Chapter 18

"Louisiana?" Omar, the cabbie said distractedly, cutting off a Toyota and another taxi to make the light. "My wife's been itching to go there since her sister took her to see that play on Broadway. A Car Named Tire or Fire or something."

Hand sweaty from the death grip I had on the door, I wiped my palm on the skirt of my dress and made sure my seatbelt was secure. Omar would give Eric a run for his money in reckless driving but at least Eric had the reflexes to not kill us.

"A Streetcar Named Desire?"

"Yeah, yeah. That's the one!"

Eyes wide as saucers as we careened past a UPS truck, narrowly missing it by inches, I gulped down a mouthful of air before saying, "Ya'll should come visit. We're nothing if not hospitable and we sure could use the tourism."

"You know what? I just might do that for her birthday." He said, grinning at me in the rear view mirror.

I gave him a big old smile and a thumbs up. What a sweet guy.

Eyes back on the road, he asked, "So how long you in New York for?"

"Two more days," I sighed, staring out the window. It was a beautiful morning in a beautiful city and I'd only been here for three days, but I was already homesick. I missed Gran and Hunter something awful. Oh, who am I kidding? I missed Eric too. I hadn't seen him in what felt like forever and even our phone calls and text messages were slowing to a crawl.

"You here by yourself?"

It was a harmless question but years of paranoia had me lowering my shields to see if he had an ulterior motive.

Nice girl. Nice tits too. Probably a wannabe actress or model. Too bad. Girl's gonna get eaten alive in this town.

My heart skipped a beat. Was that figurative?

"Nope, here with my dad and his girlfriend!" I replied, a little too cheerfully.

Just a tourist then. Rich gir - What the fuck is that!? Holy fu-

I followed his line of sight to see what had him so alarmed. A dark figure, something that resembled a person, was free falling from the top of the Chrysler building less than half a block away. Jesus Christ, Shepherd of Judaea!

I wanted to do something to help but there was nothing I could actually do. I couldn't even pick up my cell to dial for help because my eyes were riveted to the tragedy that was about to befall the falling person. Cars were honking behind us, others were cutting us off, drivers were yelling out their windows, life was continuing on as usual, but nothing seemed to register to either of us. We just looked on in horror, shock, and morbid fascination.

Just as the figure was about to hit the pavement, something swept down from what seemed like out of nowhere and snatched the person away. It all happened, from start to finish, in under eight seconds. My eyes tried desperately to track their movements, but what I saw couldn't possibly be true because it looked like-

"An angel! Did you fucking see that?! He flew down from the Heavens and saved her right before she went splat!" Omar exclaimed exuberantly.

"But angels don't exist." I said woodenly.

"Yeah? Well, tell that to the vampires!" he replied, still shouting in his excitement.

~oOo~

It was an hour to nightfall by the time I finally made it back to the hotel.

Apparently, Omar and I weren't the only ones to witness the phenomenon and within seconds, 42nd and Lexington was bombarded with people who must've decided unanimously that they'd ditch their cubicles to catch a glimpse of the "Angel". They swarmed onto the streets, stopping traffic but most of the cars that were still there, like ours, were there because they saw what happened. Within minutes, reporters and news helicopters arrived, further congesting the already clogged streets. The cops showed up almost half an hour later, adding to the pandemonium and taking statements from anyone who wasn't quick enough to drive off. To my confusion and frustration, my taxi driver was more than willing to stay put - Omar, it turned out, was a devoutly religious Catholic.

"Yes, Gran, I'll call you the second I find out what happened."

"Alright, sweetie. You take care of yourself out there."

"I will. Love you, Gran."

"I love you too, Sookie. Bye now," she said before hanging up the phone.

I still had my cell to my ear when, less than a second later, I heard Gran dialing someone's number.

"Maxine! You will not believe-"

"Gran? Gran, it's still me, Sookie. I'm sorry, I'll hang up now," I said, trying to hold back a giggle.

"Oh dear," Gran replied, sheepishly.

This time, I hung up first.

Stomach rumbling, I looked across the sitting area at Trey, Daddy and Pam's bodyguard, and asked, "Room service?"

Never one to waste his words, Trey shook his head and said, "Ate," he hesitated a moment before asking, "angel?"

As a werewolf, he definitely heard both sides of Gran and my conversation but I guess even someone prone to monosyllabic conversations wasn't immune to something as implausible as angels flying around in Manhattan.

"That's what they're calling it," I replied, flipping through the menu.

"Wings?"

Attention focused on my late dinner, for a second I thought he was telling me to order buffalo wings. "Hmm? Oh, I'm not sure. It moved faster than a vampire so I couldn't get a look good at it. I'm sure it'll be up on YouTube soon if it isn't already."

I heard Trey moving, no doubt in search of a laptop or iPad, but I was already ordering my dinner. Seconds after I hung up, the seat next to me dipped on the sofa. I looked over and saw that Trey did indeed find an iPad and that someone really did upload a slowmo video of the incident. The quality was shit - time stamped like a security footage - but clear as day, just as the woman was about to "go splat" to quote Omar, someone flew up and swept her away.

"Wings," Trey confirmed with a satisfied nod.

I studied the freeze frame shot of the hero. Whattaya know, sprouting from the back of his suit were two enormous, downy white wings.

~oOo~

I have no idea if what happened in New York was the catalyst for what happened next but, within weeks strange occurrences were reported all over the country.

Two days after I returned to Louisiana, a group of high school students and commuters in New York waiting for the N train in Dekalb Station saw a woman jump down onto the tracks and disappear into the tunnel. They alerted MTA workers who then halted all incoming trains for two hours. They didn't find hair nor hide of said woman.

A week later in Chicago, a man jumped from the top of the Sears Tower but no body was ever found. Some claim they saw another angel save him and soar into the clouds. Others swear the ground opened up and swallowed him whole. No video made it onto YouTube.

In Indiana, less than twenty four hours after the Chicago incident, a school bus full of elementary school children on their way to school started screaming at the same time. After the bus driver pulled over and checked on everyone, they claimed to have collectively witnessed a three headed dog chasing a fairytale princess into a corn field.

After Indiana, reports started coming in almost daily on the news about other bizarre sightings around the United States. Some could be explained, like the streaker in Colorado who turned into a wolf and disappeared into the forest, or the sixteen year old girl who clawed her way out of her grave.

Then there were the ones that no one, not even the Supes I knew, had an answer to. The one that freaked me out the most and scared the Bejebus out of me happened two nights ago in Las Vegas. A pair of elderly tourists who were out on their balcony swore up down, left and right that they saw a man's face morph into someone else as he walked to the parking lot of their motel. At their gasp, he looked up, stared straight into their eyes and grinned before getting into his car and driving off. The creepy part? When he grinned, his face flashed and they saw a skull instead.

A/N: *cue Jack Nickelson's The Shining voice* I'm baaaacckkkk. This is a drive by post. Super duper short, transitional chapter. You may have already noticed but I am shit at pacing and plotting. And, since I'm an impatient biznatch and wanted to get the meat of the story out ASAP so I can finally get to some Eric Sookie Nookie, you get this POS of a chapter. #sorrynotsorry #weallwantESN