After leaving the warehouse, they had driven out to the quarry because she’d had to see if anything came to her. No luck. But they had spent a long time out there, just sitting side by side, waiting for the sun to go down. The cloud cover had been spotty to the west, and as the rays had broken through, the peaches and pinks in the horizon had nearly been too bright to look at.
She had stared into them until her eyes had run with tears from the burning.
In a lot of ways, that was the end of her journey. There were no more places to go, no other veins of memory to mine, nothing left to investigate.
As Jim checked his watch for the second time, she said, “You’re leaving, aren’t you.”
One of his dark blond brows lifted like he was surprised to have been called out. “I have to go.”
Adrian eased down into a chair with a grunt and nodded at her. “You and I are going to stay here.”
So the pair of them had had a talk while she’d been in the ladies’ room.
“How long will you be gone?” she asked.
“Just going to chat with the boss.” Jim shrugged. “Depends on how it goes.”
“I am tired.” At least, she thought she was. Shouldn’t she be?
There was a long, awkward pause, as if Jim didn’t want to take off to wherever he was going. To fill the time, she glanced back and forth between the two men, realizing only Jim had a halo: No glow around Adrian’s head.
“Take care of her,” Jim said gruffly before he turned and walked off.
Closing her eyes, she listened to his footfalls fade, and wondered if it wasn’t a lie … if instead, he wasn’t walking off into the horizon, just as the sun had.
For some reason, that panicked her.
“Tell me there’s a TV in this place,” she said roughly. “And cable.”
The man, angel, whatever, shook his head. “Sorry. No dice. Jim’s got a laptop, but there’s no hot spot here, no modem.”
Great.
“Can I ask you something,” she blurted, not expecting any kind of—
“Yeah, sure.”
Well, that was a change of pace. Unless he assumed she just wanted to inquire about the weather? “You were injured in a fight, right?”
“Nah, the limp and the cane are an artistic choice.”
Shoot. She didn’t want to offend him. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to—”
He pointed to his chest. “Asshole. You gotta know that about me. When I’m in a good mood, it’s fun for me, when I’m like this, it’s more of a reflex. So yeah, ask whatever you want—just don’t take my answers all that seriously.”
“Well, are you an angel?”
“Most of the time, yeah.”
“So why don’t you have a halo? Is Jim something special and that’s why he can heal himself and you can’t?”
“Halo?” Adrian frowned. “I don’t know about that one, but yup, Jim was chosen by both sides to do this final war. Both the good guys and that bad bitch had to agree on him. And as for my shit? Long story—but these things aren’t ever ‘healable.’”
“I’m so sorry.” She shifted in her chair. “What do you mean, final war?”
“Evidently the Creator is as bored of life as the rest of us are. He set this thing up—seven souls, seven rounds. Jim’s job is on the field, trying to make the people choose the right path. And if he doesn’t prevail? It’s gonna get really f**king hot around here.”
Sissy wrapped her arms about herself. “Hell’s actually not all that warm…”
Adrian winced. “Sorry. I’d forgotten that you … yeah, sorry.”
As a shiver laddered up her spine and settled in her nape, she knew she had to change the subject. “It’s okay … so, ah, what did Jim do before this?”
“Carpentry. Before that, he killed people for a living.” As her eyes bulged, Adrian shrugged. “Look, if you want sugar-coating, you’d better read one of those mags I bought you. I’m not good at it.”
“Killed people as in how?”
He leveled a stare at her. “Put a bullet in their brains. Poisoned them. Threw them off buildings—do you need a picture book?”
When she stuttered, he rubbed his face. “Sorry, I’m really not good at this, am I?”
“No, it’s all right, I just—”
“It was for the U.S. government, I guess. That whole thing with him never mattered much to me. But his old boss was one of the souls in the war—actually he was in two rounds. We lost the first, but won the second with good ol’ Matthias. And I don’t hate the guy, actually.”
“How many more rounds are there?”
“We’re even at two to two with three to go at this point. And that’s what I’ve been working on while Jim’s been…”
As the angel let the sentence drift, Sissy sighed. “I’ve been in the way, huh.”
“I think he’s back on track now. No harm, no foul—yet. Assuming Nigel doesn’t castrate him when he gets up there.”
“Nigel?”
“Head of everything.”
“Ah. So how are the souls chosen?”
“By the Maker and Nigel and Devina. We aren’t told shit down here. Every round, the issue is who the hell is in play. Kinda hard for Jim to intercede at the crossroads and influence them if he doesn’t know who they are. Again, we win or lose depending on the decision the soul makes, or the actions he or she does or doesn’t commit. First to four wins? Takes the prize.”
“Who knows about this … war?”
“Not the world at large, if that’s what you’re getting at. They won’t know until the end—well, actually, only if we lose. If there are minions crawling the Earth, people are going to get a clue pretty f**king fast. Otherwise, it’s going to just be business as usual.”
Answers. Finally, she was getting some lay of the land.
“Will you tell me how I fit into all this?” She reached across the Target bags and put her hand on his forearm. “Please.”
When all he did was curse under his breath, she rushed to fill the silence. “Jim took me to the demon’s place today.”
“You went to Hell? What the f—”
“No, the warehouse district, where she used to live, I guess? You know, where Jim found me in that bathroom?”
The angel shook his head and went back to rubbing his face, like maybe he didn’t like what he was seeing in his mind. “Fucking Devina.”