Page 58 of Night in a Waste Land

She closed the small distance between her fingers and his face, cupped the hard line of his jaw. “Lance.”

“And I didn’t think you ever would be as long as he was gone.”

“I’m sorry.” It felt wholly inadequate, but she didn’t know what else to say. “I’m so sorry.”

He made another go at a smile, a sad failure. “I can’t exactly blame you for the breakup when I helped you get there, can I?”

“But I’m not breaking up with you.”

His brows went up, expression mocking. “You’re not? What, you’re gonna date me, and tell the love of your life ‘thanks, but no thanks, I found somebody else’?”

“I’m not–”

A sharpfwap, like the closing of an umbrella, and a showering of cold water droplets was their only warning before Beck dropped down to stand in front of them, shaking rainwater off his wings and then folding them neatly so they lay down his back like a cape.

Startled, Rose’s gaze went to him – was snatched toward him. She felt a pull like gravity, like a hook in her chest. She pulled her arm back from Lance, and nearly reached for Beck instead, instinct strong as compulsion.

His black hair was windswept and wild, a few strands clinging to his neck, his cheeks, his horns. He reached to tidy it absently, and already his hands seemed steadier around the horns, like he’d learned their shapes and knew how to smooth his hair around them.

He wore one of his smooth, pleasant masks, the sort he would offer to a shop keeper, or a stranger, the effect made more alarming by the gleaming gold of his eyes. “Hello,” he greeted. “I’ve just been surveying the city – or, rather, what’s left of it.”

“We were going to take a helo,” Lance said, tone hard and cold. “Go as a company so we’re all on the same page.”

Beck shrugged. “I won’t mind going along again. But.” He flexed his wings, and they rippled against his back. “No sense letting assets go to waste, and all that.”

“Yeah. No sense.”

“Rosie.” Beck turned to her. Extended a hand; palm-up, his black claws were less noticeable, the creases and calluses in the center just as she remembered, evidence of his weapons proficiency.

Her heart bumped in the same old way, flooding her with love, and heat, and the awe – the disbelief that he washere– she wasn’t sure would go away anytime soon.

“Would you like to see something?” he asked, his expression softening, mask slipping just enough to allow her a glimpse of the hot-blooded creature he’d always been beneath.

She was sliding her hand into his before she could even say, “Yes.”

He grinned, quick and sharp, and drew her forward as his wings unfolded; he turned them, spinning her effortlessly into place in front of him, and his arms closed securely around her waist as she felt the air displacement of the first few preparatory beats of his wings. “Ready?” he asked, breath hot in her ear.

“Yes.”

“Rose!” Lance shouted.

“He’s a dullard, your army man,” Beck sighed, and then with a great thrust, and a leap, they were airborne.

In that first moment, after he’d jumped off the roof, and she saw the tarmac far below – when the cold, wet wind touched her face, and lifted her hair, and the ground went out from under her – her stomach lurched like it did when she rappelled down out of a helo. The crazy, sickening realization that you were about to fall, and that a harness and bit of metal were all that would prevent you from crashing down to earth and splattering against the rocks.

But Beck’s arms were tight and strong, and a few great flaps of his tremendous wings had them lifting up, and up, and there was no danger of her falling; she knew he’d never let her fall, and that trust smoothed her initial nerves.

He climbed until they reached an altitude that he seemed to like, and the beat of his wings settled into something steady and regular, like the beat of a heart, or the measured rhythm of drawn-out sex. Her belly tightened, but only with excitement.

She turned her head a fraction, feeling his lips and chin against her temple. “This is incredible!” she shouted over the rush of the wind.

His laugh was low and rich – delighted. “Isn’t it?”

The rain slackened the closer in they got. Beck flew them through a thick screen of low cloud, and then the way ahead opened up, and Rose could see the lights of the city up close.

Some were electric lights burning in windows.

Some were cold, blue security lights.

---