“You’ve seen what this thing can do. You don’t have a lot of time to decide.”
The hard sell, like this was buying a used car. But he almost had me cowed. I didn’t want to argue with him anymore. “I know,” I said.
He marched away, shoulders square, arms straight, tails of his coat rippling behind him. His steps were like drumbeats. Entranced by this image of determination, I watched. He never turned a corner. He was a small shadow, far ahead, when I went back to my car.
Chapter 14
I didn’t have a lot of time to spare, so I didn’t wait until morning to call Jules to get an update on the Paradox crew. For half a second, I worried about waking him up.
“Yeah?” he said curtly but not at all sleepily. These guys were used to keeping nocturnal hours.
“Are you guys still in town?” I said.
“What? Kitty? What’s wrong?”
I hadn’t considered how I must sound: desperate, angry, fierce. Panicked. “I really need you not to leave town. I need your help.”
He let out a sigh. “We’re still here. Gary’s out of the hospital, but he’s still resting. We’re supposed to take a flight out tomorrow.”
“I’ve gotten some information,” I said, aware of how much I would have to leave out. But I didn’t want to have to explain Roman to him. And I wasn’t sure I was ready to talk about Mick. Or maybe I didn’t want to scare Jules off. “I’ve been told it’s a demon.”
“Are you joking?” he said, half laughing.
“Oh, yeah, because I would totally joke about something like this,” I said, spitting out the sarcasm.
“It’s just that . . . demons. That’s really getting into the lunatic fringe. But I think maybe your local Catholic priest can help you out. Do up a nice little exorcism for you.”
“That’s funny. I never really thought of Catholics as lunatic fringe. I thought that was you guys.”
“You’re not exactly middle-of-mainstream yourself.”
And I liked it that way. “It’s just that we’ve been trying to figure out what this thing is, and I got a lead that said demon. Thought you’d like to know.”
“But what are we supposed to do about a demon?”
We scoff at what we don’t understand. I had clearly stepped outside Jules’s comfort zone. “Jules, let me talk to Tina.”
“I’m sure she knows ever so much more about demons than I do.”
“Maybe she doesn’t, but I bet she doesn’t talk at me like I’m an idiot.” I smiled when I said it. Made me sound like a bitch. It was my radio-show voice.
The phone shifted, and then Tina said, “Yeah?”
“Here I was thinking Jules was starting to like me,” I said.
“Don’t worry about him. He’s pretty invested in keeping up his front. What did you say to get him riled up?”
“Demon.”
“Demon?” she said with a nervous chuckle.
“So. Do you know anything about repelling demons?”
“Don’t demons usually possess people? Spinning heads, projectile vomiting, that sort of thing,” she said.
“I don’t know anything about it. That’s why I’m calling you.”
“I don’t know anything about it, either.”