Angel Exalted

by C. L. Coffey

  That earned an arched eyebrow from Michael, but he nodded. He walked over to me and held out a hand. “Shall we?”

  “It is the middle of the night,” I said, surprised.

  “Henry will not be asleep,” Michael assured me.

  Even so, I didn’t think that turning up at this hour would be appreciated. Then again, we didn’t have much time to play with. My gut was telling me we needed to move quickly. Without allowing another thought about it, I reached out and took the offered hand. I barely registered that his grip was warm and firm, before we were in the middle of the morgue.

  I fell to the floor with a startled cry: that would teach me for not standing before transporting myself anywhere.

  “Angel? Michael?” Henry asked in alarm.

  I glanced up at him from the floor and gave him a sheepish finger wave before standing up and brushing myself off. I hadn’t even put my shoes back on. “Sorry for the late-night intrusion.”

  “Is everything okay?” Henry asked. “Is someone injured?”

  “No,” I quickly hurried to reassure him. “But I do need your help.”

  “What can I do?” Henry gave Michael a suspicious look, but then returned his attention to me.

  “I need drugs,” I told him, simply.

  Henry’s eyes widened. Beside me, Michael’s mouth dropped open. “Come again?” the coroner said.

  “Not for me personally,” I said. “I need something strong enough to knock out a human being possessed by one of the Fallen. Specifically, Lucifer. Something that will keep him unconscious for as long as possible. And by that, I mean several days.”

  Henry stared at me, silent.

  When I didn’t see him blink, I waved my hand in his face. “Henry?”

  “I heard you,” he said slowly. “I just… you plan on drugging Lucifer?”

  “No,” I said with a shake of my head. “I plan on drugging the human he is possessing so that I can control when he is unconscious and Dream Walk my way into his head to defeat him.”

  Henry glanced over at one of the chambers on the far wall. “He’s in Joshua, isn’t he?” he somehow deduced.

  Michael nodded. “How did you know?”

  “I had to perform the autopsy on his guardian last week. I’ve been waiting for her family to travel here to claim her body because Joshua has been MIA. Leon has called a few times to makes sure Joshua hasn’t been here, so I figured something was up.” Henry nodded his chin at Michael. “Your tactic would be to defeat him in combat.”

  He wasn’t wrong.

  “Lucifer is possessing Joshua,” I confirmed.

  “But you want to try Dream Walking over an exorcism?” Henry asked, rubbing at the back of his head.

  This was one of those times where I wasn’t sure how much information I should share with the Angel of Death. He didn’t see things as black and white as Michael did, and this would be the third time Lucifer would (hopefully) be defeated. But this was also one of those times where my gut was telling me withholding information wouldn’t work in my favor.

  “If we perform an exorcism, Lucifer will escape, again, and possess another innocent human, again,” I explained. By now, I’d learned to listen to my gut. “I don’t know if it will work, but I want to try defeating Lucifer from within. The problem I have is I need Lucifer – Joshua – to be asleep, and I need to be able to control that.”

  Henry rubbed at the back of his head some more, before finally shrugging. “I do not like the idea of hunting down my family, especially when it has become apparent that Lucifer was never dead and only trapped in some unknown torment, however, I do acknowledge that released on the world, with the ability to manipulate humans, he would be more dangerous. My job as an angel, first and foremost, is to protect humans. So, I’m in.”

  “You are in what?” Michael asked, his forehead wrinkling at his confusion.

  I sighed at Michael’s lack of colloquial understanding, but I also shared his confusion. “You’re in?” I repeated.

  Henry gave me a look of incredulity. “If you think I am about to hand over drugs to you, you are very much mistaken,” he told me, firmly.

  “I have just explained why I need them!” I cried in exasperation. “I don’t want to hurt Joshua and this seems a hell of a lot safer than knocking him out.”

  “You would think that, seeing as you don’t have a medical degree.”

  “You do?” I shot at him.

  Henry rolled his eyes and gestured to the room. “I am a medical examiner. You need a medical degree to do that.”

  “You’re an immortal angel,” I said, giving him a look of disbelief. “When did you get a medical degree?”

  “I have a medical degree, Angel,” he responded, coldly, pointing at something behind me.

  I turned and spotted his certificates on the wall. I turned back with a sigh. “Okay, so you have a medical degree?” Honestly, I didn’t know how that worked. I was curious enough to want to go and check the date on it, but equally, I knew that wasn’t the important thing right now.

  “Using drugs to knock someone out and keep them unconscious is not an easy job. This is why we have anesthetists in an operating room. You need to take things like weight and the health of the patient into consideration,” he continued. “If you want to keep a person unconscious for a significant length of time, you need to monitor them and constantly top those anesthetic levels up.”

  Of course it would never be as simple as it was in the movies where someone just stuck a needle into another person’s neck. “Fine,” I conceded. “But I’m still going to need something to get him unconscious to start with. If we both turn up, he’s going to bolt. I’m not even sure he will stick around for me.”

  Michael cocked his head and frowned. “You know where he is?”

  “No,” I said, slowly shaking my head. “But I have an idea that might let me meet with him, but if it works, it will only work once. He’s a Fallen angel, so I know he can’t just disappear, but I need something that will work quickly. Then you can come in and get him.”

  “Could you not bring him here?” Michael suggested.

  “I don’t think he’ll come,” I told them. “If he hasn’t been to work, he won’t have been here either. I think he’d avoid it. I want to get him somewhere on completely neutral ground.”

  Henry stared at me, his arms folded. “Very well.” He indicated that we should follow him and led us down a short corridor. The door at the end had a lock which needed a keycode to enter. Henry quickly tapped a long string of digits in and pushed the door open.

  The room inside wasn’t that much bigger. Most of it was taken up by a giant metal cupboard which required another stream of digits to unlock it. Then the door was pulled back, I couldn’t help but arch an eyebrow at the contents. “Aren’t most of the people who come in here dead?” I asked.

  Henry glanced over his shoulder at me. “Given that it’s a morgue, I would say so,” he said, dryly.

  “Cute,” I retorted. “But why do the dead need all these drugs.”

  Henry just shot me a look but didn’t answer. Instead, he reached in for a small container of pills then pulled the lid off. Quickly, he put two of them into a small baggie and handed it over. “Just use one. The other is just in case.”

  “Flunitrazepam?” I asked, reading the label on the container. “Why does that sound familiar?”

  “Rohypnol is the more common name,” he shrugged.

  “You want me to roofie him?” I asked in disbelief. “Are you serious?”

  Henry nodded. “This isn’t a hospital and I am limited to the number of drugs available. The easiest and safest thing I can give you is this.”

  Although I didn’t feel completely comfortable at the idea of slipping Joshua a roofie, I realized that I had to trust the Angel of Death: he was the closest thing to a doctor... according to his certificates he was a doctor. If he said it was the safest thing, that was what I was going to use. I slipped the pills into a pocket. “I
’ll call you,” I told him. “I’m not sure when it will be.”

  “I will be there,” Henry promised.

  I turned to Michael and then he took us back to the synagogue. Cupid and Veronica hadn’t moved from the kitchen bench, although the pile of chicken had shrunk considerably. “Did you get what you needed?” Veronica asked. I nodded. “Now what?”

  I sucked in a deep breath. “Now, I send a text message and we keep our fingers crossed.”

  I pulled out my phone and tapped out a brief message to Joshua’s phone.

  I’m sorry about how I left. I know it’s been a while, but I’m sending an olive branch. Can we meet? I miss you xx

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  The Olive Branch

  I stayed up all night, my legs crossed beneath me on the bed, staring at the phone. It didn’t light up with a response until early the following morning. Before picking it up and reading it, I closed my eyes and took in a deep breath, letting it out slowly before opening my eyes again. I reached for the phone and opened the message.

  You’re texting me now?!

  Yes. I replied. We’ve been through too much together for things to end like this. I love you, Joshua. If being together is what you really want, then let’s talk about it. I left the convent anyway.

  I stared at the screen and the blinking three dots as he took an eternity to respond. Really?

  All that for a one-word answer? Yes. Paddy wants to hunt you down; Zachary was prepared to let her. In fact, he was ready to encourage it. I’m not prepared to follow orders like that.

  There was yet another long wait for his reply, but this was one more substantial. I am undercover. I can’t meet you at any of the usual places. I’m staying at a hotel. I’ll text you the address. I took that to mean he was ready to meet now and waited for the address. It didn’t take too long to come through.

  It was still early enough that Michael, Cupid and Veronica weren’t up. Or, at least, they weren’t in the kitchen when I went down. I left a note on the bench telling them I would call them when I had Joshua unconscious – so Cupid needed to keep his phone on. I didn’t want to tell them I was leaving in person as I was sure they would try to come with me.

  Part of me wanted the backup, but at the same time, something was telling me that it was the wrong move. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust Veronica… but I didn’t completely trust Veronica; at least not anymore. I left the synagogue and caught a streetcar. It was a gray start to the day. The sky was overcast, and the temperature, thanks to breeze coming off the river, was chilly.

  The address Joshua had sent me was just north of the Crescent City Connection. I felt strange just walking in, but the guy on the front desk didn’t even look up from the newspaper he was reading. I knocked on a door on the fourth floor and moments later it was opened by Joshua. Instead of letting me in, he stood in the doorway, blocking my entrance.

  “Well that’s understandable,” I said.

  That earned me a raised eyebrow.

  I looked up at him and had to bite at my lip to stop myself from reacting. It was Joshua’s body, but I could tell I wasn’t looking at Joshua. It was nothing to do with the now slicked back hair and the weird goatee he was sporting. It was the look in his eyes. I couldn’t stop myself from tearing up. “I’m sorry I never called you.”

  Joshua folded his arms. “You just left and never called.”

  “I know,” I agreed, wiping at a stray tear. Maybe I could use this to my advantage. “Like I said in my text, I left the convent. I wasn’t sure where that would leave me with Zachary, and I didn’t want to come to you in case it put you at risk.”

  “But you’re back now?” he asked, slowly. He was still suspicious.

  “I love you, Joshua,” I said, stepping towards him. “I want to try.”

  “Try what?”

  “Us,” I said, simply. “You kept saying that I should leave that place, leave New Orleans, and we’d be fine together. Because we were together. Let’s do it.”

  He stood there, arms folded, jaw jutting out, regarding me. “I’m undercover,” he said, his eyes narrowing.

  “If me being here will blow your cover, I will leave,” I said, carefully. He was trying to see if I knew about him being AWOL. “I’m staying in Truro. You can either call me when it’s safe, or I can get Leon to-”

  “Just come in,” Joshua said with a frown. He reached over and grabbed my arm, tugging me in. The move was unexpected, and I stumbled into him.

  “Have you been smoking?” I asked as I inhaled the smell of cigarette smoke from his shirt. Joshua didn’t smoke. He did drink, sometimes far too much, but he wasn’t a smoker, and the stench in his shirt seemed too fresh to have been picked up in a bar. I took a step back and sniffed at the air as he closed the door. Someone had definitely been smoking in here. I wanted to punch him – that was Joshua’s body.

  “I told you: I’m undercover.”

  I walked into the room, not wanting to comment on that. I wasn’t sure if there was going to be a right response. The room opened up into a very large suite, and I couldn’t help but be surprised at it. “What kind of undercover work are you doing?” I exclaimed.

  Joshua’s eyes narrowed. “I can’t tell you.”

  I quickly shook my head. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to pry,” I quickly said. Obviously, he wasn’t undercover. How was I going to get out of this one? “I just always envisioned undercover work would involve gangs and staying in dilapidated houses. This is like a palace.”

  “Let’s just say, crime pays,” Joshua said. He stepped up to me.

  When I tried to move back out of his way, my back hit something hard, cold, and metallic. When I glanced over my shoulder and found myself up against a full-size fridge, I couldn’t help but wonder exactly what crime was paying for this place. I turned back just as Joshua put a hand either side of my head, effectively pinning me in. He was staring down at me, licking his lower lip, but I could also see the mistrust with the lust. “Maybe we could just stay here,” I told him.

  “Did you mean what you said?”

  “I’d ask which bit, but I meant all of it,” I said with a shrug. “I love you, Joshua. I choose you.”

  Joshua leaned forward and kissed me. It was rough and hard, and not like Joshua at all. It wasn’t Joshua.

  I was kissing Lucifer.

  Everything about it was turning my stomach. He no longer tasted like Joshua, instead a mixture of cigarettes and unbrushed teeth. I also felt sick at the fact I wasn’t kissing Joshua. I was… this was cheating on him. The first kisses, when Lucifer had first possessed Joshua, they could be excused. I had not realized it was Lucifer in there – we had all thought that Lucifer was dead. This was different. I knew exactly what I was doing.

  The worst part was that I was continuing to call him Joshua. I wanted to call him for what he was, but I wouldn’t even allow myself to say his name. That was too risky.

  As Joshua’s hands skimmed my body, I had to suppress the shudder that came with his touch. It was making my skin crawl. Instead, I grabbed onto his shirt, fisting my hands around the fabric, and kissed him back as hard as he was kissing me. All the while, I was sending unheard messages to Joshua, hoping he would forgive me for what I was doing.

  I didn’t want Lucifer to know something was wrong, otherwise I would never be able to drug him. I didn’t want to resort to hurting him if I could help it. Not that I stood a chance of being able to do that – if Lucifer even suspected something was wrong, I would be dead before I could call for help.

  Finally, unable to take it anymore, I pushed him away, though I continued to clutch at his shirt. “I love you, Joshua,” I told him, quietly, staring up into the dark blue eyes I no longer recognized. I couldn’t stop the silent prayer that somewhere, in there, Joshua would be able to hear me.

  Joshua grunted, then stepped back. “Let’s leave New Orleans.”

  “Now?” I asked, surprised. “I thought you were undercover?”

  “W
ho cares?” Joshua shrugged, nonchalantly. “You and me. Let’s just get out of the city and away from all the angels.” He tilted his head. “Unless, of course, you weren’t being serious about that.”

  “We could leave now,” I said. I shrugged and gestured to my clothes. “I have everything I own with me. Or at least, everything I walked out of the convent with. I’m not going back there.” Thankfully, my stomach chose that moment to grumble – I never thought I could be so happy to hear that sound! “But can we have something to eat first?” I asked.

  Joshua titled his head the other way. “I was up all night. I don’t want breakfast.”

  “Then can we go for a coffee and beignets?” I asked. “We’re not far from Café du Monde. Or if you need to pack, you can stay here and I’ll go?”

  Joshua slowly shook his head. “Let’s go together,” he suggested.

  It wasn’t ideal. I didn’t particularly want to drug him around innocent people. I also ran the risk of him passing out there, but it was New Orleans – I might be able to pass it off as him being drunk? “That sounds like a good idea,” I said, giving him a bright smile.

  I followed him out of the hotel, and we made the short walk to the Riverwalk, and the closest Café du Monde. Although it was early, it was busy. We weren’t the only ones who had decided on coffee and beignets for breakfast. We stood at the counter and placed our order. The coffees came quickly.

  “The beignets are going to be a couple more minutes,” the server apologized.

  “You take these,” Joshua said, thrusting the mugs of coffee at me. “I’ll wait for the beignets.”

  I had to bite my lip to keep from smiling. This was perfect! I hurried over to find a table. There weren’t too many left to choose from, and all were surrounded by other customers. I would just have to be quick. I pulled the baggie out of my pocket, but in my haste, promptly dropped it on the floor. When I scooped it up, there was only one tablet in the bag.

  I ducked my head under the table, trying to find the missing tablet, but I couldn’t see it anywhere. I didn’t have time for this. I needed to get the tablet I did have in the drink. Here’s hoping this worked first time. Using my supernatural speed to move my hand as quickly as I could, I dropped the pill into Joshua’s coffee. Then I sat back and tried to look as natural as possible.