Angel Descended (The Awakened Book 6)

by Matthew S. Cox

  At the sight of the old city, she hesitated. Feet together, hands clasped at her chest, she trembled under the weight of inexplicable dread. Something bad was in the air. Father had been right, and the feeling came to her when she didn’t even try to find it. A wave of flames erupted from the walls and engulfed her; she yelped, raising her arms to guard her face. The red-haired woman who had come to kill her stepped out of the fire, chasing it away and protecting her. As the woman ran a reassuring hand over her head, Althea held her stomach at a powerful surge of nauseous worry for her sister.

  “Althea?” yelled Father.

  She backed away from the outside and let her arms down. “Father… You should stay with Karina.”

  Conflict twisted his face. “I am worried for you as well. Karina is safe in the city.”

  “No.” Althea ran to him, clinging. “Please, Father. Please.”

  “I could keep an eye on her if you want,” said Shepherd.

  “It must be Father.” Althea stood on tiptoe, pleading.

  Father shook his head. “This has ambush written all over it; I cannot let you go alone.”

  Althea cried. “No, Father. Please. Karina is in danger. Please stay with her.”

  At the fear in her eyes, he let his head hang with the resigned look he always showed when he could think of nothing more to argue and didn’t like something.

  “Alright.” Father rubbed her back, patting it until she calmed down. “Shepherd, you will go with her.”

  “I will.”

  Althea sniffled and wiped her eyes. “That woman you do not trust should come with me too.”

  “There’s a lot of women he don’t trust,” said Garcia.

  “And you’re one of them, chica,” added Montez.

  Garcia laughed.

  “Kate?” asked Shepherd. “I thought she went back to the city.”

  “She came back.” Nelson gestured over his shoulder with a thumb. “It’s Saturday, they flew in about an hour ago. You want I should get her?”

  Althea stared up at Father. He nodded to Nelson, who ran off.

  “What have you seen, child?” Father held her hand and took a knee in front of her.

  “Fire was coming for me, but Kate stopped it. I… don’t know why, but I am scared for Karina. I will be safe. You need to protect her. I feel someone watching her, having bad in their heart.”

  Something in her expression made Father pull the new city-rifle off his shoulder and straighten.

  After a minute or two in uneasy silence, clomping boots drew all eyes to an alley. Nelson ran ahead of Kate. She’d dressed like a local in a plain white tee and jeans. As soon as she saw Althea, she changed course and rushed over.

  “What’s wrong? He said you needed me?” Kate wrapped her in a hug and squeezed.

  Father tensed.

  Althea gave him a plaintive look. She does not want to hurt me.

  He snorted but dropped the challenging stare he’d been fixing on Kate.

  “You need to come with us.” Althea settled down from tiptoe to stand flat. “I don’t know why, but you need to. I have a feeling.”

  “David should be out of the bath in about ten minutes,” said Kate.

  “No time.” Father patted Estevez on the shoulder. “Miguel isn’t gonna last that long.”

  “Come on,” said Hernandez. “I was with the patrol that got hit. It’s not too far from the edge of the old city.”

  Father stared at Althea as if expecting it would be the last time he’d ever see her. His sadness hit her in the gut. She focused, projecting confidence into him, raising his mood. He stood tall, chest puffed. She held his hand and touched his life essence, bolstering it. Her eyes glowed brighter for a few seconds as she channeled power into him, priming his reflexes for speed and precision.

  Father took on a twitchy affect, glancing around as if aware of a thousand sounds and smells that had escaped him before.

  “What did you do?”

  Althea knew she’d done something to his body, but she couldn’t explain it, so she fell back to her days with the Chamán for an explanation. “I have asked a spirit of war to watch over you. He will not stay long, but he will protect Karina with you.”

  Father looked perplexed. He’d never been a believer in tribal mysticism, but what he felt at that moment defied his understanding.

  Althea hurried to the gate, following Hernandez and the others.

  Debris strewn streets crisscrossed the ruins of old Albuquerque, covered with dirt and trapped tumbleweeds. Althea kept her gaze down, not wanting to look at the faces of buildings or ruins of cars and think about the people who had died here. Shepherd held her hand as they walked.

  Spirit of war? Kate’s voice drifted in her mind, trailed by a telepathic laugh.

  Althea looked over at her. I do not know what to say it as. We had no time.

  Fair enough.

  Hernandez led them to the edge of the city and out over the scrubland. A short distance along an ancient highway, a wounded horse lay on its side at the edge of a cliff. The animal calmed as soon as Althea looked at it. She let go of Shepherd’s hand and ran forward.

  “Wait,” shouted Kate, sprinting after her.

  Althea put a hand on the chestnut mare’s flank and forced the animal asleep, a quick surge of power also caused a gunshot wound in the animal’s side to stop bleeding.

  Kate grasped her shoulder. “The horse can wait, there’s a person down there.”

  “She does not have to suffer while she waits.”

  Althea stood and crept to the edge of the ravine. Forty feet down a steep incline, at the end of a long trail of impact marks, a man lay on the ground. Both of his legs twisted at unnatural angles and blood seeped out of his mouth and nose, bubbling with each breath. White bone pierced his left thigh, and his lips moved with endless whispering.

  Shepherd approached. Althea’s dress tightened about her chest as he grabbed a fistful of cloth at her back. “Careful, girl. You don’t want to fall.”

  “I have to go down there.” She looked at the uneven surface. “I can climb this.”

  “Hold on,” said Estevez. He took a length of rope from his shoulder and dropped it on the ground. He kick-tested a root that seemed sturdy enough and tied one end around it before throwing the rest over the edge. “That will help.”

  Shepherd let go, reluctantly. Montez, Garcia, and Nelson moved to the edge to look at their fallen friend.

  Garcia muttered nasty words under her breath. “We never saw where it came from. Some bastard shot the horse out from under him.”

  Althea crouched and turned her back to the drop, easing one leg over the coarse grass lining the edge until her toes sank into dry dirt. She held onto the rope with both hands and let her weight settle onto that foot before moving her other leg from the top. She lowered herself in search of the next place to step. A spike of panic wafted from above when Althea’s chin reached the level of the road.

  Kate flung her arms to the sides. “Wait!”

  Althea jumped at the shout, slipping a few inches before she caught herself. “What?”

  A tremble of exertion shivered along the woman’s body. “I’m holding back a bomb.”

  27

  Death Undone

  Althea

  Before Althea could ask what a ‘bomb’ was, gunshots rang out. She ducked, pressing herself against the dirt wall. Men and women shouted in English and Spanish as bullets ricocheted from ancient paving. The sound of people running in a mad scramble for cover barely reached her senses over the din of fighting. Icy claws scraped at her heart, twice. Tears flowed from her eyes without thought; people had died.

  Shepherd stood in front of Kate, who for some reason, hadn’t moved at all.

  Chaos gave way to silence in a few seconds.

  “Well that’s a surprise,” said a male voice, higher than average in pitch and a bit familiar.

  A few pained moans followed.

  Althea’s feet sank deeper into the
loose soil as she stretched up to peek over the top. Nelson curled up behind an old guardrail, holding his bloody shoulder. His rifle sat in the road, a few feet away from where he’d taken cover. Garcia and Estevez had gone twenty yards further down the road where they ducked behind the decaying struts of an old billboard, aiming their rifles. Montez lay flat on the ground, the front of his face smeared all over the pavement, the back of his head cracked open. He’d never even gotten his rifle off his shoulder.

  On the other side of the road, three men pointed rifles at them over a wall of sandbags covered in tumbleweeds. Blood and abandoned guns lay where two others had died and fallen out of sight. A third body slumped over the sandbags, dead.

  Hector, the man who had shot Karina, stood on the road as if immune to bullets, pointing a handgun in Shepherd’s general direction. Althea sniffled at the pain of death. Six people with rifles held their breath in a standoff.

  “Definitely wasn’t expecting that fucker to fail.” Hector grinned at Althea. “Guess you are charmed or some bullshit. Don’t matter you live. By the time you get back to town, that bitch sister of yours will be dead.” He laughed. “Maybe I leave you alive so you can cry for her.”

  A single gunshot echoed in the distance, muted and sharp—a city rifle.

  “I don’t think that worked out for you either, asshole,” said Kate.

  Althea shivered at the noise. Since no great sense of clairvoyant sorrow came over her, she hoped she had heard Father’s gun. Her gaze fell level to the earth before her eyes, where a bit of green plastic poked out from the soil.

  “Don’t just stand there,” muttered Shepherd.

  “I can’t do anything,” whispered Kate. “If I stop concentrating, the fucking bomb is going to go off. It’s a goddamned inch away from Althea’s face.”

  “Seems we got ourselves a little impasse here,” said Hector.

  “Go to hell, traitor,” shouted Garcia.

  Althea brushed dirt away from the plastic, revealing a curved rectangular object about ten inches across with letters on it. Weeks with that irritating machine had taught her those ‘funny marks’ she’d seen here and there were words. Speech that people somehow froze so it could keep speaking. She ran the shapes over in her head, trying to remember how to say them.

  “Front toads emmeny.”

  Shepherd glanced down, raising an eyebrow.

  Althea projected an image of what she saw into Shepherd’s mind. His surface thoughts flashed from ‘how the hell is that thing even still working’ to ‘damn that’s old,’ followed by several bad words. He thought the little plastic box could kill her.

  She blinked. This is a bomb?

  “I’ve already been there, señorita,” said Hector. “You point your gun at me, my friends will shoot you. Looks like you’ll all kill each other, and we don’t want that.”

  Shepherd thought about a little piece on the top, screwed into the green block. Althea looked for the part he seemed to be trying to ‘show’ her. A thin metal wire came out of it and disappeared off to her left into the ground. He wanted her to remove it and imagined her unscrewing it and pulling a three-inch silver stick out of the green brick. She braced a knee against the cliff and took one hand off the rope. The piece refused to budge when she twisted it. She grunted under her breath and made herself a little stronger. On her second attempt, it came loose, and after twisting the cap a few turns, she lifted a small metal post out of a hole.

  Kate, staring at her the whole time, finally breathed. Throw the little thing as hard as you can.

  Althea tossed it to the side. It fell a distance away and burst with a white flash and a sharp pop, not quite as loud as a gunshot. Everyone with a weapon twitched.

  She looked up at Shepherd and Kate, unimpressed with the tiny explosion, confused why they had been so afraid of it.

  “They killed Montez,” said Estevez.

  “Kill the bastard,” Garcia growled.

  “No,” Althea yelled. She clambered over the edge and slipped into the gap between her two protectors. “Hector, stop. Why must you hurt people?” The sight of the dead brought tears. “I was wrong. I am sorry I did not help Emilio. I did not know I could when he got hurt. I did fix a dead person once, but I don’t know how.” She slipped an arm around Shepherd’s back and clung to his side. “It was my fault he died. I had so much guilt.”

  Hector’s face reddened. “So you can fix the dead? You chose to let Emilio die!”

  Kate advanced. “For fuck’s sake, asshole. Can you get it through your tiny little brain that she’s a goddamn child?”

  Boom.

  Two feet of orange fire belched from Hector’s massive pistol. Althea screamed as Shepherd shoved her behind him. The shot hadn’t been aimed at her. A heavy, fleshy thump sounded from Kate’s chest an instant before her clothes flash burned to a fine layer of dust. She staggered back out of the smoldering remains of her sneakers, grabbing at a huge bruise between her breasts where molten lead trickled down her skin. Kate gulped air like a fish out of water, apparently wanting to speak, but lacking the ability.

  The three men behind the sandbags slackened their aim; one blessed himself. Hector turned pale.

  An emotional change darkened the minds of the three still-armed members of the Watch. Althea snapped her head to face them. “No! Don’t kill anyone more!”

  Kate snarled.

  Hector’s pistol burst into flames and exploded a second later. He clutched his burned hand to his chest and wailed.

  Wheezing, Kate staggered toward Hector, shrouded in fury. The sight of her nakedness kept his friends gawking. A mixture of solidifying lead and copper glimmered on the road, a dribbled trail running down her leg.

  “Althea…” wheezed Kate as blue spheres of fire appeared in both of her hands, “don’t watch. Son of a bitch is going to pay for trying to hurt you.”

  28

  Better a Painful Truth

  Anna

  Earl Grey didn’t taste as good tepid as it did hot or even iced. Anna couldn’t bring herself to take another sip as she paced back and forth inside Penny’s flat. Spawny pressed himself into the couch harder each time her circuitous route moved in his direction. Whenever he flinched, he offered an apologetic look.

  Penny remained at the table, staring at her empty cup. Every so often, she’d reminisce about their time together, as if recalling the horrible life they’d led as teens would somehow fix whatever had gone wrong in her head. Anna considered it a true miracle she had made it to her twenties without being raped, stabbed, or shot. She had Penny to thank for being alive—as much as James, perhaps more so. Somehow, the two of them had made it. Everything bad that happened to Anna came as a result of poor choices on her part. How could Penny have forgotten her so easily?

  She let her head fall into her hands and sobbed.

  Aaron grasped her shoulder. “It’s not her, luv. She’s been adjusted.”

  Penny hesitated, approaching with an awkward ostrich-like gait and a faltering smile. Anna looked up at her, feeling worse at the discomfort in her dear friend’s face.

  “This is all to cock,” said Penny. “I feel sick. None of this makes any sense.”

  “Something’s been done to you,” said Aaron. “To your mind.”

  Anna shivered at the sound of his voice above and behind her, vibrating in her bones.

  “Thought she said we’z got nuffin ta fear from ‘er.” Spawny stuffed a hand down the front of his trousers and scratched himself. “Roight?”

  “It wasn’t me,” Anna muttered at the floor. “I’m not much of a telepath.”

  Aaron squeezed her shoulder. “You don’t give yourself enough credit, luv. Makin’ people not see ya isn’t easy.”

  “So what does that mean?” Penny dragged a chair closer. She trembled, but sat near Anna despite the terror obvious in her eyes. “For us?”

  The truth stood right in front of her. Could she believe it enough to speak it? How much of anything could she believe anymore? A
lexi’s innocent smile flashed in her mind. Was she as damaged as that boy? Did Archon do this for her benefit?

  Aaron’s hand rubbed confidence into her back.

  “Someone wanted me away from London.” Anna’s sadness faded to detached calm. “He made it possible for me to leave. I’m not sure I could have gone if you didn’t hate me.”

  “Anna!” Penny yelled, and bit her lip after. “I… uhh, never hated you. T’be honest, I don’t know why I’m so frightened. Whenever I think of you, it’s like I remember you wantin’ to kill me, and I can’t figure on what I did to get you cheesed off.”

  “That’s bollocks,” Anna replied in a flat voice, unable to look up. “Do you remember the alley?”

  “A bit. You killed those blokes when we went to skim their ‘minis. Said it was better to take all the creds instead of just a pittance.”

  “No, Pen. That’s not how it went… they chased us into an alley and knocked the shite out of Spawny. One of ‘em tossed me over a rubbish bin.” Warm tears ran down her cheeks at the memory of an invading hand between her legs. She squirmed in her chair and looked up. “I wasn’t going to fight. Just let ‘em take what they wanted of me like I always did. I heard you screaming and I couldn’t let them do that to you. Not ever.”

  Penny’s eyes dilated. She glanced up at Aaron, who seemed to be focusing on her.

  A soft knock came from the door.

  With Spawny paralyzed on the couch and Penny locked in a trance with Aaron, Anna sniffled away her tears and hurried to the door. A wiry, thirty-something man in a dark coat and glasses offered a polite smile.

  “Anna,” he said, with a nod of greeting.

  “Agent Hughes… I wasn’t sure if it was safe to contact you.” She backed away from the door. “Please, come in.”

  “You’ve made some disturbing claims.” Hughes folded his glasses with a deft snap of the wrist and tucked them in a pocket. “Are you sure the professor is responsible? That calls into question much of what’s gone on here.”