Shadow of the Sun (5 page)

As I sat at one of the lab tables, the place swarmed with laboratory workers and FBI agents. It was like a sea of white coats and black jackets had taken over. How the FBI arrived so quickly was a mystery. They marched in, preparing to escort everything we had received from Italy to another laboratory in Washington, D.C. Several of their scientists groped my equipment, and I glared at them. As silly as it was, I couldn’t help but be upset as they touched what wasn’t theirs. My displeasure was surely obvious on my face. It was only natural the U.S. government would be interested in this kind of discovery, but that didn’t mean I had to like it.

My poor associates crowded together in a corner, eyeing the newcomers suspiciously. One thing everyone had in common was the fact they were all waiting for me to open the lab and enter first. Even Darren seemed afraid to pass through the doors first. When the time came, I stretched my hand out toward the door handle, the key card in my other hand. Both trembled nervously, but as soon as my fingers touched the door, my body relaxed. All I could think about was going to the angels. Who or what had possessed me? This time I slid the key eagerly through the lock.

When the door opened, air rushed into the lab, and the movement caused me to involuntarily take several steps in. My heart calmed, my nerves died down, and I felt like the angels were welcoming me. People anxiously flooded into the lab behind me.

“
Dr. Moretti.” A taller, older man approached me. He was definitely an FBI agent. His muscles filled the black, wrinkle-free suit, and his full head of hair was sprinkled with salt and pepper. An earpiece curled around his right ear. To top off the look, he wore dark sunglasses. “I’ve been informed this is your field of expertise, and you’re the best. To think you graduated with your doctorate at nineteen. Amazing.” He didn’t sound amazed.

I nodded, not sure how to respond. My brain had always functioned at a higher level than my fellow classmates. Plus my specialty was unique in every aspect. How many people were paid to prove the paranormal or to disprove legends and myths? A terrible thought bobbed to the surface. What if this was the last time I’d see these angels?

The agent continued, not noticing my mind working a million miles an hour. “I’d like to request you join us at our P.I. Laboratory to continue your research on this project.”

That was a surprise. It was as if he read my mind. “P.I. Lab?”

“
Paranormal Investigations,” he answered with a disgusted curl of his lips. He apparently thought something was funny about this. Maybe he didn’t believe in the supernatural.

Over his shoulder, Darren nodded approvingly. I took his cue and nodded to the agent. I was still in a daze. Someone could have asked me if I liked ketchup over my ice cream and I would have agreed.

The agent stared at me, trying to read my face.

“
Excuse me—” I groped for his name, realizing he hadn’t given me one. It wasn’t like the FBI had name badges that said: “Hi my name is so-and-so.”

“
I’m sorry.” He didn’t sound sorry. “I forgot to introduce myself. I’m Special Agent—” He put his finger to his earpiece and frowned angrily. “You can call me Jeff.” He smiled, and the gesture seemed forced.

Something familiar in his eyes blazed from beneath his sunglasses. Gooseflesh ran up my arms and down my spine. “Nice to meet you Jeff, I’m Dr. Moretti, as you already know,” I said, using my formal name.

Before he had time to respond, he glanced over my shoulder. Someone must have said something over his earpiece, because he pressed his finger to the small device again and said, “Excuse me.” He walked away.

I was relieved and felt a rush of gratitude to whoever had contacted him. My mind wasn’t coherent enough to respond, and my concentration was sliding away. I had a fervent desire for the day to end, but it had only just begun. As the busy workers packed up the other artifacts that had been shipped from Italy, I stared at one of the boxes that held the human remains—if they were human. There were two males and one female. What I was seeing, though, was the opposite of remains.

My fingers curled around the box’s edge that held one of the males. All my previous fear seemed to evaporate being this close. His long black hair was shiny and appeared freshly washed. His cheeks had lost some of their sallow look, and his chest was full of knotted muscles. His skin color was superbly browned, as if he had been working in the sun for hours. However, his clothes were old and torn to pieces, consistent with being buried for hundreds of years, although the necklace around his neck appeared completely untarnished by time. This man couldn’t be the same dehydrated corpse in those pictures. But what bothered me even more than his strange appearance, or the fact he looked alive, was that I thought he was beautiful.

Crap.

CHAPTER 4: NECKLACE

An alluring, statuesque woman with long, brown hair positioned herself on the other side of the box, which encompassed the marvelous male angel. She was perfectly fitted in a black suit that showed her every curve, but I could tell she had no clue she was in the presence of an angel. Unless it had all just been in my imagination: the angels and the dark creature, all things I had just invented. Maybe I had eaten some hallucinogenic mushrooms. Maybe I wasn’t even really at work.

“
Hi. I’m Agent Austin, but you can call me Karen,” the woman said with a companionable inflection. “I’m with the FBI.” She held out her hand. She had a charisma about her I was sure made every woman envious. Even I felt a pang of jealousy at her outstanding perfection and breathtaking beauty.

“
Dr. Moretti.” I shook her hand. “You can call me Gabriella.” I tried to smile at her convincingly. There was something compassionate and fascinating about this woman, and I immediately liked her, jealousy be damned.

“
Gabriella.” She tested my name on her tongue. “That’s a striking name.” She returned my smile. Even her teeth were white and straight. Maybe she was an angel too. Why not? If I really was on some mushroom-induced trip, she could be whoever I wanted her to be.

“
Thank you.” I stared down at the angel. I was afraid if I ripped my eyes away from him, he would vanish. I wondered why I had been so anxious to get away earlier when I felt so peaceful in their presence now. Every second I spent next to this box the more I wanted to touch the man inside.

“
Are you the one who specializes in supernatural beings?” Karen questioned, clearly intrigued by my profession. I didn’t hold it against her; many people were curious, though most just looked at me as if I had lost all my marbles, which might be the case.

“
I guess you could put it that way,” I said and pursed my lips. “Really, though, this is the most mysterious thing to happen here. One time there was an uproar about vampire bones, but you know, it was just in everyone’s head.” Normally I wouldn’t talk this much to anyone about my profession. I was practically babbling. Keeping so many secrets could be difficult, but I didn’t have to here.

Karen looked at me, eager and delighted. “So that myth is squashed?” She sighed, as if she wished the stories were all true. Maybe she was one of those people who dreamed a vampire would bite her.

Someone in her earpiece caught her attention. She looked up from the angel and pressed a finger to her ear. I followed her gaze. My eyes met with none other than Jeff’s, who stood at the far side of the Fishbowl. When Jeff realized I was looking his direction, his eyes burned into mine. Behind the sunglasses was that familiar blaze. Sinister somehow.

“
Dammit,” Karen muttered. “I’ll be right back.” She circled around the box gracefully, like a swan in water, toward Jeff.

My gaze turned back to the angel. He looked peaceful, blind to all the fuss going on around him. A lab worker waltzed up and stared at me expectantly without saying a word.

“
Yes?” I finally asked after several long, silent seconds.

“
Director Halistor told me to prepare the bodies for shipping,” the boy said timidly. He continued to look at me and finally raised his eyebrows. His eyes roamed down my arm to where my fingers were curled around the box.

“
Right,” I said, my mind somewhere far, far away. “Darren is the boss.”

“
Huh?”

“
Sorry. Director Halistor,” I corrected. Darren absolutely hated his last name. There was a story behind it that he’d never told me. Only his lower subordinates called him Director Halistor. Sometimes it even took me a second or two to register whom my employees were talking about when they called him that. Secretly, I knew they also called him Hook Foot. It had something to do with fishing.

Backing away from the angel, my heart ached slightly. It was hard to move away now that I had gotten so close. I scrutinized the room while the box was nailed shut. Karen and Special Agent you can call me Jeff were still talking rapidly to each other. Their whispered discussion was intense, and several times Jeff shot a glare my direction, targeting my forehead as if he were shooting laser beams through my skull. I had to resist the urge to recoil from the glower. We were on “friendly” terms only moments before, right? My eyes kept darting in their direction, stealing glances, unable to suppress paranoia. Karen incessantly rubbed her mouth and neck in noticeable exasperation; she even seemed a little indignant.

Weird. I shrugged off the odd feeling. I wondered briefly what they were talking about, and then decided it wasn’t worth the additional thought. My mind was too busy dealing with the situation at hand: the angels. I wanted to revive them, but I didn’t know how. It would be a travesty if they never awoke, I thought out of nowhere.

The lab employee carted the first box away on a steel table with wheels. The other two boxes were still open. This time I loomed over the box that held the woman.

If I thought Karen was stunning, this angel blew her out of the water. She had hair down to her chest; it was a dark auburn I thought only women who dyed their hair could achieve. Her skin was dark and covered in tattoos—symbols I was dying to understand. I gazed down at the angel in heavy concentration, as if by will alone I could mend her. She also wore a necklace. It was small and simple, a hollow circle with a shield outlined in the middle. It rested above her disintegrated clothes and was small, delicate, and, for its age, appeared shiny and new. It was identical to the one the male angel wore. I wondered what their meaning was and whether I would ever get the chance to find out.

Mind transfixed, I reached for the necklace as if compelled. I was determined to seize it. My muscles writhed with the urgency, the desire, the necessity of it. My heart raced the closer I came to touching it. There was a funny prickling on the back of my neck. I ignored it. My fingers were only inches away when a flash of steely fingers reached out and stopped me. The force of the grip was painful, and I let out a howl of distress. I looked up to see Jeff glaring down at me, his face disapproving. Through his dark glasses was gleaming red. A vivid image flashed across my mind: the dark creature and his blazing eyes. I shuddered.

His fingers tightened around my wrist when I tried to recoil, and he forcefully yanked my hand down to my side. Karen was behind him, a look of utter disgust on her face. It wasn’t aimed towards me, though. It was addressed right at Jeff, as if she were bursting with unpleasant retorts. What had their conversation been about? Tension rolled off them in waves.

“
Let go of me,” I said in stunned disbelief, each word punctuated. I might be female and thin, but I had made sure to take plenty of self-defense classes. On the weekends, I used to box with my cousin Nicole. Our furious wrestling matches were legendary in our family.

“
You were going to steal that necklace,” Jeff accused, nostrils flaring. The malice in his voice was unmistakable. He was more enraged than one should be about the whole incident. It immediately made me suspicious of his anger.

He redoubled his grip, his fingers like an iron band tightening around my bones. Was he generating waves of hate that everyone else could feel too?

“
I wasn’t going to steal anything,” I shouted back, provoked.

The noise in the lab died down as everyone took notice of what was happening.

“
If touching it’s considered stealing, then yes, I was about to do that,” I said tartly. “Now let go.”

His fingers tightened on my wrist until it was so excruciating moisture began to build in my eyes. Stupid tears, I thought bitterly. My heart thundered, unheard.