Chapter 12
Angel came back in with a cup carrier, a paper bag, and a small evidence box. He set one of the coffees on my desk.
“Oh, wow, thanks!” I pulled the lid off and added some cream and sugar before gulping half the thing down. My headache eased a little, but my left brow throbbed in a slow reminder that if I did too much, it would take me down.
“You’re not on a special diet or anything? Low carb, no flour, only meat, or whatever?” Angel asked.
“No?”
He took a box out of the bag—two boxes—and opened the first one, which was a giant piece of some sort of chocolate cake. Maybe even cheesecake. He opened the second box to reveal a slice of dulce de leche cake dripping with gooey frosting. My mouth watered.
“Uh…”
He closed both the lids and tilted his head. “I’ll make a deal with you.”
“Why does that sound like I’m selling my soul? Not that I wouldn’t sell my soul for that cake, ‘cause holy fuck, where did you get those?”
Angel laughed. “Don’t be cheap. I’m sure you can get more than cake for your soul.”
“It’s been beat up a lot,” I admitted. “Might not be worth much, all broken and grungy.”
He looked sad for a few seconds and sighed. “I want to know what you saw and heard across the Veil. Every detail.”
I swallowed. Was this some trap to get me to admit I was crazy?
“Why does this scare you?” he asked.
I frowned. How did he know?
He tapped his nose. “Your scent changes. Ezra isn’t the only one good with tells.”
“Today has been a lot,” I said. “I’m not sure how my encounter across the Veil could mean something to the case.”
“I disagree. Whatever killed this guy likely came from across the Veil and you chased it back.” He opened the evidence box and tilted it, showing my taser, the end of it crushed to plastic bits. “Like, maybe, whatever did this?”
The thought made me swallow hard, realizing he might be right. Had I met the killer? “Uh, you think it was…?”
I didn’t even know how to clarify my thoughts in that moment. About the terrifying thing I’d encountered and how it had made a sense of doom rise up in my gut, forcing me to run as instinct kicked in. My face heated with embarrassment again.
“Why are you embarrassed?”
“I ran. It’s my first fucking day, and I ran.”
“I’d call that smart. You have no idea what you’re encountering. Could it hurt you? Did it want to?”
It did. I knew that at my core. The terror its laugh caused still made my skin prickle with goosebumps.
“I fired my gun, but it did nothing. It was like liquid shadow. Then the taser, and it did that.” I pointed at the weapon.
“Ripped it out of my hand. I ran, throwing anything at it I could, taking off anything that weighed me down.”
“They are going over all your stuff for any signatures to see if they can catch a trace.” Angel opened the chocolate cake box and carved off the tip with a plastic fork, holding it out for me. “Cake for details.”
“It better be good cake,” I said, swiping the fork from him and taking the bite. Holy fuck it was heaven. I groaned around the divine mouthful of velvety chocolate. “Soul for cake, I’m on board. Please don’t kick me off the team for running like a chicken from some shadow beasty.”
“Never.” Angel set the cake aside and grabbed my hand, studying it, then reached for my chin. I stared at him with wide eyes as he looked me over. “Did it physically hurt you? Bite you? Draw blood, anything like that?”
I swallowed as he stared me in the face just a breath away. My heart suddenly raced as he touched me. “No. I don’t think so.”
“I would have smelled blood,” Angel said, more to himself than to me, I thought. “Your scent reeked of fear and pain.”
“Sorry you got a dud for a partner. I never expected paranormal stuff to scare the shit out of me like this. I’ve seen thousands of dead bodies, but one shadow monster and I unraveled.
“I don’t care about that, Jude,” Angel snapped. He tilted my head side to side, fingers running over my neck as if searching for vampire bites. “I’m more worried about the pain. Fear is a normal human response to scary shit.”
His touch made my magic sing, the thrumming power between us weaving together in a dance of soothing waves that made me want to throw myself at him.
I wanted to ask about the connection, as Wade’s touch hadn’t caused the intensity Angel’s did, but I was also too afraid to ask and sound dumb. “Do you think it was a vampire?”
“No, but vampires aren’t the only creature that leaves a mark.”
“Would it help if I strip for you? So you can check me over?” I joked, trying to lighten the mood.
He snorted and let me go. “Would you, if I asked?”
“Uh…”
“Never mind.” He shoved the cake my way. “Cake. Now talk.”
I snatched it away from him and devoured half the slice as he took a seat on the edge of my desk, guarding the rest of the cake, waiting for me to speak.
He shifted his weight slightly, crossing one leg over the other.
I sucked in a deep breath and told him everything.
He never interrupted, nor did his expression change to anything more than thoughtful.
If my fear or lack of skill bothered him, he never said anything about it.
“Explain the part where you entered the building again,” Angel said once I finished.
“I dove through the first open door I could.”
He waved his hand. “After that. You said it had lots of ghosts. Describe that.”
“Wispy white things? They made a lot of noise, like a crowd.”
“People shaped?”
I thought about that for a minute. “I don’t know? I avoided looking at them. It was more noise, but I could see something.”
“And they vanished?”
I sucked in a deep breath, recalling little from before I passed out.
The terror had etched itself deep in my gut, more from the thing stalking me outside than whatever I’d encountered inside.
“I don’t know how to explain,” I said, trying to gather the right words to describe it.
“I remember the fear being overwhelming, and losing consciousness. I think I told them to leave me alone.” And felt some sort of weird energy leave me. Was that my power?
Angel tilted his head to study me. His hyper senses made me worried he’d catch the omission so I tried to break it down. “I felt a rush of something. My power, maybe. I don’t really know.”
“Victor couldn’t enter the building,” Angel said, looking thoughtful.
“I wouldn’t have let him anyway, after I scented your fear.
My felid form is hypersensitive and protective.
” He looked embarrassed. “Over-protective, since you’re my partner now.
I’m surprised Victor didn’t bitch as soon as we got in the car. ”
I let his words process for a minute. He’d threatened Victor to protect me? “Wait, Victor couldn’t enter the building, or you wouldn’t let him?”
“He couldn’t enter. There was some sort of invisible barrier around it. But if the barrier hadn’t been there, I wouldn’t have let him inside.”
“But you had no problem entering?” I couldn’t recall seeing any sort of barrier before I dove inside.
“No. I knew where you were, as I’d followed your scent, but had no issues entering.”
“The shadow thing should have been able to find me too, then, right?”
“Possibly,” Angel said carefully as he slid the second slice of cake my way. “I suspect the barrier kept it out too.”
“Maybe the barrier kept NHVs out?”
“Maybe,” Angel said, though his gaze and posture, arms folded over his chest, made me think he had other ideas.
“What?” I asked.
“I’m not certain you’re ready to hear it.”
I cursed silently, mind putting together the puzzle before he could speak it. “You think I created the barrier.”
“It’s high on the list of possibilities.
Across the Veil, things are more catered to the NHVs.
It’s their home, after all. I couldn’t imagine why any random place would have a barrier to keep them out and let only HVs in.
” He kept his focus on me and reached out to massage the back of my neck.
His touch was soothing, though strange, as I wasn’t used to casual touch.
I froze for a half second, which made him pause and pull his hand away. “Sorry.”
“It’s okay,” I said, honestly. “I’m not used to anyone—other than my grandpa—touching me.” Even occasional hookups had felt sterile for the last few years. My trauma, or just the shittiness of the men I happened to choose? I suspected a mix of both.
“Shifters are touchy-feely,” Angel said, absently. “I wasn’t for a long time after the war. But it’s grounding. If it ever bothers you, let me know. Not everyone likes it.”
“It’s nice,” I said. “The way our magic mixes…is strange. I’m not used to it, but it’s not bad,” I amended.
“Yeah, that’s intense,” he agreed. He slid off my desk and returned to his. “Eat. You’ll feel better.”
I ate the second cake slower, savoring it. “Is this stuff from the cafeteria?”
“Nope. Bakery across the Veil.”
I nearly spit out the cake I was eating.
Angel waved his hand at me. “It’s fine. Run by an Ajumma whose bakery was swallowed up when the Veil spread. She didn’t move, and still does okay. Has stuff for everyone now. NHVs and the normies like us.”
We were normies? I didn’t feel normal anymore, but I ate the rest of the second cake. “You walked there and back? You were only gone, what, twenty minutes?”
“It’s a five-minute walk.” He typed away at his computer for a minute, adding a bunch of notes, and a file popped up on my computer.
A hybrid notation of my encounter across the Veil appeared.
I browsed through it, wondering if I should add to it or leave his interpretation as it was.
“It’s closer than my car is parked,” Angel added after a few minutes, startling me out of my thoughts.
I sighed. “I don’t know who’s in my spot. Sorry.”
“It’s Victor’s bike,” Angel finally said. “Pretty sure he parked there just to piss us both off.”
“What?” Holy fuck, that asshole. “So, are you two a thing?” Dammit, it wasn’t my business.