Page 19 of Angel's Flight

He wanted to tell her.He wanted to take her upstairs as soon as they reached the Gencos’ door and show her how much he loved her.Back in Paris, after the Louvre, he had wanted so desperately to kiss her and make love to her.Now he could, and it would be in a flat with windows and gentle night breezes, a place they had started to call home.

Erik began to speak as they rounded the final corner, but a crash interrupted him.

“Please!No one is here!”came a pained cry in a female voice.It was Signora Genco, Erik was sure of it.Instinctively, he grabbed Christine, pulling her close to protect her.

“What’s happening?”Christine hissed, trying to make out the shadows moving at the door of the Gencos’ building.Their building.

“We know you’re lying!”a rough man’s voice replied, and there came another crash.He was throwing pottery on the cobblestone street, right next to where Mama Genco was cowering on her knees next to the prone body of a man.It had to be Vito.

Another man emerged from the door that led into the courtyard and tossed his compatriot another vase.The one who had caught it was wiry and fair, with a bowler hat perched on his head.He would be easy to take in a fight, though he would be fast.The other man was huge.He nearly filled the doorway, and he had a cruel look about him.They had subdued a bear of a man like Vito, which meant they were extremely dangerous.

“Tell us where they are, or the next one we crack will be on his head!”the wiry one declared, holding the urn aloft.

“What are they saying?”Christine demanded in a fierce whisper, shaking in fear beside him.

“They’re looking for someone or something,” he replied hastily, his pulse racing.These thugs were clearly professionals when it came to intimidation and hurting people.Did Vito owe money to some unsavory character?Or perhaps...

“He’s not hard to miss, we’ve been told,” the large one mumbled just as the terrible thought occurred to Erik.“Tall and bony.Black hair and a mask.Who can miss that?”

“No one who lives here wears a mask!The husband – he is a veteran!”Mama Genco protested, her voice thick with tears.Erik’s heart seized with rage and guilt.This woman was suffering because of him.Either through ignorance or charity, she was trying to protect him.

“Did they say mask?”Christine gasped, grabbing Erik to hold him back now.“Oh God, are they looking for us?”

“They pay their rent and do not bother us!”Mama Genco cried, and the brute hurled the vase to the pavement next to her, missing Vito’s head by inches.Vito groaned and tried to move, but the wiry one pressed a foot to his throat.

“Oh, you’re awake?”the assailant sneered, leaning down.“Did you know you’re renting a flat to a monster?”

The word was like a spark to the dynamite inside Erik.In the word, he heard echoes of hundreds of voices – his parents and his victims and those he had thought friends and those that knew him as an enemy.Women and children, screaming at the sight of him, running away through the woods to summon the village to drive out the monster.

“Erik, no!”Christine cried, trying to hold him back, but she couldn’t contain him.She was wrong to even try.

Erik sprang from the shadows and seized the smaller man, unbalancing him and using momentum to hurl him against the wall.

“If he is a monster, then you should be more careful,” Erik hissed, meeting the man with a fierce kick when he rushed at him and sending him to the ground.Mama Genco screamed, and Erik looked up to see the larger of the two barreling towards them.Erik braced himself, driving his shoulder into the center of the huge man’s chest and knocking him back at the cost of the man grabbing at Erik’s face as he tore off the mask.

Good.It was easier to fight this kind of vermin when they were scared.Erik reared up, and the large attacker stumbled back, breath knocked from his lungs and face filling with horror as he looked on Erik’s deathly countenance.

“Devil!”he gasped and crossed himself.

“No, but I will be happy to introduce you to him,” Erik growled.

“Oh God!”Signora Genco cried as Christine rushed to her side and helped her away from the fray.Erik made the mistake of looking at the old woman’s terrified face and not Christine’s, and the horror he saw there sickened him.“What is he?”

“Erik!”Christine cried.He saw the movement out of the corner of his eye in time to catch the lithe man by the throat as he charged again.

Erik’s rage poured into his hand as it tightened around the man’s neck.This man was the real monster.A common criminal sent to track him down like a dog.Erik squeezed, and the man scrabbled at his hand and arm, trying to get away even as the air left his lungs.Erik wanted to see the light leave his eyes...

“Erik, no!”Christine screamed, and he made the mistake of looking at her.He saw the fear and devastation on her face.

He couldn’t do this again.He would lose her.

The first blow struck him in the ribs, and the second one in his face.It was the other man, breath and bravery recovered.Erik ducked the third punch and forced the victim still in his grasp between them as a shield.His friend knocked the other aside and out of Erik’s grasp, so that he fell unmoving on the ground.Someone screamed as the brute struck Erik, and he finally hit back, using his speed against the larger opponent.

The man wound up for another blow, then howled in pain as the women screamed.It took Erik a half second to see that Vito had recovered on the ground, grabbed a jagged shard of pottery, and drove it deep into the man’s thigh.The assailant crashed to his knees, and Erik had a choice.He could end this and kill him now or help the man who had just saved them when he had no reason to.

Erik rushed to Vito and heaved him up from the cobblestones, carrying him to the entrance.His mother helped him in as Christine slammed the door behind them and bolted it shut.They were safe, but it wasn’t over.Erik watched through the peephole as the men in the street struggled to their feet and glowered at the locked door.

“It’s not over, monster!”the huge one cried.“There will be more coming for you!The one who wants you pays well and won’t be denied a prize!”

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