“Huh?” I said intelligently.

“Like I said, I don’t know the whole story. I don’t know who or what he was, only that he was impervious to demons. And that the demons were very, very interested in him.”

I gave that a moment to sink in, but there wasn’t enough information for me to make much sense out of anything. I knew there had to be more to it. “Keep talking,” I said.

“When they found out Mom was pregnant by your father, they were really excited. They had high hopes that, because you were some sort of hybrid, you’d be able to host.”

I shared a puzzled look with Adam, but he didn’t seem to be making any more sense out of this than I was. “I don’t get it,” I said.

Andy shook his head. “I don’t, either. At least, not really. I don’t know what they wanted, other than that they wanted you possessed.”

I couldn’t suppress my shudder. “What happened to me at The Healing Circle?”

“I swear to God, I don’t know. I wasn’t allowed to visit more than once or twice, and you were out of it when I did. But I do know you didn’t have encephalitis.”

Not that big a shock, I suppose, but it made my heart skip a beat anyway. I found myself holding my breath as I waited for Andy to continue.

“Cooper gave Mom and Dad some kind of drug, and they put it in your orange juice so you’d have symptoms and they could take you to the hospital.”

My knees felt shaky, so I leaned my back against the wall for support. I didn’t know what was worse: the realization that Mom and Dad had drugged me, or my brand-new suspicions about what had happened at the hospital.

“They were trying to give me to the demons, weren’t they?” I asked in a scratchy whisper. Andy nodded, looking miserable.

They had tried to force a demon into my body, into the body of an unwilling, thirteen-year-old host. Something hovered on the edge of my memory. I knew if I concentrated, I might be able to bring it to the surface, but I couldn’t bear to try. I didn’t want to remember. If it was my own mental defenses that had locked up that memory and thrown away the key, then it was for a damn good reason.

“It didn’t work,” Andy said. “And they figured that like your biological father, you were incapable of hosting. That’s how Raphael knew you’d be a very different sort of host for Lugh.”

I frowned. “But if I’m so resistant to possession, how’d Lugh manage to get in?”

“Because he’s not just any demon,” Adam answered. “We aren’t all created equal. There’s a reason Lugh’s line is the royal one. So he was powerful enough to get in, but not powerful enough to take over.”

That certainly seemed to make sense, but something still eluded me. “I know once this all sinks in I’m going to have a nervous breakdown about it. But why is it some kind of deep, dark secret? Why does Raphael care if you tell us?” I directed the question to Andy, but once again it was Adam who answered, his voice grim.

“Because he knows exactly what happened at The Healing Circle. Hell, he might even be the one who gave the orders. And it’s something he knows damn well Lugh won’t like.”

Andy nodded. “Like I told you before, he’s got some personal loyalty to Lugh and doesn’t want him killed. But that doesn’t mean he feels compelled to uphold Lugh’s ideals and protect the human race.”

A long, uncomfortable silence filled the room as we thought about that. Then Adam said what I suspect we were all thinking.

“I guess it’s time to have a long talk with ‘Dr. Neely.’”

Andy closed his eyes, and his hands clenched even more tightly around the edge of the bed. I finally found the will to go to him, to put a hand on his shoulder and squeeze.

“We won’t let him hurt you,” I promised, hoping I was up to keeping that promise.

Andy jerked away from me. “Coming from a woman who’d have let her demon friend torture me, that isn’t very comforting.”

“I told you she was bluffing,” Adam scoffed. “Why do you think I felt the need to listen at the door?”

“She wasn’t bluffing,” Andy said in a flat voice.

I wished like hell I could contradict him.

Keeping Brian in the dark about what was going on was getting harder. He’d managed to keep his questions to a bare minimum so far, but I knew if he sensed an opening, he’d take full advantage. He wasn’t a trial lawyer, but I suspect he has the skill set for one. When he starts asking questions, he tends to learn far more than you mean to reveal.

Which meant I really didn’t want to meet with “Dr. Neely” in my apartment. I couldn’t imagine any explanation I could give Brian that would satisfy his curiosity. Nor could I imagine how we’d keep him from overhearing things he didn’t need to hear. Not unless we tied him up in the closet. I’d threatened both Andy and Brian with violence. I wasn’t going to do it again. Ever.

After my conversation with Andy and Adam, I went to my own room and locked the door behind me. Then I dragged my cell phone into the closet—call me paranoid—and closed that door after me, too. I didn’t exactly have Dr. Neely on speed-dial, but I called The Healing Circle and got semi-lucky. He was actually in his office to take my call.

“Why, Morgan!” he said when I’d identified myself. “What a pleasant surprise.”

“I’ll bet,” I muttered. “You and I need to have a conversation.”

“I’m always delighted to talk to you. You’re like a sister to me, you know.”

“Why don’t you shove it up your—” I shut myself up at the last moment. Like Adam, Raphael really got a kick out of getting a rise out of me. The last thing I wanted to do was give him what he wanted.

He chuckled. “You and Lugh are well suited. I can usually get him cursing me within a couple of sentences, too.”

“And that’s your goal in life?”

“Let’s just say I’m much more successful that way than if I try to win his approval.”

I felt an unaccustomed tug of pity. I knew what it was like to abandon all hope of winning approval from your family. Was he such a bastard because he couldn’t win approval, or was it the other way around?

I shook the pity off. Yeah, my whole dysfunctional family thing made me bitchy; it didn’t make me into the kind of person who tortured innocent bystanders. “Do you feel even slightly bad for what you did to Andy and Brian?”

I expected a glib answer, but instead he seemed to think the question over. “Not really,” he said finally. “If I were human, I probably would, but I’m a demon. I did what I had to do under the circumstances. I may not be as noble as my sainted brother, but I’m not a monster, either. It was never anything personal.”

“Just like your desire to kill Andy now isn’t personal?”

“Don’t tell him this, but I have no desire to kill him. I’m under orders to do it, but there are advantages to being the king’s brother. No one’s going to ride me too hard if I don’t get around to it. I have nothing to gain by killing him, and I’m quite secure in the knowledge that he won’t tell you anything I don’t want you to know.”

Only because he didn’t know I’d sic Adam on my own brother. Perhaps I should examine my own moral compass a little more closely before I started taking potshots at Raphael’s.

“So what is it you’d like to talk about?” Raphael asked.

“It’s not something we can do on the phone.”

“All right. I’ll come to your apartment later.”

“No. It doesn’t matter what you say—I don’t trust you around Andy.”

“You cut me to the quick.”

“I wish.” We definitely needed privacy for this conversation. And I knew the perfect place, even though I wasn’t overly anxious to set foot in it again myself. “Adam White is kind of acting like my bodyguard while Der Jäger is after me.”

“That’s hardly a permanent solution. You and Lugh are going to have to do something about him. I can’t help you without blowing my cover.”