Seth was silent for several moments as he assessed me. "You're serious."

"Yes." I was a good liar, good enough that the person who loved me most couldn't tell. "Go back to her, Seth. Go back to her and make it up to her."

"Georgina…" I could see it, see it hitting him. The full weight of betraying Maddie was sinking in. His nature couldn't ignore the wrong he'd done. It was part of his good character, the character that had gone back to save Dante, the character that was going to make him leave me. Again. Hesitantly, he extended his hand to me. I took it, and he pulled me into an embrace. "I will always love you."

My heart was going to burst. How many times, I wondered, could I endure this kind of agony? "No, you won't," I said. "You'll move on. So will I."

Seth left not long after that. Staring at the door, I replayed my own words. You'll move on. So will I. In spite of how much he loved me, how much he was willing to risk, I truly felt he'd go back to Maddie, that he'd believe what I said. I'd driven home the guilt, made it trump his love for me.

You'll move on. So will I.

The unfortunate part about being a good liar, however, was that while I could get other people to believe my words, I didn't believe them myself.

While I'd been pretty confident in telling Seth that Dante had likely skipped town, I nonetheless stopped by his shop the next day. It had never been very prosperous looking to begin with, but now the signs of abandonment were clear. The neon PSYCHIC sign was gone. The blinds were also gone, showing a room even barer than before. The FOR LEASE sign on the door was probably the most telling clue that Dante was gone for good.

In the wake of what had happened with Seth, it was hard to know what to think about Dante. My heart almost didn't have the energy for it. I had cared about him, absolutely. He'd suited my decadent phase, and despite his blackened soul, there were parts of him that were likeable. And above all, it appeared that he'd cared about me, misguided or not. I wasn't happy about the deal he'd made with Grace, but I was glad he hadn't been there to face Jerome and Mei's punishment. No one deserved that, not even Dante. I hoped wherever he was, he'd try to start a new life-maybe one that could lighten his soul a little. I well knew, however, that humans with damned souls rarely recovered.

Later that evening, I drove over to Capitol Hill. Peter and Cody were hosting a cocktail party to celebrate Jerome's return, though I half-suspected they simply wanted to drink away the sorrows of losing the sun.

"How can we celebrate Jerome being back when he's not even here?" Tawny wanted to know. She was back to her normal, Amazonian blond self and was holding her martini glass in a precarious way. Peter couldn't take his eyes off it.

I was nursing a gimlet out of politeness. The vampires had gone out of their way to get Grey Goose and fresh lime, but truthfully, I was a little burned out on alcohol. It seemed like I'd been perpetually drunk these last four months. I was not burned out on cigarettes yet, but I was trying very hard to break the habit once more.

"Jerome's got plenty to keep himself busy," I said. "We're just drinking in his honor."

"But he is staying, right?" asked Cody.

We all turned to Hugh. Like the rest of us, Hugh'd had his abilities restored, and I'd honestly expected him to be a lot happier having his imp vision back. Instead, he seemed very serious, and I could have sworn he was watching me when I wasn't looking.

"Yep. He and Mei schmoozed the corporate guy pretty good and pulled in enough favors to get backing from others. Cedric and Nanette both swore up and down that no one else was better qualified to run Seattle than him."

"Nanette finally caved, huh?" I swirled the ice around in my glass. "Of course, knowing Jerome owes her now probably makes her feel secure in her territory."

Cody shook his head. "Still. Grace went through an awful lot to try to pull this off, between the Canadians and all the wheeling and dealing. And Dante." He shot me an apologetic look that I waved off.

"I don't know," said Peter. He finally seemed convinced that Tawny wasn't going to ruin his upholstery. "She's a middle management demon with so-so power. Doing what she did-seizing the opportunity when she thought Jerome looked weak-was probably the closest she'll ever get to ruling over an area like this."

"What do you mean? Would she be stuck forever? Never have her own domain?" asked Tawny, frowning.

"She might have eventually gotten assigned control of some nonexistent town in middle America, but I doubt much more." Hugh still looked oddly speculative. "Clearly, she didn't want to. Neither does Mei, from the looks of it."

"So much for it being better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven," I said, pleased with my own wit. "Of course, I think we're going to see a lot more in Mei's career. She might be so-so in power, but she's got a plan."

"Have you noticed how she's a lot less scary alone?" asked Cody.

"It was the matching clothes," said Peter sagely. "When they dressed alike, it was too much like those girls from The Shining ."

More laughter and conversation ensued, though I eventually grew quiet and simply listened. Maybe I could be the life of the party, like Seth had said, but this group could do okay without me. I took a certain amount of contentment by being back with them and having our lives returned to normal-such as they were. I could never be human again, but these were the people I wanted to be damned with.

At one point, I got up to trade my empty glass for water and discovered Hugh had followed me into the kitchen. He still looked troubled. The others were laughing and talking, providing cover for our conversation.

"What's going on?" I asked. "I thought you'd be happy."

"I am, I am," he said. "Believe me, I am. God, that was miserable."

I couldn't help a smile. Hugh had hit his stride with being a lesser immortal. He was past the novice stages of Cody and Tawny and could fully reap the benefits of his position. However, he wasn't old enough to have acquired all the jaded centuries Peter and I had. Out of all of us, I didn't doubt that Hugh had suffered the most.

"Then what's going on?"

He hesitated, and again, I was struck by how out of character he was behaving. "Georgina, has Seth done anything…bad lately? Rob a bank? Cheat on taxes?"

"Of course not," I said, more confused than ever.

"Has he…or well…did he do anything, uh, bad with you?"

To my chagrin, I blushed. You'd think nothing would make a succubus self-conscious, but I still tried to maintain that line between my private and business sex lives. My silent response was enough for Hugh.

"Fuck."

"What?" I asked. "We did it when I was in stasis. I didn't take any of his energy. I didn't shorten his life. And we haven't done it since Jerome came back. It's over. He's back with Maddie."

Hugh raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

"I realized how impossible it was for us and convinced him to go back to her. I really laid on the guilt." Just mentioning what had happened made me ache all over again.

"I'm sure you did," Hugh said dryly.

"What do you mean?"

"Georgina…" He sighed. "There's no easy way to explain this. When I first met Seth, his soul was like…a supernova. It lit up a room. That guy had such a generous spirit, it was insane."

Had.

"And now?" The answer was slowly creeping in on me.

"Now, there's a shadow on him. A stain on his soul. He cheated on Maddie with you…and is back with her, keeping that from her…"

The room started swaying, and I forced myself to focus on Hugh. "What we did, it wasn't sleazy. We are…were…in love. It was sweet-that is, it meant something."