With These Wings

by Wendy Knight

  “It doesn’t matter.” He watched her carefully. The eyes scared him. Keven appeared in the doorway, but Cole shook his head quickly. Keven froze, one foot hovering above the first step. His eyes narrowed as he watched her.

  “Enika?” she whispered, her inhuman gaze moving to Enika’s usual seat. Her already pale face whitened even more. “Enika!” she cried, trying to climb out of bed. She only succeeded in collapsing to the floor, her wings fluttering uselessly. “Cole! Help me. We have to—I have to—”

  Keven jogged down the stairs to help Cole lift her back into bed. “Shh. Hey.” Cole grabbed her chin gently between his fingers, forcing her to meet his eyes. There, he saw it — trapped behind the metallic blue but still there — were her beautiful brown eyes. “We’ll get her back, okay? But you’ve gotta recover first.”

  “How long has it been?” Her eyes were full of raw, animal panic, and she shook beneath his hand. “How long ago did they take her?” she yelled, albeit somewhat ineffectively because her voice was still as weak as the rest of her.

  “Almost twenty-four hours. Now chill out.”

  Frantically, she nodded. “Okay. Okay, we still have time. We’ve gotta go—”

  “Nyx!” Keven snapped. Nyx blinked at him, not used to anyone yelling at her at all, especially when she’d just risen from her death bed. “We gotta do nothing until you’re strong enough to lead us. So stop fighting us and lay the hell back down!”

  Nyx glared. “The least we could do, if you’re banishing me to bed, is come up with a plan. I’m not leaving her there.”

  Cole brushed a curl from her cheek. “We would never ask you to.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  “WE CAN’T GET THEM BACK IF we don’t know where to find them. So where are they? Nyx, do you remember where they took you?” Keven, Cole, Blair, Justin, Mike, Trigger. It was all they had left of their small warrior group, and they were all gathered around Nyx’s bed like it was the round table.

  “Yes.” Nyx spoke quietly, and Cole jerked his head toward her, unsure whether that hiss was exhaustion or the Garce blood turning her into a Py. The weird blue of her eyes was massively disconcerting.

  But her face was pale, and she was tracing the stitching on her coverlet. Of course she remembered. And it would hurt her, that memory.

  “Antelope Island. Because—because the Garce don’t like water.”

  Cole nearly fell off his chair. “Their ship — where they’ve taken everyone — it’s at Antelope Island and you’ve never told us? It’s, like, an hour away from here!” Antelope Island was, or had been, a state park in the middle of the Great Salt Lake. It had had many uses throughout its long history, the most recent being a camping, picnicking, hiking and site-seeing destination. The mosquitoes were horrible, though, and drove many visitors away. Cole hoped they’d given the Pys a bite or ten thousand.

  “Given that knowledge, we could have found a safer hiding place. Maybe further north…” Blair said, shaking his head.

  Nyx looked at him, sadness shimmering behind those odd eyes. “No matter where you go, there is a Py colony nearby. You can’t escape them. The least I could do was keep the Garce away from the compound so the Pys wouldn’t follow them to you. But I failed.”

  “You didn’t fail. They’re assholes. Moving on.” Keven dismissed it with a wave of his hand, and Nyx smirked, but it was still tinged with despair. “How do we know they took our people to the one at Antelope, and not another colony nearby?”

  “Because the one on Antelope is their incubator. It’s where they house the women who hold their babies until they’re born, effectively killing the women. There are only a few of these in the world.”

  “How lucky that one is so close to us,” Blair muttered. Nyx nodded.

  Cole leaned forward, taking her hand, because it had started to shake. Keven pushed forward, which was either the worst thing for her, or the best. “How do we get in?”

  “There’s a door. Only the Pys can open it. They didn’t foresee anyone ever escaping after we were turned.” Nyx swallowed hard. “Inside, it’s a labyrinth of metal corridors. Only someone with wings can navigate it because there are no ladders or stairwells. The ship is shaped like a giant silo. The women who are in the turning process are held near the top. Those who have already been turned and are in incubation are near the bottom.”

  “We need a lot more than Nyx then. She can’t do this alone.” Cole traced the back of her hand with his thumb. He could feel the cold emanating from her veins, freezing his skin to hers. Her flames still had not returned.

  Keven sighed, dropping his chin to his chest. “Is there any way to contact The Nine?”

  It was a question they had all been waiting for. The Nine seemed to be their only chance at success, and they knew it. No matter how powerful their mighty Nyx was, she couldn’t take on a whole ship by herself.

  “I’ve tried.” Nyx nodded, biting her lip. “I haven’t heard back, but sometimes… the lines of communication are slow.” She tapped her head, as if that explained the whole bizarre sentence. Before anyone could question her, she sat forward, eyes sparkling. “But I have an idea. We don’t have to attack the ship alone. We just need to bring the Garce with us.”

  Cole choked. Blair’s eyes widened in alarm and Keven just gaped at her. “Say what?”

  “They’re too stupid to be afraid of the Pys, they’re attracted to the smell of blood, and the Pys can only kill a couple at a time. Not a whole herd. The Garce can kill the Pys faster than I can, and then the Garce die from their poisoned blood. It’s two birds with one stone!” Nyx sat back, looking immensely pleased with herself.

  “Umm. The Garce will kill us too, you giant bird.” Keven scowled at her.

  Nyx raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms over her chest, collapsing back into her pillows. Trying to look tough had failed miserably. “You won’t be there, oh great and fearless leader.” She bowed her head before him, and despite the fact that Keven looked ready to shove her off the bed, Cole was beyond relieved to see Nyx’s spunk returning.

  “Care to elaborate on this little plan?” Blair finally asked when Nyx said nothing.

  She grinned. “We’ll lead the Garce with lots of noise and lots of blood.”

  “That doesn’t sound terrifying at all,” Justin said, paling.

  Nyx ignored him. “I open the door, we let the Garce in, and in the chaos I’ll fly through and free Enika and the others.”

  “You’ll be killed, Nyx. Either by rabid Garce or pissed off Pys,” Keven growled.

  Nyx shrugged.

  Cole dropped his forehead to the edge of her bed, because that one careless gesture had just ripped his already broken heart into teeny tiny pieces. Her cold hand brushed his cheek, bringing his face up to meet her eyes. “Hey.”

  He glared.

  She smiled a small, small smile. “The Nine will come. I won’t have to do this alone.”

  “I have a better idea.” Keven spoke up, releasing Cole from the hold of her blue, blue eyes. “You can take the Garce in, blah blah. Whatever. But you take me in too.”

  It was Nyx’s turn to be knocked speechless, along with the rest of them. “You?” she finally sputtered.

  Keven nodded.

  “Why?” Her eyes were so wide, they looked ready to fall out of her head.

  “I’m going to blow up the ship.”

  Cole drew in a long breath. “Cue the stunned silence.”

  “It won’t kill them,” Justin pointed out. “We nuked their ship after the second wave. Didn’t do a dang thing.”

  Keven nodded. “That’s because we nuked them at night. We nuke them during the day, they’ll have to escape the burning ship. Into the sun.”

  Nyx squealed, the most human sound she’d made in quite some time. “That’s brilliant! Okay. Where can we get a ton of blood?”

  “IT SEEMS THAT A lot of our plan hinges on blood and The Nine, Nyx. Are you sure we can make this work?” Keven asked as they wound their w
ay cautiously through the fourth hospital that day. They’d also hit two blood banks and a red cross, and the morbid treasure was all stacked in the back of Keven’s 4-Runner. Cole had a Suburban ready too.

  In the distance, the Garce howled. Nyx never thought the sound would please her, but please her it did. “What a crazy life we lead,” she murmured.

  Keven raised an eyebrow.

  “We can’t hinge it on The Nine, Keven,” she said instead of repeating herself. “I don’t know if they even heard my call, let alone whether they can make it here in time. I can’t wait for them. Enika can’t wait for them.”

  “Maybe she’ll escape. You did.”

  Nyx nodded. “Yeah, and because of that, they probably won’t make stupid mistakes like they did before, assuming we were all so docile and willing.”

  “Good point.”

  “And yes. We can make this work. We have to make this work. Look—” she swung her arm toward the wide window, “—the Garce are already assembling. Everything is going according to plan.” She grinned at him.

  Keven rolled his eyes. “Assuming according to plan is that everyone in the compound is terrified and thinks you’ve lost your mind.”

  Nyx’s grin widened as she whacked him sideways with her wing. “You’re the one with a car full of massive explosives.”

  Keven smirked. “Four-Runner. Again, good point.”

  At the top of the highest hotel on 25th street, Justin and Trigger and a few other rag-tag musicians played anything and everything they knew — sometimes, not even music. Just noise, to bring in the Garce. Blair protected them with his arrows drenched with blood and his deadly accurate aim.

  The noise brought the Garce.

  But they couldn’t lead the Garce with noise right up to the ship because they were hoping for the element of surprise. Hence, the blood. The generators had long since quit — the blood wasn’t cooled and would never work for a transplant. But the bags kept it in a liquid state, which meant once they were split open, Keven and his team could splash it along behind his truck and lead the Garce right to the ship, while staying ahead of the lightning-quick Garce so they weren’t devoured themselves.

  That was the easy part.

  Nyx, meanwhile, had to find the door, get it open, and keep it open so the Garce could get in, without getting herself killed and keeping the Garce away from Enika… in whatever form she may be.

  Nyx prayed it was still human.

  “Easy-peasy.” She nodded confidently.

  Keven rolled his eyes, and then froze. “Incoming.” Silently, he raised his gun.

  Nyx beat him to it, throwing the blood ball. It shot end over end to hit the Garce slinking through the shadows. It squealed and gurgled. Nyx was just readying to pull more blood to throw when the thing gave up its fight and fell to its side.

  “That’s dang creepy, Nyx,” Keven muttered.

  Nyx grinned.

  They loaded up everything they could carry and ran it out to the Suburban. Cole was surrounded by three dead Garce, all with arrows protruding from their foreheads. He sat on the hood, bow in hand, watching silently across the parking lot.

  “How are we supposed to lead them to the Pys if you’re killing them all?” Keven asked, tossing the bags into the back. Cole shrugged and said nothing. Every hour that passed, he withdrew into himself more and more. His face paled and grew harder and his eyes lost more hope. He blamed himself, Nyx knew. For Enika, but more so for RayAnna.

  Especially when there had been whispers that she had gone willingly, despite her screams when she was taken.

  Nyx stopped in front of him. “Hey.”

  He glanced at her, but his gaze turned back to the darkness. Toward Antelope Island, in the distance, and the ship they now all knew was there. “Cole.”

  Finally, he dragged his eyes back to her and forced a brief smile. “Sorry.”

  “We’ll get them back. All of them.”

  He nodded, but that wasn’t good enough.

  “Cole.” She practically had to growl it this time to get his attention. Sighing in what was clearly annoyance, he looked at her again. “Do you believe in me?”

  He blinked. “What?”

  “Do you believe in me? Do you believe me when I say I’ll bring them back?” She found his gaze and held it.

  His hands tightened around hers. “Always,” he said quietly.

  “Good. Then get in that Suburban. It’s time to go.”

  “And stop killing our army,” Keven called as he stomped past into his own 4-Runner.

  Cole slid off the hood and landed on the asphalt, his boots crunching against the gravel. “Nyx,” he grabbed her hand as she started to slide into the air. “I—I feel like I’m choosing them over—over you. Because I’m sending you in to save them. You have to know—”

  She stopped, landed softly next to him, and cupped his cheek in her palm. “Cole, you aren’t sending me in. I’m going in whether you want me to or not because I know I can save them. I just appreciate that you aren’t trying to stand in my way.”

  His lips lifted into a barely-there, heartbroken smile. “I can’t lose you too. I can’t lose them. I don’t—I don’t know—”

  She lifted up on her toes and brushed her lips across his. “You aren’t going to lose any of us. I promise. Have I ever broken a promise to you before?”

  He shook his head, hands shaking where they rested on her hips. “No.”

  She nodded. But the Garce were coming and there was no more time for words. She pushed him into the Suburban and slammed the door behind him. Stretching her wings, she leaped into the sky, flying above him as they drove silently down the road toward 25th Street and the compound to grab the rest of their supplies.

  In the distance, darkness roiled toward them. Nyx squinted against the sun.

  It was Garce.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” NYX ASKED as she led the way down the corridors. “You’re supposed to be locked up tight in the jail.”

  Blair smirked. “I’ve managed to avoid that my whole life. You’re not gonna get me in there now.”

  Nicely played, Cole thought, watching silently. His heart beat was a constant reminder of passing seconds, precious time they were losing. Each beat was the tick of a clock.

  Tick, tick tick.

  “It’s not safe for you here. The Garce know their way in—”

  “They’re coming with us, despite my direct orders not to.” Keven glared at Blair, but only for one heartbeat. One second. Then he was swinging away, grabbing supplies, and Blair was helping him. Nyx watched helplessly.

  “But—but that’s not part of my plan!”

  “Maybe not part of yours. It’s part of ours.”

  Ours? Cole managed to see beyond the thundering of his heart to the tunnels beyond Blair.

  They were filled with people.

  “No.” Nyx stamped her foot. It would have been comical if the situation wasn’t so tense. Instead, it cracked the floor of the tunnel and made plaster rain down on their heads. Some people screamed.

  Yeah, they were going to do great in an alien fight.

  “Nyx, this is our world too. Those were our friends too. You’re our friend too. We’re not letting you go in this alone,” Justin said. He’d traded his guitar in for a gun.

  “Look,” Blair said, as if it were possible to reason with the angry Guardian in their midst. “Keven’s going in to blow the place up. You’re going in to find our girls. The rest of us—”

  “—Will be sitting bait for the Pys when they come swarming out of their stupid ship,” Nyx snapped. She never snapped, ever. It was a testament to how stressed she was. It wasn’t as easy-peasy as she kept saying.

  “Except we’re going during the day, super girl. The Pys can’t get us.”

  “And the Garce, hot shot? What about them?” Nyx asked through clenched teeth. Cole almost smiled.

  “Will be trying to kill your Pys once you open the door and let th
em in. Until then, we’ve got lots of arrows and a truckload of your blood we’ve been saving for just such an occasion.” Blair grinned triumphantly, but Nyx wasn’t done.

  “You don’t get it.” She raised her arm, pointing topside. “None of you get it. Have you looked out there? There are hundreds coming. Thousands, maybe. A massive flock or—or herd or—whatever they’re called. So many, I don’t think even with the help of The Nine I can fight them off. The only safe place for you is here, in the tunnels.”

  “Tell you what.” Blair rested his bow against the wall so he could cross his arms over his chest and look intimidating. “You go. We’ll give you an hour, and then we’ll follow. That should give you enough time to get in the ship and let the Garce in. We can clean up the stragglers and make it safe for you to come out. Then Keven can detonate the bomb as soon as you’re out and bah-by alien freaks.”

  Nyx sputtered. “But-but that’s not the plan!”

  “Nyx.” Cole stepped up next to her, entwining his fingers through hers. “You can’t save the world alone. And we can’t lose you. We’re here as a team and we do this as a team.” His voice lost all energy and he knew how desperate, how terrified he sounded when he said, “I can’t lose you, Nyx. Not again.”

  Her eyes filled with tears. “I feel so helpless.”

  A brief smile quirked the edges of his lips. “You are the least helpless person I’ve ever met. Always have been. With these wings, or without them.”

  She bit the inside of her cheek, blue-brown eyes sweeping the crowd, all of whom were armed with guns, bows, arrows, ammo. Cole was too aware of the fact that no one, though, had an ax.

  Enika had been taken without her ax. Now it sat dejectedly in Nyx’s room, in the shrine Nyx had created for her.

  She should be here. She should be marching into battle with us. Not being held in that horror chamber. Enika was tough, but she wasn’t Nyx. Nyx had always been the strong one, Enika was the devoted, fiercely loyal one. As if reading his mind, Nyx shook her head. “Enika was always the strong one, Cole. Always. When I saved her, I did it because the world needed her more than it needed me.”