Succubus Heat. Richelle Mead

counterpart here?” I asked. “Among the angels. There must be an archangel here too, right?”

      The question caught him off-guard enough that his pissed-off look momentarily lifted. “Of course. Her name’s Isabelle. Why?”

      “Well…Evan and the others keep saying they’re directed by an angel. All this time you thought they were just worshipping some all-purpose Satanic ideal. But what if a real angel is controlling them? I mean, Jerome’s given up the fight with you. If anyone had reason to give you shit, it wouldn’t be our side. It’d be theirs.”

      Cedric was silent for several moments. “This isn’t their style. It’s not Isabelle’s either. I’ve known her for a long time.” When greater immortals said “a long time,” they usually weren’t kidding.

      “Is she blond?”

      “Yes, but that doesn’t mean anything. We can look like anything we want. Someone appearing to this group—and I don’t think anyone is—could easily make themselves blond or bald or whatever. I think you’re trying to shift the blame off yourself and Jerome.”

      “I’m not! Look, I don’t want to get mired in any of this. I just want to finish my job and go home. And if you ask me, I think someone’s trying to work you over and send you looking in the wrong places.” Good Lord. I sounded like everyone else now. Soon I’d be telling him he was “getting played.”

      “Isabelle wouldn’t do it,” he maintained. “We’re friends…well, kind of.”

      It was funny that demons lied and betrayed each other all the time, yet he somehow stood by the character of someone who was technically his enemy. I understood it, though. Jerome maintained a similarly bizarre friendship with Seattle’s archangel, Carter.

      “Can you get me in touch with her?”

      Cedric regarded me in amazement. “You’re really going to run with this?”

      “I’m not sabotaging you—but I want to find out who is.”

      “That’s a lot of work just to take the attention off yourself.”

      I simply looked at him, maintaining as determined a look as I could in the hopes that he’d believed me. I also hoped the taboo demons maintained about messing with the employees of other demons would hold. Apparently it did because he said at last, “I’ll show you how to contact her, as pointless as that is.”

      I exhaled the breath I’d been holding. “Thank you.”

      He shook his head. “But don’t think you’re in the clear. I’m still going to be watching you.”