Draiks and Angels: Rescued

2 - Bargain

Khloe ran as fast as she could without tripping on the trash that was always strewn about the alleys. She leaped over a broken crate and heard a curse as one of her pursuers stumbled over it. More curses and shouts still followed her. She figured there were at least five of them. Maybe four now. They must have been from the Bones.

She took a quick corner and leapt a short stone wall before continuing to run. The teen who had demanded a bracelet from her to give to his girlfriend only a few days ago had been from the Knites, judging by the sword tattoo on his neck. The Bones must not have taken kindly to her giving one of her wire creations to him. But if she hadn't given him the bracelet, the Knites could have taken offense, and it would be them she would be running from!

She clipped her shoulder on a roll of chain link fencing and bounced off, stumbling back a few steps. As the roll fell, it caught the edge of her black, webbed wing, lifting it away from her back. Hurriedly she folded it back down before anyone could see. She took off running again.

Khloe found that oddly enough, as long as she kept her wings tightly folded, no one seemed to care or ask her about them. Any time she had them opened in the slightest, people noticed. She wished she had one of the popular overrobes called "dusters" that were long enough to cover the whole length of her wings, and then she wouldn't worry so much, but she hadn't managed to beat anyone to the few found in the trash. All she had was a green jumper that was less a jumper and more a tank top and swim bottom by how torn it had become.

Khloe almost ran directly into a cinderblock wall. The alley was blocked by the fifteen-foot-tall barrier that hadn't been there the last time she had been in the area. She flipped around to run the other way, but it was too late, her pursuers had arrayed themselves at the head of the alley, trapping her in.

"Nowhere to run," one of the young men spat, breathing heavily and advancing toward her.

Khloe looked up and saw clotheslines strung across the alley above her. She couldn't fly with them in the way, or she would get tangled in them. The young man pulled out a switchblade. Khloe started to panic. What could she do?!

Taking a gamble, Khloe opened her wings and spread them to their full span, lifted so they curved gracefully upward and didn't run into the walls on either side of her. The gang members froze in place, unsure of what they were seeing. Khloe beat her wings at them, sending a large gust of wind into their faces. They flinched and Khloe took the chance to try and run past them, folding her wings along the way.

"Freak!" the young man with the knife yelled, slashing at her as she passed by.

Khloe felt fire tear through her lower arm as the knife cut her. She cried out and held the limb to her. She was now in between the young man and the rest of the gang. The majority of them were still usure of how to proceed, but the one with the knife looked murderous.

She heard a sound above, like sticks slapping the wall of the building next to her. Suspicious, she chanced a look up and saw several clotheslines had been cut, swinging and catching on railings and planters. The young gang member couldn't help but look up to see what she was looking at and Khloe took that moment to jump into the air, wings carrying her upward through the one gap that had appeared. She heard astonished curses from below.

She landed on one of the apartment buildings' roofs and fell to her knees, cradling her arm as it bled. She tried to catch her breath and wondered what she was going to do now. Her cinder block shelter was in both Bones and Knites territory and it was clear the Bones had it out for her now. And they knew her secret. She didn't know what that would mean if she tried to return, but she was sure it would make her vulnerable.

She heard the door to the roof open and got quickly to her feet, folding her wings tightly out of habit. A young man, around the same age as Khloe, about twenty years old, in a green t-shirt and jeans came out onto the roof. He looked around until he saw Khloe and headed her way with a concerned look on his face. Khloe took a step back and he stopped.