Death Takes Wing, page 21
“Let him go,” Sam said softly, sending a worried glance at Amalia. Gabriel was crouched over her, worried tones reaching her ears.
Paul looked back at her briefly before putting more pressure on Aleks’s throat, his face turning a dusky purple. “No,” was his terse reply.
“Paul, let him go. You’re no better than him if you kill him,” Sam persuaded softly, laying a hand on his arm. “We need to get out of here. If you take the time to deal him what you’ve been dealt, you won’t leave. Don’t tarnish your memories with their deaths,” she continued.
With an ugly frown, he pulled his foot off of Aleks throat. He aimed his Glock at Aleks. He briefly looked at Gabriel, who ignored him as he crouched next to Amalia’s moaning form, painfilled cries escaping.
A small hole blossomed in Aleks’s neck, a small circle of red spreading, running down to cover his shirt. With a gasp, he collapsed, holding an already blood covered hand to the new wound.
Paul crouched by Amalia, reaching out hesitantly until a growl from Gabriel made him draw his hand back.
“She’s hurt,” Gabriel said tersely. “Badly.”
“Let me see,” Paul said in a low voice, “I was an Air Force medic.”
Giving him a worried look, Gabriel relented. When Paul’s motions brought out another painfilled moan, Gabriel sucked in a breath. Paul had barely touched her stomach, but it was hard, hot and painful.
“Something’s ruptured,” Paul said softly, “If you don’t get her medical help – surgery – in a few minutes, she’s going to bleed to death internerally.”
“That’s not an option,” Sam said, standing over Amalia, dark eyes narrowed.
Gabriel shook his head. “Only one thing is.” He turned to the group that surrounded them. “Go away,” he snarled before looking up at Sam. “Take them to the hallway.”
“What are you going – Oh,” Sam said weakly.
“It’s the only way to save her,” Gabriel said, harshness turning into a soft whisper.
“She might hate you,” Sam warned as she corralled the group.
“I can live with that. As long as she’s alive,” he said.
“She might not make it,” Sam said as she turned back to stare at Paul, who was checking the other door.
“But she’ll have a chance,” he said even softer, making her strain to hear the faint words.
When he was sure that they were gone, he looked at Amalia, saw her white face, eyes clenched shut, shutting out the world.
“Amalia,” he said in a low voice, “Amalia, listen to me.”
She opened her eyes, but the blur of tears made it hard for her to see him.
“You are going to die,” he said bluntly, “you are going to die unless you make the transition.”
“I could die if I don’t make it,” she whispered through the haze of pain.
“But you could make it,” he said, almost begging her to try.
She couldn’t think. The pain clouded her vision, clouded her thoughts. Made it hard to do anything. “Do it,” she groaned, the words coming out in pants, the pain lancing through her body in white hot streaks.
He gently pulled her close, tipping her head away to bare her pulsing, bruised neck. He grazed his fangs over the pulse before pushing them through the thin skin, into the blood below. It flowed into his mouth, a taste he hadn’t had for almost a hundred years. The rich liquid ran down his throat
“He’s infected her. Hurry, if she feel it that bad now, we don’t have much time.” Kasey’s voice was even and patient as she held the Beretta pointed at Aleks’s slumped body.
“Where?” Paul asked as he gave Aleks another kick.
Gabriel pointed towards the door, “hallway. Stairs. We’ve got to get her out before she changes.”
He picked her up, barely feeling the weight. He led the small group to the stairway. Before opening the door, he looked at Sam. “Can you shoot?”
“Yeah,” she replied, standing up straighter. She gently took the gun from Amalia, gripping it forcefully.
“Then let’s go,” he replied. Glancing back at Paul, he said, “take the rear.”
“Got it.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Sam was the first in the stairwell. Footsteps sounded above them. Looking up, she could see legs. She carefully aimed before firing. The bullet pinged off of the cement, sending some of them racing the door like a herd of frightened cattle. When she saw a face, the blonde face of the doctor who’d infected her, instinct took over. Her finger tightened on the trigger, sending a bullet neatly into the woman’s head.
When she dropped to the floor, lifeless, the others raced out of the room.
Sam turned back to Gabriel. A cold smile covered her face. “I told her I’d kill her for what she did.”
Gabriel returned the smile. It was technically his job to met out punishments, he wouldn’t take that from Sam. Together, the small band stormed up the stairs, stopping only briefly to stare at the body of the doctor.
“What’s her name?” Gabriel asked Sam as they slowly made their way out of the office.
“Doctor J,” Sam replied, crouching against a wall. She looked at Amalia’s white, sweat-beaded face. “She’s not going to make it out of here.”
Gabriel shifted Amalia’s weight, unsure of exactly how long it would take her to change. She curled into herself, gripped his shirt with hands cramped by unrelenting pain into claws.
“We can’t wait for her to change all the way. That could take hours. And we don’t have hours,” Sam said, brushing a hand over her stubble, frustrated.
“I know,” Gabriel said. He looked a head, then back at Paul. “I’ll get her out. You two get the others out.”
“I’m not-“
“Sam,” he said, cutting off her protests, “Amalia’d never forgive me if she made it out and you didn’t. Just go.”
“I’m not leaving her, Gabriel,” Sam snarled in frustration, drawing her cream wings close. Turning to Paul, she said, “you get them out. I’m staying with Amalia.”
With a terse nod, Paul gestured towards the small group surrounding the trio. Making sure he had a firm grip on his Glock, he stared at Gabriel, then at Sam. “Make sure she makes it.”
“Of course,” Sam said, giving him a hard smile.
“Is there a room around here? An office? Somewhere to hide?” Gabriel asked, holding Amalia tighter as a wave of pain rolled over her, her undulated tones low and painfilled.
Sam shook her head. “I don’t know. We can’t afford to let her change here.”
“Kasey said it was going to be fast,” Gabriel argued.
Sam gave him a measured stare. “By that, she means it’ll take her a few hours instead of a few weeks. That’s it.”
“Shit,” Gabriel said with a grimace, following it up with a liquid curse of the angelus. He gave a halting breath as he stood. “Then let’s follow. I hope they cleared the path.”
“They did,” Sam said, peering around the corner. There were bodies littered around the room, some moaning and writhing. Waving a raised hand at Kasey, Sam glanced back at Gabriel. “We need to go. Now.”
“I hear,” Gabriel said, recognizing the low hum of helicopters.
Sam laid a cool hand on Amalia’s forehead, feeling the burning heat beneath her palm. “We need to get her out of here. She needs somewhere quiet, where her body can shut down and change soon. We need out of here now.”
“All right. Let’s go,” Gabriel said, following Sam through the labyrinth of cubicles.
Carefully sliding around the few bodies that they came across, they found the door, held open with a clipboard.
Gabriel looked at Sam, who just stared at him. “Do you know where she parked?”
Sam gave him a disgusted look before going out the door. “Let’s go,” she said harshly, waving him and Amalia past her.
“Sam,” Gabriel said as he followed her out into the dark night air. Pausing, he could hear footsteps, running away from the building.
“What?” she snapped.
“How far did they get with you?” he asked, recalling the conversation he’d had with Aleks on the ride here. Even though Amalia had warned him about Aleks, he hadn’t believed her. Hadn’t even believed when Aleks had theorizing about the reason behind the kidnappings and murders. Aleks had theorized that someone was figuring out how to change angelus with humans in their ancestry to humans. To do that, they’d started with a human that could be angelus. Turn them back into what they started as.
It would be easier, Aleks had said, to do it that way, than to figure it out in the middle. The dead ones? They were the lucky ones, Gabriel figured, remembering Lindsay Hemly and Jeremy. Vince. The lost ones that he’d never find, like Kent and Patricia. At least Sam was safe. For now.
She poked him, her lips tight with worry. “Gabriel?”
He jerked back to motion, offering her an apologetic smile. “Sorry, got lost in my thoughts.”
“They changed everyone first thing. That’s the first thing they do,” she explained as she started walking, following a small set of footsteps through the dried and broken grass. “They make sure you can make the change successfully. At first, they weren’t. Successful, I mean. That’s what Paul told me. They grabbed some they thought should make it, but they didn’t.”
Gabriel followed Sam, holding Amalia firmly in his arms, using his wings for balance as she jerked and seized. “Aleks figured it out. Either that, or he stole Owen’s research.”
“Owen?” Sam said with a start, staring back at Gabriel in surprise.
Gabriel nodded as he followed. “That’s how Owen found out Vicki would make the transformation.”
“Then, they start the experiments. Lots of blood work,” she said, rubbing the bruises and wounds that decorated her thin arms, “Then the vaccines. In batches, of course.”
“Of course,” Gabriel muttered as they entered the dark woods. The trees loomed overhead, creating a dark wall in front of them.
Sam crept in front, slowly making her way forward. Following the tracks that Amalia had left, Sam led them through the dark woods, using just the scant starlight and sliver of moonlight to find the path. “None of the vaccines worked on me. Or most of the others. Sometimes, they hurt. Sometimes, they killed.”
“How many?” Gabriel questioned as he shifted Amalia’s weight. She’d gone quiet and still, and it worried him.
“While I was there? Three,” Sam stated flatly, placing a hand on an old tombstone.
“Three,” Gabriel echoed, gently touching Amalia’s neck, trying to find a pulse. There. Weak and thread, but there. Good. She let out a small, painfilled moan, making his heart skip a beat in a moment of terror.
“Three,” Sam repeated, “and that’s just in the week I was there. Paul’s been there for a couple months. And he’d known someone who’d been there even longer.” She wound her way through the cemetery toward the bright car.
“My car,” he said, walking past Sam.
“Keys?” Sam replied.
“Her pocket. I can feel them,” Gabriel said.
Sam reached into Amalia’s front pocket and pulled out the keys. Unlocking the car, she helped Gabriel into the passenger seat with Amalia still in his arms.
“Is this normal?” he asked after Sam carefully slid into the driver’s seat.
Sam looked at Amalia’s still frame. “For some.” Reaching over, she laid a cool hand against the sweating brow. “Normal,” she said softly. She’s changing, that’s all. I thought you’d been around a human transforming?”
Gabriel shook his head and stared down at Amalia. “No. Never.”
Sam slowly nodded, “then you’re in for a treat. Where’s a safe place for her to change?”
“Matt’s,” Gabriel stated, holding Amalia firmly as she starting to shake.
“Where?”
Giving her the directions, Gabriel focused on keeping Amalia from thrashing around the interior.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Her eyes were gritty, bringing up memories of the few times she’d gotten plastered with Sam and Vicki. She tried to raise a hand, but her arm felt heavy and slow, as if it had been coated in concrete before falling asleep. She breathed heavy, deep breathes and tried again. This time, she succeeded.
The motion brought a groan to her throat as the pain filled her movement.
“Hey,” a deep voice came from beside her.
She turned her head towards the voice, opened her eyes and saw Gabriel sitting in a chair next to her bed. Not her bed, she realized, but the Gabriel’s bed. She blinked slowly and felt a smile creep over her sore face. “What happened?” she asked hoarsely, wondering why her throat felt as gritty as her eyes. She stared at Gabriel, who didn’t look right. Not quite like the Gabriel she remembered. His hair, for one. When had he gotten red tips done? And his wings. She didn’t remember seeing the patterns that looked like fire in a dark sky that were so obvious.
“Drink this,” Gabriel said, avoiding the question, offering her a glass and straw. Ice clattered and clinked in the glass as he got maneuvered the straw to her mouth.
She sipped the drink through the bright orange straw, grateful to feel the cool water coursing down her throat.
“Gabriel,” she repeated, glad to feel the grittiness disapate, feeling her heart start to race as she started noticing details that she hadn’t seen before. Like being able to see Sam’s individual strands of hair from where she stood in the doorway. What the hell –
“How much do you remember?” Gabriel asked as he cut off her train of thought, absently setting the glass on the small table next to the bed, a vivid stoneware coaster sitting next to it.
She closed her eyes, remembering the noises, the smells that surrounded her. Shutting off the details that swam in her vision, she replied, “I remember getting you out of your cell. Meeting Aleks. Getting thrown. Pain. Lots of pain.” She shifted her weight with another groan as her sore muscles protested the slight movement. There was a heavy, unfamiliar weight on her back. She figured it must be a heavy blanket, and she started to shiver, unsure of whether it was from cold or adrenaline.
“About Aleks,” Gabriel started, and then stopped. He leaned forward and took her hand in his, gently squeezing it.
She could see worry in his light eyes, and it sparked a knot of worry in her stomach. “What about him? I remember something about him trying to save his sister? Gabriel, what happened?”
“Yeah,” Gabriel said slowly, ignoring the last question. “When he threw you…when he threw you,” he said, trying again, “he threw you into a tray of instruments.”
“He killed Donovan,” Amalia said, cutting off Gabriel, closing her eyes at the memory of the correspondence she’d found between him and Donovan.
“He killed a lot of humans trying to save Natalia,” Gabriel replied, briefly frustrated. “That’s not what I’m talking about.”
“Then what are you talking about?” Amalia said, taking a deep breath.
“Amalia – “he stopped, frustrated. Running a hand through his hair, he looked up and saw Sam standing in the doorway, her cream and peach wings framing her slight body, her dark hair in stark contrast to her pale face. He nodded to her.
“Amalia, I need to show you something,” Sam said, bringing Amalia’s attention toward her friend as she walked around the bed.
“What?” Amalia asked, trying to loosen her tight muscles.
“This,” Sam said, lowering a mirror for Amalia to look at.
“What am I supposed to see? All the bruises?” Amalia asked, trying for light but not reaching it. There was no regret at the way she’d received the bruises in her voice.
“No, this,” Sam said, angling the mirror so Amalia could see her shoulders.
Amalia froze as she saw dark chestnut wings lying on her back. The dark chestnut wings, flaked with copper and gold, looking like falling stars in a sky of fire Her breath hitched, and she turned her head, realizing why her body felt so heavy. She swallowed, and then looked at Gabriel. “I’m…I’m angelus?”
Gabriel nodded slowly, his face grim.
“That’s what Aleks did to me. He infected me? How?” She had to breathe. Had to. She was seeing back spots, and they started to cover her vision.
He nodded again, not responding other than the slow nod. After he controlled her breathing, he said, “when he threw the tray of instruments at me, one of those was a needle filled with the serum. The serum ended up in you.”
He looked at her, noting the dark bruises that were scattered on her pale skin. “How do you feel?”
“Like I got hit by a truck. A very large truck. Moving quickly.”
Sam giggled in relief. If she was joking, she’d be fine. That had been one of their codes after Donovan and Williams. Thank god. “That’s because you changed so quickly. From what I saw, most humans take a couple weeks to fully change. Not under twenty-four hours.”
“So how’d I do it?” Amalia asked as she stared at Gabriel’s wings. The pattern was almost alive as he shifted, sending the feathers waving.
“Some humans do it quickly, although not as quick as you. Some take a couple weeks. Some take even longer,” Sam said with a shrug.
“It depends on how close the angelus in your background is. How many generations away, I mean,” she heard a deep voice from the doorway.
She craned her head around and saw Matt leaning against the door. His brown wings were patterned like the bark of an oak tree, now. Not just the plain oak colored leaves she’d seen before.
“Matt?” she couldn’t help the happiness that she heard in her voice.
“Hey beautiful,” he said with a smile. “Heard you got to join us.”
“So I feel,” she said, a tinge of bitterness in her voice.
“Didn’t really want to be with Gabriel until the sun goes black? Don’t blame you. Join me instead. The dark side lies about having cookies, anyway,” he said with a laugh, flipping a coin in his hand, the silver glinting off the light that came in through the window.
