He pulled the trigger and I closed my eyes. Well, shit. I had no cover or time to get behind it and I was going to die. The rifle fired and something poked me in the temple, like my mother’s finger when I was being a brat. I didn’t know how being shot should have felt, but I figured that it would hurt a lot more than that. Maybe he had missed, or changed targets to Leo, or… Or Uriel really could protect me from bullets. I cracked first one eye and then the other to find myself surrounded by a nimbus of bright white light.
Leo was still on the ground next to the door, wrestling with the two black-clad goons. The one that he had shot sat slumped against the wall outside, holding his hands over his stomach. His night-vision goggles had either fallen off or been removed, and he stared up at me with wide blue eyes.
The man in the parking lot switched his rifle to full auto and another drumroll of gunfire boomed in my ears. I flinched, but the light flared around me and all I felt was a flurry of hard jabs. Bullets rained down around my feet, flattened into little lead pancakes by Uriel’s protective aura.
“Jaz, what the fuck–?” Leo shouted.
He had turned his head to look at me and took a gloved fist to the jaw for it. I kicked the soldier on top of Leo – the woman who had tried to bash his head in with her collapsible baton – and she flew out through the motel parking lot. She smashed into the nearest panel van hard enough to leave a dent in the metal door, but groaned and didn’t stand up again.
This is taking too long, Uriel told me. Surrender your form, vessel, and I will end this!
Hey, give me a break, I said. This is my first angelic brawl, okay?
I grabbed Leo by his leather jacket and heaved him upright. He spat out a few more Spanish swear words and held his jaw, but the man with the rifle was drawing a bead on us again. I threw Leo back into the room like he weighed nothing, sending the biker bouncing across the one intact bed.
Where the hell was everyone? The motel was a lot more booked up than the Arrow Lodge had been. So why wasn’t the clerk at the front desk calling the police? Unless someone had instructed him not to…
“Grab the saddlebags,” I told Leo. My voice came out mixed with Uriel’s and rang like struck crystal. “We have to get away from here!”
“Jaz, watch out!” Leo shouted.
The guy who had punched Leo was rolling to his feet. He didn’t bother with the baton like his companion had – he went straight for a combat knife the length of my forearm. He ripped it from a sheath on his belt and charged at me, bringing the blade up in a controlled slash at my stomach.
I gasped and swatted desperately at the knife, really wishing my parents had been Special Forces soldiers instead of motorcycle mechanics. The blade hit my arm hard enough to snap the tempered metal against my luminous angelic armor. I threw a clumsy punch that only clipped his shoulder, but still sent the man sprawling with a sharp sound that I was pretty sure was breaking bones.
The man in the parking lot ejected the magazine out of his gun and grabbed another one from his belt. I picked up the black baton that had fallen to the ground and chucked it. The guy with the rifle shouted and ducked as the baton left a foot-deep dent in the side of his van, but he still slammed the fresh ammunition into his weapon with what I assumed was well-practiced ease.
“Shit,” I said in that church-bell voice.
I leapt. I just meant to jump over the man with the broken arm, but I shot out like a glowing arrow instead, and landed in the parking lot hard enough to leave footprints in the asphalt. The last para-military goon brought up his rifle, but I slapped it from his hands and the gun went skidding across the ground. A single shove threw him back into the van and his head hit the dented metal side. He slumped at my feet – still breathing – and I had to hope that I hadn’t done too much brain damage.
“Jaz?” Leo asked.
He ran outside with the leather saddlebags draped over his broad shoulders and my shoes in his hand. Leo staggered to a stop, staring around the scene.
“I’m okay,” I said. “Let’s get the hell out of here!”
I looked down at my arms and the glow faded. Leo tossed my shoes and I caught them almost gracefully, then hopped not at all gracefully across the parking lot as I pulled them on.
The Packmaster started itself as Leo threw his bags over the tail end. I jumped onto the back and grabbed ahold of Leo when the bike lurched violently, trying to throw me off.
“Not now!” Leo shouted, wrenching the throttle. “We have to get out of here!”
The motorcycle revved furiously and we barely got our feet off the ground in time before it leapt forward. Leo grunted and leaned the Packmaster into a sharp turn toward the street.
Headlights raced at us from the road, blindingly bright like demonic eyes, and Leo shouted. He yanked the handlebars of his motorcycle and we swerved around another oversized black van, passing by so close that I could have touched it.
The van roared past us, followed by two more identical ones. The last was decked out with antennae and a big dish on top like a news van. None of them had any kind of branding or insignia. I turned on the Packmaster’s pillion to read the license plates, but the vans screeched to a stop. The second one crunched into the rear bumper of the first, but then all three began turning as quickly as vehicles that size were physically capable of.
“They’re trying to chase us!” I shouted.
“Not a chance,” Leo growled.
He gunned the engine and the streetlights became glowing streaks as Leo’s demonic motorcycle shot through the night. I gasped and held onto Leo. Gabriel hadn’t been able to overtake the Packmaster. If an archangel couldn’t keep up with us, neither could whoever these people were.
I hoped.
We raced off into the night again. I had spent more time on a motorcycle in the last three days than my whole life combined. My butt hurt like hell, my hand ached – apparently, it wasn’t that healed up – and my eyes felt like they were full of sand. I needed rest and sleep.
We roared down the dark highway through Cibola National Forest. Leo’s whole body was tensed into knots against me and the Packmaster’s back end kept threatening to slide out, forcing him to wrestle for every mile. I held onto him for dear life – if Leo’s demon-bike threw me off at these speeds, I hoped Uriel could protect me or I would get a lot more than some road rash.
Who the hell were those people? I asked the angel.
I wanted to ask Leo if he had any ideas, but I doubted that he would be able to hear me over the wind, even if I screamed right into his ear.
I do not know, the archangel answered.
Don’t shit me, Uriel!
I do not defecate.
You know what I mean, I thought. Don’t lie to me and don’t get me killed!
That is not my intention, Uriel told me. We have waited for billions of your years for the right vessels to arise. I would not kill you now.
Then what was all that back there? I asked. Minions of the horsemen? Some kind of cult or something?
That seems unlikely, as they attempted to destroy Death’s vessel, too, Uriel said. And angels do not lie.
Uriel sounded a little sulky, but I actually believed them. Not just because I really hoped the forces of elemental light and order didn’t lie, but because automatic weapons and unmarked body armor didn’t seem like the angels’ style. I had witnessed Gabriel leveling an entire motel pretty much by accident. Why would a creature like that bother using a gun? Or human agents at all, for that matter?
It had to be well past midnight when the Packmaster finally slowed and Leo turned off the highway. There wasn’t a road and he wove between a few starlit pine trees before easing to a halt. I let go of Leo and the motorcycle bucked, sending me tumbling off into the underbrush.
“Ow!” I said.
“Stop that,” Leo told the bike.
He climbed off and helped me back to my feet. I brushed the pine needles off my butt.
“Why did we stop?” I asked.
/> “I don’t think those guys tonight are naturally drawn to us,” Leo said. “Not like the archangels and horsemen are. Did you see that van with all the gear on top? I’ll bet they were listening to phone calls or something.”
“But why?” I asked. “Who the hell were those people? Why were they shooting at us?”
Leo shook his head. “No idea.”
“Wait, my phone!” I grabbed Leo’s arm. “Did you get it from the motel room?”
“No point,” Leo said with a deep growl. “There were at least three bullet holes through it. I’m sorry, Jaz.”
“Shit!” I cried, then clapped my hands over my mouth and desperately hoped that Leo was correct about the tactical goons not being able to magically track us.
“We can buy a burner down the road,” Leo said.
“A burner?” I asked.
“A cheap disposable cell phone. You don’t register a name and if you buy it with cash, there isn’t even much of a purchase record.”
“Oh,” I said.
Somehow, I didn’t think Leo had just learned that watching television shows.
“So what’s the plan now?” I asked. “Ride to the next city?”
Leo rubbed his eyes. “Right now, we need sleep. We haven’t really rested in the last couple days. We’re never getting to San Diego if I fall asleep and drive us over a cliff.”
“We’ve stayed at two motels and both of them pretty much blew up. No one in their right mind would rent us a room.”
“We can sleep out here,” Leo said.
I looked around at the upthrust shadows of pine trees and a few bushes that were probably green but were transformed into silver-edged black by the moonlight. Most of the forest floor was a thick carpet of pine needles, with a few outcroppings of pale stone. Not a lot of moss or grass that I could see… it was too arid here in the middle of New Mexico.
“It won’t be great rest,” Leo admitted. “But personally, I’m too tired to give a shit.”
“Alright, but let’s get further from the road,” I said.
Leo nodded and walked his bike deeper into the woods until we could no longer see the highway… and then we walked for another fifteen minutes. I doubted that camping was allowed in this part of Cibola National Forest, but I almost welcomed the idea of some ranger finding us. At least they would just fine us. No submachine guns, no angelic superpowers.
Finally, Leo stopped and then toed out the bike’s kickstand. We walked around the motorcycle a few times, complaining about the shiny chrome and wondering if it would reflect any headlights from the highway. We didn’t want to push the Packmaster anymore, though, so Leo repositioned it slightly behind a bush.
“Good enough,” I said. “I hope.”
I slumped against the nearest pine tree and slid down until my butt hit the ground. I was so tired that my whole body ached, blurring the line between fatigue and pain. Leo sat on the non-bush side of his bike.
“Jaz…” he said.
I turned to look at the tall biker. He was sitting up perfectly straight, not relaxing at all. Did he hear something?
“What is it?” I asked.
“Jaz, what happened to you back there? You were glowing,” Leo said. “And pretty much catching bullets. How the hell did you do that?”
“I… asked Uriel for help,” I admitted. “I thought we were going to die and I didn’t see very many other options.”
Leo’s jaw tightened up and I wondered if he was about to argue, to tell me that he had things dealt with. We didn’t need male pride making trouble for us. We were in enough trouble already.
“And Uriel actually helped you?” Leo asked instead.
“Yes,” I said. “They barely even demanded extra control over my body. Uriel calls me vessel, you know.”
Leo smiled briefly at that, but didn’t laugh. “Are they any… stronger now? I mean, is Uriel getting any closer to being able to take over?”
“No idea,” I said. Uriel?
Yes, the angel answered. When you accept my power, I make progress in seizing this vessel.
I sighed. “Yeah. Uriel says borrowing their power is bad and I shouldn’t do it much if I want to keep control of my body.”
That is not what I told you.
I ignored the angel. Leo rubbed his fingers along the rough stubble of his cheek.
“Do you know who those people were?” I asked him. “Like… like a rival biker gang or something?”
“No,” Leo said. “I thought maybe it was the cops. We… I did rob a bank, after all. But that wasn’t a SWAT team.”
“Are you sure?” I asked. “I didn’t see a name, but they had the right kind of gear.”
“I know the difference,” Leo said.
I gulped. Yeah, I bet he did.
“But they didn’t seem very rattled when you whipped out the angelic powers, though,” Leo went on with a frown.
I remembered the woman who had gasped at me in French, the feeling that she recognized what she was looking at. Those people weren’t happy when I used Uriel’s power, but they almost seemed to be expecting it. Luckily, that expectation didn’t extend to packing halo-piercing bullets.
“You’re right,” I said. “They clearly know more about what’s going on than we do.”
Was there any connection there to Leo’s Uncle Carlos? Uriel had insisted that we puny mortals didn’t understand shit about their glorious battle against the chaotic forces of darkness–
You don’t, Uriel said.
–but obviously, somebody did. I couldn’t imagine beloved Uncle Carlos sending a team armed to the teeth after Leo, but there was sure as hell something weird happening here.
Okay, something else weird.
“You know, that was badass,” Leo said.
“Huh?” I asked. “What was?”
“How you kicked those bastards’ asses. It takes some serious mettle to run toward a gun. And then to throw the guy holding it through a van.”
I laughed. The sound was sudden and strange in the dark, empty forest. At least, I hoped it was empty. There wasn’t really anything funny about my situation right now, but I couldn’t help it – laughing felt good. I laughed until I ran out of breath, then wiped a few hysterical tears from my eyes.
“Thanks,” I said at last. “That actually means a lot coming from a professional badass like you.”
Leo grinned and gave a short laugh of his own, then leveled a much more serious look at me.
“Did Uriel fight you at all?” Leo asked. “When it was all over and they had to let you go?”
I shook my head. “No. Just enough power to escape and then done. That was our deal.”
I honor my word, Uriel said. We are righteous. But I cannot win against the darkness unless you surrender control.
Can we stop fighting about this for the night? I asked.
Uriel didn’t agree, but they didn’t say anything else. I called that a victory and settled against the tree, trying to find a comfortable position.
Yeah, right… There were pine needles poking my ass, rough bark against my back, and it was damnably cold. I wrapped my arms around myself and looked over at Leo, wondering if he was managing any better. But the biker hadn’t moved. Instead, he was staring across at me.
“Jaz, I felt something back there,” Leo said. “When you threw me into that motel room.”
My heart suddenly leapt up into my throat. “What… what did you feel?”
“Death.”
I went cold all over and Leo stared down at his hands. They were clenched into fists against his thighs.
“I felt that… thing… inside me,” Leo said. “Death is waking up. How much time do we have left until I’m hearing voices, too? Until I’m just like the monster that killed my friends?”
Not long, Uriel answered.
“Hey, stop that,” I told both of them.
Leo looked up and Uriel fell silent. I sighed and crawled across the forest floor to sit next to Leo, careful not to touch
the Packmaster.
“You can fight this,” I said. “I’m kind of pulling it off and I’m nowhere near the hardcase you are. Death isn’t talking to you yet, is it?”
Leo shook his head and I leaned over to bump my shoulder lightly against his ribs.
“Then you still have time to get to San Diego,” I told him. “To reach your uncle.”
That finally did the trick. Leo let out an explosive breath and nodded. He scrubbed at his eyes with the heels of his hands and then smiled at me.
“Thanks, Jaz,” Leo said.
“Hey, you rescued me from Crayhill,” I told him. “I owe you one. Ten thousand, actually.”
Leo blinked. “What?”
“Ten thousand dollars,” I said. “That’s how much you paid me up front to fix your bike.”
“And twenty grand more when we get to San Diego. Fuck, I completely forgot.”
“That’s okay. It doesn’t seem very important anymore, does it?” I asked.
“Not really,” Leo agreed. “I’m not sure there’s any amount of money that could fix this shit.”
I nodded and wrapped my arms around myself, shivering. New Mexico seemed warm enough during the day, but now it was dark and cold. I rubbed my arms, trying to create a little heat, and felt goosebumps across my skin. Leo sat forward from the Packmaster and took off his jacket.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
Leo draped his jacket over my shoulders. It was huge on me, like a big leather blanket. One that smelled like Leo… and was branded with the Knights of Hell flaming helm and the rattlesnake. But you know what they say about beggars and choosers. I wound the jacket tight around me.
Leo searched through the Packmaster’s overstuffed saddlebags until he found a long-sleeved shirt and pulled it on over his head, then settled down next to me again.
“Thanks,” I said.
I eyed the tree I had been leaning against. It was uncomfortable as hell, but maybe the addition of the leather jacket would help cushion me against the rough bark. I had never missed my tiny bed back home so much.
“Come here, Jaz,” Leo said.
He leaned against his motorcycle and lifted one arm. I hesitated, but accepted the invitation and let Leo pull me close. I laid my cheek against his chest and told myself firmly that we were just conserving heat. We didn’t have any blankets and Leo had given me his jacket. The least I could do was share some of the warmth.
400 Horsepower of the Apocalypse Page 12