Heh, it was the same wing envy I heard in Rin's voice when she spoke of Angel. Was it a bird thing? It was like they admired Angel's ability to truly fly instead of just the gliding they did with their pseudo wings.

  My mind drifted back to the fight I was abducted from, and I almost panicked. “Is Rin on this thing?” I pointed at the radio and Adelaide nodded. I grabbed it and looked over at Hailey with Mouse in the sidecar. Oh, maybe Mouse was on the radio when she was talking to people who weren't there. I felt silly now, thinking she heard voices. But... she had tried to introduce me to thin air...

  I shook it out of my head and then pressed the button and blurted out urgently, “Rin? My people?” Please let them be ok.

  I heard a motor roar as she got closer to my window and gave me a big smile as she said as she reached her hand between her helmet and her ear, “Besides losing Gomez, everyone is ok. A little shaken but ok. Damn, Matt is one badass mother fu...”

  I interrupted, “Rin!”

  Her grin grew. But she was right, Matt hadn't hesitated to help protect our community, even against creatures with tons more strength than normal men. “Though I'm sure Lazarus is having conniptions since the NYPD showed up at the scene and carted off the bodies of those deformed men before seeing to it everyone got medical attention.”

  Crap. It seems that more and more supernatural and paranormal shit is being exposed because of this whole mess. Maybe it is time for these Sentinels to make themselves known. I absently thought of what sort of mutagenic gene sequencing they had been doing on those test subjects to get results like that. There had to be a scientific basis.

  And my guess is that they delivered it with some sort of viral pathogen since I was somehow infected just by coming into contact with their research. Possibly unlocking long-dead genetic sequences and markers. But the way the Anubis men healed... were they more like me? Some sort of energy bleed from a pocket dimension supplying the power for the cells to regenerate so quickly?

  Then Rin was asking, “Are you... are you ok Cam? I'm sorry. They grabbed you, but they had ten men there backing them up. By the time I fought through, I couldn't find the transport.” She sounded worried sick, and that made my belly warm.

  I shook my head. “Its ok, I was the bonehead who got caught.”

  Then Hailey was on, “Hey, lovebirds, radio silence, ok?”

  Ok, that had me blushing as I put the radio back on the dashboard. Adelaide grinned at my embarrassment and shared almost softly, “Trin really has it bad for you. She was almost inconsolable when she told us Lazarus had you. Ky had back-traced the data packets to the Crucible there, and that's when Angel arrived. That Hailey woman set up a hell of a plan to get you out, she has to be ex-special forces or something.”

  She snorted to herself and said, “And Soc Au' Lait, if she's not hot as hell too.” Then she added with a smirk, “The three of them wouldn't let us Ravens take the three ghosts with Mouse, to their final destination. And I think that Hailey could probably stop us. It takes all our self-control not to try.”

  Mouse was really talking to... ghosts? They had to be some sort of resonant echo of the synaptic energy of the brain of the deceased rebounding off the same surface tension barrier between dimensions that is holding me together, right?

  I caught Addy smirking. I blurted, “What?”

  She shook her head. “Rin said you think everything is explainable by science.”

  “I... she... It can.”

  “Then do it.”

  “I can't.” Then I held up a hand to her smug face as I qualified. “Yet.”

  She kept smirking for a second until her eyes narrowed in concern as she kept glancing at me. “Are you ok?”

  My hand drifted up to my face to tentatively touching the new addition to it. I could feel the familiar ectoplasm in lines on my face that I hid on other parts of myself. I'd never be able to go out in public again after this. There was no way to hide parts of my face being translucent. I didn't even want to look in the mirror to see the damage.

  I nodded and said without much conviction, “I'm fine.”

  She said softly, “It looks painful. What... what did they do to you there? It took us a few hours to rally the troops. It was all we could do to keep Rin from just charging in.”

  I didn't want to think about the pain they had kept me in. As far as anything else, I felt I gave as good as I got, even being restrained as I was. “Doesn't hurt. That's my curse. Losing pieces of myself. One day, I might lose all of myself.”

  I wanted to steer the conversation from that unsavory thought, so I went back to something she had said. “That wasn't the Crucible. It was some sort of transport hub. They had their experiments there in cages waiting to be moved. Xerxes and Truit were calling a helicopter to transport me to the Crucible.”

  The next moment I was thrown into the dashboard as she slammed on the brakes. I started to blurt out, “What the hell, woman!?” But froze when I saw a huge hissing hooked beak in my face.

  She hissed out as she looked from me to the back window as the motorcycles stopped to flank us and cars on the street honked their horns, “Truit is here?” There was rage and hate in the eyes of the almost full avian woman in front of me.

  I nodded hesitantly. “Yes. They left before you arrived.”

  She hissed again and seemed to just now realize she had stopped traffic and was in Raven Maid form which looked twice as menacing as Rin's. An instant later she was Adelaide again, and she started driving.

  I shared an abbreviated version of what had occurred and shared that there was the scientist woman who was a zombie there too. This made her give me a wicked grin. “Good. I saw Rin take a zombie in a white lab coat down. She'd have intel on their plans if they shared with the woman. Maybe we can finally stop Abigail.”

  I absently wondered how big the coincidence. That both Lazarus and Truit were here and seemed to be working together. All of the Sentinels here seemed connected to Lazarus, Xerxes, and Truit. I personally don't believe in coincidences. Something more was going on here than met the eye, and it didn't bode well for other... umm... not ordinary women like us.

  After taking a circuitous route around Manhattan, backtracking and spending time under the elevated train platforms, we wound up pulling up to the Winnebago where it hid under the awning of a loading dock in the back alley of a building which was being renovated.

  I had to smile when we got out of the car, when Kyler exploded from the motorhome and dove into Adelaide's arms, squeaking out, “Mom-ish!”

  Adelaide kissed the top of her head and murmured into it, “Mon petit amour.”

  Then my smile almost split my face as Eliza poked her head out the door of the rolling home and then grinned and ran to me to hug me too. “Cam!”

  “Squirt.”

  Then she pulled back to look at me. “Your face, are you ok?” She was touching my cheek with concern on her face. I smiled to reassure her I was fine as I realized just how relieved I was that she was safe with the Ravens.

  She pulled back as Rin got off her bike, hung her helmet on the handlebars, then marched right up to me like she was mad, and then planted an angry kiss on my mouth before stalking off into the motorhome and slamming the door... which just popped back open to swing idly.

  Oh, my. My cheeks were burning as I looked at the others while Shannon came out of the Winnebago on her tiptoes like she didn't want to wake an angry lion. Atropos followed a moment later with a shit eating grin on her face.

  I looked around at all the faces looking at me as Angel landed behind Mouse, her great white feathered wings swishing forward to wrap around her girl. Adelaide was first to address the situation, “We're not going in there.”

  It was a prompt. I swallowed to look at all the cowards and then took a deep breath I didn't need to steel myself and slipped into the motorhome, making sure to close the door behind me gently. Why did it feel like I was marching to my doom?

  I approached the sulking woman and gave a weak smile, “Umm... hi?”

  She spun on me.

  Chapter 12 – Planning

  So, it wound up taking about fifteen minutes to calm Rin down. It was apparent that she had become extremely attached to me in such a short time. I think it was part of the animal instinct I saw in her when she cocked her head at inhuman angles as we spoke. I was pretty damn attached to the cute bird-brain myself.

  When she was sufficiently convinced I was ok, and that I was aware of how much she had worried, we wound up in a lip lock that was so lustful and erotic that it had me needing a change of panties. It was so full of heat, of need and want that I felt my entire body buzzing in desire.

  We increased the intensity of the kiss as our hands started roaming over each other's bodies. Then I almost screamed in shock when Kyler said from right behind us, “They're just sucking face now. It's safe to come in.”

  Jesus!

  Rin looked like she almost jumped out of her own skin as she blurted, “I'm going to kill you Squish! Don't sneak up on people like that!”

  Then to my extreme pleasure, she took my hand and pulled me into the bench seat on her side of the little table, and just kept ahold of my hand as she laced our fingers. It felt so natural, so... right.

  Rin then addressed me as people crowded into the motorhome with smug looks on their faces, “Don't do that to me again.”

  I shrugged, and she glared, and they laughed. I muttered, “I hate you all.”

  Adelaide and Shannon took the bench on the other side of the table.

  That was the cue for us to start the sharing of 'intel' and 'debriefing' as Hailey, who sat on the tiny kitchenette, said.

  The young ones and Atropos all climbed up to sit on the edge of the upper bunk that hung over the cab of the motorhome, swinging their feet.

  Mouse and Angel stood by the door, Angel with her wings cocooning her girl. It looked both cute and cozy like they did that all the time.

  Hailey reached out absently to almost lovingly pluck a loose feather off Angel's wing, and my overactive imagination cocked an eyebrow. Were the three of them... a couple?

  When Mouse growled, “Mine,” and reached a hand through the large blanket of feathers to slap Hailey's hand, I almost blushed at my train of thought. Nope. I guess not.

  We spent the next hour going over what I heard and saw, and Rin looked almost pained when she shared a lot of details I didn't know, like the purpose for the experiments and where the Crucible actually was. I was about to ask how she knew, but the pain in her eyes told me she gained the information in the way her kind did. I swallowed remembering Adelaide telling me that Rin had taken down the zombie lab coat.

  She now had intimate knowledge of the inner workings of Lazarus. And that unpleasant lab worker was now a permanent part of my bird girl. I almost shuddered at the thought. Again I wondered how these women determined where they ended, and the foreign thoughts and personalities began. It took a strong person to know who they were and not let anything change that.

  I found myself squeezing her hand, and I swear I felt her relax, if just a bit.

  I listened as she shared, “So this Xerxes, under the auspices of National Security and making super soldiers, is trying to gain immortality. And Truit, just wants to be alive again. So why exactly are they working together? And why hasn't Xerxes just grabbed Abigail to study? I'm sure zombie soldiers are just as effective as ones modified with whatever experiments they are performing on those poor soldiers.”

  I answered before any of them could. “Because, the experiments are just a cover for his real desire, to be immortal. She's just a tool to use toward those ends, and she sees him the same. God, a match made in hell.”

  Then I looked over to Angel, who looked almost haunted as we spoke of Xerxes, “And how do you fit into the puzzle? I heard there was an incident with you and him at one point? He just wants DNA or something?”

  Mouse shrugged in her feathered cocoon. “She's a Djinn, a genie. Grants wishes. He wants to enslave her for her power to wish him young again. She won't.” The woman looked equal parts smug and proud of that assertion, so punctuated it with a quick peck on her girl's lips.

  My mind was boggling. “Whoa, wait, back up. A genie? Like, rub your lamp and get three wishes, Genie?” That was impossible, yet... my hand drifted up to my cheek.

  Angel looked almost angered as she shook her head. “Not like that. My line is cursed. Once we hit adulthood, our power manifests, and we can make ten wishes of our own. Once our last wish is exhausted, then our soul is enslaved to the closest person around us who makes a wish. Once they have made three wishes, we die, and our souls are chained in the jewels in the Greater Djinn's cave until he has enough of them to break free from his prison.”

  I blinked at that. Magic wasn't real. There had to be an explanation that conformed to the laws of physics as we understand them. My mouth blurted out without asking permission from my brain first, “And you wished for wings?”

  She looked sheepish as she shook her head. “I was thrown off the top of a building, and I wasn't particularly eager to die at the time, I wished I could fly as I fell, and...” She left it open as her gorgeous wings shrugged then added, “Now I'm a freak.”

  I blinked as the others let me digest it. Then I heard myself asking, “Why don't you just wish them away then?” I really needed to sit down and have a long talk with my mouth and asking permission to talk only after discussing things with my brain. Hailey and Mouse were glaring at me like I had suggested she poke her own eyes out with a red-hot poker.

  Angel's wings slumped a little as she shook her head slowly. “That is a slippery slope. Every wish brings my soul closer to eternal damnation. It is easier each time to make 'just one more.' I used three in the first few days of my power manifesting, and I'll never make another. I'll not damn my daughter to this fate.”

  Again, Cam Mouth was yapping, “Three?”

  She nodded, something in her eyes showing a depth of despair that had me wanting to hug her and tell her everything would be ok. “The wings, then an absent wish to know what was going on... I know everything about the Greater Djinn, and my cursed family line now. And unfortunately everything Xerxes has used my family for over the centuries.”

  I creased my brow, still not believing in magic, but I saw some inconsistencies. “If Xerxes has lived centuries because of your family, then he's already immortal, why is he doing all this?”

  Mouse answered for her. “He's not immortal, one of the limitations of Djinn magic is that they can't grant immortality. But they can grant youth. So he uses each generation of Angelina's family to wish for that youth. It is the first of the three he got from each of Angel's ancestors. He can also take a lot more physical damage than a normal person.” She growled out, “Like falling off a high roof and living to tell the tale.”

  I caught up with my mouth and offered helpfully, “Wish the curse away?” I swallowed and voiced an unsavory solution I know that I would have done with my grey morals. “Wish him dead?”

  Hailey chuckled sardonically. “Can't do the first, one of his first wishes prevented the second.”

  I blinked at her as she went about systematically disassembling her weapons and reassembling them. That was sort of hot.

  Rin let go of my hand and shoved my shoulder. I grinned at her and blushed. What? A girl can look. She winked at me to let me know she wasn't dead either. I had to ask with a smirk, “And what's your story soldier girl?”

  She shrugged without even looking up from her task, and winged a thumb toward Angel. “I'm her bartender.”

  Grr, that's what Angel said too.

  My mind caught up with me and sorted through all the distractions, I was missing something. I turned back to the woman with the wondrous white feathered wings. “You said three.”

  She looked down at the top of Mouse's head, almost embarrassed as she said softly, “Xerxes men had killed one of my best friends, Stacy, and put the other, Billie, in the hospital in a vegetative state. She wasn't ever going to recover.” She shrugged, leaving her wish self-explanatory. And if what she said, that each wish moves her closer to damnation, it was a pretty selfless wish too.

  Wait. I looked at Mouse. “Stacy?” Wasn't that the name of one of her... ghosts?

  She nodded, then added, “And Billie is our researcher. Keeps her from insisting on joining us where the danger is. She is invaluable back at the University.”

  Wow. We were some bizarre group, now weren't we? I glanced around, only Shannon and Ferret were normal humans. And Shannon seemed to be the Raven's den mother. These... Sentinels seemed to go out of their way to protect the people in their lives without any sort of extraordinary genetic makeup. Hailey was excluded of course, as special forces aren't your normal humans.

  I craned my head back to quickly look up to Ferret. “Matt and the others?”

  She nodded earnestly and reaffirmed what Rin had told me, “They... they killed Gomez. But everyone else is fine. Banged up a bit, but fine. Matt was pretty badass.”

  It was true. The man was a double amputee in a wheelchair, and he was still taking on a beast who was throwing people around like dolls. I was proud to know he was my friend.

  Then she stuck her tongue out at Rin. “When she came back from trying to follow the people who took you, I insisted on coming with her. She brought me here.” She shrugged. “You're like my sis, and I couldn't just do nothing. We're family.”

  I reached up to squeeze the toe of her shoe as a happy warmth spread through me at her voicing my feeling toward her. She was like the little sister I never had, and it was heartwarming to know she felt the same. “Love you, brat.”

  She grinned back. “Love you.” Then she soured a bit and added, “Our place was trashed in the fight.” Damn it. That was like a physical blow. I had lost my home... again. The logical voice in my head was telling me that it wasn't like we could go back there anyway. Lazarus knew that place now, and we would just endanger the others if we went back.

 

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