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fumed at Azoked. I’d been nervous about this party every time I thought about it. I’d gotten the icy cramps in my stomach and the vague nausea that came from a combination of fury and nasty anticipation.
    “He’s definitely not here,” Vincent said, his eyes roving the room like a Secret Service agent. “I’ve done two sweeps and have put a quiet word out with some friends. He’s not on the guest list, in fact, and it seems that we’re the only ones who know him at all. Do you feel better?”
    “Yeah,” I said, although that was only half the truth. Yes, I felt half relieved to know that I wouldn’t have to see him, think about him, be hurt by him. And I felt half miserable because I had wanted to see him. If he had come to a demon party that would have meant he was learning to cope.
    “But Lily, it’s good he’s not here, right? He was awful to you,” Sybil reminded me.
    “Yeah,” I agreed, lying. He hadn’t been awful to me. He’d been wonderful, genuine, interesting, smart, romantic. He just had a problem with me being an immortal demon succubus, and I could see how that would bother a normal guy.
    “You don’t sound convinced,” Sybil said.
    I bolted for the ladies’ room before I embarrassed myself.
    The ladies’ room at the Waldorf is the nice kind, with a sofa and a basket of real cloth hand towels and lots of tiny toiletries in case a guest needed some hand cream or a toothbrush or a tampon.
    I sat on the cushy upholstered sofa and tried to breathe deeply and relax. Gentle arms held me and patted me. I hadn’t heard Desi and Sybil follow me in. “Oh, Lily,” Desi said, and I looked up and found myself between two of my best friends.
    “I got your dress wet,” I said, looking at a dark splotch on Desi’s shoulder.
    “It’s okay,” she assured me. Then a knock came at the door. Sybil left and returned with a huge mojito.
    “I thought you could use this,” Sybil said. “Vincent got it for you.”
    I took the glass gratefully and drank it down, the cool sweet liquid calming my throat if not my heart.
    “Where’s Eros?” I asked.
    “I think she’s trying to get hold of Satan,” Desi said. “She was worried about you. I think she wants Satan to damn Nathan or something revengeful like that. Or Eros would do it herself. She’s furious at him.”
    And Eros is a demigoddess. She had never been human, and she was far more powerful than the rest of us put together. When she chose to be, which wasn’t often. Eros may be the most strikingly radical-looking of the four of us, and the coldest emotionally to nondemonkind, but she’s also a loyal friend. And very traditional. Which means that she is perfectly capable of hunting down Nathan and torturing him to death and then damning him forever for hurting me.
    I have the best friends.
    “I don’t want Satan to find me here in the ladies’,” I gasped. “Do I look like a raccoon?”
    Vincent knocked again. Another mojito appeared and the empty glass was whisked away.
    I drank. I didn’t know what special magic Vincent had used, but the drinks were extra strong. I got a bit giggly. Nathan seemed somewhat less important.
    This was a party, a party for demons and I was beautiful and single and I could turn the head of every male in the place. Why should I be sitting in the ladies’ with mascara running down my face?
    I washed up. Sybil and Desi were digging through the makeup in their bags so that I could repair mine. “No, that blush absolutely will not look good on her,” I heard my friends say as they examined their combined collection.
    “I can’t find Satan, but I will still make sure that this mortal pays for his transgressions.” Eros had arrived and was angry enough to pass for a vengeance demon. Her lips were drawn tight and her hands balled into fists, and her voice sounded like a snake hissing before a strike.
    “ ’S okay,” I told her. “I’m drunk. Do you have any black mascara?”
    Desi is the only one whose