Dragon Kin 2

05

Carmen

"Don't move," the winged man warned again. "I can smell your fear. But don't panic. You don't want to be stuck here. Even if you're going to die, don't die inside this place."

A chill horripilated down my body, through me, violating deep tissue and I began praying for the wind. "What is out there? In the black?"

"I don't know. I don't ever want to know either. Those who leave the direct path, don't return. If you step a foot off, you won't see anything but black. At least that's what survivors have told us. Those that didn't survive tell us all we need to know. We can't see them, but we can hear them for a time. It's ugly."

We dove.

A brighter spot ahead.... Then blue and wind and battering, and the setting sun screaming orange across the world. The black night and stars on the East horizon. The ground rushed to meet us like we owed it money, and this man with wings wasn't slowing us down.

Forty feet from the waiting earth, with a scream caught in my throat, his wings extended, unfurled, caught the air in their curved billowing sails and we slowed down fast. Before I could gasp in wonder, he bent his waist, pulled his legs in, then extended them and stepped onto a black highway, as if stepping off the last riser of a set of stairs.

He let me down onto the asphalt highway, gently.

It wasn't night yet, but the dark was stretching out to meet us.

"Where are we?" I asked, as I rubbed my arms. My body began shaking uncontrollably as I looked around. "This isn't Louisiana. We don't get snow. Not in September, anyway."

"I don't know," he said, and his wings began to fold and shrink and while doing this, they made some seriously disturbing sounds. Like crackles and cracks and snaps and vicious wet bone pops.

"Ugh," I blurted, putting my hands to my ears. "Does that hurt?"

"What?" he asked, turning to me. His wings were no longer showing. His shirt split at the sides, kind of a tailored poncho, and it was back in place. I couldn't tell if it was snaps or buttons or Velcro, but it appeared to be designed for what just happened. The part of his back where the wings were, I saw, continued to be as black as they were. It looked like a birthmark.

"What you just did with your wings? Doesn't that hurt?" I asked, feeling a little creeped out, but kind of thankful for the distraction. I rubbed my hands on my arms. What a fricken day, eh!

"Oh," he said, and then grinned, "no, it doesn't hurt. Sounds a little rude, I'll give you that. I'm accustomed to it. But, more to the point, this is your world, right?"

There were pine trees running down what looked very much like an asphalt highway... "Yes?" I guessed. Then I saw something that put all the pieces together, "We're in Canada. I think that was Montreal I saw when we were still in the air. The large city to the east?" I pointed.

"How could you tell," he asked, turning to look but all he could see were trees and sky.

He wasn't bad looking. Not at all. And seriously muscled with tight bold skin. Every thing about him shouted 'life'. His helmet was gone and most of what I thought was armor.

I pointed at the highway sign and then rubbed my arms. I had on a blouse and a thin baby-blue windbreaker, along with pants and boots. The chill was really getting to me and the nylon of the windbreaker wasn't any use at all. It was designed to breathe and allow the heat to escape from inside. Exactly, what I didn't want at this moment.

The sun leaving the sky opened the doors to the frost giants who were coming down out of the cold north east... Lines from a story my grandfather told me as a little girl. A story that made me curl up and want to be asleep before he told the rest.

I shivered, then nodded in the direction of the highway marker. "There's a highway sign over there. It has a maple leaf on it. Sign says we're on the 15." Looking up I saw a plane coming in for an approach. "Near the airport I guess. So we're probably near Saint Jerome."

"How far is that from New Orleans?" he asked, his expression showing confused as he scanned the area.

"Um, well, that would be a long way. Fifteen hundred miles? Maybe?" I said, and then breathed hot breath on my hands, and rubbed them together. It was seriously cold.

"Come closer."

"Why?"

"Just come closer," he said, with an exasperated tone. I stepped closer to him, and he snatched my wrist and brought me near him. I gasped but then I felt the heat coming off his body.

"Do you know you're burning up?" I asked, feeling a bit awkward about feeling happy he had a fatal fever level.

He smiled, this time clearly amused with me. Scanning the area around us he sniffed the air, "Didn't they tell you what we were?"

"Demons," I said, with a breathy hesitant voice. I didn't believe he was a demon. He didn't come from around here though, or from down in the Big Easy. Lowering my eyes I said, "That's what grandpa told us. With the wings, and the tail, you kind of fit the description." Then, more to change the subject, I asked, "Did you say you could smell my fear?"

"Let's pause that line of thought," another voice, a masculine voice said, coming soft as perfect swede; black velvet, if you please — coming deep purple and silver out of the woods. "Because that is simply offensive..."

... And the sexiest man I have ever seen came out of the woods, walking toward us. His whole being commanded my attention. Never before have I physically reacted to a man in that way before – on sight.