So to all those who may have forgotten what have happened in Angel Burn (the first book in the trilogy) there is the link ^ for you to refresh your minds!
Now don't worry guys! It's not only the Angel Burn summary we're giving you! We're giving you this, Jonah's scene after Angel Fire!!
Author’s note: I’ve always had a soft spot for Jonah as a character. Originally, my intention was for him to have a fairly major role throughout the series, though this didn’t pan out. The following sequence is from an early version of Angel Fire. I was always sorry that I had to cut it!
It was strange, being back on his old college campus. Jonah walked slowly down the sidewalk that led from the Science block, remembering the day two years ago when his life had changed for ever.
He’d been trudging along this very path, worried about his biology grade, wondering glumly if he should give up on his degree. It wasn’t as if he even wanted it anyway. No one would be surprised that he hadn’t managed to cut it in college – certainly not his family, and least of all Jonah himself. But he’d been too gutless to actually make the decision and face the fallout from his parents, and so he’d kept going to classes out of some ghastly mix of cowardice and inertia, waiting for the inevitable failure to solve the problem for him. That was what his whole life had been like, so far: waiting for the inevitable failure.
And then he’d seen the angel.
Jonah paused as he came to the exact spot, near an oak tree that grew beside the path. A winter breeze stirred the dark curls around the edge of his thermal cap as in his mind, he saw the angel flying towards him again: her wings, shining like sunlight on new snow; her beautiful, peaceful face.
Do not be afraid, she had said. I have something to give you.
And she had. She’d given him the courage to change.
Jonah sighed and leaned against the tree, ignoring a group of laughing students heading past. The realisation that angels really existed had brought magic, wonder, hope to his life. To find out that yes, they existed, but everything else about them was a lie, had sliced his moorings right out from under him. He’d been stunned these last few months, wondering what he was supposed to do now. It was as if there’d never been any magic in his life at all.
Jonah pushed off the tree and started walking again, staring down at his scuffed shoes. Part of him wished that he hadn’t escaped, that day back at the Denver cathedral. What was the point of living when the loss of the angels was a constant pain inside of him? Even now, knowing that it was all a lie, he’d give anything if he could believe in their goodness again.
Reaching the parking lot, Jonah headed dully for his car. He supposed he’d return to the cheap furnished apartment he was renting. Yes, and then think these same pointless thoughts a few more thousand times. He winced. No, maybe he’d just go for a drive – try to clear his head.
Digging in his jeans pocket for his keys, Jonah froze.
There was a man with a neat brown beard standing a few cars away: a teacher, maybe. His car door was still open, as if he’d just gotten out of it, and he was staring upwards, smiling.
“You’re real,” Jonah heard him say. The smile on the man’s face widened as he went silent.
Jonah felt sick suddenly. Since the arrival of the Second Wave, the angels seemed to be everywhere; too many times to count these last few months, he’d seen the faraway smile of someone being fed from.
As Jonah leaned limply against his car, unable to look away, he wondered yet again why he was so special. For he was immune to the angels’ touch; when his angel had given him courage, she’d also done something to his aura, making him undesirable to the predators. But why should someone as spineless as him be protected, why?
You made a mistake, he thought sadly to his angel. Oh god, you made such a mistake, choosing me.
Gradually, the victim came back to himself, blinking, and Jonah knew the angel must have left. The man took a briefcase from his car and slowly shut the door, glancing upwards again with that same wondering smile. As he walked off, he was unsteady on his feet.
I wonder what he’s got, Jonah thought glumly as he took out his keys. What new disease was even now coursing its way through the man’s body? His muscles tightened with helpless anger. What right did the angels have to do this, as if humans were nothing more than – than fuel?
If I were an Angel Killer, I could have stopped it.
The thought surged through him like a lightning bolt. Jonah went still; all at once his heart was pounding. Him…an Angel Killer?
In his mind he saw Alex again, standing in the Church of Angels cathedral holding a gun on him. It had struck Jonah then that Alex, though several years younger, was older than he himself would ever be. Yes, he realized now – because Alex had been facing the enemy for years, actually doing something about it. Unlike Jonah, who’d spent these last three months wishing he’d never found out the truth. He had no idea where Alex and Willow had gone after his brief encounter with them, but he bet it wasn’t someplace to lick their wounds and feel sorry for themselves. No, they’d be out there fighting the angelsould he join them?
Suddenly Jonah was filled with a hope so strong it was almost painful. Getting into his car he reversed quickly out of the parking lot, heading back to his apartment after all. He knew exactly who he needed to call – he just prayed that he still had the number.
Once back in his apartment he sprinted to the bedroom. On the chest of drawers was a pile of business cards, still lying from where he’d tossed them a week ago, when he’d cleaned out his wallet from sheer boredom. Grabbing them up, Jonah flipped through them, his fingers trembling. It had to be here. It had to be.
It wasn’t.
Jonah went through the cards again, then a third time. “Please, please,” he muttered as he slapped each one down – as if some miracle might suddenly produce the business card from the CIA agent who’d recruited him to help with the attack on the Second Wave.
No miracle occurred. And now, belatedly, he remembered: he’d thrown the card away in a hotel room in Wyoming, a few days after his escape from the cathedral. He’d been in despair, wishing that he’d never even heard of Sophie and Nate, the two agents who’d ripped the blinders from his eyes. He’d also been drunk, for almost the first time in his life. He’d torn the card into little pieces and hurled them violently in the wastepaper basket; they’d be rotting away in some landfill by now.
Jonah slowly sank down onto the sagging bed. What now? Sophie was the last agent left from Project Angel. The business card with her handwritten cellphone number had been the only way to reach her. As for the Angel Killers, all the field agents had been assassinated, except for Alex. And Alex could be anywhere by now.
It was a complete dead end.
Slowly, Jonah pulled off his cap, releasing his dark, springy curls. It felt as if the disappointment might crush him completely. Why, though? It wasn’t as if they’d have actually accepted him as an Angel Killer. No one in their right mind would ever hand him a loaded gun and trust him to protect someone with it. What had he been thinking? He’d never even shot an air rifle before.
On a scale of dumb ideas, it was pretty impressive, all right.
Yet over the days that followed, it wouldn’t leave him. He thought about it as he went to the store, pushing a shopping cart around and buying food that he didn’t want. He thought about it as he thumbed dully through a college catalogue, wondering if he could work up the interest to take a few classes. He thought about it as he took his morning shower, gazing down at his body with its lack of muscles and realising afresh what a stupid idea it had been – him, an Angel Killer. He scrubbed shampoo into his scalp almost viciously, tilting his head back into the burning water and relishing the stings when the soap got into his eyes.
Finally Jonah found himself in a sports bar one night, simply because another night at home alone in front of his TV set would have driven him crazy. And even there, he found himself watching TV anyway – sitting at the bar with a Bud Light and staring dully up at the screen, though it was impossible to hear it with the rock music that was pulsing through the air.
Some story on CNN. A foreign city he didn’t recognize, with a golden angel high on a pedestal. Jonah grimaced; angel images abounded these days. The camera panned over a crowd scene: people cheering, holding up signs in Spanish. Jonah’s high school Spanish deciphered: We love the angels! He sighed and rubbed his forehead, wondering about heading over to the pinball machine.
When he glanced at the screen again, he saw Alex.
“Turn it up, turn it up!” he yelled, scrambling on top of the bar to reach the TV. He cranked up the volume and heard “…such as this angelic demonstration in the Zócalo, the city’s main square. People from all around the world are flocking to the city, lured by the hope of angels. In fact, they say if you love the angels at all…this is the place to be!”
A commercial came on. “Wait! What city? Where?” cried Jonah, banging his hand on the TV set.
The entire sports bar was staring at him. “Dude,” said the bartender slowly. “You are going to get down off my bar. Now.”
Jonah climbed down, red-faced but with hope thudding through him. He’d watch CNN when he got home; they always played the same stories over and over. In fact, he’d go now. Leaving his beer half-full he started to zip up his jacket. The guy at the next stool was eyeing him warily.
“Whoa,” he said. “You must really be into Mexico City, huh?”
Jonah felt like kissing him. “Is that where it was? Are you sure?”
The guy nodded. “Yeah, I was there last year. That square, the Zócalo? It’s wild, man – it’s like the biggest square in the world.” He dribbled a few Planters peanuts into his mouth from a bag. “And listen, the place was obsessed enough about the angels last year – looks like it’s just gotten unreal now.” His gaze narrowed as he studied Jonah. “You’re not into the angels, are you? I mean, I know a lot of people are, but—”
“No, not me,” Jonah assured him. Happiness was singing through him. Of course – Alex was in Mexico City. Far away from the US, where he and Willow were in so much danger, but still in a place where he could fight the angels.
When Jonah got home, he taped the story and watched the crowd scene over and over. It was just a sweeping pan of the camera, but it showed Alex, he was sure of it, the expression on his handsome face in stark contrast to the exultant cheers. Was that Willow beside him? Jonah frowned, rewinding and freezing the frame. He couldn’t tell; the girl was half-hidden, and had red hair instead of Willow’s distinctive blonde. But that was definitely Alex. No doubt.
Still staring at the screen, Jonah slumped back against the worn sofa, clutching his head and grinning. He’d found the last remaining Angel Killer; the one person on the planet who could teach him how to fight the angels. Yes, there was still the little detail of actually finding him, in a city of twenty million people – but at least he had a reason to hope now.
And after these last three months, that felt…pretty good, actually.
Did you guys like that? Another side to Jonah whoaa... ( in case you all forgot, Jonah was the assistant to Raziel, but in the end he sort of helped Alex and Willow get away at the end of the book!
Ready for tomorrow? Hold on tight! :)
Happy reading and with much love
~Arya and Kay
P.S
EXTRA! FOR ALL THOSE WHO SCROLLED DOWN HERE IS ANOTHER EXCERPT FROM ANGEL FEVER!!
THE GROUND TREMBLED UNDER my feet as the entire centre of the camp exploded. With a roar that shook the earth, buildings went up in a wild fountain of flame, cement, and smoke, brilliant against the blue sky.
“No!” I screamed.
I’d been sensing Alex’s rapid heartbeat – his near-certainty that he’d die. Now, for a brief, endless flash, his agony crushed me. Blown apart, wrenched into pieces – so much pain—
His heart gave a last weak beat…and then stopped.
Emptiness.
Before I could take it in, a wall of air slammed into me. I was knocked flat on my back, gasping for breath – dimly aware of rubble falling all around, thumping into the sand.
Heartstopping isn't it? what do you think happened? What do you think REALLY HAPPENED? We'll like to hear your thoughts below! :)
THE GROUND TREMBLED UNDER my feet as the entire centre of the camp exploded. With a roar that shook the earth, buildings went up in a wild fountain of flame, cement, and smoke, brilliant against the blue sky.
“No!” I screamed.
I’d been sensing Alex’s rapid heartbeat – his near-certainty that he’d die. Now, for a brief, endless flash, his agony crushed me. Blown apart, wrenched into pieces – so much pain—
His heart gave a last weak beat…and then stopped.
Emptiness.
Before I could take it in, a wall of air slammed into me. I was knocked flat on my back, gasping for breath – dimly aware of rubble falling all around, thumping into the sand.
Heartstopping isn't it? what do you think happened? What do you think REALLY HAPPENED? We'll like to hear your thoughts below! :)
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