Sam shot the Devil a glare.
It amused me that the Lord of Lies held his hands up in surrender. “Beauty will be fine, and I will make certain there are no dietary issues while I’m watching the kids. My darling is brooding, and if I throw enough young things at her, it tames the beast.”
“So, can we have that clue or two?”
“As a matter of fact, yes. I can give you a clue or two regarding your witness’s particularly foul luck.” The Devil stepped closer to Alec and held out his hand. “I’m Lucifer. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
To my amusement, Alec shook hands with the Devil without any evidence of discomfort. “It feels strange to say it’s a pleasure to meet you, and I’m not even lying about it.”
“You’ve been tempered, so my presence doesn’t bother you.”
“Tempered?” the Chief Quinns demanded.
“Yes. Once a mortal soul has witnessed hell on Earth sufficient times, it creates a tolerance. I could likely unshroud without him being at any risk, although his genetics play a part in that. I won’t, as your detective does not have that tolerance. We could bargain for that to change, as it might be useful for you to have a detective running around with the capability of withstanding the realities of my nature.”
I considered the past few days, which had included being sucker punched by an archangel. “The lack of an angel’s head is a shroud, then?”
“Precisely. To see the face of an angel is to seeHisface, which has an unfortunate tendency to destroy mortal souls, resulting in death. Mortals can be tempered to withstand such a sight, but it takes a great deal of work and some genetic alterations. Your companion has seen so much death in his life that he has flipped his gene marker, which is a gift from a very distant relative—one of the first instances of a divine having a child with a mortal. But that’s only part of the problem.”
“Okay.” I considered Alec, as it hadn’t occurred to me to do a genetic test on him, something wecoulddo if there was a solid enough reason a judge would sign off on the appropriate warrant. “And you’re not a problem, by the way.”
The Devil chuckled. “Don’t mind her, Mr. Mortan. She’s one of those goody-goody cops who wants to make sure everyone is as happy as possible. It’ll only drive you a little crazy after a while.”
The Chief Quinns didn’t seem impressed with the Devil’s statement, and Bailey leveled a glare at him. “She’smygoody-goody cop. I teleported her twenty-two times, and she didn’t vomit.”
“I’m more impressed she didn’t die,” the Devil admitted. “But now I have a better understanding about why my favorite little cindercorn was making absurd chants in her head trying her best to get me to come over. You finally found a cop who can handle you at your worst and your best, and you were going to worry yourself sick over it.”
Bailey turned her back to the Devil and lifted her chin. “I don’t have any idea what you’re talking about.”
“Just let her win, else she’ll try to hold visitation rights over your head until she gets you to do what she wants again. I don’t know why you taught her that trick. It bites you every time,” Samuel muttered, shaking his head. “I swear you like when she steps all over you.”
“I do. It took some careful cultivation to enjoy the fruits of my labor. Now she’s learning to be properly assertive without being embarrassed about it. You should be thanking me.”
Bailey turned and glared at the Devil. Her husband smirked.
“Should I be worried about having accidentally poisoned myself or been exposed to drugs through attempted CPR?” I asked.
“You were not poisoned or exposed to drugs. He took his cocktails via syringe, which will be discovered later, and he’d consumed the alcohol well in advance of his frog summoning incident. You had some minor exposure to dart frog toxin, but at most, you’ll develop a rash in the next few hours, and it won’t be uncomfortable for you. It’ll just be a skin discoloration. Mr. Mortan, on the other hand, would have suffered through an allergic reaction to their toxin, which would have ruined your evening severely, so you were wise to herd him into your hotel room away from the frogs.” The Devil engaged Bailey in a staring contest. “They’re natural frogs, transported from their native environment, so you can amuse yourself trying to identify where they came from and return them rather than continue your amusing attempts to concoct ways to make me suffer, should I fail to do what you want.”
“Damn it. I did not want to have to relocate those damned frogs!” Grabbing her phone, Bailey went into the hallway, presumably to make a call regarding the amphibian infestation plaguing the hotel.
“Now that she’ll be occupied for at least twenty minutes, that leaves us with the problem of your current mystery.”
“I’d settle with the knowledge it’s not a serial killer,” Samuel admitted.
“It’s not a serial killer,” the Devil announced.
“I don’t suppose you’ll tell us what it is, will you?”
The Devil’s sly smile worried me. “It’s a curse, and it’s not one of my little cupcake’s makings, fortunately for you. The who, where, when, and why are your problem, Detective McMarin.”
Ah. The archangel’s demand I investigate Alec Mortan made a great deal more sense when framed by the existence of a curse targeting the poor man. “Will this curse try to kill him?”
“No. He’s at no risk from the curse beyond the understandable trauma from facing death so many times. It’s quite unhealthy, really. But, for your safety, I recommend you use these.” Stealing Samuel’s handcuffs, he held them up. “The curse will not bother you if you’re connected to him directly, but I recommend against taking him to the station for any lengthy period of time. It wouldn’t end well for your new toys.”
“Knowing how much those toys cost, I’m officially banning you from the station until further notice,” Samuel Quinn announced. “But you can have a laptop in the meantime. I’ll have one brought over for you. Laptops are cheaper than those toys Bailey made me get you.”
With a snicker, the Devil handed me the handcuffs. “Oh, and once on, they’ll only come off when you’re changing or removing your clothes, and during that time, you’ll get a more magical ball and chain making sure you two stay sufficiently close enough to mitigate the curse—for the most part.”
