Wings of Boden (2 page)

“Go ahead,” I exhaled the permission. His
blue eyes surveyed my curves. “Here, get a better look.” I reached
out and pulled his head in, mashed his face to my chest with a
giggle.

Choo
, he sneezed into my shirt. Not
because of my perfume, he always sneezes when he gets, well,
excited. I always thought it so cute so I smiled.

When I let go, he stood all glassy-eyed and
flustered. I pecked a kiss to his warm cheek, drew back. “Now, are
you going with me or what? That glow you have could light my
way.”

His wings flittered with a blue-tipped
sheen.

“Put those things away, Vyn, we’re leaving.
And put your shirt on.”

He puffed out a breath and pouted.
“
Fine
. Let’s go.”

April air, temperature in the mid-seventies,
perfect weather for a walk under the stars while enjoying the smell
of fresh-cut grass. Vyn strolled over to the manicured lawn that
bordered the path, buried his bare feet in the turf and let out a
long sigh.

“Wear shoes and your feet wouldn’t be so
sore,” I called to him. Just don’t wear the pointy ones, I
neglected to mention, no reason to fuel his opinions.

Vyn ran up and wrapped his hand around an
unlit lamppost. He leaned back and spun around it with a grin, his
wings pushing a rotation as he called out, “Come here, Elle.”

Shadows fell across the moonlight-spattered
ground, as light worked its way through the canopy of branches
above. The maintenance crew had watered the grass and sprayed the
path. Moist glinting cobbles drew my attention, as always, so I
kept my gaze to the path. As I pulled my little purse straps higher
on my shoulder, a dreamy feeling floated through my brain, a
blissful tingle arousing my sense of wonder.

Then there was the voice again; the little
girl voice in my head that always talked to me at the same time
each night.
I hope you can hear me. I know you’re probably busy
but, um, I need your help. My mommy and daddy are gone. And the
boys are teasing me. They make me cry and hurt my feelings all the
time. I’m alone now. Please help me. Um, okay, that’s all. I love
you, Elle, goodnight.

“Here, Elle!” Vyn reminded. “You have to try
this.”

Vyn twirled around a pole like a fledgling on
a fieldtrip, his wings following every movement. With a little
deeper focus, I caught a glimpse of light on his chest,
mag-netizing me for closer look. I’d asked him to put a shirt on
for this very reason. He’d slung it over his shoulder to appease
me, and now held it in his hand while he played.

“Stop for a second, will you,” I said,
standing on the edge of the path.

He stopped, let go of the lamppost, stood
there with a childlike grin, feet buried in the lawn. “Yeah? A nice
night, huh?”

I didn’t say, “Of course it is, little boy,”
but I thought it, as the light on his skin rendered me speechless.
I removed my flats, held them in my hand and stepped through the
cool grass, then locked my mesmerized gaze on his chest and tucked
a loose strand of hair behind my ear.

“You’re lookin at my sexy, aren’t ya?”

“What?” I slid a glance up to see his grin.
Then dipped my eyes back down. When I touched a fingertip to his
skin, it dimpled rings like a raindrop on still waters. “Ohhh.”

“Uh, Elle, whatcha doin?”

I looked up. “I’m sorry, it’s just— and you
know how I love the moon.” My eyes narrowed. “I told you to put a
shirt on.”

A half grin tugged at the corner of his
mouth. “Maybe that’s why I didn’t.” His eyebrows flicked up and
down and made me giggle.

“Hey,” a nasal voice startled me to look up
as Mawlkon Boshaunn—a long-limbed drekavac—stood above on a
cottonwood tree branch, leaning against the trunk, wearing nothing
but tight black shorts over stick legs. Moonlight shone through
tree leaves, dappling his pale gray form—skin wrapped on bone. He
picked his jagged teeth with a fingernail. An oversized, hairless
head balanced on his neck. Swollen plum eyes leered at us like some
kind of sinister bug. “You guys weren’t about to flap, were you?”
he said with a smirk.

None of your business, I wanted to say, but
snapped out instead, “Shut up, Mawlk.”

Touching wings, flapping, is a demonstration
of love, like an awesome kiss, though not allowed in school,
something about public display of affection. But, whatever.

Vyn gave me a grin, looked at me as if to
say, Were we?

“You know you two should be careful out here
at night,” Mawlkon said. “You wouldn’t wanna end up hunter food.
You know how much they like sweet angel meat, and you two look.
Delicious.”

My glare shot up at him. “Were you watching
us like some kind of pervert?”

“I was here first. If you guys need some
hunter protection, I could do that for ya.” He hopped down from the
tree. All seven foot something of him stood before us. He folded
his dark wings back and said, “For, oh, ten diamonds. Whattaya
say?” He reached out his bony fingers to shake.

“Don’t touch his hand, Vyn,” I said. A
mosquito found my neck and I brushed it away.

“We can take care of ourselves,” Vyn said to
Mawlkon. “Shouldn’t you be scavenging?”

“Just finished a tasty little boar, short
stuff.” Mawlkon sucked his teeth, lowered his hand.

Vyn looked Mawlkon up and down, seeming to
measure the situation, before he smirked and said, “Let’s go, Elle.
He’s boring me and he’s about to get his wings shoved up his tail,”
then turned and paced off.

While slipping my flats on, I angled a glance
up at Mawlkon. His leer seemed to be calculating my nutritional
value as a potential meal. I shuffled after Vyn, grabbed his hand
and entwined my fingers with his, held tight.

Vyn and I strolled along the path, holding
hands, our mood a bit distracted. The welcome sight of the gradual
curve ahead hinted at Angie’s house just around the bend. We knew
Mawlkon wouldn’t leave that easy, so the sound of wings behind and
above came as no surprise.

Thoughts wandered like shadows in the dark.
The hunters did pose a danger to us all. They would circle high
above, on the outskirts of town—a nightmare reminder. We couldn’t
see them, but images of the giant black vultures hid in the back of
our minds—the wrinkled-skin heads; hooked beaks and talons;
soulless eyes. We knew they were there, but we never talked about
it. The female angels would hang on to their males, and thoughts
would slip into some sort of comfort.

“Where ya goin?” squawked Mawlkon, swooping
and hovering before us.

“Just leave us alone,” I said, my eyes
tracking his flight.

Mawlkon dropped down, blocking our path.
“Must be nice, huh, Princess?”

Princess!
That word I hated so much.
Was it a crime to like nice things? His comment forced a clench of
my jaw and a burning glower. I snapped out, “Flap off,
Mawlkon.”

He said in his nasal tone, “You angels,
walking around in those daft looking shoes and fancy clothes,
mocking us with your wealth. And what’s in that little purse of
yours, Elle? Diamonds and expensive perfume, I suppose.”

Vyn blew a sigh, released my hand. “Please,
Mawlkon, spare us the poor drek song. Would you like a tissue? Or
maybe you’d like some lipstick.” A glance at me. “You got some
lipstick in there, Elle?” Eyes back on Mawlkon. “No, you’d need
more than lipstick to cover up that ugly.”

Mawlkon clicked his razor teeth. “I wasn’t
talking to you. You’re going to be some big scientist, eh? Change
the world with your flight stuff, eh? You know, you might want to
treat me better. You might need my help some night.”

Vyn’s look went to concerned confusion. “How
did you know about my work?”

Mawlkon turned a pool of ego. He stiffened up
straight, paced in front of us like a stick-legged shadow with a
plan. “Everyone knows. You’re not that stupid are you? I mean, you
can’t keep a secret that big. Do you know what that would mean,
angels flying at night? Look at the other side. What would happen
if the hunters were able to fly during the day? Are you sure that
wouldn’t happen, Vyn?”

Oh my Source, could he be right?

Vyn morphed the look of a defensive animal.
When I reached over and tried to grab his hand, he brushed me away,
formed a fist. Then added a little fierce to his leer at Mawlkon,
and growled, “We’re not gonna let that happen, so don’t get your
hopes up,
drek
.”

Mawlkon stopped, wheeled and gave a ghoulish
grin, leaned closer to Vyn and scratched a whisper, “We’ll see
about that.”

A large angel was travelling down the path in
front of Angie’s home.

Mawlkon pulled my attention back with a
scrape of his wingtip over my cheek as he said, “So, whattaya
think, would you like my protection, Prin—?”

Before Mawlkon could finish his thought, he
let out a strangled
Yawp
as Vyn wrapped a hand around his
throat and clamped down, cutting off any chance of a drekavac
yell.

Vyn’s clenched teeth dripped light as his
lips pulled back. A striking blue glow shot from his eyes. Mawlkon
flapped and flapped his wings. Vyn’s tight ropes of muscle seemed
to pulse, tendons popping, heat wafting in waves. The force of
Mawlkon’s flailing lifted Vyn off the path. Wing-propelled air
fluttered my hair and skirt. With all I had in me, I jumped,
reached and grabbed Vyn’s ankle as he lifted higher off the
cobbles. I screamed, “Let him go, Vyn, we’re getting too high.”

We fell to the cobbles. I landed light on my
feet.

Vyn followed, touched one knee down, one foot
before him in a crouched and kneeled position, fingertips to the
path. Stretched wide, his white wings drooped to the stones. With
his head bowed to the ground, chest heaving, his lungs pushed
billows of steamed light into the night.

After picking my purse off the ground, I
hitched the straps over my shoulder and said, “Vyn?” Then brushed
hair off my face, tucked it behind my ear. “Vyn, sweetie, are you
okay?”

Vyn expelled a glowing cloud. When I lifted
my vision to watch it float I saw Mawlkon flying away, coughing,
ragged wings beating the air, his hand clutching his neck as he
disappeared into the night.

“Ellie,” Angie called from the distance, “I
thought I heard something. Get your butt over here, sis.” She stood
in a pool of light by her cottage doorway, wearing a short robe
over some sort of matching nighty, her arms folded over her chest.
“I can’t wait out here all night, you know.”

“Vyncynte?” I laid my palm on his back, felt
the heat subsiding, breath slowing. “Let’s go, sweetie. It’s fine
now.”

He angled his searing blue gaze over his
shoulder and up to me. “It’s not fine.” Then got to his feet,
folded his wings back, snatched his shirt off the ground and pulled
it over his head, didn’t even bother to button the wing-flaps.
Standing before me, he framed my face with his palms, looked me in
the eyes and said, “I have to take care of this.”

Wait. Did he get taller? He did, inches over
my height!

Oh, yummy
.

“Guess I can’t call you stubby anymore, huh?”
Angie said to Vyn as we stood under the entry light before her
front door. In the cutest peach-silk nighty, matching robe, furry
socks, she rubbed the chill off her arms. Lustrous brown hair
spilled around her shoulders to her chest. Something was different;
did she put in highlights? A teasing grin made her exotic green
eyes glitter. She stood at my height and petite size, but her
female curves under the silken fabric had me beat by a few years.
Peaking over her shoulders, her white wings glistened; the result
of a fresh application of feather-gloss, I suspected.

“Yeah, yeah,” Vyn said, “can we just go
in?”

When we walked into the scent of flowers and
baking, I couldn’t help but notice Angie had cleaned her cottage.
While I stood on the hardwood floor, a hint of color caught my eye,
and I turned to see her oak coffee table in the living room with a
nice bouquet of daisies in a porcelain vase. Next to it sat an
unopened DVD still in the plastic wrap; a box of tissues; a popcorn
bowl and a box of candy. Evidently, she’d planned one of our
sisterly movie nights. We would curl up under a blanket on the
couch, munching popcorn and snuffling at a love story, while the
boys did, well, whatever they did. My gaze narrowed in suspicion
when I noticed the unfamiliar decorative pillows on her overstuffed
couch and chair, and a new throw blanket folded on the chair
back.

“Is there something you need to tell me,
sis?” I asked as I walked around the kitchen table, pulled a wooden
chair and sat. Then looked up at her and tightened my gaze. “You
went shopping, didn’t you? You went to that new store without me,
didn’t you?”

Vyn sat across from me, relaxed back on his
wings and scratched his stomach.

Angie approached with a guilty look. “Yeah,
sorry about that, Ellie. I just couldn’t wait any longer and you
were in class.” She shuffled her furry socks over the tiled floor
to the kitchen cupboard, removed a large wooden bowl and set it to
the countertop. “I picked up some fresh petals. You have to try
these, they’re so tasty.” She dumped lavender petal chips from a
bag into the bowl.

“You cleaned up, huh?” I asked. “Did we, um,
interrupt something?”

“No, no, just— what’s with all the
questions?” She stepped over and set the bowl to the table. Vyn
leaned back in his chair, folded his arms over his chest and gave
me a lopsided grin.

Probably should’ve just let it go, but I
asked Angie, “So, how’s Jaydenn?” Smirk.

“He’s fine.” She turned, stepped away and
whispered, “Really fine.” She pushed her hair over a shoulder while
her wings did a little flitter.