Immortal (Page 45)
Immortal (Fallen Angels #6)(45)
Author: J.R. Ward
“Did he tell you what he did to the men who killed his mother?”
Sissy glanced over again, and found herself staring at the demon’s perfect profile as dread nailed her in the chest.
“No. He didn’t tell me about her.” Matter of fact, she hadn’t heard him say one thing about his past. Then again, it wasn’t like they’d been on any traditional dates—or had a break in the drama that had lasted long enough for some quiet, reflective conversation.
“He slaughtered them. Hacked them up into little pieces—while they were alive. And don’t take my word for it. Do a search under his name.”
“Listen, this is none of my business—”
“Look him up.” The demon gave her a hard smile. “Iowa. Type his name into Google and it’ll all come up. The killings were so violent they made the national news, but he wasn’t prosecuted. He supposedly didn’t live that long—except that was a lie. The body found in that car crash wasn’t really his. The U.S. government covered it all up so they could have him and use him like the weapon he is.”
“I’m sorry, what the hell are you saying?”
“Jim Heron, the hero who ‘saved’ you from me”—the demon had to take both hands off the steering wheel to do the air quotes—“made his living killing people for the country. You think I’m a sick bitch? Ask him how he got paid for over two decades. It wasn’t gathering intel. It was putting bullets in people’s heads. That tattoo on his back? He has it because he’s proud of his work.”
The demon hit the brakes at a stop sign and looked over, her black eyes glittering. “The man who took your virginity is no angel. He’s a murderer without a conscience. Which is precisely why he and I get along so well.”
Sissy opened her mouth to say something. To deny it. To …
Except instead of speaking, she just resumed staring out the window.
A little later, the Mercedes came to a halt in front of the old mansion, and all Sissy could do was look up at the window that was across the hall from her bedroom.
Picturing how they’d spent the night, she wanted to vomit.
“That’s right,” the demon said in a voice that warped. “Know that I speak the truth. And don’t be a fucking pussy. Do something about it.”
“Like what,” she whispered.
“Fight fire with fire.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Your anger is the most powerful weapon against him. Use it. Teach him a lesson. Show him that what he’s done to you and to me is a sin for which he must atone.”
“Isn’t that stuff supposed to be left to God.”
“Yes, and God provides us our destinies. Yours is to fight back.”
“I can’t trust you.”
“But you can trust yourself. You’ll know what to do. When the time is right, you’ll know exactly what to do. Now get the fuck out of my car.”
The demon didn’t have to ask twice. Sissy popped the handle on the door and slid free of the seat.
The Mercedes took off before she’d shut things, leaving her alone with nothing but all those images of Jim doing things to that other woman’s body.
That fucking bastard.
Chapter Twenty-two
Jim took Angel Airlines to his destination, leaving Ad to drive the Explorer—but whether in flight or on the ground, where he went wasn’t that far from Home Depot.
Sissy’s parents’ house fit in with the tidy neighborhood, the two-story set back on its lot, that pastel Easter flag still by the front door even though the holiday had long passed. No Subaru parked in the driveway, no lights on, but it was a sunny morning.
He walked right in.
And as soon as he was through the front door, he stopped and listened. No sounds of anyone moving, nobody talking on a phone, no TV on. He strode quickly around the first floor, then jogged up to the second. He popped his head into her old room. In her sister’s. In her parents’. Went to a window and looked out at the shallow backyard.
Goddamn it.
On his way back to the stairs he stopped at her room again, checking to see if anything was gone or had changed. Having a photographic memory was a bonus.
Nothing was out of place that he could tell.
Downstairs, he stalled in the foyer, putting his hands on his hips and staring at the floor as his brain chewed over the alternatives.
A second later, he took out his phone and called Ad. When the guy answered, Jim muttered, “Not here. I’m rerouting to the cemetery.”
Hanging up, he put his palm forward and closed his eyes, envisioning the perimeter of the house marked by a notification spell—so that if she did end up here, he’d know it.
What he really should have done was put some kind of a tracer on her. Too bad Eddie wasn’t around. That guy would have been able to tell him how to do it.
When he popped open his lids, a subtle blue glow shimmered on the walls, floors, and windows, like the place had been spray-painted. It was all he could do.
Just as he turned to leave, he caught sight of that armchair in the living room, the one he’d found Sissy’s mother in, back before Sissy’s body had been discovered in the quarry, back when there had still been some kind of hope for this family that the daughter they were all desperate to have back might still come home.
Before he ducked out, he leaned in and glanced over at the bookcase full of family photos. With a quick jab into his pocket, he snagged his phone and went over, putting the thing up and focusing the lens on his favorite picture of Sissy.
Click.
Then he was off, his wings carrying him over the residential neighborhood and toward the area of town where the Pine Grove Cemetery took up acres and acres of land. He remembered exactly where Sissy’s grave was and soared above the treetops and the grave markers, cutting across the Chutes and Ladders lane system that the cars had to stick to.
She wasn’t there, either.
Landing next to her granite gravestone, his heart tightened up at the sight of the plastic-wrapped bouquets and green potted flowers that had been placed around where her earthly remains had been buried.
Where the hell was she?
Then again, maybe that was the answer. Looking down at his feet, he pictured Devina’s Well of Souls and his empty stomach rolled.
He quickly texted an update to Adrian … and sent out a beacon to the enemy. If that fucking demon had screwed with his woman?
The last thing Devina was going to have to worry about was whether or not she won the war.