He chuckled. “No. It doesn’t matter to me.” He clasped her shoulder briefly. “Take care. Keep saving the world.”
“You too, dear friend.” She smiled and then flashed away.
But she didn’t return to the realm.
In fact, she only teleported out of the garden, out of Daniel’s sight. There, she dampened her energy so he would not sense her and then waited. Grigori still had most of their angelic powers, but they lost their direct connection to Heaven when they fell, and as such, they were weakened. For this reason, it took Daniel several seconds of focused concentration before he could teleport away.
As soon as he was gone, Sunshine flashed back into the garden to where Daniel had been standing seconds before. Holding out a hand, she waved it through the air, still tingling with a slight static charge from Daniel’s power. She closed her eyes and focused, tapping into the wellspring of her own abilities.
Little tendrils of her energy latched on to the remnants of Daniel’s, following it through the ether, transcending time and space. And then she felt it.There.
Her eyes opened. Hong Kong. Interesting.
Using the energetic signature as her anchor point, she traveled the same path Daniel had taken, with a slight deviation at the end to ensure they didn’t end up in the exact same location. Daniel couldn’t know she’d followed him.
From there, she immediately sensed the energy traces of another jump. But why would Daniel travel to Hong Kong only to leave seconds later? Unless...
He was trying to ensure he was not followed.
Her sense of suspicion increased, and so did her focus. Closing her eyes, she traced his path and followed him once more. Brazil. And then again. Morocco.
And finally... Canada.
She arrived in a back alley in a wintry city. Still dressed for Greece’s milder weather, the cold bit at her arms through her light jacket. It wasn’t immediately clear where exactly she was in the expansive country, but she had a sense of being in one of the eastern provinces.
It was night, but the cloudy sky glowed from the city lights. Behind her, broken furniture stuck out of an overfilled dumpster. The brick walls on either side were painted with graffiti, and the snowdrifts were so high, they covered nearly half the wall. Only a small, icy path remained, and Sunshine followed it toward the street.
There, cars and buses sprayed slush behind their back tires. People hurried on the sidewalks with heads down as a cold wind gusted. She looked to the intersection closest to her and peered up at the street signs.
Saint-Laurent and Mont-Royal. Montreal, she realized. Daniel had led her to Montreal. What business could he have here?
She was about to find out.
Still clinging to the remnants of Daniel’s energy, she focused again until she felt his presence nearby. Keeping herself hidden from human eyes, she flashed again, ending up a few blocks down from her previous location.
She arrived just in time to see Daniel opening a black door and climbing a set of interior steps. Peering at the building, she read the half-burnt-out neon sign beside the door. “Bootleg.” The name of a bar, perhaps?
As a heavenly angel, Sunshine hadn’t much cause to visit taverns, though she was sometimes required to as part of her guardian duties. As for Daniel... Grigori were fallen, yes, but the majority still followed the principles of angelic living. So what was he doing visiting such an establishment?
Keeping her energy tamped down, she took a breath, opened the door, and climbed the steps.
Upstairs, the club assaulted her with sensation, and she fought the urge to panic. Bodies pressed in from all sides, and the music coming through the speakers pounded with heavy bass and drums. The stage was full of musical instruments, though no band had started to play yet.
She squeezed herself into the far back corner to make contact with as few humans as possible. Every time a human touched an angel, they received a blessing, since the angel transferred a small amount of power to them. If too many humans touched her without her shields properly activated, she would be drained of energy until she had time to recuperate.
From her corner, Sunshine scanned the room in search of Daniel.
She found him standing beside a table near the stage in the most unusual company.
There were two women of similar appearance, one younger and one older, both of pleasant countenance and treating each other with obvious affection. Sunshine immediately sensed the bond of a mother and daughter. The mother was watching Daniel with a curious expression, and when he glanced at her, they exchanged smiles. Daniel quickly glanced away, color rising to his cheeks.
How curious.In all the millennia Sunshine had known him, she had never seen such a look upon his face.
Her attention turned to the others in their company, all of them striking in their own way. There was a man with long, inky-black hair and stunning features. His hand was intertwined with that of the daughter, and she leaned into him in a comfortable way that told Sunshine they were a couple with a strong foundation of trust.
The daughter bid farewell to her mother and the rest of her friends as she pulled the man toward the stage, where other musicians were gathering.
As Daniel took a seat beside the woman he’d been smiling at, Sunshine turned her attention to the others in his company.
