Chapter 37

Béla was enraged that Jake would come after her with a stake. She was ready to kill him! But even through her rage, she saw him throw the stake away.

Too late, she realized her terrible mistake and desperately reached for altitude, kicking her legs and flailing her wings wildly, then they were both tumbling in the air. She lowered her wings in pain and reformed her arms.

The off-balance impact with Jake had broken her collarbone. It would only be a few minutes before it healed, but that would be a minute too late. She angled her body to intersect with Jake, trying to get to him before they reached the bottom. At least they’d be together. If Jake died because she knocked him over the ledge, she hoped the impact would kill her, too.

Béla got close enough to grab Jake by the leg. His other leg whipped around and hit her in the head, nearly causing her to lose her one-handed grip. With her good arm, and with his help, she managed to climb up his body and embrace him as they fell. The ground was coming up really fast.

“Where are your wings?” he shouted into her ear.

“Broken!” she cried back.

He looked at her with sorrow in his eyes.

“I love you!” he mouthed the words to her.

She nodded. “I know.”

The wind whipped water from her eyes. Was she crying, Jake wondered. He thought he knew. Then he had an idea. It was a desperately slim chance, but it could work!

“Bite me!” he shouted.

“How can you say that!” she screamed at him. “I love you!”

“Don’t be stupid!” he shouted back. “You’re a vampire. Do what vampires do! You need the strength!”

“No!” she screamed.

“Damn you!” he screamed. “You must survive! You’re the only one who can save us both!”

‘You must survive! You are the future hope of both our peoples, ‘ she heard her father’s voice echoing Jake’s words in her mind.

Béla sank her teeth into his neck. As she began to suck, energy filled her body. She could feel her collarbone knitting. She stretched out her arms, flexed her shoulders and felt her wings catch air. Jake hung on madly, dangling from her neck, pulling her head and neck downward and upsetting her balance. They slammed into the hard ground at the bottom of the gorge.

Béla opened her eyes. High above was a narrow blue strip of sky bordered by two enormous cliffs. The sun was barely concealed behind one of the high cliff faces.

‘That looks familiar. I’ve been here before, ‘ she thought, her mind wandering lazily.

She felt pressure on her right arm and looked down to find that it was twisted behind her back. When she moved she could feel bone grating painfully against bone in her upper arm. She tried to look behind her newly broken shoulder and realized her wings were still formed

‘My wings! They’re broken!’ she realized painfully.

She forced her shoulders forward, one at a time, crying out as bone grated painfully against broken bone in each of her shoulder sockets. But her wing structure, even as smashed up as it was, finally folded down and retreated into her body. She breathed a sigh of relief as she felt her fragile webbing start to heal as it lay against her ribs and shoulder blades beneath her torn flesh.

She flexed her hands and wrists, realizing that several digits in her hands had been broken in their extended state, and hadn’t quite returned to their normal position when they became forearms and hands again. Not knowing exactly how to fix them, she just kept pressing and pulling on her wrist and fingers until they finally ‘felt’ right and had their normal flexibility.

After a few minutes of self-inspection, she heard a soft moan from nearby and suddenly realized she wasn’t alone. She looked around, the movement causing considerable discomfort in her right shoulder. ‘This won’t heal if I don’t straighten it out, ‘ she thought, touching and probing her dislocated shoulder with her other hand.

She lay down on her arm and pulled up with her shoulder, crying out in pure agony as the bone in her upper arm and her shoulder socket pulled apart then snapped back together. Immediately, she felt better. She looked around to see where the other moaning was coming from.

“Jake!” she exclaimed, shocked. “What are you doing here?” Then memories of her last few minutes flooded into her mind.

“Oh, God!” she cried. “Jake!”

She remembered striking the canyon floor and flipping over several times, shredding her wings on the rocks as she bounced. Jake had been beneath her on the initial impact.

‘He cushioned my fall! God! I landed on him! I crushed him!’

“Oh, Jake!”

In an instant, Béla was kneeling beside him. There was a pool of blood underneath his head. His ears were bleeding and he was coughing up blood. From the pain he was radiating, she could tell his lungs were punctured from his crushed ribcage and he probably had a concussion, and other internal injuries, as well.

‘Jake is dying!’ she realized fearfully. Tears flooded her eyes. She pounded his shoulder.

“Jake! Don’t you die!” she screamed, “You can’t die!” Tears flowed freely down her face.