Redemption Song (Daniel Faust #2)(74)

“You are at a bit more risk than I, monsieur, so have a care and be a bit more discreet.”

“More discreet?” he snapped, looking at the murder scene then back to me. He slapped his palm against his forehead and tugged at his hair. “Those were friends of mine, do you get that? Do you understand that at all?”

“They were necessary sacrifices for the cause. You…do support the cause, do you not? Sullivan would hate to hear of your disloyalty, I’m sure.”

“Oh, you’re gonna play that card? What do you think Sullivan’s gonna say about this goddamn stunt, huh?”

I shrugged expansively, imitating Gilles’s body language.

“He forbade me to murder children,” I said, then gestured to the glass. “They are not children.”

Gary paced back and forth, running his fingers through his hair. “All right. All right. All right, you goddamn psycho, here’s how we’ll do this. I’m leaving. You wait here for five minutes, and I mean not a second sooner. Then you leave and walk three blocks east. I will pick you up there. Do not even look in my direction until then.”

He stomped off. I waited until he disappeared around the bend, then gave two knocks on the glass. Harmony groaned as she sat up, rubbing the back of her neck and tugging the fake knife hilt from the glob of cherry-colored latex over her eye. Lars pushed himself to his feet, scratching at the Karo syrup “blood” on his neck.

Vegas is a party town. It’s never hard to find supplies for Halloween.

I poked my head in the door. “You both get Oscars. Best corpse in a police station.”

“He bought it?” Harmony asked.

“Hook, line, and sinker. Now if you excuse me, I’m going to go try and con a demon.”

“Hey,” Harmony said before I could shut the door. “Faust.”

“Yeah?”

She nodded. “Don’t die.”

“I’ll make that a priority.”

I strolled out of the precinct house like the picture of innocence and headed east. Eventually I heard the slow rumble of a car coming up on my left and the whine of a window rolling down.

“Get in,” Gary said, gesturing towards the passenger side of his battered old Datsun. My shoes crunched on a clutter of crumpled McDonalds bags and empty plastic water bottles when I climbed in.

“I called Sullivan,” he said, not looking at me. “Told him whose body you jacked. I’m not sure if he’s pissed or ecstatic. He’s probably not sure either.”

“It is my pleasure to amuse,” I said.

I’d hoped Gary would drive me straight to the Redemption Choir’s new stronghold. If nothing else, and assuming I lived through this, I could call Caitlin’s people and let them burn the place to the ground. No such luck. Gary drove another four blocks and pulled into a Chevron gas station on a lonely corner. Dawn broke over the city, the soft desert sunrise clashing with the harsh gas station lights.

Sullivan stood in front of his black SUV, leaning on his walking stick. A cluster of cambion stood around him like a flock of vultures scouting out their next meal. These had to be the new guys from back east. There was something harder about them, meaner, more confident. A couple of them wore light windbreakers to cut the dawn chill, and even an amateur could spot the holster bulges under the nylon.

Gary parked a respectful distance away, and we got out together. This was it, the make-it-or-break-it moment. If Sullivan bought the con, I was home free. If not, I’d never leave this place alive. I focused on my breathing, pushed my shoulders back, and lifted my chin. If Gilles was anything, he was brazenly confident. I had to look the part. More than look it, I had to believe it.

Sullivan’s gaze burned into me as we approached. I could feel his psychic tendrils sliding over me, wrapping around my body like the tentacles of an octopus bathed in toxic waste. I spun a sheath of armor around my heart and thought of Naavarasi. Scent of jungle, textures of rough wood and vine.

“You feel…different,” Sullivan said. His face was a mask of stone.

“I am different,” I said proudly. “My last body was strong, but a simpleton. A dullard! This one has touched the winds of magic. Faust’s power has been added to my own, like two rivers feeding a mighty whitewater.”

He nodded slowly.

“And how did Faust find you?”

I shrugged. “Not all of his secrets are open to me…yet. I am peeling his mind away, layer by layer.”

He nodded again. Still with the poker face.

“You’ve done me a favor, it seems,” he said. “Loath as I am to acknowledge it. I won’t mince words, de Rais. You’re an abomination and if I had my way, I’d be pleased to send you screaming back to hell where you belong. Fortunately, you won’t be my problem much longer. You…do remember what I mean by that, correct?”

There it was. The test. What would Sullivan have told Gilles about his ultimate plans? Would he have gone into detail about Lauren? Or just told Gilles that some kind of trade was in the works? Sullivan expected a response, and if I gave too little detail—or worse, too much and incorrectly—it’d prove I wasn’t really Gilles.

Wait a second, I thought, my mind racing. Sullivan hates Gilles. He’s got no reason to share information. Besides, as soon as we let them escape the parking garage, Sullivan stashed him in that motel room and went to Denver.