"Zane-"

He lifted a hand. "No. Hear me. I have lived thousands of lifetimes, Lily, and I am tired. So tired, and I crave death. I crave the end of this life and the beginning of a new, in whatever form it may come. And yet I cannot have that which I desire. I cannot, because of my own foolish ambition. And so I have trapped myself in a nightmare of my own making."

"But what does that have to do with why you're here in the basement?"

"I made a deal. Long ago, I made a deal to train warriors. And in exchange, when the time is right, I will be granted freedom. I will be granted death." He met my eyes. "And all I have to do is stay and teach and train."

"Stay?" I repeated. "You mean you can't leave? You're not allowed to go upstairs?"

"I can," he said. "And if I do, the bargain is over." He stood, waiting for me to say something, but I didn't know what to say. "Do you know what the real hell of it is, Lily?"

I shook my head.

"I have, time and again, been tempted to ride that elevator to the street."

"But then you'd break the bargain and you'd stay immortal."

He exhaled loudly. "After so long, I fear death as much as I crave it. It is," he said with a smile, "a hideous conundrum."

I thought of him trapped down here in the basement, and realized that Zane was living my nightmare, albeit in a bigger box.

"How much longer do you have to train?"

"That depends on you, Lily. The fate of the world will be determined soon, and with it, my fate as well. The convergence," he said, a hint of dread flashing in his eyes, "it comes closer every day whether we want it to or not."

"Zane. I'm-"

"No. You of all people should not pity me. We are bound now, Lily. We share the same fate."

I frowned, disturbed.

"But enough about theology and eternity. You came tonight because you feared I acted against you. But trust me, ma fleur, I wish you no harm." His gaze grazed my face as I avoided looking into his eyes, afraid of what I might see there if I let Alice's sight take over. Afraid also to let him know I had the sight at all. "No, cherie. I would never wish you harm."

His lips closed roughly over mine, taking without asking and leaving me breathless and needy.

Needy, yes, but unwilling. Gently, I pushed him away, ignoring the desperate ache inside me begging to be sated. "No."

His eyes examined me, and I looked away, afraid my will would fail. He'd turned me on, yes. He'd fired my senses. But at the end of the day, there was another man who filled my thoughts. A dangerous man whom I wanted in my bed, despite my better judgment.

He stepped back, increasing the distance between us. "You break my heart, cherie."

"Some other time, perhaps," I said. "If things are different."

"Is that a promise, cherie?"

I thought of the way I'd promised to always be there to protect Rose, and I had to shake my head. "I don't do promises anymore," I said, then turned away. Finally, it was time to go home.

THIRTY-ONE.

I wasn't the least bit surprised to find Clarence sitting on his little stool outside my door when I arrived back a few minutes before one in the morning. What did surprise me was the present he shoved into my hand, a small box wrapped in purple paper. I took it, confused.

"Ain't no big thing," he said.

I frowned, but peeled the paper off, then tugged the lid off the box. A cell phone was inside, nestled in crumpled-up tissue paper. The phone itself was pink. With sparkles. I looked up at Clarence. "This would have come in handy earlier. Or not. Considering I couldn't move my freaking muscles."

"Company plan," he said. "Unlimited in-network calls, unlimited text messaging, unlimited e-mails. Gotta love technology."

I almost managed a smile as I shoved my key in the lock and let us inside. "Nice thought. Appreciate it. Not sure how I could have used it today-probably would have lost it in the battle-but here's the thing: I failed."

I glanced at him, expecting a pep talk. Instead, I got nothing.

"Right," I said, suddenly uncomfortable. "Anyway."

"Don't worry," he said, patting the pocket with the knife. "I ain't here for this."

"Glad to hear it."

"But don't expect platitudes, either, pet. Your failure may not have lost the war, but there's only one battle left. The big one. And everything's riding on you."

"Not that there's pressure," I muttered.

"Hey," he said, suddenly effusive. "You can do it, right? Wouldn't be here if you couldn't. You just gotta be confident."

"I am," I said automatically. Then I thought about it, and realized that I'd spoken the truth. Despite my failure with the Caller, I'd survived. More than that, I'd learned.

And I wasn't going to let evil win. I thought of Rose, and my resolve solidified even more. This time, I wasn't going to lose.

Already in the kitchen, Clarence tugged open the refrigerator, then snorted with disgust. "So how's the arm? Anything new popped?"

I shook my head, realizing that my arm would spark to life again when the Box was brought back into this dimension by a new Caller. I cringed, already anticipating the pain. Gee, it was fun being a map. Not.

"I just got home," I said. "You don't really think it'll pop again so fast, do you?"

"Time's running out before the convergence," he said. "They're gonna act fast. Probably already have another Caller on the job."

He opened the pantry and shoved things aside, peering at all the shelves. "So?"

"Huh?" It was the best I could manage.

"Keep up, Lily. Now we're moving on to the official debriefing. The poison. The guy who shot you. You wanna give me the lowdown or not?"

"I-yeah. Sure." I frowned. "Didn't Zane already tell you?"

"The basics. Now you tell me."

I did. Running him through the entire mission. "So how did they know I was there?"

"That's the question, ain't it? And we may not ever learn the answer. Coulda been a guard. Coulda been someone lying in wait to take you out. Someone who doesn't want you around."

"Who?"

"Dunno," he said, but I had a feeling he had a suspect in mind. "And we don't need to know. Right now, we just need to do the job. Time's running out. Gotta focus. Next time they won't Call the Box until the last minute. Right before the ceremony, maybe even during it. Whole thing'll be one hell of a lot harder."

"Great."

He slammed the refrigerator door shut in disgust, then started rummaging through the cabinets, finally coming away with a battered box of Hostess Twinkies. I snagged one, then ripped it open and took a bite of the preservative-heavy confection. "Why would anyone eat this?" I asked.

"If it ain't your taste, you don't have to," Clarence said, looking a bit bemused. "You only got her body, not her personality. Not her taste in food. And you don't even really got her life."

"Yeah," I said. "That's been eating at me."

"Come again?"

I rubbed my temples. "I still want to know about Alice. I need to know."

He blinked amphibian eyes. "Alice? Why?"

"What do you mean, why? Because I'm living inside her, and I don't know enough about her. She's the vessel, right? The vessel I'm stuck inside?"

"Come on, kid. We got bigger things to worry about."

"I can worry about both. Whoever killed Alice is a risk to me. To this body. They try to take Alice out again, they could fuck up the mission."

He stared me down, clearly not believing that my motive was purely mission-oriented.

"Or maybe I just need to know."

"Drop it, pet. Trust me. On that path lies madness."

I lifted my brows, and he shrugged.

"Maybe not madness, but frustration. What does it matter what the girl was like?"

"I'm trying to fake a life, here. Do you really want me wasting time trying to figure this out on my own? Time I could spend training or whacking demons?"

"Whacking?"

"Dammit, Clarence! Just tell me."

"Okay, okay." He moved the sofa and settled in. "Alice 101, here we go. Dad died of cancer. Mom fell down some stairs about five years ago. She was Egan's sister, by the way. Left her share of the bar to Alice and Rachel."

"Yeah?"

"Yup. You're a proud owner of one-quarter of the place. Apparently you come into it when you're thirty. Until then, Egan runs the bar, and your cut goes into trust." He shrugged. "Ain't no story there, pet. Not one worth telling anyway."

"It's a start," I said. "But I want more than just the surface stuff. Like what do you know about the Bloody Tongue? About how it fits in?"

He turned curious eyes on me. "Fits in to what?"

"Rachel's annoyed with me. With Alice. Said I shouldn't have gone back to the bar. That I shouldn't have gotten in with all that dark stuff again."

"Dark stuff?"

"The pub, I presume. It's got a rep. All the way back to witch trial days. And before, probably."

"Yeah, it's got a rep, all right," he said. "I don't know much more than what you get on that Haunted Boston tour, but I do know that Alice's parents dabbled in the dark arts. Her mother, primarily."

"Egan mentioned not getting along with his sister."

"There you go."

"Where?"

"Rachel musta thought Alice was gonna follow in Mom's footsteps. And if Alice was hanging with Deacon Camphire, that was a damn good bet."

"Deacon?" I was so surprised, I forgot to sing in my head, a little faux pas I immediately rectified.

"You said he was there your first night, right? Maybe he was trying to make Alice embrace her mother's beliefs. Persuade her to follow in Mommy's footsteps with him. Explore that dark world."

I shook my head, emphatic. "No, I don't think so."

"Why not?"

"I don't know," I said, looking away, afraid he'd read the truth in my eyes even before he plucked it from my head. "I-"

"And when she refused, that's when he did it."

My head snapped up. "Did what?"

"Killed her, of course."

All the blood drained from my body, and I stood there, frozen and desperate. "What?" I asked, barely managing to force the word out.

"My sources tell me that Deacon Camphire killed Alice. I told you, Lily. He's a bad one."

THIRTY-TWO.