had been for me being the one to look inside. It had been a hundred times worse for Kurtis, and unlike Noelle, he’d consented. As she grew paler and paler, I could only imagine how it must feel for her to undergo that. No, scratch that. I couldn’t even comprehend it.

The two demons broke apart in less than a minute. I wondered if that’s how much time had elapsed when Kurtis and I had done it. I’d relived an eternity in my mind while it happened.

Luis and Noelle stood there, gasping, staring at each other. Both looked ready to pass out.

“Holy shit,” exclaimed Luis. “You did do it.”

Noelle frantically shook her head, black curls swaying, as she tried to hold on to the wall for support. “No, no.” She looked desperately at the crowd. “He’s lying! He’s lying!”

Luis was visibly trying to recover himself. He grabbed nothing for support, but he had the look of someone who’d been gut-punched. “You want to let someone else look and prove me wrong?”

“No!” she cried. In power, she was second only to Luis here. None of the other gathered demons could actually force her as he had. She would have to allow it—unless an outside demon was summoned. “You can’t prove anything, Luis. You’re lying. You’re—”

“I can prove it,” he interrupted. “You showed me. I saw it inside you. I know where to go and—”

“No, don’t. Don’t.”

He shrugged. “Your call. You tipped me off. I know how to get evidence now and prove it. I’m the one passing judgment. Make me go hunt down the proof, and your sentence will be…bad. Or, confess now, and your sentence will be…less bad.”

A silent battle took place. I had no idea what evidence Luis had seen inside her, but her expression showed that she did not want it made public. Realizing she was fucked either way, Noelle finally nodded.

“All right. All right. Yes, I confess. I did it. I killed Anthony and set the others up. There. Are you happy? Are you fucking happy?”

Those gathered went crazy. They loved the new turn of events. It might have even been better than a flaying for them. As chaos broke out in the room, I heard Kurtis chuckling behind me.

“Sweet,” he said. “I am so out of Belgium.”

“What, for helping with this?” I asked.

“Yup. Well, that and I hear there’s an archdemon opening in L.A.”

Chapter Thirteen

Seth and I flew back to Seattle the next day. A lot of demons had wanted to talk to me, but I needed to get out of that hotel as soon as possible. In fact, I’d hightailed it out of the ballroom once Starla and Clyde had been freed. I hadn’t stuck around because I had a feeling Noelle was simply going to be swapped into their place for the evening’s entertainment.

Sitting beside Seth for the two-and-a-half hour flight home brought all the other events of last night back to me. As we held hands and recounted the bizarre trial events, he in no way acted as though he’d faced temptation and won last night. I in no way acted as though I’d been the cause of that temptation and had subsequently lost the one chance we might have had for physical intimacy. The fact that my exploits had led to two demons’ freedom was little comfort.

“She really killed him?” asked Seth in amazement.

“Yup.”

“But she loved him…or something, right?”

“Yup.”

“Then how could she have done that?”

I stared at his profile, at the cheekbones and brown eyes I loved. I thought about losing him, how I would feel if he chose another woman. I wouldn’t be driven to kill him, of course, but…well, I could empathize with the pain.

“Because people do stupid things for love,” I murmured sadly, thinking of my own sins.

He turned and met my eyes, compassion shining in them. “You okay?”

I hesitated, and for a brief moment, the instinct was there. I almost spilled everything I’d done in my silly Beth obsession. After all, Seth and I had recently had big discussions about honesty in relationships. He was a big believer in telling the truth, and I wanted to live up to his ideals. Yet, the words stuck in my throat.

“Fine,” I said instead. “Just worn out…long week.”

“Yeah,” he said. “I hear you.” His gaze turned inward, and I had a feeling he was thinking of the condo. He opened his mouth, like he too might say something, then closed it. I was pretty sure I knew what had been about to come out.

“So,” I said carefully. “Where’d you go this morning?” He’d gotten in some writing before our plane left. “The pig café?”

He smiled faintly. “No. I went back to that diner…”

“Oh?”

“Yeah…weird thing. That waitress you saw…she was working, and I told her I was leaving and…”

My smile was frozen on my face as I attempted to play blasé. “And?”

Again, I had the feeling he was about to tell me about last night, and again, he held back.

“I don’t know. Just weird. She was acting really strange when I talked to her…”

Like, say, when he talked to her about events she had no clue about?

“What do you mean?” I asked.

He shook his head, letting it go. I wondered if he’d tried to apologize to her. He probably thought her obliviousness was feigned as retaliation. “I don’t know. Like I said, she was just being weird.”

He squeezed my hand, and we settled back into our seats. Both of us held our own secrets, our own guilt. Neither of us had the courage to bring them up. I wondered if that’s how all couples were, hiding small, silent sins.

Nonetheless, I couldn’t resist asking, “Weird, huh? Wait…didn’t you say she reminded you of me? Are you saying I’m weird?”

Seth laughed. He brought my hand to his lips and kissed it. “Thetis, there are no adjectives for you. And the two of you are nothing alike.”

“Really? I mean, you acted like we were twins or something.”

“I did no such thing.”

“You did,” I teased. “It was like you couldn’t tell us apart.”

He sighed and rolled his eyes at my joking. “I told you, you’re nothing alike. You don’t act alike. You don’t think alike. You don’t talk alike.”

“Or look alike,” I added.

“Right,” he agreed. After another squeeze of my hand, he released it and opened up his laptop.

Watching, I figured I should be glad he didn’t suspect anything. I’d gotten away with my blunder, my test of his fidelity. I should feel glad. Except I didn’t.

“People do stupid things for love,” I muttered under my breath.

Seth glanced at me. “What’d you say?”

“Nothing.”