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Alex’s jaw tightened. He seriously thought the question of whether half-angels could be trusted should have been settled a year ago, when Willow and Seb had almost died trying to halt the attack on the Seraphic Council. His instant anger faded slightly as he took in Kara’s bruises again.
“Look, I don’t know what you’ve been through, but you’re way off base,” he said. “I’d trust Seb with my life, and Willow… Christ, Willow is my life. ”
Alarmingly, Kara seemed close to tears. “The whole time he was standing there… Oh god, his energy is so similar to theirs that it makes me sick. And for you to actually be with one of them – for you to—” She broke off, her thin frame shuddering.
Alex started to reply, then stopped short. This so wasn’t about Willow and Seb. He reached for her hand, held it between both of his. “What’s happened, Kara?”
She swallowed. “I’ve been in an Eden. ”
Alex’s spine stiffened – he should have guessed. “Where’s Brendan?” he asked after a pause. “Is he alive too?”
Kara was staring up at the ceiling; as she shook her head, a single tear ran down her swollen cheek. “No. When we were trying to get out of Mexico City, the quake hit. The van crashed, and he was injured – really badly – internal stuff. I managed to steal another car, and we got out. I kept telling him to hold on, kept thinking he might make it… Finally we got into Texas, and there was a makeshift hospital set up for people who’d been injured in the Houston quake. He died there. He hadn’t even been conscious most of the trip. ”
Alex let out a long breath, remembering Brendan – his shock of reddish hair; his wiry body and incessant talking. Incongruously, he thought how weird it must have been, to have travelled so many miles with Brendan without hearing him talk the whole time.
Kara wiped her cheek. “Then before I could leave the hospital, some soldiers came and said they were taking everyone to a refugee camp. I didn’t want to attract attention by saying no; I thought I could escape on the way. But I couldn’t. They took my gun, and once we were at the camp, we were watched every second. ” She gave a bitter laugh. “The others were just happy to be someplace with food and electricity. They couldn’t see all the angels – all the feeding that was going on, day and night. After three months, almost everyone in the place had angel burn. ”
Alex’s veins chilled. “How did you avoid it?”
Kara looked haunted. “I don’t know. They tried. They kept coming down to – to choose me, and I’d see them looking so beautiful and feel their minds linking with mine…” She gave a convulsive shudder.
“And then what?” Alex asked intensely. “They just gave up and flew away again?”
“Yeah. ” Kara let out a strangled laugh. “Maybe I don’t taste so good. ”
Alex’s thoughts were whirling. It sounded as if Kara had been marshalled – something an angel named Nate had told him about. Before the Seraphic Council had executed them all, there’d been a group of angels sympathetic to humans. They’d been trying to marshal as many people as they could: place a small bit of resistance in human auras, making them unpalatable to angels.
But Kara would have realized. It wasn’t something an angel could do without being noticed.
His attention snapped back as Kara started talking again, her voice thick and halting: “Anyway, I kept trying to escape – never managed it. Then they moved us all into Austin Eden. ”
She let out a shuddering breath. “Things were kind of chaotic in the refugee camp, but once we got to the Eden… Alex, you wouldn’t believe how organized that place is. It’s the same in all of them, I guess. They’ve got different sectors, and the one you’re assigned to determines how often you’re allowed to be fed from. Because, like, if you’ve got a skill the angels need – say you’re an electrician or something – then they don’t want you to get too weak, so they keep track…”
She went into a sudden coughing fit, and Alex rose hastily to get her a glass of water. She drank it with his arm around her, holding her up. The news about the sectors was something they’d long suspected, from reading between the lines of shortwave news broadcasts. He wished to hell they’d been wrong.
“Thanks,” Kara mumbled, dropping back against the pillows. “Of course, they don’t say all that – but if you don’t have angel burn and can see what’s going on, it’s obvious. ” She gave a humourless laugh. “They put me in A1. Guess I should have been flattered – only the young, good-looking people with fresh, pretty auras went there. I mean, we were popular with the angels. Not that anyone ever stayed in A1 very long…” Kara’s throat moved, her brown eyes lost in that other time.
“So yeah, it didn’t take them long to notice that none of the angels could feed from me. I guess I piqued their interest a little. I spent the last seven months in Austin locked in a hospital room while the angels tried to figure me out. ”
“What – you mean examining you?” Cold crept across Alex’s scalp. His eyes flew to Kara’s left shirtsleeve – underneath, there lay an AK tattoo identical to his own. Once, the angels might not have known what the letters stood for; they sure as hell did now.
“Don’t worry, I got rid of it before I even got to Austin,” Kara said wearily. She lifted the sleeve of her faded T-shirt, and Alex winced – where her tattoo had been was now a series of long, jagged scars.
“Oh Christ, Kara…” He couldn’t say any more.
She dropped the sleeve. “I had to. People know who the AKs are now, after what happened in Mexico City – they hate all of us. I did it with a piece of metal I found and managed to keep it hidden until it healed a little. Not that it made any difference once they put me in the hospital. Raziel knew it was me. ”
“Raziel?”
Her mouth was a bitter line. “Yeah. Your girlfriend’s father. He kept coming all the way down from Denver to poke and prod at me himself. ” She shuddered. “Alex, how you can even stand touching her, when—”
“Shut it,” he said sharply. “She’s nothing like them, and you know it. ”
“Fine. Whatever. ” Kara wiped her eyes. “So, yeah, ol’ Raz was pretty interested in what makes me tick…because I guess it’s more than me just not being tasty to them. They can’t – they can’t seem to read me. ”
Alex’s eyes narrowed in confusion. “What are you talking about?”
“They couldn’t read me. It drove them crazy. Drove him crazy, especially. For weeks – months – if it wasn’t him, it was one of the others. They strapped me down so I couldn’t struggle and they’d hold my hand, and I could feel their minds creeping into mine – so cold and slimy – over and over…” She choked to a stop.
Oh Jesus. Alex rubbed a fist against his forehead. He guessed he couldn’t blame her for hating anything that reminded her of the angels.
“They were trying to find out about us, weren’t they?” he said. “Whether Willow’s still alive or not. ”
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