Djinn: Cursed (13 page)

I was airborne again, and I don't think I could have wiped the smile off my face as my heart beat in excitement.  I heard Dorian laughing in wonder below me as I spun in the air, as I pulled my wings to me at my apogee then I swooped down to the fire escape landing, and back-flapped to slow my approach.  Ok, so I wasn't as graceful as I felt.  I'm really going to have to practice landing, all this crashing is getting old.  I slammed into the railing and flipped over to land in a heap on the fire escape by Dori's window.

I held a hand up and said in an embarrassed tone, “I'm ok.”

This got a couple chuckles from the hot peanut gallery below as Hailey said, “Nice landing, Grace.”

I complained as they climbed up to me, “Hey, I've only had wings a couple days, you wouldn't do any better.”

As her purple hair swayed while she climbed, she said, “I suppose.  But really, that was so surreal seeing you actually fly.”

I blinked and realized that that was actually the first time she saw me in the air.  The wings were probably a curious aberration to her until the moment I took to the air.

I nodded in understanding as I untangled myself from my wings. “You think that's surreal, imagine my reaction when the damn things burst out of my back when I was falling to my death.”

Dorian crouched and helped me stand.  Now that all the excitement of our escape was waning, and the adrenaline high had long since left, I realized how much my legs and ankles hurt from being tied up so long.  I wobbled, and she lent me support.  I saw concern in her eyes and coloring her features as her eyes flicked from injury to injury.

She nudged her chin to the plywood over the window and instructed Hailey, “Move that aside.  We need to check out her injuries.”

A minute later we were all inside, a lantern lit to illuminate the space as the two women looked me over.  I tried to protest, but they slapped my hands away and went about dressing my wounds the best they could with the meager supplies Dori had on hand.

I tried hard not to cry as Hailey used a needle and thread, which Dori pulled out of one of her bags on the floor, to suture my wounds.  She shook her head and grumbled, “We'll have to get some proper supplies, you need these wounds cleaned out better, and some hydrogen peroxide or antiseptic at least.  If they get infected, we won't be able to treat you.”

I swallowed, knowing her meaning.  I'd have to see a proper doctor then, and my secret would be out.  I nodded, and my stomach gurgled so loudly that it actually echoed in the empty space.

Dorian giggled and covered her mouth.  I glared at her, but her eyes were glittering in mirth, and she looked far too cute holding back her laugh.  I pouted, “I haven't eaten anything since your eggs yesterday.”

All the humor left her eyes, and she started rummaging through her packs.  She pulled out a small package of peanuts, a water bottle, and a piece of jerky and offered it to me.  She looked embarrassed. “Sorry, Angel.  It's all I have.”

I hesitated.  I literally fell into this woman's life, and she hasn't hesitated once in giving all she had to take care of me.  Including risking her life three times now.  And here she was, giving me the last of her food.  I finally accepted it and waved the jerky at them, “We'll share.”

For once, Hailey didn't take the opportunity to give Dorian a hard time.  She just quietly nodded once.  We split the meager offerings.  They watched as I just wolfed down my portion.  Good lord I was hungry.  Hai said offhandedly as she studied me, “I'll head out in a minute to get some decent medical supplies.”  Then she added, “And food.”

Hailey said quickly when it looked like Dorian was going to protest, like it was a dig to her pride, “We don't know how long we'll be holed up here.  I have some gear stashed in a bolthole.”

I blinked and asked, “Umm... not that I'm complaining, but why does a club owner have a bolthole anyway?”

She gave me a wink, which did inappropriate things to me as she said, “Well darlin', you can take the girl out of the soldier, but you can't take the soldier out of the girl.  It always pays to be prepared.”  I grinned at how close that was to what I had thought yesterday.

Then she said, “You need to debrief before I go, so I know what we're dealing with here.”

I saw the wince she hid as she turned.

I had noted she was moving a little stiffly and favoring her left side since we slowed down.  And now that I was more focused, I could tell her breathing was rapid and shallow.  She was hurt but trying not to show it, and that wasn't going to fly with me.

Now that my own injuries and hunger were pushed back into the background noise of the turmoil of my shattered life, I was thinking clearer, and my first priority was to my friends.  I chastised myself for not noticing her distress sooner and being so flipping self-absorbed.

I said as I shook my head and scolded her, “Not until we see what you're hiding Hailey.  You don't have to be so badass all the time you know.”

Dorian turned her eyes from me to Hailey and then really took her in in the dim light.  I saw her eyes narrow when she saw what I was talking about.

The woman started to shake her head to protest, but Dori said in an angry tone, “Come on eggplant, show.”

I squinted one eye in pain at the jab at the purple hair.  Hey, I thought it was sexy as hell.

Hailey just exhaled in exasperation and started unclipping the leather body armor, and she pulled the chest protector aside.  Then she winced a little and pulled up the side of her black shirt to reveal some of the most chiseled abs I've ever seen on a woman.  I probably would have been swooning if it weren't for the almost black bruise that swept across the bottom of her ribcage under the intricate tattoos that seemed to be everywhere on the woman.

I hissed and moved to her side and gingerly touched her flesh around the bruise.  She took a sharp intake of breath but didn't say a word.  I shot her an apologetic look and placed my hands over the bruise and pushed in carefully, feeling with my fingers for an anomalies.

I could feel what I was afraid of, and said in an almost accusatory tone, “You have at least one fracture in the eighth rib near the costal cartilage, and possibly the ninth.”  I moved my hands as I applied pressure and she hissed.

I nodded to myself as I felt around, trying hard not to cause her any more pain.  I was satisfied that there weren't any splinters protruding into the thorax.  I muttered, “We need to get your chest wrapped, I don't think you're at risk of a hemothorax or pneumothorax.  But you really need to get this checked out.  There may be some internal damage as well.”

I glanced over to Dori, who looked genuinely concerned, and I asked her, “Do you have anything we can use to wrap her chest?”

She shook her head, looking a little pale.  I asked, “Sweatpants?”

She brightened up and nodded and almost dove on a canvas pack and started digging as she said offhandedly, “You sound like a doctor slinging around clinical terms.”

I shrugged as she pulled out a pair of pink and grey sweatpants. “Sorry, I'm a nursing student.”  I paused at that then added just above a whisper as I felt the darkness creeping in on me, smothering me, “Or, I used to be.”  That life was gone for me now.

I didn't have time for a pity party.  I nudged my chin to the sweatpants.  “Cut the legs down the length and we can use the wide strips as a pressure bandage.”

Hailey gave me a smirk and teased, “Very Macgyver, you missed your calling as a field medic.”  Then she added, “With those wings, you could do your own airlifting.”

I narrowed my eyes at her and put a tiny bit of pressure on her bruise.  Her eyes widened as she hissed out a breath.  I crinkled my nose at her in a 'So there' gesture and said, “I don't know what a Macgyver is but it sounds like you're teasing your doctor.”

She looked surprised and asked in an incredulous tone, “You don't know who Macgyver is?”  Then she shook her head. “God, I'm getting' old.”

We looked over at a tearing sound and saw Dori using the knife she got from Hailey to cut the legs off the sweats and slash down the length of them.  She looked almost frantic as she offered them to me.  Her hands shaking.  I absently reached a wing out to wrap around her as I took the offered stretchy fabric.

I pulled her to my side with the wing, and she seemed to cuddle into it as I asked, “Are you ok Dor?  You're doing fine.”

She shrugged and looked at Hailey then said to me.  “Sorry, I just don't like seeing people hurt.  Even old musclebound bartenders.”

I grinned at that, at least she could still be snarky in the situation we found ourselves in.  I nudged my chin toward Hailey and said to the woman under my wing as I pulled it back a bit, “Hold her shirt up so I can wrap her.”

The club owner narrowed her eyes at me and said indignantly, “I can hold my own...  grraahh.”  She winced in pain as she tried to pull her arms up to shoulder height.

I chastised her, “Sit still and let her help.”

She grudgingly dropped her shirt and held her arms to her sides as far up as she could comfortably hold them.

Dori reached over and pulled up the black tee and blinked.  She had a sort of goofy look on her face.  I looked too.  Trying to be professional, but dayum.  I swallowed again, how was one woman allowed to be so hot?  I felt self-conscious about my body as I looked at her toned form.  Then felt a little, put off and... jealous, as Dorian just cocked an eyebrow and grinned at that same form.

We were snapped out of it when Hailey said in a plaintive tone, “When the two of you are done perving out, can we get on with it?”

I blushed and looked up at her sheepishly and then reached around her back to grab the improvised pressure bandage.  Trying not to notice how close I had to get to her to accomplish the task.  I almost snorted when Dor said into the air in a musical singsong voice, “Cougar.”

Hailey growled, “I'm not that old, street rat!”

I glanced at her face, and Hai winked at me.  I chuckled.  She really was only about ten years older than us, but when you're young, that feels like half a lifetime.  I was starting to see that distinction blurring as I worked on her.  Hey, I'm a warm-blooded woman and am only human.  Well human-ish anyway.

I blushed as Dorian scrutinized me.  She gave a silly, dimpled smile when she realized I was looking at her.  Then she got bashful under my gaze and pushed the brown locks from her face and behind her ear.  Now that was a whole different kind of sexy.

I looked away before I blushed again and tied off the makeshift bandage.  I tugged Hailey's shirt back down and backed up.  Pulling Dorian with me using my wing which she was wearing like a cape.

Hai raised her arms and winced a little as she rolled them and stretched a little side to side, wrapping her arms, like she was testing her limits and flexibility against the pain.  She nodded in satisfaction.  “It'll do.”

Then she locked eyes with me and said, “Sit.”

We complied, and she added, “Ok, no more stalling.  I know it is not a very palpable subject.”  Her eyes drifted to the bandages on the leading edges of my wings.  “But we need to know what we are dealing with, gorgeous.”

I sighed and nodded.  Pulling Dorian tighter to my side, I felt more secure with her there for some reason, and I started, “It was Xerxes... not his kin, but the man himself.  And my mom did a number on him... to protect me.”  I smiled sadly at being able to say that.

Then I gave a detailed account of my time in his and Kanton's hands.

They stopped me from time to time for clarifications, and Dori just grinned at me when I had been explaining how I had impacted and shattered the upper and lower lateral cartilage and possibly the septal cartilage of Xerxes' nasal septum with the frontal bone region of my forehead.

I had to smile back at her and ask, “What?”

She snickered. “Just say you broke his nose with a headbutt, weirdo.”

I grinned at her and covered her mouth with my wing, saying, “Shush, you.”  Which just got a chuckle from Hailey at our antics.

After the unpleasantness of my capture and torture was fully disclosed, we spoke about what we had inferred from what little I had learned.  The purple haired ex-soldier; can you be an ex-soldier?; rubbed her chin and nodded as she said, “So they have to use human intelligence to locate you since however they tracked your family before doesn't work for Xerxes and his family now.  That is something I can understand more than the mystical crap.  I can work with that.”

I narrowed my eyes as I furrowed my brow.  I stopped her by holding a hand out toward her.  “Hang on... in all the running for our lives and patching ourselves up business, I forgot to ask.  Just how did you find me and come riding to the rescue on your steel horse?”

Hailey rolled her eyes as Dorian gave her a mocking look.  Hai sighed and said, “The street rat.”

I defended the girl who was under my wing, playing with my downy undercoat feathers, it tickled.  “She has a name, woman.”

Dori grinned at me and shrugged, “It's ok, Angel, I kind of like it.”  Then she added, “While the club grandma there was stewing in lockup, where she had to explain how she found herself in yet another shootout in her establishment.  I was busy.”

She paused and looked to her side, and she made an exasperated sound.  “Shut up.  Who asked you?”  Then she shook her head and looked down.  “Fine, whatever.”

Then she looked at me, putting a hand up to purposefully block out Hailey.  “Stacy high tailed it after you when the bald menace took you in the alley.  It was all Robin could do to keep up with her.  Randy stayed behind to watch over me.”

Then she stroked my wing in a proprietary manner, her hand shaking slightly as she said with a hitch in her voice, “I thought the worst... I thought they'd come back with... well that they'd come back with you.”

I understood, she thought they had killed me, and I'd be a ghost.  I caught myself leaning into her hand as she played with my wing, it felt sinfully decadent.

Then she shrugged and said, “I hung around near the station, and when Miss Anime Hair here finally came out, I still hadn't heard back from them.  I was getting worried.  Usually, when a ghost is bored with hanging around with me, they just never come back.”

Then she smiled fondly to the side and said to thin air, “But blondie here was waiting back at the club when we arrived.  Hailey tried to get me to just go far far away so she could find you after we were safe.”

She almost growled, “Stacy said they were... doing things to you.”  Her hand lightly rested on the bandages on my wing, I could almost feel her anger seething inside her.

It genuinely enraged the odd woman, who incidentally, was smiling at me again.  That smile was doing all sorts of interesting things to me.  A warmth was spreading inside me over that, and over the fact that she seemed to be always in contact with me in some form or another.

Then she shrugged. “I shared with the soldier girl that I wouldn't tell her where they were holding you, or how many men the ladies saw when they ghost patrolled the building unless she took me.”

This got a glare from our protector and Dori shrugged at her and explained to the perturbed woman, “She's my angel.  I found her, so she's mine.”

Good God, I was blushing.

Then she shrugged and said, “The rest is history.”

With that, Hailey headed to the window and paused as she started moving the plywood aside.  “Keep out of sight.  I'll be back soon.  If you don't hear from me in an hour.  Then run... make your way out of the city.  Head for Santa Cruz, find a man named Jerry on the boardwalk, give him my name.  I'll find you if I'm able.”

I just blinked at the woman.  She saw my concern and gave a cocky wink then without another word, she slipped outside holding her side, moving soundlessly.  I couldn't even hear her descend the fire escape beyond.

Dorian said quietly, with a tinge of worry in her voice, “The woman tried to do it all herself.  She finally let me get to you while she created a 'little distraction' upstairs.  Only after I assured her that I had three invisible lookouts that could make sure the coast was clear did she agree.”

Then she narrowed her eyes and looked back at the window and said with a tone I couldn't place, “I'm not sure she's convinced that my friends are really there.  But they found you and hell, if a girl can have wings, why can't one have some really cool imaginary friends?”

She held her hands up in a placating gesture and spoke to her left, “No offense intended, you know what I meant.”  Then she added, “Oh shut up Stacy.”

I shook my head and said with a sly smile as I looked to where she was staring and said, “Talking to her like that won't have the results you expect.”

Then Dori shook her head. “What does asswaffle even mean, blondie?”

This got a surprised burst of laughter from me, and I playfully cocooned her in my wings when she squinted one eye toward my dead friend and pleaded humorously, “Help?”

I was grinning, but then it wasn't funny anymore when she wound up face to face with me, our eyes locked on each other, frozen into immobility.  She swallowed, and I was lost in the dark pools in front of me.  They held so much depth and... pain?  I could feel her closeness and our body heat trapped inside my wings was almost enough to ignite us.

She pried her eyes away from my eyes with a great effort, and she whispered, “Hi?”

I tilted my head down to catch her eyes again and took a chance.  I leaned in and brushed my lips across the beguiling woman's.  Then I sighed into her in relief as she leaned into it and captured my lips before they could escape.

For just a moment, I was able to forget the hell I found myself in and reveled in the tingling that shot through my body, heating my core in a way I had never felt before.  Then just as things were crossing the threshold to supernova when she wrapped her arms around me and started rubbing the nubs where my wings sprouted from my back, I got dizzy and staggered into her.

She was quick to support me as another wave of wishes flowed over me like a torrential downpour, more violently than any of the others.  I heard the whispers and shouts to the heavens.  The laughter and sobs.  I felt every emotion behind every wish as they assaulted me from all angles.

Dorian was speaking to me, but I couldn't hear her, as her voice was drowned out in the ocean of pleas, and I was helpless to help any of them, no matter how desperately I wanted to.  “I wish I was stronger.”  “I wish Sally were my sister.”  “I wish I could get away with murder.” “I wish grandpa hadn't got hurt.”

But there was something there, fighting the current with me.  It was like a small island of tranquility in the rapids, where the waves of wishes just crashed around.  It was calm, unmoving.  And I realized it was Dorian.  Dorian was holding me as the insanity of it all threatened to pull me away.

I felt like I was everyone who was making the wishes, feeling their inner selves as if the emotions were my own.  But not Dorian.  Like before, even though we were touching, I didn't hear her voice, her wishes, like everyone else I had touched since this nightmare began.  In her, I felt peace, a silence that I clung to and pulled myself into the shelter it offered.

My breathing slowly returned to normal, and I found we were sitting on the ground, on my wings, and she was holding me to her, cradling me as she just shushed me and stroked my hair.  I caught my breath and pulled away a little.  I smiled in apology to her and said, “I'm ok now.  It's gone.”

Then I asked before she could voice the question that was evident on her concerned face, “Don't you have any wishes?  I hear them all, but never from you.”

She cocked her head, it was cute as sin as her hair flopped into her face, then she shrugged and said as if it were obvious, “I don't have to wish for anything.  I have everything I need.  If not, then I can get it myself.”

Wow.  That was sort of... well, that was kind of inspirational.  Then she bit her lower lip and whispered, “And I found my very own angel.”

Ok, ten points for that one.  I melted and kissed her.

I pushed her back enough for us to get off my wings and then I held one out wide as I slid to the wall to put my back against it.  She didn't need more of an invitation than that, and she joined me as I draped a wing over her.

Then I asked as she snuggled into my side and we just stared at each other, memorizing each other’s faces as I sighed while she lightly brushed my wing, “Tell me about Dorian.  I don't even know your full name, Mouse.”

She smiled at my using her nickname and then said as she looked down almost bashfully, “Dorian Rachelle Wright.”

I cocked my head, mentally saying her name a few times, taste testing it if you will.  Then I grinned. “It is a pleasure to meet you, Dorian Rachelle Wright.  Angelina Drake.  No middle name.”

This got Dori grinning like a loon as she said, “That's not what the blonde sitting over there gushing about our kissing says.  She says she saw your record just recently.”

I blanched and muttered to her left, “You bitch.”

She snorted, reached up, and tilted my head to her right, and I repeated, “You bitch.”

Then Dori asked as she scrunched up her face in amusement, “Thelma?”

I said in an indignant tone, “Shut up, both of you.”

She smiled and said to the invisible onlookers, “Get lost, the lot of you.  I want to talk to the angel... alone.”  She cocked an eyebrow in challenge and then just waited until she smiled and turned to me.  “We're alone, until Stacy gets bored at least.”

I smiled and nodded back, pulling her closer with my wing and then asked, “Tell me everything there is to know about Dorian Rachelle Wright, and I'll tell you what little I know about myself.”

She nodded, and we started having the most incredible conversation of my life with the most incredible girl, on the most terrible day of my life.  But I was oddly ok with it.  If it was my time to go, then at least I had met the girl who speaks with ghosts.

I couldn't imagine the confusion, fear, and feeling of losing her mind when she started realizing that some of her friends in her life didn't interact with others and that only she could see or hear them.  It made it hard to keep a job, and that conversely led to her living on the streets.  Her aunt wanted nothing to do with her, calling her mad as a hatter.

I shared what little I could remember about my childhood before my mother took her own life.  Then about moving from place to place, city to city in the foster care system.  It didn't seem like any of the foster parents would keep me long.  Things would always occur, and circumstances would arise that would preclude their ability to care for me any longer.

I used to think it was because I was some sort of freak or pariah because my mom committed suicide.  That nobody could love me.  But I suspect now that it was because of mom's wish to keep me hidden.  That it somehow kept me on the move until I was old enough to move out.  To move to San Francisco for nursing school.

We started getting nervous when we had been talking for quite some time and Hailey still hadn't arrived.  We had no way of telling time, but the sun was high in the sky.  It had to be close to noon.  We were in sync when we realized how long we had been distracted by our conversation.  We went to the window, and I went to move the board aside, but Dorian laid a hand on mine to stop me.

I looked at her, and she shook her head then looked back into the room and said, “Could you?”  She motioned her chin toward the window.  Then I shuddered as I felt a chill go through me.

She growled, “I hate it when they do that.”

I looked at her, curious as to what she meant.

She exhaled and clarified, “When they pass through me like that.  It gives me the heebie-jeebies.”  Then she added, “And it's rude.”

I rubbed my arm and asked, “Was that what that chill was?”

She gave me a toothy grin. “Stacy.”

I narrowed my eyes and shook my fist playfully at the window.  This got a chuckle from the brown eyed imp.

We just stood there by the window, trying to see out of the areas that sunlight was streaming through the various gaps.  As the seconds ticked into minutes, both Dorian and I were getting visibly tenser.  She muttered to herself, “Come on... what's taking so long?”

Then almost as if the prompt had been heard by the universe she backed up a step and turned toward me and started nodding as if I were speaking to her.  I realized that one or all of them must have returned.  I ran a hand through the space between us.

Dorian leaned to the side like she was looking around something to see me and asked, “Do you mind, Angel?  We're trying to talk here.”  She gave me a quick look and then straightened back up and nodded and asked, “You're sure?  How many?”