Marked (10 page)

“Hey…what’s up, Gabe?” David bared his teeth.

There was a long pause before the archangel lifted his eyes from his paper and gazed upon David. Kara saw him fully. Tall and powerful, with fierce black eyes that seemed to pierce through you. His face was dark and commanding; a magnificent beast of a man and as dangerous as a grizzly bear. His face was twisted in a scowl. “It’s
Gabriel
,” growled the archangel as his mood darkened. “Ah—and here is our
famous
delinquent.” The archangel Gabriel towered over them, narrowing his eyes.

Kara bit the inside of her cheek.
Wow—does
anybody
like David in Horizon?

“Ha, ha, ha—very funny, Gabe,” David said and turned to give Kara his trademark wink. He rolled his head back to Gabriel. “So…got anything good for us?”

Gabriel’s dark brown eyes flashed with resentment. “That depends on what you mean by
good
. But something has come up which might suit you, and your
particular
way of doing your job.”

Kara felt a poke at her side. David raised his eyebrows. With a goofy smile painted across his face, he gave her two thumbs up. She smiled back and nodded. While David shifted with excitement, Kara studied Gabriel. He got up from his chair and walked over to an oracle to his right. They exchanged words and after a moment Gabriel came back with a file clutched in his hand. He glanced at Kara for the first time, for about two seconds, and then he glared back at David.

“This assignment should agree with your rookie,” boomed the archangel, “as it is simple and should not have any
complications
.” Kara noticed the emphasis on the word
complication
. Gabriel stepped forward and thrust the file at David.

“Seems simple enough,” said David after a moment, a slight lifting at the corners of his mouth. “And right up our alley.” He closed the file.

Gabriel’s hands turned into fists. “Remember our last conversation, David.”

Kara realized that wasn’t a question.

“No fooling around, you understand? I’m tired of covering up your mess. If you don’t smarten up and take your job seriously, you’ll be stricken from your GA post.” He pointed a large finger at David. “This is your
last
warning!”

David kept smiling. “It’s all good, Gabe.”

“I’m
dead
serious, David!”

David rolled his eyes. “Ha, you’re already
dead
!” He placed his right hand on his chest. “Don’t worry, Gabe. I’ll be a good little soldier—I promise.”

“David, stop it! You’re going to get us in trouble,” whispered Kara.

“Don’t worry—Gabe loves me,” whispered David through his teeth.

“You’re so full of crap! Oh no—”

The archangel turned his attention to Kara. His dark eyes focused on her unnaturally, as though trying to break into her mind. He blinked and looked back to David. “After this
simple
assignment, I want you and your rookie to report back to me. Understand? She still needs more combat training.”

Kara followed Gabriel’s gaze over to the closest blue tent, where two guardian angels fought one another with swords. Their feet moved quickly in the sand, kicking up little clouds of red dust. Their weapons collided with loud clatters.

The oracle’s voice woke her from her trance. “What are you waiting for? Get to it!” he yelled and clapped his grubby little hands together. “No time to waste! There are
lives
to be saved!” He turned around and looked at the clock. “Quickly now, you have less than an hour!” He waved his short arms in the air as he urged them on.

David turned and faced Kara. “Let’s go.” He walked out of the red tent, with Kara at his heels.

“DAVID!” bellowed Gabriel. “Remember what we discussed!”

“Sure thing, Gabe,” answered David as he turned back around. He grabbed Kara by the elbow and steered her out from the tent.

And when she glanced back and met Gabriel’s eyes, she saw a flash of suspicion in them. She quickly looked away.

After they replenished themselves with weapons in the weapons tent, Kara followed David down a slight slope to one of the many pools. Loud
plops
could be heard in every direction as hundreds of guardian angels plunged into them. Kara grimaced. A splash of salt water hit her face. She heard a motor running and turned to see a contraptions which looked like giant vacuum cleaner. It rolled up to a neighboring pool and spit out the salt from its belly into the water.

“This place just gets on weirder by the minute,” Kara said.

David placed himself behind a short line of guardian angels and waited to climb up to the pool’s deck. “You ready?”

A old man, five pools down, pressed his hands together in front of him, squatted, and with great effort he leaped into the air and belly flopped into the water—a huge smile on his face.

“I’m not sure,” said Kara. Water spilled out and around the edges of the pool. “What happens if I fail again?” Now Kara watched an Asian couple holding hands as they jumped into the pool together yelling, “woo hee!”

“You won’t. You’re a super hero chick, remember?” David nudged Kara on the arm with his fist.

Her face lit up. “That’s right! I can take care of a few shadow demons.”

“Now you talkin’”.

“I’ll show them my special chick moves—” She mimicked some martial art techniques with her arms and jumped up and kicked the air with her feet, “and send them packing!”

David searched Kara’s face for a moment, then pulled himself up the metal staircase attached to the pool. “You’ll see, it’s going to get better, I promise. Stick with me, and I’ll show you a great time.” He knelt down and passed his hand in the water. “Come on in, the water’s great!” He beamed.

Kara sighed and climbed the staircase. She stepped onto the ledge and settled herself beside David. She opened her mouth to speak—but closed it as soon as her lips parted.

Benson stood on the edge of the neighboring pool. He stared at David with an expression of disgust, as though he had just bitten into a sour fruit. He stood there, his body hard and motionless, like a statue. Only his eyes moved as they flicked up and down David. And then David noticed Benson. To Kara’s surprise, he regarded him with disgust as well. Both men stared each other down from a distance, like a western pistol duel. But Kara saw pure hatred in David’s eyes as he glared at Benson. He turned his head away and looked at Kara. “Okay, you ready?”

“Uh—what was
that
about?” Kara said, still staring at Benson. “You guys look like you want to rip out each other’s throats.” She turned and looked at David.

He met her eyes. “Nothing worth mentioning. Benson’s a douche bag.”

Within seconds, Benson pinched his nose, bent his knees and jumped into the water. His body lingered for a moment through the moving waters, then he started to spin horizontally. Seconds later, his entire body sparkled in brilliant white light. And then Benson vanished. No sooner had he performed his disappearing act than another guardian angel stepped up to the ledge and took the plunge. It was like watching a line of falling dominoes; angels kept jumping into the pools one after the other.

“We really should go,” said David. He edged forward, ready to dive in. “We have to jump in at the same time. We can hold hands if you want—?”

“No thanks. I’m good. Can you stop smiling please?” Kara stuck her hands at her sides and bit her bottom lip. “We’ll jump in at the same time.”

“Okay then. On the count of three.”

Kara nodded. She stared at the reflections on the water’s surface. The water was a sheet of diamonds, sparkling in the sun light.

“One…” said David

One
, echoed Kara in her head as she tried to suppress her nerves.

“Two…”

Kara felt tiny electric shocks move around in her body—her nonexistent nervous system acting up.

“Three!”

David and Kara leaped into the air and plunged into the pool at the same time. Water splashed all around as they sunk to the bottom. Kara opened her eyes and turned her head to the right. David was covered in light. A muffled sound escaped his mouth as his lips flapped together. He lifted his left hand and flipped his thumb up. And then Kara’s vision blurred as she felt her body starting to spin. She kept her eyes open. Whitish bubbles floated in front of her. White light illuminated her body. Brilliant particles detached themselves one by one from her body—and then everything around her vanished.

Kara opened her eyes moments later. She sat in the back seat of a parked car. Cracked brown leather covered the seats. The only light source came from the windows, which were nearly completely covered in grey grime. She crinkled her nose. It smelled like dirty old shoes and cigarettes. She blinked. Her vision adjusted itself to her new surroundings. David sat comfortably in the front seat. The leather seat screeched as he turned around to face her.

“How you feeling?” he asked, his face worried. “You okay?” He was almost angelic in that soft light, not at all the cocky soldier she was getting to know, but a beautiful creature from the heavens. She wished he’d stop being so concerned.

Kara pursed her lips and nodded. “I will be after the spinning stops.”

She took a moment to get used to the dizziness. “That’s weird.” She said after a moment. “The dizziness is gone—I’m not spinning anymore. What the—?” She moved her hands. “I feel in more control of this body than I did the first time. It’s still weird—freaky weird—but much better this time. A lot better.” Her lips curled into a smile.

“That’s great. The dizziness goes away after you’ve done about five Vega—after that, piece of cake. You won’t feel a thing.” David smiled at her, teeth bared.

Kara rubbed her forearm and pressed her hand against her mortal flesh. “Wow, this is still so weird!” She passed her hand gently on her skin. “It feels synthetic. Like there’s a layer of saran wrap on top. Freaky,” she laughed. She let go of her arm and looked around the car. “So…where are we?” She strained her eyes to see outside the car windows.

“Let’s find out.” David grabbed the file from inside his leather jacket. He flipped it open on his knees. “Okay,” he said after a moment and looked outside his passenger window. “I think we’re on Saint-Hubert Street—yeah, I see it! We need to be on the corner of Notre Dame and Gosford Street in—” David glanced at his watch, “—in about forty minutes.”

Kara looked out the window. “I know where we are. We’re in Old Montreal! Most of my art classes were in this area. All the best art galleries in the city are here.” She pressed her nose against the dirty glass.

“You were an artist? Before the—”

“Yup. Well…more like a wannabe artist.” Kara turned and met David’s eyes. “I was on my way to a really important competition—when I got squished by the bus.”

“Ouch—that’s pretty nasty.” David looked away. “Was your boyfriend waiting for you—at this competition?”

Kara’s mouth opened but nothing came out. She composed herself. “Uh—no, I didn’t have a boyfriend. My best friend Mat was waiting for me actually.”

“Were you guys close?”

“Close? Well, yeah. He was practically the only real friend I had. Whenever I brought new friends to my house, they usually ran away screaming.”

“Because of your mom and her demons?”

“Yeah, but that’s wasn’t the only reason. I don’t know how to explain it—and you’ll probably think I’m crazy—but sometimes my mother would
disappear
before my eyes and reappear seconds later—somewhere else. Like one minute she’s in the kitchen—and then the next—she’s in the bathroom. And I can see by the look in your eye you think I’m nuts.”

David shook his head. “No. I’m trying to understand what you’re saying. Your mother would just…disappear?”

“Yup. The only explanation that makes sense was that I probably suffered from recurring blackouts. You know, like loss of time? I’m pretty sure my brain was protecting itself from my mother’s insane behavior. At the time—I didn’t know anything about Sensitives. This whole demon thing was probably too much for me.”

David flicked the file with his thumb. “I don’t think they were blackouts.”

“What?” Kara leaned forward. “What do you mean?”

“In fact, I don’t think
you
had anything to do with your mother’s disappearances.” David rubbed his chin. “I’ll have to check with Gabe—but if what you’re telling me is true—your mother is a guardian angel.”

Kara’s head spun. David’s words hit her hard. She struggled with her thoughts. “W—what? But—no—that’s impossible. My mother never
died
. She can’t be an angel.”

“Yes she can.” David gave her a warm smile. “You just didn’t know.”

It took a moment before Kara could speak again. “I—I don’t under—what are you saying?”