by Kristie Cook
Reed holds up his hand in a gesture of concern. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to frighten you. I brought you something to wear,” he says soothingly, entering the bathroom. In his hand he holds a long-sleeved, black garment that appears to be made of cashmere.
“How am I supposed to put anything on with these sticking out of my back?” I ask in a soft tone, not looking at him. I don’t want to see his reaction to my puny little wings that are bad-girl red.
“I bought several of these for you earlier, anticipating that you would need them. Here, this top slips on in the front and ties in back. You put your arms in the sleeves, and then a ribbon at the nape of your neck secures it in the back. The back of the garment is mostly bare until about midway, and then another ribbon threads through the fabric on both sides like a corset, so your wings can remain out or they can be retracted. You need only pull the ribbon tight and tie it in the back here at your waist. It will allow your wings to move freely while the fabric remains in place against your skin.”
I nod, taking the garment from his hand without looking up. Turning away from him, I slip it on. I attempt to tie the ribbon at the nape of my neck, but my hands shake, so I keep fumbling with it. Reed brushes my hands away gently, tying the ribbon for me. He then makes quick work of the ribbon at my waist. Turning me toward him again, he hugs me tight in his arms, and I nearly break down, but I manage to hold it in.
“You are so quiet, Evie. You have to tell me what you’re thinking,” Reed urges.
“I was thinking that this is a very clever design for a top. The material is so soft and warm. Thank you,” I say. “I was worried that I was going to have to wander around half naked until I can figure out how to retract my puny wings.” I say the last part with a measure of the contempt that I have for my new limbs.
“You don’t like your wings?” Reed asks me, sounding surprised.
“Not really … how come they’re so small, and why can’t I move them?” I ask him, looking at the middle of his chest.
I don’t even want to talk about their color, I think
“Evie, they are perfect,” Reed says, and when I frown, he lifts my chin so that I will meet his eyes. “Truly, they are perfect. They are small now because you are young. They will grow larger over time, but truly, they couldn’t be more beautiful than they are now. You will be able to control them soon. It will take some time, but you will learn,” he says as he gently strokes my wing.
“You like them?” I ask in surprise. “I thought there was something wrong with them.”
“Evie, you have no idea how much I like them,” he says ruefully. “You are the most beautiful creature I have ever seen.”
“How is that possible? They’re crimson!” I state blandly. “Why aren’t they white or grey, like yours?”
“They are crimson because you are a Seraph. If you were an Archangel, they would be white, or if you were a Power, like me, then they could be several other colors. Only Seraphim have your coloring, and that means you outrank Archangels, Thrones, Virtues, Cherubim, Powers … but don’t let it go to your head because you still have to listen to me while we are here,” he states, smiling.
“Don’t be ridiculous. How can I possibly outrank anybody? I’m a mutant, and if you hadn’t noticed, most angels would like nothing better than to crush the soul right out of me,” I reply dully. “You were right that day at registration, when you said we’re screwed. I’m screwed, aren’t I? I’m never going to survive.”
“You just did survive, against all odds. Zephyr is a machine when it comes to killing the Fallen … and yet, you managed to survive him,” Reed says soberly. “Not only that, I would lay odds that he would fight to protect you as well. You have won him over, and he is a powerful ally. You also survived the other one, at the formal, and you survived me as well. You have some sort of power over us. It seems that, in each situation, you find the weakness that turns us to your side. Even the fallen one was captivated.”
“I survived Sebastian because you were there, and as for you, well, I had the butterflies on my side,” I reply softly. “And I’m not so sure about Zephyr. He scares me to death.”
Reed’s face turns grim as he says, “I am sorry that I wasn’t here tonight. When I think of what might have happened to you … I don’t know what I would have done if he had harmed you,” he says anxiously. “I went to Chicago to pick up your birthday present. I was going to give it to you at the party, but Russell called me when I was on my way back to town. He told me you were coming here and why. I had already received a call from Zephyr, telling me he was here because there were souls hovering all around town. I cannot think of what stirred them all up …” he says in frustration at the bad timing.
“Zephyr isn’t the only angel in town, Reed. I spotted two more at the Delt house when I was there. I asked Russell to call you—Russell! I have to call Russell and tell him I’m okay. I left him at the party, and I was in a hurry—he knew why I had to go. He must be so worried … and nobody is watching him!” I gasp, gripping Reed’s hand urgently, brushing aside the fact that I know exactly why the souls are walking around town. “Please, let me use your phone.”
Reed hands me his phone, but I pause before dialing. I hear a crunch of tires on the gravel driveway outside, announcing a new visitor is arriving and at breakneck speed, by all indications. The car comes to a quick halt near the door to the house. Then, someone shoots out of the car, not even bothering to close the car door.
The front door opens up with a crash as Russell calls out, “Red!”
“Damn! It’s Russell, what do I do? He can’t see me like this! How do I get these things back in?” I ask Reed urgently, turning back to the mirror. I try to move them again, but they won’t budge.
“Don’t worry, I will just persuade him to leave,” Reed starts to say until I grab his arm.
“No, you can’t do that! I’m supposed to be watching Russell, remember? You have to get him to stay, and you have to help me get rid of my wings!” I plead.
“But, I like your wings,” he says, smiling sweetly while stroking them again.
I swear, if he keeps doing that I might purr like a kitten. Don’t think about that right now, just concentrate!
“Please!” I say through gritted teeth, closing my eyes and balling my hands into fists.
He is out of the bathroom in seconds, but I don’t have much time to wonder about where he has gone because he is back almost instantly. Carrying with him a full glass of what suspiciously smells like cognac, he offers it to me, saying, “Drink this. It will help you relax, and then you should have some hope of retracting them. They won’t go back in if you’re panicking. I’ll go speak to Russell, and then I’ll be back.”
A second later, Reed is gone again, and I hear him speaking to Russell in the foyer below. Shortly after that, he leads Russell toward the library. Since I don’t have time to waste on savoring my cognac, I gulp it down in one long swallow, and then I almost die. I cough and wheeze and can only breathe shallowly for a couple of minutes.
Reed tries to suppress a laugh as he enters the bathroom again. “Evie, I will never be bored with you around. Did you just drink that whole glass?” he asks me, smirking.
“Yes. Now, show me how to make my wings go back in,” I say, while wiping tears from my eyes that have nothing to do with emotion and everything to do with the cognac I just ingested.
“You have to calm down … relax,” Reed whispers as he leans close to my ear, tickling it with his breath.
“How am I supposed to relax? Russell is downstairs with the angel who was going to kill me just a few minutes ago, and I’m stuck up here with a set of bright red wings sticking out of my back, and you’re not helping me!” I say in frustration, attempting to will my wings back into my body. Glancing over at Reed, he’s smothering a grin. “You’re laughing now? This is funny to you?” I ask.
“Well, you should have seen the look on Russell’s face when I introduced him to Zephyr. He looked rath
er annoyed that you are here alone with us,” Reed says, smiling. “Zephyr wasn’t too pleased to meet Russell either. I wonder why …”
“Reed! Go downstairs and make sure Zephyr doesn’t kill Russell,” I say adamantly.
“Zephyr wouldn’t hurt Russell … unless Russell says something stupid,” Reed replies, unconcerned as he leans against the countertop.
“Reed! Help me!” I plead desperately.
“You want my help?” he asks, and I nod my head, glaring at him. “Okay, I will help.”
He pushes off from the counter, approaching me slowly, never taking his eyes from mine. Swiftly, he picks me up off my feet, seating me roughly on the counter. A surge of thrilling anticipation courses through me instantly while I wait to see what he will do next.
Standing between my legs, he pulls the butterfly clips from my hair, one by one, setting them on the counter, while my eyes devour every lovely contour of his angelic face. My hair hangs loosely down my back, until his hand slips under the mass of it at the base of my neck, gathering it tightly in the fist of his hand. Pulling my head back, so that my face tilts upward, he lowers his lips with agonizing slowness to mine. When our lips finally meet, his kiss sears me more intoxicatingly than the brandy, causing my face to flush and my breathing to become desperate. Gripping his upper arms with my hands, my nails dig into him lightly as I try to pull him closer to me.
“That is it, Evie, try to pull me to you,” Reed whispers against my lips. Wrapping my legs around his waist, I kiss him with all the desperate passion that I thought, only minutes before, I would never get to share with him again. Then, Reed pulls away from me.
Intense frustration shoots through me then as I open my eyes. “Why are you stopping?” I demand breathlessly, searching his face, which looks a bit too smug for my liking.
“You did it,” he smiles. I must seem confused because he adds, “your wings …” and he points to the mirror behind me.
Looking over my shoulder, I can no longer see my wings in the mirror. I am back to looking human again, but I can’t help feeling disappointment because it hadn’t taken very long at all and the method of getting them to retract is very, very, satisfying.
“Oh,” I say lamely, touching my fingertips to my swollen lips. “I thought you said I had to relax. I don’t feel relaxed.” I feel like I’m being consumed by fire, I think to myself.
“This was the other way to do it,” Reed replies with smoldering eyes. “You were so focused on pulling me to you that you were able to do that to your wings.”
“Oh,” I say again lamely, “thanks.”
“No, thank you,” he says softly, leaning forward and caressing my neck with his lips. Then, he whispers, “Do you want to go downstairs now?”
“Downstairs?” I stutter.
“Russell … library …” he replies, still kissing my neck lightly.
“Umm … ahh … yes,” I groan, pulling away from him. “I’d better go downstairs before Russell starts looking for me. I don’t want to try to explain what happened to your room.” Jumping down from the counter, I have to steady myself against it as the alcohol I had just chugged begins to “relax” me. “This should be interesting,” I mutter, squaring my shoulders. “Zephyr is still downstairs?” I ask, hesitating because I don’t think that I really want to ever see him again.
“Yes. He is still here. He wants to speak with you further. You are fascinating—I don’t think I am going to be able to get him to leave willingly until you answer more of his questions,” Reed replies, leading me out of the bathroom.
“What if I get the answers to his questions wrong?” I ask as fear shoots through me again, making my wings restlessly twitch inside of me. I have to calm down or they are going to come popping out of me again. I take a deep breath, trying to relax.
“You won’t get them wrong,” Reed says reassuring me, while walking with me hand-in-hand toward the library.
I don’t have time to worry about what Zephyr might do because Russell immediately rises from his chair when he sees me. Before I can say a word, he lifts me off my feet, embracing me in a bear hug that forces the breath from my body; I feel oddly comforted by it, even as low growls come from both of the angels in the room.
“How did you get here so fast, Russell?” I ask him, hoping he will set me back on my feet before one of the angels decides he has hugged me long enough. Judging by their impatient breathing, it isn’t going to be long from now.
“I told Freddie I forgot somethin’ at our dorm, so he lent me his keys. I still had my clothes in his car, so I changed on the way,” Russell says grimly, indicating the jeans and t-shirt he is wearing instead of the toga I had left him in earlier. He sets me back on my feet, but holds my hand in his. “But, ya beat me here …” he trails off.
Feeling myself paling, I murmur, “Yeah, I beat you here.”
His eyes narrow as he says, “I saw the ones you were talkin’ ‘bout when I went inside to get Freddie’s keys—the Sebastians. I’m startin’ to be able to recognize y’all,” he says, turning to Reed. “Just look for the super attractive people in the room, who seem to have a glow about ‘em, and my skin’s crawlin’ instantly,” Russell says in a surly tone. “They were definitely lookin’ for somethin’. And they kept talkin’ to the walls. It was creepy,” Russell adds as a shiver escapes him.
Stealing a glance at Zephyr, I try to judge his reaction to what Russell is saying. What will Zephyr do if he realizes that Russell is figuring out what they are? Sitting back in his chair, Zephyr toys with the glass in his hand. His eyes aren’t on Russell, but instead, he is studying me.
I pull Russell over to the sofa. Sitting down in the middle of it, I make Russell sit next to me. “Did they realize that you were watching them?” I ask him pointedly.
“I don’t think so,” he says. Rising from the couch, I go to the bar in the corner. Pouring a glass of whatever the amber liquid is, I walk back, handing it to Russell. Taking it from me, he sips it as I sit down next to him again. Reed sits next to me on the opposite end of the couch. “Are ya one of them, Red?” Russell asks, indicating Zephyr, and then Reed with a movement of the glass in his hand. I sit silently for a second, trying to formulate a response to his question, since he always knows when I am lying. But he goes on before I can speak. “I’ve never noticed that glow in ya … before tonight … but it’s there, like yer bein’ lit from the inside. Yer skin, it shines a little, like theirs,” he says, indicating Zephyr and Reed again.
“It does?” I ask him faintly, looking down at my arm as if it is a stranger’s arm and not my own. My skin does have a shine, a dim illumination to it that I have never noticed before. I wonder if it is an aftereffect of my wings popping out of me. Looking again at Russell, he nods sadly at me. I frown in concentration, saying, “I don’t know what I can tell you, Russell, but maybe it will be all right to tell you this: I’m not one of them …” I say, watching Russell exhale in relief at my words. I almost make up my mind not to finish, but I owe him some kind of an explanation, so I continue, “And I’m not one of you either … I’m, well, I’m a little of both.”
He doesn’t speak; he just stares at me with a mixture of shock and pain on his face. He needs more of an explanation, so I rush on, “You know how I said that I didn’t really have parents? Well … my mother is dead. She died giving birth to me, but no one really knows who my father is. I don’t think there is any question anymore that he is very much like Reed,” I explain, praying that this will be the last time I am responsible for the pain in his eyes.
Why do I keep doing this to him? I keep hurting him, I think with remorse.
“How long have ya known this?” Russell asks me pointedly, his glare pinning me to my seat as he disengages his hand from mine.
“I figured it out right before you started dating Candace,” I whisper. “I’m sorry, but I couldn’t tell you. There are these rules, and—”
“What rules?” he asks disgustedly as his pain is rapidly turnin
g to anger.
I’m not doing this well! He doesn’t understand. I have to do something, but what? I think in desperation.
“I can’t tell you.” I say lamely, reaching for his hand that he had withdrawn from me, but he pulls his hand back from me, so I can’t take it in mine again.
“Ah … more secrets, of course, why am I surprised? They know, don’t they?” Russell asks rhetorically, looking at Reed and Zephyr. I nod lamely, which only seems to be making him angrier. “So yer sayin’ yer half human and half …” he trails off, waiting for me to fill in the blank. He looks at each of us in turn, and when we all remain mute to his question, he says, “Y’all are creepy. I gotta go.”
“Russell, don’t go …” I say as he gets up from the sofa.
“Why? Are ya gonna explain to me what’s goin’ on here?” he ask sarcastically. “‘Cuz I gotta tell ya, Red, I feel like y’all are playin’ a game with me, and I don’t know the name of the game, or how to play it.”
“Trust me, Russell, this isn’t a game,” I say adamantly.
“Then, tell me, Evie,” Russell grits out, while pulling his hand through his tawny hair.
“I can’t,” I say in frustration at his stubborn insistence at knowing what will seal his fate.
“Bye,” Russell says, walking toward the door of the library. I twist around on the sofa, driving my knees into the cushion.
“Russell, remember when we were on our way back from the formal, and I kept begging you to go back, so that we could help Reed fight Sebastian?” Russell pauses at my words. “Remember what you said to me? You told me to shut up, that you weren’t going to take me back there. You said the only way you could protect me was by not going back, and that you’d protect me, even if I didn’t like it. Well, the only way I can protect you is if I don’t tell you everything you want to know now, and I’ll keep my mouth shut, even if you don’t like it.”