Chapter 6

Gerald glided into Nuevas Cruces' heart of metal and glass: a towering center of skyscrapers connected by a network of enclosed glass bridges. From his height, the city looked like the luminescent organ of a living machine. Streetlamps and halogen highway lights were veins for a mass of snaking headlights: its blood.His wings stiffened, and he nearly fell from the sky. He needed to rest. After his fall, his damaged wings were nothing more than a feathery hang glider.Gerald landed on a building and willed his Inner to hide himself and his angelic aura. His Inner chilled his body as it traveled from his forehead to his chest. It branched out from there into his limbs and wings. His body grew frigid, and he gradually disappeared. Any demon or half-breed that perceived him would assume he was an enchanter imbued with temporary flight.Gerald felt confident that this would ward off any curious half-breeds or demons as long as he could stand the cold. Ever since the city had unknowingly elected a group of enchanters as their mayor and city council, half-breeds and fallen alike had developed a paranoia for the Inner-infused humans.Though Gerald would never admit it aloud, Nuevas Cruces was the only city he would care to live in regardless of danger.Soon after Mayor Saffron won his seat, Las Cruces flourished with new industry and attracted humans and half-breeds from across the globe, resulting in exponential population growth.In a decade it surpassed Los Angeles and contended with New York City for the most populated city in the United States.The outside world watched Las Cruces' revenue boom, streaming chiefly from its technological contributions: highly affordable yet vastly superior processors, chip-sets, and operating systems for home and business applications. Mayor Saffron's corporation, Brilliante, developed and manufactured all of it.Their uncanny progress astounded competitors, who could never discern how to duplicate the technology. Saffron, his council and his industry's enchanters were the only ones aware of their method: an intricate symbiotic fusion of enchantment and technology.When Las Cruces became the capital of New Mexico it was renamed Nuevas Cruces by want of Saffron and his council.Gerald trusted only a small group of enchanters and never ventured outside their business circle. He remembered the jails of the mayor's lackeys well enough and had no intention of returning.Gerald cursed the two half-breeds that had imparted their Inner upon humans and made them the first enchanters. With the resources and knowledge given to them by the humans, the pair of them founded The Falling Curtain.The Duo had always been two of the most respected and feared half-breeds despite their decision. Gerald had thought their intentions to protect and organize the growing half-breed population admirable, but to him their methods were disgraceful.He looked around to orient himself. South of downtown, rundown apartments. It matched the image God had placed in his head.I think that's the building over there.Gerald watched the angel's entry point. A ball of light flashed into existence on the building's roof. When the blinding light vanished, Gerald could see him.The angel stumbled around, fell, and held his head as if recovering from a concussion. After a few minutes had passed, he stood up and surveyed his surroundings.How is this one angel going to change these circumstances? Unless he's... Gerald remembered the angel from his previous post in Heaven. The seraph, God's personal caretaker. Yeah, this kid could be a pistol. I wonder what happened to his wings. And why is he wearing jeans and a t-shirt?Gerald heard wings flap in the darkness, looked back where the seraph had stood and saw a cloaked skia there instead. She inspected the area and jumped to another building. He blinked to refocus and tried to follow her camouflage's waver in the dark but could not. He considered the situation.He's down there in the alley obviously. He can probably take care of the half-angel himself. Yeah, I'll just sit back and enjoy the show.