“Bis!” Jenks said, dazed as he looked up to the gargoyle’s red eyes. “Good God. We have to get out of here!”
“Yeah, that’s what I’ve been telling you,” Bis said dryly.
In the distance, the sound of car doors slamming and the revving of an engine told him whoever it was, was now leaving. Bis landed again on Sylvan’s statue, shaking in fear. Carefully testing his wings, Jenks took to the air. Daryl was again on the sidewalk, her steely eyes watching them both in evaluation.
“You okay?” Bis said as his claws scratched the statue’s forehead.
“Yeah,” he said, stretching his shoulders and wondering if there was a remaining stiffness. “We have to get this bitch away from the garden before she hurts someone.”
“How?”
Bis was trembling, his eyes wide and whirling. Grinning, Jenks rose farther up into the air. “I’ll get her to follow me,” he said to the gargoyle, then turned to the woman. “Hey, bright eyes! What’s your problem with Sylvan? Did the dude bump uglies with one of your girlfriends?”
Jenks shifted his hips back and forth to make sure she knew what he was talking about, and Daryl’s eyes narrowed. With no warning, she came at him silently, her robes furling in the wind from her passage.
Adrenaline pushing him, Jenks darted into the green field, leading her away. The city was nearby. He’d get her among the buildings, then ditch her. The cops would pick her up for disturbing the peace. Inderland Security would love bringing in a thought-to-be-extinct species of Inderlander with a goddess complex, but that was their job.
Laughing, Jenks sped across the grass, dark and black with the night. A ripple of wind shifted under his wings, and he looked down. An eerie keening dove down upon him, and in a surge of panic, he found himself tossed in a sudden whirlwind.
His sense of direction vanished. Tumbling, the wind beat at him, almost a living force bending his wings and tearing his breath from his lungs. Starved for air and out of control, he fell out of the sky and slammed into the ground. The wind collapsed on him, bringing him to his knees. Eyes shut, he held his wings to his back, one hand gripping his sword, the other clenched upon the grass to keep him from spinning away.
Just as suddenly as it came upon him, the wind broke into a thousand pieces of shrill voice and vanished. Dazed, he looked up, still kneeling.
Daryl was standing over him, her silver eyes gleaming like a cat’s in the dark. Wheezing from the pollution, she raised her foot. “You are rude, and you will die.”
“Oh, shit…” Jenks whispered.
A dark gray streak slammed into her chest, and, stumbling, Daryl fell back.
“Bis!” Jenks exclaimed as the gargoyle swung back around, plucking him from the ground and holding him close. “Tink loves a duck, you’re a great backup!”
“You can’t fly,” Bis said breathlessly. “You’re too light. Let’s get out of here!”
“’Kay,” Jenks said, grateful but feeling somewhat sheepish. This was the kind of spot he was always getting Rachel out of. He didn’t like being carried, but if the woman could whistle up the wind, then he’d be better off with Bis. The moon had shifted, and Vincet and his family would be okay for another day. If the garden was sacred, Daryl wouldn’t be likely to tear it apart.
Behind them came an infuriated shriek, and Jenks cringed when the roar of the wind came again. Wiggling, he inched himself up to look over Bis’s shoulder, not liking the dips and swerves Bis was putting into his flight. Squinting, he looked behind him expecting to see a frustrated women standing alone, but the grass was empty. Satisfaction filled him. Until he saw the black, boiling cloud bearing down on them, rolling over the grass to leave it untouched.
“Holy shit!” he exclaimed, seeing a tiny white figure at the center. “Bis, she’s flying! The freaky bitch is flying!”
Bis’s smooth wing beats faltered. Glancing back, he gulped. “She’s riding a ley line. Jenks, I don’t know how she’s doing it or what she is!”
Pointing at them with her sword, the woman clenched her teeth and grinned, clearly eager for battle. Her oiled ringlets lay flat, and her robe plastered to her like a second skin. The chugging of heavy air reverberated off the nearby buildings, but the trees were utterly still.
“Go!” shrilled Jenks, smacking Bis’s shoulder. “Go to ground!”
The heat off the street was a wave as they left the park. Town homes gave way to buildings, flashing past and reduced to blurs. Cars were moments of light and noise, and still she came on, leaving the sound of horns and folding metal in her wake. Glass shattered, and Jenks hunched into Bis’s protection, a new terror filling him as he realized that to take to the air now would be his death. Bis’s flight grew sickeningly erratic among the buildings, and Jenks looked behind him.
They weren’t going to make it.
“Down!” he screamed, voice lost in the shrieking wind. “Go to ground, Bis!”
Twisting wildly, Bis brought his wings in close, diving for a gutter drain.
“Oh-h-h-h-h no-o-o-o!” Jenks exclaimed, ducking his head.
Wings back, winging furiously in the sudden dark, Bis hit the wall with a grunt, sliding down to land in a sludge of water and goo. Putrid muck splashed up, coating Jenks in cold. Shaking his head, he lay on Bis and tried to figure out what happened.
I’m in a hole, he realized, his pulse hammering hard enough to shake him. I’m alive.
Above him, the wind shrieked, sounding like a woman screaming in battle. Bis shifted underneath him, and Jenks put a finger to his own lips when the gargoyle’s eyes opened. Together they listened to the destruction as glass shattered and heavy things hit the earth. Slowly the roaring wind faded to leave the frightened calls of people and the growing sounds of sirens.
Shaking, Bis began to wheeze in laugher. “Holy pigeon poop. That was close,” he said, sitting up slowly until Jenks took to the air.
Jenks’s flash of anger at Bis’s mirth dissolved as he realized they were okay and they would both live to see the sun rise. “Watch this! I’ll get her to follow me, Bis!” he said, shaking his wings until a sludgy dust spilled from him to light the hole.
Bis stood shin-deep in the muck, his skin shifting toward pink as he upped his body temp. Appreciating the warmth, Jenks moved to his shoulder and tried to wipe the muck off his clothes. Matalina wouldn’t be happy, and he enviously watched the mud dry and flake off Bis.
“Think she’s gone?” Bis asked as he gazed up to the rectangle of brighter dark.
Jenks darted to the opening and the fresher air to hover with his head in the opening. Hands on his hips, he whistled long and low. “She tore up the street,” he said loudly, looking up at the broken streetlights. “Power’s out. Cops are coming. Let’s get out of here.”
The scrabbling of claws made him shiver, and he made the quick flight to the sidewalk when Bis slid out like an octopus. Bis shook his wings and sniffed at his armpits, then turned black to remain unnoticed. The sirens were coming closer, seeming to pull the distraught people together.
Frowning, Bis somberly clicked his nails in a rhythm that Jenks recognized as Mozart as he took in the tossed cars and broken windows. Fingers shaking, Jenks wedged a sweetball out of his belt pack and sucked on it, replenishing his sugar level before he started to burn muscle.
“Do you think all nymphs were like that?” Jenks asked, glad the muck hadn’t gotten to his snack.
“Beats me.”
With a push of his wings, Bis was airborne. Jenks joined him, shifting to fly above him where they could still talk. The night air felt heavy and warm, unusually muggy as they flew straight down the street and to the park. Only a small section of the city was without power, and it looked like the park was untouched.