A pretty, slender teenage girl sat on a couch in an L.A. Orphanage. She was 15 years old, very tall, strawberry blonde with darker streaks and had big, warm brown eyes. The girl was quietly reading a book, but quickly became bored with it. She set the book down and stood up, heading into her room to get a new book. As she walked out of the door she walked into someone. A male someone.

"Gah!" he said, but managed to keep his balance.

"Oh my god I'm so sorry! Are you OK?" the girl asked.

"Yeah. I'm fine." the boy shook his head. He looked to be 16...and incredibly hot, the girl noted. He was muscular and has light brown hair with darker brown streaks. He had pale skin but it wasn't a sickly pale. The most striking feature of all was probably his eyes. They were a mesmerizing light golden color.

The girl realized she hadn't seen this boy before. In all her 6 years at the orphanage she thought she knew everyone. "Are you new around here?"

He shook his head. "Nah, I've been here a while. I'd love to leave but old man Tolliver won't let me," he replied, rolling his eyes. Mr. Tolliver was the man who managed the orphanage and was very bossy.

"Oh, I thought I knew everyone around here," she shrugged. "So what's your name?"

"I don't tell anyone my name unless I know they're first."

The girl blinked and smirked in amusement. "And I thought I was paranoid. How refreshing to know there are people more paranoid than me." She saw a slight smirk appear on the boy's face for a moment…that incredibly gorgeous face. "I'm Phoenix. And you are?"

"The name's Dominic, but most people just call me Nic."

"Well its nice meeting you, but I have to go. See you around." Phoenix slipped past Dominic, not noticing an almost…hungry expression cross his face as she came closer. Dominic shook his head and walked down the hall in the other direction.

Phoenix went outside. Large stone walls were erected around orphanage grounds to keep any creeps away from the children while they played. The sun was setting. It was time to fly the coop. Literally.

She went over to the stone walls, out of view from the security cameras and found footholds in the stone and began to climb. She swung a leg over the top, then another and prepared to drop to the ground on the other side.

"Making a break for it are we?"

Phoenix nearly lost her grip in surprise but pulled herself up back into a sitting position, one leg on each side; Dominic smirking at her from the orphanage grounds.

"Can't say I blame you. I'd leave too."

Phoenix rolled her eyes as she replied, "I'm just going out for a walk around the city. I'm bored and there's nothing to do around here. I'll be back at sunrise."

"Suuuure," Nic said slowly, arms crossed as he smirked. "Whatever you say, Blondie."

Phoenix glared. "Don't call me that. The name is Phoenix."

Dominic put his hands up in mock defeat. "Fine. Have it your way, Nix."

Phoenix said nothing as she swung herself over the wall and let herself drop to the ground. She turned and faced the city streets, slinking down them until she came to a beautiful park with a small woods and a lake, glittering with the reflection of the starry night sky above. Phoenix breathed in the scent of the cool night air and broke out into a run, going faster than any human could ever hope to go. Right before she was about to run straight into the lake, magnificent fiery red and gold wings unfurled from her back and lifted her effortlessly into the air.

She skimmed across the lake, her wings moving powerfully through the air, the moonlight making the orange flecks and streaks in her red & gold wings glitter. How she loved to fly! She made her wings stay still as she soared, moving just a few feathers to rise up and gain altitude. Once she was high enough to be mistaken for nothing more than a regular bird did she get her fun.

She swooped around in the sky, making loops, and curling her wings in and rolling in the air before gracefully extending them and catching herself the air currents, riding the wind. She nose-dived and pulled out easily. If only she could fly out in daylight. Phoenix loved to fly. There was nothing like feeling the wind between her feathers, being so high up from the ground yet still being able to make out every detail from the ground.

Phoenix dived again, swerving and going straight into the forest, dodging and maneuvering around the trees with ease. It felt so good to stretch out her wings after keeping them tucked up tight against her back for hours on end. No one knew about her wings; she hopes no one would. If someone found out, they'd send her back…

Phoenix lost all track of time flying over and around the park. The sun rose and she pointed herself up vertically, shooting up like a rocket and extending her wings to catch the first of the sun's ray's, There was a fiery glint in her brown eyes and the sunlight set her wings aflame, her golden hair a halo around her head. She hovered there for a moment before flapping her wings to stay aloft.

The teenage bird-girl smiled. She rode the winds and ruled the sky. She always felt like a goddess up in the sky. Nothing was as fast, as strong, or as graceful in the air was she was. In fact, she was faster, stronger, more agile and more graceful than every human. Its how she was made to be.

Phoenix pulled her wings in and nose-dived to the ground. A few yards away from doing a face-plant, she snapped her wings out(ignoring the painful jarring thud from pulling them out so quickly) and pulled out of the dive, skimming along the ground and the tree line. This was bliss. Pure bliss. The park was silent. For now it was her playground. She was all alone…

"What the fuck! Phoenix?!?"

…Or not. Phoenix lifted her wings up in a way that made her skid to a halt in mid-air and whipped around, eyes wide in shock and surprise as she hovered in the air. Her gaze soon found her secret spectator. In the shadows of the forest stood Dominic, his beautiful golden eyes wide in surprise.

"How the hell…?" he blinked once…twice…and a third time.

Phoenix gently landed on the ground in front of him, her expression like that of a child who was caught with a hand in the cookie jar after being told not to.

"I guess I should explain…"

He looked at her dryly. "Ya think?"

Phoenix, folded her wings in loosely against her back through hidden slits in her clothing. "You see…I'm a genetic experiment. A human-avian hybrid. My DNA is 96.5% human and 3% avian.

"What's the other 5%?"

"I have no fucking idea."

"Fun."

"You're telling me. Look you can't tell anyone about this. If anyone finds out, I'll be sent back to the lab where I was created! And I can't go back there!"

Dominic blinked again. "Your secret is safe with me," he said softly, then gave her a lop-sided grin. "Besides? Who would believe me anyway?"

Phoenix smiled slightly then looked back up at the sky. "We should probably get back before we're too late for breakfast and old man Tolliver realizes we snuck out." Dominic nodded in agreement and the two raced through the city streets, climbing back over the walls and sneaking behind the main building where the dormitories are. Phoenix barely noticed how Dominic carefully stuck to the shadows, avoiding the rising sun's light.

"Where's your room?" Phoenix asked Nic. He pointed to a window on the top floor on the far end of the building. Phoenix nodded and lunged up into the air, unfurling her wings and swooping down, her fingernails extending into talons as she grabbed Dominic by the shoulders and lifted him into the air as if he were nothing. She hovered by his window and Dominic opened it and scrambled inside; Phoenix let him go once she was sure he wasn't going to fall.

"Dude…never again." Dominic glared at her slightly.

"What," Phoenix smirked, "afraid of heights?" Dominic merely grumbled before noticing a note on his dresser.

"Aw shit. The old man knows we snuck out. He left me a note telling me to come to his office, and to bring you if you were with me."

Phoenix silently flew to her window on the opposite end of the building, just a floor below Dominic's and slipped inside before lunging out and flying back over to Dominic. "I got the same note."

"Well we might as well go see him then." Dominic moved so Phoenix could get through the window, but she looked reluctant, gazing at the window reproachfully. "C'mon, Phoenix. Tuck in your wings and let's go. You can fly again later." Phoenix side and grabbed the windowsill with her hands, tucked in her wings and vaulted herself in.

"Let's go see the old man," she scowled and followed Dominic down the maze of hallways outside an door with a plaque on it.

Main Office

Orphanage Manage:

Joseph Tolliver

Dominic opened the door without knocking, and the two teens wordlessly walked inside.