Exalted (3 page)

Dizzy shrugged. “Nathan’s almost as bad as you
are. Distracting him from me.” She pulled out the gun again, picking at the
nose with her long, pink nail.

“Maybe I could cut your birthmark off,” she
mused. “Maybe they’re what give us our gifts.”

“I don’t think so,” Julia said when she could
find her voice.

“You wouldn’t.” Dizzy rolled her eyes and
leaned down, her breath warm on Julia’s face. Then everything went topsy-turvy.

Chapter
Three

 
Carlin was the youngest child of her mother, a
writer for a Spanish soap opera, and her father, a real estate developer. She
had two older sisters, one from her mother’s marriage to another man, and the
other from her father’s marriage to another woman.

Her
father’s daughter, Rita, was ten years older, and when Carlin was five years
old Rita was fifteen. Rita sometimes would tease her, calling her the little
fool. She thought of that name now, as she studied the plane, finding nothing
that could help them escape.

Little fool!

It
was true, she did not have the power Julia had, but she was strong, and she had
not done a good job of showing it. On the snowy mountain in St. Moritz, after
she had first became wounded in her passion to throttle Nathan, she had then
allowed herself to be touched by Adam.

But
what was worse, she had allowed herself to be fooled by Edan. It seemed obvious
now, flying on a plane bound for The Three, that Edan had been the real
betrayer. Nathan had never pretended to be on their side, but Edan had.

She
should have been more skeptical, but no. She had been wooed by a pretty face
and body.
Little fool!

Carlin
leaned her left ear to her shoulder, as she had found that pressing on the
shoulder caused a little pain, and that would take her mind away from the big
pain, deep inside her shoulder, in the bone.

A
bitch of a Chosen had shot her, and though the bullet had gone through her and
out, it hurt like hell.

She
had bitten her lip until it bled because she would not moan. Meredith, strapped
into the seat behind Carlin, was crying sometimes, and Carlin did not blame
her. A while ago they had trusted Nathan, at least some, and Meredith had gone
on trusting him because Nathan was kissing her and tricking her. Of course the
girl was upset.

In
front of Carlin, there was Drew. Sometimes he turned around to look at her, and
Carlin would snap, “I am fine!” and Drew would show her his worry through his
eyes.

The
cabin was small, with a few rows on the left, and on the right, a table and a
recliner. In the seats it was only the three of them, and behind them, in the
recliner, there was a Shepherd with ugly red hair.

Carlin
had no idea where Julia was. She’d been in so much pain, she had not noticed
anything when they were loaded into trucks and driven to a waiting plane.

There
was a sheet of fabric that partitioned off the nose of the plane, like all private
aircraft. Nathan came through the sheet right then, and he was looking bruised
and battered. That was good.

She
had intended not to say anything to Nathan the Bastard, but as soon as she saw
him, Carlin spoke her mind, taking care to do it in English so he understood.
“You are a bastard, Nathan, you are very ignorant!”

He
had the nerve to look upset, like she had hurt his feelings. “What a little
pussy
. Why don’t you say you’re sorry
and why don’t you give us Julia back? Oh I forgot! Because you are a pussy. Do
you like pink panties?”

Carlin
had a cousin, a male cousin, who liked to wear panties and dresses, and she
didn’t mind that, not at all. She even felt a little bit bad for using
panty-wearing as an insult (she wore them too, after all), but mostly she felt
only rage. Nathan walked over to her and he leaned down, looking at her
shoulder.

“I’ll
find someone who can heal that for you,” he said softly.

“I
would rather take the pain, thank you Nathan. Or better yet, find me Julia. She
can heal this!”

Nathan
shook his head, acting as if he was sorry. “I can’t do that.”

“Is
she in this plane?”

Nathan’s
jaw flexed. He stuck his hands into the pockets of his dark gray pants and he
shook his head. “Julia’s fine.”

Carlin
laughed. She nodded at her shoulder. “You are not really a shepherd, but the
wolf!”

“I
must agree,” Drew said, straining in his chair to look at Nathan. “Can you
release us, Nathan? We’re not much of a threat at 30,000 feet.”

The bastard shook his head. He beckoned the
red-haired bitch Shepherd. “Come here, Clarissa. I need you to cover for
EcKland so Gabby’s not flying solo.”

EcKland? Carlin remembered him only vaguely.
Blond hair, and ugly. “Are you too afraid to show your face to us, who you
betrayed?”

Nathan ignored Carlin, ushering the redhead
bitch through the sheet. He whispered something to her as she went.

Then he turned back to Carlin, Drew, and
Meredith.

“I have questions,” Drew said, “and I think I
deserve to have them answered.”

Nathan’s eyes flicked behind Carlin, to
Meredith, who was crying again, and he nodded once as his mouth pulled down.
“Shoot.”

“I want to,” Carlin snarled.

“Where is Julia?” Drew demanded.

“I can’t tell you that,” Nathan said. “It’s a
matter of security.”

“I’m a Shepherd.”

Nathan’s face hardened. “You’re a deserter,
Drew.”

“You’re on the wrong side, Nathan.”

“It hurts me to hear you say that.”

Carlin laughed out loud. “Pussy,” she hissed.

“How did you find us?” Drew asked.

“That’s not important.”

“You made a deal with Edan, didn’t you? Where
did he take Cayne?”

Nathan frowned. “I don’t know, and I don’t
care. I can’t believe you do.”

Drew did not reply to that. “We watched Julia
struggle with being away from The Three. She had headaches. They gave her
those, and they’re killing her. It's obvious to anyone. She’s not safe there.”

“She’s safer there than anywhere else.”

“She should not have to go back!” Carlin
cried. “None of us should.”

Nathan nodded. “If that’s how you feel, as
soon as Julia does what she has to do, you guys can go. We only have you now so
you don’t cause any more trouble. Julia’s role is very important. More than you
realize.”
     
A croaky voice came from behind
Carlin: Meredith. “Enlighten me,” she said.

“This isn’t common knowledge,” Nathan said
quietly, stepping closer to Meredith, “but the oldest of The Three is actually
Methuselah. He was an angel who came to Earth on behalf of The Alpha to protect
humanity. The Alpha erected a barrier to keep the Demons out of Earth, but it
kept Methuselah here, too. Over time, Methuselah’s descendants became an army
who could help him return to The Alpha. That’s us,” he said quietly. “If
Methuselah can bring down that net The Alpha put up, we can all consort with
the Authorities. Those are angels.”

“We know that, idiot!” Carlin wished he spoke
Spanish, as it would have been much easier to express her disgust in her native
language.

“Did you ever consider that The Alpha didn’t
want Methuselah back in Heaven?” Meredith asked.

His eyes widened. “That’s preposterous.”

“Why doesn’t he just open the barrier and let
Methuselah through?”

“He meant for the barrier to stay up forever.
But he didn’t know Methuselah couldn’t get back through. He didn’t know it
would trap us. It was all a mistake. Methuselah needs Julia to help make
everything right. After she’s done, she can live her life however she wants.”

“That’s a lie,” Drew said. He snorted. “It
even sounds like one. A bad one only a fool would believe.”

“It does not!”

“None of this explains why he needs Julia,”
Meredith said.

“That is right!” Carlin agreed.

Speaking to her as if she were a child,
Nathan said, “Methuselah is old, Carlin. His body is too feeble. That’s why he
needs Julia. He’ll give her some of his power, she’ll take down the net, and
then she’ll be free to go. He can’t use just anybody. It has to be the
strongest Chosen available. His power is Celestial, and it takes a strong body
to hold it. Even his sons can't hold it, because they're old, and their bodies
aren't as strong as Methuselah's—he is a deity—so he has to use the strongest
Chosen.”

“Oooh, yes.” Carlin rolled her eyes. “I think
he wants to go to Heaven, to challenge The Alpha, and he is using Julia.”

“We’d all benefit,” Nathan insisted. “He’ll
do away with the Demons and the Nephilim. He plans to cast the net down over
them, trap them in Hell, and free the Earth to consort with Heaven.”

“Why didn’t Methuselah just tell us all
this?” Meredith asked, sniffing.

“It’s an offensive plan. They can’t go
telling everyone. There are spies, like Monte. Remember what the Swiss rebels
did? They wanted to kill Julia. We don’t want to. We only want her help.”

“They didn’t attack a bunch of innocent
Chosen at a resort,” Meredith said in a voice trembling with anger. “You did.
You and Adam and Dizzy and all the rest.”

 
“I
didn’t want it to happen that way, but it’ll work for the best for all Chosen.
You’ll see, Meredith.”

“All I see is that I was stupid to trust
you.”

“You weren’t.” Nathan looked sad, his smaller
lip poking out like a stupid child.

Then the fabric swished, and the tall,
fair-haired ugly man walked in.

“EcKland,” Nathan said.

“You needed me?”

Nathan nodded. “I’ll talk to you later,
Meredith.”

“Don’t bother, Nathan.”

“It’s not a bother. EcKland,” he said,
motioning toward the back of the plane, where another fabric sheet hung. “Why
don’t you come back here with me?”

Chapter
Four

Julia
was starting to feel like a drug addict. Or at least like she thought a drug
addict would feel. She was there one minute, gone the next. Like Henry from
The Time Traveler’s Wife
. Remembering
the book, one of her favorites from another life, made her want to cry—and that
was before she got her bearings.

She’d
had a vision at Rosa’s house, a vision of herself on the Amtrak she and Cayne
took to Washington. But in the Amtrak vision, there had been a tunnel—a dank,
muddy tunnel that had housed a far-off light, a candle that burst into flames,
some primitive drawings, and a freakish, hissing puff of wind that had knocked
her off her feet.

Goosebumps
spread across her skin as she inhaled the same dank, stale scent that had
filled that place—a deep-underground kind of stink. An old, dead smell that
made her want to cry for Cayne, or for Suzanne. It occurred to her, as she
floated, flat on her back through what looked like a narrow mud tunnel, that
she was still a child if she wasn’t sure whether to cry for her mother or her
lover.

How
could it have come to be that there was no one to save her? That her fate had
come to claim her? She was only seventeen.

Julia
inhaled incense, the scent of boiling tea leaves overpowering the dirt
smell…and she could tell now that something fabric-like was pressing against
her from behind, that she was being carried on some kind of stretcher.

Deeper
and deeper into the earth.
   

Tall,
shadowed figures were carrying her. She could hear them breathing, could feel
their movements as they shifted, lifting her over their heads as they carried
her through the hall. As she came around more, she could see the flickering of
torches and feel the damp kiss of fog—just like the vision from Rosa’s house.

Her
body felt heavy as lead and her heart felt even heavier. Every beat was like a
punch to the chest.

What
had happened to her? She remembered a tall, blond guy with a freckled face,
sympathetic as Dizzy’s dark magic lifted and she became aware again inside the
plane. She’d seen Dizzy lying, eyes closed, on the bed, and Nathan had stepped
into her field of vision.

When
he’d stood in front of her, he’d asked the guy—EcKman?—to step out for a
minute.

Julia
felt nothing when she looked at his face. Not even the urge to hurt him. She
shut her eyes and was surprised to find Nathan’s hand caress her cheek.

“I’m
sorry,” he murmured. “I’m sorry to everyone. You’ll thank me later.”

Not a chance, dickhead.

Julia’s
back hurt, so she tried to subtly shift her weight. Immediately she noticed a
heaviness around her wrists and ankles. She was tied down again? Even on the
stretcher?

Her
stomach clenched with fear as reality hit her hard: She was somewhere unknown,
deep underground, being carried to her certain demise, and she had no idea
where Cayne was or what had happened to her friends.

Her
mind balked. Her stomach clenched.
Unfair
,
she wanted to cry.

Everything
had led her here? To
this
?

She
didn’t cry, but she started shaking. It was more like jerking than shivering.
Her muscles flinched, like they were protesting their binds, and a noise of
awareness passed through the people carrying her, though she was too freaked
out to make out any words.