The Angel of Death (The Soul Summoner Book 3) (4 page)

“Ms. Claybrooks, it’s Detective McNamara. I need you to open the door immediately.” He was trying to sound calm but not doing a convincing job of it.

“Hold your horses! I’m just one woman,” she said.

Finally, the door slid open, and I sprinted through it. I was panting when Nathan caught up with me at the front door. “Happy Thanksgivin’, y’all,” Ms. Claybrooks called as I bolted outside into the crisp, cold mountain air.

I sucked in an icy breath and blew it out toward the sky. “Oh my god.”

He gripped the sides of my waist, and angled his head to look me in the eye. “Geez, Sloan. You about gave me a heart attack. Breathe.”

I took a few deep breaths. “Please get me out of here.”

He clicked the unlock button on his SUV. “Come on. I’ll buy you lunch.”

I didn’t have time for lunch, but nothing in me wanted to argue. He opened the passenger side door, and I climbed in and rested my forehead against the dashboard. He got in and cranked the engine, peeling his tires as he exited the parking lot. When we were a safe distance away, my heart rate slowed to normal. I sat back in my seat and opened my eyes.

“I’m sorry. I had to leave,” I said.

He shook his head. “It’s not your fault. I didn’t think it through before calling you.”

I turned toward him. “What was that thing?”

He shrugged. “I was hoping you could tell me. Deputies brought her in this morning. They called me when she kept rattling on about you. No name, no ID. Nobody even knows what language she’s speaking.”

My stomach felt sick. “You’ve heard it before. I’m pretty sure that’s my demon mom’s language.”

“You think so?”

I was still panting. “Yeah. And I don’t understand much Latin, but I think whatever she was saying had something to do with someone dying.” I tapped my chest. “Probably me.”

He scowled. “Don’t talk like that.” He jerked his thumb back toward the building. “Do you think she’s like you and Warren?”

I looked over at him. “Maybe. Or she could be like Abigail.”

He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. “Do you think there’s a chance she could
be
Abigail?”

I cringed at the thought. I’d watched the body the world knew as Abigail Smith turn to dust, but the angel Samael had told us she would procure another body. I chewed on my fingernail. “Abigail doesn’t strike me as the type to allow herself to be locked up.”

He nodded. “I thought the same thing. That’s the only reason I even considered letting you near her.” He leaned toward his door and wedged his hand into his pocket. He produced his cell phone and handed it to me. “Look in my photo gallery.”

After a moment of searching, I navigated my way to the pictures on his phone. I saw my own face before I saw anything else. There was a succession of photos of me making funny faces that I’d taken one night when Nathan left his phone lying on my sofa. It had been weeks before, and he hadn’t deleted them.
 

“Check the folder called ‘work’ in the gallery list,” he said, snapping me back to reality.

I tapped the work folder open, and immediately cringed at the sight of blood. “Eww.”

“Look at the first few,” he insisted. “That’s what’s under those bandages on that girl.”

It took me a second to figure out I was looking at pictures of the red-head’s forearms. Two different words were written on…no
carved into
her arms. The first one was a little hard to read. “Kot…
kotailis
?” I asked, looking over at him. “Is that what it says?”

He shrugged. “I’m not sure, but that’s what it looks like.”

“What does it mean?”

He shook his head. “I don’t know that either. Could be something from a video game. Could be an online company in the UK. Could be crazy-person-speak for ‘let’s give McNamara a headache.’ Beats me.”

My bottom lip poked out as I looked at the second word. “Nathan, why does she have my name carved into her arm?”

He cringed and turned his palm up. “Sorry. I’m striking out with answers today.” He held out his hand for his phone, and I gave it to him. “Is there any way I can get the info on her to Warren? I’d like him to see it.”

I sighed and shook my head. “Nope. He called this morning. He’s officially on his way to wherever they’re sending him.”

His face twisted into a frown. “That sucks. How are you doing with it?”

I shrugged my shoulders. “I hate it, but we knew it was coming sooner or later.”

He pointed his finger down the road ahead. “Want to blow off work and go to the bar?”

“As tempting as that sounds, I can’t” ...
because I’m pregnant,
I silently added. I rested my head back against the seat, and the cloth ceiling of Nathan’s SUV caught my attention. It was covered with patches for his hat. “This is new,” I said, giggling as I read some of them.

Finish your beer. There are sober kids in Africa.

My idea of ‘help from above’ is a sniper on the roof.

I’m here to kick ass and chew bubblegum and I’m all out of bubblegum.

He grinned. “It’s become somewhat of an obsession. People at work are giving them to me now.”

“It’s definitely a conversation starter.” After a moment, I rolled my head toward him. “What will the jail do with her?”
 

He turned his palm up on the steering wheel. “Probably release her to the mental hospital. She’s not stable enough to be released into public, and they can’t keep her locked up.”

“What if she comes after me?” I asked.

He looked over his shoulder at me. “You know I won’t let that happen. Besides, you won’t be home this weekend to worry about her.”

I straightened in my seat. “Oh, yeah! We’re going to Raleigh. I’ve had so much on my mind, I almost forgot. When are we leaving?”

Nathan’s family had been waiting for months to finally be able to lay his baby sister, Ashley, to rest. I’d promised to be moral support for the burial service.
 

He pulled into the parking lot of my favorite restaurant, Tupelo Honey. “Well, my mom invited you to come to our house for Thanksgiving tomorrow, but I told her you would probably want to spend the day with your dad. So we can leave on Friday if you want.”

“Sure,” I said. “What are you doing tomorrow?”

He shrugged. “Getting take out and watching football, I guess.”

I rolled my eyes. “No, you’re not. You’ll come eat with us. Dad and I are cooking, so the food might suck, but it would be nice to have another body at the table.”

He smiled as he put the car in park. “I’d love to. What can I bring?”

I laughed as we got out. “A backup plan.”

* * *

My nerves were frayed for the rest of the day. Every time I blinked, I saw the red-haired woman’s crazy blue eyes frantic with terror. Her screams were on replay in my brain like the theme song to my own personal horror movie.

When I pulled into my driveway and parked next to Warren’s black Dodge Challenger, it was dark in Asheville. Mile markers could have ticked off the distance between my car and my front door and it wouldn’t have seemed any further away. I was frozen in the driver’s seat, unable to even will myself to turn off the engine. Gripping the steering wheel with both hands, I swallowed hard.

Nathan had offered to escort me home from work, but like the idiot I was, I insisted I was fine.

I wasn’t fine.

I was very, very far from it.

Laying my face against the back of my hands on the steering wheel, I focused on breathing.

A car horn blasted behind me.

My foot slipped off the brake and onto the gas pedal, sending the car barreling forward into the large rhododendron that crowned my driveway. I cursed.

Adrianne’s red sports car pulled up behind me as I backed out of the bush. When I was completely on the gravel again, I put the car in park.

My best friend was laughing as I got out. “Are you drunk?”

I slammed my car door. “You scared the crap out of me!” I walked to the front of my car and shined the light from my cell phone onto the hood. “What are you doing here?” I began plucking leaves from the grill.

“Your dad dropped by my shop today and said I should check in on you. He was really worried, so I figured we’d need this.” She held up a bottle of tequila. “Are you OK?”

I swiped my hand across the hood. Thankfully, I didn’t feel any major scratches. “It’s been a rough day.”

She looped her arm through mine as we walked up the sidewalk. “I heard Warren left.”

I frowned up at her. “That’s only the beginning of it.”

A faint ripple against the night sky caught my attention. It was an angel, or
angels,
I wasn’t sure. I’d been seeing them regularly since we returned from Texas. Adrianne didn’t notice.

“What else happened?” she asked, leading me up the front steps.

I unlocked the door and unwound my scarf as we walked inside. “Well, a crazy woman—who may or may not be a demon—was arrested downtown today. She was walking around naked with my name carved into the skin on her arm.”

Her eyes widened as she shrugged out of her coat. “I heard about a naked woman downtown. I didn’t hear anything about you though.”

I followed her into the kitchen where she went straight to the cupboard containing my shot glasses.
 

“Nathan called me down to the jail to see her for myself. She started screaming in some crazy language, then I almost passed out from a panic attack.” I plopped down in a chair at the table. “It was fun.”

She filled two shot glasses full of golden liquor and pushed one in my direction. In one swift motion, she drained hers. “Who was the woman?” she asked.

I shrugged. “Nobody knows.”

“What does she want with you?” she asked, refilling her glass.

“Don’t know that either.” I slouched in my seat. “Nathan almost had to carry me out of there, so I didn’t have a chance to talk to her.”

When she picked up her second shot, she noticed my first one was still sitting in front of me. She glanced up expectantly.

I looked at it, then back at her. “I can’t drink it.”

“Why not?” Before I had a chance to answer, her mouth fell open. She pointed at me. “Oh my god. You’re pregnant!”

I slumped over the table. “And you accuse
me
of being psychic.”

She gently shoved my shoulder. “Are you serious? When did you find out?”

“I figured it out when we dropped Warren off in Charlotte and I didn’t get a migraine. Four positive pregnancy tests and then an ultrasound today confirmed it,” I said.
 

She tossed her hands up. “You’ve known for a month and didn’t tell me!”

I grimaced. “I didn’t tell anyone till today.”

“Have you told Warren?”

I shook my head.

“Nathan?”

“No. Just my dad. Nobody else knows,” I said.
 

She rubbed her hands over her face. “Warren will be fine, but Nathan will freak out. You know that right?”

I felt a familiar hitch in my throat that always preceded tears. “Please don’t make me cry again. I’ve cried all day.” I blinked a few times to keep my tear ducts in line.
 

She pointed a perfectly manicured fingernail at me. “This is what you get for not figuring out your feelings before you hooked up with Warren.”

I shook my head. “That’s not helpful.”

She drank her second shot. “Didn’t mean for it to be.” She screwed the cap back on the tequila. “Just stating the facts.”

“Adrianne, how am I supposed to tell him?”

She sighed. “I don’t know, but you need to tell him soon. The longer you wait, the worse it will be. And you’ve got to have some boundaries with him. You guys can’t be together all the time like you are.”

“I know.” I slouched in my seat. “I’ll tell him this weekend. We’re visiting his parents’ house in Raleigh for his sister’s memorial service.”

 
“Well, wait till after the funeral and then break it to him. Cut the poor guy some slack.”

I nodded, still pouting. “You’re right.”

She drummed her nails on the table. “So, what does you and Warren having a baby together mean?”

“Samael, the angel that was with us in Texas, told me demons would try to kill me.”

She rolled her eyes. “Not what I meant. I was wondering if you’ve decided to marry Warren, but I can see how that would take a back seat to being murdered.”

I chuckled. Only Adrianne could make that statement funny.

“Why do they want to kill you?” she asked.

I shrugged my shoulders. “I’m not really sure, but I do know I’ve got a bunch of angel guardians floating around me all the time.”

Her eyes searched the ceiling.

“You can’t see them,” I told her. “They don’t come inside, anyway.”

“That’s creepy.”

“Tell me about it.” I put my hand on her arm. “Thanks for coming by tonight. I really didn’t have it in me to be alone, and I know I can’t keep relying on Nathan.”

She patted my hand with her own. “Call me anytime, Sloan. I may be as much of a wimp as you, but at least we can puss out together.” Getting up from the table, she offered me her hand. “Enough supernatural B.S. for tonight. We’ve got important things to discuss.”

“Like what?” I asked as she pulled me to my feet.

She spun around and put her hands on her hips. “Like redecorating. Where the hell will you put a baby in this tiny dollhouse?”

Where the hell, indeed.

3.

The redecoration plans began and ended with: Sloan needs to buy a bigger house. After that, I heard all about the new stylist her salon had hired and the rising rent crisis in downtown Asheville. Adrianne left when I could no longer hold my eyes open, despite my pleas for a slumber party. Once she was gone, I packed for my trip with Nathan, then stared at the ceiling fan for most of the night and seriously contemplated taking my Xanax against my doctor’s advice. I should have had her define “absolutely essential” before I left her office. My fingernails were bloody by midnight.

After fading out of consciousness sometime around four in the morning, I awoke to the shrill ring of my cell phone. I picked it up and saw Nathan’s picture on the screen. It was eight forty-five. I groaned and tapped the answer button. “What did I ever do to you?” I asked. “It’s my day off.”