We hit another one and stopped completely, the impact throwing us both forward. Cassie grunted as she hit the dash. And then we were scrabbling for our weapons as the angel moved in closer.
“What do we do?”
“I don’t know.”
I tucked her carbine into the crook of my elbow and tried to make out my surroundings. All that I could really see was the palely shining outline of the thing approaching us.
It was drifting calmly nearer.
And its mouth was stretching wide.
CHAPTER 47
I’d expected Cassie to pick up her Mossberg, but she had the Very pistol in her hand again. The charge in it had already been fired. She was bent across the back of her seat, one boot flailing in the air, scrabbling around on the floor in the rear and trying to find another one.
Except the braking and then the impact had dislodged everything on the backseat. The flares were only small, and she was trying to pick one out in almost total darkness. Her instincts were apparently telling her that they were our best chance, though. So she kept on rummaging blindly.
None of which altered the fact that time was running out. When I looked again, the angel was practically on top of us, its whole face contorted with an ugly kind of triumph.
“Cass?”
Single-minded as she was, she didn’t even stop to look.
So this was up to me. And I hadn’t made much headway against these things so far. But maybe the carbine, which was a lot more powerful than my gun, would have some effect. I guarded my eyes with one hand, then fired directly through the windshield.
A three-round burst. And then another. Squared off chunks of safety glass rained down around me. And the sound of gunfire inside the car was so deafening that my ears hurt. Acrid fumes swirled past my face.
When I managed to look out, I saw that the angel had halted momentarily. But the bullets didn’t seem to have done it any slightest harm. Perhaps the muzzle flash had forced it to slow down. That didn’t last for very long. I let the weapon drop.
There was a sharp metallic clack beside me. Cass had, at last, found another flare and was snapping it into its chamber. She swung around as soon as that was done, aiming with both hands and firing.
The charge passed straight through the creature without it even seeming to notice. And, since Cass hadn’t fired at a high enough trajectory, I suppose what happened next was pretty much inevitable.
It went buzzing off on a descending arc. And hit the surface of Plymouth Drive somewhere near the white line down the center. Then we watched it go bouncing away downhill, still hissing and fizzing.
By the time it finally exploded, it had gone behind a row of trees. We could see the burst, but none of the light reached us.
In spite of which, the angel faltered once again, its mouth sliding shut. It peered across its shoulder, making sure that it was not in danger. These things knew about self-preservation. I was interested to see that.
Then it returned its attention to us. And all other considerations became academic.
“Time to run?” Cassie asked.
I already knew, from my first encounter, that that wouldn’t work. These things moved too fast. They caught up with you like an echo. But she had a partial point.
If we split up, one of us might make it out of here. I doubted both of us could. My heart grew heavier as I took that in. One of us escaping would involve a massive sacrifice.
But we only had a couple of seconds left. And I couldn’t see any other way. I yelled, “Different directions!”
Cassie’s gaze became a little darker when she heard me shout out that. But then the practical side of her nature took over. She was kicking out through her door and propelling herself away from the Caddy, hurtling along the blacktop.
I booted open my own door and went off at right angles, heading back in the direction of the Luce house. Tall privet rows surrounded the grounds. But I also knew the gates were open, and I went for those.
All that I was genuinely aware of -- for what seemed to be the longest while -- were my own legs pumping, my heart and lungs fighting to keep up. My throat was dry and my breath heavy. But a single thought kept pounding through my skull.
Come after me, you bastard. Leave her be.
The ground was heavily uneven when I left the road. I wasn’t getting any chances to glance back. There were no sounds coming up behind me. But there was no reason why there should be. These angel things hadn’t made the slightest peep or rustle since they’d first appeared. So there was no way of telling if my wish was being granted.
Although, when I finally reached the iron gates, I grabbed hold of one with my left hand. And while I was letting the momentum swing me round, I finally got a chance to look behind me.
The ground back there was completely empty. Not the smallest flicker of cold light. I could have sworn the thing had been almost breathing down my neck, but maybe that was my imagination.
It wasn’t here. The angel had gone after Cassie.
* * *
I paused the briefest second, dumbstruck. And then I was running again. The last time I’d seen her, Cass had been on route to Mill Street. Which meant that if I stuck alongside the privets, I’d be moving parallel with her. What I didn’t know was how far behind.
What exactly could I do, even if I arrived in time? I only had my Smith & Wesson. But none of that -- nothing practical -- seemed to matter by this time.
I had a second flashlight out -- I’d thought to bring more than one. It cast a fiercely jolting wedge of yellow light ahead of me, the grass under my feet and the occasional passing tree rendered to fragmented glimpses. And there were still hominids out here. I had to keep an eye out for those. But, when I’d gone a few more hundred yards, a shadow became apparent in the massed leaves on my left-hand side.
The hedge thinned out there. I could make out what passed for a narrow hole. Without even thinking, I flung myself at it with every bit of force that I could muster.
And it turned out to be a painful way of getting through. Branches raked across my face. But I paid them no mind and kept on pushing furiously.
I was halfway through when something snagged around my ankle. And I tumbled forward, bursting out the other side. I simply started hauling with my elbows until I’d dragged myself completely free.
And then I was scrambling back up to my feet and heading for the road, as fast as I could manage. There were two glows -- a warm one and a cold one -- up ahead.
* * *
A deadly game of cat and mouse was being played out, when I finally arrived there. Cassie had not made it to the intersection. She’d been forced right off the pavement, in amongst the woods along one side. The warm light that I could see was her skin, still shining magically.
The angel was there too, a deathly fluorescence in front of her. She was trying to duck around it, going from one tree trunk to the next. But it was copying her every move. She couldn’t get away from it.
There was only one reason why it didn’t bear right down on her. The glow that Quinn had given us was still keeping the thing at bay. But even that didn’t look like it was going to last for too much longer.
Blackness was coalescing around the creature’s fingertips again. Those darkened threads came reaching out, like last time. Cassie froze. She didn’t have a battery-powered lamp, but they weren’t after that.
I saw her come back to her senses, trying to evade the strands. But it was already too late. One of them wrapped itself about her wrist. Another around her upper thigh. They didn’t do anything to hold her in place, stretching out like taffy. But they didn’t let go either, and that panicked her.
Cass went crashing backward through the undergrowth like a hooked fish on a jet-black line.
Then what I’d feared began to happen. The glow on her body started fading.
CHAPTER 48
Cass looked down at her own arms and saw the soft incandescence disappearing from them, the natural color of her flesh retur
ning. She shuddered startledly, like someone who had been awoken from a dream. Tried to retreat again -- it did no good. The darkened strands simply extended further.
Then her hands went to one of the twin Glocks on her belt. She whipped it out, and began emptying its extended clip into the pale creature in front of her, clenching her teeth furiously as she did so.
It was no use either. I could have told her that. A final act of desperation. But it spurred me into action.
I burst out from cover, closing the gap between us rapidly. But I was forced to acknowledge … this was an act of desperation too. The larger the angel got, the more I felt my insides tensing up.
Maybe I yelled out. I’m not sure. Perhaps it simply heard me running. But it paused again, then inclined its head to study me with those soulless eyes.
Which suddenly gave a dark flash, a lightless burst of energy. An invisible force banged against me, stopping me short. One hand went to my forehead, which was smarting.
When the angel did the same thing a second time, the force that it flung out banged into my left fist, knocking the flashlight free of my grasp. I heard it hit the dirt, glass cracking as the lens broke.
And before I had time to take in what was going on, the same kind of force came slamming at my body, hard. Right in the solar plexus this time, practically lifting me off my feet. I went stumbling away, hitting the ground with an almighty bang.
It wasn’t only the pain searing through me. The strength had completely left my body, and I couldn’t seem to breathe. I could barely see straight. But I could still think, after a fashion. Something vaguely along the lines of, what the crying hell was that?
This seemed to be a new gift that the angel had picked up. These things were just chock full of charming surprises, weren’t they? The creatures were getting ever more empowered, expanding the scope of their abilities. And there was no way of predicting what they might do next.
When I managed to get my head back off the ground, the creature seemed to have forgotten me. It had returned its full attention to Cassie, was drifting almost directly above her. And her skin had entirely lost its golden sheen. It had returned to normal.
Her gun was empty. There was nothing she could do to stop this. Any moment now, her attacker would close right in, press down on her, transform her.
And then a sudden rustling in the undergrowth told me that matters had got even worse. It wasn’t just a gentle sound. Leaves were being trampled underfoot, not in a single procession but continuously.
By the sound of it, a pack of hominids was headed up this way. To polish off, presumably, the scraps the angel left.
* * *
Cassie was obscured behind the glowing creature, the next instant. I could barely make her out beyond its slowly flapping wings. An awful hardness gripped my throat. I thought that I had lost her. Then she came staggering into view again, the tendrils still attached.
I had never seen her look so lost. She’s usually defiant in the face of danger, no matter how bad. But tonight, that was gone.
And I understood why that might be. She’d not had a great deal to lose before. Her life had been filled up with loss. But after two long, lonely years, she’d finally found someone who made life worth living.
So why was Quinn not helping her? I got it almost immediately. The only way to stop this creature was to attack it or form a barrier. And I’d already been informed that Maycott could do neither.
Damn it all to hell! I ground my teeth and tried to push myself up. But the body shot had still robbed every ounce of strength from me. I managed to sit halfway up, but that was the best I could manage.
Breath was seething through my skull. I could only watch -- as though from some great distance -- as the angel moved down over Cassie once again. It definitely looked like it was closing in for the kill. My whole frame was shaking.
Her mouth dropped open and her eyes went very wide. Her hands came up in front of her, but that was more reflex than realistic self-defense. The skin at her throat moved. She was trying to shout out, but the words seemed to be stuck.
She mouthed something all the same. A single word. A single syllable. Her lips formed a tiny circle, and then flattened out around what looked like an ‘n.’ And you didn’t need to be a genius to figure out what she was saying. The desperation in her eyes was made worse by a pleading look.
But there was no way he could save her, was there?
Then I got a brand-new shock.
* * *
Her skin began to glow again. But it was not a gentle gold, the way it had been earlier. No, this was something very different. Violent and intense.
A sudden pale flaring, like you see during a thunderstorm. The outline of her body coruscated. Grew so intensely dazzling that I could barely look. Her outline seared itself into my retinas like a sculpture of white fire.
The angel didn’t get it at first, kept descending on her. Then it took in the fact that things had changed dramatically and tried to rear away. Attempted to get out of the reach of the blinding glow. Except it couldn’t seem to figure out precisely what was happening. Its wings were churning. But it was circling rather than retreating.
And it remained attached to Cassie by those thin black strands. Either it was still attempting to control her, or it had forgotten to let go.
Cassie was standing completely rigid, an unreal figure on the darkened landscape. She was being used as a conduit for someone else’s magic, and I knew precisely how that felt.
Her whole body suddenly flashed, forcing me to shut my eyes.
And when I opened them again -- which I did a good deal faster than I really wanted to -- that powerful brightness was spreading up the dark strands like a power surge.
It reached the angel’s fingertips, then started moving up its arms. The creature’s jaws came open in a silent scream. Its wings turned to blurs, but it couldn’t get away at all. I watched it go soaring above the treetops, but the glow had already reached its shoulders and was spreading through its chest.
For a second, it was like an X-ray, the internal structure of the being revealed. There wasn’t much to see there, just a shallow tracery of sinews.
And then the light flooded right through it, making it flare as brightly as a comet.
And the visitor exploded into pieces.
CHAPTER 49
I don’t think I moved for half a minute after that. My heart must have still been beating, but I don’t remember. What I’d just seen had pretty well turned me to stone. And Cassie wasn’t any different. She’d obviously not been expecting what had happened in the slightest.
The blinding brilliance left her, as soon as the angel was destroyed. The gentle golden glow came back. She fell to her knees as if the muscles in her legs had disappeared. Stayed in that position, her mouth hanging open.
There were no words to describe this. No sensible ones anyway. I finally pulled myself together. What exactly had I seen? I was pretty sure that Willets couldn’t pull a stunt like that. Which left either Woodard Raine …
Or his half-brother.
And she’d been mouthing his name directly before it happened. So maybe Quinn had found a way to break free of the Hallows Knot.
My strength was beginning to return, and I was struggling to my feet. When I remembered that we had another problem, one I wasn’t sure that we could easily resolve. There were still hominids coming this way, and I wasn’t sure how many. And they could not touch us with our golden skins, but if they started lobbing stuff at us again …
But then, I was forced to re-evaluate. The rustling out there in the undergrowth … it had seemed to have changed in nature. It had been a swiftly hurrying scuttle, when it had first reached my ears. But that had noticeably slowed down.
It was still coming in this direction, but was far more cautious, unsteady and almost stumbling. I swung around to face it.
Could only make out dim shapes in the murk between the tree trunks. Enough to take an aim, though. I held out
my gun.
A bush a dozen yards ahead of me trembled. I sighted along my barrel, knowing how fast these things could move.
But when a shape finally came through, it was upright, on its hind legs. Not merely a hominid -- something that looked like a man -- but a real live human being.
* * *
A penlight came on. Cass had apparently tucked one in her jeans, as an additional measure. The small circle of light fell across a gray face, making it screw up. Then, as it adjusted, I recognized it. This was a guy called Aiden Varley. He’d been a teacher at my son, Pete’s, school, and I had met him several times at meetings of the PTA. I seemed to recall that he lived somewhere near Greenwood Terrace.
But I’d never seen him in a state like this. The man looked like he’d been dragged through a jungle backwards. His clothing was filthy and in disarray, a lot of the buttons pulled loose. There were cuts and grazes all over his hands. His pants legs were tattered around the cuffs, and one of his suede shoes was gone. But what got to me most was his expression.
I could not remember anybody looking quite so stunned. His face might have been fashioned out of old, colorless rubber. He was blinking like an owl, and staring at us like we were a pair of ghosts. Which puzzled me at first. But then I figured out the truth of the matter.
He didn’t know what had gone down recently on Union Square. And so he didn’t understand why we were glowing.
He had been a hominid until very recently, in other words. Most likely one of those that had attacked us in the mansion. He stared at me as if I were a total stranger, not seeming to recognize me. Then his head went from side to side with all the stiffness of a rusted hinge, trying to take in his surroundings. He was struggling to figure out exactly where he was and how he’d gotten here.
It dawned on me slowly what was really going on. The angel that had been destroyed must have been the one which had transformed this fellow in the first place. And, now that the creature was gone, its spell was broken. Its field of influence had collapsed. Aiden had returned to normal, the grasp of the Dweller slipping from him.
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