Wings of Boden (34 page)

The empty chair sat behind the table.

Even as I skidded to a gasping stop over the
living room floor, Ginelle snapped her gaze over the couch back.
“What’s wrong, Ellie?”

“Have you seen Vyn?” Breath. “Was he
here?”

Pulse thundered.

“No, I haven’t, sweetie. I’m sorry.”

“What’s wrong with Elle, Mommy?”

“Has Luca seen him? Did he go out with Luca?
”

“No, Luca went out to join the team in the
city. Have you checked …?” she was saying behind me, as I was
already half way up the stairs.

Doors banged open into empty rooms all
through the house, my mind shrieking.

“What’s wrong, Ellie?” Angie called out from
above while I stumbled back down the stairs. “Jayden, where …?”

Through quivering sobs, I rushed through the
blur of town. I jerked the hospital door open. Elastic legs carried
me to Mom and Dad as all eyes swung on me.

“What’s wrong, Ellie?” Mom asked.

She pulled me to her chest as I wilted into
her hug. I stammered, “I, c-can’t, find, Vyn.” There wasn’t enough
air in the room; the weight of the world pressing on my lungs.

Dad was off before anyone could say anything.
I angled my head on Mom’s chest to see the hospital door swinging
in the wake of his departure.

Mom feathered her hands over my back. “Your
father will find him.”

****

The house had emptied of males, Jaydenn and
Dad out searching for Vyn. Dad’s chair in the den caught me as I
dropped into it. While we waited, Mom, Angie and Ginelle did their
best to console me, standing here, there, sitting, and standing
again. Talking, I assumed, but I couldn’t put their words into
understandable sentences as pieces and parts of syllables floated
by.

My face fell into my folded arms on the desk.
The scent of polished wood and paper lifted to my nose.

An hour of time had violently broken into my
heart and thieved all my energy. Took everything. A few scraps of
hope left behind.

The grandfather clock chimed through the den.
All those numbers. I lost count at nine. There might have been two
more. Or three. The relentless second hand slid through the night.
Occasionally, I would hear shuffling across the room. Mom set a
glass of some kind of drink on the desk, or maybe it was Ginelle,
as I noticed her recognizable flower perfume on the air. Their
voices where hushed. The noises in my head were screaming:
Don’t
let go. Don’t give up
.

Minutes bled into hours …

The grandfather clock chimed twice;
chong,
chong
… Two o’clock … and the echo dissolved.

The sound of the door opening made me snap my
head up. I aimed eyes at Dad and Jaydenn as they trooped in, weapon
belts empty of syringes. They didn’t need to say anything; it was
on their faces.

And I began to sink into the depths.

Dad said anyway, “I’m sorry, honey. We
couldn’t—”

Mom’s hand may have lifted to cover her
mouth, I wasn’t sure. Indistinct sounds filled the room, sobs
maybe? A frigid feeling came over me. In a dreamlike state, I was
alone, wandering in a blizzard of isolation, searching for my Vyn
in the biting cold.

Mom said something like, “I’m so sorry,
Ellie.” And I thought she might have stood, and she may have been
walking toward me. “Ellie,” her voice said, “are you …”

No. I wasn’t okay in the least. Something
took charge of my body, a separation of mind and form. My legs
lifted me out of the chair and carried me across the room. My arms
pushed the weapon wall around. My hands pulled a weapon belt off a
hook, strapped it around my waist, and gathered up syringes. They
also decided to pull a long spear off the wall. Like a vision, my
eyes simply watched the motions of some sort of manifesting
purpose. My legs spun me around and marched me across the room.

“Honey,” Dad said, “I don’t think you shou—”
His gasp cut him short as his eyes met mine. With that, I stopped
and stood before him. It was the first time I’d ever heard him
gasp. With a curious head tilt, I observed him, sending a message:
I have to go now, Daddy.

“Ellie?” Mom questioned, drawing my gaze to
her as she froze. When I blinked, her hand lifted over her
mouth.

After turning back to Dad, I gave him a nod.
He seemed to understand. With a firm set to his jaw, a taut face
holding an intense green gaze, he sidestepped out of my way … A
beat, and another. Then long strides carried me toward the
door.

Mom’s voice behind me, “What happened to her
eyes, they’re white?”

Dad’s gruff reply, “It’s fine. They’ll come
back. It’s the power of Source.”

Frantic sounds filled the room behind me. Dad
and Jaydenn were gathering up weapons, I assumed. Until the sound
of heavy footsteps followed me out the door.…

On the porch deck I stood with Dad and
Jaydenn. A faint hint of light pollution lifted from the city.
Hunters and angels dotted the night sky over Boden. After jamming a
syringe into my thigh, I tossed the empty to the driveway, looked
at them and lifted a finger point to the distant battle. No words
necessary. They each held a spear as they gave me a firm nod,
unfurled their wings, took two steps off the deck and took flight.
I followed.

We pushed our way through the night. Stars
glittered. My vision was normal, yet crisp and clear and I could
see for miles. When I focused on something, I could zoom in like a
telescope. Then the finest of details would become clear as if
through the lens of a microscope.

When the hunter let out a mucus-garbled
yawp
, a question came to my mind: Was it I who flipped over
in mid-flight, and plunged my spear through the hunters back
between his dark wings?

Whoever it was, I watched through my eyes,
memories of Vyn storming my senses.

The lifeless vulture tumbled downward.

Another hunter was on the way. I hovered in
wait. Approaching, he opened his beak and screeched aloud.

A full rotation backflip as I dropped down
and thrust my spear upward through his breast—he let out a death
squawk
—before I yanked it out to see blood glinting on
blade. The vulture seesawed toward the ground like a
black-feathered rag, swallowed up by the dark.

Dad and Jaydenn had their eyes locked on me
in some sort of awe. My arm lifted a finger point as I directed
them toward the hunter-infected sky over Boden.

They understood without question, pushed away
to the city while I hung back in thought.

Angel wings glowed across the sky, with the
hunters just as numerous.

Which one took Vyn?

Hovering, I watched the war from my new
vantage point. A realization came to mind; I had never flown at
night. I don’t like it. In a sea of black depths, the monsters
lurked above. Yet the change was undeniable.

I was the predator, and the hunters my
prey.

An angel and hunter rolled in battle in the
distance. The dark spot flew off and the angel began to plummet
from the sky, wings flailing in desperation. My lungs pulled full
of night air. Two thrusts of my wings before I folded them back
into a descending acceleration. A few hundred feet above the city,
I lowered beneath the injured angel, held my spear across his body
and pushed into his weight to slow his descent. He had life. Blood
and anguish stained him, but he still managed a wrinkled grin on
his stubbled face as I helped him touch down to the street.

We stood together on the concrete, ambient
light from streetlamps pushing through shadows. Inhale. Exhale.

Glass-fronted, brick and wood shops lined the
road, sales and specials painted on windows:

GRAND OPENING SALE 30% OFF
STOREWIDE
. Another read:
FRUIT BUFFET, ALL
YOU CAN EAT, 1.79 DIAMOND CARATS. BARTERS WELCOME
. On the
sidewalk before the building, propped against a bent lamppost, a
dead hunter lay twisted in a pool of lamplight. And over there, a
lifeless black wing dangled off the roof edge of another brick
building. Torn fabric from the storefront awning flapped on a light
wind. I watched a leaf, or scrap of paper, skitter down the street.
Distant screeches filled the sky, echoes of war in the night.

The rescued angel towered at team height as
he set curious eyes down on me, a hobbled wing against his side
with the tip bent on the ground. “Elle?” he questioned.

Did I know him? I gave him a head tilt,
straightened it. Words seemed to crawl up my throat and I spoke the
first words since the den, in an odd, vibratory tone, “Yes. I am
Elle, and you are?”

He placed his right hand on his wounded left
shoulder, winced. “It’s me girl, Tyr. What happened to you?”

Senses lifted, memories, the stadium, Tyr ...
I replied, “Oh, yes, Tyr. I didn’t recognize you.” My voice was
back to normal. I pushed windblown hair off my face, tucked it
behind my ear. With the butt of my spear on the ground, bloodied
tip to the sky, I held my gaze on Tyr.

“You really are part of the team, aren’t
you?” Tyr said, rubbing the back of his neck. “I’m sorry I ever
doubted you. You saved my life, girl.” He gave me a pinched- and
pained grin on his battle-worn face.

Purpose flashed in my mind as I pleaded,
“Have you seen, Vyn?”

“No, I haven’t.” His expression went to
confusion. “Shouldn’t he be at the lab?”

Yes, he should be. I felt my face wilt into a
frown.

At the sound of wings, I wheeled around to
catch sight of a falling hunter just as it hit the roof with a loud
thwump
. The pink neon-lighted sign that hung in the
storefront window read,
Angel’s Closet
. It doesn’t matter,
nothing matters. As my bottom lip started to quiver, I took wing
before the sobs came.

“Thanks, Elle,” Tyr called from the ground. I
sniffled, rubbed my nose, and pushed a few wing thrusts …Up … up …
into reality I ascended.

Flight … Memories of Vyn rushed into my mind:
His dimpled, innocent smile. Those soft lips. His laughter. The
time when he dipped me down and kissed me in front of the cave. Our
moments of touching wings. How I relished his heartbeat next to
mine.

All the memories of our life were there like
watching a love story, already knowing the ending.

Oh, Source, he can’t be gone. He just
can’t. He hasn’t told me he loves me yet. Please. Please!
… My
mind sparked into words, “Source, what did you do to me? I never
did any-thing wrong. And you— Why, why would you let this happen?
If you let anything happen to him, I’ll find you. And I will end
you! Do you hear me? I’m coming for you!”

Emotions spilled. I cried aloud, “Vyn! Where
are you?”

A lightning jolt of energy went through me as
a hunter swooped down from the moon. “I don’t flappin think so,” I
growled.

My jaw muscles worked a clench. The spear
knifed through his black feathers and he
yawped
with the
sound of his last heartbeat. I yanked the spear out, spat the words
at him, “You filthy murderer.”

He dropped out of sight.

Not yet! I’m not done with you!

I streaked after him, caught up, and lost my
mind:

While maniacally screaming and crying, while
grating fury between my teeth, while mucus shook from my nose and
slobber sprayed—I stabbed, and stabbed, and tore, and tore black
feathers from his body. Until I backed off and he
slammed
into the ground in a puff of dirt.

Rage kept me company as I took out all in my
path without care of my life or death. Self-propelled night wind
rushed through my hair and wings. Burning blisters formed on my
palms.

Minutes …

Hours …

I reached to my weapon belt, pulled a syringe
and plunged it into my thigh, yanked it out and tossed the empty
into the abyss.

Lifeless hunters littered the city. I
searched for my love, tears sprinkling the earth.

What would I see if I did find him? It
doesn’t matter, just find him.

Angie’s words whispered in my mind;
He
loves you, Ellie. He would die for you
.

An endless night wore on….

****

The sun crawled up over the mountainous
horizon like a deviant ball of flame. Day came, bringing with it
silence. Angels returned to their homes.

Pity awaited me, I suspected, so I decided to
stay out for a while. My engine still sputtered with shards of
hope. But there was nothing left in the sky.

My wings set me down in a field of wild grass
and weeds, pine forest all around. Jagged mountaintops of the Crags
lifted thousands of feet above. The scent of nature rode on a
chilled breeze. A hawk call pierced the sky.

Deceitful beauty.

Colors were too vivid, sky too clear, smells
too sweet.

I tossed the spear aside, unbuckled the
weapon belt and dropped it, then lowered to sit on the damp cold,
pulled my knees to my chest and hugged them. Hair fell around my
face as I sat with my head bowed; my stinging eyes to the ground.
Drenched in loss, my heart weighed thick and heavy as it thumped. I
counted the beats—one, and another. Minutes passed. I rubbed my
leaking nose with the back of my hand, and sniffled with the only
question: I’m supposed to save the children. Who’s going to save
me?

My mother and everyone else would search for
me, I knew, so I got to my feet, bent to pick up the spear and felt
the razor sting of open blisters on my palm flesh. Looking around,
I made the decision to head into the woods. My legs pushed through
the tall grass as I trudged across the field, morning dew wetting
my jeans to the knees.

The dirt path narrowed under the shade of
pines, alder bushes bordering. I moved along.

Birdsong filled the forest as they flittered
from branch to bush and back. A morning dove cooed softly,
coo-oo, coo, hoo, oo
. Squirrels chattered. Rabbits scurried.
A hawk called,
kee-eee-aar
… In all my life, I had never
felt more alone.