Angel Tormented (The Louisiangel Series Book 3) (7 page)

BOOK: Angel Tormented (The Louisiangel Series Book 3)
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“And that’s why Michael wanted to leave
this House to Angel,” Cupid said. I opened my eyes and found his brown ones
watching me.

“Well, as Grace said, Angel is not an
archangel,” Savannah sniped. I had been to school with mean girls like her.

“Savannah, either pipe down, or go home,”
Gabriel sighed, glaring at the angel in question. “No matter how you dress it
up, neither you nor Zach will be running a House any time soon. That is not
your job. Virtues are to remain in heaven.”

“I don’t want it to be my job either,” I
pointed out. The words somehow earned me stormy glowers from both virtues.
Considering we were both agreeing on the same point; that bothered me. I didn’t
think I had any more energy in me for fighting this evening, but I found myself
sitting upright to stop myself shrinking back into my seat.

“Enough,” Grace said, her voice echoing
around the room. “I have had many conversations with Michael and I know his
intention was for Angel to become an archangel before this House is left in her
hands. However, I think most would agree that she is not yet ready for that
responsibility, even if she had earned that status. For now, I feel the best
course of action would be for Cupid to lead the House with Angel as his second,
until such a time that she is ready.”

I tugged my hand free of Joshua’s, using
it to rub at my temple. “This is not a discussion,” I said, bluntly.

“Excuse me?” Grace asked.

I shrugged. “You said we were here for a
discussion. That implies that all parties will be allowed to comment and you’ve
shut them down. That’s not a discussion: that’s a decision.”

Grace’s lips disappeared into a thin line.
“You have something you wish to add, Angelina?”

I had a feeling there weren’t many people
who continued to talk back to her, and I was probably going to regret it in the
long run, if not right now, but Michael was dead. “If you’re going to use my
full name, do it properly,” I told her. “Otherwise, don’t bother. Frankly, I
couldn’t give two flying hoots about who is in charge of this House. What I do
care about is how the only person who wants to discuss what happened was that
Zach-ass,” I said, jamming my thumb in Zachary’s direction. Every time we met, he
and Savannah had seemed set on making it a point that I wasn’t the most obvious
choice to be an angel, much less an archangel, and I was certain this was going
to be another example of ‘how Angel sucks at being an angel’, but they needed
to know what had happened. “How come no-one in here seems the slightest bit
concerned about doing something about what happened?”

If Grace’s lips got any thinner, they were
going to disappear altogether. “You imply that we should be discussing
vengeance?”

I snorted. “Imply? No, I’m damn well
telling you that we should be out there, working out why the Fallen were so
desperate to protect something that one of them put Michael in a trap and… Not
that a single one of you has asked who that was.”

“We are not Angels of Vengeance,” Grace
declared, her voice taking on that acidic quality again.

“I am not talking about some petty feud,”
I cried, leaping to my feet. Pain shot through my ankle and I rested my good
arm on the table to take some of the weight. “I am talking about hunting down
the Fallen who set us up – the Prince of Darkness who killed him! If you’re not
Angels of Vengeance, then maybe it’s time we became them!”

“Now is not the time for that discussion,”
Grace shouted back at me.

“Then you know what?” I snapped back at
her. “You call me back when it
is
time for that discussion, because I am
not wasting my time with this damn crap.” I pushed back the chair and limped
for the door as quickly as I could.

“Angel!” Grace yelled at my back.

I ignored her, exceedingly grateful that
the one person who had the power to stop me wasn’t doing so. “
I’ll handle
this,
” Cupid’s voice told me, on cue.

“And
that’s
why she shouldn’t be in
charge of a House,” I heard Zachary mutter as I yanked the door open.

I stepped into the hallway, ready to pull
the door closed behind me when something stopped me. I looked up to find Joshua
had followed me. I gave him a questioning look as he joined me in the hallway,
pulling the door shut behind him. “You think I’m going to let you limp upstairs
by yourself?” he asked me. He offered me an arm which I accepted gratefully.

“They didn’t ask,” I mumbled after a few
steps. “Not one of them wanted to know what happened,” I added. Joshua exhaled
slowly. The next thing I knew, he had scooped me up in his arms, carrying me
down the hallway. “What are you doing?” I demanded.

“You’ve fought enough battles tonight,” he
responded. “Don’t add this one to your list.” I nodded and relaxed into his
arms as he carried me to the stairs. He paused in the foyer. “You can stay at
mine if you want?” he offered.

It was tempting, but that
was
a
battle I really didn’t want: no doubt the angels were continuing their “discussion”
and if they needed me, while they could zap in and get me, I really didn’t want
to explain being at Joshua’s. I shook my head.

Without objection, Joshua carried me back
upstairs to my bedroom, depositing me on the bed like I was made of fractured
glass. He peered down at me and pursed his lips. “Your cuts and bruises are
healing,” he said.

I nodded. “The wrist and ankle should be
done by the morning too.” The pain had slowly started to change from sharp
pulses, to a strong throb.

Joshua glanced at his watch. “It’s getting
late.”

“Stay,” I said, surprising myself. Despite
not wanting another battle with the angels, I wanted to be left alone even
less. Joshua nodded.

I was exhausted and sank into my bed,
still fully clothed. Minutes later I was joined by Joshua. The bed was a single
so there wasn’t much room, but it was the first time we’d ever shared a bed
together and it felt way more awkward than it should have done. “I feel like
Michael is going to walk in on us,” I muttered.

“Would you prefer I lay on top of the
covers?” Joshua offered. He tried to shift further away, but didn’t get far.

“No,” I told him, firmly. “Call me
selfish, but I feel better with you around,” I added.

Joshua shifted again, but this time, he
shuffled closer, scooping me up in his arms. “Then rest. I’m going nowhere.”

I breathed him in, wrapping my body
against his, using his chest as a pillow. Suddenly I couldn’t have cared less
if the convent was full of high ranking angels who would happily throw us out
of this building for this. Tonight, my charge was protecting me. His arms
tightened around me, like a security blanket, and I felt myself relaxing into
him, the pain I was feeling edging away as sleep crept over me.

Tomorrow.

I would deal with everything tomorrow.

CHAPTER SEVEN
A New Regime

 

‘Tomorrow’ came too soon. I’d fallen into
a dreamless sleep quite quickly and when I awoke, although the heartache of
losing Michael was an accompaniment to the regular dull throb of guilt that
would always (and rightly so) pound away under my ribcage, physically, I felt
better. Even my wrist had regained all motion.

I wriggled free of Joshua’s grasp, but
only so I could roll over and face him. He was smiling in his sleep and the
sight warmed me. Part of me wanted to stay where I was, wrapped up in Joshua’s
arms, forever. But despite what Grace had said, I had a debt to settle with
Asmodeus.

Fate once again seemed to have a different
plan for me.

There was a knock at the door and instead
of waiting for a response, Cupid walked into the room. I knew it was him as
soon as the door started to open: last night was one of the only times I could
remember him waiting for a response before entering. For half a moment I froze
as I peered over Joshua’s shoulder at the brunet angel, then I realized that I
didn’t care how inappropriate it was to have Joshua in my bed with me.

I propped myself up with my elbow, finally
seeing him properly. It was early – the sun had only just started to make an
appearance – but Cupid carried the tiredness of someone who had been up all
night, rather than being an early riser. He also, understandably, lacked the
usual boisterous cheer he usually had when he bounded into my room.

“Grace’s decision stands,” Cupid told me
wearily, his eyes flicking to Joshua before returning to me. “Congratulations
on the promotion,” he added, his voice void of enthusiasm.

“What was the point of that meeting?” I
grunted, trying to sit upright without disturbing Joshua’s sleep. “The decision
had already been made before I walked in the room and no-one seems to give a
damn about the fact the two people who
didn’t
want the job were the two
people who were lumped with it.”

Cupid shrugged. “It is what it is.” He
closed his eyes and took a deep, shuddering breath before opening them again. “I
need to tell the angels in the House what happened. I was hoping you would be
with me when I did?” he requested.

Oh wow, I did not want to do that. But
neither did Cupid. “When?” I asked, nodding my reluctant acceptance.

“Breakfast,” Cupid replied. “Let’s get
this over with.” Breakfast! I hadn’t even thought about it. I should have been
heading down to the kitchen already. Panic must have lined my face because
Cupid quickly shook his head. “Your aunt is already preparing breakfast,” he
told me. “She knows,” he added.

“Thank you,” I sighed. I hadn’t thought
about having to explain all of this to Sarah either. “I’ll get Joshua up and
join you downstairs shortly.”

Cupid looked at Joshua again. Finally, he
glanced up at me. “See you soon.” He disappeared and I sank back onto the bed,
staring up at the ceiling.

“I know you don’t want it, but it’s not
the end of the world,” Joshua told me. Although the volume of his voice was
low, he still made me jump.

“I thought you were asleep,” I accused,
turning my head to find his blue eyes watching me.

“I thought under the circumstances it was
probably best to pretend I was.”

I scowled at him. “I couldn’t give a crap
who knows you slept in my bed last night,” I told him, firmly.

“I’m not suggesting otherwise, darlin’,”
Joshua assured me. “I just didn’t want to add more things to your plate so
early in the morning.” I relaxed back into bed, using my elbow as a pillow as I
closed my eyes. I needed to get out of bed, but another minute wasn’t going to
hurt. As if he knew what I was thinking, I felt Joshua wrap his arms around me,
closing what little gap there was between us. “If you need me to go, I’ll go.
If you want me to stay, I’m going nowhere,” he muttered into my hair. “Whatever
you need from me, you’ll get it.”

Him. I needed him. To hear those words
though, it was like he’d uttered a magic spell and transferred some warmth and
strength to me that I didn’t realize I needed.

All too soon I extracted myself from his
embrace: I’d promised Cupid I would be at breakfast. I hurried into the
bathroom and into the shower. Under the warm flow of water, I gave my body the
once over. For the most part, my injuries seemed to have healed, but lord, did
I ache. There was a pink line on my upper arm where Valac’s sword had sliced me
that hadn’t fully disappeared. Otherwise, there was little to tell that I had been
fighting once the water had washed all the dried dirt and blood away.

Finished, I wrapped a towel around myself
and swapped with Joshua. While he showered, I pulled the small free-standing
wardrobe open and examined the contents. Half of it was full of my own clothing
from before I had died – strappy tops, dresses and shorts. The other was the
uniform provided by Michael – a smart gray suit with various short sleeved
blouses. I pulled a suit on, frowning as I did. Yes, it was certainly more
appropriate for a leader of the House, but neither of the choices were going to
be right going forward.

Despite the fact that I was aware there
were two Princes of Darkness in New Orleans, and that there were obviously
other members of the Fallen, as well as nephilim, I had been acting like
everything was the same. Only it wasn’t the same. I needed to be better
prepared, and part of that involved what I was wearing. My own clothes offered
no protection from anything. I’d gone out in shorts last night and I’d had
various limbs end up with cuts, scrapes, and missing skin. The suits were smart
but restrictive. They didn’t allow for the easy movements needed to attack or
defend, and the heels that went with them were beyond ridiculous.

After addressing the House with Cupid, the
next thing on my list was going to be getting something more practical to move
in. Something that would offer a damn sight more protection too: I wasn’t sure
there was much short of a suit of armor that would effectively protect me from
a sword, but I could at least speed my reactions up if my focus wasn’t on how
much my knees hurt from being flung across stone. For now, the suit would do.

Together, Joshua and I headed downstairs.
The dining room was already full, and judging from the somber atmosphere, I
suspected the angels already knew something was wrong, although I couldn’t tell
if that was due to a lack of a connection from Michael (I didn’t feel any
different), or simply because they had been summoned to a meeting.

Joshua made his way to Sarah’s side,
standing near the serving hatch, while I joined Cupid at the front of the room
where he was waiting for me. Raphael was standing with Paddy, watching me
intently, but as far as I could tell, there were no other higher ranking angels
remaining.

As soon as Cupid took a step forward, the
room fell into an uneasy silence. “I…” Cupid’s voice broke. He cleared his
throat and tried again. “We…” He turned to me, his eyes already watering up,
and gave me a helpless look.

I sucked in a deep breath and stepped
forward beside him. The only way I could say what I needed to was to just say
it. “Last night, Michael was killed by one of the Fallen,” I said, bluntly.

I don’t know if I was expecting crying or
shouting, but I was expecting
something
. Not the silence. This was
worse.

After a minute which dragged on for an
eternity, someone, a blonde – I had never learned their names – spoke. “Michael
can’t be dead,” he said, his attention on Cupid rather than me. “She speaks
lies.”

Lies? Did the angels really think so
little of me?

Within seconds the room erupted into
venomous shouts of agreement. I could barely follow a conversation thread, but
of the few that I did manage to catch, I was certain I was mishearing things
because they were being pretty damn mean for angels.


Enough
,” Cupid bellowed. I jumped
at the volume of his voice amplified in my head, and then realized why he had
done it. Like he had hit the mute button, the room fell silent again; each
angel staring at Cupid with their eyes wide. The only people in the room who
didn’t seem to understand what was happening were Joshua and Sarah. “This house
has been left in my hands, with Angel as my Second,” Cupid continued, this time
verbally. “I understand that you joined this House under the assumption that
Michael would be leading us. If you feel that you no longer wish to remain, you
are free to leave now, without judgement. The other archangels have agreed to
open up their Houses to any of you, and Raphael is prepared to take you there
now.”

“What experience does
she
have?”
the blonde spoke up again, once more refusing to look in my direction. “She’s
not even an archangel.
I
have more experience than she does.”

“Are you saying you wish to be Second,
Nyle?” Cupid asked him.

“No,” Nyle disagreed. “I just don’t think
she
should be. She’s been here less than four months and in that time, the cherubim
have left and now Michael is dead. I fancy our chances better if she wasn’t
here at all.”

I sucked in a breath, trying to keep the
pain at that comment from my face, but certain I was failing at that attempt.

“The cherubim did not leave because of
Angel,” Cupid told him, retaining the calm I was failing to find.

“And Michael?” Nyle pressed on.

“Michael was caught in a trap,” I said
before Cupid could respond. “I did everything to get him out of there, and
trust me; I share your belief that it should have been me and not him.”

“That’s not what I meant,” Nyle said,
mortified, finally looking at me. “I would never wish anyone dead.”

“You would just rather it was Michael here
instead of me?” I suggested. When he nodded, I shrugged. “Same thing, isn’t it?”
The color fell from Nyle’s cheeks. “Here’s the thing,” I said, folding my arms.
“I will be the first to admit that as far as candidates go for angels, I
wouldn’t rank me highly. Candidates for leading this House? I’m surprised I
ended up on the list to start with. But I did, and for some reason, this is what
was decided, so how about we get through these next couple of weeks and then
revisit this conversation. I don’t know how good I’m going to be, but I’ll try:
I don’t want to let you down, and I don’t want to let Michael down.”

“It has been a long time since we’ve
experienced the tragedies like we have in this House,” Cupid said, stepping
forward. “But we’ll get through it, like we have before. We just need to stick
together and help each other. Agreed?” There was a collective affirmative
response. “Good. And the first thing that we can do is stop assuming that the
chores will magically get done. You may not think that Angel is capable of leading
this House, but in the last three weeks, none of us, and I include myself in
that; have stepped up to help keep this House running like she has. We have all
watched her cook and clean, neglecting her own duties, while we continued with
ours and complained about the dinner menu. We are angels. That is not how we
behave, and that is not how we will behave going forward.”

Nyle was straight on his feet. “Angel, I
apologize. Cupid is right: we have become complacent.” He looked around at his
fellow angels, before turning back to me. “We will ensure that we help out, and
I, for one, would like to volunteer to help you in the kitchen.”

My mouth fell open as three other angels
stood up and offered to join Nyle and myself. I didn’t think there could be any
more shocks, and then Sarah cleared her throat. “One last thing,” Cupid added,
nodding at Sarah. “This is Angel’s aunt, Sarah. She will be joining us
temporarily until the media has lost interest in Angel. She has graciously
agreed to run the kitchen while she is here, and for a period after.”

There was a polite round of applause but
nothing could hide the heavy atmosphere which hung over everyone’s heads. The
angels slowly began resetting the room for breakfast. I wasn’t hungry, my
appetite MIA, and wanting to get out of the convent at the earliest convenience
(now), started towards Joshua. I was thwarted in my plans by Raphael stepping
in front of me. “We need to talk,” he told me.

“Now?” I asked.

“Now,” he confirmed. I nodded, indicating
to Joshua that I would be back and followed Raphael out of the dining room. He
led me to the gymnasium before he finally spoke. “I need to know what happened,”
he said. “I’m sorry if it’s fresh and painful, but you need to tell me
everything.”

“It was one of the Fallen,” I muttered.

“No,” said Raphael, sharply, making me
jump. He held his hands up and shook his head. “Forgive me: I didn’t mean to
sound harsh, but I need to know
everything
. Where were you? Why were you
there?”

I wrapped my arms around myself and paced
back and forth a few times, before finally leaning against the wall. “I was led
to believe Asmodeus was up to something at the Port of New Orleans,” I started
again, staring down at my feet. I couldn’t bring myself to mention Ty’s name. I
still needed to process that, and now was not the time for that. “I went to
have a look around and Michael joined me,” I told him.

With the events of the night before
playing in my head, for the most part in what felt like High-Definition
quality, I recounted everything I could remember; somehow managing to continue
when my throat went dry and tears began leaking from my eyes, despite how many
times I tried to brush them away with the back of my hand. Raphael waited
patiently, motionless as he listened to everything I was telling him. “… And
then he was gone and Cupid appeared in front of me,” I finally finished, my
voice hoarse.

BOOK: Angel Tormented (The Louisiangel Series Book 3)
7.99Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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