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.”