Djinn: Cursed (9 page)

We got back to the club and dismounted.  Hailey was cussing under her breath.  “We won't have much time until the police are on my ass again.”

I understood that since purple isn't a real common hair color, and she had made that scene at the nurse's station with the officer, so it wasn't like she can deny it was her.  And leaving the scene of an altercation is a crime.  Not a serious one, but still, after the woman killed two people the prior night, the authorities are going to get all up in her life now.

Well, not serious unless...

I asked the question that had been on my mind since the hospital as she jammed her helmet into the sidecar after Dorian hopped out, “Is he...”

She cocked an eyebrow at me, then all the anger and frustration seemed to just evaporate as she gave me a crooked smile.  “Dead?  No.  Though he was trying really hard not to give me a choice about it.  He was well trained.  Men like that cost a pretty penny, especially ones who aren't afraid to operate out in the open, in public like that.  This Xerxes family must have the bankroll of kings.”

I shrugged.  “They've had centuries of wishes to make sure of it.”

She nodded and exhaled as she reached past me to pull the doors shut on the little bike stable, reiterating, “No, he'll pull through, though he's going to be out of the picture for the near future.”

I relaxed, exhaling slowly.  I don't know why, but I was relieved she hadn't killed another man on my account.  Not that I particularly cared about men who had killed one of my friends and put the other in the ICU, but for what it did to Hailey.

She may be badass, but I could see the weight of the world on her when we had spoken about the prior night.  Killing someone isn't something you can take lightly, nor that you can take back.  I'm quite sure it wasn't high up on her own to-do list.

She wiped her palms on her tight jeans and Dori glared at her hands, I followed her gaze and winced.  Hailey's knuckles were bruised and raw looking.

She ignored our looks and said as she unlocked the alley door. “We have to get you to a more secure place.  I don't think the man at the hospital made you, but we know they are watching me now.”

Then she added quietly as she held the door open for us all to step into the club, “And most likely your friends and family.”

I winced then reminded her as we walked into the main club, where there were a couple people setting up and I heard a power saw back by the restrooms, “No family to watch.  Stacy and Billie were the closest things I had to it.”

I paused a moment at that, again struck with the surrealistic fact that Stacy had been violently taken from us.  Dorian placed a hand on my shoulder and assured me, “Stacy feels the same.”  I smiled to the air.

Then Hai broke us out of it by saying in a calm but firm tone, “You can't go back to any place you frequented, there is no telling how long they had been tracking you.  So school, job, restaurants, even grocery stores...”

I nodded understanding and mumbled, “My life was over the moment I made that first wish.  I can't go back to anyplace where people knew me anyway.  There's no way to explain how I suddenly had a deformity on my back.  They succeeded in killing Angelina Drake, whether I had actually died or not.”

The club owner nodded at one of the men setting up tables for later that day when they would open their doors.  The man nodded back.  She was doing a great job keeping her face schooled and acting like everything was normal.  We reached the stairs and started climbing as Dori slipped her hand into mine and gave it a little squeeze and said, “I don't think killing you was ever in the equation.  I'm pretty sure they are just supposed to harass you, to get you to use up your wishes in panic.”

I felt my bruised wing strain in its binding in an attempt to wrap around her.  Hailey said as we reached the second floor to hold the door of the studio open for us.  “As much as I hate to agree with the street rat on anything.  She's right, gorgeous.”

Dori growled back at her, “Don't make me pull out my middle finger again.  I'll do it.”

Hailey smiled at her after she passed, then added, “If all of this is true, which there is undeniable evidence on your back... and in my shower.  Then they are trying to get you to exhaust your wishes so they can control you and use your power.”

Then she said in the frosty tone of someone who could leave violence and destruction in her wake, “Then they'll do the same to your daughter when she comes of age, darlin'.”

That, more than anything, made me almost stumble and gasp like someone had struck me in the gut.  I knew she was right.  Just by having my daughter, I had condemned her to the same fate as myself without even knowing.  And now I couldn't even protect her, not knowing where she was.

I had tried to convince myself every day that I had made the right decision for my baby girl.  That I couldn't take care of her and give her the life she deserved.  The guilt drove me to help others when I got older.  That's why I wanted to become a nurse.  A part of me knew I'd never make up for the fact that I had given my child up.  I didn't even know her name.  In my head, I had called her Isabel.

I turned to the girls and said in a hoarse voice, “You have to find her when I'm gone.”

Hailey just studied me for a moment, then gave an almost imperceptible nod.

Dorian pushed me away from her a bit and said in an almost disgusted tone, “You two are acting like Xerxes' spawn have already won.  Fuck that.  Angel, you'll beat this.”  She glared at Hailey when she said that, then added to her, “And Terminator, I wouldn't think you'd be one to quit.”

They seemed to stare each other down.  My short savior not shying away from the taller, more dangerous woman.  Dori didn't seem to have any fear, she was either incredibly brave or incredibly stupid.  To my chagrin, I had to admit, it was kind of sexy.

I stepped between them... again, and said in exasperation, “Measure your dicks later girls, the more pressing issue is, what are we going to do now?”

This got a toothy grin from the violet haired vixen.  Then she said, “Well the first thing is we need to find a safe-house for you while I deal with the shit-storm that is going to rain down on me from the authorities for the next few hours.  If they are watching me, then keeping you here isn't safe.”

Dorian nodded and said with a smile to me, “I have a place we can stash her.”

I smiled back, then she stiffened and ran to the window.  We glanced up at her as she peeked through the blinds.  She said, “We have to go.  Now.  They must have figured out that was you with muscles here, at the hospital.”

We joined her at the window and peeked out.  Hailey cussed, “Shit.”  There were three SUVs across the street with at least seven men crossing through traffic toward the club.  We heard a door being kicked in below.

She growled and stepped back two steps and grabbed a string with a ball hanging from the ceiling and pulled.  An attic style ladder swung down, a lethal looking tactical shotgun was Velcroed to the ladder.  It looked like the one she had used the prior night.

She grabbed it checked it over as we heard heavy footsteps coming quickly up the stairs.  She swung her eyes to the door then growled again.

She stepped toward the sound, weapon raised and said to us without moving her attention from the door, “That leads to the roof.”

She finally turned her eyes to Dorian for just an instant and said, “Get our Angel out of here.  I have to make sure my people downstairs are ok.”

Dori was already dragging me by my hand to the ladder, she paused and said to our purple haired protector, who had her ear pressed to the door, “The old Regency building.”

They shared a nod, and we were scurrying up the ladder.  As I was swallowed by darkness above, I saw Hai yank her door open and slam the butt of her shotgun into the nose of the man who was charging up the stairs.

I swallowed and doubled my pace, worry for the woman sitting in the pit of my stomach like a stone.  Hell, Angelina, if anyone can take care of themselves, it's Hailey Frost.  I winced when the first shots rang out.

I turned my eyes away as blinding daylight flooded the darkness when Dor pushed open a roof access hatch at the top of the ladder.  It's rusty old hinges screeched with protest then the hatch cover flopped back and thudded onto the roof.

There was nothing but silence below, As Dorian scrambled out and offered a hand down to me I cringed and winced when a few rounds of automatic gunfire rang out, followed by the thunderous boom of the shotgun.

We stood there on the roof, looking around.  It was one of those hot tar roofs with that silver membrane over it.  We saw some skylights, vents, and air handling units speckling the surface.  Then I pointed and said, “Over there.”  Then we were running to the top of the rusted iron fire escape ladder with it's railing curving up and over the roof parapet to fasten to the roof itself.

We looked down and pulled back when we saw two men rapidly climbing the fire escape toward us.  They shouted something unintelligible as we pulled back.  Another boom of the shotgun echoed from below, and I could hear sirens approaching in the distance. Fuckity fuck!

We looked around, there was no other way down, and it was at least a thirty-foot drop to the pavement below.  We ran back to the edge of the roof by the alley and looked down.  I swallowed and shared a look with Dori.  She nodded, and I stripped off my jacket and started unbuttoning my blouse.

Then I grabbed the little knife in my belt buckle and hacked away the bandages.  I felt a little self-conscious being in front of the smiling brown eyed girl with only my bra on.  I spread my wings and slid the blouse back up, fastening a single button.

I looked down and at Dori as I said, “I don't know if I can even do this.”

She motioned her chin to the man who had just come up over the parapet to start running at us, drawing a gun, then she said, “We don't have any other options here.”  She gave a toothy grin and held her arms out like she was waiting for a hug.

I shook my head at her.  How was she so calm and how could she smile like that?  I spread my wings wider and just dove into her arms, wrapping mine around her as she clung on for dear life as my momentum pulled us both over the edge.

Let me tell you, I thought for sure we were going to die when we started spiraling almost out of control toward the alley floor, or at least get seriously hurt.  That was not the time to learn that my wings could carry me just fine, but the weight of an additional person was too much for them to bear.

I stained and angled them trying hard to flap on pure instinct.  They caught the wind from our plummet, and I heaved them downward against the drag of our weight slowing our descent.  It all happened in the space of maybe a second and a half, but it felt like forever.  I was able to slow us to the speed of a dead run as we started to level out.

I managed to squeak, “Hang on!”  I was just able to wrap my wings around her as I twisted us around and I took the brunt of the impact as we slammed into the side of a dumpster.  I would have found it almost laughable that my only two landings were crash landings in alleyways if the wind hadn't been knocked out of me.  My back and ribs felt like they were on fire and my hearing was buzzing.  My headache was worse, bordering on a migraine, I realized I had hit my head pretty hard on the corner of that dumpster.

With my luck the past twenty-four hours, I wouldn't be surprised if I had a concussion just then.  I shook my head to clear it and almost screamed at the searing pain that felt like needles being shoved through my eyes.  Wrong thing to do Angelina.

I took a deep breath, no new pains joined the aches in my back.  That was good, no broken ribs then.  I rolled to the side a bit, unwrapping my wings from my cargo.  A stunned Dorian blinked at me then smiled cutely.  “You can't land for shit can you, Angel?”

I snorted and winced at the pain it caused.  I flapped a wing across her face, rolling her off of me as I said while trying to hide my smile, “Shut up.  I've only had these things for a day.”

She nodded as she rolled to her feet, offering her hand to me.  I took it, and she helped me up.  “Looks like you can't carry much weight with you.”

I nodded at her sage observation.  “Great catch, Captain Obvious.”

Her smile was momentarily traded out for a pensive look as she seemed to be listening to something.  She nodded and looked up.   A moment later the men had arrived at the roof's edge above to look down.  They were talking into their sleeves as one aimed his gun down at us and started firing.

I whipped a wing over Dori like a palm leaf, obscuring her from above as she grabbed my hand and started dragging me down the alley, away from the sirens of the arriving police and emergency vehicles.

We slid to a stop when Baldy stepped out into the mouth of the alley we were charging toward.  They were hunting us in a pack, herding us the direction they wanted.

He flicked his hand, and a collapsable baton snicked out as a smile seemed to crack his craggy features.  I saw recognition in his eyes.

Well, of course, my disguise wasn't going to fool him with a pair of fucking wings on my back.  How many bird-girls could possibly be running around San Francisco?  Well... let me rephrase that since there are some pretty umm... unique people here and I wouldn't be surprised if there weren't some girls out there walking around in angel costumes.  How many actual bird-girls could there be out there?