Angel Exalted

by C. L. Coffey

  “Ma’am,” the burly security guard growled, clearly not liking my decision. He liked it even less when I joined Cupid’s side and we silently used our bodies to act as a blockade between the security guards and the intruders. “Ma’am, this is going against protocol.”

  I ignored him and looked at the girl who had still had her sword pressed up against Nyle. “Do you want a towel? You don’t want catch a cold.”

  “A cold? You’re right: you don’t have any hostage negotiation skills either.”

  “Is this your idea of trying to talk your way out of this? Because he’s going to die,” the girl pointed out as Nyle whimpered, but I remained focused on the girl. There was something that flickered through her eyes which told me the last thing she wanted to do was kill Nyle… Or at least, I was sincerely hoping that was what I was seeing.

  “Do you have a name?” I asked her. “If Nyle is going to die, surely it’s only fair that we know who killed him. I mean, you’re in a room full of witnesses, so it’s not like you’re going to get away with it, right?”

  “I will if I kill you all afterwards.”

  One guy and one girl armed with a sword, versus one angel and one archangel each armed with a sword (not that they knew that), and five men armed with guns… Yes, that seemed likely… “I’m Angel,” I told her.

  Just like that, her expression changed once more – to pure venom. I was starting to think that thanks to Lucifer possessing a teen pop idol, I was quite likely to have as many anti-fans as he did fans. Which, giving his Twitter followers alone, was going to be a pretty big number.

  Wasn’t I popular?

  I was also absolutely certain she was not going to leave this room without having a good try at killing me. “Are you a Luke Goddard fan, by any chance?” I asked her.

  The girl’s eyes widened, before narrowing. “How dare you utter his name?”

  Bingo.

  “She’s human,” I told the room.

  “Of course I am,” she said, looking momentarily confused. “What else would I be?”

  “I’m just pointing out to everyone in the room that bullets can do a lot of damage, so how about we all relax for a moment and lower our weapons?” I was expecting that everyone would have complied and done as I requested, but nobody gave an inch. I blew out a breath. “What is it you want?”

  “Nothing,” the girl shrugged.

  “Cupid, can we please acknowledge that I have no hostage negotiation skills now?”

  Beside me, Cupid sighed. “Why did you enter the convent, girl?”

  “Girl?” the girl scoffed, going bugged eyed at the archangel.

  Cupid shrugged. “You didn’t want to tell us your name.”

  “Molly,” she shot back at him.

  Cupid looked to her companion. “Do you have a name, or shall I call you ‘boy’?”

  “Ross,” he shrugged. I stared at Ross, and he ducked his head to avoid my gaze. He’d calmed down a bit, and I could tell he didn’t want to be here anymore. I wasn’t sure if he had been completely willing to start with.

  “Why did you enter the convent?” Cupid repeated his previous question. “Molly?”

  “Luke wanted me to make sure you were punished!”

  My heart, if it still beat properly, would have stopped at that. “Luke… Luke Goddard?” I couldn’t have heard that correctly. Luke was dead.

  “Are there any other Luke’s?”

  “I thought Luke Goddard had gone missing,” I said carefully. We knew he was dead. But the rest of the world didn’t. Cupid, Michael and I had discussed it with Joshua, and had all come to the same conclusion that it would be easier if the world didn’t know that Luke had been at the cemetery. The tabloids were now abuzz with how Luke Goddard had gone missing, linking it to his erratic behavior on tour. For now, it was just a story of a young popstar not being able to cope with the fame. Hopefully that would remain the case.

  “Luke is taking a break,” Molly declared as though she knew the room number of the Las Vegas hotel he was staying in. “But that doesn’t mean his Followers will forget about him. We know he cares about us, wherever he is. We have work to do.”

  If he was anything other than a popstar, he would have been considered a cult leader.

  “You don’t think it odd that someone who cares about you would ask you do something which would, at the very least, get you put in prison? Possibly worse if you actually go ahead and kill him,” Cupid asked. I glanced over at him, surprised. I had been about to say the same thing, only my tone wouldn’t have been laced with distain that filled Cupid’s. Cupid had been acting differently the last few days. This was just one of the little hints that something wasn’t right with him.

  “Prison?” Ross piped up.

  I flicked my attention to him. We needed to deal with the situation at hand, and then I would try to get to the bottom of what was bugging Cupid. “Breaking and entering, assault with a deadly weapon,” I listed with a shrug. “I’m kind of hoping Molly doesn’t add murder to that list, because you know this state still has the death penalty, right?”

  Ross turned a shade of green in a blink of an eye. “Death penalty?”

  “What outcome were you expecting here?” Cupid asked him, the cold tone to his voice still there.

  Ross glanced down at the sword in his hands, and then dropped it like it was suddenly carrying a high voltage current. “I don’t want to go to prison, Molly,” he muttered, holding his hands up and stepping out from behind the desk. He was instantly pounced on by two of the security men and bundled out of the room.

  “Why don’t you do the same thing?” I asked Molly, kindly. “Before you do something you can’t come back from.”

  “I came here for Luke!” she said snapped. The sword slipped against Nyle’s neck once more, slicing at the skin. Nyle let out a scream of pain as his blood began to bubble, like it was boiling as it ran down his neck.

  I knew exactly what he was feeling. Nyle was going to need some holy water to sooth that, and soon. The blade had been tainted by blood of the innocent and turned unholy: the only thing that could really hurt angelic beings.

  “Cupid, we’re not going to talk her down,” I told him. My gaze darted to the archangel and found him staring at his desk. I turned my body a fraction, just enough that hopefully Molly wouldn’t be able to tell where I was looking and tried to work out what had Cupid’s attention. My eyes fell to the half-full bottle on Cupid’s desk. It didn’t contain holy water, rather the neon blue, Blue Cherry flavor Gatorade he had been drinking. That wasn’t going to help us… or was it?

  “What do you suggest?” Cupid asked, looking up at me.

  I raised my shoulder a fraction. “Honestly, I don’t know,” I told him. “At this point, I feel like the only way to get her to stop this is by force, but I can’t see how without either hurting her, or hurting Nyle.”

  I took a deep breath, focused on clearing all emotion from my face, and then fixed Molly what I hoped was a friendly smile, ready to try again, but was stopped by one word from Cupid. “Whatever.”

  CHAPTER TWO

  Reckless Behavior

  “What are you doing?” I demanded, the alarm evident in my non-vocal communication, while I tried to keep my own expression impassive.

  “Let’s all be realistic here,” Cupid continued, ignoring me. “She wants to kill one of us. Let her. I’m bored and I’m sure there’s an episode of Law & Order starting soon.”

  This time, there was no hiding the shock from my face as my mouth fell open and I gaped at the archangel. Aside from the fact I had no idea Cupid watched Law & Order, this was completely unlike him. If I was honest, this was the sort of thing I would do… or would have done. Cupid ignored me, moving over to the edge of his desk and sitting down on it, angling himself so he was half facing Molly, but half turning his back on her. “Cupid!”

  “You said yourself we weren’t going to talk her out of it,” Cupid responded. He rubbed his hands up and down his thighs, se
emingly continuing to ignore me. Behind us, even Darell’s men were suddenly restless.

  “H-h-he’s right,” Molly agreed. From the corner of my eye, I could see the doubt and confusion appear on her face.

  “Cupid, she’s human,” I said, suddenly feeling the need to point that out.

  “I’m aware,” Cupid said. “I’m also aware that we cannot use any supernatural means to dispel this situation.”

  “And you think pushing her like this is the best option?” I asked in disbelief. “Molly, just put the sword down,” I pleaded. “We can all walk away from this right now – let’s keep it like that.”

  “Walking away sounds like a good idea,” Cupid agreed with a nod of his head. He stood, turning, and reached for his bottle. “It would be nice if we could get through this without me having to clean the blood from the office, but,” he shrugged, “the floor isn’t carpeted, so it wouldn’t be the end of the world if blood was spilt tonight.”

  I gaped at Cupid, wondering if our last battle with the Fallen had done more damage than I’d ever imagined, because the only way these words would come out of Cupid’s mouth was if I had hit my head so hard I was hallucinating. At this point, I was close to praying that was the case. I glanced at the security men, hoping that they weren’t reacting because it was only me who could hear Cupid. I was wrong. Their confusion told me otherwise. A quick glance at Molly showed me that even she was faltering. “Cupid?”

  There was no verbal response. Instead, Cupid whirled around on the spot at a speed only just classable as human and sent something flying out of his hands: the bottle of Gatorade. It soared through the air before smacking Molly, base first, in the center of her forehead.

  The bottle, the sword, and Molly, all fell to the ground at the same time.

  Close behind was my lower jaw as my mouth fell open.

  I recovered quickly, leaping over the desk and landing beside Molly in a crouch, while Cupid ran over to Nyle. As soon as I discovered Molly was still alive and only unconscious, I grabbed the bottle and used it to smack the back of Cupid’s head. “Are you insane?” I yelled at him.

  “Angel!” he yelled back at me, wrenching the bottle from my hand and tossing it out of reach.

  “That could have killed her!” I exploded, stepping back out of the way as Darell’s men moved over and began checking Molly over.

  “No, it wouldn’t,” Cupid said, rolling his eyes. He turned his attention back to Nyle. “I don’t think it’s deep, but that needs holy water. Can you walk?” Although teary eyed, Nyle stood, nodding. Seconds later, another angel – Pascal, who normally manned the front desk – entered the room. “Thank you, Pascal,” Cupid said, allowing the angel to help his friend out of the room. He waited until Darell’s men had carried Molly out of the room, ignoring the dirty looks the humans were giving him, and then finally turned his attention to me. “You said talking wasn’t going to work,” he shrugged.

  Suddenly feeling exhausted, my limbs all heavy and uncooperative, I walked over to my chair and sank into it, resting my elbows on my desk. “Cupid, what’s going on? You could have killed her.”

  “Nyle and the girl are both alive,” Cupid said.

  I sat back with a sigh and fixed my eyes on his hazel ones. “That’s not what I’m getting at.”

  “I know my own strength, Angel,” Cupid told me. He folded his arms and returned my stare with his own intense one. “I know exactly how hard I threw that bottle, and I knew where it would hit.”

  “You might know how hard you threw it, but you cannot say for certain that you knew where it would hit,” I disagreed. “She’s human. A young, frightened girl. You have no idea how she could have reacted. If she’d have moved even a fraction either way, you could be standing here without your wings.”

  “But I’m not,” Cupid said.

  “That’s not the point,” I said, feeling the frustration run down to my hands as they clenched up into fists. “Cupid-” I paused as someone knocked at the door. I sighed again and glowered at the door, hoping my death stare would penetrate the wood and hit whoever was on the other side.

  My death stare was fortunately not that strong.

  The person on the other side of the door knocked again.

  I was too exhausted for this. “Come in.” I instantly felt guilty when a familiar face appeared. “Leon? Joshua said you were both busy with a case in Kenner.”

  Leon slowly shook his head. “Kenner is out of our jurisdiction…” he trailed off, rubbing at the back of his neck. “I… uh…”

  My heart sank. Joshua had lied to me about his whereabouts, and now I had a dozen different questions and twice as many scenarios running through my head. I pushed them back down: Joshua had not lied to me before. There was probably a good reason… it was days away from Christmas – maybe he was shopping? “What brings you here?” I asked, quickly focusing my thoughts back to the present.

  “I got a call about an incident,” he said, giving us a grim smile. It slowly fell from his face as he tilted his head and studied us. “Which you seem surprised about?” I caught movement out of the corner of my eye, but before I could see what Cupid was doing, Leon was speaking again. “I’m clearly interrupting something.”

  “Not at all,” I said.

  “Yes,” Cupid responded, before I had finished speaking.

  “I’ll come back,” Leon declared, backing out of the room before I could stop him.

  I blew out a breath and sat back in the chair, turning my glower to Cupid. “Is this where you give me an expla-argh!” I jumped as Zachary appeared right in my line of sight. “Sweet baby Jesus!” I exclaimed.

  “That is not Jesus,” a voice corrected me. For half a moment I didn’t recognize it until my eyes settled on its owner: Michael. I was still trying to get used to him being back and not looking like Michael. This voice was a few octaves lower than what I had been used to and didn’t really match the younger male vessel he was now using.

  “The fact he’s a Zach-ass gives that one away, thank God,” I muttered.

  “Do not use His name like that,” he scolded me.

  I shrugged. “Fine. I guess Zachary is pompous enough,” I shrugged.

  “That was not whose name Michael was referring to,” Grace said.

  I was well aware.

  Giving the tall black woman the best remorseful look I could muster, (and seeing as it involved Zachary, I was certain it didn’t come across as genuine in the slightest), I turned my attention to the most senior angelic being in the room.

  Like every time that I saw her, she was dressed for a boardroom, though this time she was in a dress and what had to be six inch heels given how she towered over me. I stood, partly to show some of the respect that had been lacking, and partly to shorten the distance between our eyelines, and gave her a brief nod. “Welcome, Grace.” I glanced behind her at the blond who always seemed to be by her side. “Hi, Metatron.”

  “We’re not here for a social call.” That came from the fourth newcomer to the room, and one that was about as welcome Zachary… honestly, I would have preferred an army of wasps to be in the room than Zachary and Savanah.

  It was a struggle to remove the irritation which was plastered over my face, and I’m not convinced I managed it entirely. Hoping the smile I was giving Grace was more sincere I looked back to her. “What brings everyone here today?”

  The last time we had spoken, Cupid, Michael and I had been debriefing them on defeating Lucifer and Beelzebub. Given that the King of Hell and a Prince of Darkness were dead, and New Orleans was finally beginning to return to the laissez-faire attitude it was famous for, I was hoping she was here with good news. Zachary and Savannah’s presence was making me doubt that entirely.

  Grace folded her arms and fixed her dark eyes on Cupid. “Are you-”

  Before she could ask her question, there was a knock at the door. It opened and Leon walked in again. He stopped short when he realized Cupid and I were no longer alone. “Where did…?”
he trailed of and his eyes widened. “You’re angels too?” It was like the air had been sucked out of the room in one fast woosh. The atmosphere suddenly felt tight and crushing, and the only person who didn’t seem affected by it was Leon. “I am sorry to interrupt.”

  “You know what we are?” Savannah demanded, striding over to him. Although millennia older, Savannah’s Latina appearance put her around the twenty-five mark. Older than me, but younger than Leon. Even so, Leon took a step back. “Who are you?”

  “Lieutenant Leon Roi,” Leon responded. His gaze flicked to mine, uncertainty clouding them.

  “Leon knows what we are,” I announced. “He’s my charge’s supervisor and he has been helping us keep the Fallen’s activities as discreet as possible where he can.”

  Zachary was in front of me, his icy blue eyes as cold as his expression. “You told a human what we are.” Without waiting for a response, he was facing Grace. “Telling a human is against the rules.”

  “Oh, give it a rest,” I muttered. I looked to Grace, expecting her to echo my sentiment, though perhaps with a tad more diplomacy than I was able to show, only her attention was focused on Leon.

  “How do you know what we are?” she asked him. There was no malice in her tone, but I could tell it was a loaded question.

  So could Leon. He scratched at the back of his neck, shifting on the spot. “I told him,” Cupid confessed before Leon spoke up. “We were in a situation where the lieutenant was going to investigate us.”

  “That’s true,” Leon quickly agreed.

  Grace licked her lips, before giving Leon a friendly smile. “Lieutenant Roi, thank you for your understanding and assistance. I hope that you haven’t been put in any position which would compromise you.”

  “Not at all,” Leon quickly interjected. “And it is an honor to be able to help.”

  Grace’s lips thinned. “If you would excuse us, we have business we must attend to, however, one of us will visit you shortly to discuss this situation further.”