Allegra is looking at me like a disapproving schoolmarm, but Vidocq leans in for a close look at the bullet hole.
“Saint Raphael’s silk. Les petites araignées do beautiful work, don’t they?”
“I wouldn’t know. I had my eyes closed.”
He laughs and pours us more wine.
“I don’t blame you. They’re ugly little buggers.”
Allegra shakes her head when he offers her some.
“How can you work for him?”
“I work for him because he pays me, same as the Vigil.”
“Taking his money doesn’t bother you?”
“Does taking mine when you get paid? Some of your salary comes from what he gives me. A salary for a job you don’t even do anymore.”
“I’m no Bible-thumper, but I don’t think it’s right.”
“A little while ago you were begging me to meet him. Now, all of a sudden, you’re Cotton Mather. What is this?”
“Wanting to see him isn’t the same as working nine-to-five for someone who’s pure evil.”
“He isn’t the one who sent me to Hell. He isn’t the one who wants to destroy the world and Heaven and everything in between. That’s Mason. Lucifer has always played pretty straight with me. It’s humans I worry about. Besides, he’s had me on retainer pretty much since I got back, so I owe him.”
“Do you really think he would worry about what he owed you? You think he wouldn’t trick you so he could take your soul?”
“I don’t care what he would do. I was raised to pay my debts. Besides, I’m Pinocchio, remember? Not exactly a real boy. No one knows if nephilim even have souls.”
“That’s right, stick up for the old man, daddy’s boy.”
“What does that mean?”
“You said Lucifer helped you when you were hunting Mason and the Circle. Up till now he’s been paying you money for doing nothing but being a drunk. Now he’s here with a job he could easily get other people to do, which means it’s really an excuse for keeping you around.”
“I pulled his ass out of the fire last night and I’ve got the holes in me to prove it.”
“How many cops do you think Lucifer owns? How many politicians, soldiers, spies, and corporate billionaires just in California? And you’re the only one who can protect him?”
“You think I can’t?”
“Think about it. Your mother was a pretty, lonely woman and your father was an angel.”
Vidocq sniffs the wine in his glass and shrugs.
“Surely the possibility that Lucifer is your father has crossed your mind before.”
“A lot of things cross my mind, but I let go of the stupid ones.”
Allegra gets closer and puts her hand on my arm. I know she’s trying to be kind, but it feels like a cop about to snap on the cuffs.
“The more you’re with him, the more he’ll suck you down into his world so that you start really acting like his son, and when you do that you’ll be like him and you won’t be Stark anymore.”
“For someone who says she’s not a Bible-thumper, you’ve got a lot of opinions on the subject of the devil.”
“I don’t care about the devil. I care about you. He’s going to manipulate you and trick you and make you into something you’ll hate.”