Through The Veil

by Christi Snow

  Marcus gingerly laid the stranger down on the table, before he examined the room critically. “Is it clean enough to do this here?”

  Malcolm nodded tersely, but then looked back down at Marcus’s grip on her. “Yes, but if you don’t let go of her, I won’t have anything to do because she’ll be dead. Marcus, we need room. Let us work.”

  Every fiber of his being screamed at him to not let her go, but he did and stepped back. It only got worse when Malcolm started cutting the shirt off her body. Marcus wanted to growl at him to keep his hands off her. Where the hell did this possessiveness come from? He needed to get control of himself.

  His gaze swung to her face as Malcolm started probing the wound, examining it. Her brows puckered into a frown so he stepped to her head and stroked that colorful hair to soothe her. Her frown smoothed out and he wondered at her prolonged unconsciousness. Hopefully, it would last a bit longer until Malcolm could remove the bullet from her gut.

  Malcolm had been only eleven years old when the Veil fell, and he truly wasn’t even a doctor, but he was the closest thing they had. He worked as their doctor and technology guy. Mother Earth had blessed him with an additional ability to heal and manipulate energy signatures with his mind. His gift wasn’t very powerful, but it did provide a boost to his doctoring skills, especially when he worked in the vicinity of one of the Earth’s natural ley lines.

  The surgery concluded in a relatively quick fashion. Marcus released a breath he didn’t realize he’d held as they closed the final suture. He continued stroking her hair as they worked, and somewhere along the way, he’d grabbed hold of her small hand.

  “It doesn’t look like the bullet did too much damage.” Malcolm glanced at their entwined hands with a raised eyebrow. “It amazingly missed all her vital organs, but she’s lost a lot of blood. If she doesn’t get an infection, she should recover. I have a powder she needs to drink every day which should help her pain and to stave off an infection.” He looked down at her. “Now, do you want to explain where she came from?”

  Marcus frowned in consternation. “I was patrolling the eastern shore along the gorge when I sensed something and looked across that rickety bridge. Suddenly, she appeared out of the mist.”

  “She just appeared?”

  “It seemed that way, but you know how the fog distorts things. Regardless, we need to check the Veil in that area. It may have developed a fissure.” He turned to Brooklyn. “Is Garrison back from patrol?”

  She nodded.

  “Okay, send Eric and Garrison to check it out.”

  “I’ll send them the message.” She worked to clean up the equipment while she communicated silently with the other two Warriors.

  In the meantime, he turned back toward Malcolm. “So, what do you think?”

  “It’s odd to see someone without wings after all this time. What if, in the ES, they weren’t affected by the Veil at all? We’ve always just assumed the same thing happened on both sides. If that’s not the case, then what does that mean, especially now that someone has managed to get across?”

  Marcus frowned in thought. “I don’t know, but until we know something for sure, let’s not panic. We’ll get some answers when she regains consciousness. Do you have any idea how long that will take?”

  “No. In fact, I have no idea why she’s still out. There’s no reason for it, but she’s not in a coma. I think she needs the deep sleep to heal.”

  Marcus nodded and went back to stroking her hair.

  “Okay, seriously, what’s up with you?” Malcolm asked. “I haven’t seen you react to a woman like this since…” Malcolm’s voice trailed off.

  Marcus tensed with a hefty mix of guilt and pain at the sudden thought of Audra. He still thought about her every day. But today, from the moment he’d found this girl at the bridge, the need to protect her consumed him. But it was more than just protection. He felt a connection to her somehow. Now, the knowledge of that fact hit him like a blow and he suddenly couldn’t breathe under the force of it.

  He looked at her and then his concerned brother. Malcolm had been there and knew how devastated he’d been and continued to be since Audra died. She died and something within him died with her…his hope. But something was different with the sudden appearance of this girl. Why?

  Maybe his brother could make sense of it, because he sure as hell couldn’t. All he knew was that the futility he’d felt for so long had lifted, at least a little bit. Was it the girl or the knowledge that maybe they were on the verge of something more? She made it through the Veil.

  “I don’t know what it is, but I need to protect her. I don’t understand why. I just feel it with everything I am. Her appearance here means something. I just don’t know exactly what that is yet.”

  They both looked up as Brooklyn strode back in. “The guys are on their way to check out the situation at the bridge. They’ll report in as soon as they know something.”

  Marcus nodded and refocused on the still-unconscious, mysterious stranger. Who was she? What did her arrival mean to them?

  Lori could hear the rumble of hushed voices. Her side screamed with pain, but it felt better than it had before. She hoped that meant the bullet had been removed. But did that mean she’d been caught?

  Panic and fear surged and she tried to grasp onto what the voices said. She had to get away.

  Move.

  Run.

  She couldn’t go back into a cage. But she was just so tired. Her exhaustion pulled her once again into the world of black.

  * * *

  The next time Lori awoke, someone tugged at her arm. She slowly opened her eyes to see a man taking her pulse. He was breathtaking with short blond hair and a sculpted bare chest which showed his amazing physique. He also had white wings with purple tips

  She was in Heaven.

  For a moment, she sighed in relief. At least her torture would be over, but No! She couldn’t abandon them. She had to get the Others out. As she tensed, pain flooded her side, flaring in waves across her torso and spreading down her legs.

  “Ow,” she moaned. “I always assumed being in heaven would take away the pain.” She gasped and her throat sounded scratchy, weak.

  The man looked up at her with surprise in his vibrant green eyes. “You’re awake.”

  “It seems like a logical assumption, but…” She eyed his wings and the huge sword strapped to his back between them. “I have my doubts. Are you an angel? Did I die?”

  A low feminine laugh surprised her and she turned to see a beautiful woman standing on the other side. Even while lying in a bed, Lori could tell the woman was tall. She had long dark hair and golden brown eyes filled with humor. She wore what looked like a sports bra and had the most amazing, gorgeous turquoise blue wings. This woman’s fitness definitely rivaled the white angel’s as her six-pack appeared just as defined as his.

  “Oh, girl, he’s definitely no angel. None of them are.” She smirked at the third angel who stood at Lori’s feet with a frown on his face. She remembered him from the bridge, the one with the purple wings.

  He looked more serious than the other two as he watched her with haunted, dark green eyes similar to the white winged man’s. He appeared dispirited with that tragic glimmer of grief showing in his gaze. Even through her pain, something about this brooding male pulled at her.

  But even with the aura of sadness surrounding him, he was gorgeous, too. He had sun-kissed blond hair that looked like it needed a trim by the way that the ends curled. Like the other two, he didn’t wear a shirt and his body emanated pure male perfection.

  She took another look at the three people surrounding her. She gasped as her brain connected. If this wasn’t a drug-induced hallucination, then something was definitely off here. “You all have wings.”

  And they all had really deadly-looking, huge swords in the middle of their backs. Oh God, what had she stumbled into? “How? I don’t understand.” She cringed at the panic rising in her voice. Hadn’t she learned not t
o show vulnerability? She tried to sit up and examine her surroundings, but pain and weakness overwhelmed her. “Where am I?”

  The man with the white wings said, “Relax. You’re safe here. Believe me, we’re just as confounded by the fact you don’t have them.”

  “Wait, are you telling me everyone here has wings?” At their slow nods, she whispered again, “Where am I?”

  The other two glanced at the sexy man standing at her feet. His serious expression turned into a scowl and she suddenly wondered if he planned to lie to her.

  “First, we need to know how you got here,” he demanded in a low voice. “Who shot you? Where did you come from? Why are you here?”

  Her stomach clenched with his aggressive line of questioning. She’d spent the last six years of her life imprisoned. No way would she let that happen again. She reached out with her mind. “Savannah, can you hear me?”

  The purple-winged man immediately raised his eyebrows. “Who’s Savannah?”

  Oh crap, how did he hear her? She immediately put up all the walls in her mind which just made his eyebrows rise higher as he crossed his arms across that amazing chest.

  “You’re telepathic,” she said.

  It wasn’t a question, but the purple winged man nodded. “We all are. Now, I need you to answer my questions.”

  The woman shot a censuring scowl toward the man. “Let’s slow things down a little bit. How about some introductions first? I’m Brooklyn. The stern-looking guy down there is Marcus.” Brooklyn waved her hand to the purple-winged guy before waving toward the other who she’d first thought was an angel. “And your doctor is Malcolm. He and Marcus are brothers.” Her voice lowered with kindness. “What’s your name?”

  She glanced around the three of them in panic. What did they plan to do with her? Had she left one prison just to enter another? They were all so muscular, even the girl. She wouldn’t stand much of a chance against any of them healthy and right now she felt too weak to put up much of a fight. For now, she needed to buy time so she could escape later.

  “Thank you for taking care of me. My name’s Lori.” She took a deep breath. “And I’m from the Eastern States.” Please let them be satisfied with that. There wasn’t anything else she would share with them. She couldn’t risk it, yet. Maybe she could put them off until she got strong enough to escape.

  Marcus wouldn’t be put off, though. “The ES? As far as we know, no one’s made it through the Veil in eighteen years. How did you manage it?”

  She could feel him probing her mind and she glared at him. “I appreciate your help.” She swung her legs off the side of the bed, ignoring the white-hot pain that shot through her side, and clutched the sheet to her chest. “But I don’t want to put you out any longer, so if you’ll just return my clothes, I’ll be on my way.”

  She lowered her feet to the floor and immediately swayed. Marcus rushed to her side and pulled her against him. Her body flushed and tingled at the impact of all that male hardness. She was suddenly very aware of her nakedness beneath the sheet she held.

  He gritted his teeth. It seemed he felt the electricity flowing between them, too, and wasn’t happy about it. “Someone shot you. I promise you, we’re not going to hurt you. You’re safe here, but you won’t be if you leave, especially since night is falling. There are creatures here that are extremely dangerous.” Still holding her to his chest, he turned to the other two. “In fact, we all need to head to the trees before it gets much later.” He turned to Malcolm. “Will she be okay to fly to the village?”

  Malcolm reached forward and took her pulse. “How’s your pain?”

  “It’s fine.” She gazed at Marcus in disbelief. “What do you mean by head to the trees?” she stuttered out. “Fly?” Even she could hear the fear in her voice. Show no weakness. She knew better.

  The smile he gave her appeared absolutely decadent. Even though it didn’t make it up to his sad eyes, it still made her stomach flutter. Why did he affect her this way? Was it just because it had been so long since she’d been around a man without threat of torture? What did that say about her?

  No weakness. This man represented danger. She had no idea what they planned for her. All she knew is that she couldn’t trust or be tempted by him. Hadn’t the last six years taught her anything?

  “The wings aren’t just for decoration,” he said.

  She glanced at his huge wings again and realized exactly what he meant. “Oh holy hell, you can fly?” She felt her eyes go wide in shock, but she couldn’t help it. These people flew?

  “We do and you’re going to fly with us.” He gently released her and turned to Brooklyn. “Help her get dressed and then we’ll go.”

  Both Malcolm and Marcus left the room and Lori leaned up against the side of the bed, which she now realized was just a modified table. As she surveyed the room, she became more confused. “What is this building? This doesn’t look like any kind of hospital I’ve ever seen before.”

  Brooklyn just laughed. “That’s because it’s a millhouse. This is where we generate our electricity.”

  “Um, okay?” she sounded hesitant. “Do you often use it as a hospital, too?”

  “No, we use it like that just for special circumstances…like strangers without wings who fall wounded at Marcus’s feet. He wasn’t sure if you were trustworthy enough to take to the village.” Brooklyn shook her head as Lori glanced mystified at the closed door. “He seems to have changed his mind about that now, though, hasn’t he?” she murmured thoughtfully.

  “I guess so.” Lori’s gaze lingered toward the door where he’d disappeared. She had so many other things to worry about right now, but she took a moment to wonder about him. Did he have a wife or girlfriend?

  Brooklyn interrupted her musings. “We need to get you dressed. We had to cut off your shirt, but we just sliced it up the center so I think we can make it work for now. It’s still damp from where I washed the blood out, but it will last until you get to the village.”

  It took some maneuvering, but the two of them finally got her dressed. Her side hurt, but she felt more like herself by simply being dressed. Her clothes gave her a layer of lightweight armor, even if it was simply a mental armor.

  As they walked out of the building, Marcus barely looked at her before he scooped her into his arms. She didn’t even have time to check out their surroundings. Her only impression was lush and green and foggy before Marcus spread his big beautiful purple wings and they took off into the sky. She couldn’t control the squeak she made. Holy shit! She knew they told her so, but this man actually flew. She clung to his neck as the treetops skimmed just below their dangling feet.

  He peered at her with the first touch of humor she’d seen from him twinkling in his eyes. “Lori, I promise to not drop you, but if you strangle me, then we’ll both die.”

  She loosened her panicked hold on him. “Sorry,” she whispered. The landscape whizzed by. “How long have you been doing this?”

  “About seventeen years now.”

  “Okay, that’s good. You’ve had lots of experience.”

  His lips twitched and he swooped back in among the trees again, which had her gasping. She tried not to grab him tighter. Suddenly, a golden glow of lights burst out of the gloom of the trees, but really high off the ground. Every once in a while, she caught a glimpse of other people flying through the air. It seemed everyone had different colored wings. Her mind boggled at such an amazing new world in front of her.

  It suddenly dawned on her what exactly she saw. She turned back to him. “Your village is literally in the trees?”

  “Yes.”

  “Treehouses…” she murmured to herself as she noticed the little wooden structures nestled among the branches. “They’re fantastic.” She craned her neck, trying to see inside some of the windows. There had to be twenty or thirty houses here, all at least fifty feet off the ground. She’d never seen trees so huge. It created a fairy-like village vista straight out of a children’s book. She looked
at the man with wings flying her in amongst the trees. Maybe she really had died; either that or she was unconscious and having some really bizarre dreams.

  A week ago she had been in a cage suffering through another round of endless torture. Now she flew through the air like a bird. How was this even possible? No matter her misgivings about the situation, she couldn’t ignore the burst of happiness that flowed through her. She turned to grin at him. “Tell me the truth. Am I dreaming?”

  He gave a low, rusty, chuckle which sent a tingle of awareness through her body.

  “No, this is definitely no dream,” he said as he swooped lower. He gave his wings a final flap before they glided gently down onto what looked like a large deck. The house behind the deck stood dark, unlike most the others in the village. She tried to peer into it through the gloom, but couldn’t tell much in the falling darkness of twilight. He held her still. “Hang on and I’ll turn on the lights so you can actually see.”

  He walked in through the doorway and she couldn’t help but watch his glorious ass cupped so nicely in his fitted jeans. All of it framed out by those gorgeous wings. Who knew that a guy with wings could be so incredibly sexy? Of course, the rock hard muscular body helped a bit, too.

  Suddenly warm light flowed out of the windows of his home and she gasped at the beauty of it. The house construction featured warm wood. While not large in expanse, the house went up at least three floors with winding staircases that circled around the tree trunk to each level.

  He walked out the door and asked, “Are you ready to lie down for a little bit? I know you have to be sore and exhausted.”

  She took stock of how she felt. “I’m actually pretty good. How is that? I just had surgery. Shouldn’t I feel weaker?”

  “No, actually…” He seemed about to say more but studied her for a moment. “We have so much we need to talk about. I have a feeling our two worlds are very different now. Since the Veil fell, we heal faster if the injury isn’t mortal.” A flash of pain crossed before he quickly masked it. “I’m guessing that isn’t the case in the ES?”