Dark flight - Lore of the angelic book 1

hitting the road

"which exit are we taking?"
Deliah joins up with us, a duffelbag thrown ungracefully over her shoulder. all her makeup is gone now and her hair is tied up in a ponytail, her silk robe is replaced by a pair of jeans and a tanktop with a cardigan.
"North, there's a bus stop nearby."

I follow them through a garden behind the castle area and up a set of tiny staircases. john holds open the wooden door that seems to be an exit and hustles us through. I stumble over the doorstep and yelp in surprise when I roll down a snowy slope. when I look up at the spot we came from I find John closing the door of a tool shack and gracefully sliding down the hill to help me up.

"Cold..."
I mutter as he points at his suit jacket, which is still tied around my waist. 
"I'll get you a coat once we are far enough away from here."

Deliah is already trecking through the snow.
"so, now we go to the bus stop, are we calling a taxi?"
I put on the now slightly wrinkled jacket, it gives me very little protection from the biting cold but it's better than nothing. we start to move, my shoes are already soaked.
"No, we might be pretty far from where we started but the likeliness of him monitoring the cab routes and ride share services now that he knows we ditched the car is too high to take the chance."

Deliah sighs.
"we can't walk to the next town with Alice freezing, we might get away with flying for a few miles but..."
"We're going to a bus stop, so... we're taking the bus. it's a night bus in the middle of nowhere so we should be good taking it and not being noticed."
I shiver and clutch my sides.
"When's this bus showing up, I'm absolutely freezing..."

Deliah starts to rummage through her bag and pulls out a light long sleeve shirt.
"All I have, sorry. put it on over your tee"
I do as she says, and while it's better, I'm still miserable. the treck goes on for half an hour through the bitter cold, when we finally reach the stop I can barely feel my feet in my shoes. Deliah holds out her hands to me, her hands are warm.
"we have half an hour, why don't we work on your blockage while we wait?"

I shake my head.
"I can't concentrate..."
Before I know it John is laying an arm around my shoulder. how is he so warm as well. I look up at him thankfully.
"better?"
I nod slowly and snuggle into his side.
"yeah, better"

"Hey!! the tracker started up again!"
Michael whirls to the man designated to help him on his search.
"What do you mean it's back? where?"
the soldier points at his wrist watch, it's showing the tracker beeping.
"up north, we could make it there by next week..."

before michael can answer in a flash of light three figures appear next to the car.
"excellent, good work michael."
the angel's shoulders tense up as he turns to face the high council member and his two female companions. he frowns when he sees who he is with. Persephone and Ophelia, the high seer and the secretary of Goodman...

"Unfortunate that it took so long, I'm starting to consider that you might not have been the right guy for the job..."
Persephone giggles, she is tall and has flowing platinum hair with a pink hue, her natural hair colour as far as he knows. she is wearing a long flowy dress with rose golden accents, it must have cost a small fortune. only the best for the high seer of the angel realm.
"teehee, he's nervous..."

ophelia scoffs and pushes a strand of red hair behind her ear. she is a non angel, a vampire, normally a taboo among angels but the council seems to trust her for whatever reason. 
"Sir, I suggest we take over this personally. this one clearly can't handle an assignment with this importance."
Michel makes a face at her.
"We just got the tracker signal back..."

Goodman glares.
"enough. Ophelia and Persephone will take it from here, you may resume your regular duties."
The angel pushes out his lower lip in a childlike pout but smooths out his face when he realizes that it's what he is doing. 
"yes sir"
deep inside he knows that he can't leave this to those women, they only care about sucking up to the council, he really wants to help her! he needs to! he hops onto his motorcycle and puts on his helmet. last he heard they were up north, and if it means he will be felled so be it. as long as alice is safe. he flies off into the night going faster than he should, what does he care, he isn't going to be hurt but she well might be.

"it's a little cold for hikes in the woods, specially in those clothes."
The bus driver wrinkles his brows at us as John pays. of course he's the nosy type, that's just our luck. 
"we wanted to take a short walk and got lost."
John looks at him with an amount of calm I never would have mustered when confronted like that.
"I get it, young folk, gettin drunk in the woods. still gotta be more careful next time, ya might lose a few toes."

I let out a breath of relief as we all walk into the empty bus, it's not comfortable but at least it's warm. I sit down next to John and shiver again, deliah sits behind us.
"where are we even going?"
John looks at his phone and bites his lip before he looks up at Deliah.
"We're a lot further from my family's estate than we started, for now we need to get into safety."
all the words are whispered though I doubt the bus driver can hear us over the loud motor and even louder latin pop music coming from the radio.

"we're deep in werewolf territory, specifically the war ground between two packs, I know the alpha of one of them. the problem is that she is stubborn, so I'm not sure how we can convince her to let us stay and possibly expose her pack to the ire of the high council."
I press my lips together tight and hunker down in the bus seat.
"the prophecy should be more important than the pack..."

John groans.
"you don't understand, the moment they are destracted the enemy pack will start taking their territory... this could wipe out their hunting grounds so they would have to migrate."
I just listen to them whisper argue as I stare out the window at the endless amount of ice and snow. I grew up in sunny california, I have never really been around this cold of weather... I hope we can leave again soon. the ride is long and I fall asleep somewhere along, when I wake up I'm nestled comfortably in John's arms as he carries me down a street... or maybe a parking lot? I don't notice much of the discussions that happen as I sleep on a couch, dreaming of strange birds flying over a castle that reaches so far into the sky I can't see the tip of the highest tower.

when I wake up it's noon and I'm surrounded by curious child faces looking down at my sleeping form.