Soar

I stepped back as far as I could until my back made contact with the wall.

“Get her out of here, Cody!” Toby tossed the doorman a set of keys.

“To the estate?”

“Yes.”

I barely registered what was happening when Cody grabbed my arm and pulled me out of the lobby.

“Let go of me!” I fought against his arms, but it did nothing.

“Calm down. I’m not going to hurt you.”

Like I was going to believe a word he said. He was listening to a man with wings, and he didn’t even bat an eye when another man turned into a bear.

“I don’t want to restrain you, but I will if that’s what it takes to get your cooperation.” He towed me toward a silver Acura SUV. Over my shoulder, I watched Toby lunge at a bear that had been a man moments earlier.

Restrain me? I did the sane thing and started to scream.

The screaming didn’t last long. A hand clamped down over my mouth and within seconds, I was on the floor of the backseat with my arms tied. How had he moved so fast? And why was no one noticing the manhandling?

Damn it. He tied my legs, and put tape over my mouth before slamming the door and going around to the front.

I tried to scream, but nothing came out around the tape.

“I know it doesn’t seem that way, but you’re with the good guys.” Cody pulled out onto the street. “I don’t know what those bears wanted with you, but it can’t be good. Risking an open attack on a Pteron isn’t something shifters like that do.”

Shifters? Is that what that bear was? Like a wearwolf, but a bear? And there was that Pteron word again.

“Toby wants you out of harm’s way, so I’ll take you somewhere safe. You can thank me later.”

Thank him? More like kick him in the balls.

I continued struggling, unwilling to go down without a fight. A few minutes later, Cody’s cell phone rang. “She’s fine. Maybe uncomfortable, but fine.” He turned to look at me. “I had no choice. She screamed. She would have brought more danger upon herself. I’ll make sure she knows that. See you then.”

“Toby says he’s sorry it had to come to this. He wishes he could have protected you better.”

I struggled to talk again.

“If I take off that tape, will you be good?”

I nodded. I’d agree to anything to get that tape off.

He reached back and pulled off the tape in one quick motion. It hurt, but the relief was instant. I took in a large breath before speaking. “Who the hell are you people?”

“I’m not sure where to start.”

“Start at the beginning.”

“Has Toby told you anything?” He sped up.

“Just that I was in danger and he was dangerous.”

“You didn’t notice anything different about him?”

“I thought he was a crime boss.” That was the only thing I’d come up with. I knew he was into something weird, but I thought mafia, not wings.

“I’m really not supposed to talk about this stuff with a human, but I guess the cat is out of the bag now. Nothing I say is going to be worse than what you saw.” He paused before continuing. “Toby’s a ranking Pteron. He runs New York for the king.”

I laughed. “The king?”

“Yes. The King of The Society.”

“What’s a Pteron?”

“You saw his wings.”

“So he’s a fallen angel or something?”

Cody laughed. “We’re not angels.”

“We? You have wings too?”

“Yes.” He tossed some weird plastic mask on the chair next to him. He turned around, and I gasped. It was a completely different person looking back at me. Young and with a shock of red hair, Cody didn’t resemble the quiet, middle aged doorman I’d seen over the past few days.

“If you’re not angels, then what are you?”

“We’re bird shifters. Toby and I are tied to hawks.”

“Yeah…right.”

“I’m telling you the truth.”

“And the bears?”

“What about them?” He continued driving quickly. The late hour left the streets mostly empty.

“Who are they?”

“Their official name is Urusus, but we don’t call them that. The name sounds too distinguished for them. You can ask your boss about it though.”

“My boss? You mean Marv?”

He made a sharp turn, and my head smashed into the seat in front of me. “Ouch.”

He slowed down and then the car stopped. I tensed as I waited for the door to open.

“Marv and his nephew.” He picked up the conversation like we hadn’t stopped it. He scooped me off the floor and buckled me into a seat. “Sorry about that. Toby’s going to kill me when he sees your head.”

I could feel the blood before it flowed down my face enough to see it. Cody took a cloth out of his pocket and dabbed my forehead. “We’ll be there in a few hours. You might as well try to rest. I have a feeling it’s going to be a crazy night.”

He closed my door and immediately locked it once he was back in the driver’s seat. Even though I was still tied up, I could at least look out the window.

“Any other questions?”

“What does Toby want from me?” We were on some sort of interstate. From what I could tell, we were heading west of the city.

“Want from you?” Cody caught my eye in the rearview mirror. “Isn’t that obvious?”

“Should it be?”

“He likes you. He hasn’t shown this kind of interest since I started working with him.”

“So he doesn’t want to kill me?”

Cody laughed. “Kill you? Is that what you think every guy trying to get in your pants wants to do?”

“Most guys don’t have wings and tell their friends to kidnap me.”

“If you think this is bad, I can assure you being with the bears would be worse. I don’t know what that guy wanted with you, but it couldn’t be good.”

“Where are you taking me?”

“To the Blackwell country estate.”

“The Blackwell estate?”

“It’s Toby’s family name. He’s running it now.”

A question nudged at the corner of my mind, even though there were probably tons of more important ones to ask. “What happened to Toby’s grandfather?”

Cody didn’t say anything for a second. “I’ll let him tell you.”