Free Death Takes Wing by Amber Hughey

him here.  Gabe called someone to come fetch him.”
    “Let me grab my things,” she said with a sigh as she stared at the floor, starting to feel a little shakey from the lack of adreneline, “and I need to clean up the mess.”
    Matt waved a hand at her.  “Go pack.  Cleaning stuff under the sink?”  After she nodded, he continued, “I’ll clean up.  Least I can do, since it’s partly my blood.”  He finished with a slight teasing grin, letting her know that he wasn’t too pissed at her having sliced his cheek open.  Luckily for him, it wasn’t deep enough to do anything but bleed for a few minutes.  Within the time she’d spent arguing with Gabriel, the wound was already nothing but a thin scar that would soon disappear.  The blood, however, would take some soap and water to vanish.
      She’d call her neighbor tomorrow and make sure Kohl was taken care of.  She made sure she left enough food that it should last him a week, but knowing him, it’d be gone in a couple days.
    After packing enough clothes for a couple nights, she met him outside the front door and called to Lucy.  He looked at her, questioningly.
    “I’m not leaving Lucy behind,” she said defensively.
    He gave a shrug and walked towards his car, a mid-sized SUV.  “No problem.  Backyard’s fenced in.  I used to have a rat terrier, so if Boingo couldn’t get out, neither can she.” 
    She gave him a grateful smile that he hadn’t argued about Lucy, followed him, and paused.  “You drive?”  She sounded a bit surprised.  When Gabriel had offered to drive her home last night, she’d blithely assumed that he had a driver, not that he drove himself.  She couldn’t unravel how they could drive with those wings in the way, and Donovan hadn’t either, in the few weeks he’d had his own wings.
    “How else are we supposed to get anywhere?  Not all of us can afford chauffeurs, you know,” he replied, unlocking the doors, and opening a back door for Lucy.  He looked at the car, wondering if he could get into it without smearing or dripping blood all over the leather seats.  Even though the wound had healed, his shirt was still covered.  Looking at the seats, then at his shoulder, red with drying blood, he seriously doubted that possibility, and then grimaced as he didn’t look forward to cleaning the interior.
    She looked at his wings, then back at the car.  “No clue, but I really want to know how you fit the wings in the car.”
    He grinned at her, showing off even, white teeth.  “Very carefully.”
    She smiled back and climbed in.  She watched him carefully climb in the driver’s seat.  As he said, he carefully sat down, ruffling his wings to rearrange the feathers.  She realized that the back of the seat was very low-it barely came up past the small of his back, and his wings curled around it.  He looked at her amazement at the different seat before starting the car.  “Can’t use a car with regular seats, at least, not without a shitload of discomfort, but one that’s been modified for wings is no problem,” he told her lightly.
    “So,” she said as he drove down the driveway and onto the deserted road, “Why does Gabriel think I’ll be safe with you?”
    “Because people won’t connect Gabriel and me, not in a personal manner, at least,” he replied, glancing at her before wiping the drying blood off his cheek.  It clung to his cheek and smeared.  “We work together, but strictly in a professional manner.  Most angelus, solan and umbren alike, seem to think that I’m working for him because I can’t get another job.”  He gave a brittle laugh, “As if I’d want to work for most of the solan asses who’ve tried to hire me.  They don’t connect us as actually being friends, what with us being different races.”
    She stared at him, trying to make out his features in the dim light of the dashboard.  “Aren’t you umbren?”  She could see the shiny blood, glittering in the