Angel Eclipsed (The Louisiangel Series Book 2) (19 page)

“Oh don’t worry,” she said, giving a slight wave of her hand. “I know he can’t tell me too much.” She turned and started to head back into the kitchen, when she paused and looked back at me. “I know you’ve been busy, Angel, and I know that you have a new responsibility now, but you can always pick up the phone,” she sighed, before continuing on.

It wasn’t accompanied by the same body-wracking pain that it normally was, but a wave of guilt flooded through me. It wasn’t long ago that I had felt terrible at the fact I not only wasn’t allowed to see her, but she would never be able to know what had happened to me. When I had accidentally visited her in a dream, Michael had allowed me to keep seeing her. I had been given a gift that no one on the planet had, and I had been wasting it.

I hurried after her, ready to give her another big hug, but stopped short in the doorway. The kitchen was an average sized room, with a breakfast counter: the dining table was in a separate room, and only used if there were guests. Most of the time, Sarah and I had eaten our food out on the large porch. Evidently, Joshua was considered family as he was busy setting the table outside. What’s more, he seemed to know where everything lived.

“Just how often has Joshua been around?” I asked my aunt in a low the voice: the patio doors were open.

“More than you,” she told me. She was definitely upset that I hadn’t been to see her, and I didn’t blame her.

“I’m sorry,” I told her. “I should have called.”

“Yes,” she agreed. “You should have. But you’re here now, and that’s what is important. Now, stop slacking off and put this on the table.”

She handed me the salad bowl and a pitcher of iced water. I took them off her and carried them outside, setting them down. “Why are you visiting my aunt?” I asked Joshua. I wasn’t angry, only curious.

“It was something you said,” he shrugged as he sat down.

I stayed standing opposite him, leaning back against the porch railings, and cocked my head at him. “And what was that?” I asked.

Joshua slowly shook his head. “I’ll tell you later,” he said. My aunt came outside then, carrying dinner, and I decided later was a good idea.

“Are you going to stand there, or are you going to go get the plates?” Sarah asked me. I gave her a grin and darted back into the house. I reappeared a couple of seconds later. “Oh my goodness,” she muttered, her hand over her heart.

I had to set the plates down and dart over to grab the lasagna before she dropped it. “Sorry,” I told her as she slumped into her chair.

“You really are an angel,” she said, staring at me in astonishment.

I pulled a face. “You’ve both said that to me recently. Did neither of you believe me when I told you what I was?”

Sarah quickly regained her composure and gave me a stern look. “The last time I saw you, you were still an angel in training. Joshua here had to tell me that you had earned your wings.”

That guilty feeling made a reappearance, so I dished out the food for something to do. We ate in silence and it wasn’t until Joshua had finished his meal, set his cutlery down, and stared off into the garden in an effort to avoid being the first to speak, that I sighed. I’d been picking at my food, and now resorted to pushing a tomato around the plate in an effort to keep my eyes trained on anything other than my aunt. “I killed someone,” I mumbled.

It was Joshua's impatient grunt which had me looking up. “You killed someone saving my life,” he corrected me.

“I still killed someone,” I pointed out, glaring at him. “Stop trying to downplay that fact.”

Joshua glared back at me. “I’m trying to stop Sarah from thinking that you just randomly went up to someone and shot them, Angel. And I’m also reminding you, why you did it.”

“Because you think I’d forget?” I snapped at him.

“Enough,” Sarah said, loudly. I blinked and found her watching us, strangely calm. “Joshua, I appreciate that you’ve been hiding something from me for a couple of months now, and I understand that the reason you’ve done so is because whatever has happened Angel needs to be the one to tell me. So let her.” She turned her attention to me, and gave my hand a squeeze. “Tell me,” she urged me gently.

So I did. I skipped some of the details – food and drink aside, I could feel that pain building back up and I didn’t think my aunt would cope with seeing me keeled over. Instead I kept it brief, but let them both know what had happened since I had left my room. By the time I had finished, the sun had set. Neither of them interrupted me, although Joshua did briefly disappear inside to turn the porch lights on. “And St Patrick is really a St Patricia,” I finished, doing my best not to let Sarah see how much I was hurting.

“At least we know why I needed a guardian angel,” Joshua added, when Sarah didn’t speak.

Sarah ran her fingers over her lips, looking between myself and Joshua. “I wish you had told me sooner,” she said, finally. “I understand why neither of you did, but I wish you had. Should anything like this ever happen again, I don’t want you to think that you can’t ever tell me.” She gave Joshua a stern look. “And that goes for you too, mister.”

“Yes, m’am,” Joshua quickly agreed, giving her an appreciative smile.

“Now we’ve covered that,” Sarah said, turning her attention back to me. “Do you want to give me a good reason why I shouldn’t be calling an ambulance for you?”

My attempts to hide the pain had failed. “It’s the guilt,” I admitted. “It’s as though someone thought I would forget what I did. I can usually manage it, but sometimes it hurts more than others.”

For the first time since I had started speaking, Sarah looked alarmed. “Angel, I wasn’t exaggerating when I suggested calling an ambulance.”

“I know, but it’s really not as bad as it was, and now that I’m eating and sleeping, that helps,” I assured her. Keeping my attention on her, I pushed the feeling down and sat upright. For good measure I flashed her, what I hoped was, a reassuring smile.

Sarah considered me for a moment then turned to Joshua. “Go get the macaroons.”

“I’m fine,” I said, as Joshua disappeared into the house.

“I know when you’re fine, and when you’re not, and right now, you’re not,” Sarah corrected me. “You barely touched your dinner, so you will eat the macaroons.”

I knew better than to argue. When Joshua returned with a large plate piled high, I took two and started to eat them straight away. “It’s a good job I can eat as many of these as I want,” I muttered.

I had to eat four before Sarah let up. When she did, she looked thoughtful. “I don’t think Lilah was the reason you needed a guardian angel, Joshua,” she told him.

“Angel saved my life,” Joshua disagreed.

“I do not doubt that, and before you say anything,” she said, cutting him off. “You may have been a key, but if Angel hadn’t have stopped Lilah, she probably would have decided to kill you anyway. Michael assigned Angel as your guardian angel for a reason, and the fact that you’re still her charge tells me you haven’t accomplished what you need to.”

Joshua and I stared at each other. It was evident from his surprise that he hadn’t really considered that. “Any suggestions on how we work out what it is that Joshua needs to do?” I asked, chewing at my lip. “I only just managed to keep him alive last time.”

“But you did keep him alive,” Sarah pointed out. She offered me the plate of macaroons and waited until I took another one. “You will also do well to remember that angels are not infallible. If they were, then Lucifer would not have fallen from Heaven in the first place.”

“That’s the problem,” I returned. “I don’t want to fall.”

“You just have to do your best,” Sarah shrugged. “You’re not exactly on the level of Lucifer yet. As for working out why you’re Joshua’s guardian angel, I don’t know. All you can do is continue to help him. It can’t hurt to spend some time with each other.” I looked over at Joshua and found him smirking: I was sure I knew exactly what he wanted us to be doing together. “I’m not sure if what you two have in mind is the kind of thing I was thinking of,” Sarah chuckled.

Joshua’s face went read and I couldn’t help but smirk back at him, despite my own embarrassment. He quickly cleared his throat. “You helped me last time by seeing the pattern in the murders.”

“You think there’s another serial killer in New Orleans?” I asked in surprise.

“Well, no,” he admitted. “But I didn’t last time. Maybe I’m supposed to help someone that way though?” he suggested.

“Well this will be interesting, considering Leon doesn’t want me anywhere near the precinct,” I sighed.

“Angel, is there something else you want to tell me?” Sarah asked, looking expectantly at me.

“No,” I hurriedly responded.

She got to her feet. “Right, you two can do the dishes. Joshua, the left over lasagna is all yours, Angel, you’re taking the macaroons.”

Grim Reaper

We didn’t stay much longer after that. I was armed with a box of macaroons – there had been even more in the kitchen – and Joshua took the lasagna, as instructed. The car ride was mostly spent listening to the radio, or at least, Joshua listened to the radio. I was busy thinking about what Sarah had said, wondering if there was a way to find out why Joshua needed a guardian angel.

“Do you remember the day we went to notify Emily Montgomery’s parents of her death?” Joshua asked, suddenly. I hadn’t even noticed he’d turned the radio down.

The question broke me from my thoughts and I realized we had come to a stop at some lights. I looked over at Joshua and nodded. I don’t think anybody could have forgotten that day. “Why?”

Joshua shrugged. “You said you wished somebody had been to see Sarah to let her know what had happened to you.”

“I haven’t died. Again,” I pointed out.

“But you don’t think she’d worry if you didn’t come to visit?” he asked me. “That’s why I went to see Sarah. I wanted her to know you were okay.”

That admission left me speechless. The only words I had were ones I absolutely wasn’t going to admit any time soon: I was falling head over heels for him, and I was going to do everything in my power to stay with him. I could see him studying me, and I wondered what secrets my eyes were giving away. Behind us a car beeped and we both broke eye contact to look at the green light. Wordlessly, Joshua set off again. “Pull over,” I requested, suddenly.

Joshua glanced over at me, frowning, and then did as I asked. I waited patiently for him to come to a stop outside of a clothing store, now closed for the evening. “What’s the matter?” he asked as he put the car into park.

“Nothing,” I replied, unclipping my seatbelt. “I just didn’t want you to crash when I did this.” I leaned over and kissed him, feeling his lips quirk up into a smile beneath mine. He didn’t hesitate when I tried to deepen the kiss. When I finally pulled away, he had a smug look on his face. “What?” I asked.

“You think I’m hot,” he smirked. I swiped at his arm. “Hey!” he objected. “You can’t be kissing me, then telling me to quit with the flirting. That’s not fair.”

“Look, I think you’re hot, okay. There, I said it – again, I might add. Now, how about we rein the ego in, because it’s making it hard to breathe in here,” I grumbled.

“It’s not my ego that’s making it hard, darlin’,” he informed me as his bedroom eyes made a reappearance.

I couldn’t stop myself from blushing, so I did the only thing I could think of to try to cover my embarrassment. I smacked his arm again. “Will you behave?” I snapped at him. “I’m trying to tell you that I’m falling for you, and that I want to try to find a way to be with you that won’t result in me losing my wings, or you ending up unprotected, and you have to lower the tone.” I trailed off when I realized he was giving me a funny look. Quickly I ran the last ten second bout of verbal diarrhea through my mind. “Oh fudge,” I groaned, letting my head fall into Joshua’s shoulder. So much for never admitting that.

Joshua slowly inhaled, his chest, and my head, rising. It held there for a long moment, and then he exhaled just as slowly. “Angel, I’m going to put you back in your seat, because if I don’t, I’m not going to live up to my promises.”

I started to scoot back over to my seat, but Joshua’s hand wrapped around mine and I stopped, looking at him expectantly. “For the record, I started falling for you some time ago. I’ve just been waiting for you to realize it.”

I knew from the way he was smirking at me I was grinning like an idiot, but I didn’t care. “Does this mean I get to see you later? In your dreams, I mean,” I added.

“Always,” Joshua agreed. Then he quickly shook his head. “No, it depends on one thing,” he added, fixing me a stern look.

I felt the grin falter. “What?” I asked, hesitantly.

Joshua shifted in his seat, leaning over to the passenger side and the glove compartment. From it, he produced something small and red, sitting it in my palm. “What if I need to send my guardian angel dirty text messages?”

“I would hope you would remember I live in a convent,” I pointed out, failing at keeping the pink from my cheeks. “But I will take the phone,” I added, slipping it into my bra. The action earned me a suggestive wiggle of Joshua's eyebrows. “I have no pockets,” I pointed out.

“Thank you,” Joshua told me, leaning back over to kiss me. “And you are always welcome in my dreams.”

I couldn’t keep the stupid grin from my face the rest of the way back to the convent. When I realized I was half a beat from skipping my way into the convent, I had to rein my happiness in.

* * *

From inside my pocket my phone vibrated. It had been hidden under a pillow until only moments ago. I had already sent a text message to Joshua explaining that I was training with Cupid and Raphael, but he had somehow sensed when I was finished with showering. As I was already about to leave the convent anyway, I figured I would wait until I was outside the walls before pulling the phone out.

I started to head towards the small parking lot, but stopped. It was just after six, and the sun had almost set, but the air was as warm and humid as it had been when I’d been out in the gardens with Cupid after lunch.

I glanced around the area, really looking at the gardens for the first time in a while. I’d been walking through on auto-pilot most of the time, and I’d never noticed that everything looked wilted. The grass was more brown than it was green, and the leaves on the deciduous trees looked like they were dying because they were restricted of water, rather than the season’s natural changes.

The phone vibrating again reminded me that there were more important things going on than the weather. I jumped in the silver SUV and pulled my phone out. There were two messages from Joshua.

You’ve been quiet all day. Are you too busy for break?

And:
Scratch that. I need to go to the morgue.

The morgue… that tugged at something.

I sat upright with a jolt. Henry. He’d said something to me at the crime scene a couple of weeks ago.
Can I come with you?
I sent back to Joshua.

The response was almost instant.
Outside in 5.
It took Joshua two minutes to appear. I slid in the car and leaned over to swipe Joshua’s arm. “Ow!” he objected, glaring at me. “What was that for?”

“Driving and texting,” I responded. “You’re not immortal. You don’t get to do things like that. And you’re a detective; you should know better.”

“How do you know I was driving and texting?” he asked. I gave him a pointed look and he sighed. “Fine, darlin’. No more texting and driving.” He cocked his head and grinned slyly. “Now, is that the only kind of greeting I get?”

“It is when we’re still right outside the convent,” I told him.

“Fine,” he grumbled, pulling the car back out onto the road. “So what’s the sudden attraction to the morgue?”

“It’s not the morgue, it’s the coroner,” I corrected him. I had been looking out of the window at the decorations which had been appearing ready for Halloween, but his lack of response had me glancing back over. I rolled my eyes. “You can’t seriously be jealous?” I asked him, arching an eyebrow.

He looked at me from the corner of his eye, and shook his head. “Don’t be mistaking concern for jealousy,” he told me.

I frowned. “Concern? For what?” He remained silent. “Joshua?” I pressed.

“Darlin’, don’t take this the wrong way, but you look like crap,” he bluntly told me.

“Excuse me?” I spluttered, feeling my face heat up.

He sighed and pulled over, putting the car into park so that he could turn to look at me. He reached up and turned the interior light on. “You’re covered in bruises,” he informed me. “You’re also about two night’s sleep and one meal away from looking like death warmed up. Which means you’ve not slept, you’ve not eaten, and I’d hazard a guess you’ve been fighting with archangels again?”

“I hate the fact you’re a detective,” I ground out at him, embarrassed that I looked this unattractive, and that he could call me out on it.

“And I hate the fact you suffer the way you do, almost as much as I hate the fact you think I won’t notice,” he said, leaning over to cup my face in his hands. “It’s not what you look like that bothers me, darlin’, it’s why you look like that,” he added, as his thumbs began to trace gentle patterns across my cheeks.

He leaned further forward and pressed his lips against my forehead, his five o’clock shadow tickling the area just above my eyebrows. “Don’t we need to get to the morgue?” I asked him, softly.

“Before you change the subject, you know we’re getting something to eat when we’re finished here, right?” he asked me, his hands still holding my face.

“Good, because I’m really craving Chinese food,” I told him.

“That’s my girl,” he grinned, finally letting go and sitting back. “And in answer to your previous question, we’re already at the morgue,” he told me, pointing at the building in front of us.

“Already?” I asked, looking up at the tall building in front of me. “This is the morgue?” I asked in surprise. I’d passed this building many times, and not once had it occurred to me that the pink brick building, the color barely noticeable from the streetlights, would house the dead.

“This is the coroner’s office,” Joshua nodded. “The morgue is inside.” He got out of the car and I followed him into the building.

I’ve probably watched too much television, because I was expecting a basement morgue, with dark corners and flickering lights. This place was pretty much the polar opposite. It was on the second floor, had white walls and aluminum fixtures, and bright strip lights.

“You never told me why you wanted to see the coroner,” Joshua pointed out as we walked down a corridor. He pushed open a door to a surprisingly cheerful reception area and waited for me to step in.

“Actually, the coroner is an Angel of Death,” I told him as Joshua let go of the door he was holding.

Joshua stopped short, his mouth falling open as he gave me an incredulous stare. “An angel,” he repeated, his voice suddenly sounding restricted. “An Angel of Death? As in, the Grim Reaper?”

“You know, we don’t like the term Grim Reaper,” Henry’s voice carried over the reception area. Joshua’s face went ashen.

“Hi Henry,” I greeted the angel, stepping between him and Joshua. For the first time since I had met him, Joshua seemed nervous.

“Angel,” Henry returned, his dark eyes on Joshua, rather than me. “Detective.”

When the only movement to come from Joshua was for him to take half a step back, I turned to him and gave him a reassuring smile. “Joshua, I can talk to Henry alone, if you want to wait for me here?” Joshua blinked slowly. I could see his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down. “I won’t be long,” I assured him. “In fact, you can wait in the car, if you prefer?”

Carefully, Joshua turned to me and shook his head. “I’ll come with you. I need to get an update on an autopsy.”

“Follow me then,” Henry said, grinning at Joshua. I sighed and followed after the Angel of Death, Joshua right behind me.

I’ve watched countless episodes of CSI and Law & Order. I’ve even seen my own dead body since dying. Yet nothing prepared me for the sight of a young woman with her chest cut open. I’d eaten nothing since a muffin at breakfast, and it was starting to feel like a lead weight in the bottom of my stomach. I pushed the feeling down and forced my chin up as Henry, thankfully, led us past the table to a small office.

“I haven’t finished with the autopsy yet,” he said, sitting down behind a neat desk, turning the screen to face us. “I still have to examine the brain, so I can’t be long.”

A quick look at the computer screen showed me a report mid-completion, along with high resolution photographs. I glanced over at Joshua, figuring his questions were work related and would be more important.

“Is it too early for cause of death?” he asked, choosing to stand behind the chair I went to sit in, rather than take the second one beside me.

Henry shook his head. “Asphyxia caused by manual strangulation.” He clicked at something on the computer and then brought up a close up shot of a woman’s throat. “Bruising here indicates the killer had a large hand span, most likely a male. Are you alright over there?”

My eyes left the picture and looked over to Henry. I dropped my hands into my lap. I’d been rubbing sub-consciously at my own neck. “Yes, sorry.”

“Anything else?” Henry asked, diverting his attention back to Joshua.

“Anything of interest?” Joshua returned.

Henry shook his head, settling back into his chair. “Nothing.” He rested his elbows on the chair arms and brought the tips of his fingers together. “Other than the obvious.”

“The obvious?” Joshua repeated. I could hear the skepticism in his voice.

“The reason you’re here,” Henry nodded, pointing at me. “Your victim was a Potential.”

“That’s why you didn’t seem surprised I was at Jackson Square,” I realized. “You thought I was there to ask the question.”

“Yes,” Henry agreed. He looked up at Joshua and frowned. “Will you please sit down?”