Flight Page 6

  Levi fake gasped. “What? How could you?”

  “Well, I guess it wasn’t quitting because I didn’t quite start, but I was supposed to be a lifeguard at a local beach. I changed my mind when my dad called to invite me down.”

  “Then I propose a toast.” Levi lifted his to-go coffee cup.

  “A toast? With coffee?”

  “You can toast with any beverage.”

  “Sure, why not?” I raised my cup as well. “But what are we toasting?”

  “To Allie’s great adventure.”

  I laughed as he tapped his cup to mine and dramatically finished the rest of his coffee.

  My phone rang. “It’s Jess. Do you mind if I get this?”

  “No, not a problem.”

  I answered. “Hey, are you home?”

  “Yeah, I got in about ten minutes ago. I wanted to apologize for leaving like that. I didn’t mean to ditch you.”

  “It’s okay, I completely understand.”

  A group of people walked into the coffee shop talking loudly.

  “Hey, where are you?” Jess asked.

  “Out getting coffee.”

  “With who?”

  “Umm, can I call you later?”

  “Wait, are you with Levi? You are, aren’t you?”

  “Maybe.” I noticed Levi watching me, trying to figure out what was going on in our conversation.

  Jess laughed. “Okay, good for you. Call me tomorrow.”

  “I will. Have a good night.”

  “You too.”

  I hung up, putting my phone into my back pocket. I hadn’t bothered with a purse, stuffing my phone, ID, and a credit card in my jeans.

  “Jess made it back?” Levi asked.

  “Yeah, she just got home.”

  “Anything else going on?” He was obviously fishing for information.

  “Nope.”

  Thankfully, he dropped it.

  It wasn’t quite 9:30 when I finished the last of my coffee. “This was actually fun. Thanks, I needed it.”

  “My pleasure. See, giving me a chance wasn’t so bad, was it?”

  “Hey, don’t read too much into it. We had coffee. End of story.”

  “Does it have to be the end?” Levi gazed at me intently.

  “What else do you have in mind?”

  “Want to meet up with my friends? I bet Hailey will come if she knows you are. I think she has a girl crush on you.”

  “A girl crush? What are you, like three?”

  “No… it’s just funny. She talks about you almost as much as I do.”

  “I think she’s pretty cool too. Definitely different from my other friends.” I let the whole talking about me a lot part slide.

  “Different is good, right?”

  “It can be.”

  “Are you up for hanging out more?”

  “Yeah, okay.” The thought of going back to my empty room made the decision easy.

  We walked through the French Quarter slowly, and I tried to take it all in. The music, the crowds, and the atmosphere still felt surreal. Music spilled out of the endless bars and clubs.

  “Wow, are those people seriously dressed up as vampires?” I asked, looking in at a dark bar on the corner. Inside I watched a man and woman holding up a chalice and smiling with fangs showing.

  Levi laughed. “If you think those people are weird, you’d be freaked out by the real thing.”

  “The real thing? Very funny.”

  “What, you don’t think vampires are real?”

  “No, and I’m glad they aren’t.”

  “Why? Do they scare you?” Levi stopped walking, and turned me to look at him.

  “Does the thought of blood sucking monsters scare me? Hell yes. Who wouldn’t be scared of that? ”

  He laughed again even louder. “Trust me sweetheart, in New Orleans vampires are the least of your worries.”

  “What do you mean?” Something about the glint in his eyes made me feel a little uneasy.

  Levi’s face turned into a faint smile. “I’m really glad you asked that.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “You’ll have to wait and see.”

  “Okay, listen, scaring me isn’t a good way to get me interested, so if you have any weird tricks up your sleeve just shelve them.” I wondered if this was the time to tell him I avoided horror movies like the plague.

  “No tricks, hon.” Levi pulled his phone out of his pocket and texted a few times.

  I continued my people watching. I’d never seen so many middle-aged people laughing and partying before. It almost felt like the twilight zone.

  Levi slipped his phone back in his pocket. “We’re meeting everyone over at Club 360.”

  “What’s that?”

  “The lounge on the top of the World Trade Center down by the river.”

  “Okay, is it a cool view?”

  “Yeah, it’s got a good view.” Levi laughed again and I had the distinct impression he was hiding something from me.

  “You promise you aren’t luring me into some trap?”

  “A trap? No. Let’s just call it a new experience.”

  My stomach dropped. What the heck did I get myself into?

  Chapter Seven

  The elevator doors opened on the top floor, dumping us out right at the club. As we pushed through the crowd, I felt distinctly underdressed. Things were usually very casual in New Orleans, but up there people were more dressed up.

  Levi seemed to notice my discomfort. “Don’t worry, we won’t be here long.”

  “Why are we here at all then?”

  “Do you ever stop asking questions?”

  “I only ask this many questions when I fear for my wellbeing.”

  “I assure you that you are in good hands.” As if to make the meaning of his words literal, Levi put his arm around my waist, pulling me tight against his side. “I see them.”

  We walked up to a small table in the corner overlooking the city.

  “Allie! I’m so glad you came!” Hailey jumped out of her seat and hugged me.

  I was thrilled to see that Hailey was also dressed casually in jeans. She wore a cropped cardigan sweater in a shade of blue that matched her eyes exactly.

  “Yeah, I needed a night out.”

  “Where’s your friend?” Jared asked casually.

  “My friend? You mean Jess? She’s back in New York, no thanks to you.” Damn. I regretted the words as soon as they left my mouth.

  “She left? What does that have to do with me?”

  “Nothing. Forget I said anything.” I took a seat next to Hailey.

  “Okay...” Jared said giving me a look like he thought I was crazy. I doubted that Jared and I would ever get along.

  I looked out the window. The skyline was lit by colorful lights that contrasted with the shadowing darkness. I could have stared at it for hours.

  “All right, are you guys ready to go?” Hailey asked.

  “What, already? I haven’t even had a chance to enjoy the view.”

  “You think this is a good view? Oh, just you wait,” Levi said, making everyone laugh.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “You sure about this, Levi? You know there is no turning back, right?” Owen asked Levi, purposely avoiding my eyes.

  “Absolutely.” Levi smiled making me feel even more uneasy.

  Jared pushed out his chair. “Well, then let’s get going, it’s supposed to rain later tonight.”

  “Why does the rain matter?” Although the lack of information frustrated me, I couldn’t deny some excitement. I loved a good surprise.

  “Are you ready to find out just how far the rabbit hole goes, sweetheart?” Levi reached out his hand waiting for a response.

  “Rabbit hole?” I searched for a hidden meaning in the words beyond the Alice in Wonderland reference, but I couldn’t find one. Ignoring my unease, I went with my gut instinct. “Umm, sure?”

  I accepted his hand and he led me
through the crowd once more. My chest tightened with anticipation. I didn’t know what Levi and his friends had in store, but I hoped it was enough to take my mind off Jess.

  We walked out past the elevators and into a stairwell.

  As Levi ushered me up the stairs, I realized where we were headed.

  “Okay, why are we going to the roof?”

  “No more questions,” Levi insisted.

  “But—”

  Levi pressed the palm of his hand into my back gently. “No more questions.”

  “It’s all right. We’re not taking you up there to kill you.” Hailey laughed but I started to question my trust in these people I hardly knew.

  I thought about turning around but with Jared in front of me and Levi behind me, I didn’t see too many options. I took a deep breath. “Fine.”

  I followed Jared out into the humid night. The lights of the city danced off the water and the colored lights of the Hibernia building created an eerie glow.

  So enthralled by the view, I was surprised when I felt Levi’s arms wrap around me. Through the thin fabric of my tank top, I could tell he was no longer wearing a shirt.

  I struggled to turn around and he loosened his arms. I took a step back. “What the hell…” I trailed off. The guys all had their shirts off and even Hailey had shed her cardigan and was now in a thin strapped tank.

  My attention first went to staring at Levi’s bare muscular chest, but I quickly snapped out it.

  Levi leaned over to talk to me quietly. “Now don’t freak out. I promised you I wouldn’t hurt you and I always keep my promises.”

  “Are you guys in a cult of something? Because if you are, I’m really not interested. I won’t tell anyone anything, but if you don’t mind I’m leaving.” My thoughts returned to the Alice in Wonderland reference, and I wondered if they were on drugs.

  “Chill out!” Jared yelled as his eyes changed from brown to solid black just like they had that first night in Jackson Square. Evidently, it wasn’t a drunken illusion.

  “Don’t talk to her like that,” Levi said with authority and Jared visibly relaxed, his eyes slowly returning to normal. Weird.

  “We’re not a cult. It’s more like a very special society,” Hailey explained taking a few steps toward me.

  “A special society?”

  “Maybe it would be better if we just showed her,” Owen said giving me a reassuring smile. “You were sure you wanted this Levi, so there is no turning back.”

  Owen walked over to the edge of the building and raised a hand in a small wave before taking a backwards step and disappearing from sight.

  “Oh my god! What the hell? Did he just kill himself?” I started shaking, I felt the tears splashing down my face.

  “Owen’s fine,” Hailey said before jumping off with Jared right behind her. I knew with sickening certainty I would be getting off the building the same way.

  I started to pray. It was probably the first prayer I had said in at least five years but it came automatically.

  Closing my eyes, I tried to block it all out. Convinced I was about to die, I was only partly aware of Levi’s arms around me.

  “You said you wanted an adventure,” he said quietly, teasingly, as he tightened his hold.

  My stomach dropped out as an intense and complete feeling of weightlessness engulfed me. The wind stung my face as memories flooded my mind. I thought of my parents, of all the things I wanted to tell them but never did, my friends from home, and the experiences I longed for. Quickly my thoughts changed to more recent memories, to Levi.

  “Open your eyes,” he whispered, somehow knowing my eyes were clenched shut.

  Against my better judgment, I listened. The scream died in my throat as we hurtled toward the water that had been so beautiful from the roof above.

  Just when I was sure we were going to crash, we started gliding horizontally to the water for a moment before heading further away. I didn’t close my eyes. As completely terrified and confused as I was, there was no way I was going to spend the last few moments of my life with my eyes closed. I was only vaguely aware as my feet hit solid ground again.

  I stumbled away from Levi and fell down to the grass below me, grabbing on to the slightly damp strands as if they were my only anchor to the world. I hesitated to look up, terrified of what might be awaiting me.

  Catching my first glimpse of them, my jaw dropped and my voice cracked before I could get words out. Giant black wings extended from each of their backs nearly blocking out the moonlight. “What the hell are you? Oh-my-god you’re angels, aren’t you? I’m dead. I’m actually dead?”

  Levi laughed, making the large black wings move slightly, the effect only made him appear more frightening. “Do you really think I’m an angel?”

  “A fallen angel?” I asked, grasping for a way to understand what stood in front of me. I peered around Levi to Hailey, most surprised to see her wings; the contrast of the black with her red hair was intense.

  Levi laughed again. “We’re not angels of any sort.” He took a step closer to me.

  “Then what are you?” I scooted back slowly, closing my eyes, hoping that when I opened them again there would be normal people standing in front of me.

  “Open your eyes, sweetheart.” Levi’s hands were on my shoulders urging me to obey him. “Open your eyes.”

  “No, this has to be some messed up dream.”

  “It’s not a dream.”

  “Yes, it is.”

  “No, it’s not. Accept it already.” It was Jared’s bluntness that made me open my eyes again.

  My words of anger died on my lips when I was faced once again with four sets of black wings.

  “If this isn’t a dream, then what are you? What’s going on?”

  “We’re Pterons,” Hailey said gently.

  “Pterons?” I asked, repeating the unfamiliar word.

  “We’re shifters, Allie,” Levi said almost as gently as Hailey. He was trying to put me at ease but I knew I was shaking.

  “Shifters? Like what, a werewolf?”

  Jared laughed. “We’re not like werewolves. That’s like saying humans are like chimps.”

  “Humans? Wait, because you guys aren’t human…”

  “Like I said, we’re shifters. At one time our people shifted into crows but over time we became more of a hybrid. It’s more efficient,” Levi explained

  “Like natural selection or something?” I said absently. Biology was my favorite subject in high school.

  “Something like that.” Levi kneeled down next to me and picked up my hands. “You okay?”

  “I’m not sure,” I said honestly.

  “It really doesn’t change anything.” Hailey took a few steps closer to where I sat with Levi.

  “You’re standing there with giant wings coming out of your back, yet you tell me that nothing has changed?”

  “What she means is that we’re still the same people you wanted to hang out with in the beginning of the night, just enhanced,” Owen said with a small smile.

  “Enhanced? So other than flying, what can you do?”

  “Other than flying?” Levi chortled. “Yes, because flying is so commonplace. But to answer your question we have some other skills, but I think this is enough for tonight.”

  “Oh,” I said, finally at a loss of words, not sure how I was even managing to form coherent thoughts.

  “You’re funny, you know that?” Levi smiled, and tried to help me to my feet but I pulled back.

  “Umm, can you put those things away?”

  “Those things? Our wings? Yes, we can put them away.”

  I watched in awe as Levi’s wings retracted like they were never there in the first place.

  “Turn around,” I said as I stood up.

  Levi obliged and I ran my hands over his back feeling only the faintest hint of two lines. I squinted in the moonlight to see the barely perceptible raised marks.

  “Are you done manhandling Levi yet or are we goin
g to stay here all night?”

  “Shut up, Jared,” Hailey snapped.

  “She can manhandle me all she wants.” Levi turned around to face me again. “You ready to go home or do you want to see more?”

  The answer was simple. “I’m ready to go home.” I was still trying to process the craziness of the night.

  “We’ll see you tomorrow, right?” Hailey asked and I sensed some real fear in her words. She really wanted to see me again.

  “Yeah, sure,” I said automatically but uncertain of whether I’d keep my word.

  “All right, if you’re sure.” Levi turned me around and wrapped his arms around me.

  “Wait, stop!” Levi let go, and I turned to look at him. “I never said I wanted to fly again. How far are we from the hotel?”

  “Oh, right. We can get a cab.”

  “No. I can get a cab. Where are we?”

  “We’re at the levee. You sure you don’t want me to take you home? At least let me walk you to the street.”

  “All right, fair enough.” As freaked out as I was, walking alone in the dark wasn’t on the top of my to-do list.

  A cab was waiting by the time we reached the road, and I assumed someone else had called one for me.

  “Good night,” Levi said quietly with a quick wave as I opened the door and slid inside. I smiled lightly as the cab pulled away. Looking out the window as we drove through the streets of the French Quarter, I thought over the events of the night trying to make myself believe they were real.

  Chapter Eight

  The only hint that any of my memories from the night before were real came in the form of five angry voicemails from Toby waiting for me when I woke up. At least I knew Levi had been in my suite.

  The messages themselves were actually a bit comical at first. Toby was furious in the first one, asking me where I got the nerve to hook up with a hillbilly. I had to laugh, Levi a hillbilly? By the fourth one, Toby seemed to have changed his approach. He was begging me to forgive him for jumping to conclusions because obviously it was just a big misunderstanding. The last one was kind of sad. He had heard Jess was home and asked why I didn’t leave too. I realized how odd it was that the thought of returning home didn’t even cross my mind. Being alone in New Orleans wasn’t ideal, but neither was giving up before the summer ended.