Chapter Fourteen
‘Ready for a ride?’ Michael winked as I walked straight past him. ‘Wait!’
The smile came to my lips.
‘I want to walk, thank you,’ I said over my shoulder.
His footsteps sounded behind me. An arm came over my shoulders as we exited the compound and turned down the street.
‘What are you doing?’ I asked him, not bothering to shrug him off. It felt nice to have a handsome man touch me. It was a first.
‘I’m walking with you. Where do you want to go?’
Glancing up at him, I licked my lips. He smiled down at me, his cheeky grin causing dimples to appear. What would it feel like to kiss him?
‘The river. I want to go to the river.’
His face screwed up. It must have sounded odd. What Perfect would want to see Lower Side? Not that I had requested to actually see it but the river separated the Upper Side from the Lower.
‘Really? You want to go there?’
Smiling sweetly, I nodded. He shrugged but didn’t take his arm away as I let him lead me down the road.
‘Are you not supposed to be working?’ I said after a minute of comfortable silence.
His hand stroked the shoulder of my jacket. My stomach flipped at the gentle touch. Why was he being so affectionate?
‘Just finished my shift when you came out,’ he said, moving a bit of my hair when it flew onto his arm. ‘Do you know what?’
‘What?’
His grin deepened as I glanced sideways at him.
‘You’re the hottest Perfect I’ve ever seen.’
Rolling my eyes, I concentrated on the horizon. The buildings gave way to blue sky up ahead. The salt in the air told me that we drew nearer to the river.
‘Well?’ he asked.
‘Well, what?’
I shrugged off his arm. The human part of me wanted to let his words make me feel good. The angel part couldn’t stand to be appreciated for my looks alone. The fight inside made me close my eyes for a brief second. William had told us to embrace being a Perfect but never forget who we were. How could we get a balance of the two? Acting came naturally to us. However, it had a price. How could we teach Avoidables and Perfects to be their true authentic inner selves if we pretended to be something we weren’t?
‘What do you think about being the hottest Perfect I’ve ever seen?’
I laughed. He frowned down at me as we came to a stop by the water’s edge.
‘I know.’
Turning from him, I studied the river. A big concrete bridge joined the two parts of city. It was a few hundred yards away. Guards stood in a tight line right along the entrance. The Lower Side was made up of dirt and metal. That’s what it looked like from where I was, anyway.
‘You are…’ Michael started.
‘Amazing?’ I finished for him.
I ignored the shake of his head, instead letting my head fall back to study the cloudy sky. I squinted to make out a shape between the clouds.
‘What’s that?’ I said before I put my brain into gear.
As Michael looked to where I stared, the object moved. Wings flapped, sending them soaring nearer to our side of the river. It was an Avoidable. If the-
‘Guards!’ Michael shouted, pointing to the sky when they took notice of him.
I gasped as they pulled out their guns and aimed at the man in the air. Surely they wouldn’t shoot him?
‘What is that?’ I asked Michael.
Grabbing my hand, he tried to pull me towards the guards. I stopped him, keeping my eyes peeled on the man above. He had long thick dark hair, tanned skin and big purple dragon wings. How did he have dragon wings?
‘It’s an Avoidable. Half dragon. We need to get out of-’
His sentence was cut off as gunfire exploded nearby. Wrapping his arms around me, he yanked me to the ground, landing on top of me. He covered our faces with his arms. I struggled against him, trying to watch the flying man. I had to see if they’d shot him.
‘Stop, Melissa, it’s dangerous,’ he hissed in my face.
I froze when his lips brushed my cheek as he spoke. The touch sent a warm buzz throughout my whole body. Shuddering against him, I gulped air to try and steady myself.
‘He’s breaking the law. Avoidables are not allowed to fly over the river. Ever. He has to be shot down.’
I bit the inside of my cheek to stop myself from disagreeing. I was a Perfect. I had to remember that.
‘I know,’ I whispered, going still under him.
The shooting stopped. I closed my eyes, waiting for the splash of water. It never came.
‘Well, this is cosy,’ Michael said.
Pushing him, I climbed out from underneath his body. He had protected me. His behaviour seemed very unPerfect-like.
‘He’s getting away!’ he shouted to the guards. ‘Kill him!’
The flying man had spun. He was making his way back to Lower Side. Surely he would have known that the guards would shoot at him if he came so close to our side of the river? Michael was a guard. His duty was to protect the Perfects at all costs.
As bullets flew into the air, I crossed my fingers for the purple winged man. A screech of wheels against concrete made me look over to the bridge. The guards were mowed down by an old rusty car.
‘You need to leave,’ Michael shouted, running towards his colleagues.
The man in the air had been a diversion. He had caught the attention of the guards so his buddies could come across the bridge from Lower Side and ram into them.
I stood frozen on the grass verge beside the river. The guards scrambled to their feet. The ones that could, anyway. A couple of them were still on the ground. The car reversed back onto the bridge.
‘Michael,’ I shouted as he crouched beside one of the fallen guards.
The car revved again. I ran towards the bridge. I was too late. The car shot forward, straight into Michael and the men that remained on the floor. A scream tore from my throat. Shots started to bombard the car. The clunk of the gear stick being shoved into reverse made me feel sick. He was going to back over them again. Surely, they would already be dead?
‘Michael!’ I called again as I drew level with the car.
Going straight up to the window, I slammed my hand on the screen. The man inside looked at me. The gunfire stopped but not before one last bullet found its way into the Avoidable’s chest. He had a beard. The hair on his head was patchy in places. His clothes hung on his thin frame.
A small smile came to his lips as he studied me. His hand clutched at the spot the bullet had hit. He blinked, all the while staring straight into my eyes. Could he see me? The real me?
‘Ma’am, you need to come away,’ one of the guards said, taking hold of my arm.
Ripping from him, I opened the passenger door and got in the car. The Avoidable struggled to breathe now, his chest pumping hard. His cheeks drained of colour as he watched me. I laid a hand over the one that clutched the steering wheel. The engine still hummed.
‘Why did you do this?’ I asked.
He licked his lips, gasping as he winced. Red blood seeped through his fingers where he held his chest. He was going to die.
‘He promised me. They killed my friend,’ he choked out.
I swallowed to clear the lump that rose in my throat. I didn’t know what he’d meant, but I was determined to find out. His face twisted as he closed his eyes.
‘Who was the man in the sky? Why did he help you?’
The laugh that came from his mouth was quiet. ‘He wasn’t helping. They were trying to stop me.’ His eyes flickered open. The depths of them glowed as he gazed at me. ‘You’re so beautiful. Not like a normal Perfect.’
His arm went slack and fell into his lap. His stare hardened as the life left his body.
Blinking, I backed out of the car. Michael!
‘Melissa!’ His voice was weak.
I rushed to his side. He had cuts over his face. The odd angle of his arm made m
y stomach turn.
‘Are you okay?’
He slowly nodded but stopped and moaned. Another guard approached. ‘An ambulance is almost here. We’ll get you sorted.’
Dropping to my knees, I stroked his hair. His face had already started to swell. I hoped he didn’t have internal injuries.
‘You should have run,’ he managed, looking me in the eye. ‘Why did you get into the car?’
A siren sounded nearby. The ambulance came into view.
The air rushed from my lungs as I glanced back at Michael. He had been injured trying to help his friends. He was a man that I was supposed to be believe was ugly on the inside. Maybe he wasn’t.
‘The driver was shot. I…’
A paramedic rushed over to us. Another went to the man by Michael’s side. The man he had been trying to help. I had avoided looking at him, knowing that his time had come.
‘Leave, Melissa,’ Michael said as the paramedic checked him over.
A guard knelt beside me. He wrapped his arms around me, pulling me from Michael’s side. My new friend watched me through the swelling around his eyes.
‘You probably have concussion. We need to get you to the hospital to check you over and fix your arm.’
He cringed when he tried to nod his consent. I struggled against the man that tried to haul me away.
‘Wait, Michael…’
‘If you have any sympathy towards them, I never want to see you again,’ he spat.
My body slumped as he looked away from me. He listened to the paramedic as they explained how they was going to move him. Not once did his gaze seek mine as I was taken to a guard’s car and escorted home.