Hear No (Hidden Evil, #1) (3 page)

“You’re a pizza delivery man?” he asked in disbelief.

“I like pizza,” the woman said.

“You gotta make an honest living somehow. It’s not like the Other Side pays us to do our job,” Nathan replied. “Bring it over. They’re too drunk inside to notice if a few pieces are missing.”

Joey shook his head. Nathan assessed the new spirit guide had no problem with money, if his Rolex was any indication. After years of saving money, Nathan didn’t either, but he’d vowed never to let himself fall into the rut he spent a decade in when he first started. He held a steady job or two, moving on when he was ready to try something new.

“Don’t you think she should try to talk to her … ex?” Joey asked.

“No,” Nathan said. “Either he accepts her or he doesn’t. Kids are part of her dream, and Scorpios are the most stubborn sign and most emotional. She needs that deep, mutual level of commitment to feel comfortable.”

“Yes,” the angel agreed. Her voice was still faint, and she kept looking at the rainbows with a sigh.

“Maybe he’s just not ready,” Joey argued.

Nathan pulled a pizza from the bag. He set the box on the sidewalk and motioned for Joey to join them. After a moment, the other spirit guide knelt near the pizza.

The angel set down her snow globe and reached for the food.

“Maybe he’s not supposed to date first gen angels either,” Nathan pointed out.

Joey froze then looked away.

“This is so hard,” the ex-angel said. “None of this is in the manual.”

“There’s no manual that teaches you to be human,” Nathan said firmly. “I don’t care what they tell you the first time around.”

“What manual?” Joey asked. “I’ve never seen one.”

“Ten Commandments,” Nathan said. “They’re guidelines for the newly incarnated.”

“Mushrooms.” The former angel giggled again, staring at her pizza. “They’re
talking
to me!”

“Eat them before they start walking,” Nathan advised.

The ex-angel stuffed half the piece of pizza in her mouth. Nathan laughed.

“What the hell did you do to her?” Joey demanded.

“LSD and glitter,” Nathan replied.

“You
drugged
her?”

“Yeah.”

“How do you have a ninety-nine percent approval rating?”

It’s negative ninety-nine.
“I figure out what’s wrong and fix it. How I do it isn’t really important,” Nathan said with a shrug. “You okay, baby?” he asked the angel.

Her cheeks bulging with pizza, she nodded.

“So how do you fix this?” Joey asked.

“I don’t. You do. You either make her happy or you walk and have her reassigned,” Nathan replied.  

“But you said you’d take this case.”

“You forgot to mention you were personally involved,” Nathan said. “That changes everything. Consider this a freebie. I calmed her down. You clean up your own mess.”

Joey’s gaze lingered on the angel, who was content with her pizza and snow globe.

Nathan wolfed down a couple slices then lit another cigarette, his gaze going to the clear sky. He wasn’t joking about the girlfriends demanding kids. He fell into the same pattern with each woman he dated. He met Ms. Right, settled down in what he thought was a relationship whose boundaries were mutually understood. Then one day, she demanded kids and marriage.

He walked. He always did. His work as a supernatural caseworker and protector of incarnated angels was priority. Women didn’t understand that he wasn’t able to settle down, because he was temporarily immortal. At some point, his boss on the Other Side would give him the option of retiring as a human.

If things keep getting weirder, it won’t be anytime soon,
he thought to himself.

“You gonna be all right?” he asked the woman.

“The glowing elves want me to follow them,” she said.

“Just stay out of the street.” Nathan reached into his satchel and withdrew a small bottle of painkillers. He tossed it to Joey.

“What’s this?” Joey asked.

“She’ll have a headache tomorrow.”

“Is this legal?”

Nathan ignored him. He stood and studied the first gen one last time. She’d hate him in the morning, when she found herself having to deal with Joey, the ex who didn’t like her toes or her dreams. But that was the way of things. She was in no danger, and Joey had to learn.

Nathan picked up his delivery bag and pulled out the pizzas.

“C’mere, honey,” he told the ex-angel.

The incarnated angel tucked the snow globe in her pocket. She stood, wobbled and then smiled.

“Take these inside. Give me a minute with your guide.” Nathan handed them to her.

She took the boxes and walked towards the house, stopping to sing to rainbows or elves or whatever else she saw. 

Nathan extinguished his cigarette with his heel then met the gaze of Joey, who still appeared unsettled.

“You don’t date first gen angels,” Nathan started.

“You just drugged her, and you’re going to tell
me
what to do?”

“You can do whatever you want, except for dating first gen angels. They have to learn. The best way to learn is not to have someone standing between them and reality.”

“Let her flail around and get hurt?” Joey asked, crossing his arms. “Sounds like a compassionate guide.”

“You can be compassionate with humans.”

“I can’t walk away from her.”

Nathan smiled. “Then get used to the idea of kids, Joey. You can’t have it both ways.”

“You make it sound so easy. It’s not that cut and dry,” Joey objected.

“Not my problem. In a domestic dispute, I’ll always side with the former angel. Their intentions are usually purer,” Nathan said. “Now, I’ve got some pizzas to deliver.” He took the carrier and paced to his car.

“Nate, wait!” Joey called.

“I’m on the clock, Joey. Deal with it.”

“You know they’re right what they say about you.”

“I’m bitter but effective?” Nathan asked, hand resting on the metal handle of his car door.

“They said you’re a cold-hearted bastard and a selfish dick.”

“Close enough.” Nathan opened his car door and dropped into it. He understood Joey’s anger wasn’t really directed at him but at the fact the young spirit guide had screwed up by dating a first gen – and knew it.

Nathan closed his door, started the engine and drove away.

Selfish.
It was the second time in as many days he’d been called that. His life was dedicated to helping lost, scared or endangered incarnated angels. He went whenever someone called, wherever it was, without batting an eye at the time or expense or personal toll it took to get there and make sure said angel or spirit guide was okay. So he’d lost the ability to feel … he still did his job.

How the hell was he
selfish
?

His cell rang. He tapped the Bluetooth device on his ear.

“Nate.”

“Pedro has a pick-up for you,” said the familiar voice of Wendy, the first gen who ran communications between the Other Side and the spirit guides in the human world. “Says there’s a problem.”

“When is there not a problem?” Nathan replied.

Wendy laughed, unable to see the darkness of the world the way Nathan did.

“Is it local?” Nathan asked.

“Sort of.”

“That means no.” Angels and first gens didn’t like bad news, either. “Where am I going?”

“Virginia.”

“When?”

“Your plane leaves in ninety minutes.”

Nathan muttered a curse. There was no time to pack, and ducking out in the middle of his pizza delivery shift meant he was going to have to find a new job upon his return.

“You know you need to book these things at least four to six hours out,” he told Wendy, not for the first time.

“You’ll make it, Nate. I have faith.”

He rolled his eyes at the cheerful ex-angel’s tone.

“Your car is in your normal spot at the airport,” she added. “Your usual stuff is in the trunk, and we rented you an apartment. Directions are –”

“Wait, an apartment?” Nathan echoed. “I’m not picking up and bringing back?”

“Not this time. Pedro is sending someone to brief you. We have … issues.”

“You mean,
I
have issues.”

Another giggle. “Are you at the airport?”

“Um, no. It takes twenty minutes to get there. I’ll be lucky if I can catch my flight.”

“Not lucky, Nate, blessed.”

“Right. I’ll let you know when I land.” He hung up.

Nathan guided his car down to the south side of town, the opposite direction of any of his pizza deliveries. It was close to dawn on the other side of the country, which meant he needed to sleep on the plane so he was ready for a full day of angel-directed madness. With no concept of time or money and an inability to see problems, angels like Pedro, who had been around since the beginning of time, made for horrible managers. The upside to an angel boss: even if Nathan screwed up, the angels only saw what he did right. They were the epitome of everything pure and good, incapable of seeing evil, wrong, or mistakes.

He reached the airport, parked, and leaned over to the glove compartment. He was a simple man, despite his penchant for designer clothes. He could travel with no more than his little black notebook, cigars, a couple of snow globes and his wallet. He could buy clothes and toiletries when he landed.

Dumping the pizzas in a trashcan, he trotted into the terminal, determined to catch his plane.

Chapter Two

The Shadowman was watching her. He followed her through her daily routine, perched on the balcony outside her apartment while she slept, even lingered one aisle over in the grocery store.

Why was a monster in a grocery store?

Kaylee awoke mid-panic. Her heart was racing and her senses jumbled from escaping the dream world too fast. She breathed deeply, orienting herself to the small master bedroom of her apartment in Reston, Virginia. When she confirmed where she was, she relaxed.

The sense of not being alone remained, like it had been every day for the past month. Not one to believe in ghosts, she had begun to reconsider, especially on nights like this, when she was all too aware of how alone and dark it was in her two bedroom apartment. She never checked the closet of the second bedroom. There could be someone there, or in the broom closet near the entrance, or maybe even in her master closet …

Kaylee glanced towards her closet then shook her head.

No more scary movies before bed,
she told herself.

She threw off her blankets and padded to her bathroom. She’d awoken like this four out of the past five nights, often enough that she understood she wouldn’t be going back to sleep again. The hair at the back of her neck remained on end as she washed her face.

Kaylee shivered. She wiped her face and studied herself in the mirror, wondering if the stress from her work was causing the nightmares and paranoia. She was always tired anymore with no energy for much of anything after the fourteen-hour days chained to her desk.

Her wispy dark blonde hair was pulled back in a loose bun on top of her head, rendering her round face childlike with her large blue eyes and small features. Her ears were tiny and stuck out too far from her head, her body of medium build and toned from her daily runs. She wore a tank top and underwear to sleep in. Dark circles lined her eyes.

Her best friend was right. She needed a real vacation and not just the occasional three-day weekend she spent working from home.

Kaylee left the bathroom. She turned on lights as she went. While she didn’t believe in the boogeyman, she wasn’t comfortable enough after the nightmares to sit alone in the dark.

She set her pink laptop on her coffee table, turned on the TV to the horror channel for background noise and then checked her phone.

Renaissance Faire starts this weekend. You MUST come!
The message had been sent by her best friend, Andrea. Kaylee saw it before she went to sleep and had been debating. Taking the weekend off work meant she’d start next week way behind. If she wanted to take a real vacay soon, she had to be caught up.

Her eyes went to the balcony, where the Shadowman – a nickname she gave the strange darkness – sat watching her at night, according to her nightmares. She couldn’t see past the darkness peering through the glass doors to see the table and chairs on her balcony. She didn’t see the stars or moon either, as if the world ended at her patio door.

She shivered again, convinced Shadowman was the embodiment of her stressful job. It was following her home now and freaking her out when she needed to spend more time relaxing. Or working.

One weekend wouldn’t hurt. She typed a quick response to Andrea. The moment she pressed the send button, she felt the intangible weight of being watched lift off her shoulders.

“Maybe you’re right,” she murmured to the picture of Andrea on her phone. “Give myself permission to take a break, and just … let … go.” She did her best to impersonate her best friend’s stoner way of talking then laughed. There were days she’d give anything to be as zen as Andrea.

Kaylee closed her laptop. She’d give herself permission to relax right now, too. She pushed the laptop away with her foot and leaned back on the couch, gaze drifting from the TV to her balcony once more.

The full moon was brilliant, lighting up the entire space on her patio. The chairs, table, even the small candle on the railing were all visible.

Kaylee sat up straight, startled. Had the moon been behind a cloud before when she looked? She crossed to the door and peered at the sky.

It was clear. Not a cloud in sight.

Yet something had been blocking her view of the balcony.

Shadowman.

She stepped back from the door and shook her head. She was tired. She made a simple mistake or was half asleep the first time she looked. There was no other explanation. She wasn’t about to buy the idea that there was some sort of … creature sitting on her balcony at night.

Uneasy, Kaylee returned to the couch. She tucked her legs beneath her and stared at the TV.

If she was this stressed, she needed a vacation much sooner than she thought. She tried not to look at the balcony, but her gaze drifted back.