I regretted my choice of outfit as soon as I walked back into the living room. Adam took one look at me and started to laugh. I plopped onto the yellow love seat and allowed myself to sink into the cushions.

“You were afraid I’d jump your bones if you didn’t dress like a bag lady?” he asked, the corners of his mouth twitching with humor. I noticed for the first time that he had laugh lines around his eyes. If he weren’t a gay demon with a penchant for S&M — heavy on the S — I might have found that sexy.

I stuck my chin out. “You mean to tell me you don’t know you’ve been looking at me like I was Little Red Riding Hood and you were the Big Bad Wolf?”

He sobered a little, but there was still a hint of humor in his eyes. “No, you’re right. I’ve been laying it on rather thick.” The last of the humor faded. “You don’t have to be afraid of me, Morgan. I wouldn’t hurt you without consent, and I’m not into rape.”

“Yeah, you’re just an all-around nice guy.”

He shrugged. “I wouldn’t go that far.”

“You said you had information for me. Why don’t we call a halt to the verbal sparring and get to that part.”

“Fair enough. When Dominic called to tell me you’d stopped by, I knew it hadn’t been out of the goodness of your heart.” I winced, but he ignored me. “I figured it meant you suspected him of setting you up. So I asked him about it.”

My eyebrows reached for my hairline. “You asked your lover if he’d framed me for murder? I guess I’m not the only one with trust issues.”

He waved my snarky comment away. “I knew he didn’t do it. But I also knew if anyone wanted to get you in trouble, they might reasonably think Dominic would want in on it. Why commit a crime yourself if you can manipulate someone else into doing it for you? So I asked him if anyone had asked any probing questions about you since the exorcism. He said no — at first. Then I asked who all he’d talked to since then, and a very interesting name came up. And when he thought about it a little more, Dominic realized this person had poked at him to see how he felt about you.”

“You know, anytime you want, you can stop being coy and just spit it out.”

“All right. I’m talking about your brother, Andrew.”

I clenched my teeth. It shouldn’t have been so painful to hear yet another piece of evidence that Andrew was my enemy. Lugh had pretty much tried and convicted him already. And he wasn’t really my brother anymore, he was the demon Raphael.

Logic be damned, it hurt anyway.

“Just to be sure, I got hold of the 911 call. It was anonymous, made from the victim’s house, and there were no fingerprints on the phone. The voice was muffled, but I’m pretty sure it was Andrew’s.”

I took a deep breath. “So why are you here talking to me? Why aren’t you arresting Andrew?”

“My jurisdiction is violent crime. A 911 call isn’t a violent crime.”

“Performing an illegal exorcism is!”

“Is your brother an exorcist?”

He knew the answer to that, because there’s no such thing as a demon exorcist. Of course, a few days ago I’d have said there was no such thing as a demon who could possess you without you knowing it, so what did I know?

“If he called from the house,” I argued, “then he’s at least an accomplice.”

But Adam shook his head. “My evidence against him is that he talked to Dominic yesterday and I think I recognize his muffled voice on the phone. Not enough. Not even close. But it’s enough for me to tell you to watch your back.”

I cocked my head at him. His face radiated sincerity. “Why would you care? You hate me.”

He rolled his eyes. “I don’t hate you. I’m mad at you. If you don’t know the difference between the two, then it’s you who needs to get help, not Dominic.”

Geez, did Dominic repeat our conversation word for word?

Adam stood up in one fluid movement. I had to fight my way out of the depths of the cushions. About as graceful and fluid as a hippo.

“I’ll get out of your hair now,” he said. “You have changed your alarm code, right?”

“Uh-huh.”

He nodded his approval, and I walked him to the door. I thought I was going to be rid of him, but he paused in the doorway and reached under his jacket.

“Oh, I almost forgot,” he said. His hand emerged from his jacket, and he was holding a Taser out to me, butt first. “If you’ve got mysterious masked men breaking into your house at all hours of the night, you probably shouldn’t be unarmed.”

To say I was stunned is an understatement. I couldn’t even begin to understand this guy. How could he go from threatening to hurt me to giving me a Taser to defend myself?

I hesitated a long time, looking at that Taser. For all I knew, it had been used to commit a crime, and Adam was even now setting me up, hammering another nail into my coffin. But as badly as he’d creeped me out tonight, my gut instinct told me he wasn’t the one trying to frame me. So I took the Taser despite all my misgivings.

“Thanks.” I cleared my throat. “And, uh, I’m sorry I upset Dominic. I didn’t mean to, honest.”

He nodded. I didn’t know if that meant he accepted the apology, or if he was just acknowledging that I’d made one.

I started to close the door, but once again he stopped it with his hand.

“One more thing,” he said, and there was that scary intensity in his gaze again. “The bruise that was on your cheek yesterday? It’s gone.”

CHAPTER 11

I checked in the mirror before bed, just to make sure Adam hadn’t been jacking with me. He hadn’t. The bruise was gone.

The last faint hope I’d harbored that I wasn’t possessed died. I’d had enough bruises in my life to know there was no way one would disappear overnight without help. I tend to heal fast, but not that fast. I thanked my lucky stars no one at the police station had noticed.

That led me to question why Adam hadn’t arrested me just now. He knew I wasn’t a legal, registered demon host. And now he knew I was possessed. And he’d just walked away. Yet another puzzle to add to the growing list.

Stress and confusion are an exhausting combo, and after chewing over the puzzles for an hour with no success, I climbed into bed and tried to will myself asleep. For the first time, I found myself wanting to talk to Lugh. Maybe he could tell me something more about Adam’s demon, explain some of the mysteries of the universe.

It took me the better part of forever to finally drift off. I felt like I hadn’t been asleep more than five minutes when I woke up again.

Lugh was getting better at manipulating my dreams. The room was no longer that solid, featureless white. The walls were a light, warm beige, and a thick, rusty-brown carpet covered the floor. The furniture was back, with a few flourishes. The top of the coffee table was coated with a shiny varnish, and a scattering of dark red velour throw pillows dotted the sofa and love seat.

Lugh stood across the room from me, looking proud of his achievement. When my eyes found him, I lost all interest in his decorating skills.

Black leather was still his weapon of choice, but he was wearing a hell of a lot less of it tonight, at least on his upper body. I wasn’t even sure what to call the arrangement of straps that crisscrossed his mouth-watering chest. They might be a shirt of some sort, or they might just have been random leather straps. They hid very little.

His chest was smooth and golden, with only a smattering of night-black hair. His nipples, framed by the black leather straps, were the color of milk chocolate. And, yes, he had the classic six-pack.

The leather pants clung lovingly to his hips and legs, showing off powerful muscles. And other assets.

Was it a coincidence that I’d had a few inappropriate thoughts about Adam and Dominic, and now Lugh appeared to me dressed like the S&M poster boy? I really hoped so, but I had a queasy feeling in my stomach. Just how much of my head could Lugh see into? And did I really want to know what he saw?