“Too…late. You…you can stop the pain.”

He was so hard to hear now, I had to lean close. Even then, I didn’t fully parse his words until a few moments later. “I’m trying.” I shifted the coat a little, which was proving totally ineffectual.

“A kiss…one kiss…”

“I…” My eyes went wide. “No. No. It’ll kill you…” Even as I said the words, I realized how stupid they were. This gunshot was already going to kill him. He was going to die. One kiss. He wanted a kiss to speed his dying, just as I’d given Luc. I’d never performed that deed again, nor had I wanted to. Maybe it had been mercy, but I’d felt like a killer. And yet, just like I had then, I knew it would ease the passing….

I shook my head. “No.”

“Nyx…showed me. Showed me my death: you.”

He coughed again and could speak no more. Still, he clung to life, with pain on his face and pleading in his eyes.

Nyx? Nyx had shown him his death….

In the far reaches of my mind, I remembered finding him one day, right after Nyx had visited him and shown him a vision. He’d recoiled from me at first and then later shrugged it off, laughing it away as the remnants of a nightmare. But I understood now. He’d seen his death—seen me causing it. He’d been afraid of me in those moments. My man in the dream had been a lie, but all the other visions she’d shown had been true. My role in Erik’s death had been destined…just not in any malicious way. That was how her dreams often worked. Never quite what you expected.

And so, for the second time, I became an angel of mercy…an angel of death…whatever. I hunched down and kissed him, ignoring the blood on his mouth. Just like with Luc, there was only a breath of life left. Five more minutes, and Erik would have been gone without me. That tiny bit of life was as pure and good as I’d known it would be. Erik would be rewarded in the afterlife.

As I lifted my head and watched peace settle over his features, faint feelings flitted through me, as sometimes happened when I took energy. There was affection for me. It wasn’t romantic love. More like fatherly love. Friendship. Fondness. And underneath it was a warning, a warning for me he never got to convey. I was so caught up in those last bursts of life, that I was only distantly aware when the lights and sirens came.

Someone lifted me away, and I saw people huddling around him—too late. I stared at the commotion that followed—paramedics, police. I saw it without seeing it, answered questions without even knowing what I said. A policeman with kind eyes took it all down and spoke to me gently, often repeating himself. I don’t know how long it all took. Maybe an hour, maybe more. I only remember assuring them over and over that I was okay, that I was going home, and that I would answer any other questions that came up.

But when I drove away, still in shock, still barely grasping what had happened, I didn’t go to West Seattle. I went to Pioneer Square, parking in a lucky street spot and then winding my way through the partying crowds. A few people gave me curious looks when I walked into the Cellar, looks I gave no heed to as I honed in on Jerome’s table. He drank alone tonight, his dark eyes watching me intently as I approached.

“Georgie,” he said when I came to a stop in front of him, “what’s the point of shape-shifting if you’re going to walk around with blood on you?”

I looked down, only then registering the stains on my shirt. I turned back to him, ignoring the shape-shifting suggestion.

“Erik’s dead,” I told him, my voice flat.

Jerome’s face displayed no reaction. “How?”

“A break-in. Somebody shot him.”

Jerome sipped his bourbon and remained silent.

“Well? Don’t you have anything to say?”

He scowled. “What do you expect me to say? Should I cry? Put on sackcloth and ashes? Humans die all the time, Georgie. You’re the one who mourns them—not me. I have no sentiment for any of them. You know that. And certainly not for him.”

I did know that. When Duane—one of Jerome’s former employees—had been killed, the demon’s only reaction had been annoyance.

“What’s weird…” I paused, putting to words what had been coalescing in the back of my mind this whole time. “What’s weird is that someone would break into a New Age store at all. It’s not a good place for a robbery.”

“If it has money, it’s a good place for a robbery. If it’s in a deserted strip mall, with only an old man there, it’s even a better place for a robbery. Were the valuables gone?”

“Yes,” I admitted.

“Then why are you here wasting my time?”

“The glass.”

“The glass?”

“The glass was broken from the inside,” I said. “The pieces were scattered on the sidewalk. Whoever did it didn’t break the glass to get in. It just looked that way.”

Jerome sighed irritably. “After everything you’ve seen, can you honestly question the behaviors of humans?”

“It just seems strange that someone like Erik—someone who deals in the supernatural and who had—” I hesitated, about to say that he’d been pondering my contract. Instead, I said, “Who had just been involved with a big immortal blowout would be the victim of this by coincidence.”

“Coincidences happen.”

“I don’t believe in coincidences anymore.”

“Then replay your own words. Your ‘big immortal blowout’ is the answer. They might not live in our world, but do you think dream creatures don’t have connections here?”

I frowned. “What are you saying?”

“That I thought it was too convenient for the Oneroi’s overlord to walk away. He knew he couldn’t touch me or any other immortal. But a human? One who had been actively involved with thwarting him?” Jerome shrugged. “It’s revenge. He could arrange for that. We can’t prove it—and we can’t do anything. Make sure you understand that. I’m not going to avenge your friend, if that’s what you’re asking for.”

I hadn’t expected him to. In fact, I really wasn’t sure what I’d expected of him at all. Why had I come here? Because I was in shock. Because what had happened to Erik didn’t make sense. Because Jerome often had answers for me.

This time, he did too…but I wasn’t sure that I believed them. The old adage came back: How do you know if a demon is lying? His lips are moving.

“Okay,” I said with a small nod. His eyes narrowed a little. I think he was surprised I’d given in so quickly. Glancing down, I shape-shifted the blood away. “I’m going to go home and…I don’t know. I don’t know what I’m going to do.”

My confusion wasn’t faked, and I hoped it would be enough to clear any suspicion. And really, what did he have to be suspicious of? I didn’t even know. Two contracts.

Jerome didn’t try to stop me. I drove home with almost no realization of what I was doing until I pulled into the parking lot under my building. As soon as I opened my condo’s door, I caught the faint smell of Chinese food. It smelled delicious, yet at the same time, it had that slight twinge of food that had been sitting around for a while. Roman sprawled on the couch, staring at nothing as far as I could tell. The TV was off. The cats remained unpetted.

“I’m sorry I didn’t call,” I said. “You won’t believe what—”

“I’ve got something for you,” he said. “Two somethings, actually.”

The odd tone of his voice was about the only thing that could have stopped me from gushing about what had gone down at Erik’s tonight. Even now, the events in the store were so surreal that it hardly seemed like something that had happened to me. Surely it was something I’d seen in a movie. I sat down in the armchair near Roman, the queasy feeling in my stomach growing as I wondered what else could possibly happen tonight.

“What is it?”

He handed me a piece of paper. “This was under the door when I got back with the food. I didn’t mean to read it, but…well, it wasn’t in an envelope or anything.”