Reality, the hangar, faded away to the dark rain-soaked alleys of London, filled with the laughter of Mr. Blake, and all the harpies from Bristol City. Shadows of men that had followed her into dark places took over her thoughts, memories of a dozen murders she’d almost fallen victim to as a teenage runaway. If she’d been thirty seconds slower walking one time, not found a door someone accidentally left unlocked another, or not stumbled into an unexpected constable—dozens of nights she would’ve been dead if not for small bits of chance.
Self-pity and terror seized her soul in two clawed hands and tried to pull it apart. Anna wanted to shriek like a little girl meeting the Devil face to face, but only a pitiful squeak flavored in smoldering rubber rasped from her throat.
Mamoru lurched backward, flying out of sight.
Anna grabbed herself to make sure she hadn’t soiled. “Aaron!”
“I’m here,” he yelled and ran out of the mist at her side. “The man’s possessed.”
“I…” Anna trembled. “I got that feeling. I-it was radiating terror, pulling my nightmares out.”
A body hit the ground on the other side of the smoke with the chirp of flesh on wet concrete. Mamoru’s voice, deeper than it should have been, laughed. A glow glided across the murk, in time with the fluttering of an azure fireball. As no one screamed in pain, Anna assumed it missed.
“That one almost came within forty meters, my dear.” Archon laughed.
Mamoru roared. Kate screamed. Anna jumped as the air shook with another detonation. Seconds later, a whiff of burned flesh added to the awfulness of melting rubber.
Anna looked up, thinking of the starship hurtling toward the Earth, and squeezed the e-mag in her hand. If she killed Mamoru, they couldn’t stop the ship. That’s silly. The military can stop it. “Aaron, call it in.”
He grabbed her free hand. “What?”
“The starship. Call your superiors and warn them.”
“What a romantic moment,” said Archon.
Aaron gurgled as invisible force hurled him at her. Their faces smacked together hard enough to leave the world spinning and blood spilling from her nose. Anna collapsed to the floor, cradling her mouth.
“Ngh,” moaned Aaron. “I’m going to twist your head off, you bloody fuck.”
Anna rolled on her side, begging reality to stop spinning.
61
A Shocking Stalemate
Aaron
With a hand pressed to the side of his head, Aaron closed his eyes and tuned out the throbbing in his cheek. The pain didn’t bother him as much as being used as a club to strike Anna. That had enraged him. He reached out into the grey smoke with telepathy, searching for minds. The closest sentience had to be Anna. Off to the left, he sensed an inhuman tangle of thoughts he assumed to be Mamoru. Another two minds lay further distant, one near the center of the building and one to the right near the wall. A fifth glimmer of sentience winked in and out near the roof, small and blank of surface thoughts.
Must be a cat or something in the rafters.
Aaron remembered Archon running for the side and focused on that area. Telekinetic feelers wrapped around something near the mind he’d located. He gave it a hard, instant shove too fast for Archon to mount an effective resistance. A body clattered into metal.
Archon’s arrogant muttered curses brought a smile to his lips.
A metal clang resounded out of the fog, followed by the ear-splitting squealing of a vibro-blade trapped in softer metal. Aaron spun to face the exit. His breath came in short, rapid pulses as he gathered a sense of the mass present within the enormous sliding doors.
He called upon the deepest reserves of his telekinetic power and roared, thrusting both arms to the side. The great, segmented doors slid off their rails, hurtling open many times faster than the mechanism could tolerate. Huge slabs, as well as shrapnel from smashed guide rails and roller wheels scattered, drawing forth a breeze that sucked most of the smoke out of the space.
“Aaron!” screamed Anna.
He spun in time to catch her as she leapt in front of him. An old air-to-air missile hovered over them, a lance poised to spear him through the chest.
“Anna, please move,” said Archon.
Covered in blue flames, Mamoru chased Kate around stacks of smaller tires. As fast as his flesh melted off from a continuous pelting of fireballs, it regrew. She screamed and ran in circles, occasionally diving into somersaults to evade the sword.
Aaron wrapped his telekinetic force around the missile, struggling to push it aside.
“Now, Anna. Move!” Archon raised the shaking missile up and back, as if preparing to stab it into the pair of them.
Changing course without warning, Mamoru leapt at Archon. The instant his opposition ceased, Aaron’s mental shove hurled the missile across the hangar. It smashed into the floor, fins breaking on impact, the body snapping in half. Archon made a shoving motion, but the katana tasted blood before its master went sliding away.
Archon shrieked and gasped, staring down at his chest. Red expanded over his shirt at the left breast.
Anna pulled a brilliant arc of lightning from the e-mag concealed in her left palm, twisting it over her right hand. An instant later, a blinding, jagged stripe connected her fingertips to Mamoru’s chest with a resonant boom that knocked dust from the walls. A pair of crackling blue arcs shot out of Mamoru’s legs, lapping at a puddle behind him. Anna yelped and released the charge, shaking her left hand as if it had burned.
Sensing opportunity, Aaron whipped the E-90 off his hip and put the blue ring-dot sight over Archon’s stunned expression of horror. Before he could squeeze the trigger, Anna pulled his arm down.
“No, Aaron.”
“Die, motherfucker!” shrieked Kate, her entire body surrounded by a sudden blast of flames.
The fire gathered like a serpent around her legs, up over her shoulders, and spiraled down her arms, gathering into a twisting rope. Anna nailed her in the chest with a thin, stunning spark. The shroud of flames whiffed out in a puff of blue-orange. Kate wheezed and flopped to the floor.
“Stop, stop, stop!” Screamed Anna.
Mamoru twitched in a heap, moaning. Archon looked up, his expression one of complete surprise.
“Anna, he’s dangerous,” said Aaron.
She held onto his arm with almost all her weight to keep his aim down.
Archon’s expression hardened to a sneer. The instant he looked at Aaron, Anna nailed him with a flash spark that knocked him flat against the wall. White foam leaked from his mouth as he slid down to sit on the floor.
“Stop. No one is killing anyone. This is stupid!” Anna stood between Aaron and Archon. “All of us are Awakened. There’s only half a dozen of us in the world. We shouldn’t be killing each other.”
Aaron’s gaze flicked back and forth from Mamoru to Archon. “I’m not sure either one of them’s much in the mood for compromise.”
She put a hand on his chest. “James is passionate, but he’s not stupid. He has to understand how valuable even one Awakened life is.”
Mamoru’s bellow of rage morphed into laughter as he stood. No trace of injury remained visible anywhere on him, despite the smell of ozone and charred meat in the air. Even his pants had mended. His attention locked on to Anna when she ran to where Archon had slumped.
“Anna!” yelled Aaron.
She spun as Mamoru charged, jumping back with a cry of surprise. Aaron caught the man in a telekinetic grip, hauling him airborne.
“We don’t have time for this.” Aaron held his breath, concentrated, and launched Mamoru to the far left corner of the hangar, fast enough that his figure blurred.
The body hit the wall with enough force to dent the steel, filling the room with another deafening boom and sending a spray of blood and gore sliding off his bones. Anna screamed. Black vapor wisped around Mamoru’s mangled remains. A starburst of expanding blood flowed up the wall, stopped, and raced back into the body. Splintering crunches muted by a co
ver of new-grown flesh ceased a few seconds after the last of the gore reassembled into an intact figure.
Mamoru slid out of the pit his impact left in the wall and landed on his feet. He cracked his neck with a side-side wag of the head.
Red eyes, like small windows into the fires of hell, flickered with amusement. “Aaron, I am impressed. That almost hurt.”
Bugger me… he’s getting stronger.
62
Tears for the Wicked
Althea
The scent of flowers filtered into Althea’s consciousness. Strange beeping noises in the distance reminded her of being far from home. Heavy eyelids parted. Spots of blue light appeared on a white ceiling above her. Warm, squishy material below the blanket conformed to her shape. An odd minty taste lingered in her mouth, growing stronger as she sucked in a deep breath. The feeling permeating her body couldn’t be called pain in the truest sense of the word, but she found it unpleasant.
She sat up. Four similar beds lay to the left, five to the right. Her dress was gone, replaced with a stretchy white one-piece garment that clung to her body, covering her arms to the middle of the bicep and her legs to her upper thigh. Althea rubbed her face, whined, and gave serious consideration to letting herself flop backward and staying put.
Two narrow, grey tubes connected a sticky patch on her left forearm to a panel on the wall full of lights and a little drawing of a person with a blinking red dot where the heart should be. Her stomach ached like she’d been punched, and she held it for a few minutes until the pain changed to hunger.
Althea pulled her hair away from her face and peered down at the tents her feet made in the white blanket. Hazy memories returned; a lot of people hurt, many see-through people confused, Kate and Aaron at the brink of death. A feeling of being drained spread over her. Soon, another need made itself known, and she grumbled. After spotting a toilet in a small room at the far end of the ward, she slipped off the bed. Freezing cold shot up her legs as her feet touched the floor. She let out a yelp of surprise and her body went rigid. On tiptoe, she crept toward the bathroom until the rubbery hoses taped to her arm stopped her.
“Ow,” she whined, grabbing the pad.
Not sensing any metal stuck into her skin, Althea figured the pain had come from stickiness. She clenched her teeth, peeled the pads off with a quick yank, and threw them aside. The little cartoon figure on the screen flashed red, and a distant beeping sounded from another room. Seconds later, a head-sized silver ball floated out of a hole in the ceiling and raced over to her. It made her think of a smaller version of the awful metal sphere that tried to kill her, and her eyes went wide. She backed into the tiny bathroom, the orb following.
“Are you in distress?” said an electronic voice.
Althea glanced at herself. “This isn’t a dress.”
Lines of green laser light ran up and down her body. She cringed, but felt nothing. Apparently satisfied, the little machine zipped off and disappeared back into its nest. Althea stared at the hole in the ceiling for a few breaths before examining her garment for a seam, but couldn't find a way to remove it no matter how she grabbed and tugged at the stretchy material. She crossed her legs and bounced, whining, before trying to pull one of the legs open and up. It snapped back against her thigh hard enough to make her yelp.
Althea rubbed her leg and stared at the toilet.
“What’s wrong, child?” asked a low, feminine voice.
A dark-skinned woman with short hair in dense cornrows peered around the doorway before walking in.
Althea pulled and tugged at the smock, whimpering.
The woman chuckled. “Is the MolWeave broken?”
“What?” Althea bounced in place.
“That little bead by your shoulder.” The woman reached over and tapped a thumbnail sized plastic oval embedded in the fabric above the left collarbone. “Squeeze it.”
Althea reached up and grasped it. It beeped, and when she pulled it down, the annoying smock split open from neck to navel. With a grandmotherly smile, the nurse eased the bathroom door closed. Althea wriggled out of the smock and leapt onto the toilet. When she finished, she stepped over the uncomfortable thing and stumbled naked to the bed.
The nurse, who’d been waiting nearby, gave her an odd look. “Something wrong with your smock, hon?”
“I don’t like the tight on my legs. It feels stretchy-icky like skin. Can I please have my dress back?”
Althea sat on the edge of the bed, swinging her feet as the medtech retrieved the garment and brought it back to her. Without asking Althea’s opinion, she pulled it up over her legs.
“I’ve got no idea what happened to your dress. Come on girl. This isn’t the Badlands; people here don’t run about in the all-together. Ain’t proper.”
Althea tilted her head. “Yes they do. I saw them in this place with flashing lights and noise. And everyone had the strange.” She raised her arms over her head and shook her body around in the same way the people she’d seen at the club did. “Girls were spinning and dancing on shiny poles, and they didn’t have the clothes.” She tilted her head the other way. “Is it because they were cat people?”
“You shouldn’t been in those kinda places, girl.” The woman radiated awkwardness as she lifted her off the bed, set her down on her feet, and snugged the smock up. “Don’t be givin’ me a hard time, hey?”
“I’m sorry.” Althea hated how it felt to wear something so tight between her legs, but she put her arms into the sleeves and let the woman tug the MolWeave up to her neck.
The annoying clothes moved as if alive. Althea shivered from the sensation of the rubbery material engulfing her body and sealing tight to her skin. She held her arms up to the sides with an expression as though she’d stepped knee-deep in animal waste.
“Oh, stop. It’s not that bad. Now sit, I gotta check you out an’ make sure you’re okay.”
One after the next, the medtech waved various handheld devices at her, shone light in her eyes, looked in her mouth, and squeezed her arm. Althea tolerated the poking and prodding, all the while her stomach rumbled and growled. Eventually, the woman collected the gadgets and shuffled to the side to replace them in a cabinet on the wall.
“All set, girl.”
“You can’t find any deezes, par-sights, or feckshins, but I’m border nine mal nurmished.”
The woman laughed. “Poor thing, you’ve been through a lot haven’t you?”
Althea smirked, swinging her feet. “Am I done? Can I go home yet?”
“I don’t know. I’m just a medtech. I don’t have anything to do with all the police stuff.” The woman shook her head. “Damn crazy if you ask me. You’re way too little to be sent out into the field. What the hell are they thinking?”
Her stomach rumbled again.
“Do you feel up to solid food, hon? I could get you something to eat… or maybe just soup?”
Althea scooted back on the bed, crossed her legs, and grasped her ankles, grinning. “Yes.”
“Alright, you look like you could use a few calories.” The woman shut the cabinet and walked out. “I’ll be right back.”
She picked and fidgeted at the uncomfortable smock for a while until the medtech returned carrying a tray. Althea stared at it with the focus of a cat tracking a mouse, attacking the meal as soon as the woman set the food on the bed. Taken by hunger, she gasped and coughed trying to breathe and eat at the same time. Handful by handful, she packed her face with chicken, mashed potatoes, and gravy. After a moment of stunned staring, the woman grabbed her wrists, holding her hands together away from face or food.
“Slow down, child, you’re going to choke. You’re going after that like you’ve never seen food before.”
Althea tried to lick gravy from her chin. “’Kay.”
She resumed eating once the nurse released her arms, this time with more care.
The woman stood and made to leave. “If you need anything, I’ll be right outside at the desk.”
“I need a fly home.” She looked up from the plate for a few seconds.
“One of the officers will probably help you with that. I’ll let them know you’re awake.”
Althea beamed at the woman, who seemed happy and concerned for her. This visit to the bad city did not feel as scary as she thought it would, but she still wanted to leave as fast as possible. Content for the moment, she resumed devouring her food. Althea licked every morsel from the plastic bowl and nibbled whatever she could taste out from under her fingernails. She set the empty vessel aside and went for the sealed cup. The soup was warm, but not hot enough to make her hesitate in taking the cup in two hands and gulping it down as fast as she could chew the more solid bits.
Aurora appeared amid a cloud of silvery fog. “Well, you were hungry.”
“Don’t let the woman see you. She’ll make you wear one of these awful things.” Althea plucked a pinch of smock from her chest and let it snap back.
“We’ll not be here long.”
Althea grinned. “You’re taking me home?”
Aurora shook her head.
Althea stopped smiling. “You’re worried.”
“You need to come with me, right now.”
“I’m not going home yet, am I?” She sulked and crawled to the side of the bed.
“No, sweetie, not yet. Anna needs you.”
Althea swung her legs over the edge. A sudden dark feeling ran down her spine, making her curl into a ball and shiver. She knew the feeling. Him. “Something bad will happen.”
“Yes, Althea. Something very bad is going to happen, and you have to promise me not to feel guilty about it.”
She slid off the bed to her feet, and emitted a tiny burp. “Will I be with my family again?”
Angel Descended (The Awakened Book 6) Page 53
