Nathaniel nodded briefly. “But I was revealed too soon, he says, and the spell no longer will work correctly.”

“I should kill you now, you know,” Lucifer said conversationally. “Eliminate the possibility that the spell might go off anyway.”

“No, you really shouldn’t kill him now,” I said meaningfully. “Not until you and I have had a chat about a few things. In private.”

Lucifer turned to me, raised one eyebrow. Everyone else looked at me in curiosity and astonishment, as if a private conversation was an exotic concept from a foreign country.

“Very well,” Lucifer said. “I presume you called me here to get you home since Puck has neglected you.”

I nodded.

“Everyone hold hands, then,” Lucifer said. He watched carefully as both Nathaniel and J.B. lunged for me, and then he smiled like some private suspicion of his had been confirmed.

Beezle settled in on my shoulder. “You need your coat back. This sexy-clubgoer look lacks comfortable pockets.”

“Try not to fall off into another dimension while we’re crossing the universe,” I said.

Everyone else linked up, Lucifer nudging J.B. aside to take my hand. “Grandfather’s privilege,” he said.

J.B. crossly joined the end of the line, and then we were off. The wonders of the galaxy seemed a lot less wondrous to me this time around. Maybe I was getting jaded. Maybe I was too preoccupied with the new horror of Evangeline’s baby, the vampire invasion of Chicago, the threat of Lucifer’s brother rising from Lake Michigan, and the very high probability that Titania or Bendith or both was going to try to kill me in my sleep sometime soon.

That didn’t even begin to cover the complexity of my relationship problems with Nathaniel and J.B., or the fact that Samiel had apparently been harboring a lot of unkind thoughts about me. All in all, I had more than enough to keep my mind busy as we passed through space and time.

We were back in Chicago and standing on my front lawn before I knew it. The sky was gray and swirling, and lightning crackled to the east, above the lake.

Lucifer stared in the direction of the lightning, his face revealing nothing.

“Let’s take a walk,” I said to him.

Everyone protested in their predictable ways, but I silenced them with a look. Nathaniel and J.B. led the parade inside the house, and Lucifer and I were left alone in the snow. I led him onto the sidewalk, still unshoveled. The snow had been tamped down in a slippery path by dozens of feet. I wondered whether escaping humans had passed by here, or whether the path had been cut by Therion’s roaming vampire brigades.

“Is Alerian causing the storm?” I asked.

Lucifer seemed unsurprised that I knew about his brother. “What else did Puck tell you?”

“More than I wanted to know, really,” I said. I watched his face for a reaction. “And so did Evangeline.”

There was a tiny spark there in his endless eyes, nothing I would have noticed if I hadn’t been looking for it. And then it was gone.

“I’m glad you brought up Evangeline, because I have a task for you,” Lucifer said.

“I’m not interested in your tasks,” I said. “I want you to help me get rid of the vampires in Chicago.”

“If you would ask a boon of me, then it is churlish to refuse one that I would ask of you,” Lucifer said.

“You’re going to ask me to do something that’s disturbing, wrong and probably illegal,” I said. “You always do.”

“Human laws don’t apply to me,” he said.

“Magical ones do,” I said.

“Which is why I need your assistance,” he said smoothly. “You can do that which I cannot.”

“First help me get rid of the vampires,” I said. “You have the power to wipe them all out with one fell swoop.”

“Yes, but I am not permitted to do such a thing. I can’t interfere in the doings of humans in such an obvious way,” Lucifer said.

“You are not permitted to cross into the land of the dead and impregnate your dead lover, either,” I said angrily, stopping and turning toward him. “You don’t mind breaking the rules when it suits you to do so.”

“I don’t break them, exactly. Just bend,” he said. “What did you do to Nathaniel that revealed Puck’s spell so soon?”

“How do you know I had anything to do with it? And don’t change the damned subject,” I said, my face coloring.

“Ah,” Lucifer said. “And my grandson hardly cold in his grave.”

“It’s not like that,” I said.

“What’s it like, then?” he asked, his eyes dancing.

“I don’t have the time or the inclination to explain it to you,” I said. I could hardly explain it to myself. “And you’re hardly in a position of moral authority.”

“I had thought you would seek comfort from Amarantha’s son,” Lucifer mused. “You didn’t seem to like it very much when I sent Nathaniel to you as your bodyguard.”

“I didn’t,” I said, feeling I was losing ground here. I’d meant to stand my ground until Lucifer agreed to help me, not become embroiled in a conversation about my not-a-romance with Nathaniel.

“Still, this could be useful,” Lucifer said. “He obviously has affection for you, and Puck’s revelation could hardly have been welcome. It would certainly be handy to have Puck’s son on my side.”