by Alexie Aaron
“I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking of anyone but my pain,” Mia said. “I’m a selfish, vain creature at times. Thank you for telling me.”
“Tell him what you’ve told no one,” Nicholai encouraged Mia.
“I’m proud to wear your wings, not as your mate, but as your family. When I fly now, I can really feel what it is to be a birdman. My first wings, I hated. The last wings, I could do fantastic things with, but I never felt they were mine. These wings that everyone says are too big for me, are me. You have honored me. I do not take this lightly.”
Victor looked intently at Mia. It wasn’t a look of desire; it was a look of realization. “Thank you.”
~
Ted used Mia’s charm and arrived on the porch of Quentin’s mansion. He rang the doorbell.
Baxter opened the door. “I have to say, I’m gobsmacked. Come in, Mr. Martin.”
“I was looking over the materials you sent, and I found some very interesting commonalities with what I’m working on right now,” Ted said, following Baxter to his office.
“Magic and science have a lot in common. Both try to use the natural world in order to create something different. Understanding molecules and how they react to each other is what wizards do. When I created this charm which brought you to my doorstep, I used my understanding of molecules and, basically, developed a small stable wormhole.”
“I’ve been tasked to create a forcefield that can be generated with several power systems in mind.”
“Ah, space, the final frontier,” Baxter said. “It’s not, you know.”
“It’s not what?”
“The final frontier. There is no final. Every discipline is infinite. We lost interest in our planet because we couldn’t stop ourselves from the greedy plunder. So now we look to the stars, to bring our cancerous greed to other worlds.”
“Hopefully, by the time we reach them, we will have transformed our attitudes,” Ted said.
“It’s doubtful. If we can’t save this planet, then we have no business being out there.”
Ted looked at Baxter. He disagreed with his philosophy. “One day, let’s sit and debate our differences, but right now, my mind is on my wife. Mia wasn’t there when I woke up. I imagine she was kidnapped by Victor or she would have left a note.”
“How do you feel about this?”
“It pisses me off. I know she’s livid. She was taken from her bed in an old t-shirt of mine. That’s it. Mia likes to be prepared.”
“I can teach you to protect your home so there aren’t any more incursions.”
“Can’t you do it for me?”
“Ah, this is where you’re going to have to trust me. Here, I generate the forcefield. I would have to be living with you, sleeping beside your wife. You don’t want that. Or do you? Quentin would love for your family to live here with him. I’m not fond of sleeping with others, but I’m a team player.”
Ted shook his head.
“To keep her from being snatched by, let’s say, Roumain, you have to be beside her. He is very powerful. The only reason he hasn’t made a move in the past few weeks is that he is very aware that Mia could kill him if she was angry enough. She was an archangel’s sword away from doing just that.”
“She told me.”
“Good.”
“I want to ease her burden. I want to be able to protect our family. Protect her. I know she doesn’t sleep well. Although, she tells me she feels safer because I am with her. One of the reasons I try not to be a petulant child about Stephen Murphy is that I know he never sleeps. He watches over the farm and us, especially her.”
“You live in a most unique situation. I’ve not dared to go into the Murphy/Mia dynamic yet in counseling with her, so I have no insight except to tell you that she sees you as her husband and mate. You are the one she fights to remain loyal to.”
“Thank you, that does help. Can I ask you for an appointment to teach me so I can protect Mia and our family?”
“I’m free now.”
“I didn’t want to presume. I know you must have your hands full with Quentin.”
“Not so much now. He’s having brunch with Ralph. Bernard has been called in on another museum difficulty.”
“I feel a bit shady for not adding myself to the PEEPs team, but I have this problem, and the door situation, and my work. I just can’t be pulled in another direction.”
“I’m sure they’ll be able to manage.”
~
Burt and Mike moved from floor to floor filming the lethargic ghosts as they returned to what was left of their bodies or their possessions. The gently heated Himalayan salt piles had been successful at attracting the emerging ghosts and stemming their violent tendencies. Unfortunately, they were not allowed in the area where Charles’s vault was locked. Bernard assured them that the box was in a contained environment, and the only dead being revived would be microscopic.
Bernard walked by. He was connected to his iPhone and was yelling at, whom they assumed was, Charles. “You get that out of this museum today or I’m going to do it. And I’ll send it to the bottom of Lake Michigan just to spite you.”
“Whoa, if I didn’t know better, I’d say that’s where Mia got her temper from,” Burt said.
“I’ve learned not to push our Mia too far,” Mike said. “But sometimes I can’t resist, and I pull a pigtail and she lets me have it.”
“I’ve never had the urge to poke the bear,” Burt said. “We argue, but I keep my distance.”
“That’s because you were lovers. I have not had the privilege.”
“Leave her alone. She has too much on her plate,” Burt warned.
“Funny, I hadn’t thought that saving the world was at all time consuming,” Mike quipped.
“You leave her alone,” Burt repeated. “You’ll save yourself a lot of heartache if you just stop now.”
“But…”
“No buts. Tell me the best-case scenario.”
“Mia leaves Ted and comes and lives with me.”
“With all her children?”
“I love the kids.”
“With Murphy?”
“He and I are getting along better.”
“Victor, Nicholai, and Angelo watching you. Michael, Roumain, and Lucifer calling for her. Not to mention her new Svengali, Baxter.”
“Is Baxter his first name or last?” Mike pondered.
“You’re not answering me. Can you accept all these characters in your woman’s life? I can’t. I won’t. That’s why we’ll never be together again,” Burt said. “And I know what I’m missing out on.”
“How did this become about you?” Mike asked. “Huh, I’m starting to get it. Just because you can’t handle your ego, you assume that I can’t handle mine.”
“Well?”
“You’re probably right,” Mike admitted. “How does geek boy do it?”
“I have no idea,” Burt said. “It still bums me out that our tech is… well, you know…”
“Living the high life with your ex.”
“Yes.”
“Is that why you get so mad at Mia?”
“Maybe. Okay, there is more to life than Mia. Let’s look at the video feeds that Jake hacked of the lab downstairs.”
Mia followed Victor to an island in the GSD portion of Lake Michigan. He was going to be brutal with Mia, and he didn’t need Nicholai’s censure.
“The first thing I want to work on is having you grasp totally what it means to be a birdman.” He took off his clothes.
Mia lifted an eyebrow, but that was the only indication that she was wary of the situation.
Victor transformed into a golden eagle.
“I always thought you would be some kind of a black bird, considering your birdman plumage.”
Victor changed back. “This is who I am inside. I can be a black bird, watch.”
Mia watched as Victor became a crow and then several other smaller birds, including a dark-eyed junco. He resumed his human form. “Most of u
s can become any bird we want, but the bird inside is the one that is important. I need to see your bird,” he said, walking over.
“Pants. Please put on some pants,” Mia pleaded.
“No. You have to get over your North American aversion to the naked human body.”
“That’s not it. How am I supposed to concentrate when I keep falling back into being an immature girl because I can’t keep my eyes off your… reproductive parts.”
Victor laughed. “I’m sorry. I’m used to training males.” He pulled on his shorts.
Mia pulled her tee off and stood there. Victor walked over and put one hand on her chest just below her neck and on her back. “Who you are as a birdman comes from here. Close your eyes and listen to your own breathing. Think back, back as far as you can, and become a bird. It’s going to hurt a bit. I promise you, I’ll be here for you.”
Mia listened, and she became a small bird. Not a hummingbird like her grandfather but a saltmarsh sparrow. “This explains a lot,” Victor said. He let Mia hop around from one of his large fingers to another. “I would have expected by the person you’re are trying so hard to be, that you were a swan, a creature who mates for life. But no, inside, you’re a saltmarsh sparrow. I want you to try to become something larger now.”
Mia managed a falcon and then a goose before she turned back into herself, sweating with exhaustion. Victor walked her over to the shore, and Mia waded into the water to cool herself down. Victor handed her an open-backed garment resembling a bathing suit that attached at her neck for her to put on for her modesty’s sake. Ed had approached him on Mia’s behalf, telling him that when he was training Mia, he found when Mia didn’t have to think of her body being exposed, she was more effective.
“Why do you still transform into other birds?” Mia asked, pulling on the suit.
“The reason we turn into smaller birds is to blend in and to become one with nature. Angelo is quite fond of being a crow. Nicholai, a condor. Me, a swallow.”
“I think the golden eagle is more you than a swallow.”
“It’s because you don’t know me that well.”
“I really don’t,” Mia admitted. “When we first met, I saw you and Varden as bookends, but I realize now how different you are. How you could have stood in a subservient position for so long, baffles me. It must have taken a lot of control to stem your natural leadership abilities and just be a bodyguard.”
Victor pushed Mia under the water.
She rose up and sputtered, “What the hell was that for?”
“You seem to think that being a bodyguard is something less than a leader. I wanted to wash it out of your brain.”
Mia waded out of the water and unknotted her hair with her hands and quickly braided it while the cool breeze dried her body.
Victor understood why this hybrid was wanted. Her form was rounded but tight. Her hips would accommodate a male once her insides adjusted. “Mia, bring forth your wings.”
Mia faced him and complied.
Victor moved towards her and examined how securely they were attached into her body.
“Michael had Sariel etch my spine and increase the size of my vertebrae here,” Mia reached back, “and here.”
“Bring them in,” he ordered. He moved his hand down her spine. He could feel the differences in the size. He moved his hands to her rib cage and back to her back. “I hate to say it, but he is an amazing creator.”
“I won’t let on.”
“As much as I could enjoy staring at you all day, it’s time to move on. I noticed you paused and made sure your back was to me when you transformed.”
“Yes. I made that mistake before with Angelo.”
“I’m surprised there aren’t a few little Angelos in your nest then.”
“He realized that it was in error.”
“He has a lot of self-control. He has lived his life without taking a permanent mate. He has had a few women in his life.”
“What about you? Where is your mate?”
“I decided not to have one.”
“Not ever?”
“Not interested.”
“You’ve had sex though.”
Victor looked away.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to pry.”
“I’m not that old, even though in human years I am older than you. I’ll have plenty of time to mate. Right now, I want to save the world without worrying about satisfying a mate and maintaining a nest for my children.”
“That’s very responsible. I feel bad that Ted has been put in this position by our having children so early, but I’m so glad we did. Brian and Varden have enriched me so much.”
“Varden is so much like my brother. He was a mama’s boy too.”
“Is it selfish for me to enjoy this?”
“You’ll know when to nudge him out of the nest. He will create some distance when your next child arrives.”
“Not you too.”
“I’m sorry, is there a problem?”
“What if I don’t want another child?” Mia asked. “Does that make me horrible?”
“No, but it would make you a liar. I have been in your mind, Mia. Deep inside, you want more children. I see you, quite the little mama with your brood chasing after you.”
“Not a warrior, just a brood hen.”
“No. Female warriors have children when they retire. As you have found, it’s difficult leaving the nest unprotected when you have to leave.”
“I thought I had retired, and then this thing came along.”
“I’ll get you through this. I promise.”
Mia turned to him. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep. Inside,” she said, patting her chest, “I know I’m not going to survived this.”
“You will.”
“Because you ordained it?” Mia scoffed and turned her back on Victor.
“I’m going to have your back. I will be your other bodyguard. I’m not sending you up against frost giants with just Abigor and Murphy to depend on.”
Mia turned around, forgetting how close he was. She looked up at him and argued, “No, no, no! I’ll not have the death of another Ahlberg brother on my hands.”
He took her wrists and lifted her up so her eyes were even with his. “Who are you to determine how I die?”
Mia stared at him, not willing to look away. She was every bit as strong as he was mentally, but physically, she was way outclassed. “I’m your friend.”
Victor nodded. He transferred her wrists into one hand and pulled her close to him.
“Don’t,” Mia said. “It’s just our anger, not attraction.”
He nodded. He continued to stare. “Your eyes are different.”
“It’s who I am now. Help me to connect this with my body.” Mia winced. Was this a poor choice of words?
“I understand. Come, let’s fly. Full armor, claws and talons.”
Mia pulled away and transformed. She shot into the sky, feeling the rush of power her wings brought her. Victor passed her. Mia would not be outdone. She surged upwards, passing Victor, and when she had touched the top of the world, she screeched. She turned her body to take in the full warmth of the sun. Her claws glowed orange, and her skin started to change. She let herself become one with the sun.
“That’s it. You are a birdwoman. You rule the skies.”
Mia twirled around with happiness. “I can feel this part of me join with my soul.”
“Now you instinctually know when to be a bird. We are a third of the way there.”
“Thank you, Victor.”
“You’re welcome, Mia.”
Chapter Sixteen
“But these materials are so common,” Ted protested.
“It’s how you use them,” Baxter pointed out. “Much like Himalayan salt attracts and calms ghosts, big blocks of salt hidden in the foundations of your home or buried in deep vaults on your property can be called upon to create a forcefield to repel or contain paranormal creatures from the death realm.”
“This is how the Others kept us trapped,” Ted realized. “Couldn’t we use this idea to create a barrier that will stop paranormal things entering the city?”
“Ghosts yes, but we’re talking about frost giants. Come on, we need to research these things. What are their weaknesses?”
“I don’t think you’ll find anything written down,” Ted said.
“Oh, we’re not going to find the information in books,” Baxter said, tossing Ted a coat of Quentin’s. “Show me where Odin is now.”
Ted complied. “We’re not.”
“We are. We’re going to the Norse army. They have defeated them before. They will have the information we need.”
Odin slowed his pony. He saw a disturbance up ahead. He hoped it wasn’t another lumber truck. He hated to waste his energy cloaking his Norsemen for a pile of logs.
Vili rode back. “It’s a wizard and a man claiming to be the husband of Nyx’s child.”
“Most interesting.”
“They are rather small,” Ve observed.
“Humans are small,” Odin said. “Bring them here. We will make camp.”
“You didn’t tell me these were giants,” Ted said. “That pony was like something out of a Paul Bunyan tale.”
“Babe the blue ox,” Baxter remembered fondly. “Quentin loved that story as a child.”
The rider returned and scooped up Baxter and Ted with one hand and rode back towards the temporary encampment. Once there, the large man introduced himself. “I am Vili, brother of Odin and Ve.”
“It’s an honor to meet you,” Ted said.
“I’m surprised you know who I am. Odin normally gets all the attention.”
“He does seem to attract the imagination of many,” Baxter said. “Vili, we would like to speak with whichever of you is most experienced with the frost giants.”
“That would be Ulf. He is the warrior sitting by the large fire with the wolf claw necklace on. Why?”
“We are being asked to build a barrier wall between the door if it opens and the city of men. The daughter of Nyx doesn’t want to fight the giants amongst the buildings,” Baxter said.
