“I’ll buy your lunch,” she said to me, leaning forward so she didn’t have to shout. “It’s the least I can do.”

My best friend tries to Taser me, and she thinks buying me lunch is going to make up for it?

I let that thought show on my face, and she had the grace to look embarrassed.

“I’m really sorry, Morgan.” She looked down at her manicured hands, twisting her fingers around each other. “It was an unbelievably stupid thing to do, and I — ”

“Let’s just cut the crap, okay?” Her head jerked upward and she gave me those wide, innocent eyes. Maybe if all this other shit hadn’t happened after she’d attacked me, I’d have fallen for it. But the shit had happened, and I wasn’t buying what she was selling.

“You tried to Taser me because you recognized the name of the demon who’d possessed me.”

Her eyes widened even more. “You mean you really are possessed?”

I was glad the market was so damn noisy. I’d have hated to have this conversation in a quiet little café. No one even looked our way, though Val had practically shouted that.

I leaned into her personal space, my hands clenched into fists to help me resist the urge to wrap them around her neck and squeeze. “And after you Tasered me, you were going to take me to your friends — whoever the hell they are — so they could burn me to death.”

The color leeched from her face, and she couldn’t meet my eyes anymore. “Morgan,” she said, her voice hoarse and whispery, “how could you possibly believe something like that?”

She sounded convincingly hurt, but her facial expression was all wrong for it.

“If I’m being so unreasonable, then why do you look so guilty?” She didn’t seem to have an answer for that. My food arrived, but I wasn’t feeling in the least bit hungry. I’d told myself that I’d already abandoned the last vestige of hope that Val was still my friend, but the hurt that crushed my chest now told me I hadn’t.

I shook my head in disbelief. “Val, how could you?”

She raised her gaze to mine again, and there was a sheen of tears in her eyes. She blinked them away. “It’s nothing personal,” she assured me. “Things…weren’t supposed to happen this way.” She took a deep, loud breath and let it out slowly, and it seemed to settle her some. Her eyes were no longer teary, and though misery still hovered over her, her expression showed a heavy dose of resolve. “I can’t tell you how sorry I am that you got dragged into this.”

“Tell me what exactly I’ve gotten dragged into,” I demanded, but Val shook her head.

“I can’t do that.” She licked her lips and met my eyes squarely. The tears were completely gone now, replaced by grim determination. “If you take my cell phone away from me, I’ll have to use a pay phone to call the police. That’ll give you a bit of a head start.”

I blinked at her stupidly.

“You’re hosting an illegal demon. And there isn’t an exorcist in the world strong enough to cast him out. I’m afraid that leaves only one alternative.”

A chill shivered down my spine. She was going to report me. Her little friends had failed in their attempt to burn me to death in my house, and now they were going to try to get the state to do it instead.

Damn it! If only I could be sure Adam would be the one to investigate her complaint…

Val slowly unzipped her purse, then stuck her hand inside to rummage for the phone. I snatched the purse out of her hand, and she made no effort to fight me for it.

“I’m sure it’s no consolation under the circumstances,” Val said as I rooted through her purse until I’d found her phone, “but it’s for the greater good.”

“Greater good my ass!” I snarled as I shoved her purse, sans the phone, back into her arms. “I don’t know what the fuck you think you’re doing, but one thing is for damn sure: you’re not the good guys.”

I slid off my stool, my food sitting untouched on the counter. I was so furious I wanted to punch her, so hurt I wanted to cry, but I wasn’t about to do either one. Val threw some money on the counter.

“You’d better hurry,” she said. “There’s a pay phone right outside the market. I’ll be making a call as soon as I reach it.”

Without another word, she turned her back on me. My heart was pounding in my throat as I watched her push through the crowd. How sweet of her to give me this generous head start! And she wasn’t even heading toward the closest exit. Maybe she thought her conscience would rest easier if she gave me something resembling a fighting chance. I started hurrying in the opposite direction, my mind frantically considering then rejecting various avenues of escape.

I was shaking and distracted, so when I bumped into a guy blocking my path, it took me a moment to realize who it was. When I looked up into Dominic’s expressive hazel eyes, I suffered a moment of serious confusion.

“Dominic? What are you doing here?”

My now-hyperactive paranoia came to a hasty, terrifying conclusion. “You’re one of them!” It came out a shout, and I took a hasty step backward.

“What?” he said, brow furrowed. Then he seemed to figure out what I meant. “No!” He took hold of my arm. “Adam thought you needed backup, after all. We followed you here.”

I’m sure I still looked very, very suspicious. “We? Where’s Adam?”

Dominic looked grim. “Following Valerie. Don’t worry — he won’t let her make a phone call.”

“What’s he going to do to stop her?” I had a sneaking suspicion I knew the answer. When Dominic didn’t respond, I knew my suspicion was correct.

I’d never thought of myself as gullible before, but I’d sure been getting fooled a lot lately. “He just pretended to let me win the argument. He figured he’d use me to flush her out, then he’d grab her and take her to his place.”

Dominic gave me a shrug and a sheepish smile. I narrowed my eyes at him.

“You knew what he was going to do, didn’t you?”

Another shrug. “I’ve known Adam a long time, so yeah.”

And here I’d thought Dominic and I were starting to become friends. He was just one more in a long list of liars.

“Thanks for helping me ‘sneak’ the Taser out, asshole,” I said.

He ignored that. “Let’s go, okay? I don’t think you want Adam to be alone with Valerie for too long. Not if you object to what he plans to do.”

I didn’t like the sound of that one bit. “It’s not like I can stop him.”

“No,” Dominic said gently, “but you may be able to…temper him.”

I didn’t want to participate in what was apparently going to become a good cop/bad cop interrogation. But it was either that, or leave Val to the mercies of the bad cop. She’d gone from my best friend to my worst enemy, but there were some things I didn’t want to happen even to my worst enemy. I had a feeling Adam was one of them.

“Let’s go,” I said, and let Dominic lead the way.

It seemed like Dominic had parked about three miles away. Or maybe I was just anxious. I hurried us both along as fast as I could.

We drove back to Adam’s house in silence. My last faint hope that Val was my friend had finally died. There was a hollow ache in my chest. I wanted to know why she’d done it, why she was party to a plot to destroy the demon king. Then I wondered why I was so sure Lugh was the good guy in this scenario. I mean, I had only his word for it that he meant the human race well. Maybe he was Evil Incarnate, and Val was right to want to destroy him.

Maybe, but I didn’t think so. If Lugh were the bad guy, and Val my friend, she would at least have explained to me why she was trying to kill me.

Dominic pulled into the parking lot across from Adam’s house. He didn’t pull into a space, though, instead slipping a key out of his pocket and handing it to me. I blinked at him.

“You’re not coming in?”

He shook his head. “I’m going back to my place for a while.” He motioned at the house with one hand. “I don’t want to get in the middle of all that.”