“Yes. But not enough. I don’t know every detail of this whole demonic hierarchy and the way they channel their powers, but I know you can’t have kids. Even if you seem human, you’re still immortal. You still belong to Hell. I’m sorry.”

I held his eyes for a moment and then looked down. “Well. I guess I can’t really be surprised by that, huh? And I have no reason to trust Nyx anyway. Not after what she did.”

There it was. No kids. Another piece of the dream had slipped away from me. All I had left was the faceless man, the man I wanted to be Seth, and even that seemed unlikely now.

Roman tugged me up. “Come on. Let’s head back before the rain comes. We’ll get some ice cream. Maybe that’ll cheer you up.”

“I’m not really sure ice cream can fix my failed hopes and dreams or an impending demonic takeover.”

“Probably not. But it’ll help.”

Chapter 23

Chapter 23

Dante wasn’t around when I got home, nor was he reachable by phone. That relieved me of any guilt I had about going out with Seth, meaning my only other obstacle was the accusatory look Roman gave me when we parted. I had no idea how he would spend his evening, and honestly, I didn’t really want to know.

The problem Seth and I had with going out was that we pretty much had to avoid the city. We knew people in the suburbs too, but the odds of running into anyone were a lot smaller. The rainy weather Roman and I had experienced in the afternoon had blown over, and we suddenly found ourselves in semi-warm conditions that made it almost possible to go without a coat. I would have read the fortuitous weather as a divine blessing, if not for the fact that I’d given up on such beliefs long ago.

To my astonishment, though, Seth said he wanted to go downtown and felt pretty confident we wouldn’t be spotted. He drove us over to Belltown, parking underneath one of the many high-rise apartment buildings that seemed to be sprouting up there every day. A mysterious key let him inside, and the elevator took us all the way to the top floor.

“What is this?” I asked when we entered a sprawling penthouse suite. It kind of made me wonder if I should have been setting my real estate aspirations in a different direction. I gave him a startled look. “You don’t own this, do you?” Seth having a secret vacation home wasn’t entirely improbable.

“Belongs to someone I know who’s out of town. I called in a favor.”

“You have friends I don’t know?”