Underworld Lover (A Guardian Angel Romance #2) (26 page)

Biker Dude looked up at him in admiration. The rest of the men scowled and squinted. Not many of them showed fear, and that bothered Josh. Still, he knew the information about the vaporization would get to Peter almost immediately.

“Look, I’m tired of the killing. Can we just agree on some ground rules here? Show some respect. Be on time.”

But no one said a word. For a second Josh thought maybe they had organized a takedown party to go after him, but no one stepped forward. He thought it was better to quit before any further confrontation. There’d be time for that in the coming days.

“You’re excused until next week. Remember what I said. Go looking for them where you used to hang out, or places where you would find unhappy people. I want to see all of you with a new one by next week. Is that too much to ask?” Josh said this to the backs of the men who shuffled out the door, as unenthusiastic as they had entered.

Alone in the hall with Biker Dude, Josh made a run for the bathroom and spilled his guts into the toilet. He rinsed his mouth and washed his face with cold water, muttering to himself.

Dude watched him from the hallway outside the bathroom without saying a word.

“I’m losing my appetite for the blood and guts stuff. Just doesn’t thrill me like it used to.” Josh dried his face on a fistful of brown paper towels. He addressed the dark angel. “How long you been turned?”

“Four hundred thirty two years and eight days.”

“That important to you, huh?” Josh shook his head. “How come I never ran into you before?”

“Because I didn’t want to be found.”

Simple as that?

“And now?” Josh asked him.

“Now’s different.” Dude replied.

“That’s a fact. Remember when you first were turned? I stayed drunk for the first year, I think. Of course, they didn’t have quotas then. I was useless.”

“Not like now, right?” Dude gave him a wry grin. Josh winked at him.

“You’re lucky you didn’t say that to me about a year ago. You’d have been right next to—oh shit, I forgot to get someone to clean up.”

“I’ll do it, sir. I’ll lock up too, if you’ll leave me the keys.”

“Thanks. Let me go see if I can find something to put this mess into.” After a quick search of the kitchen, Josh came up with some garbage bags and a cardboard box.

“Uh, sir. I’m on a bike. What about using the Dumpster around back?”

Josh nodded. He needed the man’s help. “I call you Dude all the time. What’s your name?”

“Jonas.”

“Nice to meet you formally, Jonas. I like that better than Dude.”

Jonas shrugged and started scraping the oozing floor with an oversized metal dustpan.

“I hate to do this, Jonas, but I need to ask you to help me with something else.”

“Sure.” The man stood up after shoveling remains into the black bag. He wasn’t as tall as a professional football player, but could rival them in size and strength.

“I need to find Felix. You know him?”

“Yes. Used to come in here with Karl, right? Younger fellow, red-haired?”

“That’s him. I need to find him ASAP. Things are brewing and I don’t want him left out in the cold.”

“Considerate of you, sir.”

“Well, you need to know, there’s a huge war coming. You best watch yourself too.”

“That mean you’re going up against the director?”

“I’m hoping it doesn’t come to that. But perhaps.”

“Fine by me.”

Josh didn’t want to pry. “Maybe if we all survive, you can tell me about it some time when I’m not looking over my shoulder.”

“You can count on it. You need to survive, you hear? Don’t worry about me. I belong here. But from what I’ve seen and heard, you don’t. That’s got to piss him off. I’m told a woman is involved. A woman the director wants.”

Josh was surprised this information was public knowledge. His expression must have triggered something in Jonas, because the big man added, “You don’t need to worry about me, sir. Everyone I care about is dead. I’m the cause for over half of it, too. But the other part falls squarely on the shoulders of that rat I have to worship. I don’t plan on spending eternity whining or wallowing in what I’ve done. I’m looking forward to ending it, and taking him with me.”

Josh suddenly realized what good fortune he had. He felt he was the luckiest dark angel in the universe. Jonas was a good man to know, and he’d come at precisely the right time. Josh could almost believe in divine intervention, if he didn’t know for sure it didn’t exist.

“Here, I’m going to help you, Jonas. Then I’ll vaporize the remainder. That way no one has to carry anything or leave anything for the garbage man.”

They made light work of it. Josh searched around him to make sure no one was watching before he scorched the ground and the little juicy bundle in the black garbage bag.

Just before they parted, Josh put an arm up and touched Jonas’ massive shoulder. He really did feel like a brick wall. “Be careful when you go asking around for Felix. If they know you are allied with me, it could cost you.”

“Way I see it, you’re on the right side of right. Don’t much care for folks below and their ‘Red Hell.’ Always drew the line there. No reason to change now, not when I got a shot at ripping that rat’s head off.”

“You know he vaporizes,” Josh spat out.

“I’m told. He’s teaching the winged ones, too.”

Maybe we’re too late.
This was new information, something Josh didn’t need to hear.

“Okay, man. See you back here in, say, twenty-four hours? I hope you can find Felix by that time.”

“I’ll either be here in twenty-four hours with Felix, or I’m never coming. And that might be a good thing.”

“No man, we need you.” Josh didn’t like the idea Jonas had such a death wish. Other than Audray, this dark angel was his only true dark ally, willing to sacrifice himself for the cause he believed in. A warrior he sorely needed.

“You’ll get my best, I promise you that,” Jonas said solemnly.

Josh walked to his Hummer, rounding his shoulders and rolling his head from side to side. The death toll was giving him a stiff neck. He needed Melanie, but wondered if it was too dangerous to see her.

Chapter 37

Josh picked up his cell to dial James, who had turned his Guardian lover. The two were inseparable, completely absorbed in the pleasures of each other’s flesh 24/7.

“Yeah?” James’s voice was husky.

“You guys back from Alaska?”

“Yes. Got back yesterday.”

“Ready for a mission, up top?”

Josh noticed the hesitation in James’s voice. “Uh, up top? Sure, Josh. When?” There was someone in the background, and Josh knew it must be Angela, his former Guardian angel, now his dark angel lover. Angela’s turning had been devastating to Claire.

“Hi Angie,” Josh said a little loud, knowing the angel would be listening on the phone. She and James were inseparable, something he’d found disgusting just a couple of weeks ago. Now, the idea of spending eternity with the person he loved was appealing.

Except I don’t want her to turn, to give up her human life.

“She says ‘hi’ back,” James said.

“Okay, so how soon can you get up here?”

“In an hour. We haven’t unpacked everything. Give us a chance to get it all put away. Our place is a mess. Looks like someone went through all our things while we were gone. You checking up on us? Out of condoms or toys?”

Josh winced at the glimpse of his former self. He also knew that meant they had probably spent yesterday afternoon and this morning in bed, and the delay wasn’t due to anyone rifling through their things. For the first time he could remember, the thought that two people could be so much in love they tuned out everything else didn’t make him angry. He missed Melanie. Josh no longer begrudged someone else their strong feelings.

“Okay, an hour it is. Meet me at my house,” he said.

“Done.” James disconnected the call.

The two dark angels were on time, Josh noted. He led them into his living room, offered them a seat on the red leather chairs, and turned on the fireplace. Angela had never been to Josh’s home before. She stared in wide-eyed amazement at the large colorful paintings that decorated every available wall space. Her golden blond hair, pulled back in a ponytail, framed her rose tinged still-angelic face. She was the perfect combination of grace and beauty.

Except for the hair, Angela would have been Josh’s type: athletic, stunningly beautiful, with a sweet face an angel could get lost in. But Josh had previously been infatuated with only redheads. That was before Melanie. Now he enjoyed Angela from a different perspective.

James was taller than Josh, with light sandy brown hair and a slender, bony frame. He wore his hair long and, like Josh, tied with a leather thong. His lankiness dwarfed his now dark angel lover, but his attention to her was obvious.

“These Daniel’s?” Angela asked, pointing to a jungle scene.

“Yes. And some from Beau Bradley.” Angela’s face was a question mark. “He was the lead guitarist for the Spacetravelers rock and roll band.”

Both Angela and James said in unison, “Was?”

“Yes. As in, he is now one of us.”

There was little joy in this, Josh could see. Just a fact of life, like postage going up a penny. Josh continued. “He’ll be coming back here shortly.” He paced in front of the fireplace, mentally preparing his speech. He took in a deep breath, then spoke. “I’m going to do something you least expect from me.” He studied both their faces. “I’m going to apologize. I owe you both more than this. James, I tricked you so that you, my dear,” he looked at Angela, “would go Dark as well, with James’s invitation.”

There was silence as the couple looked at each other, seated across from one another but holding hands.

“We’ve made our peace with it. We’re together,” Angela said at last.

“Yes, well there are some things changing here. The new director is lethal. And,” he said as he looked at his fingernails, “he’s asked me to do a favor for him I am not sure I can do.” He stopped to think about it further. “No, I’m sure I won’t be able to do what he asks.”

“What does this have to do with us?” James asked.

“He seems to be going after everyone I have turned, and he says he is testing my loyalty.”

“Your loyalty?” James asked. “You’re the best one they have here. Why would they want to test your loyalty?”

“I think it’s a veiled way of saying he intends to eliminate me.”

“But why?” James wondered. “You’ve turned more people, more Guardians even, than anyone else.” James shook his head.

“Jealousy,” Angela blurted out. “He wants something you have.”

“How perceptive, my dear. That’s exactly right. He wants me to deliver the woman I love to him.” Josh watched their eyes grow wide. “I see this amuses you? Yes, I have fallen in love, for the first time in my life. First time in over three hundred years.”

James stood, as if to congratulate him, but Angela pulled his arm down.

It was Angela who spoke first. “Who is this woman? Not a human, I take it?”

Josh looked down at his boots. “Yes, I’m afraid she is.”

James gasped. “Not wise. She won’t have any protection. Why couldn’t you prey on someone else?”

Josh could feel the red glare pulse for a second as he stared at James, but he was reminded to pull back his gaze as he saw James’s reaction. The other angel scowled back at him.

Josh said, “You fell in love with a Guardian, James. Or are you saying it was all her fault?”

“But your appetites . . .” Angela chimed in.

“Are quite satisfied. Mutually, I might add.” In fact, Josh was getting hard just thinking about it.

“Wow. Never thought I’d hear it. You in need of our help. You want us to look after the girl, right?” James had his hands on his hips.

“Yes, something like that.” Josh smiled. “But I want you fully informed before you jump in. There has been a dark angel death I didn’t cause. Karl was vaporized—in my house.”

“Too bad. He wasn’t very bright, but I liked him,” James said. Josh remembered thinking the same thing about James.

“He definitely didn’t deserve what he got. Peter did it in my own house. It was a statement.” Josh looked across the room at one of Daniel’s paintings. “And he isn’t done.”

“Meaning, just because he knows you made us, he could come after us out of spite.” Angela was deadly as she nailed Josh to the mantelpiece with her gaze.

“Exactly.”

“So we really don’t have a choice.”

“Oh, I don’t think that’s true. Before I’ll tell you the plan, I want this to be your decision, not mine. Yes, you have a choice, just as I do. You can go slink off somewhere and hope he doesn’t find you, try to convince him you are on his side. Chances are he’ll ask that you both perform some despicable act as a loyalty test, just like he requested of me.”

Josh rolled his shoulders again. He wasn’t used to so much pain. Alcohol and the willing arms of a new conquest were always his remedies in the past. But then he hadn’t felt the burden of so much on his shoulders as he did this day. He looked down at Angie.

“Am I going to die for you? No. I will die for Melanie, though. I’m just being completely honest with you both. That’s all I want from you, whether or not you are in, and if you are, will you go the distance, if it comes to that?”

James came over to the front of the leather chair, kneeling before the seated frame of Angela, who was obviously disturbed.

“Love, we’ve talked about standing up to this insanity I brought you,” he said as he touched her cheek. “If we were eliminated while trying to make it right, would it be worth it for you?”

James’s tenderness touched Josh’s heart, and he had to look away so the pair wouldn’t see the water accumulating in his eyes.

“But I won’t live without you,” Angie responded.

“Nor I you.” They stared at each other and then James stood up. “Okay. We’ll do it. As long as we can do it together.” The pair held hands, then Angie stood. James encircled her waist, bringing her into his chest.

“Thank you.” Josh carefully raised his arms to the side, as if to ask permission. Sensing no resistance from the two angels, he stepped forward and hugged them both stiffly. “Thank you.”