title: To Hell and Back (Dante Valentine, Book 5)
author:  Lilith Saintcrow 
description: Lilith Saintcrow was born in New Mexico, bounced around the world as an Air Force brat, and fell in love with writing when she was ten years old. She currently lives in Vancouver, WA. <br />
zlib_text: 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _**Dante Valentine Book 5**_
  
  
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  _**To Hell and Back**_
  
  
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  _**Lilith Saintcrow**_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Copyright © 2008_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _For Nicholas Deangelo. Peace. Another charm's wound up._
  
  
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  _Tempt not a desperate man._
  
  
  -Shakespeare, 
  
  
  _Romeo & Juliet_
  
  
  
  
  
  _I was a-trembling because I'd got to decide forever betwixt two things, and
  I_ _knowed it. I studied for a minute, sort of holding my breath, and then
  says to_ _myself, "All right, then, I'll go to hell."_
  
  
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  -Mark Twain, 
  
  
  _Huckleberry Finn_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ## Prologue
  
  
  _"There is more than one way to break a human," he said, softly. "Especially_
  _a human woman."_
  
  
  _I hung between sky and ground, the constellations of Hell overhead and_
  _sterile rock underneath, the icy inhuman heat of a place far removed from my
  own_ _world lapping at my skin. I had come looking for my own clean death in
  battle,_ _and found this instead. This_ indignity.
  
  
  _The Devil doesn't believe in killing you, if you can be made to