“Why are we tiptoeing around in here?” I said loudly. “What freaking difference does it make?”

“Madeline, shh,” Nathaniel said.

“No, I will not be quiet,” I said. “They can see in the dark. They can hear better than we can. Why should we play by their rules?”

I raised a ball of nightfire and launched it up so it would float ahead of us. “If they’re going to run, then they’ll run whether or not we’re scuttling in the dark. If they’re going to fight, then we should be able to see them as well as they can see us.”

“Madeline, stop. Do not be impulsive,” Nathaniel said.

“Who’s being impulsive?” I said as the ball of nightfire lit up the tunnel. “THERION!”

Nathaniel stared at me like I’d lost my mind.

“THERION! You COWARD!” I roared.

There was no answer.

“They are gone,” Nathaniel said angrily. “They were ahead of us. I could hear them, and now they are gone. As soon as you began yelling they disappeared.”

This news just made me even angrier. Therion had escaped, and I wanted him to pay. Still, I wasn’t going to play the vampire king’s game.

“Fine,” I said. “Let’s go home.”

Nathaniel’s eyebrows went up to his hairline. “You are giving up?”

“Hell, no,” I said. “I’m going to track him down and take out his intestines through his nostrils. But I’m not going to chase him through miles of tunnel to do it. I’ll find him later. I have something else I need to do, anyway.”

“Deal with Alerian?” Nathaniel asked.

“Alerian’s not even awake yet,” I said, trudging back in the direction of the Washington stop. We hadn’t really walked that far. I could see the lights over the platform a short distance away. “I have something I need to do for Lucifer.”

“Then I will accompany you,” Nathaniel said.

“No,” I said shortly. “This is not optional. You’re staying home, and so is everyone else. This is for me to do.”

“Have I not proven that I am trustworthy?” Nathaniel asked, an edge in his voice.

“This isn’t about whether or not you are trustworthy,” I said. “This is about me and Lucifer and my duties as the Hound of the Hunt.”

“What has he asked of you?” Nathaniel said.

“I can’t tell you,” I said. “You may assume that the task sucks and that there are about ten million things I would rather do.”

“Let me help you,” Nathaniel persisted as we reached the platform and clambered up from the track level.

“Nathaniel, I am the Hound of the Hunt. Where I go, you cannot follow,” I said. “Besides, I need you to stay in Chicago. You’re the only one here who can deal with Alerian if he does rise. Or at least, you’re the only one who can contact Puck to come and deal with his brother.”

We climbed the stairs back up to the station. Everything looked the same. When we reached the street I half expected Therion to be waiting there with another army of vampires to take me down, but he wasn’t. I guess the vampire king really was a coward, and the nightmare was over. For the moment.

There were a few people on the streets, wandering in a daze, blinking at the sky like they’d never seen it before. News helicopters soared overhead. Nathaniel and I quickly cloaked ourselves and then took off flying. I wasn’t interested in being attacked by an angry mob just because I looked different, and I’d already had enough television exposure to last a lifetime.

As we flew home I noticed that the clouds had stopped swirling over Lake Michigan, and much of the green fog had dissipated. I pointed toward the lake.

“What’s that all about?” I said to Nathaniel.

“Perhaps he has decided to go back to sleep.”

“That would be a load off my mind,” I said. “It would be nice if all the people who fled the city could come back.”

We returned to my house and flew back into the kitchen. Beezle was sitting on the counter eating a bag of pretzels.

“Saw your light show on the news,” he said conversationally, but I could tell he was pissed off. “I see you’ve got some spanking new wings. And Nathaniel’s had his hair colored. There was a lot of banging around going on up here earlier. Anything you want to tell me?”

“Not right now,” I said. “I’ve got to run an errand for Lucifer.”

“Oh, you’re running errands for Lucifer now? Haven’t we come up in the world?” he said.

“Don’t start, Beezle,” I said. “You were standing right there when he made me the Hound of the Hunt. Oh, wait—maybe you were napping, as you tend to do when there’s actual work to be done.”

Nathaniel was edging his way around me and out of the kitchen.

“Don’t you go anywhere,” Beezle said, pointing a claw at Nathaniel. “You’re in this, too. I know what the two of you have been doing when no one’s looking.”

“I do not answer to you, gargoyle,” Nathaniel said.

“And I don’t answer to you, either,” I said. “You’re not my father, and I’m tired of being second-guessed.”

“Someone needs to rein you in before you become exactly what Lucifer wants,” Beezle said.

“Do you think that I don’t know what he wants?” I shouted. “He wants me in a cage and my baby bouncing on his knee. I am not stupid, whatever you might think.”

“Do you know that most of the people who saw you on the news are scared of you, even though you saved this damned city from the vampires?” Beezle said. “The news anchors were discussing you like you were a monster. People were calling in, saying you needed to be exterminated. No one is going to thank you for what you did.”

“I don’t care,” I said. “I only did what was right. I’ve only ever done what I thought was right. I don’t need a bouquet of flowers from the mayor.”

“You don’t understand,” Beezle said. “Because of Therion’s message, everyone knows who you are. They know that you are Madeline Black. How long do you think it will take for people to track you down here? How long do you think it will take before there are police outside breaking down the door? Or worse?”

“What’s worse than being chased from my own home?” I asked.

“The curiosity seekers. The people who will want you to use your powers to help them with their petty problems. You’re in danger now, and so is anyone who stays here with you,” Beezle said.

“How is that any different from before?” I said. “There have been creatures hunting me since the day Ramuell returned, and all of you have been willing to take the risk.”

“Everyone is willing to fight supernatural monsters, but they aren’t willing to have their identities exposed to humans,” Beezle said. “Samiel and Chloe have already gone.”

“Gone where?” I said, stung. I couldn’t believe Samiel had left without a word. I’d taken him into my home, made him a part of my family.

“To Chloe’s. They both think it’s safer there. Neither of them wants to be here when the news vans roll up. And they will, sooner or later,” Beezle said. “I’m sure Jude will want to return to his pack now, too.”

“Well, that’s the best place for him,” I said, trying not to be hurt by all of this, and failing. “Werewolves belong with their packs. It’s not healthy for him to be away for so long.”

“It’s not healthy for anyone to be near you right now, either,” Beezle said.

“And you?” I asked. Something was breaking inside me, something that might never mend.

Beezle looked grim. “I promised your mother I would stay with you.”

“But?” I said. I wouldn’t cry. I would not cry.

“I’m not sure I know the person you’re becoming. And I’m not sure that I want to know that person.”

I wanted to scream, to shout, to argue. I wanted to kick things and throw things and protest that it was unfair. I’d never asked to be an Agent, or to be the daughter of a fallen angel. I’d never asked to be the last direct descendant of Evangeline and Lucifer’s union. I’d never asked to have the power of the universe within me. I’d never asked for a life shrouded by death.

All I’d wanted—all I had ever wanted—was to be plain Maddy Black. I would have liked to have gone on dates and stayed out past curfew. I would have liked to have gone to college and gotten a job. I would have liked to have met a man who was no good for me and had a torrid affair, and then met a man who was really good for me and gotten married and had a bunch of kids. I would have liked to have worried about taxes and the next election instead of the latest monster or the pending apocalypse. I would have liked to have been normal.

Sure, I never would have been able to fly. But I would have been able to live without a lot of heartache, too.

But I’d had no choice. I was never given any choice. And now, for this, everyone was leaving me. Even Beezle.

“Go, then,” I said, my voice hard. “Go with Samiel. He’s your favorite person anyway.”

“I didn’t say…” Beezle began.

“Go!” I said, and I grabbed the nearest thing at hand and threw it at him. It was a coffee cup, and it smashed into the counter a few inches from Beezle. The handle broke off.

I stared at it, stricken. Not because I’d just thrown a coffee mug at Beezle, although that was bad enough. But because I’d thrown the last coffee mug that Gabriel had used. The mug that had sat, untouched, in the dish drain since the morning he’d died. I’d almost bitten Samiel’s head off once when he tried to put it back in the cupboard.

Beezle said nothing. I couldn’t read the expression on his face.

Fight for me, I thought. It was a little girl’s voice in my head, the little girl who’d always wanted to be first to her mother but always came in second. The little girl who’d dreamed of a daddy to love her, a daddy who never arrived. Show me I matter. Show me you care enough to stay.