Chapter Five
“I know. I know it’s short notice.” I balanced the phone on my shoulder as I shoved the last box into the storage unit and slammed the door closed.
“But you still have several months left on your lease!” my landlady, Mrs. Hudgins, said. “And you’re a wonderful tenant. Don’t tell me that you’re going to live in that new high-rise on the other side of town. I know it looks nice, but from what I’ve heard it isn’t built well.”
“No, I’m not,” I promised. “I’m moving out of the city. I got a job offer, and it’s not the kind of thing I can turn down.”
“Oh, I see. Do you have a new place lined up yet?” Her voice was filled of concern.
“Yeah, I’ve got everything under control.”
“Let me give you the name and phone number of some rental agencies I know of over there. You don’t want to end up in a bad neighborhood. Hang on just a second.” The sounds of shuffling papers came over the phone as I waited for a number that I knew I wouldn’t write down.
I sighed and shook my head. She was a sweet lady, the kind of human I was fighting so hard to protect. As excited as I was to get started with the Legion, I was also going to miss the work that I had been doing in the city.
“Okay, here you go, honey.” Mrs. Hudgins rattled off a number and then repeated it, just to be sure. “Now exactly when are you leaving again?”
I smiled into the phone. “Tomorrow.”
“Oh, my! Well, I won’t be in the office until Thursday…”
“That’s all right. I can drop my key in your night slot.”
“Okay, dear. Well, take care, and you call me if you need anything.”
Hanging up, I headed back up to my apartment to discuss everything with Ember. She was waiting outside my door when I got there.
“Just how much stuff did you get rid of?” she asked with a wry smile. “I thought Angels weren’t supposed to care about material belongings.”
I waved her off as I unlocked the door. “I just wanted to take the time to sort it out a little bit. There were a few things that I wanted to keep, but the rest of it, I took to the donation center. You wouldn’t believe how weird they get when you tell them you don’t need a receipt for tax purposes. I’m sure if they found out that I don’t file taxes, they would suspect me of being non-human instantly.” I laughed and swung the door open to my empty apartment.
Our voices echoed now that there wasn’t any furniture to absorb the noise. “You good with leaving at sunrise?” I asked.
She nodded, flashing the bottle of invisibility potion between her fingers. “I can’t wait to use this stuff! I can’t remember the last time I felt the sun on my wings.”
I nodded, understanding the feeling all too well. Just because our cause was noble, didn’t mean it was always easy. I swung a leather pack down off my back, the only thing I would be bringing with me on the journey. Though I couldn’t bring it through the doors to High Command, it would provide me with the few things I would need while we traveled. Pulling out a map, I spread it on the floor and sat down cross-legged next to it.
“From what I recall, the vision told us go to right up through here.” I traced a line with my finger that took us out of the city and across the country before we arrived at the forest from the vision. “Even flying, it will take us over a day to get there.”
Ember studied the map over my shoulder. “Looks right to me. I wonder if we’ll see Cyrus and Nathaniel on the way.” Her sapphire eyes took on an extra glimmer.
“Who?”
She rolled her eyes at me. “The guys we met at the bar last week. The ones who also got the invite?” she asked when I still didn’t respond. “You know, I’m quite sure your body was in the chair next to mine, but now I’m not so sure that your mind was.”
“Hey, I can’t help it if they aren’t memorable.” I rolled up the map and stuffed it back into my bag. My bottle of invisibility potion rattled next to it.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I get it. Neither one of them was Jonah. That’s the real problem, isn’t it?” Her eyebrows furrowed slightly as she stared me down, trying to get the truth out of me. She could have gotten all the information she wanted directly from my mind, but she was too good of a friend to do so without asking.
“No. Maybe,” I sighed. “It’s just that I had such a great time with him, and now…I don’t even know where he is.” Leaning back, I stretched out on the floor and stared up at the ceiling. “It shouldn’t bother me, but it does, and that only bothers me more.”
Ember’s face peered down into mine. “You got it bad, Rumor.”
I made a face at her. She was good at calling me out, and whatever she said was usually right. “Yeah, I know.”
She patted my shoulder and crossed the room to look out the window. “Why don’t you get some rest? I’m going to head back to my place and do the same. It’s going to be a long day tomorrow.”
The idea of closing my eyes for a while and letting my body truly rest sounded lovely. I gave her a hug goodbye and curled up in the bed where I surrendered myself to the emptiness of slumber.
* * *
As the sun rose over Los Angeles, Ember and I clinked our potion bottles and drank the liquid. We waited for something to happen—some change, or sensation, but nothing happened.
“Do you think it worked?” Ember asked, wiping her lips and scrutinizing the vial.
I shrugged. “I’m sure it did. I mean, I can still see you, but I imagine that we’ll only be invisible to humans.”
“Let’s try this.” With a roll of her shoulders, her wings extended. Her feathers were tinged with gold in the early morning light, and the upper edges of them brushed against the ceiling as she shook them out.
“Careful with those things!” I laughed. “Mrs. Hudgins won’t appreciate holes in the drywall.” I had already dropped the key to the apartment in her drop box. There was nothing left for me to do before I left the city and set out on my journey to High Command.
Ember ignored the jest. “Can you still see me?” she asked.
“Yep. I guess there’s no way to know, but to get out there and fly. If anyone can see us, we’ll know soon enough.” I opened the sliding glass door that led to the small balcony. Why bother walking all the way down the stairs if we were going to fly anyway?
She smiled tentatively at me as we stepped out onto the balcony and took each other’s hand. It wasn’t that we were afraid to use our wings. We had flown many times before, and it was the most reliable form of travel. But this was not a simple journey to find a demon or a vamp. We were headed to High Command, and we knew that after today, our lives would never be the same again. As exciting as that was, it was also terrifying.
“Let’s do this.”
One step forward and we were in the air, leaving the apartment building behind, and headed toward the edge of the city.
Ember turned her face up to the sun, laughing at the sensations of daytime flight. “This is amazing!” The wind rippled her clothing, pressing the material against her curves.
It was wonderful to see her looking so happy, so free. Ember spent too much of her time feeling nervous and unsure, and for the first time in years she didn’t appear to have any worries at all, only excitement. We zoomed over the city, awed by its size and beauty. The two of us had walked its streets, protecting its citizens against dangers they weren’t even aware of. Now, we were being called to an even higher power. Nothing was going to ruin this day.
But as I looked down, I noticed something that sent a chill down my spine. I reached out to Ember telepathically, as I was worried my words would be lost in the wind. We have to stop.
Why? We have a whole day of travel and… Oh. She had clearly spotted the same thing I had.
Below us, on the top of a building, a dark gray creature crouched. He was surveying the city as well, but not with the same intent. A pair of dark, leathery wings sprouted from his stony back as he hunkered at the edge of the building. A gargoyle’s eyesight was excellent; he would be able to spot his next victim even from the top of the skyscraper.
Ember looked anxiously in the direction we were supposed to be going, but she nodded. I guess we don’t have a choice, do we?
Not really. I didn’t sense any other Angels in the area, and we couldn’t just leave this creature to wreak havoc on the city. We need to take him out.
Angling around so that we would descend out of the line of sight of the gargoyle, we landed softly on the roof and crept forward. The wind was still gusty here, and it carried the creature’s voice to us as he muttered to himself.
“Look at them all.” His voice was low and gravelly, like stones rubbing together. “Down there all moving around like they have things to do…Stupid humans…I’ll show them…Just gotta pick which one…”
“Surrender yourself now,” I called out. “I promise you, it will be far less painful in the end.”
The gargoyle whipped around, his feet scraping against the roof of the building. Every part of him had the look and feel of stone, and I knew his heart was no different. He crouched down like a cat about to pounce. “What do you want?” he demanded. “I haven’t done anything to you.”
“You’re targeting humans.” I didn’t owe him an explanation, so I bit my lip and moved toward the creature. “Now, do you surrender?”
He grinned, his doglike muzzle twisting up at the corners toward his pointy ears. His eyes glimmered like obsidian. “You’re in my territory up here, Angel. I will never surrender to you.”
“Wrong answer.” I folded my wings into my back to keep them safe and charged full throttle at the monster. He bounded toward me as well, eager for the fight. His forepaws hit my shoulders like boulders, but I stiffened my legs to keep him from bowling me over. A swipe of my forearm sent him sprawling sideways, but he jumped back to his feet in an instant.
“That was a mistake, Angel.” The beast puffed up his chest, his wings curling slightly at the tips, and a blast of fire shot out of his mouth. I moved quickly to avoid being hit. I pressed my hands together, summoning the Holy Fire from within me. I turned my palms outward to let him see the dazzling bluish-white glow that my hands had taken on.
The gargoyle cackled, a raspy sound that sent cinders flying out the corners of his mouth. “What’s the matter? You don’t like it when your enemies fight back? I’m not a demon, you know.” He summoned his fire once again, drawing his chest in and his shoulders forward as he filled his lungs with heat.
Just as he opened his jaws to send the flame at me, Ember stepped between us. I had nearly forgotten she was there, and her presence startled me. She pitched a small bag of holy water at the creature, and with perfect aim, it landed inside his mouth. The flame extinguished instantly, and the beast took several steps backward in surprise. He coughed and gagged, his dark eyes widening in shock.
“What did you do?” he gasped. Ash and smoke poured out of the corners of his mouth, and he swiped at his lips with his forepaw.
We each released our Holy Fire, the blasts of them hitting the creature hard, and knocking it back, until he hit the short wall surrounding the rooftop.
The gargoyle’s skin turned black and melted away, revealing a blazing red interior like molten lava. With a final scream, a bubble of magma burst out of his chest. He fell into a heap of coals that quickly dissolved to ashes.
I wiped the beads of sweat from my forehead. “Well, that was interesting.”
“I’ve never had to fight a gargoyle before,” Ember remarked. She took a few steps forward, peering down at the wreckage that only a minute before had been a living creature from Hell. “Uh, Rumor?”
“What?” I shook my hands to get rid of the overflowing energy that had built up in my palms. It was going to itch if I just let it stay there.
“His head.” She pointed at the ashy remains, at one end of which was the head and neck of the beast. His mouth was open in a horrific grimace, but its flesh had turned to stone.
Nodding, I bent down and picked it up. It was still warm. I walked to the corner of the building and stuck the head on the downspout of the guttering.
Ember shook her head and chuckled. “We better get moving.”
I set my wings free and lifted off the rooftop, my shadow growing smaller below me. Eventually, the city faded and turned into countryside. There were fields and meadows, bursts of wildflowers, and even clusters of sheep and cows. Smaller towns passed beneath us, small enough to be missed in the blink of an eye. My heart raced every time we came to the edge of a forest, even though I knew it wasn’t the one we were aiming for. Wind kicked up around my ankles and in my hair, tickling my skin.
Above me, I studied the clouds, puffs and wisps of cottony fluff, in saturated gold and purple tones, spread across the cobalt sky filling the atmosphere like some expressionist painting. Occasionally, they made efforts to blot out the sun, but its rays always won through eventually.
The world below and all around me—the land, trees, buildings, all of which I recognized, but couldn’t place—was filtered in shades of gray, almost like it was about to rain, but even more like all the color had left the world and remained only in the sky above.
By the time we landed at the edge of the forest, the sun had set behind the thick wall of trees. Ember and I glided carefully to the ground. It would have been easier to simply fly over the treetops, but that wasn’t the path the vision had shown us. Instead, we hovered above the ground as we entered the deep lushness of the forest.
It was hard to see ahead, and I contemplated casting some light to guide us. but the guidance from the vision had been so clear that despite the darkness, I knew where to turn. The shadowy, ghostly forms of the trees slipped past, barely limned by the star light.
Ember and I flew in silence now. It had been a long journey already, and there was little left to say. We had already contemplated what our futures would be like, whether we would have the chance to train together, and which of the Angels that we knew, might be there. Now, there was nothing left but the burning feeling of excitement as we drew closer to the portal.
I barely noticed when the local flora next to the trail changed to the exotic plants that were not of the Earth. It was only when Ember stopped in the middle of the path and pointed to the ground that I realized that the plants had transformed into ropy vines of heart-shaped leaves that glittered around the edges.
“What is it?”
“Just over there. I saw something move.” Ember’s voice trembled slightly.
I shrugged. “We’re in the woods. It’s probably just a raccoon or something.”
She grabbed my wrist and pulled me back. “No, it wasn’t a raccoon. It was something else.”
Analyzing my surroundings, I searched for anything that felt malevolent, but felt nothing. Still, the look on Ember’s face told me that she needed reassurance. “Let’s check it out.” I let my feet touch the ground once again and slowly made my way toward the nearby trees.
“What if it’s someone trying to keep us from getting to High Command?” Ember asked tensely. “There could be any number of creatures who don’t want us to be part of the Legion.”
I crouched down, looking closely for any signs of life. The bark of the tree in front of me was thick and rough. It was surrounded by a thin undergrowth that wouldn’t have hidden much of anything, save for a few insects. “Well, if they are, then we’ll just have to take care of them like we did the gargoyle.”
“Oh, please no, miss!” The tiny voice was reed-like in the night, and I admit I jumped back a little. A pair of eyes appeared on the trunk of the tree at waist height, tipped up at the outside corners and glowing faintly. “I swear that I’m only here as a lookout for you.”
I stepped back further as the dryad made herself visible. She pulled away slowly from the trunk of the tree. Her skin was the same texture of the bark, rough and pitted. Instead of feet, her legs ended in the tree’s roots, utterly tied together for as long as either one of them lived. Even her hair was of the same material as the plant, twiggy hanks that brushed her shoulders and clacked together faintly as she moved.
Ember jumped into her battle stance, with her feet set firmly on the ground and her fists ready, but I waved at her to stand down.
“Good evening,” I greeted the dryad. “I apologize for disturbing you.”
“It is quite all right,” the nymph replied. She was the size of a small child, and she sounded like one. “I am honored to meet you both.”
I wouldn’t tell Ember until later that this was the first wood nymph I had met. The look of her fascinated me, with so many tree-like features that even a patch of moss grew on her shoulder. Only her eyes, so bright and shining, could give her away when she was trying to hide.
“Tell me, why are you posted as a lookout on this path? Is there danger nearby?” I hadn’t sensed anything, but Ember’s thoughts about someone keeping us from the portal weren’t unreasonable.
She shook her head, a smile hanging on her woody lips. “It is the path to the portal, and it must always be protected. It is my job to watch over it and report any suspicious activity. I never should have moved, knowing that the two of you are most certainly allowed here, but I wanted to see you for myself. And you are just as beautiful as I had imagined.”
My lips twisted up, flattered that word of us had traveled all the way into the deepest part of the forest, so that even a dryad attached to a tree had heard about us. “Thank you.”
“Safe travels.”
As we left the nymph, she pressed her back to the tree and closed her eyes. Even knowing she was there, I could no longer see her.
When we finally reached the portal, the sun was just barely cracking the horizon. Thin shafts of light pierced the trees and shot like cannonballs through the thick limbs. They illuminated the engraving over the door, confirming that we were in the right place. I should have been exhausted from traveling such a long distance, but my excitement had completely taken over my body, and I was running on pure adrenaline. I dropped my leather pack, eager to begin my new journey.
Holding hands tightly, Ember and I reached forward and touched the door.