Frank was cold, shivering in drift of powdery snow. The stark moonlight cast a silvery glow over him, turning his skin the color of white marble, save the few dark purple patches scattered along his ribcage. He groaned, feeling real pain for the first time in centuries.
The cold was beginning to get to him, seeping down into his bones where he was afraid it would never leave. That was another thing he hadn't felt in ages. Even flying high above the clouds, ice crystals whipping at him as he zipped through the sky, he'd never once felt this agony, sharp like a thousand knives driving into his skin from all angles.
He moved to get up, every muscle in his body screaming at the attempt. He could bear it until twin streaks of searing heat shot through his back, right where his wings attached to his body. The agony had him doubled over, the urge to vomit rolling through him unexpectedly . He beat back the feeling, taking deep breaths.
The last thing he remembered was being locked in a mid-flight scuffle, plummeting to the earth at near the speed of light. He flexed his shoulders against the pain, waiting for the usual displacement of air to whip around him, for the ground to recede as he ascended gracefully. Nothing happened.
Horror washed over him as he struggled to rise to his feet. Dragging himself through the thick drifts he eventually made his way to the beautiful frozen fountain. This has been his favorite place in the city, nature and the bustle of human life colliding pleasantly. Now he stood shivering in front of the glass-like ice, blinking furiously at the reflection staring back at him.
His wings were gone. And with them a piece of his soul. He looked half-dead, stripped of his powers. Turning blue from the cold, he fell to his knees, the sharp stabs against his skin seeming to abate somewhat. The shivering stopped.
He closed his eyes, collapsing at the foot of the fountain, a tingling warmth enveloping him.
Claire's eyes widened as the Eddie rolled his gurney through the ER's doors. Their patient looked like a corpse, his lips an eerie shade of blue, ice crystals clinging to his eyelashes in spite of the hot water bottles draped over his body. He was a clear case of hypothermia. "Take him to exam room one." She dashed over to the nurses station, snagging one of the larger male nurses and sending him over the help Eddie transfer the patient. She pulled out one of the kits they kept on hand in the winter, pre-warmed saline, blankets, hot water bottles. This wasn't her first time on this particular ride. New York City in the middle of the worst cold snap in over a decade. She had at least five cases of hypothermia a week.
She ran back to the exam room, quickly hooking up an IV and nestling hot water bottles around the naked man. "Where did you find him?"
The EMT glanced up at her, shaking his head. "Poor bastard was asleep in a snow drift."
"What?"
Eddie shrugged. "And he's got some nasty gashes on his back, but they can wait to be treated until you have his temp back up. Probably a drunk or something. Frantic blonde lady called it in. I had to make her stay in the waiting room."
Claire bristled at his callous demeanor. EMT's were like this sometimes, not all of them of course, but she'd learned to live with it, even if it bothered her. Who was she to judge how people coped with the stress of their jobs? Eddie was underpaid, overworked, and had seen some horrific things in the field. She tried to understand his jaded sensibilities.
"Does the woman know him?"
"Who knows? She couldn't give me a name or anything. She said she was taking a leisurely walk through the park and she'd stumbled over him by one of the fountains. You know, like people do… in the middle of winter in the middle of the night. Likely story. If you ask me, both of them are probably on something."
Claire leaned forward, sniffing at the man. He didn't smell like a drunk or one of the city's homeless. There was no aroma of alcohol clinging to him. In fact, he smelled rather familiar, something she couldn't quite place. She closed her eyes for a second, flashing briefly to a memory of the park in summertime, just after the sky had parted and rain came pouring down. There was a word for it, somewhere in the recesses of her mind, something she'd read long ago...
She blinked, moving to take his core temp. She needed to know how long he'd been out in the cold. "Where's the woman?"
Eddie gave her a look. "Pacing like a lunatic in the waiting room. I told her she couldn't come back here. We done here?"
She nodded, not giving the EMT a second glance as he exited the emergency room. Satisfied with the slowing rising number of her patient's core temperature, she called out over her shoulder for one of the nurses to get the attending doctor. Claire left her colleague to do his work and went in search of the mystery woman.
Karen was a nervous wreck, the heels of her boots clicking incessantly as she walked back and forth. Every nerve in her body was on fire, her very psyche putting out feelers. She just needed to know that he was okay, that he was alive, then she could let herself breathe again. The man had been so blue, and there had been blood, dark and frozen against his frigid skin. Her heart had stopped when she'd seen him lying in the snow, one hand reaching out toward her as if he knew she'd come for him.
Something had called her outside, an urgent need to put her coat on and shuffled into the park. It had pulled her through the dark, a thread attached just under her rib cage, tugging and tugging. She'd lied to the EMT. There was no reasonable explanation for the way she'd found the man, just a painful ache deep inside her when she'd tried to ignore the thing that called her out into the night.
When she'd knelt beside him, he'd looked up at her, slowly opening his eyes one last time before falling back into unconsciousness. His face was bruised badly as though someone had pummelled him good, before dumping him in the park naked. The same urgency that had pulled her out of her warm apartment began to tug at her again, this time desperate to save this man's life.
She'd trembled as she dialed 911, screaming at the emergency operator to please hurry. She didn't know why, but it was suddenly the most important thing in the world that this man survive. It felt like her heart would cleave in two if he stopped breathing. I've only just found you. She couldn't stop thinking it, even though it made no sense at all.
She felt a touch, invisible to the eye, but tangible nonetheless. It was like someone had laid a hand directly on her heart, warm and consoling. Her hands stopped trembling, and she was finally able to breathe deeply again, instead of shuddering shallow gasps. He was okay, she knew he was okay.
A nurse appeared in front of her, deep brown eyes full of sympathy. "Miss?"
Karen nodded at her. "Is he okay?"
Never one to lie, Claire gave the blonde woman a serious look. Guiding Karen to a chair, she said, "He's alive. We won't know if there's any other damage until later." They sat. "How long was he out there?"
Karen shook her head, tears of relief rolling down her cheeks. "I don't know. I just…" She blinked away the moisture in her eyes, sending Claire a pleading look. "Can I please see him?"
Claire gently led Karen back to the exam room, pushing open the swinging door to find the room in disarray. Aaron, the nurse she'd left tending to her patient, was sprawled out on the floor, a completely frightened look on his face. The mystery man was standing the corner, his eyes wild with rage. "HOW DARE YOU TOUCH ME!"
Karen should have turned and fled, the swirling darkness in his visage something that should have sent chills up her spine. Instead she was enthralled, frozen in the spot as she stared at him. She shook off Claire's protective hand, ignoring the other woman's command to exit the room. She couldn't look away from the man in the corner. "Francis?"
It's an old name, one that he hasn't heard in so many years. He looked up at her, rage falling away from his face instantly, blinking away the sea of red in front of his eyes. "Karina?"
She nodded. It was like a veil had been pulled from her eyes. She was his Karina and he was her Francis. It didn't matter how many lifetimes had passed since she'd been in his arms, it was still the same, that unyielding need for one another pulling them together like magnets.
Wordlessly she crossed the room, reaching up to touch his face. "Oh, Frank. Who did this to you?"
She could feel his pain, the nakedness he felt without his wings. Even now she could close her eyes and see glorious feathers glinting in the sunlight, silken black against her skin as he wrapped the wings around them both. The anguish radiating through him made her cling to him, arms wrapping around his cold torso. "Frank please, you need to listen to the doctors. You're not warm enough."
She tried to give him her body heat, pressing in closer when she felt his arms wrap around her. He tried to say her name again, but it caught in the back of his throat, a sob threatening to escape with it. He squelched the noise.
How long had it been? Hundreds of years spent scouring the earth for her? Hoping against hope that her soul would reappear again one day. With each passing decade it seemed more and more unlikely, and he'd feared that human souls could get lost on the winds, never to take corporeal form again. And yet, here she was, seemingly fully aware of their former life together.
He cursed the universe for doing this to him again, for making Karina a human again. Just so he could watch her wither into old age as he'd done the first time, a part of him dying with her. His kind were angels, or so humans thought, having no other explanation for the great winged men who used to flaunt their powers in the bright skies. That had been long ago, before the advancement of human technology had made co-existing something that just wasn't an option.
His kind used their immense powers to cloak their true shape, to fly about invisibly in the sky. It wasn't like the old days, when he'd swooped down on Karina picking flowers in a field, dazzling her with his abilities. He'd done playful somersaults in the air, swooping down when he'd seen her eyes dancing with laughter. She hadn't been afraid, like so many before, instead lifting her arms up to him.
He'd flown with her high over the fields, holding her close so as not to drop her, feeling like he'd somehow taken his heart out of his own body and given it to her for safekeeping. And they'd made love, up in the mountains far away from prying eyes. But it had all come crashing down around him, his brother forbade the union, locking him away until the course of her life had ran through. He'd told Frank that it was for his own good, that bonding his soul with a human was weakness incarnate, and that it would taint their lineage.
It had been torture, psychically connected as they were. He'd listened to her racking sobs as she'd looked for him. Watched as she finally gave up hope, tying herself to a farmer in the hopes of living a normal life. He'd seen her settle into boring domesticity with the man, having cheerful little children that she'd watched grow and leave her. He'd seen her mourn the death of her silent husband, rocking quietly by herself for years until she drew her last breath. All the while he'd fought against the confines of the cage that contained him. Her life had been a mere blink of an eye to him, and when his family had released him again she was gone, like dust in the wind.
But she was here again, clinging to him like she never wanted to leave his side. His arms tightened around her. That's why his brother had attacked him, had torn the wings from his back and sent him plummeting to the earth powerless. It was a spark of glowing warmth in a city of millions of souls that meant nothing to him.
He drew back, looking at her face as though he wanted to memorize the lines. It was different now, her eyes a little paler than the time before, her hair a little softer. He ran his fingers through the locks, marveling as the strands slipped from his grasp. How had he missed her? Flying over New York City at least twenty times a year, the thick churning of souls had called out to him with the possibility of finding her.
He couldn't watch her disappear again. He would die himself right along with her. Prying her loose, he pushed her away, gently. Looking into her eyes, he prayed that she would understand what he had to do. "I have to get them back, Karina, for both of us. I have to kill him."
She shook her head, but couldn't argue with the determination and anger in his eyes. Before he could walk through the hospital doors, time froze, everything around him coming to a silent halt. People pausing mid sentence, every human in the place cemented in place, unconscious of what was going on around them, all except Karen.
A giant of a man ducked through the front doors of the hospital, flexing his wings out in the waiting room. The brown feathers were glossy and the tips brushed against the sides of the walls as he walked along. One side of his face was disfigured, a mark left over from Frank's attempt to defend himself from his brother's sneak attack.
Frank marched down the hall to meet his brother. "Finn."
"Frankie, little brother, how are you? You look a little blue around the gills."
In response, Frank charged, barreling into his mammoth of a brother at full speed. It barely even caused the winged man to shift. Finn reached out and wrapped one meaty hand around his younger brother's throat, laughing evilly as Frank began to turn blue again. "Nice try, but I have all your power now. You don't have a chance."
Karen could see everything that was happening from her hiding place, and felt her heart leap up in her throat when Finn snatched Frank up. Rage swept through her, blinding her to the danger she was about to face. She sprung from her hiding place and snatched a pistol from a police officer's holster. Frozen in motion as he was, the man in blue didn't seem to care.
Holding it up, anger still zipping through her veins, she yelled out, "PUT HIM DOWN!"
Finn snapped his head around to see the delicately boned woman zeroing in on him with a gun. His brow furrowed. She wasn't supposed to be here, she should be frozen in the parallel existence with all the other little sniveling humans. He tossed his brother to the floor, turning on her, one hand up he made a sweeping motion.
Nothing happened, a bellow of rage rolling through him. Again, he focused his powers on her, intent on blotting her completely out of existence, but again nothing happened. Screw it, if this human wanted to go toe to toe with him, fine. Finn lunged at her, stopping only because Frank had slammed into him again. Grunting in frustration, Finn brushed him off like a bothersome fly.
Finn reached for Karen, but something stopped him, and invisible force field batting him away. She flinched, but held her ground, the holding the gun steady. She didn't know if bullets would even work on him. Finn roared in anger, turning away from Karen and picking up Frank again, slamming his brother down into the floor.
The tiling cracked, a great crater in the floor where Frank landed. Karen screamed, the sound of bones cracking against the floor made her sick to her stomach, and the blood trickling from the corner of her soul mate's mouth made her desperate. Running forward, she fired three shots directly into the back of Finn's head, watching with relief as he fell to the floor in a lifeless heap.
She immediately went to Frank, uncontrollable sobs shaking her body as she knelt beside him. Cradling his head in her lap, she ran her fingers through his hair, praying to every God she'd ever heard of to save the man she loved. She couldn't live another life without him.
He smiled up at her, the light in his eye fading quickly. His fingers twitched, like he was trying to reach up and touch her, but he couldn't make his body respond to his brain's commands. "Karina." He whispered her old name softly before he closed his eyes.
"No." She couldn't accept it. "No, no, no."
The life force in him was fading away, fast, but he still clung on, and she could feel the thing inside of her tugging again. For the first time she knew what it was. It was a little piece of Frank's soul, that he'd grafted to her own centuries ago. This time it was pulling her away from the man she was holding so tenderly on the floor, tugging her persistently toward the other man lying dead behind her.
She obeyed it, desperate for any solution to the problem she faced. She gazed down at the dead being hopelessly, tears making her vision blurry again. She tried to give in to the piece of Frank still inside of her, to listen when his soul spoke to hers. Nothing happened, and she very nearly collapsed from the grief of it all, but something stopped her. A soft and shiny black feather poking out from under Finn's grotesque form.
She pushed the dead creature aside, using a strength she'd never known she possessed. It zipped through her like electricity. Finally with Finn out of the way she realized what Frank's soul had been calling out to. There under his brother had appeared a single one of Frank's feathers. She plucked the soft thing up by its quill, turning back to frank with a faint hope in her chest.
He still clung to life, tiny little shallow breaths coming farther and farther apart. She knelt beside him, placing the feather on his sternum before dipping down to kiss him. Her hand stayed splayed over his heart. She gasped when the feather disappeared, pulling back from Frank to look for it.
Instead of finding the feather, she watched as the color came back into Frank's body. The bruises faded and the faint trickle of blood at the corner of his mouth vanished. He sat up, turning to her in wonderment as his wings reappeared, spreading out on either side of him a good five feet.
Karen finally let the tears wash down her face again, this time in relief. She lunged forward and captured him in a hug, clinging so tight he thought she might actually strangle him. He patted her on the back, tracing soothing circles with the palm of his hand. "Shh shh, Karina, don't cry. We've found each other."
Karen felt a glowing inside of her, her own soul reaching out to meld more permanently with Frank's. She only hugged him tighter, letting whatever was happening go on until it stopped. When the sensation finally stopped, she leaned back from him, completely unaware of the fact that she was now bathed in a strange light.
He looked at her, eyes wide as he tentatively reached past her shoulder. His fingers lighted on the soft white feathers of her new wings. She flinched, unaware of their existence until his touch sent a little frisson of heat through her. She flexed her shoulders in awe, experimentally extending the wings out. It felt right, as though a piece of her had always been missing.
Frank led her out of the hospital, gently pushing past humans frozen in mid-stride. Once they were out in the open street, he took her hands, encouraging her to mimic the movements of his wings. Playfully she darted toward him, pecking him on the cheek before flying out in front of him. She'd missed the feel of wind on her face, the sensation of knowing that it was absolutely freezing but not being bothered by it at all. Frank chased after her, slicing through the air at impossible speeds. He called out to her. "Karina, let's go home."
Claire blinked, falling forward slightly as if she'd been reaching for something. She shook her head. What the hell was going on? The exam room around her was a mess, hot water bottles scattered across the floor, Aaron scrambling to get back to his feet. Their patient and his strange companion were gone.
Before she could voice her questions she heard a yell come from out in the hall. She went out to investigate. It was the hospital administrator, staring in horror at a giant crater in the middle of the waiting area. "What happened here?"
Claire stopped, staring open mouthed at the damage done to the ER. She knew it had something to do with the mystery man and the woman he loved. Aaron came up behind her. "This is going to sound weird, Claire, but, uh, were we treating someone just a minute ago?"
She looked at him in disbelief. "What do you mean?"
"I man, we had to have been right? We were in the exam room, and there's a bag of saline hooked up to an IV and hot water bottles everywhere."
She nodded, wondering if maybe Aaron had a concussion. "Yes."
He shook his head. "No, no… I don't think we were."
And that's how it was. Every person in the hospital that had come into contact with the mystery man suddenly had a case of selective amnesia, a vague blurriness where the shape of a tall and muscular man had once been. Everyone, that is, except Claire.
She even went out of her way to track down the EMT who'd brought the man in, but Eddie had just looked at her like she was insane, rambling about some half frozen naked guy. Finally giving up, she pulled out her cell phone, quickly dialing the number of the one person who would believe her even if everything she said sounded crazy. "Matt, meet me at Josie's, I'm in severe need of a drink."