Landing Read Free

ambient noise of the highway drowns it out. Both Gabe
and Tarren have taken to using Bluetooth earpieces for all their calls.
    “Whatever. We got some clipped
wings here,” Gabe says. “A day or so out from you. In the mood for any slicing
and dicing?... No, nothing new….Alright. That’s it…. Huh? Yeah, course she’s
here.”
    Green shades swirl into Gabe’s
aura.
    “Bad idea,” he says, and then,
after a pause, “Alright, hold on.” Gabe unbuckles his seatbelt, turns on the
overhead light, and twists around in the seat to stare at me. “Black pants,
white tank top, little clips in her hair. Lots of blood. She was on cavity
search duty tonight. Oh, she’s giving me the finger. I think you pissed her
off.”
    More greens tease into Gabe’s aura
as he listens to Lo’s reply. “I’m gonna have to say your chances are, like,
zero. She’s got standards. So… What?” Gabe turns back into his seat. “No way.
She’s my sister. I’m not asking her that.” He laughs.
    “Hang up the phone,” I say.
    “Dude, she’s already pissed at me,
and she’s got super strength….You think I’m going to cheapen my sister’s
integrity for $50?” His aura jumps as he listens to Lo’s next offer. “Really?
Swear? Don’t lie to me you little punk. Alright. Alright. Hold on. She’s going
to kill me.”
    Gabe peeks up over the seat. In the
light I can see the gold flakes caught up in his brown eyes. Elf eyes.
Trickster grin.
    “Maya, most dearest little sister?”
    “Yes Gabe?” I answer sweetly.
    “Lo would like to inquire as to
your cup size. You know, your bra.”
    “Please tell Lo to go shove his
microscope up his ass,” I say, still keeping my voice sugar, though really I’m
in no mood for these games. I lie down across the backseat and close my eyes
for emphasis.
    “Nah, she’s not going for it,” Gabe
slides back down into his seat. “Told ya. So next time…what? The hell you will!
I asked her. That was the agreement. You owe me $200, and you’d better have—”
    “Hang up the phone!” I yell.
    “Whatever. Tarren could make ten
times that off your mom any day of the week.”
    “Get off the phone,” Tarren says.
His voice is ice. His energy flares, and the skin on my palms splits open.
Quickly, I clasp my hands together and trap them between my legs.
    “Shit,” Gabe pulls the Bluetooth
out of his ear. “Okay that—”
    “This isn’t a joke,” Tarren cuts
off his younger brother. “None of it is. You almost got killed tonight.”
    “It wasn’t that close.”
    “Yes it was.” Tarren’s voice is
hoarse. His energy jumps again, and for a heartbeat the color of his aura is
bleached white. “I can’t…,” he stops himself, and the words hang there between
all of us.
    Softly, Tarren says, “Every mistake
could cost us something we cannot afford to lose.”
    Now it’s Gabe’s aura that spazzes.
Pained reds. It’s a veritable glow-fest up front. Heat pours from my hands as
the bulbs lift out of my palms. I hunch my shoulders. I know this drill
now—know it well—but the hunger still echoes in my brain like a siren’s song.
    “No fair,” Gabe accuses, “using her
words.”
    He can only mean Diana. Their
mother. My mother.
    “Lo didn’t want the body?” Tarren
asks.
    “No.”
    “Then find us a place to bury it.”
    “This is Illinois, take your pick,”
Gabe says, but he lifts the lid on his laptop and clicks to Google Earth. Their
energies are calming down, but I keep my palms tucked between my legs until the
tremors fade.
    ***
    Gabe finds a wide spread of pasture
a couple of exits later. I wipe down the car key, remote, and Cookie Monster
keychain and replace it in the angel’s pocket. We wrap the body in tarp,
obscuring the man’s shape into a blue, oblong mass. A shoulder-high fence rings
the property to keep in a herd of sleepy cows. I lift the body up and over, and
the boys catch it on the other side.
    There’s really only enough room for
two people to dig at a