With These Wings

by Wendy Knight

  At the second the last rays gave up and sank below the horizon, she shot out of the dumpster and into the air. Her wings hurt and she was stiff and sticky with blood, and her wounds still complained when she tried to breathe, but she ignored it all, pushing herself faster and faster. More gunshots, which meant they were still fighting.

  Still alive.

  The wind tore at her eyes, at her skin, and the blood caking her arms and chest. She’d never flown so fast in her life, and she was terrified. But she was more terrified of what she would find if she didn’t fly faster.

  Faster, Nyx. Faster. Faster. Faster.

  The blood ball formed in her hand without even the conscious thought to summon it. When she caught sight of the first Garce, leaping at a drain pipe with its jaw wide and foaming, she let the ball go, holding on to the end of it, so it unraveled through the twilight like a sparking ball of yarn. It hit the Garce in the back of the head and she jerked, ripping the alien from the mouth of the drain pipe. Pumping her wings hard, she flew backward, dragging it away. She couldn’t leave it where she hit it, or she risked it exploding and taking Keven and Cole with it. But she could catch it like a fish and pull it far enough from the boys that they could escape.

  At least, that was the plan. Instead, the head popped off like a plastic doll, splattering Nyx with its blood. Her body, worn, battered, exhausted, grabbed eagerly at the blood, her alien half absorbing it before she could wipe it off. It healed her, until she felt euphoric. Powerful. She dropped the alien head in horror, disgusted and ashamed of herself.

  “You little pain in the ass! Where have you been?” Keven bellowed when she landed next to them, trying to get the blood off her dress.

  “I had a run in with some Pys. We need to get out of here. The other Garce will come for this one.” She nodded toward the water park below them, where the black blood of the Garce puddled at the bottom of the cracked pool.

  “What?” Keven snapped, but she was watching Cole. All the color had drained from his face and he leaned down to take her hand, lifting up her arms.

  And her bloodied, bandaged wrists.

  “Nyx, did you—are you—did you try to end your life? Because I’m here? I can leave. If it—”

  “What?” She jerked her arms away because his touch did crazy things to her blood pressure, making the flames run wild. “No, of course not. I was trying to kill one of my—one of my keep—keepers.”

  Color returned to his face, just a bit. “What’s a keeper?”

  “We can’t have this discussion now. We’ve got to get out of here. And what’s this place you’ve found?” She nodded behind them, into the blackness.

  “A tunnel we’ve got to block off. The Garce figured out how to get up here when it saw us come out.” Keven ran a hand over his face, wiping blood from a claw mark under his eye. “Now the rest will find this path too.”

  Because of the dead one below them. Stupid exploding Garce heads.

  “I can close your tunnel. But you have to not argue when I say I’m carrying you both home.”

  Keven opened his mouth to object, but she hit him with her most ferocious glare. Even their fearless leader knew when he’d lost the argument, and with a dejected sigh, he nodded in agreement.

  “Fine.”

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  NYX LEANED AGAINST HER BED, RUNNING her hand absently over Enika’s hair, her eyes closed and her wings still. Cole sat next to her, watching her because he couldn’t do anything else. RayAnna snored gently above them, barely murmuring hello when Cole had woken her to tell her they were back.

  Back. Not home. They didn’t have a home.

  Enika had thrown her arms around Nyx and sworn if she ever disappeared like that again, she would hunt her down herself. And Nyx had promised to never disappear again, and Enika had cried until she fell asleep again. His tough little sister was having some sort of a mental breakdown, and now she couldn’t stop crying, even in sleep. Which was why Nyx kept stroking her hair, even though she was so tired she couldn’t keep her eyes open.

  Keven’s lantern announced his presence long before the sound of his boots on the rock steps did. “I have lookouts stationed all over in the shops along 25th Street, Washington, and Wall Avenue. If you hear a gun, you’ve gotta get up there.”

  Nyx nodded without opening her eyes. Her face was still bruised, and her wrists were wrapped. She also had a chest wound, Cole knew, but she’d taken care of that one herself. “I’ll heal by nightfall,” she murmured, eyes still closed. “Cole, you should get some sleep.”

  “How did you know I was awake?”

  “I’ve always felt you. When you watched me.”

  Cole hadn’t even noticed Keven had left until the light faded above them. Nyx glowed, literally, in the dark, so there was no need for a lamp in this room. It meant that he could see her clearly, see the face he’d fallen in love with three years ago under the shimmering tattoos and pale mask. She was still the Phoenyx he remembered. “I still see you. Under there.”

  She raised a perfect eyebrow. “If this is one of your lame jokes to get me to say underwear, I’m going to hit you.”

  Cole snickered even as his heart raced. This was the first time they’d really talked since that day he’d found her in the abandoned house. “We can’t have that. You have super powers now. You might kill me.”

  She cracked open an eyelid. “I could. Good thing to keep in mind.” A smile barely played around the corners of her mouth, exhausted and teasing and familiar.

  “Can I ask you something?” He didn’t want to piss her off again. He didn’t want her to hate him. But there were a lot of things unsaid between them, and he needed to clear the air — so she could finally see him.

  And realize she still loved him as much as he still loved her.

  “My psychic abilities tell me you will ask whether I say no or not.” Her smile grew, just a bit.

  “Your psychic abilities would be right.” Here goes. He sucked in a breath, trying to still his shaking hands. The hands that wanted so badly to brush the hair from her neck and feel her pulse jump beneath his fingers. “Keven said you’d never not come back before we showed up. Now you’ve done it twice… Are you—are you trying to get away from us?”

  She sat up, slowly opening both eyes, to stare at him for several long seconds. “No.”

  “Oh. Okay.”

  She interrupted him. “The first time, I was angry and hurt and stupid. But it wasn’t just that — the Garce haven’t been in this area for months. Something is bringing them back, so there are more of them than I’m used to fighting. I’m assuming it’s because there are so few humans left, and our community is huge, maybe the largest left. I think we’re attracting them. And last night… last night I met the Pys. And I had to call the Garce myself to escape them…”

  He motioned woodenly at her bandaged wrists. “You—you did that?”

  She nodded, leaning back against the bed and closing her eyes. “The Garce are here because they can smell us, but they’re not smart enough to open doors or dig in holes. But the Pys… if they find us once, we’re all screwed. I couldn’t let them get away, but I couldn’t kill them myself. I’m stronger than they are, but not strong enough to kill them both.

  She had started to shake, and Cole, desperate to distract her, blurted out the first thing that came to his mind. “Remember the day we were supposed to go to Prom?”

  She peeked at him. “Random, but yes.”

  “I had the limo all rented, and the tux, and your mom decided last minute that we couldn’t go because Proms are immoral?”

  Nyx smirked. “Yes. I remember.”

  “So you snuck out the back door, but by the time we got to the school, it was over.”

  “And raining,” she murmured, nodding. “I was so sad. And you told me to get out of the car.”

  “The limo driver thought we were insane.” He watched as that beautiful smile shimmered across her face, and his entire body ached for her. Just o
ne touch. One touch, was it too much to ask?

  “You pulled me into that baseball field, and I was mad that my hair was wet and my dress was ruined, and then…” her voice softened as her eyes fluttered open. “And then you asked me to dance, and while I was in your arms, I realized I didn’t care about the dance or the dress or my hair. All that mattered was you. Always, you.”

  Cole swallowed, lost in her eyes, her voice. Slowly, he took her hand, his thumb tracing circles over her palm. “I never stopped thinking about you, Phoenyx. Not for a second. You need to know that.”

  She didn’t respond for the longest time, watching his thumb, the impossibly long lashes hiding her eyes from him so he couldn’t read her. Finally, she whispered, “Do you promise?”

  “Phoenyx, I don’t know what you want me to do. You know I love you! I’m not going to hurt you — but watching you date other guys because you’re afraid of what could possibly go wrong? That’s hurting me,” he yelled, and it was the first time he’d ever yelled at her, but his heart was one hit away from shattered.

  Her eyes, huge brown eyes, welled up with tears and she shook her head. “I didn’t mean to hurt you,” she whispered.

  He threw up his hands. “What did you think would happen when I see you going out with other guys?”

  She bit her lip, her chin quivering as she tried so hard not to cry. “I thought you wouldn’t care.”

  His eyebrows shot up and he could only blink stupidly. “You—you thought—you thought I wouldn’t care?”

  She nodded silently, fat tears sliding down her cheeks, and his heart broke. Grabbing her by the shoulders, he tipped her chin, bending down so he could see into her face. “Phoenyx, I will never hurt you. Ever.”

  She blinked, scrubbing her fists across her eyes before she looked up at him. “Do you promise?”

  “Yes, Nyx. I promise. I didn’t stop loving you. Ever. Not when I thought you were dead. Not when I thought you were a blood-thirsty alien.” He gave her a crooked grin, and through tears she smiled and shook her head, and his thumb brushed along her jaw bone as he raised her chin so she would meet his eyes. “Never, Nyx.”

  Above them, RayAnna giggled in her sleep, and the spell was broken. Nyx pulled her chin away, leaning again against the bed. “What about RayAnna, Cole?”

  He opened his mouth, but his torn heart had no answer.

  She pressed her lips together, the smile gone, and nodded. “You love her.” Her eyes met his, but only for an instant before her eyelashes swept down, hiding her eyes, hiding her soul.

  “Yes.”

  He could see the damage that one word did, even through the walls she put up. Her light, the one keeping the whole room lit, died a little, and her wings swept forward, protecting her. “Nyx, I don’t—I didn’t want to fall in love with her. I was still in love with you. I’m still in love with you—”

  In one graceful move, she was on her feet. “She’s better for you, Cole.” When he started to object, she held up her hand. “She’s human, and I’m not. She needs you—” she turned, her wings rising majestically behind her, “—and I don’t.”

  “So, what?” He, too, was on his feet, beating her to the steps, blocking her way. “You’re just going to pretend there’s nothing between us? You’re just going to ignore me until the world ends and we all die? I can’t do that, Nyx. I can’t live knowing you’re here and not having you in my life.”

  This time, when her eyes swept up to meet his, he could see the tears, and she nodded. “Me either.” A single tear escaped, and it shimmered, catching the dull light in the room so it looked like gold tracing its way down her cheek. “We can be friends. Dear friends, and one day, when the world hasn’t ended, we can tell our grandchildren stories and they will think it’s all terribly romantic. Because apparently, romance equals a broken heart.” She leaned forward, rising on her tip toes because he was on the first step, and kissed him on the cheek. And then, she was gone. Just like that, he’d gained her and lost her, all in one hour.

  IN A SICK AND twisted way, Nyx was grateful for the Garce attacks. It kept her busy, and when she wasn’t fighting, she was blowing holes in tunnels or blowing up rock to seal tunnels off. At night, she was constantly on patrol, flying far and wide and fast, wishing the wind would tug the pain right out of her heart and leave it behind.

  It didn’t though. And it doubled or tripled every time she saw him. He was always with RayAnna. Always. And even though she’d told him it had to be this way, a small, very stupid part of her screamed at him to fight. To fight for her. To want her, instead. But it was a small, very stupid part of her that he would never see.

  Enika, of course, worried that she was working herself to death — and it had nothing to do with being an alien. She’d said the same thing when they were sixteen and Nyx had gotten two part-time jobs. When Nyx stumbled in at dawn, barely able to keep her eyes open, Enika was there, always, frowning and shaking her head like a worried mother. “This isn’t good for you, alien girl.”

  Nyx tried not to scowl at her. Every time Enika called her that in public, the whole compound nearly revolted. And Enika seemed to get a lot of amusement out of it.

  “I’m fine, Enika. See? No blood this time.”

  Enika thunked on her bed and pulled off her boots, shoving her notebooks and pencils out of the way so she could flop onto her back. “Look, the way I see it is that your body basically has an autoimmune disease. Like lupus or rheumatoid arthritis.”

  Nyx struggled out of her mumu and threw it into the hamper, remembering to be grateful that she had a hamper, when so many in the compound did not. “I’m part alien, girl. Not sick.”

  “Just hear me out, punk.” Enika threw a colored pencil at her and Nyx dodged, giggling. “Your body, instead of fighting off illness, is fighting its alien… stuff. Blood. Bones… whatever.”

  “DNA.”

  “Right. So if you get too run down, your body’s immune system is gonna go into overdrive and kill you. I bet, if you were around anyone with a cold, it would be a death sentence.”

  Nyx crawled into her bed, trying to soothe her fiery pulse so she wouldn’t light up like a glowworm. “So… the only way to defeat the mighty half-blood alien is with the common cold?”

  “Mighty.” Enika snorted. “I’m telling you, chill out a little bit. Or you’re gonna crash hard.”

  “I can’t chill out, Enika.” Nyx yawned, feeling the flames dying as her light dimmed. She could turn it off when she was fighting by pulling it into her hand, so she could sneak through the skies. But when she was trying to sleep, it wasn’t so easy. “There’s only one of me and a whole lot of aliens trying to eat us for lunch.” Her eyes drifted closed — thankfully, she was so tired she wouldn’t have time to obsess over Cole before she fell asleep.

  “That’s a problem, isn’t it? We need more of you,” she heard Enika say.

  “Or maybe just an effective way to fight the bad guys,” Nyx mumbled.

  She heard Enika rustling around, throwing pillows and blankets in every direction. It had always been dangerous to sleep near her at slumber parties. She hasn’t changed much, Nyx thought with a smile. “That’s a problem. We need to figure out how to do that.”

  “I have an idea…” Nyx couldn’t quite make her mouth finish the sentence.

  “You keep saying that, and I have yet to hear this grand idea.”

  It was the last thing Nyx heard before she fell asleep.

  WHEN NYX FINALLY RAN out of things to fight or blow up or explore, she came up with a different plan to keep her mind busy and her battered heart distracted.

  “I have an idea.” She pushed open the door to Keven’s office, edging around the evil sun shining through the windows.

  Keven looked up from his maps and blueprints and whatever else he was always studying and raised an eyebrow. “I can’t wait.”

  She ignored him, pulling up a stool because sitting in chairs with backs was pretty much impossible with giant wings. “Only my bloo
d will kill the Garce.”

  He nodded slowly, eyes narrowing. “Something we already know, Nyx.”

  “Quiet. I’m not done.” She gnawed on her lip for a second, trying to figure out the best way to phrase things. Keven smirked, but waited. “What if we took my blood… and put it in guns?”

  Keven’s hands dropped to his desk and he shook his head. “You’ve lost your freaking mind. We’re not going to kill you just to see if we can kill the Garce on our own, Nyx. You’re a renewable resource when you’re alive. Dead? Not so much.”

  Now it was Nyx’s turn to raise an eyebrow. “I’m a renewable resource?”

  Keven waved his hand through the air. “You know what I meant.”

  “What’s going on?” Cole asked, coming in behind her. She hadn’t seen him except for a few brief seconds here and there, for almost two weeks. Just his voice nearly sent her to her knees, and she could feel the heat of him without even turning. But she ignored it. Shoved it way far down in her soul where it could send broken shards of her heart quietly shooting through her veins.

  “Nyx thinks we should kill her and make her into bullets.”

  She rolled her eyes. “That is not at all what I said.”

  “I fail to see how else we’re going to put your blood into guns, Nyx.”

  Behind her, Cole had gone very, very still.

  “With a syringe. Draw my blood. Put it in a vial. Make bullets that can hold it. Insert bullets into gun. Shoot Garce with bullets. Watch Garce die.”

  “We could never get enough bullets to do any real—”

  “Like you said, I’m a renewable resource. My blood regenerates or whatever the medical term is—”

  “Replacement,” Keven interrupted.

  “Whatever. It comes back much faster than your human blood.”