Good thing, too. It was time to think about the future . . . of what lay beyond this ugly night and these gut-wrenching past three days.

Unfortunately, her mind was like a spectator at a car accident, loitering around the twisted wreckage and the bodies on the pavement, tangling up in memories of her and Isaac together. Eventually, however, she cut that unhealthy focus off, her rational side playing cop and forcing her thoughts to move along, just move along now.

The thing was, Isaac had come into her life for a good reason: Thanks to him, she had finally learned the lesson that Daniel’s death had failed to teach her. Bottom line? As much as you wanted someone to change and believed they could, they were in control of their life. Not you. And you could throw yourself against the wall of their choices until you were black-and-blue and dizzy as hell, but unless they decided to take a different road, the outcome wasn’t going to be what you wanted.

The realization wasn’t going to keep her from helping down at the jail or doing pro bono cases. But it was time to put some limits on how much she had to give . . . and how far she was willing to go. In all her peripatetic, Good Samaritan scramblings, she had been trying to resurrect Daniel—even though talking to his ghost should have been her first clue he wasn’t coming back. In discovering the truth about what had happened to him, however, and in trying to find some balance for herself, maybe she could finally put him to rest and move on.

Taking another sip from her mug, she felt a measure of peace in spite of the bizarre circumstances—

Which was when another gunshot went off in the front of the house.

Out in the hall, Jim had just been approaching the body with his crystal knife when he’d felt Eddie and Adrian’s presence in the kitchen. God, they’d timed their entrance perfectly. He’d been prepared to act on his own, but backup was never a bad idea.

“I’m in here,” he called out.

The pair came right along and neither seemed surprised at what was on the floor.

“Oh, man, Devina’s all over that one,” Ad muttered as he walked over to the remains.

“What the hell are you doing with that dagger?” Isaac demanded.

Well, matter of fact, he was going to do a quick exorcism. It was the only way to make sure that Devina was out of—

The first clue to the corpse’s reanimation was a twitching in the hands. And then in a rush, that godforsaken piece of meat picked itself off the ground and managed to focus the one eyeball that appeared to be working.

And didn’t that just remind him of Matthias.