After rifling through Anna's closet in her pretty purple bedroom and not finding anything, I slammed the door shut. "Dang it," I whispered. It was taking way too long. If I was in my ethereal form, this would have been a cinch. Anything I wanted revealed, would have shown itself to me, with just a little bit of power. In this form, using power weakened me by the second, but it had to be done. Pulling out a trickle of power, I sent it out across the room searching for anything useful to me.
As my magic settled over the room, a sense of the objects trickled to me. I was used to it being like a shout, but this was subtle. More like they whispered their secrets to me now.
Breathing deep, I closed my eyes and let my senses guide me around the room. For the most part, everything told me stories of a good, wholesome life. But darkness hid somewhere in the room. I sniffed harder, even though it wasn't a scent exactly, no more than it was a true whisper. The impressions I got from the objects in the room were more like an echo. But no, that wasn't right either.
It was a combination of it all. My senses tingled with awareness and intent. And something under Anna's bed drew my attention. "Of course, it's under the bed," I muttered.
Lowering myself awkwardly down, I settled on my side and used my phone to shine a light under.
There wasn't even a dust bunny under there. Maybe she wastooneat.
Or she had one of those robot vacuums. Those things were so cool.
The only thing under the bed was a box right in the middle where I couldn't reach. Scooting halfway under with my belly wedged and Turtle kicking against the pressure, I got the tips of my fingers on the small box. Grunting, I walked my fingers across the top, trying to get a grip on it.
"Come here," I hissed, lashing out with my magic. I grunted as it worked, and the box slid across the floor and smushed against my face, squishing my nose. "Thanks."
After what felt like two hours, I got to my feet and set the box on the bed to open it.
The box held newspaper clippings. I gathered from them that they were about Anna's father. He'd been a lawyer.
But they weren't the source of the darkness. I kept digging through pictures and old greeting cards until I came to a flat velvet box. Almost like a jewelry box, but I knew it contained a coin.
It was consumed with darkness. I flipped it open to see an old silver dollar from the late eighteen hundreds.
I wouldn't be able to get a true read on it without touching it, so I pulled it out of its velvet casing and palmed it, rubbing my thumb across its worn face.
An image of a man popped into my head. I knew he was Anna's father, thanks to my magic. He was holding a gun to someone's head, then... I dropped the coin with a gasp. He was a bad, bad man. I'd definitely have to have Michael dig deep into this family before I left my Turtle with them, but there wasn't much time left to look for another family. I had to deliver her, pronto.
No time like the present. "Michael," I hissed. "Gabe?"
Tapping my foot, I waited impatiently. "Michael," I called louder. He didn't appear. Time to try shouting. "Gabe?"
Gabriel appeared across the room. "What's wrong?" he asked in a pant. "We're busy."
Arching an eyebrow, I gave him my haughtiest look. "Too busy to help me find a place for my daughter to grow up?"
"No, of course not, but we've been trying to track down Raph." He strode forward and stopped in front of me. "Whoa." Stepping back, he looked around. "What's putting off all that evil?"
In his ethereal body, he'd feel it much stronger than I would.
I held out the coin. "This was from the father of the woman I'm considering. I need Michael to check her out soon, to make sure she doesn’t carry any of her father's evil madness."
"This dude is down there in Hell for sure," he said with raised eyebrows as he turned the coin over in his hands. "The humans don't know half of what he did before they fried him."
"They fried him?" I asked, shocked. That hadn't come up in my internet searches about Anna.
"Yeah, death row, the electric chair. He was a serial killer." Gabe put the coin in the case and shuddered. "I'll go get Michael. You get out of here before someone catches you."
He pressed a light kiss to my forehead and turned away, but then paused. "I'm so sorry you're going to have to do this."
My breath hitched in my throat, and a guilty look came over his face. "I've been pressing you to do what's right for Hell and the greater good, I know. I'm sorry I have to do that."
He didn’t have to. It wasn’t like the facts didn’t plague my mind all the time.
I pointed at his shirt, a soft flannel that looked nothing like what he'd normally wear. "What have you got on?" I asked, looking at his face and laughing.
He shrugged. "We've been looking on Earth for Raphael. Trying to blend in. We've been in Texas."
