“Let me ask you something,” Jim drawled. “You ever met a woman named Devina?”

That one eyebrow arched. “Now why would you ask that?”

“Just curious.” He straightened his leather jacket. “FYI, I’ve had a devil of a time with her.”

“Thanks for the dating advice. That’s really my priority right now.” Matthias returned the sheet back over Jim’s cold gray face. “And feel free to kill me anytime. You’d be doing me a favor.”

Those last words were spoken softly—and proved that physical pain could bow even the fiercest of wills if it was strong enough and lasted long enough. Then again, Matthias had had a shift of priorities even before that explosion, hadn’t he.

“You know,” Jim said, “you could take off as well. I did. Isaac’s trying. There’s no reason if you don’t have the stomach for this anymore that you can’t get out, too.”

Matthias laughed in a burst. “You left XOps only because I let you go temporarily. I always intended to get you back. And Isaac is not getting away from me—the only way I would consider not offing him is if he would continue to work for the team. In fact, why don’t you tell him that for me? Given that you two are so buddy-buddy and all.”

Jim narrowed his eyes. “You’ve never done that before. Once someone’s broken the trust, you’ve never let them back in.”

Matthias exhaled on a raw shudder. “Times change.”

Not always. And not about that shit. “Sure enough,” Jim said on a lie. “Let’s put me back in there, shall we?”

The two of them slid the slab into the refrigerator unit and Jim relatched the door. Then Matthias slowly bent down to pick up his cane, his spine cracking a number of times, his breath hitching as if his lungs couldn’t handle their job as well as the pain he was feeling. When he righted himself, his face was an unnatural red—proof of how much the simple movement had taken out of him.

A broken vessel, Jim thought. Devina was working with or through a broken vessel here.

“Did any of this really happen?” Matthias said. “This conversation.”

“The whole damn thing is real, but you’re going to take a little nap now.” Before the guy could ask, Jim brought up his hand and summoned power to his forefinger. As the tip began to glow, Matthias’s mouth dropped open. “You’ll remember what was said, however.”

With that, he touched Matthias on the forehead and a shimmer of light went through the man like a struck match, flaring fast and bright, consuming both the broken body and the evil mind.

Matthias went down like a stone.

Angel Ambien, baby, Jim thought. Knocks out the best of ’em.