Immortal (Fallen Angels #6)(86)
Author: J.R. Ward

“Do it,” Devina growled. “Just fucking get this over with, will you! You fucking pussy!”

Jim recommitted to the program, rearing his shoulder back—

I want you safe more than I care about Devina getting what she deserves!

Gritting his teeth, Jim fought against Sissy’s voice in his head, trying to get around it and do what was right, what was proper—

“Stab me, you sonofabitch!”

Jim snapped. With every ounce of strength he had, he …

… spun Devina around once, twice … three times, and slung her away from him, sending her careening across the concrete floors, her high heels catching the light and flashing, the clattering of her footfalls echoing all around.

“You can’t have me!” he screamed at her. “You can’t have them!”

And then shit went slow-mo.

In a series of events that he no doubt was going to remember for the rest of his immortal life, Devina lost her balance and this time couldn’t recover, her body falling backward, arms pinwheeling, brunette hair waving around as she traveled across the concrete floor on the verge of landing on her ass.

Except that wasn’t where she ended up.

From the one dark corner in the basement, like they were thieves smuggling a painting out of a museum, Eddie, Adrian, and Sissy came into view. They were all on a hustle, the three of them racing across the floor with Devina’s mirror hefted up in their communal hold.

It was the hole in one that saved all of humanity.

In spite of the fact that there were acres of floor space for Devina to yard-sale on, whole great stretches of no-big-deal, she tap-danced backward right into the ugly, pitted glass of the mirror, her body shattering the surface, the impact blowing open a suck zone that put that portal the bunch of them had opened up in the parlor in the shade.

He would never forget Devina’s expression as she realized what had happened. The shock and horror were the kind of payback he would have been overjoyed with—except for the fact that the instant she was pulled in, something inside of him lurched … then got its own pull on.

The center of his chest was yanked forward from his spine, and he felt as though his rib cage were going to blow open. And yet the mirror didn’t want him.

Only that part of Devina that was in him.

His torso bowed back so hard, he was sure he was going to snap in half, and he levitated off the ground. Just as he was about to pass out from the pain—

Snap!

Like a rubber band, the foreign substance shot free of him and hit the air, the black cloud of bees exactly what had come out of Sissy’s metaphysical incision. And he wasn’t the only one who lost something.

As he fell to his knees, he was terrified about Sissy or the angels getting sucked in, but the mirror wanted to claim only Devina—and that was why Ad jerked and spasmed, grimacing in pain, his body twitching as he lost his grip and levitated and—

The evil left him as well, the cloud forming in front of his chest and then breaking free to enter the swirling black vacuum.

As Jim struggled to stay conscious, he became aware of a strange sound over and above the howling of the broken mirror—and that was when he realized that the bureaus had begun to move, doing an about-face on a oner.

“Stand behind the mirror,” Jim yelled at them. “Get out of the way!”

Eddie disappeared and then came back into view as he grabbed Ad from where the guy had fallen, and Sissy, too. Then Jim couldn’t see them anymore.

All he could do was pray.

And his prayers were answered.

Everything in the basement got dragged into the void, all the clocks and the knives, the collection of metal pieces, the clothes and shoes and makeup, the bed … every object that Devina had bought or taken went along with her, her essence having tainted everything that was around her. Weakened by the fight, all Jim could do was watch in awe at a sight too monumental to comprehend or explain, like something out of a dream where what you witnessed was possible only because it wasn’t real.

Except this was actually happening.

With each object consumed, black flames licked out of the suck zone like the mirror was enjoying a good meal, wood and fabric and metal disappearing. The last thing to go was the frame of the mirror. And as with all of the things that went before it, the four sides disappeared into the vortex and then there was a sonic boom.

A cosmic burp, as it were.

And that was how, in the last round of the Creator’s war … Jim saved the world.

As Sissy’s ears popped with twin bursts of pain, the enormous boom! that ripped through the basement shocked her stupid for a moment. But then that cleared and she opened her eyes and …

It was empty.

The whole basement was nothing but floor space, the concrete floor bare of even a covering of dust. Except for Jim.

He was a mile away, it seemed, slumped on his knees, one hand planted as if he could barely hold himself up.

“Jim!” She scrambled to her feet. “Jim…”

He held his free arm out to her, and when she got to him, she didn’t know who was holding on harder.

“You saved me,” he said into her hair. “You saved me.”

“No, I—”

“It was you, all you. I saw you and you were talking to me and…” Like there were too many words stuck in his throat, too many things to say, he just kissed her deeply, and—

“Holy shit!”

Both of them jerked back and looked over at Eddie and Adrian. Ad was getting to his feet slowly, both hands out like he expected to have to catch himself from falling over at any moment.

“Holy … motherfucker.”

He began to move his body all around, arms and legs going this way and that—and for a moment, she had no idea what he was doing. Then she realized … he was hitting the Running Man?

“Oh, my God, he’s lost his mind,” she whispered, thinking three exorcisms in as many days was a little bit much. Even by their standards.

“I’m cured! I’m cured!”

With a quick shift, Ad bolted across the floor, did some cartwheels, pulled some kung fu moves, looked like he was going to try a split—only to think better of that one.

“I can see!” He ran over to them, jabbing his own finger toward his now-clear eye. “I can see! It took what I took from Matthias—the injuries went with the Devina shit!”

“Oh, my God,” Jim breathed. “That’s … awesome!”

“I know, right? And you know what thiiiiiiiis meeeeeans! Hellllllllo, ladies.”