Immortal (Fallen Angels #6)(61)
Author: J.R. Ward

“True ’nuff.”

“How’d Jim get her out of Hell?”

“Long story, but it got ugly. If we lose this? It’s because of Sissy—and not because she does anything wrong. Jim’s different around her, and not in a way that necessarily helps us.”

Eddie continued until his chest was free. “You got a knife?”

“Here.” Ad moved to one side and sucked in hard, like the shift of weight hurt. Then he handed over a crystal dagger. “Compliments of the chef.”

The weapon was so sharp, Eddie had to be careful or risk cutting his skin, but the good news was that the wrappings just fell off. He left some of the shit around his hips. They already had one flasher in the house; two would be overkill.

“I knew,” he said as he offered the dagger back to his buddy.

“Knew what?”

“That you slept up here with me. I could hear you. I really appreciated it—it was the only thing that kept me from losing my mind.”

Ad accepted the weapon and cleared his throat. “Yeah, well. Where else would I be?”

Downstairs in the kitchen, Jim watched while Sissy put on some coffee and got out a box of Duncan Hines chocolate cake mix.

“Don’t judge,” she said as she put the thing on the counter and started grabbing eggs and oil from the fridge and cupboards. “I cook when I’m uptight.”

“I got no problem with it.” Shoving the long sleeves of his sweatshirt up, he lit a cigarette and blew out a column of smoke. “Can I just say this? The best thing about being immortal is that I don’t have cancer-stick guilt anymore—”

“Can I get pregnant?”

The second her words sank in, Jim embarked on a happy cruise through pulmonary arrest, the coughing fit taking over his entire body. When he finally recovered enough to draw oxygen into his immortal lungs, he …

Really didn’t know what the fuck to say.

“You finished?” she asked. “Because I think your liver is over here on the floor.”

She turned back around, cracked three eggs into the white-and-blue bowl she was using, and then got to filling a measuring cup full of oil.

“Well?” she said as she poured that in and then headed for the sink for some water. “Can I?”

“I have no idea. I wasn’t thinking like that—it just never dawned on me.”

“Yeah. I wasn’t thinking about it either. But is that why you looked so weird on the way home?”

No, he thought. Although now I have an all-new and exciting reason to freak out.

“We don’t have to—you know, have sex again,” he said. And then took a long drag.

She glanced over her shoulder. “No. Not going to bed with you would be criminal.”

Making a fist, he coughed into his hand. “Ah, maybe I’ll get some condoms, though.”

“Is there anyone who could tell us…”

“Tell you what?”

Jim shifted in his chair as Eddie came to a halt in the doorway from the front hall. Dayum, he’d forgotten how big the guy was, how red his eyes were, how long that braid down his back was.

And all he could think of was … it was so worth it. Going over there, bringing Nigel back—even with the risks, it was so worth it just to see the favor he’d asked of the archangel up and walking around.

Abruptly, Ad stepped around his buddy and limped over to the table, the expression on his face a tangled, tortured mess.

In the next moment, Jim was in Adrian’s arms, the other angel having lifted him out of his chair in a bear hug that was so strong, Jim had to wonder if he was going to end up with a spinal condition afterward.

But he got it. He understood exactly the words that were being said through the contact. “You’re welcome,” Jim said roughly. “And you’da done the same for me.”

Ad stayed there for the longest time, because he was a guy who couldn’t express feelings well, especially not ones this big. And then he stepped back, wiped his face on the bottom of his shirt, and cleared his throat.

“Okay,” the angel said. Like that was a declaration of Ctrl-Alt-Delete, and he was prepared to reboot and refocus.

As Jim sat back down, he wished he could have given the guy a couple of days off just to recalibrate—after all, you didn’t go from your best friend being dead to suddenly standing next to the guy again, without a serious case of the head-fucks. But they couldn’t spare that kind of luxury.

“What did you want to know?” Eddie asked Sissy as he went over and opened the fridge.

“Whether or not I can get pregnant?”

Boom! Jim thought. And like an explosion had actually gone off in the kitchen, the other two guys froze; then looked around as if they were doing a damage assessment.

The sad thing? Believe it or not, that issue was not the most pressing one they had.

Chapter Thirty-two

Devina paced up and down the aisles in her basement, her high heels sounding out and echoing around. Her minions had mostly cleaned up the mess—there was some fine-tuning to be done with the placement of her collection, but for the most part, shit was back where it should be.

She needed the order now more than ever.

How had Sissy known? she thought. What the fuck had tipped that girl off?

Fucking hell, it wasn’t like Devina had been doing an imitation of Jim like she was some Vegas entertainer pulling an almost-there stage act. When she assumed someone’s identity, she was not the halfway Jack Nicholson or Al Pacino, the three-quarters of a George W. Bush or Elvis.

Thanks to that Mercedes emblem, she’d had Jim’s DNA to play with—and she had literally pulled him out of her ass, molecule by molecule.

And yet that dumb-ass virgin had somehow figured it out.

Make that just plain dumb-ass, the virgin part having been done away with, fuck you very much, Jim.

Oh, man, she could just fucking imagine Nigel and his three fruits up there in Heaven, all totes relieved that they had another flag.

How the hell had she lost this round?

She should never have made that deal with Jim. If she hadn’t released Sissy from her Well of Souls? Then one of the alternates would have been on deck and maybe she could have gotten through to them instead of failing with that girl.

Putting her hands on her hips, she pivoted in a little circle and looked all the way down toward her bed. She still had fantasies of Jim in it with her. Was still committed to winning. But, for fuck’s sake … this just sucked.

And the worst part? The only person she wanted to share her fears and doubts with was Jim—but he was not only with that little dumb-ass … he would probably just use the information against her.