"Bloody Hell!" Lyght grabbed Lesedi's arm and moved back to where Kassie and Miya still comforted Tyler. "All of you, touch me, now!" When they didn't respond quickly enough, the angel growled. "Seriously, people. I know I'm not your favorite angel right now, but we have to get out of here this instant. We're about to be attacked. Please!" He reached toward them with his arms outstretched.
Tyler grabbed onto the angel's waist and tucking himself under his arm while still clutching the little wild-eyed cat to his chest. Lesedi shook his head and followed the boy's lead, danger prickling along his skin. Kassie was next, lacing her fingers into the angel's, a new kind of terror in her eyes.
Lesedi reached for Miya but she shook her head. "Not happening."
Glass shattered at the side of the studio and a fur-covered monkey/man/monster thing with hellacious teeth and mis-matched features stepped through the window frame. "Waiting for me?" The voice sounded garbled, as if speech were not natural for the thing.
Miya froze for half an instant then slapped her hand onto the angel's arm. "Get us out—"
Everything tilted sideways for an instant and a heavy wind buffeted them. Hit by a wave of motion sickness, Lesedi clenched his eyes closed until Miya stumbled hard against him as their feet hit solid ground again.
Chapter Ten
Lesedi braced with Miya pressed tight to him as the world tilted off its axis. The instant the universe stopped spinning, he opened his eyes to life in motion, as though an invisible stage crew had rushed in and changed worlds while he was stuck in psychedelic blinders.
Miya's plea to vacate the premises had hardly left her lips, before she voiced further exclamations. "What the fuck was that thing?" Colorful exclamations. "Oh my God! Are you really an angel, oh my God, what did you just do? Shit! This is really happening?"
"Ouch!" Lyght fought a losing battle to un-embed the cat's claws from the flesh of his inner forearm. "Bloody creature! It scratched me!"
Miya assisted, unintentionally no doubt, and grasped the cat's scruff and lifted it away to hang the way a mother cat carries her kittens. Miya quickly examined the creature then set it on the floor where it hissed and darted under a chair. "Of course she scratched you, you just zapped her through the universe!"
Lesedi noticed Kassie looked quite dizzy and the boy still had his face buried in the angel's shoulder eyes clenched tight. The two of them apparently needed to acclimate to angelic modes of travel. Nausea struck him before he could be grateful he had not been affected.
"Think I'm going to vomit," Kassie whispered, pressing her fingers tight across her mouth while she took slow careful breaths.
The angel froze, as he looked straight ahead. "Oh bloody hell." His wings turned instantaneously bright neon orange that left flashes of light on the backs of the observer's eyelids.
Lesedi followed Lyght's dismayed gaze. Not twenty feet away, a dozen or so people sat at a long table strewn with a jumble of books, papers and water bottles. A man with a sea blue shirt shook his lowered head with a hand on his brow while another man in red laughed boisterously. Perplexity filled the remaining faces, except for a large bald man's. He was clearly amused.
All at once, it occurred to Lesedi how their little group must appear to the strangers. A bizarre angel carting a flying circus while being mauled by a cat and cursed by a shrew.
A flicker of movement caught his attention and Lesedi suddenly took note of the bank of monitors beyond the table, six wide and three high, displayed what looked like footage from the CCTV cameras some American cities were installing to deter crime. Next to the monitors, a long media cabinet held a confusing array of electronic equipment and a half dozen desktop computers.
Miya turned a slow circle, taking in their surroundings as well. A massive weapons rack occupied one wall and contained everything from slings and arrows to hi-tech firearms.
"Looks like you have your hands full, Brother." The big man with the bald head and silvery looking eyes wore a good-natured grin.
Lyght scowled, then his brow smoothed abruptly as he stepped out of the little cluster of awkwardness. "Sorry for dropping in unannounced. Some rather annoying guests arrived at Miya's house unexpectedly and leaving was the best option."
He held a hand back toward Kassie and she stepped forward with Tyler close by. The boy peered around, pale and wide-eyed. Kassie hesitated a moment, then slid her fingers into Lyght's grasp. The Archangel breathed deep and closed his eyes for a brief instant as if in thanksgiving.
Lesedi moved close to Miya with the sudden urge to guard her.
Lyght looked at Kassie for a moment then lifted her hand and touched his lips to her knuckles in what looked like reassurance before drawing her closer to the table. "This is Kassie, and Tyler. Lesedi. And the harpy is Miya."