Flying High (9 page)

Chapter Ten

B
rice just stood there, taking all my contempt and hatred like he totally deserved it. It was unexpectedly dignified and it slightly took the wind out of my sails. He waited until I’d finally run out of abuse, then said, “Go back to the house, Lily. Tell them I’ll bring the device.”

“You hate me, don’t you?” she said miserably. “I don’t blame you. I hate myself. But they said they’d hurt him and they meant it too. I’ve never seen Mr de Winter like that before. He always seemed so—”

“You don’t need to explain, believe me,” Brice interrupted. “You did the right thing. Now run back to Mr de Winter, and give him my message, OK?”

But Lily still hovered, with an anxious expression. “Dave,” she blurted out, “why did she say you were Dom’s brother?”

“Oh, Mel’s just confused,” Brice said smoothly. “Time-travel scrambles people’s brain cells sometimes.”

I glowered but Lily seemed reassured. She rushed downstairs and a few seconds later I saw a little figure go racing through the dusk.

“You can’t do this, Brice,” said Reuben in a low voice. “These people have been feeding off human misery for centuries.”

I clenched my fists. “Yeah, and now he’s going to hand them History on a plate, so they can rip off everyone they missed first time around.”

“You don’t know that for certain,” Lola said softly.

I shot her a wounded look. I couldn’t believe she was standing up for Brice. Suddenly I was really upset. It wasn’t just Brice. It was everything.

I remembered how I’d felt when I heard the bird singing outside the summerhouse. Humans had so nearly got their act together, but then they just
had
to mess it up, didn’t they?

What’s the use of creating Heaven on Earth, if you don’t take proper care of it? What’s the use of a school for genius kids, if you let an evil family like the de Winters exploit it for their own sinister ends?

They didn’t ban war at all
, I thought miserably.
The suffering is still going on. Like Brice said, it’s just out of sight
. I buried my face in my hands.

Brice’s voice was unusually tender. “You’re wrong about me you know, Mel. I might be a jerk but I’d never betray Dominic. I’m trying to save him, and I will. He’s got something they want, something they’ll do anything to get, even if it means letting Dom leave the Family.”

“You’re crazy,” I said in a muffled voice. “These guys bamboozle whole governments. They’re not going to play fair with a kid.”

“They will. If you’ll help me,” he said hesitantly.

“Excuse me?” Lola blazed. ‘“Buzz off,’ you said. ‘I can take care of Dom by myself,’ you said. ‘You angel brats are so freaking superior,’ you said.”

Brice rolled his eyes. “Give me a break, Sanchez. I can’t be seen in that house. They’ll immediately know who I am.”

“How come?” I asked.

“My mum’s there, isn’t she? She may not be the Mother of the Century but even
she’d
recognise her deceased eldest son.”

I stared at him. “You mean that’s your actual face?” The words were out before I could bite them back. I felt my face burn with embarrassment.

I’d always assumed that Brice had disguised himself as my bad-boy crush, purely to humiliate me. It never occurred to me this was how he actually
looked
in his lifetime.

Without warning, Brice grabbed my arm. His energy felt comfortingly familiar and terrifyingly alien all at the same time. “Say you’ll help me, please.”

“Hey,” said Lola. “Let her go, creep!”

I felt Brice press something into my hand. “Mel, your job is to look after humans, not save history,” he said. “History’s just an idea. My brother’s real.”

And he’d gone.

I uncurled my fingers and found a wafer-thin piece of plastic, about the size of a regular KitKat. Brice had given me the time device.

We looked at each other helplessly. I’m pretty sure we were all thinking the same thing. If we’d been human, all our troubles would be over. Unfortunately we were angels on a cosmic mission.

“I can’t believe he did that,” Lola wailed. “That was so sneaky. It’s our one chance to get back home, and he knows we can’t use it.”

For once, I disagreed with my friend. I had the feeling Brice had acted completely spontaneously. It was like he’d trusted us to do the right thing.

“So now what?” said Lola.

Reuben gave her a serene smile. “I guess we do what he says.”

Lola looked appalled. “Give the device to the evil de Winters! Are you crazy!”

A strange calm flowed into me, a welcome sign that my angel intuition had totally kicked in. “Reuben’s right,” I said. “Come on guys, we’re going to a party!”

We stole down the drive to the headmaster’s house, careful to keep in the shadows. As we got closer to the house, a terrible tiredness came over me. Like, ‘What is the point?’

There was no way we could pull this off alone - and no matter what anyone said, we were totally alone. With our tags out of action, we couldn’t even call home for back-up.

If the Agency really cared about us, they wouldn’t put us through this, I thought miserably. It’s simply too much responsibility. We’re just kids! We’re not even properly trained yet.

It was an effort just to keep walking by this time. It felt as if I had invisible stones in my pockets weighing me down.

Lola whispered, “Anyone else getting a PODS vibe?”

Reuben pulled a face. “Just a bit.”

Lola gave a low chuckle. “That’s a relief! For a moment, I thought I was having a major crack-up!”

My depression vanished like magic. “Totally,” I hissed. “I can’t believe I almost fell for that old doom ‘n despair routine!”

“Me neither. I suppose we should have expected it,” whispered Lola. “The de Winters might be human, but they’ve been in cahoots with the PODS since history began. This place must be saturated with evil vibes.”

“It is. You can feel it.” Reuben tapped his solar plexus. “But it’s so pretty here, you think you’re imagining it.”

We had almost reached the house. By this time, the atmosphere was totally hideous. Lola said it was like wading through evil cosmic treacle. Normally we’d use our tags to access extra angelic protection. Unfortunately this was not an option.

The house was absolutely ablaze with light. No-one had drawn the curtains, so we could see into the downstairs rooms. It was the most luxurious place I’d ever seen, like a celebrity’s house from a twenty-third century copy of Hello!

We slipped through a side entrance and crept stealthily up a velvety carpeted corridor. I heard chinks of crockery and a murmur of voices.

Passing an open door, we saw staff in uniforms bustling around a vast dining room, smoothing crisp tablecloths, buffing up silver and twitching at gorgeous flower arrangements, making everything perfect for the big party. And everything was indescribably perfect, yet something made me want to bolt out of that house and never come back. My mates obviously felt the same way, because at the same moment they grabbed hold of my hands.

“Ahh, that’s so touching. Excuse me while I puke,” said a mocking voice in my ear. Brice hadn’t gone away after all. He’d just made himself invisible.

“Are you trying to give me heart failure?” I snapped. “What are you doing here, anyway?”

“You didn’t seriously think I’d trust my brother to a bunch of little halo polishers?” Brice inquired.

I was completely confused. “But you said your family would see you.”

“I said I couldn’t let myself be
seen
. My people might run with the PODS, but they don’t interact with the
dead
, sweetheart!”

“So if you’re here, why do you need us?” hissed Lola.

“I told you, Sanchez. We’re going to save Dom. My way.”

You can’t glare at someone who’s invisible, so I had to resort to sarcasm. “You just ooze charm, don’t you,” I said in disgust.

“Oh, he
oozes
,” said Lola scornfully. “But charm? I don’t think so.”

“Will you give the guy a break?” sighed Reuben.

“Hey, buddy, I can stand up for myself, you know!” objected Brice’s disembodied voice.

This was definitely the weirdest situation of my short angel career.

OK, so I admit I still haven’t quite finished reading The Angel Handbook, but I’ll bet good money it doesn’t say anything about the forces of Light actively chumming up with the forces of Darkness! But what choice did we have?

Exactly!

Following Brice’s whispered directions, we found our way to the foot of a seriously majestic staircase, identical to the ones that those old style Hollywood stars came dancing down in musicals. My Nan would have totally
adored
it.

Crouching on the bottom stair, looking more like orphan Annie than ever, was Lily. She sprang up in a panic. “Where’s Dave?”

“He got held up,” I said hastily. “Don’t worry, we’ve got the device.”

Poor Lily, she almost fainted with relief!

We followed her up the stairs.

As we reached the first floor, some beautifully dressed little kids went scampering happily across the landing and out of sight.

Peals of laughter came from one of the rooms. I could hear a hum of cultured voices as the international de Winters made polite small talk in all the major European languages.

Brice prodded me unpleasantly in the ribs.

“Hey, no physical contact, OK?” I warned.

“Stop being so coy, darling, and look through that door,” he hissed back. “There’s someone I want you to see.”

A woman sat with her back to us. I could see her upswept hair, long suntanned legs and an elegant hand gesturing as she talked. Wafts of expensive perfume drifted my way.

She looked amazingly stylish, yet even without my agency shades, I could tell there was something alarmingly wrong with this woman’s energy field.

She’s like this house, I thought. Lovely to look at. Totally deadly inside.

“That’s Laura de Winter.” Brice sounded coldly amused. “She’s my mother.”

I had the horrible feeling he’d just read my mind. “Oh,” I said, “She’s um, really…”

“Toxic?” he suggested. “Dad certainly thought so.”

“Oh yeah, and what was he like?” I burbled to cover my embarrassment.

“I have no idea,’ he said carelessly. “I hardly knew him. He was a scientist; a brilliant one apparently. The Family hired him to solve the time-device problem. They wanted to keep him keen, so they married him to Mum.”

“You’re kidding,” I breathed.

“Time goes by. Dad earns the Family’s trust, blah blah. They leak vital info about their dodgier activities. Dad doesn’t like what he hears and unwisely makes no attempt to hide his feelings. The de Winters decide he’s failed the Family loyalty test, so obviously he has to go.”

I gasped. “They
killed
him?”

“Good as. They faked a big scandal and Dad mysteriously disappeared. It happened just before I died. Dom doesn’t know a thing about it.”

“Well, I think your dad sounds great,” I said. “He totally stood up for his principles.”

“And a lot of good it did him,” Brice said bitterly.

I immediately started spinning romantic fantasies of reuniting Dom with his scientist dad. “Do you know where he is?” I asked.

“Will you just drop it?” Brice snapped. “The guy’s a loser. He works nights in some freaking laundry or something. Only the evil survive, haven’t you figured that out by now?”

I felt a flicker of pity. So that’s why Brice had such a warped attitude. He was scared to join the good guys, in case he ended up like his dad.

I saw my mates waiting for me at the end of the corridor and hurried to catch them up.

“Where did you get to, angel girl?” Reuben complained.

“She’s been fraternising with the enemy,” sniggered Brice.

“You wish,” I told him under my breath.

Lily tapped timidly at an ornate panelled door.

A cultured voice called, “Come!”

We followed Lily into an imposing boardroom.

I took in heavy draped curtains with ties of floppy gold rope, and a long table of dark wood, polished so brightly it looked exactly like glass. Around the table sat maybe fifteen or twenty people, presumably key members of the de Winter family. They were all of different ages and races, but their hungry expressions were identical; like they were just about to get what they wanted most for Christmas.

“Well, now,” said the same beautifully cultured voice. “This
is
a delightful surprise.”

“My uncle Jonas,” Brice hissed in my ear.

“Do you
have
to stand so close?” I muttered.

Then I saw Jonas de Winter and almost fainted. No wonder Dom had been so gobsmacked when he saw that medieval slave merchant. Jonas was the medieval guy’s total twin! It was just like Lola said - these gangsters had been causing mayhem on my planet since the dawn of history.

Dom stood beside his uncle, looking defiant.

The door opened again and his mother swept in, in a gale of lovely perfume. “Oh, these must be Dom’s little time-travellers!” she gushed. “What time do they come from again, Dominic?”

“You tell me, Mother,” he muttered. “Since you know so much.”

I felt Brice’s breath tickle my ear. “OK, darling, you’re on. This is your big moment. Just say exactly what I tell you.”

I felt unpleasantly like a PODS glove puppet, but I obediently said my lines: “We’ve brought the device, but we’re not handing it over until we’re convinced that Dominic is free to go.”

I don’t think I can have been very impressive because all the de Winters broke into tolerant smiles, like I was a little kid who was only playing at being grown-up.

“Free to go,” repeated Dom’s mother in a wondering tone. “But of course Dominic is free to go. What do you think we are, dear? Monsters?”

Jonas de Winter smiled. “Dom is free to leave this house any time he likes.” He slung a casual arm around his nephew, and it was like a creepy action replay of the merchant with Stephen. “Just out of curiosity, dear boy,” he said casually. “Where
will
you go?”