Sins of the Demon (Kara Gillian 4)

I nodded.

He lit a cigarette, and I shifted upwind of him. “I knew about Thomas, of course,” he said. “And Tracy Gordon told me about the Stark woman.” He blew out smoke and didn’t look at me. “What’s the deal with Landrieu?”

“Gave me heroin when I was fourteen,” I said, not looking at him either, but I could still see him twitch in surprise. “I overdosed. Nearly died.”

“Damn,” he muttered. He flicked ash onto the sidewalk. “Y’think someone’s trying to set you up?”

“That, or someone thinks they’re doing me a favor,” I replied.

He made a sour noise in the back of his throat. “Well, it obviously doesn’t look good that people you have plenty of reason to dislike are falling over dead. But I also don’t believe for a second that you’re doing it.”

I inclined my head. “I appreciate your faith in me.”

“Only because I know you’d find a way to hide the bodies.” He snorted, smiled. “Well, if someone’s trying to set you up, we need to beat whoever it is to the punch, and let the chief know what’s going on.”

A knot of tension in my chest began to unwind. “Yeah. Makes sense.”

“Now, let me ask you a question,” he said, peering at me.

I waited.

“These deaths. Are they part of all that magic woowoo crap you do?”

I bit back the urge to snicker at his reaction and kept my face sober. “Probably so,” I replied.

“Fucking hell,” he muttered. He dropped the cigarette to the sidewalk and ground it out under his heel. “I’ll fill the chief in. I’ll also need to reassign the Landrieu case.”

“Understood.”

“You need anything else from me?”

I shook my head. “I’m good. Thanks, Sarge.”

“See you in the morning, then. Now get the fuck off my car.”

I gave him a mock salute and stepped back from his car. After he drove off I looked around to see if Jill was finished up. She was leaning against her van with her hands stuffed into her pockets, which led me to assume she was done and was waiting for me.

“You okay?” I asked her as I approached and got a good look at her. She definitely wasn’t her usual perky self.

She gave me a wan smile. “Stomach’s been acting up lately.”

“Ugh, I can sympathize.” I shook my wrist with the cuff on it. “Eilahn just gave me this thing—blocks the arcane and keeps me from being summoned—but it makes me feel queasy all the time.” Then I shot her a warning look. “But if you get me sick for real I’m going to be pissed.”

A flash of her usual humor lit her eyes. “And what would you do then? I can outrun you.”

“That’s what cars are for, bitch,” I retorted with a grin.

“So what’s the deal with you and your ex-boyfriends?” She eyed me, slight frown puckering her forehead. Her tone was joking, but I saw worry in her eyes.

I muttered a curse. “I think someone’s trying to set me up.” I quickly recapped everything I knew, including the graa attack and my suspicion that a summoner was behind it all.

“Maybe someone thinks they’re doing you a favor?” she suggested in an unconscious echo of my earlier remark, though it was clear that even she didn’t really believe it could be true.

“Yeah, well if they think that, I sure wish they’d come forward so that I could thank them with a really hard punch in the neck,” I said with a dark scowl.

Jill let out a peal of laughter. “Oh, good lord, you’ve been spending way too much time with that demon bodyguard of yours.”

I grinned. “Careful. I’m sure she’s around here somehow. She probably heard that.”