Angel Fever (16 page)

Everything else vanished as I grabbed my rifle, checking people’s auras to see who’d been caught off-guard. Then the lights snapped out, and we were plunged into battle.

As the angels started diving, I felt the familiar adrenalin rush. One swooped right at me – I got it in a single shot and then ran for the set, white fireworks exploding through the room. My heart was pounding as I crouched behind a wall and aimed; I pulled the trigger. This was the one time in my life when I felt – well, not happy, but alive again.

Then everything seemed to go into slow motion. My hands chilled, and I missed an angel entirely; its holographic body sliced through me. The buzzer signalling that I’d “died” went off as I lowered my rifle, my spine suddenly prickling. What was going on?

For a heartbeat I stood motionless, surrounded by shouts and the red pinpoints of laser rifles. Then by some instinct I looked up at the broad ceiling, shrouded in darkness.

And I knew.

Time snapped back into place. “
Attack! We’re under attack!
” I yelled. I scrambled from the set; ran for the door, and switched on the lights – the room flooded with brightness. I could hear Seb calling out too now; people stood gaping at us both.

“
We’re under attack!
” I shouted again, cupping my hands around my mouth. “The angels are almost here! Get a weapon –
do
something!”

I flung open the door and started sprinting towards the armoury. Oh god, I could actually
feel
them now, surging through the ground like ethereal arrows. Before I’d made it halfway down the corridor, I heard the sound of screams starting.

No!
I whirled back towards the training room and saw that some of the more experienced AKs had followed me out. Sam was pounding towards me; Liz and Kara, Meghan, a dozen others.

“Don’t stop, we need real guns!” bellowed Sam, charging past.

I took off running again. We reached the armoury; Sam threw it open. “Grab as many weapons as you can carry, then get back in there!”

I swung a semi-automatic rifle over each shoulder, grabbed another, and then a couple of pistols. I shoved them in my jeans waistband with a hand that somehow wasn’t shaking.

It’s time,
I thought.
Finally, it’s time.

Meghan was pale as she loaded herself up. As Kara clicked in a magazine, I saw the scars where her tattoo used to be. I registered them in a blur as I raced from the armoury, ignoring the weight pulling at my shoulders.

Sam passed me, bristling with weapons. The screams grew louder with every step. As Sam edged open the training room door, they amplified. I gritted my teeth and followed him in – then stopped, the breath freezing in my lungs.

The room was a frenzy of angelic light. Hundreds of angels –
hundreds,
swooping, diving, tearing away life forces. Through the churning wings, I saw that at least half the AKs lay dead already, their bodies sprawled amid the fake ruins. Some of the ones left must have had real pistols on them – they were shooting frantically, aiming upwards.

It made no difference. We were hopelessly outnumbered. In a daze I saw another few AKs fall; realized that in minutes we’d all be dead.

Sam had taken only a few steps in. As the others appeared behind us, he whirled around, eyes blazing. “
Get out – evacuate!
”

Kara’s chin thrust out. “No
way,
Sam!”

“Do it! Each of you, take a weapon and leave the extras –
go
!” When Kara didn’t move, he tore one of the rifles from her shoulder. “What part of
get the hell out
do you not understand?” he roared into her face. Reluctantly, Kara obeyed; she and the others turned and started running back towards the garage.

“That goes for you, too, angel chick,” Sam said through clenched teeth. He was loading himself up with even more rifles; suddenly I could read his thoughts as clearly as my own. He’d go down fighting. There was no way he was abandoning the rest of his team.

I stared at him in a tangle of emotions…but most of all, relief.

“No, Sam,” I said quietly. I skidded one of my rifles across the floor into the fray, and then levelled the other against my shoulder as I reached within for my angel. “I’m mutinying, like Alex said. If you’re going down with the ship, then I am too.”

W
HEN HE
’
D FIRST SENSED THE
angels, Seb had gone sprinting for the holograph machines; he pulled the plug on the computerized angels and spun back towards the room. “Attack!” he shouted, adding his voice to Willow’s. “Get out, you need weapons!”

The door nearest him was closer to his bedroom than the armoury – he flung it open and started to run. In his dorm he snatched up his switchblade from the dresser.

It was less than a minute before he got back, but as he entered Seb stopped in his tracks, stunned.
Dios mío,
this was slaughter. He plunged into the battle anyway; as he ducked to grab up a pistol from a fallen AK, he shoved aside the sight of the girl’s empty gaze.

Suddenly panic gripped him.
Meghan.

As Seb shot at an angel’s halo, he sent his own angel soaring upwards, searching for her vivid hair. One of the creatures came at him; he battled it briefly, somehow wrenched away. Oh god, where was she? All at once he glimpsed Meghan through the main doorway, running away with Kara and some others. The human Seb let out a breath as his muscles relaxed – and then he saw that Willow was still in here.

No!
Seb started battling towards her, crouching and shooting as angels came at him. His own angel shielded him, whirling away to protect the others when he could. There were vanishingly few left to protect, though those few now had weapons and were doing their best. Seb took a split second to snatch up a rifle lying on the floor; it was a relief to have the weapon’s greater control.

Take that, you
cabrón, he thought, blasting another angel into nothingness. There were so many, it hardly made a difference.

“Sam! Look out!” shouted Willow’s voice. Seb spun and saw Sam’s burly form fall in a haze of angels, his life force in tatters.

“
No!
” Willow screamed. Crying now, she stood over Sam’s body, shooting again and again; remnants of angels fell like snow as her own angel fought overhead. Seb reached the two of them somehow. He took a shot and dropped to his knees beside Sam; the Texan’s aura was faint, almost gone.

As Sam struggled to focus, Seb gripped his hand hard. “Get her outta here,” Sam gasped, clutching his fingers. “Please, man, get her out – don’t let ’em capture her.”

Before Seb could reply, the light had faded from Sam’s blue eyes. His hand went limp.

Seb didn’t let himself feel sorrow. He rose hastily. The remaining AKs had banded together at the other end of the room, firing upwards, bringing down angels. The creatures left were attacking the tiny group in a frenzy. Through twisting wings, Seb saw the AKs start to fall, one after another. In seconds, the angels would envelop him and Willow too.

Willow started to run towards the fight. Seb grabbed her, holding her back. “No!” she cried as she struggled. “Let me go! I’ve got to help—”

Her angel flew at him – his own angel fended her off. The human Willow was strong for her size but no match for him; Seb got her arms pinned and half carried her towards the door as she fought. “I swear I will knock you out and put you over my shoulder if I have to,” he said through gritted teeth. “
Come on.
It won’t bring Alex back if you die.”

She went rigid – and then seemed to crumple. Looking at the motionless Sam, the final moments of slaughter across the room, she nodded mutely. He gripped her free hand, and they ran for it.

As the door closed, the corridor went startlingly silent, the only sound the drumming of their feet. Seb took the heavy spare rifle from Willow’s shoulder as they ran and slung it over his own. Both their auras were grey, shrunken.

“They’ll search the base for us,” Willow panted. “I don’t know if they realize who we are, though – I think I got all the ones who saw my angel; they might think we’re dead already.”

As they passed an open storage room, Seb glimpsed a few tin cans lying on the floor: Kara and the others must have managed to grab some supplies. With luck they could still be in the garage.

Seb sent his angel to go signal that he and Willow were coming – but hadn’t flown half a dozen wing strokes before he whirled mid-air, senses prickling.

A small flock of the attackers were rounding a corner behind them, their ethereal wings slicing through walls as they jetted down the corridor.

Willow had felt them too; she turned around holding her rifle, running backwards a few steps as she let loose a volley of shots. Her angel appeared and went flying off to meet them head-on.

Seb twisted backwards as he ran, jaw tight as he fired again and again. One down. Another one. He felt his angel pluck his switchblade from his jeans pocket and then jet into the fray.

Seb could sense the exact moment when the remaining angels decided to retreat for reinforcements. Willow knew it too; he could feel her alarm – there were still over a hundred angels in the base. Without speaking, they redoubled their efforts.

In the air, sparks flew as his angel’s wings beat against his opponents’. A glimpse of a beautiful, furious face – a hissed oath as Seb’s angel struggled his knife towards the halo. The blade sliced through, glowing white; as the angel screamed, Seb’s angel was already hurtling away to another one. On the ground, Seb was still firing, running after the retreating angels to bring them down.

Willow’s angel was battling another female, straining to reach its halo. A burst of shattered brilliance as she succeeded. The human Willow gasped. She stumbled and fell, her rifle clattering to the ground, and gaped upwards at where the angel had been.

The last remaining angel was watching her with a sudden frown. Seb’s angel lunged at him. Their wings clashed; Seb’s angel lifted his switchblade – and then stopped, stunned.

The energy he was touching felt almost like his own.

The angel hovered as they gaped at each other. On the ground, Seb froze in recognition. He had no memories of the angel who was his father…yet had no doubt that this was him.

Willow got up, looking shaken; Seb had the fleeting sense that it was from more than just the attack. “Seb, what—” She broke off as she realized.

The angel shifted to his human form. Like Seb, he wore jeans and a long-sleeved T-shirt. Still aiming his rifle, Seb stared. He’d always thought he’d gotten his high cheekbones from his mother, but he saw now they could as easily have come from his father. The angel’s shapely mouth was also Seb’s – the strong angle of his jaw. Only hair and eyes were different: both dark brown.

“I…didn’t know there was another of you,” the angel said in a strangled voice.

And just as Willow’s father had taken on the English accent of one of his past victims, Seb could now hear his mother’s Sonoran tones. He swallowed hard, trying not to shake.

The angel took a hesitant step forward. “Can…can I ask your name?”

He wasn’t sure why he answered. “Seb,” he bit out. “Sebastián.”

“I’m Zaran.” The angel shook his head, gazing at Seb. “I didn’t know. All these years…” He trailed off. “Your mother was very beautiful,” he added. “I started to really care about her. I tried to leave her alone…”

A sound came like the rushing of a wind tunnel: angels approaching, more than they could ever hold off. Seb felt Willow’s urgency as she tugged at him. “Seb! We have to hurry!”

Zaran glanced over his shoulder. A sudden resolve appeared on his face; he changed back to his angel form. “Go – leave,” he ordered them both. “I’ll say no one’s down this way.” He soared off down the corridor.

Seb’s hands felt hot on the rifle. All the times he’d thought about what he’d do to his father if he ever met the
cabrón,
and he’d just
stood
there? Told him his name?

“
Seb!
” Willow was pulling with both hands now. “Come on! Do
you
want to die?”

Still cursing himself, Seb turned, and he and Willow ran, faster than ever. Seconds later they skidded into the garage. No sign of Kara and the others; two of the biggest trucks were gone.

“You need to drive,” Seb said shortly. Meghan had given him a few driving lessons, but he didn’t trust himself right now. He punched the elevator button as Willow dived into one of the remaining trucks.

When they reached ground level, both door and gate stood gaping open. Outside, it was snowing. Willow hurtled them onto the dirt road. The snow fell in big flakes that whirled towards the windshield; twisting in his seat, Seb was relieved to see it covering their tracks. The truck’s clock read 9:22. The simulation had started at nine.

All those people – almost the entire team. Seb clenched his jaw, refusing to drown in what he was feeling. Then apprehension flickered; he could sense that the angels had finished searching the base.

“Hurry – we have to hide,” he said.

Willow’s cheeks were white. “I know – I feel it too.” She lurched them off-road and steered the truck behind a large boulder. Angling them quickly into the shadows at its base, she killed the engine. In seconds, snow coated the windshield with tiny kissing noises, hiding them.

With no warning, the low roar of an explosion came, rumbling through the ground and vibrating right up through them. The car keys jingled. Willow gave a small cry, pressing her hand against her mouth; Seb swore impotently in Spanish.

The gas storage tanks under the pumps. They’d torched them. In a psychic flash, he could actually see it: the head angel changing to his human form and smirking at the others.

Watch this – the perfect finishing touch.
A lit match – a shift back to his angel self before the flame had even hit the fuel. Hemmed in by a hundred tons of stone, the explosion would have surged through the base like fiery lava, scorching everything in its path.

Dully, Seb realized that the angels had erupted up out of the ground and were soaring away through the sky now, heading east. Including his father. By the time Seb could no longer sense them, the truck’s interior had grown shadowy, its windshield covered with blue-white snow.

After a long pause, Willow cleared her throat. “Maybe…maybe we should try heading north,” she said in a tiny voice. “If we’re lucky, Kara managed to get into the office and grab the coordinates for the Idaho base.”

Seb nodded. He felt numb, frozen. “Yes. Good idea.”

As it turned out, the others weren’t far ahead – they’d seen the angels and also pulled off-road to hide. Willow caught up and sent her angel cruising over the lead truck to signal it was them.

There was a tense moment when Seb wondered whether Kara was going to gun the accelerator – what had just happened probably hadn’t lessened her dislike of half-angels much. Then she waved a slim brown arm out the window.

The three trucks convoyed north. He and Willow had lapsed back into silence, keeping their auras distinctly separate, their thoughts just as distant. Even so, Seb was aware that Willow had locked away her anguish for now and was thinking fretfully about Pawntucket, her hometown.

He almost asked about it, then bit back the words. Willow had made it clear that she wanted nothing to do with him, not even his friendship. There were times now when Seb felt the same about her – there was a limit to how much hurt he could take from one person. Even one he was in love with.

In the truck ahead, he could just make out a rich pile of auburn hair.
Meghan.
Seb’s fist tightened on his thigh. Oh god, what must she be feeling, having witnessed that slaughter? With an effort, he resisted sending his angel out to check on her – she wouldn’t thank him for it.

The snow dwindled until it was only a dusting on the desert floor. Sixty miles outside the Reno ruins, they reached Fallon – more of a ghost town now than a dark town. Willow followed the others to an abandoned shopping mall. The main entrance had been shattered; Kara drove her truck right inside, and they all parked in the food court.

“What happened?” demanded Kara as everyone got out. “Are you two the only…?”

“Yes,” said Seb; his voice came out harshly. He explained what had happened, aware that he’d purposefully spoken before Willow, to spare her the pain. He sensed the group’s mood dampening further, their auras becoming more shrunken. Meghan stood hugging herself, a rifle hanging over one shoulder.

When he finished, Kara had gone almost grey, though her expression hadn’t changed.

“Well, at least you and Willow made it,” she said finally – and to give her credit, she sounded as if she meant it.

She turned to the others. “Okay, we’ve been here before, and the place has been pretty picked over, but you can still find some things. Go in twos and threes, keep scanning, and take whatever you need. When it starts getting dark, come back to the trucks. We’ll spend the night here, then keep heading up to the Idaho base in the morning.”

Surreal
was an English word Seb had learned only recently. The rest of that day fitted the description. While images of slaughter screamed through his head, he went from store to store, searching. Two girls from one of his classes went with him, sticking close, and he talked to them automatically, somehow managing to smile and be comforting. Yes, what a hero.

He found a sweater in his size. The only jacket to be had was of Italian leather, dyed forest green – so fine and thin it was nearly worthless, despite its price tag.