Chapter 27

Chapter27

Delacroix’s coils extinguished most of the fire, but small pockets of flame danced throughout the casino. We had to leave, asap, but the only time I’d exited the Hell, the shedim had thrown me out. I could take my chances in the foyer, but even if I found a portal, I had no idea where it might lead.

I was a puny human at the mercy of a lethal monster, still, a curious sense of calm descended over me.

That’s called shock, Cherry scoffed, but she helped me stand tall and not cower.

Delacroix locked his gaze on Maud. His eyes gleamed with a malicious glint, and his lips curled into a sinister grin as he swayed and bobbed, prepared to strike. “You’re pathetic.”

He didn’t care that Maud was his own flesh and blood.

He wouldn’t care if he learned about me either.

There was an odd freedom in knowing that. I’d always harbored a tiny fear that if I met my father that I’d be caught in conflicted loyalties.

I jumped in front of…my sister. There was no point using the flamethrower—it wouldn’t scorch the demon in this form—but I was making a stand.

A choice.

“Step aside, girlie,” he hissed, his voice echoing through the chamber. “This is family business.”

He had no idea.

“Yes,” Maud said, struggling against the cuffs. “This is between me and him.”

“Points for tenacity,” I said over my shoulder to her, “but seriously. Shut. Up.” I turned back to Delacroix. “This is Mac⁠—”

Maud knocked me to the ground from behind and pulled the chain of the cuffs taut around my neck like a garotte.

“There’s hope for you yet,” Delacroix said.

I wormed my hand under the chain so I could breathe, then headbutted her backward.

Maud screeched.

I ducked free of the chain to find her tipping her head back and plugging her nose to stop the blood.

In my head, Cherry grinned. We liked this sibling gig.

“You cow!” she said.

“You started it.”

Delacroix was watching this exchange a little too closely.

I smoothed back my hair. “As I was saying, this is Maccabee business. Now, I’m going to do exactly what I said I would: arrest our perp. Then she and I will walk out of here. You will not hurt either of us, and you will not come after us. Ever. You so much as whisper a threat in our direction and I’ll whip the Maccabees into such a fervor over your destruction that there won’t be any realm you can hide in.”

Delacroix loomed over me, fangs out. “I could kill you,” he said conversationally. “The Maccabees would never know what became of you.”

“They’d find out,” I said. Even if something had happened to Sachie and Darsh—I banished that thought as swiftly as it came—Ezra would burn down the world to get answers.

This certainty, or the knowledge that were our positions reversed, I’d do the same even now, even after everything, was set aside to be dealt with at a later date.

Meantime, the same perverse urge to annoy Delacroix—the one I’d had from our first meeting, and which now made total sense—drove me to raise an eyebrow. “Open a portal back to Vancouver, you miserable moray.”

“Back to the alliteration, huh?” He snorted, which was all kinds of weird coming from a giant serpent.

However, a second later, the snake was gone, replaced by the Delacroix I knew and loathed. He was totally unharmed, once more in his sweater and jeans.

Water splashed up through the glassless windows and across the carpet, dowsing the remaining flames and soaking our feet.

Delacroix fished a cigarette out of his crazy hair with nicotine-stained fingers and used it to gesture from Maud to me. “You should take lessons from this one. She wouldn’t screw up killing me, would you, girlie?” He leaned closer to me. “I see it in your eyes.”

Great. Dad was playing favorites. He didn’t seem to know I was his kid though. He wasn’t treating me any different than he ever had, nor was he giving me some knowing look, and I was pretty sure he’d have alluded to it—or openly used it to his advantage.

“The portal, Delacroix.” I scooped up Maud’s Maccabee ring.

The air shifted into an oval rift strung with magic mesh.

“Happy?” He picked up the discarded flamethrower and lit his cancer stick.

“I’d say it’s been a delight, but I’ve had more pleasant encounters stepping on Lego.” My fine exit leading Maud out with my head held high was wrecked slightly by my hesitation to step into the portal in case it sucked us into a dark void or the bottom of the sea or something, but I continued on with a steady gait.

“See you at Brimstone Breakfast Club, girl detective. Don’t make me repeat the invite.”

“What? No way.” I spun around, but the portal—and Delacroix’s mocking smile—vanished.

The meager back room at the Jolly Hellhound was as wondrous a sight as Oz. I’d survived this entire fucked-up investigation with my secret intact and our suspect in my custody. All I had to do was determine Sachie and Darsh were safe, and the celebration could commence.

Maud bowed her head, looking fully human once more. “You let that demon win,” she said brokenly.

I thought of Quentin taking his own life, Calista murdered, and Maud and I forced to hide our entire lives. “It wasn’t about him winning,” I said, “it was about making sure you didn’t lose.” I gentled my tone. “You’ve lost enough.”

“Yeah, right.”

I nodded at one of the tables. “Sit. I have questions.”

She remained standing, glaring defiantly.

“Sit,” I said in a hard voice. “Or I’ll make your life miserable. You had a Maccabee ring and I want to know how.”

She took her chair like a petulant child. “My mother’s best friend was an operative. She was badly wounded in the line of duty and I…” She grimaced. “I asked for it as a token.”

I held up the ring. “You’re sure you didn’t steal it?”

“I’m a lot of things, but I didn’t stoop to stealing from my godmother on her deathbed.”

I accepted it as truth. Crappy truth, but still. “You knew it killed demons.”

Maud nodded.

I sighed, wishing my assumption hadn’t been confirmed. “You’re a smart woman, Maud, but you were blinded by emotion, and you didn’t bother to find out the risk of using it.”

“It really would have killed me?”

“Yes. If someone steals one from us and uses it, they’ll be sorry.” I pocketed her ring. “Why didn’t you wipe my memory as well? You must have seen me at the crime scene with your fire sight.”

“You—you know about that?”

“Yeah. I’m a hell of a detective and I hate unanswered questions.”

“I thought I had, but then you showed up at the hazard table and I was scared it hadn’t taken because you were onto me.”

Sachie was bang on about that.

“You were right it didn’t take.” I’d assumed it was because I was out of range when Maud had wiped the others, but now I worried it was because of Cherry. “But I had no idea you were involved until after you tried to blow me up. Thanks for that, by the way. Such a fun experience I never wanted.”

Maud slammed a hand against the table. “I wanted a normal life, but when I couldn’t get that I went for revenge. Won’t be getting that either.” She made a snarky face at me. “Thanks for that, by the way.”

I tamped down my grin.

“Now what?” she said. “I rot in prison for the rest of my life?”

“We like to put people on trial first. Let a jury condemn you to rotting in prison. It takes it off our conscience.”

She huffed a laugh. “You’re a bitch.”

“And you’re not going to jail. Why would you, when Constantine compelled you to go after Calista?”

Maud’s mouth opened. Then she closed it and frowned. “No one will believe that story.”

I raised my eyebrows. “Are you or are you not a champion poker player?”

She scowled. “There’s a world of difference between poker and this.”

“Is there?” I shrugged. “It’s not like he’s around to dispute the story. Was he not old enough to compel?” Vamps under two hundred hadn’t grown into that ability.

Maud took the news of Constantine’s death wearing the poker face that had won her multiple titles so I couldn’t tell if she was upset. “He was old enough.”

I spun my Maccabee ring around, thinking through the story aloud. “Constantine was in love with Calista, but he was spurned and he was angry. She’d banned Quentin and destroyed his life because of some nothing vamp she’d turned but she rejected him? Initially, Constantine intended to use Quentin to get close to Calista and stake her, but the man’s condition quickly drove him mad, and no one would believe he masterminded this plan on his own. Constantine knew your mother had been banned so you became his next patsy.” I paused, grasping for the next piece.

“I’m a world champion poker player,” Maud said huffily. “Word gets out I was duped and my rep goes to shit.”

“Go to jail and see how many tournaments you get to compete in. He’s an old vamp, he played you. Can you sell that? Yes or no.”

Maud glared at me, then her expression twisted: big pleading eyes, a downturned mouth. She wrung her hands, but not too dramatically. “I liked him,” she said plaintively.

“Good start.”

She narrowed her eyes. “The memory I forfeited to you when we played hazard showed me flirting with him, right?” Off my nod she continued. “I’d been seducing him for months, plying him for tidbits on Calista’s whereabouts, but it works the other way too. If we were seen spending time together, people would believe it was an affair, not him coaching me on what to do.”

“Perfect. Constantine used those assumptions to his advantage and never bothered to seduce you. He compelled you from the start, and he kept reinforcing it. His death freed you from it, but you were too messed up by that point to know your own mind. I got the story out of you after I rescued you from Delacroix, whom you’d gone to see…” I shot a finger in the air in triumph. “Because that was the last part of the plan. Delacroix had to see you glamored as Calista to believe this was all your idea as revenge for your mother being banned. Constantine was going to kill Calista while you went to see Delacroix. He knew that staking her would torture her. He wanted her to suffer, but he had to finish her off. Meanwhile Delacroix would finish you off.” I brushed my hands together. “Nice and tidy. Except I killed Constantine, and it all went to hell. So sad.”

“Delacroix can refute this.”

“He could, but I doubt he’ll bother. He can blab that you came after him as his kid, but it doesn’t negate you being compelled in the first place. If it comes to it, feed that into the story of what Constantine knew about you.” I shook my head. “Anyway, I doubt Delacroix will be leaving that ship anytime soon.” Other than going to Breakfast Club. “We got away because he let us, magic alarm system or not. That won’t happen again. He’ll tighten security on the portal.”

She held out her hand. “Can I at least have my godmother’s ring back?”

“Eventually. For now, I wouldn’t mention anything about it. You asked for it under false pretenses and presumed to use it, even though you aren’t a Maccabee. That will be held against you, so keep your mouth shut on the matter.”

Every word of that was true. Did I also plan to use all the magic in the ring? Damn skippy I did. Its weight told me that it was still full of the magic cocktail. That was four demon kills, four chances to feed Cherry. Each time I depleted my stash and had to refill my ring, I used the override codes that I’d gotten from Michael. She was totally tracking how often I reupped, even if no one else was.

“Why would you do this for me?” Maud said.

“Like I said, you’ve lost enough.” And I’ve just found you. I’d felt so alone my entire life, the only other people like me either murder victims or criminals. Violent, evil criminals, I amended. Maud wasn’t that. “I also don’t believe you’re a danger to anyone else.”

She finally dropped her neutral expression and regarded me shrewdly. “Okay,” she said simply.

She knows.

That first spurt of fear was quickly followed by relief, because there was no judgment on her face, simply understanding. Still, I was a realist. Maud might be bluffing and plan to make her suspicions public. I assured myself they were suspicions, because if she had a shred of proof, she’d have said something in front of Delacroix, or leveraged that information to achieve her end goal.

Well, I didn’t have any good way to silence her, and protesting would only confirm it. I was putting my trust in her having been as lonely as I was, and wanting someone in this world who would see all of her, without making her hide or hate herself.

I thought that you of all people would understand wanting someone who knew your secrets, to be there for you without having to ask.

I shook Ezra’s words away.

“Ready to go?” I motioned for Maud to stand up. “I’ll take you to Maccabee HQ and we’ll sort things out. You’ll be questioned, but so long as you stick to the story, you’ll be fine.”

She followed me to the door. “Maybe when this is all over, we could meet up sometime.”

I’d always sworn that Sachie would be the next person I came out to. She was my best friend, my ride or die.

But she wasn’t a half shedim.

And she wasn’t my sister.

I shrugged. “I’ll think about it.”