Recovering by J Bennett Page B

when Bird Brain glumly explains that Maya pulled off an
impressive-sounding escape, bagging the angel the team brought back in the
process and basically saving the lives of all of these jokers. Not that they’re
willing to admit it.
    “Okay, she
coffins the wings, and then what does she do?” I say, mostly to myself. Answer:
Find Tarren, except my brother has apparently checked into the Fortress of
Solitude and is completely unreachable.
    The peanut
gallery pipes up. “Bear doesn’t think she killed the other a…angel,” Bird Brain
says, like his mouth has a hard time pronouncing the word “angel.”
    “Course she
killed him,” I snort at him. “Only a slobbering lummox keeps angels alive and
tries to question them.”
    Chainy
mutters something under his breath.
    “What?” I
snap at him.
    He sighs as
if this were the most pointless conversation in the world, like he wants to
talk opera but we’re just sitting here trading dick jokes instead.
    “She didn’t
kill him,” he says.
    “Look, I know
my own damn sister and…”
    “Bear’s
cameras have caught at least four of those soul sucking monsters around the
city in the last two days. There’s a big group of them here dropping people
like flies. He told your sister, or whoever she is, about it, told her to find
the nest and take it out. She tranqed our captive; didn’t kill him. Finch saw
the whole thing go down.”
    “She’s not
that stupid,” I tell him, but a knot is twisting in my stomach. None of it even
makes sense. How could the Bad News Bears here have tripped over four sets of
wings in the same town? The only time we’ve come across a group of wings that
big was in Poughkeepsie. The magnitude of this shit storm begins to rain all
over me. Those four angels could only be the tip of the iceberg, or, for a
better comparison, only the cockroaches who didn’t scurry fast enough out of
the light.  Would Maya risk keeping the angel alive to try and discover their
home base?
    I know what
Tarren would do. He’d run right into the fire and take as many of them down
with him as possible. Probably look totally awesome doing it too until he bled
out and they put his head on a pike, all Ned Stark style.
    The knot in
my stomach tightens. If I can’t get in contact with Tarren, then Maya can’t
either. She’s out there alone. What next Maya? How far would you go?
    The fact that
I can’t answer these questions makes me want to retch all over the worn vinyl
of this Pinto wannabe. I notice that both guys are turned in their seats,
looking back at me. Great. Have we just been sitting in silence while I realize
I hardly know my own sister anymore?
    “So, who the
hell are you guys anyway?” I manage.
    “We’re the
Totem,” Bird Brain answers right away.
    I remember
the name from their so-horrible-it’s-actually-good video. I should probably do
the right thing and stifle my laughter. I don’t do the right thing.
    The Asian kid’s
face bunches up with anger. “These monsters, they’re just killing people, and no
one’s doing anything about it!”
    “There are
people doing something,” I correct him. “And you’re getting in our way.”
    “Are you
human?” Bird Brain cuts off whatever the Chainy was going to throw out. His big
brown eyes are serious, and somehow that cuts through my panic giggles.  
     “Through and
through.” I hold up my left hand and show them my palm. No angel seams of doom
Xing through my skin.
     “But
your….sister….” He seems to have trouble with that word.
     “It wasn’t
her fault,” I tell him. “She was changed against her will.” Guilt slugs me in
the gut as I remember that night. If only I’d kept a closer tail on Maya. I’d
thought the campus was safe, that Grand would never be so bold.
    “She said…” These
words seem to be costing Bird Brain something big. “…Buffy said she was on our
side, that she didn’t kill anyone in….” his hands grip his knees, “…in