400 Horsepower of the Apocalypse
Chapter 28
Leo knew his way through San Diego. He had been coming here to see his uncle his entire life… Good thing, because I kept getting distracted by… well, everything. I had never been in a city the size of San Diego and if we somehow survived all of this, I couldn’t wait to explore more of it.
I soared between the steel and glass spires of skyscrapers, staring at the people inside. Office workers jumped to their feet, grabbing their cell phones to either take pictures or call the police. Down below, Leo drove far too fast through the streets for the cops to catch, though that didn’t stop them from trying. But while SPOT knew where we were going, they didn’t seem to have shared that information with the local law enforcement, so we lost all of the black and white squad cars easily in the dense urban sprawl of San Diego.
We wound our way through the close, shining silver jungle of downtown and I almost missed it when Leo turned suddenly left, heading south through the city. I swore, then banked in a half-circle around a tall building with an angled roofline and a slatted latticework dome perched on top. Some kind of library, to judge by all of the people carrying stacks of books in and out. A group of elementary school kids in matching red backpacks pointed up at me and their teacher dropped her latte when she looked skyward.
I winged quickly away, flushing. At this rate, I would end up with my picture posted all over social media. There wasn’t much I could do to hide a woman flying through San Diego, but as the skyscrapers gave way to shorter, more sprawling buildings that stretched out toward the border, I lowered my altitude and flew as low as I dared.
The Pacific Ocean gleamed blue and silver on my right and from the air, I could almost see Mexico. The dark, tiny shapes of seabirds swooped and played above the crashing waves. It was beautiful.
We’ve got to be getting close, I thought.
Yes, Uriel agreed. And so are the other angels.
I tore my eyes away from the view and glided down closer to Leo again. The streets were becoming a little less crowded as we moved south, and he eased up on the throttle. Leo wove his way down smaller and narrower roads, and then finally stopped next to an old warehouse with corrugated metal walls covered in a colorful mosaic of graffiti.
I landed hard beside Leo, cracking the concrete of the sidewalk. Oops. Well, that was pretty small potatoes compared to all of the other damage we had caused during this wild road trip.
In the street, cars slowed down. Drivers craned their necks to look at the big biker in chaps and a jacket made of shadow, and a girl with two pairs of glowing wings stretching out behind her. Then they sped up to hurry the hell away. Someone was going to wind up rear-ended, but we had more pressing concerns.
Leo’s jaw was clenched tight and I heard his teeth grinding together. The biker’s bare chest was so covered in chrome that I could no longer see any of his tattoos, and it looked like he was wearing armor.
“Did we beat the other archangels?” Leo asked in that deep, bone-chillingly hollow voice.
“Yeah,” I answered. “But not by much. My skin feels like it’s on fire.”
“The horsemen are close, too,” Leo said.
“How fast are they moving?”
Leo shook his head. Sweat beaded in his hair. “I can’t tell. But I know they’re near enough to start crawling up my ass any minute.”
“Are you still in control?” I asked.
“For now,” Leo said.
I pulled him down into a desperate kiss. Leo wrapped his arms around me and held me close. His body was cold and as hard as stone against me, but his lips were warm and soft. Beside us, the Packmaster revved.
“Back off, bike,” I murmured. “He’s mine.”
My power is growing, Uriel said inside me. And so is Death’s. If you are to attempt this, Jaz, to reclaim your life and prevent the final battle, then it must be now. There is no more time.
Reluctantly, I broke the kiss and released Leo. I stood back and after a moment of concentration, I dismissed Uriel’s wings and armor. They vanished into glittering sparks, leaving me in my jeans and t-shirt again.
“Let’s go,” I said.
Leo nodded and I followed as he rolled his Packmaster into a sprawling parking lot in front of the warehouse. There was a long line of motorcycles outside, not a single one of them locked up. Whoever left all those gang tags around the neighborhood seemed to know better than to tangle with the owners of these particular bikes. But when I glanced across the lot, I didn’t see any other bikers. Where was everyone?
Leo parked his Packmaster at the end of the row, then turned to me with a grin.
“Excited to see your uncle?” I asked.
“Like you wouldn’t believe,” Leo answered. He touched one skeletally clawed hand against his chest and took a deep breath. “Alright. He should be inside.”
“Holy shit,” I said. “This is really it.”
My voice cracked. In the next few minutes, I would finally meet Leo’s Uncle Carlos. I would find out if we would live free of Uriel and Death, or die to save the world from them.
Would Carlos like me?
No pressure, Jaz.
Leo took my hand carefully. Mine was shaking and his was made of metal, but we walked close together toward an oversized sliding door painted with a huge flaming red and black helm — the crest of the Knights of Hell. Leo led me across the parking lot, but then stopped dead in his tracks, frowning.
“What’s the matter?” I asked. “You don’t think your uncle will approve of you hooking up with a mechanic from Kansas?”
“Something’s wrong,” Leo gasped.
He managed another step forward, then fell suddenly to his knees on the asphalt. Leo clutched his head, sharp chrome claws drawing beads of bright red blood from his scalp.
“Leo? Leo, what’s happening?” I asked.
“It’s Death,” Leo groaned. “I can finally hear its voice… and it’s laughing.”
Holy shit. Uriel, what the hell is going on? I asked.
No…! the angel hissed inside me. Liars, deceivers!
The warehouse door ground open with a loud metallic snarl and three figures strode through. I recognized the gaunt, skeletal shape of Famine, and Pestilence in its rumpled suit crawling with shiny green-gray flies.
Between the pair stood a tall man with long black hair and flames tattooed onto skin turned to leather by years on the road. The fire glowed and danced as though animated by demonic hands, and his eyes burned like live coals.
“Uncle Carlos,” Leo snarled. “War.”
The sky that morning had been bright and clear, but now the sun vanished behind a sudden bank of thick, roiling smoke-colored clouds. A jagged fork of red lightning arced high above and a thunderclap made the ground shudder. Down the street, a car alarm went off and people began shouting. A hot wind that smelled like gunpowder tugged at my hair and Carlos — War — grinned at us with sharpened steel teeth.
“The horsemen are united at last,” it said. “And now it is time to go to war.”
