Underworld Lover (A Guardian Angel Romance #2) (11 page)

“Josh!” The alarm in Audray’s voice called Josh to action. Instead of taking the steps, he willed himself upstairs to stand at the double-door entrance to Beau’s bedroom. The bed was a mess; black satin sheets were spilled onto the floor.

“Josh! Quick, up here.” He heard Audray’s voice again, echoing off the granite in Beau’s bathroom. He heard the water running.

Beau Bradley was passed out on the stone floor and was perhaps dead. He was getting blue. Josh put a hand on his neck and felt a faint pulse.

“Shit. I think he’s tanking.” Audray ran to the phone.

“What are you doing?”

“Calling 911.”

“I don’t think he’ll make it that long. We’ve got to get him to the hospital immediately. Or, we could just let him go.”

“No. He’s mine!”

“Not for long, my dear.”

“Can’t you transport him?”

“No time. He’s almost gone.”

Audray handed Josh the phone. “Here, you call them. I can do CPR.” 

As Josh talked to the dispatcher, he watched Audray out of the corner of his eye as she pumped Beau’s chest and breathed into his mouth after pinching off his nose. It never occurred to him this would be an option. Audray worked hard on Beau. He was beginning to get some pinkness in his lips when the siren sound of the rescue squad pierced the air.

Audray went with Beau in the ambulance while Josh locked up the house, then followed at a leisurely pace.

At Marin General two hours later, they were greeted with the news that Beau would make it, but that he’d had another heart attack and would probably need to remain in the hospital for an extended period of time. But he’d survived the evening.

“Is he conscious?” Josh asked the physician on duty.

“Yes, but he’s to have absolutely no visitors. He’s out of danger now, but any strain will kill him.”

Josh didn’t think that would be such a bad idea. He and Audray thanked the doctor, left their names as next of kin, and huddled together in the cramped waiting room.

“We’d have lost him if he died this way.”

“But he overdosed. He did that to himself.”

“Accidents don’t count. He has to want to take his own life. I think he just couldn’t count the pills.” Josh gave her the grim details of how a person close to death had to be handled.

“God, I don’t think he’ll last much longer. Look what he’s done to himself.”

“My dear, death by overconsumption is considered ‘natural causes,’ didn’t you know?” Josh drew a long arm around her shoulders, bringing her into tight proximity to his body. He liked her there. But he was aware she did not melt into him like Melanie had. Like even Helena had. Whatever affection he had for Audray was apparently not returned.

“So what do we do?” She looked up at him with those luminous black eyes a dark angel could get lost in. She was scared, but not dead. She had a heart, but just not for him. But she was sexy as hell.

“We make him want to go,” Josh whispered, patting her shoulder.

“But if he dies of a heart attack, then he’s lost to us?”

“No, we ask his permission. Come. You’ll see.” Josh took her hand. Unlike Guardian angels, dark angels couldn’t disappear, but he shape shifted their bodies into two uniformed hospital workers. He checked the hallway up and down quickly before willing himself through the door to Beau’s room, pulling Audray behind him.

At the sight of Beau propped in bed, with tubes and wires hooked up to various machines, it was clear to Josh the man was nearly dead. They hadn’t even moved him into the CCU unit.

“Beau. Hey buddy, you look like hell.” Josh whispered into Beau’s ear. The hair around Beau’s face was wet. A few beads of sweat adorned his forehead and upper lip. Beau’s eyes slowly opened as he raised a hand encased in plastic tubing.

“Hey. What a trip, man,” he sputtered through the breathing mask.

“This your idea of a trip?” Josh frowned at him. “You almost bought the big one, you know.”

“Yeah. I saw the golden stairway, man. I almost think I saw Heaven.”

 Josh stepped back as if he’d been slapped. He looked quickly around the room. No sign of a Guardian.

“What are you looking at?” Audray whispered, obviously puzzled.

“Looking for a Guardian. They sometimes come at the end.”

“Wow. The colors...” Beau continued babbling.

“Look, I can do something for you. Something I think you’ll like. You wanna live forever? Gotta make up your mind quick, though.” Josh delivered his message to the blurry-eyed ex-rocker who was immobilized by the dark angel’s fingers. Josh noticed the beeping on the heart monitor was starting to pick up speed.

“Cool. A vampire. I always knew you were a weird sonofabitch, but a vampire! I like it.” Beau pulled aside his hospital gown revealing the jugular vein on his neck.

“Beau, you idiot. I’m not a vampire.”

“Sure, sure you aren’t, you kinky asshole. Go ahead, give me the bite. Bite me, goddammit!” Tubes were rattling as his fingers fluttered to his neck again. The beeping got louder and faster. Beau was struggling to sit up, but began coughing and sank back down into the bed.

“This is insane, Josh. You can’t…” Audray started in.

Beau reacted immediately to Audray’s voice and turned to address her. “Hey, how’s my girl? You gonna do it? I think that’s just awesome!” Beau was gasping for air, trying to pull off his hospital gown, which had gotten caught in the tubing that was keeping him alive.

Josh swore under his breath. It would be so much easier if he could just vaporize him. “You don’t understand, Beau,” Josh began. “I can make you live forever, but as a dark angel.” Josh waited for that to sink in.

A confused look crossed Beau’s face as he looked between Josh and Audray. “What the fuck is that? I don’t want to be no fuckin’ angel.”

“Not a good angel, a dark angel. A really bad dark angel who claims souls.” Josh whispered into Beau’s ear.

“Yeah, go ahead, make me one. I wanna be a badass vampire dark angel, drink blood, man. Live forever, man.”

Audray shot Josh a dose of scorn.

“Ah, not exactly, Beau.” Josh began. “You gotta will yourself dead, Beau. You gotta make your heart give out. Can you do that?”

“How the hell do I do that? Don’t you have to bite me, man?”

“No. Scare yourself. Get angry. You gotta do it. I can’t do it for you.”

“What the fuck? Will you just please fucking bite me and get it over with?”

“It’s not like that. Honest. Pull out your wires. Get rid of the oxygen. Get angry. I think that will do it.” Josh was racing against time—Beau was close to death, turning grey in color. Josh had never had such a sloppy ending to a human. Beau looked between the both of them, first at Josh, then Audrey, the tubes and sensors rattling on his chest like medals of valor. His breathing had become labored and ragged.

“You want these, big man?” Audray had unbuttoned her uniform and showed him her enhanced breasts. “You willing to die for these?” She leaned in just so as to be out of reach.

Beau ripped out the plastic tubing and the leads, sending the machines crashing to the floor. He sat up and lunged for Audray with every ounce of his being, yelling at the top of his lungs, “Gimme those.”

She flashed him a big smile and backed up slowly. He kept reaching, crouching on all fours on the hospital bed, until he suddenly held his heart with both palms, raised himself up on his knees sharply, then fell off the bed. Dead as anyone Josh had ever seen.

“We have to go,” Josh said, taking Audray’s hand. They walked through the bathroom walls into the room next door, surprising an emaciated female patient. Buzzing came from the nurses’ station, and an announcement came over the loudspeaker. The two dark angels stood at the end of the hallway, out of the way, observing the furious pace of going and coming as the hospital staff tried in vain to save the legendary rocker. As if he was of some special importance.

But Beau had died, just like any common man, only now destined to live forever as a dark angel. Josh would make sure his contract with Beau was delivered in full. Unlike Peter, he didn’t believe in telling lies to a dying man.

“Now what do we do?”

“We get the body after he’s taken downstairs.”

“We steal the body?” Audray looked almost sick to her stomach.

“We substitute it. We take him, leave someone else I’ll shapeshift to look just like him in his place. We have to do this before they do an autopsy. Don’t want him cut up. He’d not like that.”

“I had no idea about any of this,” she said.

“You weren’t supposed to know. Leave it to me. Just wait until I’m done.”

After a few hours, Beau’s body was transported in a black limo, a style to which he had become accustomed. Josh left another body in his place, someone who had died beside the freeway that afternoon, homeless and unmissed. Part of a large population of willing dead recruits no one would miss.

Beau would go to the readers, the gatekeepers who would view the last moments of Beau’s life to confirm the suicide. Then, after a few days of processing, he would be admitted back to the human world as a dark angel. Josh knew the paperwork would be heavy. He squeezed his fist and released it a few times, getting ready for the forms he would have to fill out. The Underworld was hopelessly bogged down in paperwork and could almost sink of its own making.

And so it was that a homeless man would be buried as a rock star. If any of Beau’s relatives knew the truth of it, they would no doubt think it was a fitting end to an expendable life, a hole in the fabric, or inconsistency created in an imperfect universe that would continue to grow forever in all directions. The sacred and the profane.

Chapter 15

Melanie put up light blue paper doves and white streamers glittered with silver and gold edging. With a gentle breeze, she’d be able to feel and hear the fluttering tissue as if they were wings of real doves. She loved birds in their feathered finery. They brought lightness to her soul.

Her favorite time of year was Christmas because of the glitter, the decorations, and the bright sparkle lights. But the bridal season of May, June, and July was the time when her shop made the most profit.

She was standing atop a three-step stool when the bell at the front door tinkled. When she turned around and saw the dark gentleman gracing her doorway, her heart leapt.

Josh.

She wobbled, almost falling off her perch. He didn’t say anything as he stood just inside the door, his hands buried deep in his long wool coat pockets. She smelled his spicy cologne that held a tinge of orange. He had on a light blue shirt, buttoned one down from the top. His shoes were shiny and black. No boots tonight.

She liked those knee-high boots from their last meeting. Made her think of dangerous pirates and gentlemen rakes from one of her novels. Tonight, he was well tailored and dressed neatly, as if he were accompanying someone to a play in the city or to a fancy restaurant. His dark eyes were especially luminous.  

She was glad he was glad to see her. It warmed her heart. His lips turned up slightly at the ends. He stepped closer and inhaled her scent, smiling.

“How are you doing? Got any more roses you want to sacrifice to a worthy cause?” he asked. His eyes added sparkle to the gentle vibration of his words.

She liked that he spoke first. It made him positively kissable. “No, but if I did, you could have all of them.” She climbed down the stool steps and stood in front of him. She enjoyed looking up at tall men who made her weak in the knees. Dark men made her lose her inhibitions.

He was both.

He cocked his head to the side and considered her face before answering this. “Could I now? That’s a dangerous proposition.”

Melanie felt her cheeks flush. “You want to help me?” she asked, holding up the end of some twinkle lights.

“Why not?” He beamed. He was a different man all together when he smiled. Melanie took the other end of the string and, grabbing a staple gun, got up on the stool again and stapled the strand to the rough wood paneling.

“Isn’t that dangerous?” he asked.

“You think I don’t know what I’m doing?” she asked, looking under her arm at him. He shrugged. She pointed to the strand and he held it up higher. She climbed down and moved the stool behind him, got up to the top step, and bent down to retrieve the end from Josh’s fingers.

“Thanks.” She smiled, her heart warm and filled with life for the first time in what felt like decades. Together, they strung and stapled the lights around the room until the little shop was transformed into a world of twinkling stars and birds worthy of a nursery in Heaven. She watched as Josh eyed the birds with a squint.

“How do you like it?” she asked.

“Very, very . . . almost angelic.” Josh seemed to find particular delight in the phrase.

“Oh dear. I don’t want it to seem too much like a funeral.”

“Well, there are some men who think of weddings as funerals. End of carefree days sort of thing.”

“I’d call it a beginning of a new life.”

Josh chuckled to the ceiling. “That’s a way of putting it.”

“I take it then you’ve never married, or you have and don’t recommend it?” Melanie searched his face for some honesty.

“No. I’ve never and no, don’t think I can, really.”

“Why?” She watched the way his eyebrows arched up when he spoke. The fullness of his deep pink lips distracted her. Small hairs at the back of her neck prickled.

“It’s complicated, love.” He walked over to one of the blue tissue birds, then poked it with a long forefinger, making it rock on its fishing line tether. “Seems like everywhere I go these days, someone has birds.”

“You don’t like them?”

He took a quick breath, turned, and grinned. “Very odd little things.” He shrugged. “I don’t know, I find them strange creatures. Delicate and happy all the time.”

“Like angels.”

Melanie noticed a stiffness in his spine.

“Oh, don’t go there.” He stood close to her, brushed his fingertips across her cheek. “I like delicate,” he whispered for her ears only.

Melanie felt herself melting at the obvious erotic advance. The affect of his nearness to her face almost made her swoon, but she held herself in check.