Fallen Angel: Bird-Like
by Ghost
Ghost had stopped running a long time ago; she could tell Angel wasn’t on her trail yet. She didn’t know how she knew, so she figured it must be some magick-thing.

The girl turned into an alley, pushing her hair out of her face and pondering over the events of the past week. Angel and his friends were nice enough, sure- Lorne was even a little too nice. But Angel could see far more than Ghost would have liked, and she couldn’t talk about it. Not yet.

The alley was a dead-end, but Ghost’s navy eyes scanned over a fire-escape ladder that led to a window a few feet below the roof of the tall building. Jumping to the top of a dumpster so she could reach the ladder, the girl clambered up the device, and wondered what she would do to scale the remaining few feet of wall once she had reached the top.

She wedged a foot into the crack between the window pane and the stone wall, and pushed herself up, quickly finding a hand hold. Groaning as she lifted her slight weight, she thought back to a few years ago, and wished she had now what she did then. Shuddering at the memory, Ghost tried to clear her mind as she nearly lost her foothold.

Finally, panting, Ghost rolled over onto roof, her borrowed jacket getting smeared with soot. It was probably getting all over her hair, too. Disgusted with herself for thinking of something so trivial as that, Ghost got to her feet and walked a few paces before she noticed the presence behind her.

“That was fairly slow for you, I should think,” She commented dryly, turning to see Angel’s worried figure peering at her. “With your vampire senses and all.”

“I thought you might fall back there,” Angel said. “I’m actually surprised you made it. Why? Why the roof?”

“I like heights,” she told him, thinking it was fairly safe. Didn’t give away anything important. She turned away and kept walking, and though she couldn’t hear Angel’s footsteps, she knew he was following. Ghost stopped by the edge, and sat down, dangling her legs off the side. Cars zoomed by on the road far below, speeding to their destinations without stopping to take a look around them. Not that cars could literally do that.

“I know what you’re going to say,” Ghost said as Angel opened his mouth to speak, sitting next to her. “You’re going to say you can’t let me stay out here, because it’s too dangerous.”

“Got a little mind-reading thing going for you?” The vampire asked, trying to see past her hair to her face.

“No,” she replied, nearly smiling. “You’re just kind of predictable.”

“Predictable.” That was one thing Angel had never thought about, but now that he did, he realized it was true. “But wouldn’t it be nice to read minds, when the situation made it necessary?”

Looking up from her downward gaze, Ghost’s face set itself into the customary glare, directed- as usual- towards Angel. She knew he was thinking that with proper training, she could gain the power he had spoken of. “Don’t think you can bribe me into going back with you,” she told him curtly. “I’m not that desperate.”

“You sure about that?” Angel asked, trying to keep Ghost’s gaze on his face. “Really, are you?”

Looking slightly embarrassed, the girl ran a hand through her hair, looking off to the side. “No. No, I’m not.” Ghost, her voice shaking, was terrified at her own words; they were the first step to telling him- everything. She was afraid that if she started, she wouldn’t be able to stop. She had already started, though, so she could only hope Angel wouldn’t ask any more questions.

No such luck. “So, what is that bracelet?” he asked, gently touching her arm. She raised it, the sleeve falling back to reveal the silver metal.

“I’m not exactly sure.” It wasn’t a complete lie. “I don’t know what it’s for.” Now that was. Deciding to answer the question she knew was coming, Ghost added, “I didn’t want to tell you about because, well, I just had a bad feeling about it.” That was also a lie, but from the look on Angel’s face, it appeared that he believed her.

Breaking their conversation, a rare sight flew by: an owl. So strange to see an owl here. Angel winced as the bird flew into a window, below them on the building. Ghost gave out a little gasp, and, outstretching her arm, whispered ‘No!’

The fall of the animal was broken by an invisible force that Angel knew to be Ghost’s doing. The owl slowly floated up to them, the magick releasing it to fall in Ghost’s lap. The girl gazed in despair at the beautiful being, then jumped as it moved in her arms. She smiled, seeing that it had just been stunned, not killed. Lifting it up to her face, she noticed that Angel was amazed the bird did not strike out at her. It ‘whooed’ softly, shaking its wings, and Ghost pushed it into the air. It soared smoothly off into the night.

“Be careful, little one, don’t want to lose that gift of wings,” Ghost said out loud, before remembering Angel was there. She glanced nervously at him. He was giving her an odd look, but he still didn’t understand. Good.

After the relief of him not knowing entered her mind, Ghost terrified herself as her lips began to move, speaking five words that she hadn’t meant to say at all.

“I used to have wings.” A stunned silence followed. Leaping up from her spot, Ghost nearly lost her balance, but steadied herself and ran, faster than she had earlier that evening. She leaped a few feet to another building’s roof in her adrenaline, and ran on.


There was no need for Ghost’s running- Angel sat there stunned for quite a while after the girl had left. She’d had wings? Had she meant literally, or- or- something else? No, she had definitely meant it literally.

Slowly standing up, Angel thought about what that might mean. There was so much more he didn’t know about Ghost, and this tiny piece only gave him more questions- an overused phrase, he realized as he thought it, but it was true nonetheless.

Sniffing the air, Angel strode off over the roofs, tracking Ghost’s scent. It led over wide gaps that Angel, of course, had no trouble getting over, but would hamper a normal person’s travels. Ghost must have been truly afraid, to do that. He could smell the fear, but it didn’t taste quite so strong.

After he had covered a mile or so of distance, Ghost’s smell became much stronger; he was catching up. It led down another fire escape ladder, and then joined with three other scents- vampires.

Angel began to run, knowing he had to protect the girl, had to get there in time, hoping that he would. He heard noises from an alley to his left, and turned in to see Ghost cornered by the three vampires, pressed into the wall. One of the beasts lunged forward and grabbed the girl by the arm, his fangs sinking into Ghost’s neck.

In the instant it would have taken Angel to get to her, to stake all three vampires in his anger, something happened. Blue light emanated from Ghost, pushing the vampire away to tumble into one of his companions. Angel cried out and covered his eyes with an arm. The instant the light faded, he ran at the vampires and swiftly dusted them all. He watched the ashes fall to the ground, and then turned to face-

“G-Ghost? Is... is that- you...?” Angel’s mouth hung open in disbelief, and he blinked hard a few times, but the picture in front of him did not change. A small hawk with deep blue feathers stood there where Ghost had been seconds before, hopping from foot to foot and shaking its wings. Dropping to his knees, Angel leaned forward to wrap his hands around the bird- not surprisingly, it remained calm, and blinked navy eyes at him.

“Oh my god,” Angel whispered.

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