My fear was unfounded, of course. Lesser immortals, like vampires and succubi, couldn’t kill each other, and we healed extremely quickly. Still, the instinct to worry about my friends was one that would never leave me. “Why were you yelling at me over this? I certainly didn’t have anything to do with it.”

“Because the vampires who thought they’d been reassigned got official notification that said they had: a stamped and sealed demonic missive. They thought it was from me.”

“But it wasn’t,” I guessed, seeing where he was going with this. Jerome had the area comfortably parceled out and would have no desire to change the status quo. He was too lazy. “There was no name?”

“No, clearly. But they don’t need it—not if the seal is good. It was, and only another demon could have drawn something like that up.”

“And so you assumed Cedric did it,” I finished.

Jerome nodded. “Yes, and I’m going to let him know exactly what I think of this. I’m not happy over that—or you slacking off in reporting his activities to me.”

“You’re giving my spying ability more credit than I deserve here,” I warned. “It’s kind of limited. He’s not really sharing his inner secrets with me, and anyway, he already knows that’s what you want me to do.”

“Of course he does.”

I sighed. “Look, if you want my opinion . . .” The look Jerome gave me suggested he really didn’t put a lot of stock in my opinion. “. . . I don’t think Cedric’s the type to do anything like that. He’s more interested in Web surfing.”

“After all this time with demons, you really should know better than that, Georgie.” Jerome smashed his cigarette into the ashtray and stood up.

“Yeah, yeah, I know, you sound just like Nan—” I frowned. His wording had tickled a memory. “Oh, I do have some info for you. Cedric was meeting with Nanette.”

Jerome had been straightening his sleeve, but his head jerked toward me at the mention of the archdemoness’s name. “Nanette?” The word was carefully enunciated, icy in its tone.

I relayed what I knew. Jerome’s face grew dark as I spoke. Whatever his thoughts on the new development were, however, he didn’t share them with me. “Looks like you might be doing your job after all.” He paused. “But why are you back?”

“There’s nothing to do until Saturday. Cedric sent me home.” I held my breath, waiting for him to blow up, but it didn’t come.

“Well, seeing as you aren’t being too much of a bitch for a change, I suppose that’s okay.” By that wording, I was apparently still being kind of a bitch.

Jerome vanished.

Aubrey immediately came out from behind the couch, giving me the censuring look cats always give owners who have been away for a while. I knelt down and scratched her chin. She was solid white with a few black specks on her forehead, often giving the impression that she couldn’t keep her head clean.