Page 81 of The Wickedness of Man

I swallowed as Father’s orange eyes lit a deep, heinous red as he turned to look once more in my direction. “Perhaps… but the archdiocese never brought this idiot’s plans to use my child asbaitto my attention, so were you entirely truthful when youcreated this scheme, Harrold? Or were you just hoping to get your brother killed?”

“Father,” I said calmly, praying that the wobble in my voice wasn’t as obvious as it seemed to me. I got the impression that he knew more than he was letting on, but wasn’t sure how. He always seemed to know exactly how to knock my certainty aside; it was maddening. “Any investigators who wish to undertake the challenge to capture the succubus Carmilla de Mornay are free to do so under the condition that one: They are aware they may only ever undertake the challenge a single time with approval from the archdiocese. And two: They must have a bishop overseeing their attempt. Bishop Knight signed off on the list after I received approval from all necessary parties to undertake this feat.”

The smile that slid across my father’s face suggested he wanted to choke the life out of me and was fighting with himself not to.

“So he did,” he agreed reluctantly, rolling his hand toward me. “Let me hear it then, hmm? This ‘fantastic’ plan of yours and how it succeeded. Where is my Carmilla, then, if you were so victorious?”

I knew he was goading me, and I fought hard not rise to the sneer in his voice.

It won’t be too long now,I reminded myself.You finish this, and the archbishopship is yours. He will have to follow his word because he knows without the sacred rules he created, all we are is a bunch of demons. Not honoring it would threaten the very organization he built.

“We don’t have her just yet, but?—”

“I see,” he interrupted.

My face went hot as I continued. “We instructed several agents to stake out the doctor’s known locations and gave them strict instructions not to go anywhere near Dr. Lowe—the aliasshe’s using this time—and to look for evidence of demonic activity. None of the men were informed that they were watching a succubus.”

Father leaned back in his chair. The color was fading from his eyes again, but still wasn’t that same dull orange color it had been before.

“We placed Caleb near her office with a telephoto lens on a camera and made him watch her. My plan was to have him be near enough that she would be able to sense him, but not so near that he could fall into her aura.”

I paused, waiting for something—anything—other than that blank glare.

“Go on,” he said.

“While we knew that she would be aware she was being surveilled, what she didn’t suspect was that we were also surveilling our own agents. She spotted him, probably immediately, but didn’t act right away.”

I wasn’t about to tell him that I’d only ordered thatCalebbe watched, since I was so sure she’d finally bite when it came to him. I also wasn’t about to tell Father that we’d ordered Agent Banks on three separate occasions not to inform Caleb that she’d left her home and driven to the apartment building he was hiding out in, where she would sit and watch him from her car. Two times, she’d shapeshifted into an old woman and followed him through a store—the last of which, she finally made contact with him.

Agents who’d recovered the beer case from his rental apartment said it hadn’t contained beer at all… it was some kind of medicinal or herbal supplement she’d spelled with something they hadn’t been able to figure out quite yet. All of the ingredients seemed to suggest it had been for enhancing a man’s virility. None of these finite details would matter to Father though, so I left most of them out.

When he said nothing, I continued.

“On Friday night, my agents witnessed the demon interacting with Caleb Knight and leaving behind a strange package of beer. She left, and then five minutes later, Caleb Knight was witnessed drinking as he returned to his stakeout location, clearly addled.

“The following afternoon, Caleb called Agent Banks, a secondary recon member, in a frenzy, telling him that he’d spotted a young girl going into the office building and was concerned that she was going to be attacked by the demon. He then told Banks that he’d been burned and that he was going after the succubus, but wasn’t in the building when our agents went inside.

“He broke contact until early Sunday morning, while the succubus led our teams on a wild goose chase for more than four hours before they lost her. We presumed they’d met up somewhere together after the escape.”

“That so?” Father reached into his desk drawer, pulled out a cigarette case and lighter, and lit the horrid-smelling thing. “Not bad stamina, if he was using the succubus properly that whole time.”

I ignored his remark. “When we brought Caleb in, he appeared disheveled; confused. We discovered claw marks on his back, and then, he later confessed to Bishop Knight that he had been charmed by a succubus and slept with her.”

Jax’s head snapped toward me, and I stifled a small smile. It had been hard to make out anything in the room Jax had taken Caleb into that night, but I’d made out enough to know Caleb definitely didsomethingwith the succubus.

“The bishop recommended he fast and pray; instead, he stole the bishop’s keycard and fled, to return to his new mistress—which he also admitted to the bishop was his plan to do.”

“It’s an interesting story you’ve told,” said Father, taking a long drag, then shoving the tablet over toward me. “Can you explain this part of the evening to me?”

I stalled, stared down at the tablet like it was going to bite me—the one I’d watched Jax get from that stupid fat monk. I’d figured it had something to do with Caleb, but I never thought Jax would actuallyshowmy father. I looked to him, but he wouldn’t meet my gaze. I went over and pressed play. I forced my face to be still as I watched the bank’s camera footage. By the time I saw myself raising the gun at Caleb, I shoved it back to Father.

“We received authorization?—”

“Tell me, Harrold, who sets the precedents for when live rounds are allowed on a mission?” Father took a long pull of his cigarette until the entire thing was ash, then opened a small drawer and stubbed it out. He blew the smoke at me.

I looked up in irritation at the corner of the nearest bookshelf. “The special investigator in charge,” I replied.

“So just to clarify,” he continued. “You authorized the use of live rounds in the event of not being able to successfully subdue myson, then had the operators initiate that authorize after you also withdrew some things from our armaments that you never should have…”

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