Angel Eclipsed (The Louisiangel Series Book 2)

by C. L. Coffey

  We didn’t stay much longer after that. I was armed with a box of macaroons – there had been even more in the kitchen – and Joshua took the lasagna, as instructed. The car ride was mostly spent listening to the radio, or at least, Joshua listened to the radio. I was busy thinking about what Sarah had said, wondering if there was a way to find out why Joshua needed a guardian angel.

  “Do you remember the day we went to notify Emily Montgomery’s parents of her death?” Joshua asked, suddenly. I hadn’t even noticed he’d turned the radio down.

  The question broke me from my thoughts and I realized we had come to a stop at some lights. I looked over at Joshua and nodded. I don’t think anybody could have forgotten that day. “Why?”

  Joshua shrugged. “You said you wished somebody had been to see Sarah to let her know what had happened to you.”

  “I haven’t died. Again,” I pointed out.

  “But you don’t think she’d worry if you didn’t come to visit?” he asked me. “That’s why I went to see Sarah. I wanted her to know you were okay.”

  That admission left me speechless. The only words I had were ones I absolutely wasn’t going to admit any time soon: I was falling head over heels for him, and I was going to do everything in my power to stay with him. I could see him studying me, and I wondered what secrets my eyes were giving away. Behind us a car beeped and we both broke eye contact to look at the green light. Wordlessly, Joshua set off again. “Pull over,” I requested, suddenly.

  Joshua glanced over at me, frowning, and then did as I asked. I waited patiently for him to come to a stop outside of a clothing store, now closed for the evening. “What’s the matter?” he asked as he put the car into park.

  “Nothing,” I replied, unclipping my seatbelt. “I just didn’t want you to crash when I did this.” I leaned over and kissed him, feeling his lips quirk up into a smile beneath mine. He didn’t hesitate when I tried to deepen the kiss. When I finally pulled away, he had a smug look on his face. “What?” I asked.

  “You think I’m hot,” he smirked. I swiped at his arm. “Hey!” he objected. “You can’t be kissing me, then telling me to quit with the flirting. That’s not fair.”

  “Look, I think you’re hot, okay. There, I said it – again, I might add. Now, how about we rein the ego in, because it’s making it hard to breathe in here,” I grumbled.

  “It’s not my ego that’s making it hard, darlin’,” he informed me as his bedroom eyes made a reappearance.

  I couldn’t stop myself from blushing, so I did the only thing I could think of to try to cover my embarrassment. I smacked his arm again. “Will you behave?” I snapped at him. “I’m trying to tell you that I’m falling for you, and that I want to try to find a way to be with you that won’t result in me losing my wings, or you ending up unprotected, and you have to lower the tone.” I trailed off when I realized he was giving me a funny look. Quickly I ran the last ten second bout of verbal diarrhea through my mind. “Oh fudge,” I groaned, letting my head fall into Joshua’s shoulder. So much for never admitting that.

  Joshua slowly inhaled, his chest, and my head, rising. It held there for a long moment, and then he exhaled just as slowly. “Angel, I’m going to put you back in your seat, because if I don’t, I’m not going to live up to my promises.”

  I started to scoot back over to my seat, but Joshua’s hand wrapped around mine and I stopped, looking at him expectantly. “For the record, I started falling for you some time ago. I’ve just been waiting for you to realize it.”

  I knew from the way he was smirking at me I was grinning like an idiot, but I didn’t care. “Does this mean I get to see you later? In your dreams, I mean,” I added.

  “Always,” Joshua agreed. Then he quickly shook his head. “No, it depends on one thing,” he added, fixing me a stern look.

  I felt the grin falter. “What?” I asked, hesitantly.

  Joshua shifted in his seat, leaning over to the passenger side and the glove compartment. From it, he produced something small and red, sitting it in my palm. “What if I need to send my guardian angel dirty text messages?”

  “I would hope you would remember I live in a convent,” I pointed out, failing at keeping the pink from my cheeks. “But I will take the phone,” I added, slipping it into my bra. The action earned me a suggestive wiggle of Joshua's eyebrows. “I have no pockets,” I pointed out.

  “Thank you,” Joshua told me, leaning back over to kiss me. “And you are always welcome in my dreams.”

  I couldn’t keep the stupid grin from my face the rest of the way back to the convent. When I realized I was half a beat from skipping my way into the convent, I had to rein my happiness in.

  * * *

  From inside my pocket my phone vibrated. It had been hidden under a pillow until only moments ago. I had already sent a text message to Joshua explaining that I was training with Cupid and Raphael, but he had somehow sensed when I was finished with showering. As I was already about to leave the convent anyway, I figured I would wait until I was outside the walls before pulling the phone out.

  I started to head towards the small parking lot, but stopped. It was just after six, and the sun had almost set, but the air was as warm and humid as it had been when I’d been out in the gardens with Cupid after lunch.

  I glanced around the area, really looking at the gardens for the first time in a while. I’d been walking through on auto-pilot most of the time, and I’d never noticed that everything looked wilted. The grass was more brown than it was green, and the leaves on the deciduous trees looked like they were dying because they were restricted of water, rather than the season’s natural changes.

  The phone vibrating again reminded me that there were more important things going on than the weather. I jumped in the silver SUV and pulled my phone out. There were two messages from Joshua.

  You’ve been quiet all day. Are you too busy for break?

  And: Scratch that. I need to go to the morgue.

  The morgue… that tugged at something.

  I sat upright with a jolt. Henry. He’d said something to me at the crime scene a couple of weeks ago. Can I come with you? I sent back to Joshua.

  The response was almost instant. Outside in 5. It took Joshua two minutes to appear. I slid in the car and leaned over to swipe Joshua’s arm. “Ow!” he objected, glaring at me. “What was that for?”

  “Driving and texting,” I responded. “You’re not immortal. You don’t get to do things like that. And you’re a detective; you should know better.”

  “How do you know I was driving and texting?” he asked. I gave him a pointed look and he sighed. “Fine, darlin’. No more texting and driving.” He cocked his head and grinned slyly. “Now, is that the only kind of greeting I get?”

  “It is when we’re still right outside the convent,” I told him.

  “Fine,” he grumbled, pulling the car back out onto the road. “So what’s the sudden attraction to the morgue?”

  “It’s not the morgue, it’s the coroner,” I corrected him. I had been looking out of the window at the decorations which had been appearing ready for Halloween, but his lack of response had me glancing back over. I rolled my eyes. “You can’t seriously be jealous?” I asked him, arching an eyebrow.

  He looked at me from the corner of his eye, and shook his head. “Don’t be mistaking concern for jealousy,” he told me.

  I frowned. “Concern? For what?” He remained silent. “Joshua?” I pressed.

  “Darlin’, don’t take this the wrong way, but you look like crap,” he bluntly told me.

  “Excuse me?” I spluttered, feeling my face heat up.

  He sighed and pulled over, putting the car into park so that he could turn to look at me. He reached up and turned the interior light on. “You’re covered in bruises,” he informed me. “You’re also about two night’s sleep and one meal away from looking like death warmed up. Which means you’ve not slept, you’ve not eaten, and I’d hazard a guess you’ve been fi
ghting with archangels again?”

  “I hate the fact you’re a detective,” I ground out at him, embarrassed that I looked this unattractive, and that he could call me out on it.

  “And I hate the fact you suffer the way you do, almost as much as I hate the fact you think I won’t notice,” he said, leaning over to cup my face in his hands. “It’s not what you look like that bothers me, darlin’, it’s why you look like that,” he added, as his thumbs began to trace gentle patterns across my cheeks.

  He leaned further forward and pressed his lips against my forehead, his five o’clock shadow tickling the area just above my eyebrows. “Don’t we need to get to the morgue?” I asked him, softly.

  “Before you change the subject, you know we’re getting something to eat when we’re finished here, right?” he asked me, his hands still holding my face.

  “Good, because I’m really craving Chinese food,” I told him.

  “That’s my girl,” he grinned, finally letting go and sitting back. “And in answer to your previous question, we’re already at the morgue,” he told me, pointing at the building in front of us.

  “Already?” I asked, looking up at the tall building in front of me. “This is the morgue?” I asked in surprise. I’d passed this building many times, and not once had it occurred to me that the pink brick building, the color barely noticeable from the streetlights, would house the dead.

  “This is the coroner’s office,” Joshua nodded. “The morgue is inside.” He got out of the car and I followed him into the building.

  I’ve probably watched too much television, because I was expecting a basement morgue, with dark corners and flickering lights. This place was pretty much the polar opposite. It was on the second floor, had white walls and aluminum fixtures, and bright strip lights.

  “You never told me why you wanted to see the coroner,” Joshua pointed out as we walked down a corridor. He pushed open a door to a surprisingly cheerful reception area and waited for me to step in.

  “Actually, the coroner is an Angel of Death,” I told him as Joshua let go of the door he was holding.

  Joshua stopped short, his mouth falling open as he gave me an incredulous stare. “An angel,” he repeated, his voice suddenly sounding restricted. “An Angel of Death? As in, the Grim Reaper?”

  “You know, we don’t like the term Grim Reaper,” Henry’s voice carried over the reception area. Joshua’s face went ashen.

  “Hi Henry,” I greeted the angel, stepping between him and Joshua. For the first time since I had met him, Joshua seemed nervous.

  “Angel,” Henry returned, his dark eyes on Joshua, rather than me. “Detective.”

  When the only movement to come from Joshua was for him to take half a step back, I turned to him and gave him a reassuring smile. “Joshua, I can talk to Henry alone, if you want to wait for me here?” Joshua blinked slowly. I could see his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down. “I won’t be long,” I assured him. “In fact, you can wait in the car, if you prefer?”

  Carefully, Joshua turned to me and shook his head. “I’ll come with you. I need to get an update on an autopsy.”

  “Follow me then,” Henry said, grinning at Joshua. I sighed and followed after the Angel of Death, Joshua right behind me.

  I’ve watched countless episodes of CSI and Law & Order. I’ve even seen my own dead body since dying. Yet nothing prepared me for the sight of a young woman with her chest cut open. I’d eaten nothing since a muffin at breakfast, and it was starting to feel like a lead weight in the bottom of my stomach. I pushed the feeling down and forced my chin up as Henry, thankfully, led us past the table to a small office.

  “I haven’t finished with the autopsy yet,” he said, sitting down behind a neat desk, turning the screen to face us. “I still have to examine the brain, so I can’t be long.”

  A quick look at the computer screen showed me a report mid-completion, along with high resolution photographs. I glanced over at Joshua, figuring his questions were work related and would be more important.

  “Is it too early for cause of death?” he asked, choosing to stand behind the chair I went to sit in, rather than take the second one beside me.

  Henry shook his head. “Asphyxia caused by manual strangulation.” He clicked at something on the computer and then brought up a close up shot of a woman’s throat. “Bruising here indicates the killer had a large hand span, most likely a male. Are you alright over there?”

  My eyes left the picture and looked over to Henry. I dropped my hands into my lap. I’d been rubbing sub-consciously at my own neck. “Yes, sorry.”

  “Anything else?” Henry asked, diverting his attention back to Joshua.

  “Anything of interest?” Joshua returned.

  Henry shook his head, settling back into his chair. “Nothing.” He rested his elbows on the chair arms and brought the tips of his fingers together. “Other than the obvious.”

  “The obvious?” Joshua repeated. I could hear the skepticism in his voice.

  “The reason you’re here,” Henry nodded, pointing at me. “Your victim was a Potential.”

  “That’s why you didn’t seem surprised I was at Jackson Square,” I realized. “You thought I was there to ask the question.”

  “Yes,” Henry agreed. He looked up at Joshua and frowned. “Will you please sit down?”

  “I’m fine,” Joshua responded, shortly.

  Henry let out a long sigh. “You know we don’t actually kill people, right?” he asked him. “Angels aren’t allowed to kill.”

  “You’re not?” I asked in surprise.

  “I was once a Virtue,” Henry said, resting his arms on the desk in front of him. “At some point during the rise of the Maurya Empire it was decided to dedicate a team of angels to escort souls on to their next destination.” He shook his head. “The point is, we may be Angels of Death, but we’re still angels, and the fundamental rule is that we cannot kill. We don’t take life. There is enough in this world doing that for us.”

  “But you’re a Grim Reaper,” Joshua blurted out.

  “That’s why I’m based in a morgue. Actually, there are a lot of us who work across the world in morgues. Some of us are based in hospitals, a few with first responders,” Henry explained. “Souls don’t just go to Heaven. They need to be escorted. The problem is that there are so many humans and not enough Angels of Death, and unfortunately, the souls linger around their bodies.”

  I could still sense the unease radiating from behind me. I guess everyone was afraid of something. “So, this victim was a Potential, as was the woman killed in front of the Cathedral,” I said. “How many others are there?”

  Henry frowned. “I believe she was the fifth this month.”

  “What on earth are the Fallen up to this time?” I muttered, running my fingers over my lower lip.

  “I don’t think these Potentials were killed by the hands of the Fallen,” Henry quickly added. “Sadly, I think all five murders were coincidence. I believe there is a suspect for all of them?”

  I looked back at Joshua who pulled a face. “I’d have to check which five you think are Potentials. Only two of the homicides I’ve been working on have suspects in custody.”

  “I can email over the files,” Henry told Joshua, leaving me feeling once again slightly bewildered. I was spending too much time in a technologically void convent.

  * * *

  True to his word, Henry had emailed the reports over. I was curled up on Joshua’s couch, Dave wrapped around my legs, as I read through the documents on Joshua’s iPad. Joshua had dropped me off at his place, and then declared that research required sustenance. My earlier appetite had yet to reappear after visiting the morgue.

  I finished reading the reports. As far as I could tell, when it came to the autopsy, there was nothing that linked the five victims together. There were four women and one man. One woman had been drowned in a bathtub, one had been stabbed (the girl in the fountain), another shot and the final one, Iskra, w
ho had been on the table, had been choked to death. The guy was killed on a streetcar and his neck had been snapped.

  Sadly the autopsy report didn’t give away many more details than that. The clock on the iPad told me that Joshua had been gone for a little under an hour now, but as Radio Joshua hadn’t flared into life and his current location didn’t give me any reason to worry, I opened up Safari and ran a search for the Plague of Snakes. I was actually rather surprised at the lack of results. There was, as Paddy had said, a fan group for a metal band.

  The entire internet unanimously agreed that Paddy was a guy, and a lot of sites were split between Paddy banishing physical snakes, or converting pagans to Christianity. All in all, I didn’t learn anything new. I turned my attention to Levi. There were a lot of references to Leviathan being a sea serpent. I guess it made sense for there to be a link to snakes.

  It took some digging in the depths of the search engines to discover a small passage of a scroll that someone had scanned into a buried website. It was so faded that I struggled to read it, but after a bit of squinting and messing with the contrast, I discovered it was a witness account. The witness agreed with everything Paddy had told me – and they had acknowledged that St. Patrick was female.

  Maybe Michael was right. Maybe I desperately wanted Lucifer to have risen so I could find a way to justify murder, but I couldn’t shake the growing feeling that I had been right all along and turned my search to the Princes of Darkness.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  Sigils

  The sound of the key turning in the lock drew my attention away from the reading. I glanced at the clock, realizing that Joshua had been gone for a couple of hours, and forgave him instantly when I saw the containers from Raising Cane’s stacked up on each other. I put the iPad on the coffee table and bounded over to take the two drinks balanced on the top of the boxes from him.

  “I know I promised Chinese, but I drove past and changed my mind,” Joshua explained, toeing his shoes off before he followed me over to the couch, carrying the two boxes.