When Good Angels Go Bad

only took a few minutes for the hostess to seat us and we were immediately accosted by a server named Peter who wanted us to try the new IPA on tap.

  “Just bring me whatever you have in a stout,” I said.

  Peter mumbled something about a milk stout, I nodded, and Lamont and Kim gave him their drink orders.

  I wasted no time getting down to business. “So Lamont tells me you have a situation.”

  “Well, he tells me you work with Daemons,” she started carefully.

  “Yes. Daily.” Of course it was a smug response. Magicians are assholes and I am, at my core, the quintessential magician.

  Kim leaned in toward me from across the table. "This is kind of a delicate situation and we haven't involved the police because we were afraid it would raise suspicion."

  My eyes widened. Immediately wishing my beer would arrive I swallowed a witty comeback and just listened.

  "We were doing a standard evocation of angels. Our Seeress, Lynn, was sitting in front of the black mirror like we've done a hundred times before." She stopped short as our server arrived with our beer. 

  I immediately took mine and swallowed a mouthful. Mmm, good beer. There, that was better. A little.

  Once the server was gone, Kim continued. "It was strange this time though. It was like the mirror turned to black liquid and Lynn went into a trance. We heard a voice say something we couldn't really make out. Like a hissing whisper beckoning her toward it. She stood up, and walked into the mirror and the rest of us just stared after her in shock. It was Brandon who finally took a few steps forward and put his hand on the mirror only to find it was solid. But we all saw it. Lynn literally got up and walked straight into the black mirror. We don't know how to get her out. We thought you might have some ideas."

  That's when I realized my jaw was hanging open slightly. I took a deep breath. What did someone say to such a fantastical story?  Besides, we were talking angels and angels were benevolent, for the most part. "Now, were any of you taking any psychedelic substances? Or were you under the influence of alcohol and drugs?"

  It was the natural first question, especially since marijuana was now legal in Colorado. It seemed everyone smoked it except me, or my significant other, Mike. Mike, being a police detective in Cherry Hills, did not partake and me - I could never stand the stuff. 

  Kim seemed to understand why I asked the question and took it in stride. She shook her head. "No. We don't allow any drugs or alcohol during group ritual. Especially during evocation. It would be far too dangerous."

  "Is it possible someone in the group slipped you guys anything?"

  Lamont's dark brown eyes traveled from me to Kim and back again, like someone who was watching tennis.

  "No. This is the same group I've been working with for three years. No new members or guests and we've done this ritual at least twenty-five times in the past three years." Kim took a nervous drink of her light, gluten-free beer and made a face.

  I almost made a face with her. Gluten-free beer was disgusting. I took another deep breath, then another mouthful of real beer. I wasn't sure I could help her, but it wouldn't hurt to try, and if I failed, I decided then and there that I would encourage them to contact the police. For all anyone knew, someone in their group, perhaps even Lynn herself, had drugged them all, and used the ritual as a way to disappear. Some people wanted to disappear from their lives, after all. Or, the entire story was a ruse by people with overactive imaginations, or worse -- a story to cover up a murder. Either way, it was a mystery and my curiosity was piqued. "Can myself and some friends come and check out the ritual space tonight?"

  "Absolutely," Kim agreed. "And you can see the video."

  My jaw dropped more pronounced this time. "You have this on video?"

  She nodded in an of course way as if I should have known. "We record all of our rituals on video. The video didn't blink out or get distorted or anything. It's really freaky." 

  Lamont nodded. "I've seen the video."

  "Shit," was the only word that came out of my mouth. "All right."

  Kim handed me her card with an address scrawled in tight script on the back. "Just call me first before coming by so I know to be expecting you."

  Then she pushed the gluten-free beer away in disgust, dropped a ten on the table, thanked Lamont and I, said something about picking up her kids from daycare, and got up and left. 

  I was left blinking in disbelief at Lamont. A slow smile spread across his face. "I told you..."

  "This is pretty intense. I need to call Alyssa and Mike and see if they want to go over there tonight. I've got to see this..."

  He nodded. "I knew this was right up your alley when I saw it. You have some rapport with angels, right?"

  While my area of expertise centered on the denizens of the infernal, to me, Angels were just another type of divine intelligence and I'd done my fair share of angel evocation and scrying with angels. I didn't answer him, just nodded back.   

  Yeah – this was definitely my cup of tea.

  When I got home I found Mike sitting on the couch in front of the television eating a cheeseburger from Lenny’s Burgers. He had it turned to the science fiction channel. It looked like a campy horror film.

  When he saw me he pointed to a bag on the table. “Dinner. Double bacon cheeseburger.”

  Feeling a little guilty that I hadn’t thought to pick up dinner myself, I smiled at him. “Thanks.”

  After washing down a bite of burger with a soda he said, “What did Lamont want?”

  He said Lamont in a rather accusing way. Mike didn’t like Lamont, probably because Lamont had no issue flirting with me in front of Mike, and Mike took issue with that.

  I went into the kitchen, grabbed a glass of water, and then grabbed the burger and some napkins from the bag. There were fries in there, too. I ignored them. “It was Lamont’s friend, Kim. She’s one of the facilitators of a local Golden Dawn order. They have a slight issue.”

  Mike rolled his eyes.

  “No, listen. This is bizarre and you’ll like it. There’s a mystery. One of their members went missing during a scrying session with an angel. Stepped into the mirror. Poof. Gone.”

  He let out a chuckle and shook his head.

  “That’s not the best part.”

  “Let me guess? The angel showed up and gave them some kind of cryptic message?” Despite Mike’s experiences with the supernatural since meeting me, he was still skeptical. Well, until he saw something for himself.

  “No. They caught it on video. We were invited to go over and look over the temple where it happened and view the video footage.” I settled down on the couch with the cheeseburger. “I was going to see if Alyssa wanted to come, too. I thought we could swing by there tonight. They’re just off of Twenty-Third and Gossling.”

  “How do we know the video hasn’t been screwed with?”

  “We take a copy with us and you send it to your lab of people.”

  “It’s not my lab. I can’t just use the lab when I want to, Liz. You know that.”

  “But it’s a missing person case.”

  “Yeah, out of my jurisdiction.”

  I frowned at him. “Doesn’t anyone owe you a favor? Or can they do it in their off time and we can pay them?”

  “Let’s look at it first. If it seems legit, I’ll see what I can do,” he finally agreed.

  “Thank you.” I gave him a peck on the cheek then focused on devouring the bacon cheeseburger. Afterward, I called Alyssa, who was obviously bored since she said she’d be right over, and I called Kim to let her know we were coming over, assuring her we wouldn’t be there longer than an hour or so.

  It was eight-forty-one when we pulled up to the small, brick, single family home with a one car garage not too far from my old house. Kim sat out on the front porch smoking a cigarette. She appeared to be just finishing up.

  We got out of the car and I nodded to her. “Hi Kim. Thanks for letting us come over tonight.” r />
  “I appreciate you coming,” she said, her eyes darting over my shoulder to my companions.

  I pointed to Mike, “This is my significant other, Mike. He’s actually a detective, and this is my friend Alyssa who has helped out in other investigations,” I explained, not wanting to go into too much detail.

  “Are they practitioners?”

  “Yep.” Then I realized I hadn’t introduced Kim. “Oh, and you guys, this is Kim.”

  Everyone nodded acknowledgement. I could sense Mike sizing Kim up, probably wondering if she had any reason to lie.

  Kim put out her cigarette, a Winston light I noticed from the pack she carried with her, and opened the door to her house. “Come on in. Excuse the mess.”

  We followed her inside to a cozy living room decorated in earth tones. It was cluttered with a ball and some coloring books on the floor, a stray blanket left in a heap on the recliner, and some small shoes tossed carelessly in front of a closet door. Not really my definition of a mess. Not when people had kids. The living room flowed into the dining room where a man, not much older than Kim, stocky, with light brown hair and dark eyes, sat at the dining room table in front of a laptop. He looked up and acknowledged us.

  Kim introduced us. “This is my husband Kevin.”

  Kim and Kevin, I thought, musing how they probably had kids named Kyle and Karen, or Katrina and Kasey. If I had been Megan or Melissa, Mike and I might have done the same thing, for the sake of symmetry and order. I decided not to be presumptuous and ask the children’s names despite my curiosity. Besides, they