compassionate-like, or slap him like the sorry sot he was being? “Marc, what’s going on? You don’t call, and you’re not answering my texts. Riona says she hasn’t seen you for days either. Now, unless there’s a secret congregation of elfin forest folk living under your cushions there that you’ve been holding an old-fashioned revival for…”
“I knew him for fifteen years.”
The cryptic comment left the demigod perplexed. “Who?”
Proof that the couch and the priest were not one mutant hybrid creation concocted by a mad scientist presented itself when Marc rose to his feet and stretched to the sky, only to collapse backward into a turtle-on-its-back position.
“Hermosa,” he finally breathed out. “I knew that bastard for fifteen years. He was the first one to suggest my going into a life of service, as a way to make amends for all the shit I did as a heathen kid. And to piss off my mom. Hell, was that just an attempt by him to spur anger, like I was somehow responsible for being the product of Hippie Hightowers, so that he could feed, and it terribly backfired?”
“Do you regret entering the priesthood?”
Marc’s eyes grew serious and somber. Even striped in red, they evidenced his sincerity. “Didn’t use to. Never second questioned it until that fucker’s glamour stripped away. Now I wonder, if I looked up to someone like Hermosa for so long and couldn’t see him for what he was, what does that say about me? Or what if he did it on purpose? Drafting me into the clergy because he saw me as some sort of possible demon recruit? What if I’m not a good person at all? How could I put my trust in someone like that, and now knowing what he was, still trust myself?”
Dee shifted over to the couch and gave Marc a good-natured, buddy slap on the back, half-wishing that if he hit just the right spot, he could make the priest cough up the doubt choking him. “Even if that’s true, even if he did have his eye on you for some nefarious purpose, what you chose to do in the end was oppose him. Your worth is judged by the merit of your good intentions, not by the temptations or self-serving plots others intend for you. But, if I can please go beyond our Oprah-bonding moment here… Marc, you’ve got to get yourself together. This kind of downward, self-deprecating doubt is an open door for all kinds of demons. You know there’s nothing that gets them a merit badge from Lucifer faster than taking down a Pure Soul.”
“I would never turn to their side,” Marc spat out, his face screwing up. “I’d die first.”
Dee nodded. “A few months ago, I couldn’t have argued that a bit. I’d have put the purity of your soul at the pole position in any race. Even against mine. But things have changed.”
“How?”
Dee’s eyes narrowed on the priest accusingly. “Hermosa never tried to use you for food because up to a month ago, there was nothing you were ashamed of. You made your peace with your past and your own current shortcomings. Despite the fact that you’re often a sarcastic windbag, you were a humble sarcastic windbag. But something’s got you all torn up and guilt-ridden. Or should I say, someone?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Marc crossed to the kitchen and pulled two more beers from the fridge, tossing a can at Dee. The demigod snatched it like a professional MLB catcher.
“No?” The crack of the can met the air. “Good, Riona will be happy to hear that. She was wondering how awkward it would be when you found out we’d slept together.”
Marc’s arm shot out to catch himself against the fridge. He swallowed down a mouthful of beer and disbelief in one, painful gulp. “You and Riona… You slept with…” Red-faced and stumbling for both balance and words, the visage of the clergyman burned hellfire. Tendrils of magic crackled through his aura. “How? How the hell could you do that? My… Our Riona?”
Dee wore nonchalance like a boss. “Problem with that?”
Shades of grey and red radiated around the priest. “She’s not just another score, you fucking Greek goon. You can have almost any woman alive, why would you…”
“Whoa, Marc! Not really. I didn’t sleep with her.”
Marc’s face simultaneously went lazy and tight. “You… You didn’t? But why would you say…”
Dee laid the beer on a side table and stood. “I would never sleep with the woman my