Angelic Avenger (8 page)

Zachiel was waiting on us in the judgment chamber when we flashed in. We didn’t exchange our normal banter as he held out his hand. I put my hand in his and felt him draw the soul out of me as gently as he could. It left me feeling cold and empty inside when he squeezed my hand, walking away to fade into the background, not bothering with his attempt at normalcy with a door. Neither Peter nor Lucifer stood at their benches. It wasn’t a case of judgment as much as the fact I was just the taxi for Zachiel. In delicate situations, he liked to request me because he knew I’d be gentle with the removal. He had a good heart, but he also did the one thing he was notorious for with me.

He forgot to send me home.

For him, his concern was getting the traumatized soul into the loving care of his angels to prepare her for rebirth. Priorities were priorities, after all. If I were the standard Grim Reaper type, I’d be living on this plane, anyway. I didn’t worry about it, though. He’d send down some special gift to apologize when he remembered he’d left me stranded. He always did. Last time, it had been a huge box of Godiva truffles. Being forgotten by Zachiel was better than being remembered by anyone else. I sighed and looked around. After a moment of weighing the chances of getting a fast ride home by yelling for someone, I decided to have a seat and wait it out. Someone was bound to find me, eventually, and I needed the time to think.

There were other chambers scattered about and I had no doubt Peter and Lucifer were hard at work with their scales with the souls dumped at their feet by the other Reapers. I sighed and relaxed into the peace of this one. I don’t know how long I sat there before someone popped up to sit beside me. I smiled as I turned to face the blond angel with gilded wings.

“Slumming, Raphael?”

“You are always so mean to me, Arabella.” He sighed as he pouted prettily.

The thing about archangels is that they manage to be gorgeous even when they’re in flaming fury. Having one pout at me was enough to turn me to total mush. Even I wasn’t immune to that kind of charm.

“I love you, you know that. I only tease you because I can. To what do I owe this honor, oh Great Angel of Truth?”

He rolled his eyes at his title even as he shrugged. Of all the archangels, he looked the youngest. In his current manifestation, he looked younger than I was, though I know he could look as old as Father Time, if he wanted to. This was the form that was his natural element, tall and swimmer thin, but still several inches shorter than his peers. Raphael liked to look personable to us lowly human types.

“You were questing. I thought that intriguing enough to warrant a visit. You’ve been busy, lately, letting Orifiel talk you into meddling with his halfling daughter.”

“There’s no law against it.” I squirmed in my seat under those golden eyes. Here I thought I was being sneaky only to have them all laughing behind my back. I should have known better.

“No, but it’s made you question the life you’ve made for yourself down there. You live among them, but don’t have the connection to them that you’d like. Seeing the halflings has made you wonder if you’ve made the right decision in keeping yourself apart from humanity. You’re lonely.”

I hate it when he’s always right. Having said that, he’d come to help me with my private issues because he’d felt my unease. Not very many people could say the Angel of Truth had sought you out to put your heart at rest with personal guidance. It was a pretty big boon.

“So what do I do about it? I can’t get too close to them because they’ll notice certain things like…oh, I don’t know…the fact that three years from now, I’ll still look exactly the same, maybe?”

“Why did you choose to return to the mortal plane?”

I blinked and looked at him. Somehow, I’d expected him just to give me the answers without all the angel mumbo jumbo. My eyes narrowed with irritation and his smile widened with serenity. Damn angel.

“Because I like it down there,” I snapped and slumped down in my seat as he continued to stare. “Okay, fine. I wanted to live, again. Up here—” I waved my hand to indicate which here I meant, “—it was entirely too serene and peaceful all the time. There’s no…life.”

“Define life, then?”

“
Life
.” I sighed in exasperation. “All the joy and action of living, I guess. I can stand in my window and watch Peachtree Street with the bustle and activity. I can go to dinner and watch young lovers go through the motions and giggle like there’s actually hope. I can go to concerts and plays and appreciate the performance. Here, I’d spend all my time wandering around waiting for someone to talk to me. There’s no purpose in that. I’d be a Jack Russell terrier in a day.”

“So why haven’t you done all those things?”

I blinked and looked at him. He was right. I went out every so often, but didn’t make a habit of it. I knew the shifters mostly because I had to patrol their communities to make sure they were living within the guidelines of the Covenants. They didn’t really talk to me or interact with me beyond the boundaries of politeness. Every so often, I’d arbitrate between the different groups, but in general, I was only called when it was a situation where I had to take a soul or do some other nasty dirty work.

“I don’t know. Why haven’t I?” I couldn’t resist the question. It wasn’t every day I could pose a question like that to present company. I might as well take advantage of it.

“Because you’re afraid of it even as much as you crave it.”

“So what do I do about that?”

“You give up and jump off the fence. Either live the life you’ve built for yourself down there or walk away from it and join your fellows up here.”

He smiled at me with the peaceful smile that said it was all so simple and for him, it probably was. It was a black and white issue. I hadn’t realized that I was walking on the fence until he had pointed it out. I was living in fear. I didn’t want the status quo of my position in death, but I was afraid of the life I’d created on the mortal plane, too.

“Why does it have to be so complicated?”

“It isn’t.”

I blinked as he leaned in and kissed my forehead. Magic flowed through me, causing me to repress a shiver that went all the way down to my toes. Being kissed by an angel was a blessing that wasn’t to be taken lightly. Being kissed by an archangel was something that should be treated with the reverence it deserved in its rarity, especially the archangel in question.

“Go home.” He smiled as he waved his hand and the beam of light popped into the room. “Take a shower and go down to see those sweet halflings play.”

“It’s Wednesday,” I corrected automatically. “They’re not on until tomorrow night.”

“They’re playing. All you have to do is follow the magic to wherever they practice. Things like that should be appreciated.”

We shared a smile as I stepped away and found myself standing in my living room. I still felt the cold flicker of the tortured soul and decided maybe I should be looking for a little bit of Angelic Melodies to warm up that shiver where my soul should be.

I grabbed the keys off the table by the door on the way out.

I didn’t exactly follow the magic. In truth, I didn’t know how. That somehow got left out of my Grim Reaper starter course. Maybe I should think to ask about that next time I had a face-to-face conference with my boss. Instead, I headed to the one place where I knew where to find one of them. Kennesaw Nursery.

I found them standing around, waiting for Honora to close up for the night. Not all of them, but the trumpet player from the night before whose name I either hadn’t gotten or had forgotten, the piano player and my archenemy leaning against a sleek red Lexus. Somehow, I had envisioned him to be an SUV type, but I had to admit, the car suited him.

“Well, there’s the woman of the hour,” the trumpeter greeted me rather too warmly for my taste as he jogged over to sweep me in a hug as I got out of my Camry.

“Hey, hey,” I objected and pushed him off me with a frown that he took for a jest as he tried to lead me back to the others with an arm around my shoulders. “No touching. I’m not nearly drunk enough. I don’t even remember your name.”

That earned a laugh from the pianist but Gray arched a brow in question. I didn’t even bother to clarify. Let the man wonder whatever he wanted. I didn’t care.

Oh, who was I kidding? It sounded good, anyway.

Honora came out of the greenhouse and locked the door behind her. I knew when she saw me as she turned and a smile split her face open with joy. It was enough to stun even me who dealt with angels on a daily basis. She strode across the gravel with a long limbed dance that broadcasted her excitement.

“I can’t believe it,” she gushed as she hugged me. “We’ve waited so long that it seems like a dream. Thank you.”

Lord, was I wearing a
hug me
sign on my forehead or something? What was it with these people, all of a sudden?

“I take it my assistant called today?”

“He did better. He came to see me to give me the details. We’re meeting at the studio next Wednesday night to make the test track. He’s certainly an interesting man.”

If she only knew.

“I’m glad it worked out.” I smiled at her and waved my hand to her friends.

“I suppose you’re practicing and trying to decide what to record tonight?”

“Oh yes!” She beamed back at me and I had to repress a shiver at the sheer level of magic bouncing off her. “Do you want to come help us make up our minds?”

“Somehow—” I gave Gray a significant glance that wasn’t lost on Honora, “—I think that I’m not exactly welcome by all. I wanted to pop in and make sure you were all squared away with the details.”

I let myself be talked into it, anyway. I think the temptation was too much to resist. The magic of the music was still as intoxicating as it had been the night before. After it was done, I chatted among the band members and waited for the effects to wear off. When I was finally safe to drive, I was surprised to see Gray taking his leave with me. Throughout the evening, we’d not found ourselves within five feet of one another and I had liked it that way. I still hadn’t decided how upset I was with him over this morning’s impromptu meeting.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered as he walked me down the sidewalk. “I acted without giving you a chance to make good your promise. Let me take you to dinner after the show tomorrow to make it up to you.”

That stopped me in my tracks. He was admitting he was wrong? Had the world stopped spinning when I wasn’t looking? I glanced at him and could see the sincerity on his face. He wanted to make it right and what harm could one dinner do?

“Okay,” I agreed and shrugged as if it were a casual thing. “Come by my place after you’re done and we’ll walk down to the bistro on the corner. That way, if you get all insulting, again, I can walk home.”

He had the grace to look abashed and I knew I’d scored my point. It was a cheap shot, granted, but it made me feel better.

Chapter Seven

“My baby sister is getting married this spring and you’d think the world was coming to an end with my poor mother.”

I blinked. I couldn’t help it. We’d been through dinner and had settled on coffee and dessert while we talked. He’d been charming and articulate, almost gentlemanly throughout the evening. He’d not insulted me once. I was amazed. Anyway, hearing he had siblings shocked the hell out of me.

“I’m sorry,” I laughed as I interrupted, “I figured you for an only child type. You’re so…”

I waved my hand at him, at a loss on how to elaborate without insulting him. He understood what I meant, though, and laughed with me.

“I very nearly was.” He nodded as he sipped his coffee, taken black, of all ways. Who drank black coffee? Didn’t that go out of fashion with the Depression or something? The poor boys at Starbucks would be appalled. “My parents met at a single parent retreat when I was three. My father had a son about my age. His first wife died when Tony was born, so it didn’t take much for us to hit it off. I never knew my biological father and he never knew his biological mother. We were very nearly like twins growing up and had the same issues. We were five when Mom had Greg and Claudia was a year and a half later.”

“Tony, as in Honora’s Tony?”

See? I can pay attention. I mentally patted myself on the back when his face showed his surprise. I smiled as I added yet another pack of cream and sugar to my coffee, making it a lovely shade of tan. One more sugar and it would be sweet enough, I decided while I waited for him to decide how much to tell me about his brother and our mutual friend. I stirred in the extra package.

“Yeah. They were seeing each other for awhile.” His face was carefully blank in a way that only someone who’s aware of such things can make it. “They had a falling out and he moved back to Texas.”

“Let me guess.” I saw the trap looming in front of my eyes. “It was about the recording contract and Andy’s attempt to manage them?”

“You guessed it.” His gaze met mine and all the pieces clicked together. Realizing that he’d come to my place looking out for Honora as family instead of friendship made his attitude so much more understandable. Family had more rights than friends, so I guess I could forgive him. “He told her what the rest of us thought of Andy and his machinations. It wasn’t what she wanted to hear, so one day all’s well, the next, he’s moving his stuff into my house and she’s dating the jerk. He couldn’t stand to sit by and watch that, so he packed up and moved home.”

“But you think he’ll be back.”

“Pretty much,” he agreed and smiled sweetly. Man, that smile was going to get me into loads of trouble. I could feel it, now. “She listened to you when she wouldn’t listen to anyone else, so at least we know there’s no competition on that front for him to have to deal with. I hope, anyway.”

I blinked at him and waited a heartbeat. He wasn’t implying…? From the look in his eyes, he certainly was. Resisting the urge to give into the laughter that welled up, I grinned widely behind my coffee cup. The temptation proved to be too much, though.

“Thank you, but no. She’s not my type. However, if she were a blonde, we might have an issue.”