Angel Eclipsed (The Louisiangel Series Book 2) by C. L. Coffey Page A

had done, but I wasn’t sure what other option there was. Aside from the fact Joshua was likely to get into a lot of trouble, there was also the chance that Karl would tell anyone who listened that he had seen my wings. I hoped that people would assume it was the drugs talking.
    “What do they look like?” I asked quietly. “My wings,” I elaborated when I found Joshua shooting me a questioning look.
    “Not what I expected angel wings to look like,” Joshua responded. “They were long, and elegant, and they looked more like they were made from light than from feathers. They were breathtaking, Angel.”
    “I’ve never seen them,” I admitted. “I…” I trailed off as a memory popped into my head. Completely unrelated to what we had been discussing, I wasn’t sure what had caused its appearance, but I was grateful. “There was someone who knew about Lilah,” I realized.
    The traffic was moving too much for Joshua to take his attention away from it, but I saw him frown. “Who?”
    “I don’t know,” I told him. “Lilah: she said a cop told you that Maggie had returned home. Who was that?”
    “I found a note on my desk,” Joshua shrugged. “A missed call, apparently. But I have no idea who left it there.”
    “Did you ever find out who had been removing statements from the murder files?” I asked him.
    Joshua shook his head. “When I finally got released from the hospital and went back to work, I went through everything that happened with Leon. Or at least, as much as I could without admitting to the existence of angels. I told him that Paige Kenworth had admitted to working with Elliot Claymore and Simon Wilson-”
    “Who are they?” I asked, cutting him off.
    “Lilah’s accomplices,” Joshua replied. “I checked the Missing Persons database. They were reported missing about eighteen months previously.”
    I sucked in a sharp breath. All this time I had been focused on the fact that I had killed Paige, but there had been two others who had died because of me. Until now they had been nameless – I had assumed they had been in their own vessels, but I had assumed wrongly – I had killed two other innocent people too.
    “Are you alright, Angel?” I heard Joshua ask, as his fingers reached over to touch my cheek.
    “I thought I’d killed two of the Fallen,” I muttered. “I didn’t realize that I’d killed two humans too.” I took a deep breath, waiting for the blinding agony to appear. It did, but it was nowhere near as strong as I was used to. That was strange. Even when I thought about Paige, it didn’t hurt much more than a dull throb. I blinked, waiting. The pain didn’t get any stronger. “You were saying?”
    “Angel?” Joshua questioned, carefully. I waved him on. “I told Leon that Paige had admitted to working with Claymore and Wilson, and they were both found with weapons on them. One had a sword, the other a dagger, both of which matched the wounds in the open investigations. I tried to explain to him that we had been looking into those cases and discovered missing information, but as we had closed the cases, Leon wasn’t interested.” He caught me staring at him and slowly shook his head. “Leon’s worked with these guys longer than I have. I don’t think he wants to believe it either.”
    “But you still think there’s someone in there who was working against us?” I checked.
    “I do,” Joshua agreed. “I wish I didn’t, but I do.”

CHAPTER FIVE
    The Archangel and the Saint
     
     
    Our destination was not the police precinct, but Jackson Square. There was a handful of officers busy cordoning off the area, trying to keep the early risers away from the crime scene. Thankfully it was just before the Monday morning rush hour, but there was still a small crowd gathering – mainly of the local artists who were arriving early to claim the ‘good’ spots.
    I followed Joshua up the path, marveling at the St. Louis Cathedral which, with its beautiful white