Chapter Thirteen: Wings of Angels

"She walks in Beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies,
And all that's best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes…"

-Lord Byron

She wasn't certain why exactly she'd waited so long to kiss anyone. Apart from Albel forcing a kiss to her cheek she hadn't failed to enjoy the experience yet.

Ghaleon likely had some experience behind his entrancing tongue but it didn't matter to her, it was no where near the forefront of her mind. She was completely entrapped and wanted to remain so. It took her away from her cares; worries about the house and those within, the chill of the late autumn eve, even the fact that he was so much older than her, none of it even registered.

Then the lovely moment of passion induced peace ended with the obnoxious slam of the screen door, it'd always had a habit of it and she wanted to curse it's hateful interruption. A deep flush flooded into her cheeks and continued to leak down onto her neck. She'd been returned to the step a split-second after the sound only realizing as she touched down that he'd lifted her into the air. Stronger than his thin body frame would have justified. Blushing incredibly as she was placed back on the step, she hadn't even realized that she'd been lifted away by him. It set her heart to beating even faster and she had to tear her eyes away from him to settle it despite the fact that he seemed to compose himself in an instant. It was difficult not to look guilty as the door to the shack opened and Ed sped down the stairs half dressed with his coat over a bare chest.

"Professor! I think I might be able to create a circle with your power that could open the gateway." He announced, only barely glancing at Kagome before continuing his excited explination. "Hey Kagome. See if we use part of the wood from the well we might be able to combine that with a theoretical transmutation circle I read about once that reverses time. If we augmented it to include your or even lezard's powers we could very likely force it to open for us."

"I'm gonna head to bed then." Kagome commented, eager to turn away before her expression told the story for her.

"Thank you for the coat Kagome." Ghaleon noted as she headed out, silken voice making her feel a twinge in her stomach as she bolted for the door. Though he went right back to speaking with Ed. "That sounds as if it could be very unstable..."

She didn't hear the rest of the conversation, relieved that Ed seemed so distracted he hadn't really noticed her. She took a couple deep breaths of the cold air to calm herself as she moved toward the house, pausing as she got to the door. A flash of something touched her mind that wasn't the pair of spellcasters in the well shack. It came from further in the city, it was hard to tell shortly after it happened that it did, then another flash just the same, then a third and a fourth in quick succession. She blinked and paused at the door, turning to look at the city, it seemed distant but it was too difficult to get a focus on more than a general direction.

Frowning she was still considering if she should say something to the others when the door opened and she was left looking at a half dressed Lezard. His glasses were slightly askew on his nose and he had just begun to button up the black silky shirt he'd gotten onto his arms, leaving a pale chest with enough definition to make it out...but more from his being thin and his first couple of ribs being able to place than from muscle. Nonetheless Kagome blushed at his state of half-dress and turned away with a mumbled apology.

He didn't seem bothered by the cold, or at least he didn't comment if he was as he continued to button the thin fabric as he walked out into the chilly weather. "My apologies Kagome, I wasn't expecting you."

He didn't get a chance to say more before the door to the shack opened and Ghaleon returned followed by Ed. The paler man glanced at Lezard upon surveying the scene as if expecting an explanation while Ed frowned some and looked around all over as if unsure what it was he was looking for exactly.

"It's Albel, he was suppose to be patrolling this area and apparently a fight started between him and one of the new guys keeping watch at the strange spiritual events that seem to haunt the high school." Lezard stated calmly. "Neither is backing down at the moment and Curtiss wants all of us but Edward to help bring a stop to it before the entire downtown population is made aware. Enchanting is more your field isn't it Professor Ghaleon?"

He shifted a glance at Kagome and back to the pale man that was so short she wouldn't have noticed it if she'd of blinked. Though she was glad she had the state of undress she saw Lezard in as an excuse for her cheeks to remain so reddened. "Does he know somehow that we were? How could he...?"

"It is, and I can deal with the fallout if it's limited, you'll have to help bring them down without all the usual theatrics." Ghaleon stated calmly. "Edward stay here and watch the non-combatants."

"Aw man...I got up for nothing..." Ed muttered to himself as he headed back inside, the slamming door a nice echo of his hidden annoyance. "I get all the boring jobs. I'm going back to bed."

Then she felt it again, the draw of power unlike the others she'd sensed before. It wasn't a single thing, it was dozens that seem to pass in moments. More than one person behind them...it was the fight they were talking about...it seemed closer now, clearer than before...thats how she was able to pick out the extra details but it was still fragmented and so fast she could barely tell.

"They're moving closer." She stated matter of factly. That much she was certain of.

The two men that had been walking away stopped in unison and turned to look at her.

"You can sense them?" Lezard commented first, appraisingly. "We should bring her, she could find them for us."

"What if she finds the wrong one?" Ghaleon replied with a frown. "There is a reason they're called non-combatants."

"But she wants to learn about the power she has, and the more we know the easier it will be to unravel this mystery around her." Lezard reasoned, apparently happy to find any reason to goad his superior. "What say you Kagome?"

Kagome waited a moment but when Ghaleon didn't immediately protest again she nodded. "I'd like to help, someone could get hurt if we don't stop them right?"

"A lot of someone's." Lezard agreed, holding out a hand. "Come on, it'll be faster if we can fly there, you can keep up right Professor."

Ghaleon didn't deign to reply, watching as Kagome took the hand of her classmate and rose into the air with him at a few words of a spell. He repeated a very similar incantation and joined them in the air a moment later.

It was bizarre, Kagome gripped Lezard's fingers at the feel of nothing but the slightest pressure holding her in the air, the ground drifting quickly away as they floated away from the shrine without moving down in altitude. She didn't have long to be distracted by it thought cause the sensation hit her again, as if cutting through her chest this time, they were definitely closer and moving with incredible speed. She could only point the right way as she picked apart the latest sensation.

The second person, the one that wasn't Albel, he was faster, without the murderous intent, but his opponent wasn't only keeping up with the him, it was pushing him to his limits. She could feel more than ever the keen blood thirst of his strikes to the point that it became easy to separate the two.

"What's happening?" Ghaleon had floated closer and his voice managed to help her swallow some of the fear that'd taken hold. "What's the matter Kagome?"

"Whoever it is...he's forcing Albel back...this direction." She nodded as she said it, even more certain of her words once they were out. "Just over this ridge."

Floating into view over that hill was like passing through a hallway into another world. Cars and even parts of buildings had been completely clean cut in places, a broken fire hydrant was sending up a cascade of rain that only aided to cloud the scene and give it a more surreal feel as a couple of the fires that had started in the damaged buildings billowed out fog in waves given the cold weather. She blinked and shuddered a little, pointing though she didn't need to that time.

At the center of the wreath of destruction stood two fighters, Albel bent low with a mad gleam in his red eyes, his hands gripped around the hilts of his paired blades so tightly his knuckles had long sense gone white. One of his two ponytails was missing along with a small portion of the hair on his scalp in that area, a wide line of crimson falling along his back where he'd lost a portion of his skin to a straight cut. If it had been inches closer he wouldn't still be standing. He danced away from another strike before running forward in a flash, a flurry of sparks erupting from the pair with another dizzying wave of power rushing over her as she sensed what was happening more than she was able to follow it with her eyes.

The second opponent was a taller man than Albel, his hair was also long but wasn't put up in any way, a silver so pale it was nearly white but reflected with almost a metallic gleam in the sparking electricity of a downed wire jumping around in the raining water. He wore a uniform like black outfit with wide silver shoulder-blades. His expression was smug as he blocked several of the attacks and even took a few small cuts here and there, though his eyes were frightening, a glowing sort of turquoise sea-green with cat slits in the middle where there should have been iris's. They seemed to move on their own, as if a river or lake flowed within. His sword was the most frightening part however, it was longer than he was tall and he seemed capable of moving it with the ease one might expect a baton twirler to lazily play with his trade.

"Damn..." Lezard muttered. "We'll need Ed here after all to start working on fixing the damages. Want me to do it?"

"Yes." Ghaleon nodded, already looking for people around he'd need an estimate of how far his spell would need to reach to effect those just in this area alone. "Leave Kagome here."

Kagome grasped for Lezard's hand frantically when he let go of her, afraid she would fall, he just smirked at her and winked before moving toward the ongoing combat. It only took her til the wink to realize she'd be able to continue to float on her own. She glanced to Ghaleon, his face was so much more serious now that he was in the moment, he seemed incredibly unhappy then.

Keeping with the habit of not having much chance to react to things she didn't hear the exact words Lezard was intoning but the wicked allure of his voice and dark magic drew her attention back to the field. She recognized the lines of shadow that drew into the air and extended into serrated blades before shooting at the silver haired man. She figured it would be over then, but the blades only cut a jagged line into the concrete where he'd been standing and a moment later a blast of ice covered Lezard, it forced him to the ground before he seemed to recover movement and the long sword was headed his way.

A new series of clangs broke out as Albel interfered, growling. "Wrong opponent catnip."

Kagome frowned then, she realized that Albel had a few other close scrapes and was bleeding much more than a normal person should have been allowed. His speed had still been so great she hadn't had time to assess other wounds during the last moment he'd been stopped.

She willed her way to the ground, though she didn't have the time to be surprised the spell worked for her. "Albel."

A sickening crunch made her cover her mouth a moment before she realized it was just one of the cat eyed mans shoulder-plates that had been crushed under the blow Albel had leveled to it. "What the hell are you doing glasses...get her the hell out of here. Who do you think they are after?"

Kagome jumped as the impossibly long blade was parried away from her face seconds before it would have landed. Backing away from the fight, her ability to fly forgotten in the face of the near death experience.

"Fly back to Ghaleon. Now! Kagome!" Lezard's voice got steadily louder and more commanding until she leapt away willing herself quickly back away from the battle. Though she paused a few moments into the air and thought perhaps the spell had ended, but the pressure on her ankle before she was pulled back to the ground told her otherwise.

"Kagome!" Albel came up short of his attacks as she felt a sharp line being held to her neck. "You harm one hair on her head..."

"And you'll bore me some more." The deep voice resonated through her back where she was being pressed against the man's chest. His tone was exceptionally confident, he seemed indifferent as he stated the next part. "You try anything as we go away from here, and I'll report that my target was killed in the attempt to get her. Be good and I might return her in one piece."

Albel growled at him, and she was pretty sure it was good whatever he was muttering under his breath was so quiet. Lezard had a dark glare and for a moment she thought she saw the wings she'd seen before flicker behind his back. Then the scene changed, they'd moved with such speed she was glad she'd eaten very little for lunch. It was all she could do to force her eyes shut, whatever was happening, she wasn't fool enough to realize that her kidnapper would be stopped by her if the others together couldn't accomplish it.

They finally stopped, or at least she thought they did as she felt something more solid beneath her feet. Her entire world continued to spin through and wasn't sure if she was falling or not. The sensation lasted for at least several minutes she was certain, in which time she heard footsteps and the cold air from outside changed to something heated and therefor probably indoors. She heard what seemed like running water from a distance and then felt a small pressure on her forehead before the dampness of a wet rag and then a soft pressure on her chest.

"You going to survive?" The same voice, hard to forget a voice once it's threatened to kill you after all, but this time it was all indifference despite the question it asked.

"You tell me." She managed, but still didn't open her eyes, whatever form of travel that was, she didn't want to do it anymore.

"That depends on what you have to say." He answered, and at least that seemed honest enough. "Something is going on and you seem to have irritated a lot of people by being at the center of it."

She finally opened her eyes, having to blink several times to force away flickering spots in her vision, finding that the fluid teal gaze of her kidnapper was only a few feet away seated in a chair next to a couch.

The room was simple if expensive, a lot of the latest electronics, tasteful if plain black and silver furniture. A sliding glass door to a balcony, a connecting area that seemed to be a small kitchenette, a hallway with a few other doors. Nothing personal though, no small sign that it was lived in other than a blank DVD case half closed on top of the player.

He was watching her, if he cared that she was looking around it didn't show on his face. She didn't blush as much as she'd expect from the direct stare, perhaps she was finally growing accustomed to it. She shook her head lightly as she thought back a short moment to his question.

"I really don't know...that's what the others were trying to find out...couldn't you have just come and asked?" She was glad to see the blade that had been at her neck before was put away now.

"I was going to do that." He replied with a shrug. "The pesky duel-wielder decided that I shouldn't come anywhere near you."

"How would he know what you were doing?" She frowned a little, that seemed like a silly excuse.

"He overheard and mistook something in a conversation." The man answered. "I prefer not to do things like this, but sometimes my hand is forced. What is happening that they are working with you on?"

"Well..." She sighed, not sure how to explain this sort of thing as well as anyone else in the other group. Albel and his itchy trigger finger... "I guess I have some sort of time warping spell on my person...that's what someone said anyway. There's a gateway or something at my house that connects to another time or dimension or the like and somehow it's ruined a bunch of people's memories of the truth."

He stared at her for such a long time after she finished speaking that she swallowed nervously. "What?"

"You don't seem to be lying." He stated, still watching her, he barely even blinked, she wasn't sure if he did at all.

"I'm not lying." She frowned at him given the accusation, muttering to herself. "First I'm kidnaped then I'm subject to name-calling...what the hell?"

"I didn't call you anything." He stated briefly, though he was still staring away. "I apologize if it disturbed you so. It was the fastest way to accomplish my goal."

That didn't even seem half-hearted, just more like something practiced to toss off to keep people from annoying him.

"Can I go now?" She frowned, pushing the blanket he'd put on her off and then stumbling the moment she stood, the dizziness returning. Strong arms caught her though and she found herself blinking awake a moment later.

"You should continue to lay down for a while. The dizziness will pass before much longer." He stated once he considered her conscious enough to take it in. "You may not leave until your story has been confirmed with headquarters. Then I will take you back. Stay here, I need to call them."

He left the room and she frowned after him, glancing at the double doors and the balcony, lowering herself from the couch and crawling her way toward them, not moving too quickly made it easier. She could hear his deep voice speaking to someone in the next room.

"No sir, I believe she's telling the truth."

"I told you I wasn't a liar you jerk." She thought with mental daggers in the stranger's direction.

"That's not likely to happen sir." His voice seemed more annoyed then.

"Great, they piss him off then I get to deal with angry kidnapping psycho with the ginsu knife of doom." She kept her mind busy, reaching up to undo the latch as quietly as possible, sliding the door open and glad there wasn't a storm or anything.

"I don't care what your orders are. She doesn't deserve that." The annoyance seeped in a little more, starting to saturate the voice.

"Wonderful...at least it sort of sounds like he's on my side...but I attract all the crazy people in existence so I guess that's just a win for me." She crawled out and didn't bother closing it, he'd figure it out quickly enough when he was finished. She couldn't hear what else he was saying and didn't care too wait to find out. She had to see if she could get out of here somehow.

She crawled over to the ledge in what seemed to feel like an eternity, pulled herself slowly up to look out, hoping she could wave at one of the others if they were in view.

Instead she found she was in a highrise apartment, probably in downtown Tokyo, a good thirty minute drive from the family shrine. "Oh lord..."

"Hey...what are you doing you insane woman!" The voice however got her to remember that time that she might still be able to fly and she willed herself into the air.

The mental cheer was short, she'd only gotten a few feet from the balcony's edge when the dizziness slammed back into her full force and she knew she'd started to fall that time. The chill air making the motion even colder...she didn't expect the slight slam of force as she felt arms wrap around her. Her vision was blurred but she was certain she noted a feathered black wing and assuming it was Lezard carrying her she let herself fall into unconsciousness.

End Chapter

Okay, anyone that can't figure out who this one is, even though I haven't given a name yet, is silly! But I still won't give a name so you'll know next chapter if you are or not.

-Aura