Wings of Light

by Katerina Martinez

  I made a pass of the room, walking slowly, quietly, around the poker tables and toward the bar, keeping an eye out for Abvat or any of his Naga friends. No luck. They weren’t here, or at least they weren’t in the main room. Niko’s had several private rooms accessible through a door on the far side where patrons could go to handle truly sensitive business matters.

  I’d heard once a couple of vampires had decided to go to town on each other after settling a feeding ground agreement; I guessed striking successful business deals made vampires horny. Niko caught them, cut off their hands, and staked them. He then tossed them in a dark room and kept them there for a week. By the time he pulled them out to let them go, they’d gone insane. No one ever saw or heard from them again.

  Niko was scary, but he had to be. He was the glue that kept this place together; he probably kept all of Brooklyn together. Those who fell through the rifts were always met with hostility by the natives, there was something about us that triggered them to want to fight, but it didn’t go just one way; we wanted to fight them, too. This was the only place in the whole city I knew of where both kinds of supernaturals met, broke bread, and did business. It was kind of impressive.

  I didn’t know what Niko was, only that he came from the other side. One other thing I knew about him, though, was that he seemed to never sleep, and he was always behind the bar.

  Having made my round of the casino, I walked over to Niko, doing my best to still the runaway train that was my heart. When Niko saw me, he gave me all of his attention, and once again I felt like I was being analyzed, examined, picked apart. He was a tall guy, but he was thin, wiry, and his mouth and ears were too big for his head. With his slicked back hair, his thick gold chain, and his red tracksuit, Niko looked every bit like he belonged in the Italian mob, something I didn’t think was an accident.

  “What’s your poison?” he growled, his voice harsh and raspy.

  “Whiskey, neat,” I said.

  Niko turned around, grabbed a bottle of whiskey, and poured me a glass. “I don’t know you,” he said, as he handed it over.

  “I keep to myself, but I know you.”

  “Do you?”

  “Everybody knows Niko.”

  He smiled at that. “Yeah, I guess everybody does, don’t they?” His eyes. They were scanning me with supernatural precision. I’d been here before, I’d been to this bar before. Was his memory good enough that he’d figure out who I was even with this disguise on? And if he did, would he even care? The disguise was meant to throw Abvat off, not to trick Niko. I had no beef with him. “Tell me, what’s a pretty girl like you doing in my neck of the woods in the middle of the day?”

  I took a sip of whiskey and watched him from across the rim of the glass. “Business,” I said, my voice sharp.

  “Business… and who is the lucky person who has the privilege of your attention today?”

  Smiling, I set the glass down and decided to go all in. “I’m looking for Abvat. Have you seen him?”

  Niko leaned over the bar, setting his elbows down to support his weight, and turned his nose up. “You know, come to think of it, I have not seen that slimy little snake in, oh, maybe a month.”

  “That’s why I’m looking for him.”

  “Settling a debt?”

  “You could say that.” A chill worked its way up my spine. There were eyes on me, and they weren’t Niko’s. I shuffled around in my seat trying not to be too obvious about it, all the while fighting, praying my hand wouldn’t start trembling. I’d trained for this, I’d trained for weeks, but there were too many people here—there was no way I could take them all, and no way Draven and the others would get here in time to save my ass if things went south.

  “You and me both,” Niko said. “If you find him, tell him Niko is looking for him. He’ll know what it’s about.”

  “When I find him, if there’s anything left of him after I’m done, I’ll be sure to pass the message.”

  Niko grinned, the corners of his mouth stretching so far, they touched the outermost extremities of his face. I felt queasy looking at it. “I like your style, girl. If ever you want to do a little job for Niko, you let me know. I may have something that requires someone of your… physical attributes.”

  That means sex. There’s no way that could’ve meant anything else. I felt sick, so I downed what was left of my whiskey, then I realized I had no money with which to pay. Fuck.

  “How much do I owe you?” I asked.

  “First time’s on the house, miss…?”

  “Seline,” I said, deciding against using a fake name.

  Impossibly, his grin seemed to spread even wider, almost like… like he recognized me. If he cared, he didn’t say anything on the matter. “Tell you what you could do for me, Seline,” he said, “If you’re so inclined.”

  “What’s that?”

  “I’ve heard our mutual friend has a place in East New York he holes up in. Somewhere around Flatlands avenue, near the creek. You know how the Naga like to live near water.”

  “Right… what’s the job?”

  “Seeing as how you’re looking for him anyway, when you find him, give him this.”

  Niko reached under the desk and handed a black scarab over to me. From the moment it fell into my hand, I could feel its dark magic radiating from it. I almost let it drop onto the counter, but I didn’t. “What’s this?”

  “Just a way I’ll be able to find him after you’re done, whether there’s anything left of him or not. Ideally, you’d do old Niko a favor and make sure he stays alive so he can repay his debts, but if he so happens to meet a tragic end, so be it.”

  “If you know where he lives why don’t you go down there yourself?”

  “Niko’s not exactly a low profile strange, and there are very few who want to set foot that deep into Naga territory, capisce? But if you’re willing to go and do this for me, I’ll owe you one.”

  Favors among the supernatural community were treated as currency, and in some cases having a favor owed was better than receiving a lump of cash. Money was a finite, quantifiable resource; a favor, though? That was a little more abstract, as my encounter with Bastet proved. Having Niko owe me one was no small thing, and it may prove useful in the future, especially considering Fate and I were going to be leaving the Order after we were done with Abvat and the stone.

  “Alright,” I said, pocketing the scarab. “You’ve got yourself a deal.”

  Niko extended his hand, and I shook it without hesitating. He then took my glass and went across to the sink to wash it, without wasting a second. Credit given to him, even though Niko’s was an underground casino-bar where some of the shadiest characters came to meet, drink, smoke, gamble, and sometimes fight, it was probably one of the cleanest underground establishments in all of Brooklyn, and that was saying something.

  I moved away from the bar and started walking toward the exit, my fingers rising to tap the wing pin attached to my collar—I needed to give this information to the others as fast as I could—when I heard footsteps padding down the stairs ahead of me. I let my hand fall to my side again, without touching the pin. If anyone saw me talking to myself, even under my own breath… let’s just say that would raise questions.

  Instead of making it look like I was going to leave, putting me right into the path of whoever was coming down, I quickly slipped into one of the nearby booths, doing my best to keep out of sight. Call it paranoia, call it instinct; whatever it was, it was justified. The two Naga, Vishal and Sila, Abvat’s friends, both made their entrance into Niko’s bar. They were wearing casual clothes—jeans, t-shirts, and jackets—, which meant they’d ditched their Order uniforms somewhere. I turned my head to the side to avoid their eyes and they walked past me, heading for the bar.

  My heart was wedged inside my throat and pounding like a drum. I tapped my wing charm and whispered. “Can anyone hear me?”

  No response.

  “Aaryn, Aisling… anyone?”

  Still n
othing. That wasn’t good. Something had happened, I just knew it, none of this was right. These two weren’t meant to be here, and the others were supposed to be answering me.

  The exit was near, all I had to do was get up and make my move, and I’d be out before the Naga could reach me. Seeing my chance, I took it, though I made sure I was subtle about it. The last thing I wanted was to alert their attention to the fact that I was even there, let alone that I was heading out of the bar.

  I watched them through my periphery as I moved briskly toward the exit. Neither of them turned their attention toward me. They were too busy talking to Niko who… shook their hands and smiled at them as they spoke to him. My stomach flipped again. This was wrong—really wrong. When I thought I was near enough to the stairs I made a dash for them and climbed them two at a time, hitting the exit door in my stride and shoving it open with all my might, but the door only budged an inch before shutting on me.

  I tried the door again, only this time it didn’t move at all. “Sorry,” came a voice from the other side, “Boss’ orders, nobody leaves.”

  “What the hell?” I yelled, “Let me out!”

  “What part of nobody leaves didn’t you get?”

  “Maybe if you took the dicks out of your mouth I’d understand you, asshole!”

  “Hey, fuck you, lady.”

  “Fuck you too! Let me out, or I’m—”

  “You’ll what?” came a voice from behind me.

  I spun around on the spot, my heart racing, and there I saw four sets of reflective eyes shining in the relative darkness. Sila and Vishal. This was a trap. Gods, I’d fallen into a trap! Sila’s feminine form came into view first, her long tongue flicking the air, Vishal behind her. I was cornered, with my back against the only door out of this place; a door that wouldn’t open thanks to the giant on the other side of it.

  “So, what’s this?” I asked, “Abvat’s sent you to do his dirty work? I have to say I’m not impressed.”

  “Abvat is a little too busy to deal with you right now,” Sila said, “But he’s glad you decided to come after him. The stone is much more powerful if you give it a little more energy before you use it.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  Sila pulled a dagger out from behind her back. It gleamed deadly against the dim light. “I’m gonna enjoy killing you.”

  Hissing, she lunged at me, her knife glinting in the dark and promising a cruel, slow death. From behind, Vishal’s hand began to burn with crimson light, the nauseating effect of his dark magic filling the small space we were in and already making my head swim. But I focused, shaking the nausea off as Sila came charging at me, and with one swift move I pulled my own dagger out of its sheath and intercepted her swipe, both blades singing as they clashed.

  There was little room to move around in this tight corridor, but I still found enough space to deliver a swift kick to her abdomen that sent her staggering back. Vishal, meanwhile, wound back his arm and hurled a ball of black lightning at me, which I was only just able to duck underneath. The ball of magic smashed against the door with so much force, even the giant couldn’t keep it shut. It swung open, flooding the corridor with light and offering me a chance to escape.

  I took it, but I hadn’t noticed how fast Sila had recovered. She grabbed the back of my hair with one hand and ran her blade across my shoulder with the other, the knife’s sharp edge biting into my skin. The sensation was burning hot at first, then cold rushed in. I sucked in a breath of air, spun around, and stabbed her with my own dagger through the collarbone.

  Sila yelled from the pain, let go of my hair, and pulled away from me, hissing sharply as I slowly stepped back. Behind me I could hear the doorman recovering and quickly heading for the door, so I turned around and broke through milliseconds before he managed to close it again. He went to grab me, but I ducked under his reach and delivered a swift blow to his throat with the tips of my fingers powerful enough to make him hack and cough, grabbing his neck.

  Grunting, I kicked him in the leg to bring him down to his knees, then I pushed him against the door, his head denting the metal where it hit. He wasn’t knocked out, but his head was spinning and his throat was clearly badly hurt. I could hear Sila screaming from the other side, her fists pounding against the metal door. In a second, Vishal would strike it again with another ball of magic, and the giant’s weight wouldn’t be enough to keep them in.

  I turned around and fled the alley, hopping across the hood of an incoming car and sliding off the other side, pushing right into the backstreet where I’d left Draven and the others, but they weren’t there—the backstreet was empty. Frantic, I tried the wing charm again, calling out to each of them in turn. Aisling, Crag, Aaryn, Draven, but none of them replied. Where the hell are they? Nothing about this was right, they were supposed to be here, they weren’t supposed to leave me on my own, but here I was, alone in an alley with a gash in my arm that was badly bleeding.

  I felt Vishal’s dark magic power up even from where I was standing, and when I turned around, I saw the door blow open and the giant fly into the wall opposite like he was a rag doll. I started running, though I had no idea where to go.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  I ran as fast as I could, aimlessly flying through Downtown at the speed of a heartbeat until I figured out where I should go. Home. I hadn’t been there in almost three weeks, not since we were picked up by the Order. I’d half expected to find the place locked up and all the windows nailed shut, but as I jimmied the window open with my dagger and climbed inside, I found it was exactly as I’d left it—well, except for the smell. The apartment reeked of rotten, old Chinese food, the last meal Fate and I had shared here. The front door, though, was miraculously in place, and it wasn’t a new door installed by the landlord, either; this one had the exact same scratch marks on the lower corners ours had.

  A sharp pain throbbed through my arm, reminding me that I was bleeding. “Right, that,” I said, moving quickly into the bathroom.

  I’d always been used to getting cuts and scrapes, so my bathroom was stocked with just the right kind of supplies for me to deal with my arm, even if I’d have a little trouble stitching the wound together with just my left hand. I grabbed the first aid kit we kept next to the toilet and set it on the sink. Inside, there were some bandages, some rubbing alcohol, and a needle and thread. There were also painkillers in the cabinet above the sink, which could come in handy right about now.

  My heart was still racing I was alone, the others weren’t replying to me, and it wasn’t like I could just pick up a phone and call the Black Fortress for backup. I wasn’t even sure they had a phone they could answer there, and even if they did, I doubted if I’d find the number in the yellow pages. This was up to me, now.

  I grabbed my one towel, rolled one of the corners up, and shoved it into my mouth, biting down hard and getting to work on the wound on my arm. Aaryn had trained us on how to deal with flesh wounds the mundane way in the event magic wasn’t available, but I’d lived rough for ten years and already had the experience to deal with stuff like this.

  That didn’t mean what I had to do didn’t hurt like all hell.

  The rubbing alcohol felt like fire falling on my skin, and I could feel each crunch of the needle in the back of my teeth as I sewed my skin back together. I had to bite hard on the towel to stop from screaming, but after a few minutes, I was done, and while my arm was throbbing with hot pain, the bleeding had at least stopped. I sprayed the wound with disinfectant, then bandaged it up as best I could, spitting the towel out of my mouth when I was done and letting my head rest on the wall.

  “Okay,” I said, between breaths, “Think, Seline. Think. You’re alone in your apartment, the Order has failed, Draven and the others are probably dead, and Abvat set a wonderful little ambush for you at the bar. You’re in over your head here, and nobody’s going to save you. Think. What do we do?”

  My eyes shot open. Supplies.

  I stood from the toil
et seat, dizzy from the blood loss and the pain, then I crossed into the bedroom Fate and I slept in, pulled the closet open, and grabbed my emergency backpack. Inside, there was money, several spare sets of clothes for me and for Fate, a spare phone and charger, and a map of the US.

  Quickly, my body fueled by adrenaline and panic, I went through the room gathering whatever else I thought I needed, checking items off a mental list as I collected them. A charger for my current phone, still at the fortress. Fate’s charger. Medicine. First aid kit. Knife from the kitchen. As many packs of Ramen as I can fit. I flung the backpack over my shoulder, grabbed my dagger, and moved into the living room where I gave the place a final cursory glance, wondering if there was anything else I needed.

  That’s when I heard a faint voice in the back of my mind.

  “Seline!”

  I tapped the wing pin on my collar, and this time I felt a tiny trickle of magic pump through it. “Aisling?” I asked.

  “Thank the Gods,” she said, her voice coming through distantly, like she was down a well. “What happened to you?”

  “I could ask you the same question. Where are the others?”

  “It was an ambush. They were taken.”

  “Taken? Where? By who?”

  “Abvat had a mini army of Naga with him, they knew where we were hiding. We didn’t stand a chance. I’m so glad you made it out.”

  My stomach went cold. Abvat had planned this, he knew we’d come and he knew where we’d go because he knew I would tell them. That slimy son-of-a-bitch had been three steps ahead of us the whole time, and we’d fallen right into his trap. To make things worse, I had been the one to lead them into that trap. Draven and the others had been taken because of me.

  “Shit… shit, Aisling, what are we supposed to do?”

  “We have to get backup. Tell me where you are, and I’ll come get you.”

  “I’m at my apartment in Downtown Brooklyn, where are you?”