Sins of the Lost

nurse held out a cell phone to her.

“A Staff Inspector Roberts for you,” the nurse said.

Alex shoved the destroyed phone she clutched into the pocket of her borrowed coat. She took the one from the nurse.

“You can return it to the triage desk when you’re done,” said the woman. She stepped out of the room again. Turning her back on Boileau, Alex put the phone to her ear. “Hey, Staff,” she said.

“Is Trent with you?” Roberts’s voice demanded without preamble.

She raised an eyebrow. “I’m fine, thank you.”

“I’m serious, Alex. Where is Trent?”

“He’s in the waiting room outside emergency. I was on my way there now. What’s going on?”

“Just get to him. Tell me when you’re there.”

Something very small and cold took root in her center. “Staff—”

“Now, Detective. That’s an order.”

Without another word, she left the examining room, hurried down the corridor, and pushed through the doors into the waiting area. Was it just her, or was this getting to be a habit? She searched the room for Aramael, and in an extension of her deja vu moment, located him beside the exit doors. He raised an eyebrow as she joined him. Roberts, she mouthed.

“He’s right in front of me,” she told her supervisor. “Now what’s going on?”

“Your sister’s been taken to the hospital, Alex. She’s unconscious. They’re doing a CT scan now.”

In an instant, the world narrowed to the phone in her hand and the row of buttons on Aramael’s shirt. Jen.

“Alex.” Roberts’s voice turned sharp. “Don’t you dare pass out on me.”

“I’m okay,” she said. Breathe in. Breathe out. “What happened? An accident? Was Nina with her?”

“Her house was broken into. The incident report says home invasion.”

Even through the chaos in her brain, his phrasing caught her attention.

“The incident report says,” she echoed. “What does that mean?”

“Her door was broken in. Frame, hinges, and all. No explosion, no other signs of damage, nothing.”

The cold in her center began a slow, sinuous uncoiling. “Nina. Where is Nina?”

“They found her backpack. And her coat.”

But not her. Not Nina. The world tipped out from beneath Alex’s feet. Iron hands clamped around her arms and steered her toward a chair, pushed her down. It took three tries for her to fill her lungs.

“When?” she croaked. When did it happen? How long has she been missing?

“We’re trying to determine that now. The 911 call came in at five thirty. If Nina was in school today, then it would have been between then and the time she got home.”

“Who called it in? Did they see anything?”

“One of the neighbors noticed the door coming home from work and found your sister inside. That’s all we have for now. Dr. Riley is staying with Jennifer at the hospital. She’ll call me with the results of the scan. I’m heading over to the house now.”

She nodded. Remembered he couldn’t see her. Made herself find words. “I’ll catch the first flight out that I —”

Aramael plucked the phone from her hand. He held up a finger to ward off her fierce objection. “It’s Trent,” he said to Roberts. “How long does it take to get from the airport to Jennifer’s house?” He listened a moment, then said, “She’ll see you then.”

He slid the phone shut, gave it back to her, and held out a hand. She stared at it, then lifted her gaze to the cold gray of his.

“But you’re not allowed,” she said.

“Call it extenuating circumstances. I have a bad feeling about this, Alex. We need to be there.”

“Detective Jarvis!”

Alex looked around to see Boileau, cell phone to his ear, framed in the doorway through which she’d come a moment before. He shoved his wire-framed glasses up on his nose and stalked in their direction. She didn’t wait. Didn’t question Aramael about his feeling.

Wasn’t sure she wanted to know.

“Outside,” she told him. “It’s quieter.”

They headed away from Boileau, out into the chill of the night, handing the cell phone off to a security guard at the entrance as they passed. Within seconds they’d rounded the corner of the building and reached a quiet parking lot away from the main traffic area. Aramael stopped where the shadows were deepest.

“Ready?”

She shuddered as she thought back to the time when Michael had transported her this way. One could never be ready for that. But she nodded anyway, because it was Jen and Nina, and she needed to be there. With them. For them.

Aramael drew her tight against his chest. His wings enfolded her. A distant part of her noted that this was only the third embrace she had ever shared with him—if she counted having him protect her from the explosion— and then his body turned liquid with a molten energy that infused her, enshrouded her, became her.

The world fell away in a rush of vibration and heat.

Chapter 59

When they arrived at the car in the Toronto airport parking lot, Alex held out the keys to Aramael. He took them without a word. They both understood she was in no condition to drive.

He offered to stop by the hospital first to see Jen, but Alex shook her head. Jen was in good hands. They could do nothing for her. Nothing except find her daughter. Find one small, seventeen-year-old girl somewhere out there, in that vast expanse of city.

She stared out at the passing lights as Aramael maneuvered through traffic. At the storefronts, cars, apartments, and houses; at the people coming and going about their ordinary lives, oblivious to the drama playing out on their very doorsteps. Even if they knew about Nina, to them she would be just another of the city’s casualties. Another teen girl missing from her home. News today, forgotten tomorrow in the rush to get to work, to school, to yoga, to hockey practice. It was the same story in every city around the globe.

Except maybe for the part where an Archangel from Heaven had a bad feeling about the disappearance.

Strong fingers closed over hers. Squeezed. Withdrew.

It will be all right, the touch said.

She didn’t believe it. She still didn’t ask about the feeling.

“Do you want to call Seth?” Aramael asked. “He should know you’re back.”

Seth, who would have seen the newscasts by now and would be out of his mind with worry. Seth, who would be frantically trying to reach her on a cell phone that no longer functioned.

Seth, son of the One, and source of a thousand complications that she just couldn’t deal with right now.

“Later,” she said.

Aramael shot her a quick look but didn’t comment. He turned onto Jen’s street and Alex’s heart gave a shuddering thud on its way to her toes. They pulled up behind a half dozen police cars parked along the curb in front of her sister’s house. Yellow police tape stretched across the bottom of the porch stairs, and the front door stood open. No, not open. Missing.

Aramael put the vehicle into park and switched off the engine. Gathering herself, Alex made a monumental effort to switch from aunt to cop. To shove anguish to one side. At least for now.

Her supervisor met her in the shattered doorway. While a disappearance wasn’t within Homicide’s