Текст книги "Angel Fever"
Автор книги: L. A. Weatherly
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Текущая страница: 9 (всего у книги 26 страниц)
10
AT THE NAME OF HIS old mentor, Alex straightened slowly. Cully had been the best Angel Killer he’d ever known – practically a father to him. The news that Cully’s angel burn had finally killed him was almost a relief; Cull would have hated what he’d become.
“What do you mean, ‘he knew something’?” Alex asked.
Kara fumbled in her jeans pocket and produced a cellphone. “Here,” she said, handing it to him. “I managed to hide it. Have you got a charger?”
The phone was identical to Alex’s – he’d bought them both the previous December. “Yeah, I’ve got one,” he said, staring down at the silver case. “What’s on it? A video?”
Kara nodded, her gaze sorrowful. She knew what Cully had meant to him. “He was ranting pretty badly, and he kept mentioning you. Alex, he was worried – he kept saying, ‘We can’t let him figure it out’.”
Alex tucked the phone into his own pocket. Obviously, Cully had realized the deaths of a few angels could destroy them all. Don’t worry, Cull; I screwed that one up good, he thought. The angels are totally safe now, for ever.
“You think you know what it is,” Kara said, watching him.
“Yeah,” he admitted. “And it’s all over.” He told her what had happened. The words tasted bitter.
Kara swallowed but thankfully didn’t comment. “I don’t know, Al…what Cully was saying didn’t seem related to the angels being linked or not. He kept talking about Martin too.”
Alex frowned. “Dad?”
“Yeah. Something about an idea that Martin had had… I couldn’t make head or tail of it. Just watch. Maybe it’ll help, somehow.” Her eyes fluttered closed then, her bruised face gaunt.
Frankly, Alex doubted it – his dad had been pretty out of it those last few years before he died. He sat studying Kara for a long moment, his emotions jumbled.
“Listen to me,” he said finally. “If you’re staying, then I don’t want to hear a single word about Willow and Seb. They’re part of the team – end of story.”
Her good eye reluctantly opened. “I know,” she said after a pause. “It’s just a gut reaction; I can’t help it. But I’ll keep it to myself.”
Alex realized that was probably the best he was going to get from her. Maybe when what she’d been through had faded a little, she’d come around. Unfortunately, she had all the time in the world to do so now, with no end to any of this in sight.
He rose. “Get some sleep, okay?”
Kara lay watching him, her muscles tense. “You’ll watch the video?”
“Yeah, I’ll watch it.” At the door, Alex paused. “Hey – I’m really glad you made it,” he said.
Kara’s smile was a ghost of smiles he remembered. “Me too.”
The temptation to go crawl into bed beside Willow, forgetting the whole world as he drew her into his arms, was almost overwhelming. The weight of the phone in his jeans pocket wouldn’t let him do it.
Alex headed for the comms room instead, where he’d stowed all their old phones in a cabinet. After he’d plugged in Kara’s cell, he sat with his thumb hesitating over the buttons. He wasn’t looking forward to seeing Cully near death. At least the last time he’d encountered Cull, the man had looked in perfect health, even if he was feverishly devoted to the angels.
Finally Alex started the video. The quality was grainy; Cully was lying on a cot in what looked like a crowded warehouse, packed with other sick people.
Alex grimaced, unsurprised that this was how the angels treated their followers when they neared death. He wouldn’t have recognized the spindly man on the cot – until he saw Cully’s eyes: the vivid blue of a Georgia sky.
Kara’s voice was just audible. “Hey, I didn’t catch all that, Cull. Can you tell me again, straight from the top?”
Cully was turning his head restlessly. His voice was still deep, with a southern resonance. “You’ve got to stop Alex from doing it – you’ve got to. He’s smart; he’ll figure it out…”
And then Alex stopped noticing anything except the words Cully was saying. The video was just over a minute long. When it finished, he slumped back against the office chair. His heart clubbed against his ribs as he stared down at the phone.
Jesus. No way. This could not be true; there was just no way.
Finally, in a daze, he reached for the phone and hit the Play button once more. As Cully’s monologue filled the small room again, Alex wasn’t surprised that Kara hadn’t understood what he was talking about – it was all half-finished phrases, allusions to things that only Alex and his brother, Jake, had known. Along with their dad, whose insane idea it had been to start with.
But if what Cully had said was true…maybe it wasn’t so insane after all.
Alex listened tautly. Cull’s voice was clear, despite the background noise of groans and people talking. “It can be done, like Martin always said. I took over where he left off, back at the camp. I had to. Couldn’t help myself; I didn’t care what might happen. Took me so long, and I got so close – then I got sick and ended up here.”
It all made perfect sense to Alex…and the part that had made the hairs at the back of his neck prickle had even more effect this time. Cully, his head rolling feverishly, said: “I just left it there. You’ve got to tell the angels, Kara; they’ve got to go fix it so it’s not there any more. If Alex finds it, he could do what Martin was planning – it’s really possible, I’m sure of it now. He was always better with the energy work than anyone else. We gotta keep him away or it could all be over – the angels gone for ever…”
Alex stared at the now-still screen; an image of Cully’s face, slightly blurred, gazed back. A memory came: himself and Jake having dinner with their father. Martin was pointing his fork at them.
“Mark my words – this will be what finally defeats them. Nothing we’re doing here will do any good.”
Jake had winked at Alex out of their father’s vision. “Yeah, but, Dad, even if you ever finish this thing, won’t the burst of energy just kill you the second you try to go through? Kinda like, I dunno…a giant bug zapper?” His voice was innocent.
Alex had been fourteen; black humour when dealing with their father had become standard operating procedure. He’d snorted, trying unsuccessfully to turn it into a cough. Their father’s latest idea was deranged on so many levels that you had to either laugh or go crazy yourself.
Fortunately, Martin had been too busy glaring at Jake to notice. “Don’t be ridiculous,” he’d snapped. “I’m telling you, I just need to be in their world for a few minutes, and I can defeat them! What I sensed was definite—”
It had been more than Alex could take. “Dad, come on,” he’d protested, putting down his fork. “It doesn’t matter what you sensed; there’s no way you could get over there in the first place! The angels can change to their ethereal forms when they cross. If we tried to go through, it would just kill us. You know that! You’re the one who told me that.”
His words were a spark setting off a powder keg. When Martin finally released them, Jake had been seething.
“Next time you start arguing with him, I’m going to strangle you both,” he’d grumbled on their way back to the dorm. “Why do you bother? He’ll never listen.”
Their footsteps were steady on the cement. Alex shrugged testily. “Because it would just be suicide. Can you imagine the burst of energy if he tried it? This whole place would blow sky-high.”
Jake had given him a look of exaggerated patience.“No it wouldn’t, because – listen carefully, little brother – the idea that he could ever make his own gate is a complete freaking delusion.”
Now his brother’s words seemed to reach across time and space to find Alex again.
“Maybe it wasn’t a delusion after all, Jake,” he murmured, touching the phone’s smooth casing. Because, unbelievably, it sounded as if Cully had nearly finished what Martin had started.
The thought brought a chill. Of course, there was always the chance that Cully had gone crazy with angel burn; maybe nothing he’d said could be trusted. Yet somehow Alex doubted it. The last time he’d seen Cull, the man had been as sane as anyone, apart from his devotion to the angels.
Alex massaged his suddenly pounding temples and tried to recall a time when Cully had been wrong. He couldn’t. John Cullpepper had been a slow-talking southerner with a quick, sharp mind; when it came to angels especially, no one in the world had known more than Cull.
And he’d thought Martin’s plan to defeat them was really possible.
On the screen, Cully’s blue eyes seemed locked on Alex’s. As Alex gazed down at his old mentor, he knew that the plan’s feasibility was only part of it – because what he’d told his father was true. Cully had known, too: I didn’t care what might happen.
If Alex tried this, the attempt to get there would probably kill him.
He sat motionless for a long time.
He wasn’t afraid of death – he’d been raised knowing he could lose his life every time he went on a hunt. If anything, he was surprised to still be alive at nineteen. This, though – to deliberately take odds that he knew were likely to kill him – Alex let out a breath. Yeah, this felt pretty different.
He touched the bracelet Willow had given him, unconsciously tracing its strands. He wanted to live – and to actually do this thing would be insanity. Yet underneath everything was a lake of deep, pure relief. Finally, there was something he could try that might fix what he’d broken in the world – some action he could take, instead of just training other people to go out and die.
If Cully was right, this was their only hope.
Alex knew then that he’d decided. It was worth any odds. I don’t have a choice, Cull, do I? he thought grimly. Ironic, that Cully had shown him a possible solution when he’d been trying his best not to.
At long last, Alex straightened. His muscles felt heavy. A glance at the clock showed it was three thirty in the morning – he’d been in here over an hour. He started to return Kara’s phone to his pocket, then stopped mid-motion. No. Bad idea. He stowed the phone in the cabinet and locked the door.
As Alex shut up the comms room, he knew that the sooner he left for New Mexico, the better. If this thing was possible, then he wanted to move fast, before the angels did any more damage. And more than that…the longer he hung around here thinking about the probable outcome, the harder it would be to go. The only thing he’d ever wanted for himself was a life with Willow.
Willow. He went still as the promise he’d made came back: that he wouldn’t put himself into danger without telling her. Dread touched him, and he swallowed. Danger – yeah, this probably qualified. Oh, Christ, how could he tell her this and then make himself walk away from her? Imagining the look on her face, he knew that dying would be easier.
Slowly, Alex started back to their bedroom. His footsteps echoed in the empty corridor. I have to tell her the truth, he thought. I promised her.
But with every step, he was aware of Kara’s phone locked in the cabinet, becoming further away by the second…and deep down, he realized he’d left it there for a reason.
11
I AWOKE FROM TANGLED DREAMS to find the desk light on, its neck pushed down low. I blinked as I propped myself up on my elbows, wondering whether I was still dreaming. Alex was moving around the room wearing only his jeans, his hair damp as if he’d just taken a shower.
He had one of the small nylon backpacks from the supply closet, and he was packing it.
“Alex?” I glanced at the clock. It wasn’t even four in the morning. “What’s going on?”
“Hey.” He came over and sat beside me. “It’s, um…been kind of an eventful night. Kara’s here.”
“Kara?” I sat up straight. “You mean – she’s still alive? But how? Is she okay?”
He took my hand and looked down, playing with my fingers. “She was in an Eden. Something’s happened to her – I think she’s been marshalled somehow.”
Images of what he’d seen swirled through me. I caught my breath at the sight of Kara’s bruised face. “Oh god, she’s not okay.”
Alex detached his hand from mine and cleared his throat. “No, she’s fine – just pretty beaten up. And she’s been through a hell of a lot.” Briefly, he told me what had happened. My mouth tightened at the mention of my father. Oh, poor Kara.
“Brendan’s dead,” Alex added after a pause. “He was fatally injured in the Mexico City quake.”
Sorrow stirred through me, though I’d already grieved for both Brendan and Kara months ago. Wordlessly, I touched Alex’s arm, rubbing his tattoo.
He still sat looking down, the muscles of his torso firm even though he was relaxed. Or was he? Studying him more closely, I became aware of a faint feeling of tension, and I glanced again at the backpack, gaping open. A folded T-shirt lay on top and a couple of spare magazines for his pistol.
I slowly dropped my hand. “So…what does all of this have to do with you going somewhere?”
Alex got up from the bed, and if it had been anyone else, I’d have said that he was moving to avoid looking at me. “Kara’s brought some new information,” he said as he picked up his camouflage trousers. “I’ve got to go check something out at the old AK camp.”
“You mean you’re going to New Mexico?” I shoved back the covers and scrambled to the bottom of the bed. I took the trousers from him and put them aside. “Hey, stop packing for a second. What new information? About the angels?”
“Yeah. It’s probably nothing, though.”
“Well…what did Kara say?”
Alex’s blue-grey eyes met mine. I had the fleeting sense that the moment was poised on a knife’s edge. Then he let out a small breath. “It’s…something my dad was working on years ago, that’s all.”
He stopped, and I opened my mouth to say, Yes, but what? Then he turned away and went on: “It was, um – kind of to do with the earth’s energy field. I always thought it was crazy. But if he was right, then…” He shrugged.
“The earth’s energy field,” I repeated blankly.
“Well, not really. It’s complicated – I don’t have time to explain.”
“Cully,” I said suddenly. The name had just popped into my head; I frowned as I tried to put the pieces together. “Did Kara see Cully? Is this coming from him?”
Alex had gone to the desk to get his pistol; when I spoke, he stopped in his tracks. His shoulders flexed as he propped his hands on the desk. “Willow, listen – don’t try to get it, all right? It’s better if no one but me knows some of this.”
“Whoa, whoa.” I went quickly to him. Sliding a hand across the smooth warmth of his back, I leaned around to look into his face. “Alex, what’s going on?”
“Nothing, it’s – just a precaution,” he said, squeezing my hand briefly and releasing it. “I don’t think anything will happen here while I’m gone, but if it does, none of you would be able to tell the angels any details. Just…trust me and leave it alone, okay?”
I didn’t know what to say. He’d gone back to packing; his dark hair was half-dry now, looking soft at the edges. “Is this something dangerous?” I asked at last.
His gaze stayed on the backpack as he put the camouflage trousers in. He shook his head. “No. Nothing I can’t handle.”
I fell silent, thinking about the promise he’d made. I almost said something, but then he looked up and I saw the expression in his eyes. He hadn’t forgotten; I could tell.
If he were putting himself in danger, he’d tell me.
There was a long pause. Finally I nodded reluctantly. “All right. But – well, why don’t I come with you? Or Sam, or Seb, or someone?”
Alex fastened the backpack. “No, it – makes more sense if I go alone. There’s no reason to take anyone else away from training the team, when I can do this myself.”
He paused and touched my hair then, gently fingering a wavy strand. As if thinking about something else, he said, “Willow, look – this is just something I need to do. I mean, it’s probably nothing, but if it is something, then…”
He didn’t go on, though I sensed in a rush how important this could be – and knew that whatever objections I had weren’t going to make any difference.
The words didn’t want to come out. “So…when are you leaving?” I asked finally.
“Now. I just need to tell the others. I’m leaving Sam in charge while I’m gone – is that okay with you?”
“Yeah, good call.” I rubbed my arms, still hardly able to believe we were having this conversation. “How long will you be gone, exactly?”
Alex’s eyes met mine. For a second I thought he was going to say something, then he turned away and tightened a strap on the backpack, yanking it taut. “However long it takes, I guess.”
However long what takes? With an effort, I bit the question back.
I watched as Alex pulled on a blue T-shirt and then reached into our closet for his leather jacket, scavenged almost a year ago from an abandoned store in Phoenix. He shrugged into it, and for a second I was reminded of when I’d first met him – he’d been driving a black Porsche and wearing a jacket just like this one. Even then, back when we’d hated each other, I’d thought he was the best-looking boy I’d ever seen.
Once we’d gotten the others up, Liz and Sam were as stunned by the news that Kara was here as by Alex leaving. Only Seb seemed unsurprised; I saw him give Alex a sharp look.
“Look, Al, I seriously don’t like this—” Sam was saying as we walked down the corridor towards the garage. Outside, I knew it wasn’t even dawn yet; the rest of the base was still asleep.
“Wait a sec; I’ll just grab a sat phone,” interrupted Alex as we came to the comms room. He ducked inside and was out again a few moments later. I had the brief sense that he’d stuffed more than just a sat phone into his jeans pocket.
Alex was walking a little ahead, fielding a barrage of questions from Sam.
“Did you know about this?” Liz whispered.
I shook my head, still gazing at Alex. Without trying, I was aware that there was something buried in his mind; that he was consciously piling other thoughts on top. I crossed my arms tight, resisting the urge to look further. He’d asked me to trust him and I did, but…what was going on?
Alex grabbed some food and a rifle, and then, all too soon, we were in the garage and he was loading up one of the 4 × 4s. He shook hands with Sam and Seb, gave Liz a brief hug. “Okay, I’ll check in when I can, but try not to worry if you don’t hear from me.”
Like the night Alex and I had gone to Colorado, Sam was in his pyjamas, his broad face a scowl. “Yeah, we’ll just throw a party. Bud, all this secret squirrel stuff is not reassuring.”
Seb hadn’t said much, though his hazel eyes were troubled. He said something to Alex in low, urgent Spanish; Alex shook his head. “No, pero gracias, amigo,” he replied in an undertone – and I knew Seb must have asked, as I had, whether he could go along.
“Look, if – I mean, it won’t, but if anything happens—” Alex broke off, jiggling the keys in his hand. “Sam, you’re in charge, but the others are allowed to mutiny if you do anything stupid,” he said, his voice abruptly curt. “Seriously, just keep on training everyone, all right? If what I’m checking on doesn’t pan out, that’s all we can do. There are plans on my laptop I’ve been working on; Willow knows the password.”
Sam’s eyebrows lowered. “Alex, what the hell—”
“It’ll be fine.” Alex glanced at me, then back at the others. “Let us have some privacy, okay? Take care, you guys.”
The others left with backward glances. I gripped my arms, leaning against the truck as silence settled around us. “Alex, this is– I mean, I’m still trying to figure out what’s even going on here.”
Alex stood motionless. Then he shook his head as if chasing a thought away. His voice was rough. “Yeah, I know. I’ll tell you everything later. I’d better get going now, though.”
He stepped close and stroked my hair back with both hands – and though our kisses had meant many things before, this one was somehow different. I wrapped my arms around his neck, kissing him back as hard as I could; then we just held each other, his head buried against my shoulder.
“Hey, I’ll be checking up on you,” I tried to joke as he finally pulled away. “I mean, like, every second.”
His throat moved slightly. “I know,” he said. He gave a crooked smile and touched my cheek. Slowly, his fingers trailed down to my neck.
“You are my life, you know that?” he said in a low voice. “You always have been, from the second I met you.”
He swung himself up into the truck before I could answer, not looking at me. “Get the elevator for me, will you?” he said. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
But as I moved to press the button, I froze in place. For a second, I literally couldn’t make myself do it – it felt as if I’d be sending Alex to his doom.
I glanced back, drinking in his face, the beautiful shape of his mouth as he fiddled with the truck’s controls. It’s okay, I told myself. He said that he wouldn’t put himself in danger again without telling me. He promised.
I squared my shoulders…and pressed the button. As the elevator door slid open, Alex looked up and started the engine. “Be careful,” I said, lifting my voice over the noise of the truck.
He nodded, drove the 4 × 4 into the elevator, and then hooked his arm over the seat, twisting around to look back at me. Our eyes met and locked as the door slid shut, slowly slicing him from view.
It closed.
As the machinery rumbled, moving upwards, that feeling of dread swept over me again, stronger than before. But I had to trust that he knew what he was doing.
I looked up as Seb entered the garage, his hands shoved into his back pockets. “I, uh…heard the elevator,” he said. “Are you all right?”
“Yeah, I guess,” I said. I could sense Alex above, the garage door rising for him as the outside gate slid open. Another second, and he’d be gone.
Unable to help myself, I connected quickly with my angel. Spreading my ethereal wings, I shot up through the elevator shaft, bursting up out of the building like a swimmer emerging from water. There were still stars overheard, with the rosy tinge of dawn in the east.
Alex’s truck was making its way down the dirt road. From this height, it looked like a toy. I hovered as I watched the truck grow smaller, longing to fly after him but sensing the intensity of his purpose – and his grim conviction that he’d do whatever it took to come back to me again.
He turned onto the main road and the truck was devoured by darkness.
Seb was still standing beside my human form as my angel merged with me again. I stared at the empty space where Alex’s truck had been, feeling alone despite Seb’s presence.
“What do you want, Seb?” The words came out more sharply than I’d meant.
His face drained of expression. “Nothing. Forget it.” He turned to leave. I could feel that he was worried about me – and Alex too, for that matter.
I sighed and followed, stopping him with a touch on his arm. “Look, I’m sorry.” I leaned against the wall, rubbing my throbbing head. “It’s just…this has been a really weird night, okay?”
Seb gave a humourless smile as he propped himself next to me. “It’s funny – just a few hours ago, he was convincing me to stay.”
“A few hours ago?” I stared at him. “What more do you know about this?”
Seb shook his head. “Only what he just told us.”
Then his words registered. “Wait – why was he convincing you to stay? Were you leaving?”
He shrugged. “I might still. We’ll see.”
I paused. “With Meghan?”
Seb nodded. And for some reason, this made what had just happened a little harder to bear. “I really like her,” I said finally. “I’m happy for you, Seb. I mean it.”
The look he gave me was complicated – wry and vulnerable at the same time. “Yes, thank you,” he said, his tone formal. “I like her too.”
Neither of us spoke for a few minutes. All I could think of was Alex, heading towards New Mexico and his father’s old camp with something locked deep inside of him. I let out a breath.
Oh god, Alex, please be safe.
