Incendiary (The Premonition Series (Volume 4)) (48 page)

“Xavier, stop!” she breathes
. “Put me down!”

“You stop first,” he retorts,
lookin’ up as the snow continues
to fall upon them.

“Fine,” she manages
, flickin’ her wrist again to make the snow stop fallin’.

To say that I’
m
freaked out by what I just sa
w would lessen the impact it has on me. Glancin’ at Zee, I
see that he’s disturbed, too.

“How long have you
known each other?” Zephyr asks
in a calm voice.

“High school,” Evie frowns, and swats at Xavier’s hand when he does
n’t release
her right away once her feet a
re on the ground.

“And how long
have you known Evie?” Zee asks while his eyes shift
to Xavier’s.

“A litt
le longer than that,” he replies
, no longer smilin’.

“How much longer?” I ask
.

“Longer,” he sho
o
t
s back with a blank expression.

“Russell,” Zephyr says next to me, but his eyes do
n’t leave Xavier’s. “We should prepare to leave.”

“Yeah…okay,” I murmur
, before glanci
n’ at Evie. “It’ll be okay, Red.
I’ll make sure they don’t miss anthin’ ugly or undead.”

She reaches
out to Zephyr and me, huggin’ us like she’ll never see us aga
in. “Take me with you,” she says
, and the force with w
hich she ho
ld
s us translates
her growin’ desperation and fear.

“We
will return to you,” Zephyr says
in a gentle voice.

“Of course we’re comin’ back. We’re not punks,” I say
, glancin’ at Xavier and seein’ him scowl back at me.
Where
’s your empty expression now
, I think
with a slow smile.

“If you let me go with you, I’ll be able to show you where al
l their surveillance was set up—
h
ow they operate
, what shi
fts consisted of—
” She continues,
employin’ another angle to convince us of her position.

“Zephyr is a Prostat
Power, Evie,” Xavier says
, usin’ an A
ngelic word that I’d never heard before now. “Very few angels ever reach his level of excellence. The Gancanagh will
never hea
r him coming if they’
re still there.”

“I know he’s a wicked assassin, Xavier. He’s th
e one who trained me,” Evie says
, while lettin’ us go.

“Yo
u’ve been trained?” he asks
in a deadly calm tone.

“Yes,” she replies
.

“When?” he counters
.

“When what?” she responds,
turnin’ to face him.

“When were you t
rained?” he asks
. “Before or after your evolution?”

“Uh…that’s a gray area for me,” sh
e replies
evasively.

Lookin’ over t
he top of her head, Xavier asks
Zephyr, “When was she trained?”

“We began during the latter part of her evolu
tion into angel,” Zephyr replies calmly, and he does
n’
t flinch when Xavier’s brows dra
w together and a low growl
escapes
from him. Red and I both adopt
defensive postures in front of Zee, just in case Xavier decides to att
ack him. The entire room quiets
at
once, while everyone’s focus fa
ll
s
on us.

“Interesting,” Xavier murmurs
, the picture of composure once again.

“S
he was an excellent student. S
he cut
me right here once,” Zephyr says proudly,
holdin’ up his wrist and pointin’ to the spot.

“I would have liked to
have witnessed that,” he replies
, his voice full of humor.

“
Naw, you wouldn’t’ve,
” I scoff
at him, “‘cuz she healed him right after that and we had to watch her flesh break open and her bleed all over herself before Reed cleaned her up.”
The look on Xavier’s face turns grim while he glances
at me. “Ah, y
ou
didn’t know she’d do somethin’ like that, di
d you
—
hurt herself to save her fri
ends? But, that’s what she does. S
he’d never abandon anyone. C’mon
,
Z
ee, we gotta catch a flight to f
aerie-tale-horror-town and make sure that no evil freaks are there when she arrives.”

“What am I supposed to do?” Evie cal
ls
after us.

“Enjoy the party,” I call
back.

Zee and I walk
out of the courts and do
wn a few hallways before I ask
, “What do you think?”

He glances
at me before sayin’, “She knows him.”

“You
picked up on that, too,” I say
, exhalin’ a large br
eath
.

“She doesn’t kn
ow that she knows him,” he adds
. “But, that’s nothing compared to how well he knows her. He has the look.”

“The look?” I question
.

“Buns can probably explain it better to you, but I will do my best. When a soul arrives in Par
adise after a lifetime on earth
, it will sometimes pine for the soul mate th
at was left behind,” Zephyr says
.

“He has that look?” I ask
.

“No…he has
the other look,” Zephyr replies
with a grim expression.

“The other look
?” My eyebrow quirks
.

“The look of that soul when it reunites
with its soul mate,” he replies
solemnly.

“Naw, you’
r
e
wrong!” I blurt
out, before haltin’ where I stan
d in the narrow hallway. “How is that possible when I’m her soul mate?” I point to my chest.

“I don’t know, Russell,” he says
plainly. “He’s an angel and he doesn’t even have a s
oul. I a
m just telling you what I saw.”

I walk
next to Zee again, but this time at a slower pace. “Why h
aven’t the Seraphim met with us—
told us what’s happenin’, where they’ve been, what
they’ve been doin’?” I ask
. “It’d
be nice to know the game plan,
instead of havin’ to react when the room starts blowin’ up.”

“We have to start doing our own intel before
we become obsolete,” Zephyr says
. “That’s what Reed’s been do
ing. He’s getting close to them—
to Tau.”

“I have a dis
tinct disadvantage, Zee,” I say
, thinkin’ ‘bout what he said. “I can’t speak Angel.”

“You hav
e an insider, Russell,” Zee says quietly. When I look at him, he says, “Anya—
”

“No way,”
I growl
at him. “I’m not usin’ her for nothin’.”

“She knows possibly as
much or more than them,” he says
. “She probably knows what happened between you and Evie, hav
e you thought of that?”

“Of course I’ve though
t
of it! I
t’s almost all I think ‘bout, but my need to know isn’t as strong as my need t
o get her outta here,” I reply
defensively.

Roundin’ the corner to the corri
dor that leads to my room, I fi
nd Reed standin’ outside my door. He’s already attired in f
ull, black combat armor. He nods to Zephyr and me as we approach
him.

“I requisitioned armor for you both, in case y
ou wanted to join us,” Reed says, and gestures toward my room. I open the door and see
the armor hangin’ in my closet.

“Ah, you’
re
gettin’ the band back together. L
ook, Zee,
we got new uniforms,” I grin at Reed and see
his reluctant smile.

“I wish I could offer you a better venue, but it’s the same old
dive as last time,” Reed replies
with a negligent s
hrug
. I gesture for Reed and Zephyr
to come in and th
en I close
the door behind them.

“I’m down—i
t’s gotta be hotter than that beach party we
were just subjected to,” I say
off-handedly.

“Bad?” Reed asks
.

“If by bad you
mean good, then no. Power
s are appallingly lam
e players, no offense,” I flash
him a grin for the slur I just shot his way.

“Paper gangstas?” Reed asks
me with humor.

“Somethin’ like that. Now, Prostat P
owers on the other hand…” I leave
my comment to hang in the air between us, acknowledgin’ that he’s elite.

“Have sick style
,” Ze
phyr chimes
in, showin’
that he’s been hangin’
out with Buns
.

“Decidedly so,” I agree
. “So,
how’s this goin’ down?” I ask Reed,
pullin’ out the black armor and seein’ that it’ll fit me.

“We’re the opening act. We go in
stealth
, search for incendiaries, pockets of magic, latent spells in
tended for half-angels,” he says
, lookin’ directly at me.

“Don’t forget portals,” I add
.

“Those can be your special
project, Russell,” Reed smiles at me as he adds, “y
ou have the nose for it.”

“Whatever. Y
ou’
r
e
just jeal
ous of my new angelic nose—
I got a lot of p
lay with the old one…” I trail
off when
the crickets in my stomach begin jumpin’ ‘round and I hear
the door next to my room open and close. It could on
ly mean that Anya just got in.

Reed glances
at his watch
and says
, “Meet us on the deck when you’re ready, we have to leave soon.”

“
I’
ll be along in a second,” I say as Reed and Zee walk
out into the hallway.

Reed turns back and says, “Russell…about the thing—
with
you and Evie…I was out of line—
I
—
”

“Reed, we’re good,” I reply
. “I can’t explain it, but I can honestly say that I’m not sweatin’ it for once.”

A crooked smile co
me
s to his lips as he says
, “Those cricket
s still bothering you?” he asks.

“
You
could say that,” I reply
.

“You’ll let me know if you wa
nt to talk about them?” he asks
.

“Yeah, I’ll let you
know,” I say
, before closin’ the door.

Hurriedly, I change
into the body armor. Openin
’ the door to my room, I step
out i
nto the hall just as Anya walks
past me toward the end of the hallway. My wings u
nfurl
snap
when I see
the skin-tight, black body armor coverin’ her dangerous curves. She looks more like a dominatrix than a soldier with her black hair pulled back in a massive ponytail and her golden bow slung carelessly over her shoulder.

Befor
e I can
think ‘bout what I’m doin’, I’ve gotten
directly in front of her, blockin’ her way to the deck.

“Ah, n
aw!” I say
with a dark scowl o
n my face. “Where do you
think you’
r
e
goin’?”

She doesn’t answer me, but attempts
t
o step around me. My hands go
to her upper arms to hold her in place i
n front of me. Her eyes narrow to slits as she raises
her angelic v
oice in frustration. Sweet music falls from her lips as she jabs
at the air near my face with her finger.