Color of Angels' Souls (33 page)

“
Signor Galileo
, if I'm not mistaken?” Jeremy ventured.

The young boy gave him a scornful look, the type the old Angels reserved for the Cherubs. He might not have been nearly as old as Flint, but the Italian had passed over more than 350 years ago. Flint had told him that Galileo was about to gain acceptance to the club of the Ancients, so maybe he would have an idea where Allison and the centurion had disappeared to.

“
Cosa
?” he snapped.

Jeremy, who didn't speak a word of Italian (besides
pasta, pizza,
and
chianti
) refused to be daunted.

“I'm a friend of Flint's,” he explained. “Or should I say, Decarus Pompei.”

Galileo gave him a suspicious look.

“And also a friend of Lili's,” Jeremy added.

When he heard her name, Galileo perked up immediately. A lustful smirk flashed across his boyish face, which was both discomforting and repugnant.

“
Ma si
, why didn't you say so right away!
Ahhh, la bella ragazza
! A feast for the eyes, our Lili. The fairest of the Angels, aye zink. But what she doing with a Cherub like you? Is she starting to bottle feed these days?”

“My friend Allison and I are seeking vengeance from someone. I think Lili probably finds us … amusing.”

“Ah yes,” laughed the Italian, waving his finger in the air. “A cure against boredom, I understand,
molto bene
. I no see that hotshot Flint for some time now. He doesn't come very often to New York. He usually spends his time with all da big shots. He likes places of power, where they make da big decisions. That's where you need to go, Cherub.”

Jeremy was about to ask him for more information, but Galileo had spotted a slender young Adonis with long curly hair and called out “
Leonardo, caro mio
!” and ran over to greet him. Jeremy had gotten the information he wanted. He should have realized sooner: Where was the best place in the world to meet a bunch of old Angels hungry for power and intense emotions?

Washington, D.C., of course!

He found Lili when he got back to Flint's apartment. Jeremy told her about his conversation with Galileo, and was stunned when the young girl began to clap her hands with delight.

“Oh, goody goody! I've been gone for much too long, and I miss my little pets so! Yes! Let's go back to Washington; that's a wonderful idea!”

Jeremy had no desire to find out who her “little pets” were.

“You live in Washington?”

“Actually, I live all over the place. But that's where all the power is, so of course I have an apartment near the White House.”

“So you think Galileo might have been on to something? Flint might have taken Allison there to meet an old red Angel? I mean … after he turned her Red?”

“I don't know, but we can always go have a look, can't we?”

Jeremy didn't hesitate a second. In some mysterious way, he felt as if he were connected to Allison, and he could feel that she was far away. He didn't understand how or why he knew, he just knew it, and that was all that mattered.

Lili and Jeremy left for Washington the next morning. Jeremy thought the voyage might be a hassle, but it turned out to be a piece of cake. They hopped on the first plane, and despite how worried he was about Allison, Jeremy actually found the ride exhilarating. Especially when Lili took him for a walk on the wings of the Boeing. At thirty thousand feet.

Once they arrived, Lili brought him straight back to her place. Like Flint, she had decorated a huge apartment with furniture and works of art. She had also painted the place with red and gold Mist, which gave the walls a beautiful peach color.

But there was something waiting for them that Jeremy found much more astonishing.

Her “little pets.”

Men. A good half dozen of them, all magnificent physical specimens. Their perfectly sculpted bodies would have made even the superb Clark green with envy. They may have been “pets” but they were hardly “little,” because all of them were well over six feet tall. Almost before Lili had even stepped through the door they were crowded around her. It was as if they had been freezing to death, and she was a warm fire that had come home to heat them back up. They began to fondle her reverently, as if she were a goddess, and she seemed to feed off their devotion, like a bright flame of vitality. Some began to kiss her, while others ran their hands over her body, until Jeremy began to find all the heavy petting a bit embarrassing.

It was like some weird fantasy was being played out before his eyes. All the men were dressed like Jeremy in simple loincloths, proudly displaying their perfectly sculpted bodies, and all had long, multicolored hair that fell nearly to their ankles, tied into sophisticated gold and silver knots. One was wearing tight-fitting pants made of red braided Mist, which he had tucked into shiny black thighboots. His hair was silvery white, even though he had the face of a twenty-year-old. Faced with such stunning beauty, Jeremy couldn't help but be impressed. Even if he had never been interested in men, he had to give them their due: Here was the perfect incarnation of the dominant male. Suddenly, the man bent over Lili and pulled her up tight against him, leaving no doubt as to his intentions. He kissed her hard on the mouth with a husky groan.

Jeremy couldn't stand it any longer and finally cried out.

The noise was so out of place that the man, who looked like he was about to have sex with her on the spot, jerked up.

A heavy silence filled the room when the Angels finally realized that Lili hadn't come home alone. The silver-haired man took a step back, one hand still tarrying on the small of her back.

“A new pet, oh fair and enchanting Lili?” he growled angrily. “Are we no longer enough for you?”

Fair and enchanting?
The guy talked like a knight at the round table. Jeremy had to make an effort not to crack up laughing.

“No, he is not one of my worshippers,” Lili whispered regretfully. (How could Jeremy possibly resist her charms?) “He has come here to find a girl, a Cherub who's lost her head and wants to become a Red. Not like us Blues!”

Her “worshippers” all laughed. If Lili had said something funny, Jeremy certainly wasn't in on the joke. One of them, a man whose skin was so black it almost looked blue, and whose ears stuck out from beneath his long hair held in place with finely sculpted silver bands, looked familiar to Jeremy. He couldn't help but stare. The man looked back at Jeremy and gave him a dazzling smile. Then Jeremy suddenly realized where he'd seen him before: He was a well-known actor! An actor who certainly hadn't died yet.

He took a closer look at the other Angels. Now he understood why he thought he had seen them all before. They were all upgraded versions of the most handsome men in the world, from the past and present. They were so enraptured with Lili that they had physically transformed themselves just to please her, which told him two things: first, that they must have been very old Angels. And second, that Lili was much more dangerous than he'd originally thought, because all of them were acting like drug addicts waiting for their fix. The red-haired goddess must have realized what he was thinking, because she suddenly pouted.

“Boys!” she ordered. “Leave us alone. Jeremy and I are on a mission.”

The disappointment and disbelief was easy to read on their manly faces.

The man with the long silver hair clenched his fists with rage.

“You are
chasing us away
, oh glorious Lili?”

“Temporarily,” she added. “You will be too great a distraction for me. I will come to find you when our mission has been completed.”

They slowly made their way out, tails between their legs. Before leaving, each Angel knelt in front of Lili and kissed her hand with devotion. All seven scowled at Jeremy as they left, and Jeremy got the same message loud and clear all seven times: “We'll meet again, friend, and you'll be sorry when we do.” Jeremy shuddered. Oh great, he had just set a new record! Seven enemies all at once, how about that? Things looked grim for the Brave Little Tailor … but this time, it wouldn't be seven flies!

When the last long-haired Adonis had finally left, Lili seemed to relax. She proudly gave Jeremy the guided tour of her apartment. At first, he couldn't have cared less about her little trinkets, but soon realized that Lili had put together a very impressive art collection, made entirely of Mist. It was absolutely amazing. Jeremy recognized several pieces signed by the great masters. Donatello, the Italian sculptor who had died in 1466, had recreated just for Lili his famous
David
, one of the first nude sculptures in bronze from the Renaissance. The statue, which was made of black Mist, looked so real that Jeremy almost thought the young boy would stretch his legs and get down from the pedestal. Across from this work was another triumphant
David
by Michelangelo, this time made of white Mist. The two artists had never met (not while they were alive anyway!), because Donatello had died nine years before Michelangelo was born, but the younger man's work had equaled—or even surpassed—the work of the master. The two glorious nudes seemed to be defying each other in silence. The furniture had been crafted by André-Charles Boulle, the greatest cabinetmaker of the seventeenth century, who had died in 1732. Jeremy couldn't understand how the artist had been able to recreate polished wood, the warm tones of red tortoise shell and golden bronzes, but by compressing the Mist, it looked as if Boulle had been able to completely master the material. Everything Jeremy saw was absolutely magnificent. After their death, the masters had carried on with their work, using the mysterious and surprising Mist. As he discovered each new piece, Jeremy was just as flabbergasted each time. Even more so when he realized that Lili's enormous sleeping chamber had been painted not only by Michelangelo, who had reproduced part of the Sistine Chapel, but also by Leonardo da Vinci! It was almost more than he could take. This time, the calculated indifference he was careful to display in front of Lili gave way to sincere admiration. The red-haired Angel had quite simply recreated an ephemeral museum.

“What happens when the Mist starts to disappear?” he asked curiously.

“You already saw at Flint's apartment how the older Angels can conserve the Mist for years and years. But it's true that over time it begins to break down, and eventually disappears. As soon as I notice some cracks appearing, I go find my friends, look at them longingly with my big green eyes, and persuade them to recreate their works for me … I just love art, don't you?”

Jeremy could only nod, unable to offer any more resistance. Yes, so did he. And he knew that he would love to meet the immortal masters. But now, what he really wanted to do was go find Allison. Ever since he'd arrived in Washington, he could feel that she had gotten closer to him—or rather, that he'd gotten closer to her. He was relieved, but couldn't help wondering if it was all a figment of his imagination. Or was there really some type of connection between the two of them? He hadn't talked about it with Lili, because he wasn't so sure she would have appreciated hearing any intimate details about his relationship with Allison.

“I'm pooped,” Lili suddenly announced. “We'll go visit the White House a little bit later, then the Capitol and the Pentagon. Let's hope our friends are there. But for now, let's eat and get some rest. We both could use it—especially you, Jeremy.”

It was true that he'd barely gotten any sleep over the past three days and was exhausted. He agreed, and Lili showed him his room. But before leaving, she hesitated at the door. For just a few seconds. Jeremy looked at her out of the corner of his eye, hoping and praying she wouldn't get too close to him. The memory of that man ravishing her right in front of him flashed before his eyes. He had to admit it: He would have loved to have been in the shoes of the white-haired Angel. And fighting every day, every second to resist the irresistible Lili was a constant struggle.

But the young girl decided not to put her spell on him. He wasn't ready—not yet; she could tell.

“What if we don't find them?” she finally asked slowly.

“We'll find them,” Jeremy said.

“But—”

“We'll find them! And Lili … thanks a lot for your help. I'll see you later.”

She could only stare at him in amazement, her emerald eyes gleaming. But she didn't insist. She walked out of the room with great dignity, and Jeremy finally sighed with relief. He didn't know how much longer he would be able to resist Lili. Whatever it took, he had to find Allison, and fast!

If he didn't, he couldn't promise anything.

After a refreshing nap, they quickly ate some Mist and headed straight off to the White House. Lili knew that some of the most ancient Angels, both red and blue, had set up living quarters there, but Jeremy never could have imagined that the place would be swarming with so many Angels of every imaginable color. The Oval Office was like a firing range, with words of advice, orders, and loud voices shooting back and forth over the heads of the living. The agitation seemed to be at its peak around the president, and the whole room was filled with a feverish excitement.

“Have the Angels declared World War Three or what?” Jeremy finally exclaimed, deafened by the noise.

“Oh, it's always like this,” Lili said with a captivating laugh. “The Reds yell advice at the president and his staff in order to create the maximum amount of fear and suffering, but they have to be careful not to get all the living killed. It's hard to find a balance. The Blues on the other hand do their best to maintain peace and prosperity, but it's hardly an easier task. Politicians, people in power, artists, visionaries, and survivors are usually more receptive to our suggestions, because they usually have a lot of imagination. That's why we can be so effective. But as you can see for yourself, you have to yell at the top of your lungs to make the living hear you.”