Angel Eclipsed (The Louisiangel Series Book 2) (20 page)

“I’m fine,” Joshua responded, shortly.

Henry let out a long sigh. “You know we don’t actually kill people, right?” he asked him. “Angels aren’t allowed to kill.”

“You’re not?” I asked in surprise.

“I was once a Virtue,” Henry said, resting his arms on the desk in front of him. “At some point during the rise of the Maurya Empire it was decided to dedicate a team of angels to escort souls on to their next destination.” He shook his head. “The point is, we may be Angels of Death, but we’re still angels, and the fundamental rule is that we cannot kill. We don’t take life. There is enough in this world doing that for us.”

“But you’re a Grim Reaper,” Joshua blurted out.

“That’s why I’m based in a morgue. Actually, there are a lot of us who work across the world in morgues. Some of us are based in hospitals, a few with first responders,” Henry explained. “Souls don’t just
go
to Heaven. They need to be escorted. The problem is that there are so many humans and not enough Angels of Death, and unfortunately, the souls linger around their bodies.”

I could still sense the unease radiating from behind me. I guess everyone was afraid of something. “So, this victim was a Potential, as was the woman killed in front of the Cathedral,” I said. “How many others are there?”

Henry frowned. “I believe she was the fifth this month.”

“What on earth are the Fallen up to this time?” I muttered, running my fingers over my lower lip.

“I don’t think these Potentials were killed by the hands of the Fallen,” Henry quickly added. “Sadly, I think all five murders were coincidence. I believe there is a suspect for all of them?”

I looked back at Joshua who pulled a face. “I’d have to check which five you think are Potentials. Only two of the homicides I’ve been working on have suspects in custody.”

“I can email over the files,” Henry told Joshua, leaving me feeling once again slightly bewildered. I was spending too much time in a technologically void convent.

* * *

True to his word, Henry had emailed the reports over. I was curled up on Joshua’s couch, Dave wrapped around my legs, as I read through the documents on Joshua’s iPad. Joshua had dropped me off at his place, and then declared that research required sustenance. My earlier appetite had yet to reappear after visiting the morgue.

I finished reading the reports. As far as I could tell, when it came to the autopsy, there was nothing that linked the five victims together. There were four women and one man. One woman had been drowned in a bathtub, one had been stabbed (the girl in the fountain), another shot and the final one, Iskra, who had been on the table, had been choked to death. The guy was killed on a streetcar and his neck had been snapped.

Sadly the autopsy report didn’t give away many more details than that. The clock on the iPad told me that Joshua had been gone for a little under an hour now, but as Radio Joshua hadn’t flared into life and his current location didn’t give me any reason to worry, I opened up Safari and ran a search for the Plague of Snakes. I was actually rather surprised at the lack of results. There was, as Paddy had said, a fan group for a metal band.

The entire internet unanimously agreed that Paddy was a guy, and a lot of sites were split between Paddy banishing physical snakes, or converting pagans to Christianity. All in all, I didn’t learn anything new. I turned my attention to Levi. There were a lot of references to Leviathan being a sea serpent. I guess it made sense for there to be a link to snakes.

It took some digging in the depths of the search engines to discover a small passage of a scroll that someone had scanned into a buried website. It was so faded that I struggled to read it, but after a bit of squinting and messing with the contrast, I discovered it was a witness account. The witness agreed with everything Paddy had told me – and they had acknowledged that St. Patrick was female.

Maybe Michael was right. Maybe I desperately wanted Lucifer to have risen so I could find a way to justify murder, but I couldn’t shake the growing feeling that I had been right all along and turned my search to the Princes of Darkness.

Sigils

The sound of the key turning in the lock drew my attention away from the reading. I glanced at the clock, realizing that Joshua had been gone for a couple of hours, and forgave him instantly when I saw the containers from Raising Cane’s stacked up on each other. I put the iPad on the coffee table and bounded over to take the two drinks balanced on the top of the boxes from him.

“I know I promised Chinese, but I drove past and changed my mind,” Joshua explained, toeing his shoes off before he followed me over to the couch, carrying the two boxes.

“You chose the better option,” I told him, looking in one of the containers.

“I wasn’t sure what you wanted, so I went for two Caniac combos,” Joshua said, swapping a drink for a box. We fell silent as we tucked into the chicken strips. My lost appetite had been found and it didn’t take long for me to devour everything – even the coleslaw which I normally wasn’t all that fussed with.

“That was needed,” I sighed in satisfaction after I had dumped our empty containers in the trash. I sat back down on the couch and stretched my legs out under the table. When I sensed Joshua’s gaze on me, I turned my head to face him. “What?”

He gave me a grin and then shuffled closer, scooping up the iPad as he did. “I called in at the precinct and emailed some files over. I thought you might want to cast your eye over them?”

I watched as he went into his emails and opened some attachments. I moved next to him, leaning over slightly to see what he had sent. I scanned the screen then turned, frowning. “Joshua, are you sure you can bring these home?” I asked him. They looked like electronic versions of similar files I had seen on his desk at work.

“I trust you,” he said, simply.

“That’s not what I was asking,” I told him, grabbing his hand to stop him scrolling down the document. “I know I’m not supposed to see these – I’ve been told that enough times – but are you allowed to email them to yourself? I don’t want you getting into more trouble. This strikes me as something that could make you lose your job.”

Joshua let out a long breath. “No, I’m not normally supposed to email documents like this, but I spoke to the lieutenant and explained…” he looked over at me, saw that my mouth was hanging open, and quickly shook his head. “I didn’t tell him about anything relating to angels or Potentials,” he assured me. “I just explained that I wanted to do some work, and that I wanted to make sure I was doing it correctly by looking at what the other detectives were doing. He encouraged it, actually. He said it was a good idea provided the only things to leave the precinct were the digital copies.”

I tilted my head and pulled a face. “He encouraged you to look at so many files?” I asked him.

Joshua’s cheeks reddened. “I didn’t give an indication as to how many cases I wanted to look at, but I only took the five investigations which correspond with the autopsy reports which that Angel of Death sent over.”

Five files didn’t seem so bad, and Joshua had said that he was working on two of them anyway. If his lieutenant had given him permission, then I wasn’t going to question it. Instead I turned my attention back to the reports.

The layout of the reports was slowly becoming familiar to me. We started with the investigations Joshua had been working on. He sat patiently while I caught up. Together, we then tackled the remaining three cases.

“Only one of these victims lived in New Orleans. The rest were tourists,” Joshua sighed. “Atlanta, Chicago, Munich, and apparently, Zagreb.”

“Yes, but they were all killed by their significant others, and all of them claim that they weren’t in control of their own bodies,” I pointed out as I flicked back and forth between the reports.

“Insanity plea,” Joshua shrugged. “Leon is forever telling me that’s the first thing a suspect will claim when they’re caught red-handed, like all these suspects were.”

“But what if it wasn’t a claim? What if they really were possessed?” I asked him, remembering what Malik had said to me.

“Then we’re going to have to find another way to connect them, because being possessed is as likely to be believed as angels,” Joshua said with a long sigh.

“Why don’t we just say they’re vampires,” I muttered. “I bet they would believe that.”

“Maybe we need to look at it differently,” Joshua said suddenly. “Like we did when we were trying to find Lilah.”

“You have a whiteboard hiding in your bedroom?” I asked in amusement.

Joshua got to his feet and offered his hand. “Close enough.”

I took his hand and followed him into his bedroom. I sat on the bed, as he indicated, taking the iPad from him, and watched as he disappeared into his closet. There was the sound of boxes being moved around before he reemerged with a shoebox in his hands. “Nikes are going to solve this case?”

Joshua smiled, but shook his head. “Do me a favor and send the photographs of the victims and the suspects to the printer, and then be prepared for some arts and crafts.”

“Aren’t we past them being called suspects now?” I asked him, doing as he requested. From the living room came the sound of a printer whirring into life. “Given that they all confessed to killing their partners, even if it was by possession?”

Joshua disappeared back into the living room. “Until they’re proven guilty by a jury of their peers, they’re still suspects,” he called. He reappeared moments later with a pile of printing which he handed over with a pair of scissors. While I got busy cutting out photographs, he took the iPad from me.

A while later, the large mirror in his bedroom was doubling up as a whiteboard. Joshua had disappeared to his car and returned with a map of New Orleans he’d had in his glove compartment. With some tape, he stuck it in the center of the glass. I remained perched on the edge of the bed, calling out locations as he stuck the photographs around the edge of the mirror and marked on the map where their bodies had been found. Finished, he sat down next to me and we stared at the mirror.

“Even laid out like this, I just don’t see a pattern,” he said, eventually. He brushing a hand through his hair.

I tilted my head. “Actually,” I said slowly. “I think I do see a pattern.” I got up and took a marker from the side. Starting from the first victim, I drew a line to the second, then on to the third and fourth. “Or not,” I muttered, hesitating in drawing the line from the fourth to the fifth. “I’m sorry, I thought I saw a star,” I said, returning to the bed.

I had barely sat down when Joshua was on his feet. “That last location is wrong.”

I reached for the iPad and flicked through to the relevant report. “Nope, the body was found at the Canal Street Station,” I said.

“Found,” Joshua agreed. “But the victim was killed on a streetcar, and I see where you were going with these murders. I’m willing to bet my savings that he died right here.” He marked a spot on the map which I knew to be just down from the Ursuline stop. From there he finished linking up the murder locations.

My eyes widened as I realized what I was staring at. Wordlessly, I took the marker from his hands and drew the final line – a circle around the outside, connecting all the marks.

“It’s a pentacle?” Joshua said.

I nodded. “And look what’s at the center,” I added, marking a point in the middle. “Bee’s.” The pen came to rest on my lips as I stared at the mirror. I was absolutely convinced that this wasn’t due to Leviathan or the Plague of Snakes, but I wasn’t sure how best to broach this topic with Michael.

“What are you thinking?” Joshua asked, taking the pen from me.

“I think there is another angel behind this. One of the Fallen,” I told him. “I’m fairly certain it can’t be an angel who still has their wings. Once an angel kills a human, they fall. I just don’t know which.”

“Could you ask Michael?” Joshua suggested.

That was a good question. Michael had said I could ask him anything, but that wasn’t entirely accurate. I was forbidden from broaching the subject of Lucifer. I didn’t think this was anything to do with Lucifer, but if it was to do with the Fallen, I didn’t want to upset him, just when we were starting to get on. “I think it might be better if I talk to Veronica,” I shrugged. “Would you mind running me back to the convent?”

“Are you going to talk to her now? It’s late,” Joshua asked, surprised.

It was past midnight. “I know,” I replied. “I probably won’t speak to her tonight, but I should be there so I can speak to her before breakfast.”

“You know you can always stay here?” he offered.

“I know,” I told him with a smile.

* * *

I was up before dawn.  I knew I would be spending the morning training with Raphael, so I dressed in my workout outfit before heading downstairs. There was already noise coming from the canteen – chatter and pans clattering behind the hatch. I made my way through the tables to the kitchen door and stepped in.

You know those nightmares you have where you walk into a classroom and it goes quiet and you look at yourself and realize you’re naked. For a moment, I thought that was actually happening to me.

The cherubim closest to me saw I was there, then the next lot, and finally, the kitchen was silent of chatter. The only noise was the food cooking. “Hi,” I said, awkwardly as I gave myself, what I was hoping was, a subtle once-over just to make sure I wasn’t standing there naked. “Is Veronica here?”

There was a pause, and I gave myself another check, before Veronica stepped out from behind a counter brandishing a potato peeler. “Angel?”

“I come in peace,” I offered, my hands extended out in front of me as I tried to give her my brightest smile.

“What do you want?” Garret demanded, appearing beside Veronica, watching me with narrowed eyes.

“To talk to Veronica,” I told him, looking at the cherub in question.

She blew her hair out of her face and shrugged. “About what?” she asked, coolly.

Okay, I deserved this. “Just to be clear, I do not think Lucifer has risen. I’ve spoken to Paddy. She told me about how she defeated the Plague of Snakes, and I believe her,” I quickly told her, ignoring the glares I was receiving from every angel in the kitchen. Awkward. “But, I’ve been looking at some recent murders with Joshua and we think there’s a pattern.
I
think there’s a pattern.” I quickly explained what we had discovered. “It all circles around Bee’s.”

“We thought Bee’s had something to do with it,” Veronica muttered quietly. She glanced at Garrett, who just folded his arms and gave her a pointed look. Veronica rolled her eyes and turned to me. “We have information, but unless you swear you will not repeat to anyone, we’re not sharing.”

“What about Joshua?” I asked her. “I’m not prepared to make an oath which could potentially put him in harm’s way. He’s a cop and he’s investigating these murders. He’s also my charge.”

Veronica and Garrett shared another look before Garrett nodded. “You can tell him.”

“I swear to God I will not repeat anything that is discussed here with anyone other than those in this room, or Joshua,” I shrugged.

There was yet another look shared between Veronica and Garrett before Veronica finally spoke. “We don’t think it’s the Plague of Snakes, either,” she admitted.

“Are you kidding me,” I growled, stamping my foot in frustration.

She held her hands up. “But we do think there’s someone else attempting to gain power.”

“If you spoke to Paddy about the Plague of Snakes, I take it she told you about the Princes of Darkness?” Garrett asked me. He folded his arms, glaring at me as he waited for my response.

“She told me that Leviathan was one of the seven Princes,” I nodded. “And that she killed him.” I frowned. “You think one of the other Princes is trying to accomplish what Levi couldn’t?”

Garrett nodded. “We think that he is trying to gain the power, rather than send it to Lucifer.”

“Well,
some
of us think that,” Veronica said, shooting Garrett a glare. “I still think that they’re trying to empower Lucifer.”

“Either way, we think it’s going to happen tonight,” Garrett said, rolling his eyes at Veronica.

“So you need to go get that fake ID off that guy pronto,” Veronica informed me.

I glanced around the room. “And what about the rest of you? How are you going to get in? I’m sorry, but Ty was right: not a single one of you looks remotely old enough to get into a bar. Plus it has taken this long to get mine, which I still don’t have, I might add.”

Veronica’s mouth turned down in the corners. “She’s right,” she said to Garrett.

I tapped my hands on the aluminum counter and frowned. “What if I got in, then found a free cubicle in the bathroom and let you pop in when the coast is clear?”

“That won’t work,” Veronica said, shaking her head.

“It might be more problematic for the guys…” I trailed off when Garrett looked at me like I was an idiot. “What?” I demanded. “Veronica was the one who suggested it in the first place,” I pointed out, folding my arms.

“That was before it was the center of a sigil,” Veronica explained. She shrugged her shoulders and gestured that I join her. “I need to get these potatoes peeled so I can get the hash browns cooking. You help and I’ll explain.”