by Elana Brooks
She kept her mind open to visions, but none came. A riderless bicycle burst from an alley and charged her. She knocked it aside. A palm tree shuddered and toppled across her path. She caught it and held it up until she made it under, then let it crash to the ground. A length of metal pipe soared toward her like a javelin. She deflected it. Its jagged end barely missed her head.
Grimly fending off the relentlessly continuing telekinetic attacks, she trudged on.
Chapter 23
Present
Steve struggled to assemble the scattered fragments of his mind into a coherent whole. The Seraphim didn’t let a little thing like physical unconsciousness hinder their astral forms. Of course, their life-support machinery was probably specially designed to leave their souls active while their bodies were held in suspended animation. It must be different from being knocked out by a head injury, like that time in high school when he dove to recover a fumble and slammed into the ground helmet-first. He’d had to sit out the rest of the season while his concussion healed.
Blurred lights swam before his eyes. He blinked until they came into focus. His head and half his torso were floating free of his body, but his limbs were still attached. He concentrated, ignoring the dull ache in the back of his head, until they separated and he could climb to his feet.
“Hey, Steve. You okay? You look kind of shaky.”
He turned to find Adrian regarding him anxiously. “I’ve been better.” He gave his friend what he hoped was a reassuring grin as he checked his tether. It was a tad thinner than normal, but thickened with a bit of effort.
Adrian still looked worried and clapped him on the back with a lot less vigor than he’d usually employ. “The doctors were pretty worried for a while there. The big white blob on your CT scan had them prepping you for surgery so fast, it looked like they were on fast-forward. But they got the bleeding stopped and cleared out most of the clot. They put you on medication to keep the swelling under control, so you should be back on your feet in a week or two.”
Steve gaped at him, then turned to stare at the thick bandages swathing his head. He took deep breaths until his racing pulse slowed. Then he carefully and deliberately adjusted his astral form, removing the bandages, replacing the shaved patch and puckered line of stitches they revealed with his normal slightly messy hair, changing his hospital gown into jeans and his most comfortable shirt, and eliminating the nagging pain in his head. His astral form didn’t have to match his body’s condition. Only his subconscious mind thought it should.
He peered at the jagged glowing lines on the monitor next to his bed. The one he thought indicated his heartbeat was bouncing along at a regular rate. The others also seemed to be within tolerable ranges. At least, the lights beside them were green, not red, and the machine emitted beeps, not alarms. His body should be nearly as safe here as it would be in the meditation garden.
Steve turned back to Adrian. “Where’s Rosalia?” She must be all right, because surely he would have felt it if she wasn’t, but he wanted to see for himself.
“She’s trying to get to the Covenant office so she can tell them about your vision. Angel still has us under a telepathy block, and they’ve broken every telephone I’ve tried to use.”
Steve felt the dull blankness as soon as he tried to reach out to her. “Damn. How? A cab?”
“She didn’t want to risk Angel causing a wreck. She’s walking.”
The thought of Rosalia making her way on foot through the dark, dangerous Los Angeles streets chilled him. But she was probably right that it was marginally safer than riding in a motor vehicle. “All right. You stay here and guard my body. I’m going to help her.”
Adrian’s brow furrowed. “Are you sure that’s a good idea? We’ve got at least three Angel members watching us. They keep trying to mess with your equipment telekinetically, and I keep blocking them. They’re going to try to stop you.”
“I don’t care. I’m not leaving her to face those bastards alone.” If anything happened to Rosalia, it wouldn’t matter whether or not he had a body to come back to. They’d either make it through this together, or he’d go down fighting at her side.
Adrian clasped his hand hard. “Believe me, I understand.” He stepped back and gestured toward the wall to the right. “That’s the shortest way out. I’ll keep your body safe. Good luck.”
Steve nodded at him, unable to find words for his gratitude, and strode through the indicated wall. He emerged into a corridor lit by bright fluorescent lights. An astral form hovered there, in human shape but with body and face a blank, featureless blur. The effect was damn creepy, but Steve had to admit it made an effective disguise. “Get out of my way and I won’t hurt you,” he told it.
By way of reply, it gathered a ball of astral energy and hurled it. Steve summoned a shield, batted the attack away, and fired a return ball at least twice as big and bright as his opponent’s. It cut through its shield as if it weren’t there and destroyed a big chunk of its tether. Steve sent smaller balls to zap the broken end every time the figure tried to catch it. Eventually it abandoned the attempt and soared through the wall and away.
Heartened, Steve followed. He passed through a dark room with a sleeping patient and emerged into the night sky a few stories up. He wished he’d checked the time before he left. It must be getting close to dawn, but the sky to the east was still dark. A few stars cut through the smog and the diffuse glow of the city’s lights.
He oriented himself, then headed toward the Covenant building. His heart told him Rosalia was somewhere in that direction. He tried again to contact her telepathically, but couldn’t. Some of Angel’s agents must be shadowing him, keeping him blocked. He tried to spot their camouflaged astral forms, but soon gave up in favor of giving all his attention to reaching Rosalia as quickly as possible.
There, a few blocks ahead. Four glowing astral forms hovered around a spot on the sidewalk. As he approached, one picked up a trash can and threw it at the trudging figure in their midst. She waved a weary hand and the trash can swerved just enough to miss her. She kept doggedly walking as the others scoured the street for potential missiles and launched them.
Glorious fury boiled up in Steve’s chest. He descended on the four with a cry of challenge and a storm of blazing balls. Three of them rose to meet him, returning fire. The other fell back and faded from sight.
Rosalia looked around when objects stopped flying at her, then quickened her pace. Of course, the fight was invisible to her physical eyes. Steve was too occupied to call out to her, but he was wonderfully aware of her nearness. It was a pleasure to send their foes fleeing one by one, tethers broken and gaping holes in their astral flesh. All were reasonably strong psychics, but even together they were nowhere near a match for one of the Eight with a soul bond.
When the last zoomed away, he dropped to walk at Rosalia’s side, enjoying the pleasant winded feeling that followed a moderate workout. “You’ll make better time without every loose object in the city flying at you.”
“Steve!” Her face lit up. “You’re all right!” Then it fell into a scowl as she searched blindly for him. “What are you doing here? You should be with your body. What if Robert and Sarangerel come back to finish what they started?”
“Adrian’s watching it. I trust him as much as any guardian. We need to get word of our vision out, and you can do that better with my help.”
She made an annoyed face in his general direction. “I’m almost there. As soon as I’m safe inside and have other Covenant members to help me, promise you’ll go back.”
He sighed in mock exasperation. “If you insist.”
In fact, he wasn’t going to let her out of his sight until the message was transmitted and he was absolutely sure Angel posed no further threat. His body was safe enough where it was. The doctors would just think he’d fallen into a coma. The more worried they got, the happier they’d be when he finally came out of it.
The Covenant building was only a block away. It was
still too early for anyone to have reported for work, but there should be at least one security guard on duty. Hopefully it would be a Covenant member and not just an HBQ employee. With the threat from Angel, all the Covenant’s locations should be psychically guarded at all times. If that wasn’t already being done, he’d take care of implementing it as soon as he got back to his usual—
The world around him dissolved into swirling colors. After a moment of confusion, Steve recognized the onset of a vision. He tensed. What cryptic images would Rosalia’s gift show them this time? Would their meaning be as easy to interpret as the warning of the Seraphim’s maneuver, or would they lose precious minutes trying to decipher them while Angel’s attack proceeded unopposed?
The blur resolved into the image of a living room in a pleasant suburban home. Bright sun streamed through the windows. Abstract art in vivid colors and bold shapes adorned the walls. Sarangerel faced Robert, fists clenched, fury in her eyes. “I’m going back.”
“No, you’re not.” Robert’s voice was mild, but there was a stone-like quality to his expression.
“Don’t you dare try to stop me!” Sarangerel tried to dodge around him, but he caught her wrists and held them as she struggled.
“They almost killed you. I had to do CPR to get your heart restarted. I’m still not positive you didn’t suffer brain damage from being without oxygen for so long. I won’t let you take that sort of risk again.”
She threw herself against his grip with all her strength, but he maintained his hold with little apparent effort. “Do you want to throw away everything we’ve worked for? If we fail Sarthex in this, he’ll never trust us again. Humanity will perish, whether the Seraphim win or the Covenant does. My life doesn’t matter compared to that!”
“It does to me.” Robert set his jaw and refused to budge.
Sarangerel yanked against his hold with renewed fury, to no effect. At length she stopped and glared at him. “So you’re giving up. Surrendering at first blood. Rolling over and showing your belly like a cowardly cur.”
“Carlos is still there. He can handle it without us. I’d go help him if I trusted you to stay here, but I know you’d be out of your body and back to Los Angeles the minute I let down my guard. He’ll have to manage without me.”
She snorted contemptuously. “Carlos is weaker than you were before we bonded.”
“He’s strong enough for this. We discussed it while you were recovering. I told him to use the rest of the C-4. There will be collateral damage and civilian casualties, but we agreed that eliminating Miller and Escamillo and fulfilling our bargain with Sarthex would be worth it.”
Her eyebrows went up, and she tilted her head. “What’s the target?”
“The Covenant’s Los Angeles office. That’s where Escamillo is headed. It’s early morning there. After she reaches it and as many Covenant members as possible report for work, Carlos will set off the explosion.”
Sarangerel’s brow furrowed and she stared into the distance. “They’ll be guarding it psychically. Will he be able to get through?”
“He thinks he can.”
Her frown deepened. “Where’s Miller?”
“At a local hospital.”
“Why aren’t you targeting it? Miller is the real threat. We should take him out while he’s incapacitated. Without him, Escamillo is nothing.”
“She can still pass on what she learned. Miller can’t transmit the contents of their vision to the Covenant while he remains unconscious. Blowing up the hospital would kill hundreds of people who aren’t involved in this fight. Most of those who die when we destroy the Covenant building will be those who’ve chosen to oppose us.”
Sarangerel clenched her fists. Her voice dropped to a low growl. “This is war, Robert. We’re fighting for the future of Earth and the survival of the human race. How dare you let your western scruples deter you from the most effective strategy? What are a handful of lives lost compared to the billions that will die if we fail? You know very well an attack on the hospital is more likely to succeed. You’re just too squeamish to do what’s necessary.”
Robert’s grip on her wrists tightened. “Carlos and I agreed that the Covenant building is the more appropriate target.”
She spit in his face. “Both of you are weaklings. I’ll have to do what neither of you are man enough to.” Her body crumpled in Robert’s grip.
He eased her to the ground and flung himself beside her, erupting from his body to confront her emerging astral form. She tried to avoid his lunge, but he seized her wrists again. “I won’t let you.”
Her fingers spread and a ball of energy gathered before her palms, inches from the place where his tether joined his chest. “Let go of me.”
His eyes didn’t waver from hers. “You can’t throw that. Don’t you feel our bond? How much more do you think it can take?”
She glared at him, her features twisted into a snarl, but the ball didn’t move. After a long moment, she tossed her head disdainfully. “Order Carlos to switch his attack to the hospital, and I’ll relent. Otherwise, I’ll fight you until I break free and can go to Los Angeles and do it myself. If our bond ruptures and kills us both, so be it. I’d rather die fighting to save Earth than live to see it perish.”
She stared at him, her jaw set. He glared back. The ball of energy blazed between them.
With a curse, Robert released her wrists and stepped back. “Damn it, Angie, I’m not your enemy.”
“Don’t call me that stupid nickname.” Sarangerel rubbed her wrists. Her missile faded and disappeared. “Do it, or I will.”
“You’ll stay here if I do?”
She grimaced, but nodded.
He took a deep breath, balled his fists, and closed his eyes. Carlos?
Yes, Robert?
Regret tinged Robert’s mental voice, but resolve was stronger. There’s been a change of plans.
Chapter 24
Present
Rosalia blinked as the vision cleared from her mind. “Dios mio. We’ve got to stop them. You get back to the hospital while I keep going to Headquarters. As soon as I can, I’ll stash my body and join you.”
Pressure on her hands told her Steve’s astral form had grabbed them. Terror she hadn’t felt from him since that first horrible night, when she’d shared her vision of the dragons that haunted his nightmares, blazed high and wild in his mind. Don’t you see? That’s what they want us to do.
He was wasting precious seconds. How long would it take Carlos to move the C-4 to the hospital? “What the hell are you talking about?”
It wasn’t a real vision.
“Of course it was. Do you think I don’t know what a real vision feels like?”
Do you think I can’t recognize a fake one?
She started to spit a retort, but paused. “What makes you think so?”
His astral hands released her. He sent her a mental image of him ticking off points on his fingers as he made them. It was literal, not symbolic. It showed the moment the decision was made, not its results. It took place in the present, not the future. Or didn’t it feel that way to you?
The sense of time had been overwhelmingly immediate. “Yes, but how? I mean, you’re right that it’s different than any vision I’ve had before, but how could Angel have learned to create false visions?”
The Seraphim must have taught them. We know they made a deal with Sarthex. However he did it all those years, now Angel can use the same technique.
His argument made horrible sense. But she’d trusted her visions for a lifetime. Deep in her gut, she knew what she’d just seen had taken place exactly the way it had appeared. “So, what? They just imagined it?”
I think they staged it. They opened a channel to my mind and acted out a scene.
Rosalia tested that explanation against her memory of the vision. She supposed it was plausible. Enough that she couldn’t blindly accept what she’d seen as true anymore. “So they didn’t actually change targets at all? They’re still goi
ng to hit the Covenant building?” Her eyes searched the sky overhead and the area in front of the building, which was clearly visible only a block ahead, but found nothing suspicious. A few pigeons flew by, but surely Carlos couldn’t conceal enough C-4 to demolish a building inside a handful of birds, or manipulate them into such lifelike motions if he did.
Assuming they actually have more C-4. It could have been a complete bluff.
“Maybe. What would be the purpose, though?”
To manipulate us.
“Into doing what?”
Impatience tinged his tone. Into what you planned before I warned you. Leaving your body in the meditation garden and rushing off to the hospital. A new burst of fear flooded from him. Which means they probably do have the explosive. They’re going to blow up the building as soon as you’re inside it.
Rosalia was about to agree when the glaring flaw in his reasoning jumped out at her. “Wait. Sarthex knows you know your visions were fake. He’s the one who told you so. He must have told Angel that you’d recognize any vision they sent you as false.”
What difference does that make?
She couldn’t believe he was being so obtuse. “They knew you’d believe they were lying. So they told the truth. They really are going to blow up the hospital.” She fixed her eyes on the door of the Covenant building and started forward. How long would it take to get her body to a safe spot? She could be at the hospital within seconds of leaving her physical form, if she hurried.
Massive telekinetic force shoved her back. You can’t know that for sure. I won’t let you risk yourself by going in there.
“And I won’t stand here and do nothing while they kill you! I swear, I’ll drop my body right here on the sidewalk if you don’t get out of my way!”
Fury matching her own beat against her mind. Don’t you dare. I’ll shove you back into it.
“You’ll try. But I’m as strong as you are, now. You can’t bully me anymore, Steve Fucking Miller!”