Company of Angels 02 - The Demoness of Waking Dreams

multitude of designs and images interwoven as if they all fit together somehow. Right now, he didn’t want to think about any of it. Not about any of his past Assignees, not about any of the angels, not about the inked wingspan sprawling across his back. He wished he could crawl out of his own skin right now. And leave it all behind.
    Pull your shit together, he told himself. Because if you don’t, the rest of the Company is going to do it for you. And Arielle will be the first in line.
    Go back to Chicago. Stay in L.A. It hardly mattered. All the things he had counseled Luciana to do— forgive —he would have to figure that process out for himself.
    How he was going to do that, he had no idea.
    But he was going to have to start somewhere.
    He turned on the ignition again, and headed back toward the Center.
    Arielle came out to look at the car, her mouth pressed into a thin line when he pulled into the driveway. The early morning sunlight glinted off her perfect hair as she eyed the large dent in the rear bumper, shaking her head with disapproval.
    “When I let you borrow that car, I trusted you would drive it responsibly,” she said.
    “Now is not the time,” he growled.
    “Come into my new office and we’ll discuss this like rational beings,” she said, crossing her arms. “If you’re dealing with something, perhaps I can help you.”
    I seriously doubt that, he thought. But he went anyway, too tired to resist.
    “I’m afraid you’re becoming exhausted, Brandon. I think it would be best if you went back to Chicago. As much as I appreciate having you here, I’m sure your own unit needs you more.”
    He stopped listening as she enumerated a number of other concerns she had about him. His head began to ache.
    “I need to clear my head before I make any decisions,” was all he said.
    He stood up to go. Arielle bent over her desk, attending to her endless pile of paperwork.
    But as he was about to leave her office, he spotted something in Arielle’s garbage can.
    A little glass vial.
    Plain, innocuous.
    Empty.
    Exactly like the ones Luciana used.
    Is she okay? he wondered frantically.
    If she is, I’ve got to get out now and take her with me, he told himself. But how?
    Without saying a word to Arielle, he slipped out of the hallway and walked briskly to the surveillance room. Where the video monitors showed Luciana in her room, lying on the bed. She lay there, still and bleeding.
    Is she dead?
    The tips of her fingers began to curl, and she reached to wipe a little blood off her mouth.
    Still alive. She survived whatever Arielle did to her while I was gone.
    The Guardian on watch duty turned around. “May I help you?”
    Brandon just smiled, his eyes flickering away from the monitors. “Just checking things out,” he said, hoping he sounded as banal as he intended. “Pretty impressive setup.”
    Julian was the first person he ran into as he stepped out of the surveillance room. Brandon tried to blow by him, fully focused on getting to Luciana. But Julian caught him by the arm.
    “Where are you going in such a hurry?”
    Brandon dragged him into a corner and told him in a hushed voice, “I have no time to explain. I think Arielle has gone crazy. I saw something in her office. I can’t tell you everything now. But man-to-man, Luciana’s in danger.”
    Julian did not seem surprised. But he said, “Arielle is my supervisor. Technically, she’s also my Guardian.”
    “You ignored her for over two hundred years. What’s another half hour? I swear, that’s all it will take. Help me. For Luciana’s sake. She needs our help,” said Brandon. “Now.
    Julian paused, frowning. “All right. But Arielle will crucify me if she ever finds out.”
    “No, she won’t. Because you’re footing the bill for this place. Now think. How can I get Luciana out of here?”
    “As you saw yourself, Arielle has this place surrounded by an energy field, like a giant fence. If you try to break Luciana out of that wall, her head will all but explode.”
    “So is there any way out?”
    “You can’t break her out by going through the fence. But theoretically you can go over it. Way over it. My helicopter is parked on the launchpad outside. Take Luciana. I’ll distract Arielle for as long as I possibly can.”
    “I’ve never flown a helicopter,” Brandon said.
    “You don’t have to fly it for long. Just get over the fence and far enough so that you have enough time to get away. Then ditch the helicopter and