“How did you do that?” A fourteen-year-old girl with cobalt blue hair grabbed his left arm. “You spawned eighteen outbound threads without doing anything but touching the box. You gotta show me that trick!”
“Yeah, man,” said a dazed-sounding, older teen who might have even been past twenty. “Sucked all our cycles away.”
“Fuckin’ got me killed,” whined a preteen boy.
“The crap are you playing games for?” yelled the blue-haired girl. “We’re supposed to be finding a new home.” She released Mamoru’s arm and looked at him the way one might gawk at their personal deity come to life. “Was that technokinesis? What were you doing? You gotta show us!”
“Plucking the wings from an angel,” said Mamoru, without emotion.
He walked out, leaving the group of precocious hackers to their confusion. He had fulfilled his obligation. This place no longer held anything for him. Archon and everything around him would burn. Now, he could go to Sadako. He had to be sure she lived.
The corridor led him past half-dozen conference rooms to a small area with an unused reception desk and a pair of double doors, which opened to a larger hallway beyond. People ran back and forth, chaotic shouts echoing from both sides. A blond boy, about twelve, ran up to him.
“Oi, mister, ‘ave you seen me dad?”
“No.” Mamoru kept walking.
“Mum?”
“I have not.”
“Bloody hell,” whined the boy, before he ran off shouting for his parents.
A dark-skinned woman with long, sand-brown dreadlocks rushed in from the lobby, barking commands at anyone she saw to get out to the vans. When she spotted Mamoru, she pointed at him.
“You. Where’s the ship?”
“On its way,” said Mamoru, walking right past her.
“Where do you think you’re going?” She grabbed his arm.
Mamoru stopped, glancing at her hand as though she had smeared animal waste on him. His gaze flicked from her fingers to her eyes. An instant later, a powerful urge to trust her filtered into his mind. The feeling faded as the presence of the Akuryō roiled to the surface. Her expression changed from alluring to terrified. She backed into the wall, palms flat.
“Home,” said the voice of an old man, on a wisp of black breath that smelled of carrion.
She broke away and ran down the hall. Mamoru, chuckling, resumed his walk to the exit. Anna had left the car in front of the tallest building when they’d arrived. It would be adequate to bring him back to Sadako. He jogged across the space between the buildings, amused by the sound of gunfire overhead.
A great crash of metal exploded above; seconds later, a fireball made of two small aircraft careened into the cyborg graveyard. The Akuryō reveled in the death. Power seeped in Mamoru’s skin, souls drawn to the entity inside him.
I have done what you asked.
He forced his way in the side door of the ten-story building, bending the plastisteel frame. People in a large open room full of tents stared at him as he jogged past and headed for the middle corridor and a right turn to the main exit. A handful of armed men and women ran past him to the stairwell, shouting about enemies on the roof.
Anna appeared at the archway where the corridor met the main lobby. She walked against the fleeing crowd, making her way into the building. The arrogance in her strut filled him with the urge to hit her, perhaps the Akuryō’s feelings. It would be highly amused if he killed her.
She lifted her gaze long enough to render a brief nod of acknowledgment. Light glinted from her emerald eyes as they passed. Something seemed off. Mamoru took three steps before he froze and twisted.
“Anna.”
In defiance of the war going on overhead, she paused with a look of irritation, as if late for a board meeting. “Wot is it? I’m in a bit of a rush.”
He studied her for a moment before turning away. “Nothing.”
She mumbled something too low to hear and trotted into the stairwell. Mamoru stormed down the corridor, across the lobby, and out to the courtyard. The gold Halcyon-Ormyr sat where he expected it to be. He squinted again at the building’s doors. Brilliant light flared overhead, like the flash before an ancient hydrogen bomb. Its touch burned him and sent smoke wafting from his raised arm. Mamoru leaned back to stare up at the sharp angle, at the figure of a tiny, winged girl gliding down from on high.
He howled with rage and staggered to the side. Primal fear, that of a shadow facing the sun, robbed him of all rational thought. His surroundings blurred with a kinetic run, fifty miles per hour into the darkened city, away from this place.
Away from the abomination.
52
Between Worlds
Althea
Sound had taken on a muted and blurry quality as if underwater. The world around Althea lost its color, washed out to shades of monochromatic blue. Men and women, spirits emerging from corpses, shifted to stare at her. Horror filled her heart, and she clutched her hands to her chest. Blood flowed in the cracks between the tiny rocks on the roof’s surface, coarse and uncomfortable underfoot.
A man not much older than Karina stood over his dead body. He took notice of her and screamed. “Why am I staring at myself? I can’t get up! What the fuck?”
Seven figures in camouflage emerged from corpses, surrounding her in a horseshoe formation, followed by fourteen or so other spirits in street clothes.
Althea let her arms fall, finding solace in being able to give them peace. “You should not dwell here. There is nothing for you in this place but sadness. Go.”
Something deep within her, a reflexive action she could not explain, called out to a distant place, which felt far away and close at the same time. Shimmering spirals of silver light formed near each spirit. She had opened a doorway for them. Dark and sinister forms, clouds of shadow bearing arms tipped with wispy claws, crept over the wall, chasing two other apparitions off the roof. Althea felt neither fear nor pride in watching the creatures chase the fleeing ghosts.
Some people deserve to die.
The spirits dispersed one by one, some confused, some grateful. The energy on the other side called to her but didn’t beckon. The other-place held a familiar warmth. She did not understand why she remembered it, and didn’t bother trying. Agony surrounded her from numerous survivors, some barely alive.
Althea bowed her head. Her hair billowed past, thin strands of glowing white light. She paid it no mind, absorbed by the overwhelming need to help these people. Energy radiated from her, flowing out from her back as a surge along the ribbons. The simultaneous sense of sixteen bodies’ life-shapes coalesced in her mind, and she willed them whole. When she opened her eyes, two forms remained hurt, more wounded than the rest. The burst of healing energy had forestalled their deaths, but only for a short time.
“Kate,” said Althea.
The redhead sat up, half out of her body. Her left arm, and most of the shoulder on that side, had ceased to exist. Althea’s power kept the woman’s blood inside, and her heart beating. It felt strange to exert influence over a body without touching it, though she remembered what she had done to Hector. She had been across the room from him when he’d shot Karina. The energy of whatever state she had entered prevented any feelings of anger—her memory of Hector brought only regret. Regret he had harmed Karina and regret he had to die. If the anger of someone harming Karina could send her abilities beyond the reach of her touch, it had to be her despairing horror at witnessing such murder from high above that let her heal from afar.
She had leapt from the car without even thinking twice.
Althea assumed using her power that way would tire her far more than if she touched them, yet she felt no fatigue.
A transparent version of Kate struggled to get up, as if stuck from the waist down to her mortal remains. Althea tiptoed around bloodstains and stooped at her side, putting a hand on her transparent head. Calmed at the touch, Kate’s spirit ceased moving. The woman looked up at her with the pouting face o
f a little child.
“You are not dead yet.” Althea smiled, the brilliant glow in her eyes bathed Kate in azure light. “I don’t want you to go away.”
Spectral tears covered Kate’s cheeks. “It’s my birthday! They stole my cake! I never got to make a wish.”
Althea guided her to lie down, back into her body, leaving a hand on Kate’s solid forehead. Orbs of light swelled from the tips of her energy ribbon wings before gliding along their length and disappearing into her back. Warm tingles ran down her arm and a similar sphere of light formed around her fingers and spread out over Kate.
Threads of flesh emerged from the horrible gouge, tentatively exploring the roof as they grew longer. The mass stretched and twitched, like fast-forwarded video of plant roots growing. Another tendril joined, twisting together and thickening into a new arm. Bones appeared in the center, wrapped with muscle, and finally pink, new skin. Althea guided the life-shapes back to rights. Once satisfied the woman’s body was whole, she leaned forward and kissed her on the forehead before standing.
Harsh shadows crept over the roof, the light from her wings pivoting with a slow turn. The tips flicked and twisted as if alive, avoiding contact with air handlers and vents. Althea surveyed the area, sensing only one person still hurt. The man from the apartment, when Aurora had brought her to the city across the world of the spirits. He’d been injured again, burned as well as shot.
He came to as she padded over to stand beside him. His hand slid over her foot and grasped her ankle. She crouched, taking his hand in both of hers. He strained to stay awake. Despite the healing energies she had saturated the area with, he remained close to death.
“’Ello again.”
“Hi.” She commanded his brain to ignore pain.
The man smiled, radiating love. “Gettin’ ta be a habit, innit?”
“I don’t know what you mean.” She bit her lip at the sight of dark blood oozing out from the charred flesh on his chest.
“Is that it then? Am I gone? Where’s Allison?”
“What, no, and I don’t know.”
“Are you real?”
“No, I’m Althea.” She closed her eyes and squeezed his hand.
“Wiseass,” he muttered.
She grinned.
Aaron groaned and fainted. She clasped his hand to her cheek, projecting serenity as she urged his body’s life-shapes to mend themselves. Once she mended all the hurts within him, she let go of his hand and stood. She sensed no spirits and no living people nearby at the precipice of death any longer.
Her desperation to stop all the killing relaxed. The energy ribbons diminished and withdrew into her back. Her hair ceased glowing, and her eyes faded from their abnormal intensity to their usual bright glow. All at once, the exertion of helping so many people in such short a span fell upon her shoulders. She looked down at the unconscious man, swayed on her feet, and collapsed on top of him.
Seconds, perhaps minutes later, light, weak by comparison to what her wings had made, shone in her face. She squinted at a black hovercar landing on the roof. The door opened, and a figure rushed out.
“Althea!” screamed Officer Ahmed.
Content, secure, and exhausted, she closed her eyes.
53
The King’s Greatest Fear
Anna
Most of the rooms on the ninth floor had walls of frosted glass. Evidently, the entire story had been executive conference rooms. Anna gave up and spent an hour roaming the eighth before settling on the former corner office of Alexis B. Moseley, Vice President of Finance. The floor-to-ceiling windows on the two outer walls faced southwest and would offer a beautiful view of the setting sun; at least, for however much longer they stayed here. Archon would insist they leave soon, now that Mamoru had returned to the fold. Not having a starship had been a rather large impediment to leaving Earth.
She debated what she wanted to do: soak in a bath, curl up naked amid silk sheets (perhaps after said bath), get blind drunk (perhaps while curled up in bed), or grow enough backbone to tell James to get stuffed. Her indecision resulted in none of the above happening. An hour and twenty minutes after returning with Mamoru, she’d still not so much as taken her coat off.
I don’t want to get comfortable here. She walked to the corner where the two windows met, staring out at the dark Pacific ocean and the dying sunlight sinking into the horizon. Her dark sapphire eyes reflected back at her from the window, another person staring accusingly out of another life, astonished she’d even bothered coming back to Archon. She bowed her head. I can’t get comfortable here.
She put a hand on the glass. Aaron’s various quirky expressions flashed by in a slideshow of memory. Her feelings made no sense. He wasn’t the sort of man who loved. He only wanted another tick on his belt, another Awakened weapon on his hip. Her throat tightened.
Aaron has such sad eyes. What had he been like before his wife died? I… She covered her mouth. I’ve been such an idiot. I’ve got to find him.
Anna whirled to leave, but froze as Archon rushed in with fire in his stare and blood on his coat.
“No point moving your things.” He glanced at the room. “Not a bad choice, but too late. We need to leave, immediately.”
“What’s going on?”
“They found us. We had a mole.” He scowled. “How could you not have heard all that?”
Gunshots and random explosions had been the norm for this area, though they did sound a tad closer than usual. Anna stood like a deer in the headlights as he stormed toward her, barely suppressing a cringe when he got near enough to grab her. She held her breath until he passed without contact. Nothing stood between her and the door out. Her weight shifted onto her left leg, right foot about to take a step.
“Attention everyone,” said Archon, his voice projected by speakers all throughout the complex. “Government forces have located us, and are advancing as we speak. It is imperative that we evacuate immediately. Everyone should proceed at once to Edmonson Memorial Starport by any means necessary. Anyone too little… or too simple to know how to do it, go to the café in the main building.”
Anna hesitated, thinking of all the children they’d collected. She looked back at him, standing in the corner gazing out at the city, holding his NetMini like a microphone. Three Archons, one real and two reflected, sighed. If she didn’t leave now, she might yet wind up on a starship she did not want to be on, away from her home… number six Woodseer Street.
“They are afraid of us and are shooting without asking questions. They do not care how young you are or how wide you smile. Do not, under any circumstances stand and fight. It is time for us to find our new home. Talis, I am sure you can hear this. Proceed to Edmonson at once and secure the facility for our purposes.” He let off the transmit button, speaking only to Anna. “Help me corral the little ones, will you?”
“Dad!” yelled Alexi. “There you are. I’ve been looking everywhere.” The boy ran to him and held on. “What’s all the noise?”
Archon patted him on the back. Archon’s fatherly smile was as false as the origin of the boy’s English accent. The sight of him squeezed Anna’s stomach.
She stared at the boy. “Aye. I’ll get the little ones then. What of the Angel?”
James paled, white as a ghost.
Anna blinked. “Did something happen to the ship again?”
“Oh.” He chuckled. “Yes. That is the name they gave the ship. I had almost forgotten. I think I shall rename it at the first opportunity. Where is Mamoru?”
“Not the foggiest. I haven’t seen him since we landed. He asked where the computers were set up and ran off.” She raised an eyebrow. “What’s gotten you bricking it?”
“Nothing, dear. Overreaction to Lauren’s prattling. She has been known to be wrong on multiple occasions anyway. Come on, then. You have children to collect.”
Anna stayed quiet, noting how he leaned on the word children every time he said it. Once, he had bemoaned how many of their ‘recru
its’ were kids; he wanted people capable of fighting. Now, he turned them into leverage to control her.
“Good instincts picking Manchester, by the by.”
“What?”
“Arsenal… those blighters will always disappoint you.”
“What are you saying?”
“He led them right to us.” Archon glared at her. “Lauren was wrong. The whole thing must have been some elaborate setup. I doubt the man ever even had a wife.”
She drew a gasp, covering her mouth with both hands. “Is he…”
“No, unfortunately. Not far from it, though, but I suspect that damn whelp will see to that. Where is that witch?”
“Witch? What witch?”
“The police arrived ever so suspiciously on time. Where is Lauren?”
“Cripes, James… You’re afraid of her, aren’t you?”
He glared. “Of course not.”
“Not Lauren. Althea.” Anna’s eyes widened. “You’re petrified of that little girl because of what Lauren said.”
Archon patted Alexi on the back. “Present company excluded, I am rather starting not to like children. Especially petulant little girls who do not know when someone is looking out for their own best interest. Now, are you going to help me with the precious little tykes, or should I deal with them myself?”
A dread chill made her shiver at his words. “I haven’t seen Lauren at all. Not since before I went to get Mamoru. Of course. I’ll… go to the café.”
“I shall see you at the starport.” He stormed out. “Alastair, go with your mother.”
“Mum?” Alexi ran over and clung to Anna, shivering with fear. “Why’s Dad so angry? Why is everyone shooting? Are we going to die?”
You bastard.
Anna swallowed, trying to suppress the urge to tremble. “H-he… he doesn’t want anyone to hurt us. Come on, then. We’ll be all right, but we’ve got to get out of here.”
Angel Descended (The Awakened Book 6) Page 47
