The Devil’s smile worried me even more than the realization I’d be handcuffed to Alec Mortan for an unknown period of time. “For the most part?”
“You’ll see,” the Devil promised before he teleported away.
Samuel sighed. “Well, it could be worse.”
“How?” Alec blurted.
“He’s letting you change your clothes. Trust me when I say you’re going to be grateful for that after a day or two. I’ve learned one thing about my uncle since he came storming into my life to stay: when he gives a warning or recommendation to a mortal, it’s a damned good idea to listen to him. He might be called the Lord of Lies, but he uses the truth as his ultimate weapon. I’ll see about getting you out of here, McMarin. In the meantime, decide which hand you want cuffed—and I’ll find something to wrap those in so you’re at least somewhat comfortable.”
Alec turned to me and said, “He’s serious, isn’t he?”
I stared down at the cuffs in my hand. “This is some form of revenge for rejecting an incubus, isn’t it?”
“The only difference between revenge and a reward is if you like it, Detective McMarin,” my boss announced before leaving the room. “I’ll go see about your discharge while you decide your fate. Choose wisely.”
ChapterSix
It wasone thing to give a drunk druggie CPR to save his life, but to handcuff myself to a witness so I wouldn’t be the next one hit with his curse took the cake. As I had a healthy dislike of death, I went along with the idea.
The idea would have been a great deal easier to tolerate if the witness lacked appeal, failed to mind his manners, and otherwise served as a brutal reminder not all of the good men of the world were married. The incubus defined what it meant to be attractive, but Alec Mortan would test me in more ways than I liked.
After some serious reflection, I decided to blame the archangel. His sucker punch to the gut had removed some of my common sense and replaced it with a rather strong itch and a desire to leave the pool of single virgins.
The last thing I needed was to be handcuffed to someone kind, sensitive, and attractive. I gave my peace of mind a lifespan of no longer than an hour.
“I’m so sorry about this,” Alec muttered.
“Did you ask to be cursed?”
“Not as far as I know. I mean, who would ask to be cursed?”
I thought about that for a moment. “A masochist?”
“I am not a masochist, but you make a good point.” Alec wrinkled his nose and eyed the handcuffs, which had been wrapped in black velvet to keep the metal from biting into our wrists. My bosses, after adjusting the handcuffs, had gone off to secure my freedom from the hospital, leaving us to our fate.
“Are you right handed?” I asked.
“Unfortunately, since you’re also right handed, and as I can’t use a gun and you can, you should have access to your right hand.”
Damn. “I guess we’ll just stick close together until we’re out of here, then we’ll put on the cuffs and deal with the situation until I get to the bottom of this curse. That means I’m going to have to do a full interview about your life, by the way.”
“That’s fine. I do feel guilty, though. If I’m actually cursed, then I’m responsible for all of those deaths.”
“No, I wouldn’t say so. Look at the case of the vengeful ex who committed that hit and run. You didn’t influence him to make that decision. You just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. It’s entirely possible that the curse is putting you in the place where a death or crime is about to be committed, forcing you to witness it. I will look into the average death rates in the places you’ve lived and worked to see if there was a jump in the numbers, but wedolook for that sort of thing yearly. We try to address the problems as much as we can.”
I often felt I failed that part of my job, but I did the best I could with the resources I’d been given. In my former precinct, we rarely had the number of cops needed to take care of everything, but whenever I was on shift, I’d always tried my best. In some ways, trying my best all the time put my normal at a higher level and made it harder to shine.
I recognized that didn’t apply to everyone else in the force.
I could tell when other cops tried their best, because it showed. In some ways, I wondered if constantly trying to make my best my normal had bitten me in the ass. Then again, my best couldn’t beat prejudices.
Life rarely worked out that way.
“I hadn’t thought about it like that. I might not be the cause of their deaths?”
“And even if the curse is responsible for the deaths, the source of the curse is to blame, not you. You’re a victim of a curse, not a murderer.”
“That doesn’t explain the steamrollers, defenestrations, or the other deaths lately,” he countered.
