Wings of Boden (33 page)

“Nice one,” said Dad.

“Why don’t you ever do that to me?” Mom asked
Dad.

“Yeah, yeah.” Dad turned to Vyn. “See what
you did.”

Vyn grinned. I continued to enjoy my
cloud.

“Okay, kids,” Dad said. “I’m goin down there.
You comin with me, Vyn?”

“I think I wanna see this first. I’ll be down
in a minute.”

“All right, then. I’ll see you down there.”
Dad marched off up toward the cave.

“Phil,” Vyn called out, “don’t tell anyone I
shot a pink bow!”

“What was that?” Dad replied as he ambled
along in the distance.

“Don’t tell anyone about the pink bow!”

“Sorry, what was that? I didn’t hear ya.
Something about, tell everyone you shot a pink bow! Okay, will do.
Cupcake!” His guttural laughter rolled down the cave.

Vyn sighed at me. “See what you made me
do?”

“He’s just teasing,” I said. “He won’t tell
anyone. I don’t think.” A giggle slipped out.

“Okay,” said Mom, “let’s go over there. And
keep your eyes out for hunters. I don’t know if they can fit in
that clearing, but you never know.”

We walked over the blanket of pine needles
and twigs to the open space, and stood in the moon-washed clearing
as Mom went through all the motions, slow, teaching. After a few
minutes, it was my turn to try. I unfurled my wings at the angle
she had demonstrated, looked alternately at each wing to check my
form, lifted my arms to the sky and began to spin.

Awesome. The speed of rotation sent my hair
straight out, vision blurry. Mom told me to pull my wings in to
make the spin faster, let them out a little to slow down. I pulled
my wings in a little too abruptly and spun out of control, hovering
inches above the ground, knocking into trees until I finally
stopped, flat down on my butt on the pine needles, legs stretched
out. I looked around in a daze.

“Well, that was fun,” I said to myself. Then
blew some hair off my face, and picked a piece of tree bark from
it.

A jolt of fear skipped my heart as I caught
the sound of whooshing wings. I looked up to see a white owl
gliding by. Seconds later, bushes rattled, a small animal squealed,
and the owl disappeared into the dark.

“You’ll get used to it,” Mom called out.
“It’s different when you’re focused on the dreks. Let’s go in now.
You can practice at home.”

I pulled myself up, brushed pine needles off
my rear, shook my hair out and toddled over to them.

“What possessed you girls to go in here,
anyway?” Mom asked as we descended the cave, Vyn trailing behind
us. Mom angled around a jutting root. “Especially you, Ellie. Watch
out for that nasty drek stuff on the floor. It’s so hard to get off
your shoes.”

“I don’t know.” I stepped around a splotch of
drek goo. “We didn’t wanna go all the way in, but the dreks trapped
us so we ran.”

“Yeah, they’re tricky that way. Well, you
learned something anyway.”

“Elle,” said Vyn, “you got your bow?”

Mom and I halted and spun around, wondering
if he saw a drek.

“No,” Vyn said, as if realizing what we were
thinking, “I just forgot it out there. I’ll go grab it.” He ran off
up the cave. Mom and I continued downward.

Mom pounded a closed hand on the door, well,
the wall, where Angie and I had previously curled up into a ball.
We voiced loud, “Star Wings!” A code Dad insisted we use. Kinda
stupid, but, whatever. Locks clanked. The door cracked open.

We stepped in to see a lanky boy with floppy
dark hair standing in jeans and a black T. He stood about neck-high
to me, with brown shy eyes and a pinched smile. Maybe seventeen. He
seemed to be waiting for us as he said in a scratchy tone of a
young male, “Elle and Celeste, right? Um, Phil said to have you
leave all weapons here, and your shoes too. I’ll clean them in the
stream.” He gestured to where Dad’s sword and shoes were on the
floor by the wall. He looked around us. “Isn’t there one more of
you? Vyn, I think?”

“He’ll be down in a minute,” I replied.

“Okay, I’ll wait. Phil is at the hospital
with Chris.” Mom and I finished placing our stuff on the floor,
turned to him as he added, “Oh, and, it’s nice to meet you both.
I’m Kelvin. Penny’s my girlfriend.” He reached out a hand, offered
a lopsided grin.

“You’re Penny’s boyfriend?” I smiled, said,
“We can do better than a handshake,” and pulled him into a hug. He
did his best to hug back but I sensed a bit of awkwardness, stiff,
mechanical motions. After we drew back, he stood with tinted
cheeks, holding timid eyes on me as I said, “Well, it’s nice to
meet you. Penny’s a sweet girl. And since she’s my sister, I guess
that makes you my future brother-in-law, right?”

One eyebrow curled up. “Yeah. Oh, it does,
doesn’t it?”

Mom said, “I should go see what your father’s
doing. It was nice to meet you, Kelvin.”

“You too,” he replied. Mom pranced off over
the small wooden bridge above the stream.

“So,” I said, “Penny’s a sweet girl, isn’t
she?”

“Yeah, she makes me tired sometimes
though.”

A
giggle
. “I can see that. She’s full
of happy energy.”

“That’s one way to put it. She keeps me on my
toes.”

“Well, we’ll have to have dinner
sometime.”

Kelvin gave me a hesitant nod. Conversation
seemed difficult for him so I decided to help him relax and said my
polite goodbyes.

At the one-story hospital—Angelica Soepheea
Clinic—I stood beside Dad, Mom and Chris as they discussed the
plans for the cave. Clean, hospital scents filled the room.
Antiseptic. The marble-tiled floor held a polished gloss. Against
the front wall, a row of metal-framed beds drew my attention, each
under a window and occupied with a patient. Knowing it was my
fault, guilt stabbed at my conscience. They were so sick looking.
Dark, sunken eyes clashing with sallow skin. Their attitudes seemed
hopeful, though, as they would grin over at us. Tucking some hair
behind my ear, I returned a smile, trying to communicate;
I’m
sorry
. A ponytailed nurse dressed in flower-printed scrubs
walked up to one of them, started a bit of giggling small talk
while she checked on a hanging IV bag.

Dad said to Chris, “I assume the dreks know
about your existence now. We had them convinced you were gone for
quite a while. I’m sure they’ll be on the hunt. We’ll have to
spread the word, warn the others. I’ll get on the phone and make
some calls.”

More humans?

Dad added, “We may have a solution to the
sickness, though.” He turned eyes on me. “Where’s Vyn, we need to
discuss his vaccine.”

“He’s getting my bow.”

With a little giggle, a teenaged nurse pushed
a metal cart by us and squeaked out a “Hi.” I smiled and returned
the “Hi.” Sounds of laughter from the patients filled the room, as
if someone had just told a good joke.

“Why don’t you go get him for us, honey,”
said Mom. “The kids probably stopped him.”

I gave her a nod and crossed the room.

While I stepped through town, people would
throw waves at me off their porches and from their yards. Of
course, I’d wave back, but it was a bit overwhelming so I picked up
my pace and began to run … Slowing to a brisk walk, I passed over
the stream bridge to notice Kelvin sitting in a metal chair by the
door, bent over an open book in his hands. He looked up at me,
pushed some hair from his eyes.

“Have you seen Vyn yet?” I asked as I strode
over.

“Nope, not yet. Just readin my book
here.”

A few beats added to my already speeding
heart. “Open the door. I need to go find him. Dad and Chris need to
talk to him.”

As I stepped into my clean shoes, picked my
sword off the floor and strapped the sheath on my back, Kelvin
lifted off his chair, unlocked the door with a clatter and cracked
it open. I stepped through. The iron
clank
of the door
closing behind me sent a cringe through me. I glanced down at the
ground where Angie and I had been before.

Being alone was a little unnerving as I
travelled up the cave, avoiding jutting roots and stepping around
pools of liquid drek leftovers.

The cave mouth at my back, I stood on the
dirt patch and surveyed down through the moonlit forest. Vyn was
standing in the clearing.

“Vyn, what are doing out here. Dad and Chris
need to talk to you.” I walked down and stood beside him.

“Just playin with the wolves. They won’t come
to me.”

Wolves sat lower down the mountain, just
watching us. “Yeah, they do that sometimes. It took me two years to
get close to them. They just don’t know you yet.”

The wolves continued to hold their glowing
gaze on us.

Vyn said, “I’ve been thinking about
something. Maybe you shouldn’t go after the hunters. I mean, you’re
good at killing the dreks, so why don’t you just stick with
that.”

“Not you, too. I don’t want to talk about
this right now. Let’s just go.”

He grinned, dropped the subject. “You know,
we’re all alone out here.”
Wink
.

I giggled, replied, “Don’t even think it. We
need to get inside. Dad and Chris need you to explain the
serum.”

“Ah, come on.” He nudged me gently, stepped
closer, and pushed me up against a tree while some sort of deep
heat began to stir inside me.

“Um, we can’t, Vyn. Let’s just go inside.” I
gave him a grin. “But, I tell you what, when we get home—”

“I can’t wait that long.” He spun me around
to where I faced the tree, leaned his weight into me, pressing into
my back. I could feel his, well, readiness through my jeans. My
hands grasped around the trunk as I felt the pine bark under my
palms. Vyn breathed heavy behind me.

Oh my, this was
—

I felt him pull my hair aside, then warm lips
on my neck, as my brain turned to pudding.

Well, maybe we could, just a little.

He breathed the words into my ear, “You taste
good, Ellie. Like a flower.” Chill bumps rose on my skin. He kissed
my neck again, then earlobe, and whispered, “My princess.”

And time disappeared.

****

I stood there, sweating in the night forest.
Vyn lay on the ground. His decapitated head lay ten feet away.

Held before me in my white-knuckled grip, my
sword glinted, blood dripping from the blade. Stark horror … filled
my face with heat and ripped through my very soul.

My heart thundered.

This isn’t real. This is a trick. Please.
This isn’t real. No. No. No! Please!

Convulsions tore through my body in dreadful
spasms, stomach pushing up its contents, bile filling my throat and
burning like razor cuts. I dropped my sword and fell to my knees.
Staring at—

My body tensed as I retched, a dry, ragged
heave. I coughed, choked on the acid. Stomach lurched. I bent,
vomited … retched and vomited … and again …

“Now what’d you go and do that for?” a drek
voice whined and I let out a shrill
scream
and bounded to my
feet. My heart rapped at my ribs, lungs tearing breath after breath
from the air. I stared at the drek’s detached head on the ground,
as it said, “We were having so much fun. How’d you guess it was
me?” His pointed tongue flicked over needle teeth as long as my
fingers. Bulging eyes glinting like onyx. “Oh well, I don’t need
hands for this, Princess. Come over here.”
Tongue flick
.
“Gimmie a taste.”
Tongue flick
. “Come on, come on, yeah,
just a taste.”

The most horrid sight I had ever seen. Wiping
traces of vomit from my mouth with the back of my trembling hand, I
stood in shock, my spinning mind unable to form words.

“Okay fine,” the drek head said, “lemmie
touch you then.” Movement caught my eye and I swung my gaze to the
body. Its arms stretched up from the ground, hands reaching out to
me. The distant head said, “Don’t be afraid, Princess. You might
like it, yeah.”

As he continued with his ghoulish jeers, I
took deep breaths to gather myself … Then bent and picked my sword
off the ground and marched over to the head. It smirked, flicked
its tongue. “Gimmie a kiss, gimmie a kiss, just a taste.”
Tongue
flick
. “Just a litt—“

“You forgot to sneeze,” I said. A jaw clench
as the tip of my sword plunged down through its forehead and staked
into the ground. “And don’t call me
princess
.”

Trembling in silence, I stood over a liquid
splotch of black on pine needles and twigs. Then glanced over to
see the body melt away and soak into the ground.

After what felt like minutes in a trance of
terror, it dawned on me:

Vyn!

Terror knifed through me as I streaked down
the cave, bleating traumatic squeals, breathless and snuffling,
feet slipping on a drek pool or two. My thumping heart pushed blood
up my neck and filled my face with heat. A torturous ringing in my
ears as I pounded both fists into iron. “Kel-vin, open the
door!”

“Is there something out there? I can’t open
the door if there’s something out there.”

“Open the flappin door right now! There’s
nothing out here!”

“You don’t sound very nice. How do I know
you’re not a drek?”

Two fists pounded again. “Just open the
flappin door! Would a drek know your name?” I stood panting,
huffing breaths from the dank air as sweat stung my eyes. After a
short pause, the door locks
clacked
. While he began to crack
it open, I shoved all my weight into it and stormed through, over
the bridge and on my way to the other door across the room.

As I ran over the floor, Kelvin called out
behind me, “I’m sorry. I’m supposed to be ...”

Ten flights of stone stairs in a rock-walled
stairwell that led to a hidden door in the den went by on a
heartbeat, as did the trek to the cellar. I blew through the lab
door with my eyes already on a search. Racks of glass tubes covered
polished stainless tables. Fluorescent light filled the room.
Glass-door refrigerators held shelves of liquid samples in clear
vials.