Divinity (29 page)

-
What are you doing, girl?
- Michael’s deep voice boomed in her head.

She was looking at him with a different sense, so her head and her eyes remained focused on what was in front of her in the physical plane. He must have sensed her examining him. -
Looking around, Michael. Something isn’t right
.-

-
Explain
.-

-
I’m being watched
.- Julia continued to cast her gaze around her, then caught her breath. -
There!
-

On the other side of the street, standing with arms crossed and wings unfurled, was an angel Julia did not recognize. The second she gasped, however, it disappeared.

-
I don’t see anything, girl
.-

-
He’s gone now, Michael. It was another angel. I think it was the same one from Woodgrass
.-

Michael stopped and looked at Julia, and she almost walked past him. When she realized he had stopped beside her car, she willed her vision back to normal.

-
You saw one of us at Woodgrass?
-

If Julia hadn’t known any better, she would have said he was shocked. She would have liked to take credit for blocking the thought out, but the truth was she had simply forgotten. So much had happened since then. She smiled, looking at Michael’s frown. He really didn’t like it when he didn’t know something; no matter how much he tried to keep his expression smooth, his eyes sparked with anger.

-
I forgot all about it, actually
.-

-
And you are now able to alternate your vision at will?
-

-
I’m learning
.- Julia unlocked the car. -
Slowly. And I still need the stone
.-

-
You’re remembering that which your spirit already knows,
-Michael corrected. -
And you’re doing it a lot more quickly than you think
.- Whatever anger he had possessed was now gone, and Julia was surprised at her strong relief.

She lifted the handle and opened the car door.

“Ugh,” she cried out, gagging as she spun her web of light. Her head flew side to side, frantically searching for the
A’nwel
that was certain to accompany such a foul odor. -
I don’t see it, Michael! I only smell it!
-

Michael’s form solidified before her. She watched as he sent out a pulse of energy, the same way he had the day Alex died. It appeared to go right through every person on the street, and rippled the air as though a stone had been tossed into a pond. It revealed nothing.

She looked inside her car, her jaw dropping open. -
Michael, look!
-

Sitting on the driver’s seat was a manila envelope with only her name written on it. She reached in, picked it up, and opened the flap. She pulled out three photographs, all shots of her at various times. As she shuffled through them, the odor dissipated, and she realized it was coming from the envelope.

-
Stop gawking and get in the car
.-

Michael’s calm voice pulled her from her shock. He already sat in the passenger seat, his hands folded neatly on his lap. She climbed in and closed the door, releasing her shield. Once inside the car, she spoke aloud.

“What are these, Michael?” Julia asked, passing him the pictures. “I can tell you recognize them. What do they mean? Where did they come from?”

“I have seen them before,” Michael said. “In the apartment rented by the man who shot Alex.”

Julia absorbed the full meaning of that, pushing away the uneasy feeling that came with the knowledge. “I see.”

Michael’s brow was furrowed, his jaw tight. He seemed to be staring at the photos, but Julia could tell his focus was somewhere else.

“The smell, Michael.” Julia started the car and put on her signal, waiting to pull out and into the traffic. “I don’t think it’s linked to that thing. The
A’nwel
. Not directly, anyway. It has a slightly different smell. Something spicy around the edges. Something…human?”

Michael’s attention turned to Julia, but he said nothing. She realized that when he was focused on her, his form was more solid.

“I think at the core it’s the smell of evil. The
A’nwel
smell was similar, but more earthy. It was rotten earth, where this smell is just rotten.” The fine hairs on Julia’s arms stood as she continued. “When I spoke with Lori, I could taste her lies. Now, I think what I smell is evil.”

“That makes sense,” Michael mused. “You have a human form and human senses, but also the abilities to sense things as an angel.”

“Yes.” Julia was excited to have figured something out for herself. “I think my body is translating for me. Why didn’t I ever smell things like this before?”

“You were not open to learning before. It was not your time.” Michael glanced out the window and sighed. “It is all part of the same experience. Heightened awareness means heightened senses. Vision, smell—they are just becoming sharper.”

“I see.” Actually, she didn’t see, not really. But she was tired of asking Michael questions she knew he wouldn’t answer. Julia wondered if her hearing was sharper, too. Maybe that was why she could listen in on the angels. Well, sometimes. She frowned.

“Interesting.” Michael let his eyes fall back to the photographs, then looked directly into Julia’s eyes. “Describe the angel you saw in the street.”

“So that you can see him, like when I described the
A’nwel?”
Julia asked. When Michael commanded something, most beings, human and angel, felt compelled to do as he said, but Julia forced her question out.

Michael arched an eyebrow. After a short pause, he gave her a curt nod. “Describe him.”

“He was shorter than you, but his wings were almost the same size.” Julia bit her lip and tried to remember. “I’m sorry, Michael. I just didn’t get a very good look at him. I only saw him as he faded. Twice.”

“You saw enough, girl. Take the next left. There is something I want you to see.”

-
The murderer’s apartment
.-Julia put her turn signal on. -Am
I reading his mind now, or do I just know?
-

-
You see what I want you to see
.- Michael’s deep voice penetrated Julia’s mind with a chuckle. She glanced over at him.

That makes two of us
, she thought.

“We have trouble on more than one front, it seems.” Gabriel’s voice sliced through the mist.

“We do.” Michael’s wings sat high on his back. “I thought we were in possession of those pictures.”

“We saw them, but left them at the apartment to allow the humans their investigation.” Gabriel crossed his arms. “They should have been at the police department.”

“It was a scare tactic,” Michael said. “An ineffective one.”

“She doesn’t frighten easily.”

Michael turned to face Gabriel with half a smile. “Careful, Brother. You are starting to sound prideful.”

Gabriel twitched the tips of his wings and shook his head. “Did you see? Who was following, I mean?”

“Yes,” Michael said.

“As we feared? Uriel?”

“Yes. Send Zachariah. We must know what Uriel is up to.”

Gabriel nodded. “And the pictures?”

“I will look into it myself.”

XXX

J
ULIA
followed Michael’s directions through the city, to a rundown building on the East Side. The square, beige-painted brick walls stacked four stories high were out of some slumlord’s wet dream. She parked the car, pulled her cell phone from her purse, and looked at Michael with a meek grin. “Just one quick call before we go in.”

Michael arched an eyebrow. He reminded her of Spock when he did that and she suppressed a grin, dialing the number she had tried so many times these last few days. She had an unsettling feeling that, if she didn’t get hold of her friend soon, something bad was going to happen. On the fourth ring, she got voicemail.

“Damn it! Pick up the phone, girlfriend,” Julia muttered. At the beep, she spoke into the phone, “Hi, sis, it’s me again. I wish you’d pick up. I hope you’re okay, and I know I’m worried about you. Did you think about what I said? I love you. Call me back. Please!”

Tucking her phone back into her purse, Julia looked up to find Michael staring at her with his head tilted to one side.

“What?”

“Hmm?”

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Julia frowned. It was an expression she hadn’t seen before, and she didn’t like not knowing what Michael was thinking.

“Who did you just call?” Michael asked. “You don’t have a sister. Not a human one.”

“My friend, Charlie.” Julia grinned. Twice in one day he didn’t know what was going on and she did.

“I haven’t seen you interact with her.” There was a seriousness in Michael’s tone that made her feel guilty.

“She doesn’t live here,” Julia explained, wiping the smile from her face. “I met her online, actually. During a Facebook poker game three years ago. We’ve been like sisters ever since.”

“I haven’t seen you speak with her.”

“No. We haven’t spoken much lately…” Julia chose her words carefully. “I want her to leave her husband. That makes her angry. She thinks I’m judging her, but I’m really just concerned. Afraid, really. That man is evil.”

Michael’s wings raised a full half-inch above his shoulders and he tilted his head further. “Evil?”

Julia cleared her throat. “Evil in the way a man is rotten to his wife. Not evil in the way…”

“Yes?”

“You know. In the biblical way
you
might use the word.”

“Perhaps not.” Michael dropped his eyes to Julia’s purse. “I would like to meet this girl.”

“Really? Why?” Julia asked. “She lives too far away. We’ve been talking about one of us taking a vacation to go see the other, but something always seems to come up. Usually her husband.”

“Where does she live? Travel doesn’t seem to bother you.”

“Australia.” Julia watched as Michael’s form tightened and rippled, his wings fluttered. “What is it, Michael?”

Michael stayed silent.

“Tell me what is going on. Please.”

“Not here. Tonight. Right now, let’s go in and see what you see.” The second he stopped speaking, the car doors popped open.

Julia stepped out of the car and looked toward the building, then back at Michael. She wanted to press him about Charlie, but she knew Michael only answered questions as he pleased. With a shrug, she stepped forward, then gasped when she saw the condition of the lawn.

-
Speak without words
.- Michael’s voice came to Julia without sound.

-
Michael, the grass is dead all around the building. And the trees
.- Julia nodded toward the large willow tree on the front lawn. -
They’re dying
.-

-
Use all your senses, girl. Tell me everything you see, feel, taste, hear, and smell
.-

-
I feel them dying. It’s painful
.- Julia had to resist the urge to place her hands upon the tree trunk. -
Like someone walked by and sucked all the moisture out of everything. The trees are fighting to live, the rest is too small
.-

Michael gestured toward the building. -
Let’s go in
.-

Julia took long strides toward the building, eager to get in and back out. She concentrated and tried to capture every possible detail. The moment she did, she heard the angel’s private frequency kick in. At first it was hard to make out the different voices and conversations, but as she adjusted to the sounds, she heard one voice come through.

Michael was giving orders to other Archangels concerning the grounds of the site. He ordered one to do what she could to cleanse the soil and heal the trees. Another he ordered to “take” a human and make an anonymous call to the gas company about a leak in order to have them dig up the front yard. Julia envisioned rather than heard what it was they would find—the body of the third missing person who was supposed to have been interviewed at her restaurant.

Julia decided not to share her eavesdropping information, and pulled the security door open.

-
Some security
.-

Michael pointed to the stairs.

Julia looked up the narrow flight and grimaced. -
The air feels like it’s soiling my skin. And that odor from the car, it’s here. Not right here, but in the building
.-

Julia turned to Michael, giving a start when she saw his wings half-opened, spreading out beyond the boundaries of the walls. They didn’t go through the tacky wallpaper and the drywall, exactly, but she could still see the wings fully, and there were no holes in the wall.

-
What does it mean when an Archangel spreads his wings, Michael?
-

-
Only that I am ready
.- Michael’s voice sharpened and Julia guessed he had discontinued the other conversations he was having.

-
Like having your gun drawn, I suppose
.- As they neared the top of the first flight of stairs, fine tendrils of black smoke wisped through the air. The more stairs they went up, the more tendrils, and the stronger the odor. She told Michael her observations, and he simply continued walking beside her, jaw set, eyes sharp.

-
I can feel the glue in the wallpaper rotting. Third door down there’s a woman. Her left eye is hurt. Bruised
.- Julia stopped and peered down the hall before continuing her climb to the next floor. -
Oh! I think I could fix it
.-