Reapers (21 page)

“
I have to agree with you
on that one, my friend. Come on, the legion’s got some serious
answers to give us. I want to know what the heck is going on. And I
need a pay raise!”

They ran down the street
together.

But just when Kara thought they were
home free, a burning ache exploded in her head. She staggered and
fell to her knees. A ringing noise blasted in her ears like the
howling of a home alarm system.

She could see David standing above
her. His lips were moving, but she couldn’t hear what he was
saying. She tried to stand, but her knees shook, and she fell
again.

The pain on her back burned between
her shoulder blades again. She was so hot. She yanked her jacket
from her shoulders and tossed it to the ground.

She could feel her skin starting to
tear. As it ripped she could feel some kind of transformation.
Something was growing out of her and swishing behind her like a
cape.

And when she stood she didn’t see the
shocked impressions on her friends’ faces. She was too busy staring
at the two great wings that sprouted from her back.

Chapter 15

Wings

J
enny dropped her bow.

“
Oh. My. God. You’re a
fairy!”

She rushed over and inspected Kara’s
new wings.

Wings? Fairy?
Kara could hardly believe what she saw. How could
she have grown a pair of wings? Had this ever happened to another
guardian before?

It was difficult to see them clearly
since she couldn’t turn her head around, but she could see well
enough to see that she did, in fact, have wings. Large wings,
almost as tall as she was and twice as wide, at least ten feet
across. The wings were black, thin, and strong. They looked like a
mix between the wings of a butterfly and a bat, or maybe even a
dragon.

Without knowing what she was doing,
Kara flapped her wings. She flew three feet forward, staggered, and
nearly fell. With some effort, she managed to stand still and
counterbalance the weight of the wings on her back. They were
heavy. It felt like she was carrying a fifty-pound
backpack.

She stood up on shaky legs, scared and
excited at the same time. Steadying herself, she concentrated and
realized that she could move the wings easily. With just the hint
of a thought—they moved.

She flapped them again and again,
balancing herself, until she could stand normally and use her wings
for balance. They were extremely strong. It would take some time to
get used to them, but she could already feel the change in her. The
wings just moved naturally, like they’d always been a part of her.
The thought of sprouting wings made her queasy, but the sensation
of actually having them was electric. She felt solid and
strong.

And then her memory began to trickle
back, piece by piece, from some part of her mind she hadn’t been
able to reach. She saw the yellow, cat-eyed creature that had
injected her with a substance that would transform her when she
came back from the dead. She knew that she would become something
dark.

She felt David’s eyes on her, and her
chest tightened. What if he despised her again?

She didn’t ask for this. Her new wings
had somehow triggered her memories.

A demon or creature had violated her.
It had injected her with some substance that made her grow a pair
of wings. At first she was afraid that she’d feel evil. But how can
you feel evil? Aren’t you just evil without knowing you are? She
was confused.

Kara was scared. So far she felt
almost the same as before, which was a good thing. But what would
happen later? Would she become a creature of darkness? Would she be
some bringer of death and hurt her friends? How would they react
when she told them the truth?

“
This is extraordinary!”
Peter rubbed his glasses repeatedly like somehow they were making
him see things that weren’t possible. He frowned and pushed his
glasses back up his nose.

“
How is this even
possible? Angels don’t have wings! Everyone knows that it was
always a myth. It’s inconceivable. It’s crazy.”

“
Well, she just grew a
pair.” Jenny looked enviously at Kara’s new wings. She made a
face.

“
I wish
I
had wings. I’ve always
wanted to fly, you know. I always wanted to be a fairy, too, like
Tinkerbell, and sprinkle fairy dust.”

“
Can you fly? Please try
to fly, Kara. Come on. Let’s see you try.”

Kara didn’t want to test her wings
right now. She wanted David to say something. She needed him to
speak before she could do anything. Slowly, she turned and looked
at him.

His face was troubled. She could tell
he was worried. He didn’t despise her, but she couldn’t read his
face.

“
Kara,” said David
finally, his voice grim and low. “What aren’t you telling us? I
know you’re hiding something else, besides the
wings
. I can always tell. I can see
it in your face.”

He watched her and said, “You remember
now, don’t you? You remember how you died.”

Kara nodded solemnly. “I do. I
remember everything.”

Kara recounted the events of the night
she died. She told them about the dead bat, about wandering into
the forest after David, and finally about the mysterious man, and
how he injected her with a substance.

David frowned. “You know that wasn’t
me, right? That night in the forest?”

“
I do now,” answered Kara,
remembering the hateful remarks from the David-imposter.

“
And after he injected
you, he said that you would
transform
into something else,” said
David, observing her wings. “Into something strong, of unmatched
power? What the heck does that even mean?”

“
He said he was giving me
back what was mine,” said Kara. “Or something along those lines. I
remember him saying that I would have darkness inside. I think that
whatever he did is going to make me evil or something. I know it’s
something dark. I can feel it. And then he said that I needed to
die to make it happen. I needed to die and come back for the
transformation to work.”

She suddenly lost her excitement about
growing a pair of wings.

David moved around her slowly and
inspected her wings more closely. He looked at an area below her
waistline, and he smiled.

“
Why are you looking down there for?” Kara spun around,
flustered and angry, and suddenly extremely
self-conscious.

David’s
smile widened. “’Cause. I was just looking to see if you’d grow a
tail—ouch.”

Kara
punched him in the chest.

“
Not funny,” she said grumpily, and her wings spread out
automatically, as if they acted on her anger.

She
stood there, embarrassed, not knowing how to fold them
back.

“
Well, to grow wings,”
noted Peter, “it doesn’t seem too harmful or evil to me. I’m sure
the legion won’t be too alarmed. They’re just wings, and you’re
still you, Kara—”

“
No.” David lost his
smile; his voice rose. “We’re not telling them.”

Peter looked at David. “Why not? Maybe
they could help?”

“
I said no.” David
narrowed his eyes and watched Kara when he spoke.

“
We don’t know what
this
is
yet, and until we do, we don’t tell anyone,
especially the legion. Don’t you guys remember what happened when
they found something different about her before? The Mark? Her
elemental powers? Remember what they did?”

“
They locked her up in
Tartarus,” said Jenny, looking gloomy.

She gave Kara a small pout. “So not
cool.”

“
Exactly.” David looked up
and down the street. “We’re not taking that chance again. We’re not
telling them about the key and we’re definitely not mentioning
Kara’s new wings.”

Peter raised his hand. “Just a second.
Let’s think this through.”

He scratched his head and then looked
up, his eyes wide. “Raphael. I’m sure the archangel Raphael would
help us. She can keep a secret, and she’s always had a soft spot
for Kara. She’ll help us.”

“
Peter’s right,” said
Kara, feeling a little less apprehensive. “I know I can trust
Raphael. She’s like my second mother.”

“
It’s too risky,” said
David, shaking his head. “Raphael’s my friend, too, and I know
she’ll want to help us—but her loyalty is to the legion. If she
feels, for just a moment, that Kara’s wings represent a threat,
she’ll report her. They’ll lock her up again. And I don’t know how
easy it’ll be to break you out this time around. They’ve tripled
the guards at the prison.”

Kara sighed heavily. She knew that
David was right.

“
So, what do you suggest
we do? It’s not like I can
hide
these things. They’re gigantic.”

She fluttered her wings, staggered,
and balanced herself again.

“
They’re huge, and I’m not
even able to control them yet—not really.”

“
Be right back.” David
took off down the street and headed for a building with the sign
KNOBS & KNOCKERS, the local hardware store.

Jenny frowned. “What’s he up to now?”
She picked up her bow and slung it on her back again.

“
I don’t know.” Kara
watched as David kicked open the front door and disappeared inside.
“But he’s up to something.”

“
Well, he’d better hurry.”
Peter looked toward the remains of Old Jim’s Bookstore.

“
The imps won’t stay there
much longer. Sooner or later, they’ll figure out that Mr. Patterson
doesn’t have the key anymore, or that it’s just not there. And
they’ll be coming this way. I don’t want to be here when they
realize
I
have
it.”

For the first time Peter looked
miserable.

“
He shouldn’t have picked
me,” he said softly. “I’m not strong and brave like you guys. David
should have been the one, not me.”

“
Well, he’s not,” said
Jenny. “Mr. P. picked you, Peter. Don’t second-guess him or
yourself. Besides, the key accepted you, right? That means
something.”

Peter seemed a little more contented
to know that Jenny believed in him.

Kara covered her face with her hands
and spoke through her fingers.

“
This is just the weirdest
day I’ve ever had. I grew a freaking pair of wings. What’s next? A
tail?”

A sudden chill passed through her, and
she shivered. It was like something shadowy had started to cloud
her mind, but when David reappeared the sensation
stopped.

He held out his hands.
“Bingo.”

In his right hand was a roll of duct
tape, and in his left a bundle of black cloth.

David dropped the bundle of cloth,
stripped a piece of tape, and held it between his hands. “We’re
going to tape you down, baby.”

“
You’re going to what?”
Kara’s voice rose, and she stood with her hands on her hips. “David
McGowan, you’d better explain yourself. And don’t call me
that.”

David’s raised his brows. “What?
Baby?” He laughed. “I’m going to tape down your wings.”

Kara glowered. “With duct
tape?”

“
Duct tape has a bad rap,”
said David as he moved behind Kara.

“
It’s awesome. I duct
taped the floor of one of my old cars once. Hard as metal.
Impressive stuff. My grandfather used duct tape to fix a hole in
his boat. It lasted a good year before it took on water, and he
drowned. Never mind.”

“
Duct tape…” said Kara
again.

Jenny and Peter both took a step
back.

David reached out toward Kara’s wings
and then hesitated.

“
Listen, you’ve got two
options. I use the duct tape on you and pin your wings back…or you
show up back in Horizon all fairy-like, and then for sure they’ll
throw you back in Tartarus. Your choice.”

Kara made a face. He was
right.

“
It’s not really my choice
at all, is it?” she said after a moment. “I never asked for this,”
she added softly to herself.

David reached out and touched the top
of her right wing.

Kara cringed and felt a slight tingle
at his touch.

“
Sorry,” he said, a little
embarrassed. “Can you fold them back? It’ll be easier that way.”
And then he added, “And lift your arms.”

Kara managed to fold her wings on the
second try. She stood still with her arms in the air and watched
David’s face as he whirled around her with the duct tape until he
had spun a sticky, tight web around her middle. She was glad she
didn’t need to breathe, because this was tighter than a corset. It
was more like armor.

The tips of her black wings peeked
from below her waist. She didn’t know how they would hide that
without taping her legs. She’d really be like a mummy
then.