“Hell if I know. Just figured you should know I wasn’t responsible for what happened to you.” He offered no more, no condolences or queries to my health. I honestly couldn’t expect that from a demon. The fact that he’d bothered to come talk to me was a rarity enough—and naturally, he could be lying.

“Well, I don’t know who else could have told her, then. Or why. I only told a handful of people.” The more I thought about it, the more I realized he had to be lying. I’d only told my friends.

He maintained his perfectly bland face. “Like I said, I don’t know.”

We reached my car, and I paused, leaning against it. “You came all the way here to tell me this?” Not that it would have been an arduous journey for him.

“Don’t flatter yourself,” he said with a smile. “I’m here to chat with your demonesses. Hell’s pretty much ruled out Jerome coming back. There’ll be someone official here in days to settle the matter.”

I tried to ignore the chill that sent down my spine and parse the rest of his words. Cedric was cozying up to Grace and Mei. Not a surprise. Whoever came here to assign a new archdemon would question those two the most. “Well, thank you,” I said. I didn’t really know what else to say in that matter, so I switched to something else that had been on my mind. “Hey, I haven’t heard much about your cult lately.”

“Yeah, they’ve been pretty quiet. Maybe you helped after all.”

“Well, I don’t think I did much.” I was also starting to suspect the cult had nothing left to do. Now that their “Angel” had used them as an effective distraction during Jerome’s summoning, they were no longer needed. I clicked my door open, and another curious thought struck me. “How’s it going with Tawny?”

Cedric grimaced. “Well . . . we went out a couple of times.”

“And?”

“My private life is no concern of yours.”

“Fair enough.” I started to get in.

“But if you must know . . .”

I paused and arched an eyebrow. “Yes?”

“Her conversation is . . . lacking a little,” he admitted.

I couldn’t help it. I laughed. “Are you seriously surprised by that?”

“Beauty’s skin deep, I know . . . I guess I’d just hoped for a little more depth.”

I chose not to comment on what he considered beautiful. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but I figured you wouldn’t really want more than cheap sex.”

He cut me a look. “Because I’m a demon?”

“Don’t look at me like that. Being romantic isn’t really in your job description.”