“Yeah, except I’m not staying. Get it?”

“I’m afraid you are,” says the angel. “I’m holding on to the key for safekeeping. With all due respect, you aren’t to be trusted with it.”

“We both have to go back so Allegra can put us back together.”

“I’m going back alone. You go ahead and make changes here. I’m going to make some changes up above.”

“You’re fucking ditching me?”

The angel walks to a shadow on the wall.

“I could give you a million reasons, but the simple truth is that I’m sick of you, your moods, your anger, and your hangovers. And the way you kept me chained in the backyard like a bad dog. I’ll go back to earth and pick up where you left off.”

“You don’t have any scars. And you’re too young. Everyone will know you’re not me.”

He smiles and points a finger.

“But will anyone care? I might not be as colorful as you, but I’m much less likely to get everyone around me killed. That goes a long way toward making friends.”

He steps into the shadow.

“Wait! Come back. I promise I won’t try to stop you.”

The angel steps back in but doesn’t move from the shadow.

“You need to take some things with you. Take Kasabian a crate of Maledictions. And have one of the soldiers bring you a hellhound. I figure there has to be a Sub Rosa engineer or charm maker who can modify the mechanics so it can move upright, more like a person. Kasabian can go where the brain went. Voilà. He has a body.”

The angel sighs and squints at me.

“Is there anything else? Maybe I can get Bob Geldof to do a benefit to help you rebuild the place.”

“That would be awesome, but in the meantime . . .” I take out my black blade. The angel flinches, but takes it when I hand it to him butt first. “Give this to Candy and tell her to keep it safe for me. Tell her I’m coming back for it soon.”

The angel slips the knife into his waistband.

“I’ll get your cigarettes and your dog, but I’m not coming back here.”

“Youȁier1C;You&9;re really going to hate L.A., Clarence.”

As he goes I yell, “And tell Muninn to send care packages! He owes me that.”

Lucifer looks around and says, “I think that’s my cue to go. I’ll stop by from time to time to see how you’re faring. And, Alice, if you ever change your mind and want to come home, just whistle. I’ll be here in a flash.”

“Thank you,” she says.

“No,” I say. “I’m changing your mind for you. Go home. I know this place and I’m the boss now. I’ll be fine.”

“I can’t leave you here alone.”

“You know what’s worse than me being alone? It’s you hanging around out of guilt or obligation or something. I came down here to free you so you can go back where you’re supposed to be. So please do it.”

She looks between Lucifer and me. Samael, I mean. I’m Lucifer. That’s going to take some getting used to.

“I don’t know.”

“You made it Upstairs and that’s where you belong. I’m where I belong.”

She crosses her arms.

“How do I know this isn’t you conning me? Trying to be all noble. I don’t need you noble.”

She takes a step toward me. I take one back.

I say, “You don’t need me at all. Remember that last dream? All those times we talked. They were more than dreams, weren’t they?”

“Yes. I didn’t plan them. They seemed to happen when I slept too. Upstairs they told me it wasn’t all that uncommon for people who died in a violent and unsettled state. You’re still tied to a person or place like a ghost. Those dreams were me kind of haunting you.”

“That’s funny. It always felt like I was calling you.”

“Maybe it was fifty-fifty.”

“I’m just glad it wasn’t all me. I felt pretty pathetic when I thought it was.”

I pick up a rag from the workbench and wipe Mason’s blood off the armor. She doesn’t need that to be her last image of me.

I say, “But that last dream was different, wasn’t it?”

&ont="#0000#x201C;Yeah.”

“We both knew it, but you were the one with balls enough to say it. It’s time to let go.”

“We can’t go on haunting each other forever. Actually we could, but what kind of life is that?”

I toss the rag on the bench and walk over to her.

“You really like your friend, Candy?” she asks.

“I really do.”

“Is she going to wait for you?”

I shrug.

“Who knows? I’ll wait for her and the rest will go however it goes.”

“What happens now? We just say so long and never see each other again?”

“No.”

I want to talk but my jaw doesn’t want to move. I have to concentrate to get the words out.

“I’ve been ducking something ever since I first got out of here. I didn’t think I could stand to hear it but things will never be right between us unless I say it.”

My Kissi arm throbs. I rub it but the pain doesn’t let up.

“How did you die? How did Parker kill you?”

She starts to say something, shakes her head and starts again.

“All this time I thought you knew.”

She looks at me.

“Parker didn’t kill me. I did. Parker broke into the apartment, cuffed me, and dragged me to a crack head motel on Sunset.”

“The Orange Grove Bungalows? The magic Circle used to rent the rooms for rituals sometimes.” The Grove is also where I killed Parker back on New Year’s Eve. There’s a kind of funny symmetry in that that was probably lost on him.

“That’s the place. Parker called Mason when we got to the room so I knew this wasn’t his idea. I asked Parker what was going on and he laughed and said Mason had plans. He was going to do to me what he did to you but he didn’t say what that was. Before then, he said, we were going to have some fun together. All there was in that shitty little bungalow was a bed and a filthy bathroom so I had a pretty good idea of what he had in mind.”

My throat is closing up. I can’t stand this. I need to make her stop but wider stopI don’t. I let her keep talking.

“He took off his jacket, pushed me down on the bed, and climbed on top. I didn’t even fight him. He was twice my size. He had a gun. And he was Sub Rosa so he could use magic.”

She smiles to herself.

“Parker was never the brightest penny, remember? When he climbed on I held on to his shoulders like I was getting off on the scene. The horny asshole must have thought Mason was going to take a bus or something. He was shocked as hell when Mason magicked himself into the room. Parker didn’t get more than two minutes of fun. When Mason got there, let me tell you, he wasn’t laughing when he saw what was happening. He got hold of Parker with a ghost hand spell, lifted him off the bed without touching him and bounced him off the walls like he was playing air hockey, yelling the whole time about damaged goods. Neither of them noticed that I’d gotten the gun out of Parker’s shoulder holster while he was on top of me.

“When he was done with Parker, Mason did another spell and a hole opened in the floor of the room. I couldn’t see where it went but I knew damn well I didn’t want to go down there. So I shot him.”

She cocks her head for a second.

“I shot at him. But I missed. He looked at the hole and he looked at me and I knew what was coming next. Before he could grab me with the ghost hand I put the gun under my chin and pulled the trigger.”

The pain in the new arm won’t stop and my vision is getting tunneled. It could be a stroke but I know it’s just my brain trying to crawl out of my body and away from the sound of Alice’s voice.

“You can stop there,” I say. “I get the picture.”

“For the record, shooting myself wasn’t my first choice. I thought of you when I did it. I thought, ‘What would Jim do if he was here and he knew he couldn’t beat the other guy and something horrible was going to happen when he lost?’ And it came to me. Mason might have won the fight, but that didn’t mean he got to keep the prize. I took it away from him and all he could do was stand there and watch me pull the trigger. Mason didn’t win. I did. And it was because of you.”