We moved from city to city all day, only returning home when we were bone tired and hungry. Lucifer and Michael had just arrived. They had moved around in Europe as we'd done in the US and had very similar stories to tell.
We agreed to go straight to bed after we ate and get straight back to it in the morning.
"Did anyone run into other angels?" I asked.
None had. They puzzled over it as we ate the pizza we'd called to have delivered. "Are you sticking to big cities?" Luc asked.
"We are." Gabe grabbed another slice.
"Maybe the other angels are moving around in the country."
We didn't encounter another angel until the next day in Knoxville, Tennessee. He was in the middle of a fight with a werewolf. "Stop," I commanded.
The wolf heeled immediately, pressing his jaw to his paws. He recognized me as his alpha.
The angel, a lower-level cherubim, stared at me in utter shock. "You're human," he exclaimed. "How did you get him to do that?"
Gabriel laughed, drawing the cherubim's attention to him. "Gabriel!" The small, dark-haired angel bowed deeply. "Sir, I didn't see you."
"This is Lilith," Gabe said. "Mother of all Demons."
A rumor. I barely knew anything about them when it came right down to them. Normally, wrangling demons was beneath me.
"Yes, sir, of course," the angel said. "Your sister."
"Indeed. "She's helping with the demons."
He lifted his eyes to look at me without pulling himself from his bow. "Thank you, Lady."
"It's my pleasure. We don't like this either. You may go. I'll clear this city of demons. I suggest you fan out into smaller towns and cities."
He bowed deeper, then disappeared. I did my mojo on the city, drawing dozens this time. "What made more gather there?" Gabe asked as we watched them disappear after I gave my edict for them to work on the walls.
"No clue," I muttered.
We were in the middle of gathering demons in Washington, D.C. when Michael appeared. "Joel's back," he said. "Come on."
I dispatched the demons that had gathered so far back to Hell and grabbed Michael and Gabriel's hands. Seconds later, we sat down at the kitchen table to speak to Joel.
"Well?" Lucifer asked.
"There's a Voodoo in New Orleans," he said. I tried not to roll my eyes. Of course, she was in New Orleans. "She's willing to speak to us, but she's hesitant because demons are involved."
"There are no demons involved," I said haughtily. "Not with the Ariel situation. We've got two distinct problems going on right now."
"She doesn't split hairs in the differences between Fallen and Demons," Joel said delicately.
I bristled but kept my mouth shut. I needed him and his Voodoo Priestess to help find my daughter. "She agreed because an innocent child is involved."
"Thank you," I said after biting back a giant slice of pride. "When can we go to her?"
"Now." He stood and held out his hands. We linked in a circle and appeared on the side of a street in the city. He hadn't even put us in a back alley. It was nearly four in the afternoon, and cars passed by one after another, but not one driver blinked an eye at the appearance of four men and a woman holding hands in a circle.
The cars weren't the most fascinating thing to look at. We stood in an empty parking spot directly in front of a restaurant with a big blue lettering that said, "Lakeside Harbor." Directly across the street, a huge wall blocked off a neighborhood of what looked like apartment buildings. Sailboat Bay.
"Now where?" I asked. The feeling of being watched danced over my skin.
"This way," Joel said. "I didn't want to take you directly to her. If we startled her, she might back out."
