L. Weatherly - Angel Fever

“Yeah, I wonder how I can possibly manage to know what you’re thinking, when you’re such a total enigma.”

I choked out a laugh. “Pretty predictable, huh?”

“When it comes to this? Just a little.” He rested his forehead against mine. He didn’t say anything else. He didn’t have to – we’d already had this conversation more times than I could count.

“You know what I really want to do if we win?” said Alex finally.

“No, what?”

He hesitated, his gaze searching mine. “I want to find your mother,” he said. “I want that for you more than anything, Willow. I don’t care if we have to spend years looking for her – if we can, then we’re going to do it.”

My throat went tight. I checked on my mother psychically every day. It was always such a relief to feel that she was still okay – even though I had no idea where she was or who was keeping her safe. And just the fact that Alex wanted that for me…it meant everything.

“Thank you,” I said.

I stretched upwards, brushing his lips lightly with my own. Then again, more lingeringly. Much more lingeringly. Alex wrapped his arms around me, pulling me onto his lap. His lips were so familiar – warm, slightly rough, as intoxicating as the first time we’d ever kissed. When we finally came up for air, I felt dizzy.

“Maybe one of these years, I’ll get used to how amazing that feels,” I whispered, stroking his warm back under his shirt.

“Really?” Alex said huskily. “I never will – not if we live to be a hundred.” His heartbeat pounded against mine. “Willow, listen – do you really feel like staying out here? Maybe we could—”

“Go back to our room instead?” I finished for him. I kissed his nose. “Yes, you are definitely reading my mind,” I said solemnly.

Suddenly we were both laughing. My laugh turned to a squeal as Alex scooped an arm under my knees and lurched up with me in his arms. He nibbled at my earlobe. “So I guess this is our walk biting the dust.”

I twined my arms around his neck. “Yeah, Matt’s going to be laughing at us. We’ve hardly been gone any time at all.”

“You know what, that is so far down on my list of priorities right now that it’s practically nonexistent.” Grinning, Alex gave me a boost and I scrambled onto the boulder. With a quick jump, he braced himself against the top and began to lift himself up.

Admiring the motion of his muscles, I smiled and crouched down, stretching a hand out to help…and then terror slammed into me like a fist of ice.

I gasped and rocked backwards, stunned by its intensity. It was the same fear I’d felt that afternoon, times about a thousand. My stomach knotted, adrenalin surging through me.

Something was going to happen soon. Oh god, something terrible was going to happen—

Alex was beside me, clutching my shoulders. “What’s wrong? What is it?”

“Something…I don’t…something bad…” My mouth felt thick and clumsy.

His fingers tightened. “Willow, come on, talk to me!”

The primal fear released its grip a fraction, leaving dread as thick as swamp water. “Something’s going to happen! ”I burst out. “We’ve got to go – we’ve got to stop it!”

I turned and ran, stumbling over the uneven rock and then skidding down the other side. I was pounding towards the base when Alex caught up, darting in front of me and grabbing my arms again. “Willow, wait ! What’s going on?”

“I don’t know!” I cried. “But we’ve got to go – we’ve got to!”

“Go where ?”

I realized I had no idea. I looked around wildly, as if the answer might be lying somewhere on the desert ground. There was nothing.

I reached quickly inside myself; I could sense that my angel was just as worried as I was. Shifting my consciousness to hers, I lifted out of my human body and soared up into the stars.

The fear hit me again, full force. Fighting against panic, I glided, reaching out with everything I had.

“Are you getting anything?” Alex asked. In my human form, I was aware of his hands, warm on my arms. He stood peering up at my angel’s bright form.

No, I started to say…but instead my voice came out in a ragged whisper: “The east.”

Because all at once I could sense it: something dark was waiting to be unleashed on the eastern horizon. In the air my wings went cold as I realized the angels were waiting too – they were all gathering. Getting ready.

“How far away; can you tell?” Alex said urgently.

I was shivering. “I don’t know!” Feeling suddenly frightened and too exposed, my angel returned to me in a rush. “But, Alex, we’ve got to try and stop it! There’s some kind of powerful force – the angels are all waiting for something—”

His face hardened. “Come on.” Grabbing my hand, we took off at a run back to the gate. A wide-eyed Matt was already there, swinging it open for us.

“I saw you on the cameras. What’s going on?”

“Willow’s seen something,” Alex said shortly.

Matt paled; the whole base knew what “seen something” meant. We rushed back into the building, Matt jogging along beside us. “You want me to sound the alarm?”

Alex shook his head. “No, not yet.” As we stepped into the elevator, he half turned, throwing the words over his shoulder: “Wake up Sam, Liz and Seb; tell them I need to give them a quick briefing.”

As the elevator whirred downwards, I tried to convince myself that I’d overreacted – that whatever was going to happen wasn’t that bad. Any comfort from this vanished once we’d left the elevator behind and reached the hub of the base. Seb was running towards us from one of the dorm corridors wearing only a pair of jeans, his bare feet slapping at the floor…and somehow I knew it wasn’t because of Matt’s alarm.

Seb’s eyes were fixed on mine as he reached us. I got a jolt of tension from him – and, despite my panic, realized how long it had been since we’d shared our thoughts so fully.

“Willow!” he gasped. “Something is happening—”

I licked dry lips. “I know. I feel it too.”

Alex grabbed his arm. “What did you get?”

Looking frustrated, Seb shoved his hands through his curls. “I’m not sure, but it woke me up. There is something coming, something big—”

“Something coming ?” Alex repeated sharply.

Prickles ran over my scalp. This was different from what I’d gotten, and not in a good way.

Liz and Sam appeared, looking rumpled and jerked awake. “What’s goin’ on?” demanded Sam. He had on striped pyjama bottoms and a white T-shirt. Liz was fumbling with the tie to her bathrobe.

Alex quickly explained. “Come on, let’s get into the war room.” He glanced at Seb and me. “I want to get you both near a map, see what you can pick up.”

Urgency was pounding at me. “Alex, we don’t have much time—”

“Ten minutes of planning might save us time,” he said shortly.

Seb glanced at me; I could tell he was feeling the same thing I was. Though I knew Alex was right, my every instinct was screaming, Run, move, hurry!

“Yes, okay,” Seb said for us both.

He stayed beside me as we all headed quickly down the corridor. Despite the fear, on some level it just felt good to be in tune with him again – though I realized that I was a shade too aware of his bare chest, with its dusting of golden-brown hair. Alex’s chest was almost completely hairless. I shoved the thought away impatiently. Why was I comparing them?

“So, wait. Is all we’ve got to go on a psychic feeling?” asked Liz once we were in what we called the war room – a gleaming conference space with a U-shaped table and maps on the wall.