A Matter of Time (The Angel Sight Series) (20 page)

***

Kade and I started down the street, watching the night sky for any close or brighter-than-usual stars that might hint to a Fallen flying nearby. With the lights of the city dark, the stars shone like they had in the country. It was a beautiful—and terrifying—sight.

When we reached the end of the block we waited for the survivors as they followed, one by one. We walked for hours that way, taking turns calling Cam’s phone. Each time he didn’t answer I sank back a little further from the others. I tried not to worry, but he could be anywhere and in any condition.

The second the group started to complain about fatigue and making more noise than they should have, Kade checked out a few buildings and found us a place for the night. Despite our slow pace, he didn’t bark another word about leaving anyone behind.

I swore sometimes Kade was like a big, unloved dog. All bark and no bite. Except he wasn’t unloved and he knew it. He knew because I had told him. He was the one that said nothing back.

An imaginary knife twisted in my side.

“The windows on the first floor are low enough that you won’t be seen as long as we don’t take the units on the street side. And absolutely no lights,” Kade said. He helped the military woman, Rosa, engage the mine thingie at the front entrance.

I chose a unit at the far back and waited for Kade to finish, knowing he’d have something to berate me about when he returned.

“This is dangerous,” he hissed after closing the door behind him. “Those people in there are unpredictable. You shouldn’t have uprooted them from what they know.”

“What makes you have so little faith in humanity?”

“Because I’ve seen what humans can do when they’re scared. I’ve seen how fast they can turn their backs or raise a weapon to those they love. What gives you so much faith in a group of people you didn’t know ten hours ago?”

“I have to believe in them, okay? I need those people to make me feel human again. All I can feel lately is anger and hate and this darkness Lucien put inside me. Those people haven’t turned on each other. They’ve been out there with no food and nowhere to go for weeks. They’ve taken care of each other, given each other love and support, when all you and I have done is fight.”

Kade pulled back. There were two, maybe three seconds of understanding before he dealt the blow.

“Here’s a tip for you. Never pin your hopes on someone else. You’ll only end up disappointed.”

I reeled my anger in. I couldn’t take any more of him without wanting to reach for that dark place inside me. Instead, I pulled a blanket out of the closet, laid it on the floor, and curled up in a ball, waiting for sleep to come.

***

A set of hands jolted me awake, dragging me out of bed. I jumped back, fighting off the faceless hands and arms. Three people stood in the black room. “What’s wrong?” I asked, trying to pick them out in the darkness.

They grabbed me again, all rough hands and strong grips. This time I let them pull me into the apartment one door down the hall where the six of them had set up camp together. Whatever this was, they needed me for it, and not Kade.

A candle flickered in the center of the room, against Kade’s orders, but they had covered the windows with black trash bags. The other three waited—the old woman, her daughter, and the Asian man in his fifties.

Rosa, the ex-Army soldier, pushed me down in a chair while the other two men watched.

“What happened?” I asked, keeping my voice quiet. I had no idea what time it was, but my guess was it had to be an hour or two until sunrise.

“I thought you looked familiar when you busted in,” the man in the tattered suit said. “When your partner called you Ray, it all came together. You’re the one they’re looking for.”

I pushed out of the chair. Rosa jerked my shoulders back, shoving me back down. Heat enflamed my cheeks. An instant flash of anger oozed from my pores.

No. These were humans; the people I was trying to save.

“You don’t understand. We’re the good guys. I’m here to stop them.”

The three on the floor wouldn’t meet my eyes. They must have taken another vote, and this time it seemed to be a fifty-fifty split.

“If we turn you in, all this stops. Everything goes back to normal,” the overweight man in sweats that had been first to accept my offer of food said.

“You aren’t getting it. That’s not how this works. You turn me in and things only get worse. You think those men out there are going to leave Earth in peace? No, they’re going to suck everything good out of it and leave it an empty husk. And that’s just the beginning. They’ll turn it into Hell on Earth.”

My three kidnappers didn’t move.

They wouldn’t know Hell because they’d never been there. Bitterness coated my tongue. “I don’t have to explain myself to any of you.” I pushed out of the chair again, ducking under Rosa’s attempt to stop me.

She lunged at me, tackling me and pinning me to the floor.

Pinpricks of memories flowed behind my eyes. Lucien pinning me to his torture rack. His breath brushing against my neck. His tongue flicking out to lick the blood off my face.

“Let me go,” I snarled.

Don’t flip out. They’re just scared. Scared, but not dangerous, not like Kade said. He wouldn’t be right about these poor people.

I stopped struggling, even though Rosa’s knee was digging into my side. “You don’t want to wake my partner.”

“Too late.”

All of us looked toward the doorway where Kade stood. Blackness engulfed his eyes.

“El Diablo,” Rosa said.

Kade focused on her. “Not quite, but pretty damn close.”

She released me and stepped back.

I pressed a hand to my side as I stood. “Kade, I’m fine. They were confused, and scared.”

“Not as scared as they should be.”

With his eyes like that I couldn’t read him, until he drew toward them.

I looked at the six not quite helpless, but still innocent humans, and I stepped in front of Kade.

“Kade, don’t do this.” I pressed my palms against his chest. The shock of touching him again, of our connection, hit me full force. The very air crackled. The building could have come tumbling down around us and I wouldn’t have noticed. “Please.” I stared into his eyes, trying to claw through the darkness to get to him.

His eyes didn’t change. He continued to stare beyond me, to the survivors. It was as if I didn’t exist.

Strange that I could be stopped dead by this uncanny, heart-jolting connection with just a touch, yet he remained completely unaffected, barely registering my presence. It was the last several days repeated over and over again. Whatever we had shared, whatever he had felt in Hell, he didn’t feel it here. He felt … nothing. I had poured my heart out to him, and he couldn’t even stomp on it because it would require too much energy. To him I wasn’t the girl he’d once cared for, I was the fly buzzing around his meal.

I took a step back, colder from my new knowledge. The beginnings of stupid, useless tears pricked my eyes. “Fine,” I said, bitterness lacing my voice. “Then start with me.”

Chapter Thirty

Kade

Through the hunter’s vision—nothing but blacks, whites, and grays—the dark of night fell from the room. I’d start with the Army girl. It might not have been all her idea, from what I overheard in the hallway, but she’d had her hands on Ray. That was good enough for—

A hand centered on my chest. Narrow, delicate fingers pressed into my shirt. I would have closed my eyes, savored the feel of it, but I couldn’t trust what the humans would do. Before I could think about anything beyond that touch, it was gone. Ray backed up to the crowd of humans. Liquid swam in her eyes.

“Fine, then start with me.”

We had one goal in bringing her to the city: get her to the angels so they could teach her how to eliminate the Fallen. Every single one.

Including me.

Cam had suggested he’d overheard the angels claim Ray could kill all of the Fallen. It was Earth’s only hope for survival. Ray had missed the glance Cam speared me with after he said it. His apology and warning all in one.

I stepped forward, watching the Army girl’s eyes widen, needing that fear to spur me on, to help me forget, and just feel.

My pulse pounded in anticipation. The girl’s mouth hung open, her bottom lip quivering.

Ray moved to step in front of her, stalling my momentum.

“You still want to save them?” I asked, my voice a snarl. “That scum would have delivered you to the Fallen.”

The anger drained from around her eyes. “They were confused. Scared.”

I had to make her see I needed this, that they needed to be punished. “And when humans are scared, they make selfish decisions. Like I said.”

“Not all of us are like that. Look at them. Only three went along with it. What if they thought they were doing the right thing? And what about the others? They wanted nothing to do with it.”

Watching Ray with her back to the trained soldier made me more than nervous. A feeling I’d never experienced in my hunter’s state. It threw everything off.

“Cover your eyes,” the old lady said to her daughter. She’d obviously seen the Fallen in action before and knew what our black eyes could do.

All the humans did as she said, except for Rosa, the one I was most worried about. The one I needed to start with … soon.

I licked my lips, practically tasting her life on my tongue.

But I needed Ray out of the way first. Influencing the soldier would only push Ray farther toward them. I needed a new plan.

I blinked away the hunter’s vision, temporarily driving back the need. I had to calm Ray and get her away from that woman. Then I could release my tenuous hold on this hunger and go wild. “And what about Cam? When he left, all you could think about was finding him. Are they more important than him?”

The words hit Ray like a punch. Hurt exploded across her face. Maybe I’d gone too far, but she had to know saving her planet would come with sacrifices. Her precious Cam might not make it out of this alive either.

The man on the far left, the one in the sweats, opened his eyes. He wasted no time making a run for the door.

I could have stopped him. I had plenty of time. But the fewer of them I had to look after right now the better.

The Army woman called out for him, “Cliff!” Her voice powered through the silence cloaked over the city.

I lunged forward, knocking Ray out of the way, grabbing the woman by the throat and pinning her against the nearest hard surface. “You say another word,” I growled, “and I tear your throat out in a way that will keep you breathing.”

The woman trembled like a cold puppy. Pathetic.

A second later a loud explosion boomed through the hall, rocking the ground. My eardrums hummed.

Cliff must have forgotten about the claymore.

“Everyone out!” I called, watching them scramble toward the door.

The Army woman was the last of the humans to pull it together.

Ray waited for me. Guess she wasn’t as pissed at me as she thought. We linked arms, her grabbing mine while I locked onto hers, and we pushed through the cloud of dust in the hall toward the front door.

Any Fallen within a mile and a half range would have heard it. Guess I should have stopped that jackass after all.

Thick black smoke and the smell of burnt flesh stung even my eyes. There was no way they’d all make it out of here before a patrol arrived.

I sucked in a breath, and remembered how the Army woman smelled, the fear seeping off of her. When I opened my eyes again, my hunter’s sight was clear, almost completely unhindered by the smoke.

I backed Ray up to the wall furthest from the blast. She didn’t as much as flinch. “Stay here. Count to twenty. If I don’t come back for you, go back the way we came and find another way out.”

She covered her nose and mouth with the sleeve of her jacket and nodded through a coughing fit. I would have kissed her if I didn’t think she’d slap me for it.

I left her side, starting my own count.

Twenty, nineteen, eighteen.

I grabbed the two survivors closest to the front door. I pulled them out and shoved them straight ahead.

Seventeen, sixteen, fifteen, fourteen, thirteen.

I went back in for the mother and daughter next even though they were furthest away.

Twelve, eleven.

The old woman slipped over a chunk of Cliff’s remains. I yanked her to her feet and pushed her out the door after her daughter.

Ten, nine, eight.

I grabbed the last survivor. The Army woman. I held on to her.

Seven, six, five.

I stared into her eyes which were wide in terror, trying to fight the wrong decision away.

Four, three.

With a forceful shove, I directed her toward the door.

Two, one.

I ran back in for Ray, who hadn’t moved.

“I told you twenty.”

She coughed into her jacket as I guided her through the smoke. “I gave you two more seconds. Benefit of the doubt.”

The humans had gathered on the other side of the street, regrouping.

“They’ll find a place to hide. We have to go.”

“We can’t just leave them!” she pleaded.

“As soon as we link up with Cam, we’ll fill him in. He’ll make sure they get out. Staying with them will only put them in more danger. The Fallen are hunting
us
. They won’t care about them.”

And then there were five.

She watched as the humans climbed one by one through a broken window in the building across from us, pure concern humming through her.

“We’ll lead the Fallen away, make them chase us.”

She nodded now, one hundred percent on board with my stupidest plan yet.

My goddamn little martyr.

We ran together through the middle of the street, hand in hand—when we didn’t have to deal with climbing over obstacles. We made it all of three blocks before the telltale sound of flapping wings came for us.