Darkened (14 page)

I awoke alone in Jared’s bedroom. I took the opportunity to look around the room. It was surprisingly tasteful for a bachelor’s room. The walls were an ivory color with black trim. All the wood of the furniture was painted black. The bed was covered with a black and ivory damask duvet with matching throw pillows. The chairs in the alcove matched
, and also, had throw pillows in them. Who ever said men don’t like extra comfort? The only decorations on the wall were two black electric guitars hanging over the bed. I was actually pretty impressed with his decorating skills.

I slowly got up and sat on the edge of the bed so I could survey the damage to myself. The wound was completely healed. That was cool. By the way Jared talked, I thought I would be out of commission for a few days. I looked out the window and saw it was bright outside. Probably close to midday. I got out of the bed, and made a dash for my own room and the attached bathroom. I showered and dressed then went in search of the guys. There was no one in the game room or kitchen so I went up the stairs to see if anyone was up there. There was one door open at the end of the hall so I headed for it. I’m not sure what I expected to find, maybe another bedroom, but it certainly wasn’t what I saw inside that room.

It looked like command central. Hell, the HR’s command central wasn’t as well equipped. There were three computers set up on a huge computer desk with a smart screen hung on one wall. Another had a huge cork board with newspaper clippings, police reports and other informative paperwork. While another had two huge maps of the greater Atlanta area.

“Hello, Caru. Like what you see?”

I turned to see that Jared had just stepped out of a doorway behind me.

“What is this?” I asked while pointing toward the room.

He walked into the room and turned to look at me.

“This is where we track the evil plaguing our city.”

“You...track evil? Why?”

He laughed. “We are Ange
ls, Caru. We can do nothing but.”

“But
, you’re Fallen. I thought you
were
evil. That’s why you got the boot.”

He looked at me for a moment before his expression turned sad.

“You really believe that don’t you? I would have hoped after spending time with us you would have realized we don’t fit the image you had concocted in your head.”

“What am I supposed to believe Jared? Why were you kicked out then, huh? If you did nothing wrong, then tell me.”

He just looked at me again before he turned and left the room. Well, I guess I was right. No Angel gets kicked out of the Kingdom unless they did something to warrant it.

“He didn’t kill a Human. He’s never killed anyone that didn’t deserve it,” Luke said from the doorway.

“Then why wouldn’t he just tell me?”

“He has his reasons.”

Yeah, that’s not evasive. I’m tired of his shit. One minute he acted like the perfect male
, and the next he was a total dick. I walked over to the wall of maps to get a closer look. I need to put Jared out of my mind. I have a psycho to kill, and I’ll never be able to find him if I spend all of my time thinking about Jared.

“What do you really do here, Luke?”

“Exactly what Jared said. We look for evil and extinguish it. We have taken out twenty seven Demon in the last six months, plus a rogue Vamp, two homicidal Shifters, and a Dark Wizard.”

I looked at him. “How?”

He walked over to the computers, and typed something on one. The smart board came on and showed a map of Atlanta with green dots covering most of it. There were also some yellow, orange, and red dots. Most seemed to be moving slightly.

“What you’re seeing is a map of
Others using Angel vision. I created the software that would allow a three dimensional image similar to what we see when we look at people. The green represents good souls. The yellow are not really bad, but they are not quite good. Orange represents your average criminal. Red is evil. Demon always read red. Anyone who is a capable of cold blooded murder also show red. Now, that doesn’t mean they have actually committed a crime. Just that they are capable, and have darkness in their soul. The reds almost always commit a crime eventually, and we try to keep tabs on them when possible.”

“You keep tabs on potential murderers?”

“Yes, it helps us if there is a murder by an Other to figure out who did it, and where the guilty currently is.”

“What happened with Jael?”

“Jael is different. As an Angel he is invisible to us. He could be standing outside, and I wouldn’t know it unless I looked out the window.”

“You know that reminds me. He pretty much told me he had been watching the house. That’s how he knew I left.”

Luke nodded and pulled up surveillance footage.

“I figured that was how he found you so fast. I’ve upped the surveillance
, and the guys have been taking turns searching the grounds.”

“The guys? You all work as a team?”

“Oh, yes. We are quite effective.”

“I guess I know now why crimes are so low here. When I transferred from Savannah
, I expected the crime rate to be high in such a populated area, but was surprised to find it was actually lower than Savannah. There are only eleven agents working all of Atlanta. Well, I guess there are five more.”

He smiled at me.

“Wait. Do you let the HR task force know when you make a kill?”

“Uh...” He looked guilty.

“Damn it, Luke. We are wasting man hours hunting for criminals you have already killed. How do you kill them anyway? You know Demon can return if you kill them with a regular blade.”

He smiled. “We are Angels, Avery. They are our paradoxal enemies. The polar opposite of what we represent. We have but to share our essence with a Demon, and they cease to exist.”

“You
mean they are sent back to Hell.”

“No, I mean they are no more. They are wiped off all planes.”

“Wow.”

He smiled
again.

“
I take it you are the technical guy?” I asked.

“Yeah, it’s what I do best. I can’t really get out there with the others.”

“Why not.”

He ignored me and changed the subject. “I traced the Lincoln back to an elderly man by the name of Joseph Jones. He reported it stolen two days ago.”

“Where does he live?”

“Silver Hills. Hash and Sam have been canvasing the neighborhood.”

I nodded. “So you have access to DMV. Do you have access to all of the government databases?”

“For the most part. The ones we would need in apprehending a killer anyway.”

I thought about that for a minute. That would
be mostly all of our files at HQ and a few of the feds. They would need to know if there were any similar crimes in other areas to gather information on the perp. Gathering information reminds me.

“Did you do a background check on me? Is that what Hash meant when he said that about knowing a lot about me?”

Luke looked guilty. “We were trying to find out who your father was. Jared said you didn’t know him so I thought I would give it a try.”

“What did you find out?”

“Nothing really. Just that your mother gave birth to you twenty eight years ago. It was an at home birth, your mother disappeared shortly afterward, and you were raised by your maternal grandmother.”

“I believe that’s the same information I gave Jared.”

“We just wanted to be sure.”

“Why did you need to know about my parents?”

“Jared wanted to know where you came from.”

I walked up to the other side of the computers.
“And, you just invaded my privacy because he asked you too?”

He held his hands up in surrender. “We were all curious. You are an anomaly.”

I narrowed my eyes. “I’m surprised you couldn’t figure it out.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing, I’m going to check in with my boss. Let me know if Hash and Sam find anything.”

“Alright.”

I started toward the door then thought about him invading my privacy so as I passed his work station I reached over and hit him on the arm.

“Don’t!” Jared screamed as I made contact with Luke’s arm.

Luke jumped back as I touched him. You would think I hit him as hard as I could instead of a friendly punch.

Jared pushed me out of the way as he entered the room and ran to Luke’s side. “Are you alright? What did you see?”

“I barely touched him,” I said.

“N-nothing,” Luke said as he stared at me.

“What do you mean ‘nothing’?” Jared asked.

“I saw nothing when she touched me.”

“What are you talking about?” I asked.

“How?” Jared asked.

Luke shrugged. “Perhaps she has no fate.”

Jared was looking at me too. “Everyone has a fate. How could you not see hers?”

“Alright. It’s time you tell me what you are talking about,” I said.

Instead of answering, Luke reached out and grabbed my arm then looked at Jared. “Nothing,” he said then gave me a hug.

When he pulled back he was smiling from ear to ear.

Jared looked confused.

“Now would be a good time to explain what is going on,” I said.

“I am cursed. When I was banished from the Kingdom
, a curse was placed on me. Any contact with a female will result in my experiencing their death. As if that wasn’t bad enough, I am also forced to tell the woman how she will die. I have not been able to touch a woman in an extremely long time,” Luke said.

“Wow, that’s gotta suck. So th
at’s why you keep your distance?”

He nodded. “It’s horrible. I’ve been able to prevent touching women for the most part. There have only been a couple of instances over the last few years
, and I needed Jared to wipe their memory since I can’t.”

“Why can’t you?”

“It’s part of the curse. I have to tell them how they die, and I can’t erase it once it’s told.”

“Damn, you got screwed.”

He smiled.

I smiled back. “Well, I guess I’m your new BGF.”

“What?”

“Best girl friend.”

He laughed. “More like only girl friend.”

I shrugged. “Best, only. I’ll take what I can get.”

“As will I. I suppose you should pull up a chair. You can help me go through the traffic camera footage for the ten miles surrounding where Mr. Jones lives.”

“You know. I’m not loving this friendship so far.”

“You’ll get used to it.”

“Ha ha.”

“Well, I guess I’ll let you two do your work then,” Jared said as he started for the door.

“What are you going to go do?” I asked him.

He shrugged and I smiled.

“I guess it’s a good thing there are three computers. You better find us a couple of chairs.”

He smiled. “I’m not very good with computer work. I like to go where the action is.”

“Oh, is there any action going on right now?”

“Uh, not currently, but I’m sure I will find something if I look hard enough.”

“Well, then look no further. I’m sure there is plenty of action captured by these traffic cams.”

He looked like he was going to argue then closed his mouth and walked to the other side of the room to grab some chairs. I looked at Luke and held out my fist. He bumped it and smiled.

A couple hours later we were still watching videos, and my eyes were starting to blur. Hash walked into the room then stopped dead in his tracks.

“Whoa, this scene is so fucked up I don’t know where to begin. I mean, I don’t know which one is more surprising
, that Avery is sitting next to Luke or that Jared is doing computer work. How the Hell did this happen?”

“How did what happen? Holy shit! I wouldn’t be more shocked if I walked in on you in the middle of a threesome,” Zach said as he walked up behind Hash.

Luke looked at them and smiled. “I’m immune to Avery, and apparently, Jared’s not.”

“Everyone’s a comedian,” Jared said.

They both laughed then walked in and patted Luke on the back.

“That’s great man. Now, Jared has one more to worry about,” Zach said then turned to Jared. “Bet you’re loving this.”

“I have nothing to worry about,” Jared said.

“Sure, keep telling yourself that. Maybe one day you’ll believe it,” Zach replied.

“Okay, you can stop picking on Jared now. You know, there is plenty more footage to go through. Would you like a turn?” I asked as I stood up from the computer.