Angel Fever

Admiring the motion of his muscles, I smiled and crouched down, stretching a hand out to help…and then terror slammed into me like a fist of ice.

I gasped and rocked backwards, stunned by its intensity. It was the same fear I’d felt that afternoon, times about a thousand. My stomach knotted, adrenalin surging through me.

Something was going to happen soon. Oh god, something terrible was going to happen—

Alex was beside me, clutching my shoulders. “What’s wrong? What is it?”

“Something…I don’t…something bad…” My mouth felt thick and clumsy.

His fingers tightened. “Willow, come on, talk to me!”

The primal fear released its grip a fraction, leaving dread as thick as swamp water. “Something’s going to happen! ”I burst out. “We’ve got to go – we’ve got to stop it!”

I turned and ran, stumbling over the uneven rock and then skidding down the other side. I was pounding towards the base when Alex caught up, darting in front of me and grabbing my arms again. “Willow, wait! What’s going on?”

“I don’t know!” I cried. “But we’ve got to go – we’ve got to!”

“Go where?”

I realized I had no idea. I looked around wildly, as if the answer might be lying somewhere on the desert ground. There was nothing.

I reached quickly inside myself; I could sense that my angel was just as worried as I was. Shifting my consciousness to hers, I lifted out of my human body and soared up into the stars.

The fear hit me again, full force. Fighting against panic, I glided, reaching out with everything I had.

“Are you getting anything?” Alex asked. In my human form, I was aware of his hands, warm on my arms. He stood peering up at my angel’s bright form.

No, I started to say…but instead my voice came out in a ragged whisper: “The east.”

Because all at once I could sense it: something dark was waiting to be unleashed on the eastern horizon. In the air my wings went cold as I realized the angels were waiting too – they were all gathering. Getting ready.

“How far away; can you tell?” Alex said urgently.

I was shivering. “I don’t know!” Feeling suddenly frightened and too exposed, my angel returned to me in a rush. “But, Alex, we’ve got to try and stop it! There’s some kind of powerful force – the angels are all waiting for something—”

His face hardened. “Come on.” Grabbing my hand, we took off at a run back to the gate. A wide-eyed Matt was already there, swinging it open for us.

“I saw you on the cameras. What’s going on?”

“Willow’s seen something,” Alex said shortly.

Matt paled; the whole base knew what “seen something” meant. We rushed back into the building, Matt jogging along beside us. “You want me to sound the alarm?”

Alex shook his head. “No, not yet.” As we stepped into the elevator, he half turned, throwing the words over his shoulder: “Wake up Sam, Liz and Seb; tell them I need to give them a quick briefing.”

As the elevator whirred downwards, I tried to convince myself that I’d overreacted – that whatever was going to happen wasn’t that bad. Any comfort from this vanished once we’d left the elevator behind and reached the hub of the base. Seb was running towards us from one of the dorm corridors wearing only a pair of jeans, his bare feet slapping at the floor…and somehow I knew it wasn’t because of Matt’s alarm.

Seb’s eyes were fixed on mine as he reached us. I got a jolt of tension from him – and, despite my panic, realized how long it had been since we’d shared our thoughts so fully.

“Willow!” he gasped. “Something is happening—”

I licked dry lips. “I know. I feel it too.”

Alex grabbed his arm. “What did you get?”

Looking frustrated, Seb shoved his hands through his curls. “I’m not sure, but it woke me up. There is something coming, something big—”

“Something coming?” Alex repeated sharply.

Prickles ran over my scalp. This was different from what I’d gotten, and not in a good way.

Liz and Sam appeared, looking rumpled and jerked awake. “What’s goin’ on?” demanded Sam. He had on striped pyjama bottoms and a white T-shirt. Liz was fumbling with the tie to her bathrobe.

Alex quickly explained. “Come on, let’s get into the war room.” He glanced at Seb and me. “I want to get you both near a map, see what you can pick up.”

Urgency was pounding at me. “Alex, we don’t have much time—”

“Ten minutes of planning might save us time,” he said shortly.

Seb glanced at me; I could tell he was feeling the same thing I was. Though I knew Alex was right, my every instinct was screaming, Run, move, hurry!

“Yes, okay,” Seb said for us both.

He stayed beside me as we all headed quickly down the corridor. Despite the fear, on some level it just felt good to be in tune with him again – though I realized that I was a shade too aware of his bare chest, with its dusting of golden-brown hair. Alex’s chest was almost completely hairless. I shoved the thought away impatiently. Why was I comparing them?

“So, wait. Is all we’ve got to go on a psychic feeling?” asked Liz once we were in what we called the war room – a gleaming conference space with a U-shaped table and maps on the wall.

“It’s a pretty strong psychic feeling,” I told her wryly.

Sam shrugged. “Well, I know y’all are like the Psychic Twins, but if that’s all we’ve got, then maybe—”

“Our entire plan is based on psychic information, remember?” said Alex. He turned on the light over the largest map. The United States burst into brightness. Tiny red flags peppered its surface, showing the locations of all known Edens.

“Okay, can you get anything more specific?” Alex asked, looking back at Seb and me.

Conscious of everyone watching, I went over to the map, Seb following close behind. It was so large that I couldn’t have touched Canada without craning on my tiptoes. Shutting my eyes, I took a deep grounding breath and focused, trying to pinpoint the fear.

For a moment nothing happened – and then my hand lifted of its own accord and started moving across the map, skimming over the tops of stickpin flags as if I was stroking the heads of a field of flowers. I walked with it, letting it guide me, aware of Seb doing the same.

Slowly, my hand came to a stop. My index finger pointed. I opened my eyes to see Seb’s finger a millimetre from my own – so close I could feel its warmth.

Both our fingers were pointing to Denver, Colorado.

I stared at the map as memories came crashing over me: the Church of Angels cathedral in Denver, with its broad white dome and stained-glass windows. Myself trying to stop the Second Wave and failing; thousands of people cheering the flood of incoming angels as I almost died in that place.

Seb hadn’t been in Denver that day, but he knew what had happened. His expression tensed as he glanced at me. “Dios mio,” he murmured.

“Oh, shit – Denver?” Sam exclaimed behind us. “Is there another Wave coming?”

Liz’s voice quavered. “But…no, wait, that doesn’t matter, does it? I mean, even if there is, if we kill a few, we still kill them all. So we can just ignore this, right?”

“No!” I cried. I sank into one of the chairs, clutching my head. “We can’t ignore it. Alex, we’ve got to go there. We have to.”

He sat beside me and gripped my hand. “Who’s ‘we’?”

“You and me.” The words came instantly, chilling me even though I knew, instinctively, that they were right.

Seb’s jaw tightened; before he could protest, Sam was talking again.

“What? Oh, man, no way; that’s completely insane. Denver’s an Eden now!