by C. L. Coffey
“Mr. Bricker said the best chilies for enchiladas were ancho and pasilla. The grocery store sent jalapeños,” Eugene said, looking thoroughly disgusted as though the store had personally wronged him. Chances were the person picking the chili peppers was someone like me who didn’t know, or care enough to learn, about the different varieties of chilies.
“Who is Mr. Bricker?” I asked, instead of pointing that out.
“He has a stall at the Farmer’s Market with the biggest selection of chilies. He has been teaching me all about them.”
“When?” I asked, trying not to sound as suspicious as I felt. As far as I was aware, none of the angels were supposed to be leaving the convent unless it was to perform their usual task of delivering messages. We had taken Eugene off that job at his request to work in the kitchens full time.
“He mentioned it the last time I was there,” Eugene replied, though he wouldn’t meet my eyes. “And jalapeños aren’t right for this dish.”
I stepped directly in front of him and crouched down into Eugene’s line of sight so I could make him look at me. “Eugene,” I said, slowly. “I’m only going to say this once more: we will cope with jalapeños tonight. What’s more important is that you understand you cannot be wandering around this city by yourself, even if it’s just to get some chilies. Not with things the way they are currently.”
“Fine,” he sighed, somewhat melodramatically. “We could make do with jalapeños.” He said it like I’d asked him to make the dish with a burger relish.
I wasn’t going to rise to it. I had enough to worry about. Instead, I pulled out a crate of tomatoes from the walk-in refrigerator, and began chopping them into small pieces. The other two angels finished with their cleaning and then left, leaving Eugene and I alone. Cupid was always saying the cherubim were petulant and moody, but if that was the case, Eugene had definitely been taking tips. He was sulking as he chopped up the bell peppers; there was no doubt about that.
Frankly, I wasn’t even going to pay attention to it. If he wanted to sulk because we didn’t have the exact chilies, then so be it. I had enough to do. I finished with the tomatoes and returned them to the refrigerator until we were ready for them, swapping the fruit for several pounds of chicken breasts, and set to slicing them up into thin slivers. Eugene was still ignoring me by the time I had finished with those and washed my hands.
Feeling the need to take a temporary break from the atmosphere in the kitchen, I emptied the large trashcan and stepped outside. The dumpsters were on the far side of the grounds, by a back gate off an alley which the refuse collectors used. I had thrown the trash bag in, and turned around, only to let out a startled squeal as I found Garret standing in front of me, his eyes narrowed.
“How are you still alive?” he asked me.
My shock was replaced with irritation. “Oh look, I missed some of the trash.”
He shot me a withering glare. “Bite me.”
“I’ll pass,” I told him, trying to step around him. “I don’t know what I’ll catch.”
“Probably nothing you don’t already have.”
I paused, my fingers curling into fists, but counted to ten before turning back to him. “What do you want, Garret?”
“You said you would meet with Veronica. I’m here to take you to her.”
It took me a moment to work out what he was talking about, and then I frowned. “After lunch,” I exclaimed. “It’s barely middle of the morning. Or weren’t you listening?”
“It’s important,” he insisted.
“Fine,” I growled. “Just let me go tell Eugene-” Garret reached over and clamped a hand around my wrist, just too tight to be comfortable. “Where I’m go….” I trailed off as all of a sudden we weren’t in the convent grounds anymore. “For the love of God!” I snapped, jerking my arm free from Garret. “I thought we’d had this discussion – you were going to stop kidnapping me!”
“I didn’t kidnap you,” he yelled back at me. “I asked and you said ‘fine’!”
With more willpower than I thought I had in me, I turned my back on him. We were on one of the higher floors in the Plaza Tower – the cherubim’s newish home. It had been a few weeks since I had been here last, and it was finally starting to look habitable. “Veronica!” I bellowed, ignoring the fact that there still weren’t enough furnishings in there to stop my voice echoing back at me.
Veronica appeared in front of me looking slightly puzzled. “Angel? What are you doing here?”
I slowly turned, my irritation levels quickly rising as I settled a glare on Garret. “I don’t know, Veronica. Maybe Garret could enlighten us both, seeing as it was so very important that I come on over?”
I glanced back at Veronica and found her eyes widening in understanding. “You used me as an excuse?” she said, though her attention was still on Garret.
I was confused.
“Thank you,” Garret mumbled his voice so quiet that I could barely make out what he was saying. In fact, given by the fact he disappeared as soon as he uttered them, I was sure I had imagined them to start with.
I didn’t think it possible, but I was even more confused.
“What the hell is wrong with him?” I asked Veronica.
She fixed me a sad smile. “He heard about you and Dion.”
My heart plummeted into the depths of my stomach.
Dion.
I hadn’t known Dion that well.
He was one of the cherubim.
He was a friend of Garret’s.
He didn’t like me.
… I hadn’t been able to save him.
He’d gotten stuck in a trap which I’d not been able to break before a tower of shipping containers had toppled down on him. I’d hoped that he’d survived, but Cupid had informed me that he was gone. Dead.
Like Michael.
“Why is he thanking me?” I asked. My mouth felt like it was full of cotton wool balls.
“He knows you stayed with Dion,” she explained. Her head dropped, her jet-black hair falling forward to create a barrier around her face. “He wasn’t alone.”
He was. I couldn’t get him out as the containers came crashing down so I ran away and left him. But I couldn’t tell her that – not because I was too afraid to, but because that was information she didn’t need to hear. “We defeated Jezebeth last night,” I told her instead. I couldn’t let the conversation linger on something that would either result in me having to explain what happened that night, or worse, be given more thanks that I certainly didn’t deserve.
Veronica’s head shot up, surprise and pride shining from her gray eyes. “You did?”
“Technically Gabriel was the one to strike that final blow, but yes.”
The surprise gave way to confusion. “Gabriel is in New Orleans?”
I nodded. “Intermittently. He’s here’s to help with the construction.” The room I was in was surrounded by windows. It seemed the cherubim had taken out a lot of internal walls, leaving only structural columns in place. The result was a 360 view of the city. From here, I could just about make out a section of the interstate which split the city in two.
“I’m sorry to hear about the convent,” Veronica sighed, bringing my attention back to her. “But I’m surprised Gabriel is here for that.”
“He’s also giving me a few fighting pointers,” I shrugged. “What’s so surprising?”
“Gabriel doesn’t leave the Vatican City unless he’s hunting nephilim.” She flipped her hair over her shoulder and cocked her hip. “Although that’s not a bad thing.”
“I beg to differ,” I muttered. “They’re not all bad,” I added, thinking of Ty. I hadn’t completely made my mind up on him, but I was erring to the side of, he could be trusted. “And I don’t think they should be killed.”
Veronica looked sympathetic. “You weren’t here when Lucifer fell. You didn’t see the monstrosities which were created prior to that. They were – are – unclean, unholy, and unwanted.”
�
��I still disagree. Maybe some of them do take after their parent, but I don’t think you can tarnish them all with one brush. One of them has asked me for help.”
Veronica’s eyes widened in shock. “You’re friends with one? How did you track it down? How did you not kill it?”
“He,” I corrected her. “He’s a he, not an It. I’ve known him for a while, and I haven’t killed him because he’s… because I trust him.”
“You can’t trust them,” she declared, shaking her head vehemently.
“I refuse to believe that,” I told her. “I’m not that naive to think they’re all sweet and innocent. Hell, I’m not even sure this one would come close to that category, but he knows what his father is, and he tipped us off about what was happening at the Port. The other day he told me there were close to forty Fallen in the city, and he was going to give me a…”
I trailed off as I watched Veronica’s already pale complexion turn ashen. “That’s precise,” she whispered.
“Santa gave me his Naughty and Nice list,” I told her, hoping to inject some humor into the situation.
As Veronica continued to fix me a look of horror, I knew I’d made the wrong call. “How many?” she asked, licking her lips.
I fixed her my best determined look. “Forty, give or take – spread across the city, from what I can gather. Therefore, I think we can all agree that we have bigger fish to fry than a few nephilim,” I told her, firmly.
“I need to tell the others,” she mumbled, looking a little dazed. I was beginning to suspect that no one had a clue just how bad the situation was in this city.
“You can,” I assured her. “It’s not a secret I’m making you keep. I’m well aware of the fact that we’re going to need the cherubim’s help to tackle this problem and I’m not going to turn that away.” I chewed on my lip, considering my next words. “But the focus should be on defeating the Fallen, not hunting the nephilim.”
“I never said we were hunting nephilim,” Veronica said. She looked away, taking a few steps towards the window and ran her hands over the flowered drapes which hung there, ready for nightfall.
That was true, I realized as I quickly replayed our conversation. “I’m sorry: I didn’t mean to assume. I just… I need to be clear that the nephilim aren’t the enemy.”
“I suppose it’s too much to ask for, that your nephilim friend happened to provide a map of where all these Fallen are located?” Veronica asked, avoiding responding to my comment.
“Veronica,” I sighed. “I….” I stopped, distracted by my phone vibrating in my pocket. I pulled it out, seeing Joshua’s name, and then cancelled the vibration, ignoring the call.
“You have a cell phone?” Veronica cocked her head, amused. “Michael approved that?”
“Not exactly,” I muttered as the phone started vibrating again.
“Do you need to get that?”
Most of the time, when using the phone, Joshua and I used text messages. I’d had the phone for a while now, and as Veronica had alluded, Michael hadn’t known I had it. Even Cupid didn’t know about it. I wasn’t sure what the rules were when it came to technology. Michael hadn’t been a fan, but Cupid had a shiny new laptop, and Paddy had a Facebook account, so it didn't think it was banned. It was more to do with the fact that I didn’t want anyone to know it was used almost solely to communicate with the guy I had feelings for – or a nephilim I was on my way to becoming friends with. I could count on one hand how many times I had used the phone to take a call. The sixth sense I had when it came to Joshua was quiet – there weren’t any alarm bells ringing, but for Joshua to be calling back, I figured it was important. I nodded, accepting the call. “Hi, Joshua.”
“Hey darlin’, I’m sorry to bother you when you’re with those virtues.”
“I’m not with them now,” I quickly told him. “I’m just catching up Veronica on the number of Fallen in the city.”
“How’s that going?”
I watched as Veronica raised an eyebrow. “About as well as can be expected, I guess. Is there something wrong?”
“Not exactly,” he responded. “But if you’re not too busy, Leon and I could do with your help at the precinct.”
“You’ve found another fallen angel already?” I asked in surprise. They were moving fast. Too fast, considering I wasn’t present.
“No,” Joshua said, hurriedly. “It’s your other skills we could do with your help for.”
I frowned. I didn’t really have that many skills. “Translation issues?” I guessed.
I could hear the sound of Joshua’s nails as he scratched at his skin, somewhere near the phone – his cheek or neck, maybe? “Something like that,” he sighed.
I looked to Veronica, dropping the phone from my ear. “Would you be able to drop me off in the precinct? Or somewhere close where we won’t be spotted?”
“I know just the place,” she agreed.
I brought the phone back to my ear. “I’ll be there soon. Just let me wrap things up here?”
“No problem,” he agreed before we said our goodbyes and hung up.
I tucked my phone back into my pocket, looking up to find Veronica watching me with a very peculiar expression on her face. I frowned back at her as I tried to figure it out. “What?” I asked, unsure if I was going to like her answer.
“You need to be careful,” she told me. “Humans and angels are not a combination that ends happily for either party.”
“I know about the covenant,” I sighed, wearily. I didn’t want to have to repeat the conversation I’d had with Cupid.
“I’m guessing that Cupid didn’t tell you both sides of that,” Veronica said, her eyes narrowing. I shrugged. “An angel falling is definitely the outcome if offspring is involved with-”
“I’m not planning on having babies!” I squeaked.
“You mean every baby on this earth is planned?” she asked, the sarcasm dripping from her words. I was confident having this conversation would be more comfortable if I had it with Sarah… “That offspring – that nephilim – it won’t grow up to know either parent. A human parent would lose its mind, taking its own life and you – you would be hunted. I don’t particularly want to hunt you down, but I will,” she warned. “And I won’t be the only one.”
“I can’t work out if that’s a threat or a promise,” I muttered, more to myself than to her.
“It can be either,” she shrugged.
Madness? I rubbed at my temples. Was that an actual thing, or just a way for her to try to put me off? I sucked in a breath and shook my head at her. Enough time was being spent on this. Last night, Joshua and I had come to a decision. I would of course share this development with him later, but right now, there were far more important things at stake than my love life. “I think I should head to the precinct and see what Leon and Joshua need,” I said. It was time to put all of this in a box and shelve it until later.
Veronica, although frowning with disapproval, stepped over and took my hand.
The next thing I knew, I was on… “Is this the roof of the precinct?” I asked, looking around.
“Be careful, Angel,” Veronica warned, and then disappeared without answering my question.
Considering it was the middle of the day, it was a good location to leave me… I sighed, and started looking for a door.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Not So Innocent
It took a phone call to ask a bemused Joshua to come up and unlock the door so I could get in, but I was soon walking down to the holding cells where Leon was waiting for me. “Thank you for sorting things out last night,” I told him, once I was sure no one was in earshot of our conversation.
“Thanks to that angel creating a gas leak, it was quite a straightforward situation,” Leon shrugged.
“Gabriel,” I said, grinning.
The realization dawned on Leon. “The Archangel Gabriel!” Leon muttered a quick prayer, wiping his hand over his face when he had finished. “Wow,” he exhaled.
“I spoke to my friend over in the Harbor Police this morning,” Leon said suddenly, his eyes lighting up as he remembered something. “They’re considering ruling out terrorism as they can’t find any cause for the explosions. He said the FBI had several organizations come forward accepting responsibility, but none had panned out. It's confusing them, but I think that should work to our advantage.”
“That’s… that’s amazing,” I said, breathing out a long sigh of relief as I felt an invisible weight ease off my chest. “When are they announcing it to the press?”
Leon’s mouth wrinkled up. “That’s the problem. They’ve gotten so far as to rule out explosives, but they’re still flummoxed as to what caused the explosions. Joey said they were leaning towards a natural fluke, but there was nothing in the area that would explain it. Even the containers which were destroyed didn’t really contain anything flammable, much less volatile enough to cause the reaction it did.”
I raked a hand through my hair as the invisible weight seemed to reappear as quickly as it had left. “I suppose that’s still some progress,” I sighed.
“It won’t be long until this is just a distant memory,” Joshua said, trying to reassure me as he draped an arm over my shoulder, pulling me to his side.
I wanted to believe him and stay positive, but I was failing. Instead, I gave Leon a small smile. “I take it there was another reason you needed me here?”
