“Get a good fuckin’ look,” she snarled darkly at the angel now standing over her. “It’s the only way you’ll ever see up my skirt again.”
“How long have you been out here, Rachel?” Vincent asked. He was, as usual, dressed only in white pants. His muscular, hardened chest was there on display along with all its faded yet manly scars. There was a time when Rachel greatly enjoyed looking at it, and at him.
“Long enough that you’re my fourth visitor,” she said. Her sour greeting aside, Rachel didn’t care for giving Vincent a show. She curled up to grab the balcony rail above her, releasing her feet. The angel above her offered a hand, but she ignored it. With a small tug and a single flap of her wings, she was up and over the rail, standing on the balcony once more.
“I saw your great white whale go by earlier,” Rachel mentioned dryly.
“Harrow?”
“Think so. He went thataway,” Rachel said, jerking her thumb over her shoulder.
“Gone now, surely,” Vincent said with a frown.
“Yeah. ‘specially with the way you’re all over his ass now that you have a lead on him. Some dedication there.”
“I came to speak with you, not leap at shadows. We used to be so close.”
“I don’t think that means what you think it means, but that’s been over for a long time. I’ve got nothin’ to say to you that hasn’t been said already. Go find a new groupie to hang on your jock. I’m done.”
Vincent blinked. He still found Rachel’s adopted speech patterns surprising. She had always been an odd one, but lately she had been downright strange. He decided to press on. “Your charge.”
“Is none of your business,” Rachel said promptly.
“I hold Dominion over this city. As long as he resides here, he is my business, and so is the succubus.”
“Whom you want to get rid of.”
“I do. But I have been overruled. Your argument seems to have won the day. Our superiors feel that their relationship has brought good that outweighs the potential danger. They have instructed me to leave the issue alone.”
Rachel waited for the other shoe to drop. She’d known Vincent far too long to fall for this. He was too proud to come tell someone they’d won an argument with him.
“I will concede the issue, but there is another concern to address if I am to leave this matter alone. The boy at this point has supernatural dealings beyond those of normal mortals. His right to the protection of a guardian angel is forfeit.”
Rachel’s eyes went wide. “What difference does it make to you!?”
“There are too few guardian angels for all the souls in this world. To waste such strength on one who is already so protected is unconscionable.”
“Protected!?”
“Not only has he shown courage as you have so loudly proclaimed, he is also protected by the succubus. She is perhaps the most formidable and accomplished of her kind ever to creep out of the Pit. We do not protect sorcerers or others of supernatural capacity. Why should Alex be any different?”
“Oh, I like how you’re using exactly the opposite fuckin’ argument you had the other day. Dammit, we’re not talking about someone who has turned away from Heaven!”
“We’re not?” Vincent sneered. “Whom-or what-does he lay with even now?”
“Is this about him? Or is this about you? It can’t be about me, not after all this time.”
“How is it that you are so infatuated with him?” Vincent frowned. “To feel some sense of obligation is understandable, but what can he be to one such as you?”
“After everything he’s accomplished, you can seriously ask that? Look at what he’s done. Look at who he is. And even none of this craziness happened, he’d still be as great a guy as anyone I’ve ever known.”
Vincent was unmoved. “I expect, then, that he will do fine without the protection of Heaven if he is so blessed with quality. He has, as you keep pointing out, already vanquished one flesh-wearing demon. Against a demon of the Pit in its true form, courage is all a mortal needs.” He favored her with a thin, reassuring and utterly disingenuous smile. “I’m sure he’ll be fine.”
“That’s a bullshit oversimplification and you know it. You of all people know it.”
“It is the way of the world.”
“I won’t abandon him!”
“I am not your superior,” Vincent shrugged. “I cannot order you to do anything.”
“No, but you can come threaten and gloat.”
He sighed again, a bit melodramatically. “I am wounded that you look upon me with such contempt and suspicion. I remember how we once cared for one another. I do only my duty. I came to speak to you before I went before our superiors with this issue.”
“You self-centered motherfucker. If you start one more sentence with ‘I,’ my foot’s gonna make sure the rest comes out at a much higher pitch,” Rachel growled.
Vincent glared at her with his jaw set like a stone. Rachel waited, knowing he’d have to have the last word somehow…but then he turned and flew away. In the back of her mind, she noted that he didn’t take off after Harrow, either. It was a small point to make, but telling nonetheless. There was a time when he wouldn’t have passed up any possible lead.
There was a time when she’d have gone with him, and would have been overjoyed to do so. It wasn’t a pleasant memory. Mostly it just made her feel like a complete heel.
Rachel leaned on the balcony railing. She blew a lock of hair out of her face. Alex had one other thing going for him, she figured. Dying couldn’t be pleasant-it had to be awful, really-but mortals never had to carry their baggage for longer than a century at the most.
* * *
“You seriously want me to call campus security before I call the regular cops? Ann, you should see this place. It’s a disaster.” Lisa gestured to her surroundings as if her supervisor could see what she meant, but her cell phone wasn’t equipped for video. Still, her description of the ransacked college admissions office was accurate.
“Yeah, well maybe if those fat-ass rent-a-cops actually patrolled and stuff, the office here wouldn’t be so trashed. No. Fine. I’ll call them. I’m just a little freaked out. It doesn’t look like anything was taken…just trashed. You’d think someone would’ve stolen the computers, right? But they’re still all plugged in. Anyway, I’ll see you when you get in. Okay, bye.”
Lisa flipped her phone shut. She grimaced, picking her way through emptied desk drawers and scattered binders on the floor. Somewhere on the desk near her computer terminal was a list of campus phone numbers. She’d have to use that to call the campus meter maids.
She wondered how long it would be before anyone got there. There was something dumb about having to be at work at six in the morning when everyone else got to roll in after 7:30 or even later. Just another meaningless “improvement in service” ordered by a douchebag boss desperate to establish his relevance. Staffers on site as early as 6:00 am. Yeah. That’s efficiency.
Lisa found the directory taped to her monitor and started looking for her desktop phone. She spotted it on the floor and bent to pick it up when a gloved hand suddenly wrapped itself tightly around her throat.
She couldn’t scream. He held her too tightly. He wasn’t alone, either. There were two men-no, two men and a woman. One man had a long black duster on over black jeans and a black shirt. A gun belt filled with bullets hung from his hips. He even wore a black cowboy hat. The other, the one holding her throat, also dressed in black (sans Goth cowboy motif), and had an honest-to-God sword strapped to his back. The handle loomed over his shoulder. The woman wore a corset, black leather pants and stiletto heels.
In any other situation, Lisa would’ve made a snarky comment about sales at Hot Topic.
“Natalia?” asked the one holding Lisa. “Do you want to explain things?”
“When my friend Spade here lets you go, you will not scream,” the woman said with a matter-of-fact tone. “You’ll just log into your computer quietly. Understand?” Lisa nodded. “Good. Then you’ll retrieve the records for a single student. After that, we’ll be gone. But do it quickly.”