His argument was irrefutable. Smiling now, Flint gently placed his hand on Allison’s shoulder. His words had totally changed the way Allison thought about what she was witnessing. Instead of covering her ears to block out the horrible wailing, she gathered up her resolve and observed the scene—with revulsion, like Jeremy—and instead of seeing it from the losing Angel’s point of view, she imagined it was Ventousi who was dying down there. And she thought of all those people eaten up by cancer whom that bastard had also condemned to a horrible death.
As they watched, the dying Angel’s body shriveled away to nothing, until the winner was finally forced to pull out his spear to continue his feast. He was so bent on his victim that he didn’t absorb his weapon, but simply threw it aside. The horrible sucking sounds continued, but none of the event’s organizers stepped in, not even the blue Angels. Soon, it was all over. The first Red continued to grow as the second wasted away to nothing. His cries grew weaker and weaker, and finally disappeared. He had soon shrunk down to the size of a doll, then a thimble, before finally disappearing into the Red’s gaping maw.
Before the combat had begun, the winner, who looked to be about five feet, nine inches tall, would have weighed the equivalent of about eighty pounds if he had been living. After having absorbed his victim, he now looked as if weighed at least two hundred pounds. The creature that he had ingurgitated hadn’t yet spread throughout his body, which made him look as if he were carrying a humongous baby in his distended belly.
“He won. …” Jeremy murmured, barely able to speak after what he had witnessed. “Will he be even more powerful now?”
“Not necessarily more powerful,” Flint ventured. “Better fed, most certainly. He won’t be able to eat for quite a while. An eating binge like that could even make him disappear.”
The danger didn’t seem to weigh too heavily on the red Angel’s mind. He sat on the stage, unable to move after his heavy meal, staring out at the crowd with a stupid grin on his face.
As Jeremy contemplated the revolting spectacle, there was a burning question he had to ask Flint.
“When you and I first met, Flint, you warned me not to let any Reds get too close to me. You said it could be dangerous. Does that mean that Reds often attack other Angels, and not just inside the arena? That the killer who’s tracking us is not just an isolated case?”
Flint frowned at first. He didn’t recall having said that, but if Jeremy claimed he had …
“I said that the Reds … ? Of course, if a Blue hated you as much as that Red hated the other one, you would also be in danger. So the answer to your question is yes, without a doubt. But such attacks almost never happen.”
Allison continued to gaze intensely at the stage, her big blue eyes opened wide. Suddenly she started to breathe deeply, but Jeremy couldn’t tell if it was because she was afraid, or strangely satisfied.
“You call them Chimeras,” he said. “This is what you were talking about this morning, right? Why don’t you call them vampires?”
Flint shook his head.
“Do you know what a chimera refers to in genetics?”
“Yes, it’s when the body of one twin merges together with the body of the other in their mother’s uterus. It’s very rare, because the DNA in one part of the body may be different from the DNA in another part.”
Jeremy had learned about it in an episode of CSI, when a criminal had been cleared of a crime because of this physical irregularity. He didn’t tell Allison that though, when he saw her gazing at him with admiration.
“Thousands of years ago, the vampire myth didn’t exist yet,” explained Flint. “But there were strange births, in which the body of one twin seemed to grow out of the body of the other, as if one twin had ‘swallowed’ the other. So when the first Angel realized eons ago that he could get rid of his enemy by ‘eating’ him, that’s what they called him …”
He pointed at the red Angel sprawled out on the golden stage. “… a Chimera.”
Jeremy and Allison both shuddered. It was revolting.
“But the reason that I wanted the both of you to remain under my protection, even before the inexplicable attack by this Khan fellow, is that certain Chimeras are completely mad. They like to prey on Cherubs, who aren’t as strong as the older Angels. Of course, they can’t do it in public. They are very furtive and only feed off their victims in hiding, which makes the enterprise all the more difficult for them. And since they have to starve themselves for long periods of time and transform their bodies, they can only eat other Angels. Normal Mist isn’t enough for them. More than enough reasons to discourage all but the most insane …”
“What happens if you catch a Chimera devouring an Angel? I mean, outside of an organized combat like this one?”
“We lock him up,” Flint replied without hesitation. “Inside a prison made of Mist that we can control, just like the walls of my apartment. It’s one of the privileges of us Ancients: We can render the Mist inedible. And since the Chimera can’t eat, he eventually wastes away, and goes … off to that place where all the Angels who eat too much or not enough eventually go.”
Paradise was beginning to seem more and more like hell all the time, Jeremy decided. For him, Chimeras were nothing more than creatures out of some gothic horror story, and it was nearly impossible for him to reconcile such a ghoulish concept with paradise—something that was supposed to be all bright and cheery.
“How long does it take for them to disappear?”
“It all depends on how powerful the Angel is when he’s captured. But it can take years.”
Oh, great. So what Einstein had told him was a bunch of crap, and the Angels had all kinds of different ways that they could get rid of each other. They could overfeed them, as Flint and Lili had done to the red Angel bothering his sister, or they could stop feeding them altogether. Or even eat them. Just great. He loved this new world more all the time.
“Lili and I wanted you to see the combat because of the killer who’s after you,” Flint said gravely. “I can’t stop the red Angels from instructing Khan. At some point, he will learn how to kill the both of you, which apparently is still his mission, even if I can’t understand why. That being said, it’s not all that simple for a young Angel. Not for many years at least.”
“How many is many?” Allison asked warily. “Five? Ten?”
“Oh no, five hundred or a thousand years, or even more! It takes many years before you can transform your body like that. It’s not something you can learn in just a few years.”
Jeremy nodded, reassured by his words. Of course, they didn’t measure things in years here, but in eons.
Allison looked back at the bloated red Angel. At first, she had felt compassion for the Angel that had been “swallowed whole.” Then Flint had asked her THE question, the one which the old Allison, the one who hadn’t been murdered, would have answered no to. She would have spared the Angel, and Ventousi. Because the old Allison was nice.
But now she was in no mood to be kind and compassionate.
The incredible, all-consuming rage that she had been feeling since passing over to this new world was filling her once again. She knew full well that she was at a turning point.
Should she accept Jeremy’s love, and live a nice, calm afterlife, just like the other Angels?
Or rush headlong into the fiery flames of vengeance? And save millions of lives?
She took a deep breath again and took a long look at all the brightly colored Angels in the arena. Suddenly, she turned to face Flint’s silvery gaze, a fierce look in her eyes. And what she said sent a shiver through Jeremy from head to toe, as her words seemed to go against her very nature.
“I know what vengeance means now, Flint. And I want to do the same thing to Ventousi that the red Angel did down there. I want him to die, so he passes over to our world and I can make him disappear for good. But before he does, I want him to publicly admit that he’s found a cure for cancer. Lili says she can’t make him put his drug on the market, not
someone as greedy as Ventousi with so much money at stake. But I’m not motivated by the same things! So tell me, Flint, how can I make him suffer? Or even more, how can I make a living person obey me? How can I quickly become as powerful as an old Angel?”
Flint straightened up.
“You can’t,” he replied, giving her a concerned look. “It’s impossible. It takes hundreds of years!”
“But there is a way. I’m sure there is, I can just tell!”
“Yes, there’s always a way.” Flint shrugged in resignation. “Humans and Angels always find a loophole, don’t they?”
“Well then? What do I have to do?”
The old Angel stared hard at Allison, hesitated, and then seemed to concede defeat.
“No one likes adventure and action more than I do, my pretty little Cherub, but what you’re asking of me is a bit more complicated. It could end up costing you dearly, very dearly.”
“Cost me what?” Allison retorted.
“It could make you go over to the other side,” Lili explained slowly, slightly shaking her shimmering red hair.
Allison didn’t understand. Nor did Jeremy, but his stomach was beginning to hurt.
“Beautiful Allison,” Flint said in a soft, grave voice. “You would have to become … a Red!”
14
The Taste of Danger
Jeremy could feel the lump rising in his throat. Allison had no idea how much danger she was in.
He was so worried that he jumped to his feet. Some old Angels nearby noticed the commotion and turned to look. Lili gave them a nervous smile and clamped her hand around Jeremy’s wrist in an iron grip.
“Sit down, before the Ancients get upset with us for having brought Cherubs here!” she hissed. Her strength was phenomenal. Jeremy had forgotten that Lili wasn’t a frail little girl. He had no choice but to sit back down, furiously rubbing his throbbing wrist. He was also surprised to suddenly feel completely drained, as if Lili had absorbed some of his strength to make him obey her.
Seeing that nothing was amiss, the Ancients soon went back to their discussions and forgot about the foursome. Lili sighed with relief.
Well well, Allison thought to herself. Lili was afraid. How interesting.
Jeremy leaned over toward her, doing his best to remain calm.
“Become a Red, Allison? Is that really what you want?! To force the living to feel bad so that you can ‘milk them,’ as you pointed out so perceptibly not so long ago?”
Ouch. He had touched a sore spot. Allison let the rage inside her sweep away any scruples she might have. Even more so since, by forcing Ventousi to reveal his discovery to the world, she would be saving millions of lives. It relieved her conscience: For once, the end justified the means.
“Yes!” She replied, giving free vent to her anger. “We’re dead, Jeremy: dead! This isn’t paradise, and there is no God!”
Both Flint and Lili jumped, gesturing at the two of them to keep their voices down.
“And since there is no God, I’ll just have to take over for him and deal out a little bit of justice myself!”
Jeremy grew pale. For some mysterious and inexplicable reason, he knew that what she said was blasphemy, and that such talk could be dangerous. The worried looks on Flint and Lili’s faces only confirmed his fears.
Flint cleared his throat.
“Ahem. That’s a whole other debate. I would never encourage a Cherub to become a Red, for the simple reason that I am an old Blue. But I can understand your thirst for justice, Allison. And, if you manage to save some lives, you’ll be bringing immense joy to millions of people on Earth. Which means more food for our side. … So I’ll lend you a hand, even though I think it’s a bad idea for you to transform yourself.”
Jeremy turned to him, completely lost.
“Only old Angels can influence the living. A young Red won’t have any better luck than an old Blue!”
“Quite right. Allison can’t influence the living like we can.”
Jeremy didn’t have time to reply before Flint explained: “With someone like Ventousi, as Lili unfortunately discovered, we’re dealing with someone too corrupt and depraved to react to our Blue influence. However, an old Red would have power over him. Not enough power to force him to reveal his secret for no good reason, of course. That would be impossible. But he could cloud his thoughts, and have him make some mistakes. Maybe another researcher could see his notes, which he’d ‘forgotten’ on his desk, or maybe by influencing the company management or creating suspicion among the personnel, the laboratory might somehow find out about his scheming. There are all kinds of solutions!”
“And Allison has to become Red because—”
“Only a Red could ask that type of favor of an old Red. Not Lili, not me, and not you. And even less Allison, at least, if she’s her current color. And another thing: No Red would agree to help her, even a friend, if it would make the living happier, because then only the Blues would benefit. On the contrary, red Angels love to eat the pain and suffering caused by illness. It’s the fastest way there is to generate nourishment. You also have to keep in mind that the family of a cancer patient also suffers terribly, and that their sadness and despondency will in turn have a negative impact on an ever-larger circle of people. It’s the ripple effect.”
Flint stopped there. Jeremy noticed that his leg was touching Allison’s, and that she was hanging on his every word.
“This means that, not only will Allison have to turn red to ask another Red for help, she’ll also have to lie to him in order to convince him. And that will be the most dangerous part of all. Believe me, the old Reds really have no sense of humor whatsoever. And there’s also a good chance that the three Angels who fed off Khan have told the Ancients what he did during his time on Earth! There aren’t as many thousand-year-old red Angels as you might think, so the news may get around quickly. This means Allison will have to find a very powerful old Red who isn’t part of the angelic ‘political scene,’ which has opposed the Blues and the Reds since the dawn of humanity. And that is more than just dangerous: It’s nearly impossible!”
The more Flint talked about the project and all the difficulties she would encounter, the more Allison insisted that she was determined to go ahead with it. Tempers began to rise again, and the old Angels in the neighboring boxes soon began to look over at them.
Lili got to her feet, infuriated at the two and worried by all the attention.
“Let’s go back home. You two are drawing much too much attention!”
Allison glowered at her but the red-haired Angel only ignored her. She flew out across the arena and headed straight toward the exit. Flint immediately got to his feet and, in a few seconds, created a staircase. Ever the gentleman, he held out his arm to Allison and escorted her down. Allison had no choice but to follow, and Jeremy could see that she was staring intently at all the old Reds in their boxes, as if she were trying to engrave their faces in her memory.
Jeremy could feel his frustration growing with each passing moment. The girl he loved was slipping away from him, and he had no clue how to save her.
Allison, on the other hand, felt … heavy. As if there were now an enormous weight on her shoulders. Again. When she had sat next to Jeremy listening to Elvis and Sinatra singing, she had been convinced that this new existence was going to be great. She would finally be able to lead a carefree life, without worrying about the promise she had made to her mother or screwing anything up. No more fear, fretting, or frustrations. She would be able to enjoy everything this new world had to offer. She could travel, meet fascinating people, read over the shoulders of the living, and still go to the movies and improve her culture. All her troubles were behind her… but then the same old curse—the terrible sense of responsibility that her mother had incessantly hammered into her—had quickly caught up with her. Once again, she had a mission. And once again, she didn’t feel as if she were up to the task.
Allison snuck a look at Jeremy out of the corn
er of her eye. She liked everything about him: He was good-looking, brave, protective, and he had great abs that she could barely keep herself from drooling over. And what if the feelings she’d felt when they kissed were just a foretaste of what it would be like when they made love? She could imagine the fireworks. Jeremy didn’t even realize it, but he was probably the only person who could make her give up her mission. She had to keep away from him at all costs, or else she would lose her courage. If he took her into his arms again she would be lost, and her entire mission would go down the drain: The Earth would keep turning, the wonder drug would be discovered one day or another, Ventousi would be rich and save lives, and would be a hero …
Allison suddenly released Flint’s hand and clenched her fists. No. Impossible. That killer would have to pay for what he’d done!
All four Angels were quiet as they left the warehouse. A heavy tension hung in the air. The amphitheater was quickly emptying. They had carted off the Chimera and a group of Angels was taking down the golden stage and the wire netting around the ring.
It was a gloomy ride back to the apartment. The dispute between Jeremy and Allison appeared to have upset Lili, but Flint didn’t even seem to notice. He had simply offered his assistance to Allison. It was up to her to decide if she wanted it or not. In any case, he seemed amused by the two Cherubs. They promised to keep things interesting for him. He would hardly have to worry about being bored in the days to come.
Someone had repaired Allison’s bed while they were out. Which meant she wouldn’t have to sleep with Jeremy anymore. Just before going to bed, Allison went into his room to get her pillows, without saying a word. Jeremy had been waiting for a chance to get her alone. He had to change her mind. When she was on her way out he blocked the door.
“Wait!” he ordered. “There’s something I have to tell you.”
Allison gave him a defiant look and hugged her two Mist pillows tightly against her chest, as if they were protecting her. The fact that he was trying to foul up her plans instead of helping her drove her nuts—but not nearly as much as her burning desire to feel his lips against hers, or the way his nude body so close to hers made her mind turn to jelly. As long as that stupid loincloth stayed in place and she didn’t say anything to him, she would be fine. She was about to ask him about the gold spot around his navel, but then thought better of it. If she opened her mouth now, there was no telling where the discussion may lead them.
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