by Elana Brooks
Rosalia clenched her fists. “He’s a member of the Covenant of the Rainbow, of the Eight. He spoke at the press conference. You must have seen it.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Bunch of con artists.”
Rosalia’s heart sank. “They’re not, I swear. We’re under attack by a hostile human psychic who’s allied with the Seraphim. He’s—” She broke off to drag away an IV bag that was attempting to wrap its tubing around Steve’s neck. “—using telekinesis. He’s trying to kill Steve. I’ll do what I can to hold him off. Please, you’ve got to help him.”
“That’s what we’re trying to do, ma’am. Just stay out of our way and let us work.” The paramedic scowled suspiciously at Rosalia and turned back to Steve, barking orders at the rest of the team. They spit complicated medical jargon back and forth. Rosalia didn’t understand most of it, but their minds radiated dedicated focus and sincere concern for their patient’s welfare, so they must not be Angel agents.
She backed up until she hit the wall and stayed there, hands to her mouth, watching. Carlos had momentarily ceased making obvious attacks. Sickly, she wondered what more subtle things he might try. She had Steve’s body well shielded from further telekinetic assaults, but even a slight interference with a piece of medical machinery could doom him, and she might not realize what was happening in time to counter it.
A familiar voice sounded in her mind. Rosalia? What happened?
Adrian! Angel attacked us. Where are you?
Right here, in astral form. He sent an image of himself standing next to her.
Damn it. That means you’re inside their telepathic barrier, too. Unless Carlos dropped it. She tried to reach out with her mind, but met the same impenetrable wall that had been there since Angel had first appeared in Steve’s room. Do you see him?
No. But you’re right, I can’t contact anyone. Adrian’s mental voice was frustrated and anxious. What’s wrong with Steve?
Robert broke a blood vessel in his brain. Rosalia focused on conveying the facts, locking down the terror raging in her gut and heart and the back of her head, where a fierce ache that wasn’t her own throbbed. He and Sarangerel had to retreat back to their bodies, but Carlos is somewhere close by. He keeps trying to finish Steve off, but so far I’ve stopped him.
Why are they—
Rosalia cut him off. We had a vision. Listen, this is important. She poured the entire contents of the vision and their interpretation of what it meant into his mind.
Adrian stayed quiet and absorbed the information. When she finished, he responded with compassion and quiet resolve. You’re right. This has to get to Solomon and the rest of the Eight. What can I do to help?
I think one of us is enough to protect Steve from Carlos, as long as it’s just him. The other should try to get the message through. I’ll stay. You go back to your body. As soon as you’re outside the telepathy barrier, start broadcasting news of our vision to anyone who can hear. The more people who know, the better.
Got it. Will do. He sent a final rush of comfort and encouragement and vanished from her mind.
Rosalia felt more alone than ever. She watched the paramedics maneuver the stretcher beside the bed and work with practiced coordination to lift Steve onto it. They rolled it toward the door. Between their bodies she got a glimpse of him. A plastic tube protruded from his mouth. His whole body was shaking, rattling the frame of the gurney.
She trotted behind the paramedics, craning to keep Steve in her view. “Why is he shaking like that?”
One of them glanced back. “He’s having a seizure. By itself it won’t harm him, but it means his brain is severely compromised. We suspect an intracranial hemorrhage, but we won’t know for sure until we get him to the hospital and do a CT scan.”
“Will they be able to help him?” Rosalia held her breath.
“Surgery may be necessary to stop the bleeding and relieve the pressure inside his skull. Sometimes it’s possible to recover fully from this sort of thing. It depends on where in the brain the bleed occurred and what was damaged.”
That wasn’t really an answer, but Rosalia clung to what little hope the words offered. The elevator doors opened and the paramedics wheeled the stretcher inside. Rosalia started to crowd in with them, but stopped when the woman who seemed to be their leader blocked her and scowled. “Sorry, ma’am. There’s not enough room.”
Rage boiled up, but she bit it back. She wasn’t going to risk interfering with their care of Steve. No telekinetic attacks had threatened for several minutes, so Steve ought to be safe for the ride down. Unless Carlos was just waiting until she and Steve were separated to renew his assault.
The elevator doors slid closed. She raced for the stairwell and clattered downward, keeping her mind wide open for any visions that might come, scanning with all her psychic senses for any stirring of telepathy or telekinesis.
She burst through the door into a ground floor hallway, lost a few precious seconds orienting herself, then charged for the lobby. The ambulance was parked outside the sliding glass doors, but no stretcher was in sight. She must have beaten the elevator down.
I’m sorry. Adrian’s mental voice was both apologetic and angry. I couldn’t make it through. Carlos has a bunch of others with him. They’ve made a ring around the building to keep us in and everyone else out.
Rosalia muttered a string of curses in Spanish and English. No sign of Robert or Sarangerel?
Not yet.
That was one good thing, at least. The rest probably aren’t strong enough to beat both of us together without their help. Neither she nor Adrian were particularly powerful on their own, but they were bonded to two of the strongest psychics in the Covenant.
Maybe not. Do you want to try to break though together?
I can’t. I have to stay with Steve. And there’s nowhere safe to leave my body.
She felt his grim agreement. Others may be on their way. Rabbi Sensei sent me to find you when your call got cut off. When he doesn’t hear from me either, he’ll probably send someone else. Beverly is due back from her raid soon; she’ll insist on coming after me.
She hoped he was right, but she didn’t dare count on it. Until then, let’s—
The elevator doors slid open and the paramedics pushed the stretcher out. Rosalia wasn’t sure, but she thought they seemed even more frantic and rushed than they’d been upstairs. They charged past without a glance, barely pausing for the automatic front doors to open before they shoved the stretcher through and made for the back of the ambulance.
She hurried after and waited to climb aboard as soon as they moved out of her way. But as one rushed around to the driver’s side and another headed for the passenger door, their leader stopped Rosalia from stepping up into the rear compartment. “I’m sorry, ma’am. You can’t ride with us. You’ll have to meet us at the hospital.”
“But I don’t have—” How long would it take her to call a cab and get there? More than long enough for Carlos to realize Steve was undefended and finish what Robert had started. Adrian! Stay with him!
I will. But you’ll have to take the message.
All right. It tore her apart to admit it, but that was even more important than Steve’s life.
She would go to the Covenant’s Los Angeles office. Someone might be on duty overnight, but even if the building was locked and dark, people would start arriving for work soon after sunrise. Once she had hundreds of Covenant members to help her, including guardians trained for combat, Angel would be no problem. The building was less than ten miles away. No buses were running this late—make that this early—but she could go on foot. Undoubtedly that would be safer. Motorized vehicles had too many parts vulnerable to telekinetic interference. And she didn’t want to involve innocent bystanders in this fight if she could possibly help it.
As the ambulance doors slammed and it jerked into gear, she set out. It roared past her, sirens wailing. She ached to burst from her body and fly after it, but that would be as good as suicide. Inst
ead, she strode to the street and turned toward the Covenant office. LA wasn’t a very good city for walking, but she’d lived here all her life and knew her way around. When she reached the far side of the first intersection, she broke into a miles-eating jog. She could easily maintain this pace all the way. If she was willing to exhaust herself, she could get there faster, but she’d better save plenty of strength to deal with the opposition that was sure to come. Her shoes weren’t the best for running, but at least she’d put on comfortable flats when she and Steve had stopped by her hotel room, not heels.
Her throat ached at the memory. That had been only a few hours ago, and yet so much had happened since, it felt as if days or even weeks had passed.
She reached out with her mind, but wasn’t surprised when she encountered the telepathy barrier’s resistance. That meant someone from Angel was nearby. Adrian had said more of them had arrived to reinforce Carlos. She hammered against the block, but it held firm. There must be several of them maintaining it, unless Robert or Sarangerel had returned.
A loose bit of concrete shifted under her foot, knocking her off balance. She used telekinesis to steady herself and kept running. A dead branch rose from the ground and sailed at her head. She wrenched it from the control of whoever was wielding it and hurled it away.
From that point on, a constant barrage of objects flew at her, demanding all her concentration to avoid. After a while she could gauge her enemy’s strength with a surprising degree of precision. A car tire hurtled through the air toward her, but a massive truck tire rolled into her path. A garbage barrel soared all the way across a parking lot, while a dumpster only lurched a few feet. Her increased strength was more than sufficient to deflect the heaviest items, as long as she stayed alert.
In a brief space between attacks, a vision flickered across her awareness. Four shining winged figures seized handfuls of black snakes from atop a tall tower and spread them across her path. When she blundered into their midst, they sprang up, hissing sparks and spitting lightning.
The imagery baffled her until she spotted a line of electrical towers a short distance ahead, high voltage lines stretched between them. They appeared untouched, and nothing moved as she approached. If not for the warning, she never would have spotted the dark ropes and ragged broken ends of power lines lying across the dirt track she was following, nearly obscured by the grass on either side. She stopped and moved them carefully off the path before she edged past and resumed jogging. There would be neighborhoods without power until trucks arrived to repair the breaks. If that was the worst fallout from this battle, Los Angeles would be lucky.
The pace of the attacks intensified as she neared the office. Multiple objects flew at her at once, in addition to direct telekinetic assaults on her body. She fended them off, but she was tiring. She dropped to a walk. Better to arrive a little later than to get beaned from behind by a manhole cover like the one she barely dodged in time.
She’d just spotted the roof of the Covenant building rising over the shorter buildings between when the attacks ceased. She readied all her defenses, certain Angel had some devious new strategy in mind.
A black Prius pulled up to the curb of the street she was about to cross. The driver’s door opened, and a familiar figure stepped out. “Ola, Rosalia.”
She took a step back. “Don’t try anything, Carlos. I’m stronger than you now.”
He spread his hands. “I request a truce. If you agree to speak with me for a few minutes, I promise not to attack you until our business is concluded. Of course, I ask the same of you.”
“What could you possibly have to say that I want to hear?” Rosalia didn’t trust his smooth continental charm for a moment.
“Accept my offer and I’ll tell you.”
At the very least, it would give her a chance to catch her breath. And who knew, he might actually say something interesting, or even reveal some detail about Angel they could use. “Fine.”
He inclined his head and walked around the car toward her. She resisted the urge to back away. His voice was relaxed and confident. “It may be possible to end our conflict without further violence. My colleagues and I wish to propose a solution we hope will be mutually satisfactory.”
“The only solution the Covenant will accept is for Angel to call off its vendetta and stop helping the Seraphim.”
“I’m afraid that’s not on the table. Our current discussion is not with the Covenant, but with you and Steve Miller personally.”
Rosalia clenched her fists. “We’ll never betray our vows, so you might as well not bother.”
“Perhaps you should listen to our proposal before you dismiss it. We’re offering to spare both your life and that of your newly soul bonded partner.”
Rosalia sneered at him. “Your attempts to kill us haven’t been very successful so far.”
“We’ve gravely injured Miller. We won’t cease our efforts until both of you are dead. Or until you’ve agreed to measures which will neutralize the particular threat you pose to Angel and our Seraphim allies.”
“Our ability to foresee what you’re going to do? It’s too late. You know we’ve already found out about the Seraphim’s little maneuver. Sooner or later we’ll get the information through to the rest of the Covenant.”
“Which is why one of our requirements is that you and Miller allow me to block your memories of that vision.”
“The way you blocked my memory of the first time we met?” Maybe she should let him do it. With the help of the rest of the Eight, surely they could break through any block he might set.
“Yes, although I’ve refined my skill since then. I’m confident this one would be both undetectable and unbreakable.”
So much for that idea. She doubted he could really make a block strong enough to defeat the united power of the Eight, but if no one realized it existed, that power would never be brought to bear. “We’d just have the same vision again.”
In fact, she’d had it before. She’d never been able to make sense of the mysterious vision of the car and boulder she’d seen when Steve first contacted her a few days ago, but now its meaning was obvious. She silently cursed her oversight. If she’d told someone about it and asked for help interpreting it then, they wouldn’t be in this predicament.
“Which is why you and Steve would also need to agree to allow a member of Angel to escort you for the next two weeks, until the maneuver is accomplished. You would grant permission for our agent to immediately block the memory of any further such visions you might have. After that we would withdraw and leave you to pursue the Covenant’s agenda with only the same opposition we offer all its members.”
There had to be a catch. “What’s in it for you?”
Carlos inclined his head. “The two of you are very strong fighters. We prefer not to suffer unnecessary casualties if they can be avoided. This would accomplish our goal without putting any of our members at further risk.”
The offer was horribly tempting. If it were just her, she’d spit in Carlos’s pretty face. But shielding Steve from further assassination attempts while he was so vulnerable might be worth giving up the chance to buy the Covenant more time.
She gave a mirthless laugh. “Steve can’t agree while he’s unconscious. And once he’s awake, he won’t. He’ll never let you muck around in his mind, and he won’t take a dive and let you win this round. Not to save his own life, and I won’t let him do it to save mine.”
Carlos took a step closer and lowered his voice. “You could make the choice for him. He need never know. When he woke, his memories would already be altered. Any future lapses in memory he might notice could be attributed to the aftereffects of his injury.”
Rosalia swallowed. “I couldn’t do that.”
“Are you sure? If you do, he’ll live. If you don’t, Angel will kill him.”
Rosalia desperately wanted to accede, but when she thought about opening her mouth and speaking words of acceptance, an awful strained sensation seized her
heart, as if someone was trying to drag it from her body. With both regret and relief, she identified its source. “I can’t. Betraying his trust like that would break our soul bond. We’d both die anyway.”
Carlos inclined his head. “Then I suppose unless you persuade him to agree, we can’t come to an accord.”
He stepped closer, fixed Rosalia’s eyes with his dark gaze, and raised a hand to stroke her cheek. “Once he’s dead, your soul will no longer be bound. Perhaps then you and I could reach a private agreement.” His fingers cupped her jaw and applied light pressure as he leaned toward her.
Rosalia slapped him. “Get your filthy hands off me. Do you think I’m a total idiot? If our soul bond breaks, it won’t be because I cheated with some slick playboy!”
Carlos stepped back, rubbing the red mark on his cheek. His eyes narrowed. “You fear your bond will break? I’m surprised you were willing place your life in Miller’s hands, if you don’t fully trust him.”
“That’s not your concern,” Rosalia growled. She tried to ignore the chill in her gut where Carlos’s shot had found its mark. “We reject your proposal. If you have nothing else to say, our truce is over.”
He nodded. “I’m sorry to hear that. I fear many innocent lives will be lost because of your decision.”
“What?” Rosalia reached to grab him, but met an unyielding telekinetic wall.
“I’m sure you understand I can’t say more. If after you speak with Steve the two of you change your minds, reach out to me telepathically and I’ll respond. Perhaps it won’t be too late.”
He slid into his car and slammed the door. It pulled away from the curb and rapidly accelerated. Barely slowing, it whipped around a corner in a spray of gravel and raced away.
Rosalia stared after it for a long moment, breathing hard. Eventually she shook her head and set out again. It was more important than ever that she reach her destination. Whatever Angel was planning, she’d need the Covenant’s help to stop them.