Immortal (Fallen Angels #6)(6)
Author: J.R. Ward

From out of nowhere, another image of Jim popped up, this time from when she’d knocked on his door the morning before and he’d scrambled to open it. His hair had been a mess and he’d been half-dressed, nothing but loose sweats hanging off the curves of those pelvic bones. He’d looked at her … in a way he hadn’t before.

If she didn’t know better, she’d swear it was the way a man looked at a woman when he—

“Okay, you need to stop,” she said out loud.

God, she really couldn’t believe he had a girlfriend in the middle of all this. Or that she cared one way or the other.

What she needed to get focused on was freeing the others who were like her, those who didn’t belong down below, the poor fools who had been sacrificed and claimed because of their virtue.

On this fine spring morning, she needed to put the crazy anger aside, go back to that house, and sit down with that ancient book Adrian had given her. She had to find a way, a loophole, some wiggle room where she could right the wrong that had ruined her own life as best she could for the others like her …

It was hard to say how long she had been standing there when she realized she wasn’t alone: Just as the iron fencing had gradually gotten through to her, so too did the presence that was in the shadows under the cedar trees over on the left.

A woman. With long brunette hair and tight black clothes. And she was looking right at Sissy as if waiting to get noticed.

Talk about out of place. She was like some model at a fashion shoot, and as she started to come over, she somehow managed to walk across the grass without her stillies sinking into the earth and tripping her up. In fact, it was as if she were floating…?

Sissy’s instincts started to roar, her mind making connections and conclusions that were horrific—this was no stranger, and the female, or whatever she actually was, was definitely not out of place in a cemetery.

Run! an inner voice screamed. Run—get out of here now!

Except no. She wasn’t turning away; she wasn’t giving in. She was standing her ground over the symbol of why she needed to fight.

“So you know who I am,” the demon said as she got within earshot.

“You look different. But yes.”

The demon stopped on the other side of the grave marker, her black eyes glinting. “You look just the same.”

The dry tone indicated that that was not a compliment. Then again, you didn’t get to be the biggest source of evil in the world because you were a stand-up gal.

“Annnnnd?” Sissy kicked up her chin. “You have something to say to me?”

“Don’t kick a hornet’s nest, little girl.”

“What are you going to do? Kill me? Been there, done that.”

The demon leaned forward, her shadow darkening the top of the smooth granite marker. “As if that’s the only thing I can do to you.”

Sissy shrugged. “Threats don’t scare me. You don’t scare me.”

And this was true even though she was alone in the cemetery with the specter of all evil: Her inner anger was a kind of power in and of its own.

The demon settled back on her high heels and crossed her arms. Then she smiled—which was somehow more dangerous. “Do you want to know how I spent last night?”

“No.”

“I don’t blame you.” The demon flexed her hands, her long, red painted nails flashing in the sunlight. “I think it would upset you.”

That image of Jim’s scratched chest barged into the front of Sissy’s mind like it had been planted there deliberately.

Oh … God. No—

“Jim’s a fantastic lover.” The demon reached up and rubbed the back of her neck, arching as if stiff. “Very aggressive. I don’t think he’d be for you, honestly. Not that you have anything to compare it to, of course. It’s just, you really need to have a certain … stamina … to keep up with a man like him.”

Sissy could feel the blood leaving her head, the world tilting on its axis, the sky spinning around her. “I don’t believe you.”

“No? Ask him. And go into it knowing that he’s in love with me.”

“Bullshit. He’s fighting against you.”

“You want to know how he got his job? I picked him. Me and that simp archangel Nigel put our heads together and made the choice—and the reason Jim was right by my standards? He’s got plenty of me in him, Sissy. He’s got evil inside, deep under that surface of his. And that’s going to win out over the stuff you’re no doubt fantasizing about. At the end of this, however and whenever it finishes, he’s going to be with me.”

In a flash, Sissy’s fury boiled up hard and fast once more, taking over her body, her heart, her soul. And the sight of that sly smile made her positively violent.

The demon’s voice got lower, so low it seemed to warp. “That’s right, Sissy. You got it right, everything you’re thinking, the hatred that you feel. Go with it. Be with it … Jim was calling my name all night long, Devina, Deeeevina … and that pisses you off. I can give him things you can’t, and that eats you alive. Go with the anger, little girl … don’t be a pussy like you were in life. In death”—the demon leaned forward again—“be strong.”

At that point, Sissy’s hearing conked out, and yet even though her ears stopped working, somehow she was still able to hear what the demon was saying as images of bloodshed flickered through her mind—

For a third time, something intruded upon her consciousness. A rhythmic sound, repeating over and over, getting louder.

The demon’s head snapped around. “Oh, for fuck’s sake.”

Sissy glanced over and did a double take. It was Jim’s dog, and the scruffy, limping mutt was coming across the grass at a clip, ears pricked, short snout angled up like he was giving a lecture.

The demon took a step back. “Listen to me, girl. Jim is not for you.” That smile came back. “I can feel your anger from over here, and it’s a beautiful thing. Better than a man you can’t have, that’s for sure. Breathe in and embrace it—let it take you. Be strong. Let it take you, girl … be strong and fight back.”

Just like that the demon was gone, no poof of smoke lingering where she’d been, no spark of light extinguishing or anything—there was simply air left in her wake, as if she had never been.

But that wasn’t true, was it. Deep in the recesses of Sissy’s brain, those words were repeating, the demon’s voice like a seed planted in earth that was fertile. Let it take you, girl … be strong.