Angel Fire (26 page)

Silence. Light, falling towards the ground.

“We...we did it,” said Trish, sounding stunned. “We really did it!”

Alex turned to Sam, giving him a long, level look. The Texan’s gaze faltered; his face turned red as he put his gun away. “Don’t you
ever
do that again,” said Alex in a low voice. “If any of us had died, it would have been because you’d drawn their attention to us.”

Sam swallowed. “Yeah, but—”

“
Shut it
. I don’t want any excuses from you. You do
not
go running off before you know what you’re getting into, and you do
not
keep talking loudly when I’ve told you to keep quiet. Do you understand me?”

“I’m sorry,” said Trish in a tiny voice. “I went running off too.”

“You were okay,” said Alex, still watching Sam. “At least you stopped when I told you to.”

“I – I guess I acted pretty stupid,” said Sam finally, looking sick. “I got excited – I wasn’t thinking.” His eyes rose to Alex’s. “I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.”

“No, it won’t,” said Alex. “Because if it does, you’re off this team for good.”

Sam nodded, his lips white. “I understand.”

“Okay then,” said Alex as they got up. “Aside from that...you can both be pretty proud of yourselves.” He gave Trish a quick one-armed hug; clapped Sam on the shoulder. “Listen, that was seriously
not
shabby – it’s hard when they’ve seen you. Good work; I mean it.”

Trish looked like the adrenalin was still pulsing through her; she managed a shaky smile. Sam winced and ran a hand over his short blond hair. “Yeah, but I – I completely choked at first – goddamn, I could hardly even shoot straight—”

A long-ago day in an Albuquerque park came back to Alex, and his throat tightened as he remembered Cully:
Weren’t you listening to me? It’s tough when they see you. You did good. You did good
.

“You did good,” said Alex quietly. And he meant it. Though their first kills hadn’t exactly gone smoothly, he was acutely aware they could have gone a hell of a lot worse. And he still had over seven weeks left to train them. With luck, it should just about be enough time.

Below, the victims seemed to have come back to themselves and were walking away down the path, talking in low, ecstatic voices about
los ángeles
. One girl looked barely sixteen, with long black hair that gleamed in the sunshine. As the group rounded the bend she staggered, and took the arm of the woman next to her.

Trish sighed. “So I guess this is the hard part, isn’t it? When you don’t get to them in time.”

“Yeah,” said Alex. He put his gun away. “But when you do manage to save them – it makes everything worth it, believe me. And now that those four are dead, they can’t hurt anyone else, at least.”

“Hey, where’s Willow?” said Sam suddenly.

Alex went cold as her frightened, unhappy face came back in a rush. What had she been about to tell him? Had something happened? He took off up the hill at a run; burst onto its leafy crest with Sam and Trish close behind. Dread thudded through his veins; he couldn’t see her anywhere.

“Willow!” he called, cupping his hands around his mouth. “Willow, where are you?”

“Wait – is that her?” Trish gasped.

“Oh
shit
,” said Sam at the same moment. He stood gaping upwards.

Alex spun towards where Trish was pointing. And stared. A girl who looked like Willow was far away down the path, running towards the eastern gate of the park. She was holding hands with a guy who had curly-looking brown hair.

Dimly, he became aware that Sam was tugging at his arm. “Alex! Look
up
.”

Somehow Alex tore his gaze from Willow and the strange boy...and saw that high above them both flew a long, shining stream of angels, a hundred strong, searing through the sky.

As Alex ran off after the others, I started to follow him, fumbling for my gun. The movement felt so unnatural, as if I’d somehow morphed into a heroine in a cheesy action flick. Then a thought came, like a drench of Arctic water. I stopped short as Alex’s blue sweatshirt and dark hair disappeared through the trees.

What was I even thinking? I couldn’t get anywhere near the angels. Before I’d bonded with my angel, she’d emerged without fail whenever others attacked, shielding me with her gleaming wings. What if she came out again now, and I couldn’t control her? What if she did something that ended up with someone getting hurt?

As if in response, my angel gave a vicious twist inside me, struggling to break free.
No!
I fought her with everything I had; somehow shoved her back with a mental wrench. I stood shaking, clutching my head and breathing hard. Oh god, was this what the rest of my life was going to be like? I’d go insane. What
was
this – why was it happening to me?

I sank to the ground, pressing against a tree and burying my head in my arms. I could sense rather than hear the sound of gunfire not far away. I’d never felt so helpless in my life. I reached out with my thoughts, searching for Alex – needing to feel him. His energy was there, strong and comforting, and I latched onto it, holding him tight even if he didn’t know I was doing it.
Be safe, please be safe. And please don’t hate me when I tell you that my angel is a stranger to me after all...that she’s not part of the girl you’re in love with like we both thought she was...

Slow, hesitant footsteps were approaching. My head jerked up.

A few feet away stood a boy in faded jeans and a long-sleeved grey T-shirt, staring at me. He was about Alex’s height and build, with soft-looking brown hair that had a curl to it – but there was nothing remotely feminine about him. Solid shoulders; a firm jaw with a light coat of stubble; high cheekbones. The boy’s eyes were wide, and fixed on mine. As I realized who it was, my thoughts stuttered to a halt.

The boy from my dream.

He closed the distance between us and dropped to his knees in front of me, letting the battered knapsack he’d been carrying fall to the ground. His throat moved as he swallowed. He looked down at my arms; reached out and touched them – I could feel him trembling. He stroked his way down their length, as if to reassure himself I was real. When his hands came to mine he gripped them tightly; his were rough and warm. He said something in Spanish.

“I—” Why wasn’t I pulling away? But it was like he’d cast a spell over me. “I don’t speak Spanish,” I got out. “
No hablo español
.” Then I did start to pull away – but suddenly the energy from him swept over me in a wave and I caught my breath in shock, unable to move. It felt so familiar, right down to my very core, like nothing I’d ever known before.

The boy looked up. His eyes were hazel – warm brown, with green radiating out from his pupils. “Yes, I’m sorry – I knew that, I forgot.” His voice was distant, as if he wasn’t thinking about what he was saying. He shook his head, staring at me as a wondering smile grew across his face.

“It’s really you,” he whispered. “I can’t believe I found you.” Letting go of one of my hands, he touched my cheek. The sun hit his face, turning the stubble on his jaw golden.

I jerked away from him, my heart beating hard. “Who
are
you?”

He started to respond, but then broke off as we both saw it: a flock of at least a hundred angels flying east across the park, in a long, shifting stream that glinted in the light. At their very centre was a small group that shone more fervently than the others – angels so bright I could barely look at them.

As I realized why that seemed so familiar, my pulse skipped. All the elements of my dream were suddenly crashing together at once, so that I hardly knew what was real and what wasn’t. First the boy, and now the twelve angels – I could count them, twisting and shining against the sky. My mind felt like it had stalled, trying to take everything in. What were they doing here
now
? They weren’t due in Mexico City for five more weeks.

I stood up, gaping; the boy had risen to his feet too. “The Council,” I whispered. “Oh my god, it’s the Council from my dream. We have to follow them; we have to see where they go – Alex!” I shouted over my shoulder. “Alex, hurry! The Council’s arriving!”

At the mention of my dream, the boy gave me a quick glance. He grabbed his bag up from the ground. “Come on – we have to be fast,” he said.

“Alex!” I shouted again, but knew he hadn’t heard. A small part of my mind was still with him, and I could feel that he was okay; that he was pleased. They’d won against the angels then – and hadn’t seen this larger group yet, with the Council gleaming at its centre.

“Come!” urged the boy, grasping my hand and peering upwards.

“Wait – let
go
of me! I have to tell my—”

“There isn’t time!” The boy started to run, pulling me along with him; I gave up and started running too. He was right, there wasn’t time. And more than that...more than that, I somehow just couldn’t say no to him.

We pounded through the trees and onto the footpath – the boy’s hand gripping mine, long legs pumping rhythmically. The angels flitted in and out of view; he steered us sharply down one path, then another. We raced past sidewalk vendors, plunged down some steps and skirted a pond. Ducks took off with a startled flapping.

I wanted to tell him to slow down; instead I gritted my teeth and went faster. The boy half turned and put his arm around me, helping me along for a few paces.

“Hurry,
querida
!”

The endearment from my dream stunned me, even as we ran – and suddenly I realized that he’d seen the angels as easily as I had, without lifting his consciousness through his chakra points. Who
was
this boy?

The angels were further ahead now, but still in sight, rippling in the sky. The boy jogged to a stop at a bridge flanked by a pair of black lions on pedestals; he was barely even breathing hard. Ahead, I could see a set of park gates.

We stood side by side, staring. Beyond the park, a solitary tower was in clear view, soaring high over the trees – a half-cylinder of green glass that angled off at the top, reflecting a half-moon shape at the clouds. The angels veered up to this slanted peak, darting about it like moths around a flame, spiralling so brightly that the tower looked on fire.

Dimly, I was aware that the boy had put his arm around me again, drawing me close against him. It didn’t seem strange for some reason. “What’s happening?” I gasped. “Is that the Nikko Hotel?”

He shook his head, as unable to tear his gaze away as I was. “No – it’s La Torre Mayor; the big tower. It’s for business.” A woman pushing a stroller strode past, oblivious. Overhead, the angels had started disappearing into the building. The twelve brightest ones were the first to vanish, gliding into the glass half-moon. The others followed gradually, until finally the last angel winked from view with a glimmer of wings.

“I’ve never seen anything like this before,” murmured the boy, his hand gently rubbing my arm. “There were so many of them – and those twelve in the middle were so bright...”

“It’s the angels’ Council,” I said, still staring upwards. “I saw them—”

“Council?” The boy looked down at me with a frown. “You mean their government?”

I nodded. “I had a dream about them. Twelve angels, and...” I trailed off. The boy had gone very still at the mention of my dream, his gaze locked on mine, and I knew he wasn’t thinking about the Council any more. Suddenly I noticed that I was standing pressed against him, with my head almost on his chest. God, what was I
doing
?

I jerked away, flustered. “Look, who
are
you, anyway? Because this is just – extremely weird.”

Without taking his eyes from me, the boy propped himself against the base of one of the statues. There was a look of lean strength to him, with shoulders as firm as Alex’s under his long-sleeved T-shirt.

“My name is Seb.”

“Seb?”

“Sebastián,” he amended. His eyes held such incredulous happiness, drinking me in as if he’d never be able to look away. “Sebastián Carrera. And you?”

For some reason it hadn’t occurred to me that he wouldn’t know my name already; he seemed so familiar with me. “Willow Fields,” I said.

“Willow,” he echoed. In his accent, the word was a soft sigh:
wee-low
. He smiled, seeming almost shy suddenly. “That’s a tree, isn’t it?”

The expression on Seb’s face was the same one from my dream, and looking at him now I saw how accurate my dream-image had been: the loosely curling brown hair, the high cheekbones and perfect mouth. The stubble that defined his jaw, making him even more attractive than he already was. God, what did it
mean
, that he was actually real? And that he was here?

I crossed my arms over my chest, feeling uncomfortable for more reasons than I could define. “Yeah. It’s a tree.”

“It’s a pretty name.” Seb’s glance lingered on my hair. “It’s changed,” he said after a pause. “You were blonde before.”

“How did you...” I trailed off, swallowed. “I dyed it.”

He grinned suddenly, shaking his head. “I can’t believe this; I can’t believe I’m really standing here talking to you. Willow – you are so, so beautiful.” As if he couldn’t help himself, he reached for my face again, tracing a soft line down my cheek with the back of his finger.

I yanked away, hating the way my pulse had fluttered at his touch. “Stop
doing
that. Look, what’s going on? You said that you found me – what did you mean? Why were you looking for me?”

His hazel eyes widened; I could see that I’d stunned him somehow. “You don’t know,” he said, almost to himself. “But how can you not know? You’ve got to see—” He stopped, his gaze scanning over me. “Wait – why aren’t you changing?”

“Change? Into what?” I took a cautious step backwards, wondering why I was still standing here talking to this guy. And Alex. What in the world was Alex going to think? As far as he knew, I’d disappeared without a word. I had to get back; he wouldn’t even know how to find me.

“Your—” Seb gestured impatiently at himself, sketching a quick circle around his body. “I don’t know the word in English. Your energy. Your
self
.”