by T Hearts
Satu stared her down with an inscrutable gaze. The same shade of red coloured her eyes as what coloured San and IO’s, the same heart shaped face and feathering across her cheeks, but unlike the two sisters she had markings on her wings of delicate pale yellow to burnished amber gold that shone like metal under the sun. They weren’t as patterned as the others were, but they were elegant and she was stunning.
She approached, gracefully with her wings held high off of the ground with a refined and graceful manner. For a moment Griffin thought that she was hallucinating again as her heart fluttered wildly watching her. Reaching her arms around her, careful to avoid the scars of her stolen wings, she hugged her so gently that tears stung Griffin’s eyes.
“Thank you for taking care of my sisters.” Said Satu softly, pulling back to brush Griffin’s hair from her face. “I’m so proud.”
“Proud? Why?”
“You could have walked away at any time or, but you didn’t. I’m glad you did your best to help them, and I hope that one day we’ll be able to do the same for you.”
No shoving the feelings into a box this time. Tears poured out in rivers over her burning cheeks, and she laughed between chest aching sobs. She wanted to explain herself, explain why she did it, about what it meant to her, but everything was a tangle of drug altered thoughts and feelings. All she knew was that she had made the right choice in declaring that she was going to protect them all.
IO squealed in delight and threw herself on top of Satu and Griffin with wings circling around them both, San and the others quickly joining her.
No one had ever been proud of her before. Right now, she just wanted to be held and comforted by these sisters and their extended family of rangers and bikers.
“Girls, gently with her!” Peyton called out from behind the wall of feathers. With mutters of reluctance and little laughs and jokes between each other, they all backed off and gave the Amethyst space. With a little pained groan, she rubbed at her eyes, feeling dizzy again.
“Are you okay Griffin?”
“I’ll be fine. I just need a rest is all.” She took a deep breath and smiled to the sisters. “Go have some fun.”
With a chirp and a chorus of laughs the girls took to the sky in a gale, their colours blurring and fragmenting before her eyes. Dizziness overcame her and she began to stagger where she stood. Turtle helped her to sit down upon the ground before her knees collapsed beneath her and quietly asked for Peyton to find her some water.
Nico was being oddly quiet and distant. Any other time, any other place he would have been at her side and babying her and nagging her about what she had done, but he was perched on a fence a few meters away with his wings drooped across the ground. He wasn’t even looking at her and wasn’t even buzzing her with his muser abilities. Unless it was maybe the lingering effects of the Hax which was making it hard to tell if he was musing or not.
The clip clop of hooves broke her out of her fumbled thoughts. She blinked and turned towards the sound. Another hallucination? It could have easily been her imagination playing with her but with the way he tipped the hat and his tail wagged, she knew it was real.
“Mykonos!” She laughed in delight as the huge sable-furred Canid brought the black appaloosa to a stop alongside her. “What’s with the pony?”
“He makes me feel tall.”
“You’re nearly seven foot. You don’t need to be any taller sir.”
With a fanged grin, he dismounted and shook off his fur, and gave a little nod of acknowledgement to Turtle and Peyton. It was good to see him in uniform and taking to the ranch lifestyle, and from the way he patted the stallion’s neck, she could tell that he was enjoying parading around like a cowboy.
With a slight flick of his ear, Mykonos briefly looked to the sky with a little huffing sigh.
“I’m glad you’re awake actually, these girls are a nightmare to manage, and their human compatriots are just as difficult.”
“I’m guessing Asher keeps fainting whenever he looks at you.”
“And the girls keep giggling whenever they see me.” The long whiskers twitched and shook his head as two of the girls flew in low and startled a group of Rubies who had been moving equipment around.
Out the corner of her eye, Griffin caught Nico watching them. He had pulled his wings back up to preen them but his dark eyes were fixed on them. It wasn’t like him to be brooding and quiet and she didn’t like it.
“You’ve done a respectable job Griffin.” Mykonos said, taking Pegasus’ reins and calming him as he began to stamp at the noise the girls wings made. “Taking a ranch, recovering not only an entire catalogue of critters but a lost project and a stray Preternatural.”
With a little yelp of remembrance Griffin leapt to her feet in a stumble.
“What happened to the Preter? Did-” She winced and staggered, quickly caught by Turtle and Mykonos before she fell over again.
“Griffin. Take it easy.” Mykonos ordered. “You can stand down. It’s been handled. The CETUS is in custody and awaiting execution, and the Major would like to reinstate you to Diamond effective immediately,” His ears twitched as he spoke, and out the corner of Griffin’s eye she saw Nico look away.
Her feathers prickled.
“Execution?” She hoped that she had heard it wrong. Another hallucination. It had to be. Beside her she felt Turtle bristle angrily and heard Peyton gasp with surprise. No, she had heard correctly and so did the two humans. The Canid gave a little nervous twitch of his ears, noting her bafflement, but stood stoically.
“Yes. Direct order of the Major after what was reported to her. They were going to wait for you to wake so that you’d be given the privilege of taking the first shot.”
The anger blazed up immediately.
There was no stopping herself. All emotions were unboxed, and there was no way she could compose herself enough to shove them back in, and with the mixture of morphine and Hax, she just didn’t care because what mattered was that what they were doing– what they were going to do– was wrong.
“No.”
“No?”
“No, he needs to be trialled first. That’s how it’s always worked with arrests.” She scowled, the feathers along her back and shoulders bristling up in a wave. “Statement. Evidence. Trial. Conviction. What? Does the Major think that the law is just there for show or something?”
Mykonos gave a tiny and uncomfortable whine. He was unhappy with it too, but he’d been given his orders and he was going to follow them. Typical. She loved Mykonos’ leadership but sometimes he was far more focused on being a good dog to the higherups.
“Griffin, he’s far too dangerous to be questioned. You know first-hand what he is like. The report was put in, and the evidence from that suggests he needs to be executed right away.”
“No one is too dangerous to be put on trial.” Turtle scoffed. Griffin nodded in agreement.
“Oh Griff.” Nico laughed, ignoring Turtle and striding over nonchalantly. “You still think like an Amethyst. You’re drugged, stabbed, and nearly murdered and you still want a fair trial for a psychopathic feral?”
Griffin scowled in confusion, taking a step back so that she was closer to Turtle and Peyton.
Report? Drugged? She’d never given any statement and had been unconscious for what must have been a few days; she had never written any report herself.
What was he talking about?
“He’s not a feral.” She said slowly, trying hard to work her brain into comprehending what she had just heard. “He deserves fair treatment as much as I did.”
Nico rolled his eyes and gave his wings a little shake.
“Just smile for the Major and accept your reward, you’ve done enough.”
The pieces clicked into place.
The anger turned savage. The ghosts of her wings flared and beat painfully with her tailfeathers, and her short talons dug into her palm as she stared the Frigatebird down with an icy glare.
“Nico. Tell me. Did
…you write the report?”
“I always write your reports for your missions. You should know this by now.”
“But you weren’t even there!”
“I was there the entire time Griff.” He laughed, “Ah, you must have hit your head pretty badly then if you can’t even remember that.”
“You lying meddling bastard! Mykonos!” She span on her heels to face the Canid in horror. “Mykonos! I was filming the entire thing. Tell me you watched what happened and didn’t file Nico’s report when he wasn’t even there.”
“I…disconnected the stream after we arrived. I wasn’t even aware you were filming what occurred up there.” His ears flicked back and whiskers tremored. A growl broke out of his throat and he turned upon Nico who was shocked that his lieutenant was even questioning him. “You told me you were there! Where the hell did you fly off to if it wasn’t to go assist Griffin?”
Nico rolled his shoulders, the long wings tensely held stiff whilst his tail feathers wagged and twitched nervously.
“I was, she likely can’t remember the events correctly.”
“He’s lying.” Griffin snarled. “Please believe me! Nico wasn’t there and I can prove it.”
“Don’t listen to her, she’s on Hax. It makes her unstable.”
Griffin gawped at him. Why was he lying? He knew as well as she did that Hax was a muscle relaxant, a recreational drug – that she already theorised that he had given her – so why was he trying to lie.
Even the two humans could see straight through his falseness.
“What kind of jackass are you.” Peyton yelled for her, storming straight up to the Frigate bird and giving him a shove backwards. “Who the hell do you think you are? ”
Turtle scoffed sardonically, dumbfounded by the situation, much to Mykonos’ disapproval.
“What a shitshow.” He shook his head at Mykonos. “You’re meant to be top guns and you’re all going off the word of one man as to what happened rather than actual evidence? Fuck. That’s how innocent people get killed!”
“Who are you to-”
“I’m a damnside more qualified than you, that’s for certain Pup.” Turtle stood tall. He was nowhere near as muscular or strong as the Canid was but the lieutenant was wise enough to back down.
The commotion had drawn down a few of the sisters who were either hovering or had lightly perched upon the top of the bunkhouse behind them. Without even looking up behind them, Griffin could tell that San was tensed and ready to take Nico down from the raptorial hiss and the rattling of her feathers. Good. She hoped that she would be brutal with the Frigatebird.
“Where’s your phone Miss Griffin?” Turtle growled, not taking his eyes away from Mykonos.
“I don’t know.”
“You go tell your major what happened. Me and the puppy will find the evidence to get that kid a trial. I’ll take the damn statements myself if I have to, and call the girls down so they can provide one each too.”
With a nod, Griffin turned to run. Nico caught her by the arm.
“Griff. Babe. Come on, you’re being an idiot, he’s not worth the time.” He laughed. Griffin snarled at him, fangs bared and tailfeathers flared.
“Let me go.” She ordered. “I am not your babe.”
Taken aback, Nico released her and with a stumble, she set off sprinting.
Chapter 27
Ignoring the pain as best she could, Griffin sprinted with all her might barefoot across the rocky yard. The Sirocco sisters lead her across the ranch, swooping and darting quick as swifts between the buildings. Nico was shouting from behind her, running to catch up but was slowed by the girls harassing him.
A small crowd of Rubies were gathered about the maintenance shed, close to the entrance Griffin had used to get into the barn. All of them were armed and in the process of being briefed by their handlers.
“Where’s the Preter!” She yelled, skidding breathlessly to a stop, careering through the crowd. A few of the Elites took a step back to allow her through, and one of the handlers looked delighted to see her.
“Ah! Miss Griffin, we were-”
“Where is he?”
The handler looked confused and gestured to the barn that had been housing all of the large carnivorous critters.
“He’s locked up in here. A proper jail hasn’t been installed yet on the premises. We’re glad you’re finally here now, we’ve been waiting to-”
Griffin cut across him with a savage hiss.
“Stand down! All of you!” She yelled, slapping the gun barrels down. Her invisible wings were flourishing out behind her, trying to beat down the Rubies all around. “If I see even one of you with your finger on the trigger you will lose your hand!”
Another handler grabbed Griffin by the arm and began to howl an enraged order at her, only to be swiftly and immediately struck to the ground with a vicious kick from San. Hissing she ignored the crunch of bone she had caused and curled a wing between Griffin and the Rubies. The rest of her sisters alighting on the surrounding rooftops of the trucks and barns in a united and winged force. They were an intimidating force. Outnumbered by the Rubies but with the edge that the Elites had no idea what these girls were capable of.
“Griffin!” Nico skidded to a stop, wings flared. He took one look at the Sirocco sisters surrounding Griffin and snapped his tailfeathers shut. Even a Diamond like Nico wasn’t going to risk challenging ten unknown girls.
Griffin held her glare. “Guns down now. Put them on the floor.”
Without a word, every Elite dropped their weapon to the ground, some more carefully than others but all with a shared look of confusion. Even the handlers looked confused as they lay their own weapons down.
Much to Griffins surprise, the Major marched her way across the yard from the larger main office. The anger upon seeing her was immediate and set her teeth on edge and every feather bristling. Of course she would be here in person. She wanted to look good to the commander, and put on a show.
But she wasn’t in a briefing room now. This was out in the field on Griffin’s assignment and she had no patience for being placid or accommodating to the Major.
“What is the meaning of this?” The major demanded. As the crowd of Elites parted and the Major spied Griffin awake and in the centre of it all, her eyes widened in anger. Maybe she hadn’t expected her to have been awake so quickly, but she was not happy to see Griffin.
“This is no time for your grandstanding and theatrics. You are preventing the procedures for an execution of a dangerous and feral Preternatural.”
“And you’re breaking the law. Again.”
“Excuse me?”
Nico darted forward and grabbed Griffin by the arms and pulled her back. San and IO snarled and glowered at him, wings arched and tensed ready to pounce but wary of the Rubies that surrounded them and who were slowly reaching for their weapons.
“I’m sorry major! She’s still recovering from being shot by-”
“I was never shot! I was stabbed by the Quetzal!”
“Griffin you need to stop.” He dug his short talons into her arm as she struggled against him. “You’re confused. You’ve been shot and traumatised, and he messed with your mind to make you believe-”
“Shut up Nico!” She roared and with a twist, she broke free of his grip, threw him over her shoulder onto the ground and then kicked Nico hard in the groin for good measure. Before he could react, IO pulled Griffin back and shielded her with one wing, San mirroring IO with the other and the eldest, Satu, leaping down in front of them. A triangle of safety around her.
“Griffin-” Nico wheezed.
“You heard her. Stop. Talking.” IO snapped, holding Griffin close.
No one knew what to do. The handlers were looking to the Major for orders to give their teams of Elites, but the Major was busy. There was a gentle tingle upon Griffin’s skin, a sensation she knew as Nico’s musing. From the tense posture of the Major and the way her eyes were flicking about, it was plain to see
that they were discussing it with one another. It had probably been planed from the very beginning by Nico, or at least from the moment that Nico heard that she could have been in any form of danger.
‘Nico you backstabbing, manipulative, possessive jackass!’ Griffin called out loudly, knowing that he would be able to hear her. ‘When this is over, I never want you to come within a wingspan of me ever again.’
The Frigatebird blinked and shuddered suddenly, concentration broken and looking at Griffin with a heartbroken gasp. He heard her. Good.
Reassuring the girls to let her go, Griffin took a trembling step forward. She was going to stall as best she could until Mykonos arrived with her evidence. There was an audience here of elites who would talk and she was going to use it however she could to protect the girls, the preternatural, and the laws of ARCDA.
“Major, everyone, listen to me!” Griffin yelled out to the crowd, trying to channel the poetic and talkative spirit of Haulier to aid her filibustering. “Whatever report Nico sent you is wrong and you’re making a mistake. I was never shot, never harmed by this Preternatural. I don’t care what he is. CETUS, RIGEL, GEMINI, whatever. You cannot execute this man without a proper trial.”
The Major laughed condescendingly. “There is no mistake. The prisoner is a CETUS, is he not? And so he needs to be executed. They’re too dangerous to exist.”
“With all due respect Major, shut the fuck up.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“Shut. The fuck. Up.”
The surrounding Elites gasped and recoiled with shock and terror, whilst the Sirocco sisters laughed and jeered down at them. The Major’s face turned beet red in rage, but she said nothing.
“He has done many things, impressive things such as stealing an entire Quetzal which I doubt anyone else could do, but he does not deserve to be shot for being a CETUS. He has the right to a fair trial as much as any of you do, for what he has done not for what he is.”
A few of the Preternaturals looked at one another. They were the most uncomfortable with the situation, with some of them being made to replace what ARCDA had declared a failure of a preternatural origin.