Out in Blue (4 page)

His warmth too comforting to resist, she shut her eyes and drifted to sleep.

§

Wren woke engulfed in the scent of jasmine, and opened his eyes. Bathed in moonlight, Ginger lay in his arms, spooned against his body under one of his wings. He lifted his head from her hair and gazed at her face. She slept, her expression peaceful.

Night. Had he been out that long? He remembered nothing after returning to bed after the fire. A plastic bag full of water lay next to the pillow. On the table sat an ice drawer from the freezer, also full of water.

She had nursed him during the fever, then fallen asleep? When had he curled up against her?

Her head rested on his arm. He did his best to extract himself without waking her, but her eyelids fluttered.

“Wren? You’re awake?” Sleep thickened her voice. A smile spread across her face. “I couldn’t wake you. I was so worried…”

He gazed at her for a moment and opted not to consider that he might have died from that fever. Three brushes with death in one day, and she had saved him each time. True, the outcome of the fever was not something she had control over, but there was no doubt in his mind her presence had made a difference.

“I hope you don’t mind.” He glanced to where his arm circled her middle. “It’s very comforting to be able to hold you.”

Her blush deepened but her mouth curved into a smile. “How’s your wing?”

“We’ll see.” Reluctantly, he unfolded himself from the curves of her body and got to his feet. He felt awful—sticky and salty and stiff—but not feverish. He reached with his right hand to the site of the wound on his left wing and probed with his fingers, hesitant at first, then with force. No pain resulted, only the unyielding line of bone and muscle. He pulled the end of the bandage loose and unwrapped the wing.

Ginger unfolded herself from the bed and took the ice drawer to the sink. Wren dropped the bandage in the trash and inspected the site of the injury. Skin showed, and a rough-edged scar marked the bullet hole. The feathers would take a few months to grow back, but that didn’t worry him. The loss wasn’t enough to hinder his ability to fly.

“Good to go.” He turned his gaze to the glass sliding door and the sky beyond. The approaching sunrise turned the horizon a dark, frosty blue. “Wait, why are we still here? I thought the Guardians were coming to move us to Sanctuary.”

Ginger folded her arms and glanced out the glass slider. “The Guardians are here, five of them. But there are too many poachers and police in the area, checking vehicles, to risk travel.”

“I see.” Wren opened the slider and stepped out on the deck. He shook out his wings and took a deep breath of the rich, predawn air.

“Hello?” he called out.

Moonlight reflected in a pair of eyes at the edge of the woods. The demon moved forward across the dark yard. The last time Wren had faced a Guardian was the night he’d fled Sanctuary, eighteen years ago. He tensed, but they were Ginger’s people and would keep her safe.

The demon climbed the stairs to the deck, but stopped at a respectable distance. Ginger stood in the open doorway, looking on.

“This is Vin.” She inclined her head toward the Guardian.

Wren looked over the seven-foot, dark-haired demon. He kept his voice neutral. “I don’t remember you.”

Vin shook his head. “I’m one of the Guardians brought in to fortify Sanctuary’s security after Lark’s betrayal. I’m originally from Haven, Alaska, where I used to work with Devin.”

Wren flicked his gaze to Ginger and arched an eyebrow, seeking confirmation.

She nodded. “Vin is an old friend of my father’s. I’ve known him since I was young.”

Wren turned back to the demon. “Then I can trust you to get Ginger safely out of here?”

“Of course. Devin is on his way to Sanctuary and will meet us tomorrow,” Vin said.

“Good.”

Vin turned a troubled expression to Ginger. “Your face is all over the human news networks. You’ll have to stay in the colonies from now on, for your safety. I’ll take you to Sanctuary and from there Devin will take you back to Haven. I’m sorry…”

She lifted her eyebrows. “For what?”

“I’m sorry we have to uproot you. Your home, your friends—”

“I rent and my only real friends are the ones I haven’t seen since Devin kicked me out of Haven.”

Vin frowned and leaned on the deck railing. “Devin didn’t kick you out. He wanted a normal life for you.”

“He didn’t send me away kicking and screaming, I admit. I was curious and excited to see more of the world. But Haven has always been home, and I miss it. I’ve wanted to go back for a long time.”

Wren touched her arm. “Why haven’t you gone back?”

“I didn’t want to let Devin down. I also didn’t want to be a burden on the colony. I still don’t. That’s my only concern right now.”

Vin’s eyes narrowed. “A burden?”

“Using up precious food and supplies, when I could be out here, supporting myself.”

Vin shook his head. “You’re not a burden. You’re family.”

Ginger bit her lip. “Thanks.”

Vin jerked his chin toward Wren. “Do you intend to return to Sanctuary?”

Wren paused and glanced at Ginger. His emotions toward the place where he’d grown up, toward the Guardians, and toward all that had happened in the last twelve hours, were too berserk to base a decision on. Shoving all that aside for a moment, Wren focused on something simple. He wanted to see Ginger again, before she left for Alaska, and she was going to Sanctuary.

“Yes, though I have not decided if I will stay,” he said to Vin.

The demon looked like he was about to argue, then seemed to think better of pushing it. “Fly high.”

“I’ll be expecting you with Ginger in a few hours,” Wren said. He turned to Ginger and touched her arm. “Safe trip. See you later?”

Ginger met his gaze and a smile spread across her face. “Later.”

Wren jumped over the deck railing. He extended and beat his wings, the feel of lift exhilarating after his injury. He climbed high, until he’d be an unidentifiable speck to upturned eyes from the ground, and headed north.

Chapter Five

Ginger lingered on the deck as Wren flew away in the darkness. The brush of his feathers against each other was the only sound aside from her own exhale. Vin, a silent shadow, stood beside her.

“Are you okay to travel on foot for a few miles?” Vin touched her elbow. “It’s best we leave town through the woods.”

Ginger straightened. “I’ll be fine. I just need my phone.”

She went inside, snatched her cell from the table, and paused. The bed sheets lay in a tangled pile. Hurrying, she stripped the bed and tossed the sheets in the hamper.

“Ginger?” Vin called.

“Coming.” She’d call Claire later and apologize for the mess.

Ginger locked the slider and met Vin at the foot of the stairs. Other demons emerged from the woods. Shivering in the cold, she followed Vin toward them, across the lawn. Her phone vibrated in her pocket as she walked. A glance at the screen told her Claire had beat her to the call.

“Hey,” Ginger answered, trying to sound calm.

“Ginger,” Claire said, her voice thick. “Oh my God. Are you okay? Where are you? Are you at my place?”

“I’m fine—”

“Thank God! I’m at the police station, and I saw you on the news. I’m so worried! Please tell me that thing hasn’t hurt you.”

“What…
thing?
” Ginger stopped walking. The news? She’d forgotten, the poachers had made Wren out to be a kidnapper. Damn it. Vin paused beside her, his eyebrows raised in question.

“That devil! The fallen archangel who kidnapped you! The police and the poachers have appealed to the public for information. They’re trying to find you. I’ve told the authorities to check my place. Please tell me he took you there. The police will help you. Just try to get away from it.”

Ginger’s heart pounded. She gripped Vin’s forearm and whispered. “The poachers are coming.”

Vin cursed and motioned the other Guardians forward.

“Claire,” Ginger spoke back into the phone, trying unsuccessfully to keep her voice calm. “Archangels
are not
evil
. The poachers are. Wren didn’t kidnap me. He won’t hurt—”

“Ginger,” Claire interrupted. “It’s all right. Help will be there any minute.”

“I don’t need help.” Ginger held the phone away from her ear, ignored the shouting voice from the speaker, and hit the disconnect button. If the poachers were coming, she didn’t have time to argue. A tear slid down her cheek and she wiped it away. She gripped the phone so hard, the plastic creaked.

Vin held up a hand for silence. The tiny hairs on Ginger’s arms stood up as she took in the demon’s tense posture.

“Someone
is
coming.” Vin faced the driveway and the dark road beyond.

Ginger heard nothing, but demons possessed senses which outmatched any other creature. She nodded, long accustomed to being blind and deaf in their company.

“Go.” Vin pointed toward the woods. He growled. Tiny flames danced at his fingertips before he hid them in tight fists.

Ginger finally heard the engines and tires on the gravel road.

“Go!”

Ginger took off at a sprint across the sprawling lawn. Before she reached the edge of the woods, police vehicles sped into the driveway. Headlights and spotlights flooded the yard, and gunfire erupted. She threw herself to the ground, behind a large rhododendron bush. The Guardians disappeared from view, melding with the remaining shadows.

She stared through the foliage of her cover. So many enemies: police and poachers. Thirty individuals at least. The Guardians were excellent fighters, but these odds spelled disaster.

The demons drew guns and returned fire, their keen senses making them divine marksmen. They shot at the headlights, sending more and more of the yard back into darkness.

But the police turned on large search lights. A blinding beam spilled over her hiding place and illuminated the demon she hadn’t realized stood guard in front of it. A barrage of gunfire sent grass and dirt into the air, and the demon to the ground.

She screamed.

“Fuck!” The demon lifted his head and held one hand over a bloody thigh. He turned onto his side, still trying to shield her. “Stay down, Ginger!”

“Give me your hand!” Ginger got to her knees and reached around the bush for the fallen Guardian.

“I said stay down!”

A new wave of gunfire erupted. Pain exploded in her chest and the air expelled from her lungs as if she had been hit by a battering ram. She collapsed backwards in the grass.

Crimson light blinded her. Demon fire. The injured Guardian sent a wall of flames into the air, blocking her from further assault. She shut her eyes as the pain dulled, replaced by a chill colder than anything she’d ever felt before.

§

A sudden uncomfortable sensation crawled over Wren’s skin. His psychic talent, the healing gift he’d inherited from his father, coated his skin like an energy field. The preternatural talent reacted to injured individuals in his vicinity, begging to be used.
Shit. What happened?

Ginger?

Wren banked and stared back in the direction of the property of Ginger’s friend, just in time to see scarlet demon fire ignite the trees in a wide circle. The Guardians wouldn’t resort to such showy measures unless backed into a corner.

He plunged, ignoring the towering flames, his archangel immunity to demon fire an invisible shield as he soared straight into the inferno.

Accompanied by gunfire, numerous voices shouted from beyond the flames. No bullets made it past the demons’ barrier. Three Guardians, the source of the blaze, stood in a wide circle.

Wren spotted two more demons and Ginger on the lawn. The impact jolted his bones as he landed in haste and rushed over.

Vin and a second demon crouched at Ginger’s side. She lay so still. Wren sucked in a sharp breath. The intensity of his power crawling over his skin told him Ginger lived, but death hovered moments away.

Vin looked up, profound relief in his gaze. The crimson glow of the fire lit the scene and accented the demon’s taut features. The second Guardian, bleeding from his thigh, dragged himself across the ground to make room for Wren.

“Thank God,” Vin said. “She’s…”

Wren dropped to his knees, extending his wings to accommodate the position, and gathered Ginger in his arms, relieved to see the bullet had exited her body. One less thing to worry about. She looked at him, though her eyes seemed unfocused. In advanced shock and barely conscious, she didn’t seem to be in pain. But her pulse fluttered like an injured moth.

She murmured his name.

Wren wasted no time finding the wound amongst all the blood, and covered it with his palm. The energy of his healing gift responded, heating his skin. He felt her tissues knit until the wound sealed over. Her pulse strengthened and her eyes closed as she fell into a healing-induced sleep.

“Gin, you’re going to be just fine.” He brushed the hair from her face with a slight shake to his fingers that surprised him. Her brush with death affected him more than it should have.

Wren shut his eyes. He couldn’t allow himself to feel so much for this woman. The consequences of such an involvement with another were too horrific to risk.

In his mind, he saw his mother’s body after her death, unrecognizable after hours of torture, save for the engraved ring his father had given her. Lark’s message, left with her body on bloodied paper, threatened not only Wren, but anyone close to him. Lark promised that if Wren built a family, they would suffer even more than his mother had when Lark caught up with them.

If Wren felt anything for Ginger, he had to act on it by putting as much space between them as possible. Best she go back to Alaska before this desire grew any stronger.

“I’ll take Ginger to Sanctuary. She’ll be safe there for now, but call Devin and tell him to hurry. She needs to be taken to Haven as soon as possible. She needs to get away from me.”

Vin nodded, understanding in his tight expression. All the Guardians knew of Lark’s threat.

“She’s all right?” The second demon propped himself up on his elbow. He had a shirt tied around his bleeding thigh.

“Yes. Hold still.” Wren leaned over and touched the Guardian’s wounded leg. The demon fell back onto the grass, unconscious but healed.

“Go now,” Vin urged.

Wren held Ginger to his chest and stood. She shivered in her sleep and he wrapped his wings forward to trap warmth around her. He crossed the lawn, climbed the stairs to the deck, and leapt off. Beating his wings hard, he struggled to ascend with the extra weight.

To his right, the sunrise colored the horizon pink. Using his talent drained him physically, and carrying Ginger made flight more work. He flew north toward the colony, but scanned the landscape for a safe place to land and rest.