“How'm I doin'?" Jim asked in his own voice—hey, he could talk out of the bastard's mouth, too.Across the way, Adrian shrugged. "Pretty damn good—I can't sense you. But I gotta ask—the pair of you want a cigarette? Or are you going for a twofer?”

“He swiveled his head towards Eddie. "Tell me how to get over to the Four Lads. Do I have to die again?"If he did, he had a Beretta on him and he knew what kicking the bucket from a gunshot was like. Snore."Don't bother." Adrian cracked his knuckles. "They're not going to tell you anything. They can't."What the fuck? "I thought I worked for them.""You work for both sides, and they've given you all the help they can."Jim looked back and forth between the two angels. Each of them had the tight expression of a guy with a shoestring noosing up his balls."Help?" he said. "Where's my goddamned help?""They gave you us, asshole," Adrian snapped. "And that's all they can do--I've already gone over and asked them who's supposed to be next. I figured it would help you, you ungrateful bastard.”

“That's where you come in. I want into that guy's mind, and you need to tell me how to do it."Ad shrugged. "Personally, I'd just use a hacksaw, but—""There are potential consequences and side effects," Eddie said carefully."Like what?""Well, worst case... he could end up like Adrian.”

“Tell me this isn't permanent""No, you have to give me my weapon back at the end."Har-har, hardy-har-har. "I'm talking to Jim.""No, it's not," the angel answered from out of Veck's mouth. "I can get free as easily as I got in.""You sure about that?""Nope.""Fabulous.”

“You sure about this?" he asked in a guttural voice. "I get down on that mattress right now, I'm not stopping until I'm inside of you.”

“Trust me, son. The pair of you are going to do this from time to time, and you might as well start to deal with it rationally now. Took me a good fifty years of making shit worse till I figured out a better way to handle arguments. Learn from my mistakes.”John’s head cranked over, and he started to mouth, I love her so much. I’d die if anything happened to h—When he stopped short, Tohr took a deep breath through the pain in his chest. “I know. Trust me … I know.”

“So what’d you do to the lesser?” a male voice said. “I lit his cigarette with a sawed-off,” another one answered. “He didn’t come down for breakfast, you feel me?”