“Again, I don’t know anything about disappearing Balancers.”
“Why don’t I believe you?” Miles asked, sitting back.
Lizzie snorted. “You want to take me to Heaven for a lie detector. Answer me a question; you’re an Angel, what do you care if good is winning the fight in the city? Why all the questions?”
Miles took a deep sip from his glass. “I’ve been tasked to ask.”
“Do the other Angels know you’re asking?” she followed up.
“Will you tell them I have been?” Miles looked at her.
“I don’t get involved; this is the most involved I’ve been and only because you insisted,” Lizzie said, finishing her whiskey. “If you had left after your last drink, I could not have cared less what happened.”
“So you aren’t the least bit curious as to what’s happening with the mortals in the city...” Miles observed. “And they aren’t interacting with you differently?”
Lizzie didn’t answer, and that alone spoke volumes to Miles. Their eyes met, and they looked into each other’s souls. Miles felt hot under his collar suddenly, but he didn’t look away. He suddenly forgot his line of questioning and inclined his head. “Your eyes are beautiful,” he commented. “Like a river...”
He flustered slightly and finally looked away, the tension in the air thick, and he could see a blush rise in Lizzie’s cheeks before he cleared his throat and asked, “Whatever is going on, are you a part of it? What the angels are doing?”
“I have no idea what they’re doing; I just run my bar and bring in an income. What they do is their business,” Lizzie said, clearing her own throat and moving to refill their glasses. “But one thing I am not is an idiot; you’re no Angel.”
“What?” Miles’ head jerked up. “Of course I am.”
“You refer to Angels as other specials, you say ‘they’ not ‘we’ or ‘us,’ and to be honest, you lack their ‘higher than thou’ attitude. No, you might look like an Angel, but you’re not one. What are you? Who are you really, and what are you doing here?”
“I’m an Angel, and I’ve been sent to see what is going—”
“If you’re going to lie to me then piss off, mate,” Lizzie said. “I haven’t got time to waste on you. I’ve been honest with you and if you can’t afford me the same courtesy, don’t bother coming back here at all.” Lizzie finished with, “I’ll banish you.”
Miles reached for his glass, and she pulled it away. “Who are you?”
“One more question and I’ll leave,” Miles said. “There was a Balancer called John Patrick who came through here not so long ago. Did you happen to speak to him and do you know where he went?”
Lizzie set the glass down and leaned on the bar. “Answer my question, Balancer, and I will answer yours.” She narrowed her eyes.
Miles frowned. “How could you...”
“You act like one; you talk like one...you’re not going to survive long around the Angels if they find out you are one.”
“Fine,” Miles said, reaching for his drink. “My name is Miles; I’m a senior Balancer sent to investigate the disappearances of the others. Now, can you answer my questions?”
“I remember John Patrick,” Lizzie said. “He was in here and he left with an Angel. That was the last I saw of him. He was also asking questions, questions the Angels didn’t want him asking. Now, you tell me what’s going on and maybe I can help you.”
“Don’t be stupid,” Miles said, downing his whiskey and standing up. “I don’t need the help of a Fallen Angel, and I certainly don’t see how you can help; you’re a cursed child, the least trusted of a supernatural.”
Lizzie frowned when he called her a cursed child and shook her head. “I know these assholes better than most, they’re in here every night, and you don’t think you can use that information?”
Miles looked at her for a moment and said, “I’ve already got my in, I just needed some groundwork to start from. You want to help? Stay out of my way. Thank you for the drinks.”
He walked towards the door and left Lizzie standing there, staring after him incredulously.
“I was wrong,” she called. “You are as arrogant as the lot of them.”
Miles smirked as he let the door slam behind him. The thought of involving Lizzie in whatever it was that was going on had made him panic slightly; he didn’t want her to get hurt. Miles shook and scolded himself. He could have used that sort of information. The logical part of his brain wanted to march back into the bar and say that he was wrong and request her help immediately, but there was a tiny part of him that wanted to keep her out of harm’s way. He may never be able to love, but he would be damned if someone else would be hurt because of him.
Chapter Seven
Lizzie
He was arrogant, she would give him that, and that could be mistaken for that holier than thou attitude that the Angels all had. He had, however, ignited in her more than just a curiosity for what was taking place in her city; he had stirred something within her feelings that she had long since thought she’d buried, and she didn’t like it. It was excitement more than anything and a longing for adventure. If nothing else it would serve to irritate the shit out of her father if she stirred up trouble with the Angels; after all, she had a duty to mind the Neutral Ground and not to get involved in the affairs of supernaturals.
As she lay on her bed with Loki, stroking his pitch-black fur, she pondered on how the humans had been somewhat submissive of late. They had been almost robotic, lifeless. It had been a gradual change at first, but now that she thought about it more and more, the worse it seemed to her. It was as though all trace of free will had been taken from the mortals.
Lizzie wasn’t one to feel much for anyone; she had long ago buried her emotions deep inside herself. She credited that to her strained relationship with her father and his cohorts, and the powers that be that had dictated her life since the day she was born. It had built a resentment inside of her for a lot of relationships, as well as a rebellious streak that had gotten her into a lot of trouble growing up. She hadn’t any friends except for Loki, who she was sure had an extended life granted to him by her father himself. And although she didn’t have any friends, Lizzie enjoyed the mortals she interacted with, and she didn’t like the idea of the balance of things being messed with.
So she was going to dig.
She could wait until the following evening to see if the Angels would give her any information, or she could go hunting for it herself. She knew where Adrial and his crew hung around during the day at the Cedars Sinai Hospital, performing miracle recoveries. Archangels were like that, always wanting to show each other up by completing the best miracles possible, and what better place to perform miracles than the place where you can cheat death repeatedly. Come to think of it, Lizzie thought, opening her phone to go to the local news site, there hadn’t been that many reports about death in the last couple of days. They were really throwing the balance off if they weren’t even letting people die. They would throw everything out of whack. Death was a natural progression of life; it had to happen. It had no side, no good or evil, so good had no business interrupting that cycle.