Conduit (17 page)

            “And just how are we
going to do that?” Griffin asked, looking equally as baffled.

            Riley pointed at
Griffin’s truck.  “We’ve got some explosive charges in the trunk.  We can set
those around part of the barn.  That will make enough of a distraction to get
them all out here.”

            Lev rushed forward and
slammed Riley against the vehicle.  “And if Elizabeth is in the wrong part of
the barn, it just might get her killed, something I’m not willing to chance. 
She’s the reason we’re here.”

            “It’s not like we have a
lot of options,” Riley argued, shoving back then adjusting his shirt.  “Use
your brain for once.”

            “I am using my brain. 
There’re enough angels here who could sneak in and at least see where Elizabeth
is before we go blowing things up.”

            “Angels?” Clarissa
repeated, suddenly looking around with girlish new-found interest.  “Some of
you are angels?  How cool is that?”  She started acting like she wanted to jump
up and down in her excitement, and Lev just wanted to throttle her.

            “This isn’t the time,”
Lev said, his voice coming out short and angry. 

            “I think he’s got a
point, Riley,” Evan said, frowning at both her and Riley.  “One of us could go
in there and scout things out easily enough.  They wouldn’t sense us.”

            “And if there’s an angel
in there, it’s game over.”  Frustrated, Riley threw his hands up in
exasperation.  “All right.  Fine.  I’ll go in and see what we’re up against,
not that it’s probably going to matter in the end.”

           
That’s because
Elizabeth doesn’t matter to you,
Lev thought, gritting his teeth to keep
from lashing out.  No matter how anyone else felt about Elizabeth, they would
ultimately be able to walk away from this.  Lev knew he wouldn’t. Some wounds
never healed.

            As Riley vanished, Lev
focused on Clarissa, who was still watching him with that sense of
irrepressible wonder that made absolutely no sense.

            “Perhaps Clarissa should
stay in the car.”  Lev swallowed hard even as the displeasure crossed her face,
transforming her features with anger.

            “I don’t want to wait in
the car!” she snipped, thrusting her hands to her hips.  “I can handle myself
just fine.”  She frowned at Lev accusingly.

            Evan calmly said, “It’s
not like keeping her in the car will guarantee her safety.  We needed her to
get us here.  Now there is no safety zone.”

            Lev shook his head. 
“Fine.”  He turned to Clarissa.  “You might want to stand behind Evan or
Celia.  Got it?”  He arched his eyebrows at her expectantly.

            She opened her mouth to argue
but clenched her lips shut at the last moment and gave a final nod.  Lev cocked
his head to one side, wondering why she seemed so fixated on him, but it didn’t
matter.  He just needed her to get whatever it was out of her system before it
drove him over the edge.

            Still, even if she drove
him nuts, Lev didn’t want to see any harm come to her, and he really hoped she
would listen to him when the time came because while the angels could watch out
for her, he wasn’t so sure he’d be able to.

            He and the others stared
at the barn as the waiting game stretched out in front of them.  He gripped his
sword more tightly, as though doing so might make him feel better somehow.  He
wanted to control something in the face of everything seeming to fall apart all
around him.

            Riley suddenly seemed
appeared from out of nowhere and strode toward them, his expression dark.

            “Well?” Lev demanded once
the angel had stepped close enough to hear.  “What did you see?”

            “Ten
dybbuks
. 
Half are resting, but once things heat up, that’ll change.”

            “What about Elizabeth?”
Lev demanded.

            Riley took a deep breath and
nodded.  “She’s in there—on the left side.” The whole while he spoke, Riley
stared either at the ground or at Evan, anywhere but at Lev, as though he just
couldn’t look him in the eye.  There was something he’d refused to say,
something big.  Lev began to ask when Riley headed to the truck for the
explosive charges.  It was as though Riley had expected him to ask more
questions and this was the only way he could avoid answering them.

            Charges in hand, Riley
strode around the building, setting them up.  At least he had the sense to only
rig the right side of the building, which would give them enough time to rush
in and get Elizabeth before things went too far south.  It was as good a plan
as any, Lev suspected.  Then again, no plan felt right.  All was mucked up in
the chaos of his heart and not about to untangle itself.

            Everyone watched Riley,
waiting, biding their time until he’d finished.  It seemed to take forever.

            “Get ready,” Evan hissed,
nodding to Lev and Celia.  Then he glared at Clarissa.  “And you stay out of
the way.  It’s going to get ugly, and you definitely don’t want to be in the
middle of it.”

            Griffin stepped up to Lev
and whispered in his ear, “I’ll do whatever I can to keep them off you so you
can bring Lizzie out.”

            “I’ll get her out.”  His
voice wavered as he thought about what might be waiting for him.  Yes, she was
in there.  He just didn’t know if she were still alive, and even if he’d asked
Riley, Lev had a feeling the angel wouldn’t have told him regardless.  It was incentive
that would make him try as hard as he could to get done what he needed to get
done.

            “I know.”

            Riley gave one last
warning nod to let them know it was going down now.  Five seconds later, the
world exploded in a burst of heat and pressure.  Lev felt his stomach tense as
he thought of Elizabeth inside that building, but Riley had been true to his
word and left the side of the building untouched.  The trick was going to be
getting to her. 

            Suddenly the barn doors
slammed open and the
dybbuks
spilled out, their expressions slack and
disoriented.  Evan and Celia met the first two as Riley rushed into the ranks
to join in the battle, not that Lev much cared.  He was more fixated on
searching through the
dybbuks
, checking to see if Elizabeth were with
any of them.

            “Do you see her?” he
called to Griffin, wondering if he had any better view.

            “Not yet,” Griffin
called.

            Clarissa stared at the
angels, her lips parted slightly as she watched the battle.  More than once,
the
dybbuks
tried to lunge past the line of angels, who somehow managed
to hold them back, keeping them from the humans.  Still, Lev watched the
building, and when he couldn’t wait any longer, he started toward it.

            “Lev, no!” Celia called.

            “Elizabeth’s in there!”
he shouted and charged toward the burning structure.  In his peripheral vision,
he saw that Griffin followed, his sword poised, ready for any
dybbuks
that
happened in their direction.

            Lev was so focused on
getting inside that he didn’t see the first one come at him and wasn’t prepared
to fight off the hands lunging toward him, grabbing his throat, and by the time
he could respond, he found the
dybbuk
cutting off his air.

            Griffin, however, wasn’t
nearly so distracted and began swinging.  The first missed, but the second
scored a direct hit.  At the touch of the blade, the
dybbuk
, a man in
his mid-forties with dark hair and eyes, immediately released Lev’s throat. 
Lev staggered back, watching as the
dybbuk
took one last step and then
pitched forward into unconsciousness.

            “Thanks,” Lev resumed his
charge through the open doors.  Another
dybbuk
, this time a
twenty-something blonde who’d probably been an aerobics instructor greeted him.
Although her sudden lunge in his direction took him off guard, at least this
time he managed to knock her hands away before she could latch on.  He’d seen
what happened when they got hold one too many times, and he couldn’t risk the
delay, not with smoke filling the room.  If he didn’t get her out quickly, she’d
die.

            A different
dybbuk
charged at him, a teenage girl, as Griffin dealt with the aerobics woman.  Lev
got lucky and the blade found her immediately, freeing the
dybbuks
’
spirit from the girl’s body, leaving a pile of skin and bones behind.

            As Lev ducked farther
into the barn, he quickly realized how right he’d been to hurry; although half
the structure hadn’t been touched, it wouldn’t be long before the fire claimed
it.  He scanned the room, searching desperately, but only the usual farm
implements greeted him—that and what he assumed were tarp-covered vehicles.

            “Elizabeth?” he called,
ignoring the sounds of Griffin covering his backside, keeping the
dybbuks
off him so he could get through this.  He’d find her one way or another—unless,
of course, Riley had lied and she wasn’t really here.  The thought made him
stiffen as the air rushed from his lungs.

            Would Riley lie?  Lev was
beginning to wonder about all the suspicions the angel had left him with, yet as
much as Riley made his skin crawl, the angel seemed just too cocky to lie.  She
was here; Lev just had to find her before it was too late.

             In a blind panic, he raced
around the room shifting objects around, thinking he could just turn over the
right stone and stumble across her. Never mind that there didn’t seem to be any
place large enough to hide Elizabeth. More than once, he coughed from the smoke
burning his lungs with every breath, and he forced himself not to look at the
walls, knowing they could go up fast enough none of them would escape.  The
flames were getting bigger, leaping up at the rafters in their feeding
frenzy.   There wasn’t much time.

            “Did you find her?”
Griffin called as he took another swing at the
dybbuk
in front of him
and then ducked.

            “Not yet!” Lev seethed,
stumbling around a wooden work bench where various car parts lay, waiting to be
reassembled.  It was one of the only spots he hadn’t searched, not that it
seemed a likely hiding spot.

            “Elizabeth!” he called, more
loudly, thinking if she just heard his voice, she’d come out.  She wouldn’t
leave him standing around like this.  Nothing in this world would keep her
front him.

            He gritted his teeth and
looked again around the room, his gaze settling on the tarps.  With impatient
steps, he rushed at the nearest and flung it back, revealing an old tractor
which hadn’t run in probably half a century.  That was likely where those parts
on the bench had come from.

            He fixed his gaze on the
other tarp and sprang for it.  He’d almost reached it when a beam splintered
free from the ceiling and plummeted.  It would’ve struck him had Griffin not
jerked him out of harm’s way.

            “This place is about to
go,” Griffin yelled over the crackling flames.

            “I don’t care!”  Lev snatched
at the tarp in a last ditch effort to find Elizabeth.  As he tore it free, he
quickly realized that what was beneath was a wooden crate, not a vehicle. 
Although the lid was settled on top, Lev wondered if she were in there.  She
had to be.

            “Elizabeth!” he shouted,
and immediately pried the lid open.  His hands trembled, and he fumbled at
least once before the lid came loose. 

            In the light of the flames,
Lev spotted her lying amid a pile of blankets.  She was still as death, her black
hair framed her face.  Her sightless eyes wide as she lay bound.  An IV snaked
into the top of one hand, suspended from a short pole near her head.  It
dripped a clear liquid.

            Lev’s breath caught.  She
looked dead but couldn’t be.  He refused to believe that.

            “Holy crap,” Griffin
muttered, motionless in shock.

            “Help me get her out,”
Lev demanded, and they burst into motion.  Griffin tackled the ropes around her
hands and feet while Lev removed the I.V.  Even as he pulled the cannula free,
blood oozed out, nauseating him.  It wasn’t the sight of blood that did it but the
fact that it was Elizabeth’s blood, and what the loss of it portended because
this time, no matter how much he’d willingly take another bullet for her, he
couldn’t save her by trading his life for hers.

            Pushing the panic back,
he scooped her into his arms and headed back to the exit, only to find it
engulfed in flames.

Chapter
Seventeen

            “This so isn’t
happening.”  Griffin stared in horror at the wall of flames.  There was no way
through it.  His breathing grew shallow, and he lowered the sword, unable to believe
what he was seeing. Lev could hardly blame him. 

            “What do we do?” Lev
clutched her even tighter.  He’d always sworn to protect her, and once again
he’d fallen short, managing to get into the barn without access to get out.

            “I don’t know,” Griffin
said, his voice breathy and panicked.  The smoke got the best of him, then, making
him cough so hard it bent him double with the force of it.

            Lev could feel it
building in his chest, making breathing difficult.  At this rate, it wasn’t
going to be long before the smoke overcame them both.

            “Let’s try to get to the
door,” Lev said, even though he didn’t see a way through the flames.  “We can’t
just stand here.”

            Lev stepped forward, his
arms tightening around Elizabeth as though they could keep the flames at bay. 
At one time they would’ve been able, but not now.  Now he was all too human and
vulnerable.

            By the time they’d closed
the distance to the entrance, neither of them could see the door for all the
smoke and flame, and the heat was staggering.  Lev was panting, taking in smoke
with each breath.

            “We’ll never get through
that,” Griffin said, his eyes wide.

            Lev opened his mouth to
argue, but at that moment another wooden beam cracked overhead and snapping
where the fire had weakened it. Neither he nor Griffin had time to dodge it,
though they both tried.  Lev reflexively rolled forward, trying to shield
Elizabeth with as much of his body as he could, and held his breath, waiting
for the impact.

            It never came. Evan had suddenly
appeared, followed closely by Celia, catching the beam effortlessly and
hurtling it aside. At first, Lev wasn’t sure where they’d come from, but then
he saw the hole in the ceiling.

            “Get Griffin out of
here!” Evan yelled, wrapping his arms around Lev and Elizabeth.  As Evan leapt
into the air, Lev succumbed to a fit of coughing, and Evan might’ve dropped them
both had he not been holding them both so tightly.

“Easy,” Evan soothed, and
they shot past the flames.

            Although Lev had spent
many hours trying to remember what flight had felt like, he hadn’t been able. 
It was only now, as his father held him that he remembered the feel of being an
angel who could save humans.  Part of him ached with the reality he’d never be that
again, that that part of his life had passed.  When he had first changed, he’d
been okay with it, but now, not so much.  If he couldn’t protect her, what was
his purpose?  Did he have one?

            That disturbing doubt
filled him as Evan alighted on the ground and slowly relaxed his hold, making
sure Lev wouldn’t fall.  A dizziness washed over Lev, a by-product of the heat and
the smoke.  It consumed him, threatening to overtake him, and there was nothing
he could do but ride it out.

            Griffin lay nearby as
Celia looked him over, and farther off, Riley stood with Clarissa, trying to
talk to her, but her gaze was focused on Lev and Elizabeth, her lips lifted
into a smile.

           
Why is she smiling?
Lev
wondered, but didn’t have time to pursue that thought as he felt his arms
weaken and she fell.  He looked down at her face, so sure the sudden movement
would jostle her into wakefulness, but it didn’t.  She remained so still she
looked dead.  Maybe she was, and were that the case, perhaps he should just let
death take him as well.

            “Lev?”

            He heard his father
calling him, but no answer came.  Much as he vied against it, the blackness came.

* * *

            The cool of a wet towel
on his face woke him, and even though Lev couldn’t remember his dreams, he
sensed they’d been anything but good.

            “Elizabeth?” he called,
expecting to find her hand as the one tending him.  Instead, as his fingers
wrapped around the wrist, he looked up to find Clarissa, her expression
thoughtful.

            “I’m not her.  She’s
sleeping.”

            Where?”  He sat up,
thinking he was still at the barn, but no, Evan had moved them to yet another campground,
Lev’s mind and vision swam from the sudden movement, and the dizziness
returned.

            “The next tent over—and
no offense, but you don’t look so good.  Maybe you should lie back down.”

            “I’m fine,” he replied
stubbornly.  “I need to see Elizabeth.”

            “I get that,” Clarissa
said.  “You might as well stand in line for all the good it’s going to do you. 
Right now your dad and Riley are with her, and even they haven’t been able to
bring her back to consciousness, so unless you’ve got some other kind of magic
mojo to share, I don’t think it’s going to do any good right now.”
            “I don’t much care what you think,” Lev snarled, forcing himself upright. 
Although he only glanced at her, he could tell there was something about her
expression that troubled him, something that seemed off.  He just couldn’t put
his finger on what it might be.                
            “Suit yourself.  You always were too stubborn for your own good.” 
Her shoulders straightened into a hard line, and she frowned, obviously
displeased.

            “So I’ve been told,” Lev
admitted, trying to ignore the dizziness and finally managing to get his feet
under him, and with no help from Clarissa. 

            “Lev, what are you
doing?” Celia asked, rushing into the tent, a concerned frown tugging at her
lips.  “You should still be lying down, trying to recuperate.”

            “Don’t remind me,” he muttered
as a larger wave of dizziness washed over him.  One knee buckled, and it was
enough to make him stumble.  He would’ve fallen had Celia not reached out and
grabbed him, offering support just to keep him standing.  Regardless of how
much he wanted to see Elizabeth, it wasn’t going to happen right now.  He had
neither the strength nor the endurance, which was the only reason he let her
ease him back to where he could lie down. The only thing which made that even
remotely bearable was that when he looked around, he realized that at some
point Clarissa had slipped off.

            “Evan is hopeful Lizzie
will recover soon.  He entered her dreams and spoke to her.”

            “And?” Lev asked, through
gritted teeth.  His heart was racing so fast his chest threatened to explode.

            Celia gave his shoulder a
squeeze.  “You can relax, okay?  He said that aside from being shaken,
mentally, she’d been untouched.  She just has to wake up, and her body is
working on that.  We just need to give her time and keep the
dybbuks
at
bay while Riley and Evan figure out who’s leading them.”

            Lev closed his eyes. 
“And did they glean any information from any of the
dybbuks
before they
dispatched them?”

            “Unfortunately not.”  She
brushed the hair from her eyes.  “Still, we can handle this.  Now that
Elizabeth is back with us, we’ll figure it out.  We always do.”

            For the first time since
waking, Lev realized just how dry his mouth was, and he licked his chapped
lips, feeling pain as his tongue brushed over them.

            “Is there any water?” he
asked quietly. 

            “Sure,” she said.  “I’ll
get you some.”  She stood and walked over to a cooler where she grabbed a
bottled water.  “Sorry that it’s not cold,” she said, twisting free the cap to
make it easier for him to drink.  She handed him the bottle.

            “It’s all good.  At least
it’s wet.”

            “Yes, it is th….”  Her
voice died mid-thought, and she diverted her attention to the tent where
Elizabeth lay.  “That’s not good.” The smile left her face.

            “What?” Lev demanded.

            “There are
dybbuks
coming.  I can’t tell how many, but things are about to get ugly.”  She stepped
away.  “Whatever you do, stay put.  The three of us will handle things.”  She
started out but then peered around the tent.  “Where’s Clarissa?”

            “I don’t know.  She
slipped out when you came in.  I didn’t see where she went.”

            “Okay.  I’ll try to find
her.”

            As Celia slipped out, Lev
peered at the tent where Evan and Riley had been.  Now she lay alone, still
sleeping.  At the sight of her there alone and unprotected, his heart quickened,
and he tried not to think about what might happen.  Surely Evan and Riley could
handle it—and Griffin. Where was he?

            Unable to handle all the
things his eyes couldn’t see, Lev forced himself to peer out, trying to discern
what he could about the
dybbuks
—how many there were and how close—yet once
again he struck out.  Whatever lay ahead, he was blind to it.

            So here again he was
useless. 

            In spite his sister’s
warning and the stubborn dizziness claiming him, Lev sat up, determined this
time to struggle to his feet and take his place beside Elizabeth.  Yes, doing
so might kill him, but he didn’t care.  Facing this world without her would
surely do so regardless.

            Although he wanted to
move quickly, his body refused to cooperate.  He was lucky to roll to his
stomach and rise on shaky legs that threatened to give beneath him. Struggling
forward, he blindly reached out for something to grab onto but found nothing. He
stumbled but somehow managed to remain upright.  Swallowing the bile which had surged
up into his throat, he forced himself on.

            “Lev, I told you to stay
put!” Celia yelled, raising her hand.  At once, he felt himself falling
backward toward the sleeping bag he’d lain on not so long ago.

            Arms flailing, he tried
to keep his balance, but there were so many things fighting within him—the
pain, the nausea, the fatigue, all of which were too much, and he was no match
for his sister’s iron determination to keep him in this tent.

            As his back slammed to
the ground, a fresh surge of pain ripped through him.  The force of the blow
knocked the air from his lungs, and it was all he could do to draw breath, to
breathe as he helplessly clawed at the sleeping bag just to hold onto
something.

            He clenched his eyes
shut, willing his world to stop spinning, but his body felt as though he were
suddenly on a ride he couldn’t stop.

            Unconsciousness reached
for him again, but this time he fought it with everything he had, forcing open his
eyes.  Sweat beaded his forehead, stinging his eyes as it ran into them.

           
You have to get up,
he thought. 
There’s no one with Elizabeth, and she could die.

           
With that thought, he pushed the pain
back where it no longer controlled him.  He still felt it tearing at him, but
now it was bearable.  Now, he could move.

            His breathing had slowed
as his lungs finally took in enough air.  All his senses were dragging,
allowing him to ease himself to a sitting position.

            A burst of bright, white
light suddenly exploded just outside the tent, temporarily blinding him.  He closed
his eyes, feeling like a sitting target.  What he wouldn’t give to have his
wings back.  He’d never again gripe about them.  Ever. But that ship had
sailed. He blinked a few times and tried to look outside, but all he saw was
more of that same blinding brilliance, convincing him he should just look
elsewhere.

            He had no other choice. 
Immediately, he walked toward Elizabeth’s tent, where he spotted a man at the
entrance—a
dybbuk
, no doubt.

            Where were Celia and the
others? Whatever was happening, it must have involved all of them, and that
left only him.

            Adrenaline shot through
him, prompting him to move faster.  This time, his body seemed less awkward and
answered his summons without much argument.  The pain lingered, but he kept it at
bay, never quite letting it reach the forefront of his mind. 

            More blinding light came
at him, and he suddenly heard the sounds of combat around him.  How many
dybbuks
were there?  He didn’t know, and it wasn’t like he could just look up and
figure it out.  He needed to see.

            He shuffled out,
snatching up his sword as an afterthought.  Although he was weak, he tightened
his grip.

            This time, Celia must’ve been
too busy with the battle to realize he’d slipped out, keeping his eyes averted
and one hand on the tent to use a guide as he edged closer to the tent.