Page 54 of Demon Loved
“It is,” he replied, relieved that the three of them weren’t going to sit there in awkward silence during Levi’s absence. “But I like it here very much. The land in this region is quite beautiful.”
And it was, whether the view consisted of the purple bulk of the Black Mountain range high above Jerome, or the glowing, energy-charged red rocks of Sedona, or the gently rolling hills with their acres upon acres of sun-golden grass.
She seemed satisfied with that response, settling against the back of her chair even as Levi returned, Connor and Angela a few feet behind him. Since Belshegar had already met them, he knew something of what to expect. However, they seemed far more tense than they’d been at the folk festival — for good reason, he supposed.
Both of them immediately looked over in his direction as soon as they entered the living room. “So, you came here to take the artifacts?” Angela said abruptly, not bothering with any sort of formal introductions.
“To retrieve them,” Belshegar replied. A fine point of distinction, he supposed, and yet he wanted everyone listening to understand that he would never have come after them if he hadn’t been directed to do so by the voice.
“For this person on the Council, according to what Levi told us,” Connor said, and Belshegar nodded.
“Yes. The members of the Council seem to believe those items are far too powerful to be placed in human hands.”
“Even though humans made them,” Angela said. Her lip didn’t quite curl, but he could tell from the angry sparkle in her emerald-hued eyes that she didn’t have much use for that particular argument.
“You believe they were created by human hands,” Belshegar said mildly. “But do you know that as a verified fact, or do you accept that explanation for their origins because you don’t have any others?”
A silence fell then, as Angela slanted a look up at her husband, and his shoulders lifted ever so slightly. Both Tricia and Allegra also seemed unsure as to how they should react to such a question.
Levi spoke then, saying, “I’ve only handled each of the artifacts briefly, but I couldn’t sense anything particularly otherworldly about them. And although I’d be the first to admit I don’t know as much as I should about this sort of thing, I want to believe that I’d be able to detect something if they weren’t of this earth. After all, I was able to note your…unusual energy…easily enough.”
He made a good point, Belshegar realized. If Levi really had held the artifacts in his hands, then he should have sensed their strangeness just as easily as he was able to detect Belshegar’s.
But if they had been made by humans, the Council shouldn’t have had any interest in the things. They were mortal business, something to be ignored, as it couldn’t possibly affect anyone on the higher planes.
There seemed to be only one true way to know for certain, though.
“Let me feel them,” he said. “I am from one of the higher planes — although not as high as the one the Council occupies — and it should be easy enough for me to tell for certain whether they are as much a part of this earth as the chair I’m sitting on or the rug under my feet.”
The three elders looked over at Angela and Connor, both of whom were frowning mightily. It was easy enough to tell that neither of them was too happy with his suggestion.
And yet it might answer this particular question once and for all.
Belshegar spread his hands wide, hoping they could see from his expression and demeanor that he was not trying to play a trick on them.
“You will all be there with me,” he said simply. “I am not going to abscond with the artifacts. Even if I wanted to, your combined powers would be more than enough to stop me.”
Angela glanced at Levi, whom she clearly viewed as the expert on all things otherworldly, even if he had, as he’d explained, come to this plane as not much more than an unformed spirit and had no real knowledge of other worlds save that they existed.
“He’s telling the truth,” Levi said, his tone quiet but firm. “While he possesses powers that might seem miraculous to some, he is no demon lord like Loc. We would be able to contain him easily enough.”
“I think we should let him see the artifacts,” Connor said then. “Because I’m starting to have a suspicion, but there’s no point in bringing it up if it turns out that they really were made someplace other than this world.”
Questions crowded Angela’s eyes, and yet it seemed she was willing to listen to her husband’s suggestion, since she nodded after a slight hesitation. “All right. If Levi thinks we can handle him, then I suppose it should be okay.”
By some unspoken signal, Tricia and Allegra stood, and Belshegar got up from his chair as well. In that moment, he didn’t think he could have even begun to describe the thoughts running through his mind. It seemed almost impossible that they were going to allow him to see the artifacts, to even touch them — but he also knew their assessment of the situation was accurate enough. He was powerful, but in combination, they could defeat him without even blinking an eye.
Not that he would ever go back on his word. He didn’t want to think about how the voice would react if it learned that he had held the artifacts in his hands and hadn’t made even a single attempt to take them, but he supposed he would deal with that eventuality when the time came.
For now, though, it was enough to follow Connor and Angela out of Levi’s home and down the street to the big white Victorian he’d thought could be the prima’s. However, Belshegar couldn’t be too triumphant about that correct guess, not when he’d also speculated that several other houses on Paradise Lane were equally plausible candidates.
In contrast to the almost fussy architecture outside, the interior of the home was simple and yet grand at the same time, with polished dark wood floors and Navajo rugs and plain furniture that had the solidity of something crafted by hand rather than created in a factory. Connor’s paintings hung on all the walls, giving the space the sense that it had many more windows than the ones incorporated into the structure.
“Just a moment,” he said, then left them all in the living room so he could go upstairs, presumably to fetch the artifacts.
“You can sit down, Belshegar,” Angela told him, but he shook his head.
“I think I would like to remain standing while I do this.”
