Swooped | ✓

Chapter 36: A Feather in One's Cap

Milo nodded, and I hopped off his lap so he could spin around, fingers clacking on the keyboard until the screens filled with various crime scene and morgue pictures. Geoff squeaked in shock at the pictures of dead bodies on the screen, but Gia was silent, eyes just narrowing. Lark had already seen them and looked at them with a heavy sigh, and Milo simply frowned, pushing back from the edge of the table to make room so I could fall back into his lap.

"What the hell is he? I'm assuming... it is a he? Or, was a he?" Gia said, tapping her manicured nails on her knee, glancing at me. I just nodded, a heavy feeling in my chest as I looked at the photos.

"Yeah, I'm guessing that we're all thinking the same thing," I said, shivering. "He looks like me. Or, at least, a failed version of me."

The man in the picture had large wings, like me, but he was all wrong. His wings were deformed, and unlike mine, they seemed to literally have been ripped out from the victim's back - no convenient scar-like pockets, just open and gaping wounds. The wings were the least of it, though - this person had undergone other changes, changes I was blessed not to have. His face had been mutilated, sporting a large beak, and his feet had turned into bird's claws. Some of the skin on his chest and arms was prickled with misshapen feathers, so deformed they looked more like scales.

While I looked like an angel, he looked like a science experiment gone wrong. A bonafide Franken-bird.

"This is why the news reports are wrong. The police didn't know what to do, because this... this is unprecedented. Who knows what havoc would have been caused if this was released. They haven't even been able to identify the victim, since his face and other... defining features are, well, not normal."

"So, what? The police just swept this under the rug?" Gia asked, frown deepening. Lark tilted her head to the side, thoughtful for a moment, before shaking her head.

"No, it's not a cover up. That would imply that they're pretending that it didn't happen, and that they're not investigating. But they are investigating - my mum set up a small task force, since it would probably be easier to keep things under wraps that way. I can't say that it's right hiding this from the public, but I can't blame them for wanting to keep everyone calm until they know what the fuck is going on."

"And then I came along," I said, Lark nodding. 

"Exactly. They had actually started investigating you too, Dovey," Lark said, smirking a little. "But by some miracle, you were actually able to keep your mouth shut and be discreet enough not to go and out yourself. Part of me is surprised you didn't start flying around naked."

"I was contemplating it," I said, grinning. "But, alas, my idea was vetoed by these guys."

"Yes, well, that was definitely for the best," Lark continued, jerking her finger to the computers for Milo to change the screens. I began to get off my boyfriend's lap again, but Milo just grunted and locked me in with an arm around the waist, instead using his synced phone to flick to the other images, the screens changing behind our heads. I giggled as Milo gave me a smug look, sinking into his lap even further.

"You two are disgusting," Gia said as she looked at the two of us, trying to match her countenance to her words, but failing to keep the joyous smile from her face.

"Aw, Gia. Are you jealous?" I teased, my friend just snorting.

"Hell no. But my mum is probably going to bawl her eyes out now that Milo is no longer single," Gia said, Geoff nodding emphatically at his sister's words. "What a shame."

"You snooze, you lose," I said, giving Milo a disgusting, slobbery kiss on the cheek. Milo grimaced, but I could tell he didn't mind it at all with the way he tightened his grip around me.