Silent Heroes: Wildcat

Chapter 50: Flight and Fight

I shifted back into human form and hit the ground running.  By the time Reza had reached me, the feathers and talons were completely gone and my bare feet were stinging on the sunbaked pavement. 

And... I'm not sure who made the first move.  I think it might have been me because Reza had to take a step back, like I had thrown myself at him.  All I knew was that we were suddenly hugging and laughing and spinning in circles like a couple of kids that had eaten too much sugar. 

"Eve, that was so awesome!"

"I know!"

"You kicked ass!"

"So did you, Rez!"

He pushed me back a little, holding me at arms length.  He was giving me a strange look.  One that made it feel like birds were doing swoops and spirals in my stomach—kinda like I had just being doing all over the city.

"You're officially the coolest girl I've ever met."

A blush crept onto my face.  "Thanks, you're not so bad yourself."

Reza stared at me for another second or two.  "Come on."  He grasped my hand, interlacing my fingers with his.  "Let's go see if we can flag down Julian and Isaac."

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It turned out that Julian and Isaac had seen my entire performance from a distance and used it to pinpoint our location.  They met us in human form at the bottom of the parking garage, accompanied by Shane, Deanna, Jewel and Danielle. 

There was no hesitation when they finally saw us.  I found myself in the middle of a mob, people hugging and clapping me on the shoulders and everyone talking all at once.

"Are you guys okay?" Danielle said.  "You really scared us, you know that?"

"Next time, you should really tell someone where you're going," Deanna's words were slightly admonishing.  However, her tone held nothing but relief. 

"Yeah, let's not repeat this," Shane said.

"Eve, I hear you turned into a huge bird!" Jewel said, her voice carrying over the rest of the group.

"You should have seen it, Jewel!" Reza said.  "It was so cool!  She jumped right off the edge of a building!"

"She did what?" Deanna said. 

"Seriously?" Danielle asked.

Neither of them sounded particularly impressed. 

"I didn't really have much choice, guys," I said, attempting to defend myself.  "Kerry and jerk-face were chasing me."

Jewel smacked me on the back of the head. 

"Hey!"

"Eve, you numbskull!"

"I was just-"

"That was pretty reckless of you, Eve," Deanna said.

"But-"

"Did I not advise you against doing that very thing?" Isaac asked me, somewhat sternly.

"Oh, come on, you guys!  It worked, didn't it?"

Jewel smacked me again.  I leaped across Danielle and smacked her back.

"Ow! What was that for?"

"You started it."

"Well, I'm not the one who jumped off a building, you nutcase!"

A door slammed, cutting our conversation short. I looked up to find a middle-aged man in a neatly pressed business suit walk briskly into the parking garage, his teeth clenched and his face bright red.