He put the lid back on the box. “Thank you for getting my stuff.”
“Ah, don’t thank me. I felt like a snoop having to go through your things.”
He set the box on the floor. “This has been one hell of a day. I used to think my first day on the job would be the strangest day of my life, but I really had no idea.” He rubbed a hand over his chest, shaking his head slightly. “I guess I don’t have to worry about days on the force anymore, huh?”
“Why?”
His expression became dubious. “Not like I get to go back to work after this. Hopefully, the Sanctuary pays well.”
“The Sanctuary pays extremely well, but you still get to keep your day job if you want.” She waited while a slow smile crept across his face. For some reason, she smiled, too. “You just need to come up with a good reason why you had a family emergency when your four weeks are over.”
“Great,” he joked. “That should be easy. Maybe I should tell them I had a psychotic break with reality.”
She chuckled. “Yeah, I don’t know if that would be such a great idea.”
“Well, after all the crap I learned today about your…my kind? Anyway, the Nephilim and the angel stuff? I feel like I need to see a head doctor.”
“What did Luke talk to you about?”
He folded his arms across his chest and stared up at the ceiling, recounting all that he had learned while Lily listened attentively to what Luke had divulged. It was all the basics, nothing too spectacular. By the time Michael had finished, his shoulders had slumped forward and he rubbed under his eyes wearily.
Lily stood and offered him a genuine smile. “Get some rest. Tomorrow we’ll start training. It’s going to be a long couple of weeks for you.” It would be for her, too. Just because she was training Michael didn’t mean she didn’t have to hunt. She would be burning the candle at both ends.
He nodded, seemingly lost in his thoughts. She made it to the door before she remembered the frame in her pocket and the necklaces. “Oh, I almost forgot.” She pulled out the photo along with the two small crucifixes. “I figured you may want these.”
He took the picture and necklaces, his throat working. “This was my favorite picture. I was four,” he murmured.
Lily placed one hand on the door. She couldn’t read his expression, but he sounded sad. “Your mom looked really happy.”
He glanced up. “She was. She was always happy.” He set the picture on his nightstand, next to a tattered book. “I guess that’s why I never understood…” He trailed off.
“Why she would take her own life?” she said softly.
“Yeah, I guess we never know people.”
She focused on the picture. The woman in the photo smiled happily at them. Once again, she was struck by the difference between her mom and his. Lily paused in deep thought and, after a moment, excused herself.
Hurrying from the room, she waited until she stepped out of the elevator before digging out her cell. The phone rang twice. “Hey, Lily, good to see you’re still alive. What’s up?”
She frowned. “Danyal, can you do me a favor?”
He sighed loudly. “I’m afraid to ask after the last one.”
“No, it’s nothing like that. I wanted to see if you could pull an autopsy for me and tell me what you think?”
“You got a suspicious death?”
“I’m not sure,” she admitted. “It’s on a Sharon Cons. I believe she may have died in Hillsboro, Virginia.”
“Wait. Is this Michael’s mother?”
“Yeah.” She unlocked the heavy steel door and stepped out onto the rooftop. “Can you look into it for me?”
There was a pause before he answered. “Sure. I’ll let you know in a little while.”
“Thanks.” Lily slipped the cell back into her pocket and headed toward the edge of the rooftop. She couldn’t shake the feeling that something wasn’t right. As far as she knew, all of their mothers had been miserable and broken women, but the pictures of Michael’s mother proved differently. There was more to it. She was certain.
The resonance of a soul slipping into the body of a human caught Lily’s attention. She closed her eyes, slowing her breathing. Alert, she zeroed in on the possessed’s location in the teeming city. Turning gracefully on her heel, she took flight over the rooftops. Another night, another innocent human lost.
She really needed to up her pay grade.
Chapter Fourteen
“Rafe, meet your new friend Michael,” Lily said, stifling a yawn with one small hand. “Michael, say hello to Rafe. He’ll be kicking your ass for the foreseeable future.”
Rafe chuckled, extending his hand. “It’s nice to meet you. Don’t listen to Lily. There will be mutual ass kicking.”
Michael shook the man’s hand, shooting Lily a sour look. Did she get any sleep last night? She’d appeared in his room at the crack of dawn, dressed in sweats and a tank top with a strong cup of coffee in hand. She looked better prepared for bed than training.
When he first laid eyes on the tall Spaniard, all he could think was this man had to be dangerous. Well over six feet tall and built like a pro wrestler, he was certain Rafe was the kind of man that didn’t leave many adversaries standing. Oh, this is going to be fun.
Lily floated away from the mats, plopping down in the corner. Casting a sideways glance at her, he saw her sitting cross-legged with her chin resting on a hand. Her cup of coffee sat in front of her, virtually untouched.
“So you’re a police officer, right? That should mean you’ve got some basic fighting skills.”
He wondered what Rafe considered basic fighting skills. What he saw Lily do wasn’t anything in the scope of what he was taught at the police academy.
Rafe folded his large arms over his chest. “The training is going to be difficult, and there will be times you’ll want to give up. I’ll push you to your breaking point. Only then will your real training begin.”
Michael rolled his eyes. He couldn’t help it. He heard this before. “Yeah, I know. Knock me down to build me back up. Been there, done that.”
Lily snickered from the sidelines. He frowned over at her. She picked up the coffee and took a drink. Her eyes danced over the rim of the cup. He had the distinct feeling she was laughing at him.
“Whatever you’ve learned at the police academy is nothing compared to what we are going to teach you,” Rafe continued as if he hadn’t heard him. “You will learn several different fighting techniques. Grappling, mixed martial arts, jujitsu—to name a few. You will also learn how to fight with blades.”
“Oh, really?” he asked with raised brows.
Rafe grinned. He grabbed two blades from a low bench that held several sharp instruments. “You will need to master this.” He motioned to Lily.
She pushed herself off the mat. “It’s a little early for this, Rafe.”
He snorted. “Let’s show him how it’s done, and then you can go sit down, look pretty, or whatever it is you’re doing over there.”
The blades slipped from her cuffs. Lily smirked. “Ass…”
Michael was fascinated by those things. The cuffs around her slender wrists were only three inches wide and yet the blades were at least six inches long. He stepped forward, curious. “How do those work?”
Lily glanced down. “Huh? Oh this. Remy is the resident weapons expert. He’s a genius actually. The things he can come up with.” She lifted her wrist so he could get a closer view of the blade. She pointed out several fine breaks in the steel. “I don’t know the mechanics of it, but the blade simply collapses within itself when it’s not in use. See.” She flicked her wrist, and the blade sank down, disappearing into the cuffs. Then she moved her hand again, and the blade shot out, quickly opening one layer after the other. “Comes in pretty handy, don’t you think? The silver is reinforced with Inconel—a type of metal used in aerospace. It’s super strong and does the job.”
“I imagine,” he responded drily.
“You ready?” Rafe called, growing impatient.
She sighed. “Sure. Let’s do this.”
Michael backed off.
Rafe launched himself at Lily with a set of deadly looking daggers. She moved with him, blocking each slice of his hand with her forearm. On and on they danced in a mixture of martial arts and knife play. He saw how deadly this form of fighting was. They took turns missing blocks so he could see the kill shot or at least what should have been a kill shot. Moving fast, the knife would either hit the throat or the chest.
Lily dropped and spun around, knocking Rafe’s feet out from underneath him. She brought her blade to Rafe’s exposed chest. “No matter what, you have to stay on your feet,” she explained. “Minions are trained the same way we are. Once they get you down, you’re done for. You die.”
Rafe knocked her arm away. “Thanks, Lily,” he muttered.
She spared him a cheeky grin and stood up. “Blades are the deadliest weapon against our kind. For the most part, the minions don’t have the type of blades we do, but they are just as skilled with a knife.” She retracted the daggers and brushed off her knees. “Minions love to slice and dice.”
“Why can’t I just shoot them?” he asked, only half-serious.
“Because your bullets won’t stop minions, and they’ll barely make a difference on possessed humans,” announced Remy from behind them.
Michael whirled around. He hadn’t heard the man come in. Did they all move like ghosts? It was creepy and a little annoying.
“Unless you have my bullets,” continued Remy. “Then you will do some major damage.”
That got Michael’s attention. Screw knife fighting. Give me a gun. Now this was something he could get into. “What kind of bullets?”
Rafe handed the blades over to Remy, who held them up. “Notice the engravings. They’re holy symbols.”
Michael had seen the markings on Lily’s blades but hadn’t had a flipping clue what they were. Remy ran a finger over the first symbol. “This is the Chi-Rho. It is the earliest cruciform symbol.” It looked an elongated P with an X drawn through the middle. He then slid his finger over more scratches in the silver. “This is a holy symbol against possession.”
Upon closer inspection, Michael saw it looked like an X with a diamond on the top.
Remy slid his finger over another design—two crosses upside down and crossed.
Michael frowned. “Isn’t that Satanic?”
“No,” Remy replied. “It’s a symbol of death. These are two Latin crosses that represent death in battle.”
He didn’t understand how pictures were of any significance. “What’s the last one? It looks like an arrow or the middle of a peace sign.”
“Another death symbol.”
I see a trend here. “Kind of depressing,” he muttered.
“These different symbols are all very powerful,” explained Remy. “You can even say magical in the sense that they pack a punch if created correctly. Any silver reinforced with Inconel, then marked with these symbols in water that is blessed and fire that is pure, will deliver a death blow. It’s a bit harder to get all these markings on a bullet, but it’s doable. These symbols are also deadly to us…keep that in mind. We get stabbed anywhere with these, the silver will eat into us. It won’t heal like a normal stab wound. You get hit with these blades, you’ll need to get the hell out of Dodge fast. And you’re going to be in for some pain.”
