As he followed the man down the steep stairs and through the ridiculously narrow doorway, he realized what had been different about Jones’ office: The antique liquor cabinet was missing. It hadn’t been there when he’d entered, and it hadn’t been there when he’d left.
Or, he thought for the hundredth time since his move to Prominence, I’m just losing my fucking mind.
* * *
“Liar.” Alejandro gripped the woman’s wrist. “You are a liar.” He squeezed until she whimpered, but he was disturbed to see that she was also smiling.
“You can be as rough with me as you like. I enjoy it.”
“Get away from me.” He shoved her away, hard.
She flew back onto the sofa, giggling. “Yes. Just like that, baby.” She pulled her skirt up and opened her legs, exposing her sex to him. Reaching between her legs, she stroked herself, breathing hard and sighing. “Yes. Yes, yes, yes.”
Alejandro stood, his breath coming out in rapid, white explosions of frost. “Get out of this house, now.”
Lena sat up. “I can’t leave.”
“Why?”
She looked confused. “I don’t know. I just can’t. Not until …”
“Until what?”
“Until I do what I was told.”
“What were you told?”
She touched her silver necklace. “Come here, and I’ll show you.”
“No. I want you to leave.”
She shrugged, straightened her skirt, and touched the book on the coffee table. “If you want this, you’re going to have to do what I ask.”
“Who sent you?”
“I can’t tell you that.”
Alejandro stared at her, his hands fisted at his sides. “Get. Out.”
“I told you, I ca-”
“Get out!” Alejandro stepped toward her, his body tense.
Overhead, thunder rumbled despite the clear day. The vibration shuddered the earth and rattled the windows.
Lena stared at his fogged breath, eyes wide.
“Leave, or I will force you out.”
More thunder crashed. Silverware rattled in the kitchen.
The woman looked afraid. Her eyes brimmed with tears. “But I can’t. Not without accomplishing the goal. If you send me out, I’ll be killed.” The silver half-moon pendant hanging from her neck glinted.
Alejandro stared at it, hating it. He sensed some deeper knowledge trying to bubble up to his consciousness. This necklace, he knew, was binding her to the house.
“I do not care if you die. You must leave now.”
She looked as if he’d struck her. “You son of a bitch!” She was on her feet, and as quick as a snake, she lunged for him.
Alejandro held up a hand, felt a sizzling electrical heat sparking from it.
Lena Harding flew back, crashing hard into the wall. For a moment, she was still, and Alejandro worried he’d damaged her. Then she was on her feet, coming at him again.
He clutched her throat. With his free hand, he tore the pendant away from her neck. It burned his skin, making a hiss before it dropped to the floor.
Lena gasped for breath and beat at him, but she was no match.
“Go back to those who sent you,” he began, holding her gaze. “This is what I want you to do.” Alejandro leaned in and whispered a command into her ear.
She nodded, listening closely.
“Do you understand?” he asked.
“Yes.”
He released her, and she quickly bent to gather her necklace, but Alejandro placed his foot over it. When she went for the book, he said, “Leave that, too.” She nodded. Not looking at him, she left the house.
When she was gone, Alejandro felt very tired. Though he vaguely understood the words he’d spoken to her, he did not know where he’d learned the language. He only knew she would carry those words back to her source, and that they would be understood.
I am not like Madison, he thought. I am not a normal person. But what am I? For a brief moment, he had the answer, but quick as a spark, it was gone.
He looked down at the silver necklace. He did not want to touch it but he knew it had to be hidden; it was dangerous. Picking it up by the chain, he took it into the bedroom and tucked it in the back of a drawer.
Then he took off for O’Riley’s Rocks, running faster than he ever had in his life.
* * *
“Ms. Harding!” Gremory was pleased to see the woman, despite the insipid look that never left her face. He escorted her inside his office, shutting the door behind her.
She sat at the desk, staring straight ahead, unblinking.
Gremory took the seat across from her, leaning in, eager for details. “I see the mission was a success!” Otherwise, the woman would have been dead. “Why do you look so glum?”
She shook her head. “No.”
“Pardon me?”
“It wasn’t a success. He sent me back with a message.” As she spoke the arcane words of his native language, Gremory’s smile faltered, then slipped away entirely. Only then did he notice that Lena’s necklace was missing. And that explained how she’d been able to leave the O’Riley house without corrupting the angel. “I see,” Gremory said. “And where is your necklace, Ms. Harding?” If it fell into another’s hands, there was no guaranteeing what might happen. “It was meant for you, no one else.”
“He took it and-”
“Took it?”
Lena’s face reddened with anger and fear. “I did my best! I did everything you said and-”
As she blathered on, Gremory considered the situation. There was no sense crying over spilled milk. The necklace was gone and that was fine. But Ms. Harding had failed, and that was not.
“I don’t know what he did with it, he just tore it right off and-”
Gremory raised a finger to his lips. “Shhh.”
Lena Harding’s voice was abruptly silenced, her vocal cords paralyzed.
He needed to think. This was not part of the plan.
Ms. Harding, shocked by the loss of her voice, sobbed silently - her face red, the cords in her neck standing out as she tried to make sound.
Gremory looked at his walking stick resting beside him. He touched it, stroked its brass head. “Give me your hand?”
Lena shook her head.
“I will not ask again.” Gremory leaned forward and tapped the desk. “Come along. Place your hands upon the desk.”
Tears spilled.
“Do it, or you will wish you’d never been born.” He spoke in the voice of Hell itself, as if a thousand demons were commanding from within him.
Ms. Harding placed her hand flat on the desk, wincing, closing her eyes, as Gremory brought his walking stick up. “This is Victoria. She’s been with me for a very long time. I think the two of you shall get along infamously.” He grinned.
Her relief was apparent when he did not break her fingers but rather, gently touched the backs of her hands with the end of the stick.
Gremory smelled the burn before he saw it.
Lena’s eyes went wide as moons and her lips pulled back in agony as the flesh at her fingertips began turning inside out, peeling back, moving up her hands and arms, slowly curling away from meat and bone. She stared, eyes bugging, silently screaming as the skin flayed itself from her shoulders, her neck. There was a rather sickening popping sound as tendons snapped and bleeding flesh continued ripping itself from her frame. Her neck, then her face, became things that belonged in a butcher’s shop. Her lidless eyes rolled wildly from the red mess of her head and her mouth, now lipless, grinned at him.
He smiled back at the peeled, bloody woman just before her body surrendered to the insult and she fell, raw, wet, and dead onto his hand-loomed Oriental rug. Such a crying, dying shame ...
He reached for his cigarettes, lit one, then picked up the phone and punched in Astaroth’s number. “There’s been a change of plans. Be here in thirty minutes. I’ll explain then. Do not inform the other just yet.” He glanced at Lena
Harding’s lifeless, skinless body. “And send someone to clean my rug.”
Ending the call, he drummed his fingers on the desk. Outside, the sky responded to their rhythm with rolling thunder that grumbled and groaned.
Gremory recalled the ancient words Ms. Harding had relayed from the angel.
He’s remembering what he is. This changes things …
Sex, Lies, and Fireworks
“I really wish you’d tell me what’s going on.” After closing up shop, Madison sat in the back room, rechecking the day’s receipts.
Alejandro, who’d shown up panicked and out of breath several hours earlier, sat in a folding chair right next to her, very close. “I told you, I do not want to talk about it in front of … her.”
“She can’t hear us, Alejan-”
“You do not know that.” His eyes seemed more silver than usual.
Madison recalled how hard Dette had tried to eavesdrop on her and Nick Grayson earlier and realized Alejandro might be right.
“We will talk about it when we get home.” He spoke just above a whisper.
Something had spooked him and he hadn’t left her side since arriving. He was like a puppy with separation anxiety.
“Okay.” But Madison’s gut said it wasn’t okay. “Just let me finish up and we can go.” She returned to the receipts, trying to focus.
* * *
Shawn Barzetti and Bobby Beckstead crouched in the shadows beyond the parking lot of Roxie’s Diner, giggling.
“Dude,” said Bobby. “This is going to be fucking epic!”
“Shhh!” Shawn slapped the back of his friend’s head.
“Ouch! What the fuck, man? It’s not like they can hear us!”
Shawn raised his binoculars and watched as Roxie Michaelson flipped the OPEN sign over and locked the doors. “They’re officially closed, man.” Tiffany Rhodes began wiping down tables.
“Let me see, dude!” Bobby swiped the binoculars away, nearly yanking Shawn over.
“They’re attached, dumb ass!”
“Sorry.” Bobby moved in close, careful not to pull the straps too taut. He giggled under his breath. “Any minute now.”
“My turn.” Shawn reclaimed the binoculars and watched as Tiffany lazily ran a rag across the counter. Roxie was out of sight. Probably in back doing inventory or whatever the fuck it was she did at closing time.
He glanced at the men’s room door and felt his heart pound harder. He needed to piss something fierce, but he couldn’t pry himself away. Eventually, one of the women would have to check the shitters where Shawn and Bobby had secreted plastic explosive, which would go Ka-Blooey! as soon as someone hit the lights.
Any minute now, Shawn and Bobby would have a fireworks show all their own. Shawn’s bladder contracted in excitement.
* * *
“This can’t be right.” But Madison knew she hadn’t made a mistake.
“What is wrong?” Alejandro leaned closer.
“Seventy dollars is missing. I’ve counted it twice.” She put her head in her hands, then stood and peered out the door. “Dette? Come here a moment.”
Dette looked up from folding shirts. She looked tired and haggard. “What is it?” She sounded icy - and had since Madison had refused to tell her what she and the chief of police had been talking about.
Dette stood in the office doorway, arms folded, not looking at Alejandro. He avoided her gaze as well.
“The register is short seventy dollars, Dette. Seventy dollars even.”
Dette shrugged.
Anger bubbled. “Is there something you want to tell me, Dette?”
Dette’s eyes went wide. “I hope you’re not accusing me!”
“Should I be?”
“I’m your best friend! You know I’d never do anything like that!”
“I don’t know what else to think.”
Dette’s gaze flitted. “You know,” she said. “When you were gone earlier …”
“What about it?”
“I was back here … you know, grabbing something to eat. I thought I heard someone come in but when I looked, I didn’t see anybody.” She paused. “And then … I thought I heard a clanking sound. You know, like maybe someone was in the cash register. But I didn’t see anyone.”
Madison knew she was lying; she could see it. “If you need some extra money-”
“I told you, I didn’t do it!”
Madison held up a hand.
Alejandro shifted, his jaw tight.
“Okay, okay.” Madison sighed. “I just hope that if you need money, you feel comfortable asking for extra hours. You know I’ll swing something for you.”
Dette’s nostrils flared. “Maybe it was him!” She shot a finger at Alejandro.
He stared at her, eyes blazing.
“He’s the complete stranger, not me!” Dette turned on her heel and disappeared.
Seconds later, Madison heard the front door slam as Dette left the shop. “Well, I tried to be nice about it.”
“I do not steal.” Alejandro’s nostrils flared.
“I know she did it. I just don’t understand why.”
“Because she is bad now.”
Madison tipped her head. “Bad now? What do you mean?”
He considered. “I am not sure.”
Madison wasn’t sure either, but his words rang true. “Let’s lock up and go home.”
* * *
Bobby stared through the binoculars, shaking with laughter.
“What’s so funny?” asked Shawn.
“I was just thinking … what if when they explode, one of Tiffany’s tits goes flying through the air and lands in a tree? Or if we get hit by Roxie’s butt!”
“That would be awesome,” said Shawn. “Then we really could say she gave us a piece of ass!”
Bobby snorted. “We already can. Hell, every dude in town can say that.”
“True that, man. True that.” Shawn thought of the orgy in the woods. “The only bad thing is, when Roxie’s dead, we’ll need to find another chick who’s willing to take us both on at once, you know?” Suddenly, he wondered if killing Roxie was a good idea, after all.
Bobby lowered the binoculars. “Fuck her. Fuck all bitches. What do we need them for, anyway?”
Shawn considered. Given that he and Bobby had been satisfying their manly needs bitch-free for days now, he figured the guy was right. He shrugged. “Good point.” He was glad they’d found a loophole and wondered how they’d overlooked it for so many years. They weren’t gay or anything - it was just a little hand and mouth action to get them by.
“Dude, I need to take a leak.”
“Right?” said Shawn. “Me too. Bad. You go first. I’ll keep watch.”
Bobby handed over the binoculars then stood and unzipped, hosing down a twiggy little bush next to Shawn, who watched as Tiffany started sweeping the floors.
Yes, yes, yes! Any minute now!
* * *
While they drove, Alejandro told Madison about the woman who had visited the house. As he spoke, he kept glancing behind them, as if worried they were being followed. It seemed to Madison there was something he wasn’t telling her.
“So,” she said. “A religious nut came to the house and wouldn’t leave. That’s why I never invite missionaries in.” That was number thirteen on her Life Lessons list, but she didn’t tell him that. “I asked you not to answer the door, remember?”
He stared at the road. “We are in danger.”
Madison’s blood chilled. “What do you mean?”
“That woman. She said we are in danger. That our souls are in danger and that a man sent her to save us.”
The relief was instantaneous; Madison almost laughed. “Alejandro. All that talk about saving souls - it’s what they believe. But it isn’t true. It isn’t literal.”
He looked unconvinced.
“It’s like that guy on TV. Reverend Bobby.”
“He is a bad man.”
“I agree, but he’s just doi
ng his job. And he believes he’s doing the right thing.” Madison doubted this was true, but for the sake of simplicity, continued. “The point is, this woman was like him. She believed she was doing the right thing.”
He shook his head. “No. We are in danger.” He slid his gaze to hers. “I can feel it.”
Madison’s throat went dry. “What are you not telling me, Alejandro? Did something else happen today?”
He blinked, seemed as if he might speak, then shook his head. “We are in danger.”
“If there’s something you need to tell me, I wish-”
High beams flashed in Madison’s rearview, momentarily blinding her.
Alejandro craned his neck and stared back.
Madison flipped the mirror down.
“We are being followed.”
“By whom?”
“I do not know.”
The car behind them lowered its beams and backed off.
“I don’t think they’re following us,” said Madison, but she felt spooked. She came to a stop sign, relieved when the car turned off. “See? It’s okay. No one is following us.”
Alejandro turned around and faced the road. “But they will be.”
Madison was getting mad. “Who, Alejandro? Who will be following us?”
“I do not know.”
She sighed. “Of course, you don’t.”
Madison wanted to brain the guy. He’d come to the shop in a panic and wouldn’t let her out of his sight. Now he was acting as if they were being stalked by the Cliffside Bodice Ripper himself - all because a Jehovah’s Witness or a Mormon had come to the door.
But looking at him, she knew his fear was genuine. She also knew there were things he wasn’t telling her. Not because he was keeping secrets deliberately, but because he couldn’t articulate the things he wanted to say.
He turned to her. “I would like to sleep with you tonight.”
Madison thought she might lose control of the wheel. “I, uh, um …What?”
“So I know you are safe.”
Relief - and a little disappointment - overcame her. “Oh, yes. Of course. If you want to, I mean. That’s fine.”
The Angel Alejandro Page 43