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Dayne sighed. And you re telling me this because you want to
help me, right?
Dr. Jezick frowned. Dayne decided her response hadn t been the
one Jezick had expected.
I assume you ll want to get even after all, you certainly
weren t one of the damned before this.
Dayne repositioned Tad, rolling him to one side and placing
pillows under his upper arm and upper leg to hold him in place and
keep the pressure off of his limbs. I knew Adam was one of the
Hellraised, she told Dr. Jezick. Just as I suspected you were. I
was pretty sure about Adam before I went to bed with him; I didn t
have any doubt at all after. She smiled, remembering Adam s
little anatomical omission an omission that would have been just
right had he been the original Adam, too.
Dr. Jezick blanched. You . . . knew?
I knew. I love him, and he loves me, so I didn t feel and still
don t, for that matter that God would hold our lovemaking
against us. Not in any real, significant way. I knew Adam was
trying to tempt me, too; I figured that out after the fiasco with the
contract. She pulled the sheet up over Tad, and stood there resting
her hand on the little boy s arm. Adam refused to offer me the
contract a second time, and told me that I wouldn t like working
for Satco; when he did that, I knew he cared about me.
He . . . did . . . what? Dr. Jezick stood. He threw the contest?
Apparently. You haven t though, have you? You re here to
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tempt me, too.
Mhya Jezick got out of the chair and walked to Dayne s side.
She towered over Dayne, exuding the same aura of compelling
sexuality and inhuman beauty that marked Adam. Since you
know why I m here, we might as well not play games. I can give
you whatever you want. You want to be rich I can make you
richer than nations. You want to be beautiful I can make you the
most stunning woman since Helen of Troy . . . who also ended up
working for us, for that matter. You want power I can make you
the President of the United States, if you want the job . . . or the
power behind the President, if you prefer that.
I don t want anything.
Of course you do. What about Agon Adam? You want him,
don t you? I can give him to you.
He isn t yours to give. Dayne pulled a roll of tape out of her
pocket and began tearing it into short, narrow strips she needed
to redress both IVs.
He will be after today.
No. I won t deal with you for Adam. That is in God s hands.
Mhya Jezick glared at Dayne with eyes that glowed red and evil.
Then the red glow guttered out, and the fallen angel smiled. There
is something you want, after all, and if you sign my contract,
consigning your soul to Hell at the end of your life, I ll give it to
you.
Dayne laughed. You re persistent, but I m not kidding. There is
nothing you can offer me that I d even consider.
How about the power to heal your patients?
Dayne froze. The roll of tape dropped to the bed. Involuntarily,
she glanced down at Tad lifeless Tad, who deserved a whole life
ahead of him. What if she could speak a single word and make him
better? What if she could bring back his missing eye, restore his
damaged face, return his wandering spirit to his body what if she
could, in an instant, give him back the life that stupidity and
carelessness had stolen from him?
The ghosts of the patients she d lost during her career paraded
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before her mothers and fathers and grandparents, sisters,
brothers, sons and daughters; all of them important to someone . . .
all of them important to her. In the next twenty or thirty years, how
many more would there be? How many more people beyond hope
or help would come through those doors, begging her to do
something. How many more of their families would look at her,
their eyes filled with a frightening desperation, and ask, Do you
think he ll get better?
How long would she be able to face them, if she knew that she d
had the chance to make the difference, but that she had chosen to
turn it down?
Her soul, or all those lives?
She bit her lip and looked down at Tad, then up at Dr. Jezick.
She was beyond words.
Dr. Jezick wasn t. She said, I have a pen and a contract right
here.
Dayne whispered, Let me read the contract. Out of the corner
of one eye, she saw a flash of blue.
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Chapter 43
I m sorry, your Omnipotence, but I was desperate! Look!
God, now a tall, beautiful black woman with her hair braided in
cornrows, crossed her arms beneath her impressive bosom and
said, I was in the middle of blessing the crops in a drought-
stricken village in Africa. I would have liked to finish.
But she s thinking about signing!
God gave the angel a blank stare. Who?
Dayne Kuttner!
God stopped looking put out; her mouth dropped open and she
whispered, Signing? A contract with Hell? That can t be!
Jezerael offered her the power to heal.
God hit a few keys on the keyboard and the scene on the monitor
rewound, then ran forward. The angel once again saw Jezerael
tempting Dayne, and once again heard Dayne say, Let me read
the contract.
God put the monitor on pause. Don t watch, she said.
What? What do you mean, don t watch.
Even I m tempted to interfere in this but if we stopped her
from making a decision she wished to make, we would be making
a mockery of the free choice I promised humankind. So just don t
watch. Then if she signs, we won t know until we check the
register.
But Dayne Kuttner is special. She s the one who called on you
to . . .
They re all special, God said softly, tugging on one bead-
tipped braid. I regret the mistakes each of them makes, and I hope
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