Underworld Lover (A Guardian Angel Romance #2)

by haron Hamilton

  This surprised him. What have you done, Audray? He smiled as his imagination took hold.

  “Josh?” Melanie was smiling now.

  “Nope. Had nothing to do with it, but I’d say he has a new girlfriend.”

  “That mean I’m off the hook?”

  “Not at all. More like he’s temporarily distracted. He’s not likely to give up that quickly.” He chuckled to himself again, shaking his head.

  “You know the girl, then?”

  This was hilarious to Josh. He raised his head to the ceiling and laughed aloud. Travis and the customer looked over. At last, Josh was able to continue. “You jealous, Mel?”

  She punched him in the arm. “She must have been one of yours.”

  “No, I never…she was someone I turned. I’m her sponsor.”

  “You guys with your twelve-step meetings.”

  “Easier to get churches and schools to let us meet. Can’t imagine them letting a bunch of dark angels preying on the human population use their facilities, do you?”

  “I agree. So Peter is okay?”

  “If what I think has happened actually has, Peter is doing more than okay.” He came over to Melanie, embraced her from behind, and whispered in her ear, “But I imagine he’s bound to be a little sore.”

  Melanie let Travis off early. Josh stayed to help close up the shop, and then they agreed to meet at his house.

  He was relieved when Melanie’s truck pulled into his driveway. It had taken her a full two hours to get there and he was about to go looking for her on his own.

  He motioned for her to park behind the garage so her truck wouldn’t be visible from the street.

  “I was getting worried,” he said.

  “Well I got a call from my father. They think something’s happened to Peter. They think I have something to do with it.”

  Josh took over the canvas bag she brought out from the passenger side of the truck. “You haven’t told them about our plans?”

  “What’s there to tell? But no, I have said nothing.”

  “He’ll pop back up. He’s not done yet.”

  “My father asked if I knew anything about him, if he revealed anything about his habits. I think they are a little afraid of him, perhaps.”

  “As they should be.”

  “I laid into my mother pretty thick, accusing her of trying to fix me up with someone they knew virtually nothing about. I think they get the impression I know more than I’m saying. That bothers me a little.”

  “They’ve picked up on Peter’s negative aura. I never used to believe in such things. Now, who knows?” Josh shrugged his shoulders and opened his kitchen door at the back of the large house.

  He prepared a light dinner and set up a small table between the red leather chairs in the living room so they could eat by the fire. All evening he watched Melanie search the walls and ceilings of the grand living room, her eyes resting frequently on Daniel’s paintings, as well as the antiques Josh had accumulated during his three hundred year lifespan.

  After dinner, he showed her his collection of swords and sabers, kept under lock and key in the study. He also had original maps and journals from seventeenth and eighteenth century explorers, and his most prized possession, a “space rock” he’d bought from a NASA employee after one of the lunar programs had been shut down. He liked holding the heavy smooth black and deep burgundy stone—something that was not of this world.

  Melanie seemed to be interested in all of it, especially the history of the books that were signed and dated by authors long since passed.

  “I’ve dined and gotten drunk with most of them here,” he said to her wide eyes and broad smile. “I seemed to be attracted to the more tortured souls, the ones I could occasionally claim. I honestly believe I gave them what they wanted: immortality. Not my fault if they continue torturing themselves.” His fingers lightly traced over the spines of the old books and journals. “Ah, those days. Not like today. Things are different today.” His daydream took him to cobblestoned streets and dancing halls decorated with bows of holly and evergreen. He saw satin and silk and heard the swishing of gowns.

  “What’s different?”

  “I liked the magic of those days. The mystery, the romance.” He dropped his gaze and placed an errant blond curl behind her ear.

  “Would you prefer to be back there?” she asked, taking his hand and walking to another painting.

  “No. Not really. Not now.”

  She brought her lips to his. He felt her fragile humanness yet didn’t consider her the weaker of the two of them. But he liked being careful around her. Protective.

  “So, you never left someone behind?” she asked.

  Josh smiled at her perceptiveness. “No one I dared be with, like you. I always kept myself detached.”

  “So there was someone?”

  “Not really. I let many possibilities get away. That was the best I could do for them.”

  “How sorry for them.”

  “Sorry? That they found a way to live without me? Hardly.”

  “You helped them change their minds?”

  “No. That’s what Guardians do. I usually let those angels do their job. They do it better than I.” They walked to Daniel’s favorite painting, the one with the pink leopard with yellow and purple spots.

  “But not for me, right?”

  “No, there was no Guardian. Yours is different. You are in real danger, but from an outside source. Your soul is not struggling with a reason to live.”

  “Would you be here if I wasn’t in danger from Peter?”

  “Asked and answered.” He drew her close, arms about her waist. “Nothing could have kept me away.”

  “So how do you decide who becomes a dark angel and who just dies?” she asked.

  “Only a few of us have the power to persuade people to take their own lives. We consider it a gift.” He stopped to reposition his body, with his palm over his heart. “I am considered to be the most successful.”

  Melanie did not smile.

  “I cull the human population for people who no longer want to live. I help them make that choice.”

  “But I think everyone can be saved from making that decision,” she said. “When I think back on it, how close I got, I shudder. Don’t you have people who regret it?”

  Josh inhaled at the thought of what he considered to be the biggest drawback to his profession. “It happens all the time. I try to be careful with mine. I make sure they know what they are getting into first.”

  He reached for her hand, which she gave to him without hesitation. He led her upstairs.

  “Enough talk about life and death. Let’s talk about love.”

  “Better yet, let’s not talk at all,” she said, smiling.

  Chapter 36

  The next day, Josh was scheduled to lead a recruits meeting and Melanie had to open up the flower shop early. He gave her a long goodbye kiss in the kitchen. As she skipped down the back steps to her truck, Josh called out to her from the back porch. “Mel. Please be careful out there. Just remember, people aren’t who they seem.”

  She nodded. Her truck rattled backward down his driveway, then he heard it amble down the wide street, backfiring at the stop sign on the corner, which made him smile.

  Josh arrived slightly late for the meeting. The white church with tall, green copper steeple sat in the middle of a field of daffodils. The bright yellow flowers belied the tension of the day. Restless dark angels, young in their immortal years, mulled outside, most of them in groups of two or three, and almost all of them smoked. Josh wondered why that was until he realized the darks were going to live forever, so they wanted to enjoy everything they had abstained from as humans. Probably why RedEcstasy is so popular down below.

  Josh fumbled with the keys, then managed to unlock the hall. He supervised the setting up of folding chairs for their meeting. It was a large group today, about fifty men. The classes were increasing in size ever since the beginning of the year, Josh
noted. Not a woman in sight. And most of these new ones were not ones he’d turned.

  He asked them all to introduce themselves and mention who their sponsor was. Almost all of them were Peter’s. He wondered what kind of a meeting it would be when Beau Bradley came back.

  There was a brief lesson from Josh on best ways to find new souls to claim.

  “I mean, talk to each other at the break about what brought you here. Remember all that angst? Remember how you felt when you wanted to just give up? Those are the feelings you need to access. Now, where would you go finding those people?”

  The discussion went on for a good thirty minutes longer. Josh declared it time for a break.

  Biker Dude came up to Josh and shook his hand.

  “Nice to see you, sir,” he told Josh, who could barely keep from crossing his eyes from the pain of the handshake.

  “Thanks. Nice to be missed.”

  “Sorry to hear about Karl. I thought he was a decent guy. What happened?”

  “The director tired of him, I guess. He’s arbitrary.”

  “Never had the pleasure, if you can call it that,” Dude replied.

  “Careful. Careful. Not a good idea to go voicing those thoughts, if you value your immortal life.”

  Dude smiled and nodded.

  Josh leaned into his ear and whispered, “But I like that you got my back.”

  The two dark angels shared a conspiratory look.

  Josh shouted for the meeting to resume. Grumbles came from the audience. Two men openly spoke with each other, loudly appearing not to pay any attention to Josh.

  “Gents, please,” he reasoned. They glared at Josh, causing a couple of chuckles and one gasp, but then the two men began talking again, in open defiance of Josh and his authority. Very softly, Josh issued the edict. “It pains me so to keep doing this. But when I ask that you pay attention, I hope you will consider it not an option, but a command.” The two men didn’t alter their attitudes or their conversation.

  The hissing coming from Josh’s eyes became a beam of red laser light and tore through the down vest of the middle-aged bearded dark angel. A couple of white feathers remained suspended in the musty air and then descended to the floor to join a charred, oily black spot. The other dark angel, the young one, dirty blond hair wiggling due to his shaking body, jumped up and put his hands out in front of him. As if that will save you, you asshole.

  The angel’s hands got the jolt first, melting from the inside out, then the red line scorched his chest as his head flew back and he collapsed in a pile of quickly vacated chairs, his shirt still smoking. Josh looked at him, cocking his head, considering the artistic way he landed.

  Then he thought about Melanie and he was sickened. What if she had seen what he could do? She would never feel safe around him again. His stomach churned as he looked around the room at the eyes of the men left.

  “This is better,” he blurted out, like nothing had happened. But he could hear the wavering in his own voice. “I like this number. It was getting a little crowded in here.”

  Biker Dude looked up at him in admiration. The rest of the men scowled and squinted. Not many of them showed fear, and that bothered Josh. Still, he knew the information about the vaporization would get to Peter almost immediately.

  “Look, I’m tired of the killing. Can we just agree on some ground rules here? Show some respect. Be on time.”

  But no one said a word. For a second Josh thought maybe they had organized a takedown party to go after him, but no one stepped forward. He thought it was better to quit before any further confrontation. There’d be time for that in the coming days.

  “You’re excused until next week. Remember what I said. Go looking for them where you used to hang out, or places where you would find unhappy people. I want to see all of you with a new one by next week. Is that too much to ask?” Josh said this to the backs of the men who shuffled out the door, as unenthusiastic as they had entered.

  Alone in the hall with Biker Dude, Josh made a run for the bathroom and spilled his guts into the toilet. He rinsed his mouth and washed his face with cold water, muttering to himself.

  Dude watched him from the hallway outside the bathroom without saying a word.

  “I’m losing my appetite for the blood and guts stuff. Just doesn’t thrill me like it used to.” Josh dried his face on a fistful of brown paper towels. He addressed the dark angel. “How long you been turned?”

  “Four hundred thirty two years and eight days.”

  “That important to you, huh?” Josh shook his head. “How come I never ran into you before?”

  “Because I didn’t want to be found.”

  Simple as that?

  “And now?” Josh asked him.

  “Now’s different.” Dude replied.

  “That’s a fact. Remember when you first were turned? I stayed drunk for the first year, I think. Of course, they didn’t have quotas then. I was useless.”

  “Not like now, right?” Dude gave him a wry grin. Josh winked at him.

  “You’re lucky you didn’t say that to me about a year ago. You’d have been right next to—oh shit, I forgot to get someone to clean up.”

  “I’ll do it, sir. I’ll lock up too, if you’ll leave me the keys.”

  “Thanks. Let me go see if I can find something to put this mess into.” After a quick search of the kitchen, Josh came up with some garbage bags and a cardboard box.

  “Uh, sir. I’m on a bike. What about using the Dumpster around back?”

  Josh nodded. He needed the man’s help. “I call you Dude all the time. What’s your name?”

  “Jonas.”

  “Nice to meet you formally, Jonas. I like that better than Dude.”

  Jonas shrugged and started scraping the oozing floor with an oversized metal dustpan.

  “I hate to do this, Jonas, but I need to ask you to help me with something else.”

  “Sure.” The man stood up after shoveling remains into the black bag. He wasn’t as tall as a professional football player, but could rival them in size and strength.

  “I need to find Felix. You know him?”

  “Yes. Used to come in here with Karl, right? Younger fellow, red-haired?”

  “That’s him. I need to find him ASAP. Things are brewing and I don’t want him left out in the cold.”

  “Considerate of you, sir.”

  “Well, you need to know, there’s a huge war coming. You best watch yourself too.”

  “That mean you’re going up against the director?”

  “I’m hoping it doesn’t come to that. But perhaps.”

  “Fine by me.”

  Josh didn’t want to pry. “Maybe if we all survive, you can tell me about it some time when I’m not looking over my shoulder.”

  “You can count on it. You need to survive, you hear? Don’t worry about me. I belong here. But from what I’ve seen and heard, you don’t. That’s got to piss him off. I’m told a woman is involved. A woman the director wants.”

  Josh was surprised this information was public knowledge. His expression must have triggered something in Jonas, because the big man added, “You don’t need to worry about me, sir. Everyone I care about is dead. I’m the cause for over half of it, too. But the other part falls squarely on the shoulders of that rat I have to worship. I don’t plan on spending eternity whining or wallowing in what I’ve done. I’m looking forward to ending it, and taking him with me.”

  Josh suddenly realized what good fortune he had. He felt he was the luckiest dark angel in the universe. Jonas was a good man to know, and he’d come at precisely the right time. Josh could almost believe in divine intervention, if he didn’t know for sure it didn’t exist.

  “Here, I’m going to help you, Jonas. Then I’ll vaporize the remainder. That way no one has to carry anything or leave anything for the garbage man.”

  They made light work of it. Josh searched around him to make sure no one was watching before he scorched the ground and the lit
tle juicy bundle in the black garbage bag.

  Just before they parted, Josh put an arm up and touched Jonas’ massive shoulder. He really did feel like a brick wall. “Be careful when you go asking around for Felix. If they know you are allied with me, it could cost you.”

  “Way I see it, you’re on the right side of right. Don’t much care for folks below and their ‘Red Hell.’ Always drew the line there. No reason to change now, not when I got a shot at ripping that rat’s head off.”

  “You know he vaporizes,” Josh spat out.

  “I’m told. He’s teaching the winged ones, too.”

  Maybe we’re too late. This was new information, something Josh didn’t need to hear.

  “Okay, man. See you back here in, say, twenty-four hours? I hope you can find Felix by that time.”

  “I’ll either be here in twenty-four hours with Felix, or I’m never coming. And that might be a good thing.”

  “No man, we need you.” Josh didn’t like the idea Jonas had such a death wish. Other than Audray, this dark angel was his only true dark ally, willing to sacrifice himself for the cause he believed in. A warrior he sorely needed.

  “You’ll get my best, I promise you that,” Jonas said solemnly.

  Josh walked to his Hummer, rounding his shoulders and rolling his head from side to side. The death toll was giving him a stiff neck. He needed Melanie, but wondered if it was too dangerous to see her.

  Chapter 37

  Josh picked up his cell to dial James, who had turned his Guardian lover. The two were inseparable, completely absorbed in the pleasures of each other’s flesh 24/7.

  “Yeah?” James’s voice was husky.

  “You guys back from Alaska?”

  “Yes. Got back yesterday.”

  “Ready for a mission, up top?”

  Josh noticed the hesitation in James’s voice. “Uh, up top? Sure, Josh. When?” There was someone in the background, and Josh knew it must be Angela, his former Guardian angel, now his dark angel lover. Angela’s turning had been devastating to Claire.