“That’s the only sure thing,” Raphael repeated, then cut me off before I could light into him. “Our second-best option is to put the fear of God into him, so to speak.” He grinned and let his demon shine through his eyes.

Just the mention of Raphael’s name was enough to make most demons piss themselves in terror.

“We don’t even have to let on who’s hosting me,” Raphael continued. “You just tell him I’m your close personal friend, that you had to work hard to convince me to let you handle him this time, and that if he ever shows up on the Mortal Plain again you’ll let me have him. That ought to be some pretty strong incentive for him to butt out.”

And it was probably the only hope I had of keeping the poor intern alive. I hoped Raphael wasn’t just blowing smoke up my ass and planning to take things into his own hands no matter what I said. I was going to have to keep a very close eye on him.

“That’s as good a plan as any,” I said. “Now, if we could grab the intern before he manufactures some evidence linking me to the murder, that would be a nice bonus.”

“That could be the tricky part,” Adam agreed. “I can’t afford to be too closely involved at this point, although I can get you the name and address of the intern. We need to tread carefully. This demon obviously has some power and clout, or he wouldn’t have been able to make it back to the Mortal Plain within Morgan’s lifetime.”

I raised my eyebrows at that.

“There are a lot more demons who want to visit the Mortal Plain than there are available hosts,” Adam explained. “The waiting list is decades’ long for rank-and-file demons. The fact that he’s back so soon means he was powerful enough to pull strings and move his name way up the list.”

“A very powerful demon who has a grudge against Morgan,” Brian said, looking worried. “Is there any chance it’s Dougal?”

Raphael snorted and gave Brian a disdainful look. “Gee, wouldn’t that be convenient. Leave the safety and power of the Demon Realm to take a jaunt to the Mortal Plain where we can get our hands on him and eliminate his threat permanently.” He shook his head. “Neither of my brothers is an idiot.”

Brian’s face turned red, and in the past, I’d have jumped in to defend him. I felt no compulsion to do so now.

“Since we know the demon isn’t rank and file,” Adam continued as if his speech had never been interrupted, “we should send two demons after him.”

Raphael laughed. “Hmm. Two demons, and one of them isn’t you.” He looked at Saul and cocked an eyebrow. “Just you and me, son?”

“No,” I said emphatically. “Considering you two were about to rip each others’ throats out, I’m not sending you out together.” Listen to me, I thought, talking about this as if I were actually in charge of anything. I managed not to laugh at the idea.

“I beg to differ,” Raphael said with exaggerated politeness. “If you’ll remember, I did not leave my seat. My temper is under better control than that.”

“Enough with the needling!” I said.

“You misunderstand. My point is that, although my son and I do not get along, we aren’t in any real danger of killing each other. I can hold my temper even if Saul loses his.”

Saul looked like he was on the brink of losing his temper right this minute. However, everyone seemed to be responding to my Master of the Universe impersonation, so I fixed Saul with my most imperious look. “No encores. Stay in your seat and keep your mouth shut.”

I thought for a moment I might have a mutiny on my hands, but Saul managed to get himself back under control. None of this was exactly building my confidence that they could work together. Maybe they couldn’t actually hurt each other, but they could kill each other’s hosts if they decided to fight, and I don’t think I’d be able to survive the guilt if they did.

“Like I said,” Adam piped in, “we don’t know how powerful this demon is.”

Raphael shrugged. “He’s unlikely to be more powerful than me.”

This wasn’t arrogance speaking—as part of the royal family, Raphael was one of the most powerful demons in existence.

“True, but are you powerful enough to subdue him by yourself without killing his host?”

Raphael’s face told me everything I needed to know. He couldn’t care less if the hapless intern died. In fact, he might prefer it, since that would eliminate a witness.

“You’re not going anywhere near him,” I decided. Even if he and Saul were working together, and working together well, there was no guarantee Raphael wouldn’t take matters into his own hands. And Saul wasn’t powerful enough to stop him.

“But—” Adam started to protest.

I cut him off with a slashing gesture. “I agree we need two demons. But it’s going to be Saul and Lugh.” I shivered at the idea, not exactly excited about letting Lugh take control for any length of time. It wasn’t something that would ever come easily to me.

“No,” Raphael said. “We can’t involve Lugh in something that involves risk to your person.”

I glared at him. “Having a psycho demon constantly on my ass very definitely involves risk to my person. Besides, however powerful this asshole might be, he’s just one demon. And I do have a Taser.”

Raphael crossed his arms over his chest. “Absolutely not. It’s too dangerous.”

“You’re not in charge here,” I retorted.

“Neither are you! Why don’t you ask Lugh what he thinks?”

I didn’t need to ask, because Lugh took that moment to make his opinion known.

Raphael has a point.

“But—”

But so do you. I suggest a compromise. Raphael and I together should have no trouble subduing this demon, no matter who he is. I assure you, Raphael won’t kill the host while I’m there to stop him.

I didn’t like the idea of having Raphael anywhere near the intern. He had always been a ruthless son of a bitch, and if he thought Lugh would be safer with the intern dead, I doubted he’d hesitate to make it so. Then again, there were plenty of problems with the other alternatives.

Lugh, will you promise me you won’t let him kill the intern? Lugh was a hell of a lot nicer and more compassionate than Raphael, but that didn’t mean he was an old softie. He was perfectly capable of killing if he felt the situation warranted it.

I give you my word.

I thought about it a little while, aware of the others watching me, waiting for the verdict.

“His Majesty has decided that he and Raphael will go after the intern,” I finally said.

No one looked happy with the decision, but no one was going to argue with Lugh, either.

“Adam, how long will it take you to get us a name and address?”

“The time it takes me to make one phone call.”

That didn’t leave much time for stalling, but that was probably a good thing. “Make the call.”

He didn’t seem to object to me giving orders, although he did excuse himself and duck out into the hallway to make the call. I’m not sure why. Perhaps his informant was confidential.

“I guess this meeting is adjourned,” I said, eager to get the lot of them out of my house, even if it would leave me with Raphael on my hands.