AlcyLeyva_AndThenThereWereCrows_EbookFormatting_Nook

by And Then There Were Crows (retail) (epub)

  “What are they—” The question stuck in my throat. I tried to keep myself steady. “What are the Shades fighting for?”

  She sighed and I thought she was going to go the Barnem route and just blow me off. But then she replied, “It’s called the Subjugation of Wills. Basically a demon pact that keeps the hierarchy. See, the Shades are strong on their own, but just a hiccup of what the Beast is. And since the Shades all have their own little quirks and agendas, that’s where subjugation comes into play. Think of it as a bus with all the little Shades riding on it. The bus itself is big and powerful on its own, but only the strongest Shade can drive at any given time. It’s like they fight for the seat, Grey, and none in my entire career have gone and done what yours has. Just beat the others with such conviction. And that’s what makes him dangerous. That’s why you gotta catch the last one before he does. Or else.”

  “Back up. This is D we’re talking about. Back there, that thing that attacked us was an angel. More like your kind, isn’t it?”

  Cain snarled her lip at Donaldson and rolled her eyes. “They’re warrior angels. Grunts sent from on high to hunt down and slay the Shades. I’m more of an angel with career goals. C’mon, dude. We’re from two different sections of the Bible. Sheesh. Generalize much?”

  “So why did it attack us?”

  “Obviously …”

  “Obviously what?”

  “It’s out to finish the job, slay the Shade in your sister and your roommate. And I bet I know what you’re thinking next. You’re thinking, ‘Why not lay low and let that angel do its business?’ Simple answer: because it just tore through an entire building just to get to you. And I have even shittier news. That cluster of stars you saw falling all those weeks ago wasn’t a cluster at all. It was an army. It’s a holy legion: a whole army of angels. And right now, they’re probably tearing this city a new one, killing any and everyone they come across. And you can’t stop them. You can’t kill something ethereal. What do you think about that?”

  They continued squabbling for the better part of the five minutes we stood in that park. But even without raising my voice, as soon as I spoke, they stopped and stared.

  “This is all wrong.”

  “Hm? Say something over there, gorgeous?”

  “This wasn’t supposed to turn out this way. This. This.” I pointed to the sky, to the cut over Donaldson’s eye. “I had it. I really did. For the first time in my life, I freaking had it all kinda-sorta figured out. Seventy percent of it, at least! Yeah I messed up, but I was always able to keep it together. Even when I was the one who fell apart. Even when I was one big damn dumpster fire.”

  Petty wrapped her arms tightly around her chest. “You okay, Mandy?”

  “I got it back. The apartment. Mom and Dad. Even you, Petty. Even you came back.” I gave the nearby kiddie swing a shove with my foot. “It all just toppled over on me.”

  Donaldson came over to console me. “I know it’s a lot on you emotionally, Grey …”

  I stopped him short with a disgusted look. “Thanks, but I’m not asking for a tissue yet.” I grabbed the swing with one hand. “Just saying. Now that I know what I’ve come so close to having, I’m not going to just wait around for Donaldson to hug me. No offense.”

  Crossing his arms, he mumbled, “Ain’t nothing wrong with my hugs.”

  “I’ve come this far by just punching people in the face, so let’s go with that strategy. Cain, what face needs punching before the shit goes down?”

  She beamed. “You know I never noticed this before, Grey, but it’s your penchant for violence that makes you all types of adorable.”

  “Just tell me what do we do?”

  “The final Shade. We catch it before D does, before he becomes all powerful. Then we get Barnem and he cleans up this mess. We do this as fast as possible and—”

  I felt a tug at my side. Petty’s black eyes were very large. “Mandy.”

  “Petty. We’ll get to that talk. Just not now, all right?”

  “No. It’s not that. Remember how you were able to find me in the hotel? Remember Gary and why he attacked me?”

  At first, I didn’t follow. “Gary? Gary and I found you because …”

  Cain was still blabbing when I cut her off. “How did the angel find me?”

  Cain paused. “Like I said, your buddy must’ve led it straight to you.”

  I shook my head. “That only makes sense for when it showed up at Mom and Dad’s. But it knocked on Petty’s door first, remember? And before that, I saw it on the train when I was with D. It’s like it can track me. Like it can sense my aura. And if that’s true …”

  Petty had realized before I had but we both took off together.

  “Where are we off to?” Donaldson asked, trailing behind.

  “I need you to go to the hospital. Get to Barnem and pull him out. Do that however you want, but just get it done. We’ll meet back up at the apartment. Take Cain with you.”

  “You got it. But …” Donaldson paused and he and Petty exchanged nervous glances. “Are we going to talk about what happened back at the apartment? How you fell out of a window and are walking around now all fine and dandy?”

  Yes. Tell them, the whisper told me.

  “Not now. I just need you to trust me. I’m fine.”

  They both took a minute to digest this as we rounded the corner and headed to the train. Donaldson finally said, “I don’t trust her, Grey. Something feels off and we’ve already been burnt on what people are or are not telling us.” After thinking for a few seconds, he added, “Maybe we should just wait for Barnem to wake up before we start our next demon hunt.”

  “I’m with you. And that’s why I need you there. Keep her in check for me. Focus on Barnem.”

  Of course, I had my own agenda. Remembering the fate Cain had shown us, I was going to keep Petty as far from that hospital as possible.

  Speaking of Cain, she caught up to us in a flash, almost running backward with crazy ease.

  “You’re really doing this? You’re running toward the guy trying to kill you? Toward the danger? And all of you are just going along with this?”

  “If the angels are after me, then it means they can sense aura, which means that they will kill folks exposed to Shades. My parents are in trouble. Petty and I will get them.”

  The former Angel of Death held her head between her hands. “Am I the only one who thinks this plan … that this plan is all levels of terrible? What happened to nabbing the last Shade first? What happened to that, huh?”

  “To hell with him. My parents come first. C’mon, Petty. Donaldson—”

  “I’ll go on foot. Let me see that phone.” Taking it from me, he set my mom’s message to memory. “That place is only four or five blocks from the hospital which is only a straight shot up from here if I run down a block or two. I’ll get Barnem out of there and we’ll meet at the apartment.”

  As my sister and I ran down the steps to the train, Cain just stood there gawking at us all.

  “Worst plan ever!” she yelled. “And you know, coming from me, that’s saying a whole lot! I was around when people thought Noah was just compensating for something.”

  CHAPTER 39

  Halfway through our trip, Petty turned to me and said, “Don’t think I don’t know what you did back there.”

  There were only a few people on the train, which seemed weird to be running during an apocalypse (especially since said trains barely ran on the weekends). It also seemed odd to go from screaming people holding on to their families for dear life to people selling candy car by car. But that’s how we’re separated here. That’s how delayed we are to everyone else’s suffering.

  “What did I do back there, Petty?”

  “You made me come with you here. As in not the hospital I’m supposed to be brutally murdered in.”

  �
�You won’t die.”

  “You’re right,” she said, and made me pause to look at her. My little sister’s skin was so black, like dyed paper. Her white pupils still made me feel uneasy when I looked at them for too long. “You don’t have to treat me as fragile, you know? I’m not.”

  “No. No, you’re not. But that doesn’t mean you should be in the middle of a mess all the time. You act like you’re indestructible.”

  “I am.”

  “You’re not.”

  The train doors slid open and we hurried from the train, rose up out of the stop, and dashed down the block. From where we were, it was a three block walk from there. “I don’t want to have this argument,” I told her sharply.

  “Fine. But what happened back at Mom and Dad’s? How’d you survive that fall?”

  I stopped short. “I don’t, Petty. I just don’t. I don’t need this right now. What I do need, right now, in this second, is for us to hurry our asses over and pull Mom and Dad out of there and then shove them on a plane away from this city. Everyone. Everyone just get on a plane and go as far away as possible.”

  “I feel bad.”

  It took a lot to keep my temper down. “Petty, we don’t have time.

  “So then when? When will we have time for me to tell you I’m sorry. When will I have time just to talk to my sister? Why is that so bad?”

  “Because ever since you left, you stopped wanting to talk, Petty. Remember that? Why haven’t you figured out the freakin’ obvious by now? I don’t want to talk to you because I can’t. Because at first I see my kid sister who totally kicked her entire family to the curb for years. And on the other hand, I see a walking corpse of that sister. Okay? Happy now?”

  I thought Petty was going to tackle me to the ground, but she hugged me instead. She held the hug, and suddenly I remembered how she was when we were little. She was always a hugger. And after every hug she would ask …

  “Do you feel how I feel?” she whispered to me.

  I felt this odd weight in my chest. Before I knew that it was a pain-wrapped sob, it flew from my mouth. I quickly slammed my mouth over it and pulled away.

  “It’s all right,” Petty told me.

  Centering myself before it got out of hand, I cleared my throat. “It’s not. Not yet. But I’m going to make it right. I promise. Okay, Petty? I promise right after this we are going to sit down and … and we can talk.”

  But Petty was looking up.

  Spinning around, I saw a black plume of smoke wrapping around the block.

  “Oh Jesus.”

  We took off running and rounded the corner in time to see the top floor of the building my parents were supposedly in—a ten floor mini-high rise— completely implode. A giant fireball rolled out into the night air. Below the charred windows, large shadows stomped around its lower floors as gunfire lit up some of those spaces. The angelic legion had arrived.

  Whipping out my cellphone, I checked for the room number. Mom hadn’t given me one.

  As soon as we entered the main hall, people were too busy running out to care that we were going in. There were bodies of the security guards everywhere, some so badly mangled that they seemed made of clay. We didn’t have the exact location of James and my parents, but it was easy to follow the carnage. We took three flights of steps up and came out in a hallway with flickering lights. The gunfire was louder than usual up here. I was just about to peek around a corner to check it out, but Petty held me back and leaned out herself. Two bullets entered and exited her head in an instant.

  She looked back at me. “How about one more flight up?”

  “Noted.”

  On the next floor, the hallway was littered with bodies. It made it impossible to walk without tripping over all of them. But after a few feet, we ran smack dab into another party trying to go in our direction, and it just so happened to be the folks we were looking for.

  My mom tripped over herself wrapping her arms around my neck. Dad had lost his glasses and his clothes were filthy, but he seemed okay. Oswalt and James the Pope were coming up the rear with a few hotel employees.

  “We holed ourselves up for as long as we could,” James said. “Now it’s all about getting everyone out. We need to go.”

  But, of course, it wasn’t going to be that simple.

  Spotting us, one of the angels stomped toward our small party. Oswalt fired at it, but all of the bullets bounced right off of its hulking body. At full charge, it crushed one of the hotel workers under its foot, knocked me aside, threw my parents nearly into another room, and just halted at James who held his hand up.

  Oswalt called to him, but James replied reassuringly. He then gave me a knowing nod and Petty and I fetched our parents. Just before we hit the down staircase, I turned to tell them to come with us. But what I saw instead was James’ body being lifted like he was a small twig. The angel violently jerked his arms and the older man’s body nearly folded on itself as blood flew everywhere. Oswalt screamed and fired his gun until it echoed a very deep click-click-click.

  I pushed my parents to follow me and we all ran down the staircase. Luckily, the main hallway was clear and we ran out into the street. Cop cars were already on the scene and a few ambulances were parked nearby. Checking on my parents, I noticed that Dad seemed okay but Mom’s skin was clammy and her lips were pale. Wrapping her in my arms, I felt her shaking uncontrollably.

  “She’s in shock. Over here!” Dad took her from me and the four of us walked over to the nearest ambulance and sat her on one of the gurneys. The EMT’s loaded her into the back and then went to ask Petty if she was all right.

  “Okay. I get it. I look like shit. Keep it movin’.”

  We were all on edge. Those things were still sulking around, and I had just witnessed the Pope get mutilated by one of them. I looked down at my arm, which couldn’t stay still, and I hoped—knowing what was inside of me—that I was just in shock, too. I knew I needed to keep my shit together. But what Petty came to tell me didn’t make things any better.

  “Just tried calling Donaldson,” she said, taking the receiver from her ear. “He … I can’t get in contact with him.”

  I gritted my teeth. “That doesn’t mean anything. He’s probably too busy taking Barnem out. Or maybe he’s already back at the apartment.”

  “Move! You need to move this crew out now!” a cop shouted, and out of the sky two of the angels landed on the sidewalk. Seeing that his point was a valid one, we all jumped into the ambulance. The EMT slammed the door shut behind us and the driver peeled away just as the gunfire began to roar. Over the blaring siren, we soon didn’t hear anything.

  “What is going on?” Dad asked. He was hanging over Mom who was nearly catatonic, but his eyes were clearly on me and Petty.

  I thought about lying. I really did. But I was ready to tell them right then and there. That is, until the driver of the ambulance yelled, “We got someone following us.”

  Even with the ambulance flying down the street, there was a peal of tires as a second car pulled up beside us.

  “Oh fuck. He’s got a gun!” And suddenly, someone fired on us. I got down as much as possible. Dad tucked both me and Petty underneath him as the ambulance swerved. Just as it seemed to be close to rolling over completely, the driver slammed on the brakes. And that’s when we heard the two sounds. The first was the gunfire, but it wasn’t aimed at us at all. It was aimed at whatever was making the second noise on the top of the vehicle.

  There was sharp seize of metal and suddenly an arm shot in from the ceiling. It grabbed the first EMT right from where he was sitting and pulled him out of the vehicle. After tossing him away, its second lunge flew right toward my face, but Petty leapt in front of me. Those hands, capable of ripping through the outside of the ambulance, palmed my sister’s head and crushed it. My mom, awake during this whole thing, went limp. My dad yelled and kicked at
the large arm as it dragged her lifeless body to the outside.

  The EMT driver fell out of his seat getting the fuck out of there, leaving us at this creature’s mercy. But the person firing, after a short lull to reload, was giving us cover. “Let’s take Mom out.” My dad didn’t second guess me. He untied Mom’s seatbelt and carried her out onto the street.

  Outside, Oswalt was in one of the unmarked cars. His arm lay limp at his side, so he stood there firing with one with hand and loaded the magazines with his clenched teeth. With Mom walking but not entirely there mentally, Dad loaded her into the back. He had to scoot in with her to make sure she was comfortable, and that’s when I slammed the door shut behind him. I saw that the angel was too distracted to come after us. Oswalt was shooting at it but he might as well have been tossing those bullets underhanded. It was focused on prying Petty open with its bare hands to get the Shade inside of her.

  “Drive!” I slammed my fists on the top of the car to get Oswalt’s attention. “Get them out of here!”

  “He gave me orders,” he replied. “Grey, he saw his death tonight. He wanted to give you a chance. We have a plane ready to leave the city.”

  “So go! I know what I’m doing.”

  With a hearty slam of the gas pedal, I saw my dad’s worried face speed off. He suddenly became livid, and I could imagine his large hands nearly ripping the car seat out just to try to kill the man driving away from his daughters.

  “I know what I’m doing,” I kinda said again, but didn’t know who was listening. Diving into the ambulance’s driver seat, I stared at the steering wheel. I had never driven before in my life. “Okay. I don’t know what I’m doing.” I turned the key and hit the gas with both of my feet only to plow the ambulance into a parking meter and mailbox. Not knowing, or needing, the brake, I sent the vehicle down the sidewalk, glanced a parked car, managed a big fat unlicensed turn that hit the curb and set us back on our wheels, but then blew out one of the tires. By then, I had reached almost seventy miles per hour and dove out of the open door. The sidewalk ripped into my skin and my clothes, burning both badly, but nothing broke. The ambulance, with Petty and the angel still on it, slammed into a building. It tossed both of them some twenty feet, but the creature landed on its feet.