Blood On Borrowed Wings: A Dark Fantasy Thriller by Darren Stapleton Read Free Book Online Page A

filter out the wind and dust, as usual?’
    ‘Yeah, that’s fine. It’s just my peripheral lines have all moved. I couldn’t see you coming until you were nearly by my side.’
    They both felt a change in the air current and instinctively rocked into it, lifting their heads and necks, the subtle movement adding a hundred feet to their altitude in seconds of synchronicity. The land below sped by in sweeping black blurs as Nimbus City’s low rise buildings and affluent districts blended into smudged blacks and greys of speed and distortion.
    ‘It’s still beautiful though, flying I mean. I hate ground work, always have. It’s so…’
    ‘Beneath us,’ said Croel, smiling. He watched as Mckeever’s confidence and agility seemed to return with every hefty wing-beat. Humour had its uses.  
      They continued to climb and the Edgelands of Nimbus fell further away, into the black indiscernible mass of everything else below. The breeze was helping their journey and the moon, now sinking to hide from the approaching day, lit their way like a dipped headlight, illuminated solely for their guidance. Since Earth’s great war of the skies there had been a decree stating houses on the Edgelands could be no higher than two storeys. This had been a Foundation Law of settlement in the aftermath and helped shape what was left of this part of the Earth into Nimbus. Mckeever and Croel did not have to worry about the invisible glass walls of skyscrapers or as many dangerously high peaked rooftops as they did when flying the Lowlands. The chance of them bumping into any other flyers at this time of the day was also negligible, but nevertheless, they scrutinised the skies ahead with purpose and professionalism. Croel shouted “Mckeever! This way.” Flinching from the injured arm movement as he gestured off to the right.

    As people claimed their last hours of sleep from the dwindling night, they subtly changed their direction and headed into the breeze, away from the distant lights of Nimbus City.
    Towards the illuminated Edgelands and whoever waited for them at Primary House.

Corps and corpse: if you aint in one, you’ll be the other.
    Vanguard Training: We Were There
    Hargreaves and Hargreaves

CHAPTER 9
     
    ‘Drake?’ said Pan.
    Her voice was thick and full of the world of sleep, it echoed off the stone walls and sounded loud coming as it had from the perfect stillness and hours of silent incarceration.
    ‘You okay?’ I said.
    ‘I…I don’t know.’
    I could hear the rustle of her clothes as she shifted position.
    ‘Where…?’
    ‘I don’t know. In a cell. Be careful what you say.’
    ‘Who did this? Last thing I remember we were at the fight.’
    ‘I don’t know. Probably the same guys who attempted the smash and grab. They could be watching and listening right now.’
    ‘Thirsty.’
    ‘That will be the drugs, probably stuck you with the same thing they did me.’
    I heard a small sob escape her and was not surprised. I didn’t think she would hold it together so long. I left the concrete block I had been installed on and slid over to her on the floor. She flinched away as I touched her, my arms outstretched, my flat palms brushing against her soft skin as I reached out for her in the dark.
    ‘It’s me,’ I whispered.
      Her hands came up towards me, met my face at my lips and slid down to the line of my unshaven jaw. It felt like a bolt of electricity into my spine, my nervous system igniting to the stimulus, sending lights and colours off to my extremities. It was not desire. There was nothing sexual or loving about it. Our situation made that impossible. It was just a touch amplified to the nth degree by our proximity, precarious circumstances and the lack of other sensory input. She withdrew her hand as if aware of the frisson and I told her what I knew about the room and the fight that had put me here. Us here.
    ‘I shouldn’t have hired you,’ I whispered.
    No response.
    ‘I work alone. Always