Angel Tormented (The Louisiangel Series Book 3) (13 page)

Paddy slowly shook her head. “Raphael left
without me.”

My eyes widened. “He left you here?” It
was my turn to shake my head. “You’ve been here the whole time?”

“Well, not in the garden,” she smiled.
“Raphael needed to do something by himself. I said I would stay here in case I
was needed.”

“Where is he?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” Paddy admitted with a
shrug of her shoulders. “He mentioned something about Canada, but he’s not checked
in for a while.”

“Do we need to be worried about that?” I
asked, frowning. The last thing anyone wanted was another angel disappearing.

“Not yet,” Paddy responded. She got to her
feet and brushed some dirt off her legs. “I came to see you the other night.”

“I was in Houston,” I said. “Is something
wrong?”

“Not at all,” Paddy assured me. “Don’t
worry about me or Raphael, Angel. We can take care of ourselves. Besides, if
there was something wrong, you and Cupid would certainly be first in line to
know.” She shook her head. “I came to offer to continue with your training in
Raphael’s absence. I am by no means as skilled as he is, but after being with
him for several centuries, I have picked up a trick or two. I’m aware that
neither he nor Michael were able to continue with teaching you.”

I pushed back a lump that had formed in my
throat at the mention of Michael’s name, and nodded. I would take anything I
could get, and Paddy might not have been at Raphael’s level, but I was certain I
was nowhere near hers either. “That would be greatly appreciated,” I told her
as my phone vibrated in my pocket.

“Tomorrow morning?” she suggested. “After
breakfast? I’ll help with the cleanup too.”

“That sounds great,” I agreed as my phone
vibrated again. I flashed Paddy a smile and headed back to the kitchen,
plucking my phone out. The first message was from Ty. I caught a plea to text
him, before I swiped and deleted it without reading it properly. The second was
from Joshua:
Hey darlin, need to speak to u. Are u free? X

I responded with a yes and hurried back
inside to let my aunt know I had to go. I made a detour to the armory to slip
my dagger-length sword into my boot (there was no way I was going to the police
station without it), and headed for the back gate to wait for Joshua.

He was only a few minutes late, but I was
shifting my weight from one leg to the other when he pulled up. The crowd had
grown slightly around the front of St. Mary’s and I was certain one of the
women kept looking over at me. I slid into the front of Joshua’s Charger as
quickly as I could, slipping low into the seat.

“You okay?” Joshua asked me, arching an
eyebrow.

“Just go,” I said, waving my hand at him.
“Before they spot me.”

An amused smile appeared on his lips, but
Joshua did as requested and pulled away. When we turned the corner, I pulled
myself upright. “You want to explain what that’s about?”

“My hair isn’t exactly subtle, is it?” I
pointed out. “It’s not like I blend into the background, and when there are
people
still
hanging around the church, and I’m making the news, I
probably shouldn’t be drawing attention to the convent. This vessel may be a
mask,” I sighed, remembering Michael’s words. “But it doesn’t do a good job of
hiding me from the world.”

“Vessel?” Joshua asked in confusion.

I glanced over at him, surprised to see
the frown. “My body is a vessel,” I explained. “I thought I had told you this?
It’s frozen in time and never going to age. Apparently I’m going to have to
change it before people start to realize I’m not aging.”

“You did, but you’ve never referred to
your body as a vessel,” he said, his eyes flicking over to meet mine. “Darlin’
that’s not your vessel, that’s
you
. You might be some celestial being,
but you’re still you – right from that bright red hair, to that ass I really
like staring at.”

I could feel my cheeks warming but I shook
my head. “And what about in twenty years when I have another vessel? Another
body?”

“I don’t see what you’re getting at?”
Joshua said.

“Well, I’m already not me,” I responded. I
reached up and held a handful of hair out. “This isn’t me. I’m blonde.”

Joshua reached over and tugged the hair
free of my grasp, wrapping the ends around his fingers. “Where has this come
from?” he asked gently. The car came to a stop as he waited for a delivery
truck to back into a loading bay, and he took the opportunity to turn in his
seat to face me. “You were blonde. You’re now a redhead, albeit the red looks the
color of a red M&M, which is great, because they’re my favorite, but that’s
just part of you. I know you shouldn’t judge based on appearance, and I don’t,
but you also shouldn’t forget that your appearance is something that has made
you who you are. Yeah, you were blonde, but now you’re not. You chose to put
that color on and you may not have wanted it to stay like that, but it says a
lot about who you are.”

“It does?” I asked in bewilderment.

“Of course it does, darlin’,” Joshua said.
“You could have picked any shade of red and you went for one that stands out –
like you. It’s bold, and confident – like you. It’s also incredibly hot,” he
leaned over and kissed the side of my head. “Like you. The color of your hair
is not much different from the makeup you wear and it doesn’t matter to me what
color your hair is. Even if it was lime green like you were an anime character,
you’d still be beautiful because it’s just an extension of you, of your
personality. Your looks, red hair included, are certainly what attracted me to
you, but darlin’, who you are, that’s what’s making me fall in love with you.”

His words sent a rush of warmth through me
as butterflies made a sudden appearance in my stomach. “Really?”

“I wouldn’t change a hair on your head,
but if
you
did, I’m just going to sit back and enjoy because really,
you’re just showing me another little part of you. So quit referring to that
cute ass as a vessel, because you’re more than that.”

I blinked a few times, and then, because I
apparently couldn’t help myself, asked, “But what if my next vessel – body – is
of a sixty-year-old man?”

“I have a feeling that you have more say
over your next body than you think you do,” Joshua told me. “I’m pretty
confident that you’re staying female darlin’, and I think that body will be
beautiful because you’re the one in it.”

Well, hell. I had spent some time trying
to convince myself that I wasn’t falling in love with him and I was right – I
was definitely head-over-heels in love with him, and with those words, I wasn’t
even going to bother telling myself otherwise. I opened my mouth to tell him
this, but stopped myself. It had only been a couple of months. You couldn’t
fall in love with someone that fast, could you? And if I could, that didn’t
mean he had – his words were
falling
in love.

“But,” Joshua added as he started the car
moving again. “If you want to change your hair to green and look like an anime
character, can you do me a favor and promise me you’ll wear one of those hot
superhero outfits that really don’t cover up much?” he added, a mischievous
glint in his eyes.

“Behave!” I exclaimed, swiping at his arm.
Either way, the moment was now lost.

“Where are we going?” I asked as I we
waited for a street car to pass. Joshua’s message had been pretty ambiguous,
and I wasn’t bothered, but he looked like he was heading somewhere with a
purpose and it wasn’t in the direction of the precinct.

“Leon needs to speak to you,” Joshua
replied. “He didn’t want to leave a record on the phones, and doesn’t want to
make it anything formal at the station.”

“Where on earth are we going?” I asked again
as we pulled onto the interstate, heading west.

“Not far,” he assured me. “There’s a
garage out in Kenner and my car needs new tires. Kenner is also where Leon
lives. We’re meeting him at a diner across the street.”

Kenner wasn’t far, but I couldn’t help but
pull a face. “Do you really think we need to go to this much trouble?”

“Our lieutenant is a Prince of Darkness
and there’s a possibility that any number of our colleagues could be being
possessed. Better to be safe than sorry,” he pointed out.

I frowned and turned my attention back out
of the window, once again, wondering why Michael thought I was suitable to lead
the House. I didn’t have a clue about things like this, and surely this was
something basic? What else was I not thinking about when it came to the other
angels and how to protect them?

Once we’d dropped the car off at the
garage, we took a short walk to the diner Joshua had mentioned, where we found
Leon waiting for us in a booth in the back. I tucked in first and then Joshua
followed. The booth was in a corner where we wouldn’t be noticed straight away,
but allowed Leon a clear view of the door. They really were thinking of
everything.

“As far as I can tell, Asmodeus doesn’t
suspect anything,” Leon informed me as soon as the waitress had provided us
with drinks. The two detectives had opted for sweet tea, whereas the strawberry
milkshake had caught my attention. “I’ve managed to keep you out of it, so far,
and the coroner is ruling it a suicide.”

“It wasn’t a suicide,” I said, the words
feeling thick in the back of my throat.

“Joshua filled me in on your account of
what happened, and we agreed that a suicide would be the easiest thing to
explain without launching a full investigation,” Leon explained, talking to me
like I was a small child.

My eyes narrowed. “It might be the easiest
thing to explain, but this is Heaven’s greatest warrior. We are not saying his
cause of death was a suicide.”

“Darlin’, we know it wasn’t,” Joshua said,
gently. “But if we suggest anything otherwise, we will need to look into why he
was there, and who he was with. We’re already struggling with not bringing
Cupid into the investigation.”

“Cupid?” I repeated in surprise. “He
wasn’t even…” I trailed off. He was there: I was the one who had brought him
there too.

“There’s no evidence of anyone else being
there,” Leon quickly assured me. “The Crime Scene guys couldn’t even find any
trace of you.”

That had me frowning: I had been bleeding
everywhere, and Valac had been, well, I’d decapitated him! “Nothing?” I asked,
skeptically.

“Not a trace,” Leon confirmed. “You have
one excellent cleanup crew.”

I was unable to stop myself from sighing
as I absently started stirring the long spoon around in my milkshake. I was
sick of having no clue what was going on. “So why does Cupid need bringing into
this?”

“Michael’s death has brought questions up
about his visa. I can’t even find Cupid on any database,” Leon said.

The milkshake was abandoned as I slumped
back into the vinyl faux leather of the seat. “You’re telling me that after
centuries on earth, helping mankind, Cupid’s biggest concern is whether he is
in this country legally or not.” Apparently, we had bigger things to look at
rather than fallen angels.

“We’ll do what we can, but you need to get
Cupid to conjure up some ID, or a decent lawyer,” Leon added.

I laughed. I couldn’t help it: I think it
was either laugh or cry. This whole conversation was beyond absurd. “And I
thought my biggest non-supernatural problem was trying to find some protective
clothing I could walk the streets in without alarming everyone,” I said,
running a hand over my face.

“What do you need protective clothing
for?” Joshua asked, worry lines appearing around his eyes as he frowned at me.

“It’s not like that. As far as I know, I
can still survive a bullet wound,” I said, hurrying to assure him. I ignored
the fact that Leon’s eyes looked like they were going to pop out of their
sockets. “It’s more to protect me from the more minor injuries. Despite my
training, my defense is nowhere near as good as it should be, and I
occasionally get hit, or thrown to the ground,” I said, suddenly trying to play
down how much I sucked at fighting, considering it was my job to protect Joshua.
“I need something that can help with a scrape and speed up my recovery time,
not hinder it.”

“Have you considered motorbike leathers?”
Leon suggested.

“I am not wearing leather pants,” I
retorted, dryly.

“I’m just saying, they help protect
riders, I can’t see why they wouldn’t help you.” He nodded at something behind
me, out of the window. “Head on over to Creole Chrome, the motorbike shop, and
speak to Hank.”

I looked up at Joshua who shrugged. “We
still have some time before the car will be ready.”

* * *

I thought Creole Chrome would be something
wooden, dirty, and full of Harley Davidson memorabilia. I had been watching too
much Sons of Anarchy: The motorbike shop was light, definitely clean, and while
it had a small section for Harleys’, there were a lot more of the nippy looking
Japanese bikes.

Hank was also not what I was expecting –
again, I had been watching too much television. “Can I help you?” he asked. He
was short, dressed in black trousers and a red and black shirt, and smart black
shoes. There wasn’t an inch of the leather or denim I expected anywhere on him.

I wrinkled my nose up as I looked around
the shop, but it was Joshua who answered. “She’s after some leathers.”

“I’m not after leathers,” I quickly
disagreed. “I am not wearing leather. I just want something that’s going to
give me some extra protection without being bulky. Or leather,” I quickly
added.

“A lot of women do,” Hank nodded. “Y’all
seem to think that it’s got to be heavy and ugly, but you can get Kevlar jeans
these days.”

“You can?” I asked, trying not to sound as
skeptical as I felt. Kevlar jeans?

Hank gave me a wry smile, as though he
knew exactly what I thought, and led us to the protective clothing. Sure
enough, in the women’s section, there were several pairs of jeans. Hank looked
me up and down and pulled out a pair of jeans from the rack. They were black,
fitted, and surprisingly feminine, with dozens of pockets, and even a section
decorated by crisscrossing cord.

I took the hanger Hank was offering and
took one look at the label. “I don’t suppose you’ve got the next size up?” I
asked. Hank took the jeans back and quickly replaced them. They still looked
like they were going to be tight on. Suddenly, shopping with Joshua did not
seem appealing. “You know you can wait outside, if you’re bored?” I offered.

“I’m good,” he assured me, much to my
disappointment.

With a resigned sigh, I turned back to
Hank. “Have you got a fitting room?” When Hank pointed at a room in the corner,
I grabbed a handful of jeans from the back of the rack, and darted into the
changing room.

In the safety provided from a closed door,
I examined the jeans more carefully. The style was something I might have
considered – if the weather was colder. However, as extreme temperatures were
no longer a problem for me, I plucked out a pair which I thought might fit, two
sizes up from normal, and tried them on.

The fabric was much softer than I was
expecting and so they were much more forgiving, hanging below my hips. Too much
movement in these, and I would be tripping over them. I opted for my normal
size and was pleasantly relieved to see that they fitted perfectly. After
examining them in the mirror, I turned to one of the other pairs and started
reading the label. Apparently there were only three sections with a type of
flexible Kevlar – my knees, my hips, and my butt. It made sense, I supposed,
seeing as they were where I was likely to fall. The thighs had some form of
reinforced nylon in them too.

I did a few lunges and squats to see how
much movement I really had, and discovered that they weren’t as restrictive as
normal jeans – I could move just fine – it would just take a while to get used
to wearing jeans again. The real test though, would be to see how I could react
when I was fighting: hopefully Paddy would be able to help me with that.

Keeping the jeans on, I scooped the
remaining pairs up, leaving my own trousers and shoes in the changing room, and
headed back out. I had barely gotten a few steps back into the store when I was
greeted by a low whistle. I whirled around and found Joshua grinning at me, his
eyes firmly fixed on my butt.

“I half thought you wouldn’t try them on,”
he told me.

I could feel my face heat up as I lowered
the jeans in my arms as an attempt to discreetly cover myself up. “There’s
Kevlar padding-” I hurried to tell him.

“How about we move these out of the way,
darlin’,” Joshua suggested, taking two strides over to remove the jeans – and
my protective shield – from my hands, and deftly hung them up on the first rack
he could reach. He then turned back to me, tilting his head from side to side
as he eyed the jeans on me. Finally, still grinning, he raised his sparkling
blue eyes up to meet mine. “Well, are you going to give me a spin?”

Okay, I honestly thought the padding made
my already big butt look bigger than it was, and I wasn’t really happy about
that, but the look that Joshua was giving me was already making that thought
disappear. Although I felt a bit silly, I did as requested and turned slowly on
the spot. When I found myself facing Joshua again, those bedroom eyes of his
were back. “And now for some boots,” I declared, sauntering straight past him.

I could feel his eyes on me as we walked
over to the shoe section. I hadn’t intended on getting boots from here – a
normal shoe store probably would have done the job – but I spotted the
knee-high boots and knew I wanted them. I darted over, taking them from the
shelf, turning them over in my hands. I barely had time to register that they
were real leather when I sensed Joshua stop behind me.

“Well, these are handy,” he announced.
Before I could turn around, his hands slipped into the back pockets of my
jeans.

“Joshua!” I squealed, nearly dropping the
boot.

Joshua closed whatever gap there was between
us and leaned down to my ear. “Darlin’, when this is looking as good as it is,”
he gave my butt a squeeze. “I can’t help but want to touch it.”

I was so glad he was stood behind me and
couldn’t see the ridiculous grin I had on my face. “What do you think of
these?” I asked, holding the boots up.

“Depends,” he responded. “Will you be
wearing anything else?”

“Joshua!” I exclaimed, reaching back to
awkwardly swipe at his shoulder.

His chuckle tickled at my neck. “You
asked.”

I sucked in a deep breath and focused my
attention on the boots, trying to ignore Joshua’s hands, which he seemed in no
hurry to remove. The boots had a low heel – much more practical than the shoes
I’d abandoned in the fitting room – and several buckles. By the looks of
things, the buckles had a practical purpose, as well as a decorative one, and
would allow for the width of the leg to widen so the boots could be worn either
underneath or on top of the jeans.

“Can I help you with anything there?” Hank
asked, clearing his throat. “You both seem to have your hands full.”

I jerked forward, mortified, and found
Hank trying (and failing) at not laughing, whereas Joshua just folded his arms,
smirking.

* * *

We were on our way back to the Quarter, a
while later, and I was certain my face was still burning. “How long are you
going to ignore me for?” Joshua asked. I didn’t have to turn to look at him to know
he wasn’t taking this seriously.

“It’s not funny,” I said, finally staring
over at him.

He glanced at me long enough to hold his
hand up to indicate about an inch gap between his finger and thumb. “It is a
little,” he told me. “And you are still wearing those jeans.”

I’d been that embarrassed, I didn’t want
to spend any longer than necessary in the store and had decided to keep the
jeans on, rather than get changed. I’d also put the boots straight on, but he
was overlooking that fact. As soon as I had grabbed all of the jeans on the
rack in my size and they’d been paid for, I all but dragged Joshua out of the
store.

Aside from still being somewhat
embarrassed by the shopping trip, I was feeling a lot better about it. There
was still so much going on, and so much that I needed to do, that being able to
tick even one thing off that list was a small weight being lifted off my
shoulders.