Broken Wings: Genesis (8 page)

Chaz nodded. “How long?”

“An hour, an hour and a half,
tops. I don’t have time for much more than that right now.”

“Yesh?”

I released a sigh. I’d be pushing
as much as he was, if our positions were reversed. Chaz was right. This
was
big. I just wasn’t sure what to do with it yet. He was being a lot more patient
and polite than I would have been.

“Listen, Chaz. Will you hold off
if I promise to fill you in when I’m done here? And I promise, if there’s not
enough time before I have to meet up with Pietra, then I’ll sit down with you
when I get back.”

Chaz accepted it with a nod––not
that he really had any other choice. “Sure, Yesh.”

The look I gave him was
grateful––and I was. Grateful, I mean. I needed some time to sort through the
jumble of my thoughts. Time wasn’t something I had right now.

I took off my leather coat and
tossed it on the other side of the bed. Rolling up my sleeves, I sat down on
the edge of the mattress next to Ke. Chaz handed me the wet cloths he retrieved
from the floor by the door. A few minutes of wiping the blood away, carefully
avoiding the mark on his neck, showed me exactly what I expected. There were no
wounds on his back. The bleeding had slowed a bit, for whatever reason. I had
no clue as to what was going on. But there was only one way for me to try and
get a handle on it.

Holding my hands out steady, a few
inches above his back, I connected to the metaphysical energy of the space
around me. The warmth started to build at my heart, slowly creating a reservoir
of power. When I felt that I had enough stored to start working, I allowed it
to travel down my arms and out my hands.

My eyes were closed, but I didn’t
need to see to know what Chaz was seeing right now. it would be similar to what
I had watched in the nightmarish dreamscape I had just witnessed. I brushed
away the image of the woman, Ithane––the one who wore my face, calling the
energy to her heart center and then using it to fight against the creature at
the Gate. I had only ever called the energy for sensing and healing. It never
dawned on me that the energy could be used in the way she had. Or was that in
the way that I had?

Either way, it didn’t matter. I
had a job to do, and little time to focus on the other. I followed the flows of
energy out my hands and got to work.

*
  
*
  
*

A gentle hand touched my shoulder.
“Yesh. Come on back, Yesh. You have to get ready to go to Pietra’s.”

Chaz’s voice continued to coax me
back into a conscious awareness of my surroundings. I let go of the energy
slowly, letting the warmth fade with the subsiding glow. Exhausted, I pulled my
hands back and let them drop in my lap while I waited for enough of the
tingling to go away that I could feel my fingers again. I leaned back into
Chaz’s body and let him help me to my feet and over to the chair at the foot of
the bed.

“Are you okay?”

I nodded.

“Well, whatever you did, it
worked. The bleeding has stopped.”

My eyes went to the man on the
bed. Chaz was right. No more blood was coming from his back.

I shook my head. “It’s only
temporary. I need to go back in for a more permanent fix––I just haven’t
figured out how yet.”

“What do you mean by temporary?”

“The whole thing with this guy is
strange, Chaz. It’s as though he is two completely separate people on the
inside, crammed into a single body. That separation is what’s causing the
bleeding, and his pain, for that matter.”

“Like a demon possession or
something?”

“Something like that––only it
doesn’t have that wrong feeling like a demon possession. It’s more like the two
separate parts need to come together, but there’s a big gap missing in the
middle to make the pieces fit right.”

“So what did you do?”

“I put a bandage on it.”

I had to chuckle at his look of
confusion. I didn’t have enough energy to laugh.

“You know––like those butterfly
bandages that doctors use to hold the pieces of skin together long enough to
heal, or until they can get the stitches in.”

“Oh. I get it.”

“The problem is that I don’t think
it will hold for very long. Stitches are what is needed, so to speak, but I
haven’t figured out how to go about it yet.”

An image of Ithane flashed through
my mind, and of how she wove the energy she had drawn, as though knitting a
blanket. “Hey––from the dream––”

“Not now, Yesh. There’s not enough
time. You have to hop in the shower and get to Pietra’s.”

A glance out the bedroom window
told me that the kid was right. The sky was taking on that late afternoon tint
that meant dusk wasn’t far behind.

“You’re right. I have to get
moving.” I winked at him while pushing to my feet. “What would I do without
you?”

He grinned at the compliment.
“Your own cleaning, for starters.”

I looked around the bedroom, and
then peered out into the living room. While I had been working on Mister
Mysterious, Chaz had cleaned up the mess we had dragged through the apartment.
He had even washed down the walls inside the bedroom door where I had propped
Ke up for the time it had taken him to run to the bathroom and back. Even my
leather was cleaned and softened, the blood gone.

I was amazed, and turned to let
him know how grateful I was. “Chaz––”

He held up a hand to stop me.
“Time, Yesh. You don’t have any. Besides, I still have the hallway to take care
of, and I couldn’t get the blood completely out of the living room rug.”

A better look at the faint,
stained outline on the rug showed the truth of his words.

I shrugged. “Nothing to be done
about it. It’s just one more reminder of what our lives have become.”

Chaz grinned and sat down to take
up watch duty over Ke, while I got ready to hop in the shower and head out.

By the time I pulled up to
Pietra’s house, dusk was just starting to settle. That was good. It meant a lot
less time to deal with small talk. It also meant a lot less time to play a role
I wasn’t well suited for––that of a woman who was less than sure of herself.

Maybe it wasn’t such a far
stretch, considering what I was dealing with back at my apartment. But I had to
be convincing in a more general way and that was a little tough for me to
swallow. What I really wanted to do was to go in there, kick the guy’s ass and
then go back and deal with the other stuff.

Careful
. Morpheus’ warning
echoed in my head. I wanted to scream. So be it.

Before I reached the door, I took
a few minutes to brush down the crumpled folds of the floral print skirt I was
wearing. Did I mention that I hated playing this part? The black leggings I
wore underneath had protected my legs from the sting of the wind on the ride
over. The skirt came to just above my ankles, and the bottom laced edging of
the leggings peeked out from below the hemline.

Slipping off my leather, I pulled
a plain cream-colored knit shawl to wrap over my bare shoulders. The black,
sleeveless tee that I wore fit tight to my torso from waist to neck. The
epitome of soft femininity. Blech. The jacket was jammed into the straps of the
small pack I carried and I stepped up to the door. It was show time.

Only a moment passed before the
door opened to show a woman who was maybe in her early forties. She was petite,
with short black hair, a shy smile and troubled brown eyes. She held the door
wide to invite me in, but didn’t offer her hand to touch me. “Hi. You must be
Yeshua?”

“That’s me.” I gave her my own shy
smile in return, with a little uncertain shrug of my shoulders. I thought it
was a nice touch. Her smile warmed, but it still didn’t touch the uneasiness in
her eyes.

“Welcome. Come on in, we’re
already setting up in the back.” I stepped inside and she closed the door. “I’m
Theo,” was all that she added before she led the way to the back of the house.
I had expected to be bombarded with questions, but I guess it wasn’t coming
from this quarter.

The house was pleasant, very
homey. Several nice articles caught my eye in passing. A goddess shrine set in
the front entry wafted the sweet smell of Jasmine incense to greet new
arrivals. Huh. I wouldn’t have pegged Pietra for aligning herself with the
lion-headed Sekmet. She seemed too demure for chaos, and the goddess certainly
hadn’t given her the heads up on the dream stalker until it was too late.

Sekmet didn’t really have a lion’s
head, but from what I’ve heard, she does tend to focus on chaos––or maybe chaos
focused on her? She was one of the immortals I hadn’t met. As I recall, she was
last living in Las Vegas
somewhere. It was a good hub of chaotic energy for her to draw from.

In contrast, the living room
leaned more to a Native American motif. A beautiful, but haunting rendition of
the Cherokee Trail of Tears hung over the back of her blanket-covered sofa.
Theo led me through to the back door in the kitchen. Fairies decorated a small
natural altar just inside the door. Okay, maybe there was a little more chaos
to Pietra than I had first suspected.

On cue, the High Priestess came
hustling up to us as soon as we stepped into the back yard. She had on a deep
purple robe, belted with a knotted cord at the waist. With a huge smile and a
genuine look of relief, she embraced me tightly.

“Yeshua––I am so glad you made
it!” In a lower voice, she whispered with urgency, “he thinks I have been
talking with you for a while now––just in case it’s mentioned.”

My face didn’t register her remark.
I pasted on a big smile of my own. “Pietra. Of course I made it. I have been so
looking forward to connecting with your group. I wouldn’t have missed this for
the world.”

“Wonderful.” Pietra linked her arm
in mine and turned to face the people scattered around the fenced-in yard. “Let
me introduce you to the rest of the group.”

She took me around and a string of
names floated across my subconscious mind. I made vague, generic remarks at the
introductions, but my conscious mind filtered it all out and took in the subtle
details of my surroundings.

There he was, across the circle
sitting with two women of the coven. I could feel his energy reaching out to
touch me, even while talking to the women at his side. He sat as though he were
some kind of royalty, with two followers holding simpering positions of homage,
doting on his every word. Okay. So not all of the women were as affected by his
dream antics as the others. Interesting.

An uncontrollable shiver shuddered
through my body at the unwelcome touch of his probing energy. It took every
ounce of the ability I had to not slam it shut on him, and at the same time, to
keep the look of revulsion off my face at the slimy trail his touch left
behind. Pietra was looking at me with concern.

“Are you all right?”

“Fine. I’m sorry, I just felt––” I
pretended to look around, confused. “Nothing. I’m sure it was nothing.”

I emphasized it with a convincing
shake of my head while Pietra turned back to continue her introductions to two
of the women, sisters. What had she said their names were? Oh right––Jane and
Joan. I hoped that the generic words coming out of my mouth were as sincere as
I wanted them to be. My focus was back on the dream stalker.

Amusement was the feeling I got
from him––all wrapped up tight in a bundle of unbelievable arrogance. He was a
lot stronger than I had anticipated. That wasn’t good. For the first time, I
started to take the warning Morpheus had given me to heart. The immortal was
right. There was more to this guy than what was on the surface. I was glad I
had made the promise not to tackle this guy tonight. After what I had expended
on trying to heal the mysterious Ke, I didn’t have the energy left to fight.

More introductions floated through
my sub-conscious, the names flowing from one to the next. I tried to lock a
description for each one in my mind. Andrea the redhead, Philipa the skinny,
Bertie the not-so-skinny––who named their kid Bertha any more? Tammie the shy,
Simone the sultry. And this was it. Pietra was leading me over to the creep and
his mirrored bookends.

“Yeshua, this is Jamie.”

I nodded my head to the mousy
little dishwater blond on the left.

“And Judith.”

Bored, disinterested gray eyes
flashed my way from a pretty, blond with a fake-looking, rub-on tan sitting to
the right. She put a possessive hand on the arm of the dream stalker and went
back to ignoring me. That’s fine by me, lady. You can have him.
He
, on
the other hand was ignoring her, and the darkness of his almost black-colored
eyes turned his full focus on me. Oh yeah. This was the guy from the dreaming
all right.

“And this is Mack Black Wolf, the
only male member of our group.”

I held out my hand to shake his.
“How
can
you deal with so much female energy, Mr. Black Wolf? I don’t
think I know any man who would be willing to put himself in such a position.”

A little laugh for emphasis, a
quick look in his eyes and then away. Had I been demure enough? Uncertain with
a little charm to cover the nervousness? Was he buying this?

His laugh was deep and throaty as
he leaned in to take my hand and kiss the inside of the wrist. “I am at the
mercy of them all. And now at yours, as well.” His kiss burned my skin and it
was all I could do to hold my hand steady without tearing it away.

“I see why they keep you around.”
I gave him my best flirting smile. Judith wasn’t happy. I could feel her
annoyance boring into me without even having to look. It didn’t matter to me. I
wasn’t here to mollify her. I was here to save her ass.

“So I hear you will be taking
initiation rites with us tonight.”