Angel Burn Read online

  “IS THAT YOUR CAR?” asked the girl at the 7-Eleven checkout counter. “The shiny black one?”

  Alex nodded as he put a Big Gulp coffee down in front of her.

  “Cool,” breathed the girl, gazing out at the car. It was a Porsche Carrera, and the sunshine was glistening off it like liquid onyx. “We don’t see cars like that around here very often.”

  No, I bet you don’t, thought Alex, trying to remember where here was. Cattle Chute, Oklahoma, or some such dismal place. HOME OF THE ROOTIN’-TOOTIN’ COWBOYS! the bullet-ridden sign outside of town had proclaimed.

  “Pump three,” he told her.

  The girl smiled at him, widening her brown eyes as she rang up his coffee and the gas. “So, are you new in town?” she asked. VICKY, said her name tag. She was almost as tall as he was — which wasn’t that tall; he was just over five eleven — and her brown hair had been ironed so straight that you could get a paper cut from it.

  After-school job, he thought, pulling out his wallet. Sixteen or so. She probably goes to that giant high school that I passed just outside of town.

  The thought irritated and amused him in equal measure. He had only seen high school on TV: jocks in their letterman jackets, cheerleaders jumping around the field, couples hanging on to each other at the senior prom. It was another world, one so stupidly innocent that it was frightening. High-school students were old enough to be fighting, but none of them were doing it.

  Because hardly anyone actually knew that there was a war on.

  “Nah, just passing through,” he said. He handed her a couple of twenties.

  Vicky’s face fell. “Oh. I was just wondering if you’d be going to our high school . . . but I guess you’re sort of old for that. What are you — twenty-one or something?”

  “Or something,” he said with a slight grin. He was actually seventeen, but she was right in a way. In all the ways that mattered, he was old.

  She took her time getting his change. “How long are you here for? Because, you know — if you’re looking for something to do or maybe someone to show you around —”

  There was a beeping sound from his jeans pocket as his cell phone announced a text. Alex’s heart leaped. Turning away slightly, he pulled the phone out and flipped it open.

  ENEMY SIGHTED, ASPEN, CO, RESIDENCE, 1124 TYLER ST.

  Yes! Immediately, Alex felt the fierce buzz sweep over him that he always got when there’d been a sighting. Christ, finally — it had been over a week; he’d been going insane. Putting his phone back in his pocket, he smiled at Vicky. Why not? He’d never see her again, anyway.

  “Maybe next time,” he said, picking up his coffee. “Thanks, though.”

  “Sure,” she said, trying to smile back. “Well . . . have a good trip.”

  As Alex pushed open the swinging door, the too-cold air-conditioning abruptly gave way to a flat, burning September. He slid into the Porsche. It was low to the ground, and its black leather seats wrapped around him in a dark embrace. It was comfortable as hell, actually, which was good, since he practically lived in it. ASPEN, CO, he punched into the GPS. Estimated time of arrival, 2:47 a.m. Almost nine hours. He’d drive straight through, he decided, taking a gulp of coffee. He didn’t need sleep — God, that was all he’d been doing since his last assignment.

  Pulling out of the parking lot, Alex turned onto Highway 34 and headed north out of town. If you could call it a town: there were a few dozen grids of streets with clapboard houses and a couple of long, brightly lit strip malls, where the rootin’-tootin’ teenagers probably cruised up and down on Saturday night, drinking Bud Lights and shouting at each other. Just outside the town limits, it all ended and became dust and grain silos and oil pumps. Setting the cruise control to seventy, Alex turned on the radio. The Eagles came on, warbling about the Hotel California, and he grimaced. Switching to his iPod instead, he put on some neoclassical as the Porsche began to smoothly eat the miles.

  And, briefly, he wondered what Vicky would think if she knew he had a semiautomatic rifle in his trunk.

  The Rocky Mountains cradled Aspen deep within them, like a giant’s palm lightly cupping a handful of diamonds. The road twisted and turned down the mountain as Alex approached the city, his headlights sweeping the dark asphalt in front of him. Startled rabbits froze on the side of the road, their eyes wide, and once he disturbed a buck, sending it crashing and leaping into the woods.

  His car clock read 2:51 as he crossed into the Aspen city limits. Not bad. The GPS directed him to Tyler Street, a quiet, tree-lined avenue not far from downtown. One of the streetlights was flickering; the rest glowed silently, showing a row of houses with large bay windows and immaculate front lawns. No house lights were on. Everyone was asleep.

  Alex parked his car a few doors down from number 1124. Propping his elbows against the steering wheel, he surveyed the house, his dark eyebrows drawn together thoughtfully. Sometimes you could see a sign of them if you knew what to look for, but there was nothing here. It was just an ordinary house, though the front lawn wasn’t quite as pristine as the others. A few weeds grew here and there, spiking rebelliously up through the grass.

  Letting down the neighborhood — tsk, tsk, thought Alex.

  He’d transferred his rifle to the front seat before he began the descent into Aspen, and now he clicked the magazine into place and sighted along the rifle’s length, squinting through the infrared lens at the house. The front door snapped into an eerie reddish focus. He could even read the name on the wrought-iron mailbox that was affixed to the front porch wall: T. GOODMAN.

  Goodman. Alex snorted despite himself. The creatures often took human last names to help them blend in; nice to see that some of them had a sense of humor. He screwed the silencer onto the rifle’s muzzle. It was state of the art, as sleek and gleaming as the rifle itself. Now all he had to do was wait. He settled back in his seat, gazing at the house. Back in the days when they’d gone out in teams, the other AKs had always hated stakeouts, but they were part of the hunt to Alex. Part of the buzz. Your senses had to be on alert; you couldn’t relax for a moment.

  Almost an hour later, the front door opened. He had the rifle in place in less than a second, watching carefully through the lens. The tall man on the front porch paused to lock the door, then jogged briskly down the steps and strode off down the street, his footsteps echoing with purpose.

  Alex lowered the rifle, unsurprised that T. Goodman was in his human form — they normally showed their true nature only when they were feeding. He waited until Goodman had turned the corner, heading toward downtown. Then he got out of his car and softly opened the trunk. He pulled on a black trench coat, eased the trunk closed again and set off, the rifle hidden safely beneath the coat’s long folds.

  As he turned the corner, he could see his quarry about a block away, crossing the street. He slowed, letting his gaze drift out of focus. An aura swam into view around the dark figure: pale silver, with a faint blue light flickering feebly at its edges.

  Alex quickened his step. The creature hadn’t fed in days — which meant that he must be on the hunt now.

  Sure enough, the man led him to a bar downtown. SPURS, flashed the sign in front. A yellow-and-pink neon figure of a cowgirl wearing shorts and a tiny leather vest flashed on and off, waving her hat. There was the heavy pulse of music and a chorus of raucous male cheers.

  Recognizing the sign, Alex shook his head in grudging admiration. Spurs was one of those places where the female wait staff wore sexy clothes and danced on the bar. The men staggering out at this hour would be drunk and rowdy, not paying much attention to their surroundings — ideal if you were on the hunt. It was just the sort of place that he’d have chosen himself, in fact.

  A pair of bored-looking bouncers flanked the fr
ont door. T. Goodman melted into the shadows nearby, attracting no attention from either of them. Half a street away, Alex took up a position behind a parked Subaru, mentally calculating the fallout distance. He’d be fine, he decided; he’d gone for much closer than this in his time. The bouncers might catch some flak, though.

  Just then the heavy metal door to Spurs swung open, and a man wearing a disheveled business suit stumbled out. “Excellent night, my man,” he said, slapping one of the bouncers on the shoulder. “Those ladies are goo-od.” He shook his head in wonder, as if the power to describe just how good was beyond him.

  “Yeah, they’re real hot,” said the bouncer, looking amused.

  “Hope you’re not planning on driving, Eddie,” said the other one. “Why don’t you let us call you a cab?”

  Eddie made no reply. He wove off down the street, humming tunelessly to himself. One of his stumbling feet caught an empty beer can, and the sound of it echoed through the night. The bouncers glanced at each other and shrugged. Not their problem.

  Alex straightened as T. Goodman detached himself from the gloom and trailed off after the man, a tall, silent shadow. With the rifle propped firmly against his shoulder, Alex began to track him. It would be any second now; he was sure of it. They didn’t need privacy, just a relatively clear field. Not taking his eyes off Goodman, Alex drew a deep breath to center himself and then swiftly moved the focus of his energy up through his chakra points until it hovered somewhere above his crown.

  Immediately, he felt a slight shudder pass through him as the creature locked minds with its prey. He had been right — this was it. Wavering, Eddie stopped in his tracks, looking uncertain. Slowly, he turned around.

  With a dark ripple, Goodman’s human body melted away. A blinding, glorious light grew in its place until it was like a beacon that shone up and down the street, illuminating everything — the bar, the other buildings, Eddie’s small, frightened face. And at the center of the light was a glowing being seven feet tall, whose giant, spreading wings were such a pure white that they looked almost blue.

  “Jesus Christ,” breathed Eddie as the angel drew toward him.

  Half a street away, Alex could hear the bouncers laughing with a woman who’d stopped to ask them for a light. If any of them glanced this way, all they’d see would be Eddie standing on his own, wobbling drunkenly on the dark street.

  Leaning over the top of the car, Alex squinted through the lens, his hands cool and steady as he aimed the rifle. The angel’s face came into focus, magnified several times. As a human, Goodman was as physically attractive as all angels, though Alex knew that if he’d gotten a good look at his face, it would have seemed slightly weird — too intense, with eyes maybe a shade too dark for comfort. But now, in his ethereal form, Goodman’s features had an almost otherworldly beauty: proud, fierce. The halo that framed them radiated like holy fire.

  “Don’t be afraid,” soothed the angel in a voice that was a hundred chiming bells. “I am here for a reason. I need to give you something.”

  Eddie dropped to his knees, eyes bulging. “I — I —”

  The halo. Alex sighted on it, aiming for the deep, pure white at its heart.

  “It won’t hurt,” continued the angel, drawing closer. It smiled then, and its radiance increased tenfold, burning the night. Trembling, Eddie moaned and ducked his head, unable to bear the beauty of it.

  “In fact, you’ll remember this as the most meaningful experience of your life —”

  Alex pulled the trigger. As the pulsing energy of the angel’s halo was disrupted by the force of the bullet, the creature burst, without a sound, into a million shooting fragments of light. Alex ducked behind the car as a shock wave slammed past him, the angel’s scream of anguish echoing in his ears. Still in his enhanced state, he could see the energy fields of every living thing nearby affected by the aftershock: the ghostly outline of a tree, of a few stray blades of grass — all of them dancing and warping as if buffeted by a hurricane.

  Slowly, everything returned to normal. There was silence. Alex brought his energy focus back to his heart chakra, and the ghostly outlines disappeared. He shoved his rifle under the car for the moment, then walked over to Eddie, who still knelt, trembling, on the sidewalk. T. Goodman was gone, with no sign of him left.

  “Hey, man, you OK?” said Alex easily, crouching beside Eddie. The bouncers had stopped talking and were looking in their direction. Alex raised a casual hand to them. Everything’s fine. Dude’s just a bit drunk is all.

  Eddie turned a tearstained face toward him. He swallowed, shaking his head. “I — there was — I know you won’t believe me, but —”

  “Yeah, I know,” said Alex. “Come on, let’s get you up.” He put an arm around Eddie and helped him to his feet. Jesus, the guy could try dieting a little.

  “Oh, God . . . I’ve got such a headache,” moaned Eddie, leaning limply against Alex’s shoulder. Angel fallout, thought Alex. Eddie had only been a few feet away, and though most of it had blasted straight back at Alex, he’d still feel the effects for days. It was better than angel burn, though.

  Anything was better than that.

  “It was so beautiful,” mumbled Eddie, his head lolling limply. “So goddamn beautiful. . . .”

  Alex rolled his eyes. “Yeah, real beautiful,” he muttered. He started walking back toward the bar with Eddie shuffling along beside him. As usual, he felt the mix of pity and contempt that he always felt for civilians. Though he spent his life trying to save them, they were all so clueless that he didn’t get much pleasure from it.

  “Hey, I think our friend here needs a cab,” he said when he reached the bouncers. “Found him passed out on the sidewalk over there.”

  One of the bouncers chuckled. “Yeah, we’ll take care of it,” he said, taking the businessman’s weight from Alex. “Old Eddie’s a regular here, aren’t you, buddy?”

  Eddie rolled his head, struggling to focus. “Tom . . . I saw an angel,” he slurred.

  The bouncers burst out laughing. “Yeah, you mean Amber, right?” said the other one. “She wears those really short shorts while she’s dancing around on the bar.” He winked at Alex. “Hey, you wanna go in? No cover charge; our treat.”

  Alex had been in plenty of places like this in his time, mostly dragged along by the other AKs when he was younger. He thought they were boring as hell, to be honest. And though a drink sounded good, the thought of sitting in a Spurs with his adrenaline still pumping from the kill was a little too surreal, even for him.

  He shook his head, taking a step backward. “Nah, maybe next time. I’d better get going. Thanks, though.”

  “Anytime,” said the first bouncer. Eddie had passed out for real by then, slumped against the man’s broad shoulder like a sack of potatoes. The bouncer shifted his bulk impatiently. “Hey, Mike, you gonna call that cab company, or what? Sleeping Beauty here is fading fast.”

  “Yeah, tell him to lay off the hard stuff,” said Alex with a grin. “He’ll be seeing pink elephants next.”

  “THIS IS SO EMBARRASSING,” muttered Nina. She was leaning against the driver’s-side door with her arms crossed over her chest, shaking her head in disapproval.

  “Do you want it fixed or not?” I demanded. My voice came out muffled, because my head was buried somewhere deep in her Corvette’s engine, along with most of my upper body. I was trying to replace her carburetor, but her engine was so filthy that the nuts were practically welded in place with gasket grime — which is black and gross, in case you’re wondering.

  “Would you hand me that wrench? The one with the yellow handle?”

  Nina grumbled to herself as she crouched down to rummage through my tools. “I can’t believe you actually have a toolbox. I can’t believe you brought it to school with you.” She shoved the wrench into my hand.

  “Fine — should I stop? Just say the word.” I’d already removed her air filter by then and disconnected the fuel line and vacuum hoses. We were in the school parking
lot because I had figured it would be easier doing it there than in my garage at home, which is stuffed to the gills with old boxes and bicycles and crap that my aunt keeps meaning to throw out but hasn’t gotten around to yet. I had clearly reckoned without the embarrassment factor, though. Story of my life.

  “Willow! Don’t you dare,” hissed Nina, pulling at her brown bangs. “Look, don’t get all sensitive. Yes, I want it fixed; I just didn’t know that you were going to do it here — that’s all.”

  She glanced furtively over her shoulder at the playing field, obviously keeping an eye out for Scott Mason and his gang of swaggering football heroes. The school day was long over with, but football practice was still going strong. Meanwhile, the student parking lot was like an empty gray ocean around us, with only a few stray cars dotted about here and there.

  “Just be thankful I didn’t do it at lunchtime,” I told her. “I do have some sense of decorum, you know. Oh, come on, you —” I gritted my teeth as I struggled to turn the wrench, putting all of my weight on it. All at once the nut gave way. “Ha! Success.” I spun it free, then pulled the old carburetor out and checked it against the new one. Perfect match. Which was sort of a miracle, given that Nina’s Corvette practically belonged in the Smithsonian.

  Nina wrinkled her nose. “Decorum? You? Don’t make me laugh. Like, what are you wearing?”

  “Clothes?”

  “Willow. You look like . . . I don’t know; I don’t think there’s even a word for it.”

  “Really? Cool.” I grinned as I wiped my hands off on a piece of wadding. “That means I’m unique, right?” Despite the chill in the air, I was wearing a short-sleeved 1950s brocade blouse with my favorite pair of battered jeans. My black velvet jacket was draped over Nina’s open hood, out of harm’s way. I’d bought most of it at Tammy’s Attic, which has to be my favorite store ever.

  Nina closed her eyes and groaned. “Unique. Yes, you could say that. Oh, my God, Pawtucket is so not ready for you.”

  This was so true that it wasn’t even worth debating. Instead I took a screwdriver and started to scrape clean the area where the old carburetor had been, getting rid of all the old dirt and gasket material. Beyond gross. Picture a coal pit that’s fallen into an oil slick.