“Holy crap,” Kiera said, as I blinked the world back into focus. “You were dead. Fucking A, you were absolutely, completely dead.”

Beside her, Rose’s mouth hung open, tears streaming down her face. I reached for her, and she crouched down, her arms around me, her sobs shaking us both. “It’s okay, hon,” I said. “I’m fine. Swear. See?” I pointed to the hole Deacon had left in my shirt, then at the un-marred flesh beneath. “I’m okay.”

She backed up and sniffed. “How?”

“Perk of the job,” I said.

“Fucking A,” Kiera repeated.

“Just one of my many party tricks,” I said, managing to draw a smile from both of them.

“Who?” Kiera asked.

“Deacon Camphire,” I said, and Rose sucked in air. I met her eyes, shaking my head ever so slightly, afraid she’d say something stupid. Like, oh, mention that she and I and Deacon had all been happily hanging together just last night.

“I thought that was him,” Kiera said, apparently not noticing my silent exchange with my sister. “I saw someone running away. I was going to go after him, but Rose came out, and you were here, and—”

“It’s okay,” I said. “He’s strong. You don’t want to screw with him.”

“I know. He’s on Clarence’s Do Not Disturb list.”

“Right,” I said. When I’d first become Prophecy Girl, Clarence had made it clear that I shouldn’t try to kill Deacon, what with him being superstrong-demon dude. But then all that changed, and Clarence told me that Deacon had been the one who murdered Alice. A big fat lie that I’m certain he spun so that I’d take the bastard out. He did it, we assume, because he’d learned that Deacon was trying to close the Ninth Gate. But that didn’t explain why Deacon was suddenly back on the Don’t Kill list. Clarence had to know Deacon was still trying to lock the gates up tight. So why would he want Kiera steering clear?

These, however, were not issues that I had time to ponder. Instead, I sat up, wincing a little, and held out my arm for Rose, who pressed her head onto my shoulder. “It’s okay,” I said. “I’m fine. Just stiff.” I drew in a breath, wanting to change the topic before this one got too dangerous. “I got that other demon, though,” I said to Kiera. “How about you?”

“Nailed her,” she said with a wide grin, and I realized I didn’t have any way of knowing if she really had. Right then, though, I had to admit I didn’t care. The darkness was still surging through me, even more intense now that the dead demon’s essence had been sucked in and was filling me up, shooting down into my fingers and toes like a drug. I’d gotten a hit—that was for sure—but I still craved another. “Let’s go,” I said.

Kiera frowned. “Where?”

“There are more, right? There must be more?”

She grinned, slow and wide. “Look at you, all dressed up with somewhere to go.”

I shrugged, then climbed to my feet. “This was your idea. I’m just trying to get into a rhythm with my new partner.”

She looked me up and down, then stepped close, her gaze warm and appraising. “I wasn’t sure at first,” she said. “Thought maybe you were all hype. But you’ll do. Man, oh, man. You’ll seriously do.”

“I missed that last one,” I said. “Missed him and ended up dead.”

She shrugged it off. “Apparently, being dead didn’t take. And like I said, you don’t want to take Deacon Camphire out. Too risky.”

I thought about that some more as we headed back inside, frowning as a new thought hit me. Maybe it wasn’t me and Kiera that Clarence’s Don’t Kill order was protecting. Maybe it was Deacon.

I shook it off, because no matter how much I wanted the truth about Deacon, just then there was something I wanted a whole lot more. “Come on,” I said to Kiera. “Find me another.”

“You got it, girl.”

I looked sideways at Rose, who stood straight and silent. I needed to get her home. Needed to take care of her.

But I couldn’t think about that. Couldn’t think about anything but the need for the slow, cold burn of the kill.

“We’re staying just a little bit longer,” I said. She tilted her face up to meet my eyes, hers clear and more focused than I’d seen in a year.

“Good,” she said, the harshness in her voice like a knife to my heart. “Kill more of them. Kill them all, and this time let me watch. Because I don’t think I’ll be happy until they’re all dead.”

My mouth was dry, but Kiera let loose with a guffaw. “Listen to the kid. She’s got balls.”

Except I didn’t want her to have balls. “No, I—”

“There,” Kiera said, pointing at a lanky man who was stumbling out of the club, a bottle of beer tight in one hand.

“No. Forget it. I changed my mind.”

I shook my head, but Rose grabbed my arm. “Please,” she said, her voice plaintive. “It’s like you’re killing him.”

And though Kiera might not have understood, I knew Rose was talking straight to me. Talking about Johnson. And, yeah, I understood. I hated it, but I understood.

Except Rose didn’t get what she wanted. Because as I took my first step toward my new quarry, a sharp stab of pain doubled me over.

“Lily!” Both Kiera and Rose gathered around me. “What is it?”

“My arm,” I whispered, barely able to force the words out. “Oh, God, oh, God, I think it’s on fire.” I scrambled to shove up the sleeve of my duster to reveal my forearm, the first image now red and raw, as if someone had taken a branding iron to my skin.

“Oh, wow,” Kiera said. “He told me about that. He’s trying to find the bridge, right? Trying to conjure a bridge despite the protections?”

I nodded, trying not to grit my teeth. “That’s what he said. Maybe this means he found it.” I clenched my fist, trying desperately to block out a pain that was so intense I was seeing the world in shades of gray and red.

“So what now?” Kiera asked.

“Now I go,” I said, realizing that as much as I hated the fact that I was a walking cliché of Beam Me Up, Scotty, this was actually going to work out pretty handily. Being a double agent stuck with a partner was damned inconvenient, but I couldn’t pull her into my own skin, and that meant I couldn’t take her across the bridge with me. Whatever I had to do on the other side, I could do it in secret.

For at least a little bit, I could drop my cover. Color me supremely happy.

“You’re going to have to hold on to me until I’m through,” I said. “That’s how I find my way back.”

She looked mildly concerned about that, and I’ll admit that I was petty enough that her discomfiture gave me a small thrill. After all, so far she’d definitely come across as the cooler one in our dynamic duo. Now it was my turn to show just how über my über-girl-superchick routine could be.

She held my hand, and Rose held tight to the back of my shirt. “It’ll be okay,” I said.

“It better,” she retorted, and though I listened for a warning from Johnson, I heard none. Just my sister, wanting me to come back. I smiled. “I swear,” I said. “I’ll be back before you know it.”

Actually, that wasn’t entirely accurate. The bridge crossed space, not time, and if it took me a while to find the relic once I crossed over, they’d be standing in the middle of the parking lot, babysitting a glowing, spinning vortex.

Probably better to find someplace more private.

“Ladies’ room,” I said, and we all bustled in that direction, then squeezed into the handicapped stall, ignoring the curious looks from the girls gathered in front of the mirror adjusting dresses and skirts.

“So go,” Kiera said, though I wasn’t sure if she was anxious to see me do my stuff, or because she wanted out of the cramped little stall.

I pressed my hand to the still-aching mark, drew in a breath, and waited for that sharp tug around my middle, then the sensation of being jerked by the umbilical cord into another world.

It didn’t come.

“Nothing,” I said, slapping my palm down and trying again. “Dammit, there’s nothing.”

Kiera sighed. “Come on,” she said, her tone suggesting that she’d been partnered with a complete and total loser. “Let’s go see Clarence.”