A Terrible Fall of Angels (Zaniel Havelock #1)(31)

“Yeah, yeah, that’s usual for demon possession, but this one, if you hadn’t noticed, Havoc, isn’t usual anything,” Lila said; she sounded disdainful, as if to say of course. The tone was close enough to Reggie’s that I had to stop myself from rounding my shoulders and hunching from it. If this kept up, I’d have issues with all women, all females. I could be even more broken than I already was.

“Then why is there just skin left?” I asked.

“You tell us, you’re the Heaven and Hell expert,” she said.

“I’m the expert on the angelic; that doesn’t make me an expert on the Infernal.”

“The closest thing to an expert in this hallway,” she said. That disdainful tone that didn’t usually bother me at all dripped from every word, or maybe I just heard it that way. It made it hard to focus on anything but the pain inside me.

Charleston touched my shoulder and I jumped as if it had surprised me. He dropped his hand but said, “Havoc, you all right?”

“Fine, I’m fine.” But even to me the words sounded hollow.

“How bad are you hurt?” he asked, looking at the bandages on my arm and the holes in my shirt as if trying to see how many bandages were underneath.

“The demon wounds are almost healed.”

“How’s that possible?” Lila asked.

“Angelic magic is usually automatically healing once you invoke it,” I said.

“So the demon claws are healed, but the scratches from our other victim aren’t?” Charleston asked.

I glanced down at the thick dressings on my arm. “The female vic was in here for magical therapy, so there were side effects.”

“What kind of side effects?” he asked.

I didn’t want to betray Kate’s secret. If she’d given up her iron teeth and claws to be normal beautiful, then the fewer people who knew about it the better, because if her new appearance got on social media with her old appearance, then having a normal life was over. If normal was what she wanted, I wanted her to have it.

“Patient confidentiality wouldn’t let him tell me much,” I finally said, but I’d waited too long to say it. Charleston and Lila both looked at me, waiting for more, because they didn’t believe what I’d just told them, and they didn’t try to hide the fact.

“Using angelic power the way I did will automatically heal things that are opposed to it like demon injuries, but for other injuries you have to request healing, and it had just been so long since I’d used that kind of power, I forgot.” That was true, as far as it went.

Charleston nodded, face softening as if he understood more than I was saying, or something compassionate. “How long has it been since you worked with angel magic like this?”

“Almost ten years,” I said.

He studied me like he was trying to read more than I was wanting to show. I gave him my best mild, friendly, blank face. It was my version of trying not to look threatening. It wasn’t my cop face exactly, but the face I used to try to ease a stranger’s reaction to me being big, physical, and male. When you were my size, or the lieutenant’s size, you had to have a softer face that you could put on like a mask, so we’d seem less threatening by just being. He’d know exactly what the look on my face meant, but he’d also know it meant I didn’t want him to look deeper. He’d respect that, unless he felt it was negatively impacting my job, and this wasn’t.

“The doc cleared you for duty?” he asked.

“Like they cleared you for your getting knocked unconscious,” I said, my face mild.

He smiled, his eyes looking down. “Then we’ll both ignore doctor’s orders about getting some rest and keep doing our jobs.”

“Sounds good to me.”

“Me, too. Now let’s figure out what the hell is going on.”





CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO




We used Gimble’s room to decide the game plan. He sat up in the bed, tucking his legs up so that Lila could sit on the end of the bed. Charleston and I took the room’s chairs, and Antero stood, because he didn’t fit comfortably in the chairs. When Lila offered to stand so he could have the foot of the bed he got offended, so she sat, and he stood.

Charleston had a look on his face like he might not have been kidding about physical fitness requirements for the unit, but out loud he said, “Antero stays here to question the staff. I want him to stay here until the nurse Gonzales is out of surgery and recovery and see if he can get a preliminary statement from him.”

“I can help,” Gimble said.

Charleston shook his head. “You’re going to need a debriefing by Internal Affairs before you can go back on full duty.”

“Lieutenant, please, I want to help catch this guy. You weren’t at the first scene with Havoc and me. What he did to her . . . I’m fine, let me go with Havoc. He can keep an eye on me in case the angel stuff happens again.”

“Havoc got cut up, so I’m going to send him out with Bridges for the rest of the day. I’m going to take Sato, the new uniformed officer that saw through the angelic magic in the hallway. The doctor will be happy I’m not driving with a head bump and I can get a feel for the uniform.”

“But you both got hurt in the fight; physically I’m fine.”