* * * *
Later that night, Danielle lay in the dark, staring up at the ceiling. Grant’s arms were wrapped around her but she couldn’t shut her thoughts off enough to sleep. Slipping out of bed, she pulled on a robe before making her way to the kitchen.
She wasn’t surprised to see Dominic already sitting at her table staring into a glass of whiskey. There was a full glass at the spot across from him.
“Did you know I couldn’t sleep?” She sipped the liquor.
Shaking his head, he said, “I figured one of you would be out here. None of us sleep well at the best of times. When things are screwed up like this, we tend to think too much.”
“Is that your problem?”
“Partly and also because Teresa still needs to rest, I thought I’d come out here instead of tossing and turning.” His blue eyes pinned her. “You have a question.”
She was glad it was Dominic in the kitchen. The other two Enforcers were nice, but he was the one she was closest to. “Do you remember the conversation we had about soul mates?”
Dominic thought for a moment then nodded. “You told me you didn’t think God loved us enough to give us soul mates.” He studied her for a second. “Have you changed your mind?”
Pushing her hair out of her face, she groaned. “I don’t know. All I know is that I’d rather be with him than anywhere else and when we have sex, it blows my mind.”
Dominic seemed to know what she was talking about. “A climax is never more powerful than when it happens in the arms of the person who was meant for you.”
“I wondered if I was the only one who felt that way.”
“No.” William walked in, followed closely by Celeste. “We’ll never truly be at peace here, but as long as we’re held in the deepest soul of our lovers, then we’ll find our moments of happiness.”
Celeste sat next to her. “Also, it’s not only in the arms of your lover, but in his eyes that you’ll be able to glimpse Heaven.”
“Mika’il said something to that effect in a conversation we had.” She shook her head. “I don’t know if Grant will be able to accept the entire truth of what we are and what that means to him.”
“If he truly loves you, his heart will open his eyes to the truth in our world,” Dominic said.
“He’s leaning heavily on our side even now, Danielle,” William encouraged her as he joined them at the table. He brought two more glasses and the bottle of whiskey.
“I know, and if the solid proof from the skeleton doesn’t convince him, I’m sure your mortals will.” She let William refill her glass.
“Adam said he and Grant had a chat last night. Your archaeologist asked Adam about our relationship,” Celeste commented.
“What did Adam say?”
“That he was willing to accept me—even if I was crazy—when he realized he couldn’t live without me.”
“Abby and Teresa were much more accepting. Why is that?” Dominic ran his finger along the rim of his glass.
“I think, in their souls, women are closer to the spiritual world than men, except for your Detective Largent.” Celeste slammed back her whiskey and had William pour her another.
“Poor Nevan. All his life, he’s been tormented by what he sees. I’m amazed he’s holding on to his sanity.” She shook her head, remembering how tired and sick her friend had looked when he left.
“He’ll meet someone someday who’ll help him see his sight as the gift it is instead of the curse he believes it to be,” Dominic predicted.
William raised his glass. “A toast to our loves. The other halves of our souls and the bits of Heaven they’ve returned to us.”
The other three raised their glasses and they drank.
Chapter Eleven
Grant was startled awake by the shrill ringing of Danielle’s phone. He lay in bed trying to calm his heart rate down while he listened to her answer.
“Hello… Nevan, what’s wrong?” She reached back across the bed to touch his shoulder.
He could hear the worry in her voice, so he took her hand, holding tight.
“Oh no! We’ll be right down. Has anyone contacted his family?”
A sick feeling settled into the pit of his stomach. Contacting family didn’t sound good. Grant kissed her hand then slid out of bed. After grabbing his clothes, he yanked them on while trying to pay attention to her.
“You want all of us there?” She nodded at him and he headed out of the room to see if he could get the others up and moving.
Dominic, William and Celeste were already standing in the kitchen when he got there. The coffee pot was working and they stared at him with identical blue eyes. It was a little unnerving to see how alike those eyes were, yet each held a hint of the personality of the angel they inhabited. William’s eyes sparkled with humor and Dominic’s held a peace that he figured had been hard won. Celeste’s eyes were serious and met his directly. She had strength of character in her gaze that spoke of honesty and determination.
“Was that Detective Largent?” Dominic asked as the fallen pulled out several coffee mugs.
“Yeah, I think he wants all of us to meet him somewhere.” He took a mug then filled it with coffee. Taking a sip, he grunted at how strong the brew was.
“William made it.” Celeste grinned. “The others are getting ready. We’ll be able to leave in ten minutes.”
“Good. There’s been another break-in at the museum.” Danielle walked in before taking his cup.
He didn’t argue, just grabbed another one off the counter. “Shit. What more could the idiot damage?”
“It isn’t damage to artifacts that he caused this time. He killed one of the guards.” Tears shone in her eyes.
He wrapped her in his arms. Damn, this was getting out of hand. He hoped Montgomery found out where the crate had gone soon. He stared at the other fallen. “Why don’t you do something about these guys?”
“We have to stay out of it. Unless unrepentants are involved, we can’t interfere in the problems of mortals.” Dominic shrugged at his growl. “Sure, that particular rule sucks, but there isn’t much any of us can do about it.”
Danielle pulled away from him as the other three mortals arrived to get their coffee before leaving.
* * * *
Danielle was watching Nevan look around the murder scene. She wanted to ask him what he saw, but didn’t have the nerve to bother him.
“Why didn’t you request my assistance?” David Randolph appeared in the room. Danielle assumed he was the head Enforcer for the Chicago area.
Nevan scowled at him, then continued to study the scene.
“He can see me?” he asked Danielle.
“And hear you,” Nevan commented.
“Strange. I’ve never had a mortal see me if I didn’t want him to.” David stared at the detective.
“Stop it. Detective Largent has the sight. He’s able to see spirits,” Danielle explained.
“That has to suck. There’s spirits all around us. How do you function?” he questioned Nevan.
“By ignoring them.” Nevan knelt next to the body.
“Explain what’s going on in my town, Danielle. Why is Chicago crawling with Enforcers?”
“You have no idea. You weren’t too concerned when Grant got beat up the other night. I figured I wouldn’t bother you with our problems. I called a few friends in for help.” She glared at the fallen.
“It looks like they aren’t very good at their jobs.” David barely spared a glance at the dead guard. “Why did you bring Christian here?”
“We didn’t have a choice. Are you going to stand up to Lucifer if he shows?” She smirked at the look of fear skating across David’s face. “I didn’t think so. Christian can and will stand up to him. That’s why we asked him here.”
Christian appeared and Nevan started.
“My heart might survive if you’d all arrive using the door like normal people,” Nevan muttered.
Christian stared down at him for a moment, t
hen looked at David through dark blue eyes. “It’s about time you showed up, David. I’ll head back to New York now.”
David backed up. “Oh, that’s okay. I wouldn’t want you to waste a trip.”
Christian’s eyes narrowed and Danielle gestured for Nevan to move out of the way. The detective shook his head, staying put. There was a stubborn tilt to his chin, telling her he wasn’t going to rearrange his crime scene for anyone.
“What do you mean no? It’s not my job to keep Daystar out of your city. My inclination is to let him run rampant through Chicago.”
“You can’t,” Danielle blurted.
Both sets of eyes turned her way, causing her to duck her head. Her big mouth was going to get her in trouble.
“Why not? No mortal is going to believe that skeleton is anything but a fake.” Christian glanced down at Nevan again. “They don’t have the imagination to believe in angels.”
“Not if they knew what pains in the ass they are.” Nevan nudged Christian’s foot out of the way.
Christian grabbed Nevan’s collar, dragging him to the tips of his toes. The detective joined gazes with the Enforcer—dark blue dueled with pale green. There wasn’t any fear in Nevan’s eyes. Somehow he must have known Christian wouldn’t hurt him. Christian let go of him and Nevan knelt to take pictures of the body.
“You’re the only one who can face Lucifer. It’s best if you stick around.” David tried to slide away.
Christian pinned him with his gaze. “Don’t return unless we call for you. You’re useless and your rather lax view on mortals could get you in trouble. Remember that.”
“Yes, sir,” David stammered before disappearing.
“Worthless piece of shit, if you ask me,” Nevan commented as he stood, then gestured to the coroner’s people who were waiting outside the room to take the body.
Danielle couldn’t believe that Christian would choose to stay. Studying the legendary Enforcer, she saw lines cut into his face along the sides of his mouth. He looked as if he were in pain all the time. He caught her staring and she flushed. His smile was full of sadness, with a hint of insanity. She grabbed his arm when he turned to go.
“We will be forgiven one day. Heaven’s gates won’t be barred to us forever.” She couldn’t help it. The urgency to give Christian hope drove her to speak and touch him.
He glanced down at her hand and waited until she released him before he spoke. “I can only hope it won’t be too late for some of us.” He headed for the door after shooting an ironic look at Nevan. “I’ll be back a little later.”
She stared as Christian left, then turned to meet Nevan’s gaze.
“You fallen all have problems, but that guy would keep a therapist busy for years with his.” Nevan watched the crime scene guys carry the body bag out. “Okay, let’s collect the others and go to the café. I’m hungry and I need to get some caffeine.”
As they reached the café, Danielle noticed the rest of the group was there along with Grant. She was surprised when he leaned over to kiss her. He had done it before in front of her friends, but never out where colleagues could see. Did that mean he was willing to turn this into a serious relationship?
“It is a serious relationship, Danielle. If it wasn’t, he would have left a long time ago.” Dominic’s voice skated through her mind.
Laughing, she realized he was right. A guy didn’t stick around for casual sex when things got rough.
“Okay. First, I’ll be leaving shortly to inform the deceased’s family. I hate this part of it.” Nevan stared down at his notebook for a moment.
She put an arm around his shoulders, giving him a quick hug. “Do you want me to go with you?”
Shaking his head, he looked up. “No, but thanks for the offer. So, have we found out anything else about this crate?”
Adam nodded. “I got a call about an hour ago. The crate was shipped to the Moffet Field Museum in Sunnyvale, California by accident. Here’s the phone number and contact person’s name. Carson, you should be the one calling them. See if you can get them to overnight it. If they have a problem with cost, I’ll pay it.”
“California? You’ve got to be kidding.” Grant grabbed the paper and left to find some privacy.
“It’s a state and it starts with a ‘C’. We should be happy it’s still in the country.” Adam chuckled.
“So the crate’s been found. What are we going to do to catch the men who did this?” Nevan included all the fallen in his gaze as he asked.
“If we catch Diggston, I can probably convince him to roll over on Martinez. Once we get the time and everything set up for the crate’s arrival, I’ll go drop a few interesting bits of information into the right ears. As soon as we know the bait’s gotten to Martinez and Diggston, we’ll set up a trap. They need to be taken care of. They’re getting careless and if the police don’t take them down, I can guarantee you that the crime bosses will.” Adam shifted restlessly on his chair.
“That’s what my contacts in vice and organized crime said as well. I don’t want a crime war on my turf. We’ll take this guy out soon and avoid the whole thing.” Nevan caught Danielle’s gaze and said, “Do you really think Lucifer is going to take time out of his ‘taking over the world’ plans to drop in here and steal this skeleton?”
Dominic answered before Danielle could say anything, “No one knows what Lucifer will do. He’s crazy and cunning. If he thought it might further his cause, he’d be here in a minute and none of us would be able to do anything about it. The only ones who can make him back down are Christian and Mika’il. Together, we would be able to protect the mortals from him, but not the skeleton.” Dominic looked at Teresa. “Even if I knew it meant the end of the world as we know it, I wouldn’t let him hurt Teresa.”
“No one would expect you to have to choose, Dominic. That’s why we sucked it up and asked Christian to come here. None of us are comfortable around him, but we know what’s at stake if that bastard Lucifer shows his face here.” William took Abby’s hand and glared at the others.
“The person at the Moffet museum is shipping the crate out today. We should be getting it delivered here by five tomorrow night.” Grant came back, folding the paper to put in his pocket.
“Good. If we play our cards right, we can set our trap for. Montgomery, do you think your associates can spread the news that the crate will be in the lab after the museum closes?” Nevan asked.
Adam nodded. “I’ll pay a visit to an old friend of mine. He’ll make sure it gets to the right person.”
Nevan stood. “I have to head back to the precinct. I’ll get a hold of you when I have everything set up on my side.”
“Detective, can I clean up my lab again?” Grant’s voice held a hint of exasperation.
“Sure, Carson. My guys tried not to make a bigger mess than necessary, but they probably did track a lot of shit in there.” The detective waved to them and left the café.
“Come on. We’ll help you clean up,” Danielle said as she joined Grant.
* * * *
Danielle and the others had been helping clean up Grant’s lab for several hours. He had pulled the skeleton out of the vault when they’d got there to check and make sure nothing had happened to it. Sure, it was a bunch of bones, but at one time, it had been one of their brethren. The spirit might not be there anymore, yet they still felt obligated to treat the skeleton with respect.
She had been fighting a niggling memory that was trying to intrude on her consciousness. She studied the skeleton and armbands. “Grant, why did you pick this particular site to dig at?”
He was sitting at one of the lab tables, cleaning a beaded necklace. He frowned at her for interrupting him, but he answered, “A couple months before our field season started, a man came in. He said his name was Miquel Cruz. He owned the land where the dig was. He brought one of the armbands and explained a worker had found it. I was amazed. It is an almost perfect example of Pre-Columbian metal work. Mr Cruz had all the right papers si
gned and permission from the government for us to dig and bring the stuff back. He also funded the whole expedition.”
“Have you seen him since?”
“No.” He frowned. “Although the Meical guy I talked to at the bar reminded me of him.”
She knew it. “In what way?”
“Their eyes were the same unusual silver color.” He tensed when William jumped to his feet.
“The bastard knew the skeleton was there. He set this whole thing up,” William growled.
“No. He knew Ferguson’s body had to be somewhere nearby, but he was never sure where the angel had gone.” Christian spoke from where he had appeared in the corner.
“So he came to Grant on purpose,” Danielle suggested.
Christian shrugged, his dark eyes showing no emotion. “Everything the archangel does has a purpose and it is usually at the bidding of the Father.”
“Wait, are you saying Mr Cruz was an angel?” Grant shook his head.
“Not just any angel. Miquel Cruz was Mika’il, the archangel and the most feared of God’s Host,” Dominic commented. “And more than likely Meical at the bar was the angel as well.”
“He’s always interfering,” William complained.
“Mika’il interferes because he has to.” Christian moved to the center of the room, his gaze touching everyone. “Don’t judge or complain when you don’t understand his suffering.”
“Suffering? How does he suffer compared to us?” William faced off with Christian.
Everyone tensed as the two Enforcers stared at each other. Danielle wondered how Christian would tolerate what amounted to a challenge.
“He suffers. That’s all I’ll say. It’s not time for you to know all the truths that exist.” Christian turned to Danielle. “I’ll be back tomorrow night. You all might want to take a moment to thank Mika’il. Without his interference, you wouldn’t have the love that keeps you waking up in the morning.”
After Christian disappeared, the other fallen descended on William.
“What the hell were you thinking?” Celeste slugged William in the chest.
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