“As much as you wanted someone to change and believed they could, they were in control of their life. Not you. And you could throw yourself against the wall of their choices until you were black-and-blue and dizzy as hell, but unless they decided to take a different road, the outcome wasn’t going to be what you wanted.” -Grier Childe about Isaac Rothe
Crave is the second novel of the Fallen Angels series and set in the same universe as The Black Dagger Brotherhood series. It follows Covet and precedes Envy.
Along with Black Dagger Legacy, Black Dagger Brotherhood: Prison Camp, and Lair of the Wolven, Fallen Angels is a spin-off from the main series Black Dagger Brotherhood. Unlike the other spin-offs, this is a stand-alone series and Black Dagger Brotherhood is not required in order to fully understand the lore, characters, and story-lines of Fallen Angels. Each book was published alternately with the main series, but chronologically the series more or less takes place at the same time as Lover Unleashed. Crave was released after Lover Mine and before Lover Unleashed.
Crave continues the story of Jim Heron and his mission to prevent all of existence from being wiped out in the war of good and evil, with a little detour to assassinate another defector from the shadow government agency for which he used to work.
Synopsis[]
Isaac Rothe is a black ops soldier with a dark past and a grim future. The target of an assassin, he finds himself behind bars, his fate in the hands of his gorgeous public defender Grier Childe. His hot attraction to her can only lead to trouble—and that's before Jim Heron tells him his soul is in danger. Caught up in a wicked game with the demon who shadows Jim, Isaac must decide whether the soldier in him can believe that true love is the ultimate weapon against evil.
Main Characters[]
Other Characters[]
- Adrian Vogel
- Alistair Childe
- Billy McCray
- Colin
- Daniel Childe
- Devina
- Dog
- Eddie Blackhawk
- Jeremiah
- Jim Heron
- Joey Mason
- Louie
- Margarita Alonzo
- Matthias
- Nigel
- Rachel
- Sarah Mason
- Sean C
- Second-in-Command
- Sissy
- Tarquin
- Tony Mason
Plot[]
Readers should be aware that that this book contains themes of drug addiction including death by overdose, PTSD associated with military service, and depictions of rape.
Prologue[]
Two years before, Matthias and Jim Heron were somewhere in a desert in the Middle East and Jim's expecting to end up in a pine box since XOps, the deadly shadow government organization for which he works, doesn't issue pink slips. Matthias sets off a bomb that shreds him in an attempt to get out of his job. If Matthias dies, then Jim will be held responsible for murdering the head of the agency and since his life is also on the line, Jim applies a tourniquet and calls in Isaac Rothe for an evac.
Chapter 1[]
In Boston, Isaac's pissed at an underground MMA fight promoter for using his picture in advertising and is worried about his face and location getting out where the people he's hiding from could see it. He was right to be worried because he sees the second-in-command from XOps just as the police raid the fight and arrest Isaac.
Chapter 2[]
Two days after his death, Jim's getting used to being an angel. Instead of killing Isaac like Matthias wants, probably because Isaac had helped Jim out the night of the bomb, Jim plans on helping him get out of the country and getting back to the contest with Devina. With the help of Adrian and Eddie, he performs a spell over his dead body to summon Matthias to it.
Chapter 3[]
Devina meets with her human therapist to work on her hoarding problem and the stress of her "job." If she loses three more souls to Jim, then all the souls she'd claimed, her most valuable "possessions," would be taken from her. She performs a spell to summon Isaac and Jim using Isaac's sweatshirt that she took when the cops raided the fight and the queen from the chess set Jim was carving.
Chapter 4[]
Grier Childe meets with her latest pro bono case, Isaac Rothe, who's up on charges of second-degree assault and attempted murder for putting his opponent in the hospital with a brain hemorrhage; if he dies, the attempted murder either bumps to murder II or manslaughter. He's not very forthcoming with any information and doesn't think that she can help him. Looking at him, she recognizes signs that he served in the military, the same ones she sees in her father.
Chapter 5[]
It's been a long time since Isaac's been in the presence of anyone he deems a "lady," and is blown away by her. While he doesn't want her involved in his case, even though she seems determined to help him, he knows he'll be safer out from behind bars; it would be easy for Matthias to have someone get in and eliminate him.
Chapter 6[]
Looking for Isaac, Jim's showing the fight promoter's flyer at a gym where an off-duty firefighter recognizes Isaac and tells Jim that he was arrested the night before. The fight was raided by the firefighter's cousins who're cops because the promoter was throwing fights except for ones Isaac was in because he refused to, and he never lost.
Grier goes to Isaac's apartment for the cash to cover his bail and finds the money in a plastic grocery bag behind a loose board. The only items in the apartment other than the bag are high-end security system devices, toiletries, and a sleeping bag containing a pair of 40's with suppressers and no serial numbers. She calls a PI and asks him to look into Rothe's background. She'd put up the $25,000 bail herself but realizes Rothe's going to ghost as soon as he's out.
Chapter 7[]
Once released, Isaac ducks Grier's offer of a ride and takes off running for his apartment. Sneaking in just in case the place is being watched, he finds that Grier didn't take any of the money. He calls the fight promoter and asks when and where the next fight is, then spends the rest of the day hopping public transit to avoid staying in any place too long.
The private investigator informs Grier that officially Isaac Rothe died five years ago, but with the way he's managed to avoid popping up on the grid and faking his own death, he has to be involved with the US government.
Chapter 8[]
The archangel Nigel is upset because he likes order and rules, but Devina is cheating by getting too involved with the players. Colin reminds him that they still have Adrian and Eddie, which the Creator allows as a balance to Devina's duplicity.
Chapter 9[]
Adrian, Eddie, and Jim head to the abandoned half-finished office building where the next fight's to take place. When Isaac sees Jim, he assumes that he's there to kill him. Jim confirms that, that's what Matthias wants in exchange for some intel, but he's not going to follow through on that. Isaac tells him he's stupid because Matthias is going to go after him, too, for that and he's doubly stupid for coming to him unarmed. Even though Jim offers to get him out of the country, Isaac doesn't trust him since everyone in XOps only ever looked out for themselves.
As they talk, Jim realizes Isaac's the next soul to save and isn't surprised that Matthias is playing for Devina's side. Jim tells Isaac that he's going to need his help and he owes him for that night in the desert. Thinking it over, Isaac knows that if Jim wanted him dead, he would already be. Matthias' second in command is there and wants to go up against Isaac in the octagon.
Chapter 10[]
Having gotten the location from her PI friend, Louie, Grier shows up at the fight thinking that she's going to talk Isaac out of running and racking up more charges. She watches Isaac beat his opponent, snapping the guy's arm in the process.
Isaac's shocked to see Grier and she chews him out for fighting again, which gets him hot and bothered. After Isaac takes his winnings and agrees to another fight, Grier walks out.
Chapter 11[]
Matthias' number two reports that Isaac's still alive like he wanted and that Grier's his lawyer. Matthias already knew that because he'd arranged for her to be assigned to his case to ensure that Isaac would be released so that not only could they kill him, but use his body in the future. Now that he's out, Matthias wants to get her away from Isaac so that he can continue using her as leverage against her father, Alistair Childe.
Matthias heads to Caldwell to, amongst other inexplicable reasons, confirm for himself that Jim Heron is dead.
Chapter 12[]
The ghost of Grier's brother, Daniel, tries to warn her to get into her car and lock the doors, but a meth-head from the crowd recognizes Grier since he'd known Daniel and tries to mug her. Isaac pulls the guy off of her and starts pummeling him, then stops when Grier tells him to. Daniel urges her to let Isaac drive her home even though she knows logically that being alone with a client who's possibly a murderer is a bad idea.
Chapter 13[]
Grier takes Isaac home with her and he tries to get her to take the money for his bail, but she refuses and tries to get him to stop running and show up for his court date. She tries to get him to talk to her about who he's running from, but he doesn't want to get her involved. Like she'd tried to do with her brother, she wants to save Isaac from ruining his life. She offers to let him stay the night even though she's pretty sure he's a professional killer, which he doesn't deny.
Chapter 14[]
As Grier cooks, she accuses Isaac of running from his responsibilities and he snaps back that it's about survival. She mentions her father, who has contacts deep in the government, and even thought the name doesn't immediately ring any bells, he tells her that she needs to let him go and forget she ever met him. She continues to try and negotiate with him, asking him to stay the night where it's safe, then he can leave with his money.
To try and scare her away from him, he tells her he's more likely to eat her alive than be a charity case for her to save. Growling at him, she dares him to unless he was just trying to frighten her because she's not going to back down. He warns her that there are other things a man could do to a woman other than simply kill her, but instead of giving into the attraction they feel for each other, he goes back to arguing with her.
Chapter 15[]
Adrian, Eddie, and Jim arrive at Grier's and Jim casts a protective spell on the house. The ward covers the entire house in one go, which astonishes Adrian and Eddie, but they have to leave right after that otherwise their presence there could get her attention since she's slept with all three of them and sex is one way a demon has of getting their hooks into a person.
Chapter 16[]
Grier gives Isaac some of her brother's old clothes to wear and after some thick sexual tension, they both go to bed.
Chapter 17[]
Adrian picks up a woman to bring back to his motel to share with Eddie in an attempt to wash away the memories of what Devina did to him, but Jim can tell something's wrong by the dead look Adrian's had in his eyes and how tightly wound he's been. Confronting Adrian about his state of mind, Jim sees the same symbol carved into Adrian's back that was carved on the girl Devina had sacrificed as part of a protection spell. Adrian tells him that he's there to work with him, but Jim hasn't been around near long enough to be privy to what's doing with Adrian and Eddie.
After getting shut down, Jim goes back to reading online about the dead girl, with whom he's been obsessed ever since he found her body, but is interrupted when he senses Devina at Grier's house. Upon investigation, he finds Isaac trapped in a nightmare by Devina and goes to intervene. Nigel appears and stops him, warning that if he wakes Isaac up, then Devina will "get into more than just his mind." Jim relates to humans through their souls, and if he opens the door by waking Isaac, Devina can slip into him on Jim's heels. Nigel can't interfere or else risk disqualification of the round.
Chapter 18[]
Jim wakes Grier instead and she's shocked to see an angel in jeans and with the same soldier mien as Isaac outside her bedroom window. He just mouths Isaac's name and points. Forgetting Isaac's warning to knock before entering while he's asleep, she bursts into Isaac's room and he reacts before fully waking, tackling her and putting a gun to her head. He's horrified.
She asks who the body was in the ditch that had been listed as him and he tells her that he wasn't the murderer. He remembers Matthias asking him for his wallet and some clothes and Isaac didn't ask any questions.
Chapter 19[]
After making love to Grier, but not finishing himself, Isaac hides in the bathroom to cry because he'd felt safe and like things were too good to be true. After living with constant stress and fighting to stay alive for so long, he couldn't handle the normality of being with Grier. Isaac leaves while she's asleep, tying a strip of cloth around the lantern on her porch, and he hides in a house under construction nearby to keep watch. Grier leaves for work in the morning without anyone following her, but twenty minutes later, a black car with darkened windows pulls up to Grier's house. Isaac's pretty sure he knows who it is and thinks that it's all his fault.
Chapter 20[]
Grier wakes up not terribly surprised to find Isaac's gone, but she is pissed that he left the cash. She calls the public defender's office and removes herself from the case. Daniel tells her that he thinks Isaac will be good for her and that he's not going to hurt her. When she pushes for information about Isaac, Daniel disappears.
Grier goes to the police to turn over the money and give a statement, after that she goes to Isaac's apartment which is where Matthias finds her. She realizes he's what Isaac had been trying to protect her from. He gives her a card and tells her to call him if she sees Isaac again, then gets the door for her. He tells her that he left something for her in the trunk of her car since most accidents happen at home and she might need to call for help.
Matthias feels trapped and crushed under the inevitability of the course of his life.
Chapter 21[]
Grier's sure that she's seen Matthias before he got the eyepatch and cane, but she can't remember from where or when. In her trunk, she finds a panic button. She's nervous as she drives home, half-expecting a car bomb, and realizes exactly why Isaac had been so paranoid. There's another strip of cloth tied around the lantern, reminding her that she's not alone. In Xops, they left a white mark to indicate a site was clear.
Isaac sees Matthias' car follow Grier home a short time later and then Grier's father, Alistair, arrive not long after. Alistair is shaken when Grier shows him Matthias' card and tells him of being assigned to Isaac's case, then resigning from it and why. Even though it's obvious by his fear that he knows something, he says that he can't tell her. She threatens to go out in public and walk around until whatever it is that has him so afraid finds her or he fesses up.
Alistair gives her a rough sketch of his time gathering intel with Xops where he never killed anyone. Although there's no truly leaving, he hasn't been on an assignment in two years. If Isaac's gone AWOL, then Grier can't help him and if he shows up again, she should call Alistair immediately. He takes the card, white cloth strips, and panic button, telling her that he's going to use them to make it clear that she's completely done with Isaac Rothe and she knows absolutely nothing about his situation or location.
Chapter 22[]
Isaac sneaks into Grier's backyard to find Jim Heron waiting for him. Jim again offers to get him out of the country, but Isaac won't leave until he knows that Grier will be safe and he doesn't trust anyone but himself to take care of her. Resigned, Jim gives him a sandwich, cookie, and a bottle of water since Isaac hasn't eaten since the night before. Jim reminds him that by sticking around, he's putting Grier at risk.
Adrian and Eddy show up to warn Jim that they've got incoming and warn Isaac to get inside the house. The only thing that convinces him to do what they say is Jim pointing out that if he gets inside, he can protect Grier. He gets inside just in time for strange, oily shadows to flow over the backyard as if they have a mind of their own while a gale force wind shakes the brick house.
Chapter 23[]
Matthias arrives in Caldwell to confirm for himself that Jim is dead and he takes a call from Alistair; he tells him that he'll leave Grier alone if Alistair delivers Isaac to him, but if he doesn't he'll kill Grier like he did Daniel.
Adrian, Eddie, and Jim engage the demons, but Jim's summoned away by Matthias' presence at his mortal body lying in the funeral home in Caldwell.
Chapter 24[]
Grier's calmly turning off her security alarm while Isaac's trying to figure out what's happening in the backyard other than a lot of wind and strange shadows and why Jim would be out there with his friends. He can make out what looks like humanoid figures made entirely of darkness fighting, but there's not enough lights to form that many shadows.
The wind dies down and the shadows disappear. Before he goes outside, he hands her one of his guns. The backyard reeks and Adrian and Eddie are covered in what looks like oil that gives off tendrils of smoke and Jim has some burns on his neck and hands like he'd been doused with acid. At their request, Isaac gets some vinegar from Grier and it works to cut the stink and the smoking. Jim's taken off, but he'll be back and Adrian tells Isaac to take care of Grier. When Isaac asks who they are, Eddie tells him, "Just part of Jim's little group." Looking them over, Isaac suspects Jim's going after Matthias and half-joking asks if they're looking for another soldier. Adrian and Eddie look at each other before telling Isaac that it's not their call because it's mostly Jim's to make and he has to be dying to get in.
They're interrupted by Grier, who asks Isaac who he's talking to and he realizes that the other two had disappeared without a sound, earning them his respect. He tells her that there were friends in the yard who want to keep them safe. She's shaken, but the danger and uncertainty are normal for him so he doesn't know what to say. She tells him that she stopped by his apartment earlier and found someone there that her father knew. Then she hands Isaac the business card she'd been given and says that she was supposed to call the number if she saw him. With growing dread, he asks for a description and she says the man had, had an eyepatch.
Grier's pissed that neither Isaac nor her father will tell her anything. He asks her if they'd asked about him when she went to the police station earlier and she says yes, but she didn't tell them much of anything because all she really knows is his name. He asks if the man who was in the apartment asked about him, and she again says she couldn't tell him anything. He tells her that lack of knowledge is what's going to keep her alive because that man is a stone-cold killer and was sending a message by letting her go. Both Isaac and her father know that she'd be tortured for information, which is why he's making sure that she doesn't know anything.
Frustrated, Grier wants to hit something and he offers himself up as a punching bag then things promptly become sexual. Things turn angsty and awkward afterwards and she opens up a little about Daniel.
She gives Isaac the emergency pendant that Matthias gave her and they're interrupted by her father's arrival. Using his key, Alistair lets himself in and demands to know where Isaac is.
Chapter 25[]
Jim goes to the funeral home where his body is and appears to Matthias, who's confirming the body's Jim's. Rather than being surprised, Matthias asks him how he managed such a good body double. Ignoring that, Jim wants to talk about Isaac. Matthias says that his deadline for killing Isaac was yesterday and pulls a gun on him. Jim assumes Matthias is Devina's puppet and challenges him to shoot him. Assuming that Jim's wearing a bulletproof vest, Matthias pulls the trigger. The bullet goes right through Jim and into the wall behind him. Jim tells Matthias to leave Isaac alone and Matthias shoots him again with the same results. Matthias wants to know what Jim is, to which Jim responds that he could be an angel, Matthias' conscience, a hallucination, or a dream.
Isaac's full of state secrets that can't get out for the sake of the greater good, which is why Matthias can't let him go. Jim tells him that he's using faux patriotism to excuse his psychopathy. Isaac's smart enough to evade capture by foreign agents after state secrets and he has no incentive to turn, but, Matthias points out, he's also alone, without money, and desperation drives people to do things they wouldn't normally do. Jim argues that Isaac has a clean record and he's going to disappear; Matthias has the power to let him go. Matthias tells Jim he's a bleeding heart and Isaac has just as much blood on his hands as either of them so stop trying to paint Isaac as some good guy. Jim wonders if maybe he should have let Matthias die in that desert and Matthias tells Jim that he should have followed orders then.
Matthias has changed from when Jim first knew him in basic training, he's always been cold and calculating but he'd still had his humanity. Jim asks Matthias if he's ever met a woman named Devina and Matthias wants to know why Jim's asking. Matthias tells him that he'd only let Jim go temporarily with the intention of pulling him back in when he was needed, whereas before he'd never allowed anyone back in after breaking the trust. He tells Jim that times have changed. Jim puts him to sleep and carries him to his car where he finds Devina waiting for them.
Chapter 26[]
Alistair grabs Grier and demands to know where Isaac is, not believing her when she tells him she doesn't know. Isaac bursts out of the pantry where he's hiding and slams her father into the fridge face-first, threatening to do worse if he touches Grier like that again. Alistair wants Isaac away from his daughter, who's calmly getting a band-aid for a minor cut she got from a piece of broken glass while this is going on. Isaac can tell that underneath the anger, Alistair's scared for her and tells Isaac that he's going to get Grier killed. She's in denial that, that would actually happen and think that he's being hyperbolic.
Alistair tells her that Daniel didn't die of an accidental overdose, it was to punish him by forcing them to watch his son die. Grier starts to go into a shocky panic and, concerned, Isaac tells Alistair to shut up, but she insists on the whole story. In 1964, Alistair was graduating third in his class from West Point when he was approached by someone calling himself "Jeremiah" and tried to recruit him into XOps. Although he was interested, he'd already enlisted in the military and didn't want to break his commitment. In the army, Alistair served as an officer in Vietnam.
Seven years later, Alistair was out, graduating from law school, and getting married, but he craved excitement and settling into a normal, civilian life made him feel as if his life was over. Jeremiah contacted him again and Alistair took him up on his offer. He worked with Matthias, gathering intel. Over time he realized that the information he was gathering on his missions was being used in assassinations.
It wasn't until seven or eight years later that Alistair grew a conscience and couldn't live with what he was doing, even if he wasn't directly responsible. The time away from his family and the stress on them was hurting them all as his wife had started drinking; Daniel and Grier were young, but his absences were starting to affect them. He'd tried to get out then and learned that there was no leaving XOps.
Years later, he stumbled upon some information, something he was not supposed to know, that would be devastating to a certain powerful man and tried to use that knowledge for leverage. One day, some men were waiting for him as he left work and they took him to his son's apartment where Daniel was already high. Daniel thought it was a joke when they pulled out a syringe and he offered up his arm even though Alistair was screaming for him to not let them do it. They forced Alistair to watch, but unable to stop them. When Daniel was dead from an overdose of heroin, they left and took Alistair with them, leaving Daniel's body with the needle in his arm for Grier to find later. Alistair was forced to continue taking missions.
Shattered, Grier orders him to leave and says that she never wants to see him again. Alistair tries to get through to her, but she asks Isaac to get him out of the house. As Isaac's escorting her father out, she starts packing while remembering her brother's death.
Chapter 27[]
Devina wants Jim to spend some time with her in exchange for letting Matthias go unharmed. They go back and forth until she resorts to threatening Matthias' life with a small demonstration of her powers. Finally, Jim puts Matthias in his car and then says he'll go with her.
Alistair tells Isaac that they both know what the only solution is, which makes Isaac think of all the horrible things that could happen to her, and begs him to save his daughter. Adrian helps Isaac get Alistair in his car and on his way. When Isaac asks him what he did to Alistair, Adrian just tells him that he bought him some time because Alistair no longer believes that he saw Isaac at Grier's place so he won't be telling Matthias. Then he leaves Isaac frustrated over the lack of answers.
Back inside the house, Isaac finds Grier packing and argues with her that staying where she is and keeping to her normal routine will make it harder for anyone to hurt her since she'll be immediately missed. She tells him that one way or another she's leaving and he pushes the emergency button that Matthias had given her. As she starts crying, he tries to comfort her by saying that it was inevitable when he walked away, but at least this way he knows she'll be safe.
She pleads with him to run and he tells her that while he wasn't part of the team that murdered Daniel, he's done similar things and deserves death. He's tired of living with the blood on his hands. She's in denial since he's only tried to protect her and he shows her the tattoo of the grim reaper that covers his entire back, which is identical to the one Jim has. He tells her that he's a murderer and not some innocent to be protected because the tick marks at the bottom each stand for a death that he's responsible for.
Chapter 28[]
Adrian and Eddie keep watch in the backyard and wonder where Jim is since he should have been back already. While they wait, Eddie asks Adrian how he's doing because he's obviously still not quite right after what happened with Devina, but Ad refuses to talk about it. A text from Jim comes in on Eddie's phone; it's a picture of Jim naked and bound on a table and surrounded by demons. The accompanying message is "My New Toy." Eddie tries to keep it from him, but Adrian grabs the phone and, knowing exactly what's going to happen to Jim, he says they need to get him out of there.
Jim's bound at his wrists, ankles, and throat with barbed wire. Devina begins to torture his genitalia when he refuses to look at her and then rapes him while her demons bite into whatever parts of him they can sink their teeth into. Determined to make it through this, Jim reminds himself that Matthias was still alive, Adrian and Eddie were protecting Isaac and Grier, and when he wins this round, he's going to laugh in Devina's face.
Chapter 29[]
Grier tells Isaac that she doesn't know what to say about his past, but when it comes to his future, she doesn't think that giving himself up to die will right any wrongs he's done. In fact, she thinks he's a coward because he's effectively going for suicide by cop rather than trying to live with what he's done. The only way he can try to make amends is to expose XOps, stop others from becoming weapons, and ensure that those involved are held accountable. That would be doing actual good rather than getting himself killed.
Isaac's stunned by how absolutely correct Grier is and that he actually wants to follow her suggestion. He asks her to call her dad and have him come back to the house because he's certain that Alistair has the right kind of contacts Isaac's going to need. What happened to Daniel was horrible, but it was someone else's fault, not her father's. Recruits aren't told exactly what they're getting into and Alistair has far less blood on his hands than Isaac does and on top of that he's had to lose a child. Both she and her dad are angry and devastated; he asks her to at least not hate her dad because that will mean Alistair will have lost both his children.
Having convinced her, he says he's going to look for Jim while she's calling Alistair and heads into the backyard to find Adrian and Eddie looking at a cell phone. By the looks on their faces, he can tell that Jim's in some deep shit because he knows from experience that getting taken by the enemy can be worse than taking a deadly wound in the field. Isaac offers to help, but they tell him that he can't and disappear on him when he's distracted by Grier coming to the door to tell him that Alistair's on his way.
Chapter 30[]
On the south lawn of heaven, Adrian and Eddie go to Nigel for help getting Jim out of Devina's clutches, but the archangel tells them that he can't do anything. According to the rules of the match, Devina can't kill him or else she forfeits entirely, nor can she keep him for long. If Nigel interferes, then he, too, would forfeit the contest, even though he's well aware of what Devina can do to Jim. This infuriates Adrian, who leaves, and Nigel's worried about his stability being so shaken this early in the race. Eddie goes to take a swing at Nigel and Colin tackles him until he calms down.
Chapter 31[]
Isaac tells Alistair what he wants to do and they put their heads together over how to go about whistleblowing. While going over the file Alistair has on XOps, Isaac says he wants to bring Jim Heron in on the plan. Grier recognizes the photo of Jim, labeled with his code name Zacharias, as the angel she saw outside her window.
Chapter 32[]
Frustrated that Jim hasn't broken under her physical ministrations, she tries a different tactic and pulls a soul out of the wall where she keeps her victims. It's the young woman whose body Jim had found in Devina's loft where she'd been sacrificed as part of a protection spell. She's horrified at the sight of what's been done to him and, concerned for her, Jim yells at her to turn around and not to look at him. Hearing him struggle in his bonds, she pleads with him to stop hurting himself. Worried about her family being left without answers, she tells him her name, Cecilia Barten or Sissy. They hear Devina approaching and Sissy begins to panic at the thought of being trapped in the wall again. To try and give her something else to focus on, he tells her about Dog and to think about Dog if she starts to lose it before he can rescue her.
Devina appears and Sissy disappears inside the wall again, which is what finally makes Jim lose it. White light pours out of his eyes and he dematerializes out of his bonds, gunning straight for Devina in the shape of a lance. Slamming into her chest, she explodes, leaving behind an amorphous black mass that runs from him. A force barrier prevents him from giving chase and he sags to the floor, remembering finding the bodies of his mother and Sissy, feeling like he failed them both.
Colin comes to get Jim out of there and he begs the archangel to save Sissy instead, but Colin tells him that he can't, that he shouldn't even be there in the first place; if he wants Sissy free of Devina, then he has to defeat Devina in the war, which is continuing without him.
Chapter 33[]
Isaac thinks both Childes have gone nuts and he tells Alistair that Jim's alive, but the older man insists that he's dead because he keeps tabs on the operatives he knows of and knows that Jim was reported shot dead four days ago. The death, however, could be faked as Isaac points out. Alistair heads upstairs to make some calls, Grier pores over her dad's file on XOps, and Isaac heads out back to talk to Eddie who tells him that he's hoping Jim will be able to check in with him in teh morning.
Invisible nearby, Adrian's stewing in his anger at Nigel for not saving Jim from Devina when Colin appears in front of him to tell him that he got Jim out and left him in bed at the hotel room where the three of them are staying. Eddie tries to get Adrian to stay behind and let him take care of Jim so that he doesn't have to suffer the memories of his own suffering at Devina's hands, but Adrian doesn't listen. He finds Jim unconscious in his bed with Dog curled up next to him, he's bloody, torn up, and his face is a swollen mess. Holding Jim to keep him warm while his body's in shock and trying to heal, Adrian feels responsible since he'd practically given Jim to Devina when they'd first met.
Chapter 34[]
Grier asks Isaac about a note in his file and he tells her that he refused to kill women and he required a reason for every target; he'd only go after the ones where he'd seen proof that they deserved to die, and not because of something as subjective as political affiliations. Rapists, murderers, bombers, and the like were the only targets he'd accept.
She tells him that she's proud of him and he says he can't do what he's about to without her. When she asks what his chances are of getting out of this alive, he lies and tells her it's 50/50 when it's closer to zero.
Chapter 35[]
Two boys walking to school pass by Matthias sitting in his car in front of the funeral home and think he's a dead pirate. A neighbour finds them staring inside the car, they tell her there's a dead body inside and she calls the cops. Matthias wakes up to a paramedic trying to check on him and he flashes semi-legitimate FBI identification. He tells the medic a story about coming back from some business at the Canadian border and was driving back when he pulled over in the middle of the night to get some sleep in his car so he didn't fall asleep at the wheel.
Matthias doesn't remember his encounter with Jim the night before. Checking his cell, he finds that Isaac activated the beacon and he calls his second-in-command to send him to Grier's to hold Isaac there until Matthias can get there. He figures that killing Isaac in front of Grier and Alistair will help keep them in line. For some reason, he can hear Jim's voice faintly as if in a dream and he remembers how Alistair had screamed and cried as he'd had Danny killed. He struggles with the decision, but his second-in-command urges him to kill Isaac himself.
Matthias calls Isaac, who tries to set terms for his surrender, and threatens to do dastardly things to Grier that she'll survive, but never recover from. Worse, he'll keep Isaac alive, knowing that he's the reason her life was destroyed. He promises Isaac that if he stays put, he won't hurt either of the Childes. After hanging up, Matthias finds himself in front of a church; he goes inside, sits in a pew, and starts crying.
Chapter 36[]
Isaac lies to Grier again and tells her that Matthias hasn't gotten in touch with him yet. He's terrified for her and is determined to do what he can to keep her and Alistair safe. He tells her that he loves her and a moment later her father comes into the kitchen where they are, making morning coffee. Alistair's contacts are due to arrive the next morning, but Isaac's determined to be gone by then.
Jim wakes up feeling like he was hit by a truck, but he feels even worse over having to leave Sissy behind with Devina. Going to his laptop, he looks up Sissy and finds that she was a college freshman reported missing the week before. Getting a look at himself in the mirror, he throws up at the thought of Sissy seeing the evidence of his torture and violation and passes out shortly after.
Chapter 37[]
Grier is climbing the walls while waiting and knowing that she'll probably never see Isaac again. The security system goes off and Isaac hides her in a crawl space in her closet before going to investigate. There's a hidden staircase inside the crawl space and Grier takes it downstairs to peer through an air vent into the front hall and sees something that frightens her.
Chapter 38[]
Creeping downstairs, Isaac finds everything's too quiet so he makes a noise to draw them out. Matthias' second-in-command steps into view with Alistair as a human shield and a gun to his head. Isaac drops his own gun and offers himself up instead. The operative knocks out Alistair, tells Isaac that there are bigger things in play, and then blows his own head off with Isaac's gun.
Chapter 39[]
Jim wakes up feeling physically fine, but knows that Isaac's in trouble and scrambles to gear up. Adrian tells him that Eddie's also in trouble because he's not answering his phone and gears up, too. Going to Grier's, they find the protection spell still intact and Eddie out cold under a bush without a clue as to what happened to him. Jim leaves Adrian with Eddie and goes to check out the house where he finds Alistair unconscious, the second-in-command dead, and Isaac with empty hands. Looking at the body, Jim senses he'd been Devina's puppet.
Isaac and Jim fight over his decision to turn himself over to Matthias and Jim's scrambling to figure out why the dead guy didn't take the shot he'd had on Isaac. Alistair wakes up and all three of them want answers, but no one's giving up much of anything. Jim checks the body over and finds some discrepancies from what he knew of the guy. Grier pops out of the hidden passage and yells at Isaac for lying to her. Ignoring everyone either yelling at him or trying to get him to see reason, Isaac begins to move the body, which Grier hadn't seen before and she freaks out.
The next wrench in the gears is the cellphone in the body's hand that sent a text message. Jim draws his crystal dagger and tells Isaac to step away from the body.
Chapter 40[]
After spending most of the day sitting in the church, Matthias considers letting Isaac stay on with XOps in a different role or letting the guy go, but as soon as he thinks of it, he rejects the latter option. A text comes in from his second-in-command's phone with a picture of the operative's head blown off and the words "Come and get me - I." Now Matthias is determined to kill Isaac.
Chapter 41[]
Grier's freaking out over the body and Isaac's lies, assuming he'd planned to kill whomever was sent after him and then flee the country. Since he'd lied to her about not turning himself over, she believes everything else, such as his feelings towards her, to be a lie.
Adrian and Eddie join Jim inside and both of them also feel Devina's fingerprints all over the body, which stands up despite missing half its head. Reacting, Isaac shoots it. Jim tackles the animated corpse and stabs it with his crystal dagger, expelling Devina, while Ad and Eddie protect Isaac. Jim's instincts are screaming at him and he realizes the soul in play isn't Isaac's, it's Matthias'.
Chapter 42[]
Isaac's trying to understand what happened, but he's a little more concerned about the immediate threat of Matthias than answers. Grier's getting ready to head to her father's place and away from ground zero. Isaac apologizes to her, but she's too mad at him to hear it and knows that he's reactivated the beacon, ensuring that Matthias finds him. To protect her, he gives her a small platinum piercing that belongs to Adrian. Determined to take care of herself and stop worrying about Isaac, she walks out of the room with her suitcase and without saying goodbye.
Chapter 43[]
Devina's frustrated that Jim's much more powerful than she'd been led to believe and pissed that Jim's actually good deep inside when she'd thought that he was more like her. After what had happened in hell and then at Grier's, she's not at full strength. The soul this round had been her pick, so she'd chosen Matthias who she'd started working on two years ago after the bomb. Worrying over her chances of winning, she indulges her Obsessive Compulsive Disorder to comfort herself before forcing herself to get back to work.
Chapter 44[]
Jim calls Matthias and tells him that he killed his second-in-command, not Isaac. Either way, Matthias doesn't care because he'll take out his revenge on Isaac anyway since that'll affect Jim. He points out that, that's illogical, but Matthias tells him that it is logical if Isaac did kill the operative and Jim's covering for him; if not, then knowing that Isaac died because of him will eat away at him. Jim reminds him that Isaac helped save his life, which Matthias sees as all the more reason to kill him. Jim figures that Matthias' heart isn't in the job anymore if he's making it personal instead of simply business and tries to tell him that he's losing control and being taken over by something else, but there's still time to make different choices. He deduces some of what Matthias had been thinking and that the number two would have tried to talk him out of letting Isaac go, just as he'd talked Matthias out of leaving XOps. Matthias admits that watching the video of Daniel's death and Alistair sobbing was what changed him; his own father would have probably hit the plunger himself if it'd been them in that position.
When he's off the phone, Isaac's cranked off that Jim's trying to go martyr by covering for him and also surprised at hearing that the bomb had been Matthias' suicide attempt. Suspecting that Jim's an angel, the closest he can get to saying the word is asking what he is. Jim says that he just is and they settle in to guard the house and wait for Matthias, or Devina, to arrive.
Chapter 45[]
At Alistair's, things are awkward between him and Grier.
Matthias is shaken by Jim's insight into his thought processes. Thinking back on his history, Matthias realizes his number two had urged him to more and more evil deeds, the first of which was killing Daniel Childe. After the bomb, his number two had made himself indispensable to Matthias and influenced him so heavily that he was practically the one running XOps.
Chapter 46[]
Adrian's watching over the Childes and feeling antsy because he'd much rather be part of the action, not to mention pissed off that they'd gotten the soul wrong.
Alistair confesses to Grier that he'd lied about Daniel to keep her safe and while she believes him, she's going to need some time. A man pulls up in a car and Alistair hands Grier a gun, but they relax when they recognize Jim. He calls across the lawn that "it's all done" and everything's ok so Alistair lets him into the house to talk. Grier returns to the kitchen where they'd been eating dinner and starts clearing the dishes. Someone comes in through the back door and hits her with what feels like a tazer.
Chapter 47[]
Isaac's climbing the walls, feeling like something is wrong. Adrian and Eddie appear, saying that they got a text from Jim, who denies sending it. The beacon goes off and Matthias tells Isaac that he's at Alistair's where he has Grier and he gives Isaac a half hour to show up alone. Jim's figured out it was a ruse from Matthias to get Grier. Isaac finds car keys on the dead body and takes his car, driving like a bat out of hell.
Jim, Adrian, and Eddie fly to Alistair's where they're stopped by Nigel who tells Jim that events are already in place and he can't interfere now or else he'll ultimately fail. To get through to him in his anger, Nigel has to freeze him in place to remind him that there are punishments for breaking the rules set down by the Creator, ones that can mean forfeiting to the other side. Agonized after the choice he has to make, Jim remains outside the house even though he's certain Isaac's going to die.
Chapter 48[]
Matthias has Grier and Alistair tied up, with a bit of supernatural help when it came to the latter. When Isaac appears, Matthias points a gun at Grier's head. Isaac tries to talk to him to no avail and they both end up shooting at each other simultaneously.
Chapter 49[]
Grier crawls towards Isaac to find the bullet hit him right in the heart until he shows her the bulletproof vest he pulled off the body of the second-in-command. Reassuring her that he's all right, he goes to check on Matthias who's found his conscience as he's dying. At first, he thinks he's going to heaven, only to be dragged down to hell.
Chapter 50[]
Isaac is thankful that the threat of Matthias is over and goes about securing the house; he finds a scruffy white dog looking at him before it disappears. He has Grier and Alistair go somewhere very public while he takes care of the bodies. Isaac plans on leaving her since he thinks the last thing she needs in her life is a former assassin. With Jim, Adrian, and Eddie gone, too, Isaac feels like he's been left behind.
Chapter 51[]
Jim barely has time to feel relieved and glad that Isaac's alive before he finds himself in Devina's hellhole to witness the unveiling of her victory flag, which is black. Even though Isaac lived, Matthias still intended to kill him, which means she won the round. Devina tries to seduce Jim and admits she has feelings for him. He distracts her with her desire for him and he rises up out of there.
Back at Alistair's, Jim tells Adrian and Eddie that they lost and they're going back to Caldwell. Since the souls find him, he's going with his instinct and will help Sissy's family bury her body. He figures Isaac will be all right as long as he sticks with Grier.
Chapter 52[]
Grier hasn't heard from Isaac in the week since leaving him at her father's to clean up the bodies and cars. She and Alistair have been having dinner every night like before and are working on their relationship. Daniel appears to her in a white robe to say good-bye, but she'll see him and their mom again after a good long while. He says that he was wrong because of the two of them, he was the one who wasn't ready to let go. He promises to give their mom her love and asks her to tell Alistair that he's ok and that he's forgiven their dad a long time ago. He drops a huge hint that she's pregnant and suggests the name Daniel before disappearing. Grier runs to check to see if she remembered in her birth control in the chaos of the previous week and finds that she'd forgotten.
The doorbell rings and Grier finds Isaac on her doorstep with a single white rose. He tells her that he spent the last week "taking care of things" and deciding that he wants to go legit. He knows he's going to have to live with what he's done, but he's going to focus on the future and go to trial for the cage fighting. After that he's thinking about a job maybe in security.
She tells him that she thinks she's pregnant, which floors him at first, but then he's ecstatic and they have sex.
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