Even when walking in the mortal world, few things could touch an angel’s wings. They simply faded through everything, living and inanimate alike. Yet they were real, and an angel couldn’t fly without them.
The first werewolves had been bred to hunt angels. Rachel knew little of that history, but every angel knew how dangerous they could be. Whoever created the first of their kind ultimately abandoned the effort, finding them too limited or too hard to manage. Yet the legacy lived on and, at the moment, quite literally bit Rachel in the ass.
“Oh, you little shit!” she shrieked and slammed her left fist down on the mutt’s head. The force of her blow flung him off, sending the wolf to the ground, but once more another came in from the same side. She couldn’t get a grip, couldn’t find her footing and knew she’d be in just as much trouble as Donald before long.
* * *
“Aw, man, they’ve got those other FBI agents,” murmured Alex. He crouched at the window set into the main entrance doors with Lorelei beside him. They found no enemies to fight on their way through the halls, but they did find the bodies of Keeley and the other tac officers.
“Do not let this display fool you, love,” Lorelei warned. Nguyen and Lanier knelt with their hands on their heads, facing the building with a gun-toting vampire in a suit watching them both. “They mean to kill us all. At best, they will hold captives only long enough to extract all possible information.” Her eyes slowly swept their field of vision to take in as much as she could. “I count fifteen, but they would be foolish not to have the other exits covered.”
“Better eyes than mine,” he grunted.
“I see quite well in the darkness, but I would not underestimate their talent for stealth.”
“What do you think they’re waiting for?”
Lorelei shook her head. “I cannot say. Most often what hinders their kind is internal politics and suspicion. I believe one of them rules the vampires of New York, and I see another from Las Vegas. This is a greater concern for them than I ever would have guessed.”
“How many of these guys do you know?” Alex asked.
“I have known a fair number, though I have generally avoided them. Of all the curses to afflict mortals, theirs is one of the most easily spread,” she grimaced. “That in combination with their longevity makes for a good number of such vermin.”
Alex considered it with a frown. “Well, we should give the guys a couple more minutes to get set before we do anything,” he said. “No telling when or if Rachel can handle her side of this on her own, either, right?”
“I would not hazard a guess when she might aid us. We may have to resolve the rest of this before she is able to help.”
“What’s she dealing with, anyway?”
He saw her stiffen slightly at the question. Her answer came slowly. “I believe Rachel would rather I not say.”
“Hrm,” he grunted, his eyes turning back to the window.
“She only wants to protect you, love,” Lorelei said. “Admittedly, I am torn on the subject myself. I would tell you all, but Rachel…”
Alex shook his head. “It’s fine. I understand. I’m used to it,” he added.
Her hand reached out to his. “You seem accustomed to crisis, too.”
“Do I?” he murmured. “I guess it’s just… familiar. Molly and Onyx helped me a lot yesterday. Kind of put everything into perspective. It’s a long story.”
“You carry a new confidence in your eyes,” Lorelei observed, “but you are still yourself. Still the Alex I have known. I like it.”
Alex glanced at her smile and couldn’t help but grin back and blush a little. He suspected she would always be able to get that reaction from him. “You don’t have to hide anything from me, you know,” he said. “Your face. Any of it.”
“This is my natural face,” Lorelei told him. “At least, it is my natural face now. You saw an echo of the past. Nothing more. It takes no effort to look like this.”
“Hauser and Keeley both figured I’d turn on you after I saw that,” Alex shrugged. “I figured they’d tell you the same thing. Didn’t want you to wonder.”
She squeezed his hand. “I never doubted you.”
“I’m just saying. You don’t have to hide anything from me, ever.”
“There is much to tell you, but now is not the appropriate time,” said Lorelei. He gave a nod of agreement, turning his eyes out to the window once more. She came to a decision. “Rachel faces one who engineered much of this, if not all of it,” she explained. “To look upon him, you would not think to call him one of your personal demons… but no term would fit better.” Lorelei gave a small shake of her head then, indicating she would risk telling nothing further. “Rachel loves you. Trust her.”
“Loves us,” he corrected with a slight grin. “Okay, we can’t wait forever. We have to do something to help those agents out there.”
“We might find a way to slip out of this building undetected,” suggested Lorelei. “I cannot open doors without being seen, but we may find a broken window or the like.”
Alex considered it but shook his head. “If they spot us pulling any tricks, they might just kill their hostages on general principle. This whole mob came out here looking for me, right? Maybe we should just give ‘em what they want.”
* * *
Once upstairs, Wade split his group in half to secure the floor in what little time they could spare. He took Amber with him to the corner office while Jason and Drew hustled down the hall to jam the doors shut at the far stairwell. The pair gave only a quick peek into each room they passed on the way, repeating the process on their way back.
“Wait up,” Drew said at the double doors of the main center office pool. “Saw some light out there.”
“Where?” Jason hissed.
“Outside window. Looked weird. C’mon.” Drew moved as quietly as he could, keeping his head low and watching for any odd danger the office might provide. He and Jason passed through the rows of desks, noting the wreckage from Alex’s earlier fight in the same room.
They crept to the windows, risked a quick look, and shared a gasp of surprise. The grounds below flashed with the orange lights of flames and the bright glow of two halos as a pair of angels-one quite familiar and the other a stranger-battled against a swarm of wolves and wolf-like monsters.
Rachel appeared to hold her own, but not much more. She struggled against two and three at a time, battering away one beast only for another to jump in and take its place. The other angel flailed and struggled to pry a wolf off his back as its jaws sank deeper and deeper into his shoulder.
“Can we help her?” Jason asked.
Drew turned to look around the room, but found no options. “Not unless you think shooting with that pistol will help. There ain’t even nothin’ here I could throw worth a damn. ‘sides, we gotta stick with the team. C’mon,” he said. Drew gave Jason a slight tug on his sleeve, heading out of the room again, and then came to a stop.
“Aw, shit,” he grunted. “It’s Hauser.”
“Well, Alex said he was KO’d up here,” Jason frowned.
“Yeah. Suppose it ain’t right to just leave ‘im. Help me get him up.”
The pair shared the older man’s weight between them, each taking one of his arms across their shoulders before hustling out of the room. They moved quickly down the hall, passing Theo’s dead body before reaching the corner office. They found Wade and Amber there slowly and gently pushing up one window.
“Found your boss, Amber,” Jason huffed.
“Ssshhh,” she warned. Amber spared them only a glance as the two guys settled Hauser down on the floor.
“What’s goin’ on?” Drew asked.
“Looks like a couple of Amber’s buddies’re still alive after all,” Wade said in a deliberately low voice. With the window now halfway open, Wade crouched low beside it and picked his M4 up off the floor.
Amber took up a spot beside Wade to look outside. Bridger followed. “I can’t believe they’re alive,” she breathed. “This is so bad.”