“Not to sound pushy,” I said, pulling the tie out of my hair and finger combing it quickly, “but I need meat after all of that.”
“Fine by me,” Jodi said, looking up and down the street at what was close.
“Sure, whatever, everything sounds good to me,” Steven agreed. “Nothing too pricey though, okay?”
“Of course not,” I said, nodding my head in one direction and leading us up the street. We reached the next corner and I stepped up to the front door of a bar and grill place and pulled the door open, holding it for Jodi before Steven took it from me and waited for me to go in ahead of him. It wasn’t cheap, but it wasn’t nearly as expensive as a lot of the other restaurants in downtown were and I knew this one had a steak and onion rings dish that made my mouth water just thinking about it.
The hostess led us into the crowded restaurant and we all piled into the booth she gestured to. There was a small live band set up on the other side of the dining room playing loudly enough to give the diners privacy to talk without having to whisper, which I liked. None of us took much time to order and before I knew it, my steak was steaming in front of me. We tucked into our food and let the upbeat music wash away our tension from the day. Even my residual anger was hardly a whisper at the edge of my thoughts; by the time we got home, I’d be totally calm.
By the end of our meal and casual conversation, even Steven looked like he was back to normal. We paid our bill, leaving a larger tip than would be expected of three teenagers, and decided to walk to the bookstore down the street. It was a little more laborious than it sounded with so many people to weave in and out of with the winter wind whipping down the street, but when we pushed through the doors and the scent of coffee and warmth hit us, we all visibly relaxed again.
“Coffee?” Steven asked. “My treat!”
“Mmmhmm,” Jodi said and headed over to the Starbucks counter without any more encouragement.
“Shay?”
“Yeah.” I said, “dark cherry mocha,” surprising him since I rarely ordered any of the overly sugary drinks, but after today, I figured I deserved one. “I’ll be upstairs.” I gestured to the mezzanine above us and Steven nodded, bending towards me to kiss my cheek before he followed Jodi.
I felt my lips curve into a smile before I made my way through people and stacks of books towards the escalators. He was still feeling guilty, but he was happy I hadn’t dwelt on the event over dinner. As the end of the school year approached, the thought of us being separated by college terrified me and I didn’t want to waste time with anger.
Steven wasn’t planning on going to college even though his grades were every bit as good as Jodi and mine were. He planned on going to community college to get his Associates Degree and then to cosmetology school. I know it sounds cliché for a gay man, but Steven wanted to work in the makeup department of the movie industry, which I thought was a pretty cool ambition. Competitive, but Steven could do wonders with hair and makeup already; I couldn’t imagine what he’d be able to do with serious training.
Jodi and I had applied to some of the local colleges, neither of our families ready for us to move away yet. Besides, since Steven would be staying in town too, there was no reason for us to leave. Jodi was planning on getting her degree in Business Administration or something. Me? I had no idea what I was going to do with my life. What curriculum appealed to an Earth Elemental guardian angel? Damned if I knew. I planned to get my General Ed classes out of the way while I figured it out, if I figured it out.
I made my way to the Sci-Fi/Fantasy section of the store. Usually I would head straight for the Occult section, but that was so much like study and work for me, and after the crapstorm I’d been through lately, I wanted a little fun. I scanned the shelves of the new releases and realized just how long it had been since I picked up a book for light reading when none of the titles jumped out at me. With a huff of impatience, I turned around and started scanning the books for familiar authors.
Steven and Jodi found me sitting on the floor in the middle of the aisle with a pile of books around me, thumbing through one on vampires and werewolves, trying not to crease the spine as I considered whether or not to buy it. I was so far behind on my reading that most of my favorite authors had new series out that were four or more books long.
“Having a hard time choosing?” Jodi asked as she crossed her ankles and fell to sit in front of me, picking up one of the books on the ground, reading the back.
“Yeah,” I said, smiling at Steven as I accepted the paper cup he extended to me. The smell of dark chocolate, coffee, and cherries wafted in, and I breathed in deep before taking a hesitant sip, happy to find it cool enough to drink.
“I’ve read this one,” Jodi said, holding the book up in front of me. “I didn’t dig it,” she said, tossing it on the floor to make me cringe. I showed books the reverence they deserved, but then if you saw Jodi’s room, you’d know she treated most inanimate objects much the same way as the book she just tossed.
“What about this one?” I asked, holding up the book I had been trying to scan when they came up.
“No idea, never heard of the author,” Jodi said as she reached for another book on witches and black magic. I considered the book I held and saw that a good seventeen more books in the series were on the shelf. That was promising.
“I’m gonna get it,” I said. I started gathering up the rejects and placing them back on the shelves where I had pulled them. Jodi kept the witch book, which I would probably be borrowing someday.
I led the way through the serpentine checkout line, Jodi right behind me with her choice. Despite the near forest fire, this was one of the most normal days we had shared all break. I browsed the display of bookmarks as I waited to be called to the register, picking one with a Maori proverb on it reading, “Turn your face to the sun, and the shadows fall behind you.” Yeah, that worked for me.
Chapter 3
The freeway was a parking lot. We sat in the same spot in the middle lane for at least twenty minutes. I gave up hope after ten minutes and put the car into park, shifting into a more comfortable position. All three of us made phone calls home warning our parents we were definitely going to blow our curfews if something didn’t change soon.
“Must be bad,” Jodi said quietly, staring out the windshield, trying to see past the sea of cars with little luck.
“Look, they’ve shut down northbound,” Steven said from the backseat, and we all turned to look out the driver’s side. The freeway was totally empty on the other side of the barrier.
“Oh no, that means the ambulances can’t get through on our side.” I felt a knot twist in the bottom of my stomach. We had seen car accidents before, hell we lived in southern California, statistics said there was a car accident every minute out here, but if they shut down the opposite side of the freeway, they were desperate. I could hear the distant wail of an ambulance, but it hadn’t grown any louder in the passing minutes. Unfortunately, we were at a spot on the freeway where the shoulder was practically nonexistent as the freeway curved along the line of the shoreline. Just a few hundred yards up and the freeway opened up to four lanes with wide shoulders on either side. Chance was a cruel bitch sometimes.
Two police cruisers and a fire truck raced past us on the other side of the freeway, heading south on the northbound side, and I whispered a little prayer for their success and safety. Even as the words slipped from me, that knot in my stomach twisted tighter against my spine, making me feel as if I hadn’t just had a large dinner.
“What’s wrong?” Steven asked, leaning forward between the seats to get a better look at my face.
“I don’t know.” I shook my head, watching the disappearing lights of the emergency vehicles as they rounded the mountain.
“Why do you feel sick?” Jodi asked, feeling what I was feeling.
“I guess I have a bad feeling,” I said, knowing I sounded vague.
“Like you want to go help?” Steven asked. He sounded like
he was relating something he was hearing through a hole in the wall.
“Kinda,” I said with a nod. “Not that we could get there, and what could I do that cops and EMTs can’t?”
“Oh, I’m sure you could do a lot,” Jodi said with a smirk.
“Besides, you could get there,” Steven said. “Maybe Jodi and I couldn’t, but you can.” I turned my head to look at him and he raised his eyebrows at me as if I wasn’t getting the obvious implication. “Your wings, Shay,” he finally said with a dramatic sigh and eye roll, making me blanch.
“I can’t control those yet!” I all but yelled when I realized what he was talking about. I had discovered over the summer that I had the ability to sprout enormous feathery wings out of my back, black and terrible like some avenging angel, that were strong enough to carry me and another grown person. When I had used them spontaneously to save Jodi and me from a group of homicidal water nymphs that looked more like a Disney nightmare version of the Little Mermaid, I found out I had them because I was supposedly an earthbound guardian angel. With enough concentration, I could call the wings to life, but they weren’t discreet by any means, so I hadn’t found much time to practice with them. Along with that, it hurt more than anything else I had experienced in my life when they sprang from my back. Needless to say, I was a little leery of them.
“Well, what a perfect time to try them out under fire,” Steven pressed with a daring smile. He reached forward and nudged my shoulder encouragingly. “It’s the middle of the night, there’s very little light, and someone’s in trouble.”
“You don’t know someone’s in trouble.”
“Dude, they shut down both sides of the freeway and so far only one fire truck has made it there.”
“Okay, fine,” I said, “but there are hundreds of people around!”
“But it’s dark; if you hug the cliff, no one will see you,” he said, nodding ahead of us where the southbound curved where the beach spilled out and rocks rose up to meet the barrier.
“Dude!” I said, turning wide-eyes to Jodi for some help, but she just looked back at me with a shrug. “Are you serious? You agree with him!”
“I don’t know, but I feel sick because you do, so I know something’s wrong, or at least not going right. If you can help, shouldn’t you?” Jodi put up a hand to stop me from reacting just yet. “I don’t think it’s the perfect time to road test them, but what if someone’s dying, Shay? If you’re really a guardian angel, you should help. You’d tell us to do it if we could.” And that was what stopped me from arguing. Jodi was right; if she were the angel, or Steven, I would be encouraging them to help where they could. What the hell had happened to my life?
“Fine,” I said, defeated. “I don’t know what the hell you two expect me to do, but fine!” I nearly yelled as I ripped my seatbelt off. “One of you’ll have to get in the driver’s seat in case they get traffic moving.”
“Dibs!” Steven yelled as I opened the door, and he was already jumping smoothly through the front seats and landing in the driver’s seat.
“Just pretend like you’re going over there to pee,” Jodi said, pointing over to the bushes on the right side of the freeway.
“Classy,” I muttered, slamming the door in Steven’s smiling face, and weaved my way past the stopped cars onto the hillside. I ducked my head and crouched in the bushes, wondering just how I was going to get to the accident. And more importantly, what I was going to do when I got there.
***
I gave up on keeping my head down as I made my way through the brush; it was dark enough that no one seemed to notice me anyway. Once the ground started to fall away towards the beach, I half climbed, half slid down the soft sand and loose rocks until I came to the uneven ground. The ocean was lapping just a few yards away and the beat of the soft waves pulsed through me at complete odds with the static up the rocks from the stopped traffic.
From my new vantage point, I could see where the break in the traffic was and the cluster of the accident thrown into stark relief from the swirling red lights of the cop cars. I couldn’t see how many people were running around from where I was, but I could see a few open doors on the cars at the head of the jam, Samaritans running to help the injured due to the lack of emergency personnel.
“Well,” I whispered to myself, blowing out a breath that did nothing to slow the hammering of my heart, “here goes nothing.” I flexed my fingers and rolled my head around my shoulders, trying to loosen up.
With one last glance around to make sure no one was looking, I reached up and pulled my sweatshirt off and over my head, bundling it up and setting it up on a high rock to keep it from the encroaching tide. I was probably going to rip through my shirt, but modesty kept me from stripping it off too; at least I could come back for my sweatshirt to cover up the tattered remains of my shirt.
I settled myself on my feet, digging my heels into the sand for balance, and closed my eyes to concentrate. I closed my mind off from any distractions, making the sounds of traffic fall away, and the latent emotions of worry and impatience slipped from me. All I was aware of now were the smell of salt in the air and the pulse of the ocean. I reached deep into myself and tapped into the swirling magic that filled me, waiting to be called on, waiting for moments like these.
Letting it rip through me, I felt every cell in my body for one heart stopping moment. Nerves on fire and a wind swirling around me that wouldn’t touch any other living being, the first tingling itches began between my shoulder blades. I fought the urge to shrug against it. The tingling grew into a slow burn as I tried to keep control of the change, hoping if I went slowly, it wouldn’t hurt as much, but so far, the pain was just as deep.
Beads of sweat broke out along my forehead and at the back of my neck. I twitched my nose, ignoring it, letting the heat in between my shoulder blades grow, spreading through my upper back. I had an image of a surgeon’s scalpel running up the skin in my back, muscles flaying open, the burn bursting white hot, pulling a strangled sound from my throat through clenched teeth.
A new weight hung from my back, the muscles reshaping to support the hinges of my wings, and my shoulders hunched forward before I held myself straight, able to blink through the pain as it receded. I could feel the warm trickle of blood slip down my back, the waistband of my jeans absorbing it even as the skin healed and molded in a new pattern. A shiver rocked through me, ruffling my feathers and making me laugh at the absurdity of the movement and sound.
But there I was, standing on a dark beach with giant, black feathered wings arching over my head, and the pain was fading quickly. I took a moment to savor that feeling, knowing it would hurt just as much to hide them away again. The sounds and emotions of the stopped traffic flooded my awareness again and I felt a rush of guilt for taking so much time to accomplish my transformation. I had to get moving to find whatever it was that was still making my stomach clench in worry.
“Now, let’s see if I can do this with some finesse this time,” I said to myself as the seldom used muscles in my back flexed, lifting my wings and spreading them wide. I had tried to practice a couple of times in the last few months, but the pain of bringing my wings into this plane was so discouraging, I hadn’t gotten the hang of it yet.
I pushed my wings down in one great flap, pulling my feet off of the ground instantly. I had found a straight take off was more effective than trying for a running start, which usually had me accidently catching an air current and blowing me backwards. I had promised myself once I felt confident enough, I would try for a running leap off a cliff like some movie heroine, but tonight was not that night.
I dipped my head forward to fly below the line of the cliff that the freeway curved around, keeping to the shadows of the rocks as I followed the shoreline. My foot caught on the rocks a couple of times, nearly making me tumble back to the beach, but I managed to pull myself straight with another powerful beat of my wings. Soon the rocks were a gray and black blur under me as I sped towards the accident
.
The pain of the injured hit me first, quickly followed by the panic of the searchers. It made me falter, as if tripping on a rug, and this time I fell, hitting the rocks and scraping my cheek and hands when I tried to catch myself. My wings curled around my body a moment too late to stop it, but they protected me and cushioned the rest of the fall. I caught myself on the rocks before I hit the water; here, where the freeway finally had a shoulder, the water rose up high on the rocks, leaving no sand to walk on. It was awkward gaining my feet again as I had to split my concentration between my balance and keeping my wings up and off of my back, out of the water.
“Oh my god, that man is dying.” I was panting through the pain in my chest and I knew the poor bastard in the upside down car above me was breathing through blood and a broken rib had punctured his lung. The EMTs were prying his door open with the Jaws of Life, but something in my soul told me he’d never see the ER. He wasn’t answering the wailing cries of his wife and I hoped his last words had been sweet ones.
Tears burned before they fell down my cheeks as I mourned the man I didn’t know, but he wasn’t the one knotting my stomach; whoever that was, wasn’t on the freeway anymore. I pushed myself up to stand, pin wheeling my arms to catch my balance. I swear the damn wings weighed as much as the rest of my body. I wiped my hand over my cheeks, the scrape burning against the salt of my tears and the grit on my hands. I didn’t have the luxury to sit and cry with the man who was dying above me. Somewhere here in the dark was someone else fighting away death on the edge of a blade. I let instinct lead me as I picked my way over the rocks. My foot slipped on a loose rock and I nearly fell into the water, my boot got wet, and the tip of my right wing trailed in the water.
Elemental Series Omnibus Edition Books 1-4 Page 84