Up In Smoke
Page 57

‘‘What say we have a quick tour before we have to see Magoth?’’ I suggested.
A corner of Gabriel’s mouth quirked.
‘‘Madame Northcott? This way, please,’’ a pretty woman said, giving Gabriel a not-very-subtle eye before she turned and started down a hallway.
‘‘This is going to get old very fast,’’ I grumbled, taking his hand in a show of outright possession.
He grinned, and tickled my palm with his thumb.
‘‘My darling wife!’’ Magoth said when the policewoman opened a door to a small interrogation room, standing aside for us to enter.
I stopped, glaring at him. ‘‘Do not call me that.’’
‘‘Why not? You are my consort, my queen, my second in command . . . or at least fifth or sixth in command. I have a cadre of wrath demons who are above you, I’m afraid, but you’re definitely in the top ten. Possibly twenty.’’
I slid a worried glance to the policewoman. ‘‘I think that’s just enough about your cadre.’’
He rolled his eyes. ‘‘Why you insist we play these games when things could be so much easier . . .’’
‘‘Magoth! Are you all right? Have you been abused in any fashion?’’ Sally asked, slipping around me to hurry to his side. ‘‘I don’t see any blood or even some bruising. Shouldn’t there be some blood? I expected there to be blood!’’
‘‘I like how your mind works,’’ Magoth told her.
She preened.
I felt it was time to break up their admiration society. ‘‘What in the name of the spirits of sanity were you doing to be arrested for indecent exposure?’’
‘‘Nothing at all,’’ he said with a dismissive wave of his hands. Someone had found him some clothing, a T-shirt and pair of jeans that weren’t his usual style, but he was incredibly handsome in them, regardless. ‘‘It is all a misunderstanding. I was visiting a quaint little fountain outside of a church, that’s all. No different from any other tourist.’’
‘‘A church?’’ Sally asked, startled.
I frowned. What was he doing near a church? Demon lords tended to avoid those places that were respected as holy ground, no matter what the religion. All too frequently sites were chosen because the ground was founded, or seeped in that quality that enhanced abilities that could be used against those of dark origins.
‘‘Monsieur was witnessed by a wedding party of two hundred, including three cardinals, and a papal legate, as he attempted indecent acts with a stone mermaid that sits on the top of the fountain,’’ the policewoman said, turning her attention on him.
‘‘Sins of the master,’’ Sally swore, looking at Magoth with something that looked very much like respect.
‘‘You were trying to have sex with a statue in a fountain?’’ I asked. Gabriel’s lips twitched as if he was having a hard time keeping from laughing.
‘‘It was a very large misunderstanding,’’ Magoth told me before switching his attention to the policewoman. The look he sent her was positively lecherous. ‘‘If you get my drift.’’
The woman slid me a quick glance.
‘‘Oh, don’t mind her,’’ he said quickly, leaning back in a wooden chair in a pose that was seductive despite the bleak surroundings. ‘‘We have an open marriage.’’
‘‘Very open, to the point of being nonexistent,’’ I snapped. ‘‘And while we’re on that subject, stop telling people we’re married. I’m Gabriel’s mate, not yours.’’
‘‘Sweet May, it wounds me near unto death that you would deny the fact that you are my consort,’’ he said, still making eyes at the policewoman, who was starting to look doubtful.
‘‘That’s true, you are, and in’’—Sally’s voice dropped to a whisper—‘‘in this world, the equivalent would be a spouse.’’
‘‘I don’t care. I won’t have you slighting Gabriel in order to pump up your own ego,’’ I said, taking Gabriel’s hand again.
The policewoman watched with growing suspicion. ‘‘You are monsieur’s legal representative?’’ she asked Gabriel.
Gabriel smiled his usual charming smile. ‘‘That’s right. And if you do not mind, madame and I would like to talk to my client. Privately.’’
She left us alone with Magoth, but only after insisting the others remain outside. Sally raised a bit of a fuss over being excluded.
‘‘It’s not like I don’t have a right to be here,’’ she told the policewoman. ‘‘I’m his apprentice! Well, at least I was until he sent me to May, but even if you consider that binding—and I don’t, not at all, because I didn’t sign on to learn how to be a consort!—even if you consider that binding, then I should still get to stay because she does, and I’m her apprentice.’’
‘‘Only family and legal representatives may remain with the prisoners,’’ the policewoman said, politely but firmly herding Sally out the door.
‘‘I’ll be right outside if you need me!’’ the latter called as the door was closed.
The second it was closed, Magoth was on his feet, storming around the room waving his hands in the dramatic fashion he favored when irritated.
‘‘Get me out of this . . . this . . . hellhole of mortal sensibilities!’’ he demanded, stomping to the door and back in a fairly good imitation of a caged beast.
I leaned my hip against the small wooden table in the center of the room. ‘‘And what, exactly, do you expect me to do? You’re the one who had a hard-on of such extent it required a stone statue to relieve.’’
‘‘Don’t be idiotic,’’ he snarled, pacing between the door and the far wall. ‘‘I wasn’t screwing the statue—it was a matter of a simple incantation. I was trying to bring forth a Sybarite, if you must know, not that it’s any of your business.’’
‘‘You’re kidding,’’ I said, surprised. ‘‘A lust demon? What on earth did you want a lust demon for?’’
Gabriel touched my arm and nodded toward the corner. A video camera was perched jauntily on the wall, its red light blinking as it obviously filmed us.