Angel in Training (The Louisiangel Series, Book One) (30 page)

Without any objections, Joshua followed me
back to Dumaine Street. About three buildings along was a two
storey, yellow building. I had passed it on a couple of occasions
but I had been certain it was a residential building. Now, there
was a neon sign which read
Bee’s
.
There were couples on the balcony upstairs, whereas, downstairs,
the music was spilling onto the street, accompanied by people and
artificial smoke.

“Here,” I said to Joshua, watching as the two
bouncers on the door kept an eye on who was coming and going –
wearing shades, even though it was late.

“Then I guess we’re going in,” Joshua told
me, leading me into the building.

Bee’s

Bee’s was not what I expected. It eluded
more class than a lot of the bars along the street, and gave the
impression that the drinks prices alone would be enough to keep the
riff raff out, without a cover charge. The music was... I think the
only word I can use is,
dirty
.
A mixture of dance, drum and bass, dubstep and hip hop, with the
blood red walls, it gave the impression the club was performing
some form of sexual act – like it was breathing heavily and
sweating from the effort. I had a feeling that later, when there
were more people in there, I would be questioning if I had done
something that was breaking one of Michael’s rules.

“How have I never noticed this place before?”
I asked myself.

“It opened just before Mardi Gras,” Joshua
told me.

I was so caught up in the interior of the
bar, I hadn’t realized he had been standing close enough to hear
me. “What are we looking for?” I asked him, loudly, over the music,
scanning the marginally quieter bar area. In the far corner, the
female DJ was bobbing her head, her thick black hair moving in time
with the music. I couldn’t see below her waist, but she was wearing
a beautiful red silk bodice, with lace detailing and something that
looked like a rose embroidered down the side.

Joshua shook his head and moved over to the
bar. I stuck close behind him and waited for the barmaid to head
over to us. She, like the three other girls behind the bar were
wearing similar versions of the bodice the DJ was wearing, although
theirs were black. The one guy who was serving at the far end of
the bar was wearing only a very tight pair of black shorts and he
looked like he had been oiled up.

Finally, one of the barmaids realized we were
waiting and hurried over. Joshua had to call over our order three
times before she heard him. “Is it always this loud?” I yelled at
her.

“This is hell,” the woman yelled back at
me.

I nodded my agreement. “I don’t know how you
can work in here!”

The woman laughed and shook her head. “No,
this is
Hell
. Lots of
bass and not much chance to talk, if you know what I mean? If you
two want to get to know each other, you want to head upstairs to
Heaven.”

At my blank look, she pointed over in the
direction of a wrought iron, spiral staircase. I glanced over at
Joshua, who shrugged, handed me my drink and headed over to the
stairs. I blinked, and followed after him, surprised he hadn’t
bothered to mention to her that it wasn’t like that between us.

The stairs were a bit of a pain to navigate
in my stiletto heels, and I was more focused on making sure the
heels didn’t get stuck in the intricate design so that I wouldn’t
fall and make a fool of myself. Upstairs the floor was tiled – that
was the first thing I noticed, considering that had been what my
attention had been focused on. When I looked up, my mouth nearly
fell open.

Heaven was... heavenly. Although the lights
were dim, it was brighter upstairs. There were clean lines, pale
blue walls, and dozens of couches that looked as comfortable as
clouds. Somehow, the music from downstairs wasn’t filtering up and
drowning out the much softer love songs upstairs. “Wow,” I
muttered.

There were more people up here, sitting
cozily on the couches, and not all couples. The atmosphere was much
more relaxed, and there were people sitting at the bar. In a
similar position as it was downstairs was the DJ’s booth, behind
which was a girl who had to be a twin of the one downstairs – they
were identical, with the exception of the bright blue streaks this
girl had in her hair, compared to the ‘devil’ equivalent whose had
been red. The other members of staff upstairs were wearing white
prom dresses, or white shorts.

I followed Joshua over to one of the tall
tables that lined the back wall, and pushed myself up onto the
stool. “This is actually quite nice,” I told him, scanning the
room. “But you still need to tell me what we’re looking for.”

Joshua pulled a face. “I was hoping you could
be the one to supply me with that answer. You were the one who
picked out all the victims, after all.”

“You can’t put that on me,” I yelped at him,
banging my knee against the table as I remembered what Michael had
told me earlier. “I don’t know how I did it, and I don’t want to be
the person responsible for someone else dying because I couldn’t
tell they were a potential victim!”

Joshua gave me a soft smile, his hand
reaching across the table to grab mine. “I’m not placing that
responsibility on you, don’t worry. I just want you to keep an eye
out and see if you get a feeling about anyone in here.”

“And what about you?” I asked him, his hand
feeling far too warm.

“I’m going to keep an eye out for someone
behaving suspiciously, looking out for any woman who’s acting
strange,” he told me.

“What makes you certain it’s a woman?” I
asked, slightly surprised at his conclusion.

Joshua let go of my hand and grabbed his
stool, dragging it around the back of the table so he could view
the room, all while moving closer to me, to talk to me without any
risk of someone overhearing us.

“
I don’t think it’s
just
a woman,” he told me. “The guys she killed were
over six foot, and half were well built. She would have to be
putting some serious hours in at the gym to be able to lift them,
much less as dead weight.”

“You think there are two of them?” I asked,
my eyes widening.

Joshua nodded. “Yeah. I think she’s luring
them out. None of the family members or friends of the four guys
mentioned anything about them being gay, and I can’t see how a guy
would be able to get them alone in a secluded alleyway.”

“
I could be completely wrong, you know,” I
pointed out. “I was
really
drunk and
I barely remember what happened.”

Joshua reached for his drink and finished the
bottle off, settling it back on the table. “My father died when I
was in high school,” he said finally, as he began picking at the
label.

I remembered Maggie mentioning it, but I
didn’t want to say anything in case I put him off telling me what
he was about to.

“He worked a lot of shifts. I don’t really
remember getting to spend much time with him before he died, but
every Father’s Day, and on my birthday, he would take me out to the
lake and we would spend the day fishing off a little dock, eating
corndogs.” Having shredded the paper away from the front of the
bottle, he was now working on the label on the back. “The last trip
out there, I remember telling him I wanted to be just like him when
I grew up. He turned to me and told me that if that was what my gut
feeling was telling me, I was to trust that feeling, because my gut
would always be right.” He looked up and over at me. “What’s your
gut telling you?”

My gut was telling me the answer was
somewhere in this bar. I may not remember everything, but I had a
very strong feeling this was the last bar I was heading for before
I died, and something had drawn me to it to kill me. “We’re in the
right place,” I admitted.

“Good,” Joshua nodded. “Because my gut is
telling me to trust you.”

The look he was giving me was far too intense
for my liking and I quickly looked for something to distract from
it. “You know, that’s a sign of sexual frustration, right?” I
blurted out, pointing at the bottle. Of everything I could go for,
I picked something that would swing the topic to the one place it
couldn’t go.

Sure enough, when I looked back at Joshua,
his eyes were smouldering. “Well I know one way to ease that
frustration,” he murmured.

I forced myself to roll my eyes. “As soon as
we find this killer, I’m finding you a girlfriend,” I told him,
making my tone as dry as possible. Then, to ensure the conversation
didn’t go any further, I turned in my seat and began scanning the
crowds.

“Hi,” came an unnecessarily perky voice,
drawing my attention away from the people in the bar, to the woman
standing in front of our table. “You ready for another?”

The woman was tall, and even though she was
wearing the white prom dress style uniform, she had a fantastic
pair of legs on her. She was also exceedingly pretty, with long
auburn hair that hung around her in soft curls, in a way that was
already having me frowning at the fact I was stuck with my bright
red, choppy layers.

She had positioned herself in between me
and Joshua and was not-so politely facing Joshua with her back to
me. In a way, I couldn’t blame her – he
was
gorgeous. However, it was still rude, especially
for a member of the staff.

She spent too long collecting Joshua’s empty
bottle, wafting her hair at him, and I definitely caught him
watching her as she sashayed away from the table. “Maybe I won’t
have to look far,” I told him.

He pulled his eyes away from the woman to
give me a puzzled look. “Far for what? The killer?”

“Your girlfriend,” I said, pointing to the
woman in question. “She was clearly into you.”

“Jealous?” he asked with a smirk.

“Yes,” I responded, deadpan. “Completely.
Forgive me while I go claw her eyeballs out for daring to flirt
with you in my vicinity.”

“Dance with me,” Joshua requested,
suddenly.

Or at least, that’s what I thought I heard. I
wrinkled my nose and squinted up at him. “Excuse me?”

“Dance with me,” he repeated.

To be honest, I thought I had misheard him
again over the music, but when I just continued to stare at him in
confusion, he grabbed my hand and pulled me onto the dance
floor.

Over the course of the hour, the bar had
become much busier and the dance floor up in Heaven had filled up
considerably. Nevertheless, Joshua led me to a spot and pulled me
to him, physically draping my arms around his neck before his hands
settled on my waist.

“Why are we dancing?” I asked him, still
frowning.

“We can’t just dance?” he murmured into my
hair, drawing me closer.

The motion caught me by surprise, sending
butterflies fluttering through my stomach as I took in a deep
breath of his musky cologne. His chin came to rest against the side
of my head so I could feel the slight prickle from his permanent
five o’clock shadow. How the hell had I managed to find a guy I
fitted perfectly against
after
I
had died – and was forbidden from doing anything with.

Fate was a complete bitch.

As we swayed gently back and forth, I just
closed my eyes and figured,
what the hell?

Of course, at that moment, something kicked
off behind me. I didn’t see what, but there was a yell, and then
two of the bouncers were hurrying over to two guys who were
throwing a couple of punches at each other. The next thing I knew,
each was being dragged out, kicking and protesting against each
bouncer, right past us.

I could see the arm coming towards me, and
even Joshua tried to yank me out of the way, but it was too late,
and the limb connected with the side of my head, sending me
careering into Joshua. It didn’t hurt too much, and we managed to
remain standing – largely due to Joshua – but as I clutched at my
head and opened my eyes, the room exploded into a mass of chaotic
lights.

Along with the colorful disco lights and
strobes, I could once again see auras. Like the time I had seen
them along Bourbon Street, they were everywhere. Only this time,
they were twice as bright. With the ball of my hand pressed into my
forehead, I tried to shake the lights off, the brightness sending
tears streaking down my cheeks.

“Angel?” Joshua questioned, moving my hand
away to peer at my face.

I had to close my eyes, dazzled by the hot
pink in his aura. “It’s bright,” I winced. “I need to get out of
here.”

He seemed to understand and took my hand,
pressing his chest into my back to steer me through the crowd and
to the stairs. We navigated them together, with him holding me
carefully, and me squinting just enough to see where I was
going.

Outside, I pulled away from him and hurried
around to one of the quieter streets feeding off Bourbon Street.
There, with much lower foot traffic, I leaned back against the
wall, the stone pleasantly cool against my bare back, and hunched
over as I took deep breath to try and encourage the lights
away.

“Angel?” Joshua crouched down beside me.
“What happened? Are you alright?”

I shook my head, biting at my lower lip.
“No,” I admitted, finally. Keeping my eyes closed to keep the
bright glare resonating from Joshua away from my retinas, I planted
my hands on my knees. “I see auras. Sometimes,” I quickly corrected
myself. “But they’ve never been that bright before.”

“Auras?” he questioned softly.

“The easiest way to describe it is to imagine
a light surrounding a person,” I muttered. “Different colors mean
different things.”