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Only seconds had passed. Seven of them were gone now. The guns’ muffled thuds kept on. Awash with numb despair, Raziel slid down the wall to the floor, watching the shards of radiance floating all around him. What had he done? He could sense the other angels in the building, still in their divine forms – dazed and in pain, some of them dying already from the shock.
Fight this! he screamed at himself. It’s a delusion, a momentary weakness. Once the Twelve are gone, I’ll have exactly what I’ve always wanted!
He gritted his teeth, focusing on that – only on that. Somehow he managed to wrest his mind back, though his body was still held captive. Overhead, the remaining five First Formed angels rallied as one and flew at their assailants. And as they reached out psychically towards the AKs, Raziel knew with a dark twist of joy that their power was already greatly depleted – because the bonds on him had just weakened.
Alex pounded down the corridor, with Willow and Seb right behind him. Up ahead was the soaring room where the reception was taking place. Music from a string quartet floated through the air, competing with the noisy buzz of the guests’ conversation. Alex glimpsed a few angels in there too, feeding but weirdly motionless; their victims stood gazing with adoring awe.
The AKs were nowhere in sight – their audience with the Council must have already started. He drew his gun as they reached the meeting room; and flung the door open.
Five angels, brighter than any he’d ever seen, were in combat with his team – blurs of burning white light that dove, snarling, at the human attackers. Only four AKs were shooting. Alex stopped in his tracks, blood chilling as he saw that Trish’s face was damp with tears; she was pulling frantically at Wesley’s arm as he struggled with her. “Don’t shoot!” she sobbed. “We can’t do this; we can’t hurt the angels!”
Oh god, no. Trish.
Kara and the others looked dazed but were still battling. Somehow Alex shoved aside his feelings – but having drawn his gun, he saw suddenly there was nothing to fire on, unless he was going to start shooting at his team. He wouldn’t, not even to save the world.
With every instinct screaming to aim his gun at the angels, he instead hurled himself at Kara and wrested the pistol from her hands. “Stop the attack!” he yelled. “Everyone, stop firing now!”
“No!” Kara’s face contorted with desperate fury as she fought him. Meanwhile Willow and Seb’s angels had appeared and were darting around the room – blocking shots from the AKs at the same time they were protecting the team from the Council. Alex saw Willow’s angel swoop between a Council angel and Liz, spreading her wings over Liz for a second time.
Across the room, another Council angel vanished in a spray of light; Alex couldn’t tell who’d gotten it. The human Willow stood pressed against the wall beside Seb; she’d drawn her gun but obviously realized, like him, that there was nothing she could do. Wesley was still trying to fend off the crying Trish. As Wes shot again, Seb’s angel flinched in the air; the human Seb staggered.
Fleetingly, Alex noticed a woman with pale blonde hair struggle to her feet. She surveyed the room with a small, satisfied smile and slipped out; then one of Kara’s punches almost connected and he forgot about the blonde woman. He got Kara’s arms pinned behind her. She was gasping, almost crying. “Alex, she’s got you under a spell! Don’t do this!”
He ignored her. “Stop the attack!” he shouted again. “This is what Raziel wants, it could destroy our world!”
Most of the team were panicked now; no one even seemed to have heard him. Another Council angel dove straight at Sam, who froze wide-eyed – then shook himself with a roar as he aimed and shot. Willow’s angel darted in front; the bullet went through her as the Council member twisted away.
Alex heard the human Willow gasp in pain and had to force himself not to go running to see if she was all right. Instead, he shoved Kara hard to one side and flung himself at Sam as the Texan fired again. They crashed to the carpeted floor. Sam squirmed out from under Alex and kept firing; another Council member, a male, went down in a spray of radiance.
Only three angels remained. They grew brighter, glowing with a painful light that throbbed at the air. Brendan was running back and forth as he dodged Willow’s angel; in a blur, Alex saw Willow herself sitting on the floor with her eyes closed. Seb had his switchblade out, but hardly looked capable of using it. Another bullet hit his angel and he stumbled, catching himself against the wall.
“Stop! We can’t do this!” Trish was pulling frantically on Wesley’s injured arm. Alex saw him cry out and clutch at it, dropping his gun.
“Wes, look out!” he shouted. But a Council angel had already taken the chance to fly right at him; Wesley froze as he stared into its eyes. The next moment he was theirs.
“No – we can’t hurt the angels – what are we doing?” he gasped. He lunged at Brendan, sending them both sprawling. “Stop! Don’t hurt them!”
Sam took aim at another angel; Alex threw himself at his arm and his shot went wild. Suddenly Alex noticed the man in the dark suit who sat slumped against the far wall. Oh Christ, it couldn’t be. Raziel.
Willow’s father shook his head briefly, as if shackles were falling from him. Gazing at the scene, his handsome jaw hardened. Wesley’s dropped gun lay nearby on the carpet and he reached for it, fingers closing around the weapon.
Still on top of the struggling Sam, Alex aimed his own gun and started firing, even though he knew it would do no good; angels couldn’t be killed in their human forms. Raziel gave a hiss, recoiling as the bullets rained into him – but still he lifted the gun, aiming at a Council member who was darting at Liz.
Sam saw him too. Abruptly, the fight went out of him; his startled eyes met Alex’s. “Stop!” he bellowed. “You guys, stop! He’s right!”
It all happened in seconds: Brendan shoved Wesley off and fired at the same time as Raziel; the Council member went down in a fountain of light. Another angel swooped at Brendan, tearing at his life energy; he staggered with a cry and went down, clutching his leg. At the same time, Kara had grabbed a fallen gun and was struggling with the hysterical Trish – she battled away Trish’s flailing hands and nailed the angel who’d given Wesley angel burn, sending it flying into fragments.
Then Kara saw Raziel. Her eyes went wide; she gave Alex a startled look. Flying unsteadily, Willow and Seb’s angels both started towards Willow’s father – who stood aiming the pistol at the last of the Twelve.
No! The hyper-awareness came back to Alex. In slow motion, he and Sam scrambled to their feet, lunging across the room in unison; dimly, he was aware of Wesley still on the floor, and Trish grappling with Kara again. A muscle in Raziel’s jaw tightened as he took aim. His wounds were bleeding slightly, staining his expensive-looking suit.
Alex had the blurred impression that the last Council angel was trying to do something – wield some kind of power over Raziel. Though she was now burning so brightly that he could barely look at her, whatever it was wasn’t successful. Raziel’s lip lifted in a sneer.
“My world, my rules, Isda,” he said softly.
Willow’s angel was a little ahead of Seb’s; she darted in front of the final Council member just as Raziel shot. In the same moment, Alex and Sam tackled him, bringing him down with a crash. It was too late. Alex looked over his arm and saw that the bullet had passed through Willow’s angel and hit its mark: the final Council member was shuddering in the air, her scorching wings flapping helplessly. Willow’s angel was now nowhere in sight.
Angel Fire Page 113