Archangel Evolution (18 page)

With short strides—due to their legs being
shackled—each prisoner was pushed forward to the opposite side.
Sam’s arms were held tightly behind her back, like Cassandra’s.
Kiren grasped Sam’s arm and led her back towards the camera, and
safety. The angels did the same with Cassandra, and the parties
slowly diverged.

Ten long minutes later, the six bodies had
been swallowed up by their respective mountains and the trade had
gone off without a hitch. Applause filled the auditorium, but
Taylor didn’t participate; she, Chris, and Gabriel had already
risen and were headed for the door, anxious to welcome Sam.

Knowing that she would initially be taken to
the medical wing for a mandatory examination, they caught a
transporter there, arriving in less than five minutes. Sam was
already there, having likely been teleported as soon as she entered
the mountain. Kiren was waiting for them when they exited the
transporter. They followed her to the exam room.

Sam, still smiling, sat on a bed, while a
shadowy male doctor took a blood sample. Her smile remained wide
even when the needle punctured the skin in her arm. Sam said,
“Remind me to write a review on Tripadvisor.com, that hotel was one
of the worst I’ve stayed in.”

Taylor laughed out loud. Good old Sam. Chris
grinned, but it was forced. He was still in concerned-boyfriend
mode. He took two long strides and ducked around the doctor to kiss
her.

The doctor said, “Just a minute, just a
minute, please. I need to check a few more things and then she’ll
be free to go.”

Chris backed off, waiting eagerly, like a dog
at the front door just before its owner gets home. Taylor said, “So
what did they feed you in that place?”

“Nothing, zip, nil. Not even a complimentary
glass of water with some stale bread. And there was certainly no
mint on my pillow. In fact, there was no pillow at all,” Sam
said.

“Angels,” Taylor said, “can’t live with ‘em,
can’t live without ‘em.”

Sam laughed. “It’s good to be out of that
place. It was really scary. I may have screamed a few times, I have
to admit.”

“That’s cool, we won’t tell anyone,” Taylor
joked. “And we’ll go straight to the café for some grub after we
get out of here.”

The doctor said, “You can go eat now. You
seem to be perfectly fine, not a scratch on you.”

“Thanks, doc,” Sam said, hopping off the
table.

Chris immediately grabbed her, picking her up
and holding her tight. He kissed her a few times. Taylor and
Gabriel looked at each other, smirking, for a few minutes, until
Taylor finally said, “Uh, this is awkward.”

Laughing, Chris said, “Okay, let’s go.” It
was like a huge weight had been lifted from him, both physically
and mentally. He had a bounce in his step and a spark in his
smile.

Taylor said, “Damn, Chris, I think you were
hurt more by the whole kidnapped girlfriend thing than the
kidnapped girlfriend was.”

Laughing again, Chris said, “I know I look
tough, but at heart I’m a big softie.”

Sampson met them at the café and the
triple-pair were reunited. There was a lot of laughing, more than
enough joking, and a fair bit of hugging. Although Taylor enjoyed
herself immensely, she couldn’t help thinking that it was surely
the calm before the storm.

L
ucas and Cassandra
were on board with the plan. It hadn’t been hard to convince them.
Take human pain and suffering and add it to Lucas and Cassandra
getting to inflict that pain and suffering, and you had a mission
that they were interested in. The only sticking point was the chain
of command.

“Why will David lead the mission?” Lucas
asked.

David glowered at Lucas. Dionysus said, “It
was his idea and upon creation of the New Archangels, you each have
an equal level of authority. I plan to spread the missions out
amongst all of you. This one will be David’s.”

Cassandra said, “The kid’s barely even been
on a mission, much less led one.”

“You should talk,” David spat out. “You were
the weak link in the last mission. You’re lucky to even be invited
on this one.”

Cassandra opened her mouth to respond, and
Dionysus had a vision of a death match between her and David—which
was a very enticing prospect, but not now. Not when he needed as
many supporters as possible. So before she could speak, he said,
“Enough! The decision is final. Learn to work together. Cassandra
screwed up, but it won’t happen again. Let’s focus on planning the
mission.”

With that, it was settled. And why shouldn’t
it be? Dionysus was still the Head of the New Archangel Council,
more powerful than czars, than kings, than the damn President of
the United States of America.

David said, “I say we target New York City
first.”

Lucas scoffed. “You can’t be serious. There’s
no way we’ll be able to do that without being caught on camera,
without being seen by someone who escapes us.”

“There will be no survivors,” David said
between gritted teeth. “We target less populated areas late at
night, and we kill swiftly and completely.”

“And then we shove it under Clifford’s nose
so he can get a whiff of how effective his demon army is at
protecting the humans,” Dionysus said. “New York it is, mission
leader.”

Lucas opened his mouth like he was about to
say something, but then closed it.

Cassandra said, “When do we leave?”

“Immediately,” David said.

Dionysus nodded, grinning. “Good. Very
good.”

“
You say you want a revolution

Well, you know

We all want to change the world

You tell me that it's evolution

Well, you know

We all want to change the world

But when you talk about destruction

Don't you know that you can count me out

Don't you know it's gonna be all right

All right, all right

You say you got a real solution

Well, you know

We'd all love to see the plan

You ask me for a contribution

Well, you know

We're doing what we can

But when you want money

For people with minds that hate

All I can tell is brother you have to
wait

Don't you know it's gonna be all right

All right, all right”

The Beatles- “Revolution”

From the B-side of the single “Hey Jude”
(1968)

G
abriel was already
gone. That fast. Just when they had recovered Samantha, Clifford
called a meeting and announced that Gabriel would leave immediately
on his mission. Sampson went with him. That was more than an hour
ago.

With Taylor’s mission on hold for the moment,
she didn’t know what to do with herself. Sam and Chris had gone
back to UT. Sam had homework to catch up on and an exam in a few
days. Taylor could have ported with them, but begged off saying
that she would hitch a ride with one of her guards. She needed time
to be alone. To think. And she figured Sam and Chris would want to
be alone, too.

So she wandered around the Lair for a while,
trying to get lost. Each time she came to a crossroads, she turned
the opposite direction from where her instincts told her to go. It
worked, and an hour later she was hopelessly confused as to which
way led back to the café, the recreational area, the Elders’
Chamber, her room, or any of the other areas she was familiar
with.

After making another right and passing by a
few unmarked doors, Taylor came to a dead end. A transporter waited
to whisk her off somewhere. She boarded the futuristic-looking pod,
wondering where she would end up.

It turned out to be a long ride—more than
thirty minutes—which probably meant she had managed to get way off
track, and was being brought back to civilization. It gave her time
to think.

Looking back, the last seven months of her
life seemed impossible. It was like her old life had been snuffed
out, and in its place a new life created. Moving to the other side
of the world—to Russia or China—would be no more different. Besides
Sam being her best friend, the only thing that hadn’t changed was
her. Of course, physically she
had
changed—sprouting wings
and spouting orbs of light probably fell into the change
category—but her personality was the same. She was the same old
Taylor, with no control over the chaos of her mind, direct, a bit
on the weird side.

One thing that was very different was having
a boyfriend. It wasn’t something she was proud of, but she really
had no choice in the matter. Despite all Gabriel’s
imperfections—his temper, his tendency to do stupid things—and
because of all of his perfections—his wit, his leadership, his
gorgeous face and body—her heart had chosen him, for better or for
worse. At first she had been resistant to that choice. She was too
young for a soul mate, too young for true love, too young to be a
slave to a relationship. So she had rebelled, pushing Gabriel away
at times, but like metal to a magnet, she couldn’t stay away from
him. She couldn’t resist him. Finally embracing the relationship,
Taylor found that she was able to be herself, independent and
uncontrolled, while still being Gabriel’s girlfriend. And he
respected her for it—liked that about her. For her it was a
revelation, and explained a lot about her mother’s relationship
with her father. A partnership. A promise. To be their own selves
while being a fitted pair at the same time. She only hoped that her
relationship with Gabriel could one day be as good as her parents’
had been.

While her thoughts dwelled on a photograph of
her parents she had in her room at home, she felt the transporter
slowing. Despite the length of the trip, it had passed by
remarkably fast. What would the doors reveal when they opened? Not
the UT campus, not her dad mowing their front lawn, not anything
normal, that was for sure. Instead, it would be like something out
of an adventure movie: dark shapes moving through torch-lit
tunnels, carrying fiery swords and bows; subtly glowing angels
moving casually amongst the demons; there would be no humans,
surely, not even Sam, who was pretending to study but was really
making out with a demon.

The doors opened and she saw no one. A rocky
alcove. There were two torches. It was not familiar—she had never
been to this place before. In the rock wall there was a large,
wrought-iron door, domed at the top, medieval by design, with
intersecting metal bands forming a cross on its face. There was no
handle, no push bar, no knocker. From her experience, Taylor knew
that doors like this usually required the flaming touch of a demon
to open, for security purposes. Which probably meant there was
something cool behind the door, something worth seeing. For once,
she wished one of her demon guards were nearby. She glanced behind
her, half-expecting to see one lurking in the shadows,
watching—always watching—but she saw only the empty
transporter.

Three choices: board the transporter and
enjoy a half-hour ride back to being lost, sit down and wait for a
demon to come by, or pound on the door and hope that someone inside
hears her. She sat down to wait.

Less than five minutes later she felt a
rumble in her rump, a buzz in her butt. A short vibration beneath
her, like the ground was trembling. It stopped. Then started. Then
stopped. Then: four or five more shakes of her buttocks. It was
like she was sitting on one of those airport auto-massage chairs
that was malfunctioning, or maybe functioning perfectly.

She stood up and touched her hand to the
door.
Buzz
. Pause.
Buzz
. Whatever was causing the
ground to tremble was powerful, very powerful. And it was behind
the door. Her curiosity made option three look better and better.
So she pounded on the door, a dull, thudding sound that likely
didn’t project farther than the doorframe.

After a few minutes with no response, she
hammered her fists against the iron three more times.
Thud,
thud, thud
. “Housekeeping!” she shrilled in a high-pitched
voice, more for her own amusement than to get the attention of
anyone who might be behind the thick door.

To her surprise, there was a groan and the
eight-foot door began creaking open. In a million years, she never
would have guessed whose face would pop out from behind the door.
“Kiren?” she said.

“Taylor?” Kiren said, mirroring her surprise.
“What are you doing here?”

Kiren’s spiky hair was neon pink, and looked
strange next to her dark skin. She wore a tight black tank-top that
accentuated her toned physique. Her skin glistened with sweat.

“I, uh, just kind of wandered in. I’m not
even sure where here is.”

Kiren smiled. “You’re in for a treat then.
Follow me.”

Taylor followed Kiren through a short tunnel.
The end of the path opened into a massive cavern, brightly-lit by
dozens of baskets of fire spread throughout the area. The moment
Taylor passed from beneath the tunnel ceiling, she saw a large,
black shape thundering towards her. The ground beneath her
shook-rumbled-vibrated like there was an earthquake, or T-Rex was
charging her.

“Look out!” Kiren yelled, diving to the
side.

While the warning registered, Taylor didn’t
heed it,
couldn’t
heed it. Her body betrayed her mind once
again, ignoring her commands to
Run, dammit, run!
Instead,
she just stood there, with the big thing bearing down on her, about
to smash her to bits and send her to angel heaven or hell, or
wherever it was that angels went when they died—according to
legend, they went to the stars. Frozen in place, Taylor squeezed
her eyes shut and prepared to go to the stars.