Wrath of the Fallen by Eve Archer

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Dominick

We slid into the back seat of the shiny, black SUV, the door barely closing, before the car was rocketing forward and down the circular drive, pebbles kicking up behind it. Mastema sat in the front passenger seat, while the driver took us through the wrought iron gates.

“You’re sure you know where they are?” I asked, sliding on the ebony leather seats as we took a hard turn into traffic.

Mastema tapped something into the car’s onboard navigational system. “I know where he is, and if I know Caspiel, he won’t have left her.”

This elicited another rumble from Rami.

“You can be sure of one thing,” Mastema said, glancing at us both through the rearview mirror. “Caspiel will do nothing that the female doesn’t wish him to do.”

That didn’t make the scowl on Rami’s face soften.

The driver snaked through streets that became narrower and curvy as we grew closer to the center of Paris, and the Eiffel Tower loomed ever higher. Stone buildings rose on both sides of the two-lane streets, cafes with outdoor tables perched on almost every corner. The morning was still new, with light suffusing the city with a gentle warmth, but patrons already sat at tables, sipping steaming cups of coffee and nibbling pastries.

The car was warm—not a shock considering how stifling the chateau had been, so I let down my window a bit, the cool morning air rushing in. The air held the scent of freshly baked bread and was already filled with the sounds of traffic and bicycle bells ringing.

I eyed the map and the red dot blinking on it, but I wasn’t familiar enough with the geography of Paris to determine where we were headed. “So, where did Sara choose to clear her head?”

Mastema didn’t bother to look down at the map. “She is near Notre Dame Cathedral.”

Rami visibly relaxed next to me. “She’s sightseeing?”

Mastema twitched one shoulder up. “It’s not how most women use Caspiel’s skills, but she doesn’t seem like a typical woman in many respects.”

My own shoulders loosened, and I sat back against the buttery-leather seats. This was good. We’d find Sara and get her back all before any of the celestial watchers of earth noticed a couple of demons and fallen angels hanging around together.

I let out a breath as my phone vibrated, and I retrieved it from my pants’ pocket. I expected it to be Ella, impatiently checking up on our progress, but it wasn’t. I answered and pressed the phone to my ear.

“Gadriel. It’s good to finally hear from you.”

Rami swung his head to me, the call from Gad distracting him as well.

“I’m sorry it’s taken me so long,” Gadriel’s voice crackled over the line, reminding me that I’d sent him to New York to investigate the death of Ella’s parents.

“What have you found?”

“For one, they weren’t killed in the city. I assumed since Ella lived there, they had, too.”

I tried to recall what little she’d mentioned about her parents, but where they’d lived wasn’t something she’d mentioned, although I did know that she and her parents had moved once when she was young. “Where did they live?”

“Tiny town in upstate New York. Pretty place, if you like lots of farmland and cows.”

I couldn’t imagine the striking fallen angel with his dark skin and impressive stature blending in in a farming community. “Which you don’t.”

“Which I don’t,” he confirmed with a chuckle. “But I found the place and was able to charm my way into the records without a wait or having to submit a formal request.”

I smiled at this. I’d put Gadriel up against even an incubus for his sheer skill at charming women. “I assume the clerk was of the female persuasion?”

“Actually, he wasn’t, but I can be equally alluring to men or women.”

“So, what information did this gentleman give you?”

“The records of the car accident show that Ella’s parents did both die instantly, when their car went off the road and into a tree.”

I flinched at this, knowing how profoundly it had altered Ella’s life. “Anything else?”

“There was an investigation, since her parents had been members of the small town for almost twenty years and were apparently well-liked.”

“They suspected foul play?”

Gad hesitated. “Not exactly, but everyone I talked to said that it didn’t make sense.”

Tingles crept up from the base of my spine. “In what way?”

“For one thing, it happened in broad daylight. The road was one of the curvy ones around here, but it wasn’t raining, and everyone swore up and down that neither of the parents were drinkers.”

“No other cars involved?”

“Not a one. It looked like the car just drove off the road on a sunny day with two sober adults inside.”

“But that’s not what happened, is it?” My voice was almost a whisper, as dread made my throat thick.

“That would have been the final word, if there hadn’t been a kid skipping school and hanging out in the field across from the accident. He was leaning up against one of those bales of hay when he claims the car came around the bend, and a huge cloud of fog swallowed it up. When the cloud lifted, the car had driven into the tree, and both people inside were dead.”

“Ella never mentioned this.”

“That’s because it didn’t make the news, and they probably didn’t tell her. The kid who was the only witness had been smoking pot at the time, so the police assumed he’d imagined it. No one else reported instant fog like that, and the day had been sunny and cloudless.”

“So, it was ruled an accident?”

“Even if they had believed the kid, fog would have been deemed an accident. It’s not like people can control things like that.”

“But angels can,” I muttered.

My stomach clenched at the thought that Ella’s parents had been murdered by an angel—Gabriel, if I had to place bets—but it still didn’t make total sense to me. Gabriel might have eliminated the only human who could have revealed him as Ella’s true father—and taken her husband out in the process—but that still left the true evidence unscathed. Even with her parents dead, Ella had been the living and breathing evidence of his sin.

Unless Gabriel was counting on the fact that Ella had known nothing about her true parentage. Her life in New York hadn’t given any indication she was aware of her demi-angel powers, so maybe Gabriel had thought that eliminating her mother had been enough. Why kill Ella if she’d never know the truth and would never challenge his position in heaven?

“One more thing, Dom.”

Gadriel’s voice snapped me from my mental wanderings, and I switched the phone to my other ear.

“Ella’s parents were driving back to their house from the bus station.”

“Is that notable?”

“They were supposed to be picking up Ella for visit from college, but they got the day wrong. She wasn’t arriving until the next day, but they didn’t realize until they reached the station. So, they turned around and drove home.”

The knot of dread in my stomach iced over. Ella was supposed to be in the car when her parents were killed. Gabriel had tried to kill his own daughter before. He’d just failed.