I sat with Holly while Vek formally named her price, and I stayed with her while Vek took what she was owed.
She was startled at the sight of Vek, like anyone would be. She must not have seen her demonic patron in person before. But she didn’t run. Didn’t even flinch. She faced one of the Fallen with more courage than I’d seen from some of the angels Vek had cut down.
When the time came for Vek to take what Holly had promised, Holly squeezed my hand. Her touch got weaker and weaker, but she didn’t let go.
Maybe Father Keller was right. You can’t always stop the bad things from happening. But you can hold someone’s hand through it, and sometimes that’s enough.
As for Margot, she seemed unfazed by playing host to one of the Fallen. I half-expected her to offer Vek a cup of tea. She didn’t, though. I guess even Margot’s hospitality has limits.
When Vek had gone, Father Keller took Holly to Bridget’s place, at Holly’s request. That was going to raise some interesting questions. However happy Bridget might be to see her former best friend again, I doubted she would overlook the fact that Holly now had the appearance of a ninety-year-old woman. But Holly said that if she could make a deal with a fallen angel she was more than capable of handling whatever her best friend could throw at her, so I left that part to her.
Me, I had other business to take care of.
I drove to Juliana’s apartment. Sullivan was still there in the tub, although his skin was red and raw underneath the ropes from where he’d strained against them. When Juliana wants someone to stay put, they stay put.
I gave him two choices. The first option was, he could arrest me and Juliana both. It wasn’t like we hadn’t earned it. Or he could let bygones be bygones, I’d let him keep the folder I had given him, and he’d get a chance to make sure the people responsible for Holly Bennett’s death never hurt anyone else again.
Yes, death. Not all the information in that folder was strictly true. I didn’t want Sullivan hunting down Holly, because knowing Sullivan, he’d find her. And Holly had decided she’d rather disappear quietly than live out her days as a medical curiosity.
Technically, there was nothing stopping him from hanging on to the folder and then hauling us in anyway. But Sullivan was an honorable man. When he took the folder, I knew we had a deal, and he didn’t seem like the kind of man to break a deal. Although in the interests of justice, all bets were off. I’d keep my eyes open, just in case.
But I didn’t think he’d go back on his word. And not just because he was too principled for his own good. I think, deep down, he knew we’d saved him from something he couldn’t have handled on his own. And that kind of thing has got to be worth looking the other way for. Even for Sullivan.
But when he marched into my office one rainy night, about a week after Vek left town, I wondered if maybe I’d thought wrong.
When the bell above the door jingled, I assumed we had a potential client. It was a bit late, but I’m used to that. Desperate people often don’t want to do their business in broad daylight. I did my best to smooth my hair back, and wished I’d thought to shave. What I really needed was rest, not more work—my shoulder still wasn’t back to normal—but I’ve resigned myself to the fact that I’m never going to be great at resting. Besides, Empty Throne knew we needed the money.
But then I heard Father Keller greet the visitor like an old friend, and I knew. Sullivan’s curt, “I need to speak with Nic Ward directly,” only confirmed it.
I walked out into the front room. My hair had already flopped back into place, which was fine by me—I didn’t feel any need to clean myself up for Sullivan. “You here to make that arrest?” I asked, keeping my voice casual while shooting Father Keller a message with my eyes. I’d told him a week ago, if Sullivan ever showed up with handcuffs, his job was to call Juliana and tell her to go underground.
Sullivan shoved past me into the back office and threw a folder down on my desk. It looked like the one I’d given him, but thicker. When I followed him, he slammed the door closed behind me, so we were alone.
He opened the folder and started pulling out pictures. They were all oversized glossy close-ups of not much in particular. Some dirt on the floor. A bloodstain. A scratch in a concrete wall.
I didn’t know what he was showing me until I caught a gleam of silver—the demonic glyphs set into the floor of Vek’s headquarters. Even then, I wasn’t sure what the point of this exercise was. To show me how hard he’d been working? He didn’t have the look of someone hoping for a gold star.
When he ran out of room on the desk, he started laying out pictures on the floor. By the time he was done, the two of us were crammed together in the only free floor space left. He’d skipped the aftershave today. That by itself was a sign something was wrong.
With the now-empty folder clutched in one hand, he jabbed his index finger at one picture after another. “Blood that doesn’t match human DNA signatures—or dog, cat, rodent, or any of fifty other common mammalian species. Gouges in the wall that look like claw marks, but penetrate the concrete too deeply to have come from any claw or metal weapon. Organic residue that contains seven separate compounds unknown to modern chemistry. Shall I go on?”
Lesson learned: don’t set a bloodhound on a scent if you don’t want them sniffing out the skeletons in the closet. “How’d you find the resources for all this?” I asked. “I thought you were persona non grata.”
“They started listening to me when I brought them concrete evidence of child trafficking. Once the bribe money dried up, a few of the officers who had helped cover up the operation turned over what they knew in exchange for a deal.”
Huh. Sometimes justice prevails after all. Even in the police department.
“Then the weird results started coming in,” said Sullivan. “Some people in the department used that as an excuse to say something smelled wrong about the whole thing. Probably the ones who were still keeping quiet about their own involvement and hoping it wouldn’t come out. The ones who made deals started backpedaling next, once it started looking easier to sweep the whole thing under the rug. And that’s what’s going to happen if no one turns up an explanation for all this.” He swept a hand over the photo-carpeted floor. He looked like he’d rather be swinging it into my nose.
“Why are you here?” I asked.
“I need…” I could practically hear his teeth grinding. “I need your help, Ward. Tell me what’s going on here so I can salvage this case. So Holly Bennett and those children can finally get justice.”
“Tell me something,” I said. “What do you think the answer here is?”
His jaw clenched. He stayed silent. He couldn’t bring himself to say it.
I nodded like he had given me an answer. “Tell me something else, then. Even if I could give you what you wanted, you think the explanation would be anything your bosses would accept?”
“Just tell me what I’m up against here, Ward.”
He was right on the edge of the truth. I could see it in him. Maybe his conscious mind wasn’t ready to admit to the existence of things beyond his rational understanding. But deep in his lizard brain, the part exquisitely attuned to recognizing threats, a part of him already knew.
It wouldn’t take much to push him over that edge. If I said the word demon, he’d probably argue, but in the end he’d believe it.
And then he’d be prepared. It might be better for him to know what he’d be facing if Vek broke our deal. Might help keep him safe out there. At least in the short term.
And giving him an evil to fight that was bigger than me might just put the two of us on the same side for once. He and I would never be friends, but even I had to admit he’d make a good ally. Bloodhounds are useful.
But bloodhounds don’t rest. Neither do crusaders. Before all this, I’d seen how far Sullivan was willing to go to put me away for a crime that anyone but him would agree was no crime at all. Once I put him on the scent of genuine evil at work in the world, he wouldn’t stop at stamping out the last of Vek’s operation.
And humans weren’t equipped for that fight. I knew that better than most.
“You already know the answer.” I held his gaze. “Don’t you?”
Emotions flashed across his face. Apprehension. Wonder. A hint of real fear.
One tiny shove would push him over.
I reached out a hand and hauled him back from the edge.
“The people behind all this paid someone to contaminate the results,” I said. “Probably several someones. They’ve still got their hands elbow-deep in the Jarvis police department, and they aren’t letting go anytime soon. They’ll do whatever it takes to shut you up. Especially if they can make you look like a nutcase while they’re at it.”
I held my breath, waiting to see if he’d buy it.
He looked down at the pictures. Then at me. His sharp eyes bored into mine. Searching for what I wasn’t saying.
I stared right back, my face bland. He looked away first.
“I know you want to ride off and slay the dragon,” I said. “But the truth is, Holly and those kids have gotten as much justice as they’re ever going to get. Unless you’re planning to go vigilante killer, that is.”
That hit him in his whole body. He tensed up all over. I thought it might have that effect. People like him don’t like to look too closely at one of the immutable truths about justice: that sometimes the only way to get justice is to cross lines you aren’t willing to cross. Sometimes you have to choose.
For a second, I kind of wanted to offer him one of Father Keller’s consolation prizes. A pat on the back, a hand to hold. I shook it off.
“Keep watching for those kid-snatchers,” I said. “Make sure they don’t pop up again somewhere else. Keep them from hurting anyone else in the future. That’s the best you can do.”
He narrowed his eyes at me. “You’re holding something back.”
“Take your pictures with you when you go. I don’t have any use for them.”
He moved in closer until I could smell the Hawaiian pizza he’d had for dinner. “Don’t think I’ve forgotten what you are. You may have helped me out on this one. But that doesn’t excuse the things you’ve done. The next time I catch you involved in anything the slightest bit suspicious, you will get what you deserve.”
And just like that, my sympathy was gone. “These are my working hours. You stick around, I’m going to start billing you for my time.”
He turned on his heel and stalked out. He left the pictures.
I watched the door slam behind him. He would have made a good ally. Right up until he learned the hard way how small and fragile human bodies are, and how useless principles are in a fight. In real life, the white knight usually gets chomped in half by the dragon.
I was guessing I’d be seeing his car parked outside my office in the middle of the night for a long time to come. And the city of Jarvis would get to hold on to maybe the only honest cop it had. Seemed like a fair trade to me.