Then he texted back:
Put me on loudspeaker.
The phone rang and I immediately put it on loudspeaker.
I yelled at the woman, “Hey! Shut up and listen!”
The women stopped firing.
“I’m ordering you to put your gun down, and hand it to my son when he steps out—in exchange for your phone.” My father’s deep voice emanated from the speaker.
I imagined the thought terrified her. I could easily shoot her if I wanted to. But I doubted my father thought that I would do that. I was sure that he knew exactly what was on my mind.
“O-Okay,” the woman croaked.
I dared push the door open—which was seconds from opening anyway due to the damage she had caused. I was surprised that it had lasted this long.
As I stepped out, we stared at each other in the eye. I held out the phone. She extended the gun. We both gripped the items at the same time and then I jerked away, pulling the gun from her while she took the phone.
Or rather, tried to take the phone.
My father played dirty. I was going to give him a taste of his own medicine. I hung up and, being in possession of both the gun and the phone, I raced back into the ward.
The woman behind me yelled before racing to the ward’s exit. Not that there was much need for her to call recruits. My father would have already sent an emergency squad.
I didn’t have a split second to lose. I hurtled to the nearest tall, French window and gazed out. We were on the second floor, blankets of snow lining the ground for as far as I could see. Then I cast my eyes about the hall for anything weighty. Or sharp. Anything that could help me smash the windows. Shooting bullets at these windows would only send them bouncing back off. They were reinforced. I grabbed hold of another coat stand nearby and smashed it against the glass. It took twelve swift smashes—using all the strength I possessed—for me to finally create a crack, and then I managed to break it completely. Enough for me to leap through.
I had never jumped from such a height, but I landed with surprising grace, my feet sinking deep into the snow. Damn, it was cold. I didn’t know how long I would be able to last like this. But I couldn’t think of that.
Clutching the phone in one hand and the gun in the other, I began to run as fast as I could. As I reached the main parking lot, I heard screeching and shouts behind me.
I didn’t look back.
There were security guards stationed at the parking lot’s barriers. One of them was on the phone—I was sure being warned about me. But I moved too quickly. I managed to leap over the barrier before they could attempt to stop me. And then I was on the other side of the compound. As I raced through the snow, my feet grew more numb by the second.
Now I glanced back to see a flock of mutants, gaining speed rapidly. They were far more supernatural than me. I had to reach shelter fast.
I changed direction abruptly, taking a sharp left toward the edge of a forest. I hurtled into the trees. Although the mutants still sounded close, it would be harder for them to spot me now. I tried to vary my direction and make it unpredictable, running to and fro. I had no sense of where I was heading and slowly but surely, I managed to shake off the mutants.
Their screeching grew distant until it was decidedly faint.
I couldn’t keep running much longer. Noticing the trees beginning to thin to my right, I urged myself onward before arriving at a clearing, at the end of which was the border of a mountain. My eyes roamed its foothills and up to its towering peak. The walls were jagged. Craggy. I felt confident that I would find some ledge free from snow among those rocks. Some small, relatively dry patch, where I could attempt to give respite to my feet.
It took all my willpower to keep moving even as my feet felt like they were going to drop off. I scaled the mountain with heart-pounding speed.
I didn’t find any crag or ledge that would be suitable for me to rest on—most of them were far too exposed to the sky. But instead, I found something better. The entrance to some kind of cave. Maybe belonging to a family of bears. But facing bears was the least of my worries.
I stumbled inside, my feet finally on dryer ground.
This was not a cave. It was a tunnel. I began to hurry down it, swerving sharply with its twists and turns. I was quite shocked at how long it was. It seemed to go on and on. I was impressed by my ability to see in the dark. I didn’t have the same clear vision as a vampire did, but I could make out the outline of the walls.
The tunnel stopped winding and came to an end. Slowing down, I emerged into an actual cave. A strange sort of cave. As I strained my eyes to see through the darkness, it appeared that this cave was inhabited not by animals but… a person. Or people. Near the entrance was a pile of pots and pans and a camping stove. Gas lamps perched here and there. Shabby furniture was also scattered around the cave—a three-legged table with old wooden chairs surrounding it, a cupboard with a door missing. There was a stuffy, musty smell… and then I caught the sound of breathing.
Several bundles lay on the floor, on the other side of the chamber. Slumbering people, wrapped in sleeping bags.
I crept nearer, eyeing the bundles cautiously, until I had arrived within three feet. I couldn’t see any faces. All of the sleeping bags were drawn up over their heads as they slept.
“Uh, excuse me,” I said hoarsely. “Excuse me.” I spoke more loudly.
The bag closest to me stirred. Whoever it was turned around. A hand shot out and fumbled with a gas lamp above the person’s head. The person switched on the lamp, casting a glow over the rest of the forms.
There were five in total.
The one who had woken revealed his face. He was a young man, with deathly pale skin. His eyes were dark and groggy as they fixed on me.
“Who are you?” he asked, staggering to his feet.
He was about five foot eleven, with long hair that trailed to his shoulders. The other four bundles quickly stirred, and on noticing me, also stood up. They too were young men, just as pale.
As if this discovery wasn’t odd enough, I realized they had wings protruding from the backs of their shoulders.
My jaw dropped.
Who are these men?
Lawrence
“Who are you?” I whispered.
They frowned at me. “Who are you?” the nearest boy asked, his dark brows low over his aquamarine eyes.
I supposed that I could trust them with my identity. I doubted they were involved with the IBSI. “My name’s Lawrence. Lawrence Conway. I’m, uh, kind of human.”
“I’m Field,” the boy said. “And this is Fly, Sky, Rock and Blue.” He gestured to the boys behind him, from right to left. All of them were around the same height—all of them had long hair, too. Blue, I noted, was the only boy with blue eyes.
What strange names. “You are… what are you?”
Field gestured to his wings. Black, feathery wings.
“Part Hawk, part vampire,” he replied. “Or so we’ve been told.”
“Are you brothers?”
He shrugged again. “You could say that.”
A weird response. “Where were you born?”
“In those brown buildings nearby. We never met our parents. Two harpy sisters were the closest we ever had to them. They named and raised us. Then we roamed all over the supernatural dimension trying to find out who we were, and look for our real parents…”
The penny dropped. They were products of the IBSI’s hybrid experimentation. They must have been born at least partly with the help of a half-blood… though they were able to grow up. Half-bloods didn’t age. I supposed that was either the Hawk genes’ influence, or maybe some more human genes were thrown in the mix. Who knew how the IBSI did these things.
“And you’ve lived here for how long?” I asked.
“We don’t know exactly,” Field replied. “Years. We returned here since… well, it’s the closest we have to home.”
Years… I glanced around their chamber again. It was
hard to believe that they had lived for years like this, in hardly better conditions than animals.
“What are you here for anyway?” Rock asked, cocking his head to one side. Rock was a blond boy with a splash of freckles across his nose.
“I had a run-in with the IBSI,” I said. “I needed shelter. I found your tunnel.”
“We try to stay away from them too,” Blue said knowingly.
“So what’s your plan?” Sky, a brown-haired boy, asked.
I glanced down at the phone in my hands. I should try to call Ben again. But otherwise… “I’m not sure… Do you mind if I take a seat?”
“Go ahead,” Field said. All five of them sat down on their sleeping bags, crossing their legs.
I examined my feet, still freezing cold. At least they would dry in here.
I tried dialing my phone number. Still nobody picked up, but it didn’t go through to voicemail this time, which gave me a glimmer of hope. Perhaps the environment of the phone had changed. Or it had been set to a different mode. That would mean that Ben—or someone in The Shade—likely still had it. I had to keep trying every half hour to get through. I checked the battery indicator and gulped. It was hovering rather low. I switched it off to save the power for when I really needed it.
So what do I do in the meantime? I had the IBSI hunting for me outside. My father would put every effort into tracking me down. The only place I would be safe would be back in The Shade. That was the only place that was untouchable by the IBSI…
I found myself eyeing the wings of the bird boys curiously.
“Have you ever heard of The Shade?” I asked them.
They shook their heads.
“It’s a haven for supernaturals. An island protected by witches. Many, many different types of creatures live there together. Safe and well cared for.” I paused, weighing my next words. “I’m pretty sure that you would be welcome there too.” Especially if you could get me back there. “You can fly, can’t you?”
From the spark in their eyes, their interest had been piqued, but they looked doubtful.
Field demonstrated his flight for me. He spread his wings and flew, rising up toward the high ceiling of the cave. “Yes,” he said, landing.
“Where is the island exactly?” Sky asked.
“Well, that’s kind of the problem. I don’t have access to that information right now.” I tightened my grip around the phone in my hand nervously. “But I have a way of contacting them. The first step would be to get as far away from here as possible. I can’t promise you that we would reach The Shade but, unless you would be content living in this cave for the rest of your lives, I don’t think you’ve exactly got much to lose… No offense.”
Field turned to the others. “What do you guys think?”
As they huddled round to talk, I moved to the other end of the room, not wanting to invade their space. They had no reason to trust me. I was just some random guy who showed up in their cave. But, as I had pointed out, they could hardly be much worse off. They had wings and I did not. I wasn’t exactly a danger to them.
Apparently coming to such conclusions themselves, their conversation was fairly short.
“Lawrence,” Field spoke up. “We’ll try it.”
“But what’s the plan exactly?” Sky asked.
“As I said, we need to get away from here. We should head to the nearest town or city—a good distance away from the IBSI’s base. Along the way I’ll keep trying to reach my contact in The Shade… If I can get through, then it should be very easy for us to travel the rest of the journey. One of the witches could come to collect us.”
“Okay…” Field said slowly.
“Then let’s go?” Rock said.
“Let’s go,” I replied firmly, even as my jaw tensed.
I hoped that these Hawks could fly fast. We also had to move extremely cautiously, fly low to the ground if necessary. We couldn’t afford to get spotted by the mutants who would be roaming this area in droves by now.
My father was probably expecting to find me within the next few hours.
He hadn’t been counting on me finding wings of my own…
Ben
Upon my return to The Tavern, and none of us having any clear direction of where to head next, we decided to return to Earth. Not to The Shade, yet, but to the small island that held the portal we most frequented—Rose and Caleb’s island.
We zoomed out of the old well and landed in the jungle undergrowth before forming a circle where we sat in silence and thought. Where do we possibly go from here? I had the experience of coming across seemingly impossible luck in the supernatural dimension before, but this mission had been so far-fetched that we really couldn’t have expected anything to come from it. And in truth, we hadn’t. It had been desperation leading us forward—where else could we have gone but the supernatural realm when searching for those Hawk kids?
“Well, we can’t just give up,” Lucas muttered, rubbing his forehead grumpily.
No. We cannot give up. But until we get some idea of…
Everyone started as a shrill ringing sounded. It took me a second to realize that it was coming from my back pocket. Lawrence’s phone. A light, sleek, top-of-the-range smartphone. I had forgotten that I still carried it with me.
Fumbling to draw it out of my pocket, I checked the screen. The number was unrecognized.
I accepted the call and pressed it to my ear. “Hello?”
“Ben?” a British voice hollered down the line. In the background was what sounded like some kind of busy highway. Vehicles zooming past.
“Lawrence?” I gasped, leaping to my feet.
“Oh, thank God,” the voice replied. “I’ve been trying to get through to you for hours!”
“Y-You are Lawrence? H-How? You’re supposed to be dead!”
“I’m not dead,” he roared back. “I can explain it to you, but not now. I’m running out of credit. And money isn’t exactly something that we’re loaded with right now. I need you to come and get me, take me back to The Shade. As fast as you can.”
“Okay!” I stammered, even as I wondered what he meant by “we”—or perhaps I had just misheard with the noisy background. “Where are you?”
He rattled off an address… a Canadian address. I punched it into the smartphone.
“You got that right?” he asked.
I repeated it to him, and he confirmed that I had recorded it correctly.
“Okay,” he said, sighing heavily in relief before repeating, “Please, come as soon as you can.”
“We will,” I promised him. “We will.”
As I hung up the phone, I was still feeling stunned. I gazed around at the other gaping faces. But there was no time to answer the questions now.
“Ibrahim,” I said. “You need to take all of us back to The Shade, and then you need to go and fetch Lawrence. He is alive! I have the address of the bridge he’ll be waiting under.”
And so it was done. Everybody leapt to their feet and huddled around Ibrahim, and the next thing we knew, we were back at The Shade’s Port. I handed Ibrahim the address along with the phone. In case Lawrence tried to make contact again, it was best that Ibrahim kept it with him.
Then Ibrahim vanished in a flash.
One would have thought that by now, after all the events that had gone on in my life, I would have become somewhat immune to surprises. People coming back from the dead, and such.
But life still always found a way of surprising me, even in the darkest of times. Life always found a way…
As the majority of our group made our way to the hospital, we had all decided to wait there until Lawrence arrived. Maybe he would bring some good news for us. Some long-awaited good news.
Arriving at the hospital entrance and hurrying up to Grace’s room, I hesitated by the door for a moment—steeling myself, as had become a habit—before pushing it open and allowing everyone inside.
The room was, in fact, much the same as when I had left it. Except that i
t was emptier. Orlando and River were the only visitors in here. Orlando had been sitting in a chair, staring blankly at the opposite wall, while River had been sitting in a similar kind of daze, close to Grace’s cage but not close enough for our daughter to swipe at her. And our daughter. My eyes moved to her trapped within her prison. She seemed to have quieted a bit—perhaps her voice had gotten sore from all the screeching she had been doing. But as our group entered, we brought about another whole wave of complaints from her. It must’ve been all the fresh and interesting blood coming into the room.
I moved to River. Slipping my arms around her waist, I hugged her before kissing her lips. She didn’t even ask whether we’d been successful or not. She could read me like a book. She had already sensed that we hadn’t been. I did have at least some good news to share with her… and with Orlando, who seemed to be particularly concerned about my daughter’s plight. Good of him, considering he and Grace were still very new acquaintances.
“Lawrence made contact,” I announced. “Ibrahim has gone to fetch him. He’ll be arriving anytime soon.”
River’s face fell in shock.
“B-But Lawrence is dead! We saw his corpse on the television!”
My expression darkened. “Whatever was shown on the television was a hoax. I have no idea what Atticus was hoping to gain by playing such a game, but he is alive. Trust me, he is alive.”
He must’ve escaped somehow from his father. How he’d managed that was certainly a story that I was looking forward to hearing.
“I wonder if he has discovered something,” Vivienne suggested.
“Let’s hope you wonder right,” my father muttered.
I hardly took my eyes off the clock as the time passed. I watched five minutes slip away, then ten minutes, and then… then I heard voices outside the door. Rushing to it, I ripped it open and literally yelled at the sight waiting for me outside.
Ibrahim stood alongside five long-haired young men—all of them tall and sturdy looking. Wings hung from the backs of their shoulder blades, their faces pale like half-bloods.