Digital Angel II - Training Day

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Part I

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The first thing that Erik taught her was how to hide her wings.

“Just breathe,” he said, and she followed the path of his rhythm. Inhale, straighten her back. Exhale, relax into herself. Focus on her heart, the source of it all. Inhale, exhale, repeat.

A few minutes passed, and the copper on her back took on a translucent form. As the metal faded to a soft glow, she absorbed the light through her skin.

When she looked in the mirror, she saw a very tired, very dirty, very normal looking girl.

Scrutinizing her reflection as she twisted to the side, she checked for any signs that the wings were still showing. Nothing. She laughed.

“I look terrible!”

“You know, you're one of the lucky ones,” Erik said, his tone turning somber. “Your doctor actually knows what's going on in the world. I heard a story about a girl in Peru who spent three days in a hospital trying to stop her wings from growing. They nearly cut her open with a scalpel.”

Chills ran up Sophie's spine and landed in her shoulder blades with a sharp twinge. She closed her eyes and reached back, rubbing the soft knot where the metal was starting to solidify again.

Memories that weren't hers rushed through her mind. She felt it all. Cold. Alone. Afraid. Filthy sheets on the bed and soft voices whispering just out of range.

When she opened her eyes to brush her hair out of her face, she was surprised to see it was brown and not black. She met Erik’s eyes, searching a face that gave nothing away.

“How did it happen for you?”

“I figured it out for myself.” He frowned. “You really do look like a mess. You can go take a shower. I promise I won't steal anything.”

She nodded. He didn't want to talk about it. That was fine, she could wait. People always opened up to her sooner or later, and his golden wings didn’t make him any less human.

“You better not,” she said, glancing behind her shoulder on her way to the bathroom. “Or else I'll report you to whoever’s in charge of these things.”

“Good luck with that.”

His voice was bright with amusement, and a spark of happiness floated across and landed on her cheek. Again the wings twitched, this time with no pain. She turned her face to hide her smile as she walked away.

When she returned, he was sitting on her bed with her laptop, playing one of her videos. He paused it, looking up without a trace of guilt.

“Maybe I should have told you not to invade my privacy either.”

“I was curious. You never did tell me who you were. Sophie Marquette, Positive Vibes Expert.” He raised two fingers to his forehead in a mock salute and grinned. “You're not half bad at it.”

Her face flushed at his tone. She arched her shoulders back, but the copper she wanted to flash in his face didn't make an appearance. Her fingers twitched as she tried not to clench her teeth. Those things really did have a mind of their own.

“Not half bad?” She raised her chin as she spoke. Maybe she didn’t understand whatever supernatural forces were at play here, but this was something she knew. “It's what I was meant to do. I started out doing makeup tutorials, and I wasn't half bad at it either, but I had more fun responding to comments. I lost interest in the products I was supposed to be promoting, so I just stopped talking about them.” She shrugged. “People kept watching.”

He nodded, and opened his mouth. She didn't give him the chance to respond.

“And what about you, guy from the internet with the fancy gold name? Is that real?”

He laughed in the face of her challenge and her shoulders relaxed. She stretched her arms out behind her head to relieve the tension and sat next to him.

“It is my real name, legally.” He shrugged. “But the work I did before was as Erik Johanssen, if that's what you're really asking.”

Her eyes widened as she began to understand how he had gotten those golden wings. Everyone knew that name, the mystery author behind Seven Day Success and Eight Steps to Freedom. His ideas had been a cornerstone of self-development discussions for years, he must have started when he was barely twenty.

“You know, people think you're an old man who went to retire on a private island with all the money you made from those books.”

Erik looked away, running his fingers through his his hair. “It's probably better that way. They take me more seriously.” A hint of sharpness cut through his laugh. “I showed up at your door when you wished for it and you still needed convincing. The last thing I want is to be dissected in the public eye.”

“Well superstar, let's see what you're made of.” She took her computer from him and set it on her lap. “Tell me what I'm supposed to do with this.”

“For now?” He closed the lid, leaving the plastic case to rest uselessly on her legs. “Ignore it. That's not what you need to use."

He brought his legs up onto the bed, crossing them in front of himself, and turned to face her. She copied his posture, setting the laptop aside.

“Close your eyes.”

She did, and his fingertips brushed across her her eyelids, past her temples, tracing the curves of her cheekbones to the corners of her lips before moving up the sides of her nose to rest in the middle of her forehead. His hands were cool to the touch, and her breathing slowed as she began relax into them.

He was humming, so softly she could barely hear it, but her wings took notice. Warmth spread through her back as the light started to show, and her spine straightened reflexively to bear the weight as it solidified into metal.

The copper stretched out to find its way home. She followed the pulse of colors, and soon she was in a room. No, she was in her room, the space she had filled with her creations. Walls of sunlight splashes and black eyelash feathers shaped themselves around her core, filtering the thoughts that flowed through her domain.

Smooth mercury floated across the air in front of her, and she reached out to it. It took formation, nearly solid and supple to the touch, as she connected to the pulsing activity of her latest video.

All of the thoughts blurred together. Too much, too fast. She took a sharp breath, straining to make something out.

“Relax.”

The word felt so distant. She turned, trying to find the source, but it dissipated with the fading sound.

She let the voice go as the liquid pearl in her hand drew her forward.

It embraced her, running up her bare arms and sending wisps across her neck that curled down her collarbones toward her chest. Emotion blended with sensation as she connected to the energy her viewers had left behind.

You’re so pathetic. Do you really think anyone cares? Here's some real motivation for you. Kill yourself.

The mercury solidified, and angry gunmetal pierced through Sophie's heart. She gasped for breath, but the air was all gone.

She twisted away, trying to push the spikes back. They responded by digging in deeper. Panic rose inside of her as tendrils shot out and raced toward her wings, snaking around the copper to leave a trail of barbed wire in their wake.

Her ears swelled with waves of blood and she couldn't hear her own scream. Cold hands ran up her neck, grabbing hold of her hair and twisting it hard.

Her eyes snapped open. Sunlight flooded her vision and she collapsed forward onto Erik's chest. She pressed her face against his steady heartbeat as he released her hair from his grasp, stroking it back into place. When he broke the silence, his voice was flat.

“I guess I forgot to mention that there’s a war going on.”

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