Angel Fever

running after the retreating angels to bring them down.

Willow’s angel was battling another female, straining to reach its halo. A burst of shattered brilliance as she succeeded. The human Willow gasped. She stumbled and fell, her rifle clattering to the ground, and gaped upwards at where the angel had been.

The last remaining angel was watching her with a sudden frown. Seb’s angel lunged at him. Their wings clashed; Seb’s angel lifted his switchblade – and then stopped, stunned.

The energy he was touching felt almost like his own.

The angel hovered as they gaped at each other. On the ground, Seb froze in recognition. He had no memories of the angel who was his father…yet had no doubt that this was him.

Willow got up, looking shaken; Seb had the fleeting sense that it was from more than just the attack. “Seb, what—” She broke off as she realized.

The angel shifted to his human form. Like Seb, he wore jeans and a long-sleeved T-shirt. Still aiming his rifle, Seb stared. He’d always thought he’d gotten his high cheekbones from his mother, but he saw now they could as easily have come from his father. The angel’s shapely mouth was also Seb’s – the strong angle of his jaw. Only hair and eyes were different: both dark brown.

“I…didn’t know there was another of you,” the angel said in a strangled voice.

And just as Willow’s father had taken on the English accent of one of his past victims, Seb could now hear his mother’s Sonoran tones. He swallowed hard, trying not to shake.

The angel took a hesitant step forward. “Can…can I ask your name?”

He wasn’t sure why he answered. “Seb,” he bit out. “Sebastian.”

“I’m Zaran.” The angel shook his head, gazing at Seb. “I didn’t know. All these years…” He trailed off. “Your mother was very beautiful,” he added. “I started to really care about her. I tried to leave her alone…”

A sound came like the rushing of a wind tunnel: angels approaching, more than they could ever hold off. Seb felt Willow’s urgency as she tugged at him. “Seb! We have to hurry!”

Zaran glanced over his shoulder. A sudden resolve appeared on his face; he changed back to his angel form. “Go – leave,” he ordered them both. “I’ll say no one’s down this way.” He soared off down the corridor.

Seb’s hands felt hot on the rifle. All the times he’d thought about what he’d do to his father if he ever met the cabron, and he’d just stood there? Told him his name?

“Seb!” Willow was pulling with both hands now. “Come on! Do you want to die?”

Still cursing himself, Seb turned, and he and Willow ran, faster than ever. Seconds later they skidded into the garage. No sign of Kara and the others; two of the biggest trucks were gone.

“You need to drive,” Seb said shortly. Meghan had given him a few driving lessons, but he didn’t trust himself right now. He punched the elevator button as Willow dived into one of the remaining trucks.

When they reached ground level, both door and gate stood gaping open. Outside, it was snowing. Willow hurtled them onto the dirt road. The snow fell in big flakes that whirled towards the windshield; twisting in his seat, Seb was relieved to see it covering their tracks. The truck’s clock read 9:22. The simulation had started at nine.

All those people – almost the entire team. Seb clenched his jaw, refusing to drown in what he was feeling. Then apprehension flickered; he could sense that the angels had finished searching the base.

“Hurry – we have to hide,” he said.

Willow’s cheeks were white. “I know – I feel it too.” She lurched them off-road and steered the truck behind a large boulder. Angling them quickly into the shadows at its base, she killed the engine. In seconds, snow coated the windshield with tiny kissing noises, hiding them.

With no warning, the low roar of an explosion came, rumbling through the ground and vibrating right up through them. The car keys jingled. Willow gave a small cry, pressing her hand against her mouth; Seb swore impotently in Spanish.

The gas storage tanks under the pumps. They’d torched them. In a psychic flash, he could actually see it: the head angel changing to his human form and smirking at the others.

Watch this – the perfect finishing touch. A lit match – a shift back to his angel self before the flame had even hit the fuel. Hemmed in by a hundred tons of stone, the explosion would have surged through the base like fiery lava, scorching everything in its path.

Dully, Seb realized that the angels had erupted up out of the ground and were soaring away through the sky now, heading east. Including his father. By the time Seb could no longer sense them, the truck’s interior had grown shadowy, its windshield covered with blue-white snow.

After a long pause, Willow cleared her throat. “Maybe…maybe we should try heading north,” she said in a tiny voice. “If we’re lucky, Kara managed to get into the office and grab the coordinates for the Idaho base.”

Seb nodded. He felt numb, frozen. “Yes. Good idea.”

As it turned out, the others weren’t far ahead – they’d seen the angels and also pulled off-road to hide. Willow caught up and sent her angel cruising over the lead truck to signal it was them.

There was a tense moment when Seb wondered whether Kara was going to gun the accelerator – what had just happened probably hadn’t lessened her dislike of half-angels much. Then she waved a slim brown arm out the window.

The three trucks convoyed north. He and Willow had lapsed back into silence, keeping their auras distinctly separate, their thoughts just as distant. Even so, Seb was aware that Willow had locked away her anguish for now and was thinking fretfully about Pawntucket, her hometown.

He almost asked about it, then bit back the words. Willow had made it clear that she wanted nothing to do with him, not even his friendship. There were times now when Seb felt the same about her – there was a limit to how much hurt he could take from one person. Even one he was in love with.

In the truck ahead, he could just make out a rich pile of auburn hair. Meghan. Seb’s fist tightened on his thigh. Oh god, what must she be feeling, having witnessed that slaughter? With an effort, he resisted sending his angel out to check on her – she wouldn’t thank him for it.

The snow dwindled until it was only a dusting on the desert floor. Sixty miles outside the Reno ruins, they reached Fallon – more of a ghost town now than a dark town. Willow followed the others to an abandoned shopping mall. The main entrance had been shattered; Kara drove her truck right inside, and they all parked in the food court.

“What happened?” demanded Kara as everyone got out. “Are you two the only…?”

“Yes,” said Seb; his voice came out harshly. He explained what had happened, aware that he’d purposefully spoken before Willow, to spare her the pain. He sensed the group’s mood dampening further, their auras becoming more shrunken. Meghan stood hugging herself, a rifle hanging over one shoulder.

When he finished, Kara had gone almost grey, though her expression hadn’t changed.

“Well, at least you and Willow made it,” she said finally – and to give her credit, she sounded as if she meant it.

She turned to the others. “Okay, we’ve been here before, and the place has been pretty picked over, but you can still find some things. Go in twos and threes, keep scanning, and take whatever you need. When it starts getting dark, come back to the trucks. We’ll spend the night here, then keep heading up to the Idaho base in the morning.”

Surreal was an English word Seb had learned only recently. The rest of that day fitted the description. While images of slaughter screamed through his head, he went from store to store, searching. Two girls from one of his classes went with him, sticking close, and he talked to them automatically, somehow managing to smile and be comforting. Yes, what a hero.

He found a sweater in his size. The only jacket to be had was of Italian leather, dyed forest green – so fine and thin it was nearly worthless, despite its price tag.

“You look like a model,” said one of the girls when he tried it on, her strained giggle striving for normalcy. Seb had never cared much about his looks; now he almost hated them.

As they started back towards the food court, he stopped short – Meghan was coming out of a nearby store with another girl. Their eyes met. Seb stood motionless.

“Seb?” said one of the girls he was with.