Devil's Advocate (The X-Files: Origins #2)(50)

Dana shook her head. “This is so weird.”

He gave her a rueful smile. “Well, to be entirely true, Dana, it’s weird to me, too.”

That made her laugh.

“I know about the dreams, about the angel. I understand about how vague some of this is, how fragmented memories of visions can be. I can help you gain the strength and clarity to see through the masks worn by this creature who calls himself an angel. Only then will you be able to save lives. That’s what you want, isn’t it? To save lives? To heal the harm that is being inflicted on the children of this town?”

“Yes…,” she murmured. “But this angel is so strong.”

“Strong? Yes, I believe he is, Dana, but that doesn’t mean he is all-seeing and all-knowing. Everyone has limitations, blind spots.”

She stared at him. “I … never thought about that. Do you … do you think there are things he doesn’t know?”

“Absolutely.”

“Then does that mean there might be some way to try to stop him? Some way he won’t see coming?”

Sunlight nodded and gestured to where a mass of cushions littered the floor.

“Anything is possible. Have a seat, Dana,” he said. “We have work to do.”

“I have my jujutsu class tonight…”

“Don’t worry,” he said. “This won’t take that long. Where we’re going, time spins at a different speed.”

“What’s that mean?”

Sunlight smiled. “You’ll see.”





CHAPTER 46

Beyond Beyond

6:20 P.M.

“What are you doing?”

The question was whispered but still sharp, almost shrill. Angelo leaned away from the closed door, straightened, and turned to see Corinda standing ten feet away, fists on hips. She scowled.

“I wasn’t doing nothing,” he said.

Corinda looked past him to the door to Sunlight’s Chrysalis Room. It was off-limits to everyone when he was in there. Only students enrolled in his classes or people having one-on-one sessions for psychic enrichment were permitted to enter. Even Corinda, who co-owned the store with Sunlight, had rarely passed that threshold.

“You know the rules, Angelo,” she scolded. “Sunlight maintains a pure energy space around this room. He doesn’t want or need anything to taint the energetics.”

Angelo shoved his hands into his back pockets. “Then why do I see you creeping around here all the time? You’re pissed because he’s the one with the real power. You think you’re the reason people come here?”

She took an angry step toward him. “You might want to be careful about what you say and to whom you say it, young man. You should be happy you even have this job.”

“Oh? And why’s that? Because this is such a great place to work?”

“Because Sunlight and I looked the other way when it came to your record.”

“You going to throw that in my face again? It’s been how many days since the last time you mentioned it? Oh, wait, no, you mentioned it this morning. And yesterday. You’re always on me about that.”

“Shouldn’t I be? After what you did?”

“Maybe you don’t know everything about everything, Miss Psychic Powers,” he said.

“And maybe you should watch your mouth and remember who signs your paycheck. You’re on dangerous ground.”

Angelo took his own step toward her. “Dangerous? You think you even know what that means, se?ora? I don’t think so.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

He snorted. “You don’t know? Funny, I thought you could read minds.”

Corinda backed up a step. “I can read yours well enough to know what you’re thinking about Dana. You keep your distance or I’ll—”

The look in his eyes stopped her words as surely as if she’d been slapped.

“Or you’ll what?” he asked quietly.

Corinda did not answer. Angelo nodded.

“Mucho cuidado, mi hermana,” he said, and walked away like a hungry tiger. Corinda stared at his back until Angelo vanished into the stockroom. She was furious, but she was frightened, too. Angelo always scared her. There was something wrong with him. Maybe something wrong inside him. A darkness that Corinda had never been able to penetrate. She would have fired him months ago, but she was afraid of what he would do. People told her stories about him, about his temper. About his bursts of violence. Like the week before Christmas, when two drunk college frat boys threw an empty beer can at him. Angelo had beaten them unconscious and would have served time had Sunlight not happened by and broken up the fight. Sunlight claimed to the sheriff that the frat boys had thrown the first punch, but Corinda had her doubts. And there were all those fights he’d gotten into when he was younger. Sunlight thought he had potential, but Corinda did not. She thought Angelo was damaged goods.

However, Sunlight protected the boy. And while Corinda admired Sunlight’s compassion and generosity, it put her in the position of having to work with the increasingly impudent Angelo.

Now this. She had seen him standing there, leaning his ear against the door, eavesdropping on Sunlight’s session with Dana. It was outrageous.

She watched the stockroom door for a full minute, but Angelo did not reappear.