Chapter 7
Chapter Seven
L aurie
We’re airborne. My owl knows it like it knows how to stretch its wings and angle them best to catch the breath of the wind.
But I’m not flying now, not properly. I’m stuck in the back of this bus, bowed in half. Allison’s curled into my lap, and I’m folded over her, my face buried in her fragrant hair.
If I die, I’ll die surrounded by her scent. It’s the way I’d want to go, but not now. Not like this.
There’s a whooshing in my stomach, a sensation of falling, and then a great bang as the bus’s tires make contact with the rocks. My head slams into the seat in front of me, and Allison whimpers. She grips my legs harder, and I do my best to buffer her as the bus rockets down the side of the cliff, smashing into every boulder and bush on the way.
“Yaaaaaaaaaaaaah!” Someone’s shouting, screaming. Declan and Fiona both. Declan’s voice pitched an octave higher than hers.
We hit the bottom, and the doors pop open. Both Fiona and Declan tumble out. I half carry, half tug Allison out too. There’s a hissing noise that makes me think the bus is gonna blow.
The bus cants on its side, its front right corner smashed into a boulder. The windshield wipers swipe frantically over spiderweb cracks in the glass.
“Ya all right? Any bones broken?” Declan’s shouting.
“You scream like a girl,” Fiona mutters, rubbing her ear.
“O-okay?” I whisper to Allison.
“Yes.” She rubs her neck. “Just a little whiplash.” It takes a lot to hurt a shifter.
Parker staggers over to us, his hat in hand. Blood’s trickling from his forehead, but he rubs it away, his wounds already closing.
Fiona rounds on him. “Parker, what the fuck? You drove us off a cliff!”
“What was I supposed to do?”
“Nae try to kill us!”
“They’re trying to kill us!” Parker waves to the hearse parked at the top of the cliff. “We had to get away.”
“Now our bus is fucked.” Fiona kicks at a tire, and the broken windshield splinters further.
Beside the hearse, more SUVs have pulled up. Their doors are opening.
“Uh, guys?” Allison calls, pointing to our pursuers. Dark forms unfold from the SUVs and head towards the edge of the overlook. They’re searching for a way down to us. “They’re coming.”
“Shit. We’ve got to run.”
“Where do we go?”
She squeezes me.
“Laurie,” Parker shouts. “Can you shift? Get Allison to safety?”
Fiona’s head whips around. “Can you do that? Can you shift?”
I open my mouth, but my voice won’t come. At all.
“Hey,” Allison pipes up. “I could fly myself if I wanted. I’m not leaving you.”
Fiona ignores her. “Do it,” she snarls at me, a red sheen lighting her eyes. “Get her out of here.”
“He can’t do it on command!” Declan snaps at her. “We’ve got to find another way.”
My owl cowers in a corner of my mind. I stare down at Allison’s upturned face. The wind blows the metallic scents of our enemies to me.
They’re coming. The bus is toast. We have no way to escape unless I can shift and fly us out of here.
I have to do it. It’s the only way.
I stretch out a hand, willing it to sprout feathers. But my owl won’t come.
Allison rests her hand over my heart “It’s okay, Laurie,” she whispers. She’s so good, she’s forgiving me for not saving us all.
But when she touches me like this, I feel like I can do anything.
My owl blinks his big eyes. We have to do it, I tell him. It’s the only way to keep her safe.
He wants to retreat. He’s scared, has been scared since the day we woke up behind silver bars in the lab of Data X.
You’re not in a cage now. You’re free. And she needs you.
Tingles run down my back. In the deep darkness of my psyche, my owl shakes his feathers.
He’s ready.
I grip Allison’s hand, kiss the back of it. Then I straighten, pull off my thick glasses and hand them to her.
She nods solemnly, understanding. “I’ll keep them safe.”
Fiona’s got her shotgun up and is peering through the sight. Declan and Parker hover behind her, arguing in low voices.
“G-g-get in the b-b-bus,” I order. Allison won’t leave her friends behind, so I’ll have to fly all of them.
Parker looks doubtful. Declan opens his mouth to argue. On the cliff, figures are exiting the SUVs and starting to climb down the cliff, crawling like black ants.
“N-now!” I shout, and they shut up and scramble to obey.
I back up, close my eyes, picturing Allison’s beautiful face. I raise my arms. In the distance, a gun cracks. Our enemy is shooting at us.
NOW! I call my owl…. And he comes. My Change rolls over me, soft but swift, unfurling like a storm cloud. My form grows, tearing apart my clothes. Prickles dance under my skin, and each pore sprouts giant feathers. Thick and white, covering my giant wings. Huge and powerful and perfect. Strong enough to fly. I’m still afraid, but if I beat my wings hard enough, I can fly higher than the fear and carry my beloved to safety. I’ll be the owl, the rescuer. The hero she needs me to be.
Parker
With a soft wash of warm air, a huge owl explodes from Laurie's form.
The owl beats his wings and goes airborne. He sails right over us, his shadow blanketing the bus as his wingspan blocks out the sun. His claws descend, and he takes hold of the Christmas tree on top of the bus.
Allison leans out of the door, beckoning to me. “Come on!”
Another beat of the giant owl’s wings, and he’ll lift the bus off the ground. I open my mouth, close it, and race around to the driver's side, leaping in just as the front wheels lift a few inches off the ground.
Fiona’s already with Allison, safe in the back, but Declan’s standing a few feet away, his mouth hanging open as he watches the owl flapping its massive wings, trying to gain height. Dust and rocks fly in the mighty wind.
“Declan!” Fiona cries, and he snaps out of his trance. The bus hovers a few feet off the ground. Declan scrambles, tripping over rocks and scrub brush, racing to reach the bus before it’s too high off the ground. He leaps, and the ladies reach down, grab his arms and pull him in.
Just in time. The owl’s lifted the bus high enough to clear the tallest boulder. The ground falls away, and we sail over the earth, a large, misshapen shadow of the bus, the tree and a giant round-headed bird gliding far below.
There’s a rat-tat-tat, and I duck automatically.
They’re shooting at us,” Allison cries.
“Fuckers,” Fiona snarls. And grabs her shotgun. “Help me open this window.”
They wrestle it open, and she takes sight. Crack , goes her gun, deafening me. Rat-tat-tat. A machine gun returns fire.
“I can’t get them.” Fiona falls back into her seat. “They’re out of range.”
“It doesn’t matter.” Allison pats her shoulder. “Laurie will fly us to safety.”
I pull up the GPS and lean out the window. “Head east!” I shout up to the owl. He doesn’t answer, but slowly turns, so the sun’s in the rearview mirror. In silence, we sail on. Every once in a while, a giant feather falls from above, angelic and white, spinning to the desert below.