Avoidables Angels Read online

  Chapter Twenty

  If they saw I was an angel, they would kill me. Or experiment on me at the very least. What could I do? I had only wanted to drown out the harshness of the world. People crying on the inside, whilst a fake perpetual smile graced their beautiful faces. I could feel it all around me. The constant pressure to be perfect.

  ‘Concentrate, Elizabeth,’ Melissa whispered in my ear.

  We were in a park in Upper Side. I’d got ridiculously drunk the night before and passed out on a bench. With my wings hanging out my back. Not a good move. Now, I struggled to get them back in. Was it a side effect of the alcohol or just my incompetence?

  ‘She’s got a bomb?’ the guard called.

  Why had Paul told them that I had a bomb attached to me?

  ‘No!’ I shouted back. ‘I’m unwell.’

  Closing my eyes briefly, I asked for help. Whoever was listening to my thoughts had to hear me. It would be disastrous. It was already going to muck everything up. I was supposed to be infiltrating the government, not threatening Upper Side with a bomb.

  ‘We have to ask you to step away from her,’ the guard shouted, aiming his gun at Paul.

  I could do this. I was an angel. I would not be taken in and dissected.

  Scrunching my nose and closing my eyes, I concentrated on my shoulders. The bones of my wings were sore from where they had been squashed against the wooden bench. I envisioned the bones shrinking into my blades. A gasp of relief left me as my wings started to retract. The force of their re-entry into my back thrust me forward. I fell onto Paul, tumbling to the ground as I rebounded off him.

  ‘She’s unwell!’ Melissa shouted.

  The guard rushed forward. I was sprawled on the ground, trying to get my dizzy head out of the fogginess.

  ‘Step back now,’ another guard shouted at the other two angels.

  Paul and Melissa didn’t need to get caught up in my mistakes. They had already managed to get into the government, apparently. Paul had given me the lowdown when I was slumped against the bench.

  They backed away from me. I glanced up at them. Their held breath released when they saw that I had managed to get my wings into my back before the guards reached me.

  A heavy body slammed down onto mine. I moaned as my face was pressed into the concrete pathway. The grit sliced at my skin. Biting my lips, I stayed still as the guards wrenched my arms behind my back.

  ‘You are under arrest,’ the guard started. He carried on talking as he handcuffed my wrists together.

  ‘Don’t do that to her!’ Melissa shouted.

  Paul wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her away. The whole thing was going to take some explaining. Or persuading.

  ‘Did you get that?’ the guard hissed into my ear.

  I nodded slowly, cringing when the hard ground grazed my face even more. The weight of his body lifted. A tug of my joined arms made me clamber to my feet. My head spun and my cheek throbbed.

  ‘I’m sorry, I got drunk.’ I blinked the tears away from my eyes.

  Another guard approached. He raised his eyebrows when he moved my hair out of my face. ‘You’re a pretty one. I like your short hair.’

  ‘It’s not that short,’ I replied, tucking a strand behind my ear.

  ‘I love brunettes, he prefers blondes.’ He gestured to his colleague as his hands started to feel around my body. I squirmed, trying to get away from his probing fingers.

  ‘I have to see if you have a bomb,’ he said by way of explanation.

  His grin told me that he was enjoying himself far too much. They knew I didn’t have a bomb. They wouldn’t have jumped on me if they believed I had.

  ‘Don’t take advantage,’ I said through clenched teeth.

  His hands paused mid-search. They rested on my hips.

  ‘She’s right,’ the other guard said.

  Paul stepped forward, barging the guard out of the way. ‘My name is Paul. I work for the Perfect government. This woman is being treated unfairly.’

  The guard holding my wrists clicked his tongue. ‘You were the one that claimed she had a bomb. Maybe we should arrest you, too.’

  Melissa took hold of Paul’s arm and pulled him away.

  ‘He was joking. We’ve been on a night out. Celebrating our new positions in the office. We didn’t want our friend to be cautioned for drinking too much. Paul here, reacted on impulse. There is no bomb as you can see.’

  The offending guard took my other arm, ignored my friends and started to march me out of the park. It was true. If Perfects were drunk and disorderly, they would get a caution. The Upper Side was perfect. There was no room for people who acted anything but.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ I sobbed as the others were left behind; I watched them as they stared at me, concern etched on their faces.

  I was glad. If they had been dragged in too, their new jobs would be in jeopardy because of me.

  ‘It’s unlike a Perfect to be so…’ the guard behind me started.

  ‘Leave her alone,’ the guard that had almost touched me up defended me.

  The patrol car waited for me on the road outside the park. If I made a run for it, would they shoot me down? Maybe that would be better. I would do anything to go back to being an angel.

  ‘You’re not happy,’ I said.

  My head bumped the roof of the car as the guard handling me heard what I said and shoved me into the back seat. My eyes watered as pain shot into my skull. It was only a minor incident but it still hurt. Tears poured down my face as I settled into the leather seat. My arms were pressed against the back of it, my muscles screaming in pain.

  ‘Why are you crying?’ the driver asked as he climbed in.

  The sobs made my stomach tighten. No matter how much I tried to suck them back in, once I started, I couldn’t stop. Water and snot travelled down my face. I couldn’t wipe them away.

  ‘That really isn’t attractive.’ The other guard glanced over his shoulder. ‘Although your eyes are darker blue when you cry.’

  ‘I don’t care!’ I snapped back.

  Being attractive was not all it had cracked up to be. People wanting to touch you. Strangers thinking they had the right to approach you, apprehend you. I hated them. Perfects were disgusting, vile beings.

  ‘It’s a good job you’re hot under all that…grossness. I would have slapped you if you were an Avoidable for talking to me like that.’

  I caught back the scream before it escaped my mouth. It was not going well as it was. The last thing I needed to do was offend a guard. My fate would be sealed if I did.

  ‘An Avoidable she may yet be…if she doesn’t get a grip.’

  The car pulled into the compound. They were right. If they thought I was going crazy they could condemn me to go and live in Lower Side. That wasn’t part of the plan.

  ‘Be a good girl,’ the guard said, guiding me to a building that employed tight security. Guards were posted outside the doors. Cameras were on every nearby wall. It must be the jail. They were putting me in prison?

  ‘Am I going to get a caution?’ I asked.

  ‘You’ll have to do the test. You may have passed it when you were younger but I’m unsure if you’re still fit to be a Perfect.’

  The guard marched me down a brightly lit white walled corridor. My feet dragged. I didn’t want to go into a cell. I tried to wipe my crusty face on the shoulder of my dress. It didn’t work.

  ‘Don’t worry, you’ll be cleaned up in a minute,’ one of them said.

  They both sneered at each other as one went to open the door for me. Well, maybe chivalry wasn’t dead.

  ‘Don’t even think about taking credit,’ one of them said to the other.

  ‘I brought her in.’

  Then again, maybe it was. They weren’t opening the door for me to be polite, they each wanted to claim the victory of catching a potential Avoidable.

  ‘What have we got here?’

  The woman that spoke came forward. Her short blonde hair was m
asculine but she managed to get away with it. Her pixie like features made her attractive. I hoped she was as kind as I imagined a pixie to be.

  ‘We found this lady acting strangely in a park this morning. Two of the new officials were with her. They claim they’d been on a night out with her celebrating their new jobs.’ Both guards had started to talk but one managed to butt in.

  She arched her eyebrow. ‘And…?’ The woman crossed her arms over her chest and cocked her hip.

  The guards shuffled on their feet. Her glaring eyes were enough to make anyone uncomfortable.

  ‘She acted out of the ordinary. Throwing herself on the floor. One of them accused her of having a bomb. We had to act.’

  The woman’s perfectly plucked eyebrows rose as her gaze racked over me. I frowned at my dishevelled dress. It was light pink and flowed around me. The creases in it proved that sleeping on a park bench was not a good way to keep up my appearance. It was pure luck that it had a low back so it hadn’t been damaged when my wings had appeared.

  ‘And did she have a bomb?’

  ‘No, Catherine, she didn’t-’

  ‘Then why is she here?’ she snapped, unfolding her arms and putting her hands on her hips.

  I tried to hold back the smile that threatened to come but it refused to stay hidden.

  Catherine’s hawk-like gaze zoned in on my face.

  ‘Because she was acting strange. A passer-by reported her. We had to do something. She should at least be cautioned. I think she needs to be tested, though. She burst into tears when she was in the car. She seems unstable, not of sound mind.’

  The guards would do anything to not get backlash from the formidable official.

  Catherine sighed and gestured behind her. ‘Put her in a cell. I will get her booked in with a test later today. Be warned, young woman,’ she said, coming to me and grasping my chin with her fingers. Her nails dug into my skin. ‘You had better be one of us. We don’t take too kindly to people that begin to show signs of turning into an…Avoidable.’

  Her breath smelt of mint as she spoke in my face. The tears came to my eyes again. She let go, almost thrusting me away when she sensed my weakness. Clicking her fingers, she pointed to a secure door at the end of the corridor.

  The guards were silent as they led me away from the official. She was mean. I didn’t like her one bit.

  ‘Good luck,’ one of the guards said as the door opened. They escorted me to one of the cells and shoved me inside. ‘Maybe we’ll see you on the other side.’