by C. L. Coffey
I’d like to say I lost track of time and didn’t know how long I’d been sitting there, but I’d be lying. Time and time again, I replayed those last minutes of Paige’s life. How Lilah, the one who had earned her wings before me, the supposed archangel, had her hands wrapped around Joshua’s throat, choking the life from him. How the thought of him dying combined with the injuries I had sustained had left me unable to move until I had begged God for help. How I had taken her sword and thrust it so hard through her back it had stuck out of the center of her chest. How, finally, she’d laughed at me, explaining that she would never have been able to kill Joshua otherwise her crazy plan would never have worked.
My troubled thoughts distracted me long enough that the internal LoJack I have on Joshua didn’t flare into life until a sensation I hadn’t felt in weeks coursed through me. It took me a moment to work out it wasn’t me hurting. I sat bolt upright, blinking in the rain, virtually unfelt on my soaked skin. Not so long ago, I had to rely on my gut instinct to locate Joshua. Now, I could narrow him down like he was on Google Maps, only it was like the roads hadn’t been downloaded to my brain. Currently, he was just over three miles east of my current location, and more importantly, he was in pain.
I didn’t hesitate any longer, getting to my feet and running. I was by no means as fast as The Flash, but just over six minutes later, I was outside the house I knew he was in, and I didn’t care if anybody had seen me. Thankfully, it was just after ten and though I’d barely registered the fact I had probably passed a dozen people, my priority was Joshua.
I paused outside, staring up at my destination, certain that the LoJack was on the fritz. I was in the middle of the Lower Ninth Ward. Although Joshua was a detective with NOPD, his district didn’t cover this far out. As he was on his probationary period, he was mainly restricted to the French Quarter, unless of course, the case he was working required him to visit other areas. This location left me mystified. There were some areas in New Orleans that had been decimated when Katrina hit. The section of the street behind me had already had the houses cleared, leaving vacant plots behind. I was in front of a house which had long since been abandoned. “What are you doing here?” I muttered to the deserted street.
The front door was hammered shut and I had to go around the side, following a path which had been cut into the overgrown garden by many pairs of feet. The inside, although sheltered from the rain, was wet. The far side of the room, which had once been a kitchen, was missing a chunk of the ceiling and water was pouring in. I let my eyes adjust to the darkness. There was, of course, no electricity in the house. The little light that was available was coming from the streetlights outside.
I moved into the hallway, and nearly ran back out onto the street. I’d just walked the streets of New Orleans without shoes on, yet walking across a carpet which not only smelt moldy, but also squelched under my feet, turned my stomach. It was only Joshua’s strained voice that pushed me forward. “You’re about two minutes away from making a mistake you can’t come back from.”
I hurried down the hall, finally bursting into what turned out to be the bathroom. It was a little brighter in here, thanks to the streetlight which seemed to be placed outside the small, broken bathroom window allowing the light to shine through the wooden slats which had been hammered over it. The first thing I spotted was the hideously filthy bathtub, followed by Joshua sitting on the floor between the tub and an equally disgusting toilet bowl.
My eyes immediately darted to the blood on his forehead, dropping lower to his dark blue eyes staring back at me. He didn’t look pleased to see me. In fact he looked scared. “Angel, get out of here,” he barked at me.
I took too long to process the words. Behind me, the bathroom door slammed shut. I whirled around to find a gun pointing at my chest. “Oh, this isn’t good,” I muttered.
CHAPTER TWO
Storm Fall
I didn’t blink as I stared at the gun, though my mouth quickly dried up. I couldn’t move. I wasn’t unfamiliar with guns: my uncle had been in the army, and my aunt still had his guns locked away, but I’d never been on this side of one, staring at the cool black barrel. “Interesting company you keep, Joshua,” I muttered, trying to work out what I was going to do. There wasn’t much room in the bathroom, and while I could move fast, I didn’t think I was fast enough to dodge a bullet.
“What is she doing here?”
I finally dragged my gaze away from the gun, noticing, first of all, that the hand was shaking as he struggled to hold the weapon steady, then second of all, the guy holding it looked high as a kite. He was blinking madly as his eyes darted around the room, sweat beads forming on his head despite the coolness of the night. Drugs and guns: what a great combination. “Me?” I repeated. “What is Joshua doing here?”
“Okay, let’s everyone take a moment and calm down,” Joshua said, his voice steady. “There’s no need to doing anything stupid, Karl.”
“Is she a cop?” Karl demanded, the gun jerking between me and Joshua.
“A cop?” Joshua laughed. “Look at her, Karl. She looks like she’s taking part in a wet t-shirt competition.”
A wet t-shirt competition? The England football team spent at least ninety minutes playing in a shirt like mine – more if it inevitably went to penalties – and not once did I ever recall their shirts going even remotely see-through. I snorted. “Are you-” I started to turn to Joshua.
“No, no!” Karl cried, lurching forward. “You need to stop moving. You need to stay perfectly still,” he snapped, the ball of his left hand massaging his temple. “You can’t be doing anything stupid.”
I froze.
“No one is going to do anything stupid, Karl,” Joshua tried to assure him. “Why don’t you hand over the gun before anyone gets hurt, and before you get into any trouble?”
Karl’s dark eyes darted between the two of us. I was still trying to work out what my chances were against a bullet. As well as being able to move fast, my body – my vessel – was supposed to be able to heal from a lot, very quickly. I’d recovered from scrapes and bruises in a matter of hours, but I really didn’t want to test the theory with a bullet.
Lying in bed for weeks doing little more than stare at a ceiling, reliving memories, had left my mind sluggish. I took that long thinking about my possible actions, that my attention wasn’t focused on what was going on behind me. Karl, his eyes on me, didn’t catch on straight away either.
Whatever was keeping Joshua huddled in the corner was forgotten about and he lunged forward towards Karl, pushing me to the side. The gun went off, sounding like an explosion in the enclosed space, and thankfully at that moment Joshua tripped on an uneven piece of flooring. As Joshua hurled himself at Karl, knocking him backwards into the hallway, I recovered my balance and threw myself at the door, slamming it shut so hard the wood splintered on the frame.
I dove at Joshua pushing him flat to the floor before he could get back up, as bullets began exploding through the bathroom door, sending pieces of wood raining down over us. My instinct took over. I rolled, pushed my back against the door, keeping low but digging my heels in to keep it pressed closed. Sure enough there was a break in the shots and the sound of Karl rattling the handle as he tried to open the door. Seconds later, the door slammed back against me as Karl hurled his body at it. I dug my feet in, wedging them in the uneven floorboards and pushed. A minute passed, and then the door fell still.
Releasing a hesitant breath, I finally looked down at Joshua. He was peering up at me, his blue eyes wide with a mixture of fear and relief. He started to climb to his feet, but I shook my head. “I can still hear him,” I hissed at him, as something clattered outside the room. “Stay where you are.” Admittedly, it didn’t sound like he was right outside of the room, but I wasn’t going to take a chance.
“Are you alright?” Joshua asked in a low voice. His eyes raked over me.
I shot him a glare. “Are you?” I asked.
Joshua, not showi
ng any interest in listening to me, kept low, dragging himself to me. “Karl is high. If we wait for him to settle, we can wait him out.”
I frowned at the suggestion. I didn’t trust Karl to settle. Equally, I didn’t think it was safe to try to leave the room just yet. “You’re a cop,” I pointed out.
“And I know enough to know we’re both unarmed and it’s not safe just yet, darlin’,” he drawled.
“I’m not questioning that,” I told him, rolling my eyes at him. “I’m asking where your backup is? What are you doing here in the first place?”
Joshua sighed, shaking his head, his lips pursed together grimly. “It’s not important.”
I narrowed my eyes, shooting him a confused look. “How is it not important? What the heck are you doing here?” I asked, gesturing to the dump of a bathroom as though it wasn’t obvious where I was referring to. I stared at the tiles which may once have been white, but were under so much dirt, it was impossible to say for certain. I held back a shudder as I spotted a roach scuttle under the bathtub.
“Now is not the time, Angel,” he told me.
“Perhaps we should just make a run for it,” I suggested: I could take Karl, right?
Joshua glared at me before finally releasing a breath and shaking his head. “He only fired six rounds. That Glock is still loaded.”
I folded my arms and glowered at him. “We’ve just established we’re not going anywhere any time soon; might as well pass the time with something.”
“It’s not important,” he shot back firmly, his face becoming stern.
“We have just been shot at, Joshua,” I pointed out, feeling my anger build as my hands curled into fists. “How am I supposed to keep you safe if I don’t know all the details?”
“You don’t need to keep saving me,” Joshua snapped. “I’m perfectly capable of looking after myself.”
I snorted. “Yes, excellent case in point right here.” I pointed at the cut on his forehead, without jabbing at it like I was tempted, to carry the point home.
“What do you care anyway?” he asked. “It’s not like you’ve been around recently.”
That was fair: I deserved that comment. That didn’t stop me sucking in a breath as an explosion of pain flashed through me, like a bolt of lightning to my chest.
“Angel?” Joshua exclaimed sharply, seemingly not caring that the volume could attract Karl’s attention once more. He brought himself into a crouch as he grasped at my shoulder.
“I’m fine,” I said, forcing out the words through gritted teeth.
“Bullshit,” Joshua spat, his eyes once again looking me over, trying to work out where my injury was. When he couldn’t see it, he started to run his hands over me, but I pushed them away. My pain didn’t come from a physical wound.
I closed my eyes and ignored him, tensing my muscles. This was not the time to be incapacitated. It took a few minutes of me being unable to move, but the pain eventually ebbed back. I took a deep breath and opened my eyes, finding Joshua watching me, his earlier anger replaced with concern. “I’m fine,” I repeated.
“And I again call bullshit on that,” he informed me, becoming more impatient as he shook his hand over me.
“I can’t talk about it here,” I relented. “We need to get out of here.”
“Might as well pass the time with something,” he shrugged, repeating my earlier words.
“How about we start with you and a drug dealer all alone in a derelict house?” I pushed.
Joshua sat back, cocking his head. “Me and a drug dealer?” he asked in confusion. “You think…” he trailed off and shook his head in realization. “I’m not here buying drugs, darlin’, and Karl is a user, not a dealer.”
“A user?” I repeated, trying and failing to hide my disgust as I snorted. “You sure can pick the reliable ones, can’t you? Or is there another reason you’re here?”
“Stop implying that I’m using,” Joshua snapped at me.
“What other explanation should I come to if you’re not going to tell me what you’re doing here?” I demanded.
“Karl’s an informant,” Joshua admitted, finally. “I’m trying to close out some open cases and I was looking him up to see if he had anything that could help with one in particular.”
“So where’s the backup?” I asked, hopeful. We could last it out in here for a while if help was on the way.
A hint of pink touched Joshua’s cheeks. “There is no backup.”
Uncertainty washed over me. “No backup?” I repeated slowly. “Where’s Leon?” I frowned and then waved my hand, brushing that thought away. “Well how long until someone realizes you haven’t checked in?”
Joshua studied me, unblinking, then blew out a breath. “No one knows I’m here,” he admitted. “Asmodeus was riding me about the number of unopened cases against my name and I figured I would put in a little unpaid overtime.”
I stared at him, ready to chew him a new one, and then I sighed. Now wasn’t the time for this conversation, either. “Okay, fine. Let’s just call 911.”
The pink in Joshua’s cheeks deepened. “Karl has my phone.” I opened my mouth, but before I could get my words out, Joshua spoke again. “That’s my gun he has too.”
I slumped back against the door, crossing my legs beneath me. I shifted uncomfortably as something dug sharply into my back, irritating the muscle there. “Wait, what? What happened?” I asked him, warily, my attention on him, rather than the discomfort in my back. A cop ‘losing’ his gun was serious. At best, I figured he would lose his job – I didn’t want to think what the consequences would be if it was used to commit a crime.
Joshua shrugged before shuffling closer to me, and stretching his legs out in front of him. “I found Karl in the bathtub. I thought he was unconscious and I let my guard down. It was a rookie-ass move and I’m going be in so much trouble when I have to report my gun missing,” he admitted. “Are you going to tell me how the hell you knew I was here?”
I chewed at my lips, wondering how I was going to explain this without seeming like a complete creeper. “The same way I knew that you were at Six Flags,” I told him. “Being your guardian angel means I’m tuned into Radio Joshua.”
Joshua shot me a sideways stare. “Excuse me?”
I quickly shook my head. “I don’t know how to explain it,” I said. “It’s like, if I think about it, I just know where you are. Normally, it’s not something I really think about though, but tonight I knew you were in pain and it was like this internal alarm was set off. Are you okay?” I asked him.
Joshua nodded, brushing his hair from his forehead to reveal the cut on his temple. “I hit the tub,” he said, simply before falling silent.
I looked between Joshua and the bathtub, and back to Joshua. “How?” I asked.
“I’d arranged to meet Karl here. I found him in the bathtub and thought he had OD’d – he hadn’t,” Joshua turned away. “I startled him, he startled me, and I slipped,” he finished, the words muttered so quietly that I wondered if I heard him correctly. As his cheeks flushed, the pink standing out on his pale skin, and he refused to look at me, I decided I must have heard right.
I focused on trying to work out where in the small house Karl was. I figured he was pacing at the other end of the house. Joshua tapped my arm and I looked at him questioningly. “I came to the convent to see how you were.”
I couldn’t allow myself to think about it. Thinking about it would lead to guilt. Guilt would lead to pain. Pain would leave Joshua vulnerable. “I think he’s in the kitchen,” I said, more abruptly than I intended as I avoided responding to Joshua’s comment. I wanted to tell him what had been going on with me, but I couldn’t find the words.
Joshua considered me for a moment, and then nodded. He pointed at the bathroom window. “We’re going out through that.”
I gave the window a dubious look. It was tall, but thin. It had also been boarded up. “We will never get that open without Karl hearing us,” I said, dubious
ly.
Joshua rolled over onto his knees and placed his hands on my shoulders. “Karl is out there with a loaded gun. We don’t really have any other option, darlin’,” he informed me. “Trust me.”
“Okay,” I nodded and stood. I started to follow Joshua over to the window, but I paused at the bathtub, keeping back as Joshua pulled his jacket off. He reached up and used his elbow to knock what was left of the glass out. Free of glass, Joshua turned his attention to the planks boarding the window. The wood was rotten and it came away easily, but it didn’t come away quietly, the crack echoing around the room. Down the hall I could hear Karl’s footsteps start to move back towards the bathroom. “Joshua!” I hissed.
Joshua had heard him too. “Angel, through the window. Now.”
I shook my head. The last thing we needed was for Karl to come bounding back into the bathroom, firing wildly, while one of us was half out the window. Without giving Joshua time to stop me, and no second thought for the noise, I reached for the bathtub and ripped it from the wall, the metal work screeching painfully, wood and water showering over us. The footsteps picked up pace, but I just managed to wedge the tub in front of the door before it could be opened. My attempt at keeping Karl out seemed to work.
I turned back to Joshua, expecting him to be half out of the window at this point, but instead he was staring at me, rooted to the spot, his blue eyes wide. “Later,” I barked at him, turning him towards our escape route and putting my hands on the small of his back to usher him along.
He didn’t hesitate as he climbed up and outside into the rain. I ignored the attempts of Karl to re-enter the bathroom, aware that the door wasn’t going to hold for much longer, and followed. Joshua was waiting below to help me down. I almost laughed as I remembered the window I had jumped from earlier in the evening. Instead, I accepted his hand and landed neatly in front of him allowing a sigh of relief to escape me.
“Where is your car?” I asked him. It was still raining and the sound of the water bouncing off the roofs was making so much noise that I couldn’t talk too quietly.
