Chapter Twenty-Four Out of the Frying Pan, Into the Fire
“Wake up! Please, please wake up!”
Brie opened her eyes and saw a fuzzy version of Cameron floating above her, his face half-covered in blood, his eyes shot through with agonized worry and filled with unshed tears.
“Cam?” She blinked once, twice, trying to get her bearings.
“You’re alright!” He crushed her to his chest in a breathless embrace, squeezing the air from her lungs. “Oh, thank God. Thank you, God…”
She relaxed into his arms.
This is nice. Much nicer than whatever I was doing before.
What was I doing before?
It hit her. “Sherry!”
She broke from his arms and raced to where her friend lay, prone on the ground. In a flash, he was right beside her, watching as Sherry stirred with a quiet groan.
“Are you okay? Are you alright?”
Brie took her pulse and checked her all over for damage. Cameron did the same to Mike, pressing a glowing palm to his skull and healing his wounds.
“Sherry, can you hear me? Say something!” Brie cried.
There was no response.
“Love, can you hear me?”
Silence.
It was time to pull out the big guns. She leaned in close and whispered in Sherry’s ear.
“Audrey Hepburn is an overrated fashion icon, and Givenchy overuses pattern.”
A hand slapped blindly into the air, making weak contact with her cheek. “Blasphemy.”
It was barely a whisper, but it was enough to get a choked sob of joy out of Brie. She gathered the woman into her arms, rocking her gently. “I’m so sorry, Sher. I’m so, so sorry.”
“Mike’s alright,” Cameron interjected quietly. “Just asleep. Sherry should sleep too, Brie. For a moment.” He touched Sherry’s shoulder with a glowing hand, and she went limp in Brie’s arms again.
Brie whirled on him. “Why did you do that? If she has a concussion, she shouldn’t—”
“She isn’t the one we need to worry about right now,” he answered softly.
It took a moment to register. When it did, all the color drained from Brie’s face.
Rashida.
They left Mike and Sherry propped up against one another, then turned and walked across the parking lot. There was no longer a need to run. Brie sank to the ground between the rows of cars without a hint of expression, staring down at her friend. She lay in a halo of her own blood, eyes open, an expression of permanent confusion splashed across her lovely face.
“No,” she whispered, touching a finger to her cheek. The angel looked on helplessly in the background, but for once, she didn’t need his help. She spoke again, louder this time. “ No .”
Without a moment’s pause, she lifted Rashida’s hand and placed the pendant between their palms, lacing their fingers together so they were holding it between them.
“What are you going to do?” Cameron whispered.
Brie’s fingers tightened. “The same thing you do when you need something. Pray.”
She bowed her head and closed her eyes, asking with all her heart that her friend, her wonderful new friend who did not deserve this violence, be put back together and given the life that had been stolen. She repeated the silent plea over and over, kneeling there for what felt like a long time, but was really only a harrowing minute. Then, all at once, her earnest request was interrupted.
“Girl, what the hell are you doing? And what happened to my sweater?”
Her eyes flew open to see Rashida staring up at her, those beautiful eyes wide with confusion and concern.
“Oh, thank goodness,” Brie cried, throwing both arms around her neck. “I thought it wasn’t going to work. I thought… I thought we’d lost you.”
“Lost me?” Rashida repeated, attempting to pull herself free. “What in the world are you talking about? Brie, what is this? What worked? Why am I all sticky?”
Brie merely tightened her grip, her eyes closed in relief.
Cameron was simply astounded and perhaps borderline sick. When Rashida held up a bloody hand, lips parting in alarm, he reached quickly for her arm, putting her to sleep as well.
“Would you stop doing that?” Brie exclaimed when her second friend went limp in her arms. “Don’t you think we should keep her conscious? Since she just, I don’t know, died ?”
Cameron looked around the parking lot. “I’m not saying you don’t have a point, but…”
She followed his gaze. “Oh.”
They stood up and turned together in a slow circle. There were enormous hoofprints embedded in the asphalt, bullet holes where the ricochets had pierced cars and walls, and a giant circle, still glowing like magma, burning around the place where Brie had sent Mammon back to Hell.
Brie shook her head, exhaling a slow breath. “What happened?”
Cameron looked at her, astonished. “You don’t remember?”
She shook her head. “The last thing I remember, Sherry hit the wall, and I screamed…” She trailed off, unable to recall a second more. “What killed her? What did you do?”
There was a beat of silence. “What did I do?”
She turned to him, annoyed. “Look, I’m sorry I didn’t see your glorious moment of triumph or whatever, but I was busy blacking out from all the unspeakable trauma I’ve experienced over the last week, and frankly, I don’t think it’s fair that you… Why are you looking at me like that?”
He took a step closer, eyes burning with intensity.
“Seriously, what’s wrong?” She threw a glance over her shoulder, aware of the very real possibility that one of the daughters of Hell had come back to life. “Are you hurt? Do you hear someone coming? Why are you staring at me like that?”
He crossed the distance between them, looking rather wild. It was an expression she had never seen before, one that caught her breath and stirred her blood at the same time. He was so close she could feel his heart beat faster and faster, could see as deep as she’d ever seen into the oceanic pools of his dilated eyes. Her heart ached; her limbs felt weak and light all at once. Time would have stopped, if it hadn’t already. They hovered on the agonizing edge a moment longer, waited to play the note they knew would ring forth forever and challenge their destiny.
Then they made a fateful choice.
His hand brushed lightly down her cheek. She lifted without thinking onto her toes.
“I should have done this a long time ago,” he murmured, slipping a hand into her hair.
She froze instinctively, forgetting to breathe, gazing up at him.
“I should have done it every day since.”
He leaned closer, so close she could feel the warmth of his breath, and before either could resist, their lips pressed into a delicate, passionate kiss.
It escalated without warning, without restraint. And once it started, it became abundantly clear: there was absolutely no stopping it.
They came together as naturally as a sunrise, as effortlessly as water flowing to the sea. It was as though both of them had been born for this very moment, in different places and in different times, waiting for countless centuries until they could fit themselves together once again.
She ran her palms over his chest. He cupped the small of her back, pulling her deeper into his arms. He moaned softly into her mouth, and his hand gripped a silken fistful of chocolate curls. Their lips mashed together; their tongues tangled, touching and exploring with a desperate, unending passion. She stood on her toes and circled her arms around him. Forgetting how to breathe. Forgetting her own name. There could never be enough of this feeling. There could never be enough of this moment.
They finally broke apart, but they didn’t detach. He merely tightened his grip around her. She rested her cheek on the steady pulse of his chest. They lingered there longer than either of them realized before she peered into his eyes. “I thought it wasn’t permitted—”
He silenced her with another kiss, long and slow and utterly worth the wait. When he pulled back, there wasn’t any caution or fear — nothing but tenderness dancing in his eyes. “Brianna, if I’m to be damned for this, I want to deserve it.”
Their foreheads touched together when a throat cleared suddenly nearby. They whirled to see a man standing behind them, if you could call such a person a man. He was beautiful, bare-chested, and enormously tall, with golden eyes and hair in black braids that hung to his waist. Except for some ancient-looking golden wrist cuffs, he was also completely naked.
His arms were crossed over his chest, and he had a look on his face like they’d just insulted his mother. Brie stared in shocked silence. Cameron immediately turned a noxious shade of green.
“Damned, you say?” The man’s eyes flashed with heavenly light. “You seem well on your way.”