Color of Angels' Souls (24 page)

She bent over the table and grabbed a crystal glass made of red Mist. She broke it into pieces with a piece of silverware and handed a piece each to Jeremy and Allison.

“Try a piece, and you'll see what I mean.”

Jeremy frowned at the pieces of scarlet glass.

“Isn't it dangerous?”

“No. You would have to eat a lot of it to turn red. It's perfectly safe.”

Not fully convinced, the two young Angels each picked up a piece of glass and slowly put it in their mouths. Jeremy was startled by the intensity of the emotions that overcame him.

He was stunned at first to feel the same ecstasy as when he ate blue Mist: the same feelings of happiness, fulfillment, and joy, even though he knew full well that he was eating Mist produced by anger. But in some ways, the sensations were more violent, more powerful than those he'd felt before. It was as if harsh, negative emotions added some spice to the vapor. Oh yes, he was beginning to understand why the red Angels were so fond of their Mist. And why they would want large quantities of it to be produced. The feelings of ecstasy were, quite simply, indescribable. And dangerously addictive.

“The Blues are going to have to rein in the Reds' activities if they want to keep feeding themselves correctly,” Lili sighed, amused by the glassy look in the eyes of the two new Angels after their little taste test.

“Except that the Reds are becoming more and more powerful,” Flint smiled sadly.

“It doesn't matter,” Lili said, waving away his concern. “We can't do much about it anyway. That's something for you and the other members of the Grand Council to take care of, not me! And they won't be meeting in Washington for another two weeks.”

Her eyes, as green as the leaves in springtime, looked deep into Jeremy's blue ones.

“Would you like to spend some time with me, Jeremy?” she whispered. “I would like to show you some of the other wonders of this new world—while we gather some information about the man who sent the two of you here, of course.”

As Allison watched Jeremy fall under Lili's charms, she couldn't help but feel jealous—which was strange, to say the least, since she hardly even knew him.

Then Flint leaned in close to her and brushed the tips of his fingers across her cheek.

His fingers burned like fire, but at the same time, felt delightfully soft. She trembled.

“And you, my pretty Allison, would you like to come with me?”

All the alarms started going off in Allison's head: “Warning! Danger!” She would have most likely accepted Flint's proposition if she had gone out with a lot of men when she was alive and didn't feel uneasy in their company. But despite how magnificent and attractive the Angel may have seemed, she suddenly took him for a dangerous predator. Just like all the men who had sniffed around her when she was alive, impatient to get her in their beds. She jumped awkwardly to her feet.

“Jeremy,” she stuttered. “I … I forgot about something. Something I have to check on. Could you come with me for … for a second?”

The stunned look on Flint's face might have amused her if she hadn't been so frightened.

“Uhh, sure,” Jeremy said, as if he were snapping out of a trance. “Of course! Do you want us to come with you?”

“No, no, just you,” she added quickly. “Just you and me; we don't want to bother Flint and Lili with something so … trivial! We'll be … be right back!”

And before Jeremy, who was still lost in Lili's eyes, had time to react, she grabbed him by the hand and started pulling him toward the exit. They flew down the stairs of Mist that Flint had made for them and which, luckily for them, hadn't evaporated yet. Neither Lili nor Flint lifted an eyebrow, but simply watched them speed away with the strange expression of the Ancients.

As soon as they were on the sidewalk, Jeremy called out to Allison, who was still squeezing his hand with all her might.

“You panicked,” he said calmly, even though he would have liked to scream at her for having torn him away from Lili. “What happened?”

Allison looked mortified. “He … he wants … he wants to sleep with me,” she said haltingly. “And I don't want … I can't … I'm …”

“… a virgin, yeah I know,” Jeremy said, only half listening. He looked back longingly at the entrance to the restaurant, cursing to see Lili wasn't there.

The frosty silence behind him finally reached his brain. He turned around. Allison was giving him a cold, hard look.

“I was going to say that I'm
worried
,” she uttered in a voice so frigid it would have made a polar bear shudder. “But I see you already know everything about my private life!”

Jeremy felt his face turn red. Lili's influence over him was lifting and he could finally think straight once again. More or less. Fleeting visions of her sun-kissed skin and green eyes were still going around and around in his head.

“Oops, I'm sorry,” he told her. “I … spoke without thinking. But I think it's great, really great! I'm impressed by your … your tenacity; it's tremendous!”

She stared at him, her blue eyes the shade of icicles.

“As I was about to say,” she continued, in a tone like freshly fallen snow. “I'm
worried
. Those two old Angels didn't accept someone as brilliant as Einstein into their clique, and all of a sudden they're infatuated with the two of us. Why? I don't know enough about this new world yet. I need some explanations. I'm lost and I'm scared!”

“I don't know much more about it than you do,” Jeremy admitted, crestfallen.

“Do you think there's some hidden motive behind what they're doing? Some secret they're keeping from us? Besides just wanting to avoid dying of boredom, I mean?”

Jeremy began to think about the surprising interest that the two old Angels had taken in them.

“It's possible. I have no idea!”

“Everything went so fast,” Allison continued. “It's … it's hard to take it all in! But one thing is for sure: People like that always have an ulterior motive, and I can tell that the two of them are incredibly powerful!”

Jeremy was beside himself. He could barely refrain from yelling that the only motive he had (and it wasn't even an ulterior one) was to rush back into the restaurant and throw himself at Lili's feet. Suddenly he frowned. His eyes grew wide as he realized what Allison had just said about their power, and he remembered what Flint had told them about getting “concrete results.”

“I have to go back inside,” he said suddenly, still lost in his thoughts. “There's something really important I have to ask Flint.”

“You haven't heard a word I've said,” Allison retorted. “That guy scares me. He's too powerful, too charismatic. I won't be able to resist him for long!”

“I'll go alone,” Jeremy said curtly. “I hear you, Allison! Lili got inside my head too. She … she hypnotized me.”

“Yes, that's exactly it,” Allison murmured, still trembling. “He hypnotized me. I felt like a mouse being toyed with by a cat. He finds me amusing now, but at some point he'll show his claws. And there will be blood.”

“Stay here,” Jeremy ordered her, too obsessed by his idea to listen to her. “If I can find a way to get Flint to follow us, without Lili, I should be able to think straight. I just have to keep from looking at her, and I'll be OK. I'll be right back.”

“Jeremy!” Allison yelled, but it was too late. He had already disappeared inside the restaurant.

She waited for what seemed like an eternity, alone in the middle of the street, shuddering whenever one of the living walked right through her Angel body.

Finally, Flint and Jeremy came outside. She quickly fixed her eyes on Jeremy, refusing to look away. As long as she could steer clear of Flint's fatal charms, everything would be fine.

“I have a big problem, and Flint may be able to help us,” Jeremy explained.

“Great!” Allison said with a quavering voice. She was staring so intently at Jeremy that her eyes began to cross. “Uh, what's the problem?”

“My little sister is being tortured by a red Angel. I talked to Albert about it, but he told me there was nothing he could do. He's far less powerful than one of the Ancients, as you so rightly pointed out to him earlier. But Flint has that power, and he thinks he might have a solution. So we're going to go to my house—I mean, my
old
house.”

Then Lili sashayed out of the restaurant.

Allison shuddered, without knowing quite why. Strangely enough, even though the girl had been very friendly to them, Allison feared her almost more than Flint.

“Lucius is very upset that we slipped out like that,” Lili said in her deep voice. “But I'm delighted to be part of your little expedition. It's been ages since I crossed swords with a big red bully!”

Allison gave Jeremy a questioning look, and he smiled back apologetically. It looked as if everything wasn't going as he'd planned, because Lili was going with them.

But Allison noticed that Jeremy was avoiding Lili's eyes, just as she was doing with Flint. He had realized how overwhelming her powers of seduction were, and he wanted to remain lucid: Helping his little sister was more important than anything.

Jeremy was about to apologize for having left the table so unexpectedly, when the two Angels once again unfurled their magnificent wings, which made a fascinating noise.

Jeremy was intrigued: The Angels didn't really need the wings to fly, did they?

Before he and Allison could make the slightest objection, the two Ancients had already scooped them up in their arms and carried them off into the clear blue sky. The air was warm, but they flew so high and so fast that they almost felt cold. Lili carried Jeremy, who was hardly pleased to be cradled like a baby by a girl who was only half his weight. And it was Flint, of course, who carried Allison. He couldn't hear what they were saying, and Allison looked tiny in his big, muscular arms. Without warning he found himself looking into Lili's eyes.

“I hope you're enjoying the flight,” she whispered, in complete control of the situation. “Some people suffer from vertigo.”

Her magnificent wings sliced effortlessly through the air. The sensation was indescribable.

“Yeah, yeah, I'm fine,” he squeaked, once again overcome by the young woman's sensuality. “As long as you don't drop me, everything will be just fine.”

She laughed.

“The first time I flew I broke all my bones! Since then, I don't think I've ever let anyone or anything slip out of my hands!”

That was fine with him, since about the last thing he wanted was to slip out of her hands!

The flight was a bit shorter than he would have liked, and they soon set down on the perfectly manicured lawn in front of Tachini's mansion. The guard dogs walking nearby seemed more sensitive to the old Angels' presence than to Jeremy's, as they quickly began growling nervously.

Night was falling. Jeremy had hardly slept a wink the previous night, but the food he'd eaten must have made up for his lack of sleep, because he felt raring to go.

“Follow me,” he said. “I don't know if that foul red Angel has arrived yet. It's still a bit early for him, but he shouldn't be long. He haunts my little sister—my half sister—every night. My mother has to give her a syrup to help her sleep.”

“Sleeping drugs?” Lili frowned. “That's hardly ideal. It lessens the Angel's influence, of course, but she could become addicted to it.”

Jeremy ventured a look at Lili. There was nothing he could do about it: Every time he looked at her, her beauty took his breath away.

“I know, that's exactly why I need your—” He caught himself. “Why I need Flint's help.”

“And I told you I would do whatever I could to resolve your problem,” added the centurion with a friendly tap on his shoulder.

When Jeremy looked over at Flint, he realized that Allison, who had a dreamy look on her face, was still holding on to Flint's brawny arm.

“Allison, are you all right?” Jeremy asked, remembering how she had told him that she was afraid of Flint (it was true that Jeremy couldn't have known that they would be flying through the sky and the old satyr would carry her in his arms).

Her eyes were clouded over, as if she couldn't even see straight.

“Allison?” he barked.

She jumped.

“Whu—? Sorry … what?”

“I asked you if everything was all right. Was the flying OK?”

Clearly disconcerted, she passed a shaky hand over her face, released Flint's arm, and walked over to Jeremy.

“I'm OK. I just kind of blacked out up there. It was weird. We took off and then presto! Here we are …”

Jeremy bit his lip. He was about to ask Flint what he had done to Allison, but then thought better of it. He needed him too much, but he hardly appreciated the fact that the old Angel was using his powers on the girl.

He was surprised when Flint winked at him and said: “Your friend didn't seem to be enjoying the flight, and because we flew so fast on our urgent mission, I clouded her mind a little bit.”

“Clouded her mind?”

“Yes. With our powers, we can transmit the Mist that we ourselves have eaten to another Angel, who might be too weak to eat on their own, for example. It's what I did to Allison. I projected some sleeping Mist into her body, and she slept during the flight. She'll be back to her old self in no time!”

His explanation reassured Jeremy, even if Lili did give Flint an inquisitive look.

“You ‘shared' some Mist with Allison,” she remarked thoughtfully. “How interesting.”

Flint smiled stiffly. Jeremy wasn't sure what it meant, but apparently Lili had been surprised enough to point out what Flint had done. Jeremy resolved to ask Einstein about it later. He could only hope the old scientist would have an explanation.