Don't Read After Dark: Keep the lights on while reading these! (A McCray Horror Collection) (78 page)

Although Rook doubted it was the kind of show Fanny expected.

He hurried past the guard and bounded up the steps. Rook hit the main floor and surveyed the room. The feather floated above a table with three punk-looking young women. The feather finally settled on the “punkiest” of the girls. It appeared that Sheli had embraced goth culture to the hilt. Piercing littered her face, leaving no feature unmarked. Her long black hair hung straight down with short bangs accentuating her face. The angel’s white blouse stood out starkly against the red and black plaid shirt. Short skirt. Guess Goths liked to show some skin as well.

Rook headed over to their table. “So?” he asked the trio. “How much for you all?”

Sheli sneered, causing her nose rings to jut out at an unusual angle. “We’re not for sale, pig.”

Rook made his way to her side of the table. How he wished to reveal her right here, but that would just create a spectacle, and until he knew what was going on, he needed to keep the fact that they were in the presence of an angel on the down low.

“Really?” Rook questioned as he put his hand on Sheli’s shoulder, snatching back the feather. “You’d think, if you dressed like that, you’d make some money from it.”

The three girls leapt from their seats, overturning their chairs. Sheli pulled a switchblade. “Back off, creep!”

Rook raised his hands in supposed surrender, and moved on. Walking away, Rook pretty much ignored Sheli, just stealing sidelong glances to make sure her group was settling back in. Once he was sure they were going back to their
mojitos
, Rook made for the bar.

He pulled the feather out and breathed her name across it. “Sheli.”

The angel’s head jerked in his direction as she clearly tried to find the source of her name. She stood abruptly. “Come on. Let’s get out of here.”

It didn’t take much prompting from Sheli to get the others up and moving. Rook waited until they were almost to the door, and whispered to the feather again, “Sheli.”

This time, the angel’s head snapped to the right and spotted Rook. Anger flashed in those dark eyes, and she looked ready to pull out her switchblade again. Rook flicked on his lighter and dragged the flame close to the edge of the feather.

Sheli’s eyes dilated to the point of blackness. Seething, she turned to her friends and hustled them off. Within moments, she was stomping over to Rook.

“You wouldn’t,” she challenged.

“Oh, I would, and I’d rather enjoy it.”

Sheli paused. Clearly, she had no idea who Rook was, or what he was capable of, but as worry passed over her features, she seemed to be a quick learner.

“What do you want?”

“That’s for me to know and you to anguish over,” Rook stated as he indicated down the steps to their private room.

Sheli radiated suspicion, but followed him down.

As they passed the bouncer, the burly man asked, “Another one?”

“What can I say?” Rook replied, winking at Sheli. “The more the naughtier.”

“All right!” the bouncer agreed, looking the angel up and down.

Rook slipped him a few more bills. “If you hear, you know… things, don’t worry about it.”

The guy looked at the hundreds in his palm. “For this kind of cash, you can demolish the place.”

“I might just take you up on that.”
Seriously
.

Rook guided Sheli past their booth. He knocked. No answer. Worried, he knocked again. What could have happened in the few moments he was gone? Had Chad woken up again?

He was ready to kick the door in when the latch suddenly gave way. Fanny opened the door. “Sorry! The show was just ending!”

Luckily for Rook, the curtain was coming down.

Fanny, though, jumped up and down. “Oh, Rook, you missed it! She had a bottle and a snake and—”

“I get the picture, Fanny,” he said as he urged Sheli in the door. He shoved her toward Tomahawk and Beauty.

“Bind our bedazzled angel to the chair.”

* * *

Angela watched as Sheli struggled. “I refuse to be—”

Rook put the lighter up to the white feather. Sheli screamed and dropped into the chair. “You will refuse nothing,” Rook said as he snapped the lighter off.

Sheli glowered, but did not fight, as Tomahawk and Beauty laced the woven rope around her wrists.
Could she really be an angel?
Angela wondered. The woman did not glow, nor were there harp strings rustling the air. Granted, two days ago she would have scoffed at the idea of heavenly beings. Angela was pretty darn sure this wasn’t one.

“Rook,” she said taking a step closer to Sheli. “This isn’t an angel.”

“Oh, yeah?” Rook challenged, and then grabbed a switchblade from Sheli’s belt. Flipping it open, he sliced up her back. The woman screamed as glossy white wings sprang from her skin’s constraint.

“Just because the flesh is borrowed, doesn’t mean that didn’t hurt!” Sheli hissed through clenched teeth.

Fanny stroked the feathers as Rook got in Sheli’s face. “Borrowed? Do you really think the girl you took that skin from is going to able to use it any time soon?”

Angela stumbled back a step. Having her family murdered around her had been bad enough. But this? This was all too much. None of it made sense.

“But the other angel glowed…”

* * *

Rook spoke to Angela, but studied the angel’s face. “Sheli, here, has spent the better part of the millennium begging, borrowing, or stealing the best cloaking that mankind can offer,” Rook turned his full attention to the angel. “Haven’t you, dear?”

“What else was I supposed to do?” Sheli spat at him.

Rook stood up and wiped the spittle from his cheek. “I’m sure Lucifer and Jehovia could have thought of a few things. I hear Luci blames you for how the whole thing went down…”

Sheli wouldn’t meet his eye. So he was right. The devil did know how to hold a grudge.

“But you know what, Sheli?” Rook said. “That’s not why we’re here. We’re here to find out why, after the longest Mexican standoff in history, heaven and hell now have their fingers on the fast-forward button.”

Sheli turned her head away. Her perfectly curved jawline was tense and unyielding. Rook reached over and plucked another feather from her oversized wing. The angel flinched.

“I’ve got this room all night, and I’ve heard that angel-feathered pillows fetch a mighty high price…”

Sheli’s face flashed with anger. “And why would I tell
you
anything?”

“Because it behooves you to keep them in a stalemate. You can go back to your doomed quest to join Courtney Love’s band.”

“Never,” Sheli hissed.

What was up with the attitude? Why couldn’t Sheli see that the only way out was to share what she knew?

He looked up at Beauty and Tomahawk, who seemed equally perplexed. Then Fanny moved from the angel’s wings to her hair, stroking it gently.

“You see, Sheli, there are some bad men and… Well, I really don’t understand it all, but we have to stop them or the whole world goes ka-plooey, and that would be a real bummer.” More chipper Fanny continued, “Now someone who clearly understands hair product should be very worried. I mean, will there be hair straighteners in hell?”

“There’d better be,” Beauty mumbled behind Rook.

Fanny put her face next to Sheli’s. “Can I braid your hair?”

While Sheli didn’t say “yes,” she also didn’t say “no,” which to Fanny seemed to be complete and total permission.

Rook brought the lighter up again, but Sheli just sighed. She spoke, but it didn’t seem out of fear, but weariness.

“All I know is that something has shifted. What it is exactly, I honestly don’t know.”

“Um, a few more details?” Rook pressed.

“The dimensional barriers have buckled… warped somehow.”

Rook did not want to lose a moment while Sheli was in a chatty mood. “Which side caused it?”

“Neither—” Sheli said, and then she winced. “Ouch!”

Fanny smoothed the angel’s hair. “Sorry. Just trying to get the part straight.”

“Sheli, which side?”

“As I said, as far as I could tell, neither. It was a fluke. A natural phenomenon.”

“Such as?” Rook asked.

“I told you, I don’t know!” Sheli shouted, causing Fanny to drop the braid.

Fanny shook her head. “Darn it! Now I have to start all over.”

Rook wished that he had such patience. “Sheli, you better start figuring it out, because I am just itchin’ to start pluckin’.” He rubbed his fingers together.

But Sheli didn’t back down. She stared defiantly at Rook. “Go ahead.”

Rook plucked another feather as Sheli stifled a scream. He pulled another, and another. The angel breathed sharply through her nose and her cheeks flushed red, but she said nothing more.

Beauty put a hand on Rook’s arm before he plucked another. “Maybe she doesn’t know.”

“Yeah, right,” Rook snorted. “She’s survived centuries of ruthless pursuit by being naïve.”

He knew that she knew something else. She
had
to know something else. But he had a handful of feathers in his hand to say he wasn’t going to get the answers he needed this way.

He indicated Tomahawk. “Bring Chad over here.”

* * *

Tomahawk hauled Chad to his feet and brought him to Rook. He felt sorry for the kid, but this was, in fact, the end of the world they were talking about.

“I need you to do your stuff,” Rook said to the student.

“No!” Chad screamed trying to pull away. “Not this. Please, no.”

But the more Chad struggled, the more the symbols on his chest glowed an ominous red. Rook pointed out the seal to Sheli.

“Do you recognize this?”

The angel shrank back in horror. “He can’t be.”

“I like to think of him as our very own ‘Porti-Hell.’”

“Get him away from me,” Sheli cried as the symbols coalesced and merged with the flesh. Acrid smoke rose from the seal as Tomahawk’s eyes watered.

Rook pointed to the trail of red smoke. “It is about to open, Sheli, and I’m sure Luci is just drooling to see his old flame again.”

Sheli leaned back as far as she could in the seat. “I honestly don’t know what caused the imbalance.”

“Stick to your story and get a one-way ticket to hell. No refunds. No exchanges.”

As a moan not of this world filled the room, Sheli blurted out, “There are all kinds of theories. Solar flares, ion fluxing, and gravitational wells. You’d have to talk to the techno-geeks. All I know is that both sides are pushing to see if they can’t break through the weakened portal first. They thought your Virgin could be the key.”

Rook nodded toward Beauty, who stuck a needle into Chad’s arm, injecting him with sedatives. The student relaxed in Tomahawk’s grip, but not that much, since he still struggled to get away.

“You’re a bright girl, Sheli,” Rook said as he leaned over to be face to face with the angel. “Why didn’t you just tell me that in the first place? It was no great secret. Given a few years, I could have come up with the same theories.”

Sheli squirmed under Rook’s intense gaze, but didn’t everyone? Tomahawk struggled to get Chad back down on the bench, but his skin was blotchy and the symbols still pulsed an angry red.

“Beauty? Do you have any more Valium?” Tomahawk asked.

Their Arranger dug around in her bag, but came up empty-handed. Guess she didn’t expect to be in a situation where you needed three whole syringes of Valium. How wrong she was.

* * *

Rook knelt next to Sheli. “Could your reluctance have to do with the fact that you made some arrangement with the big guy? Did you figure out a way to get immunity from your old homies?” He tickled her wing. “That if you scratched their feathered backs, they’d do the same for you?”

Sheli glared back at him. “It is going to happen. Nothing I do, nothing
you
do, will stop it. The Apocalypse is upon us. You’d best pick a side and pray that they win.”

Rook was about to retort when he heard the familiar sound of ribs breaking. Chad’s Hellgate was about to pop open.

“Will you calm him down?” Rook asked Tomahawk.

“What exactly does it look like I’m trying to do here?”

Balling up his fist, Rook prepared to punch Chad, but then noticed his scraped knuckles. “Sorry, Tommi. Your turn.”

Tomahawk frowned, but finally hauled back and punched Chad. The student slumped, unconscious, as the symbols faded back to their quiet, golden hue. Rook turned back to Sheli.

“So, what’s their next step?”

The angel straightened in her chair, acting defiant again. How brave one got when the Hellgate wasn’t in your face.

“Don’t think I won’t wake up Drano-boy. I’d like nothing better.”

Sheli searched his face clearly, trying to assess whether or not he was serious. Oh, he was serious. Besides, Fanny was right. The vortex was kind of pretty.

Finally the angel hung her head. “There’s a weakness at a node just north of the city.”

Rook watched out of the corner of his eye as Tomahawk pulled his laptop out and began typing. Sheli continued, “They hope to punch a hole in the dimensional barrier there.”

“Are you talking about the major energy nexus in the Los Angeles Mountains?” Tomahawk asked.

Sheli nodded.

“Why there?” Rook asked.

“Long ago, the area was a touching ground.”

Rook’s mind spun trying to put all of the tangle pieces of the puzzle together. “You mean that area was used as an angelic runway?”

Sheli frowned. “Crudely put, yes. Centuries ago the area was destroyed by an earthquake.”

“More than likely because of overuse?”

The angel shrugged. “LA wasn’t named for its scenic beauty.”

Rook turned to Tomahawk, whose frown only deepened. “If she’s correct… The spot she is talking about is right on the San Andreas Fault. If they mess with the energy nexus there…” Tomahawk raised his eyes to Rook as he finished, “It’ll make the Northridge earthquake look like… Well, let’s just say that Arizona is going to get some new beachfront property.”

“When?” Rook demanded of Sheli.

She looked away as she answered, “Sunrise.”

“Damn it!” Rook turned to Beauty. “Get out there and find us some wheels.” He motioned to Tomahawk. “And get Chad loaded up while I finish up here.”