I cringed. “No . . . I want to be done with them. You don’t know these guys like I do. It’s ridiculous.”

“All I know is that you’ve got to turn over every rock you can find—no pun intended—if you’re going to rescue Jerome.”

“Oh, I’ve got to, huh?” I asked. I didn’t really like the presumption in his voice. “I thought you were going to help find him too?”

“I will. Tomorrow. When are you going to search again?”

I thought about it. “Noon. After work.”

There was a knock at the door, and I moved over to the eye hole. “It’s Dante,” I murmured. To his credit, he usually knocked first before using his key. I rested my hand on the knob and gave Roman a questioning look.

“I’ll find you at noon,” he said. “Hold the door open a sec after you let him in.”

Roman turned invisible, and I pulled the door open. Dante came in, and I stood there a few more moments until I felt the sweep of someone moving past me. Everything had happened so quickly today that I barely had time to realize that not only had I just made contact with the guy who wanted to kill me, but I’d also just made arrangements to spend time with him. Man. This was going to keep me up when I tried to sleep later.

I shut the door and gave Dante a quick kiss on the cheek. He was carrying a bag, and I had to do a double-take.

“Did you buy something from Macy’s?” I exclaimed. “I somehow imagined you stepping into a department store would be like a vampire stepping into the sunlight—I mean, current situation aside.”

Dante rolled his eyes and set the bag down. Crossings his arms, he leaned against the wall. “Well, maybe I’m in stasis too. Forget about this for a sec and tell me if you’ve gotten yourself on any demon’s shit list today.” There it was again, the sweet concern in spite of his best efforts.

“Not that I know of, but hey, the day’s not over yet.”