by Elle Lewis
James nodded. “Yes, sir.”
The priest was tall and thin, with short gray hair and kind blue eyes. “Now get off my steps,” he said sarcastically. “Stop yelling at this young woman and make sure she gets on her way safely. I will see you on Wednesday night.” The priest closed the door behind him, leaving us alone.
James stared at the door for a few moments and then looked at me. I noticed that his eyes were a very light brown.
“Listen,” I said, trying to smooth things over. “I’m sorry for the misunderstanding. I’m not here because anyone sent me. I’m not trying to fuck with you or upset you. I wouldn’t do that. To anyone.”
His demeanor was still stern, but he seemed calmer. “Then what are you doing here?” Now that he wasn’t yelling, his voice was smooth and rich, a deep baritone.
I swallowed, hesitant to say it out loud. I chewed on my lip, my resolve wavering.
“I don’t have time for this.” He headed down the steps.
“Wait!”
He stopped and looked at me. I walked down to him, stopping a few steps up so that our eyes were level.
“Something is happening to me.” I plunged my hands deep into the pockets of my leather jacket. My lips trembled as I spoke. “There is a man…with black eyes and wings. He has been stalking me over the last few days. I need to know what he is, because it’s not over. He’ll be back. I don’t think I am going to last another round with him.”
He studied my face, his gaze resting on the bruise on my right cheek. After a few moments he took in a deep breath and looked up at the night sky for a moment. “What’s your name?” he said.
“Sloan.”
“I know a place where we can talk. Come on.”
I followed him down the street, keeping pace with his long strides. He was not only tall but lean, and it was easy to see that he was muscular and well-built through the flannel shirt. We walked in silence for a few blocks, silver puffy clouds quickly running across the night sky. It was cold and breezy. The neighborhood of First Hill had quite a few trees and their branches shook nosily as we walked past, the brittle leaves rubbing against each other. My mind was full of questions and I was slightly nervous following a strange man to someplace I didn’t know.
James turned a corner, stopping in front of a small Irish pub. I could hear punk blaring from inside. I looked up at him, my eyebrows raised a little.
“Considering your situation, it’s not a good idea for us to go somewhere isolated. A public place is better, and with the music, we won’t be overheard. How old are you?”
“Twenty.”
He nodded and then held the door open for me.
I made a mental note not to underestimate him and walked inside. The pub was dimly lit and relatively small, but surprisingly full for a Sunday night. The bar stools were all occupied and so were most of the little tables that were scattered throughout the main floor. A live band was playing in the corner. The lead singer had a cherry red guitar and a bright orange Mohawk that extended at least three feet off his shaved head.
A massive bouncer stepped towards us. He was Samoan and easily three hundred pounds, with tribal tattoos circling his arms. The bouncer looked over my head and addressed James.
“What’s up, James?”
James put his arm around me. I didn’t protest, strangely.
“Hey Burke, how’s business?” James asked.
The bouncer shrugged. “A little slow tonight. You know how it is.” His voice was a low rumble. He nodded in my direction. “She twenty-one?”
“She’s with me,” James answered. “I’ll make sure she doesn’t drink anything.”
Burke nodded. “That’s cool, man. I’m not going to turn away such a hot piece of ass.” He winked at me.
It took a huge amount of effort not to say something smart back to him. I kept my mouth shut. Arguing with a fowl mouthed bouncer was not what I was here for. Although, I couldn’t hold back my facial expression, which was nothing short of a pissed off glare.
James moved his hand to the small of my back and guided me through the pub to a booth at the very back. It was quieter here, enough for a conversation, and with the live punk music we would not be overheard. Pretty smart, I had to admit.
James settled in and I slid in across from him, my back to the band and the door.
“You’ll have to excuse Burke,” James said. “He hasn’t evolved from the Cro-Magnons.”
“I’m not worried about it,” I said.
A brunette waitress came over, dressed in a tiny kilt and an itty-bitty shirt. She smiled brightly at James.
“Hey honey, you just get in? How long were you out this time, a month?” She set two napkins on the table but didn’t take her eyes off him.
“Yeah,” James said. “Four weeks, exactly.”
“Can I get you the usual?”
He nodded. “Thanks, Caroline.”
“For you?” She looked at me for the first time and it wasn’t a very nice look.
What the hell was with the staff in this place? “I’m fine.” I gave her the same angry glare that I had given the Cro-Magnon bouncer.
As soon as she left I turned my attention back to James and was surprised to see that he was laughing. I noticed he had straight white teeth.
“What’s so funny?” I asked, not changing my facial expression.
“You,” he chuckled. “You don’t take shit from anyone, do you?”
“No.”
“Not even a lumberjack asshole?”
I tried not to smile, unsure of how we had moved from screaming at each other at the church to teasing banter. I ignored his remark and asked a question instead. “What did she mean? About you being gone for a month?”
Right on cue, waitress Caroline dropped off a Guinness draft to the table. She asked James if he wanted anything else. From her tone, I could tell it was a double-sided question. When he said no, she left. James turned his attention to me. “I work on a fishing boat. We go out for long periods of time, catching crab mostly, and fish.”
That explained the long hair and beard. I found it interesting that the first thing he did after getting off a fishing boat was go to a Catholic Church in the First Hill neighborhood. It was far from the harbor. I wanted to ask him about this, but it seemed too personal, so I kept quiet.
He took a few long swigs of his beer and then set the glass down, his expression becoming serious. “Who told you where to find me? Who gave you that name?”
I knew he was referring to the Old Joe alias which I still didn’t understand, considering his actual name was James and he wasn’t old at all.
“Two homeless women,” I answered.
“What did they look like?”
I described them. His mouth tilted up in a crooked smile. “That was Lilly and Old Lucy. Figures.” He took another sip of beer.
“How do you know them?”
He shook his head. “We aren’t talking about me right now, we are talking about you. Tell me what happened to you from the beginning, and don’t leave anything out.”
My stomach twisted. What I admitted on the church steps had been difficult enough.
“Come on,” he said. “You came to me for help, so let’s hear it.”
I folded my hands tightly on top of the table. The band continued to play, the music loud and chaotic. I met his eyes and told him everything. Beginning with Friday night, the dreams, and even what happened at the hospital today.
When I was done, James sat for a few moments in absolute silence. He then pushed his beer aside and placed his hands flat on th
e table. “He touched you? He touched your skin?”
I didn’t understand why that was the detail he was fixating on. “Yes.”
“On Friday night?”
“Yes,” I said.
“That’s not possible.”
“Why?”
He ran his hands through his thick brown hair. “Because it’s not.”
“Tell me why,” I demanded angrily. His reaction was making me really scared and he was not giving me a straight answer.
The frightened look in his eyes made me worry even more. “Look, I’ll tell you. Just, don’t freak out, alright? The last thing we need is Burke throwing us out.”
I nodded and gritted my teeth together, waiting.
James finished the rest of his beer in one huge gulp, took in a deep breath and then met my eyes. “The reason that isn’t possible is because whenever someone gets touched by one of them—” He hesitated for a moment, looked away, and then met my eyes again. “They die…instantly.”
So many things ran through my mind at that moment and freaking out wasn’t one of them. This was the first direct answer I had gotten. My mind was in hyper drive. “How do you know?” I was surprised my voice was so sure and steady.
“I saw it happen. Twice.”
I stayed quiet so that he would go on. He leaned back and crossed his arms. “The first time, it was Winter. Snow was coming down like crazy. The city was freezing. I was passing through an alleyway at night. There was a man, just a regular guy, coming out of the back of a restaurant to take out the trash. Then suddenly, it wasn’t just him and me in the alley anymore. A dark figure had dropped out of the sky and grabbed the man by the throat. His eyes were black, his hair was white, and black wings were folded behind his back.” James paused for a minute and rubbed his eyes.
“Go on.”
He ran his fingers through his hair again. “It was over in a few seconds. Whatever he did to the man killed him instantly.”
“What did you do?”
James hung his head a little and shrugged. “I hid. As soon as he grabbed the man by the throat I ducked behind the dumpster. After a few moments of struggle, the man with black eyes dropped him and then he, uh, flew away. Just unfolded those wings and was gone.” He looked at me, his eyes haunted. “I checked the man’s pulse, but he was dead.”
Caroline chose that moment to bring over another beer. James thanked her and began to absentmindedly fiddle with a coaster, spinning it around and around on the table. “At first, I was confused. I didn’t know what I had seen. I told myself I had imagined the wings, and the way he had dropped out of the sky, everything. I blamed it on the cold, and whatever else I could think of. I thought that maybe I had witnessed a murder, a mugger had broken the dude’s neck and my mind had filled in the rest. But then I witnessed it again, on another night, in a different part of the city. And that time, he had just grabbed someone’s wrist and the exact same thing happened. The person died immediately, just from one touch.”
“What is he?”
James shook his head. “No, don’t make that mistake. There isn’t just one. The question you need to ask is, what are they.”
“There is more than one?”
He took a long draw of his second beer. “Yes. I don’t know how many there are exactly, but I have seen two myself and people like Lilly and Old Lucy have seen them also.”
I sat quietly for a few seconds, taking this in. It was overwhelming. I felt hot and a little nauseous.
“Will you give me a second?” I asked. “I’m going to run to the restroom.”
“Of course.”
I shrugged off my leather jacket and got out of the booth, making my way to the small woman’s bathroom at the back of the bar. The lighting was poor and the mirrors were dirty. I turned on the faucet, letting my hands fill with cool water. I splashed some of it on my face and then gripped the back of my neck. I took in a few deep breaths, willing the nausea to go away.
There was more than one. I thought about this for a few moments. It was good information, but it did not help my situation in the least because there was only one currently hunting me. But the knowledge that a simple touch from one of these things usually resulted in immediate death—that certainly pertained to me. Why hadn’t I died? Even the man with black eyes was aware of this anomaly. He had mentioned it at the gardens. Was that why he was after me? Was I different somehow?
I blew out a deep breath. There were so many damn questions. My hands shook as I grabbed a wad of paper towels and dabbed my face. I didn’t know anything about James. But I desperately hoped he could tell me more. I took a few more seconds to compose myself and then made my way back to the booth. The music vibrated beneath my sneakers.
I sat down and cleared my throat, trying not to show the fear that I was feeling.
“Are you alright?” James asked.
I nodded and then met his eyes. “Do you know what they are?”
James leaned forward, his hands just a few inches from mine. “I don’t know, Sloan. If I did, I would tell you. I did research, so much research you have no idea. I combed through hundreds of books, cross referenced shit, kept journals. Eventually, I gave up. Nothing matched.”
My stomach clenched. “What do you mean nothing matched? There has to be an explanation.”
He shook his head a little. “Does there? You and I have witnessed something supernatural. Something that does not belong in our world. What if there is no explanation?”
“I can’t accept that.”
He sighed. “I felt the same way, for a long time. Which is why I searched for answers. I’m talking about years, Sloan, that I tried to find some shred of information that could help me understand the things that I had seen.”
I absorbed that for a few minutes, processing it. After years of searching the man in front of me still didn’t know what they were. To say it was disappointing was an understatement. I changed the subject. “What does he want with me then?”
“I honestly don’t know. It doesn’t make any sense. If he touched you, you should be dead,” James said.
“Well I’m not dead and he is going to come back. What the hell am I supposed to do?”
“Look,” he said sternly, “I know you came here looking for answers that I don’t have and I’m sorry. I wish there was more I could tell you. But if you survived him touching you, that has to mean something.”
“That doesn’t mean shit,” I replied. “It just means I will die slower than the others did.”
I sat quietly for a few seconds, trying to get my emotions under control. James had given me answers but also a ton of new questions. I felt scared, angry, and alone. And to be honest, I needed some time to digest the conversation.
“Thank you for your help.” I started to slide out of the booth. James grabbed my hand from across the table.
“Don’t leave. Is there somewhere you can go, until this is all over?” he asked. “Can you stay with family?”
“That’s not possible.”
He frowned. “Are you telling me you are alone in the city? Where are your parents?”
I pulled my hand from his and got up. “That’s none of your goddamn business.” Without another word, I strode through the pub away from him.
Burke whistled as I passed by. “Where are you going, sexy thing?”
“Fuck you,” I snarled as I threw open the doors. It felt like it had dropped ten degrees while I had been in there. I pulled on my jacket and began walking back to the church, my emotions roaring like the ocean during a storm.
James jogged up behind me. “Hey, Sloan, wait up.”
�
��Go away,” I said.
He put a hand on my shoulder to slow me down. I stopped but shrugged off his hand. I glared up at him.
“Look, I’m sorry, alright?” His brown eyes were sincere. “I shouldn’t have asked you such a personal question.”
I crossed my arms and looked at the cars lining the street. Pale light from a nearby streetlamp splashed across the hoods, casting shadows onto the pavement. Part of me wanted to paint it, the light across the metal, the flecks of yellow on the black top. The other half of me wanted to smash it all, ripping the metal until it was gnarled and twisted.
James regarded me quietly for a few moments. Finally, he said, “We seem to have a lot in common.”
I looked up. There was pain in his eyes. A pain I recognized.
I uncrossed my arms, my shoulders sagging. “Will you walk me to my car?” I asked.
He nodded and fell in step beside me. We didn’t talk on the way back. Every so often, I stole a glance at him, taking in little snippets of information. The angles of his profile. The way he walked, his shoulders moving slightly in rhythm with his long strides. I didn’t know him from Adam. But there were no alarm bells. No red flags popping up in my brain. I felt comfortable in his presence, as if I had known him before tonight.
For the first time since Friday, I didn’t feel entirely alone in all of this. Although, the notion carried a heavy burden. I had found someone that knew about them, a final solidifying piece of evidence that it all was real.
CHAPTER EIGHT
AN UNEXPECTED PHONE CALL
The roads were nearly empty, the dark pavement winding through autumn hued forests and hills. I let my mind roam as I drove to Issaquah, thinking about what James had witnessed in the alleyway. I could see it in my mind like a scene from a movie. The dark alley covered in snow, one of them dropping silently from the sky, shadows against concrete, white snowflakes floating past obsidian wings.
My conversation with James had been enlightening. Although my fear was now heightened. Knowing that I should have died but didn’t, knowing that there were more of them out there—it added to the pile of anxious emotions that I was already feeling. And there was still so much that I didn’t understand.