Page 14 of The Demon’s Due (Bedeviled #5)

Jared Casey, the Vancouver-based politician with an anti–Eishei Kodesh agenda, was giving a fire and brimstone oration on the steps of City Hall, standing under the overhang at the grand Art Deco front entrance to protect himself from the rain.

His words resonated through the downpour like thunder, each pronouncement drawing frenzied cheers from the crowd that had gathered despite the deluge.

The polls showed him gaining ground every day with his fellow politicians as well, getting perilously close to turning his anti–Eishei Kodesh rhetoric into devastating federal legislation.

He’d replaced his smarmy smile with a look of such manufactured sincerity that I itched to introduce his face to the nearest hard surface. The noticeably fake tan he’d acquired to go with his blond combover made my eye twitch.

Casey played up how vampires were swarming earth looking for their next meal and how Maccabees couldn’t be trusted to keep people safe because they were getting kickbacks from the vampire Mafias to look the other way.

Luckily, his magic oversight proposal was closer to becoming reality through emergency measures, at which point, he assured everyone, real humans would be put in charge.

“Impressive,” Sachie said disgustedly. “He managed to diss us and do a callback to his ‘real humans don’t need magic’ bullshit. Riled-up fools can do a lot of damage, and there’s always a black market for anyone determined to get illegal firearms.”

The footage changed from Casey to people swarming local vampire neighborhoods—along with some mobs outside Maccabee HQ. There were no reported incidents of gunfire yet, which was a blessing, especially around vampires, but Casey had knowingly lit the match on an already volatile situation.

“Rukhsana should have killed him when she had the chance,” Sachie said and went into her bedroom to call Darsh.

“Leaving in five,” Ezra called out.

“Back in a sec.” I hurried into my bedroom, took my Maccabee ring out of my jewelry box, and slid it on.

When I first learned that the magic cocktail in our Maccabee rings didn’t kill shedim, only imprisoned them in the love lock cells, I wrestled with whether to continue hunting demons to satiate the Baroness.

This wasn’t out of any humanitarian concern for their prison conditions, but because I didn’t want to add to the battery power that the shedim owners drew off these cells.

It was the same issue the Authority struggled with. They considered making us drain the magic entirely but let us keep it. In the event of a shedim run-in, it was better to send the demons into prisons than lose our lives.

I held out my hand, the tiny gems representing each of the flame types catching in the light. There was a familiar comfort in wearing it, but no deeper connection or feeling like this was a talisman anymore. I put that sorrow away to deal with at a later date, since it was go time.

Ezra swore loudly in Spanish.

I grabbed my passport (just in case), and raced back into the living room, heart thudding in dread that someone had died, mildly surprised to find Ezra still staring at the television.

A handsome gentleman who looked disturbingly like my boyfriend was holding a press conference.

Natán Cardoso was back on earth.

The fact that Ezra’s vampire father looked the same age as him never failed to creep me out. It was worse because while Ezra inherited his brown skin from his Mizrahi Jewish mom, his features were almost identical to his Sephardic dad’s.

Natán’s hair was lighter and straighter and his cornflower-blue eyes lacked my boyfriend’s warmth, though most wouldn’t see that, fooled by the charming smile he had at the ready. Light winked off the gold embroidery in his kippah. So pious.

He spoke Spanish while standing on a covered balcony with salmon-pink arches. It was tiled in a pale stone, and spotlights glinted off the crisp white railing running under a series of Italianate arches.

The footage cut to a wide shot. A grand plaza in a wash of colored lights stretched out like a vast canvas. It teemed with people gathered around the pyramid monument at its heart to watch the speech.

With that backdrop against the night sky, the balcony appeared both intimate and a place of significance.

I squinted at the screen. “Where is he?”

“Caracas,” Ezra said. “That’s Plaza de Mayo behind him. He’s at Casa Rosada, the seat of our national government.”

“Is he on Evita’s balcony?” I would have laughed if this wasn’t so troubling.

Natán had switched to English. Ezra took the remote from me and turned up the volume.

“…spent years as a Maccabee operative, caring for humanity. It’s true that I am a vampire now, but I still have that protective drive, extended to all beings.

Until we understand what is happening, we must work together.

It’s our only way forward to keep this beautiful planet safe.

” He looked off wistfully. “It’s what my late wife, Eva, would have wished. May her memory be a blessing.”

Shards of plastic from my mangled remote control fell to the carpet from Ezra’s fist.

“To that end, I have purchased the Seaside group,” Natán said, “which owns rehabilitation in-patient treatment facilities around the world. I’m sinking my money and resources into retrofitting these clinics as quickly as possible to become secure sites for the afflicted.

I, myself, will be based at the one here in my hometown of Caracas. ”

He smiled and extended a hand at the older man to his left, who beamed at the cameras.

“Thanks to President Lara,” Natán said, “Venezuela will be the birthplace of the Vampire Care Initiative. Not only will this benefit vampires and humans, this enterprise will go down in the history books for starting a new chapter of vampire-human collaboration and the good work we can do when we join forces.”

In my head, Cherry made a raspberry sound.

“I’ll work with all of earth’s vampire communities to get my infected brethren off the streets and into treatment to address the magic ravaging them.

” Natán leaned forward into the camera and placed his hand on his heart.

“Let me assure people that the oath I took to do good in this world as a Maccabee burns as strongly within me today as when I first spoke it.”

Ezra snorted.

“I invite Maccabees and Trad authorities to work with me. Gracias.”

The assembled reporters broke out in a flurry of questions, but I found the power button on the side of the TV and shut it off.

“You trust this sudden benevolence?” I said.

Ezra shook his head. “Not for a second. We’ll find out what he’s really up to.”

“Add it to the list.” I tapped his fist.

He blinked at the twisted remains of my remote control on the ground. “Sorry.”

“No worries.” I dumped them in the garbage. Rest in peace, plastic.

A hate-filled politician, a vampire mob boss—this nest of vipers was already too crowded for my liking. Couldn’t wait to see which snake struck next.