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We drove in silence for a while. Finally, twisting in his seat to peer over his shoulder, Alex reached behind him and pulled out a bottle of water from a cardboard case. He unscrewed the top and took a deep, thirsty swig. As he offered the bottle to me, I started to reach for it — but something caught the corner of my eye, and I turned to look behind us.
In the distance, five angels were heading toward us, flying in a starburst formation.
“Alex,” I said in a low voice.
He knew immediately. “How many?” he asked, glancing sharply at me.
“Five. ” I couldn’t take my eyes off them. Even as I watched, they were drawing closer. They shone against the blue sky with a bright, burning white light, their celestial wings stroking the air. Even knowing what they were, what they did to people . . . I’d still never seen anything so heart-achingly beautiful in my life.
I cried out as the truck jolted. There was a squeal of brakes as Alex pulled off the road, bringing the 4x4 to a sudden sideways stop. “What are you doing?” I cried.
“We can’t outrun them,” he said. “And I can’t fight them from a moving truck. ” He grabbed Cully’s rifle from the back; checked it for ammunition. As he jumped out of the truck and ran around to my side, I was already climbing down. Behind us, the angels were growing larger and larger in the sky.
Pressing against the side of the truck, Alex sank to his heels. He took a deep breath, closing his eyes for a moment as he centered himself. I felt his energy shifting, changing. Opening his eyes again, he took up a position behind the hood, sighting along the rifle’s barrel.
“Yep, five of them, all right,” he murmured. I could tell that he’d handled a rifle since he was a child; he held it as though it were a part of him.
Without taking his eyes off the approaching angels, Alex pressed the car keys into my hand, squeezing it briefly. “So, Willow, just — keep down, OK? With any luck, your angel will make an appearance again and protect you. ”
I stared at him. “But what about you?”
He shook his head impatiently. “Don’t worry about me. If anything happens, take the truck and get away from here. ”
My heart started thudding. “I thought you said we can’t outrun them,” I said faintly. The angels were very close now, only a couple of hundred yards away.
“I can’t; they’d catch up with me and tear my life energy away. You might have a chance, though, if your angel’s there. ” Alex was crouched over the rifle, his body poised. He shot me a glance, and I saw the worry in his eyes, the concern for me. “I’m serious, Willow. If it’s looking bad, just get away from here. ”
I’m not leaving you, I thought. There is no way that I’m leaving you. I gripped the keys hard; they dug into my palm.
I started as Alex shot, the echo booming across the desert like thunder. In the air, one of the angels vanished into falling petals of light. I huddled tightly against the truck. They were almost near enough now to see their faces; I could hear screams of rage, see the flurry of shining wings. Alex shot again and missed as one of the angels darted to the side; tracking it, he got it as it moved. It burst into pieces, confetti on fire with the sun.
Suddenly the remaining three angels were on us, their wings filling the sky. Alex started to fire again, and then ducked as one of them surged forward and swooped at him, trying to cuff him with its wing; the others were just behind. Fear pummeled me as I realized that Alex could never fight this many up close.
They were going to kill him.
All at once there was a shifting, a stirring. I felt myself growing taller, and then I was in the air, hovering over my human body as it crouched on the dry, scrubby ground below. I had an angel’s body, pure white, brilliant in the sun. There was no fear, only determination. They were not going to kill me, and they were not going to kill Alex.
The two other angels attacked in a frenzy, going for my vulnerable human aura below. One dove straight for it, swiping with its wing. The desert turned on its side and rose up to meet me as I whipped smoothly in front of the angel, our wings glinting like sunlit mirrors. The blow deflected harmlessly; the angel gave a hiss of frustration. “Get away, half-human thing. ”
I didn’t answer; I was already speeding away to block the other one, cutting sharply in the air and back again, wings flashing, faster than light.
Only seconds had passed. Alex fired again; the angel that had been on him exploded into fragments of light. Screeching in fury, the remaining two dove at him in a spiraling chaos of wings and radiance. I saw his jaw tense as he realized there was no way he could get them both; one of them was going to kill him.
The low mountains on the horizon shifted sideways, straightening again as I darted above him, spreading my wings.
Alex’s eyes widened as he saw me; I saw him lower his rifle slightly, staring upward. The two angels banked in opposite directions; the world turned this way and that as I swooped through the air above him, blocking them, keeping him safe with my wings. With a howl of anger, one of the angels veered back toward my human figure. Alex started to shoot; the other one, momentarily getting away from me, dove right at him. He looked up, startled, then hit the ground and rolled as its wings strained for him. It was on him; it was going to get him.
I didn’t hesitate. I dove in, forcing the angel back with my wings. I don’t know how I knew how to fight, but I did, and the angel screeched in fury, flapping and snarling at me. Dimly, I was aware that my human form was vulnerable, that the other angel was almost on it. I didn’t care. This angel was not going to hurt Alex.
A shot sounded as Alex fired. Light erupted around us like fireworks as the angel attacking my human form vanished.
The final angel howled in rage. It beat at me with its wings, trying to push me aside; then suddenly twisted backward, spiraling toward Alex, wings shrieking through the air. The desert turned as I dove to protect him again, but he rolled and shot from the ground — and the fifth angel’s halo buckled and trembled. A second later it was gone.
The sudden stillness was like a clear mountain pool. I hovered, gently moving my wings as shock and relief coursed through me. We were still alive. Somehow we were both all right. I saw Alex stagger to his feet and look up at me, his expression dazed — and then I drifted downward, merging with my human body on the ground.
I was me again.
Alex came over to me; dropped to his knees. He was breathing hard, his torso streaked with grime and sweat. We stared at each other. I’d been trying so hard to not really think about it, but now I couldn’t ignore it anymore. I started shaking as the reality of my otherness roared through me. This hadn’t been a brief flash or something that might have been a dream — it was utterly, achingly real.
I wasn’t completely human.
The words tore out of me. “Oh, God, I don’t want this. I don’t want it —” All at once I was clutching my forehead, crying; great sobs racked helplessly through me, shaking me like a terrier shakes a rat.
“Willow! Willow, don’t — please don’t —” Then Alex’s arms were wrapped tightly around me; he was holding me, rocking me. I slumped against his chest, crying as if I would never stop. “It’s OK,” he whispered, his voice ragged. He cradled me to him, dropped his head onto mine so that I felt his lips moving in my hair. “It’s OK. ”
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