by C. C. Mahon
“Boss…since when do you have wings?”
Reflexively, I put my hand on my right shoulder. My fingers met feathers, under which I felt the hard presence of bone. I grabbed the whole of it and was surprised to feel the sensation in my hand but also in my wing. My. Wing.
I moved around my back muscles. A shadow fell over me. Turning my head, I discovered a pair of wings covered in shiny black feathers animated by blue, green, and golden reflections.
“Wow,” said Barbie. “Nice wings. Why’d you hide them from us?”
“Because…I didn’t have…I’ve never had…”
A thought scratched in the back of my mind. A memory that wanted to manifest itself. Before the explosion, just before…I had to reach Lizzie and Britannicus’ protection. I had pushed off with my legs, pulled with my arms, but I was moving forward so slowly. And then I had unfurled my wings and had flown away.
“It happened just before the explosion,” I said.
“How?”
“My sword…”
I looked around me, suddenly gripped by panic at the idea of not knowing where it was. A melodious vibration, just within the limits of audible, attracted my attention. The sword was there, within reach, partially buried under the debris. I pulled it out and noted with relief that it wasn’t hur…broken, that it wasn’t broken or dented.
“How are the others?” I finally asked.
Nate groaned and got up.
The pumas also confirmed their survival. I made out at least one broken paw, a shoulder that seemed dislocated to me, and several deep cuts. The metamorphs would heal. But the humans?
“Lola!” I yelled. “Where’s Lola?”
“Here,” mumbled the cop. “In one piece. I think. Ouch.”
I moved forward on four legs towards the source of the voice and discovered Lola. She was covered in gray dust, was holding a shoulder with a grimace, all while leaning against Matteo. The vampire was cradling Lola in his arms and seemed determined not to let her go. But he looked around in bewilderment.
“What happened? Where are we? Why…”
“We’re on the Strip,” I said. “In what’s left of Callum’s building. Magical explosion.”
“Why are we alive and… Good God, Erica, why do you have wings on your back?”
Lola turned towards Matteo as if he had lost his mind, then towards me, and her eyes widened. “Shit.”
I raised an index finger to ask them a moment of patience and continued my roll call.
“Brit?” I called out. “Lizzie?”
“Here!” answered the witch.
“Present and ready for duty,” added Britannicus. “Julie is all right too.”
“Patricia and Kitty?” I asked.
“Still unconscious,” said Lizzie in a worried tone. “But alive. Ah, I can’t see anything with all this magic! We’re going to need some time to evaluate where the ritual is at.”
“Time you don’t have,” said a masculine voice.
Dale appeared behind a wall panel that was miraculously still standing and gestured for us to listen. “You hear those sirens? Help is on the way.”
“Good,” said Lola.
Dale cocked his head from one side to the other, as if he was weighing the pros and cons. “You’d have to explain to them why the only survivors on the block were at the center of the explosion. How two wizards protected you, what you’re doing with a petting zoo, and why locking up a weak succubus in a hospital, surrounded by unconscious humans, is a very, very bad idea.”
“Can you stall them?” I asked.
“Two minutes max. Go that way.”
He pointed towards what had once been the back of the building, where a quiet alleyway separated it from the next building.
We got back on our feet, groaning. Brit and Lizzie freed Kitty and Patricia with infinite precautions and took them in their arms like sleeping children.
Two other bodies remained on the tile: Callum’s accomplices.
Britannicus caught my gaze. “Alive but unconscious,” he said. “The first responders will take care of them. It’s more help than they deserve.”
When we all managed to hobble down to the alley Dale had indicated, it was to discover that it had disappeared under the debris. That’s when I truly understood what Dale had said: the explosion had destroyed the entire block, and we were the only survivors. This realization knocked my legs out from under me.
“Boss,” asked Barbie, “are you okay?”
We were in the middle of a field of ruins, trying to go forth on uneven ground that was splitting open under our feet. A few dozen feet behind us, the first responders were arriving on the scene. We didn’t have time for soul searching. I began moving again.
“It’s fine,” I said. “But Nate’s truck is on the other side of the Strip, and I don’t know how…”
Lola let out an exclamation.
I rushed over to my friend. She was holding up Matteo, who suddenly seemed very weak.
“It’s because it’s daytime,” stammered the vampire. “I have trouble staying awake when the sun is out.”
“You were in perfect shape five minutes ago,” said Lola.
Matteo shrugged, and Britannicus answered for him.
“Strong magical energy was coursing through the building we were just in. When the building exploded, the magic was liberated. It’s like a magic geyser over there. I suspect that was what was keeping our friend awake and what allowed the metamorphs to conserve their animal form. The further away we get, the more Matteo will feel the fatigue weighing on him.”
“Get on,” grumbled Nate.
I turned towards the voice. Nate had regained his human form. In consequence, he was as naked as a mole rat. I looked away.
Nate hoisted Matteo onto his back and began moving again.
The pumas followed Nate’s example and regained their human forms, revealing to me a whole gallery of tattoos that I would have never guessed they had. They took over for Brit and Lizzie to carry Kitty and Patricia’s unconscious bodies. Our group began walking again. Julie was walking next to her sister, who she didn’t take her eyes off of. I approached Lizzie.
“What’s going to happen to them?” I whispered, pointing towards the two unconscious victims.
“Difficult to say. After the explosion, in the ruins, they absorbed a good dose of wild magic…”
“Wild?”
“Raw energy that hasn’t been shaped by any ritual or spell. I think that’s why they’re still alive.”
“And the ritual?”
“One might believe it blew up when the explosion dispersed the crystals…”
“But?”
She bit her lip. “Brit would tell you I’m hallucinating, but I feel it.”
“The ritual?”
She nodded. “It’s like hearing a familiar song, floating around you. Except it’s fractured, in small bits. But still recognizable.”
Silence fell over us again. A relative silence, accentuated by the rubble under our feet, the screeching sirens, and the shouting rescue workers that were starting to arrive.
“Thank you,” I said a few moments later.
“Hmm?”
“For…I don’t know everything you did, with Brit, but it saved us.”
“Oh, that. Yeah. Brit did most of it. I just gave him a hand. He’s really good at spells.”
37
FINALLY, THE FIELDS of rubble gave way to flat and cleared asphalt of an almost intact street. The force of the explosion had blown out all the windows, and the sidewalks were covered in small pieces of glass fallen from the paned windows and big shards of glass from the shop windows. Our small group stopped moving.
“Boss,” said Barbie. “Glamor.”
“Hmm?”
She gestured with her chin towards the curious people carefully poking their noses out of nearby buildings, then to her own wings that she had just hidden with a glamor.
Oh. My wings. I had wings…
I foc
used on my usual appearance and whispered the formula. Barbie gave me a thumbs up to confirm my success. The strangest aspect of our group was now the nudity of our eight bikers and our favorite teddy bear. Clearly, no one was paying attention.
Barbie looked at the streets devastated by the blast of the explosion. “Where do we go now?” she asked.
“My car is a little further,” said Lola. “In an underground parking lot. It should have survived the explosion. But we’ll never all fit in it.”
“Our bikes were parked behind the building,” said one of the pumas. “They must be under the rubble now.”
And we were going in the opposite direction from Nate’s truck…
But, by a small miracle, my cellphone had survived our adventures. I dialed the number Kurosh, my wonder-taxi, had given me.
“All our lines are currently busy,” a voice told me.
“Network busy?” asked Lola. “Don’t bother. It’s gonna be hours before you can get through.”
She looked over our group. With the pumas, we were fourteen. Most of us were able to walk.
“I’m going to go get my car,” decided Lola. “I’ll come back here to pick up Matteo, Patricia, and Kitty. I can bring them to my place, but I’m going to be called in to work, and I won’t be able to stay to look after them.”
“I’m going with my sister!” cried out Julie.
Lola pouted. “I should be able to fit one more person in my car, but I would have preferred Lizzie or Brit. Someone who could help them if they got worse.”
Julie pursed her lips, and I knew it was going to be hard to make her change her mind.
“Go on and get the car,” I said to Lola. “We’ll think about it in the meantime.”
One last time, Lola looked at Matteo dozing on Nate’s back, and she took off running.
Walter came forward. “Me and my guys can take care of ourselves from here. We healed at record speed.” He spread his arms to illustrate his point.
“You’re as naked as mole rats,” I said.
He shrugged. “I think that this morning, no one will pay much attention to us.”
“But…do you plan on getting far like that?”
“There’s a bike garage that way,” he pointed, “a few streets over. The mechanic’s a friend. He’ll help us out.”
“And Kitty? Are you bringing him with you?”
“I think that’s best.”
“In that case,” interjected Britannicus, “I would like to accompany you, in order to watch over the young man’s health.”
Walter looked over the wizard for a moment before nodding.
I watched them walk away with a tightness in my chest. After what we’d just lived through, I hated to see our group separate like this.
“Now,” said Julie suddenly, “there’s no more problem. They’ll be room for Lizzie and me in the car.”
I nodded distractedly.
Now that we all seemed out of danger, my mind tried to consider the situation from the global perspective.
“Lizzie,” I asked, “about the ley lines?”
“Hmm?” said Lizzie.
She seemed lost in thought.
“The ley lines,” I said. “They all converge under Vegas.”
“Mhmm.”
“How many are there?”
“Hmm? Three.”
“Okay. This raw magic you were talking about earlier, does it come from the ley lines?”
The question seemed to finally pull Lizzie from her daydreams.
“Yes,” she said, “exactly. Usually the magic seeps out, I guess you could say. It comes up in small amounts into the city. But now…it’s as if a pipeline burst open.” She mimed gushing with her hands.
“We have a raw magic geyser in the middle of the Strip?” I asked. “Isn’t that…dangerous? For the humans, I mean.”
“Good question. I have no idea. Normally, humans aren’t very sensitive to magic. Some can feel some of its effects—they think a place is haunted or that there are good or bad vibes, that sort of thing. The most sensitive, if they’re lucky, become witches or wizards.”
“Like you?”
“Mhmm. For most people, magic doesn’t exist any more than ultraviolet; if you can’t see it…”
“Even if you don’t see UV rays, you can still get cancer,” interjected Julie.
Lizzie nodded, looking somber. “As for the case in question, I have no idea what it can lead to. I don’t know if there’s any record of a similar situation. I need my books, and an Internet connection, and a lot of time to…”
Lola came back in her old car, and the conversation shifted. We placed a groggy Matteo in the front seat. Patricia sat in the back, flanked by Julie and Lizzie.
“How are you getting home?” Lola asked me.
Only Barbie and Nate were left with me.
“We’re going to walk around the neighborhood to get Nate’s truck,” I said, looking over at my companions.
“I’ll be by the club as soon as I can,” said Lola. “I don’t know when. The next few days are going to be busy at work.”
She left, and Nate scratched his throat.
“Erica,” he said uncomfortably. “Do you think you could do the whole illusion thing again?”
I turned my head to see if my wings were visible again.
“No,” said Nate. “For me. Clothes. Until we get to the truck and I’m able to get actual clothes on.”
I dressed him as a fancy lawyer again, because I still had the details in my head, and also because Nate was handsome in a tie.
We navigated the streets overflowing with distraught pedestrians and screeching emergency vehicles.
“Boss,” asked Barbie after a moment of silence, “do you think your sword did this to you?”
“The wings?”
“Yes, the wings.”
“I guess so,” I said. “What else would it be?”
“I don’t know. It’s still strange, this sword taking initiatives like this.”
“I wasn’t going fast enough,” I said. “Just before the explosion. I was running as fast as I could, but… We had to get to Lizzie and Brit,” I explained. “They could protect us. But they were too far, and I had just chased Callum all the way to the basement. I was exhausted. And then I flew, and I reached the circle just in time.”
“So you think the sword gave you wings to save you?” summarized Barbie. “Do you think it’s permanent?”
Good question.
“And Carver?” asked Nate. “You said you followed him to the basement of the building. Did you catch up to him?”
“Yes,” I said, “but he got away in the end.”
I had to describe to them the forest of giant crystals I had discovered in the building’s third basement and Callum’s escape.
“When I saw the crystals about to explode,” I said, “I chose to go back to warn you. But I didn’t need to. Brit and Lizzie were on top of it. I would have been better off following Callum…”
“You could have gotten crushed!” exclaimed Nate. “And nothing indicates that Carver survived.”
“If he’s dead,” I said, “he’ll be reborn from his ashes, since he stole Phoebe’s magic. I’ll never be rid of him.”
My throat tightened on those last words, and Nate caught my hand.
“If someone finds a newborn in the rubble,” said Barbie, “we’ll know who it is. We’ll keep an eye out. It’ll take him a few years before he’s able to hurt anyone.”
“It’ll give us time to look into it,” added Nate.
But of course, there was still the possibility that Callum had gotten out without a scratch and was already looking for me.
I hurried up. I was looking forward to getting back to the club, its walls, and its magical protections.
The alley in which we had left the truck was blocked by a fire truck, two ambulances, and three news crews. After having explained ourselves and weaseled our way through, we finally reached the old rusted truck. Nate grabbe
d a change of clothes and hid in the back of the alley to get dressed. I took that opportunity to drop the illusion of his suit. I went to get into the front of the truck and discovered what Henry had explained to me several days before: cars weren’t made to accommodate supernaturals that fall outside the norm.
I thought back with a twinge of sadness to poor Henry, whose body must have been crushed in the destruction of the building.
When I looked back up, Barbie was looking at me, laughing.
“Not practical, huh?” she said, pointing at the truck’s cabin. “You’ll have to get used to it.”
She hopped in the back of the truck, in the part of the bed that was open to the wind, and motioned for me to join her.
Nate didn’t say anything. He started the truck and began to negotiate his way between the ambulances and bystanders.
“How did you escape the explosion?” I asked Barbie. “I called for you, but…you weren’t in the loft anymore.”
“I had taken off after Enola. She was galloping at full speed, as if she wanted to get as far away as she could. I lost her a few streets away. I was coming back—on foot, because there were too many humans to fly—when I heard a loud noise. I had to wait for everything to settle before being able to approach. I found you in a sort of luminous bubble…”
“Do you think she survived?”
“Enola? I guess so, yes. But if I get my hands on her…”
“Forget about it,” I said. “I’d be surprised if we hear from her any time soon.”
38
ENOLA WAS WAITING for us in front of the club.
Nate and I had to hold back Barbie, who was determined to keep her word and “get her hands” on the traitor—and it took the two of us.
“He’s alive,” said Enola as way of greeting.
“Is that a threat?” asked Nate.
“No. A warning.”
“We should believe you because…?” I asked.
She didn’t lower her gaze. “It’s true,” she said, “I lied to you…”
“Ah!” exclaimed Barbie. “Ah, ah, ah! It’s a little late to apologize, traitor!”
“I never betrayed you, because I never was on your side.”