The Witch's Angel

by Arissa L. Utemark

  “Oh, shit. I mean…how do you look? You handsome guy, you…” Danny covered stiffly.

  For the second time since he woke up, Luke found himself wiping a hand across his face. He lurched back toward the door and pushed it open, meeting Danny’s open and cautiously smiling face.

  “Cat’s outa the bag, Danny.” Luke stated, raising his eyebrows.

  “I’m sorry! I forgot! People where I come from walk around with wings all the time!” Danny defended as she wrapped her arm around Luke’s waist and helped him back over to the bed. Luke felt strong enough to go there on his own, but he didn’t stop himself from tucking her into his side anyway.

  Luke sat down on the mattress with a huff. Danny stepped back, taking a deep breath and crossing her arms, looking away like she was about to say something unpleasant.

  “It’s dangerous for me to be around you for very long.” She finally ground out. Luke blinked in shock, a small tingle of dread tugging at him.

  “Why?”

  “It’s complicated.” She explained. “There are…people looking for me. They’ll be looking for both of us if they knew you existed.”

  Luke nodded, adding another piece of information to his collection before he allowed himself some relief. ‘Dangerous’ didn’t mean ‘Impossible’. An enemy meant a clear goal and Luke could work with that.

  “Then we should probably get out of here, then.” Luke decided, bracing his hands against the bed and getting to his feet again.

  “Are you sure you’re okay to do that?” Danny surged forward again to help him. He held up a hand to stop her, allowing it to caress her back in a silent show of gratitude as he walked toward the locker at the end of the room.

  “Yeah, I’m starving. Do I have anything to wear?” Luke asked nobody in particular as he opened the locker, finding the duffle bag of spare clothes he kept at the station. “Ah. Thanks, Carl.”

  Luke tossed the bag on the bed and walked over to it, pulling the zipper open and pawing through its contents. He heard the sound of metal slide against metal as Danny drew the curtain around his bed to give him some privacy.

  “Let me know if you need any help.” She called quietly from the other side.

  “I think I can handle this part.” Luke answered as he pulled out a pair of jeans, a soft grey cotton shirt, a worn pair of sneakers, and his soft blue zippered hoodie.

  “Humor me.” She said back. “The change will have taken a lot out of you and we’re not out of the woods yet.”

  Luke smirked as he leaned against the bed and pulled his jeans on, buttoning them. He watched Danny’s slightly-too-big shoes pace back and fourth nervously across the tile floor. The shadow she cast on the curtain showed her pawing at her hair nervously.

  “Could you calm down?” Luke said to her fidgeting silhouette, she continued to pace, undeterred.

  “Not really, if I’m honest.” She muttered.

  “I’m not going to break.” Luke said.

  “Don’t rule it out. You could…” Danny’s voice quieted to a soft, frustrated whisper. “Hell, I don’t know what’s going to happen.”

  “We’ll figure it out.” Luke told her, not at all surprised at how confident his own voice sounded. Danny’s feet stopped pacing.

  “Okay.” She answered.

  “Okay.” Luke affirmed, looping his shirt over his head.

  Chapter 21

  Now, I didn’t know this, but it turns out doctors don’t seem to like it when you recover from a life-threatening mystery illness for seemingly no reason.

  Perhaps Theo could answer why that was, if I ever found him.

  “Detective Harper, I really have to protest again.” The doctor had huffed as Luke signed the last of the discharge papers before pulling a baseball cap over his hair. “We’re still not sure what happened. It almost killed you. You could relapse at any time.”

  “You worry too much, Doc.” Luke had answered back offhandedly.

  I felt a bit nervous myself at Luke being away from instant medical care, a doubt that followed me all the way out of the hospital, on the train ride, and into the small, cozy neighborhood pub where we were now sitting.

  But, I suppose if they did any kind of x-ray and found his hollow bones or amped-up circulatory and respiratory systems, we would be in trouble.

  Not to mention his wings, which would also be pretty difficult to explain. Whenever those fuckers were gonna decide to come in.

  Jesus. This is, like, the least fun surprise party ever.

  I curled my feet under the wooden chair pulled up to our table in one corner next to the bar and reached over to grab a fried pickle from my second order of them.

  Confession time: I fuckin’ love fried pickles. The ones from this pub were particularly garlicky and delicious. I would have to remember the name of it if I ever made it back…

  …back wherever.

  Slogging through the entirety of history wasn’t an easy story to tell and it couldn’t have been easy to hear, but I had to give Luke credit; he’d listened intently through it all. The story of the Dawn Wars had taken the train ride. The food had come right as the Angels partnered with the Witches to defend the planet. The death of the Queen and the violent overthrow of the Royal Family in the middle of the night was when I decided a second helping of fried pickles was in order.

  Luke never stopped me, never interrupted and disagreed, saying all of this was impossible. The only time his eyebrows drew together was when I explained about some Angels are born and some are made, but I suppose it would be tough to wrap your head around that you are something completely different than what you thought you were.

  A Queen, for example.

  “Does that…” Luke started hesitantly. It was the first time he had spoken and I immediately fell silent, eager to answer any question he had.

  He seemed to struggle with the words for a brief moment and I felt my heart sink a little. Please, don’t let me have scared you away.

  “Does it…make me less?” Luke finally asked. “Does it make me something less because I wasn’t born this way?”

  My heart gave a strange swell-clench at the slight downward cast of his eyes.

  “Not even a little bit.” I answered immediately. By the look on his face, he seemed unconvinced. “Listen, I’m not going to lie and say it wouldn’t have been easier if you had been born an Angel, but it certainly doesn’t make you anything less because you changed into one.”

  “Easier? Easier how?” Luke asked.

  “It might not have taken me so long to find you.” I answered easily, giving him a little smirk. He smiled softly down at the table, so I continued, “Awakened Angels are…a rarity. They’re beautiful and I wouldn’t have had you any other way.”

  I saw him nod, his cheeks flushing, and dig back into his food, his shoulders a bit more relaxed. I felt my stomach flutter as I continued my explanation.

  I had finished my story by the time he was finishing his food. As I munched away at my fried pickle and sipped at my soda I watched every small movement of Luke’s body. He didn’t seem to notice as he swiped a French fry through a puddle of ketchup and popped it into his mouth.

  “You know you’re staring again, Danny.” Luke informed me casually, before taking a gulp of his water.

  “How are you feeling?” I asked immediately, ignoring his statement and continuing my staring.

  “Stop that.”

  “No, I know. I just…I’m curious.” I stumbled. “This is a delicate process.”

  “Not from this end, it’s not.” Luke leveled me a look.

  “I gathered.” I answered. “Do you have any more questions?”

  “Just one.” Luke nodded.

  “Hit me with it.”

  “I’m not going to lay any eggs, am I?” Luke asked, looking at me out of the corner of his eye. “That just sounds very unpleasant.”

  “Well, you’re not an ostrich, so no. No eggs.” I answered and Luke let the smile he’d been holding back shine brig
htly full-force.

  Boy, I was getting attached to that smile.

  “I’m fine, Danny.” Luke assured, softness in his eyes when he looked at me. “I’m not the one that lived through a coup a few days ago.”

  I felt a sharp stab of phantom pain at the memory and quickly squashed the sensation, pulling my thoughts away as I took another pull of my soda. What a small word to describe everything that was lost that night.

  “Yeah, that sucked.” I answered lamely, looking off to the side. We fell into a brief silence and I felt the need to speak again. “I appreciate…you not asking if I’ve lost my mind or something.”

  “Why would I say that?” Luke paused and looked up at me with such an honest expression that I almost felt like laughing.

  “I just told you I’m from a royal family of Witches and that I turned you into an Angel.”

  “If I had a nickel for every time a girl told me that…” Luke began seriously before giving me that sideways glance again. “I’d have a nickel.”

  I felt a bark of laughter escape me, course and a bit rusty. A smile pulled at Luke’s eyes. We fell into a warm silence for a brief moment, still getting used to being in each other’s presence. I felt nervousness creep up in me again. I was the most likely of the two of us to know how all this worked and, I can’t emphasize this enough, I had absolutely no idea how any of this was going to work. I kept having terrible thoughts of doing something wrong and losing Luke forever, of him burning alive and me not there to help him. There was still so much wrong, but having him here made things feel a little less hopeless. I had an ally, I had support…

  I had a partner.

  “So,” Luke interrupted my thoughts before they spiraled completely. “What about these barriers you were talking about?”

  “Portals to the Void.” I answered easily, glad to be on sturdier territory. “There are a couple dozen of them. The main rip in the fabric of reality is in The Beacon.”

  “The Beacon.” Luke gave a little head shake to indicate his confusion.

  “The building the Royal Family lives and works in.” I told him. “It’s the tall gray one downtown.”

  “I always thought that was a security firm.” Luke said.

  “It kind of is, simplistically speaking.” I could think of worse things the Beacon could be thought of.

  “What’s the Void?” Luke asked.

  “Nothing.”

  “Fine. I’ll ask later.”

  “No, it’s literally nothing.” I pressed. “There’s nothing to feed on, no air, nothing to use to escape with. That’s what makes it such a good prison for the knightmares.”

  “Knightares with a ‘k’” Luke clarified.

  “It’s silent.”

  Luke thought for a moment before his lips formed an ‘o’ when he understood.

  “Oh, I get it. Like a knight, but knightmare.”

  “Yeah, somebody thought they were being real clever with that one.” I mumbled.

  “Who controls the barriers?” Luke asked.

  “The Angels.” I answered. “The main one at the Beacon is huge and it requires the Queen’s Angel to control. It used to be taken care of by my father, but Patrick fills in now.”

  “Used to?”

  I should have seen the question coming, as attentive as Luke is. I should have seen the dull pain that wrapped around my throat coming. I’d lived with it for a year now, it shouldn’t still hurt this bad.

  “Sorry.” Luke said immediately. “You…you don’t have to…”

  “Nobody’s really sure what happened.” I began. “There was a fluctuation in the Beacon’s Barrier, nothing that hadn’t been seen a million times before. Dad went down to check on it, and I guess it…got away from him.”

  I closed my eyes to block out the sympathetic look on Luke’s face. In the darkness behind my eyelids, I heard the explosion, the screaming; saw the damage, the body laying on the ground, his wings twisted and broken. My eyes flew open.

  “Cale ran in and tried to help, but…” I went on. “It was too late. Dad was already gone.”

  “I’m sorry.” Luke whispered.

  “Well, that’s not really my biggest problem right now.” I pushed away from the subject eagerly.

  I looked up to see Luke duck his head, his grip on the edge of the table making his knuckles white. He squeezed his eyes shut as if waiting for some unseen pain to go away.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked immediately, but I had a sinking suspicion that I already knew.

  “My back…it’s my back.” Luke ground out, making my stomach drop through the floor.

  “We need to get out of here.” I said urgently, scrambling over to help him out of his chair.

  “My apartment…isn’t far.” Luke’s voice was choked off with the pain and I squeezed his waist in sympathy. I took most of his weight as we made our way toward the door.

  We were halfway across the wooden floor of the pub when most of the front of the bar exploded, the wood splintering under the assault of the blast. Luke and I were thrown backward by the onslaught and I heard Luke’s pained grunt as we landed hard on the ground. The other bar patrons began to scream and scatter, running toward the back door in the chaos.

  The dust cleared just enough to see a cloud of angular tentacles appear in the smoke, the sound of the knightmares’ hissing slicing through the air.

  “Well, isn’t that just the fucking worst timing ever.” I gasped.

  “Holy shit.” Luke gaped at the creatures slithering into the pub.

  “I sssssssmell you, Witch.” One of them wheezed, spitting out the last word like it was an insult. I froze when it paused, its tendrils reaching out, taking small intakes of breath as it sniffed the air around us. Its raspy laughter made my skin crawl, the mouth opening to show a row of needle teeth. “I sssssmell you…and your pretty new Angel…”

  Shit!

  “Go! Now!” I heard Luke yell, trying to stumble to his feet. I reached over and grabbed him, throwing us both behind the bar in an attempt to give us some kind of cover.

  “What? Are they searching the whole fucking city? Cale was never this good at location spells.” I said through clenched teeth.

  “I don’t know.” Luke took several quick, halting breaths, sweat on his forehead. He was on his hands and knees, his nails clawing at the well-worn wooden floorboards. “But it feels like things are about the get serious.”

  He clenched his teeth and I knew he was trying not to make any noise despite how much pain he was in. I heard the sharp taps of the knightmares’ tendrils on the wooden floor and I knew it was only a matter of time before they found us. I took a deep breath and stood, facing an enormous cloud of knightmares.

  “Yes?” I asked, feigning casualness while keeping an eye on Luke writhing on the floor next to me.

  “I knew it wassssss you, Witch.” The knightmare’s teeth were bared once again.

  “I sure hope you get a ‘good job’ sticker.” I answered, reaching forward slowly so I could put my hand on the finished wood of the bar. It wasn’t ideal, but it would do.

  “Prince Calen wantsssssss a word.” The knightmare informed me. I felt my jaw clench at the sound of my brother’s name said by the hissing voice of a monster.

  “I’m sure he does.” I said.

  “Get down!” I heard Luke urgently whisper before he grabbed my leg. His hand brushed past the hem of my jeans to graze a few inches of bared skin on my ankle.

  The connection made me gasp, his power lending itself to mine, I slammed my hand down on the bar just as the knightmares rushed forward. The light that came out of Luke and I was blinding, wiping out the army of knightmares that slithered toward us with one massive strike.

  Luke started screaming, squeezing my leg, his other arm quivering with the effort to keep himself upright. I heard the wet sound of ripping flesh and, with a wave of power that knocked me backward, Luke’s wings tore themselves violently out of his back.

  I watched, my jaw slack
, as Luke gripped the wood of the bar, pulling himself painfully upright. His body was covered in a sheen of sweat, his wings dragging limp and bloody behind him, pouring themselves out of the ragged hole in the back of his shirt.

  The impressive muscles in his arms finally give way and he pitched sideways. I braced myself and caught him. His body gave a constant bone-deep shiver as he wrapped his arms around me, looking up at me, his face drained of color and his eyes wide.

  “Get…get me out of here…please.” He rasped. I nodded immediately, holding him tighter.

  “Okay.”

  Chapter 22

  I felt like a raw nerve during the walk back to Luke’s apartment, keeping him close as we made slow progress through the shadows.

  Then again, I didn’t just literally and violently sprout wings, so I guess I have no room to bitch.

  Still, I kept a paranoid eye out and stuck steadfastly out of sight as we moved down the street to his apartment. Luckily, just like he’d said, it wasn’t far. Most everybody’s attention was taken up by the attack on the bar, so we slipped away from prying eyes pretty easily.

  Luke was breathing like he’d just run a marathon, the skin on his back an angry pink. He’d cried out when I had folded his wings against his body and held them there, but I was reasonably certain it was just sore muscles, raw and new. I knew he wouldn’t have the strength to fold them flush, so they were hidden clumsily with my jacket draped over them. My arm was wrapped around his back to keep them in place and hidden. I felt them quivering weakly behind him, as if he was trying to lift them, but couldn’t quite manage it. I shuffled us along faster, eager to get to a place were I could make sure he was okay.

  Luke was barely conscious when we finally tumbled into the door of his apartment. The building seemed to be fairly old, the construction materials pure enough to give me something to work with in terms of a protection spell. The fact that this was Luke’s dwelling also worked in our favor in terms of keeping us hidden from any prying paranormal eyes.

  I pulled him along the hallway and he stumbled along beside me, trying to keep his balance with a hand against the wall.

  “C’mon, bedroom, c’mon…” I muttered to myself as I pushed a door open with my foot. I breathed a sigh of relief when the master bedroom came into view.