by Abra Ebner
“Everyone dies eventually, Erik. All of this is about death. All life is but a march to the end.” Greg laughed. “And to think, people hope to find meaning while they’re still alive, but there is none.”
I raised one brow, rolling toward Greg in my chair. “It doesn’t have to be that way. We can all co-exist, the magickal and the non-magickal. That’s the way it’s always been. I believe it’s the way it’s supposed to be.”
Greg crossed his arms against his chest, his wings melting behind him. “I’ll get Max to turn one way or another, Erik, even if that means taking her away from him.”
“Max will protect her,” I warned one last time. “There is nothing you can do to break her away from him. Max made sure of that ten years ago.” I was furious with Greg now. I did not yet understand Max’s fascination with this girl, but to me, she was already family.
Greg laughed. “Just another game for me, Erik. And just as I told Max, her family can be a strong bargaining tool in destroying their connection. If this girl is so special, perhaps she can be useful to our war.”
“Your war,” I corrected him.
Greg growled at me for interrupting, pacing the room and leaving a trail of blood. “All I need to do is awaken her lust for death on the dark side. I know she has the potential. If she is united on my side, Max will find the reason to join as well—for her.”
“There is more than just Max to stop you, Gregory. Even if you do succeed in destroying your brother’s virtue, magick will rise again and stop you. There are armies in place on our side, much as you have on yours. You cannot stop it,” I contended smugly.
I saw the anger boil inside Gregory’s green eyes. He slammed his hand down onto the surface of my desk, breaking it in half as splinters crashed to the floor. “Like that could stop me!” he yelled, his arrogance getting the better of him.
“You don’t know this new magick, Gregory. The world of the supernatural has evolved in the time since it last appeared on Earth, growing strength inside those that carry it in their genes, passed down through the many Nephilim Pandora left here long ago. The beings that have been touched by it are immune to your power.” I knew I was pushing my luck, and Gregory’s patience, but what did it matter in my old age?
He lifted his hand to silence me. I felt my mouth sew shut with his power. “No matter, dear brother. They will all one day meet their maker. Those beings that chose to consort with humans in the beginning of time made a grave mistake. The two worlds should have never mixed, and the mixed-breed children—or Nephilim, as you so methodically refer to them—left behind were nothing but bastard monsters, spreading their dirty magick.”
Emily:
I heard Wes screaming in my head, his whispers clear though the shape of his body was all wrong. I backed against the car door, my hands frantically searching for the handle.
“Wes!” I screamed again, my hand finally finding the door handle. I yanked it open, falling backwards out of the car. Lying on the ground, I was quick to kick the door shut with my foot. I was breathing heavily, watching the window above me in terror.
I saw the glass fog and the bird appeared. I screamed, pushing my body away from the car as I dragged myself through the dirt. I tried to prop myself up and stand, but a voice in my head made me freeze.
Em, don’t. Stop.
I whipped my head back toward the car window, staring at the raven. I heard the whispers repeat again and again, as though this bird had somehow taken Wes hostage inside its mind. I stared for a moment, standing tall with my hands readied at my sides. The bird watched me from inside the car, its beak tapping against the window.
I clenched my fists. “Where is Wes?” I demanded, feeling insane for talking to a bird.
Em, it’s me. Em!
The crow blinked repeatedly, tapping the window. I took one step forward, my back now aching from the fall. Dirt clung to my bare knees, mixed with sweat. I drew closer to the car, inspecting the crow.
“Wes?” My voice shook.
The crow let out a sharp ‘caw!’
I jumped, hearing Wes’s voice echo in the sound, but I still couldn’t trust it. Its feathers fluffed then, its body beginning to shake. I felt my heart begin to race once more, and I grabbed the door handle, finding it locked.
“Wes!” I yelled. The bird began to change as the feathers shed from its growing body. I gasped, unable to reach him.
What was going on?
Wes:
I kept yelling to her but she couldn’t understand. I looked down at myself, seeing nothing but black feathers. Emily grabbed the car door and fell out, slamming it behind her. I yelled after her, but again, she didn’t understand. I made my way to the window, navigating clumsily across the slick leather seat. My hands were of little used, now clothed in a layer of feathers.
I looked down at Emily as she lay on the ground outside. I yelled again, and this time she noticed me—she had heard me. I kept yelling over and over, and at last, a strange sound erupted from my mouth. Emily stood, running back toward the car and grabbing the handle, but it was locked.
Pain racked my body in a second wave. I winced. As quickly as it happened before, I felt my limbs change back. It was over. Sweat coated my skin as I lay across the front seats of my Camaro, completely naked.
I heard Emily gasp from outside. I looked up at her through the fogged window. I was quick to cover myself with the clothes that had been discarded around me, embarrassed.
“Wes! Unlock the door!” She screamed, frantically rattling the handle.
I reached over and unlocked the door. There was a blanket in the back seat and I grabbed it, pulling it over me as I discarded the clothes to the floor, figuring that unless I was going to attempt to put them back on, they offered me little cover.
“Wes, what was that? What happened?” Emily was breathing as hard as I was. She leaned down and looked into the car. Her brown eyes were frantic and wide, looking just like her sister’s.
“Emily I—I don’t know.” I shrugged, finding it no longer hurt to move. “The pain, and then the bird. It’s like I saw it, and something inside me wanted to be it, and—” I couldn’t continue. I felt tired and afraid.
Emily climbed back into the driver’s seat and shut the door. “How do you feel?” She maintained a distance between us, clearly still frightened that it might happen again.
I looked down at my arms and the black feathers that were now all over the car. Surprisingly, my limbs felt much better than ever before, as though I’d experienced some sort of release that had been building for seventeen years.
“I feel better…. Much better.”
Max:
After school, I waited for Jane, scanning the nearby buildings and trees. I waiting to see Greg lurking somewhere nearby—he was never far. I could always feel his darkness, and I knew I could never leave Jane unprotected. Greg wanted to destroy everything in my life, in his hope to convert me to his side.
That would never happen.
Jane would be safe from most of his advances, but not safe from all of them. He could still harm her irrevocably. Worst of all, he could drag her to Hell. Her connection with death had toughened her. Because of this, I was sure she could smell what lay beneath his stony exterior—murder.
I heard her footsteps approaching, her thoughts racing with anticipation. I smirked to myself and turned, looking to the doors of the school. She was still a ways down the hall, but I began to feel her all the same. Our hearts were connected in a way that I’d never connected with another human. She was different than all the other souls—different because I’d saved hers. I touched my hand to my chest. The beating of her heart reminded me of what it was like to be alive, and I relished the feeling.
I turned back toward the lot, pretending I hadn’t known she was coming just seconds before she reached the door. I looked into my hands, trying to wash the smile from my face.
Jane:
I opened the door to the school and walked out of the hall. The coo
l air hit my face as my cheeks burned with emotion. I saw Max’s broad back facing me. He sat on the edge of the short cement wall where he had approached me yesterday, hunched casually with his head down. I swallowed hard, walking down the path. As I turned to face him, he saw me and smiled.
“Hello, Jane.” His blue eyes swept over me.
I couldn’t help but smile back. “Hi.”
Max stood, walking toward me. “Are you ready?”
I looked around the lot for Emily but didn’t see her. I adjusted my bag on my shoulder. Wes’s car was also gone, again.
“Your sister is not here anymore,” he said plainly.
Alarmed, I looked at him. “She isn’t? Do you know where she is?” My brow creased, wondering how he knew.
Max looked at me strangely, but shook his head. “I saw her leave earlier. That’s all.”
I was confused. “When?” I was supposed to keep track of her, and already I’d failed.
Max frowned. “Around third period. She left with Wes.”
I smiled to myself, hoping that perhaps Wes was taking my suggestion from lunch on Monday seriously. I felt better knowing she was with him than anyone else, even if it did seem she was skipping classes. My thoughts turned to concern as I began to wonder if Emily had talked Wes into it, but I knew Wes knew better than to give into something like that. He was aware of Emily’s tricks.
“That’s good.” I nodded.
Max looked pleased by my answer. “Shall we, then?” He urged me forward with his hand, like a gentleman.
I stepped off the curb, wondering where his car was and what kind. My heart was alive. It had been a long time since anything unpredictable or new had happened to me. I never took time to pay attention to my own life, seeing that Emily was difficult, and my mother a wreck.
I looked at his profile as we walked across the lot. In my dream last night, he had initially scared me, but as I watched him now, I saw something different. It was as though he was really there in my dreams. He had to have been. My mind couldn’t manipulate his movements with such expert likeness, not when I barely knew him. Max had been his own being there, separate from what I wanted or thought. I shook the image of it away. He eyed me as I followed next to him.
We approached a rugged looking SUV, a style I didn’t see much, but recognized as a type I often saw when watching National Geographic. He clicked something in his hand. The lights on the car flickered and the doors unlocked. I was startled when I noticed him reach toward me. He smirked at my guarded display, ignoring me as he lifted the bag off my back. I let my hands fall through the straps, his eyes never leaving my form.
His car didn’t fit in with every other car in the lot. Most were gloriously shiny—an expensive gift from their parents, complete with no lack of couture accessories and fancy German symbols. Wes was one of the only other exceptions to the mold, though he still owned a coveted vintage Camaro.
Max walked me around to the passenger side and opened the door. I got in, following his lead. He placed my bag between my legs, his arm grazing my knee and causing my skin to tingle. My heart surged forward, threatening to make me faint. He glanced at me before shutting the door, walking around the back of the car as I watched in the rearview. When he was finally inside, he let out a contented sigh.
I was frozen and nervous, sitting tall and rigid in my seat. Max sat there for a moment, the keys in his hands jingling as he fished for the right one. Finding it, he put it in the ignition and started the car, but didn’t shift into gear. He sat back, watching me.
I wondered what he was waiting for. “What?” The way he stared made me uncomfortable—another deep, personal stare.
Max smirked and leaned toward me, our faces so close, I could feel his breath on my cheek. “Here…”
My body tightened as he reached one arm across my chest. I stopped breathing. Max fumbled with something, and I realized what he was looking for. Grabbing the slackened seatbelt beside me, he paused to look me in the eyes. With his body across mine, and his lips so close, I knew my heart was about to explode. He lingered there for a moment, the blue of his eyes making me forget where and who I was. He lifted one brow, finally leaning back and pulling the belt across my chest. He clicked it into the clasp, locking me against the seat as his hand pressed against my hip.
“You should buckle.” His breath fell across my face, smelling like sugar and mint. He leaned back, one hand on the wheel. The car lurched as he shifted into reverse.
I cleared my throat, my face hot with emotion. “Thanks.” I swallowed, my hands gripping either side of the seat, my nails digging into the leather.
“I just like my passengers to be safe.” He winked.
My whole body was trembling. I needed to distract myself and calm down. “So, you said you were from Denver?” We drove out of the lot and turned left.
Max nodded.
“That’s not too far.”
He shook his head. “No, it’s not. I like it here, though. It’s colder. Besides, the snowboarding is good.”
I perked up. “You snowboard?”
He smiled. “This is Colorado; of course I snowboard.”
“I love snowboarding,” I said quietly. Wes and I usually went together, but perhaps things would change—perhaps Max would take me for a romantically blissful day. I was daydreaming again. I quickly washed it away in my attempt to remain attentive. I looked at him instead.
Max was smiling as though thinking of something great, perhaps thinking the same thing as me.
“You said you have family here?” I ventured. I knew most of the families through my mother and her work at the historical Hotel Colorado.
“Yes… the Gordon family?” He seemed nervous to say it, as though it would scare me.
“The Gordon family? You mean, Erik Gordon? The historian? The man whose parents founded this place?” I knew who he was all too well. His books were legends in the world of magickal history, not to mention America’s West. I read every paper he’d ever written, hungered for his every word, hoping it could tell me anything about what had happened to me, and why I dreamed of death. His particular attention to the Fairy Caves was my favorite.
“Yes. He’s my… grandfather.”
“Really?” I was ecstatic, likely showing more excitement than I should. Max didn’t fit the mold, and I would have never guessed. The sudden void of knowledge I once had for Max filled immediately. “So you’re a Gordon?” Since I loved history, I found this fact almost too intriguing to contain my excitement. “Do you believe in his writings?” I blurted.
Max laughed. “Yeah, sure. Don’t we all want to believe it?”
He had no idea how much I did believe it, whether I wanted to or not. “Yeah.”
Max looked at me with a spark of intrigue, but I pretended not to notice. “I’ll take you to meet him sometime, if you like?”
I nodded with enthusiasm. “Yes, I would!”
He laughed. “Most girls don’t care who my family is. Apparently you seem like an expert.”
“I am,” I gave him a sly glance, finally finding an edge on him, though his reference to other girls sparked a hint of jealousy. I was giddy at this point.
Max lifted one brow. “See, now you’re starting to take that whole staring thing to a whole new level—Stalker.”
My mouth playfully fell open. “I’m not a stalker.” I shook my head.
He shrugged. “Whatever, Stalker. You said so yourself. You’re an expert when it comes to my family.”
I laughed. “Don’t call me that!” I gave him a teasing nudge on the arm.
He grinned, running a hand through his hair. “Alright then… I’ll call you, Beautiful.”
I pressed my lips together and blushed, hiding the smile that wanted to creep across my face. How had I gotten so lucky? I tried to get back on subject. “Has your Grandfather ever seen magick?”
Max turned the car onto my street. “I couldn’t say.”
His answer seemed vague. What was he hidi
ng? Perhaps he had been sworn to secrecy—oh, this was so great!
His grandfather had been the real world version of Indiana Jones. Erik Gordon had traveled all over the globe in search of artifacts that held magickal power and biblical importance. I glared at Max, hoping that if I looked hard enough, perhaps his head would pop open and I could learn what he knew.
He shook his head, his hand sliding casually across the wheel.
I frowned. “What’s so funny?”
He stopped laughing. “You’re still staring at me, Beautiful.”
I let an annoyed sound escape my mouth. “Could you quit with that! I’m not your stalker, trust me.” I thought of Liz. “And I’m not beautiful.”
Max pursed his lips, refusing to listen.
“I was just staring at you because I was thinking of your grandfather,” I added, finding it a good excuse.
“Why are you so curious?” His eyes narrowed as though accusing me again, but his face was amused. He kept his gaze forward, not once looking in my direction.
“I—” I stumbled over my words, not wanting to reveal that I cared as much as I did. “I just think it’s interesting, and risky. Your grandfather stirs a lot of controversy, is all. The Vatican likely has him on their hit list—if there is such a thing.”
“He does have enemies, but the Vatican isn’t one of them.”
I tilted my head. “Really? I would figure they’d be the first.”
Max was still amused by my confusion. “Not if they’re the one sending him a paycheck.”
I gasped. “They hired him?”
Max eyed me as though to say that it was a secret. I grinned, enthralled to learn something so covert. He turned into my driveway, and I realized I hadn’t even told him where I lived.
“Um… how did you—”
“It’s a small town,” he cut me off.
