Broken Wings

by Melanie Nilles

  "So, like, what is going on? Is he sick?"

  That was one way of putting it. Heart sick, maybe. Odd that Linds would even care. She was the one most uncomfortable around Elis.

  "No. I told him we needed more time apart."

  "Why?" Jess's eyes widened from Raea's other side. "You're not breaking up already, are you?"

  "No." Raea didn't want to think about it, much less talk about it. Like talking about her mother, talking about Elis brought back memories she didn't want to experience again until she was ready. It hurt too much. She wasn't ready. Honestly, her friends could be too nosy sometimes. "Can we talk about something else?"

  "Dark Angel?" Josh would say that. He passed a hand over his hair to brush back the dark brown mess that looked like he'd just jumped out of bed. Blue eyes sparkled with excitement at the prospects of his favorite subject. He'd been way too eager to share stories ever since the first angel sighting almost two years ago, and the obsession had grown worse with each report.

  Linds groaned. "Not that again."

  "What?"

  Dark Angel. Elis…

  Elis stood before her with black wings.

  Raea stared, hardly believing what her eyes told her. "You are the 'angel' everyone's talking about."

  "Yes."

  "You found the little girl in the cornfield and pulled that woman from her burning home and helped that kid who crashed his motorcycle on the gravel road."

  His smile in the moonlight shone with amusement. "You sound surprised."

  "I am. But after yesterday, I kind of expected it. But to see you like this. It's...What's the word..." The right word didn't exist, at least not in her shock-fuzzed brain. "I'm just...That was you."

  "I was out flying at night to avoid being seen clearly. I didn't plan to do anything." He paused and his voice dropped. "There are certain responsibilities Keepers bear. Our job is to help anyone in need."

  Her first flight six weeks ago.

  Stop it. Stop it. Stop it! She didn't want to remember any of it, but she never wanted to forget either.

  "I guess that leaves you out." Josh let out a heavy sigh and stirred the pile of macaroni and meat mush called hotdish on his tray.

  Raea blinked away the memories and focused on him. "Out of what?"

  "I was hoping we could all get together Tuesday at my place to hang out…maybe sit outside and watch for shooting stars."

  "Shooting stars?" Linds snorted. "As if! You just wanna watch for your precious angel."

  "So what?" Josh shrugged. "Okay, so forget the sky-watching. At least hang out and play games." His eyes met Raea's with a pleading look.

  She knew that look. He expected her to agree.

  Raea sighed away her objections. Oh, what the hell. Sure, she could go. She probably wouldn't be spending the evening with Elis, but if he was out flying, maybe that would satisfy Josh.

  How ironic. What would Josh do if he knew the truth?

  No. Nothing like waving a flag for the Shirukan to find her again. If people knew, they'd tell others and pretty soon her life would be a circus. Bad enough that reporter four weeks ago who had almost revealed the truth.

  Josh waited for an answer. Damn him! He wouldn't leave her alone, and she didn't have any excuse with Elis out of the picture.

  "Fine."

  "Jess?"

  She nearly choked on a mouthful of chocolate milk. "Sorry. Already have plans."

  Sorry? Right. Plans? Great. Now Raea was destined to be alone with Josh all night watching the sky for Elis, although no one knew the Dark Angel was him, besides her and Debbie and Evelyn. And Nare.

  Yes. Nare. That might work. "Mind if I ask Nare to come?"

  His eyes widened, the smile on his face mirroring them. Exactly what she hoped. "Elis's cousin? The woman who came to see you? Of course! Yeah. That'd be cool. Is she into angels?"

  Raea wiped her face with the napkin to hide the smirk. "It's a fair bet." Man, he'd go ballistic if he knew the truth, but she wasn't ready to reveal that.

  "Who's Nare?" Linds looked from Josh to her.

  "Elis's cousin showed up last night. She brought a message to me this morning."

  "Oh, man! Linds, you should see her. She's got, like, this white-blue hair and she's hot."

  "Blue hair? That's the chick everyone's talking about. Must be from the city."

  "Denver," Raea said. Elis had told her about his cousin a few weeks ago, when he mentioned the twenty-one other Keepers calling Earth home, or at least their temporary home, until the free cities of Inar'Ahben defeated the Shirat Empire. Although not believing in a God like her aunt, Raea prayed that the day came soon for that to happen.

  "Figures." Linds folded her arms and sat back. "What's so great about her?"

  "Didn't you hear me?"

  "Um…not interested? Hello? Now, give me a hot guy, and I might get excited."

  Josh retreated to his tray. Poor guy. Sometimes Linds could be a bit hard on him, not that Raea could blame her. He got on her nerves sometimes too. "Anyway, Raea. That'd be cool if you'd ask her."

  "Sure."

  The rest of the meal passed quickly, though not quickly enough for Raea. Her friends took the hint and, after just a couple questions to which she gave curt answers, they quit asking about Elis. But that didn't stop them from asking about Nare, especially Josh.

  Raea didn't know anything, though, except that Nare and Elis didn't really like each other. That much she had seen for herself last night, but Nare wasn't exactly complimentary of him. Raea felt sorry for Elis. What had he done to Nare?

  That was the question. Or did Nare just have a chip on her shoulder about men in general? From the attitude, Raea took that as the most likely issue.

  When the final bell rang, she hurried to leave the school. Josh followed her outside into a cooler than normal late April day tempered by the clouds. Raea shivered and pulled her dark blue jacket tight to keep out the wind. Winter refused to give up without a fight, even after all the snow had melted.

  They passed the buses chugging fumes in a line along the curb in front of the school and headed down the quiet street. An occupied car across the street caught her eyes. Two men sat in the front seat, one short and bald with a round face, the other tall and lean with neatly combed black hair. The lean man put his palm to the window, a black tattoo of a vaguely familir symbol exposed.

  The image blurred, the shouts and laughter of her schoolmates vanishing…

  Uniformed angels stood before panels with patterns of lights—keypads of some kind—and displays around the walls of the room, except for three sections displaying only stars.

  The view shifted and focused on a man in dark blue with a crimson sash around his waist standing at a display at the far end of the room. Next to him, a woman with golden brown wings entered data on the lit keypad before the display.

  ["General."] The voice originated from a face above the scene. The white of her hair over a gold-accented light pink body suit and leggings filled the opposite side of the view, which wrapped around her.

  The man turned and smiled. No ordinary smile. His dark brown eyes betrayed a deeper emotion. His brown wings lifted slightly. ["Keeper Salera. What brings you to Command?"]

  ["I've never been off world and wanted to see with my own eyes where I've brought us."] She paused and the view shifted to some of the crew in the room. The golden-winged woman at the panel nearby glanced up at her with a curious look in her amber eyes. ["I hope I'm not interfering."]

  ["No. Of course not. Your navigation skills are perfect, Keeper Salera."]

  Salera smiled, a faint color rising to her cheeks. The other woman rolled her eyes and moved off to another panel. ["I'd also like to discuss your purpose on this world, General Jakoru."]

  ["Didn't I say you can call me Vodin?"]

  Salera dropped her eyes for a second and looked up with a broader smile. ["Vodin. What have you heard about Earth?"]

  ["Primitive. Barbaric."]

  ["But the nativ
es look like us? That's why we came?"]

  His face lit up with a grin. ["Most of the crew on this ship are scientists. They are here to study the humans."]

  ["And I'm the navigator."]

  ["Unless you'd rather spend a few turns of Lis in this ship going back."]

  ["No thanks."]

  The general turned away and spoke to someone who wasn't there, but an oblong metal piece shone from his cheek, a tri-comm.

  Salera gazed out the front viewport, where the black of space gave way to the lighter hues of sunlit atmosphere. At a small bump, she caught her balance on the panel before her, her white wings open.

  Somewhere out of sight, Vodin spoke. ["Normal entry. Nothing to worry about."]

  Salera straightened as he pushed her wing to her back.

  ["It can be unnerving leaving a machine to do what we do best, but you adapt."] His smile radiated his amusement and something more.

  ["Easy for you to say. I'll feel better when we're settled."]

  He chuckled and turned to the woman standing at the console nearby, the woman with the amber eyes and dark expression. ["Commander. Hold at four kilometers."]

  ["Yes, sir."]

  A series of orders issued from the woman to a few individuals in the command center.

  The scene outside the nearest viewport lightened to blue hues over a world of green, brown, blue, and white.

  ["What is all that green?"]

  ["That green is a by-product of the chemicals in plants here to create oxygen."] He stood close to Salera, his eyes on the display where the commander stood.

  ["It's beautiful!"]

  His smile broadened. ["Yes, it is, but according to our data, there are wonders even more splendid."]

  ["I want to see them."]

  ["In time."] He stepped aside to the commander. ["What's the status of the human civilization?"]

  The woman stepped back to join another at the controls around a central three-dimensional projection of the planet. Red dots appeared in mostly coastal areas and some inland.

  ["Telemetry's receiving data from the probes."]

  The image grew with Salera's approach.

  Light from the hologram cast an eerie glow on the commander's sharp features. When she put a hand up to point at their location, her palm revealed a white patch, like a bandage. ["We're picking up no unnatural transmissions of any frequency. Nothing in the skies but organics and our probes. Looks like they haven't advanced much since we started monitoring this world."] For a second, the commander's eyes fixed on Salera—only a second—before the commander dropped them to the controls at a level below her waist.

  ["We'll save the assessment for another day, Talea. We don't go further until I know it's safe."]

  The scene shifted with Salera's movements, but after a brief flash on the general, she returned her attention to the hologram.

  The commander strode away without a word to Salera.

  "Are you all right?"

  What? Raea blinked away the vision. A Starfire vision. They had a nasty habit of interrupting her life at the most inconvenient times. It had started two months ago with scenes they had recorded of her mother's life when she bore the shard.

  Why now?

  Raea glanced back but the car was gone. Had she imagined it?

  Impossible. She swore she had seen the car and the men in it. Was there a connection between them and the Starfire, or had she imagined that too? They were gone now, whatever the case.

  She focused on Josh. "I'm fine."

  After they passed beyond the din of schoolmates eager to head home, he asked, "So can I ask what's really going on?"

  "No." What were they talking about? Oh, yeah—what was wrong with her and Elis. That's what Josh asked about.

  "O—kay. Then, like, is there something I can do at least?"

  He wasn't giving up. Couldn't he take a hint?

  Not until he got a satisfactory answer. But she couldn't tell him she was an alien. He'd probably laugh in her face.

  "Josh—"

  "Seriously. Let me help, Raea. Something…Anything. I don't like seeing you like this."

  Damn, he made it hard to refuse. "All right."

  "Anything. Name it."

  "Anything?" Anything...Even keeping a watch on Elis?

  "Anything. I mean it."

  "Well…" She jumped off the curb, over the water flowing into the corner gutter with a constant echoing splash. Someone watered their lawn up hill somewhere. "Would you mind keeping Elis company?"

  "What? Elis?" He hesitated before rushing back to her side.

  "Yeah. Nare brought a note and said he's not taking this break in our relationship so well. If you could keep him occupied, I'd appreciate it."

  Then she and Nare could go flying without her having to worry about him begging her to change her mind or doing something to hurt himself, if he'd do that. He didn't seem like the type, but she didn't think he'd be the type to lie or to cry like it was the end of the world either. It worried her and touched her. He was sensitive and protective and caring and…

  "Um…yeah. I suppose." He didn't sound committed.

  "Please, Josh. It would make me feel better."

  Josh jumped to the sidewalk next to her. Elis would have made it look easy with his long legs on that six-foot-one height, but Josh was short for a guy—her height. "What does he like to do? I mean, he like never mentioned anything, except reading, and those were some heavy hitting books he mentioned. Way over my head."

  With good reason. Elis grew up on a world far more advanced. Their high school education must have been like first grade stuff to him. It didn't help that he was around twenty-one Earth years, old enough to have graduated college. The only thing boring about high school for him, though, was math; too elementary for him. She agreed.

  She could have graduated when she was ten, but Debbie hadn't allowed it. In some ways Raea was glad her aunt had held her to a normal education and social life with her circle of friends. It was good to have them now, when she needed them most, to have experienced a "normal" life like her mother wanted for her, even if she wasn't really human.

  "He likes fiction too." Ooh! She had it. "And remember when you talked to him about Dark Angel?" Way back when she'd first started training with Elis. Man, had she had a good laugh then—Josh talking to Elis with the enthusiasm of a total fanatic and Elis grinning and biting his tongue. She might tell Josh someday.

  Bingo. Josh's expression lit up like a roman candle. "You're right. Do you think he'd want to sit out and watch?"

  Perfect. Except for one minor, or major, detail. She hoped to go out flying with Nare, who had white-blue wings to match her hair. Nothing like standing out against the dark night, but she had to get out and Nare had promised to train her.

  Elis would probably appreciate watching her. More than probably. And she liked him watching her. She preferred him touching her, even just holding hands.

  Don't go there. Not yet. She had to keep her distance. No touching unless she decided that she wanted the rest of her life with him. Why did this have to be so complicated?

  Josh strode quietly beside her.

  "I'm sure he wouldn't mind."

  "You're sure that's all right? I mean, I don't want to interfere…you know…with you two."

  As if. She recognized that glint of excitement in his eyes. He wanted to watch for the angel and would love to share that enthusiasm with someone, anyone. It didn't help that no one else wanted to hear it.

  "I asked you. Remember? Of course, it's all right. Just keep him busy while I hang out with Nare a while. After everything we've been through, I think this will help me sort things out." She hoped. Missing Elis every minute made it difficult.

  Josh gave her a small grin. He understood how much it meant to her, and that was a big reason he'd always been a good friend. If only she had fallen for him, things would be so much easier. But she hadn't and that wouldn't change.

  "Cool. It'll be nice to have someone who doesn'
t roll their eyes when I mention angels."

  Yeah. All right. She got the hint, though she couldn't have missed it if he ran over her with a combine.

  Raea nudged him in the shoulder and he chuckled. The next two blocks they talked about sending out graduation announcements and the last book Mrs. McRabb assigned for the lit part of English class.

  At the cement walk from the sidewalk to the yellow house, Raea hesitated. Her heart wanted to rush through that door into Elis's arms, but she held herself back. She had to know before she progressed with this bonding.

  "You okay?"

  She blinked and forced a smile to Josh. "Sure. C'mon." Her feet carried her to the door of the house, each step amping up her anxiety. Slow down, heart.

  At the door, she hesitated for a breath to calm her nerves.

  "You sure?"

  "Yeah." Liar. Josh saw right through her. Raea wasn't fooling anyone. She gripped the wrought iron rail on the side of the cement steps. "Go on."

  Josh opened the storm door and knocked on the main door. A second later, he opened it and stuck his head inside. "Hello? Mrs. Johnson?"

  "In here, dear." The cracked voice came from the sitting room through the doorway on their left.

  Raea took a deep breath and followed Josh into the house. Music drifted down from upstairs, muffled by a closed door. She recognized the song playing, not one she expected Evelyn to tolerate. This didn't bode well if the strict Catholic woman granted him that leniency.

  From the open door at the top of the stairs—the guest room that stayed empty most of the time—Nare stepped out. "Hey! Raea. Who's your friend?" She tromped down the steps.

  Raea glanced aside and did a double take. Josh stared at Nare, apparently unable to talk. That was a first—him not talking. "This is Josh. Josh, Nare."

  "Kaershon," she added and held out a gloved hand.

  Josh blinked and accepted the brief handshake. "Nice to meet you."

  "Likewise. So, you came to check up on him? Or—" Nare looked from her to Josh and back, a disapproving look on her face. "Is this a way of testing the waters?"