The way he arched a brow was such disrespect. And she almost went at him with her bare hands, but she didn't want to disturb her lover- "I have the book."

As Sissy spoke up, everyone looked at her. And Adrian started cursing. "Sissy, shut the fuck up-"

The demon smiled. "Yes, you know the one. Don't you."

As the demon and Sissy locked eyes, Adrian dragged himself off the floor, his body aching like he'd gotten a hot-stone massage using a tire iron. "Sissy," he hissed. "Do not-"

But he couldn't get across to her fast enough.

Sissy went over and picked up the ancient tome from where it had fallen, righting its pages and reclosing its cover from having been blown open.

"So this is yours," she said.

Devina's black eyes sparkled as she stared up from her Mary Magdalene-with-the-dead-Christ routine on the floor: With Jim's head in her lap and his body splayed out, she had arranged herself with portrait-like precision-but he could give a shit about her Agnolo Bronzino moment.

"Sit down here," Devina purred, indicating the floor beside her.

"Sissy," he snapped. "Don't go over there."

"There's nothing in here about Purgatory." Sissy didn't look in Devina's direction and didn't make a move toward her. Thank fuck. "Nothing."

"You've been reading my work?" the demon asked.

"No one else knows Latin."

"It's not written in Latin."

Sissy shot a glare over. "Fine, whatever, I've been able to make it out, okay."

"Interesting." Devina leaned down and whispered something in Jim's ear. Then laughed as if she and the dead guy had shared a private joke. "And as for Purgatory, I haven't been there, so of course I didn't write anything about the place."

Man, Adrian was thinking seriously of throwing himself out the nearest window. And he got sick at the reminder that Sissy had had that thing in her hands for how long today?

"You wrote all that," he muttered.

"Yes." The demon frowned. "And I seriously did not appreciate Eddie stealing it from me. He thought he could use it to get you back. Didn't work then, did it."

But Eddie had ended up saving him in the end. Still, "If that's true," he said, "why do you need it now?"

Colin spoke up, his English accent clipped. "Because she's going to try to create a portal. Aren't you."

Devina shrugged. "You were the ones suggesting we work together. Do you have another solution in mind?"

"Shit," Adrian breathed.

"What's a portal?" Sissy looked over at Ad. Stared at Colin. "Well?"

When no one spoke up, Adrian did his best to pace around the parlor. It was like trying to motivate a Model T with a broken axle, but staying still wasn't an option. And he wasn't the only one getting serious, either. Colin had braced his head in his hands, and even Devina had dropped the petting act with Jim; the demon was as motionless as a statue, staring off into space like she was doing long division in her head.

Or maybe calculating the very good odds that this was going to fuck all of them in the ass.

As nobody else was going to answer the question, Adrian figured, What the hell. "There are two portals that we are allowed to use-and both were brought into existence by the Creator. One leads to Heaven, the other to Hell. They're how we go back and forth-how she gets down and back." He stopped and faced the fireplace even though there was no flame in it. No logs to watch as they were consumed. No heat to warm his cold hands and feet. "For us to try to make one? For our own purposes? It's a violation of the laws of the universe."

Devina shrugged. "What's the Creator going to do to us?"

"Not sure I want to find out," Ad bit out. "Not sure we got a choice."

"This could indeed get us into serious trouble," Colin tacked on. Then he looked at Ad. "It's on a magnitude of the stunt you pulled that got you punished."

"Which one." Adrian shrugged. "And I don't know why you're giving me the hairy eyeball. I don't have that kind of power-that shit is going to need to be between you and her."

Colin glanced at the demon and muttered something unintelligible under his breath. And yup, she looked equally disenchanted.

At least they were taking the risks seriously.

Devina nodded over at Sissy. "Open to page three hundred forty-one and a half."

Sissy flipped pages back and forth. "Okay."

"What does it say?"

"Which passage?"

"Start from the top."

Sissy opened her mouth and started reading ... but fuck all if Ad could understand what she was saying. The words were gibberish-and not any kind of Latin he recognized. Hell, he'd even been around when the guys in togas and sandals had been doing their jam, and whatever was coming from between her lips? Not it.

When she finally stopped, Devina nodded. "So I'm correct."

"Yes," Sissy said. "I think you are."

In the silence that followed, Colin looked over pointedly, but Ad had to prioritize panic buttons at that moment-he couldn't worry about whatever connection the two females in the room might be forging. "Look," he cut in, "I don't have a clue what you just read. But the portal idea, while batshit crazy, is probably our only option. If we can create a portal and keep it open long enough ... maybe Jim can jump back."

"But wait," Sissy said. "If he killed himself to get over there, doesn't one already exist?"

"It's not one that is open to free use," Colin said. "That particular portal is regulated by the Creator, and He has been very clear about its purpose and its restrictions."

Ad glanced at Sissy. "Yeah, the Big Guy ain't too happy with the idea that someone would disrespect the gift of life. You take your own? You're going to get a proverbial slap on the wrist. Purgatory's also where righteous souls who can't let go of something or someone they left behind end up because their sorrow won't let them transition upstairs. Not a pleasant place. It's like Hell."

"Fuck that," Devina bit out. "Hell is much worse."

"True. You're there-"

Sissy interrupted. "So how do you make a portal?"

There was another long silence, and again, Adrian was surprised Devina didn't jump in with a whole lot of chatter-and he wasn't sure whether the fact that she didn't was a good or a bad thing.

"Well," he prompted the demon. "What do you think?"

Devina's black eyes ceased to glitter, and her expression, for once, grew remote. "We'd need a tremendous amount of focused energy. Colin and I could face off and each cast an attack spell. In theory, assuming we are of equal strength, the opposing forces will become so great, this plane of existence will not be able to support them, and a tear will be created in the veil between here and there."

Sissy frowned. "How can you be sure the door it opens will be into Purgatory?"

Man, she was no dummy, Ad thought. "We give it a tracer." He glanced over at Jim's motionless remains. "Yeah, maybe if we give it a direction..."

Devina bared her teeth like a dog growling. "You're not throwing his body in there. It'll be destroyed and he'll have nothing to return to."

Right, right, right. And if this didn't work, she wouldn't have a new toy to play with.

Ad shuddered at the thought of how she'd use those remains. "Blood, then. His blood."

Colin nodded. "That is logical. The death, such as it was, was very recent. As a soul passes unto another plane, it is never a completely clean transition. Tracers remain in the flesh. In the blood."

There was another long silence as the magnitude of what they were all thinking hit home.

"How can we trust you?" Sissy said to the demon.

"You can't." Devina shrugged. "But Colin would jump at the chance to destroy me-isn't that right, archangel?"

"Oh, aye." Colin's eyes narrowed. "The satisfaction would almost make up for my loss."

Devina's mouth lifted in something close to affection. "And I will never let myself get hurt. So when he hits me, I'll hit him back. Likewise, he won't fail to defend himself either. Satisfied, little girl?"

To Sissy's credit, she didn't take the bait. She just nodded.

After which there was still more silence, which Devina filled by murmuring to "Jim." Shit, considering how well the demon was getting along with the corpse, you had to wonder why she wanted him to come back.

"There's only one remaining problem," Ad said. "Aside from the whole what-if-this-doesn't-work."

"Agreed." Colin scrubbed his face. "In fact, I shall be more concerned if this does function according to plan. It is precisely how the Dead Sea was created."

Sissy glanced over at the archangel. "I thought that was from tectonic plates shifting or something."

"Lassiter," Ad and Colin said together.

At the sound of the name, even Devina rolled her eyes. "Oh, Christ. Him again."

"So at least this has been tried before?" Sissy asked.

"Yeah, and look at how well it turned out." Ad shook his head. "A three-hundred-mile, one-thousand-foot-deep hole in the earth."

"And that still did not stop him," Colin said.

Devina glowered. "I seriously thought the bubonic plague was going to take him out."

"That was you?" Ad asked.

"I had to do something."

"Okay, okay, so what's our problem?" Sissy demanded, like she was trying to refocus the group.

Adrian looked up at the ceiling and could only imagine the Creator's reaction. "The Big Guy's going to be pissed if we do this. There's gonna be repercussions. Fuck the plague for real-He'll come after us, and shit is gonna get ugly."

With Eddie gone and a cock that no longer worked, it wasn't like he had much to "live" for, but that didn't mean he was happy to volunteer for suffering.

"You ready for that?" he asked Colin. "I've already been through the whole wrath-of-God a couple of times, and I'm way down the totem pole compared to you."

Before the archangel could respond, Devina spoke up. "It's going to be fine."

Ad laughed. "You don't have that much power, demon."

"I'll tell Him it's my idea." She stared across at Ad, then Colin. "The Creator begot me on purpose to provide chaos to His universe-otherwise utopia would exist and there would be no need for Heaven. I am His balance, the darkness to the sunshine, the bitter cold to warmth, the scorching heat to temperance. I am the disease to health and the poverty to wealth. I am the cheater who stands side by side with the honorable. This is my nature, His gift to me and the world. He cannot and will not punish what He Himself has conjured up with deliberation. If He does? Then He has failed."

In a quick series of calculations, Ad tested the theory, looking for holes, searching for ways in which Devina's "helpful suggestion" could come back and bite him and Colin hard. He could find nothing: Devina was a lying, cheating slut, but you could always, always put your money on her self-interest.

And out of everything in this world and the next, she wanted Jim Heron. She was clearly willing to do anything required to get him back, and she was smart enough to know that she wasn't going to be able to shift blame at the last minute. The Creator knew her too well to buy that shit.

The Creator would, however, believe it was her idea, and Devina might just have a point. And if she didn't? What the fuck did he care. It wasn't his ass on the line.

"You're prepared to go to Him," Ad said, "after it's through. Assuming it works."

"I am. As soon as it's over-and I know what He's going to say. As if He and I haven't been through these conversations before?"

Good point. She'd been fucking shit up on the earth for how long?

"Okay, I'm in," Ad announced.

"Aye," Colin said. "Myself as well."

Sissy spoke up. "Anything I can do, I'll help, too."

Devina's black eyes flashed. "Then let's get my man back."

Chapter.

Eleven.