by Cheree Alsop
“I’m glad you’re here,” Allie replied. She wiped her nose with the sleeve of her shirt, and I noticed a ragged teddy bear tucked under one arm. She glanced up at me and her eyes widened slightly.
“That’s Kale. He’s the one that got us here so fast.” Brie glanced at me, then at the watching store manager. “Thank you so much. We really appreciate it,” she told him.
“No problem. She was no trouble at all.” We turned to leave and I could feel the manager’s eyes on us as we made our way out the door into the night.
Brie knelt down on the sidewalk outside. “Allie, I think we need to go by the house and let Mom know you’re okay.”
“No!” Adrenaline rose in my veins at the terror in her voice.
“It’s okay; you’ll be safe. And you’re coming back with us no matter what they say. But this way we can make sure Mom’s okay, alright?”
Allie looked from Brie to me, her eyes on my face. “You’re keeping us safe?”
I nodded in reply. She came over and took my hand. “Then we’d better stay close,” she said quietly to her bear. A lump rose in my throat.
I looked at Brie; she gave me a small smile and turned to lead the way. Allie’s little hand felt so light and fragile in mine; I was worried I would crush it. I kept my grip as loose as possible, then fought back a smile when she held on that much tighter.
We walked four blocks and then turned south into a cul-de-sac. A red car sat in front of a little gray house with light blue trim. “Looks like they’re still home,” Brie said quietly. We walked into the yard and she motioned for me to keep Allie on the grass.
At her knock, the door opened to reveal a woman in a night robe with disheveled brown hair. Bruises circled her eyes and her lip was swollen and split. I had to remember not to clench my hands. Allie’s little one still held mine, and her grip tightened at the sound of a man’s gruff voice.
“Who is it? Is it the cops? Have they brought her home?”
Brie’s mom threw her arms around Brie and they embraced. “It’s not the cops; it’s Brie,” she said over her shoulder.
“Brie? What the heck’s Brie doing here? She should be at her dad’s.” The voice got louder. A tall man older than Brie’s mother with black hair streaked in gray appeared at the door. He wore a blue football shirt and gray sweat pants. Allie let out a little squeak and scooted behind me.
“It’s okay,” I whispered. “I won’t let him hurt you.”
“Brie? What in the blazes-“
“Shut up, Rob. How dare you lay a finger on Mom? Look at her face. Look at what you’ve done!” Her mother touched her swollen cheek, but avoided looking at her husband. “We’ve got Allie and we’re taking her away with us.”
“Like heck you are!” Rob spat.
I took a step closer at the vehemence in his voice.
“We are, and there’s nothing you can do about it unless you want me to call the police and let them settle it. They’d only need to take one look at Mom’s face to slap you in jail again. Maybe they’ll be smart about it this time and keep you there. How they ever let you guys keep custody of Allie is beyond me.”
“Why I-,” he lifted a hand.
“Stop right there.” The growl in my voice carried across the lawn.
The three of them turned to look at me.
“Who’s that?” Rob demanded.
Brie gave me a small smile. “My friend, Kale. He’s helping me get Allie home for good and away from you.” She glanced at her mom, and I caught the slight nod of agreement her mom gave her.
“What right does he have-”
“What right? You dare talk about rights the way you’ve treated everyone?” Brie yelled.
“You are not taking Allie, and that’s final,” Rob said; his eyes glittered with anger and a hint of drunkenness. He reached behind him through the door and brought something out. My heart slowed when I saw that it was a shotgun.
“Rob!” Brie’s mom said in shock.
“Can you stay here and not make a sound?” I whispered to Allie, forcing my voice to remain calm despite the anger that welled in my chest. She nodded and I let go of her hand. She held her teddy bear tight and watched me with wide eyes.
I made my way slowly up the sidewalk, clenching my fists in an effort not to tear apart the man who threatened Brie.
“Now just hold it right there,” Rob said, aiming the gun at my chest. I stopped a few feet away.
“Rob, no!” Brie protested.
He grinned. “You think you can just march in here and take my daughter-”
“She’s not your daughter,” Brie cut in, her voice tight.
Rob ignored her. “And I’m going to let you off without a fight?” He pursed his lips and his tone grew ugly. “What kind of man would I be if I let my daughter go off with a perfect stranger?”
I met his eyes. “A better man than one who beats his wife and scares little girls.”
His eyes widened, then narrowed. His finger tightened on the trigger.
I leaped forward and grabbed the gun with my left hand before he could shoot, then I punched him with a right hook to the jaw hard enough to make him stagger against the door.
“I’ll beat the living-”
I cut Rob’s words off with another punch. His nose broke under my fist. He cupped his face, his nose streaming blood. I handed the gun to Brie and she took a few steps onto the grass with her mother.
“Why you-” Rob swung at me and I ducked, then bowled into his chest with my shoulder. The door opened behind him, sending us both sprawling onto the living room floor. Rob jumped up and tried to kick me in the groin, but I grabbed his foot and rolled on it, forcing him back to the floor to avoid a broken leg. He yelled and punched me in the ribs but I barely felt it past the rage that clouded my thoughts.
My instincts screamed for me to snap his neck and with each punch the feeling intensified. I stumbled back against the wall in an effort to control my anger. Rob picked up a lamp, throwing the lamp shade to the ground and ripping the cord from the wall.
“Didn’t realize who you were up against, did you?” he said with a triumphant grin despite his bleeding nose.
He swung the lamp at me. I blocked it with my forearm and the bulb shattered. I punched him square in the face with my other hand. He stumbled back and dropped the lamp to clutch his bleeding nose again.
I turned back to the door and closed it before the others could come in.
Rob stumbled back against the couch, fumbling for a rag that lay on the ground beside a spilled can of beer. He pressed it against his face. “How dare you come into my home and take my daughter from me.”
I could smell the liquor on his breath and fought to calm my pounding heart at the sight of the torn up house, broken lamps, pictures fallen off the walls, end tables upturned, and a hole through the television. The fear in Allie’s voice echoed in my head, and it was all I could do to keep from knocking the man down again. I remembered Nikko’s advice and took a deep breath.
“She’s not your daughter, she’s your step-daughter, and you’ve treated her as no child should ever be treated.” I took a step closer to him despite the warning in my mind to stay as far away as possible to keep from killing him.
I slipped off my trench coat but kept my wings held tight to my back. “You’ve hurt people I care about, and I don’t take kindly to grown men who beat up women and terrify children. There’s not a place in this world for men like that.” I walked toward him as I spoke, following him as he backed up around the couch.
“This is my house and that’s my wife and daughter,” he said in protest. At my glower, he leaned against a chair by the wall.
My hands ached to throttle him. “You might own a wooden frame and a few pieces of furniture, but you don’t own anyone’s life. You have no right to touch a hair on their heads with the intent to harm.” I lifted my wings and he cowered back against the wall with a squeak of surprise. “Threaten or harm them again and it’ll be the last thin
g you do. Understand?”
He nodded.
“Then say it,” I growled.
“I un-understand,” he stuttered, his eyes full of terror.
“Anyone you tell of this will think you’re crazy. You don’t want to go to a mental ward, do you?”
“N-no.”
“Then this is between us. Take care of your loved ones or I’ll take care of you.” I tried to hide an amused smile at his speechless nod and tucked my wings back down. I took a deep breath and forced the anger away even though my instincts demanded for me to finish him. I slipped on the coat before I left through the door.
“Mrs. Ross,” I said in passing with a nod of farewell. She stared at me, then glanced through the door.
“Let’s go,” I said in an undertone to Brie.
The sisters followed me down the driveway and across the gravel road to an orchard. After about ten minutes of silence, Brie hurried to catch up. “Did you kill him?” she asked in a whisper so Allie couldn’t hear.
“Did you want me to?” I asked back. I fought to keep my tone carefully neutral. My heart tightened at the glance she threw me. “You expected me to.” The realization felt like a knife through the tattered shreds of my heart. I clenched my teeth and strode faster, purposefully leaving them behind.
She thought I would kill him, and didn’t protest when I went into the house and shut the door behind me. Was it because she was afraid of me, or because she felt Rob deserved it? It didn’t matter. Either way, the fact that she thought I would kill an unarmed drunk man burned through my limbs with a fiery hatred for what I was. What was worse was how close I had come to giving in to my instincts and ripping his life away.
We walked away from the house into the sparse countryside lit by the first gray reaches of early dawn. I kept silent until I could control my emotions enough to face them. I avoided Brie’s eyes and knelt to talk to Allie.
“We’re going to go for a ride. Is that okay with you?” At Allie’s nod, I shrugged off my coat. She shivered slightly in the cool air and I wrapped it around her shoulders. She gave me a small smile. “Don’t be afraid,” I said quietly. She nodded again.
Still kneeling, I opened my wings slowly to their full length. Allie stared at them for a second, then, to my surprise, she stepped closer and ran her fingers through the feathers. At her gentle touch, a shiver ran through me and she smiled. “I think you need the coat.”
“I’m okay,” I said past my tight throat. I opened an arm and she stepped underneath. I rose and motioned for Brie. “Ready?”
She nodded, her expression unreadable. I put an arm around her waist and beat my wings hard. We rose into the air, the weight heavier than I had expected after the long journey. I pushed harder and forced us high above the trees. We glided on the morning breeze, a dark speck above a waking countryside.
Allie shivered in the crisp air and curled against me. Eventually, I felt the steady rise and fall of her warm breath against my arm as she slept. Brie stayed silent, a fact for which I was grateful because it took all my concentration and waning strength to make it home.
Nikko and Jayce ran out when we landed just after sunrise behind Nikko’s house. With a quiet thanks, Jayce took the sleeping girl from my arms and carried her to their home next door. Brie began to fill Nikko in on what had happened, so I left them and stumbled wearily into the house. I fell onto the couch with the intention of resting for a minute before making my way to the bedroom, but the cushions beckoned invitingly and I didn’t have the strength left to protest.
Chapter Eight
I stared at the back of the Galdoni boy’s head. He tried to throw an elbow in protest, but I tightened my hold around his neck and he froze.
“Well done, KL426,” the passionless voice spoke above us. I looked up to see that the rest of the lunchroom had fallen silent. When I met his gaze, the guard gave a cold smile that didn’t meet his eyes. “Now finish him.”
Anger at what the boy had done still clenched in my gut, but I fought against it and shook my head.
“He stole your food, you won the fight; now finish him.” The words were spoken as though they made perfect sense. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw older Galdoni push each other aside for a better view. The boy in my choke hold was older than me by three years. We had fought before, but something had brought out the rage in me tonight. He now held perfectly still even though I loosened my hold.
I shook my head again and dropped my arms. The boy fell to the floor, his brown wings ruffled and throat bright red. I could feel the claw marks from his fingers across my chest. He rolled over and looked at me. Our eyes met for the briefest second, his filled with relief, mine with trepidation.
“When are you going to learn, KL426? You don’t let an enemy go.” The onlookers scooted back a half second before the whip cut into my chest, carving a deep gash from my collarbone to the bottom of my ribs. I gasped and stumbled to my knees. The second lash wrapped around my neck and cut deep along my jaw. I ground my teeth and fought to stay silent. The older Galdoni boy sat still on the floor in front of me, too scared to move. He held my gaze in silence.
***
“Kale?”
I opened my eyes at the sound of the doctor’s voice. Dr. Ray smiled at me from his seat near the table. “Yes, doctor?” I rubbed my pounding head and slowly sat up. My muscles protested and my stomach growled.
“You’ve been asleep for quite a while.”
I glanced around and found the others watching me with concerned expressions. Allie sat on Brie’s lap on the other couch and gave me a beaming smile. “You okay?” Brie asked, her brow creased.
I nodded, but it was hard to ignore the ache in my over-used wings. I glanced out the living room window and the sun setting beyond. “I slept the whole day?”
“Two days, in fact,” the doctor replied with a humored smile.
“But school!” I stood up so fast my head spun and I had to reach for the table to keep from falling over. Jayce grabbed my arm to steady me.
“Whoa, there,” he said. “You just wore yourself out, that’s all. You can miss classes for a day or two.”
“You would know,” Nikko replied.
Jayce laughed, but he watched me with worried eyes. “You sure you’re okay?”
I nodded, embarrassed at the attention. “I’m fine. I can’t believe you guys let me sleep that long. And on the couch? What if someone walked in and found me here? Everyone would be in trouble.”
Jayce shrugged. “So what? After what you did for us, we’d all go down fighting.”
I stepped back from his grasp and stared at them. Everyone had the same expression, defiant and stubborn. Even Dr. Ray met my gaze without flinching, though his jaw tightened slightly at my frown. “You can’t do that.” I gestured at the room. “You can’t endanger what you have here because of me. It’s not worth it.”
“It is-” Brie stopped when I held up my hand.
I shook my head, exasperated. “It’s not, and I don’t know what to do about it.”
“Nothing needs to be done,” Jayce said with his own frown.
“I should go.”
“No,” Brie and Allie replied at the same time. The little girl stared at me with big brown eyes that matched her sister’s. Her blond hair had been combed into two braids and hung from her shoulders, a bright counterpart to her red shirt. Innocence shone from her face and it was hard to look away.
“Going back now would defeat the purpose of hiding,” Nikko argued. “We still have research to do.”
I leaned back against the arm of the couch and glared at the floor. But Nikko was right. I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Alright.” Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a smile pass between Brie and her brother. I gritted my teeth in frustration. “But we’ve got to be more careful. This isn’t worth any of you getting thrown in jail, and your license taken away, Doc.” I looked at him, but he merely shrugged.
Jayce threw himself on the couch. “Good, it’
s settled. Everything goes back to normal.”
“Let’s make dinner,” Brie said to Allie.
I rubbed my eyes in an attempt to organize the thoughts swirling in my head.
“You did a good thing, Kale,” Dr. Ray said gently, taking a seat next to Jayce on the couch.
“Surprised?” I asked.
He shook his head. “Relieved. I wish I had been here to get Allie myself. Kids should never be mixed up in a situation like that.”
“We should have gotten her out of there sooner,” Jayce said, his eyes full of regret. “Dad’s planning to file for full custody so that she never has to go back.”
“I don’t get it,” I admitted. “Why does your mother stay with Rob if he’s abusive?”
Jayce shrugged, his expression sad. “That’s what I’d like to know. But you can’t reason with her. She loves Rob and he treats her well when he’s not drunk.”
“So he can beat her up and just apologize?” I stared at him.
Jayce shrugged again and studied his hands.
Dr. Ray gave me a thoughtful look and changed the subject. “How have you been doing having to stay in the house all day when you're not at school?”
I shrugged. “I get a bit restless,” I admitted.
He pursed his lips, hesitated, then said, “What do you think about getting a job?”
I stared at him; Nikko and Jayce did too.
“A job doing what?” Jayce asked with a laugh. “And why?”
“He wants the complete human experience, so why not let him have it?” the doctor asked.
Nikko watched us both quietly.
“Somebody’s paying for my food, and I know money’s not easy to come by, so why not?” It made sense the more I thought about it. “I don’t have any qualifications, so I’ll probably have to work in fast food or something to start.” The thought made me smile.
Dr. Ray replied with an answering grin, “I don’t think you could hide those wings under a uniform.”
“Yeah,” Jayce piped in. “And I’m sure the laws about animals in restaurants’ll put a damper on your interviews.”
