“He’s hurting you!” The scream ripped its way out of Marley’s throat. “He’s destroying you!” And something happened, in that bruised spot in her mind where the catastrophe vision waited. She tried, without quite knowing how, to make Penny safe, as the twins were safe; to take Penny into her hand, under her care. To shelter her under wings she’d never grown.
Whatever she was trying recoiled back onto her. Pain radiated through her head. Through a red fog, she heard the angel’s version of Penny’s voice say, “She is not a child, to accept your barriers, nephil. She has chosen to accept me.”
Lissa threw a scented candle at Penny. This time, Penny caught the missile in the palm of her hand. She turned her head to look at the girl and Lissa squeaked in fright. Kari ran over to her sister, grabbing her hand.
The lights flared and then died as the power to the house surged. The sound of the animated movie cut out mid-song. The stink of burned electronics merged with and then overwhelmed the wildfire smoke. There was a barely perceptible sizzling in the air, and the sense of dozens of invisible watchers fled. The barking dogs were suddenly very close.
The front door thudded, and then sprang open. Corbin stood beyond, his hair wildly disheveled. He held what looked like a small rubber ball in one hand. He scanned the room, then cursed. “Get out of here,” he snapped, and stepped into the room, away from the door.
The sizzling atmosphere stilled, and Penny turned to look at him. “You. Nobody minds getting rid of you.”
“The feeling’s mutual,” Corbin mumbled, and started bouncing the ball. “But not today.” It bounced surprisingly well, given the carpeting, and each thump of the rubber seemed to tremble across Penny’s features.
Marley shook the twins, who were staring at Penny as if mesmerized, their hands tightly clasped together. They both looked up at her, and then scrambled for the door. She took a step after them, and then turned to Corbin. “What about Penny?”
“You leaving now will be the best thing you can do for her.” Corbin made a shooing motion with his free hand. At the same time, Penny launched herself at him, grabbing at the ball. He dodged to one side. Marley stumbled backward out the door, unable to look away. Corbin said, “Stupid,” and flung the ball at the wall. Penny scrambled after it, while Corbin ran for the door, pushing Marley ahead of him and pulling the door shut behind him.
For a moment, they were very close. She could see the grey flecks in his dark eyes, and how his eyes widened as she looked at him. One hand still on her waist, he put the other on the doorknob, holding it closed. “Keep going,” he said roughly.
She stepped back, her heart thudding with adrenaline. “Thanks.”
AT stepped out of thin air beside the twins, who were getting to their feet in the yard. The sound of barking followed her, although Marley still couldn’t see any actual dogs. AT sliced her hand to one side and the barking stopped. Then she helped Lissa to her feet. “Get to the car, you two.”
Both girls looked at Marley, and she nodded. After glancing between AT and Corbin, she ran after them, waiting for the door to open and not-Penny to come out after her.
She didn’t make it two steps before something shimmered in the air before her. As if sketched quickly on the air by a ballpoint pen, the shape that appeared there was formed of straight lines and gentle curves, and enclosed by a pair of slowly moving rings.
Light flickered through it. Then, just as AT had a moment before, a man stepped through a shimmering in the air.
He was the biggest man Marley had ever seen, but perfectly proportioned, as if he’d been constructed on a slightly larger scale. He had bronzed skin and well-cut, sun-bleached hair. Mirrored sunglasses hid his eyes, and he wore khakis and a buttondown shirt. None of it coordinated with the sleek, complicated-looking gun he carried in one hand.
“Oh, shit,” said Corbin. “Him.” But adrenaline was already propelling Marley past the newcomer to scrabble at the car door. From her peripheral vision, she saw the big man look around, then dodge as Corbin threw something small at him. Then she was in the car. A quick glance showed her the twins were already inside, even if they weren’t in their seats.
She started the car. As soon as the engine came to life, she reversed and slammed on the gas. The car thrust backwards a few yards before there was a jerking thud. In the rearview mirror, the big man staggered. Then he turned and looked at her. She ground the gas pedal into the floor, trying to knock him off-balance again, but it was like she'd backed into a wall.
Then several rubber balls bounced off the trunk of the car, scattering in all directions, and the giant turned his head to track them. AT tumbled into the car behind the twins and Corbin threw himself into the front seat.
“Good, go, drive! While he’s distracted.” Corbin was out of breath. Marley didn’t need to be told twice. She shifted gears and peeled away from the curb, the car jouncing unpleasantly until she got straightened out on the road.
She drove faster than she would have thought sane a few days ago, until they were out of Penny’s neighborhood and onto the tangle of city streets beyond. For a while, taking random turn after random turn was oddly soothing; if she didn’t know where she was, how could anybody else find her?
Finally, Corbin said, “Slow down. Don’t attract attention.” He was holding Neath’s cat carrier in his lap.
In the back, Kari was sobbing while Lissa sniffled. Both twins were sitting in their seats with the straps loosely in place. AT sat between them, patting Kari on the back. She briefly met Marley’s eyes in the rearview mirror. “I’m sorry. I thought your friend looked odd, but I didn’t realize what it meant until too late.”
“How is it you two keep finding me, and how is it different from... whatever happened there?” Marley realized her voice came out sounding flat and ugly, and further realized she didn’t care.
Corbin, staring out the window, said, “AT’s dogs can track you through the Backworld. It’s a gift. I ask the birds. Her method is faster, so sometimes I just ask her.”
“And that guy? Who the hell was he? I hit him with my car and he barely noticed!”
“Absolven. We met him before, my friends and I, when we were trying to protect the Ragged Blade. He came out of it better than they did. He’s nephilim like us. He’s very old, and has a long history as a black sheep. Like Zachariah—but Absolven’s always been honorable and honest. Except now he’s working with Ettoriel.” He leaned his head against the window. “None of this makes sense.”
“How did he find us? He showed up out of nowhere. I can’t hide from that. I don’t even know where to start.” Just thinking about it sent panic rushing through Marley.
“Slow down,” repeated Corbin. He was still looking out the window. “He can’t just show up where you happen to be; he has to know where you are or have a signal he’s following to use the Backworld to travel to you. And most of us can’t just enter and exit the Backworld wherever we happen to be. He had help. That glyph...” Marley could hear the frown in his voice.
“Yes, what was that thing?”
“I don’t know. I think...” and he shook his head. “I don’t know. I’d like to, though.”
Marley felt a surge of irritation. “Don’t you know anything? Maybe it’s okay for you, but not knowing is going to get me killed.” Her internal critic nudged her and she thought, Is this how Branwyn felt? Crap!
In the back seat, AT cleared her throat. “If you’ll just pull over up here somewhere, I’ll get out and go cause some trouble for that Absolven guy, see if I can figure out what's going on with him.”
Marley gave a hostile look to the anxious face in the rearview mirror, unwilling to put up with teenage bravado. But then she remembered AT appearing out of the air, just as the man called Absolven had. She might look like a teenager, even be the same age as a normal teenager, but she was also one of these nephilim people. And Marley was realizing she had no idea what that really meant, no idea what the scope of the supernatural powers involved was.
“Is that a good idea?” she directed to Corbin.
Corbin didn't lift his head from the window. “I guess so. She’s pretty hard to slow down. As long as she isn’t stupid.”
“I’ve used up my stupid for the day, I hope,” said AT. As Marley pulled over at a curb, she said, “Again, I’m really sorry about your friend. I truly didn’t expect that. “
“It's not your fault she's gotten herself in trouble again. But I remember what you said. The mark can be removed, right? The connection broken?”
AT looked stricken. She said, “Corbin?”
Tiredly, he said, “I'll explain it to her. Go.”
AT muttered, “So sorry.” Then she squirmed past Lissa, and was out the door.
Marley watched her vanish around the block. “What's going on? Why was she apologizing so much?”
“Can I explain it when we're someplace less exposed? I can direct you to a hotel associated with Senyaza. It has some features that should help you hide from even Ettoriel himself for a few hours. We could talk more easily there, and I could set you up with the Sight. Then you can see some of what I see, and draw your own conclusions.”
“I’d like that,” said Marley. “I really would.”
-seventeen-
“Penny called and she was kind of hysterical. She tells me that some man broke into her house and kidnapped you with a bouncy ball.” Marley could imagine Branwyn cocking an eyebrow as she asked, “So, are you kidnapped?”
“No. Bran—”
But Branwyn went on. “Then another guy, Hercules with a gun, I think she said, showed up and started talking to her like she was a goddess, bowing and refusing to look at her and stuff. She finally got him to leave by telling him to take a nap or something, and then she called me. She wants me to come stay with her, in case he comes back again. So... a bouncy ball?”
“I have no idea. There may have been a ball,” said Marley. She was sitting on a queen-sized bed in a large hotel room, watching the children build a fort with the extra pillows, some blankets, and the couch. The distraction of the hotel room had prompted Kari to recover from her sobs, at least. Neath prowled around the room, happy to be free of the cat carrier. “I went by and she was going to call Jeremy, and I was having trouble leaving until Corbin showed up to distract her. Penny was... she was acting weird, Bran. It was really strange.”
“I’ll just bet. Corbin, huh?” said Branwyn. “I see. But since she seems to want me around, and you clearly don’t need me, I’m on my way to go take care of her now.”
“Um,” said Marley. “Hold on.” She went to the open polarized-glass doors that led to the balcony, where Corbin was staring at a pair of ravens on the railing. “Hey, Branwyn is going over to visit Penny. Is that... I don’t want Penny and Branwyn to get into trouble.”
“This is the green-haired girl? I don’t think Penny or... I don’t think she’s in any danger from Penny. Not if she wouldn’t normally be. Most angels don't like to hurt humans without a good reason, and Ettoriel is even more principled than most. According to my database. I wish I knew why...” He shook his head. “Anyhow, Penny must be influencing her passenger toward restraint since you weren’t hurt either. A friend to remind her of herself might help her hang on longer.” He held out his hand to one of the birds, and it snatched something off his palm.
Thoroughly disturbed by everything Corbin had just said, but picking out the crucial information for her current needs, Marley uncovered the phone again. “That’s a good idea,” she told Branwyn.
“I’m so glad you think so,” Branwyn said dryly. “Where are you, anyhow?”
“At a hotel, at the moment.” A hotel with no visible name, a sleek five-story building on an anonymous downtown street, with a burly doorman and a gated lobby. Senyaza was apparently not only a privately held multinational electronics corporation, it was an organization of nephilim, focused on enabling them to “survive and prosper” in a hostile world. Or so Corbin said.
Suspiciously, Branwyn said, “How are you paying for a hotel? Remember what I said about credit cards?”
“Um... I think the guy with the bouncy ball is paying for it.” He’d given the clerk a card of some sort, at least, though it hadn’t had any logo that Marley recognized.
“Give me the address,” ordered Branwyn.
Marley read off the address from a piece of stationary, and added the name. “Hotel Gigantes #3. But I don't know how long we'll be here. Maybe only a couple of hours.”
Branwyn blew her breath into the phone. “If Penny didn't need me, I'd be on my way there already. But at least this way I know where to start looking if you vanish.”
“Bran, I know I'm acting strange, but—”
“You're not, really,” Branwyn interrupted. “I thought you were at first. But you're acting just like you do whenever you aren't sure you're right. If it didn't seem so dangerous, I'd be delighted to see you acting so normal. But it is dangerous, and if you vanish, I will never, ever forgive you. I will hunt you down like a dog. In fact, what am I thinking? Penny's safe at home. I could call her mother to look after her—”
Marley imagined Penny given more excuse to act like an empty doll, as she so often did around her mother, and shuddered. “Penny really does need you, Branwyn. If you can stop her from getting pulled further into whatever’s got its hooks into her, that would help me, too. Probably. I’m hoping to find out as soon as I get off the phone with you.”
“See, I felt all warm and fuzzy at the ‘helping you’ part, but then you went on with the ‘probably’ and now I’m all ‘she’s not telling me stuff again,’ and pissed off. Should have stopped while you were ahead, Mar.”
But Marley could hear the affection in Branwyn’s voice. She said, “The more I hold out, the more you’ll believe me when I tell you the full story.”
“Or the more likely I’ll think it’s a huge prank.”
“A prank? I wish. Gotta go. I’ll check in later.”
She rang off, and spent a moment wiping moisture away from her eyes. Then she tucked the phone away before looking up at Corbin as he re-entered the room. “Hey. Everything okay with the birdies?”
“They’re going to get some information for me. And keep watch, of course.” He met her gaze, his dark eyes assaying her. Marley was suddenly conscious of how haggard she must look, and how on the edge she must seem.
She tried for a relaxed smile, to show her self-control was fine. “So that stuff you just said outside? It was all kinds of messed up. Can we start with that?”
He leaned against the wall, studying her face further. “Normally angels just mark people and then talk to them,” he finally said. “Ettoriel’s moving into Penny’s soul. Possessing her. They don’t usually do that because it eventually destroys the victim, mind and soul.”
“AT said that marks can be removed. Can this?” She asked the question, but she was already thinking about how AT’s repeated “I’m sorry” had sounded like condolences rather than an apology. Rage, cold and sluggish in an unfamiliar environment, began to stir.
“Exorcisms don’t work,” he said bluntly. “Once he has a foothold, the celestial controls the process.” Then he hesitated. “Mostly. I slowed it down some, earlier, by disrupting the numina flow. But I can’t stop it. Only Ettoriel can do that, and only in the early stages.”
“And it’s going to destroy her? How?” She wanted precise answers to focus her anger.
“I’ve heard the process likened to burning her soul away.” He shrugged. “As for her mind, there aren’t that many minds that can survive cohabitating directly with a celestial, especially without a soul to stitch to. The mind becomes fragmented, dominated, and eventually shattered.”
“So he’s got the equivalent of a supernatural gun to her head, not just her heart,” Marley said quietly. It was true; she knew it was. Hadn't she seen it? The rage grew, flowing into the little spaces in her mind where anxiety normally nested. She suddenly understood the appeal of revenge; it was control, app
lied retroactively. Perhaps I cannot stop you from destroying my friend, but I can make you regret it. And there was no room for worry about methods or power differentials, about how Ettoriel was an angel and she was a failed grad student. The rage scoured all those spaces, clean and pure.
Corbin blinked at her and muttered, “Wow.”
Lissa was suddenly standing on the bed, one hand on her shoulder. She peered closely into Marley’s eyes until Marley said, “What is it, kiddo?” Her voice came out thick and low.
Lissa touched Marley’s forehead. “You lit up.”
Corbin said, “You can see it?”
Lissa ignored the question to say, “Why doesn’t she see, Mr. Bird Man?”
Corbin studied Lissa. “I haven’t taught her how yet.”
“When are you going to do that?” the little girl demanded.
“In a little bit.”
“Okay.” As swiftly as she’d come, Lissa returned to the pillow fort. Corbin watched the twins for a moment, fidgeting with something he’d pulled out of his pocket.
“What’s going on?” demanded Marley.
Corbin gave her a sideways look. “What happened to you just now?”
She narrowed her eyes. “You told me that Penny was going to have her soul eaten by a lunatic angel, and I got angry about it. Then, you said ‘Wow’.”
“I did? Damn it,” he said. “Well, for me, your halo just lost most of its tarnish.”
Shock flooded her, overwhelming even the rage. “M-my halo?” She sat down on the bed. “That’s probably a technical term, right?”
Corbin crouched down in front of her, taking her left wrist into both his hands gently. “Motherfucking Zachariah,” he muttered. “Yes, but it means about what you’d expect it to mean.”
She forced a brief little smile. “Tinkly golden ring over my head?”
“Not quite. Here.” He cupped one hand over his eyes and drew it away, then placed the cupped hand over Marley’s eyes. When he pulled his hand away, she could see...
Matchbox Girls Page 12
