Death Takes Wing, page 7
She finished the apple slice before snagging a crispy slice of bacon. “Little bit rusty on my Latin.”
“Sorry,” he said with a shrug. “It’s a Chaser.”
“What’s a Chaser?” she asked as she savoured the smoky bacon.
“Someone who chases,” he said lightly.
She looked at Gabriel who ignored her imploring stare. Turning her eyes back to Matt, she said, “So what’s a Chaser do?”
“We chase people.” Seeing her look of impatience, he added, “I catch the people, usually angelus, who are breaking the laws. The Enforcers extract punishment. Usually, an Enforcer works with two or three chasers.”
“Usually,” Aleks interceded, “Each Chaser in on a different case, though.”
“Why is this case different?”
“It’s the scope of it,” Aleks said as Matt grabbed a slice of apple and wrapped a limp piece of bacon around it.
“So can you tell me about it?”
“Why so curious?” Aleks asked curiously as he picked at his pancake.
“Polibrarian,” Gabriel said as he stared at his computer.
When Aleks gave her a questioning look, she shrugged and replied, “former police officer, currently a librarian.”
“Ah,” Aleks said as he looked at Gabriel, eyes narrowed.
“So, she’s working with us?” Matt asked as he stared from Aleks to Gabriel.
Gabriel looked up and gave him a brief nod. “Yeah. I think we need another mind. One who’s not as involved as we are.”
“Involving a human is stupid,” Aleks proclaimed with a growl. “And dangerous.”
Gabriel gave him a surprised look. “I took the lead from you, Aleks. Earlier, you said we needed more help. I brought another person in.”
“A human,” Aleks said derisively, shaking his head in disbelief. “I’ve never lowered myself to working with a human. And I don’t plan on starting now.”
“Then don’t,” Amalia snapped. “Because let me tell you, the worst thing on a case is working with someone who doesn’t want to work with you.”
“She’s your problem,” Aleks finished, ignoring Amalia’s comment, as he pointed his fork at Gabriel. “Don’t come whinging to me when she mucks the investigation up.”
She ignored the slights on her character, species and methods and turned to Matt. “So, what can you tell me about this case? Why would a human be helpful when an angelus would likely have more experience?”
He replied after carefully choosing another choice morsel of charred toast, much to Amalia’s disgusted stomach. “I think it’s because of the combination of humans and angelus, and what’s happening to them. Right now, we know that four of the people were in relationships with angelus. Obviously one was your friend, Samantha.” He paused, pouring more coffee for himself. He shook his head, trying to organize his thoughts. “What makes this odd, and it’s why there’s two Enforcers on it, is that we keep finding bodies. The body you found yesterday? Wasn’t the first. Wasn’t the first we’ve found openly. We’ve been able to hide the others since it’s an angelus investigation, so the human police aren’t involved. When you’re friend went missing, they became involved. One of the connections I’ve made is that everyone who’s missing is either immune or related to someone who’s immune. Like Peg. Peg has an aunt who’s immune.”
“So some of them were taken because they’re potential carriers for the immunity,” Amalia said, pushing her plate away from her.
Aleks nodded, “to the best of our knowledge, yes.”
“Why? What can they do with someone who’s only a carrier?”
Gabriel took a slow drink of coffee, staring at her, pleased that his instincts had been correct. So she was as clever as he remembered, and still as inquisitive as she had been at the wedding. Hopefully that wasn’t a skill she’d turn against him, he thought, contemplating. “We think it’s because they’re changing them, and trying to figure out how to change them back into human.”
She frowned. Why would someone want to do that? “What makes you say that?”
“Because the angelus we’ve found? They were formerly humans. We know because we have access to missing peoples databases that include both umans and angelus.“
“What about the three who could be immunity carriers? How do they fit into it?”
Gabriel glanced at Matt, who was leaning forward with an animated look on his youthful face. With a shrug, Gabriel spread cream cheese on a bagel, gesturing at Matt to take the floor. Matt smiled enthusiastically at Amalia before saying, “they don’t, not really. Aleks figures that they’re trying different ways of changing them back. One of the theories is that to change them back, they have to introduce the immunity.”
“Like a vaccine? But those don’t work if you already have it, do they?” Amalia asked, leaning forward with interest.
Aleks shrugged and looked at Matt, who leaned away from the table. “I believe it’s like the chickenpox. You get it, and the visible signs go away, but the immunity is still there, in your blood stream. Because it’s still there, you can get shingles. If a researcher could figure out how to use that base for the renati, they might be able to reverse the physical effects, but keep the immunity.”
“That doesn’t really sound plausible,” she said with a frown, “reversing the virus actually sounds pretty impossible.”
“Well,” Matt interjected, “A lot of the things you thought were impossible aren’t. Four years ago, people thought Angels were a myth. They were losing their faith at an astounding rate. Then, poof,” with the ‘poof’, Matt threw his hands in the air, sending a crumbs flying, making Amalia duck with a smile as the black crumbs rained down on her. “We ‘appear’,” he said, inserting quote marks with his fingers. “Suddenly, people find their faith again. Somehow, a shitload of them think we’re a message from God,” he finished with a disgusted look. “Talk about impossible.”
“Yeah,” Amalia said sarcastically, “impossible.”
“Anyways, we still don’t know all the variables of this virus. At this point, nothing is impossible.” He finished with a shrug. He stood up and started to take care of the food, tossing a piece of toast to Lucy. He paused on his way to the sink, “well, not unless you expect Frankenstein to appear. I’m pretty sure that’s impossible. Now, Godzilla…that one might be real. Still haven’t figured that out. I am working on it, though. Pretty sure I’m almost there.”
Amalia looked at Matt, then at a brooding Gabriel who just shrugged as if to say, “that’s Matt for you”.
“So, question for all you…winged folks,” Amalia said haltingly as she picked up a slice of apple and played with the skin.
Matt looked at her curiously as he popped a slice of limp bacon in his mouth. “Shoot,” he said, mouth full of bacon.
“What do you call a group of angelus? Angeli? Angelussess?” she asked, a slight smile curving her lips.
They stared at her with a deer caught in the headlights look. No one moved. No one answered. She narrowed her eyes at Gabriel who studiously ignored her in favor of staring at his laptop, and then turned her beseeching smile from Matt to Aleks.
Matt finally took the bait after eating another piece of limp bacon. “Eh, it’s just angelus.”
“Just angelus?”
“Just angelus. What? Am I talking to myself?” He asked, a smile dancing on his lips, He ran hand though his shor,t dark blond hair, blue eyes dancing with delight at her confusion.
“So,” she questioned, “angelus is both singular and plural. Like moose?”
Gabriel gave a snort of laughter as he shut his computer before staring at the table, hiding his smirk with his clasped hands. Aleks chuckled, and Matt’s face twitched with laughter before responding.
“Yes, like moose. Just don’t call us ‘angeleece’, like we’ve heard some people pluralize moose to meese, ya know?”
She narrowed her eyes at the three chuckling males and gestured at them collectively. “Apparently they make jackasses in your species too,” she snapped, eyes flashing bright with humor.
Gabriel stifled his grin with difficulty before rolling his eyes at Matt. “Bunch of teenagers,” he said blithely, unable to keep his twitching smile at bay.
She glared at him and pointed, “you’re included in that group. Just so you know.”
He laughed openly, enjoying the look of amusement on her face. “Oh, I’ve been told that many times. Comes from having a sister.”
She shook her head and handed her plate to Aleks, who had started to clear off the dirty dishes. Standing up, she walked out the kitchen door to the small backyard, taking Lucy with her for a potty break. A white picket fence surrounded the yard, with a much higher, chain-link fence a ways further out, near the woods that were closer to the yard than she preferred. She heard the door shut behind her, and footsteps follow her to the maple tree, the branches stripped of leaves in the harsh fall winds. The footsteps stopped behind her, the person falling silent as she watched Lucy investigate the fence line.
She turned around and saw Gabriel standing a few feet behind her. His wings were spread in the scant shade of the tree and his chinned tipped lightly toward the sky. He seems to enjoy the feel of the wind against his feathers, she thought.
“You sure you wouldn’t want to fly?” she said lightly as she watched him.
“Oh, I’m sure I would. And I know it’s not going to happen,” he replied, opening his eyes and closing his wings slowly, “but that’s not going to stop me from enjoying the air rushing through them.”
She suddenly realized that she had never seen him in the sunlight. His wings weren’t actually as dark as she’d originally thought, but a stormy gray with pewter flecks. The crimson edges were bright in the sunlight, accentuating the shape of the feathers. His eyes were on her as she watched him. Definitely gray, she thought to herself. Not the blue or green she thought when she’d first met him, but a grayish pewter that matched the highlights on his wings.
“So…Matt was telling me how the differences between solan and umbren go past the visual,” she said carefully, as she walked to the tree, resting a hand against the rough bark.
“Yes,” he said cautiously, turning to look at her, “it’s like that in every race, every species, every breed. It’s always past strictly the visual.”
“But he wouldn’t tell me what it was past the wings,” she continued, leaning against the tree, in an effortlessly casual manner that she’d picked up from Sam.
“And you want to know,” he replied grimly, closing his wings tightly in a brief spot of anger. He should have known that her insatiable curiosity would be turned towards him eventually, but he’d hoped that it would be later. Much later. She’d been better than most humans with his wings, but this… He swallowed hard. This was a completely new level of ‘different’.
“He told me that I needed to see you smile to understand. Really smile, I mean,” she finished, pushing away from the tree.
“So you want to see me smile? Really smile, I mean?” he asked, slowly walking towards her.
She swallowed, and walked a step towards him as he stopped a foot away from her.
“I’ve got a better idea,” he said slowly, a dark smile crossing his face.
She cocked her head. “And that is?” she prompted when he just smiled at her, wind rushing through her hair.
“Kiss me,” he said softly, staring at her intently.
“Kiss you?” she said, not sure if she’d heard him right.
“Yes,” he said, closing the distance between them, wondering if she would.
“And that will show me what Matt was talking about?” she asked, narrowing her eyes at him in interest.
“More or less,” he said, heart stopping at the look of consideration on her face.
“I think you’re just saying that just so I’ll kiss you,” she said accusingly, a small smile brushing her lips at the thought of kissing the handsome umbren.
“Maybe,” he smirked, “but don’t you want to know what Matt was talking about?”
As he stared down at her, she tipped her head up to his. At first, it was a light brush of lips. Then, he pressed his lips to her, wrapping his fingers in her thick masses of curls. She opened her mouth as he kissed her. He pulled back briefly before lowering his mouth to her neck. He nipped at her neck, gently scraping his teeth across the delicate skin. Hard enough for her to feel what he needed to show her, but not hard enough to do anything to the skin.
She gasped and jolted back, a look of shock on her face as she clenched a hand over the spot he’d been forced to leave. “Show me what I just felt,” she said, unable to stop the tremble in her voice She steeled her nerves, then tried again. “Now.”
A hard look came over his handsome face, but he slowly bared his teeth in a feral smile. He showed her his lengthened canines, glittering in the dim rays of sunshine. He stopped smiling and looked at her, waiting for the explosive reaction that he’d come to expect any time a human saw what he usually hid with a careful smile. Most humans weren’t aware of the canines that all umbren had, and most umbren took great pains to hide them from humanity.
Her breath hitched as she took in what he’d shown her, knowing that she’d felt them against her neck. She held the hand over that spot and closed her eyes. Opening them, she looked Gabriel again, calmer. The wings weren’t scary, actually, she considered. Just the opposite; they were stunningly beautiful, looking like molten metal in the scarce sunlight. The fangs? Those…now those were scary. People, she thought to herself, don’t have fangs. The rational part of her brain quickly piped up, reminding her that umbren aren’t people, and never have been. She calmed her racing heart, and began trying to separate fact from fiction. Impossible in her current state, she quickly realized.
She swallowed, and paused, carefully considering all of the possibilities that raced through her head. “Can-“ She stopped, not sure how to continue.
He raised an eyebrow, giving her leave to ask the question.
“Can I touch them? I mean, with my fingers, not with…” She felt herself blush as she trailed off, and she quickly looked away.
He considered, then reached out and turned her head back. Looking at the serious look on her face, he gave a soft smile. “Shall I say ‘aaah’?” he teased before baring the fangs again.
She ignored the jest and slowly reached up. She gently touched one. Interesting, she realized, it felt like Lucy’s fang. Sharp, but not razor sharp. She couldn’t help the nervous giggle that manifested at the thought, she pulled her hand back, and she considered the possibilities, and what would make the most sense. Slowly, carefully, she said, “so if the solan are responsible for the ‘heroic white Angels’, I’m guessing the umbren are responsible for the vampires?”
He nodded, barely moving his head, except to lick his lips, his wings tight against his body, holding him tighter than anyone else could. “The fangs aren’t the only thing that goes with that myth. The blood…” He trailed off, starting to walk towards the house, not knowing where to go with the line of thought, wondering if it would be too much. Too late, he considered, as she walked away from the tree to follow him.
“What do you mean ‘the blood’? Do you drink blood?” she asked, hurrying to catch up to him. She put a hand on his arm, trying to get him to look at her.
He paused his step, finally looking back at her. “Well, it’s drink a shitload every few weeks, or get a transfusion every other month.” He remembered having to drink it, and sometimes he missed the taste of the hot liquid, usually straight from a vein of choice, but he wasn’t about to share that knowledge with anyone, least of all Amalia. If the fangs didn’t spook her, that surely would. Mother knows it scared Ivy.
He started walking towards the door again, not wanting to continue the conversation. He knew that she was learning more about the umbren in the last two minutes than most humans would learn in a lifetime, and more than most solan cared to know.
“You get the transfusion?” she guessed, not wanting to think about him biting someone for the fresh blood that lay below the surface. Not wanting to think about him biting her…though the thought was distinctly erotic, she had a feeling it wouldn’t end pleasantly, unlike how most authors ended their tales.
“Me and most umbren. Easier, that way,” he paused, opening the door, “far less dead bodies. And let me tell you, it’s really hard to find enough hiding spots for dead bodies in a tight, claustrophobic city. Very hard. Unless it’s Paris, of course. Those catacombs can be really handy. Unless you get lost. Then they’re just a pain in the arse.”
He paused again, holding his arm out, stopping her from entering the house. “We’re the reason there are blood banks,” he said. “We don’t take from people who can’t afford to give, and we don’t take strictly for our usage. During emergencies, like Katrina, or 9/11, our blood banks helped keep thousands of people alive.” He removed his arm as she looked at him.
“You help save humans so that you can have a clear conscience?” she raised an eyebrow, remembering the time she’d had to get a transfusion after she’d gotten tossed off a horse a decade earlier, having broken her leg very badly. Now, she wondered if she should thank him for it. Probably not, she decided.
“No,” he said, shaking his head, “it’s not like that, not at all. We’re not the only ones who need blood in that quantity. If we can afford to share it, we do. Gladly, even.”
She nodded, considering what he’d told her, and the unspoken things he hadn’t. She walked past him, back into the kitchen. “Other than the fangs and the wings, and the…well, you know, are there any other differences that I need to know about? Anything that might really freak me out if you surprise me in a dark alley? Hidden blades in your hands? That sort of thing?”
He gave a soft chuckle before shaking his head. He joined Matt back at the table before responding. “No, the blood, that’s the big thing. The colors, the dark colors, I mean…those can be changed, dyed, bleached, the usual. The fangs can be filed down. I know several who’ve had it done, but the blood…that can’t be changed. It can be hidden, but eventually, someone finds out. Especially when you get close to someone. We have our list of excuses, but…eventually… Eventually every human get curious.” He left “people like you” unsaid, but she picked up on that and just paused for a brief second before walking over to the table.
