Guardian Angel (33 page)

Raider had been driving us straight to the Royal Gate, which was exactly where I would have ended up had I remained on the Wolf plane. Twice now I had narrowly avoided the reunion that could have brought this mission to a close. The easiest way – and perhaps the only way – to meet my first sister was to simply get caught by the Angels. But that negated the possibility of killing her and getting away with it.

But what if I didn’t need to get away with it?

I immediately shook the thought from my mind. No, that wasn’t an option I was prepared to entertain. Assuming that I could somehow resolve my conflicting mission rules about killing and not killing Cat, I also had to come back alive. Despite the awful request that I had once made of my team, surviving this mission was one of my rules too. For Cindy and for Alia, and of course for myself, I had to restore the only real family I had left.

“Adrian?” said Ed Regis. “You in or out?”

“Huh?” I said. I looked down at the cards in my hand and mumbled, “Out, I think.”

“You okay? You look a little dazed.”

“Oh, I guess I’m just sleepy.”

I had stayed up with Terry all through the previous night, and though I had slept in the car seat during the morning, I still felt worn out. It was only about 8pm but I bid the crowd goodnight and headed to the room next door.

Alia followed me. My sister probably wasn’t that sleepy, but she looked like she was tired of the card game and wanted a little quiet time.

We didn’t bother changing. As we slipped into our beds, Alia said nervously into my head,
“I hope Terry doesn’t tell Mrs. Harding that Marion is Raider’s daughter.”

“You don’t trust Harding?” I yawned.

Alia shook her head.
“I don’t trust anybody when it comes to how we treat our enemies.”

I bit my lip. “Well, like Raider once said, she trusts us so we should trust her in return.”

“I suppose.”

“At least she’s not a Guardian,” I added as I telekinetically flipped off the lights. “I’m sure she’ll do what’s right for Marion.”

And with that last, comforting thought, I closed my eyes.

When I woke, the room was still dark, and I heard Alia’s quiet snores over her telepathic murmuring. The bedside clock read a little past 1am.

I stretched my arms and legs a little, and then rested my head back onto my pillow, wondering if Ed Regis and the Wood-claw Knights were still playing cards next door. Perhaps I would join them.

Turning my head, I looked over at Alia’s bed and listened to her quiet telepathic gibberish. I had become so accustomed to my sister’s nighttime telepathy that I knew I would miss it horribly when she someday outgrew it.

“Danger…”

I wondered for a moment if I had just imagined it. Alia didn’t usually say anything coherent in her sleep.

“Danger… Out…”

“Alia,” I said quietly. “Wake up.”

“Out!”

I telekinetically shook her body a little. “Wake up, Ali! You’re having a nightmare.”

Alia sat up on her bed and looked over at me.
“Addy?”

“It’s okay,” I said soothingly. “You were just having a nightmare.”

Alia blinked twice.
“No I wasn’t.”

I stared at her, listening to the silence for a minute more.

“Come with me,” I said to her as I got out of my bed and put my shoes on. “Something’s wrong.”

I made my way back toward the other room with Alia on my heels. I knocked loudly on the door, and it was opened by Ed Regis. The lights were still on inside, as was, by the look of the table, the card game.

“They’re not here yet,” Jerky informed me from the table.

“How much longer?” I asked, stepping into the room.

“Like I said before,” growled Hammer, “they’ll get here when they do.”

“What’s the matter?” asked Ed Regis.

“I’m not sure,” I replied honestly, still listening to the ever-so-faint sounds in my head, “but I think we’re in some kind of trouble.”

“What kind of trouble?” Hammer asked sharply, standing up from the table.

“Like I said, I don’t know.” I walked over to one of the beds where Hammer had carelessly left his pistol. “I think you might need this,” I said, picking it up and checking the safety.

“Danger… Claw… Out… Coming…”

“Well, hand it here, then,” said Hammer, reaching out to take the gun from my hand.

I was about to give it to him, but just then the message finally became clear in my head.

“Hey!” said Hammer, entirely unamused as he watched me level the pistol on him. “Never point a gun at someone unless you–”

I shot him twice in the chest.

Jerky drew his gun from his side holster. But before he could even flip off the safety, Ed Regis slammed his fist into Jerky’s face, knocking him down onto the floor and sending the gun flying.

Ed Regis had acted on instinct, but he was just as surprised as Hammer had been at my treachery. “What the hell is going on?” he yelled at me.

“Danger, Adrian!”
said Candace’s frantic voice in my head.
“Get out now! Wood-claw has fallen! They’re coming for you!”

I didn’t need to relay the message. We heard tires screeching outside.

Ed Regis checked the balcony as I fired a single round into each of Jerky’s legs. Alia was screaming a protest into my head but I wasn’t listening.

“We can’t use the car,” reported Ed Regis. “They’ve blocked off the exits.”

I tucked Hammer’s pistol under my belt. Ed Regis led Alia and me out of our room and down the corridor. As we got to the stairs, we heard shouts and many rushing footsteps from below.

“Back! Back!” yelled Ed Regis, pulling us in the opposite direction. “Adrian, make an exit!”

He meant the window at the end of the corridor, and I telekinetically blasted it out without stretching my arms forward.

“Go!” shouted Ed Regis as we got to the shattered window.

He turned around and, pointing his pistol down the corridor, fired several times at the Wood-claw Knights that had just reached the top of the stairs.

I grabbed Alia’s hand and we jumped from the window together. It was only one floor down and I didn’t bother using my telekinesis to soften our landing.

“Come on!” I shouted up at Ed Regis.

After releasing a few more covering rounds, Ed Regis jumped down too, landing heavily but without injury.

We were on the left side of the hotel, opposite the parking lot, and we sprinted toward the road as two fireballs from the pyroid Knights at the window smacked into the concrete. Another fireball grazed my left arm, setting my sleeve alight, but I quickly slapped it out with my right palm and kept running.

There were only a few cars on the road, which was good because otherwise there might have been a major accident when Ed Regis boldly stepped in front of the first one that came our way. It was a junky beige pickup truck.

As the pickup came to a screeching halt just inches from Ed Regis, the driver stuck his head out his door window and bellowed, “What the hell do you think you’re doing?!”

“Get out,” commanded Ed Regis, pointing his pistol at the driver. “Leave the keys.”

“Over my dead body!” the man yelled back.

Before Ed Regis could call the man’s bluff, I telekinetically unlocked the pickup’s passenger-side door, opened it, undid the driver’s seatbelt, and yanked the very surprised man out onto the side of the road.

“Give me your gun,” Ed Regis said to me. “You drive.”

I pulled Hammer’s pistol from my belt and tossed it to Ed Regis, who caught it in his left hand. Ed Regis climbed onto the pickup’s cargo bed, which was empty. Alia followed me into the front and pulled the door closed as I floored the accelerator.

I had been expecting the Knights to jump out the window and chase us on foot, but they had doubled back to their vehicles. In the rearview mirror, I saw a dark green van and a hefty black SUV pull out of the hotel’s parking lot and join the pursuit. Our pickup truck wouldn’t be able to outrun them.

We were on a wide, open road that ran around the edge of the city, and there wasn’t enough traffic at this time of night to dissuade the Knights from coming at us full force.

“Seatbelts, Alia!” I shouted, keeping my hands firmly on the wheel. “Mine first!”

As Alia reached around my body to pull my seatbelt, I caught sight of something metallic in her hand. “Where’d you get the gun?!”

“It’s Jerky’s,” Alia replied aloud, drained by the pistol she was holding.

I snatched it from her.

“You drive!” I said, opening the rear window and crawling out onto the cargo bed.

Ed Regis gave me a disbelieving look as I sat down next to him, but now wasn’t the time to argue tactics. Alia knew how to drive, and she could probably even reach the accelerator.

Ed Regis and I watched from the cargo bed as the SUV and van closed their distance. I couldn’t tell in the darkness how many people were on board, but they weren’t firing at us. They wanted me alive, which meant they were probably trying to drive us off the road.

“I’ll take the van,” said Ed Regis.

I pointed my pistol at the driver of the SUV, who was now close enough to identify. It was Wood-claw’s Head of Security, Isabel “Tigress” Ferris.

“Addy!”

My pistol was knocked from my hands as we were engulfed in the deafening sound of shattering glass and twisting metal. Alia had run a red light, and a small sedan had slammed into us from the left side. Our pickup’s rear swung wildly from side to side as Alia fought to regain control.

I felt my power drain slightly and discovered that I had a little cut on my left hand. Ed Regis was also injured. He had hit his head against something, and blood was trickling down the side of his face.

Ed Regis had lost his guns too, but I found one of them lying next to me and passed it back to him. Alia had managed to steady our pickup and was regaining speed.

The sedan that had broadsided us was out of sight, but the two Wood-claw vehicles were close upon us now. Ed Regis fired at the van’s windshield until his gun was empty, and a second later the van veered sharply to the right and tipped over onto its side, grinding to a stop.

There was no time to celebrate. Tigress’s SUV slammed into the rear of our pickup, jolting us violently. I tried to telekinetically grab the SUV’s steering wheel, but Tigress kept a firm grip on it. I couldn’t focus my power well because of the cut on my hand. Tigress hit us again, this time from the rear right, and Alia finally lost control of the pickup.

As we spun out on the road, the SUV came to a halt beside us, and four men, armed with pistols, jumped out from the rear. Three survivors from the overturned van had also come running. Two of them carried automatic rifles.

“That’s enough!” shouted Tigress, getting out of the SUV and walking up to us, pistol drawn. “No more running! It’s over!”

She quickly opened the driver-side door and pulled Alia out, firmly holding her upper right arm. Alia didn’t struggle.

“It’s over,” Tigress said again, breathing heavily. “The war is over. It’s time to stop running.”

I saw another one of our pistols lying at my feet. I was too drained for a focused blast, but I wasn’t going to be taken alive like this.

I was about to grab the pistol, but before I could, a small black dot appeared between Tigress’s eyes. Releasing her grip on Alia, Tigress crumpled backwards down onto the road. Two more shots rang out, and two more Knights fell. Both were headshots.

“On your left!”
Candace shouted into my head as the remaining Wood-claw Knights scrambled for cover behind their SUV.

Ed Regis and I jumped down from the cargo bed. Ed Regis grabbed Alia’s hand and pulled her along as we sprinted toward Scott’s white van that had materialized at the corner of the street. The side door was open, and Candace and Scott were providing covering fire from inside as the Wood-claw Knights shot back at us, no longer trying to take us alive. Little holes appeared all over the side of the van as its windows exploded, and even more bullets ricocheted around us, but we didn’t stop.

“Go! Go! Go!” shouted Scott as we piled into his van.

The van lurched forward. Scott slid up front beside Rachael, who was driving, and Ed Regis pulled Alia into the back with him. Candace closed the side door and sat with me in the middle.

Still high on adrenaline, I couldn’t help laughing as I turned to Candace and said, “I didn’t know you turned telepathic!”

“Bet you didn’t think I could shoot either,”
said Candace, giving me a quick peck on the cheek.

“Everyone alright back there?” called Rachael.

“We’re good,” I reported automatically.

“Stay sharp,” said Rachael. “We’re not out of this yet.”

Rachael was right: Though there was no immediate pursuit, our windows were shot out and the side of the van was riddled with bullet holes. We weren’t going to get far before someone called the police on us. But I was more worried about Terry and Marion right now. What had happened to them? Were they still alive?

I was about to ask Candace when Ed Regis said from behind me, “Adrian, we have a problem.”

I turned around in my seat. Ed Regis had a fair amount of blood on his face and neck, but I suspected that it looked a lot worse than it really was. I was about to tell Alia to heal him, but then I saw Alia, whose face looked paler in the moonlight.

I saw the blood trickling from her lips.

Chapter 16: On the Far Side of Darkness

Entering her lower back dangerously close to her spine, the bullet had gone straight through her, opening a hole on both sides of her body. Panting heavily, she opened her mouth to say something, but then her body went limp. She was bleeding out.

“Give me something to cut her shirt with!” said Ed Regis, keeping his hands pressed hard over the entry and exit points.

Scott handed me a small knife, which I passed to Ed Regis. My hands felt sluggish and everything was in slow motion as my whole world was plunged into icy waters. Ed Regis quickly cut up Alia’s blood-soaked shirt to make bandages like he had for me when I got blasted in the mountains. As he worked, all I could see was my sister’s deathly white face, her eyes open but hardly moving. Alia had managed to heal herself just a little before losing her power completely, but even so, there was a lot of blood. By the smell, I knew that it wasn’t just torn flesh.