Текст книги "Angel Fever"

Автор книги: L. A. Weatherly

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Текущая страница: 3 (всего у книги 26 страниц)

2

THAT NIGHT I LAY IN bed staring at the shadows on the ceiling, while Alex sat at our desk, working on his laptop. The strange moment of fear from that afternoon hadn’t come back, but I couldn’t get it out of my head. For something that had only lasted a second, it had been so incredibly intense.

When I’d asked Seb whether he’d also felt it, he’d said no – and I’d sensed his concern for me, along with his flash of irritation at himself for feeling it. I’d wanted to mention Meghan too, but it had felt pretty impossible. The days when Seb and I talked about anything and everything were gone.

Pushing my problems with Seb aside, I frowned as I thought again about that icy dread. Had it been a fast-forward to the attack, or something else? My psychic senses were usually pretty reliable – if I’d had a feeling, then something was probably going on.

“You’re still worrying about this, aren’t you?” Alex said, glancing over at me. We’d discussed it and agreed I should try to forget about the feeling unless I got something more specific.

“I can’t help it,” I admitted. “I just wish I could figure out what it meant.”

There was a click as Alex shut his laptop. “Come on,” he said. “Let’s get out of here and go for a walk.”

“A what?” I blinked as Alex grabbed his jeans and pulled them on over his boxers. The tattoo on his left bicep flexed: an AK in black gothic letters. “But it must be—” I glanced at the clock. “Alex, it’s after midnight!”

“Yeah?” He scooped up my jeans from the floor. “Perfect – there’s a full moon tonight; it’ll have risen by now.” He dropped onto the mattress on his knees. “Come on, time to get dressed.”

“Alex—” I broke off as I started to laugh. He was crouched on the edge of the bed manoeuvring my feet into the jeans, his expression intent as the muscles of his chest and shoulders moved.

“You look so serious,” I said, propping myself up to watch.

He shook his dark head. “You know, this isn’t exactly easy when you’re not helping. Here, lift up.”

Smiling now despite myself, I angled my midsection upwards. “Have you actually ascertained yet that I want to go on this walk?”

“Of course you do. A romantic walk in the moonlight with your boyfriend?” Alex tugged my jeans up the rest of the way and fastened them; with a grin, he kissed me. Then, more serious, he touched my face. “Come on. Really. It’ll do you good; you can’t just lie here worrying all night.”

I still found myself getting lost in his blue-grey eyes sometimes – the way they contrasted so sharply against his black lashes. “Okay, you win.” I climbed out of bed and pulled on a sweater over my white camisole – the desert gets cold at night.

Alex had put on a long-sleeved T-shirt; he took his pistol from the dresser, checked it, and stuck it in the back of his jeans. As we stepped out into the corridor, he eased the door closed behind us. The thick walls were pretty soundproof, but the one noise guaranteed to penetrate was a door banging shut.

Suddenly I was almost giggling at the furtiveness of it all. “Why don’t we do this more often?” I whispered.

Alex’s lips twitched. “Oh, yeah, because you took no persuading at all. ‘A walk!’ you said, springing out of bed. ‘Great, let me get dressed!’”

As we reached the garage, we were both stifling laughter. Once we were on ground level, we said hi to Matt, the recruit on guard duty, and then stepped out into the yard. Alex had been right; there was a full moon. Its light glinted on the chain-link fence. He punched in the code for the gate, and a moment later we were walking hand in hand down the gritty dirt road.

I was glad to see he’d shifted his aura. Like mine, it now appeared a sickly grey that clung close to his body – completely unappealing to a hunting angel. “You’ve gotten really good at that,” I said, studying him.

He squeezed my hand. “Had a good teacher.”

At first we’d thought that only Seb and I could change our auras, but then we’d found out humans could do it too; it just took them a lot longer to grasp. Alex, Sam and Liz hadn’t found it nearly as difficult as the rest of the team, though. They’d all been trained in energy work – Alex, since he was a child in his father’s AK camp, where he’d learned to scan the ethereal level for angels.

There was a rocky outcrop not far away, its rounded shape dark against the stars. We started up it, shifting from hiking to gentle climbing as it steepened. The moonlight was so bright it was actually casting shadows.

On the other side was a six-foot drop. Alex jumped lightly to the ground. “Come on, I’ll catch you,” he said, holding his arms out.

I sat down, legs dangling. “Are you sure about this?”

“Hey, don’t you trust me?” Alex took my hand with a grin and tugged; as I launched myself off the edge, he caught me solidly. Slowly, I slid down his body as he lowered me to the ground.

The feel of him so close was very…distracting. For a second I found myself wondering why we hadn’t brought a blanket, then rolled my eyes. I was really starting to develop a one-track mind. It was kind of hard not to – Alex was like a drug I could never get enough of.

“Good catch,” I said. Somehow my voice was normal.

I could tell Alex’s thoughts had been travelling in the same direction. He shook his head as if to clear it. “Well, it helps when the person you’re catching is extremely cute.”

We sat on the ground with our backs against the rock, stretching our legs out and gazing up at the stars. They glittered coldly across the night sky. I pointed to a small, bright zigzag. “Cassiopeia, right?”

Alex put his arm around me. “I’ve taught you well, grasshopper.”

I tickled him just under his armpit: the one place he was ticklish. “Maybe, but you still can’t fix an engine.”

He gave a yelp of laughter, twisting away. “No fair, you know all my weak spots. Yeah, guilty as charged.”

As I settled against him, the desert lay vast and still around us. It was so desolate, as if we were up on the surface of the moon. As if no one else even existed.

Yet barely a hundred miles away lay the ruins of Las Vegas – and like in all the ruined cities, people still lived there, somehow, in shelters made from collapsed buildings. A helpless anger touched me. It was the same all over, for anyone who didn’t go to an Eden. Across the country were thousands of “dark towns” with buildings still intact, but no electricity – all people could do was scavenge and try their best to survive. Not all of them did.

The quakes had changed everything, for ever.

Stop. Don’t go there, I warned myself. It was too late; I was already reliving the earthquake that had flattened Mexico City. I shivered as I recalled that groaning roar. And a lot of our recruits had been through even worse. When I’d first held their hands to make sure we could trust them, I’d seen so much sorrow – so much pain.

I looked up to find Alex studying me. “What are you thinking?” he asked softly.

I swallowed. “Just…wondering what we’ll do if we actually succeed. Where would you want to go? Someplace up in the mountains, maybe, like back to the cabin?”

One of his eyebrows rose sceptically. “A, anywhere as long as it’s with you, and, B, why do I have the feeling that you’re sitting there blaming yourself again?”

I stared out at the desert and couldn’t answer.

“Stop,” Alex said in a low voice. He cupped my face in his hands, gently forcing me to look at him. “Listen to me. It wasn’t your fault.”

I managed a tiny smile. “Are you turning psychic now?”

“Yeah, I wonder how I can possibly manage to know what you’re thinking, when you’re such a total enigma.”

I choked out a laugh. “Pretty predictable, huh?”

“When it comes to this? Just a little.” He rested his forehead against mine. He didn’t say anything else. He didn’t have to – we’d already had this conversation more times than I could count.

“You know what I really want to do if we win?” said Alex finally.

“No, what?”

He hesitated, his gaze searching mine. “I want to find your mother,” he said. “I want that for you more than anything, Willow. I don’t care if we have to spend years looking for her – if we can, then we’re going to do it.”

My throat went tight. I checked on my mother psychically every day. It was always such a relief to feel that she was still okay – even though I had no idea where she was or who was keeping her safe. And just the fact that Alex wanted that for me…it meant everything.

“Thank you,” I said.

I stretched upwards, brushing his lips lightly with my own. Then again, more lingeringly. Much more lingeringly. Alex wrapped his arms around me, pulling me onto his lap. His lips were so familiar – warm, slightly rough, as intoxicating as the first time we’d ever kissed. When we finally came up for air, I felt dizzy.

“Maybe one of these years, I’ll get used to how amazing that feels,” I whispered, stroking his warm back under his shirt.

“Really?” Alex said huskily. “I never will – not if we live to be a hundred.” His heartbeat pounded against mine. “Willow, listen – do you really feel like staying out here? Maybe we could—”

“Go back to our room instead?” I finished for him. I kissed his nose. “Yes, you are definitely reading my mind,” I said solemnly.

Suddenly we were both laughing. My laugh turned to a squeal as Alex scooped an arm under my knees and lurched up with me in his arms. He nibbled at my earlobe. “So I guess this is our walk biting the dust.”

I twined my arms around his neck. “Yeah, Matt’s going to be laughing at us. We’ve hardly been gone any time at all.”

“You know what, that is so far down on my list of priorities right now that it’s practically nonexistent.” Grinning, Alex gave me a boost and I scrambled onto the boulder. With a quick jump, he braced himself against the top and began to lift himself up.

Admiring the motion of his muscles, I smiled and crouched down, stretching a hand out to help…and then terror slammed into me like a fist of ice.

I gasped and rocked backwards, stunned by its intensity. It was the same fear I’d felt that afternoon, times about a thousand. My stomach knotted, adrenalin surging through me.

Something was going to happen soon. Oh god, something terrible was going to happen—

Alex was beside me, clutching my shoulders. “What’s wrong? What is it?”

“Something…I don’t…something bad…” My mouth felt thick and clumsy.

His fingers tightened. “Willow, come on, talk to me!”

The primal fear released its grip a fraction, leaving dread as thick as swamp water. “Something’s going to happen! ”I burst out. “We’ve got to go – we’ve got to stop it!”

I turned and ran, stumbling over the uneven rock and then skidding down the other side. I was pounding towards the base when Alex caught up, darting in front of me and grabbing my arms again. “Willow, wait! What’s going on?”

“I don’t know!” I cried. “But we’ve got to go – we’ve got to!”

“Go where?”

I realized I had no idea. I looked around wildly, as if the answer might be lying somewhere on the desert ground. There was nothing.

I reached quickly inside myself; I could sense that my angel was just as worried as I was. Shifting my consciousness to hers, I lifted out of my human body and soared up into the stars.

The fear hit me again, full force. Fighting against panic, I glided, reaching out with everything I had.

“Are you getting anything?” Alex asked. In my human form, I was aware of his hands, warm on my arms. He stood peering up at my angel’s bright form.

No, I started to say…but instead my voice came out in a ragged whisper: “The east.”

Because all at once I could sense it: something dark was waiting to be unleashed on the eastern horizon. In the air my wings went cold as I realized the angels were waiting too – they were all gathering. Getting ready.

“How far away; can you tell?” Alex said urgently.

I was shivering. “I don’t know!” Feeling suddenly frightened and too exposed, my angel returned to me in a rush. “But, Alex, we’ve got to try and stop it! There’s some kind of powerful force – the angels are all waiting for something—”

His face hardened. “Come on.” Grabbing my hand, we took off at a run back to the gate. A wide-eyed Matt was already there, swinging it open for us.

“I saw you on the cameras. What’s going on?”

“Willow’s seen something,” Alex said shortly.

Matt paled; the whole base knew what “seen something” meant. We rushed back into the building, Matt jogging along beside us. “You want me to sound the alarm?”

Alex shook his head. “No, not yet.” As we stepped into the elevator, he half turned, throwing the words over his shoulder: “Wake up Sam, Liz and Seb; tell them I need to give them a quick briefing.”

As the elevator whirred downwards, I tried to convince myself that I’d overreacted – that whatever was going to happen wasn’t that bad. Any comfort from this vanished once we’d left the elevator behind and reached the hub of the base. Seb was running towards us from one of the dorm corridors wearing only a pair of jeans, his bare feet slapping at the floor…and somehow I knew it wasn’t because of Matt’s alarm.

Seb’s eyes were fixed on mine as he reached us. I got a jolt of tension from him – and, despite my panic, realized how long it had been since we’d shared our thoughts so fully.

“Willow!” he gasped. “Something is happening—”

I licked dry lips. “I know. I feel it too.”

Alex grabbed his arm. “What did you get?”

Looking frustrated, Seb shoved his hands through his curls. “I’m not sure, but it woke me up. There is something coming, something big—”

“Something coming?” Alex repeated sharply.

Prickles ran over my scalp. This was different from what I’d gotten, and not in a good way.

Liz and Sam appeared, looking rumpled and jerked awake. “What’s goin’ on?” demanded Sam. He had on striped pyjama bottoms and a white T-shirt. Liz was fumbling with the tie to her bathrobe.

Alex quickly explained. “Come on, let’s get into the war room.” He glanced at Seb and me. “I want to get you both near a map, see what you can pick up.”

Urgency was pounding at me. “Alex, we don’t have much time—”

“Ten minutes of planning might save us time,” he said shortly.

Seb glanced at me; I could tell he was feeling the same thing I was. Though I knew Alex was right, my every instinct was screaming, Run, move, hurry!

“Yes, okay,” Seb said for us both.

He stayed beside me as we all headed quickly down the corridor. Despite the fear, on some level it just felt good to be in tune with him again – though I realized that I was a shade too aware of his bare chest, with its dusting of golden-brown hair. Alex’s chest was almost completely hairless. I shoved the thought away impatiently. Why was I comparing them?

“So, wait. Is all we’ve got to go on a psychic feeling?” asked Liz once we were in what we called the war room – a gleaming conference space with a U-shaped table and maps on the wall.

“It’s a pretty strong psychic feeling,” I told her wryly.

Sam shrugged. “Well, I know y’all are like the Psychic Twins, but if that’s all we’ve got, then maybe—”

“Our entire plan is based on psychic information, remember?” said Alex. He turned on the light over the largest map. The United States burst into brightness. Tiny red flags peppered its surface, showing the locations of all known Edens.

“Okay, can you get anything more specific?” Alex asked, looking back at Seb and me.

Conscious of everyone watching, I went over to the map, Seb following close behind. It was so large that I couldn’t have touched Canada without craning on my tiptoes. Shutting my eyes, I took a deep grounding breath and focused, trying to pinpoint the fear.

For a moment nothing happened – and then my hand lifted of its own accord and started moving across the map, skimming over the tops of stickpin flags as if I was stroking the heads of a field of flowers. I walked with it, letting it guide me, aware of Seb doing the same.

Slowly, my hand came to a stop. My index finger pointed. I opened my eyes to see Seb’s finger a millimetre from my own – so close I could feel its warmth.

Both our fingers were pointing to Denver, Colorado.

I stared at the map as memories came crashing over me: the Church of Angels cathedral in Denver, with its broad white dome and stained-glass windows. Myself trying to stop the Second Wave and failing; thousands of people cheering the flood of incoming angels as I almost died in that place.

Seb hadn’t been in Denver that day, but he knew what had happened. His expression tensed as he glanced at me. “Dios mío,” he murmured.

“Oh, shit – Denver?” Sam exclaimed behind us. “Is there another Wave coming?”

Liz’s voice quavered. “But…no, wait, that doesn’t matter, does it? I mean, even if there is, if we kill a few, we still kill them all. So we can just ignore this, right?”

“No!” I cried. I sank into one of the chairs, clutching my head. “We can’t ignore it. Alex, we’ve got to go there. We have to.”

He sat beside me and gripped my hand. “Who’s ‘we’?”

“You and me.” The words came instantly, chilling me even though I knew, instinctively, that they were right.

Seb’s jaw tightened; before he could protest, Sam was talking again.

“What? Oh, man, no way; that’s completely insane. Denver’s an Eden now! Raziel’s there, for Chrissake. You could be walking right into a trap!”

“It’s not a trap,” I murmured, still rubbing my temples. “It’s too big – it’s all of them.”

“Yeah, that’s reassuring, when ‘all of them’ would love to kill us,” Sam retorted.

Liz dropped into a chair opposite, nervously twisting a strand of hair. “Not to mention the humans who want us dead. You’re still public enemy number one, Willow. All we’ve got going for us is that no one knows whether we’re still alive. If anyone captured you, that’d be it for all of us.”

Alex had been sitting silently, looking deep in thought. “We’re going to have to do it,” he decided, squeezing my fingers and releasing them. He shoved his chair back ashe rose.

“No!” Seb’s fists clenched; the knife scar on his forearm gleamed in the harsh light. “There’s no reason for Willow to go. I’ll go instead – I’m just as psychic as she is. And much better with auras.”

Though I knew Seb was only trying to protect me, I was stung. “Not any more,” I protested.

“Oh, yes, I am,” he insisted. “You still don’t think to check them half the time.”

Liz bit her fingernail. “But look, if there’s another Wave coming, then we can’t stop it, so why should any of us go? Why don’t we just stay here and keep training?”

“That’s why only Willow and I are going – so the rest of you can do exactly that,” said Alex. “But, yes, we do have to go. We don’t know for sure that it’s another Wave; it could be something else. We’ve got to find out in case it affects our plans.”

“But why must it be Willow?” pressed Seb again. “Alex, hombre, you don’t want her to go any more than I do—”

“No, but that’s what she’s seeing psychically, so I’m going with it.” Alex propped his hands on the back of a chair and studied Seb, his gaze intense. “What about you? Leave your feelings out of it – can you honestly tell me you’re getting something different?”

An anguished expression crossed Seb’s face.

“No, I didn’t think so,” said Alex after a pause. “Okay, everyone, that’s it. Sam, you’re in charge until I get back. Seb, keep training everyone on the aura work, and, Liz, I want you helping out on the firing range as much as possible.”

“When are you leaving?” she asked.

Alex’s eyes met mine. “As soon as we’re packed.”

“You’re taking one of the sat phones, at least.” Sam’s face was stony; it wasn’t a question. The sat phones we’d found in the comms room were probably the only non-Eden phones in the country that still worked.

“Yeah, we’ll check in every few hours.” Alex glanced at Seb again; lowering his voice, he said something in Spanish. Seb gave a grim smile; Alex clapped him briefly on the shoulder and headed out of the room, moving with a loose, quick confidence.

As the others followed, Seb took my arm, holding me back. “Willow—”

“Seb, it’s all right – I’ll be okay,” I said softly.

I was painfully aware of the gulf yawning between us. And now, with his emotions raw on his face, I saw just how much Seb needed to keep himself distant from me if he could. And as much as I hated it, I couldn’t blame him. For him to have to sense, every day of his life, how deeply I was in love with Alex… I swallowed, imagining it.

“I’ll be fine,” I repeated, trying to keep my voice light. “Don’t work the recruits too hard. Or flirt with too many of them. You know that half of them would already throw themselves over a cliff for you.”

Seb didn’t even smile. As if unable to stop himself, he bent down and kissed my cheek, his lips warm against my skin. Our minds touched again, no barriers at all for a change, and my throat clenched as his naked thought came clearly:

I love you, querida.

My eyes pricked with sudden tears. “Don’t,” I said. “Please, Seb, don’t.” And whether I meant Don’t be in love with me or Don’t say the words, I didn’t even know. Both, I guess. Both were tearing my heart out.

I longed to hug him but realized it wouldn’t be fair. Instead I gripped his hand blindly for a second – and then hurried from the room.