Furnished in leather and fine wood furniture, the apartment exuded a stylish, masculine touch. An ocean collage made of calypso and indigo blues hung centrally on a large lofted living room wall. The rest of the decor was tasteful in dark blues and tans.
The apartment screamed ‘Dan lives here.’ He’d lived in Flag a while.
So no, apparently he hadn’t followed me here.
“Wow, smokin’ car, classy bachelor pad. What’s your job again? Because I am seriously reconsidering nursing,” I said. He lifted my jacket from my shoulders.
“You have a gift and a passion for sharing your gift with those in need. Don’t switch tracks for a fancy car,” Dan said, hanging our jackets in his front closet. He removed his black Henley as well and threw it over the back of a barstool. I watched in silence as he turned on his stereo system and poured two glasses of wine. Feeling tipsy from the tequila sunrise because I rarely drank, I still needed a little more liquid courage to continue in my quest for truth.
“Dan, seriously, what do you do?” I asked, tapping my foot on the cushy cream colored carpet. His avoidance of the topic bothered me. As I waited for an answer, wine danced across my tongue with my first sip. Smooth as silk.
“I’m a surfer, a sun worshiper, and a reggae fan,” Dan smiled, sniffing the wine like a connoisseur. He wagged his eyebrows at me and took a sip.
I hit his arm, immature I know, but he frustrated the hell out of me. A splash of red wine colored his white t-shirt. He shook his head at me with a grin, then whisked his white t-shirt in a second. I stared at his muscled abs. His olive skin and chiseled six-pack distracted me.
“Enjoying the show?”
“Dan, you’re trying to change the subject. Get a shirt on. And you need to tell me more about you, about everything for that matter. Open up and quit being so cryptic!”
He gave me a look of mock consternation. “Chelsea Danika, you spilled this 1982 vintage Cabernet Sauvignon. Then you yell at me for removing my soiled shirt? I think you’re the one with the improper motives.”
“Ughhh!” I exclaimed. I stood, gulping the rest of the wine and with the grace of a grizzly bear on a unicycle. I wiped my face with the back of my hand. “Seriously! Do I need to water-board you or something to get you to talk?”
“Uh, not funny,” Dan said, standing with me. “First of all, your disrespect for this $7000 bottle of wine is quite shameful. Quit gulping it and giving me excuses to get naked. Second, I happen to have investigation skills… ok, more like interrogation skills. My gifts obviously come in handy, and therefore the disgusting torture methods like waterboarding are, for the most part, unnecessary.”
“$7000!” I exclaimed. “For the most part!”
“Saved up a lot of money over the years.” Dan shrugged.
“Years? What are you, 24? 25? People your age don’t make this kind of money, at least not in the real world,” I said.
Dan placed his hands in his jean pockets and walked over to his iPod. “Which world are we talking about right now? The real world you used to know or the one you’re just now starting to understand. In my world, money is made based on a person’s skill, and time is irrelevant.”
“What the crap does that mean? You have a time machine along with a pair of wings?” I asked, shaking my head. I helped myself to another glass of wine. “Am I in a Stephen King novel? Are we on a SciFi channel reality show?”
“No,” Dan said, eyes gleaming. He waited for me to think it out. I stared at him; then it struck me.
“Oh, my God. You were an angel. You fell from Heaven, or Heavenly dimension, or whatever. Angels fell way back in the day, like in the days of stables and shepherds and shit.” My filter clicked off when I drank, with swearing as a side effect. I plopped onto his brown leather sofa, letting yet another revelation sink in. My boyfriend was older than me, by thousands of years.
“The wine, Chelsea,” Dan said. “Very eloquent, by the way.”
“You said I was just a child when we first met. It wasn’t because you were a Senior in high school. It was because you were literally a senior to me, like how old are we talking here, Dan? Hundreds, thousands?”
“My age is irrelevant.”
An Eagle’s song played, and the alcohol caught up with me. Forgetting my train of thought, I swayed, and my hips rocked back and forth to the beat. Dan’s fingertips brushed mine as he took the glass of wine out of my hand. I put my arms around his neck and his arms wrapped around my waist.
“Now is all that matters,” he said.
I shook my head as we swayed to the song. “Truth matters.”
“Why would you believe what I say, silver girl? Who are you to decide on the honesty of a being? You can’t sort truth from fiction, at least not yet. Even my abilities betray me at times. To know a truth and to believe a truth are two separate sides of a coin.”
“They’re the same. How are they different? If something is fact, it’s true.”
“People can believe something to be true and exude a entirely innocent aura all bright and shiny like a diamond. Even if what they believe is wrong, even if they can’t see the flaws in their faith.”
“So are you saying I shouldn’t trust you?”
“No, I am saying you shouldn’t trust anyone. A good friend of mine used to say it best- don’t believe anything you hear, and only half of what you see. Things are about to change for you, silver girl. People are going to lie to you, attempt to manipulate you, and tell you lovely things you will yearn to believe. But to survive, you have to defend yourself. You need to fight fire with fire. Which brings me to my point.” He dipped me low.
‘Something’ played by the Beatles. I stared into his eyes as he held me suspended.
“You know I have trust issues with people, Dan,” I whispered. Meredith was the one person in my life I thought I could depend on. My rock. My constant. But she kept huge secrets from me. My grandmother and mother had killed themselves. My dad had vanished before I had my first smile. My teachers thought I was looney when I told them it was difficult to concentrate in class because I could feel everyone’s energies. Therapists figured I sought attention, or drugs, or both. I learned to keep the truth hidden, lest it betray me.
“You harbor the most entrusting heart of any human I have ever met. You have your secrets, yet you only see the best in others. But, beginning today, you need to turn on your bull-shit filter. Start looking for the dark spots in everyone, silver girl.”
“I’m seeing dark spots now.”
Dan raised his eyebrows, waiting for my explanation.
“I think it’s from the blood rushing to my brain,” I said. He laughed and pulled me to standing.
“Stay right there,” he said and went to the adjacent kitchen. He returned with two glasses of water. I drained the glass and it toppled on the table where I set it.
“Okay, I don’t trust you, yet. So fess up, what’s your hook in all of this?” I asked him, gesturing to the open air.
“Do you know I care about you? Do you believe in that?”
“Yes...” I drew out the word with a sigh.
The smell of spice and heat hit me before I saw the velvety black wings. Still bare-chested, only in jeans hanging low on his hips and black work boots. Before I’d finished enjoying the view, Dan scooped me in his arms.
Ohmygod. We flew through the chilly Flagstaff air. My hand flew to feel the hairband Dan had fastened into a high ponytail in a split second. He moved faster than humans. Could I go that fast, too?
We gained altitude, and the ground slipped away, getting smaller and farther. My heart switched places with my stomach, and I buried my face in between Dan’s neck and shoulder. I swallowed hard against the acid climbing my throat. My head spun with nausea.
Oh, my god we were flying hundreds of feet in the air.
Dan’s skin felt like an electrical blanket, emanating heat, but rather than bringing comfort it brought out another sort of feeling. Oppositional arousals of fear and sex mel
ded together, causing my head to spin.
“What did you say?” Dan asked voice raised through the night air.
Flying through the air required a higher vocal volume.
“I’m afraid of heights!” I yelled this time. Oh, my god, I was in the sky.
“Sorry, but half of your genes are made for flying, Chels. You’re going to get used to it. Just open your eyes,” Dan said, mouth against my air.
Wind propelled past my body; its force should have turned me into a life-size popsicle. Somehow Dan’s ultra heated body kept me warm. I shook my head against the crook of his neck, willing my stomach to hold down the sandwich and alcohol.
“No, not happening. What if you drop me? I don’t have any wings to unfurl. I’d be worse off than a fly on a windshield. At least they don’t know what’s coming. Put me down on the ground, Daniel Levi!”
Dan’s lips brushed my earlobe as he spoke. I shivered from the promise of what else those lips could do to me, again my fear and arousal mixing in a dizzying cocktail.
“You know if you fell, I would catch you? Don’t ever doubt me on that, silver girl. Open your eyes. You’ve got to see this.”
I peeked out an eyelid. The sun dipped in the western horizon, it’s light painting a dusty rose over everything in the surrounding area, from the town to the San Francisco peaks. The buildings looked like miniature toys, far below us. I clenched my eyes shut again.
“My brain should be bursting out my ears or something. This can’t be possible!” I yelled.
“You keep saying so, yet here we are. Looks like you inherited the flying genes,” Dan said, peeling my fingers away from my eyes with one of his hands. “Take a look, pretty soon it will be dark.”
I managed to turn my head from the protection of Dan’s shoulder. One eye open, I peeked again at the town below. I felt detached from humanity, soaring at heights only birds should know.
“This can’t be real! Look at the University, I could squish it out with my thumb and my index finger,” I said, then let out a manic giggle. A demon held me in his arms, flying me high in the sky.
“Reality is an illusion,” Dan said.
“Albeit a persistent one,” I said, eyes now taking in the scene below with more awe.
“An Einstein fan?”
I huddled further into Dan’s arms. “You mentioned that once before. I didn’t realize the truth behind the words until now. Relativity, perspective… I guess this is one way of illustrating the concept.”
Dan’s arms tightened around my legs and torso.
“Dan, I can’t breathe!” I complained. Then I heard it.
“What is it?”
“A big bird wants to play,” Dan said. “Chels?”
“Yeah?”
“Now would be a good time to close your eyes.”
“Oh, my fucking-“
The sound of a loud engine and chopping wind cut off the sound of my words. The wind whipped around us, and I guessed a helicopter flew above us. From Dan’s defensive reaction, the helicopter wasn’t doing a sunset tour of the mountains. Guess birds and demons weren’t the only occupants of the sky tonight.
My ponytail slashed against my cheek, stinging me as we flew faster than I ever thought possible. Maybe atoms felt like this in a particle accelerator. Pressure smashed against my skin, and the town below became an incomprehensible blur. My head spun with nausea, and I closed my eyes.
A pounding thrummed in the air. Tat-tat-at.
Burying my face in Dan’s shoulder, I attempted to make my body as light as possible. Dan’s entire body tensed, muscles taut as he flew faster and faster. My mouth opened, but I’m not sure any noise came out, or if the wind and bullets drowned out my scream.
Chapter Fourteen
Cabin in the woods
DAN DOVE INTO the forest, flying between towering pines and birches. Needles scraped my face as he dashed through the trees. My head jarred into my neck as he landed on the forest floor, running. The impact sent shooting jolts of pain through my head.
The helicopter, having lost the advantage of the sky, flew in the same direction that Dan landed running. But Dan turned sharp, racing towards the face of the mountain.. Still in his arms, I wussed out and kept my eyes closed. The forest was silent except for Dan’s panting breath and my heart thudding in my ears. After several minutes, we finally stopped.
“Open your eyes, silver girl, we’re safe,” he said, chest rising and falling rapidly. My eyes peeled open with fatigue. Adrenaline seeped out of my veins, replaced with dizziness. The scenery around me tilted, and my head pounded with pain. My grip on Dan reminded me which way was up.
We’d arrived at a small log cabin, dwarfed by towering ponderosa pines.
We’d flown in the sky, and then came under fire by a helicopter. I rubbed my neck. Reality shifted once again. Now I stood in a freaking Thomas Kincade painting. A stone chimney jutted from the roof of the cabin.
“So… I’m guessing the government doesn’t approve of demons flying?” I asked.
I attempted to walk towards the cabin on my own, but my world still tilted off kilter. Dan grabbed my elbow before I fell sideways. He chuckled.
“The government? No that was the pa-chem. Cocky bastards are trying to be the FAA of every damned demon flight. Why should I register whenever I get a fancy to fly? My wings are my own, and I will not let others dictate my life. All these regulations, they’ll have to change.”
“Um, machine guns? What the hell, Dan!”
“That shouldn’t have happened.”
“What do you mean? The shooting? Or surviving?”
“I have… connections, Chelsea. They should know better than to threaten me.”
“Threaten? More like assassination attempt.”
Dan’s fingers entwined with my own, and he gave my hand a reassuring squeeze. Before I could say anything more, he unlocked the door and pulled me inside. I heard him lock the door behind us as I took in our surroundings. A single room no more than five hundred square feet, but the small cabin appeared bigger inside. Six-foot wide tree trunks made up the beams of the lofted ceilings.
Forgetting the near-death flight, I inhaled deep. The air smelled like Dan, spicy and tropical, with a hint of jasmine.
He took me to a small seating area with a blue western print couch set before climbing the stairs to a lofted room. When he returned, a blue plaid shirt covered his arms but hung unbuttoned at the front. He walked towards me, his gaze unwavering.
“Your world, your universe, has changed. Your reality has more planes than before, no pun intended. And I’m sure you have questions,” he murmured as he removed the hair tie, letting my hair fall around my shoulders.
I ran my fingers through, trying to smooth out the tangled mess of my hair. Considering it’s resemblance to my life, I gave up for the moment.
“We’re going to have one more night without legends, without responsibilities,” Dan said.
“Maybe I could take a tiny vacation from all this prophecy business. But according to Ray, whatever I’m supposed to do has to be done by the next time the moon is fire.”
“What do you mean? Who’s Ray?” Dan’s eyes narrowed.
I explained to Dan about my encounters with Poli, then with Ray. Dan listened. As I explained Ray’s suggestion of my ‘power’ combined with ‘moonfire,’ Dan paced the cabin.
“Reality is debatable, so is this crazy prophecy,” I said.
“Reality is whatever perception we accept. If you choose to… not fulfill the prophecy, it’s understandable. No one should have that responsibility offered to them, much less forced. Like Ray told you, if this legend is true, there will be other pahanas. You are not, apparently, as unique as we thought. There’s always the beach, the sea, to hell with everyone else,” he said, his words tempting yet taunting me at the same time.
“Apparently, hell is what happens if I turn my back on everything. I don’t know Dan. I feel invested somehow. My instincts… they’re telling me thi
s place, here in Arizona, it’s where I should be,” I said
“This is all bullshit. Just because someone picked up the wrong accessory, doesn’t make this your responsibility. NO ONE can move Heaven and Earth, it’s a tribal legend, a rumor started by Sabathiel! Time is irrelevant. Live your life the way you would if you were 100-percent human. The past is gone, the future is later, but now never changes,” Dan’s said.
Then he flashed in a blur to the wall and punched one of the logs. I gasped as I heard a crack. The wood split down the middle. When Dan turned around, desperation filled his eyes. I knew he wanted me to change my mind, to escape with him.
“Dan, if reality is just an illusion, what does that make legends?” I asked.
Dan’s gaze lost its intensity, and he crossed his arms.
I approached him, walking with care like I did with skittish patients. “Maybe there’s more to the legends. Maybe legends are more real than everyday illusion.”
Dan stalked away from me. He stopped and narrowed his eyes at a painting hanging over the fireplace.
“What is it, Dan? Is the helicopter back?” I asked, biting my lip.
“Of course. It does make sense. The sun amplifies the moon’s power, which in turn amplifies powers on this Earth. It’s the most powerful amplifier in this plane. The solar eclipse…” he mumbled to himself. His hand ran through his golden brown hair and looked at me with an intensity and sympathy. My throat constricted, but I ignored the feeling.
“Solar eclipses don’t happen very often, right? What do we have, like a couple of years?” I asked with a hopeful smile. Despite having a physicist for a grandfather, I never understood astronomy. Vague memories surfaced from high school, about how lunar eclipses were more common than solar eclipses, but I couldn’t remember their exact frequency.
“Solar eclipses appear in the same place on Earth once every twenty years. I’m assuming the prophecy the Hopi speak of is to happen on their land. We need to know when the next solar eclipse over northern Arizona will occur.”
He pulled out his phone and punched at the keypad. The sight makes me want to laugh and cry at the same time. Reminding me of Gabe and all of his apps and all the good they did in times of need. Phone apps didn’t change tires, and they couldn’t save the world.
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