Immortal by J.R. Ward Read Free Book Online Page B

ask your girlfriend? Maybe she can help.”
    Jim’s eyes burned across the room. But he didn’t say anything else, the whole by-the-short-hairs thing shutting him up.
    Ad shook his head. Man, now he knew how Eddie had felt back in the beginning when Jim and he had gone at each other.
    â€œThat book”—Ad pointed to the damn thing—“does it have anything in there about Purgatory? That’s what we need to know. I can’t read it—Jim can’t, either. Eddie could, but he forgot his reading glasses in Heaven.”
    Sissy came over and sat down on the opposite couch, putting the ancient tome on the short-legged coffee table. The book creaked as she opened it, and a subtle glow seemed to be released by the parchment pages, like it was its own reading light.
    Okay, that was one book that was never making it onto the
New York Times
list. There was one and only one copy, and it was not supposed to be in the hands of the angels. Made from the skin of sinners, its “ink” supposedly came from the ejaculate of Devina’s minions. Who knew who had composed it. The thing was pure evil, inside and out.
    If Devina knew they had the thing? Big fun.
    â€œThere’s no table of contents,” Sissy muttered as she idly flipped through. The writing was so dense, it was as if each page had been brushstroked in black, and it made his head hurt justtrying to focus that tight. “And there’s no internal organization, either. I’ve spent hours going through it . . . and I’m not sure how helpful it’s going to be about anything.”
    â€œFrankly, I’m impressed you can read even a word of it,” Ad muttered.
    â€œWell, I took Latin in high school.”
    â€œIs that what it is?”
    â€œOr a derivative of it. The good news is, the longer I stick with it, the easier the going gets.” Sissy looked over at Jim. “So tell me what you want to do, and I’ll see if I can find something on it.”
    Jim stopped by one of the floor-to-ceiling windows and stared outside. With the morning sun hitting his face, he looked worn-out, instead of refreshed. And that did not bode well for them.
    Ad cleared his throat. “I got out only because I was freed by the Creator—thanks to Nigel going to Him.”
    â€œYou mean Purgatory?” Sissy asked.
    â€œYeah.”
    â€œHoly . . . wait, you’ve
been
there?” Sissy shook her head. “Boy, all these things I thought were made up . . . I should have listened more in Sunday school, huh.”
    â€œLike I said, I was freed at the Creator’s will, and I don’t know of anyone who’s gone there and gotten out on their own.” Ad shifted his eyes to the savior. “I will say this—you won’t have a lot of time, Jim. Once you’re over there, you start to get into trouble almost immediately. The true wearing down takes a while, but you begin to lose yourself directly upon entry. By the time Eddie came in, I was nearly a goner. And I later found out I had been there only a short time.”
    â€œHell was like that for me,” Sissy said quietly. “It was . . . forever.”
    Jim’s eyebrow began to twitch and he brushed at the thing.
    â€œSo you’re going there to bring this guy back—why?” she asked.
    â€œI don’t have a choice,” Jim muttered as he patted his pockets. Taking out a pack of Marlboros, he lit up. “Either we get Nigel back or I end up taking his place—and after all this shit? I want to be the one who takes down Devina. Plus it’s the right thing to do.”
    â€œWhy do you say that?”
    â€œI killed him. Not directly, but his death is my fault, and even though I’m a professional soldier, it’s one I can’t live with.”
    Sissy stared at the man for the longest time. Then she ducked her head into the book and went back to the first page.