Wings of Boden (9 page)

Her look went to mother mode. She dashed
across the surface of the water, pulled herself up the ladder with
a splash onto the concrete, and guided me back to the chairs. She
draped a towel around her shoulders. We sat facing each other while
she studied me, worried eyes searching under water-clumped
lashes.

“Honey,” she said in a hushed tone, “did you
have a—”

“Yeah, but it’s okay. I’m not scared
anymore.”

She started to lean in for a hug but I
stiff-arm stopped her. “Mom, don’t. Just listen”—a surprised, hurt
look withered her face—“I’m sorry. I just need you to listen for a
second.”

As she nodded a slow frown, it dawned on me
that that was the first time I had ever stopped her from hugging
me. I’d injured her heart, and it showed. A twinge of guilt lumped
in my throat, but I’d deal with it later. I got to my feet.

“I want everyone to hear this. Can you please
come up to the house?”

“Okay, honey.”

Angie’s eyes were already on us while she
moved across the pool floor toward the ladder, pushing her legs
through the water. I padded over with a towel, waited for her. She
pulled up the ladder, took the towel, went through all the motions
of drying off while I asked her, “Can you come up to the house,
please? I have something to say to all of you.”

She didn’t argue, just nodded a look and
toweled her hair.

The flagstone patio surface was cold
underfoot, and my skin chilled in the late afternoon air. Over by
the multiple-paned french doors of the house, Bub had his face
buried in a large potted plant, snuffing at the dirt. The boys were
lost in small talk, sitting around a table that held a bowl of
chips and glasses of iced tea. Mom stood behind Dad, appearing
concerned, her arms folded over her chest while she gazed at me. I
stood back, waiting. Angie was kneading a shoulder rub into
Jaydenn. Until she leaned over him, reached to the table, grabbed
his glass and took a long drink. I waited. The boys were still
jabbering. I waited long enough.

Adding some stern to my voice, “Can you boy’s
listen up for a second, please?”

They caught the tone. Dad dropped his brows
at me, waved a flying bug away from his face.

“I want all of you to know. I don’t want any
more sweet innocent Ellie talk. I’m grown now. My name is Elle. Do
you hear me?”

Dad cleared his throat, grumbled, “Okay.
Elle. What’s with all the drama?”

“Dad”—I cast a glare—“I’m not finished, so
please save your comments for the closing credits.”

“Now
listen
, young lady, don’t—” Dad
started to say.

Mom silenced him with a hip bump and a click
of her tongue.

“My name is, Elle, understand? I’m an adult
now, and it’s time you all treat me like one. I may have
nightmares. I’ll deal with them. I already had one back by the pool
and I’ve come to a decision. I’m not afraid anymore, so I’ve
decided I’m going to fight the hunters with you. The little angels
need my help. And another thing, just so you know, I, am going to
kill, Dakarai.”

After a beat of silence, the boys couldn’t
hold back their snickers, well, except Vyn, he knows better. Mom’s
face had gone white, open mouth and wide eyes. Angie had a towel
over her shoulders as she stood behind Jaydenn, grinning at me. She
lifted her glass for a drink.

Arms crossed over my chest, I mocked along
with them, “Ha, ha, oh sweet little Ellie is having a tantrum.
Yeah, well, we’ll see about that. Laugh all you want boys. My name
is, Elle. I’m flappin pissed and I’m gonna do something about
this.”

The laughter finally receded.

Dad scratched his chair back, pushed to his
feet, keeping his gaze on me.

What did I do? He’s going to kill me.

He ambled around the table to stand before
me. From his towering height, he looked down into my eyes. I tried
not to blink, to hold my ground … I blinked, swallowed, feathered
some hair behind my ear, hung my head and began to cower in the
suffocating silence.

A twitching flinch ran through my wings as
his huge hands came up and wrapped around my upper arms. He lifted
me up and studied me like a piece of paper. I felt like I was about
to pee my bikini. Yeah, I could just see that—my feet dangling
above the patio stones while pee ran down my leg. Yeah, that’s real
mature, that would help my cause, so I pushed the feeling down.
Then felt a nervous tick in my left eye, and my lip started to
twitch.

He finally smiled and pulled me into a
rib-crushing hug. When he set me down, my heart started back up,
numbness subsided. His sincere green eyes met my gaze as he said in
his gruff voice, “I’m proud of you, Elle. I’ve never stood in the
way of anything you girls wanted, and I will not start now. I’d be
glad to have you on our team. I love you, my angel, and you’re
absolutely right, you’re not a little girl anymore.”

“Phillip! You’re not going to allow this?
Phil, I will—” Mom tried to say.

Dad stopped her with a sideways glance. “You
can’t stop it, Celeste. She’ll find a way, even if I said no.” Eyes
back on me. “And I’d much rather have her near me.” He gave me a
wink. “So I can keep an eye on ‘er.” I grinned at my wonderful
dad.

Mom stormed off in wails of disagreement:
“There’s a difference between growing up and getting killed! You’re
not taking my Ellie! Do you hear me Phil? You’re not taking my
Ellie away from me! I’ll break your arm first!” … Her ranting faded
away through house. Cupboard doors slammed in the distant
kitchen.

“She’ll be all right,” Dad said as he made
his way around the table and sat. “She just needs some time. That
was quite a show you put on there, Elle.” He lifted his glass, took
a drink.

Angie sat on Jaydenn’s lap. She wrapped her
arm around his broad shoulder, then gave me a lopsided
my-sister-is-crazy smile. Vyn had been silent the entire time.
Judging by the look of his grin, he was okay with my decision—or
the bikini had him under some sort of trance, I wasn’t sure
which.

After stepping over to Angie, I drifted my
hand down the back of her head, palming her damp hair as I said,
“Whattaya say, sis. You wanna join me?”

She snorted a chuckle. Jaydenn pitched me the
father of all scowls.

“Don’t even think about that, Angie,” said
Dad. “Your mother would, well, you know. Besides, we need you to
help hold the fort down while we’re away.”

Vyn was still eyeing me so I padded over and
sat crossways on his lap, touched my lips to his forehead, then
cuddled up into him and enjoyed his arm around me.

Angie sent a glance my way, then reached out,
snatched up Jaydenn’s glass, grinned into it for a second, and
tipped it to her lips.

Dad said, “How would one of you like to make
ten diamonds and go pick up what Bub left in the yard over
there.”

“Eew. I’m not doin it,” I said as I wrinkled
my nose.

Vyn offered in his polite way, “I’ll do
it.”

Dad chuckled, grinned at Vyn, gave him a
father nod as if he approved. “I was just kiddin’ around. Just
relax. Elle seems pretty comfortable there, don’t maker mad at me
now.”

I gave him a teasing glare. “That’s right,
don’t make me hurt you.”

“Here Phil,” said Jaydenn, as he slid the
bowl of chips across the table to Dad. “Have some of these chips.
With got ‘em from this new place at the mall. They’re pretty
tasty.”

Angie was trying not to laugh, so she took a
long drink. I put my hand over my mouth to cover a snicker. Jaydenn
sent me a little sideways wink. Vyn held his grin.

“Don’t mind if I do,” Dad said, then grabbed
a handful of chips.
Crunch, crunch, crunch
.

We all watched him. When he finally finished
crunching, he brushed his hands together, took a drink, set it down
and folded his hands on the table, sent a purple-toothed smile
around. “Well,” he said, “let’s talk weapons then, shall we?”

A snorted giggle fell from my mouth. Dad sent
me a confused, lavender look. Angie got up and went in the house,
laughing all the way.

“You know,” Dad said to Jay, “I’ll never
understand females.”

Jaydenn grinned. “I hear ya. You got a little
stuff on your mouth there.”

It had taken us two hours to calm Mom down
last evening. She had brooded over my decision for a while, didn’t
speak to any of us for over an hour. And while the rest of us sat
around the evening living room, Mom had strolled in. With puffy
eyes, she’d walked over, snuggled up next to me on the couch and
covered my face with kisses.

Now, though, we sat gazing through the glass
of the skybox at a mass of fans in the domed stadium of the
hometown Boden StarWings, all energy while they waited for the team
to arrive on the field. In the padded row of seats, Mom and Angie
were on my right. Vyn sat to my left, entranced by the size of the
stadium. He’d never been here, but this was my childhood so it was
no shock to me, well, except for one thing:

The crowd held beings I’d never paid
attention to before. What have I gotten myself into? entered my
mind while I scanned across the forest of angels, and specks of
dark spirits peppered throughout. Drekavacs. I began to talk myself
out of my decision, out of fear of numbers, I assumed. Then the
ghoulish sound of a hungry vulture swept through my mind … until I
stopped it with a headshake and focused out the windows.

The enemy before me watched the game
alongside all the angels, not a care in the world.

So there I was, in the standard skybox game
attire for a female: A sleeveless white cocktail dress with
matching pumps, angel-wing earrings dangling under my hair,
feather-glossed wings folded to my back. And I wondered how long it
would be before I became food for the drekavacs.

At the sound of male chatter behind me, I
looked over my shoulder to see the old team coming through the open
skybox door at the far end of the long room. Dad and Jaydenn stood
at the island table near the back of the room. Until Dad marched to
greet his former teammates as they entered the space in all their
mountainous mass, all wearing team-white polo shirts and blue
slacks, fabric strained under the pressure.

Handshakes, patting and punching, before they
made their way to the table.

Dad began handing out glass mugs the size of
my head, filled with white-foamed amber beer. With their bear paws
grasping the handles, the team lifted and boomed, “StarWings!” then
sucked down half their mugs.

Jaydenn waited for their formalities to end …
He hoisted his mug and said, “Cheers, boys,” and poured the beer
down his throat while the team followed his lead.

Of all the feather-brained ideas, what in the
name of Source did I get myself into? The question brewed in my
mind again. Dakarai’s grinding voice chased it away once more,
taunting me, daring me to hunt him down.

After turning and settling back into my
cushioned seat, I crossed my legs, grabbed my glass of iced tea
from the cup holder in the armrest, took a drink and set it
back.

“Have some chips, honey,” Mom said as she
held a bowl of dried daisy petals before me. I took a handful,
popped a few in my mouth, crunched away while gazing through the
glass. Was this senseless game ever going to start?
Crunch,
crunch.

Vyn, with an arm on the seatback, looked over
his shoulder at the team, his eyes wide as if he’d just seen his
hero. I didn’t think he liked sports, hmm?

“Vyn, why don’t you go meet the team?” I
said.

“Huh?” His concentration broke for a second
with a glance at me. “Oh. Yeah. I should, shouldn’t I?” He pushed
from his chair, looked down at his T-shirt that read
StarWings
in a blue scripted font, like a loyal fan. A tint
of regret filled his cheeks as he dropped a scowl at his chest.
Earlier this morning, back at the house, Dad had offered Vyn a team
shirt, but when Vyn had tried it on, he realized he needed a couple
more Vyns to fill it out, so he’d opted for the T-shirt.

I motioned for him to lean down … whispered
into his ear, “I always hated that dorky shirt, and I knew you’d
eventually understand, so I packed a nice white polo shirt for you.
It’s in my bag over by the door. Go change if you want to,
sweetie.”

He stood straight, let out a sigh of relief.
“What would I do without you?”

My smile widened.

“Yeah, okay then, I’ll be right back. Thank
you.” And he just stood there, looking at me, looking, looking … I
thought he was about to tell me loves me, but then he spun around
and crossed the room, snatched up the bag and pushed out the
door.

“Elle,” Dad called, “come over and say hi to
the team.”

Angie gave me a crooked grin filled with the
message “better you than me,” and popped a chip in her mouth. I
curled my lip at her. After a minute of contemplation, I pushed out
of my chair on a sigh, and went over to the boys.

At the table I stood, so small under the
shadows of the mountains. I still remembered them: Tyr Oden, Jari
Volundr, Lugus Fedelmid, Bran Conor, Aeron Conall, and another one
I didn’t recognize. Dad called them his offensive line, whatever
that meant, but I knew they could be offensive. Dad was what they
called the quarterback. Jari let out a beer belch, at which I
lifted a fermented grin.

Tyr walked to me and stood tall, maybe
seven-five, and thick, unnaturally thick, freakish—same as the rest
of the team. I wondered if there was a factory somewhere spitting
out monsters such as them. Tyr dropped his gaze on me, held out his
paw of a hand and said in a tone that grumbled from the depths,
“Well, Ellie, you’ve grown up girl. It’s nice to see you got your
mother’s looks.” He reached out his hand and mine disappeared into
his. As we shook, it felt as if he was going to rip my arm off. I
pictured him standing there in caveman-confusion while he held my
detached limb.