Sleeper_Google, page 9
part #3 of Hunter Series
A smile slid across Justin’s face. “We are, NA.”
My eyes rolled of their own accord. “Nope. That makes me sound like I’m doing coke. Don’t call me NA or Nex or Apparatus. Kelsey or Owens. Maybe boss, because that’s kind of cool. That’s all. Who’s in my office?”
A weird, happy smile crossed his face. It was so dopey that it made me wonder if Justin had somehow gotten into my beer. “She’s pretty. Like gorgeous.”
“Angelina needs help?” Justin was super into his wife. His desk was covered with pictures of her.
He shook his head. “Nah. Angie’s out shopping with her sister.” He frowned. “Please don’t tell my wife. It’s not my fault. I can’t help how I feel. She’s so lovely.”
I heard the door behind me open and turned. Felix Day strode in, a serious look on his normally placid face. Felix is my shrink. Well, he’s kind of everyone’s shrink. He has the office three doors down from mine and beyond his therapeutic practice, he also serves as a sort of advisor to the Council on all things metal health. He was married to one of the most powerful witches in the world, and I’d been told he’d done a little time on the Hell plane.
Still, he didn’t usually storm into my office during business hours.
“Kelsey, I need you to wear this.” He held out some kind of weird necklace/art project thingee. It was seriously held together by a string I was pretty sure he’d gotten from a craft store.
Maybe the shrink needed help, too. “It’s lovely, Felix. Did your daughter make it?”
He shook his head as though trying to figure out what I meant. That was when I realized that he was wearing one of the weird homemade-in-the-absolute-worst-of-ways things, too. He had a big old medallion pinned to his chest and it looked like it was decorated in symbols with some red paint…
“Dude? Is that blood?”
Felix’s movie-star worthy jawline tightened. “Put it on, now.”
The door to my office opened and a beautiful soft light spilled into the lobby. It was weird because that light seemed like something I could touch and smell and see as a real, tangible thing. That light rolled over me like a blanket, the softest, warmest blanket I’d ever had wrapped around me. I found myself turning and smiling and welcoming that light.
Which turned out to be a chick. A hot, beautiful, amazing chick with honey blonde hair and pillowy lips that I was totally bi-curious about.
Justin stepped up beside me. “See. I’m going to marry her.”
“Hello, brother. I thought I felt you close.” The stunning blonde walked toward Felix.
She did look a bit like Felix, though he wasn’t anywhere near as hot as this woman. They had the same color hair, though hers was long and wavy where Felix’s was close cropped. Her skin glowed in a way his never could.
“Brother,” a musical voice boomed through the office and the male version of Miss Universe times ten strode into the room. Jesus. There were two of them. This man exuded confidence. I could follow him. My wolf was deep inside, thumping her tail happily because we’d finally found the real alpha.
“Brother.” Contestant number three walked in and I could feel the drool starting. He was slightly smaller than the first male, his hair coloring a bit lighter, and if I had to guess I would say he was a few years younger.
Tears rolled down my cheeks because as this man walked in, I realized how beautiful I was. I was precious. Every cell in my body, every drop of blood. I was unique and lovely and precious and so were all the creatures around me. I felt a groundswell of confidence beneath my feet, rolling over me like a wave of faith. Everything was going to be all right. It would be better than all right. I would do all the things I needed to do. I could make things better. Gray was going to come home and Marcus was going to be happy. Marcus would find everything he’d looked for all these years. Trent would have his mate.
I would be his mate.
“Please hold it, Kelsey.” Felix was getting into my space and it irritated me. I was happy and he was trying to force his weird crap on me.
“Truly, Felix?” There was a bright sheen of tears in the woman’s eyes and I hated that she was crying. She shouldn’t cry. “You would ward against us? We were your family.”
“I will ward against you when you come into my home on my plane and blind my friends.” Felix was saying a bunch of words, but I was lost in an ocean of pure emotion. “What did you come to do, sister? Did you come to talk or to make slaves?”
Felix forced the ward around my neck, and the minute it touched my skin I felt the ocean recede and I was back in the real world.
I took a deep breath and forced myself not to cry because that place I’d been in was beautiful.
And then a cold fear threaded through me because Marcus was right. Angels were far scarier than any demon, and I found myself facing three of them.
* * * *
“Would someone like to explain to me why Heaven needs a PI? And might I suggest another one than myself. There are tons of PIs who don’t drink the way I do. Also, serious with the potty mouth.” I sat back, trying to make myself look way more confident than I was.
It was thirty minutes later and we’d all settled in. I’d learned that angels enjoyed tea. I don’t have any fucking tea and my assistant drinks blood, so I’d been forced to make an emergency call. The queen had been more than happy to show up with her butler and a full-on rolling buffet of tiny treats she called “high tea.” I wondered if that meant there was something herbal in the brownies, but she assured me it was a normal thing that rich people, British people, and angels do.
So now I had the queen, her seven-foot halfling butler who made those horns of his work with a tux, Felix, and the Days, who apparently always came in threes, sitting in my office. Well, Albert was kind of standing to the side, but he was totally there.
Justin was out in the lobby trying to find a proper marriage counselor because he was sure Angie would divorce him. He’s a sensitive dude.
Felicity Day leaned forward, smiling. Even after she’d thrown the dimmer switch on her angelic mojo, she was still stunningly beautiful. “There is no other private investigator in the world we would rather hire.”
“And I’ve got quite the potty mouth myself, thank you very fucking much.” Oliver Day softened his words with a wink.
The queen laughed, sitting back in the chair that had been brought in for her. “He really does. I was shocked when I found out angels could be so foul mouthed.”
But she grinned Oliver’s way. Once more I felt like there was some story I didn’t quite understand. “Are you sure there isn’t some alcoholic version of tea?”
“You don’t need the alcohol,” Jude Day promised me. “Not anymore. You’re quite strong enough now. Almost strong enough to break away and be your own woman. You are going to change the way this world works, Kelsey Owens.”
He smiled at me like a proud father despite the fact that he looked like a freaking nineteen-year-old kid.
And I felt the edge again. The edge of that cloud of faith he’d brought with him tickled at my mind, whispering that I would be happier if I tore that ward off.
“They can’t help themselves.” Felix stood behind me. “It could work even better if you place your hand on the ward. Try to keep your skin in contact with it.”
“The one you made with blood?” Still trying to deal with that fact.
Felicity shook her head. “You didn’t need that, brother. I’m sorry. When we felt you, our souls responded. That’s why our presence was pronouncedly stronger. Well, and perhaps we’re having a bit of trouble, but that’s the reason we’re here.”
I shoved the ward under my shirt, allowing it to touch my skin. There. That was so much better. I felt so much more like myself and wondered if I would have to walk around with the worst jewelry ever from now on because I wasn’t about to allow myself to get caught without it.
The queen smiled my way and lifted her arm. There was a small tattoo on her wrist. “I’ll set up a time for you. Dev and I both had them done a few years ago. This one is against angelic presence, and there’s one on the small of my back to fight demonic influence. Unfortunately, we haven’t figured out how to tat up the wolves. When they change the ink goes away.”
A fierce frown crossed Oliver’s face. “You did that to your body?”
If the queen was fazed by that intimidating tone, she didn’t show it. She simply picked up a tiny tart. “Sure did. Love ya like family, Ollie, but I can’t allow myself to be influenced by Heaven or Hell. I have to serve this plane.”
Oliver’s face turned a florid red, but Felicity’s hand on his seemed to calm the dude a bit.
Yeah, I was so getting that tat ASAP. “What’s the problem you seem to be having, Ms. Day?”
Felicity set her teacup down. “We’ve had some problems with an artifact. An important artifact. You see, we come down to the Earth plane from time to time. We have to watch over our charges, naturally.”
Because there really were guardian angels. That freaked me out a little. I need my private time. I wanted to ask them how often they like checked in, and if I could hang a mental sock on my doorway to let them know not to pop in at certain times. “So you come down and hang out at the local Starbucks?”
Jude’s lips curled up. “Only if the charge is serious about his or her caffeine. It’s important to our kind to keep in touch with the physical plane we watch over, though some of us take it more seriously than others.”
Felix hadn’t sat down the whole time. The normally peaceful shrink was pacing around the office, not touching a bite of the excellent buffet Albert had managed to put together on the fly. Sometimes I wondered if Albert was like Cinderella and he called birds and shit to help him when he was in a tight spot. Not that a bird helper would stop me from reaching for my third tartlet. What’s a little bacteria when those things taste so good?
“He’s talking about the fact that sometimes angels fall,” Felix said with a frown. “Sometimes we get too attached to our charges and it becomes plain that our time in Heaven is done and we need to learn new things.”
“Or that there are sometimes mistakes made,” Jude replied. “Not by our maker, of course, but in the assignment of souls. There is nothing higher for a soul to be than angelic. Hence, we call it falling. There are no new things for a truly angelic soul to learn.”
So Jude was kind of an asshole.
“That’s very narrow-minded of you, brother.” Felix turned and looked out into the night.
I’d read about Felix’s history, but now I had to wonder about it. Felix Day is one of the few creatures in the world who knows what all three biblical planes are like. He’d been an angel. He allowed himself to be dragged to Hell and tortured because he loved a witch named Sarah. And he knew what it meant to be human because Sarah returned his love and he’d allowed himself to fall.
“And yet it is true.” Jude sat back.
I stood up because I had all the answers I needed. Also, I liked Felix. He was patient with me, and that’s saying something. So I didn’t like anyone making him feel like shit. I clapped my hands together. “Excellent. Angels know everything and are the highest form of being. You totally don’t need me. There, I saved you my fee. Thank you for your time.”
Three blank faces stared up at me. Apparently angels aren’t used to being dismissed.
The queen, however, shot me a brilliant smile. “Well played.” She shrugged the Days’ way. “Sorry, I’m all team Earth plane. I have the T-shirt and everything. Jude, you need a lesson in Earth plane diplomacy. We don’t like being told we’re lesser beings.”
Jude started to open his mouth, but Felicity put a hand on his. She sat between her “brothers” and it was obvious who the mom of the group was. Jude closed his mouth and relaxed back.
Unfortunately that left Oliver, whose jaw tightened and he stood, pointing my way. “You dare refuse me? I come to ask your aid after everything I’ve done for this plane and you refuse me? Do you think I don’t see the sin inside you? You fornicate with demons and vampires and yet your mind is on the dog. Do you enjoy playing the whore?”
I could feel the room tense around me. Every eye was on me, but I’d been called worse. Way worse. Some angelic asshole wasn’t going to harsh my calm. Now, if he’d tried to take away my tartlets, we would have some issues. “I don’t accept money for my whoredom.” Although I kind of did. “Well, I guess you could call the apartment payment. So yes, I often enjoy my whoring. Except with the demon. I totally enjoyed that, but there was not a dime between us.”
That had been all about love, and I wasn’t ashamed.
Despite Felicity’s pleadings, Oliver wasn’t done with me, and now I could see his skin start to glow. “I can see inside that filthy mind of yours. Even as you long for your demonic beast, even as you spread your legs for that vampire, you want another. It’s never enough for you, whore.”
Zoey’s eyes were wide, but she was perfectly calm as she watched me. “Please tell me who he’s talking about, Kelsey. Albert, we’re going to need some tequila. Momma wants some gossip.”
The queen’s calm informed my own. This was how you dealt with a bully. You didn’t feed him, didn’t let him know he was bugging you. Something felt off about the way Oliver was behaving, and I wasn’t going to make it worse by giving in. Not that I wanted to. My sex life was actually pretty cool. I didn’t feel any real shame about it. Though I was embarrassed by one aspect.
I wasn’t about to out myself for daydreaming about Trent Wilcox. “I do have a weird Chuck Todd fetish. Seriously, Marcus makes me watch all those Sunday morning news shows and the guy just does it for me. When he starts in on polling numbers, I get a little hot.”
Oliver opened his mouth, probably to spew more vitriol my way, but he stopped as suddenly as he’d started. His face went pale and he stepped back. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to say any of that.”
“Really?” The queen kept up her cheery smile, as though she was deeply enjoying the drama. “You didn’t apologize when you called me a whore.” Zoey stepped beside me, giving me a jovial elbow to the side. “He’s good with the sexual guilt.”
Felix had stopped pacing and looked at his “brother.” “What’s gone wrong?”
“Well, your brother’s kind of an asshole.” It seemed obvious to me.
Felix shook his head and closed the distance between himself and Oliver. “He’s not like that. Oliver personifies the idea of justice, but when he’s properly balanced, that justice is kind and compassionate.”
Zoey leaned against my desk, her eyes turning worried. “Felix is right. Ollie’s been awesome to deal with since Jude came around. When an angelic triad is properly aligned, they all function with great kindness. They also tend to be humble. Well, Ollie isn’t, but Jude seemed to be. What’s happening? Please tell me Ollie isn’t thinking about falling. I don’t have any more unattached friends. I’m not running a dating service, you know.”
“It’s not like that this time,” Felicity explained as she helped Oliver to his seat. “But we have become unbalanced. It’s why we’re here in the first place. We aren’t allowed to work on this plane the way we would in Heaven. We need boots on the ground, so to speak.”
“In order to do what?” I didn’t want to get enlisted into some sort of heavenly warfare.
Jude came to stand behind Oliver, putting a hand on his shoulder. “To find the Sword of Justice. It was stolen three weeks ago. It’s Oliver’s and without it, we’re all coming unbalanced.”
Well, I knew exactly where to look.
The queen was already holding up her hands. “I didn’t do it.”
We would see about that.
Chapter Seven
I strode back into Henri’s apartment two hours later, the queen and Felix Day hard on my heels. I wanted to be alone, but it looked like I wasn’t going to get that. I was edgy after the meeting with the angels, like my skin was on a bit too tight.
“How are we going to start?” Zoey asked. “I have some thoughts about the investigation.”
That was so not happening. Though I would give her a job. “I think you should stick close to our angelic guests. You know, in case they need anything.”
She stopped, putting her hands on her hips and giving me a look that was almost guaranteed to freeze anyone else in their tracks. “They went back to the Heaven plane. Oliver feels better there.”
Yeah, I bet he did. I wish I had some otherworldly plane that I could go to.
Unfortunately for the queen, I didn’t intimidate easily and I wasn’t about to back down. Though I hadn’t minded having her in the meeting, had found her quite helpful, I was beginning to resent her interference. Random thoughts ran through my head. The queen had everything. Why should she think she could come in and run roughshod over me, too? She couldn’t leave me one place where I got to be queen? It was almost as though all the confidence and love I’d felt when I’d been near Jude had turned into nasty insecurity. “But they could come back and they seem to like you a lot. After all, you’re the queen of the supernatural creatures on this plane. Consider yourself an ambassador. Felix, I need everything you know about the Sword of Justice. Unless they blanked your brain when you fell.”
Felix was watching me as though trying to figure something out. “They didn’t blank my brain. My brain is perfectly fine and I know quite a bit.”
I couldn’t seem to stay still. I paced the floor, my mind whirling around the possibilities. “Could the sword kill an immortal demon?”
I needed to work.
Marcus walked from the back of the apartment and I immediately went to him.
“Bella? The angels unsettled you?” He put his hand on my arm as though trying to take stock of where I was on a soul level. He frowned, his jaw tightening, and I realized I didn’t feel the warmth I normally did.
I stepped away from him. It wasn’t working. I needed his touch and it didn’t work anymore.
Felix stared at us as though he could sense something was wrong. “Of course. It’s one of several that can, though none should be found on the Earth plane. The sword that now serves as the weapon of the Nex Apparatus has lost much of its power simply by spending so much time on this plane. I don’t think stealing it helped the sword’s disposition.”
