Chapter 8: Angels and Demons
Evelyn sat on that rooftop for a long while, contemplating everything that had just happened. Now that she and Delsin were separated, she wasn't sure what the next step was. He was the one with all the plans and she had just been following him. The encounter on the rooftop with Augustine left her head swirling. She waited for them and knew they were coming. And she was very intimidating.
Everything was making her rethink what she needed to be doing. How was she supposed to find out where Delsin was anyway? Although, if she was thinking about it logically, he would likely leave a trail without even realizing it. He wasn't very stealthy.
After she sat on the roof for a while, she decided it would be time to start moving. She couldn't stay where she was forever and she needed to start doing something, even if it was just finding a place to get something to eat.
Carefully, she climbed down from the roof, making sure that no one was nearby to see. She popped up her hood, blended into the crowd, and started to scan the area for something. Looked like she had been deposited somewhere in the Lantern District. It had always been too expensive for her tastes, but all she could think about was a big bowl of dumplings. She used the last of her money on a few boxes of take-out, and then skirted over to a bench by the pier.
Looking out onto the water, she shoved dumplings and fried rice down her throat, barely stopping to breathe. She got most of the way through her meal before all hell broke loose.
Gunfire splattered against her back and she immediately ducked behind the bench, spilling her food against the sidewalk. She shouldn't have been as surprised as she was. After all, she was beginning to show her face more and more these days. But along with the continued exposure, she was starting to get braver and braver.
"Dammit," she hissed as a bullet grazed her shoulder.
She got a glimpse of what she was faced with, and on every side, she had someone shooting at her. There wouldn't be a way to run away from this. She had to face it head on.
Drawing in a deep breath, she poked up from the back of the bench, soaking up the sound and sending a spiral shot toward the nearest one. He flew backwards and she moved onto the next. In rapid succession, she shot each guy down, only ducking when she was taking too much heavy fire. To her luck, she was able to clear the area more quickly than she ever had before.
With a panting breath, she crawled out from behind her cover and leaned over one of the D.U.P.s. He still had a communication radio and she pulled it from its place. This would definitely come in handy, and she could use it to figure out where Delsin was. She was sure that he would be making noise.
Evelyn fiddled around with the radio before she was able to find the right station. At first, it didn't seem like anything out of the ordinary was happening, but after a few minutes she could hear the panic of someone shouting that a bridge was down and the convoy was compromised. What bridge?
Gently, she placed a palm to the ground, closing her eyes and focusing on every bit of sound that was radiating within the surrounding blocks. Everything was so loud, and it sucked all of the oxygen from her lungs. But she couldn't stop now - she needed to find Delsin. Right now, he was the only thing she knew to follow.
The pressure built up in her chest until she felt like she would explode, but she could hear the faint whispers of Delsin's voice that soon amplified to shouts. Her eyes shot open and she drew in a deep gasp of air, falling backwards onto her rear and scraping her hands along the pavement in the process. The leftover echoes of Delsin's voice rang in her ears and she knew the direction that he was.
Shakily, she picked herself up off the ground and started sprinting toward the center of the district. The closer she got, the more clearly she could hear the shouts and crunching of debris as it collapsed to the concrete below. By the time she got to the collapsed bridge, she could see that all of D.U.P.s seemed to be subdued and she could see Delsin's signature smoke over the edge of the bridge.
"Delsin!" she shouted.
The sound of her voice must have startled him because he swore loudly before appearing at the edge of the bridge. A wave of relief washed over her, and it must've shown on her face because he made a comment.
"Don't look so relieved to see me, Evie girl. I might think that you like me," he quipped, shooting her a flirtatious wink.
She let out a huff but couldn't hold back a smile. "I'm just relieved to see a familiar face. Even if it's your ugly mug."
He dropped down, landing uneasily beside her and shot her a grin. "There's the Ev I know."
She crossed her arms over her chest and took a quick look at the damage he had done. "So did you find a lead? See what the hell saved us from that witch?"
"Eh...sort of. I know that whatever rescued us is trying to save captured conduits. But every time we get close to any of them, they get away. One step ahead."
Evelyn bit her lip, trying to think. "Have you been able to contact Fetch?"
"No. She's been quiet. I've made a new friend, though. His name is Eugene, he's trying to help me pinpoint where the other buses are that have the conduits."
He paused, pulling his phone from his pocket to see that someone was calling. "What is it Reg?"
"Hey, Del, I'm in the lantern district. You still here?" Reggie asked.
"Yeah. I just found Ev. It's about time you made it across," Delsin huffed.
"What the hell's going on? I leave you alone for a couple hours and suddenly there's angels dive bombing people."
Evelyn shot him a confused look. Angels? She hadn't seen any angels since she got down here. Then again, she had been separated from Delsin for a few hours, and he seemed to always attract negative attention.
"Gotta have something to do with the conduit we're looking for. I set free a bunch of prisoners the D.U.P.s were moving. Might be our guy."
She tuned the two of them out for a moment as they continued to banter and exchange information. Upon glancing around the area, she could see that there were chunks of what looked like the glowing insides of a computer, along with digitized swords and computer characters. Was this the conduit they were looking for?
"Ev? You still with me?"
His voice snapped her out of her thoughts and she blinked over at him. "Yeah?"
"Reggie has a plan, he was thinking-"
"-of dressing up in one of the vests and having the angels take him away so you can track him," she finished.
He gave her a bewildered look.
"I can hear everything. Don't have to be paying attention." She shrugged.
Delsin let out a snort and gave her a light shove. "You never cease to amaze me, princess. Now come on. Let's go find Reggie before he gets lost."
He took off at a light jog and she used a burst of sound to propel herself in front of him to stop him, which turned out to be a mistake. His reflexes were too slow and he ended up barrelling her over, landing on top of her. She groaned, blinking wearily up at him.
"I didn't mean to do that," she breathed. "I just wanted you to explain to me what the hell these angel things are that everyone is talking about before we run off into oblivion."
He lifted himself up slightly to look at her, a small strand of his hair escaping his beanie and tickling her forehead. "Never figured you for a bottom, Ev."
Her cheeks started to flame and she sputtered out something that definitely was not words.
"But in answer to your question, they're some sort of...conduit with wings. I don't know what the hell they are, honestly. You'll understand when you see one."
She didn't know how he could go from being such a flirt to speaking normally with the blink of an eye. It frustrated her at how smooth he was and how flustered she was.
"Hey, if it makes you feel better, next time I'll let you be on top." He smirked.
Evelyn hissed and shoved him off herself, scrambling to the side and getting to her feet. She could feel how hot her face had grown and she ducked her head so her hair would cover it from his view.
"Let's go," she ground out.
He chuckled and moved past her to lead the way. She could tell he very much enjoyed getting a reaction out of her and she wanted nothing to do with it. But it was so easy for him to make her feel embarrassed.
She pushed past these feelings and followed after him to the heart of the Lantern District, where Reggie was waiting for them next to a row of porta-potties. He had a yellow security vest wrapped around his torso, similar to ones she had seen on conduits that were being taken into custody.
"What do you think?" he asked, opening his arms. "I mean it was a little bit of a pain putting it on, especially in there. It smells like someone had some Thai food…but what do you think? Chase me!"
Delsin gave him an incredulous look. "You want me to chase you?"
Evelyn shot a glance over at him. "We need to make it look authentic."
"Yeah," Reggie confirmed. "Chase me, shoot me...uh, shoot near me. Near me, and we'll see what happens when the angels show up."
"Yeah, cause I've got a really good batting average with the angels right now," Delsin snorted. "If they take you man, they'll take you to God knows where!"
"And then we can figure out where their controller is?" Evelyn nudged Delsin with her elbow.
"Yes! Just like when you lose your phone and grab mine. We have a GPS link," Reggie said.
Delsin nodded, more enthusiastic now. "So you're like a big ugly tracking device, okay…."
"Right, which is why we need to make it look real. Not too real. Just real enough for the angels, get me?"
Delsin raised a hand as smoke swirled around it. "Oh I can get you right between the eyes."
"No, no, just don't be a dick!"
Reggie carefully moved away and then gestured for Delsin to start chasing. Delsin smirked, shaking out his hands and looking over at her.
"You ready to have a little fun?" he asked.
"No, no, no. I don't want to join in on the family drama. I'll let you handle this one," she said, giving him a hard pat on the shoulder.
Just before he started to give chase, she heard him whisper under his breath, "I am so gonna be a dick."
And then the two of them were off. Reggie was shouting out the most ridiculous things about being a bio-terrorist and how scary he was. There was no way this was going to work.
With a sigh, she followed after them at a slower pace, watching as Delsin shot embers at his brother that seemed way too close to be playing it safe. Reggie should have known what he was getting into when he agreed to do this.
Civilians ran screaming as they skirted through alleys and darted across parks. Even though she was further behind, she could tell that Delsin grew even more and more half-hearted with every ridiculous outburst from Reggie. Maybe she should have been the one to play the bio-terrorist…. After all, she really was one.
Just when she thought no one would ever come to scoop up big older brother, crystalline wings swooped down and snatched up Reggie so smoothly she barely registered that it happened. Her sneakers skidded on the pavement as she came to a sudden stop. Delsin took a step back as his eyes followed his brother into the sky.
"Ready to rescue the big bad police man?" he joked, smirking at her over his shoulder.
"Ready as I'll ever be," she snorted.
The two of them took off down the road, weaving through alleys until they were forced upwards. Evelyn leaped from the nearest dumpster to a building ledge, and soon the two of them were running across rooftops after the flying figure of Reggie.
They'd gotten about halfway across the district when the chase became a fight. Right in the center of Main Street dozens of angels swooped out of the large electronic billboards. Delsin was already on the offensive, shooting wisps of smoke from his fingertips at the nearest one. Within a few shots, it exploded in a mass of shimmering crystals and coding, an effect that she couldn't even begin to understand.
As soon as it exploded, another one rushed from the screen, followed by more that were different than the rest. These were demons, with flaming orange wings and twisted bodies of skin pulled tight over digital bones.
It was an overwhelming sight for Evelyn, who had just started to get used to fighting D.U.P.s, and she couldn't help but be frozen in place. Delsin sent flurries of smoke and fiery ash at each angel and demon that emerged into the square. The noise echoed loudly in her ears, like the roaring of a train, and overwhelmed every sense in her body until she was forced to the ground. Her hands snapped over her ears, desperately trying to stifle the noises even just a little.
Each wave of sound sent her body writhing and vibrating, and she did everything she could to try and focus on her breathing to calm herself down. She had just fought a handful of D.U.P.s by herself! Why was this making her freeze? She knew she could fight. Why was she letting the sound overwhelm her now?
The crashing noises rose in her throat, escaping in a scream that shot out from her like a tidal wave, making the angels and demons freeze in their tracks and Delsin keel over with his hands slapped to his ears.
With a surge of adrenaline, she rose up, channeling the sound through her fingertips and sending them in daggers around her piercing through the digital bodies floating around the square.
Delsin carefully removed his hands from his ears, using the opportunity to start sending chunks of embers at the television screens that housed them. This seemed to do the trick, because they finally collapsed without their life force, glittering to the ground and disappearing in wisps.
And then it was quiet.
The screams finally died on Evelyn's lips, and she trembled in place, complete and utter relief flooding her system. She could still faintly hear the noises of the city, but it was quiet enough for her to finally breathe.
Delsin put a hand on her shoulder and she swallowed thickly, a bead of sweat trickling down her forehead.
"Hey, it's over. You did good. Wish I knew you could do something like that before," he said, his voice softer than usual, but a glimpse at his face showed the smirk still lingering on his lips.
"I didn't know. It just kinda happened," she breathed.
Reggie stumbling toward them caught her attention, and the two turned.
"Gotta hand it to you, big brother. You make excellent live bait."
Reggie glared, leaning over to catch his breath.
"What? It worked, didn't it?" Delsin questioned, shrugging. "We found the Angel Conduit's 'lair', now we go take him out. Come on, you coming with us or what?"
Evelyn took a look over her shoulder, seeing that they had in fact found something. She hadn't noticed until he pointed it out, merely because she was struggling with her own sanity mere minutes ago.
"I'm going to go take this shit off, then I'm going to go cry myself to sleep," Reggie ground out. "There has got to be a ton of weird spiky shit down there and that, brother, is all you."
He started to walk away, grunting and groaning.
"Don't walk away mad. It was your plan!" Delsin taunted.
The older brother gave one final glare before he wandered off, seemingly in a lot of pain, most likely just sore. She wiped her forehead and leaned against the stop sign at the side of the road, trying to decide if she was going to leave Delsin to do this on his own or attempt to help. She felt exhausted.
"Don't collapse on me now, Ev. We got one more thing left to do tonight and then you can get that beauty sleep of yours."
She let out a heavy sigh, gnawing on her bottom lip as she looked at the entrance apprehensively. She could easily go back to her and Elijah's hideout and sleep for the next two days. Delsin wouldn't even be able to stop her, since he would lose the upper hand he currently had if he followed after her.
But again, she had just found him again today after being sure that she would be alone again. And he was the only thing she had to cling onto. Despite his cocky attitude and flirtatious nature, she had begun to call him a friend and someone she felt safe with. It was huge for her, after feeling on edge since Elijah had been taken.
"Okay. But I'm telling you now that you better let me sleep for twenty-four hours after this." She straightened up, trying to shake the exhaustion from her bones.
Delsin grinned. "Anything for you, Evie girl. Come on. We're in the homestretch."
She hoped it would be that way.
A/N: Hey babes! I hope you are all doing well and that this update was good for you guys! I hope you all enjoyed and I'm having so much fun getting back into writing! I'm loving Ev and Delsin's dynamic. The shy stubborn girl with the flirty hot headed guy. Hehe. Anyway, thank you so much for reading, I hope to get the next chapter out soon!