Angel Descended (The Awakened Book 6)

by Matthew S. Cox

  Aurora took her hand. “I haven’t seen anything to say you won’t, but… I can’t promise. I do know, if you stay here, a lot of people are going to die—including you.”

  Althea looked up into Aurora’s pure onyx eyes. “I have never felt the scared on you. Don’t be afraid.”

  “Who the devil are you?” yelled the nurse. “Security breach, medical ward one.”

  “Thank you for the food. Please don’t have the scared. It’s okay.” Althea waved to the woman in the doorway.

  Aurora drifted back a step and slid into a swirling vortex of silver-grey energy. Althea sensed a pull beyond the simple physical tug of Aurora’s hand around her own, drawing her into the mist. She leaned into it, allowing the energy to wash over her. After a bright flash, the room took on a sepia color, and the uncomfortable clinginess of the smock released her. The medtech gawked, looking around as though she could no longer see them. She ran in, passing through their insubstantial bodies, and picked the one-piece garment Althea had been wearing off the floor.

  “Mary, mother in Heaven,” muttered the nurse.

  As before, Aurora leapt skyward, the ceiling offering no resistance. They traversed walls and solid objects with only the resistance of passing through large blocks of jelly. Althea felt more at ease this time. This world had some of the same energy she had felt from the silvery swirls she’d opened for the dead. She still couldn’t explain what she did, or why, but felt confident it needed to be done. She thought of Anna and focused on the need to find her. A flickering light in the distance called out to her, winking at her from beyond miles of endless fog.

  “That way.” Althea pointed.

  “You’re learning.” Aurora smiled.

  Minutes later, the building with the beds, hallways, more rooms, and other sleeping people gave way to the shapes of the bad city zooming by. Althea tried to focus on her desire to move toward Anna. A feeling welled up inside her, a combination of energy and urgency she could barely contain. At any second, she expected to rocket away… but whenever she tried to grab on, the squishy sensation slipped between her fingers and faded. Over and over, she tried to pin it down, but it eluded her. She growled in frustration, paying no attention to the spirit world gliding by as Aurora led her along.

  She focused so much on finding Anna that when Aurora stopped short, Althea sailed right into her.

  “Mmf.” She floated back a few inches, rubbing her nose. “If we’re spirits, why did that hurt?

  “We’re actually here.” Aurora laughed. “We’re not spirits, mite. We’re still alive. I’ve brought our bodies into their world.”

  They floated in the shadow of a huge building, next to a fancy, gold car. Behind and to either side, endless, flat desert stretched to the horizon, everything wavering with the endless shifting of the astral realm. Aurora arched her back and stood on tiptoe for a second, and the world returned to normal color, devoid of the constant vague whispering that seemed to exist everywhere on the other side. Stark chill gave way to a hot, dry wind Althea adored, though a flicker of mood told her Aurora loathed the heat. To her, the spirit world had been comfortable. The dusty breeze reminded her of home, and of her family. She stretched and took in a deep breath, basking in the heat with her hands on her hips, her hair fluttering in the wind.

  A scream came from the end of the building. She started toward it, but Aurora grabbed her shoulder. Althea looked back, trying to pull away, annoyed at being made to wait while people suffered.

  “People are hurting!”

  “You have time for this. A few seconds won’t harm anyone.” Aurora opened the car and reached into the back seat. She took out a plain, white dress like the ones Karina made for her and handed it over.

  “You knew?” Althea hurried to wriggle into it, scurrying toward the screaming while adjusting the garment around her body. “Where’s yours?”

  Aurora smiled. “Oh, I’m sure I’ll find someone to put on.”

  Althea sprinted along the wall, not at all liking the feelings she sensed from inside. A loud boom shook the entire structure and knocked a rain gutter from the wall. She dove for cover, shrieking as metal pipes clattered to the ground a few feet away. Althea glanced up at a large blister-like dent in the wall about halfway up the building. A vague human shape to the imprint both terrified and angered her.

  She darted forward, racing as fast as she could pump her legs to the end of the hangar, grasping the metal to take the turn without falling. Great slabs of warped metal lay on the ground by the entrance. She ducked between the wreckage and the wall, skidding to a halt on smooth concrete inside. The reek of burned rubber made her cough and cover her mouth.

  The man who tried to kill her in Querq scowled at Aaron, red light flaring from his eyes.

  Hate surrounded him.

  Kate lay on the ground, twitching.

  Anger surrounded her.

  Anna, the only one to notice the weak sound of a child’s cough, looked at her.

  Fear surrounded her.

  Archon moaned on the right side of the room.

  Disbelief surrounded him.

  Aaron stared at Anna.

  Love surrounded him.

  Althea balled her hands into fists. She glared at the man with the sword. A burst of energy flared outward from between her shoulders as her wing-ribbons unfurled, flooding the massive room with scintillating white light. Her eyes shone like portals into the heart of a blue star.

  “Leave them alone!” Althea pointed at the man. “You do not belong here.”

  Black smoke whorled out of the Japanese man and sank into the floor. His eyes rolled up into his head and he fell like a sack of wheat.

  “Away!” screamed Archon. Anna lurched into motion, sliding across the floor toward him. She pivoted to her feet like a puppet in the hands of an amateur, pirouetting into his grasp, her feet not even on the ground. He cowered behind her small body, a wide-eyed stare locked on Althea. “Get that filthy little dust rat away from me! Get her out of here this instant!”

  The level of terror she sensed within him defied her understanding. Althea tilted her head.

  “Best listen to reason, mate.” Aaron stared death at him. “Put Anna down. You know what Lauren said. Don’t get on the li’l sprog’s bad side.”

  “Why are you afraid?” Althea took a step forward.

  Archon’s eyes widened. “Get her away from me.”

  “Let Anna go,” yelled Aaron.

  Anna grabbed James’s arms, squirming to get away from him, but couldn’t break free. She seemed hesitant to shock him; fear lost in a wave of guilt.

  Attempting to force calm into Archon’s mind, Althea took another step closer, but found his emotion out of reach.

  A short, straight, Nano sword erupted from Anna’s left breast. Archon let off a gasping groan, his face a mask of shock.

  “Anna!” screamed Aaron.

  Anna’s legs went limp, but she didn’t fall. Her body floated forward off the transparent blade protruding from the center of Archon’s chest. Blood seeped down the front of his shirt.

  “No!” wailed Althea. Her wings trembled as she shook her fists.

  The sword vanished backward into him, leaving a neat slit. Archon fell to one knee, twisting to peer behind him—at another Anna.

  “Wha…?” Archon gurgled.

  Anna Two’s head shimmered into a holographic rainbow. Inky black spread down her snow-white hair as it grew out from pixie cut to bob. Her features morphed, and her skin darkened from Anna’s porcelain to the tone of Asian ancestry. Sparkling emerald eyes altered in shape, but not color, continuing to stare disdain at the man in front of her.

  Althea gawked at the woman she’d almost failed to heal.

  “Sa… da… ko,” wheezed Mamoru.

  “But…” Archon reached up, color fading from his face as his eyes rolled into their sockets. “You cannot best me… You are”—he coughed up blood—”not even psionic.”

  Sadako blurred. One instant sh
e stood at rest, the next, she leaned to the side, both hands on her outstretched sword. A second later, a line of red formed on Archon’s throat. His head slipped two inches left on a glass-smooth cut—then toppled to the floor.

  “No!” Althea screamed.

  Anna’s limp body skidded across the floor, sliding to a halt in Aaron’s arms.

  “Althea,” said Aaron, tears streaming down his face. “Please, help her!” He sobbed. “She’s dying!”

  Archon’s life essence faltered and waned, as did Anna’s. Althea stared at the severed head. The mass healing she had done on the roof wouldn’t save him, nor would it be enough to stem the blood pulsing out of Anna’s chest.

  Drawn by the love and sadness glowing from Aaron, she ran to him and fell to her knees, placing her hands on Anna’s cheeks. Althea closed her eyes, concentrating on Anna’s life essence at the same time she felt Archon’s wink out. She gritted her teeth, weathering tendrils of ethereal ice clawing at her chest. Anna’s blood-shape rushed out of a slash in one of the large tubes above her heart. Warm energy tingled across her fingertips, channeled into Anna. The precise cut required little effort to seal. After, she focused on mending the sword-shaped channel in the woman’s chest. Once all the bone-shapes and meaty parts had mended, she funneled power into urging the woman’s body to generate more blood.

  Anna gasped and sucked in air.

  63

  Anger and Chaos

  Aaron

  Fingers clenched into the material of Anna’s coat, Aaron stared at the strange, violet effect of blue light hidden by the child’s eyelids. He glanced up at the woman dressed like Anna, with a Japanese face. She remained motionless by Archon’s corpse, sword held to the side, angled down. A few drops of blood ran along the edge and dripped from the point. She looked in the direction of Mamoru, her expression unreadable. Anna moved, taking a huge breath and lurching upright. Aaron forgot about everything else going on and cradled her.

  Althea sprawled nearby, kneeling with her hands on the floor, head bowed. She gasped for breath as if she’d sprinted around the entire hangar. After a few seconds, the streamers of light receded into her back. She looked drained, and sniffled, crying as quietly as she could. Tears patted onto the dusty concrete between her splayed fingers.

  Anna twitched and coughed up blood. Aaron eased her forward, patting her on the back. He tried to talk, but couldn’t. Tears wet his cheeks as well, though his anguish had become joy.

  The Japanese woman stared at Mamoru—passed out on the floor—for a moment longer before narrowing her eyes at Anna. Aaron peered into her mind. Her inner debate rambled by in Japanese, beyond his understanding. Images provided enough to understand the sight of Althea with glowing wings had startled her into inaction. Her thoughts reordered themselves as she watched Anna gasping for breath. Her mind fixated on the sensation of a handgun in her coat pocket. Sadako concealed her intent with slow, innocuous movements as her hand crept closer to the weapon.

  “No!” Aaron growled and thrust his arm at her.

  His telekinetic shove launched her across the hangar. Sadako tumbled over backward in midair and slid to a halt in a three-point stance with her sword held out to the left.

  “Aaa…” wheezed Anna.

  Sadako drew the pistol. Aaron roared, lashing out with his mind. The gun bent under the weight of his anger. Bits of plastic flaked away and a bright flash snapped from the digital ammo display near the handle. Sadako yelped and leapt back, abandoning it.

  The sparking weapon clattered to the ground. Sadako’s eyes widened as the handgun compressed into an unrecognizable lump of plastic. Her gaze flicked up, locking with his for an instant. She sprang into a tumble and darted toward the stack of tires. Aaron’s power yanked her off her feet and slammed her down on her back. Sadako resisted the urge to cry out from the pain of impact, though she could not help but emit a muffled grunt. He eased Anna to the floor and rose to his feet, E-90 leveled at the Japanese woman.

  “Don’t bloody move.” He stepped two paces closer. “Why? Why Anna?”

  “I will kill them for what they have done to Mamoru.” The woman turned into a transparent human shape for a half-second before vanishing.

  Aaron fired, but the narrow, blue beam hit only concrete, leaving a glowing orange dot.

  “It wasn’t Anna,” said Althea. “The Many has taken Mamoru.”

  “Uhh, Kate?” asked Aaron, glancing at the unconscious redhead. “Shit. Anna, stay alert. I don’t have the best luck with invisible bitches holding sharp things.”

  Anna coughed, muttered something incoherent, and collapsed.

  Aaron dropped to one knee, hovering over her. “Anna!”

  “She is tired,” said Althea.

  Mamoru groaned. The sound of his voice filled Aaron with inexplicable rage. He blamed that man for Anna getting hurt. Everything that had happened was his fault. Mamoru would kill them all. Mamoru killed Allison. Mamoru killed Anna.

  Aaron howled, blood pounding in his head. He clenched his fingers into the rubbery grip of the E-90 but lacked comprehension that the object in his hand was a killing machine. Incomprehensible screaming scratched his throat as he lashed out with a telekinetic wave. Mamoru sailed into the air, twisting and spinning in random directions. Aaron wanted him to explode from centrifugal force tearing him limb from limb.

  “Aaron, no!” yelled Althea.

  His rage dissipated, a balloon meeting a pin.

  A sharp pain at the back of his head blurred the room. Aaron stumbled forward, falling as something swept his legs out from under him. A distance away to the right, a dull metal thud announced Mamoru’s meeting with the wall. A feminine hiss from behind came an instant before a strike to his chest knocked the air, as well as his ability to move, straight out of him. He flopped on his back, staring up at Sadako. The tip of her blade had stopped a finger’s width from his neck.

  A drop of Archon’s blood fell on his skin.

  Sadako lifted her gaze to where Mamoru lay moaning. She drew her arm up; the cold, calculating glare of a trained killer faded to the eye-bulging fury of a madwoman. Sadako roared, grasping her blade in two hands with all the finesse of a drunken Viking. Aaron pushed her away with a brief telekinetic blast, but lost concentration as a cloud of freezing vapor swam over him. The ghostly outline of Aurora appeared superimposed over Sadako for an instant, seeping into her. The Nano sword slipped from her grasp, sticking into the concrete slab behind her like a spoon dropped into pudding. She teetered and fell to all fours, gasping, with one hand clutching her chest.

  “Anna, I owe you an apology,” wheezed Sadako, with an English accent. “Your chesticles really aren’t that small. Don’t worry about this one, Aaron, I’ve got her.” She sat back on her heels, staring into her shirt. “Poor girl. No wonder she’s so angry.”

  He forced himself to his knees. The room spun too fast to risk standing. He reached up and found the back of his head bloody and tender. Mamoru’s katana scraped across the floor as he shambled with a zombie’s gait toward his sister. Dark vapors coalesced around his feet; he stopped.

  His arm trembled as he brought his sword up. He hesitated, grumbling in Japanese. When his face snapped up, he wore a psychotic grin. White fire roared down his arms and he vanished in a streak of steel and skin.

  “Stop!” screamed Althea.

  Aaron forced himself up. Mamoru, in striking range of Althea, held the blade poised back as if to take the child’s head. Her eyes flared with light too intense to look straight at. Azure tendrils leaked in wisps from the corners; she wept energy.

  Mamoru’s arms slackened. The sword drooped as he took a step back. Althea held her ground, fists balled, glaring up at him. Dazed from the blow to the head, the sight of a little barefoot girl in a simple white dress staring defiantely up at a man with a large sword struck Aaron funny, and he laughed. This, of course, made his skull throb. He blinked, remembering he once again wore the uniform, and grabbed a stimpak from his belt. He looked at the
thin, red autoinjector in his hand, flicked the end cap off with his thumb, and jammed it into his shoulder. In seconds, a rush of energy flooded him from the synthetic adrenaline. Tingles crept over the back of his head along with the maddening squealing of nanobots mending cracked bone.

  Althea muttered something too low for him to hear. Mamoru backed away, looking frightened. The child took a step closer, making Mamoru retreat another step.

  The pain pounding in the back of Aaron’s brain faded once the coolness of the stimpak fluid migrated up his neck to his skull. He raised the E-90, unsure if he should aim it at Mamoru or Sadako.

  “Awright,” said Aaron. “What in the bloody hell is going on?”

  64

  Daughter of Rage

  Kate

  Sunlight shone in bands amid a haze of smoke hovering near the roof. Crashing, screaming, and shouting seemed far away. Kate struggled to breathe, but couldn’t draw in more than tiny sips of air. Pressure, as though an evil, hundred-pound duplicate of her heart sat outside her chest, pinned her to the ground. She wheezed, sucking in short, choppy gasps. Her back arched, prickling with sparks. Her arms and legs felt absent, no longer part of her, and her effort to grab the weight off her chest triggered convulsive twitching.

  Kate fought past the pain in her muscles. Inch by inch, pins and needles replaced numbness. She thrashed on the floor. Hot foam slid out of her mouth and over her cheek. A moment later, her body obeyed and she curled on her side, shivering.

  “Stop!” screamed Althea.

  Motherly instinct welled up out of nowhere. Kate sat upright, gazing around at a scene of carnage. She leapt to her feet in the ungainly stagger of a newborn deer, gaze drawn to Mamoru—too close to Althea with a sword. The child’s eyes shone with such light she flinched. It didn’t matter her protective urge came from a telempathic implant. After all the bad things she had done, she could have been punished in far worse ways than an irresistible urge to protect the person who had given her a real life.