by Zoey Derrick
TWENTY-SIX
The next morning I wake up early, around seven, rub the sleep from my eyes, and shuffle into the bathroom to take a shower. As I shed my clothing I notice something strange about the way I'm moving, but I can't quite place it.
That's when I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror and start to scream. I quickly clasp my hand over my mouth, remembering that one of the men is standing outside the door to the apartment.
"Calm down, angel."
"How in the hell am I supposed to calm down? Look at me!"
"I know. Breathe. We will handle this together," the female voice says calmly.
I don't even bother to look around; I know she's not in the room to be seen. No, she's in my head.
What the hell was I dreaming about?
"Elysium, and, erm..."
Well, crap, so dreaming about Elysium is now causing my wings to sprout? I thought I only had wings while I was in Elysium, not...
I trail off. It's obvious right now that my assumption was incorrect, as I'm staring at wings - smaller than those in Elysium, but still wings - sprouting from my back. They are about a quarter of the size of those in my dreams.
I'd already managed to shed my tank top before I'd realized that these beautiful white wings with silvery trim were pushing their way out, and my naked torso, framed by my flaming red, curly hair and white wings is, well, breathtakingly beautiful. The image is actually quite-
"Angels do not think such things."
I blush at her catching the direction of my thoughts, but I say, "Can you blame me?"
She laughs, the sound like a chorus of angels singing and bells ringing. "No, my child, I do not and cannot blame you for such thoughts."
I suddenly have a mental image of her fanning herself, and I shake my head.
Looking back into the mirror, I almost don't want the wings to go away. But I'm not sure how on earth I will explain this to Celeste, let alone the men and Mikah.
"Mikah knows."
"Wait, what? How?" I've suspected that we share the dreams together, but not that he actually knows.
"Well, he has an idea. He is the one that noticed your back first. In the hospital."
"Why hasn't he said anything?"
I feel her shrug. "More than likely, he is trying not to scare you. And he isn't the only one aware of what you are."
"Wait a minute. Who else knows?"
"Your guardians know." She's playing coy and it's starting to piss me off.
"Spill it, Zirah. Who the hell else knows about this?" As I say this, I watch my wings flare, almost like they're taking a big breath.
"Celeste."
My eyes bulge and my mouth drops open.
"Andrew, Connor, and..." She stops.
"Red?" I whisper the last name.
"Yes," she says.
"Does Mikah know this?"
"No. He suspects, but he doesn't know for certain that he is not the only one protecting you. The others are something different. They are not angels, but guardians of Elysium. They have abilities of protection that you and Mikah do not. They act as shields, especially for you. They are more like assistants to Mikah. They are able to regenerate and to morph into anything that you may need for protection, though they also have their limitations."
I take a deep breath, trying to take all of this in. Since stepping out of those hospital doors two weeks ago, I've been more protected than I ever could've thought possible. Having guards outside the door was one thing, but knowing that those guards are really doing more than I can imagine is...
"They've been able to hide you from detection. While the ones who wish to harm you cannot detect you, your being alive has prevented the foinse olc – or source of evil, the devil - from returning to his full strength. This is the reason that Riley tried to kill you. Though he has his own personal reasons for wanting you dead, he is operating on the command of the devil. He has failed, and is failing, and it is only a matter of time before he has his way with him."
"How so?" I breathe.
"He will take Riley into the inner circles of Hades."
I’m reminded of our earlier conversation about Dante’s Inferno. There are levels of hell in that book.
"You're not far off. That story is surprisingly accurate. Killing you was to be Riley's rite of passage. He was to be one of the devil’s minions, part of his demon circle. Riley’s failure is your gain, and he will soon be doomed to relive torture day in and day out."
I shiver and watch as my wings shimmer in the light of the bathroom.
"Okay. Can you make these things go away?" I manage to mumble.
"Yes, my angel, but I would like to teach you how to bring them in. It's actually rather simple. All you need to do is visualize them coming back in, and they will retract of their own accord."
I close my eyes to avoid being distracted by the sight of them in the mirror. I flex my shoulders and can feel them move from deep inside. I focus on that feeling and imagine pulling them in. The process is slow, but little by little I feel them settling in on my back.
Once I feel that they are back in place, I slowly open my eyes. They're gone. All that is left in the mirror is me. I sigh. I rather enjoyed seeing my wings in person for the first time, but I'm glad to have them tucked away.
TWENTY-SEVEN
After my shower, I put on one of my new bras and am excited by the fact that my breasts are not as sore. I still feel the tight heaviness and it's mildly uncomfortable, but it’s manageable.
Once I'm dressed, I head out into the living room. Surprisingly, Celeste is nowhere to be found, but on the breakfast bar is a bagel, spread thickly with strawberry cream cheese, and a card.
I shuffle toward it and take a seat. Picking up the card, I read:
Good morning, Vivienne. I've left this bagel for you. I will be back around 9:15 to collect you. Mikah has arranged a day at the spa just for you.
Enjoy! Celeste.
The spa? What the hell is that? I shrug and pick up my bagel, taking a huge bite.
When I'm done eating, I still have about twenty minutes before she will be back. I take to transferring the minimal contents of my old wallet to the new one, which matches my new black purse. It is round on the bottom and flat at the top. Celeste called it “bucket style.” She was careful to remove the tag so I wouldn't see the price, but it is covered in silhouettes of the letter C. The wallet is the same material and color. She tried to convince me to get another color, but I preferred the black one.
I also put my journal in my new bag, along with a few of the other things, chapstick, a tattered picture of my mother and a gentleman, whom my mother said is my father and a small package of Kleenex, that Celeste saved from my old one. I pause a moment to look at the picture again. There is something strangely familiar about the man next to my mother, but I can’t place him. I take one last look at my old wallet, I toss it into the garbage under the coffee table. I won't need it anymore.
I grab my new bag and set it up on the breakfast bar, waiting for Celeste to show up.
The phone rings. My heart pounds as it occurs to me it might be Mikah. Then I scowl, remembering he was leaving early this morning and should be on a plane. But when I pick it up off of its cradle and look at it, I see that it is Mikah.
"Good morning," I say enthusiastically into the phone.
There's no answer on the other end of the line.
"Hello?" I say again. Nothing. For reasons unknown the wings on my back buzz. "Mikah, are you there?"
Still no answer.
I turn toward the door to the apartment and jump, dropping the phone. Standing in the doorway is Mikah with his phone to his ear.
"Gah! Don't do that to me," I say, but he's just standing there.
My back is ablaze. Fear strikes through me, and I suddenly understand that this is not Mikah. My wings begin to push out from my back and into my top, straining against the material. I hear the seams starting to rip, and the next thing I know, the shirt is no l
onger tight but shredded and falling away from my body.
Whatever is standing in the doorway is staring hard at me, its gaze intense.
Inside my head I start yelling for help, but what I'm screaming isn't English.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, Andrew is standing between me and the figure in the door. He is poised and ready to take on whatever it is, but he's puzzled by what he's seeing.
"Blake," Andrew says.
The man's eyes do not waver from me.
My wings flap hard, once, twice, harder and faster each time, sending waves of air past and around me. I feel lighter on my feet, but before I can actually take off, Red appears in front of me.
"Do not take off. You are safe, no harm will come to you."
He turns around, and suddenly all the air my wings have produced is pushing back at me, almost like I'm in front of a wall, and Red has disappeared. The scene in front of me shimmers and ripples as if I'm looking through a fishbowl. I can still see the room, though, and I watch the eyes of the man at the door as they shift, searching.
Connor appears behind him. So quickly that I can't follow it, Connor has his arms around the man’s neck and Andrew attacks from the front.
Andrew strikes, throwing a punch at the man's gut, not once but three or four times. Then he spins him out of Connor's grasp and into his own.
"Who are you?" I hear Andrew growl. His voice is deep, scary and demonic. The muscles in his back shift as he strains harder against the man in his arms.
Connor is on him fast with a blade at least six inches long pointed at his chest. "I will run you through. Who are you? What are you doing here?"
The figure in Andrew's arms shifts and morphs. His skin takes on a darker tone, almost black, mixed with green. His hair disappears and...horns?
"Jesus, a shifter." Connor spats. "Who sent you?"
"Who do you think? I've come for her. I've come to take her to Him," the demon snarls the last word.
"I don't think so," Andrew says, and in one fast move he's turned the shifter around and pushed him to the floor. Andrew’s legs are entangled with the intruder’s and his hands are pressing hard into his shoulders.
Before I can even worry about the fact that the demon’s hands are free, Connor is on them, holding them down as Andrew reaches inside his boot and withdraws another six-inch knife. This one looks like it’s made out of gold.
"Take her, now!" Andrew shouts at Red.
In an instant I'm engulfed in a bubble-like shell, and then I'm standing in a solid white room, much like the room from my dreams. Elysium.
TWENTY-EIGHT
My heart races and blood pulses behind my ears. I can't even begin to imagine how I've managed to get here, let alone so quickly.
I pinch my arm. "Ouch!" Nope, I'm not dreaming.
"What the hell just happened?" I nearly scream.
"Calm down, Vivienne, no need to get worked up. That was a shifter."
"How did he get past Andrew and Connor?" Come to think of it: "And how did you get here? You're supposed to be with Mikah."
Red takes a seat on the white couch. His face wears a soft expression that I find comforting. "I'll explain it all,” he says. “Have a seat, take a breath. You're alright, and we'll discuss it."
I start to pace.
"Vivienne, please, sit. Everyone is fine. No one is harmed.” I try to sit, but I can't, at least not in a chair. My wings are still in full extension. I take a seat on the bench opposite the couch.
“Shifters are something of an in-between. They are not exactly human, but they are not demonic, either.” I never noticed Red's accent before, but the more he talks, the more I hear it. “They have the ability to travel between realms, but the catch is that they can only project themselves. They are not actually present until they complete their transition. They project to an area where they want to be, which in this case was the end of the ringing line. Where you were. When you answered the phone he honed in on your position and projected to it."
"But he looked like Mikah," I say, completely breathless.
"He took the shape of something you wouldn’t run from." He twirls his wedding band around his finger. "He needed you to keep the connection open long enough for him to fully teleport into the room. That's when Andrew and Connor intercepted. There’s an alarm system in the house to warn us of intruders, but it doesn’t always detect shifters when in their projected form. He pauses to take a deep breath. "When he tried to complete his teleport, it set off all the alarms and connected to my phone. When it went off, I came as fast as I could. I shielded you so that the shifter couldn’t see you when he teleported into the house. He’d be confused, allowing us to take him down as we did.”
I look up at him, confused. Then Zirah's words from earlier come back. "Shields?" I whisper.
"Yes, darlin’. All of us - Andrew, Connor and myself - have the ability to create a camouflage of sorts that will turn anything behind it invisible."
I put my head in my hands. "This is all...it's too much."
"Breathe. You’re safe, and your location is still undetected."
My head snaps up. "You're joking, right? He was in the apartment."
"No, his image was. All this one saw was the inside of an apartment, but the location of that apartment is covered up by the securities we have in place. Think of him as a hologram.”
"A what?"
"It's like a three-dimensional picture. You can see it, but if you touch it there is nothing there. Shifters are different from holograms in the sense that they shift into the dimension they're after, and though they are not solid, certain supreme beings have the ability to touch - or make physical contact with - and control them. Myself, Andrew and Connor are three of those people.
“The location is safe because your shifter was unable to move, unable to fully shift into the apartment because of the protection we have in place."
"So now I have to worry about holograms showing up in the apartment."
"No," says a voice behind me. I turn to the sound and it is Andrew.
"Gah! Jesus, stop that, would you?"
"Sorry." He looks from me to Red. "We're in the clear." He looks cautiously at me then back to Red. "It's been taken care of."
I need no more explanation from him; I know what he is saying without him actually saying it.
"We've added additional protection to the building, especially the apartments."
"Aaron?" Red says.
"Aye, he's taking care of it."
"Wait a minute, who's Aaron?" I interrupt them.
Andrew kneels down next to me. "Are you okay?"
"Who's Aaron?" I repeat.
The way he shakes his head gives me the distinct impression that Mikah has done a thorough briefing with him about my stubbornness.
"Aaron is another one of us, but he has the ability to provide an additional protection, the ability to stop shifters from coming into an area that's protected by him. He's placing protection on the building, as well as on you. No matter where you go, you'll be safe."
I feel a knot of stress form in my back and my wings respond by quivering.
"Can you pull them back in?" Red asks.
I look at him and my wings twitch. "I think so. Though I've only done it once."
Red cannot hide the shock on his face. Obviously that was not something he was expecting to hear.
"I sort of woke up with them this morning. That's how I found out about what you guys are. Which is why I'm not so much shocked by what you've done, but rather by that thing finding me in the first place."
Andrew chimes in. "I'm not convinced he knows what he found for certain. Red was quick with the shield, and we’ve taken care of him so he cannot return and report.”
"I just need to know that I'm safe and that this won't happen to me again."
"No, ma'am," Andrew says.
I scowl at him but I don’t want to fight right now about him calling me Vivienne, so instead I focus on reining in my wings. I lower my
head to my hands, placing the heels of my palms against my eyes and closing them tight, and I concentrate on my wings.
TWENTY-NINE
After I manage to pull myself back together, Andrew leads me to a door opposite where we were sitting and I magically walk back into the apartment. It looks exactly as it did when I answered the phone.
I need a serious amount of something to process all of this. It's just too much.
Connor and Celeste are in the apartment when Andrew and I walk in. Red doesn't follow us.
"Where's Red?" I ask.
"He went back to Mikah. They're on their way home," Connor says.
I nod. "Now what?" I say.
Celeste steps forward. "Now you have a spa appointment."
"You're kidding, right?" I retort.
"Nope. Come on, grab your stuff," she says.
"Please tell me you're joking. After that?" I say back.
Connor speaks up. "Mikah does not know about this, about you, or about us. Proceeding with the day as planned is the best way to keep it that way."
"Why is hiding who and what you are from Mikah so important?" I ask.
They all look at each other. Andrew is the one who answers. "Mikah can and will know about us, but him finding out about a shifter here will send him over the edge. We are just trying to take it slower on him." He pauses. "He is having a harder time adjusting to what he is than you are."
I look at all of them, puzzled. "I'm not sure I'm handling any of this, to be honest."
They all laugh, just a little.
"Yeah, you are,” Celeste says. “You've yet to freak out."
I laugh. "I guess it is just a matter of accepting my fate. It is what it is, and until it affects me to the point of spending every day in Elysium or in fear of someone or something getting to me, I'm not sure there is much I can do about it." I also take into consideration that the one person I seem to want to spend all my time with is just like me. But I don't tell them that.
