Devil's Advocate (The X-Files: Origins #2)(89)

“You’re loco, chica. I broke out of jail to kill someone, but not Karen. No way. She was one of the nice ones. I’d never hurt her. I busted out of jail because no one believes me, and if I couldn’t set things straight, they’d put me in the electric chair.”

“You’re a liar and a psychopath,” said Corinda.

“You call me a liar? Eso es gracioso,” he said. “That’s really funny coming from you.”

“Really?” sneered Dana. “You’re a psycho, Angelo. You would have killed me last night if I hadn’t outrun you.”

“Outrun me? You really are loco,” laughed Angelo. “After you freaked out at the school, I followed you to try to explain. I lost you for a moment, and then I saw you lying on the grass outside that house. I watched from across the street until you got up. I followed you every step of the way to make sure no one hurt you. You think I wanted to hurt you? If that’s what you think, then you’re nuts.”

“Don’t even try,” warned Dana, hefting a sharp piece of quartz. “I found out that was Karen’s house. Is that why you picked her, because you saw me in her yard?”

“That was Karen’s house?” he said, seeming to be surprised. “I … didn’t know that.”

“Don’t lie. You had that knife and you’re covered with her blood.”

“Her blood?” Angelo looked at his clothes and then at his right shoulder. He tried to raise that hand, but it only twitched, and Dana realized that during the entire fight, Angelo had only used his left hand. He licked his lips. “I…”

Then his legs suddenly buckled and he fell hard on his kneecaps.

Corinda took that moment to grab another didgeridoo, and she raised it to swing at his head, but Dana yelled, “No!”

Angelo sagged down and lay on his back. Dana crept toward him.

“Don’t,” warned Corinda. “It’s a trick.”

But Dana inched forward. There was just enough light coming through the window for her to see the hole torn in the shoulder of Angelo’s orange jail jumpsuit. Blood, black as oil in that light, pumped weakly from the skin beneath. She bent close and saw what it was. She understood what it was.

Angelo had been shot.

She looked at him and he nodded. “Didn’t get away … clean. Guards … Didn’t get an artery … I think. But … it hurts.” He tried to smile. “You two crazy ladies didn’t help.”

Dana knelt beside him, but she kept the chunk of quartz ready in case she had to smash him. “You said you broke out to set things straight.… What did you mean?”

“I mean this … wasn’t me.…,” he said, his voice weaker than it had been a moment ago. “The newspeople … they interviewed a cop … and he said that they were looking to … connect the murders to … that drug.”

“What drug?” asked Dana. “You mean Eclipse?”

He nodded weakly. “Eclipse was … never supposed to be out on the streets,” he said. He was starting to breathe strangely, and blood was pooling under him. If the bullet wound had been bad before, then the fight had made it worse. “It was only for … helping people. That’s why … it’s given only … to people like … us…”

“What? What do you mean? What people?”

Angelo’s eyes were becoming glassy, but he looked at her, and into her. “People … like you … and me. Personas con cualidades, chica.” He coughed, and blood flecked his lips. “You just … sit with it and … let it in. Ride the … smoke … so easy. That’s what he … promised. No … addiction … no bad high … nothing illegal … you just let the visions … come…”

And that was when it all made sense to Dana. She stared at him as the pieces of the puzzle lifted from the wrong shape and fell back into place with perfect, cruel clarity. Then she turned slowly toward Corinda. The tall woman lowered the didgeridoo.

“The incense…?” murmured Dana.

Corinda chewed her lip for a moment, looking worried, looking like she wanted to run. “It’s supposed to help bring out psychic qualities,” she said.

“Oh my God,” breathed Dana. “It’s not the tea. I’ve been breathing it ever since I started coming here for yoga, haven’t I? For weeks. You’ve been getting me high for weeks. Why would you do this?”

“She didn’t,” said a voice. “The incense was only for special students.”

Dana whipped around as a man walked slowly toward them from the back of the store. He wore loose black pants and a blue velour shirt embroidered with spinning suns and planets. He bent and picked up Angelo’s knife.

“A good blade.” He tossed it aside and drew another from under the hem of his shirt. “But I prefer my own,” said Sunlight.





CHAPTER 82

Beyond Beyond

9:36 P.M.

And the world, which had been hanging on its last, twisted hinge, broke off and fell.

Dana stared in horror.

Corinda covered her mouth with a hand, as if trying to hold back the kind of scream that would tear her apart. On the floor, Angelo tried to rise, his body twitching and shuddering, but then he collapsed back and lay still, arms and legs spread wide.