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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, f**k 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 f**k 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, f**k 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.
