Angel Tormented (The Louisiangel Series Book 3) (30 page)

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In the meantime, here’s a
sneak-peak of book four.

Angel

In Crisis

Book Four

of the

Louisiangel Series

C. L. Coffey

Coming 2017

Chapter
One

Crisis
Mode

December 2
^nd

New Orleans

Zachary,
the Zach-ass virtue, was droning on and I was struggling to pay attention. In
part because he was repeating the same things over: how Cupid and I shouldn’t
be running a House; how we were failing to do so anyway; and how the convent
nearly burning down was our fault. The other part was because I was still
recovering.

Four
days ago we had managed to defeat Asmodeus. Asmodeus was one of two Princes of
Darkness who lived in New Orleans, and he was also my charge’s boss. It hadn’t
been easy. We’d lost a cherub in the process and I had been severely injured –
had I been human instead of an angel, I would almost certainly be in a morgue.
As it was, I healed quickly – bruises would disappear in hours, and I’d had
broken bones heal overnight. Given that I was still feeling pain when I
breathed (admittedly out of habit than a necessity), it was a good indication
that I had been hurt far worse on the inside than I looked on the outside.

Only
hours after defeating Asmodeus, a bunch of teenager had broken into the
convent. Well, when I say ‘broken in’, what I mean is, they walked in through
the unlocked front door. Angels, it turns out, are way too trusting. Once in,
they’d stolen about half of the remaining weapons in the armory and then set
fire to the place. We’d managed to get everyone out but the damage had been
that great that we had temporarily relocated to the St. Louis Cathedral. When
the fire department had finally given us permission to return this morning,
Cupid and I had made the short walk back to the Old Ursuline Convent to assess
the damage.

Twenty
minutes ago, Zachary, his sidekick Savannah, Grace, Metatron, and Gabriel had
appeared. We’d barely managed to get through the pleasantries before Zachary
had launched into a tirade. I stifled a yawn and looked to Cupid.
“How long
is he going to go on for?”
I asked him, using our psychic connection.
“We
could just tell them about Asmodeus and shut him up.”

The
lead of the House had a psychic link with all the angels under him. He couldn’t
read minds, but we were able to communicate telepathically – privately. Cupid
blinked a few times, but refrained from looking back at me. He’d only had the
ability for a couple of weeks, since Michael had died, and he was still trying
to get used to it. He wasn’t the only one.
“Let Zachary say his piece. If he
doesn’t get tired of it, Grace will.”

I
settled back, leaning my arm against the couch to prop my head up, and turned
my attention on the rest of the angels in the room in an effort to keep myself
awake. I had yet to meet an ugly angel. Hell, I had yet to meet an average
looking angel. This room, the office I shared with Cupid, just off the library,
was full of tall, exquisite looking creatures, any one of which could have a
lucrative career in the movies or as a model.

Cupid
was slim with hazel eyes and scruffy brown hair. Until recently he had dressed
stylishly, but casual. He had an eye for fashion and loved to shop. He had been
in charge of clothes, shopping for all the angels in the convent and although
anyone of them could have worn a hessian sack and made it look good, he knew
just what would suit them. These days, he had started wearing more and more
suits – dark gray with pinstripes, making him look taller than he was. He
looked good in them, but I didn’t think he suited them. Suits were Michael’s
thing, not his.

The
thought of Michael, or the lack of him, caused me to shudder involuntarily. He
had been killed by one of the Fallen and I still couldn’t think about him without
it sending a ripple of despair through me.

The
motion, though slight, caught the attention of the other archangel in the room.
Gabriel sat next to me and had been watching Zachary with a bored expression.
From the previous times we had met, I gathered he had similar feelings towards
Zachary as I did, only he didn’t try to hide them. Gabriel had deep green eyes
– a few shades darker than my own – and black hair that he kept short and neat.
He was the only angel in the room who was dressed in similar clothing to me.
Black cargo pants and a form fitting black t-shirt which did nothing to hide
his muscles. He arched an eyebrow at me, then, when I shrugged, glanced back at
Zachary. “How many ways are you going to say that you don’t think this House
should be run by Cupid and Angel?” he asked, boredom evident in his tone.

Zachary
was tall and lithe, with his long blond hair pulled back into a bun on top of his
head. Man-buns did nothing for me, but it didn’t look out of place on him. The
virtue, who had been pacing between the couches and the two desks (Cupid’s which
was currently occupied by Metatron, and mine which had Grace leaning against
it), whirled around to glower at Gabriel, his nostrils flaring. “As many times
as I need to, Gabriel.”

“Zachary
is making a very important point,” Savannah cut in. Of all the angels, she was
the shortest, but even then, she was probably only a couple of inches shorter
than me – or she would have been, if she wasn’t wearing heels. Although she had
warm, honey-colored eyes, the Asian virtue had an arctic demeanor.

“A
point he has made eight times since he arrived: you don’t think Cupid and Angel
should be running the House. Can we please let someone else take the floor?”
Gabriel suggested. I hadn’t really had much to do with Gabriel, but he’d seemed
friendly enough when I had met him. There seemed to be some history between
him, Zachary and Savannah – or maybe all the virtues – but I didn’t know what
that was. He looked to Grace. “Why are the virtues here?”

“Why?”
Zachary scoffed. “Because their actions,” he waved his arm towards me and
Cupid, “Made headline news around the world. Have you not been listening to anything
I’ve been saying?” The virtues were Heaven’s PR, and much as it annoyed me to
admit it, we had caused a bit of a commotion, and there was reason for them to
be there. I just wished they’d sent someone else.

“I
started to, and then I got bored,” Gabriel stated. He glanced at me, and I just
stared at him wide-eyed. I certainly didn’t disagree, but I was far too chicken
to admit to that.

“They
capsized a container ship, put half the Mississippi shipping industry out of
commission, and half of the media outlets are reporting terrorism,” Zachary
listed, taking great pleasure in doing so as he stared at me.

“And
don’t forget the ship’s crew who ‘miraculously’ found themselves safe on the
dock,” Savannah chimed in.

“The
other option was to let them drown,” I shot back at them.

“The
humans were removed from that ship by the cherubim,” Cupid eventually spoke up.

“What
were the cherubim doing there?” Zachary asked. “What were
you
doing
there?”

Cupid
glanced at me, but I indicated he could take the floor. It was he who deserved
all the credit. “Defeating Asmodeus,” he said, simply.

The
room fell into a stunned silence.

“Asmodeus?”
Grace repeated, finally. It was the first word she had spoken since they had
arrived.

I
nodded, proudly. “Cupid took him out.”

“Well
no one expected you to do it,” Zachary sniped.

“Enough!”
Grace snapped. “We are here for answers, not personal attacks.”

My
hands curled into fists – so far, all it seemed that Zachary and Savannah were
doing was launching personal attacks on me and Cupid. Gabriel’s hand wrapped
around a fist, squeezing gently. I looked at him, and caught a very slight
shake of his head. I blew out a breath but it wasn’t until I relaxed my fist
that Gabriel released me.

“I
think you should start at the beginning,” Grace continued, this time addressing
Cupid.

“Angel
received information that Asmodeus was planning something at the Port. We
discovered he was taking a shipment of something – something that required
Fallen guards. We defeated the Fallen there, and unfortunately, the Port
suffered in the process.”

I
had learned the hard way that when the Fallen were killed, their bodies
exploded. It was more like a balloon popping – on a much larger scale – than a
giant fireball, but the force had been strong enough to capsize a containership.
The force had also caused a few containers to explode – with flames…

“We
think Asmodeus was already on his way there to watch over his shipment, but he
attacked Angel,” Cupid continued. “When I had the opportunity, I killed him.”

That
opportunity hadn’t come a moment too soon: I had barely held my own against the
Prince of Darkness. If Cupid had waited only seconds longer, I would have been
dead. Permanently dead. Asmodeus and the two other Fallen I had been fighting
(and their exploding bodies) were the reason my body was
still
healing.
I had done a lot of fighting over the last few weeks, and not had enough time
to rest up properly. So much for being able to rest when you were dead.

“That
is incredible news,” Grace told Cupid. “Though you are sure it was Asmodeus?”

“Yes,”
Cupid and I responded simultaneously. “It was him,” Cupid confirmed.

“You
took out one of the Princes of Darkness? I’m impressed!” Gabriel congratulated
us.

“So
impressive you destroyed half of New Orleans in the process,” Zachary snarked.

“Zachary,”
Grace said, her tone low and dangerous. “I won’t tell you once more: I will ask
you to leave.”

“Forgive
him, Grace,” Savannah spoke up. “The defeat of Asmodeus is nothing short of
wonderful, but in doing so, this House has created a worldwide PR disaster. We
simply do not have enough angels or miracles to right this.”

“The
people of this city are stronger than you give them credit,” I told her,
remembering something Michael had once told me. “Regardless of what has
happened, or what is happening, this city fights.”

“That’s
the whole point,” Savannah told me. “This House should not have put them in
this position.”

“You
are both right,” Cupid jumped in. He had been perched on the arm of other
couch, but he stood up. “We created this mess, and we will clear it up. Without
the aid of any miracles,” he added.

“And
just how do you propose to do that?” Zachary asked, folding his arms. The look
on his face told me he thought we’d be more likely to build a staircase to
heaven than to fix this mess. “You could probably explain the damage at the
Port, but you removed humans from a ship and transported them to land.”

I
looked to Cupid: I wanted to know the answer to this too. I certainly hoped his
approach wasn’t going to be the same one he took with Leon. He turned, calmly,
to face Zachary. “Not only did we defeat Asmodeus, we also took out several
other of the Fallen. More important than that, we did it without losing a
single
human life.”

“Cupid
is quite right,” Gabriel agreed.

“Cupid
didn’t answer my question,” Zachary retorted, giving him a pointed look.

“This
is not getting us anywhere,” I muttered, impatiently.

Grace
nodded her head in agreement. “Zachary, Savannah: thank you for your time. We
can handle this from here.”

“But
this is a PR nightmare!” Savannah objected.

“You’ve
already established that there are no miracles available for this, and I agree
that it should be the local House that deals with it,” Grace explained. Her
voice was firm, but I could tell from the way she had narrowed her eyes at the
two virtues that they were beginning to irritate her. She clearly had a high
tolerance level.

Thankfully,
Zachary and Savannah seemed to catch on. They shared a look with each other,
before bowing their heads respectfully at Grace. Finally, they vanished. Beside
me, Gabriel let out an audible sigh of relief, but it was Cupid who spoke.
“Thank you.”

“Do
not thank me, Cupid,” Grace corrected him, her tone as cold as it had been for
Zachary and Savannah. “Even though you have defeated Asmodeus and several other
Fallen, Zachary made a valid point: you exposed yourselves to the humans you
are supposed to protect. The
only
reason I am allowing you to clean up
your own mess is that it appears no human is able to identify what removed them
from the ship. The both of you,” she pointed at Cupid and myself, “Will ensure
that there is no fallout for Heaven from your actions, and you will both ensure
that the city does not suffer from this. If the seraphim have to step in, I can
assure you that you will no longer hold control over this House. Do I make
myself clear?”

“Perfectly,”
Cupid responded.

When
she looked to me, I quickly nodded my response. “Yes, ma’am.”

“Before
I leave, I have one last question: have any of you heard from Raphael?”

When
the three of us shook our heads, she frowned, “It has been spoken, so let it be
recorded,” Grace said, this time directing her words to Metatron.

It
was easy to forget he was in the room as he scribbled away in the small book,
his eyes never on what he was writing, but rather, what was happening in front
of him. The single earing stud in Metatron’s ear glinted as he bobbed his head.
He was tall, black with a shaved head and like Grace, looked dressed for a
boardroom. “We are done here,” he confirmed, the pen still moving.