“I know what she’s been doing to you,” the angel murmured.
Balz looked away. “It’s fine—”
“No, it’s not. It’s a violation.”
“I don’t want to talk about that. It’s all just in dreams, anyway. There’s no reason to get hysterical over a nightmare, right? It’s not really happening.”
“It’s totally wrong of her. But I’m not going to force you to go into it. I think you might want to see Mary, though.”
“Ah, Rhage’s shellan, the source of all personal realignment, the chiropractor to the conscience.” But he wasn’t bitching, more just exhausted. “Besides, maybe she’s out of me. The demon, I mean. So it’s a nonissue.”
It was then that he looked pointedly at the other male. And as he met the strange, silvery eyes of the angel, he was aware he was projecting both hope and desperation, which were not the kinds of things a fighter ever let anybody see—except maybe his female.
But he was beyond caring about pride.
Lassiter took a deep breath and slowly closed his lids. Then everything went quiet, no more whistling from the furnace or blowing through the vents or ambient noises from outside like a passing car or a dog barking. It was as if the volume had been turned down on the whole world.
As Balz waited for the verdict, he almost would have preferred to stay in the unknown. That way, at least there was a chance he was alone in his own skin—
Lassiter’s eyes popped open, and his frown was not a good sign.
“Oh, shit,” Balz muttered as he—
“I can’t sense her. At all.”
Balz jerked in surprise. “What?”
“I can’t…” The angel’s eyes pulled a head-to-toe on Balz, and still, he didn’t look happy. “I’m not picking up anything.”
“Nothing? Wait, that’s good, right? That’s what we want?” Balz patted himself, feeling like he was knocking on doors and hoping nobody answered. “What’s wrong? I don’t get why you’re not psyched.”
He had so many questions, but the lilt to his voice was more the unexpected good news giving his mood a hot-air balloon ride.
Fuck, he’d end everything with a question mark for the rest of his life if Devina was gone.
“And you’re saying she didn’t come to you?” Lassiter asked.
“No, and I really was asleep. Erika and I had—well, anyway, we were sleeping.” Balz sat even farther forward on the sofa, so far he was almost off the cushions. “But listen, you were right. You told me that true love would save me. You told me the Book was not the answer. Erika is… she’s the savior I needed.”
He was talking faster and faster, and he had to pull back a little before he Tom Cruise’d on the couch and turned the angel into Oprah. But the pieces were fitting together. Everything was becoming clear, and it was good.
It was right.
“I know she’s human.” He splayed out his hands, all whoa-Nelly-I-know. “And I realize I haven’t known her for long. But when true love shows up on your doorstep, you don’t make it wait a calendar year just to be sure it doesn’t belong to somebody else.”
Lassiter smiled a little. “I’m glad I was right.”
“Me, too. I know there are things to be worked out.” He left the integration between worlds part deliberately vague. “But I’m just… well, I’m really grateful to you.”
“I didn’t do anything.” The angel put his palms up in impotence. “The Creator is as the Creator does.”
“But you gave Erika the power to keep me alive.”
Lassiter got to his feet in a sharp surge. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Like I said, I’m glad everything is working out for you—and for her. She’s a fine female. Worthy of all the good things, especially with what she’s been through.”
“I couldn’t agree more.”
In the pause that followed, Balz prepared his see-ya-laters. But instead of leaving, the angel stalled out. And just stood there.
“What,” Balz demanded.
The angel opened his mouth. Closed it. “Nothing. You enjoy your female, ’kay?”
And then justlikethat, Lassiter was gone, ghosting himself into thin air in the blink of an eye.
Left to his little lonesome, Balz sat back on the cushions—and wondered what exactly that male was keeping to himself.
* * *
As Erika reached across the Honda’s parking brake for her bag, the irony that she was a homicide detective about to call in a missing, possibly stolen, unmarked police car was not lost on her. But as soon as she checked her cell’s screen, the issue of where her service vehicle was became a second-in-line candidate on her problem list.