He hadn’t been sure that it would work. Some part of him had been afraid he would have to change in the middle of the flight or risk turning to a small pile of ash in his seat. He had heard that it would, but doubted, somehow still doubted, even as he walked through the corridor, narrow and smelling of anxiety and meat. He crinkled his nose as he exited. It also smelled like someone had needed a diaper change. He would be glad to be rid of the necessity for closeness to so many people. Even when he knew he was well fed… there was a fear. Oh how he wished that international flights landed in more rural airports.
It was dimly lit near the podium and desk where people would board and he glanced twice at a figure that seemed to loom there, obscured by the shadows. It was no matter. No one knew he was coming. No one would greet him anyway. When he looked back for a third time, the creature had vanished.
“Dallieh.”
He flinched as the name rolled off a tongue that still held too much of an accent from a language he recognized as all but dead. How? No one should have known! No one should have known that he was anywhere but hiding in Rome, maybe a small distance from it, but it took balls for someone like him to set foot on an airplane. One delay and it would mean suicide or ending up god only knew where the plane ended up if you managed to stuff yourself into a closed compartment for the day. Who could have found out? How? The cycle went round and round in his head, faster and faster until he wavered on his feet as though dizzy.
He turned abruptly and found the one who had said his name a few paces behind him. He was huge. He would have been an intimidating height even if Dallieh wasn’t so short but the difference between them was almost comical. A hood hid the features of the one before him and he couldn’t help but change his stance. He couldn’t fall. He wouldn’t allow himself to be taken again so soon.
“I thought it felt like you. I could feel it the closer that you got and I had to come, to offer myself to you as I have many times before.” The voice was a low rumble and the accent made the words have a heaviness to them. Broad hands rose and pushed back the hood to reveal familiar feral features.
“Vengeance. I feared that you were one of them. Do they know?” He had said it in the language that the accent came from.
“No, but we need to get you out of here. Boston is not safe for you. Put on these gloves so they can’t see your hands and walk. Leave. They will lose you during daylight. Change and don’t turn back. I know you came to escape and so you must escape.” Vengeance flipped his hood back up before extending a set of gloves to Dallieh as he walked past him.
“Isn’t this cutting it a bit close for you?” Dallieh was only a step behind but two of his strides were one of his companion’s.
“That’s why I’m walking fast. The camera’s will start working again at any moment. I’m not as good at concealed chaos as I am at general chaos so I just messed up the power. The second the lights come back on…” As if on cue the airport illuminated and Dallieh found himself squinting as he trailed after the one who had been interrupted. “Fuck!”
“Maybe you were walking fast for two reasons.”
“Maybe.”
Vengeance crashed through a door with a snarl leading them through a narrow passage to an area where bags were staged. There were fewer people here but it was more obvious that they didn’t belong. Before Dallieh could mention his concern, Vengeance lurched towards a wall and yanked hard on the fire alarm. The sound was painful but the workers slowly emptied out giving them a way past without any questions.
“This way.”
They followed a set of steel steps to a lower platform that had carts, some filled with bags, some more empty. Dallieh hadn’t packed anything. He hadn’t said anything to anyone. He’d never been to this place and yet he had been found by one who had tasted his blood. He wanted to be surprised but he just wasn’t. Those of his kind, like this one, couldn’t be controlled by the rest of the blood sucking evil underworld that eternally hunted him. He knew they would never betray him because they each had come to be free, much the way that he had: escaping their chains.
They halted before a loading dock which Vengeance eyed with a bit of skepticism before he sniffed, testing the air. He stepped forward slowly, like a big cat that was unsure if its surroundings might hide some unseen danger. Then he moved forward quickly and found the controls. He picked over them at first and then a broad grin lit his features before he pointed at the door.
“Wait…” Somehow Dallieh knew that he wouldn’t see him again, not for a long while. “Thank you. I owe you.”
“You owe me nothing. Here, one more thing, in case.” Vengeance extended a folded piece of paper. “It’s my number in case you need anything. I don’t know that you’ve been here much sooooo I thought it might be a good idea for you to have someone to call. Then I thought maybe you don’t like phones… but I guess I have to learn not to overthink, don’t I.”
Dallieh took the paper and rolled it around in his fingers before offering a somber smile. Without another word, the gate beside him started to rise. He hadn’t expected such kindness. He hadn’t expected that someone would meet him unless they wanted to trap him. It was later than he had even realized and he could see dawn hues bathe his feet.
“Will you be alright?”
He got a nod in return. “Yes, I’m good at two things, pouncing and hiding. I will hide until the sun sets and then find myself some dinner to pounce on so I have an alibi for my absence. You have to promise me, no matter what happens, you have to stay free!”
It was Dallieh’s turn to nod. He slipped the paper in his pocket and removed the gloves looking back towards the controls to find them abandoned. Hiding indeed. He smiled another little smile before he erupted into the air, turning from the man he had been into a big black bird with feathers that were darkly iridescent in the first rays of the morning sun. He didn’t know where he wanted to go but he did know that it wasn’t here. His wings beat the air until the city wasn’t even a mark on the horizon. He circled over a broad highway and found some woods that looked thick enough to have a matriarch tree. Slowly he lowered, now swooping through branches, searching for a place to roost. He barely landed before the fatigue set in, his wings heavy, he fluffed himself before hiding his head from the sun, becoming a big black puff decoration in the biggest oldest beech tree he had seen. He was tired and a little bit cold. He warmed in the sun and gently drifted off to a dreamless sleep.
When he first woke he found himself surrounded. Upon every branch and tucked in against him as tightly as they could be were feathered bodies. They must have joined him while he slept. He lifted his head, careful not to disturb the other ravens that nestled against him. He couldn’t even see the angry glow in the sky. The city he had flown into was already a distance away. He had kept his word. He was free. Now surrounded in black feathered bodies, no one would be able to tell him from the rest. He still stood out. He knew that. He was larger than all but very few of them. He knew if he kept this form and traveled with them, he would remain safe. He ducked his head back beneath his wing. He knew he had slept for a while but was still too tired to fly. He would wake with the murder just before the sun rose and travel as they traveled, allow himself to be drawn to whatever fate waited for him. He’d never been here before, just as Vengeance had said. He had no place to be.
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