4 Nathan

I stared in disbelief at the crumbled library. Once the firemen were able to put the fire out, they began searching through the rubble in the area where I had seen the woman in the window. After pulling away a bit of wall that was miraculously unscathed and at an angle, they found Kristy huddled with two small kids. Their faces black with soot and their bodies wet and shivering; the hose had probably soaked them as well. But they were not injured, in fact they didn't even have a scratch.

I stared in awe but understood then the panic that had been inside the woman, she knew Kristy was in library. Which led me to believe that the fire had not been an accident. Kristy stared at me with wide eyes.

"She was," she started in a hoarse, smoke damaged voice, but I shook my head at her, silencing her while wondering what the woman had done to give herself away. The paremedics took them away, marveling at their shape, and I was left in the rubble with my brother Alex.

"Who was that girl who ran in?" He asked, "I've never seen anyone flatten you like that," he sounded amused.

"I don't know," I said, realizing I had once again forgotten to ask her name. I felt him studying me,

"We didn't find her body anywhere," he said softly and I nodded. I turned to walk away but before I did a white flutter caught my eye. I saw her, my little white bird, fluttering among the burnt wood and ash, desperately trying to fly away, but failing miserably, one wing broken. I rushed over and crouched down. The white bird looked up at me, her blue eyes burning into my own. I scooped her up into my palm, my hands engulfing her completely while she chirped and pecked at my palm in pain as I unintentionally brushed her broken wing.

"Sorry," I whispered.

"What've you got over there?" Alex called after me.

"Nothing," I yelled back, "thought I saw something but I was wrong," the answer mollified Alex and he went back to his work.

No more than twenty minutes later I walked into my flat and set her gently on the kitchen table. She stumbled and looked up at me before turning and diving off the table.

"Hey wait!" I called out as I heard her soft thump against the floor followed by another painful chirp and flapping noises. But then I heard the most sickening sound I had ever heard. It sounded like bones breaking and grinding while flesh was tearing, and just as soon as I heard it, it was replaced with a painfilled scream that sounded almost muffled. I went to the end of the table and couldn't quite believe my eyes. She was there on her back, wearing nothing but a simple thin white dress that seemed to have stitched itself onto her and she was clutching at her right shoulder. But it wasn't the shoulder that was causing her pain but one of the massive white wings protruding from it. Her wings fluttered and moved and uncovered her face which was filled with pain and surprisingly, terror and it took me a moment to realize the fear was directed at me.

She stared at me as she tried to backwards crawl away, pushing with her feet against the floor to get away from me. The fear and terror on her face reminded me of a dog I had encountered on one of my deployments, it was so emaciated and beaten that it was petrified of humans. I was able to befriend the dog, it was living a happy life with my parents now, I was sure I could gain this woman's trust as well. I crouched down in front of her so that I could be eye level.

"Look out for the," but before I could warn her about the lamp on the end table her left wing crashed into it and the lamp shattered against the floor. Hearing the sound of glass breaking she spun around to see what she had broken and I received a face full of feathers, her right wing this time. Instinctively I grasped the feathers that had pummeled me in the face. Her wings were powerful, even that slight bump in the face was beginning to make my jaw sore andy cheek burned and stung while I felt something warm start to trickle down. I realized that, while they looked soft, the feathers on the outside of the wing were surprisingly sharp.

"Calm down," I said, urgently, "before you tear down a wall or something." She stilled at this and turned slowly and upon feeling her stare I saw her whole body melt into submission and a look of guilt on her face. I released the fistful of feathers I was still holding, seeing her wince at the slight jostling. She inched forward this time, getting closer to me. All of a sudden I had the inclination to run away, but I was trapped in her burning gaze. She froze in front of me, her wings stretching backwards and reached upwards to touch my cheek gently. I felt warmth protruding from her hand and felt those familiar bolts of electricity that I got the last time our skin had come in contact and felt myself lean into that warmth. Then I winced as I felt the heat seep into my skin, but the warmth slowly took over the stinging pain that had been there.

In front of my eyes I watched as two small cuts formed on the woman's right cheek, blood starting to trickle down. Along with the cuts it appeared as if a small bruise was forming. It took me a moment for the realization to hit and I pulled her hand away from my cheek, but continued to hold it in my hand.

"what did you do?" I asked, surprised at the anger in my voice, she flinched and my grip tightened on her hand. I watched as she swallowed nervously and averted her eyes with obvious guilt.

"I'm sorry I hurt you," she said softly.

"That's not what I'm upset about," I reached towards her and using my index finger under her chin, urged her to return her gaze to me. She begrudgingly complied and I saw a mixture of emotions in her eyes, of which sorrow and guilt were the strongest. I rubbed my thumb underneath the cuts, wiping away the trail of blood it was leaving. Was it my imagination or were the cuts already smaller?

"Did you heal me?" I asked, realizing the question sounded ridiculous.

"No." she said.

"Then what are those cuts on your cheek?" I asked incredulously.

"I don't 'heal'," she said and I heard a hint of frustration in her voice, but I couldn't tell if she was frustrated with me, or with herself.

"I take," she continued, "I took the cuts you got because of me so that you wouldn't have them," I scowled at her and sat back, realizing my haunches were burning from crouching down for so long.

"Isn't that essentially the same thing?" I countered, I still refused to let go of her hand, I didn't want to risk her disappearing again, not while she was being so open for once.

"No, healing would still leave evidence that the injury was once there, muscles will have the memory of the injury and there would be scars."

"I already have scars anyways, what's two more?" but she shook her head at this and I saw once again that sadness in her eyes; I was sure the cuts were getting smaller, the bleeding had also stopped.

"So you would rather get scars yourself?" I asked and a smile toyed with her lips, her very, very, inviting lips. I shook my head to clear the direction my thoughts were heading into.

"I wont get any scars." She said, thankfully oblivious to my treacherous thoughts, "and I heal quickly," she pulled her hand out of my grasp this time, and I missed it immediately. She wiped away at the blood and sure enough the cuts were just small scratches now.

"What about your wing?" I asked and she flinched and I realized that she had been hoping I wouldn't have brought them up, "it's kind of hard to ignore wings like those," I said with a frown and she shrugged.

"Trust my luck, bringing my wings out after a so long, only to end up with one broken." She said with a bitter tone. The sentence made little sense. I stood up this time and walked around to stand behind her. She tried to turn but I stopped her. I couldn't control the pull and desire I had anymore so I touched the wing that was broken, the sharp feathers that protected the outer layer pricked at my hand but I found that the inside of the wing, the part that she could curl around herself, was just a soft as it looked. It felt like a mix between a chinchilla and silk. I didn't find any blood, or cuts, so I went further down the wing to see if I could find the break but as I touched her wing a shudder wracked through her body and I quickly pulled my hand away.

"Did that hurt?" I asked quickly, coming back around.

"No," she said, but her voice was hoarse and she swallowed nervously. Once more I crouched down in front of her and saw that there wasn't pain in her eyes but something else, something I couldn't name. Her face was red and she looked nervous and embarrassed, but her breath was ragged and choppy.

"Um… are they, sensitive?" I asked stupidly, feeling the back of my neck burn. She lowered her gaze and looked away and that answered my question. I took a deep breath of my own to calm my own body. Why would something like stroking her wings be so euphoric, and why was this not surprising me more? It was as if this was a normal every day thing.

"Can you," I wasn't sure how to finish the question so I stopped mid-sentence. After regaining her composure she dared to look at me and I saw recognition in her face,

"I can't 'put them away'," she answered my unfinished question. I was expecting annoyance but her tone was patient and understanding, like a teacher speaking to a child, "not until it's healed."

"But you changed into the bird?" I questioned.

"Birds have wings, and even that was very painful" I remembered the scream that escaped when she had changed back and understood.

"Do you need anything? Doctor… vet?" I asked, feeling ridiculous but was surprised when a soft melodious chuckle bubbled up from inside her. The sound alone was mezmirizing, but the smile on her face that went with it filled me with such an exhilarating feeling that it was like a drug.

"You're a strange one," she said as if talking to herself, her voice containing a distinct purr now that wasn't there before, "no doctors, or vets." She answered, "it should heal in about two days."

"Then stay here until then." I said before even considering the idea, she looked at me with wide eyes and shook her head.

"I have to get back to Kristy,"

"She's going to be in the hospital for the weekend anyways," I said, I had spoken to the paramedics before they took her away.

"Still," the woman countered but I shook my head.

"It's not like you can walk out of here like that," I said gesturing to the wings which shook and fluttered with what felt like indignation, a flash of it crossed her eyes a well. I stood up and stuck out a hand towards her.

"I'm off duty for the next two days anyways." I said, this time in a softer tone. She looked up at me, studying me and then with a sigh she gave me her hand to help her up. She winced and I heard a soft whimper as her injured wing bumped into the sofa behind her. I steadied her and then motioned for her not to move as I went into my room. I grabbed a spare belt off a hook on the wall. When I returned to the room another flash of terror crossed the womans eyes as she saw me holding the belt. It made me feel like I had been kicked in the gut, because with a bitter realization, I knew that there had to have been a reason behind her terror.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you with it or anything, I just want to bind the broken wing." Her panic seemed to dissipate but not completely. She turned with her back towards me one wing folded neatly against her side, her other hanging limply and askew.

"This might hurt a little," I whispered and she nodded in understanding as she reached over to pull her silky black hair, which hung to the middle of her back, out of the way. I held the belt between my teeth as I used both hands to gather her broken wing and fold it, like her good wing, against her body. She sucked in a harsh breath and once again I heard a whimper but could tell that she was fighting the pain. I took the belt from my teeth with one hand and wrapped it around the wing, tightening it to make sure the wing stayed folded to avoid it bumping around.

"How'd you know to do this?" she asked and I could hear the pain that she was trying to hide.

"I grew up on a ranch in Montana," I said softly, "We sometimes had geese or ducks with broken wings." Then to try and distract her from the pain I reached for the broken wing again and gently ran my fingers through the feathers. Once again, her whole body shuddered as a shiver ran down her spine and I couldn't help but chuckle while I admitted to myself that something about the action made my whole body feel like it was burning. I smoothed the feathers down and she turned around slowly. I never noticed before, but she was relatively tall. She was nothing compared to my six foot five frame but compared to most woman she was above average. In many ways. But in regards to height, she was probably just over six foot. She looked up at me, her wings tucked neatly behind her, her body inches from my own. Her face was once again red and her eyes were hooded and guarded. She clenched her jaw tightly as if trying to hide the fact that her chest was heaving with ragged breaths. I rather liked the affect I had on her and couldn't stop the smile from forming on my face.

"You're not afraid," she finally said, but she said it in the form of a statement, as if she couldn't believe it. My smile faltered and disappeared.

"Should I be?" I asked, holding her gaze until she looked away. She walked away from me then towards the window in the loft. She looked outside it and for one panic-stricken moment, I thought she was going to leave again. But instead, I heard her sigh softly as she leaned against the window.

"You would be," she said, "if I changed into the body that matches these wings." It was so soft I almost didn't hear her.

"I don't know about that," I said and she turned around, her wings blocked the window and the room darkened significantly, especially since my only lamp was in pieces on the floor. I saw her eyes glowing despite the darkness, the blue in her eyes seemed alive, it was as if it was flickering like a flame and her pupils which I had sworn were normal, now looked slit, like a cats.

"You don't seem dangerous." I said softly, leaning against the kitchen table that was behind me. She rose an inquisitive brow.

"I believe it was pretty easy to get you on your back earlier today," she said and there was a lilt in her voice that let me realize she was teasing.

"Oh, so she does have a sense of humor." I said and I lunged towards her, jumping over the sofa that separated us and landing inches in front of her.

"In my defense," I said softly, leaning in and placing hands against the window on either side of her so that she was effectively pinned there, "I would never get in the way of you getting me on my back." I leaned in closer until I was eye level with her again. Her cheeks flamed and she looked down. I leaned in,

"For someone who is 'significantly older'" I whispered in her ear, "you're surprisingly innocent." I felt her chest rising and falling against my own. She then placed her hands on my chest and even through my thick cotton shirt I felt pleasant tingles of electricity from her touch. She pushed me away and stared at me with wide eyes.

"You're incorrigible," she snapped and I realized I had knocked some of that protective wall down, although I wasn't expecting the vocabulary. I grinned down at her,

"Big word," I teased and a huff of breath escaped from her and for a moment I thought I saw smoke trailing from between her lips but she clamped her mouth shut with agitation.

"You," she hissed through clenched teeth, "are the most obnoxious… brash human I have ever met." There was something about the way she said human, it was as if she was born frustrated and in love with them at the same time. She pushed me away and moved to get away from me but I realized she was heading for the broken glass from the lamp that hadn't been cleared yet. I lunged towards her and wrapped my arm around her waist, lifting her of the ground, which was not easy as her one good wing pounded against me.

"Let me go," she snapped. And I felt her hand on my arm, the electricity ever present.

"No." I said, "I'm being brash." I heard a growl in her chest that sounded inhuman and chuckled against her. If I let her go I wouldn't feel that electricity anymore, and I was beginning to develop an addiction to it.

"Tell me, oh winged one," I whispered against her ear, smiling inwardly as I felt her body shiver against my own. She stopped fighting me and I felt her body relax against me.

"Do you feel that too?" her body tensed up again and it was as if I could hear the wall going back into place. I released her and ducked under her wing to face her. Sure enough, her face held an impassive mask and she clenched her jaw tightly shut refusing to meet my gaze.

"I'll take that a yes," I said with a mixture of emotions. I was happy to know I affected her just as much as she did me, but felt sad and disappointed at the walls that were back in place.

"Alright," I said as I stepped away from her in defeat, recognizing the end of our banter. I swatted at my pant leg at dust that wasn't there, a habit from spending several years in the desert.