This is a story i've been working on... i just hate typeing, so i don't get many chapters onto my computer at a time.
Dark Wings
Chapter 1
"Adylure, you've got to stop showing off like that."
I wasn't showing off, Kenji," I argue, "I was helping a kid that was getting beat up. The only way I could do that, was by using my powers." We head toward our apartment.
Kenji rolls his eyes at me and sighs. "You've got to stop using magic, Ady," he grumbles.
"But, why, Kenji?"
"Sis, we've been through this a thousand times. You just... can't. It's the way things are here."
We enter our shabby little apartment, "And why is that," I demand.
"Because Veli owns the city," he yells. "I hate it, but that's how it is."
"I still don't understand why the people of the city don't do something about that bastard."
His hands ball into fists. "I know. But they're afraid, and weak, and human," he says through clenched teeth.
"Why doesn't anyone ask for help from the outside? You know, from mages like me, or the other races. Then we could defeat Veli and live happily ever after. Maybe some of the mages could stay and people wouldn't hate me as much."
We stand just inside our apartment, "No more of this, alright?" He puts a hand on my shoulder because Kenji doesn't really do hugs. "I'm gonna go get food. Stay in the apartment and out of trouble until I get back."
"But..."
"You're such a stubborn girl," he interrupts. "Just stay here, sis." He leaves closing and locking the door behind me.
//He's such a good surrogate brother. Always looking out for me. 'Ady stop that!' 'Ady, that's dangerous!' 'Adylure, you're attracting attention! Adylure! Adylure! Adylure!'... Adylure... the name he gave me after he found me in the forest just outside the city walls. I still can't remember a thing about my past. My only clues are my powers, and my necklace. It's a red orb with three black, glossy feathers attached to it. It hangs from a simple, silver chain. The orb glows when danger is near.I'm really grateful to Kenji for taking me in, but I hate living in this ugly city. I hate being so different. I mean, why does Veli only want ordinary humans in this city?//
Someone bangs on the front door. I open it and, suddenly, I'm pinned to the ground with a boy on top of me and the door is closed. He has a gun to my head. I look into his blood-red eyes and just behind him... wings! Glossy, black wings.
"Relax, kid. I... just need... a place to hide." He collapses on top of me.
I shove him onto the floor and poke his body. He is covered in blood. I brush some of his deep, sea-blue hair out of his delicate almost feminine face. //Is he dead? God he's cute.// Blushing, i reach up to stroke his wings. //So soft... just like the ones on my necklace.// I look down on that beautiful face, "Who are you?" I go about stripping off his big, bulky trench-coat, so I can see his wounds better. It's filled with weapons. //He's armed to the teeth! Oh, man. What have I gotten myself into? What happened to him? And... What is that smell? It seems familiar, but I can't remember.//
Someone else bangs on the door making me jump. I can feel my necklace begin to heat up with the light it must be projecting. //It's not very warm. Must not be too dangerous.// Another loud bang and the boy lurches up and points the gun at me with a hand trembling from blood loss.
I look up into his eyes and he sways a little. "I think I should get that."
"No," he growls.
"What if they break down the door?"
I heard loud bang, and someone calls, "Is anyone home? It's the police." The boy looks from me to the door and runs into the kitchen. "Open up!"
"Alright! I'm coming," I yell rubbing my eyes and tousling my hair on my way to the door. I yawn as I open the door. "What?"
There's a whole squad of police at my door. "Excuse me, miss," the one in front starts, "Have you seen a boy about your age with blue hair and black wings? He's a criminal, you see, very dangerous."
//No kidding. But I'm not gonna hand him over to these goons. At least not yet.// "srry, sr," I yawn, "I've been sleeping here for the last few hours waiting for my brother to get back. I haven't seen anyone at all."
Another officer tries to look in, "May we take a look around?"
"Got a warrant?"
He frowns, "Got something to hide?"
"No. I just don't like police," and with that I close the door. The first office barely had time to say, "Sorry to have bothered you," before the door is shut in his face. The necklace cools as i turn around to see the boy swaying in the middle of the room.
"Thanks," He rasps, "I'll be out of your hair soon."
I walk up to him and kick his knee out from under him. He collapses to the ground with a grunt. I smile down at him and say, "You're not going anywhere if you're going to be falling so--- gracefully like that. You'll be staying here for at least a few days until you heal up."
He glares up at me, "The longer I stay here the more danger you'll be in."
"I really don't care," I say with a shrug, "I'm already sort of in danger. You see. I'm a mage and, if someone finds out, I'll be taken away for questioning. Plus, I've already stuck my neck out protecting you're sorry ass." I walk to the bathroom and get the first aid kit. I can feel his eyes follow me wherever i go. Just when i get back over to him and kneel down to start dressing his wounds, Kenji walks in with two full bags of groceries in his arms.
"Hey, sis. I'm home," He calls as he kicks the door closed. He kicks off his shoes as he calls, "I ran into a patrol just now. Weird, huh? Anyway, they asked if i had seen---," His eyes widen when he sees the winged boy. He drops the groceries, "Holy shit!"
The boy tries to get up, but i hold him down, "Stay put."
"Gods, Adylure! The patrol is looking for him," he yells. "What are we going to do?" He runs a hand through his hair. "I know! I'll go get the patrol and they can come take him away," he turns to rush out and do just that. I run up to him and block the door.
He looks at me confused. "I know about the patrol. I just sent them away. the boy isn't leaving till he gets better."
He looks at me in shock for a moment before yelling, "Are you crazy?"
"Miss Adylure," The boy says from the floor where i left him, "you don't have to keep me here." He manages to sit up.
"Don't be ridiculous. Of course you're staying," I say absentmindedly.
"Why are you doing this? I mean, I force my way into your home holding a gun to your head," He looks down, "I could have killed you."
"You could have WHAT," Kenji yells.
"Kenji calm down," I yell. "If he was really going to hurt me, my necklace would have glowed hot and bright. It didn't glow at all, so I obviously wasn't in danger." I start picking up the groceries all over the floor. Kenji gives the boy one more glare and bends down to help. The boy watches from the middle of the floor as we pick up everything and Kenji takes them to the kitchen. I go back to him drawn to his scent. //Is it some sort of cologne?// "So, what's your name?"
He hesitates before answering, "Kurai."
"Well, Kurai, you're going to have to take off your shirt so I can take a look at those wounds." He undoes the buttons that go from just under his wing-joints to the hem of his shirt and takes it off, never taking his eyes off me. I look up at his wings and reach up to stroke them again. they flinch, fold into his back, and disappear. I start cleaning his wounds. "I'm Adylure as you heard, and the guy in the kitchen is my brother, Kenji." Once the wounds are clean, i start bandaging them. When done, I look into his red eyes and ask, "What are you?"
"He's a freaking angel Ady," Kenji answers from the kitchen door. He trows Kurai and me a couple of apples."And worse. He's a black winged angel."
"What's wrong with that," I ask through a mouthful of apple, "Other than the fact that he's not human?"
"When Veli was taking over twenty years ago, he tried to kill all the angels. Everyone thought he succeeded because no one has seen one since. Having one around is bad enough, but, since he's a black winged angel, this is worse."
"Why? So he has black wings. Big deal! I'm sure lots of angels have black wings."
"No, he's right," Kurai says. "I'd bring you lots of trouble."
"Well then that makes us birds of a feather because I bring Kenji lots of trouble too." I laugh. Kurai looks at me like I'm crazy. "In any case. Regardless of the danger we'll be in, Kurai will stay here till his wounds heal" I pull out my necklace and start toying with it.
"No way! I won't allow it," Kenji says, "He's armed."
"Just until his wounds heal. And I promise to put his gun away." I turn back to Kurai to see his eyes fixated on the necklace and his breath coming faster, as if he was trying to keep calm.
"You're talking as if you had picked up a stray off the street. This is a man Veli wants dead."
"But he's not, Kenji. He's injured and in need of help."
"Ady, we can't draw any more attention to ourselves."
"Me being a mage hasn't gotten us in trouble yet, so whats a little more risk. Most try to avoid me anyway."
"Where did you get that necklace," Kurai rasps.
"Do you know anything about it?"
"Where did you get it," he repeats.
"Don't know." Kurai lunges forward and grabs the necklace by the chain. I try to push him off, but Kenji is there and kicks him in his injured ribs. Kurai falls to the ground, his weight breaking the necklaces chain, and bangs his head on the floor unconscious. "Great! Now look what you've done! He's got to be dead now." Kenji looks at me like I'm crazy as i kneel down to see if he's dead. //He's breathing. Good// I drag him to my room and lay him out on the bed.
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Chapter 2
//Where am I? I feel so… warm. What happened? The last thing… Veli! I was escaping and… that girl. She seemed familiar and she had the necklace. No. Impossible. I don't know her… But she saved me.//
I feel a cold wetness on my face. I hear the creak of old floorboards. "You sure you want to keep him here?" a voice asks.
"Yeah, I'm sure," another voice, this one female. "He just got exited. He's lost a lot of blood. It's amazing he was conscious for so long. Besides, did you see how he reacted to the necklace? If he knows something about it, he may know something about me."
//So it's that girl. Adylure her name was. And that man… the jumpy one… his name was Kenji.//
"Don't you think he would have said something the moment you two met?" Kenji asked.
"What do you expect from someone on the run?"
"Adylure…"
Silence.
"You're guilty about something, aren't you, Kenji? What did you do? …Come on, spill the beans! What happened?"
The sound of someone retreating from the room and Kenji's voice, farther away, "Sorry sis. I've gotta finish dinner."
"Bastard!" Adylure yells.
I slowly open my eyes to see that I'm in an unfamiliar room, on a soft warm bed. Adylure is sitting next to me. "Where am I?"
"In my room," she replies.
"How long have I been out?"
"A few hours," she frowns. "I expected you to be out for days; you're so badly injured."
"Don't worry, I heal fast."
"I don't care about that. I'm just worried about you." She looks into my eyes and her eyes seem to pierce my soul.
I look away and unsuccessfully try to sit up. "So you're a mage?"
"Yeah," she smiles. "It's kind of fun, sometimes."
Silence. I look back into her worried, amethyst eyes framed by brown hair with silver and purple streaks. She turns toward the door and pulls out the broken necklace. //That necklace… the one that…//
"You seem to know something about this necklace," she said. "Can you tell me about it? You see, I have amnesia, so I don't remember anything and…" She takes the broken ends of the necklace, holds them together, and a white light shines between her hands as the necklace seems to mend itself. She put it around her neck.
"It's mine," I state dryly. "It was stolen years ago…"
"That's sad, but it's mine now."
I stare at her, shocked. //I can't believe she said that.//
She shrugs, going to the window and looking out. "It's mine," she clarifies, "Because it's my only key to my past. I'm not letting anyone take it until I remember my life before I was found by Kenji in the forest a few months ago."
"I bet you don't even know what it is!"
"Damn right I don't! So why don't you tell me, oh beautiful Kurai?"
//Did she just call me 'oh, beautiful one'?...// "No, I won't explain," I reply. //This girl is crazy! I can't trust her. What if she works for Veli? She may be strong enough to, being the only mage in a humans-only city. But then- she wouldn't have saved me earlier. I don't believe she has amnesia. She would have forgotten all her spells, which she clearly hasn't. I should have hidden in the sewers.//
"Adylure, dinner's almost done," Kenji calls from somewhere outside the room.
"Okay! Make sure to bring some for Kurai, too!" she calls back.
"I'm not hungry," I lie.
"Too bad," she says, turning back to me. "You're wounded, so you have to eat."
I glare at her as Kenji walks in with two bowls. He places one bowl on the dresser next to me. Adylure grabs hers and immediately starts eating. Kenji leaves. I look warily at my soup as Adylure stops eating.
"We got lucky with money today, so eat while it's good."
"How do I know it's not poisoned?"
"Because, even though Kenji doesn't like you, he would never poison anyone. He's too chicken! Besides, in this house, soup is a rare treat!"
"I'm not hungry," I repeat.
Adylure frowns at me. I see the bowl levitate and feel a force sit me up, open my mouth, and start feeding me. She continues to force feed me until I give in and grab the bowl and spoon. "Better," Adylure nods and goes back to eating her soup. "I think any poison would have affected you by now, so dig in!"
We eat in silence until we finish and I ask, "Since you're a mage, why don't you try bringing your memories back through a spell?"
"Don't you think I've tried that? Every time I tried, all I got was a headache."
//She lies.// "Then why don't you try searching my mind for information on the necklace?"
"Because I want you to trust me. I respect most people's privacy, you know."
"Most?"
"Some people are ignorant bastards."
//She's amusing, I must admit.//
She grabs our bowls and says, "Get some sleep."
"I'm not tired."
"Just like you weren't hungry?"
"Not tired."
Adylure rolls her eyes, puts the bowls down, and leaps on top of me, knocking the wind out of me. She covers my eyes, and I start to feel drowsy…
I opened my eyes to see that it had gotten dark. I hear some light snoring and look over the side of the bed. //That crazy girl is just sleeping there.// I silently slip out of bed and stand up to find I can almost feel no pain. I turn and look at the little mage. She has the pendent clenched in her fist. I slip it out of her hand, open the window, and unfold my wings. A few feathers fall to the floor. I pick them up. Then, remembering how much she liked my wings, I place one where the necklace was a moment before. //Time to get out of here.//
I leap out the window, spread my wings and fly away, above the city. //Why did I leave the feather?// The night is cold, but wonderful because I'm flying again. There are no stars. The city's lights have stolen them away. I hold up my hand and smile at my treasure. //We're going home.//
"The city is pretty from up here isn't it?" I jerk my head to the side losing some altitude in my surprise to see Adylure levitating next to me. I flap my wings gaining back the altitude and speeding up, but she keeps pace. "So, where are you going," she continues. I ignore her, continuing on silently. //Maybe she'll tire.// "We're quite a ways from home. What of someone sees us?" I speed up. "Wherever you're going, you can't go there without the necklace," the mage teases. I hold up the pendent to show her that I stole it already.
Adylure speeds up and cuts me off. "I knew you'd try to steal it, so I pretended to sleep and made a counterfeit. The real one is safe and in my possession." I drop the fake and lunge at her. She dodges and, suddenly, I am held in place by some invisible force. Adylure sighs, "Kurai, you have to understand," she pleads. "Right now, you are the only person who can tell me something worth knowing about my past. I can't let you go." She pauses, "And besides," she says in a business-like tone, "you need a place to hide and Kenji finally said it's okay."
I feel a bit sorry for her and, for some reason, I want to help her. "Fine," I say grudgingly, "I'll stay."
Adylure sighs and then, suddenly yelps as I am free and she plummets. I immediately dive and catch her just in time. She clings to me trembling. I hold her tight and regain the altitude we lost. When she has calmed down a bit, she whispers, "I'm sorry. I just got so exhausted with keeping up with you and then holding you there, and…"
"Shhh. It's okay Adylure," I say softly, wanting to comfort her for some reason. "I've got you now. You're safe." I head toward the apartment with her in my arms. //Somehow this seems familiar.//
"Whe are you going to tell me about the necklace," Adylure asks quietly, interrupting my thoughts.
"Tomorrow," I respond.
"I have school tomorrow. Maybe in the afternoon?"
"Sure."
"You want to come," She asks after a long pause.
"Where," I ask confused.
"To school," she answers .
"I guess."
We reach her window and climb into her room. I lay down on the floor, and she gets into bed. "Hey, Kurai," she calls quietly after a few minutes.
"Hm?" I was almost asleep.
"Thanks for the feather," she says. I sit up to see her tie it into her hair before falling asleep with a smile on her face. I lay down with a slight smile and fall into a deep sleep almost immediately.