Winged

Chapter Three

After eating, Cairo, Luc, and Angel stopped at a hotel. It was getting late, after all. Luc rented them a large room with three beds, and Cairo wondered where he got his money from.

"It's weird," Cairo said as he entered the room. "I wasn't expecting things to be so calm after earlier." He was met with no response.

"I'm taking a shower," Luc announced, stepping into the bathroom and turning the water on, closing the door behind him.

After a moment had passed, Cairo took a seat on the bed across from Angel. Angel stared at him, his expression giving nothing away.

Cairo took a deep breath. "Hey... Angel...?"

"Yes?" Angel responded hesitantly, after realizing it was him he was talking to.

"How many... winged... are there?"

Angel shook his head. "I really have no idea. A lot, though. Hundreds."

"So, how come no one notices them?"

Angel thought for a moment, drawing bout another short, tense silence that Cairo was starting to get annoyingly used to. "There have been incidents, but there are people dedicated to making sure the public never finds out. Everyone involved is usually dead before word can ever get to the media."

"Oh. That's... scary," Cairo admitted. "So do an-winged have some kind of magic powers are something."

"It's usually just the wings," Angel responded, ruffling his own beneath his sweater. "But magic is definitely involved. It's the only way I can explain the glowing, at least."

Cairo thought back to when Angel had tried to kill Luc, nodding. "So other than that... they're... you're just like people, right?"

"Yes. Actually, we used to be people. I wasn't ten years old until I acquired my wings. Until then, I had no idea..."

Angel was interrupted by Luc as he stepped out of the bathroom, fully clothed, with his dark hair messy and wet.

"What?" Luc asked, glancing at the two of them.

"Nothing," Cairo answered. He was glad, Luc seemed a little calmer now. Not that he was any less on edge, simply less likely to kill Cairo in his sleep.

"You can go to bed, if you'd like," Luc told them.

Cairo pulled out his notebook and pencil. "Maybe in a little while," he replied half-heartedly, already starting to write. Luc studied him for a moment, then turned away.

"Hey, Cairo, good news," Luc said darkly, interrupting him from his scribbling. Cairo looked up, following Luc's eyes to the window. The street looked completely empty in the shadow of the night. "Remember when you were complaining about how calm today was?"

"Why?" Cairo asked nervously.

Luc pointed at the sky. "That's why. Come on, we have to go."

Cairo squinted, looking at a small speck in the sky, which could've easily been mistaken for a large bird, or a small, far away plane. In fact, Cairo wasn't entirely sure it wasn't one.

"So they're coming for us?" Cairo asked nervously.

"Yeah. What were you expecting?" Luc said, grabbing their things and ushering them outside into the hallway. "They probably had a spy of some sort."

"But what about that thing about public places and everything?!" Cairo exclaimed as they headed toward the car.

Luc eyed Angel. "Apparently, they thought this wasn't public enough. A risk worth taking. Which means whatever godling we're dealing with is reckless. That can be good or-"

Luc was cut short by a large crash as a winged dropped from the sky, and onto Cairo's car. The car looked pretty destroyed, but right now, that was the least of their worries.

The winged glared at them with bright orange eyes, and Cairo took in their brown wings and short hair, trembling slightly.

Luc tightened his jaw. "Cairo! Tell Angel to-"

Angel was already on it, throwing of his sweater and charging at the other winged. They battled in flight, moving faster than Cairo thought any human could move. He felt like he was watching something on TV as the two winged moved at each other in violent motions, most of their punches being dodged easily, and many resulting and glancing blows that caused flashes of golden light, much like what Angel had done to Luc.

Cairo wondered if they were equally matched, but it seemed clear that they weren't when the second winged hit Angel with kick that sent him flying to the ground.

Angel would've most likely been toast right there, had they not been interrupted by a flash from the corner of the building behind them. The four of them spun around to see a girl with long blonde hair, holding a camera. Cairo half wondered how anyone had expected no one to notice the huge fight between the two winged beings just outside of a hotel.

The second winged made a dash for the girl, presumably to kill her or something- she was a witness -and Angel took this as an opening. He slammed the second winged into the wreckage of Cairo's car and held them down against it, causing a large flash of golden light. The second winged screamed in pain, and Cairo covered his ears at the uncomfortably loud sound.

"Stop it!" Cairo shouted, causing Angel to immediately release the winged, confused. The second winged darted out of Angel's grasp, quickly taking their chance of escaping.

Luc cursed, shooting Cairo a glare that told him he'd done something wrong, and throwing Angel his sweater. "Hurry up and cover your wings. We have to get out of here," He said, looking back at the building. "But first, we have to find that girl."