Company of Angels 02 - The Demoness of Waking Dreams

find a car.”
    He rattled off a list of instructions, and Brandon tried to commit the details to memory.
    “Press the red starter button on the left-hand side, master avionics switch on, fuel valve master on, roll on the throttle to power the engine…”
    Brandon blinked, trying to absorb it all.
    “Just remember, too much throttle and the helicopter will get too much liftoff.”
    “What would happen?” Brandon asked.
    Julian grinned, giving him a hearty pat on the shoulder. “Don’t worry about it. That’s the beauty of being immortal.”
    Whatever, thought Brandon. I just hope this works.
    * * *
     
    Luciana was still lying on the bed, feeling nauseous when the series of electronic beeps sounded again. She thought, God, who is it this time?
    Brandon rushed in, yanked her up by the arm. “Come on. I’m getting you out of here.”
    “Where are you taking me?” she asked, not moving.
    “Now is not the time to ask questions,” he barked. “We don’t have time. It’s your choice. You can either come with me, or you can stay here with Arielle. But you’ve got to trust me.”
    In her gut, something flickered, a tiny flame of hope. She leaped off the bed.
    He twisted her arms behind her back, secured her wrists together with a plastic tie.
    The little flame of hope flickered, dimming inside her. She resisted, trying to twist away. “Not this again!”
    “I told you,” he said. “You’ve got to trust me.”
    He led her out into the hallway, where a few Guardians strolled, going about their assigned tasks. He marched straight ahead, head up, not bothering to hide from any of them. One of the angels stopped him at the end of the hall, just before a set of locked doors.
    “Where are you taking the detainee? Do you have clearance to move her?”
    “Arielle asked to see her,” he said. “In the main office.”
    The angel nodded and buzzed them through the door.
    “You’re crazy,” she muttered. “She’s going to flay us alive if she catches us.”
    “Be quiet. Keep walking.”
    He marched her down the staircase, out the back exit.
    To a helicopter that was parked on the round slab of concrete. He opened the door and shoved her in, strapping her into the passenger seat. When he took the pilot’s seat, he started muttering to himself, flipping a number of different switches. In an alarmingly random fashion.
    “Have you ever flown one of these before?” she asked, her heart faltering a beat.
    “No, but what’s the worst that can happen?” he grinned.
    He eased a lever forward, powered the helicopter on.
    The rotor blades began to rotate, the noise drowning out any possibility for debate.
    Arielle came running out of the main building, waving her arms at them. Brandon saw her, but did not stop. He pulled up on the control stick. The helicopter jerked off the ground, lifting off in a crazy circle like a broken midway ride. Arielle ducked, running back toward the building for cover.
    For a moment, Luciana felt certain they were going to crash.
    Better to go down fighting, she thought, holding her mouth shut.
    Sweat dripped down Brandon’s face as he gripped the control stick, struggling to get the helicopter stabilized. His gray eyes pored over the instruments with intense concentration, flicking switches as he tried to figure out the complex machine. The look on his face was one of sheer determination. Why and how he had deemed her worthy of such an effort and such an immense risk, Luciana didn’t quite know.
    Finally, they swung up and over the wide lawn, pulling smoothly into the air and away.
    On the ground below them, Arielle looked up, shielding her eyes from the bright morning sun with her hand, her meticulously styled blond hair blown terribly out of place, whipped by the draft of the helicopter as they flew away.
    * * *
     
    “Let them run,” Arielle said calmly to the Guardians who gathered around her, watching the helicopter make its wobbly escape. “There’s no point in tracking them. I already know exactly where they’ll both end up.”
    * * *
     
    “Zuccolo,” Luciana muttered, clenching her jaw as she sat immobile in her seat. “You are completely crazy.”
    He landed in a field with a bump, breaking one of the landing skids on the bottom of the helicopter so that they ended up lopsided.
    But still intact.
    In the stillness, he began laughing. Out of shock, she thought.
    Her hands were still bound behind her back. “Let me out. Now.”
    He obliged, muttering about