Arc Angel (29 page)

Miranda shook her head. “No, I’m doing okay. Tired, but okay. And everything that just happened… all that can wait. It’s not important right now. What’s important is the test results. What did you find out, Dr. Harris?”

“Why don’t you two come on back to my office. I’ve got the paperwork there, in case you have questions about the details.”

They stood and followed Dan down the short hallway to his office, hands still entwined. Bryce’s legs trembled slightly, and his stomach dipped down and then fluttered up over and over. He clutched Miranda’s hand even tighter. In a few minutes, they would know. It could all be over… or it could all be exactly like it is now, for the rest of their lives.

For once, the idea of remaining in his present state wasn’t accompanied by crushing depression.

Bryce glanced over at Miranda where she sat in the chair next to his. She looked back at him, eyes full of concern, a tight, forced smile on her lips. When she saw him look at her, she squeezed his hand.

“I’m going to cut right to the chase,” Dr. Harris said, folding his hands and resting them on the desk in front of him. “The results are a mixed bag, particularly due to what I just heard out in the waiting room.”

Bryce sat completely still, barely daring to breathe.

“First, looking at Bryce’s latest tests with this new possible, er, treatment in mind, I find that there is a very, very, very slight chance that a carefully directed blast of electricity, sort of like the world’s most delicate ablation, could reset the heart permanently, reversing the WPW.”

Bryce’s spirits flew up and then were dashed back to earth when Harris continued.

“This electricity would not only have to be incredibly focused and controlled, but it would have to be quite long in duration, which means an enormous amount of power would be needed.”

“Does Miranda have that much power?”

“Without a full battery of tests, I can’t guarantee anything, but from the limited results I was able to get, I’d say yes, she does.”

Miranda looked up at him, her eyes now wide with joy.

“And interestingly, using that much power seems to be the only way that Miranda can get rid of her ability, which I assume would lead to the disappearance of the Arc Angel persona as well.”

Bryce’s heart swelled with emotion. He couldn’t remember being this happy, ever. He reached over and pulled Miranda onto his lap, hugging her tight, both of them laughing in delight.

“Unfortunately, there’s a problem.”

The laughter died away, and Bryce and Miranda looked at the doctor, emotionally holding their breath. Their dreams had come true. Surely he wouldn’t take that away from them, would he?

“From what you said, Miranda doesn’t have the ability to do this as herself. So she’ll have to become Arc Angel. Being Arc Angel and using the power for that long would take a considerable toll on Miranda.”

“What do you mean?”

“There are the physical risks, including a chance that she’ll burn herself up from the inside out.”

The doctor hesitated, causing Bryce to prod.

“And the other risks?”

“From what you were saying earlier—and I’m sorry that I eavesdropped—there might be a problem with the Arc Angel persona. Miranda mentioned that she thought it was getting harder to return to full consciousness each time. With a situation like this, that needs so much power, for such a duration and at such an intensity, well… I’m just worried that Miranda wouldn’t be able to recover from it. That she might not be strong enough to reassert control. That Arc Angel might become… permanent.”

No. No no no no no.

“Are you sure?” Bryce asked, even though he knew Dan well enough to know that he’d never say something like that unless he had to. Unless it was true.

Dan nodded, his ever-cheerful face sadder than Bryce had ever seen it. The heart that had been so light in his chest sank down to his toes. That was it. It was over.

Miranda pulled herself to her feet and slapped her hands down on Harris’ desk, her words streaming out of her in tandem with her tears.

“I don’t care about the risks! So I might become Arc Angel permanently. So what? I’d still be alive, and so would Bryce!”

“But you might also die in the process. There’s no way for me to know for sure. I’ve never encountered anything like this before.”

“See, you don’t even know! There’s got to be a way to stop it, to make it work.”

Bryce pulled her back onto his lap, but she struggled and tried to stand again.

“No, Bryce, there has to be a way. He has to find a way.”

“Miranda…” He pulled her back against him, trapping her within his arms, holding her trembling body against his.

“It’s okay. It’s going to be okay,” he murmured into the top of her head.

“It’s not okay,” she roared, struggling futilely. “It’s not okay. I want to fix you. That is not okay. It’s not.” She broke down completely, openly sobbing, finally letting him gather her into his arms.

“You’re right, it’s not okay. For either of us. I know how much you wanted your abilities to go away, to be separated from Arc Angel for good, and it’s breaking my heart that it isn’t going to happen.”

She sniffed and looked up at him. “That doesn’t matter. Not compared to your heart.”

“Let’s not get into a competitive pity party, okay?” he tried to joke. “We’re both stuck. And it sucks. But we’ll be okay. I’ve been dealing with this for three years now, I can keep doing it. And we’ll figure out a way to help you deal with Arc Angel. I don’t know how yet, but we just have to keep trying. If we can’t get rid of the power, maybe we can do some kind of exorcism or something to get rid of Arc Angel. That would buy us some time at least.”

“I’ll keep looking too.”

Once again, they’d forgotten Dr. Harris.

“I’ll run more tests, different tests, see if there’s anything I overlooked on the medical side of things.”

“Thanks, Dan.”

“What are you guys going to do now?”

If Bryce had his druthers, he’d go somewhere alone, curl up with the maximum amount of alcohol allowed to him, and drown his sorrows. Miranda shifted in his arms, wiping her eyes.

Actually, that’s what he would have done if he’d been on his own. But he wasn’t on his own. He had Miranda, and she needed him. More than ever, since it seemed that she still needed help to deal with her powers.

Bryce knew Miranda wanted everything to go back to normal, like it was before she got her powers, but that also meant that she’d retreat to her apartment and her solitude. So there was a tiny silver lining in this giant thunderhead: with Arc Angel intact, Miranda couldn’t hole up in some hideout away from the world. At least now she’d still be in his life, hopefully long enough for him to convince her to make it long-term. Though long-term might not be too long if they didn’t get her powers and Mr. Brown’s interest in her under control.

“I think the two of us should get out of town for awhile. We could both use the time to adjust, and maybe it will get Mr. Brown off Miranda’s back, at least temporarily, which should also give her some breathing room from Arc Angel. Maybe if she doesn’t have to let her in so often, it will start being more manageable again.”

“Where will you go?” Dan asked.

“There’s a place up north, a cabin owned by the parents of a buddy of mine. I’ve always had carte blanche to use it, and I’m pretty sure they’re doing their usual month in Europe right now, so it should be unoccupied. Miranda, do you feel up to another driving adventure?”

She rubbed her eyes one more time with the back of her hand. “I guess. Why?”

“I’d like to keep them guessing. They must know by now that neither of us drive. So I’ll send Matthews off one way, and we’ll go another. It should buy us some time.”

“I suppose I can call her back again,” Miranda said slowly. “She is an excellent driver.”

“Hell no! We’re not letting her back into you again, not until we have to. I’ll drive.”

“But I thought you couldn’t drive?” Miranda’s worry was written all over her face.

“It’s not that I can’t drive, it’s that I’m not supposed to drive. Totally different thing. And I’m pretty sure that, since this is something of an emergency, even my doctor would agree with me.”

That got a small smile and a nod from Dan.

“See? No worries. And no Arc Angel. We’re going with my plan.”

Bryce shifted Miranda on his lap and pulled his phone out of his pants pocket. He punched in Matthews number and listened to it ring. And ring. And ring. He snapped the phone shut. He felt like his overactive heart had actually stopped for a second.

“We’ve got a problem.”

“What do you mean?”

“Matthews isn’t answering his phone.”

“So? Maybe he turned it off or something.”

“Matthews
always
answers his phone. He’s never out of touch with me, not even for a minute. Something’s wrong. We’ve got to get out of here, fast.”

“Call the police,” Dan urged.

“I can’t,” said Miranda. “I mean, I can’t call 9-1-1—long story, Dr. Harris—and I can’t call Kate because I don’t know her new number yet.”

“I guess we’re on our own,” Bryce said.

“It could be worse,” said Dan.

The lights turned off, and they were thrown into darkness.

Chapter 21

“Dammit, Dan, didn’t anyone ever tell you not to tempt fate?” Bryce growled.

“I’m going to guess that this,” Dan pointed up at the darkened light fixture, “is not a coincidence.”

“Power outages around Miranda seldom are these days. Mr. Brown must have tracked us here somehow,” Bryce said.

“Then we need to get out of here,” added Miranda. “All of us.”

While her heart tripped at the appearance of yet another threat, part of her was relieved at the excuse to postpone the discussion about the test results. At least living moment to moment meant she got to spend more time with Bryce.

“But I could stay here, call the police myself, report a break-in...” Dan protested.

“We don’t have time for that, Dan,” Bryce said. “Whoever knocked out the power is probably already inside the building. And the guys Mr. Brown hires rarely have many qualms about involving innocent bystanders. They may already have taken out Matthews.”

Silence hung over the room as the weight of that statement hit all three of them.

Miranda forced herself to break the silence.

“Besides, you’re not entirely innocent, are you? You’re the one person in the world who knows exactly what’s going on with me right now, at least physically. They could use you. You’d better come with us, at least for now.”

Dan remained silent for a few seconds as he processed that information.

“Okay, I’ll come along. But I don’t think we dare take the car Miranda drove here, since we aren’t sure that she wasn’t followed. My car is in the staff parking on the side of the building, so they may not have seen it. We could take it.”

“Good thinking. Let’s go.” Bryce moved toward the office door, pulling Miranda along by the hand. Dr. Harris stayed standing behind his desk.

“But Bryce, how are we going to get there?” Dan asked. “We can’t risk the elevator, even if it’s still working on back-up power. Which means we’ve got to go down the hallway in front of my office, down two flights of stairs and then it’s another 100 yards to the car. I see two main problems with this, guys: A) they’ll see us, and B) we’ll have to move very quickly, and I don’t know how Bryce is going to be able to do that without overloading his heart.”

“I can take care of the first part if you can help Bryce,” Miranda said quietly.

“What are you going to do?” Dan asked.

“Become Arc Angel.” It should have felt like a habit at this point, but the idea of letting the superhero take charge sent a chill down Miranda’s spine. But what else could she do? She had innocent people to protect and an enemy to face: Arc Angel’s dream scenario and Miranda’s nightmare. She just had to hope that she would have the strength needed to keep her alter ego in check.

Though she knew her hesitation had been clear in her voice, Dan nodded and stepped from around his desk. Bryce, on the other hand, was looking at her as if she’d just offered to appear on national television stark naked. She squeezed his hand and tried to smile at him. She knew her smile couldn’t be described as natural at the best of times, but this one must have been a complete failure, because now Bryce was looking at her as if she’d just offered to drown a bag of kittens. She shifted her focus back to the doctor.

“Okay, Bryce,” Dan continued. “I’ve got a wheelchair in my supply closet, and that can get us to the stairs, but then you’ll have to walk. I don’t know…”

“Goddamn it, I’ll be fine. Quit talking. We need to go. Now.”

“I’ll get the chair,” Dan said and hustled out of the room.

Bryce turned to Miranda. “Are you sure about this?”

“It’ll be fine, I mean alright.”

“This isn’t
fine
. And you don’t have to do it. You don’t have to face whoever’s out there. Come with me and Dan.”

Miranda reached up and touched his cheek. “The only way you’ll have time to get out of here safely is if I stall them, and you know it.”

“But I don’t want you to put yourself in danger for me.”

“That’s what superheroes do.”

She leaned over and brushed his lips against his before he could say anything.

Dan appeared in the doorway with the wheelchair.

“Let’s go.”

“Let me go first,” Miranda said. “I’m the one they want anyway.”

She squared her shoulders, marched to the office’s front door and stopped. Now what? Eh, fuck stealth. Stealth was for heroes like Shadowcat or the Invisible Woman. She had the power to light up the room; no need to hide in the shadows.

Miranda flung open the office door and strode into the hallway.

At the end of the hallway, waiting for her, were two men in suits, illuminated only by the dim light streaming through the window at the end of the hall. More goons.

What is it with all these goons? Did Mr. Brown get a two-for-one deal at Goons R Us or something?