Page 48 of Black Curtain

Angel, Cowboy, Ace, Mika, Yarli, Manny…

They were the adults.

They had toprotectthese people.

She followed the soldiers with her eyes, watching them surround the crowd around the pool. They wore all black, and she saw body armor, assault rifles, sidearms, helmets, backpacks. They looked like they were ready to go to war. They also wore strange headsets around their heads and necks, seemingly attached to their helmets.

“It’s some kind of seer sight-blocker,” Yarli said, from Manny’s other side. “We’ve been trying to get through. We can’t.”

Yarli looked as high as the rest of them, but Angel could tell she was probably in better shape. She was better able to think through or around these things.

She was older.

She’d seen wars. Many wars, maybe.

“I’m older.” Yarli nodded to Angel confidently. “That’s all it is. I’ve been to more weddings. Did anyone ever tell you howoldI am? Gods of the underworld, I’m old. I’m positivelyancient.”Yarli let out a rueful, but half-hysterical laugh. “So old. Too old for Manny…too old… I’mwaytoo old for him…”

Manny, a seventy-three-year-old human, smacked her on the ass with a big hand.

Yarli, who looked roughly to be in her early forties––but was a seer, so could be almost any age at all––giggled like she was Magic’s age.

Maybe Yarli wasn’t in any better shape than any of them.

“What do they want?” Javier asked. He gripped Luce in front of him, like he wasn’t sure what to do with her. He looked like he was trying to decide if he should hide her, or use her as a human shield. “What do they want from us? Where’s the boss? Where’s the doc? Where should we put Luce?”

“She’s okay,” Cowboy said, waving him off. “You can let her go, man. Have you seen her fight? She’s abadass.”

“Hey!” Angel said, frowning. “Feelings, husband.”

Cowboy grinned at her, wrapping his arms tightly around her waist.

“She ain’t my bunny, honey. Don’t worry. You’re myonlybunny.” Lowering his face, he blew raspberries into the crook of her neck, and Angel burst out in a laugh.

“You’re an idiot,” she informed him.

“ANGEL WHAT DO WE DO?” Mike sounded panicked.

She was panicking. That wasn’t good.

Angel looked around at all the familiar faces.

More were huddled around them now.

She saw Frank and Dog, two more Native Americans from the rez, and more friends of Black’s from that Louisiana prison. She saw his friend Lawless from Thailand who’d also been in the Vietnam War with Black and Manny. Her eyes rested briefly on that female cop Miri and Black just befriended in San Francisco, along with Kiessa, another seer from Old Earth, and Lizbeth, Black’s longtime personal assistant for Black Securities and Investigations.

Countless other faces washed past her vision, all of them familiar, all of them part of Black’s strange family he’d collected over the years.

Every one of the people and seers she saw…every single one of them… even Lizbeth… looked high as a kite.

And now they were in danger.

There were in danger.

And no one knew where Black and Miri were.

Angel thought of something else.

“Where’s Nick?” she asked loudly. “Where’s Dalejem?”

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