It takes only a week before I know that I never want to lose Luciana.
The thought strikes me as I look up at her from where I’m lying on the ground, covered in mud after the pig that I’d been trying to shepherd toward the barn had barreled me over. She’s laughing heartily, clutching her stomach as the clear, beautiful sound rings out around the field, and she’s beautiful.
I want to see her laugh for the rest of our lives.
“Thanks,” I said, deadpan, shoving all other thoughts to the back of my mind for now; I can think more about it later. “Are you going to keep laughing at me, or help me up.”
Still snickering, Luciana offers me a hand, which was her first mistake. I clasp it, holding on for a moment as I feel the warmth of her palm. And then I yank her into the mud beside me.
She yells out in shock as she falls, but doesn’t have enough time to catch herself. The mud is particularly slimy today after a brief shower the previous night, she looks up at me with a glare, globs of wet dirt on her cheek.
“Seriously?” she growls. “Well, since you like the mud so much…”
She picks up a handful of it and dumps it straight over my hair. I sputter and shake it off, making her laugh and scramble backwards as flecks fly everywhere. We’re both filthy now, which means we’ll need to wash before we even think about doing anything else, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. It doesn’t help that thoughts of joining Luciana in the shower immediately fly through my mind, bringing with it images of wet, silken skin and drops of water that fall down, down, down her long, lithe body…
I hear someone clearing their throat and my thoughts immediately snap back to the present, yanking my mind away from the sultry images as I feel my pants tighten. I cough and then Luciana and I look up.
Dane is standing there, looking disapproving.
“Dane,” I say. “What are you doing here?”
Dane scowls.
“Did you forget about the delivery pick up?” he demands.
My eyes widened. Shit, I completely forgot. Once a month, I travel to the nearby city to pick up supplies that we can’t get in the small valley. As I’m the only one between us who can drive, the job inevitably falls to me. Normally, I don’t mind the chance to go to the city and explore civilisation for a day, but today is different. Today, I have Luciana, and I had promised her my help.
However, there’s not much I can do. After all, I’m the only one who can do the supply run.
Seeing the indecision on my face, Dane sighs, aggravated.
“What are you doing tomorrow?” he grumbles.
“I was going to help Luciana with some things here, and she was going to show me her studies on the poison,” I say.
Dane’s eye twitches, as it always does when he’s particularly upset.
“Is it something I can do?” he asks Luciana, reluctance clear in his voice.
“Well, yes, but you don’t have to if you don’t want to,” Luciana says, smiling at him.
I roll my eyes when he doesn’t smile back.
“Warwick won’t go if he thinks he’s depriving you,” he sighs. “I’ll call them and tell them we’ve been delayed a day. I’ll come over here and help out while you’re in the city.”
Regardless of how antisocial and sour he can be at times, Dane truly is an amazing brother. I smile thankfully at him.
“Sounds great,” I agree.
“Only if you’re sure,” Luciana adds.
Dane grumbles something under his breath and stalks away. Luciana and I look at each other and then swiftly look away, not wanting to dissolve into giggles while he was in earshot.
“We should probably clean up,” Luciana says, standing and futilely trying to brush mud off her pants.
“You go have a shower first,” I say. “I’ll get the pig.”
“Are you sure?” Luciana asks.
“The quicker you go, the quicker you can see my surprise,” I say with a smile.
She laughs and heads back to the farmhouse. I watch her go until she disappears inside. I feel bad for letting Dane down, even though the issue was easily fixed, but I’ve got a very important afternoon promised to Luciana today.
It’s been just over a month since we met, now. The weeks have slid by, and I honestly can’t remember the last time I felt this happy. When I don’t see or speak to Luciana for a day, I find that I miss her, and that tells me, more than anything, that this is it for me. There will never be another like Luciana in my life, and I don’t want there to be.
That’s why I’ve planned this afternoon, to finally show her a part of myself that I’ve been holding back for some time. I smile as I turn back to the paddock, ready to chase down the pig once more.
It takes us several hours to clean up and finish the chores. As mid-afternoon hits, Luciana picks up the backpack we’ve packed with a smile. Somehow, along the way, we’ve started associating picnics with dates, and the backpack holds our late lunch today.
“Where are we heading?” she asks as she locks her door.
“I’ll drive us there,” I grin.
It isn’t a long drive, but neither of us wanted to toil several miles when we could easily drive it. Five minutes later, I reach a tall hill that plunges steeply over the other side, overlooking the bushland.
“Up to the top?” Luciana asks as she turns her face up and shields her eyes from the sun.
“All the way up,” I laugh. “It’s good exercise.”
I grab the bag before she can reply and head off, hearing her fall into step behind me seconds later. I’m excited and nervous. I don’t know how she’s going to look at me after this. It’s one thing for her to know that I’m not exactly human, and for her to see small parts of me that prove it. What I’m going to show her today, though, is a massive part of myself.
“So?” Luciana asks as we reach the top and I set the bag down. “Why did we come all the way up here?”
“Actually, I wanted to show you something,” I say, turning to look at her. “I know we’ve spoken a lot, recently, about what it means to be a phoenix. You’ve felt how heated my body is, and I even turned my hand into a talon when we took blood, remember?”
“Yes…” she says slowly, giving me a questioning look.
“There’s more I want to show you,” I reply quietly.
I unbutton my shirt and shrug it off. Dane and I are lucky that we’re able to hide our wings, tucking them away beneath our skin until we need to use them, because it helps us merge among the humans, only our increased temperature giving us away.
But, today, I want to show them. I close my eyes and concentrate, feeling something behind me unfurling carefully, each feather straightening and flaring out. I can’t hear anything from Luciana, and I don’t dare open my eyes as, bit by bit, my wings come into being.
Only when they reach their full span do I hear a little gasp from Luciana, and I open my eyes. She’s staring at my wings in awe, no fright or disgust on her face. I glance to the side. It’s been so long since I’ve seen my own wings, due to how dangerous it is. They gleam in the sunlight, yellows, reds and oranges glittering over them until they look like dancing flames every time I shift.
“Amazing,” Luciana breathes. “They’re beautiful, Warwick. Do you stretch them out often?”
“Not as much as I would like,” I say, relaxing; I’m more pleased than I can say by her reaction. “It’s too dangerous.”
She looks up sharply. “Is it dangerous now?”
“We’ve been at peace for years, Luciana; only those poachers have found us,” I assure her. “If the Supernaturals were going to find us, they would have already done so.”
Dane would say I’m being reckless. But I’m fairly confident now, in our safety. It’s been so long since we settled down in Mundaring. Nothing is going to happen to us.
“Can I…?” Luciana asks, gesturing to the wings.
“You can touch them,” I say encouragingly.
Luciana steps forward, reaching out to gently brush her fingers down my left wing. The light touch of her fingers makes a shiver down my spine that surprises me. I didn’t know my wings were that sensitive. Or perhaps it’s just her touch that does it.
“They’re soft,” she says quietly, moving her hands further down. “Can they hold you?”
“My bone structure is a little different than yours,” I reply. “And my wings are strong. I can fly with them.”
There’s awe in her eyes. And, seeing the amazement and warmth on her face, the words leave my mouth before I can think more about it.
“I could carry you, too.”
Her head jerks up. For a moment, I wonder if I’ve gone too far. But then a smile spreads wide across her face.
“Can you?” she breathes.
In response, I step back. I hadn’t planned to fly today. Dane will be incredibly upset. But I need to. There’s no way I can refuse Luciana this, not now that I’ve put the offer on the table. I flare my wings wide.
“You’ll need to hold on,” I say, reaching out for her.
She steps willingly into my arms, her curves fitting perfectly into my body. For a single moment, I imagine what it would be like to stay here like this forever, holding her close and savouring the feelings that sweep me.
Then I wrap my arms around her as she loops her arms around my neck, and hold her as securely as I can. I have no intention of going too high or fast with a passenger, but that doesn’t mean it would be okay to drop her.
“Ready?” I murmur into her ear.
“Ready,” she says, breathless.
I start to flap my wings, slow, powerful beats that stirs the ground around us and makes the grass rustle. Luciana’s arms tighten as, carefully, we lift off the ground.
It’s been a long time since I’ve done this, but that doesn’t mean I’ve forgotten. As a young phoenix, learning to fly was only secondary to learning to walk. Once, before the threat of the Supernaturals came into our lives, I spent my days swooping through forests, daring myself to go faster and faster without hitting any trees.
Flying after so long feels like coming home, and it’s even more perfect that I have Luciana with me, her breath on my neck as she looks down at the ground we’re slowly leaving behind.
“This is amazing!” she gasps. “You can really fly?”
“You thought I was joking?” I ask with a laugh.
She looks up at me.
“No,” she says. “But there’s so much about the world that I just didn’t know about, Warwick. Even though I travelled the world and did my best to help people, there’s an entire community, now. That would have stayed hidden to me for the rest of my life if it wasn’t for my father leaving me his property. How is it possible that it remains unseen?”
“We make it that way,” I say. “Because there are people in the world that would use our powers for greed and power, and those that would hunt us like dogs because we’re different. We can’t take that risk. So, we hide, and almost no one thinks to look for us.”
She sighs and lays her head on my shoulder. We’re several feet over the ground now and I hover there as we look down at the countryside, which seems so much smaller all of a sudden.
“I wonder how my father found it,” she says. “He was out here for almost as long as I knew him. How did he know to start his farm?”
“I don’t know,” I admit. “And, knowing what I do about the farm, I wonder if he knew about us. He never came looking for the escaped phoenix creature, almost as though he knew it was safe.”
I think of the old man that once lived across the road. Dane and I kept our distance, but he had always been friendly. When Luciana smiles, I can see how she was related to him, and it’s strange to me to realise that I probably knew her father better than she did.
Then Luciana shifts, and I feel her eyelashes against my skin as she closes her eyes.
“Thank you for showing me,” she says.
I smile down at the top of her head. She has no idea just how special she is to me, not yet. But, one day, I hope I can tell her.