J.R. Ward: Rapture

Ad reached out a hand, knowing touch would prove which side they were walking on—

Eddie frowned and eased out of range, looking like Ad had grown a horn in the middle of his forehead. “What up with you?”

That face was exactly right, the darkly tanned skin sporting a beard shadow, those reddish eyes open to the world, neither suspicious nor naive, that heavy braid down a thick, muscled back.

“I don’t”—Ad rubbed his face—“know.”

“You want to leave?”

“God, no.”

“Okay.” Those red eyes shifted back to the crowd. “So are you going to force me to have sex again?”

Ad laughed loudly. “Right. That’s happened. Suuuuure.”

“Throwing women at me—”

“I’ve never thrown—”

“Picking ones you know I’ll like—”

“Well, I have done that—”

“Ruining my virtue.”

As the guy took another swig, Ad got serious. “No one could do that.”

“Yeah, you’re right. Before I was an angel, I was a vestal virgin and it stuck.”

“Which would explain all the hair.”

“Nah, that’s because it makes me look hot.”

Ad laughed again and leaned back, a sudden surge of energy coming over him. The sense that life had returned to normal, that tragedy hadn’t occurred, that everything was reset back to the way it should be, was a relief so tremendous he was flying even as he was sitting down. In a rush of optimism, his eyes went to the crowd, his fuck filter slipping into place, a rare happiness turning the slutty candidates into beauty queens.

“See anything we like?” Eddie said dryly.

“If it weren’t for me, you’d never get laid.”

“You know, I’d like to argue with that.”

“You’re too honest.”

“Damn it.”

Ah, yes, that redhead would do, Ad thought. And she was with a black-haired—

He frowned, stiffening. There was someone on the periphery, over in the far corner in the shadows, watching them.

“It’s time,” Eddie said. “Either we do what we’re going to do, or we have to order another round. Ad? Hello?”

Adrian shook himself. “Yeah…sure.”

His best friend gave him the hairy eyeball again. “What’s wrong with you, man?”

Good question, he thought as he got to his feet. “Just gimme a minute to reel something in.”

“Take your time—and make it quick.”

“Isn’t that a contradiction?”

“Not when it comes to you.”

Easy laughter. And then he was all about the two ladies. As he closed in on the red and black, their giggled responses were predictable, and not nearly as satisfying as the orgasms they were all going to have.

“My name’s Adrian,” he said, as he came up to them. His slow smile got the females blinking fast, and doing little rearrangements of their stances—breasts up, bellies tucked in, legs out more in front so thighs showed.

“I like your perfume,” he said, leaning into the neck of the redhead.

In actuality, he hadn’t smelled it yet, and he didn’t care what it was—

Breathing in, he froze. That scent. That…

“I’m glad,” she said, her hands roaming around his back and settling on his ass. “I wore it just for someone like you.”

Adrian moved away, his brain hurting. Or maybe that was his chest. “Yeah. Good.”

He glanced over his shoulder. Eddie was over on the couch, sprawled out, but focused intently, as if he were ready for the sex.

Just like normal.

Ad nodded in the direction of his buddy. “I come with a friend. How ’bout you?”

“She has a BF,” the redhead muttered, like that was a character defect.

“Sorry,” the other woman said.

Like it mattered. “Okay, just you then, provided you can handle two?”

When the chippie nodded like she’d won the lottery, he took her hand, and that perfume of hers followed them, making him wish the black haired one had been single and willing, and that Jessica Rabbit with the Goth makeover had been the chick with the boyfriend. No going back, though—it was just too much like work to find another recruit, and besides, this was nothing permanent. None of them had ever been permanent.

Goddamn flowery smell, though. It gave him the creeps.

When he got to the couch and sat down, the redhead made like a throw blanket, covering both his and Eddie’s legs, and, as she happened to be facing in the other angel’s direction, Eddie got to work kissing the hell out of her.

For a guy with no game, he’d always had a hearty appetite.

As Ad watched, and did some stroking of the hip and breast variety, he thought it was amazing how much power a nightmare could have over you. It was like all that imagined shit about Eddie had actually happened: that harpy sweeping in from out of nowhere and nailing the angel with a blade, taking the I-M out of immortal . Then the death, in the lobby of that bank that was not far from here. Then the suffering afterward, the sense that the purpose had gone out of the world for him…

Adrian frowned and wondered why he was talking to himself like it had actually gone down—

The redhead arched and parted her legs, clearly inviting him to play in her sandbox. And as he complied, Eddie took over working on her breasts, pulling down the top of her black shredded something-or-other, being more aggressive than usual as he exposed a pair that were considerably smaller than they’d looked.

Just as Adrian was slipping a hand in deep, the waitress showed up with some fresh bottles, and she obviously was used to the kind of business that was being conducted: she didn’t bat an eye as she put the beers down.

“I got it,” Ad said, squeezing his wallet out of his back pocket and popping her a twenty. As she left, he glanced at the beer, and then shot a glare over at Eddie. “Coors Light? What the hell?”

The other angel disengaged from the lip lock and shrugged. “Watching my weight.”

Ad rolled his eyes and got back in touch with touching the meal that was about to be consumed. Moving his hands upward under the short skirt, he discovered to his surprise a pair of underwear with all the holding power of steel girders—and the sprawl of an army tent. What the fuck? Then again, he supposed Spanx was cheaper than lipo—

That perfume flooded back into his nose, suggesting that maybe it hadn’t been the woman’s after all.

Glancing around, he could see nothing unusual—

“I think you should do her first,” Eddie said, playing with those breasts…that now seemed rather flabby.

And that hair. Once thick and wavy, it now looked kind of frizzy.

The woman smiled, revealing teeth that were crooked.

“Go on, Adrian…do her.” Eddie’s eyes were all but sparkling in the darkness. “I want to watch you.”

The woman took Ad’s hand and moved it back between her legs, rubbing herself against his palm and fingers—

From out of the crowd, a figure stepped into view, a tall, proud figure dressed in a white robe. As it arrived, the scent of the flowers grew so strong, it overpowered everything—

Eddie.

It was the real Eddie, standing true and real, unbowed and whole in the midst of a crowd of walking dead.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake. Just when things were getting interesting.”

Ad’s head shot around. Devina was beside him on the other end of the couch, for once wearing her true guise: She was a corpse animated, her flesh in a perpetual free fall from her gray bones, her grotesque rotting palms on the breasts of the almost-pretty woman. The demon’s expression was one of annoyance, her loose lips and sagging jawline as clenched as they could get.

Adrian shouted and went to jump up, but the redhead held his hand in place—and as he struggled against her astronomical strength, she morphed into what she really was: a decrepit has-been, the illusion of loveliness gone as if it were no longer sustainable.