Neither of us talks for a while. We just pass the cigarette back and forth.
I tap some ashes out the window and say, “I’m dying. By this time tomorrow I might be dead for good.”
Alessa says, “Does Candy know?”
“I told her. She’s going to be upset if it happens.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll take care of her.”
“Good.”
I give her the last puff of the cigarette. She stubs it out against the sole of her shoe and tosses it out the window. I close it and we head back to the kitchen.
“In the meantime,” I say, “you and me don’t have to be enemies.”
Alessa stops.
“And if you live?”
“Not then either as far as I’m concerned.”
“This is going to get complicated.”
“Not if I die.”
She gives me a look. “Stop saying that. You think I want someone Candy cares about dead?”
“It would uncomplicate things.”
“No it wouldn’t. They’d just be complicated in a different way.”
“You’re probably right.”
“Fuck,” she says quietly.
“Yeah.”
We start back to the kitchen.
Alessa says, “Let’s just see how things go.”
“That makes sense to me.”
“Thanks for the cigarette.”
“Anytime.”
Candy looks relieved when we get back.
“Eat,” she says. “Both of you.”
I start on the meat she microwaved.
Kasabian comes in.
“I see you’re still dragging the necromancer around,” he says.
“What necromancer?” says Candy.
“Jonathan Howard,” I say between bites.
“Can he keep you from dying?”
“Yes. But he won’t. That’s why I kidnapped him.”
Kasabian sits at the kitchen island and glares at me.
“A shootout, dead cops, party to a kidnapping, and now we’re running from the Wild Bunch. Great to see you again, buddy.”
“Shut up and eat.”
WHEN WE FINISH, Candy says, “What happens next?”
We leave the leftovers on the island and go into the living room. I take Ray’s piece of paper from my pocket.
“Ray, a sort of brujo Carlos introduced me to, is researching ways to fix me. I gave him Vidocq’s number, but even with his help, I don’t know if they’ll come up with anything.”
“Okay. But that doesn’t answer my question.”
I hand her the paper.
“I’m going to see the next name on the kill list.”
“Hijruun,” she says. “What kind of name is that?”
“I met a Hijruun in Hell once. A cackler. He was selling some curses to Azazel.”
“What’s a cackler?” says Alessa from the couch.
“They’re weird, ugly fuckers,” says Kasabian. “Big bags of bones. And when they talk, they always sound like they’re laughing.”
“You think Hijruun might know something that could help you?” says Candy.
She hands me the list.
“Cacklers know a lot of arcane hoodoo. And I can’t just sit around here. Maybe if I warn Hijruun about the faction, he’ll trade me some information.”
“Sounds like a plan,” she says. “Do you know where Hijruun lives?”
“Technically in an alternate reality, but it’s a close one, so I can get there through the Room.”
“Great. I’m going with you.”
Alessa stands up.
“Wait. You told me he did this kind of stuff all the time.”
“He did,” says Candy. “When he was well. Look at him now.”
She goes to Candy.
“You told me, months ago, you were glad to not be doing this kind of crazy stuff anymore. The running around. The guns and magic and killing. You said you were happy.”
Candy looks at me a little guiltily, then back at Alessa.
“I am happy. But, well, look at him.”
Alessa shifts her weight, getting angrier.
“I am. Are you? He looks horrible. But according to you and Kasabian, he was always like this.”
“Not always,” says Candy.
“Always,” says Kasabian.
“Now he shows up after all this time, almost gets us shot, and you go running back to him,” says Alessa.
“It’s not like that,” Candy says.
“Then how is it?”
Candy takes Alessa’s hand.
“I love our life. I’m not running back to him. But Stark and me have a lot of history together. That means something.”
Alessa looks at me. It’s all in her eyes. She’s not angry. She’s scared. Not that I’m going to steal Candy from her, but that I’m going to do something dumb and get her killed.
“Alessa’s right,” I say. “I created this problem the moment I agreed to work for Wormwood. It was a selfish and stupid bargain and it makes me pretty much as bad as them. But it was my choice. I’m not dragging anyone else down with me.”
I start away and Candy says, “Don’t leave yet.”
She hustles Alessa into one of the side rooms. I head into the bathroom. Kasabian follows me in.
He says, “Spreading hope and sunshine wherever you go.”
I open the medicine cabinet and go through it, looking for anything that might help heal me. I look at Kasabian.
“Once upon a time, I thought we were friends, Kas.”
“That was then. This is now. Friendship only goes so far when one of the friends spends all his time trying to get the other killed.”
“You know that’s not true.”
“I’m not saying you mean it. You just can’t help it. You said it yourself. You’re a shit magnet. And you’re going to fuck up me and the girls.”
I toss bottles of pills and ointments into the sink. But I set aside a tube of antibiotic cream.
“The three of you are going to stay here. I only have a few hours left. It will be morning soon. If you don’t hear back from me before dark, go home. You’ll be safe and I’ll be gone for good.”
“And if you do come back?”
“Odds are I won’t.”
“What about Sleeping Beauty in the boudoir?”
I’d almost forgotten about Howard.
“If I don’t come back, let him go. But punch him in the balls for me. Just once.”
Kasabian nods. “I can do that.” He leans against the wall. “This is a little weird,” he says.
“What is?”
“Saying good-bye like this. The first time you were gone, it was pretty abrupt. Now it’s sort of like putting down the family dog.”
I look at him.
“I’m going to take that as a compliment.”
He shrugs, then asks, “You’ll be okay if you go back to Hell, right?”
“I always am.”
“It’s just … there’s no malice in this, okay? I want you to be all right. I just want you to do it far away.”
I stop pawing through the cabinet and look at him.
“Whatever happens, that’s the plan.”
“Okay,” he says. “I hope shit works out for you.”
“Thanks.”
“You just scare me a lot of the time.”
“I understand.”
“When you go—if you live—you should take some movies with you. Anything you want.”
I stop again. For Kasabian that’s as close to flowers and Valentines as anyone is ever going to get.
“Thanks. I’ll probably take you up on that.”
“Yeah.”
Candy comes into the bathroom.
“Kas, would you wait outside for a minute?”
“Sure,” he says. Then, “Later.”
“See you.”
When he’s gone, she closes the door.
She says, “It’s set. I’m going with you.”
 
; I grab a bottle off the shelf. Finally, something I can use.
“Are you sure? I won’t have the last thing I do in the world be fucking things up between you and Alessa.”
“It’s okay,” she says. “But I made her understand. If you die and I could have helped but didn’t because she might be mad, that’s guaranteed to fuck things up for us.”
“Spreading hope and sunshine wherever I go.”
“What?”
“It’s just something Kasabian said.”
“Don’t listen to him,” she says. “He’s a scaredy-cat who doesn’t like the furniture getting moved around.”
“That’s the thing. I don’t want to move your furniture around.”
“And you’re not. This is something I want to do. We’ll get through this and when you’re well again, we’ll figure out the other stuff.”
I gesture to the door with the bottle.
“Kasabian said I could take some movies with me.”
Candy smiles