by Cheree Alsop
“And you are?” I asked, not bothering to hide how defensive I felt to find a stranger in Alana’s room.
“Dr. Ray,” he replied. “I thought I’d see how Alana’s doing, and hoped I might catch you as well.”
I waited in silence, unsure what to say or do.
He continued speaking as if used to poor conversationalists. “Your friend is doing much better. Her wound is healing and her respiration rates have steadied. I wouldn’t be surprised if she wakes up in the next day or two.”
I crossed to his side, anxious to see the progress myself. Alana looked the same, though her cheeks might have had more color than before. I wanted her to open her eyes so badly I could barely think past the longing.
“What do you think?”
I glanced up, realizing I had only caught the tail end of Dr. Ray’s question.
He gave a kind smile and repeated, “I said I thought we should unwrap those wings and see if they’re ready for flight. They weren’t burned, just singed a bit. I wrapped them to keep you from pushing yourself too hard. If you’re like any of the other Galdoni I’ve met, you have a tendency to think you’re ready to go to battle when you’re still in the middle of healing.”
“Occupational hazard,” I replied.
A laugh burst from him at my response. He looked surprised. “I must say I’m not used to such casual references to what you’ve gone through.”
I shrugged. “I’m not used to being pampered in a hospital. Bitter humor’s my coping mechanism.”
He chuckled again. “I’m just glad you weren’t awake when I was taking care of your hands.”
“That makes two of us.”
He smiled and motioned for me to turn around. The pressure on my wings let up as he gently unwrapped them. He was silent until the bandages were completely off. When he stepped back, I noticed he held one of my feathers in his hand. It looked dull against the neon glare of the overhead light. I definitely needed a shower.
“Go ahead,” he urged. “Tell me how they feel.”
I spread them slowly. They ached with the movement.
“It’s normal for them to hurt a bit,” Dr. Ray commented without waiting for me to ask. “They’ve been bound in one position for longer than I intended. You’re a hard Galdoni to find.”
I spread them out as far as the room allowed. It felt good to have my wings open again instead of bound tight behind my back. “What about my hands?” I asked before I got the urge to fly away and never return.
Dr. Ray motioned for me to take a seat on the couch. He pulled over a tray of supplies already set out as if he had been waiting for me. At my questioning look, he smiled. “I figured if I waited long enough, you would show up.” He glanced at Alana. “She’s worth checking on.”
“More than you know,” I replied quietly.
He began unwrapping the bandages on my left hand. “This one was burned the worst. It was hard to tell how badly when you arrived. I thought we would be dealing with third degree burns, but for the most part they ended up being first and second.” At my uncertain look, he explained, “They blistered quite extensively, but should heal within a couple of weeks. I don’t think you’ll require surgery, which you would if they had been third degree.”
“That’s good to hear,” I replied because I felt like it was expected of me. I fought back a wince when the gauze was removed and he gently worked the bandages off.
“Some of your blisters have popped.” He glanced at me. “Where were you just now?”
“Practicing,” I replied vaguely.
He looked as though he knew exactly what I meant. “You should probably give your hands a rest if you want them to heal right.”
“I only used my elbows and feet.”
He watched me as though waiting for me to tell him I was kidding, but it was true, so I had no reason to joke. I met his searching gaze until he finally got back to work on my hands. “I need to flush these blisters, then I’ll bandage your hand back up again. It’d be best if we could do the same procedure every day for the next two weeks while the burns are healing.”
He unwrapped my right hand, then I watched as he gently removed the dead skin from the blisters and flushed them with an antiseptic solution. It definitely wasn’t the best moment of my life; there were a few times I had to fight the impulse to throw the doctor through the window, but I figured if Alana awoke, she would disapprove. Sweat had broken out across my body by the time he was done.
He finished wrapping both hands with gauze before looking up at me. “I know that hurt. I’ve taken a few punches during my time here,” he said amiably. “I’m still not used to my patients being so silent. I’m always worried it’s the calm before the storm.”
“I may have been close to violence a time or two.”
Dr. Ray smiled. “I’m glad you held back.”
“Alana would have been disappointed.”
He chuckled. “Good to know she has a positive impact on you.” He became serious. “She’s going to be alright, Saro. Stick around. I have a feeling it will mean a lot for her to have a familiar face when she awakens.”
“I’ll be here,” I promised.
He nodded. “Good. Move your hands and fingers as often as you can bear it. It’ll keep them from healing stiff.”
“Got it.”
He picked up a chart from the side table, made a few notes in it, then gave me a nod before he left the room with the chart in his hand. I sat back on the couch. My hands ached, but it was a healing pain. With how badly they hurt, I had expected the damage to be much worse. As it was, if I could keep from destroying them while they healed, I might be just fine.
Physically, the voice in the back of my mind said.
I grimaced and rose to my feet. As much as I wanted to sit there for hours, I needed to test my wings and there was somewhere I wanted to go.
Chapter Fourteen
After considerable searching, I finally had to ask the staff if they had seen Kale. I was directed to the sixth floor by a short nurse with curly blonde hair. She looked pleased that I had spoken to her. I puzzled over it as I made my way up the stairs.
“You’d think with a building for Galdoni there’d be outside landings to fly to,” I muttered as I pushed open the door with my shoulder.
I paused in surprise. Kale and two more Galdoni stood amid a roomful of children. Galdoni children. They played with blocks, drew on white boards, and several were currently trying to guess what sort of animal Kale was acting out. Even I was at a loss until he whinnied.
“A horse?” I guessed.
Everyone looked at me. Kale grinned. “You got it!” The children cheered. Kale excused himself from them as one of the other Galdoni took over with a very good impression of an angry cat.
“Dr. Ray rewrapped your hands,” Kale said by way of a greeting.
I nodded. When he waited in expectant silence, I continued, “He said they would heal in a few weeks if I was careful.”
“So not at all then.” I stared at him for a minute before he smiled and I remembered he had been watching me practice. He led the way through the room to a tinted glass door. “I’m glad they’re going to be okay.”
I watched the children we passed. It was strange to see so many together. At the Academy, we had been separated by age groups, so I wasn’t even aware there had been more children there when I left. It made me glad to know they weren’t going to be raised within those impenetrable gray walls.
One child in particular caught my attention. He had curly blonde hair and intense blue eyes offset by dark red wings. He looked up just as we walked by. He was older than those around him, but many of the children waited nearby as if to see what he would do. He held something close to his body. When he met my gaze, he lifted the object so I could see. The boy held a bird cunningly crafted out of a bar of soap. I realized the white scraps around him were shavings. He handed the bird to a little Galdoni with brown wings. The boy laughed and ran to his friends, showing them h
is prize.
“Some of the children have coped a lot faster than the others,” Kale explained, holding open the door.
I smothered a smile at the sight of a balcony like I had just been complaining they needed. A few Galdoni flew to other landings. Apparently they hated stairs as much as I did.
When the door closed behind us, Kale continued, “The staff have named the little boy you were watching Koden, but he hasn’t spoken.”
“At all?”
Kale shook his head. “Not in the year we’ve been running this place. Some children cope better than others. That’s one of the beauties of this Center.” He leaned against the railing, watching the Galdoni below. The sun was setting, casting the horizon in red and gold. They reflected in Kale’s dark eyes. “Everyone can take the time they need to go out into the world.” He glanced at me. “Is that why you were looking for me?”
I nodded. I felt suddenly ashamed to ask, like I was pressing my luck. “I have somewhere I need to go.”
Kale smiled. “This isn’t a prison, Saro. You’re free to come and go as you wish. I know Dr. Ray needs to take care of your hands. Are you coming back in a few days?”
Relief flooded me. I let out my pent-up emotions with a breath. “Only a few hours. I just need to stretch my wings a bit.”
He nodded as if he had expected as much. “I’m glad you’ll be back. Would you mind if I had your things moved to the residential block? You could have a private room there away from the medical floor.”
I shook my head. “I don’t want to bother anyone.”
“It’s no bother,” Kale reassured me. “That’s what we’re here for.”
I studied the ground. The impulse to jump off the balcony and test my wings the hard way appealed to me. I was about to act when Kale spoke again. “Jayce pulled me aside.” He met my gaze. “He didn’t want to break your confidence, but he felt I should know about the scars.”
“Everyone has scars,” I said quietly, my gaze on the ground below.
“Usually not received after the closing of the Academy.” He looked back out at the sunrays that disappeared behind the distant buildings. “If you plan to go back to Jake’s, I’d like to go with you. I told the police the directions you gave me, but he was gone by the time they arrived. We’ve been searching for him but haven’t had any leads yet.”
“Good to know,” I replied quietly. “I’m planning to stick around here.”
Kale nodded. He turned to leave, then said over his shoulder, “There are those who haven’t quite accepted the presence of the Galdoni, so take care.”
“I will.”
He pressed a button on the side of the door; after a moment, it buzzed and opened to release the sounds of childish laughter. It closed quietly behind me with a soft shush. I took a deep breath, then jumped off the balcony.
***
I spread my wings just before I reached the ground. The sudden tension made the minor burns and new feathers ache, but it felt so good to have them filled with wind again. I pushed hard, anxious to lose myself in the clouds that drifted across the rapidly falling night. Even though I had said otherwise to Kale, I had only one destination I needed to visit.
It took me much less time to reach the apartment than my flight to the Galdoni Center with Alana. I circled the building, trepidation rising in my chest. Now that I had arrived, I wasn’t so sure I wanted to be there at all. Anxiety flooded my chest at the thought of the brown carpets and stale scent of the bottles on the floor. I wanted to go to the basement, but Alana wasn’t there. Uncertain what I planned to do, I landed behind the apartment.
I went up the stairs to the second floor. The first apartment on the left had been the one I shared with Jake. The door was locked, but it took a mere shove of my shoulder to convince the doorknob to give. It swung inward, and I was left staring at an empty room.
The furniture was gone, the beer bottles removed, and even the musty picture of the deer was missing; it had been on the wall so long the wallpaper behind still showed bright blue flowers. There was nothing left, no lead, no scrap revealing where he might have gone. Helpless rage filled me. He shouldn’t have gotten away. I had let him escape as much as if I had watched him walk away. He didn’t deserve to go free after what he had done. I didn’t care about myself; I cared about Alana. He would pay for tying her up and slapping her face when she tried to defend me.
The memory played over and over in my mind. I couldn’t escape the leering smile on his face or the glee in his eyes at my pain. I wanted to beat him like I had in the training room. He needed to pay. If he was truly linked to the crime ring, which all evidence seemed to point, he may be the key in bringing it down. All I had to do was find him.
I shut the door behind me as I left the apartment. It swung open a few inches in the broken frame. I walked slowly down the steps and paused on the dark sidewalk outside. The streetlight near the entrance had broken long ago, and no one bothered to repair them in that part of town. It felt fitting that I would leave the apartment for the last time in darkness.
A voice broke the silence. “I was hoping you’d return.”
My heart skipped a beat. I spun with my knees bent and hands up, ready for an attack.
“Slow down,” the voice said. Officer Donaldson stepped from the shadows. He gave an apologetic smile. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”
“I got that from the way you were hiding in the dark,” I replied dryly, keeping my gaze locked on the gun at his side. He hadn’t pulled it, but I knew a second could mean the difference between death and a chance to escape.
“Guess I could have been a bit less stealthy,” he said.
I decided not to beat around the bush. “I can’t let you take me in. Alana needs me and I’ve got to find the other female Galdoni.”
Officer Donaldson lifted a hand. “I don’t want to take you in.”
“Then why are you here?” I asked, puzzled.
He hesitated, then shoved his hands in his pockets uncomfortably. “I just wanted to make sure you were alright after my partner shot you.”
I hadn’t expected that response in the least. “I’m fine,” I said quietly.
“I’m glad,” he said, but his expression remained unconvinced as his gaze kept drifting to my bandaged hands.
“It, uh, just grazed my head. I was a bit loopy though,” I concluded with a wry smile.
“I can imagine.”
We stood in awkward silence for a few minutes. Officer Donaldson finally cleared his throat. “You want to go get a bite?”
“A bite?” I couldn’t picture that being a good thing.
“Food,” he said with a smile. “Do you want to eat?”
I had no good reason to say no, though that wouldn’t have stopped me from saying no anyway before I met Kale. Something about the black-winged Galdoni made me want to treat people better. I couldn’t explain it. He had a way of talking as if I was the only important person to him at that moment, even though I knew he had countless other cares on his mind with all he handled.
I had never felt important until the moment he sat in the hallway with me across from Alana’s room. His words stayed with me, tangling in the back of my mind. “Love can focus your drive and help you understand that there is more to life than fighting.” My brief contact with his human friend Jayce and the Galdoni Goliath had impacted me as well. I felt it; I was different because of them. I just couldn’t decide if that was bad or good.
“Alright,” I agreed hesitantly.
He led the way around the front of the apartment complex. I paused at the sight of the police car.
Donaldson caught my look. “If you think this is a fancy lie to arrest you, keep in mind that I don’t take criminals to dinner.”
The confined space was the last thing I wanted. I didn’t have enough experience with cars to know if I could get out if Donaldson had a way of locking the doors. With my burned hands, I wasn’t sure I could work the handle, and my wings wouldn’t give me enough
room to break the window and climb through.
Officer Donaldson chuckled. “Tell you what. There’s a diner about three blocks north of here. Why don’t we just walk?”
“I should have brought my jacket.” A pang went through me at the thought that I no longer even had the jacket I used to hide my wings. Jake had taken everything from me; bitterness welled up in my chest at the thought that he had also given me everything I thought I had.
“Saro, you don’t need to hide who you are. Galdoni can do what they want.”
I glanced at him, but refused to let him know how uncomfortable I felt walking down the street with my wings showing. It was late, but cars drove past and a few people hung around the steps of the nearby apartments. I felt eyes on me, but kept my gaze straight ahead. If they wanted to start something, I would finish it regardless of my hands.
Chapter Fifteen
The scent of hamburger, eggs, and coffee drifted out when Officer Donaldson opened the door to a place called The Mmm Mmm Good Café. My stomach rumbled at the pleasant smell. The eyes of the few late night diners turned to us as I followed Donaldson to a booth near the back wall. He was about to take the seat closest to the wall when he paused. “Usually I like to keep an eye on the room, but I think you’d be more comfortable facing the crowd.” He sat down with his back to the diner and gestured for me to take the other seat.
I slid onto the red vinyl booth seat, grateful and surprised by his insight. Galdoni were trained to be alert for attack. Though none of the other tables’ occupants appeared anything more than curious at the entrance of a Galdoni with a police officer, I wasn’t about to take chances. The table closest to us held an elderly couple. The woman had her back to me, but the man poked at an over-easy egg and shot glances in my direction. They both sat in a silence that felt familiar and comfortable instead of awkward as though they did the same thing often.
Two tables from them sat three middle-aged men. They had been talking animatedly when we entered; now their voices were low. None looked in our direction, but it was easy to guess that we were the topic of conversation. On the other side of the door, a mother with two boys was busy cutting up food for her energetic children. I doubted any of them had noticed our entrance.
