Dying Light (6 page)

Gabriel stoops down and grabs a
handful of sand, clenching it in his fist. Once he stands, he
positions his fist over the globe, opening his hand slightly to let
the grains slip between his fingers in a thin, steady
stream.

As the sand hits the painted blue
surface, a weird thing happens. The globe begins to disintegrate.
Whatever the grains of sand touch becomes sand itself, until the
entire globe has fallen apart. The only sign it was ever there at
all is the heap between our feet, with the thin rod still
protruding from its center.

“
Well, shit.” I bend down
and touch the heap. The warm granules slide under my fingertips.
“This can’t be good.”

“
No,” Gabriel agrees,
kneeling down so we are eye-level.

“
So how do we save Earth?”
I search his face for answers.

Gabriel extends his wings. “That is
what you must decide.”

Ally

“W
hat do you mean you’re keeping her sedated? It’s been nearly
twelve hours.”

The sedative would’ve been out of her
system a mere hour after she was drugged. The sweat collecting on
her brow, which I sponge off every so often with a damp cloth, is
proof that her body is working hard to throw off the
drugs.

“
Jeremiah’s orders.” The
nurse shrugs and moves to the next bed, to a young man with a
broken arm.

“
Why would he want to keep
her sedated?” As soon as the question leaves my mouth I feel
stupid. I know exactly why. A calm incapacitated Jesse is better
than a living breathing one who would no doubt make high demands to
save her pug.

I pull my phone from my pocket and
consider texting Jeremiah. He won’t answer. I consider texting
Nikki next, but I can’t ask her to side with me against him. She’s
been loyal to Jeremiah and his cause long before I came along. With
a sigh, I slip my phone back into my pocket unused.

What can I do for Jesse right now?
Nothing. Not without help.

I imagine Nikki in bed, her arms
around me and her soft lips on my face. She cares about me and I
like her back but there’s this wide chasm between us. I don’t know
how to cross that gulf. Not as long as Caldwell is alive and the
danger is real. The same work that brought us together, keeps us
apart.

I can’t think about that now. Yes, I
could use her help, but I don’t need it. I just need a plan. A plan
for getting Jesse out of here before she wakes up, furious. And a
plan that will keep her from doing anything rash—like waging a solo
mission against Caldwell. I suppose one good benefit of her
sedation will be the few moments I’ll have to conjure such a
plan.

The automatic door swishes open, and I
prepare myself for Jeremiah or Nikki. Gloria limps into the room
wearing a cast over her broken fibula.

“
Gloria?” My heart hammers
at the sight of her. Gloria doesn’t live in Jeremiah’s tower,
having refused his offer for personal living quarters. She came
here for a reason.

She stops just short of the bed.
“They’re keeping her sedated.”

“
The nurse just told
me
.
What’s going
on?”

“
We have to get her out of
here.” She plops her sketchbook on top of Jesse’s legs. Jesse
doesn’t stir.

“
This building is the
safest place for her. Jeremiah is a bit of a control freak, but I
believe his intentions are good. He wants to protect his people,
that’s all. He doesn’t know Jesse like we do.”

“
It’s more than
that,”
Gloria flips a page and points at
a
detailed pencil sketch.

Jesse is standing in the aftermath of
an apocalypse. A city has collapsed around her and the sky is gray
with fallout. It takes me a minute to recognize the Chicago skyline
despite all the rubble. But in the distance, the Sears tower stands
untouched and half of Wrigley Field. Where Tate Tower should stand,
shows only a stretch of vacant sky.

“
We need to get away from
this building.” Gloria reaches up and yanks The Needle out of
Jesse’s arms.

“
Hey!” I blot at the blood
on Jesse’s arm with the white sheet stretched over her. “Be gentle.
You don’t know that the building will be bombed right this second.
When is that supposed to happen?”

She frowns. “We’ll stay with her until
she wakes up, and then we have to go.”

“
It could take an hour.
The nurses will come back to sedate her, and then what will we
do?”

“
We’ll guard the entrance,
lock down the room.”

An alarm sounds and Gloria rushes
forward to smash the close button. It doesn’t work. The sirens
continue to wail throughout the building. Gloria gives up on the
close button and tries to manually pull the door closed, but it
won’t budge.

“
So much for locking down
the room.”

Footsteps pound against the linoleum,
echoing someone’s approach.

Gloria peeks her head into the hallway
and swears.

“
Tell Jesse what’s going
on. Tell her she has to wake up.”

“
She’s
unconscious.”

“
Maybe she can hear you.”
Gloria knocks back the first wave of respondents, two nurses who
squeal. “No. You can’t come in here. Stop trying or I’ll be forced
to hurt you.”

As she talks down the nurses, I put my
lips against Jesse’s ear. I feel more than a little silly until I
remember something about coma patients hearing the voices of loved
ones.

“
Jesse?”

Nothing. Maybe she can’t hear over the
sound of wailing sirens.

I speak louder. “Jesse,
can you hear me? Wake up. It’s an emergency.
Wake up
!”

Jesse

“T
his is
weird
.”

Gabriel and I are standing in one of
Jeremiah’s medical rooms. The big, open wall lined with beds is too
bright and too warm. Ally is by my bedside, yelling into my ear,
and Gloria is in the doorway, refusing to let a herd of doctors and
nurses into the room. Every time they get too close she kicks at
the herd with her gigantic cast. One nurse cries out when the
plaster connects with her shin.

“
What’s all that racket?”
I want to cover my ears. I can’t. My body is stretched out in the
hospital bed with Ally standing guard over it.

“
Alice believes you are in
danger.” Gabriel’s wings hunch, reminding me of an angry cat with
an arched back. His fiendish green eyes survey the situation.
“Alice is usually right.”

I snort. “She’d love to hear you say
that.”

The commotion in the room doubles, and
I turn toward the clotted doorway. Jeremiah stands toe-to-toe with
Gloria who refuses to let him pass. Jeremiah’s red in the face but
his voice is steady.

“
Captain Jackson.” He even
manages a hint of deference. “Please let us into the
room.”

“
No.”

He pushes his glasses up the bridge of
his nose. “Jesse is in danger of hurting herself and innocent
people.”

An idea hits me. “My
shield.”

“
Cast it yourself.”
Gabriel opens his wings.

I groan. “How?”

“
You can command it,
Jesse. Picture it. Call it forth.”

I try to imagine what I would look
like, laying there with a shield shining all around me. A tickle
washes over my body and the shield appears, enveloping
me.

I smile. “That was pretty
easy.”

“
Oh thank god.” Ally
murmurs. Her shoulders slump and all the air whooshes out from
between her lips. “Keep your shield up, baby.”

I smile. “She called me baby. Did you
hear that?”

Gabriel blinks at me.

Gloria steps aside and lets the flood
of people enter the room. But now, none of them seem to know what
to do with themselves. They stand in a disjointed huddle, glancing
from my immobile form to Jeremiah as if waiting for
instruction.

No one moves.

“
What now?” I
ask.

Gabriel turns those green eyes on me.
“You are aware.”

“
I know I’m aware.” I
gesture at the room. “Hel-
lo
?”

He blinks at me.

“
Look. We talked about
this. I accept that you’re either a real angel or that my head is
totally busted from dying and you’re an illusion. But either way,
I’m going to need you to have good communication skills. We’ll
never get through this if you keep talking like a
wookiee.”

His eyes search my face and then he
wets his lips. “You are waking up.”

“
Good job.” I squeeze his
biceps in my hands. “I understood you perfectly.”

A hint of amusement crosses his face,
the corner of his lips turning up.

“
It’s like a foreign
language. You can’t give me cryptic messages
and
blank faces. I don’t know how to
interpret that.”

Gabriel grabs my hand, his fingers
brushing mine.

“
Uh, what are you
doing?”

He tugs me closer. “I am using body
language. I want to convey I am here with you.”

I push him off of me. “Okay. Too much
body language. And I know you’re here with me. Just look at
yourself.”

He looks down as his waist.

“
I didn’t mean literally.
Ugh, never mind.”

“
What will you do when you
wake up?” he asks.

Jeremiah grabs hold of Ally, wrenching
her away from my body.

“
Transfer my shield to
Ally.”

“
That is what they want,”
Gabriel warns.

I see what he means. The nurses stand
poised ready to prick me with a needle. They’re counting on me
dropping my shield to cover Ally.

“
Damnit,” I swear. “What
about the firebomb?”

He blinks at me with big eyes.
“Alice.”

“
Let’s fake them out. Make
a show of it.”

“
A show of it?” He repeats
each word carefully as if they’re made of fine china.

“
Yes.” I encourage him by
throwing in jazz hands. “A little razzle dazzle.”

His brow furrows.

“
Okay, we need to work on
your slang. Just make him
think
we are going to blow up the room. Got
it?”

On cue, my body begins to thrum and
shimmer with its pre-blast heat. The doctors and nurses all move
back.

Gloria smiles. “You’re pissing her
off.”

Jeremiah hesitates but his hold on
Ally tightens.

“
More razzle,” I tell
him.

The bed sheets catch fire, and the
medical team flees. Sensing the fire, the sprinkler system springs
to life. Cold water falls on my face and hands and I can feel it,
not on my invisible body, but on the one lying in bed. Fat drops
hit the back of my eyelids and it smells like the hosepipe I used
to drink from as a kid.

“
How can I feel the
water?”

I don’t need him to answer. When the
nurse’s took off with the drugs and needles, my subconscious saw
fit to shield Ally instead of me. Gloria tucks her sketchpad under
her shirt, pulling her flannel shirt over the pages to keep them
dry.

The impromptu shower seems to help
Jeremiah gain control of himself.

“
You don’t understand.” He
wipes at his glasses with his damp shirt. “This is what Caldwell
wants. He wants to get you away from the safety of Tate Tower. He
wants you to doubt us. If you go out there, Jason will find you.
Caldwell will get exactly what he wants. I only want to help
you.”

“
Keeping me drugged up is
a great way to show it.”

“
Keeping her drugged up
isn’t the best way to show it,” Ally echoes.

“
Thank you.” I point a
gracious gesture at her, but she can’t see me. I turn to Gabriel.
“How long is it going to go on like this?”

“
You’ll wake soon,” he
says.

“
Then we’re going to get
Winston.”

“
Listen to me, Jesse,”
Jeremiah says. He’s speaking to my sleeping body with as much
tenderness as you would afford a dying grandmother. “I’m sorry I
sedated you. But I need to protect my people. You understand that,
don’t you? Do not take my action as anything but well-intentioned.
I want to keep you safe. I want to keep Alice safe, and Captain
Jackson and my people. Don’t fault me for that.”

Gloria snorts. I don’t think I’ve ever
heard her do that. I’m sure she’s super insulted by the idea that
some dude thinks he’s supposed to protect her.

Jeremiah gives her a cold
look. “Fine. Leave. All of you. We won’t stop you. But I
am
trying to keep her
safe, Alice. Tell her that.”