Succubus in the City (41 page)

She cut a bagel open for me, slathered it with butter, and set it in front of me. “Eat,” she commanded, sounding far more like a Jewish mother than a Delphic Oracle. “You look like Hell.”

“I feel worse.”

She shook her head and sighed, then cut a sesame bagel for herself. “We told you not to tell him, Lily. We told you, you knew. Why did you do it?”

I couldn’t explain. The place, the music, my own memories, all of them had overwhelmed me. I tried to tell Sybil but the words all sounded trite and silly.

“You wasted your boon on
that
?” She was clearly horrified when I explained how I’d asked Satan to prove my sanity. “He’s right, you’re crazy.”

Then she sat down next to me and rubbed my back. “The others are coming soon,” she said. “I called them before I left, but I wanted to come up alone for a bit. Because you helped me with Vincent and he was really worried about you last night. And because I have this feeling. It’s not a true oracle, you understand, but I’ve been around these things long enough that I sometimes have a sense of the future. Maybe it’s like the Akashic in a strange way.”

I blinked at her and shook my head. “What do you mean?” I asked, not daring to hope.

“I don’t know if I should tell you this,” she said softly. “Hope is a dangerous thing. It can be cruel, it can be worse than despair. But…I have this feeling that you will see Nathan Coleman again. And your magician from Aruba, I think he will return as well. I can’t promise but I’d still bet money on it.”

This was Sybil speaking. If she would bet money then I would listen. I generally do, and my finances have always benefited. And Nathan was definitely a high-risk investment.

“Nathan is shocked and he can’t handle it and you knew that would happen,” she continued. “But I have a strong premonition that he also can’t stay away. He loves you, I think, Lily. That may not be a good thing, you know. But I sense that he will be back. And I’m sure Marten will.”

I blinked and swallowed hard, and took another bite of my bagel. It tasted good. The latte was hot and calming. And Sybil, my friend who sees the future, not only from Apollo but the stock market as well, said that there was still some hope. Nathan would be back.

Maybe.

I can hope. I can be patient. I have lived for three thousand years. Nathan Coleman can’t outlast me. And I have Sybil’s sense that he would return. I’d take those odds any day.

Epilogue

My girlfriends are wonderful. No matter how hard or harsh our lives, no matter how scared and broken I am, my best friends are always there for me.

All three of them showed up bearing food. I was reminded of the Three Kings, only this was the Three Demons who came bearing bagels and chocolate and ice cream. They fed me and Eros gave me a handful of tiny yellow pills (“Just a few, use them only when you can’t deal at all because they can be addictive,” she warned me).

Sybil stayed and called my office the next morning. Desi called her travel agent and got me a first-class ticket on the next Lufthansa flight, connecting in Frankfurt to Venice. They packed my bags and Vincent drove me to the airport and the girls were all there and saw me to the security gate.

Even in first class, with the wonderful wide seats that fold back into flat beds, with the eye masks and the airline pajamas, I couldn’t sleep. So I drank myself across the Atlantic, away from Nathan, away from New York and my life.

Only for two weeks—that was the longest I could get away. But my features were all on track and I’d planned the photo shoots through the end of August, and Danielle said she’d cover if some fashion editor really could not manage appropriate jewelry or handbags.

Even Satan gave me the two weeks. No deliveries needed, though if I really wanted to take out my hurt and rage She would be happy to give me the excuse. And She gave me a ruby and diamond ring just so that I could wear it and remember that She was always there for me.

Men may hurt and tear us apart, but girlfriends are forever.

Succubus in the City
is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

A Del Rey Books Mass Market Original

Copyright © 2008 by Nina Harper

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by Del Rey Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

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eISBN: 978-0-345-50468-5

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