Page 34 of Dead End

I withdrew from Dan’s embrace and faced Josie with my arms spread wide. “You want to hug me?”

She elbowed me aside. “My buddy Dantalion, not you.”

Alessandro’s head drooped. “I can’t do it. If I say goodbye, that makes it real.”

“It’s real whether you say it or not,” Josie told him. “Might as well accept it and have no regrets.”

“I’ll send an envoy once I’m settled,” Dantalion promised.

“If I don’t hear anything in a fortnight, I’ll send someone looking for you,” Kane said.

“Consider me warned.”

Kane gave him one last clap on the shoulder. “Hell is finally in good hands.”

An orange and black lump landed on the leather club chair and meowed.

“Sunny!” Alessandro said, delighted. “Where have you been? I looked all over for you.”

Kane’s jaw tightened. “Lucifer threatened to use her as a blowtorch to torture me, so she wisely ran and hid.”

I scratched behind her ear. “Who’s a good chimera?”

Dantalion nuzzled the chimera’s two-toned face. “I can only hope to have a loyal companion like you by my side in hell.”

The chimera’s mismatched eyes fixed on Kane.

“If you must,” he said with a sorrowful sigh.

It took me a second to process. “Wait. No.” I looked at Sunny. “You’re going with Dan?”

The chimera nudged my arm with her head in a reassuring gesture.

“Dantalion needs Sunny more than we do,” Kane said, his voice barely audible.

“But Sunny lives here. With you.”

“By choice, but she doesn’t belong to me. She never has.”

Dantalion’s face radiated gratitude. “I would be honored if you would accompany me, friend.”

Sunny jumped to the floor and exited the room beside Dan. Josie clamped a hand over her mouth, and I realized the vampire was holding back tears. As much as I wanted to make light of it, I couldn’t because I felt exactly the same way.

I slipped my hand into Kane’s as we followed them upstairs, carrying Kane’s bags. I watched Dantalion and Sunny’s departure with mixed feelings—sad to see them go, but grateful Kane wasn’t with them.

Josie’s face crumpled when she spotted Kane’s bags. “Well, this is all too much for one day. I need a drink.”

Alessandro rubbed his hands together. “I can help with that.”

“One for me, too, please,” Kane said.

I walked over to the bar. “Well, I’ll say one thing for Lucifer, he kept this place in mint condition.”

“He’s even more fastidious than I am,” Kane acknowledged. “However his musical taste left a lot to be desired.”

Josie slumped over the counter. “I miss them already. This is bullshit.”

“If it weren’t Dantalion going, it would be me. I imagine you wouldn’t enjoy that outcome either.”

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