Angel Fire (36 page)

The larger map of the Torre Mayor was still spread out, sleek and professional next to Kara’s hand-drawn lines. Looking at it, Alex thought he’d find some way to get the team in there if it was the last thing he ever did – but without more information, it wouldn’t be much better than a suicide mission.

“Okay,” he said finally. “I’ll keep checking out the Torre Mayor, in between training the team. Kara, I want you to start casing the cathedral. Figure out the routine there, and find a way for us to break into the offices – we’ll get you a video camera like Wesley said. But we’ve got to know what we’re going to be walking into.”

“Will do,” said Kara. Glancing at Seb, she hesitated, her reluctance clear. Like the others, she hadn’t warmed to him; Alex doubted that his little revelation just now had helped. “Seb, if you wouldn’t mind – would you go over the map with me, see if I’ve missed anything else?”

From the amused spark in Seb’s eyes, he knew exactly how much Kara didn’t want to be dealing with him. “Yes, I’d be happy to.”

Everyone started dispersing, heading off to the kitchen or the TV room. Alex gave Willow a wry look as they walked across the firing range. “The guy doesn’t like making things easy for himself, does he?”

Willow glanced over her shoulder as Seb and Kara bent over the map. “He just...is who he is, I guess.”

Alex could hear the unmistakable note of fondness in her voice. Unbidden, a conversation he’d had with Kara that morning came rushing back. She’d been standing at the kitchen counter, long legs crossed at the ankle. Blowing on her coffee, she’d said, “Sooo...how are things going?”

His eyes had narrowed at her arch tone. “What do you mean, ‘how are things going?’”

Kara’s shrug had been elaborately casual. “Willow and Seb seem awfully close already, don’t they? They’re always talking whenever I see them.”

They were always talking whenever Alex saw them, too. “They’re friends, that’s all,” he’d said shortly as he took a teaspoon out from the drawer.

“You said he wants more though. And, boy, he’s really good-looking, isn’t he? Those eyes, and that sexy stubble. Willow has to have noticed.”

Alex had made a face before he could stop himself. Earlier, he’d seen Willow’s cheeks go pink when Seb had come out of the shower room wearing only his jeans, his chest slightly damp. And though her cheeks probably would have gone just as pink if it had been Sam or one of the others, Alex still couldn’t help wishing that the only other half-angel in the world had been short, with acne.

“I’m glad you’ve got the hots for Seb,” he’d told Kara coldly, jamming a piece of bread in the toaster. “Do you actually have a point you’re trying to make?”

She’d given him a level look. “Just be careful, okay? I don’t want to see you get hurt.”

The genuine concern in her voice had grated on Alex. It still did; he pushed the memory away. He and Willow had reached the stairwell by then, where it was relatively quiet for now. She reached for his hand. “Alex, look – I know you and Seb haven’t really hit it off, but he’s a good person, okay? And he’s my friend.”

“Yeah, but—” Alex broke off; he’d been about to say,
But you know the guy’s in love with you, right?
It was completely obvious; Seb couldn’t take his eyes off her.

“What?” said Willow.

“Nothing,” said Alex finally. He shook his head, irritated with himself. “Sorry, it’s just all this Council stuff – I guess it’s getting to me. Yeah, I know you’re friends. I’m fine with it.”

She seemed to smile despite herself. “What – really?”

He smiled too. The love in her eyes was so obvious that he felt like a jerk for caring about Seb at all. “Yeah, really,” he said. “I’m glad that you’ve got another half-angel to talk to. Anyway, how’s the aura training going?”

Willow’s green eyes sparkled suddenly. She stood on a step so that she was taller than he was, and wrapped her arms around his neck. “I’ll tell you if you kiss me.”

He grinned in surprise, slipping his hands around her waist. “I don’t know, you drive a hard bargain...all right, I give in.”

She trailed her fingers over the back of his neck as they kissed; Alex shivered, pulling her closer. “Maybe we could sneak away into your room later,” she whispered against his mouth.

“Maybe we could just spend the rest of our lives in there, and never come out again,” he murmured back. Nothing sounded better. His lips travelled down to her neck, lingering against her warm skin; he couldn’t help smiling. “And don’t get me wrong, I definitely like the idea – but you always used to be so worried about us not having enough privacy in there.”

“I still am,” she said faintly. “But Alex, I just—” She pulled away to look into his eyes; he saw deep happiness in her expression. “I just really want to be close to you. I mean—” She touched his cheek and smiled ruefully. “Well, as close as we can be, with a dorm full of people just outside.”

Which unfortunately wasn’t as close as either of them wanted – but was a lot better than nothing. “Oh man, it’s a date,” said Alex, drawing her back against him. Then he stopped as his responsibilities crashed over him like a freight train. They had less than three weeks now.
Three weeks
. He glanced tensely towards the range. “But I should probably head over to the evening service at the cathedral first and check the place out; then look over the blueprints for the Torre Mayor again, see if I’ve missed anything—”

Willow put a finger over his lips. “It’s okay.”

He made a face. “No, it really isn’t. You deserve—”

“I deserve to be with you, and I am. Always. Alex, it’s fine – this is so important, don’t you think I realize that?” He could hear her frustration though, and knew how much she hated it that she couldn’t go to the angel-filled cathedral with him and try to pick up something psychically. From the moment they’d met, they’d been a team – having to sit at home with her half-angel aura must gnaw at her.

“Of course I know you realize it,” he said softly. “God, if anyone in the world understands what’s at stake, it’s you.” He tucked back a short strand of her hair and smiled. “So, have I earned the right yet to know how the aura work is going?”

Willow sighed. “Still not that well, actually,” she confessed. “It’s a lot harder than I thought.”

Discouragement was clear on her face. Alex squeezed her hand and shook his head in joking disbelief. “After all that? You got – wait a minute” – he counted on his fingers – “one, two, three, four,
five
kisses out of me? And the aura work isn’t even going well?”

She grinned, and pressed close to him again. “So sue me,” she murmured against his lips.

My psychic skills had always come so effortlessly that I’d thought disguising my aura would be easy too, once Seb explained it to me. It wasn’t – just
seeing
my aura took practice at first. It seemed so unnatural to even notice it, like being awakened by your own snores. After three days, I could finally bring my aura easily into view, but now trying to change it made me feel like I was in the second grade attempting advanced calculus. And for Seb it was all so simple – not to just see his aura, but to then sort of mentally grasp it, changing its colours with his thoughts.

“You have to be friends with it,” he said for about the dozenth time. “Be
simpático
.”

We were down in the exercise room again, where Seb sat straddling the weight machine. Stubble covered his firm jaw; he’d apparently taken me at my word about the shaving thing. All he needed now was a leather jacket and screaming groupies, though that would be so un-Seb-like as to be completely unreal.

I nodded, determined to get it this time. “All right. Let me try again.”

Perched cross-legged on a sofa cushion, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. My aura swam into my mind’s eye. I sat still, noticing the way it radiated out from my body: buoyant when I was happy, drawing in closely if I was upset. It was kind of medium-sized now, with a focused sense that matched my own. I watched its lavender lights drifting through the silver...and then I mentally reached out, frowning as I strove to catch hold of it.

Blue
, I told it.
You need to be sky-blue now
.

The aura in my mind’s eye stayed calm, intent...and silver. As usual. Opening my eyes, I gazed at it glumly.

There was a creak from the weight machine as Seb got up. “Maybe we should try something different,” he said. The sofa cushion dipped as he settled next to me; as always, a pleasurable tingle went through me at the mingling of our auras. “Just feel what I’m doing, yes?”

As we sat there together, I could sense Seb’s light concentration, so different from my own grim focus. His state of mind was almost like an afterthought, or daydreaming. Gently, he nudged his aura; I felt it shiver as the colours he was imagining swept through it. Green. Then a dull grey. Green again. Silver.

Neither of us moved as Seb changed his aura over and over. Almost without realizing, I began to echo his sense of relaxed detachment, so that after a while I was practically losing myself in my own aura: whispers of silver and lavender trailing over my skin, gleaming with emotion.

“I think I get it,” I said softly. “I’ve been trying too hard, right?”

Seb nodded, propping himself back on one hand. His hazel eyes were teasing. “Perhaps just a little,
querida
.”

“Don’t call me
querida
,” I said automatically. “Okay, let me see if I can do it now.”

Closing my eyes, I merged dreamily back into my aura’s glow.
Don’t force it
, I cautioned myself. When I felt ready, I mentally stroked its shimmering lights and imagined them turning blue.

I caught my breath as my aura wavered and gave a flicker. Close, but no cigar. My heart started beating more quickly.
No, don’t get excited – stay detached
. It was easier said than done, though; when I tried again, my life energy didn’t even flutter. Or the next two times I tried. In my mind’s eye, I stared at the silvery glow in frustration. Oh god, I
had
to get this. How was I supposed to be there for the Council attack if I didn’t?

There was a ripple of emotion from Seb...and when I opened my eyes, he was watching me very steadily, all trace of humour gone. With one of those undercurrents that happened more and more often between us now, I knew he’d heard my thought – and that he hated the idea of me taking part in the attack every bit as much as Alex would. Just the thought of me being hurt made him turn as fierce as those months when he was thirteen, so that he’d do whatever it took to protect me.

We each knew what the other was thinking. A little shaken by the depth of his feelings, I started to say something, then stopped. There was no point in arguing. I’d learn how to change my aura in time, and I’d be there when the team confronted the Twelve – that was all there was to it.

I could tell Seb had picked up the gist of that, and was letting it go for now – though from the tension around his mouth, he wasn’t happy. “Do you want to try again?” he asked finally.

And for then, that was all either of us said about it.

H
AVING
S
EB IN THE HOUSE
changed everything for me.

Though Alex was, obviously, totally on my side, he was often too busy to really notice everything that went on with me and the others: the minor snubs, the sideways looks. It was all so stupid that I hated the fact it even got to me sometimes, and I didn’t blame Alex in the slightest for not always noticing – god, I wouldn’t even have
wanted
him to. Because, let’s be honest, he had one or two more important things on his mind just then.

But Seb noticed it all. Suddenly there was someone whose gaze I could catch when Trish tensed if I came too close, or Brendan got that deer-in-the-headlights look. Seb’s eyes would be smiling as we glanced at each other, the corner of his mouth lifting almost imperceptibly. If we were near enough, I might even catch what he was thinking, which was always something like,
Madre mía
–
and you look so harmless. Have you got a machete up your sleeve or something?
Once or twice I gave in to the laugh tugging at my lips – which then had the others staring at me in alarm, while Seb just quietly stood there, looking innocent. The difference all that made to my sanity was...well, not small.

Just having Seb to talk to helped. There were so many things about my life that made sense now: strange feelings that had always set me apart, but that I hadn’t even known to question until I met him. Like how I’ve always been sensitive to the moods of places, when other people hardly seem to notice them; or the feeling of duality that I now realized I’d had all my life – the certainty that there was more to me than just the “me” I knew, even if I hadn’t been sure before what the rest of it was. These and a hundred other things were just part of being half-angel, it turned out – because Seb had always felt exactly the same way.

“Did you know your father?” I asked.

We were in the TV room, about a week after he’d arrived. The others were out, and as usual when they were on a hunt, frustration nagged at me that I couldn’t be there with them. I kept reaching psychically for Alex, needing to know he was safe. We all had cellphones now, but texts weren’t the same. Every time I found his energy, the familiar feel of it was like an embrace.