blue jeans and putting his head down between her thighs.
V knew that in six minutes Butch was going to take the orange juice Marissa had in her hand and
put it on the coffee table. He was going to spill it, because the glass was going to land on the
corner of a Sports Illustrated, and the juice was going to get on Marissa's jeans. The cop was
going to use this as an excuse to take her down the hall and get her good and naked.
Except on the way, they would stop by V's door and lose their sexual impulses. With sad eyes,
they would go to their mated bed and hold each other in silence.
V put an arm over his face. And wept uncontrollably.
His visions were back, his curse of the future returned to him.
The crossroads in his life was over.
Which meant this was his existence from now on: he was to be nothing but an empty shell that
lay next to the ashes of his beloved.
And sure enough, in the midst of his crying he heard Butch and Marissa come down the hall,
heard them pause in front of his bedroom, then heard them shut their door. No sounds of sex got
muffled by the wall between the rooms, no headboard banged, no throaty cries sounded.
Just as he'd foreseen. In the silence that followed, V wiped his cheeks, then looked at his hands.
The left one still throbbed a little from the damage he'd done to it. The right one glowed as it
always did-and his tears were white against the backdrop of his inner illumination, white as the
irises of his eyes.
He took a deep breath and looked at the clock.
The only thing that was keeping him breathing was nightfall. He absolutely would have killed
himself by now-would have taken his Glock and put it in his mouth and blown the back of his
head out-if it weren't for nightfall.
He was making it a personal mission to eradicate the Lessening Society. It was going to take the
rest of his life, but that was fucking fine, because there was nothing else out there for him. And
he would have preferred to leave the Brotherhood to do it, but Butch would die without him, so
he was going to have to stick around.
Abruptly, he frowned and looked toward the door.
After a moment he wiped his cheeks and said, «I'm surprised you don't just come in.»
The door opened without benefit of a hand. On the other side, the Scribe Virgin stood in the
hallway, her black robes covering her head to foot.
«I was not sure of my welcome,» she said in a low voice as she came into the room.
He didn't lift his head from the pillow. Had no interest in honoring her in any way. «You know
what your welcome is.»
«Indeed. So I will get down to the purpose of my visit. I have a gift for you.»
«I don't want it.»
«Yes. You do.»
«Fuck you.» Beneath her robes, her head seemed to drop. Not that he gave a shit that her precious
little feelings were hurt. «Leave.»
«You will want-«
He jerked upright. «You took what I wanted-«
A form entered the doorway, a ghostly form. «V… ?»
«And I give it back to you,» the Scribe Virgin said. «In a certain manner.»
Vishous didn't hear a word she said, because he couldn't comprehend what he was looking at. It
was Jane… kind of. It was Jane's face and Jane's body, but she was… a transparent apparition.
«Jane?»
The Scribe Virgin spoke as she dematerialized. «You need not thank me. Just know that your
curse is the way you may touch her. Good-bye.»
Okay, as romantic reunions went, this one was bizarre and uncomfortable.
And not just because Jane supposed she could be classified as a ghost.
Vishous was looking as if he were going to pass out. Which hurt. It was entirely possible he
wouldn't like her like this, and then where would she be? When the Scribe Virgin had come to
her in heaven, or whatever that place was, and had given her the option of coming back, the
answer had been a real no-brainer. But now that she was standing in front of a completely
shocked-out guy, she wasn't so sure she'd made the right choice. Maybe she'd over-
He got up out of bed, walked across the room, and put his glowing hand to her face with
hesitation. On a sigh she leaned into the imprint of his palm and the warmth of his flesh.
«Is this you?» he said hoarsely.
She nodded and reached out to his cheeks, which were a little red. «You've been crying.»
He captured her hand. «I feel