The Judas Relic: An Evangeline Heart Holiday Adventure (11 page)

“Thank you for your company.”

I stepped away from him and froze.

But then … so had the entire room.

Chapter Three

I slowly rotated back toward the guy. He smiled at me and crossed his arms over his chest. We were the only two in the room not frozen. And I meant that in the most literal sense possible. Every single person in the room stood still as statues. That was such a stupid cliché, but they were the only words I had. Pete was bent over, setting our dirty glasses in the gray bin filled with others. The woman two seats down was leaning over to talk to a younger man, her hand flirtatiously wrapped around his forearm. I scanned the room, noting the posture of everyone in it, but having not a single explanation.

I turned to him. “What in the hell?”

He stood and extended his arm in greeting. “Metatron. Nice to make your acquaintance, Evangelina. My brother Sandalphon said it was a good time for us to meet. I’ve been waiting for this opportunity.”

In a flash, I pulled my weapon and pointed it at his forehead. “Who the fuck are you?”

He laughed. “Now, really, Lina. If I were a part of the rebel force, or the cartel, or involved in the sex trades, would I really pick the one archangel your mother adored above all the others? If I were going to kill you, wouldn’t I have picked someone more globally accepted like Gabriel? Or Michael? Come on, Lina.
No one
chooses to be Metatron.”

“I will ask you one more time, then I will drop you where you stand.” My thumb flicked off the safety.

He slowly lifted his hands, palms out, in surrender. “If those are your terms, then let’s not bloody the place.”

He strode confidently past me, weaving in and out of the frozen bodies and straight out the door. It banged shut, making me flinch. I stood there, weapon pointed at the door, and weighed my options. I could walk out the back and pretend this never happened, or I could go against every bit of training, logic, and common sense and go see what the
archangel
Metatron was doing outside.

I lowered my weapon a few inches and peered closer at an aging tourist who’d been caught mid-stride to the bar, empty glass in hand. A bead of condensation raced down the side of his drink and fell to the floor. I tentatively reached out and nudged him with the tip of my barrel. He didn’t flinch or move or respond at all. Once, I’d wasted good money to go check out Madame Tussaud’s wax museum and this had all the eerie qualities that had set my hair standing on edge that day too.

“Not good to keep an archangel waiting!” Metatron shouted. Though he was still outside, the sound of his voice carried through the walls like he’d piped it in with a loudspeaker. I took another look around and eased through the main entrance.

He stood twenty feet away beneath the main Jumbotron in Times Square. On any other night, there would have been no chance to see him standing that far away with the crowds of people who normally filled the square. But what he’d done inside the bar, he’d recreated in the middle of the busiest city in the world. Easily a few hundred people stood like he’d stopped time. Cars, buses, taxis—nothing was moving. Animals too, including a policeman on top of his horse in the middle of the intersection—yeah—both completely frozen. My gun felt heavy in my hand and I holstered it. No matter who he was, I was pretty sure he wasn’t here to shoot me.

However, I also wasn’t sure I wanted to believe that he was an archangel.

Because then I’d have to believe in heaven and even with Griffin’s death fresh as a new scar on my heart, that was a giant leap of faith. I believed in what I could see. I believed in truth and honor. Black and white. Good and evil.

Those delineations were how I knew that when I pulled the trigger, it was the
right
thing to do. When gray areas like faith and heaven and hell came into play that made me question. And because I killed people for a paycheck, I
had
to hold those tight rules in place. Questioning made me both a danger to myself and to every mission I agreed to.

I walked toward him, dodging outstretched arms and legs on the way. Icy chains wound around my ankles, slowing my progress, until I stopped a few feet away.

His smile was still the same genuine one he’d used on me in the bar. One slender finger lifted and pointed to the screen. “For your viewing pleasure.”

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The Dead Celeb

An Evie Preston/Grey Tier Book 1

by Michele Scott (AKA—A.K. Alexander)

(read on for a sample)

Chapter One

MY NAME IS EVIE PRESTON and I hang out with dead rock stars. Oh, and the occasional dead movie star or two. I’ve learned quite a bit about those who live on the other side over the past few months. For instance, they aren’t all ghostly and transparent. Oh no. The ones I see are almost always in full- color and 3-D except when they exert, ah...certain energies. Then they go a bit hazy. Oh, and they prefer to be called spirits.

Yeah, I know...I sound completely insane. Like, “commit me” insane. But honestly, I am not crazy. Believe me, the first time I saw Bob Marley in my place (well, technically not my place, but I’ll get to that) in the Hollywood Hills, getting high and singing “Buffalo Soldier,” I thought I was either dreaming, hallucinating, or, yes, completely nuts. Thankfully, it was none of the above. In fact, Bob is a very real, very dead guy who likes to hang out with me, along with a handful of other deceased, famous rock musicians (and a few who never quite made the charts, one of whom I’ve recently developed feelings for—more about him later). So, not only do I hang out with dead rock stars, I also think I am in love with one, or at least in lust… which makes me totally screwed up. But I am not crazy. I swear.

Before I go any further, though, I need to take you back a few months to the day after my twenty-eighth birthday. Welcome to Brady, Texas—population 5,500—and, according to the sign on the main road into town, “The Heart of Texas.” Truth be told, the signs were everywhere. Signs, that is, telling me to get the hell out of Brady.

I was at Mrs. Betty LaRue’s place. Her house smelled of Tide, home cooking, and mothballs. Betty was comforting me over the dismal turnout of my Mary Kay presentation—my latest attempt at becoming an entrepreneur—which she’d kindly hosted.

We were drinking apple-cranberry tea, with her Lhasa Apso,

Princess, curled in a ball under Betty’s chair, and my dog (of indeterminate breed...possibly part-coyote and part-lab, with a dash of border collie in there), Mama Cass, across my feet. I loved how Betty always let me bring Cass in the house. My dog went everywhere with me, but not everyone was as gracious about her presence as Betty.

“I really thought this would go much better,” I said, bringing the warm cup of tea to my lips.

Betty smiled sympathetically, the fine lines in her eighty- something face creasing deeper into her skin, “Oh, honey, I don’t know what happened to my girls today. I am so sorry. I thought there’d be at least ten of us. They all love my snickerdoodles. But you know how some of us old gals are; we forget things.” She twirled a yellow-white wisp of curled hair around her finger. The rest of it was pulled up into a loose bun (or chignon as Mama calls it). She’d obviously been in to see my mother that morning for her weekly hair appointment.

I nodded. “It’s okay, Betty. Thanks for hosting anyway, and the cookies were delicious. Three isn’t such a bad turnout.” Thing was, only Betty bought anything. Her friends, Margaret and Hazel, came for the cookies and samples. “And I made about ten dollars, so that will buy me a couple of meals. You’ll love that anti-wrinkle cream, by the way.”

Betty ran a hand over her face and laughed sweetly. “Child, ain’t nothing gonna work on this face now. And I’m proud of these lines. I earned them.”

I laughed back. “So you only bought the cream because you felt sorry for me?” Cass’s ears perked up and she lifted her head to peer at me.

Betty sighed. “Evie Preston, I have known you since you started kicking up a fuss in your mama’s belly.” She winked at me. “I’ve watched you try so hard to be exactly what your mama and daddy wanted, especially after all that bad business. And there was that unfortunate situation with—” She paused. “What was
his
name?”

She brought her cup to her lips, her hand shaking ever so slightly. I sighed, knowing exactly what bad business she was referring to. As for the unfortunate situation, he was the star quarterback my senior year and the lucky recipient of my virginity. Sadly, he was also the jerk who then decided to share the news with the entire town. Thank God my mother was able to intercept
that
little tidbit before it reached my father’s ears.

Betty waved her free hand in the air as if to brush the painful thoughts away. “I know you were hoping to be a good Texas girl and marry a good Texas boy and have babies and run a family like your folks did, not because you really wanted it,” she said, shaking a finger at me. “But because your parents wanted it for you. And now, my dear,” Betty leaned over and gave me one of her rare, stern looks. “It’s high time you stopped pretending and started living!”

“What do you mean?”

“You got a God-given talent. You need to get out there and do something with it.”

She tried to set the tea cup down on the side table and almost missed. I grabbed it and set it down for her. Betty beamed at me. “Thank you, honey! Always so polite.”

I looked down at my dog, licking the unpolished toes peeking out of the only pair of high-heeled sandals I owned. “Fact is, Betty, I know I’m good, but there are a lot of
good
musicians out there.” I dejectedly twirled the ends of my long, baby-fine hair. Mama always said God hadn’t been paying close attention when it came time to give me hair. It was stick straight, dark brown, and silky. I couldn’t do a darn thing with it, except put it into ponytails.

Betty waved her hand again. “Nonsense!” Placing her hands on the sides of her chair, she slowly pushed herself up to a stand and ambled over to the white brick mantle. She grabbed an envelope and handed it to me.

“What’s this?” I asked.

“Your birthday was yesterday, wasn’t it?”

“You remembered?”

She frowned. “I may be old, Evie, but I don’t forget birthdays. Especially when they’re for people I care about.”

“That is so sweet of you.” I was flattered and grateful someone seemed happy to have me around.

“Oh honey, you know you’re one of my favorite people. You got spunk! Had it since you came out ass-backward, showing the world what you thought of it.”

“Thank you, I think.” I couldn’t help smiling. Betty was the only one I knew who spoke the truth without holding back. She didn’t tiptoe around stuff like my family. Tiptoeing was what we did best.

“Open it! I don’t have all day. It’s about time for my nap.”

I tore open the envelope and found a check inside for five thousand dollars, made out to me. I gasped.

“Betty! What...” Cass jumped up, her huge ears pricked forward, tail wagging, watching me like a hawk. “It’s okay, girl.” She lay back down but still alert.

“I was twenty-eight once too, you know, and I had dreams...big dreams.” Betty’s blue eyes glazed over for a moment. “I wanted to be a movie star, and I could have, too. I was damn good, like you are at what you do, and, believe it or not, I used to be good looking.” She winked at me again, but there were tears in her eyes. I knew about Betty’s dreams from long ago. I also knew there was a part of her life that hadn’t been so good.

“But then my folks, like yours, had other ideas and I decided to play by their rules. I don’t regret it...well, maybe I do a little. Thing is, young lady, you can sing like a nightingale and you can play the guitar like nobody’s business. You need to get the hell out of this town before you wind up like every other girl here—knocked up, changing dirty diapers, and cleaning up after some idiot male who spends his nights with a beer in one hand and a TV remote in the other.”

I frowned. I’d already seen almost every girl from my high school graduating class living the life Betty had just described. The lucky ones skipped town and went to college. I hadn’t been quite that lucky for a variety of reasons. I had the grades and the desire, but life had other ideas. On the positive side, which is where I like to go, I’d at least not had the misfortune of marrying some guy who didn’t appreciate me, expected his dinner on the table when he got home from his shift at Walmart, and wanted his wife and children to obey, just because he said so.

“Betty, I really do appreciate your vote of confidence but still, I can’t accept this.” I held the check towards her.

“Yes, you can, and you will. Go live your life, Evie Preston. Pack up that van of yours, your guitar, and Mama Cass, and head west. You sing your heart out in every bar, every café, every church—I don’t care where you go, but go and sing. I know one thing: you have what it takes to be a star. Forget all about them cosmetics you’re trying to pawn . . .”

“Mary Kay,” I interrupted. “It
is
a really good line. Mama swears by it.”

She frowned and waved that hand at me. “Just forget all that, because you and I both know it won’t get you nowhere. That kind of thing is for people like Shirley Swan up the road trying to make an extra buck to take care of those four kids of hers. Take the money, cut your losses, and run. You gotta stop living for your mama and daddy. You didn’t cause what happened and you can’t never change it.” She shook her head vehemently. “Go on and live life. Do it for me. Humor an old woman, please?” Her blue eyes watered, the creases crinkling as she choked back emotion.

How could I refuse after a plea like that? I tried one last time, for the sake of courtesy. “But my daddy—”

Betty dabbed at her eyes with a kerchief. “He’ll get over it. And your mama is gonna secretly be cheering you on. It’ll be hard on them, but this’ll be the best thing for all of you.” She sighed heavily. “Especially you, Evie. Trust me.”