“I’m pretty sure I could steal your woman from there.” Caine’s voice was glacial.
“Stop it, both of you.” The wind rushed over her bare skin, giving her goose bumps. Of course they hated each other. What had she expected? “I’m calling the shots here. I’m the one with the demonic possession, and I’ll decide what to do with it. I’m sticking with Caine until we can exorcise the spirit. I don’t know what’s happening after that, or if the Brotherhood will take me back or hunt me to the ends of the earth. But I do know I can’t live with this monster inside of me. I’ve felt it, Josiah. And if I don’t get it out, it will torment me until I die. Caine says he can help me, and I believe him.”
Josiah’s eyes were desperate. “I forbid you to stay with him.”
Rosalind clenched her jaw. “You’re not listening. There’s nowhere else for me to go right now.”
Her Guardian jabbed a finger in her face. “Do not let him touch you. I’m not messing around, Rosalind.”
Was this really the most important issue right now? “I won’t let Caine near me.” She touched Josiah’s arm, trying to mollify him. “Please try to find out about my case—if the Brotherhood will take someone back after they’ve been cleansed. Or at least maybe they’ll stop sending goons to arrest me so I can go back to Thorndike.”
“Of course I will.”
“Are we done here?” Caine asked.
“We’re done,” she said. “You don’t need to erase his memory, do you?”
“Like hell he’s—” but Josiah couldn’t continue the sentence, because his face had gone slack.
She whirled to find Caine chanting, his hand raised.
“Caine!” Frustration simmered in her chest, and she shoved him. “He needs his memories to help me. And it’s not like he learned anything that Randolph doesn’t already know. You don’t need to erase his mind.”
Dead-eyed, Josiah turned, walking jerkily as though warring with himself.
What the hell is Caine playing at? Anger coiled through her, and she yanked out the iron dust, aiming it at Caine. “Stop fucking with him. He’s here to help me.”
Caine cut her a sharp look, and lowered his hand. “I didn’t erase his memory. I just wanted him to leave. He was annoying.”
Anger exploded in her skull. What was it with men and needing to dominate others?
But Caine was no ordinary man. Not only did he have this natural impulse for domination, but he had the means to exert complete control over others through his magic. “You just wanted him to know that you were in charge.”
“It’s better for him if he understands that.”
She narrowed her eyes, losing patience. “Do you have some kind of god complex?”
“He must understand that he can't fight me, or he’ll end up dead. He's not really on your side, Rosalind. He's only helping you because he’s scared of what will happen if you get too close to the demons.”
“Of course he’s scared. He doesn’t want me to get hurt.”
“That’s not what I meant. He’s scared he couldn’t satisfy you the way a demon could.”
“That's bullshit. Just because you're an incubus you interpret everyone else with your own disgusting flaws. And maybe your mind-blowing arrogance clouds your judgment. You just met him, and you already think you know everything about him, based on a two-minute conversation? And I didn’t even get to the part about how you lied about the executions.”
“My judgment is clouded?” Ice tinged his voice. “That's a bit rich coming from someone whose defining characteristic is chronic wrongness, mixed with a staggering dose of condescension. You and your insecure boyfriend are so preoccupied by evil that you’ve entirely overlooked all the Brotherhood’s transgressions.”
He was a genius at mixing truth with lies, and right about then she was seriously sick of his shit. “I wasn’t wrong about a high demon coming into the bar, but you ignored me, because you think you know everything.”
“It’s hard for me to value the opinion of a staggering hypocrite. You belong to an organization that believes in their own superiority over others, that uses torture as a tactic. You are completely blind to your own faults. But, of course, knowing how you were as a child that’s not surprising. A superiority complex is in your nature.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” She shook her head. He was trying to distract her. “Never mind. The point is, demons thrive on control over humans. Just look at what Bileth did to me. The Brotherhood have their faults, but we don’t hurt people just for enjoyment. We’re not sadists. We act strategically. If some people get hurt, that’s unfortunate, but we don’t take pleasure in it.”