LEAPING

  Girl With Broken Wings, Book 4

  By J Bennett

  Copyright © 2015 by J Bennett

  All rights reserved

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for third-party websites or their content

  Author’s Note

  Hello awesome reader. I would like to welcome you to LEAPING with either a warm hug or friendly punch in the shoulder, whichever you prefer. You are in for a treat…assuming your idea of a treat involves gun fights, awkward romantic exchanges, more than a little family drama, and Chuck Norris jokes. LEAPING is book four in the GIRL WITH BROKEN WINGS series. If this is the first book you are picking up in the series, I strongly suggest starting at the beginning with FALLING (which is free as an ebook on Amazon).

  If it’s been a while since you’ve read the other books in the series, then you might benefit from a quick refresher. Quite a lot has happened in the series so far. The big events in the previous books continue to influence their thoughts and decisions of the characters in this book. If you are rearing and ready to go, then skip ahead to Chapter One and happy reading. For the rest, here is a quick review that will help you enjoy LEAPING even more.

  The Fox Family

  The living members of the Fox family are Tarren, Gabe, and Maya Fox. The series is written from the perspective of Maya, a 20-year-old hybrid angel who, with her brothers, travels the country hunting and killing angels. Tarren is the stoic one. Gabe is the clown. Maya is a little of both. Her angel abilities allow her to be both extremely empathetic and deadly. She can read emotions in the auras of all living things. Those auras also happen to tempt her endless hunger for energy.

  The Totem

  The Totem is a group of vigilantes that identify themselves with animal monikers. These newbies are just getting into the game and learning as they go with the help of Gabe and Maya’s guidance. The team is led by Bear and includes Penguin, Finch, and Chain (who refuses to adopt an animal totem). We met the Totem at the very end of LANDING and got to know them much better in RISING when they captured Maya and an angel named War. After Maya and War escaped, the Totem eventually saved Maya with the help of Gabe. Currently, Maya and Penguin, real name Rain, are doing an awkward little love dance. There’s a lot of heat coming from those two, but they are both uncertain about the relationship. Maya worries that her hunger is an ever-present danger to Rain.

  Tammy Fox

  Tammy Fox was the twin sister of Tarren Fox. Five years ago, she and Tarren fell into a trap laid by a powerful angel named Grand. According to Tarren’s version of the story, Grand tortured him and turned Tammy into an angel. They were then released and Tammy begged Tarren to kill her. Tarren claims that Tammy is dead…but Maya has her suspicions that Tarren may be hiding a pretty huge secret on that front.

  Diana Fox

  Diana Fox was the biological mother of Tarren, Gabe, and Maya, though she gave Maya up at birth to protect her from the clutches of her biological father, Grand. She was an awesome angel hunter and trained her sons in the art of vigilantism. Diana died of cancer eight years ago, but her presence is still very real in the lives of her two sons. Tarren and Gabe still follow her angel hunting code.

  Grand

  Grand was Maya’s biological father and the angel who turned her into a hybrid. He was one evil dude. He cut up Tarren five years ago, leaving him covered in scars, and also dreamed of creating an angel nation. Maya put an end to all that with a bullet through his brain in LANDING, but his presence still looms large in her psyche.

  Gem

  Grand had one son, Gem, an angel with extraordinary powers. Maya met Gem, her biological half-brother, in RISING. Gem is a master mentalist and took a long tour of Maya’s mind. He knows everything about her and her family, but luckily he isn’t a bad guy…or at least Maya doesn’t think so. Gem leads a scattered movement known as the Angels of Mercy, made up of angels who feed on criminals or the terminally ill. Gem has warned Maya not to hunt his people or she and her family will pay a lethal price.

  Warren

  In the book RISING, Maya met an angel named Warren who more often goes by War. That pretty much sums him right up. War is not a nice fellow. He actively takes pleasure in draining the life out of terrified humans and of turning young, beautiful women into angels, oftentimes against their will. War and his girlfriend Heather seemingly escaped the carnage at the end of RISING and are still on the loose.

  Nicolas

  Nicolas was a handsome and captivating angel who fervently believed that angels really were the powerful creatures ordained in the Bible, Torah, and Koran. He believed that their purpose was to usher in the rapture with the blood of the unworthy sinners (basically all of humanity.) Maya killed Nicolas in RISING.

  Raven

  Raven was a pouty, teenage girl who happened to be staying with her family in a motel room next door to the Fox family in the book RISING. Raven was captured by War and turned against her will into an angel. When Maya met her, Raven was wracked by hunger and devastated by her new state. She slipped away during a fight, and her whereabouts were unknown by the end of RISING.

  Poughkeepsie, NY

  In the novella, COPING, Maya and her brothers tracked an angel named Graham Hendricks all the way to a sprawling farm in Poughkeepsie, New York. On the property loomed an ominous barn. Inside the barn, Maya and her brothers discovered that Hendricks and his friends had been keeping a group of teens and young adults chained up in stables and snacking on them over weeks. The Fox family dispatched the angels, but they couldn’t erase the nightmare experienced by the weak and traumatized human survivors. Among those rescued from the barn were Rain and Chain.

  Peoria, IL

  In RISING, Maya and Tarren traveled to Peoria, Illinois right on the edge of a massive blizzard. While they waded through the snow, searching for a deadly group of angels, Maya was captured by the Totem who mistook her for an enemy angel. She eventually escaped, only to fall into the clutches of the group of angels she and Tarren were tracking in the first place (oops). In this group, she met War, Nicolas, Heather, her biological aunt, Diamond, and her half-brother, Gem. Maya was eventually rescued when Tarren pulled her out of a burning building (suffering a serious burn in the process) and Gabe, now teamed up with the Totem, took on Diamond’s army of new, untried angels. (You can read about Gabe’s side of this adventure in RECOVERING.) The Totem and Foxes were victorious (whoo-hoo!), but many angels, including War and Heather, escaped. LEAPING takes place nine months after the events in Peoria. If you haven’t read RISING, I strongly recommend it. That mission in Peoria was a big turning point, and many of the characters in that book play a role in LEAPING.

  Okay, now that you’re all caught up, let the adventure begin!

  Chapter 1

  “Thar she blows,” Gabe says in his best grizzled pirate’s voice and points out the window at a darkened shop. Tarren eases the jeep into a piss-stinking alley a block away. My phone vibrates with an incoming message, and my heart does a weird skip. As my brothers step out into the night, I quickly slide my phone out of my pocket and glance at the screen.

  Wonder Woman, the message says, and I almost giggle even though I know how dangerous this thing is. This thing between me and Rain. These fluttery, distracting feelings that pull my attention away from our mission.

  Game face, I type back. It’s a code we’ve developed that basically means, Shut up, I’m trying to work.

  A tap at my window has me shoving the phone deep into my pocket. “You coming out to play?” Gabe asks from the other side of the window. In answer, I give him a little wave with my middle finger and slip out of the car.

  The night in Los Angeles is warm and clogged with exhaust. It coats my nostrils, and I try not to gag. This city isn’t just moving – it is a hive of humanness. My sensitive ears pick up the sound of thousands of humming car engines and music and conversations layered on top of each other. I feel the pull of auras as a constant shadow presence. Thanks for existing, Los Angeles. Truly.

  My brothers and I walk single file, faces turned down, shoulders practically brushing the sides of the buildings to our left to keep out of the streetlights. We stop in front of our target. A heavy metal grate protects the doors and darkened windows of the costume shop.

  “Maya,” Tarren says.

  “Yep.” I cast out my special sixth sense, searching for the throb of a human aura. I feel Tarren’s recessed aura, controlled and smooth, and Gabe’s jumpy life energy, swirling and shining.

  Strong, I think with satisfaction. A year ago Gabe’s aura was nothing but the thinnest thread of life, ready to snap in a gust of wind. He’s traveled a long, hard road back to us.

  “Shop is empty,” I say. “I could yank open the grate.”

  “Yeah we know, She-Hulk, but why go for brute force when you can choose style?” Gabe gives me a wide grin as he squats down and crouches over the padded lock that holds the grill in place. His aura pulses with green threads of humor. He loves breaking into things, probably a little too much.

  He digs into his pocket. I expect him to pull out his lock pick kit, but a normal, everyday pen appears in his hand. Twenty seconds later, the lock springs open. Gabe gives a satisfied grunt as he yanks up the grill. Now he reaches into his pocket and pulls out his kit. He starts on the door lock with a rake and tension wrench.

  I stand back with Tarren, and we let Gabe do what he does.

  The second lock clicks, and I can actually see the pleasure travel through Gabe’s aura, a shining green pulse that gently laps out to the edges of the glow around him. Heat kindles in my hands, and I press them into tight fists, letting the wave of need pass.

  “Alarm system inside is active, but I got it,” Gabe says. Headlights pierce the night around us, and we all flatten against the building, faces turned away from the street like it was a coordinated dance move.

  As soon as the car is gone, Gabe opens the door. I follow, and Tarren steps in lightly behind me. His face is in full-on mission mode, which is only a level of intensity higher than his normal default face. The alarm system beeps, and Gabe flips open the interface on the wall next to the front door.

  “Kiddie pool stuff,” he grunts around the flashlight that has appeared in his mouth. “Should have brought my floaties.” He reaches into his duster coat, pulls out a pair of pliers, and begins digging through the wires. “We got any cameras?”

  I look around. The store is creepy as hell, filled with costumed mannequins that stare with blank eyes. They cast willowy shadows across the floor. On the back wall, a handwritten sign says, Smile You’re On Camera, but I don’t see any cameras perched in the corners of the store or glass lenses peeking out from the shelves.

  “I don’t see any,” I say.

  “Nothing in the front,” Tarren confirms, closing the door softly.

  “Then let’s get ready,” Gabe says. “Party’s already started without us. We get dressed and we’ll roll in right when things are picking up. Maya, these guys are players, so, you know, you’ll want to slut things up.”

  “Oh thanks,” I say as I wander through the women’s side of the store. Not like that will be too difficult, since every costume available seems to be made for the slut-on-the-go. Let’s see, we have slutty vampire, slutty witch, slutty police officer, slutty red riding hood, and – Bingo –Wonder Woman. Her costume doesn’t even need a slutty version.

  I wonder again why we don’t all just use one of the uniforms we already have hidden under the floor in the jeep. Sometimes our missions require special access to crime scenes, or we need to appear inconspicuous. My brothers and I have dressed as sheriffs, police officers, termite inspectors, postal workers, and even Mormons on occasion.

  “Okay, I don’t see a single costume here that would cover at least half of my boobs,” I complain as I snatch up a slutty nurse costume and hold it against my frame.

  “I love boobs,” Gabe says from the other side of the shop. I hear him pull down a zipper. Tarren wanders between the racks on quiet steps. “No two pairs are the same,” Gabe muses. “Taking off a girl’s top is like unwrapping a present.”

  “How profound,” I say, as I pull up the lacey white contraption. A short, stiff skirt barely covers my butt cheeks. This nurse won’t be bending over a patient any time soon.

  “And sometimes…they’re a little…” I hear Gabe hopping around, “uneven, and girls are all weird about that, but that doesn’t matter. It just means they’re the real deal. Know what I…damn.” I hear him knock into a shelf. Something hits the ground and squeaks.

  “Careful,” Tarren says, because he just needs to remind us that he’s Tarren every once in a while. I suppose one of us has to hold the serious baton, and Tarren never hesitates to volunteer. If I actually admit it, that’s a damn good thing, especially when success in our world means bullets flying and bodies dropping.

  “I just love boobs,” Gabe says. “How they feel, how they look, how they swing…

  “Gabe, this conversation is beyond inappropriate to be having with your sister,” I tell him as

  I adjust a blonde wig on my head and then slip on a pair of included fishnets. Soft rustling comes from the corner of the store that Tarren occupies.

  “What about you Tarren? You a tit or ass man?” Gabe calls across the store.

  I emerge in the center aisle, carrying my bundled clothes under one arm. Gabe is already preening in a batman costume. Not the slick, Christian Bale version or the nipple-tastic George Clooney take. He’s gone Adam Smith old school, with the flimsy gray fabric and ridiculous underwear over the pants. A plastic yellow utility belt hangs on his hips.

  “Holy stilettos Batman!” he exclaims when sees me. His caramel eyes dance with amusement behind his mask. “Wow, you slut up quite nicely, if you don’t mind my saying.”

  “You’re such a freak,” I tell him.

  “Your face is a freak, Nurse Jackie.”

  “Let’s go,” Tarren says, emerging from the shadows.

  Uh…whoa. His spurs chime with each step, and the tin star pinned to the leather vest beneath his duster glints. A gun belt hangs loose on his hips, and a worn cowboy hat rests in the crook of his elbow. Tarren doesn’t just look the part of gritty cowboy with his sharp jaw and flint eyes, he owns it. The two days of stubble on his chin, a result of our non-stop movement, adds the perfect touch.

  “Oh, I do declare!” Gabe calls out in a high voice and immediately starts fanning himself with a hand. “Sheriff, there’s a band of yella-belly, no-good outlaws approaching. Whatever shall we do?”

  Tarren ignores him and walks out of the store.

  “Even his coat is billowing just right,” I say, and Gabe rolls his eyes.

  “I do the duster coat. That’s my thing,” he complains as he closes the door behind us and pulls down the gate. “Shop owner probably won’t even notice anything amiss until he tries to turn off the alarm,” he says.

  I feel the vibration of another message coming to my phone through the bundle of fabric in my arms and have to stop my hands from instantly digging through my jeans.

  Rain.

  My stomach is doing this thing that’s two parts crazy excitement and two parts something squishy and raw that I hate. Constant anxiety is the price I pay for being friends, more than friends, with the world’s clumsiest vigilante. It was only nine months ago that Rain slipped me his number just before we left Peoria, Illinois, but it feels like we’ve been dancing this clumsy dance far longer.

  The three of us walk single file, keeping close to the shadows of the building, clutching our piles of clothes. Tarren’s spurs chime, and my heels make heavy clopping noises. When we get to the jeep, I slide into the back seat, glance at my brothers, and slowly slip my phone out of my jeans.

  Mission time his text reads. I hold in my sigh as all my nerves go to town throughout my body. I recognize the irony that I feel almost no fear related to the mission I myself am in the midst of, but the thought of Rain struggling to climb on a roof, trying to tail an angel without tripping over his own shoe laces, or missing the kill shot are almost overwhelming.

  I really shouldn’t have asked– okay, maybe demanded – that he tell me each time he went on a mission. Then again, it’s the only way I can breathe the rest of the time.

  With who? I text back. The Totem always mandates partners. I hope it’s Chain. Dude might have some serious anger management issues and probably sleeps nuzzled up against his sniper rifle each night, but he’s a hell of a shot and about as fearless as Tarren.

  Chain and Rattlesnake, the text comes back.

  Rattlesnake? Who the hell is that? I picture a tall, over muscled white guy with a shaved head and a tribal tattoo scrawled across his back. Well, as long as it isn’t Finch. She is almost as inept as Rain. I’m convinced that those two actually create a closed time loop of disaster.

  In the passenger seat, Gabe relays directions to Tarren. We pull into traffic from the alleyway. I keep my head up, phone down by my side as I tap back a response.

  Be safe.

  While I wait the epically long time for Rain to text back, I dig through my purse and glide some tinted lip gloss over my lips. My phone vibrates.

  We can handle this.

  But I can’t, I think sadly. My heart actually hurts to think of goofy, awkward, easy-smiling Rain out in this world, our world, trying to be the dark and violent thing that we all have to be. Every mission is Russian roulette, and he’s been lucky too long.

 

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