Page 380 of Castings & Curses

"You may. I'm Riga Swann," she replied, "and I'm eighty-nine years old. Now who in blazes are you?"

"I'm the archangel Raphael," my companion said. "And this is Aurelia."

I gave her a small wave.

"Have you seen this woman?" Raphael asked as he showed her the same picture of Melinda that he'd shown the others.

Earlier in the interview process, Raphael had been more thoughtful with his questions, but I sensed he just wanted the job done and over with now. A bit like myself.

"What's it to you?" the elderly woman asked.

I noticed a slight hint of a smile on her lips.

Raphael studied the woman with interest and a surprising level of patience. "The angelic hierarchy requires her assistance in an ongoing investigation."

"Pshaw," the woman replied. "If you think Melinda had anything to do with a crime, you're sorely mistaken. She's not the one you need to be looking for, unless it's to protect her."

"Oh, why do you say that?" Raphael asked.

"Because I suspect I know why an assassin was hunting Misha Drake, and it had nothing to do with the goddess Melinda."

"Why were they hunting him?" I asked.

I know I shouldn't have shown I was accepting the stranger's worldview, but I had to know what she thought.

She took a deep breath. "There are those who don't approve of Ne—"

Without warning or even a sound, she was gone, mid-sentence. Raphael and I were standing alone.

I gasped, and glanced Raphael's way. His expression was grim, yet silent.

"Where is she?" I asked.

His gaze grew blank, and I knew he was sensing the environment trying to find her.

"She's… falling."

Like a flash, he surged through the ceiling in angelic form, passing straight through the roof and disappearing beyond the range of my sight and my senses.

I ran outside into the beer garden. I couldn't see much for a long moment, and then I saw two figures descending toward me. Raphael had the elderly woman in his arms. She appeared passed out or dead, but I could sense the life from her once Raphael landed on the ground. He set her down on the grass, and I knelt beside her.

It didn't take her long to awaken. Her eyes shot open, and she looked around her with wide eyes.

"You saved me. I'm a witch, but I can't effing fly."

"Yes, I did," Raphael replied matter-of-factly. "You're protected from teleportation now and no one will be able to listen in on us. The one who did this to you won't be able to do it again."

I didn't know what had happened, but I heard Raphael's voice in my mind.

'Someone just teleported her above the city and let her fall, but I caught her. They were probably listening in to our conversation from afar and didn't want her talking to us.'

"What were you going to tell us?" Raphael asked.

She looked terrified, the poor thing. She was shaking and grasping tufts of grass with white-knuckled fists.

"Maybe we should take her to the hospital," I said.

"No. No doctors," the elderly woman replied. "Fuck that. Someone might have wanted to stop him from creating Nephilim. He and Lucia were trying for a baby. She might already be pregnant."

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