If resources were going to be diverted, it could not be on a wild-goose chase.
It just couldn’t.
Lassiter put his hardcover down for a second time and looked to the double doors V had come through—like he was considering using them himself. Or ruing the fact that he had opened them.
“I thought this was only about the Book,” the angel murmured.
“They’re a BOGO and you know it.”
Lassiter shook his head, for once losing his playful resistor act and getting dead frickin’ serious. “You’re rolling dice that may fall on your head, V. I know that you and I don’t see eye to eye, but I want you to listen to my warning here.”
“I’m willing to take that chance.”
“Why don’t you assume that she’s still here and call it a night?”
“Is that your final answer?”
“It’s not an answer. It’s just advice.”
V stared at the angel and stayed quiet. After what felt like an hour, a soft, warm breeze wound its way around his ankles. And then the whole room they were in started to rotate, the garish horror of the animal prints smudging as the spinning increased in velocity, the multiple patterns blending into a swirl that began to fade away, like a fog was encroaching—or more accurately, the private quarters were disintegrating.
As everything disassembled into ether, V glanced down at his shitkickers and found that he was floating.
“Now can you tell me,” he said to the angel who was up on his feet and levitating as well.
“A fundamental can never be destroyed.” Lassiter’s long hair was teased in the wind that carried no sound. “It can be transferred into other forms, but it cannot be destroyed. There is no entropy with an immortal like Devina.”
V frowned. “What about the Omega? He was destroyed.”
“No, you shifted his energy to another plane. Butch delivered his essence to you, and you were the portal to that other dimension, but nothing died or disappeared. He’s just no longer here with us.”
A tingle went down V’s spine and sizzled his remaining testicle. “So the Omega is still around?”
“No, I told you, he’s on another plane. The Creator has many of them. The ‘reality’ we all are in at the moment is merely one.”
“Can the Omega get back here?”
“Maybe. Maybe not.”
A sense that time was of the essence made V not ask for even the Cliffs Notes on all that. “The demon isn’t gone then, as the result of that house fire. She’s still with us, true?”
“Flames aren’t going to do anything but inconvenience her. The Book’s the same. That’s all I can say, though.” Lassiter lifted his finger. “No, there’s something else.”
V leaned forward. “What. Tell me.”
The angel glanced around the milky white that surrounded them, and it struck V that this landscape—wherever it was—was made of the same components as the sky over the Other Side. Then he forgot about all that. The angel’s face was drawn in such tense lines that for a second, V did not envy the guy—and not just because Lassiter was an idiot a lot of the time—
“Betty White.”
V popped his eyebrows and closed his lids at the same time. “I’m sorry?”
“I had a crush on Betty White, not Bea Arthur. It’s a world of difference.”
Shaking his head, V couldn’t believe in the middle of everything, this was the point Lassiter had to elaborate on. “Listen, my guy, once you’re in Geritol territory, I’m not sure there are many degrees of separation.”
“And before you go, one other thing.”
“Rue McClanahan I can kind of see—”
“Do not open it.”
“?’Scuse me.”
“The Book. It’s a portal. When the spells on its pages are used, they open up cracks in the separation between planes. Some of what’s in it is nothing more than party tricks, but other incantations can change the course of destiny. In either case, every time it’s used, the boundary that protects our reality is weakened. You think the Omega is bad? Wait’ll you see what it’s like when you have to deal with the toxic waste of an entire other world on top of what’s on your plate now.”
Great. Christmas in April.
As V stroked his goatee and did some real Armageddon math, he was aware the angel had just confirmed that the Book was still kicking around, too. Nice.
“I’ll tell everybody to leave it closed.”
“Especially you.” As V’s brows arched, Lassiter demonstrated opening and closing with his palms. “The Book interacts with whoever is handling it. We do not want your power amplifying its own. You’re liable to blow a hole in the space/time continuum. Stay the fuck away from that thing, Vishous. I’m telling you. We do not want those kinds of consequences.”
V rubbed his hair. “Okay. Important tip.”
“You better believe it. Now, you and I? We didn’t have this conversation.”
There was a tremendous whoosh, and then the private quarters rematerialized.