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ordinary. "

That would explain Doug's bleak outlook the other day. I realized too he'd been having a withdrawal reaction on the day I kicked him out of the store. The lack of ambrosia had turned his normally sarcastic tongue and playful behavior into something dark and twisted. And yet...

"It must be nice to feel like a god. I guess I can understand wanting that. "

"Well," said Jerome, speaking up at last, "as we all know, you can't get something for nothing."

Carter nodded. "At a basic level, it's an addictive substance, and everything addictive has a cost - mainly that it enslaves you and makes you feel horrible when you don't have it. But, the other truth is that humans are not meant to be perfect. That's what humanity is: a series of successes and failures, a testing of one's own nature and aptitude. Neither the body nor the soul can sustain such a state. Eventually it consumes a person."

I pointed at the crystals. "What would have happened if I'd taken them?"

"Isn't it obvious?" asked Jerome, his tone suggesting the same sexual possibilities I'd wondered about earlier.

Carter gave me a straight answer. "Similar superficial effects. Enhance your good qualities. Immortals wouldn't fall prey to the addictiveness so quickly; they can sustain it for quite a while since in some ways, they already feel like gods. But in the long run, the consequences are still the same. You can't function at such high levels. Now, the ambrosia couldn't destroy your body, of course, but it'd still cause other serious problems if you took it for a long time."

"It'd probably just make you go insane," explained Jerome helpfully. "Until the end of time."

"That's horrible," I said.

"Don't worry, Georgie. If it happens to you, we'll put you down first."

Ignoring him, I looked over at the crystals, suddenly feeling more repulsed by them than I had before. This time, my reaction had nothing to do with the creepy aura.

"The real question, of course," said the archdemon more seriously, "is where the hell did you get these?"

"I told you. From Alec."

The two higher immortals exchanged glances once more.

"Tell us about this guy again," ordered Jerome. "Everything you know."

I did. When I finished, they looked at each other once more, having a mental conversation I was not privy to. God, they were annoying.

"Alec's not the one," said Carter finally.

"The one who...?"

"The one who this is coming from," explained Jerome.

"Well, I got it from him..."

"Doesn't matter, Georgie. Some twenty-year-old blue-haired punk is not the source here. He's getting it from someone else. He's a peon in the chain. Besides, you never felt anything off him, did you? Something like the crystals but not quite like them?"

"No, but..." But I had felt something from another person. Someone who spent time with Alec. The last card in my head flipped over. "I know who it is. It's him. That guy."

"Of course," said Carter dryly. "I knew it was that guy. It's always that guy."

"Hold on, and I'll explain." I turned to Jerome. "Remember that funny immortal I told you about? The really romantically dressed good-looking one? He's got to be the one. Alec's supplier. I've seen them talking together and even saw Alec sort of having a breakdown with him. " I added a little more background for Carter's benefit, explaining how GQ Poet Guy and I had sensed each other.

Jerome and Carter considered this in silence. At last, the demon said, "Yes, that sounds like him."

Nobody said anything for a while after that. I was dying to ask who "he" was exactly, but recognized that angel and demon would take their own time on this.

"So what are we going to do?" Carter asked a few minutes later.

Jerome cut him a narrow-eyed glance. "Why do we have to do anything?"

"Because it's the right thing to do."

"I don't know where you've been since the beginning of the universe, but the 'right thing' isn't really on my list of priorities."

"He's poisoning mortals."

Jerome crossed his arms over his chest. "I don't care."

"He's doing it in your territory. Right under your nose."

"Stop trying to bait me. He's not involved with us. He can do whatever the fuck he wants to mortals."

Once again, I was dying to jump in but restrained myself. Listening to Carter and Jerome argue always unsettled me. Mostly, it just didn't happen that much. Usually they stood together in an exasperating wall of solidarity, good and evil notwithstanding. And, of course, watching them argue always made you wonder if something terrible