“Before Christmas, please,” says the angel.

Mason sits up. He doesn’t like being told off by a halo polisher. But he still doesn’t move the gun.

I hold out my hand.

“If you’re that chicken, I’ll take another turn.”

That hits him where it hurts. He puts the gun to his head and cocks it. He looks straight at me. And blows his brains out.

Of course he blows his brains out. I’m not stupid. I said he couldn’t use magic. I didn’t say I couldn’t.

The palace sways under me like it’s a cruise ship. This isn’t hoodoo or regular tired. I slide from my chair to the floor. The carpet is soft and comfy.

“What’s wrong with him?” yells Alice.

“He’s mortal now that I’ve left him. Get him into Lucifer’s armor.”

Someone straps big slabs of metal over my chest and back. When did we get to the Ren Faire?

Alice is in Mason’s chair.

“Jim, can you hear me?”

“Yeah.”

She waves her hand in front of me.

“How many fingers am I holding up?”

I squint.

“When did you get thirteen fingers?”

“He’s all right.”

I stand on my own. The dizziness is gone. I feel better than I do 90 percent of the time. Sharper, stronger, and better focused. Lucifer wore this armor in Heaven. He fought in it. Killed in it. Bled in it and almost died in it. He’s left a part of himself in it. I feel as strong and clear as I felt when the angel was running things.

“It feels good. Like someone put a V-8 in a MINI Cooper.”

Alice says, “I don’t think you should take the armor off while you’re down here.”

“Hell, I may never take it off.”

The angel clears his throat.

“We’re not done here.”

“I suppose you’re right.”

“Mason is dead. Isn’t it over?” asks Alice.

“You might want to stay here and skip this next part,” I tell her. “One of us has to put on a show for the wolf pack outside.”

“I’ll do it if you aren’t up to it,” says the angel.

“No. I’m the killer, not you. And I have the armor. It should be me.”

I look at Alice.

“Stay with her. Don’t let her get grabbed by any angels or gods or elves.”

The angel nods.

“What are you going to do?” asks Alice.

I pick up Mason’s body and toss it over my shoulder. It hardly weighs anything. This armor is definitely coming home with me.

“Got to go out and become a god, baby.”

Alice looks at me. I shift Mason so his blood runs down my armor.

“There are so many at this point, what’s one more?”

I start to go out through a shadow, but bump into a solid wall. Ow. I forgot I don’t have the key right now. Allegra can put it back when she splices us back together. It feels funny not having someone inside me looking over my shoulder.

In the elevator I take the Singularity from Mason’s pocket and put it in mine. At the lobby, I go out onto the hotel’s wide lawn.

The Infernal legions, fresh from slaughtering the Kissi, are spread out in every direction. Soldiers show each other fresh Kissi pelts and wings. For all the fallen angels have built down here, at heart they’re still a bunch of morons pulling the wings off flies. Someone needs to work on that. Maybe I can set up a time-share for the angel. He can come down and teach them table manners and I can take care of business upstairs. Right now, though, I’m in wolf-pack country and this million or so killers are wondering who’s the alpha dog.

I climb on top of Semyazah’s Unimog and hold up Mason’s body so everyone can see him. A cheer goes up. It’s decent as cheers go, but it’s not a Steppenwolf playing “Born to Be Wild” to a sold-out crowd cheer.

I manifest the Gladius and hold it up high. And swing it down. Mason’s body drops and I kick it off the truck. When I hold up Mason’s head, that’s when the Thank-God-Bruce-is-finally-playing “Born to Run” roar hits. When I stick the head onto a set of longhorn antlers mounted on the truck, the screams get even louder. I stand there in Lucifer’s armor with the Gladius burning, shining like a blood-soaked star.

A group of generals comes across the parking lot. I keep the Gladius burning but lower it to my side. If they’re looking to pull an Ides of March thing, I have no problem whatsoever with running away.

General Semyazah is up front with Baphomet and Shax behind. Other officers spread out around them. Halfway to the truck they stop. Time for the bum rush. I should have kept Mason’s head. I could beat a couple of them stupid with it before it fell apart.

The officers don’t attack, but I still have a significant urge to run away. Semyazah kneels and one by one the other officers get down on one knee.

He shouts, “Hail horrors! Hail Infernal world! Hail Lucifer!”

The air is full of the thundering of the “Hail Lucifer!” Shit. No wonder rock stars go crazy. A mob like this can love you or rip you to pieces in a hot minute. And I don’t have a tour manager to tell me what to do next. Time for one more slice of bullshit.

I hold up my hands and the crowd goes quiet.

“Tonight was a great victory against a great enemy. In the coming weeks and months you’ll see some changes around here. Tonight, though, forget about war and blood and be happy that we’re still where we should be and Heaven is still where it should be. Both could be gone now, but they aren’t and it’s because of your fearlessness. So tonight Lucifer bows to you.”

I do it. I get down on one knee like Semyazah. The crowd goes apeshit. I get up while they’re still screaming. Always leave your audience wanting more. I get my ass back into the elevator and up to the penthouse. My guts are in knots, but no one’s taken a shot at me yet.

When I get upstairs Lucifer is there, chatting c1C;, chattasually with Alice and the angel like they’re deciding whether to rent Bambi or Beaches. Lucifer looks my way and claps his hands.

“Wonderful speech. I couldn’t have done better myself. Well, actually I could have done much better, but that was a good first effort. What sort of changes are you planning?”

“I don’t know. It was just something to say. First thing I’m going to do is haul that broken-down Bamboo House of Dolls in from the desert and rebuild it here. Maybe I’ll drop back down here every now and then and bartend. I’m making sure someone puts the roof back on Tartarus and let Semyazah toss Mason’s soul down there. He can have the whole place to himself.”

Lucifer narrows his eyes.

“You ruined the furnace.”

“Tell Ruach if he wants to send down a plumber, we’ll welcome him or her or whatever else you have up there with open arms.”

“You might not make a terrible Lucifer after all,” says Lucifer.

“How’s the bleeding?”

God bodyslammed Lucifer out of Heaven with a thunderbolt during their war and his wounds have never healed. He’s been hiding the open, bleeding wound from other Hellions for how long? Thousands of years? A million? The linen bandages are still there when Lucifer opens his shirt, but just a few drops of blood have soaked through.

He says, “Healing nicely. The climate up north is excellent for the health. You should come visit sometime.”

“Don’t get too cozy up there. I was more than happy to put Mason in the ground, but I told you before that I’m just a temp. The gig is done. Hell is yours.”

Lucifer loops his arm through my Kissi arm and walks me to a window.

“You still don’t grasp the situation. I’m not Lucifer anymore. I’m Samael, and Samael is a creature of Heaven just like Lucifer is the lord of Hell. As of tonight, you are the new Lucifer.”

“Fuck that,” I say, backing off. “I quit. I abdicate. I’m impeaching myself. No way am I staying down here a second longer than I have to.”

“Actually, I think you are and it’s not my doing,” says Samael.

He looks at Alice.

“Are you ready to go home, my dear?”

“No,” she says. “If Jim is staying, then I’m staying, too.”