Immortal (Fallen Angels #6)(87)
Author: J.R. Ward

Sissy had to duck her head into Jim’s pec as Ad’s hips rolled up and back and then he broke away and ran around again.

“Unbelievable,” Jim said with a laugh. “We win the war, and all he cares about is the fact that he gets his love life back.”

Sissy tilted in her man’s arms and looked over his head. “Your halo’s gone.”

“Really?” He patted at the airspace above his skull. “Guess this really is over.”

“You did it.”

“No, we did it. I was going to kill her, I really was … but all I could see was you. All I could hear was your voice. Without that? God only knows what would have happened.”

Eddie came over and smiled. Then offered his palm to Jim. “Well done. I’m proud of you.”

Jim grunted and got to his feet, taking her with him. And then he accepted what was offered. “I couldn’t have done it alone.”

“You got that right,” Ad said as he cha-cha’d over, one hand on his flat belly, the other held up at a right angle. “But I gotta say … it ain’t been no pleasure.”

Ad didn’t offer a palm. Instead, he grabbed Jim and hugged him hard. “But I wouldn’t have wanted to do this with anyone else.”

Sissy’s eyes got watery as Jim clapped his friend on the back. “That’s a two-way street, buddy.”

As they separated, Ad cleared his throat like he was flushing the emotion out of himself. Then he pointed both his thumbs to his chest and said, “Who’s got two thumbs and is about to be laid? This guy.”

Eddie rolled his eyes. “You know, we don’t have to—”

Ad’s stare got shrewd. “I can find you a redhead. You knooooow how much you like a good ginger.”

Eddie’s brows went up into his forehead and he gave the waistband of his jeans a tug. “I, ah…”

“Don’t tell me you wouldn’t want some if you could get it.”

There was some shuffling. A little throat clearing. And then Eddie’s libido apparently made up his mind. Glancing over at Jim, the angel said, “Well, here are the car keys. You guys okay to go home?”

“I think I can handle it,” Jim said dryly.

“Good. That’s good.”

There was a long moment between the three men, as if there were too much to say even if they had all night to talk.

“Go,” Jim whispered roughly. “Enjoy yourselves. You deserve it.”

“Don’t leave without saying good-bye,” Ad said.

“You have my word.”

And then the angels were gone, disappearing into thin air.

Jim put his arm around her waist, and the two of them fell into a stroll across the emptiness, their footfalls echoing all around. “You hungry?”

She had to laugh. “I don’t know. I can’t … everything is almost too much.”

“I have an idea.”

“And what might that be?” She craned her neck to look up at his face. “Something along the lines of what Adrian is so excited about?”

“Well, yeah.” Her man blushed. “But, ah, something else first.”

“Pizza.”

“No. I was thinking … how ’bout you get on the back of my bike and we, ah, go riding?”

Sissy leaned into his strength and laughed. “That’s a line from a Prince song, you know that?”

“Is it?”

“Yes. And my answer … is yes.”

Over by the elevators, he pushed the up button, and she had to frown.

“What is it?” he asked.

“There was someone like me here, wasn’t there. Someone sacrificed to protect her mirror.”

“Yes, there was.”

“I didn’t see them.”

“I took care of the remains as I came in. And I’m going to make sure that he’s taken care of.”

Part of her felt like she should help that process. The other half … she wasn’t sure she could handle seeing what she herself had looked like.

But she wasn’t a wimp. Damn it, she needed to help whoever it—

“Sissy.” Jim took her hands and put them on his chest. “Let me deal with him, all right. You don’t need to see that. Besides, I have to believe he’s free now.”

“Can you find that out for sure?”

“Yes, I promise. But we won the war so I’d imagine that anyone righteous goes to Heaven. It’s the only thing that’s fair.”

“Just … find out for sure.”

“I give you my word.”

Sissy exhaled as the doors opened and the two of them stepped in together. There was a mirror mounted on the wall, encased in a stainless-steel frame. Leaning into the glass, she saw … no halo.

It truly was over.

“Will you stay with me?” she heard herself ask roughly. “Will you … I mean, I can’t go to Heaven, right, and I don’t want to be here alone.”

As they began to rise, Jim turned her in his arms and stared down at her, brushing her hair back from her face.

“I love you,” he said. “So where else would I be than with you for eternity?”

Putting her arms around his neck, she smiled and teared up at the same time. “That … sounds like Heaven to me.”

Chapter Fifty

It was the fall that lasted forever.

At first, Devina thought she was stuck in a suck zone, but as the walls of her Well of Souls appeared on all sides of her, she realized she was actually descending into Hell on a dead drop.

This was going to hurt.

And she was right.

The impact was soul-shattering, the kind of thing that made her lose breath, sight, heartbeat … as well as the illusion of beauty that required her conscious support. But she didn’t die. Even as all the pain receptors she had screamed in agony and her rotted flesh contorted and twisted against the onslaught, she was still “alive.”

So when the flickering began high above her, she was able to witness it.

At first, she assumed that it was stars dancing in front of her eyes from a head injury, but then she realized … no.

It was a kind of shimmering snow.

Except … no.

It was her collection. Filtering down through the stagnant air of the well, all the pieces of metal she’d collected over the millennia drifted in a descent, as if they sought to stay with her even though she was in some kind of eternal prison now.

Sitting up, she held out her arms, ready to catch the beautiful shower as it rained—