Chapter Twenty-Two
There was only one way to get out of this, and that was to leave immediately. Immediately. Right here, right now, right this very second. No slowing down, no getting sidetracked. Don’t even make eye contact with anyone.
In any situation where rank was pulled, there was a precious corridor of time, a few short seconds, between the moment an order was given and the moment that order was carried out. In that vital space of time, there was a kind of pause where nothing happened. There was no getting around it. Either it took a bit to get to a phone, or it took a while to move from point A to point B, or whatever – the mobilization of an order always required that pause, no matter how brief.
For Angel, that vital space of time was now.
She made the most of it, closing the door to the interrogation room with an exaggerated finality that would hopefully signal to Gabriel that she needed to not see him for a little while. It would hopefully also signal that he should stay in that room and regain his patience and composure before returning to his work as leader in the Vega safe house.
The moment the interrogation room door was shut, Angel strode into a fast walk, heading right past her desk, right past Harry – who would have been the one to take Gabriel’s order to contact her assassin escorts – and right past everything and everyone else that might have slowed her down. A few of them glanced up; she could see them in the sidelines of her vision, including Hannah and Casey. But she put on her “I don’t want to talk” face that kept them at bay and didn’t even grab her coat or purse. Just her keys, on her way out the door. That way, they would figure she’d be right back.
Once she was outside, she ran.
She ran for all she was worth, shoved her key into her Jeep door, and jumped inside. It welcomed her as it always did, with the scent of leather and the sound of silence, but she barely noticed because her blood was roaring so hard through her head, all she could hear was its steady pounding and all she could smell was metal. She slammed the door shut.
This is my job, her mind warned her ceaselessly. This is insane. It’s all over if you do this.
But I have to, she argued with herself. I have to. I know I do. It’s everything. Somewhere in this city, a monster was closing in on her. It had already taken seven lives. But now that she knew about it, she absolutely would not, could not, allow anyone else to get caught in its crossfire. Especially not someone she knew, like a fellow warden. Or… someone she cared about.
Not again.
An image of Jacob Crow’s jade green eyes flashed in her mind.
She made a desperate sound. Not again, she thought. Please, not again.
Forget firing you, Gabriel is going to fucking kill you! screamed the little voice in her head.
Oh, shut up! she retorted as she gritted her teeth, plunged the key into the ignition, turned it hard, and ripped out of the lot for all she was worth. She was aimed directly for Monsters territory and broke the speed limit. Her legs were shaking, her hands were shaking, and her heart was going a million miles a minute. She felt the seconds drag at her, as if they were physical and they were wrapping around her to hold her back. The warden safe house felt like a gaping maw behind her, trying to suck her back in.
Does Gabe know yet? she wondered as she lucked out with another green light and crossed the sixth city block that drew her closer to the territory border. Had he noticed she was gone?
As if in answer, her phone buzzed in her pocket. She ignored it.
Almost there… almost there….
When she was fortunate enough to meet a green light at the last intersection and her tires passed over the invisible line made by warden maps, Angel let out the breath she’d been holding. But she didn’t feel any better. She felt sick.
The phone stopped buzzing. Then started immediately again.
She drove another two blocks, pulled over to park illegally, and was grateful that if her plates were run, her vehicle would come up as off-limits at the highest levels. FBI, CIA, NSA, take your pick. There would only be enough information to clear her and keep any curious cops moving along.
Angel put the Jeep in neutral and engaged the emergency brake. She closed her eyes, gripping the leather-wrapped steering wheel with trembling hands. She really was shaking hard… too hard, in fact. This wasn’t normal.
Her phone stopped and then at once began buzzing again. She still ignored it. Her guts twisted, and suddenly she was severely light-headed.
Oh no, she thought as she realized what was taking place inside her body. Fear was making her heart beat too fast, which was burning through her energy like wildfire. She was on the verge of fainting. No wonder she felt sick. Syncope was a terrible feeling. She needed to get something in her stomach right away.
I left all of my meds. “Oh…wow,” she whispered, squeezing her eyes shut so tight they hurt. The nausea rolled again through her, but she fought it down, trying to think. “Damn it!” she cried through clenched teeth. She used to leave an extra store of meds and food in the Jeep, but San Fran had been experiencing heat waves recently, and the food kept melting or going bad, and the meds reached dangerous temps, so other than the water, which was still in the back, she’d taken it all out and placed extra stores of snacks and prescriptions in her backpack instead.
Which she’d left in the safe house. It also had her bottled protein shakes and extra ammo. And her wallet.
With her money.
She couldn’t call her friends. They were the first people Gabe would have traced and followed. Elena’s boyfriend, Matt lived around this area… but asking him for a favor was risky business. He’d probably grant it straight away, but nothing with Matt ever came free. And with his criminal reputation, she wasn’t sure she wanted to go there.
She was trapped. By this time, Gabriel had probably spoken with Harry. He was no doubt aware she’d run. He would see her things left behind and he would figure out that she was disobeying orders, that she was without supplies, and that she was on Monsters turf.
He would probably want to cross right over the border after her, but he wouldn’t dare. Would he? She honestly wasn’t sure.
He could always send Harry. As a messenger, he was allowed in this case. Technically, what Angel was doing was seeking sanctuary. It almost never happened, but the rules were on the books for a reason. The sovereigns had accounted for every contingency when they’d made the code, including this one.
For all intents and purposes, Angel was fleeing one clan territory out of fear for her personal safety and seeking shelter in another clan territory until the issue could be resolved. Granted, that wasn’t actually what was happening, but for lack of any other guideline for this situation, that was how the clan leaders would no doubt approach it.
She just had to pray the Monsters clan would grant her that sanctuary. More importantly, she had to pray they would be willing to let her in on the Apex case. Otherwise, nothing she was doing would be worth it.
Even through her closed eyes, the world tipped on its axis. Angel’s body flushed hot and cold, and a ringing erupted in her ears.
It doesn’t matter, she thought hopelessly as she let go of the steering wheel because her grip was growing too weak. Her entire body felt too light. I won’t last that long.
It was Dmitri who’d done this to her. Fifteen years ago on that night. According to the sovereign-appointed doctors who tended to her after the attack, her healing magic had gone into overdrive when Dmitri began draining her – and something happened.
They likened it to her immune system overreacting, attacking something benign within her in order to protect itself. In this case, it attacked the iron in her body.
Now when things grew rough for Angel, when she was stressed physically or mentally, the iron slowly dissipated from her blood. It was magically removed by the healer in her. The consequences were rather devastating.
The doctors had attempted to give her affliction a name, but she’d told them to just “fucking call it magic anemia.” She’d been so pissed when they told her what happened, what Dmitri had done. Because of him, she’d lost control over yet another aspect of her life.
Now she was different, but as was so often the case she’d grown accustomed to it. She took a daily “supplement” for this unique ailment. The supplements were created for her by warlocks. If she hadn’t been a warden, she never would have been able to afford them. Fortunately, the sovereigns supplied them to her for free.
Unfortunately, she didn’t have any right now and it wouldn’t have mattered anyway. They were preventative, not curative. She’d had a few similar episodes in the past, moments where she’d burned too quickly through her energy on an intense job and felt a fainting spell coming on. But she’d always dealt with it. And more importantly, she’d had time to deal with it, by eating, drinking, chewing iron tablets, and resting.
This was hitting her harder and faster than ever before. And she had a feeling she knew why. The dreams, the feelings of being watched, the voices in her head. It was him again. Her body remembered him.
Angel held back a sob. Her legs were tingling terribly, her heart was dancing painfully, and she was freezing. Shaking. Dying.
“Oh gods,” she whispered miserably. The reality of her impending doom struck her like a dire werewolf’s backhand. This was it. This was really the end.
As the world tunneled around her, she saw flashes of her recent life, random but clear. She heard sounds, even more random. She smelled things too, like leather. She tasted coffee. Strangely enough, though, she felt absolutely nothing. She was physically numb, floating, and insubstantial.
She heard the theme song from Scooby Doo; she’d been watching it when she couldn’t sleep the other night. She heard a motorcycle, distant but distinguishable. She saw Gabriel, Cass and Elena. She saw her Jeep and a white wolf. She saw the tunnel closing. And just before it did, she saw jade green eyes, so fiercely beautiful, so very sharp as they forged their way into her soul.
“Jake….” It came out as a whisper, her final spoken word.
Darius, she thought as a stubborn last resort. Please help me….
As darkness surrounded her, she sensed a powerful presence. She heard the Jeep door open and felt herself being pulled into warm, strong arms. The numbness receded in that embrace, and she felt protected. She wanted to speak, to give voice to what was wrong.
But unconsciousness would not be denied. It claimed her like it was piss drunk on New Year’s Eve, 1999.