With These Wings

by Wendy Knight

  But death didn’t come. There was the screaming of the Garce, which wasn’t unusual, they didn’t like to be drained of blood while still mostly alive. But then there was nothing, only the sound of heavy breathing — his, Enika’s, RayAnna, and Keven’s. When he heard Keven climb to his feet, Cole hesitantly raised his head. Through the dust and the dirt, he saw Keven brushing off his jeans, gun still in his hand.

  “Come on. Let’s get out of here,” Keven said, heading into the tunnel without looking back to see if they were following.

  RayAnna started to babble. “The Empyreans are here! They’re going to take me, Cole! You promised you wouldn’t let them take me!”

  Enika had somehow gotten down the tunnel ahead of them, but she paused, her face ashen, tears staining her cheeks through the grime. Her light brown curls were dark now because of the dirt. She was almost unrecognizable.

  Keven stopped too, half-shrouded in darkness. “The Empyreans aren’t here.”

  “Yes they are! I felt one fly by us, and now it’s dark, there will be hundreds. I felt it!”

  Sighing, Keven turned. Cole shook his head, tugging RayAnna forward. “It’s fine. Let’s just get away from the mouth of the tunnel. We’ll be fine. We’ve slept in some dangerous places, right?” He tried to give RayAnna an encouraging smile, but it was hard to find. Something was off. Keven wasn’t telling them something, and secrets could very well get them killed. He’d learned that in the last group they’d tried to survive with. “So… are you the only one living here in the tunnels?”

  Keven shook his head. “There’s about three-hundred of us.”

  For the first time since the attack, Enika spoke, her voice exhausted and dead. “Where is everyone else?”

  Again, Keven winced, running his hand over his face. “They don’t come into the tunnels after dark. They stay in the main chambers until the sun comes up.”

  RayAnna burrowed tighter against Cole’s side. “Why?” she whimpered. He kissed her temple.

  Keven’s eyes moved past them, into the darkness of the tunnel they’d come from. “Because of Nyx.”

  Cole felt the cold first, and spun, but he didn’t have time to pull his gun. The huge black and blue wings shimmered in the darkness, brushing against the ceiling of the tunnel. He scrambled backward, pulling RayAnna with him, pushing Keven and Enika blindly.

  “Knock it off, Cole!” Keven yelled.

  The Empyrean froze, just beyond their circle of light. Cole sucked in a breath as the beautiful, deadly creature in front of him moved closer, slowly, so agonizingly slow, but too fast all at once. He blinked and blinked again, his brain unable to make any sense of what he was seeing.

  “Phoenyx!” Enika screamed, racing forward. Cole’s hand shot out, catching her as she tried to sprint past. “Cole! It’s Phoenyx! She’s alive!”

  “That’s not Phoenyx!” he yelled, because his Phoenyx had been gorgeous, but not otherwordly gorgeous. And his Phoenyx hadn’t had wings or the beautiful tattoos covering the side of her face, around her eyes, up her arms and legs.

  But the pain in her eyes that once had been brown, and were now dark, dark blue, that he recognized.

  Phoenyx?

  “Are you insane?” Enika yelled. “Of course that’s Phoenyx!”

  She spoke for the first time, her eyes flitting from Enika to Cole, and then down to RayAnna. “He’s right.” Her voice was barely a whisper, but the sound was intoxicating, pulling him toward her, soothing the fear racing through his blood. “Phoenyx is dead.”

  He couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe. He was nearly overwhelmed with horror, and hope, and happiness all at once. The tunnel walls seemed to spin around them, faster and faster, until he couldn’t see anything but her, couldn’t feel anything but her.

  Phoenyx?

  “No you aren’t!” Enika bellowed. Phoenyx blinked at her, and some of the etherealness disappeared. That puzzled, half-annoyed look, that look Cole remembered. Clearly, she wasn’t used to people talking back to her. “I know who you are, Phoenyx. Even if you don’t! Those stupid aliens — they did something to your mind so you don’t remember, but I do!”

  Phoenyx smiled, devastatingly beautiful. “I remember, Enika. But part of me is dead. I can’t get it back. I’m only Nyx, now.”

  Enika shoved past Cole and flung herself into Phoenyx’s arms, sobbing. “I don’t care what stupid name you call yourself, you’re here. I have you back.”

  Phoenyx’s arms started to come up, the fists clenched at her side slowly relaxing.

  “Enika, get away from her! She’ll eat you alive!”

  Cole winced, pulled out of his coma-like state. “RayAnna—”

  Keven swore, and Enika whirled around, her hands on her hips. “You don’t know shi—”

  “It’s fine.” The coldness had come back into Phoenyx’s voice, her face had hardened, and her hands were fisted again at her sides. Any trace of the human girl Cole remembered was gone. “I have to go hunting.” She turned to go, melding with the darkness, only the silver veins on her wings visible in the darkness.

  Her wings. Phoenyx. Phoenyx is alive. Phoenyx has wings. Phoenyx is one of them.

  Phoenyx is alive.

  “No! Please, please, Phoenyx, please don’t go. She’s stupid. She doesn’t know what she’s talking about. She’s been driving me crazy for months!”

  RayAnna gasped and promptly burst into tears. Enika didn’t seem to care, as she raced after Phoenyx in the darkness.

  “Phoenyx is dead, Enika. You should remember that.”

  Cole ran after her, catching her arm as she started up the stairs. He could just see the glint of wings in the moonlight — Phoenyx was gone. Enika collapsed on the stairs, her head in her hands. “She’ll come back, right? Keven? She’ll come back?”

  Cole pulled her to her feet and held tight to her hand. His sister was stubborn. He wouldn’t put it past her to go after Phoenyx, despite the fact that she was exhausted and starved and couldn’t fly.

  Keven didn’t answer her question. He lit a lantern and raised it high so they could see where they were going. After several long, silent seconds, he glanced back.

  “She doesn’t like it when you call her Phoenyx.”

  CHAPTER THREE

  NYX PROTECTED OGDEN. OR WHAT WAS left of it. She kept the aliens out of Ogden, but rarely did she go beyond the city’s limits. One or two or even three Garces she could take, if she caught them by surprise. But more than that traveling in a pack would definitely be a problem, so she stayed close to home. Besides that, if she went too far from her city streets, she might run into hunting Pys. And those she could definitely not take on her own. If she kept the Garce away from Ogden, and the city appeared abandoned, the Pys had no reason to come there.

  However, she was too angry, too hurt to fly peacefully from the skies and smile at the moon and throw herself off cliffs. Killing something seemed like a really, really good idea. She flew north, first, as hard and as fast as she could, so that she could blame the mist in the air for the tears on her cheeks, and not the fact that the boy she’d been searching for — the one she thought would never give up on her — had looked at her like she was a monster.

  You are a monster.

  There was nothing to the north, so she flew south, swinging west so she didn’t have to fly over 25th Street. She kept seeing it, over and over in her mind, Enika running toward her, and Cole jerking her back. “That’s not Phoenyx!”

  There was nothing to kill to the south, either. She debated going further, but if she went too far and the compound was attacked before she could get back, she’d never be able to live with herself.

  She snorted. I can barely live with myself now.

  She finally gave up trying to out-fly the pain and instead landed on the old city jail. It was the tallest building in the area, so she could see for several miles in every direction. She sat on the edge of the roof, leaning against the steeple, swinging her legs and glaring at the moon while tears soaked
her cheeks and her stupid black dress. She heard him coming before he shoved open the window, and hope momentarily tried to strangle her, but it wasn’t Cole.

  “It’s pretty dumb to cry over him.” Keven climbed out of the window and sat next to her. She looked over at him, raising an eyebrow, but he kept his gaze on the mountains to the east.

  “We’re really high up. You could fall, you know,” she felt inclined to point out.

  He shrugged. “So could you.”

  Scowling, she fluttered her wings. “I have a backup plan.”

  Finally, he grinned. “So do I.”

  She rolled her eyes, flopping back against the steeple, her wings swaying idly. They were like hands — when she was nervous or unhappy or excited, she played with her hands a lot. Her wings were an extension of that. “You might not. What if I fall asleep and you fall off the roof?”

  “I’m not that stupid.”

  They sat in silence for several minutes. “Did they — did they leave?”

  “No. Are you kidding? It would take a force of nature to pull Enika away from you now.”

  “But not Cole.” The words hurt. It felt like acid curling through her arteries, slowly eating her alive from the inside out.

  “Nyx, can you imagine how he must have felt? He thought you were dead. No one escapes the Pys. You come out of nowhere before I even had a chance to warn them — and Nyx, he’s been protecting those girls for so long. Can you blame him if his first instinct was fear?”

  She scowled, crossing her arms over her chest. “I hate it when you’re so logical.”

  Keven chuckled, still staring at the mountains.

  “Did they get settled then? Down in the amphitheater with the other humans?”

  “They did, although don’t be surprised if Enika is waiting by your door when you go back.”

  If I go back.

  Enika didn’t understand. She didn’t realize that Nyx was part enemy now. She had alien DNA twisted around hers, making her as much them as she was her. Enika had been excited to see her, and in the excitement, hadn’t realized completely what Nyx was. And Nyx wasn’t sure she could survive it when Enika did.

  It took Nyx several minutes before she could ask her next question. “That girl…”

  “I don’t know who she is. Don’t you feel like an over-sized bird, sitting up here like this?”

  She momentarily considered pushing him off the roof. “No. Maybe a gargoyle though.”

  Keven shook his head. “Gargoyles are tough.”

  She momentarily reconsidered not pushing him off the roof. But she had to get information out of him first. “Were they… do you think they were together?”

  Keven sighed. “It would appear so, yes.”

  She hung her head. “It doesn’t matter, I guess. I’m a freak. He’s afraid of me. Kind of hard to have a terrifying girlfriend.”

  “Look. This isn’t my thing. Romance is gross. But I’ve known Cole a long time. When you were together, he was crazy about you. Like, obsessed with you. That’s not something a guy can just get over.”

  She smiled, because it amused her to gross him out, even as she fought tears because, evidently, it hadn’t been hard at all for Cole.

  Ouch.

  “I see Garce.” She burst into the air, relieved for the first time ever to see the nightmarish aliens loping across the abandoned freeway to the west. “See ya.”

  Keven disappeared inside without a word. He’d never really been one for goodbyes.

  Pumping her wings hard against the rising wind, she roared through the sky, already pulling the blood to her hands. She’d seen these fiery blood balls take out an entire house, and while the Pys shot inside to pull out all the women, the men had been left to die. The Pys were more powerful when they were together, so they were rarely alone.

  Except for her. The Nine had tried to get her to come with them, but no, she’d chosen to stay. She had chosen to stay here. To protect the compound. And to look for Cole.

  And Cole had given up on her.

  The blood balls exploded from her hand, lighting up the night like a shooting star. She’d never seen them so bright before, and as the first Garce saw it and attempted to run, she realized she’d never seen blood balls so fast before, either. The explosion, when it hit, was impressive. Blue streaks of flaming blood, the same color as her eyelids, flew through the sky, raining on the rest of the pack, igniting them in their tracks. Stunned, she pulled up short in the sky, her feet hanging in the air while she stared in confusion at the mess she’d made. Which, of course, was stupid, because the ones not on fire were still coming after her. And if they got past her, they’d go straight for the compound, the only place in Ogden that still carried the scent of humans.

  The claws hit her first. She tumbled out of the air and landed hard on her back, one wing bending painfully underneath her. She gasped for breath, certain she saw stars, struggling to make her sluggish mind work. She could feel blood pooling at the back of her head, but lying on the ground wasn’t going to keep her alive. She pushed herself to her feet, rolling out of the way just in time. Another claw swiped at her, melting with the shadows so she almost couldn’t tell where the alien was except for the gaping jaws and glimmering teeth. She pulled out another blood ball, but the Garce was too close and she couldn’t throw it. Instead, she shoved her whole arm into its mouth, felt its jaw clamp around her shoulder, felt the skin tearing and the muscle and the bone trying to snap, and then the blood ball exploded, blowing the Garce to pieces, tearing apart her hand, and setting her free. She stumbled back, leaped into the air, and struggled to gain her balance, but with her bent wing, she couldn’t stay up. She fell again, but landed on her feet, this time.

  She couldn’t fly. She swallowed the panic threatening to overwhelm her. She’d been able to fly for so long, she couldn’t remember how she’d survived without it.

  You ran.

  The voice was Cole’s. It was always Cole in her head, telling her how to survive. She couldn’t even count the number of conversations she’d had with him — all in her head. His voice caused a lot of pain, and later, she would be furious with herself for welcoming it, but right now, it got her moving. She whirled away and ran, tucking her wings in close, fighting the dizziness and the pain. She was leaving a blood trail, which would draw any Garce within a 50 mile radius.

  They were attracted to blood.

  She leaped off the road, running for the park. They followed, snapping at her heels, but she was faster than they were. She was also more exhausted. They would catch her soon if she didn’t come up with a brilliant plan.

  Her brilliant plan was jumping into a tree.

  Her good wing got her up high enough, her good arm held on tight, and she scrambled up the branches while her bad arm and bad wing screamed in protest. Apparently, they didn’t like to be used when damaged.

  The Garce leaped at the tree and snapped their heinous jaws and shrieked at her — although they sort of looked like the shadow of a giant dog, they didn’t make the same noise. They screamed and hissed. Thankfully, they couldn’t fly, but if her trail of blood attracted packs of Garce, the packs of Garce would attract the Pys. And she couldn’t fight those alone. The compound would be ravaged.

  “Step One,” she gasped. “Kill the Garce.” She raised her good hand, calling for the blood, but she was spent. It was regenerating; she could feel it swirling through her, making her hot, fighting her own flesh and blood to take over. That was adding to her exhaustion. “Thank goodness for this trusty tree,” she said enthusiastically, patting the trunk.

  It was possible she’d lost her mind.

  Step Two, she thought to herself, because talking aloud to no one made her seem insane. Clean up the blood.

  She felt like a timer. When her blood levels were restored, her entire body felt like she’d been dipped in the fires of hell and she was stronger. The blood running down her back and arm slowed, and then stopped. She didn’t hesitate. She called out the blood b
all, glaring down at the Garce, who shrieked and fell all over each other in an attempt to flee. “Sorry, puppies.”

  She threw it hard, using the anger like she had before. It hit one and blew up the other, which was convenient. She stayed in the tree, breathing hard, trying to use the leaves as a shield from her own fire — because while bullets, knives, bombs, whatever other random weapons humans used, did nothing against her, the fiery blood crap she threw did. It tore her all up and it took her days to recover.

  She’d learned that fast. And painfully.

  Gasping for air, she leaned her head against the trunk of the tree, closing her eyes and trying to tell herself that everything would be okay. But when she opened her eyes, the pain was still there, and she was still way up in a tree. “Step Two,” she groaned as she slid from her top branch to the one below it, the bark scratching her already torn up hand, “should have been: Get Out of Tree.”

  It took much longer than it should have. She could see the lightening sky in the east. She still had to clean up the blood, search for more Garce, and walk all the way back to the compound.

  Keven was going to kill her.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  “I’VE BEEN LOOKING EVERYWHERE FOR YOU.” Cole almost yelled when he finally found Keven making his way toward the main amphitheater of the tunnels. “You give us a cave, tell us to make ourselves at home, and then disappear. Like Phoenyx being… whatever it is she is now… isn’t a big deal at all. Like everything is just fine!”

  “It’s not a big deal,” Keven said without stopping. “She protects the compound. Think of her as our guardian angel.”

  Cole grabbed him by the shoulder, spinning him around. “She looks like an alien, Keven!”

  Keven shrugged. “Doesn’t act like one though.”

  Cole ran a hand through his hair, thinking absently that he needed a haircut. “What happened to her?”

  Keven picked up a water cooler, shook it, and hefted it up to his shoulder. “That’s something you’ll have to ask her.”