Angel Burn Read Online Free Page B

the reason they were doing this. She always had been. She was also the reason that his father was — maybe — going insane.
    The Jeep bumped and rattled over the rocky soil. Driving with one hand, Cully bit off the end of a cigar, spat it over the side, and lit up. He was wearing a black sleeveless shirt, and his shoulders and arms were statue-hard, rippling with muscle. He shook his head as he took a deep puff and glanced at Alex and Jake in the rearview mirror.
    “The Angel Killers  . . .  hope of the free world,” he muttered. “God help us all.”
    The drive to Albuquerque took almost four hours, so that Alex had felt dull with boredom long before they got there. He perked up as they entered the city limits. Living out in the desert like a bunch of pack rats, it was easy to forget that there was a real world out there, but now it all beckoned to him in a sparkling rush — fast food, shopping malls, movies. A billboard with someone named Will Smith on it caught his eye: a tough-looking black guy carrying a gun.
    “Hey, Cull, can we go see a movie?” he asked, hanging over the front seat.
    “You and Jake can,” said Cully. Glancing in the rearview mirror, he smoothed his blond hair back with his palm and grinned. “I got me some
other
ideas, if you boys catch my drift.”
    Women. Alex and Jake grimaced at each other. There were several female AKs back at the camp, but Cully said he liked his girls sweet, not dressed in combat gear and going out for target practice. Women who could shoot as well as he could were a touch off-putting.
    The plan was to stop off in the city for one night in comfort before they started roughing it on the long drive up to Vancouver, where Martin had heard rumors of angel activity. But as they pulled into a motel, Cully stiffened. “You know what?” he murmured, getting out of the Jeep. “I think there’s something goin’
on
here.”
    That meant angels. Alex looked up sharply. The hot afternoon froze around them, the whole world suspended.
    “Where, Cull?” asked Jake. He seemed older suddenly, more serious.
    “Not sure yet,” said Cully, his eyes narrowed. “I don’t think it’s very far, though.” He paused for a long moment, gazing around them at the strip mall. Finally he shook himself. “Come on, let’s get checked in and unload. Then I think we’re going to have to take a little drive, gentlemen.”
    Cully got them a room and parked the Jeep so that it was right outside their door. The three of them worked automatically, carrying their gear in and piling it onto the floor.
    They left the rifles in the Jeep. When everything else had been unloaded, Cully threw a tarp over them. “OK, let’s go,” he said. He swung himself back into the driver’s seat and started up the engine. “You both know the drill. Alex, you sit beside me. Jake, in the back.”
    Alex saw Jake start to protest and then think better of it. Cully might joke around a lot, but you didn’t question his judgment unless you wanted a black eye.
    Alex slid into the front passenger seat, his skin prickling with excitement. Though he’d been on perhaps a dozen hunts by now, the thrill hadn’t lessened any. And maybe it was petty of him, but he knew that part of the thrill was realizing how good he was. Jake might be older and bigger than he was, and just as good a shot, but he couldn’t tune in as quickly as Alex, or as strongly. When it came to that side of things, Alex had taken to all the weird stuff their father had taught them just like coming home.
    As Cully cruised slowly down the busy Albuquerque street, Alex closed his eyes and relaxed, moving his focus smoothly up through his chakra points. As his consciousness rose above his crown chakra, another world opened up before him. He could feel the energy fields of every living thing nearby — the woman in the car next to them; the guy standing on the curb waiting to cross the street; his German shepherd, straining at its leash. Their