WingSpan (Taken on the Wing Book 1) (38 page)

“Hurry,” Firn sits on her heels. “Human doctor, Talon.”

Talon gets Cloud in his arms as gently as he can and Shadow scrambles to help him wrap her in the sleeping mat for the cold trip.

“Where’s the key?” Talon asks and Shadow points at the fire. Soar kicks at the embers looking for the small piece of steel.

“Master Talon,” Dove interrupts. “Her back is broken and her skull is fractured. She can’t be moved.”

“No,” he whispers and holds Cloud tighter.

“We have dead here, Master Talon,” Lev says and Shadow understands. She won’t be going with Cloud to the hospital.

“I will do all I can for her, Talon,” Dove says. She still hasn’t moved and Firn pours moonwater over her daughter’s hands. “If it comes that there is no hope, I swear she will not suffer.”

Talon nods and Shadow watches, heartbroken for him, as a single tear makes its way down his cheek.

“Talon,” Shadow wipes it away before anyone else sees. “I love you, Talon. Cloud is ours now. Get her help. Your place is with the living.

“Mine is with the dead.”

Chapter Thirty-One

Cloud sleeps in the small second bedroom of their rented Tofino beach cabin. Surrounded by magazines, clothing stolen from Shadow, Talon and even Lev, Terry’s resurrected iPad and a number of bits and pieces scavenged from the rock strewn stormy shore, not much is visible other than her short, spiky pink hair. Talon explained that although her nesting is extremely delayed, something expected of a child who hasn’t yet taken wing, it’s completely normal and a good sign she finally feels at home.

Shadow was reluctant to make the last leg of the journey to her new eyrie until Cloud was well enough to fly so Lev gave the order to evacuate the eyrie and Tofino enjoys an unusual tourist boom. The motels are full of gryphons and the local Co-op is experiencing meat shortages.

Cloud’s new look is complements of a local hairdresser; she was left alone while Shadow went down the street to buy them tea and something sweet for desert. When she returned the woman had cleaned up Cloud’s self inflicted hack job and was soaking her hair in dye.

“Tony is bummed.”

“He’s what?” Talon asks, arms around Shadow as they watch her.

“Bummed.”

“The owner’s kid?”

“Yeah, they’re the same age.”

Tony’s parents own the cabins occupied by Shadow, Lev and females with children. Accommodations on either side are taken up by the guard and any others.

Shadow studies the wear on Talon’s face. Very human stress and trauma plague him and he takes wing daily to seek refuge in his strong gryphon spirit. Only today he admitted to suffering nightmares of running through endless tunnels, unable to find his broken sister, adopted daughter and chained mate.

“He says it’s not fair his hippie parents saddled him with Tony when city folks like us got the really cool names.”

Talon laughs but underlying the sound is a protective growl.

“Cloud says she’ll break his fingers if he tries to touch anything she covers with clothes.”

“That’s my girl.”

“I think he’s just happy to have another kid his own age around since he’s gotta work here after school while we’ve rented all their rooms,” Shadow says, thinking of Cloud’s week of firsts: first car ride in Talon’s rig, first haircut, first bra, first kiss. News of the first kiss had been girl talk and something Shadow found amusing though nothing Talon’s fledgling paternal instincts were ready for, not by a long shot.

Talon was winged and invisible when he helped Cloud stagger into the Chilliwack emergency. She refused to speak to anyone in the hospital and the night before she was to be discharged into the care of social services she’d taken wing with Shadow in her room. They’d walked out the front door to Talon and his waiting truck.

“She’s so strong, Talon. With all she’s been through… every challenge makes her stronger.”

“Sounds like something I told you the day we met.” Talon pulls her chin high and gives her a soft kiss along the curve of her jaw.

“Hey Talon, I see you got the new
Seventeen
,” Lev calls. He’s around the corner in the small living room. Shadow has to wonder if it’s just his strange sense of humor or if he’s completely out of touch with the way humans do things.

“That’s Cloud’s,” Shadow answers. “We got you a copy of
Six Hundred and Seventeen.
”

“Arf, arf,” is the odd reply. The middle aged gryphon has as much to learn about being human as Cloud.

Talon pushes Shadow a little further down the short hall as he closes Cloud’s door.

Lev usually gets the hint they want to be alone and returns to the cabin he shares with Firn but not tonight. After helping Cloud frost another batch of cupcakes he’d stoked the fire as she got ready for bed. Now he alternates between lurking around the kitchenette and putting his big booted feet up on the coffee table while several more cupcakes disappear.

“Soar says Cloud did well testing her wings this evening,” Lev says.

So that’s it.

In spite of Lev’s assertion they’re safe in the cabins, Talon and Soar are impatient to get everyone under Shadow’s protective magic. Cloud’s story of bleeding on the eyrie doorstep and promising her loyalty will come to pass only after Shadow claims her rule by doing the same thing.

Cloud’s stitches are out and much of her mobility has been restored after Torrent’s terrible attack, so there’s really no reason to stick around any longer other than to feel near Terry. There’s a whole other side of her brother to get to know.

“I suppose,” Shadow answers.

“I have news as well,” Lev continues.

Talon turns away before resting his chin on top of Shadow’s head to avoid her look. He’s heard the news already.

“The Jasper Eyrie has gone silent. Word is Torrent has returned.”

“We can only hope alone,” Shadow wishes out loud. There are so many kind gryphons in Jasper and Torrent could be sick enough to bring the remains of his rogue army with him.

“As I’ve explained,” Lev says as his boots thump the table top. “Swift’s murder is a matter settled by his eyrie. The other allegations against him will be taken before the Grand Council but they will be hesitant to destroy the Jasper Eyrie because of his actions. Our priority is getting our gryphons home. Cloud feels well enough to make the flight so we check out tomorrow and head to the transition house. Feather is not fit to fly so we will take her in a litter.”

“Yes, sire,” Shadow concedes. Her sire is right, of course.

Feather is able to shuffle around the cabin she shares with her caregiver, Dove, and is grateful for her welcome into Shadow’s eyrie. Dove believes it will be months before she’s flying again. Daily treatments of Dove’s magic steadily repair her spinal damage and calm the raging neurons and seizures from her head injury.

Tundra, the big gryphon from Welch Peak now bears the mark of Shadow’s guard and when not assigned above with Soar and the others, spends his time near Feather. He’s also Dove’s twin and Firn’s son and his long absence infiltrating the rogues on behalf of Sire Lev had been difficult on the family which still feels the absence of its sire.

Talon pulls her chin higher grazing her throat with his teeth. Shadow looks forward to seeing him with his shirt off all the time in the eyrie. Since living in the cabin he’s returned to sleeping with his clothes on, barely undressing for sex.

“In the meantime,” Lev says. “It’s a moonless night. Heavy fog.”

“Yes, sire,” she says again, running her hands over Talon’s denim covered butt and dragging one forward hoping to encourage some interest in the bedroom. Not that Talon ever needs any encouragement and tonight is no exception. Shadow feels the prickle of his chest feathers through his shirt before he gets them under control.

It sounds like Lev is finally making an excuse to leave and join the guard patrols aloft but then his heavy sigh derails Shadow’s plans.

“A
clever
white gryphon would have no trouble hiding in the trees from a big thug like Talon.”

“Really,” Shadow whispers as he gets his teeth around the side of her neck. Big tease. She digs a single finger into his ribs. Talon hisses and catches her wrist as he turns away.

“Hunt,” Talon says so softly she has to shift her hearing to gryphon sharpness to make it out. “There’s nowhere for you to hide, little gryphon. The longer it takes you to surrender the worse it will be for you.”

“Oh fuck, Talon,” she gasps as she wraps around him, making contact with every inch of her body she can.

“Anyways,” Lev says loudly. “I thought I would look around for that copy of
Six Hundred and Seventeen
, help myself to some of Cloud’s baking and… babysit for you,” he pauses either for effect or because he’s not sure of the word.

They don’t need him to volunteer twice.

Outside on the unlit porch, Talon is still fussing with his boots by the time Shadow slides out of her sweats and T. She steps behind and as he leans over she kicks him squarely in the ass, knocking him sprawling.

Three strides later, Shadow dives naked from the porch, taking wing before she can land. The salty air picks her up and she tumbles several times as Talon’s roar fills the black beach.

“Oh, shit,” she gasps as she swoops around behind the cabin. Talon’s heavy steps are nearly lost in the crash of the big surf. With her mouth dry with sick fear and heated inside more than she ever imagined, Shadow disappears into the trees.

Sun cleanses the stone opening to Shadow's new eyrie. There's no magic in the act but the eldest common female pouring moonwater around the opening has long been a tradition. Sun is nearly nine hundred and is proud to welcome Shadow as she had Treasure nearly three hundred years before.

Shadow stands alone in the entrance and draws her Dame's small dagger. Lev looks on, chin held high with pride, as Shadow draws it across her palm. The blade is sharp and much to her relief the wound is nearly painless.

“My Sire, my gryphons,” she calls loudly so the eyrie residents circling above can hear. As she pauses, the afternoon sunshine breaks through the clouds above, setting her platinum adornment afire and filling the salt-white entry with light. The first lamp ignites followed by the next and into the gentle upward curve of the tunnel. “My blood, my love, my service.”

Shadow waits with Lev as her gryphons enter, each bowing and bidding her welcome. Last to enter are Talon, Cloud and the four who bear Feather in the litter.

As everyone waits, Talon and Cloud help Feather to her knees. Before Shadow, Lev and the eyrie's gryphons, they bind themselves in blood to their new home.