“About my social skills?” Tohr shook his head. “No offense, but I’d rather take advice from Rhage—and that’s saying something.”
“Have you ever heard of the In Between.”
Tohr awkwardly pivoted around on his good foot. “I’m not interested in a class on fractions. Thanks.”
“It’s a very real place.”
“So is Cleveland. Detroit. Beautiful downtown Burbank.” He’d been a Laugh-In fan in the sixties. So sue him. “But I don’t need to know about them, either.”
“It’s where Wellsie is.”
Tohr’s heart stopped in his chest. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“She is not in the Fade.”
Okay. Right. He probably should follow that one up with, “What the fuck are you talking about?” Instead, all he could do was stare at the guy.
“She’s not where you think she is,” the angel murmured.
Through a dry mouth, he managed, “You’re saying she’s in hell? Because that’s the only other option.”
“No, it isn’t.”
Tohr took a deep breath. “My shellan was a female of worth, and she’s in the Fade—there’s no reason to think she’d be in Dhund. As for myself, I’m through with jumping down people’s throats tonight. So I’m going to walk out that door over there”—he pointed in the direction of the anteroom just to be helpful—“and you’re going to let me go. Because I’m not in the mood for this.”
Turning away, he started hobbling, using that single crutch No’One had brought in.
“You’re pretty goddamn sure of something you don’t know shit about.”
Tohr stopped. Closed his eyes again. Sent up a prayer for an emotion, any emotion, other than the urge to kill.
No luck.
He glanced over his shoulder. “You’re an angel, right. So you’re supposed to be compassionate. I just accused a female who was raped until impregnated of being a whore. Do you honestly think I can handle being circle jerked about my shellan right now?”
“There are three places in the afterlife. The Fade, where loved ones are reunited. Dhund, where the unjust go. And the In Between—”
“Did you hear what I just said?”
“—which is where souls get stuck. It’s not like the other two—”
“Do you care?”
“—because the In Between is different for everybody. Right now, your shellan and your young are stuck because of you. That’s why I’ve come—I’m here to help you, help them get where they belong.”
Man, this was a fine time to have a fucked-up foot, Tohr thought, because he suddenly had no sense of balance whatsoever. Either that or the training center was spinning on the axis of the house.
“I don’t understand,” he whispered.
“You’ve got to move on, my man. Stop holding on to her so she can go—”
“There is no purgatory, if that’s what you’re suggesting—”
“Where the fuck do you think I came from?”
Tohr cocked a brow. “You really want me to answer that.”
“Not funny. And I’m serious.”
“No, you’re lying—”
“You ever wonder how I found you in those woods? Why I’ve stuck around? Have you asked yourself for a moment why I’m wasting time on you? Your shellan and your son are trapped and I was sent here to get them free.”
“Son?” Tohr breathed.
“Yeah, she was carrying a little boy.”
Tohr’s legs went out from underneath him at that point—fortunately, the angel jumped forward and caught him before he broke something.
“Come here.” Lassiter maneuvered him over toward the bench. “Park it and put your head between your knees—your color’s gone to hell.”
For once, Tohr didn’t put up a fight; he let his ass go down and allowed himself to get pretzeled by the angel. As he opened his mouth and tried to breathe, he noticed for no good reason that the tiles on the floor weren’t a solid aqua blue, but had multicolored specks in them of white and gray and navy.
As a big hand started making circles on his back, he was strangely comforted.
“A son…” Tohr lifted his head a little and swept his palm down his face. “I wanted a son.”
“So did she.”
He looked over sharply. “She never told me that.”
“She kept quiet because she didn’t want you to get all fat-chested about having two males in the house.”
Tohr laughed. Or maybe it was a sob. “She would so do that.”
“Yeah.”
“So you’ve seen her.”
“Yeah. She’s not doing well, Tohr.”
Abruptly, he felt like… “I’m going to be sick.” Which was better than crying. “Purgatory?”
“The In Between. And there’s a reason that no one knows about it. If you get out, you’re in the Fade—or Dhund, and your experience of where you were is forgotten, a bad memory that fades. And if your window closes, you’re stuck there forever, so it’s not like you’re filing any reports on the landscape.”
“I don’t understand—she lived a good life. She was a female of worth who was taken early. Why wouldn’t she go into the Fade?”
“Did you hear what I said? Because of you.”
“Me?” He threw his hands up. “What the fuck did I do wrong? I’m living and breathing—I didn’t off myself and I’m not going to—”
“You haven’t let her go. Don’t deny it. Come on, look what you just did to No’One. You walked in on her naked, through no fault of her own, and you tore her head off because you thought she was hitting you with a case of the hot-and-bothereds.”
“And it’s somehow wrong that I don’t want to be ogled?” Tohr frowned. “Besides, how the hell do you know what just happened.”
“You don’t honestly think you’re ever alone anymore, do you? And the problem isn’t No’One. It’s you—you don’t want to be attracted to her.”
“I wasn’t attracted to her. I’m not.”
“But it’s okay if you are. That’s the point—”
Tohr reached over, grabbed the front of the angel’s shirt, and yanked their heads together. “I got two things to say to you. I don’t believe a thing you’re telling me, and if you know what’s good for you, you’ll shut the fuck up about my mate.”
As Tohr shoved free and got to his feet, Lassiter cursed. “You don’t have forever with this, buddy.”
“Stay the hell out of my room.”
“Are you willing to bet her eternity on your anger? Are you really that arrogant?”
Tohr glared over his shoulder… except the son of a bitch was gone: There was nothing but air on the bench where the angel had been. And it was hard to argue with that.
“Whatever. Fucking whack-job.”
TWELVE
When Xhex walked into the Iron Mask, she felt like she was stepping back in time. For years, she had worked in clubs like this, weeding through desperate people like this, keeping her eyes peeled for trouble… like this little knot of tension that had formed up ahead.
Directly in front of her, two guys were squaring off, a pair of Goth bulls all but pawing at the ground with their New Rocks. Just to the side, a chick with black-and-white hair, glittery cleavage, and a dumb-ass getup involving buckled straps of black leather was looking pretty damn satisfied with herself.
Xhex wanted to slap her upside the head and send her packing just for that attitude alone.
The real problem, however, was not this bonehead with the breasticles, but the two pieces of meat who were about to go Dana White on each other. The concern was not so much what they did to each other’s noses or jawlines; it was the other two hundred people who were basically behaving. Male bodies flying backward in twelve different directions could knock a lot of bystanders on their asses, and who needed that?
She was about to step in when she reminded herself that this wasn’t her job anymore. She was no longer responsible for these asshats and their libidos and their jealousies, their drug dealing and doing, their sexual exploits—