“Remind me why we’re here, specifically?” I asked.

With a flash of amethyst magic the lock fell to the ground. A second ago it looked brand new. Now it lay broken and rusted.

A sign on the now unlocked gate read, No Trespassing.

“You’ll see,” said Nehemiah, pushing the gate open. His brown trench coat billowed in the cool night air as he strode passed through the entrance.

We trespassed into a wrecking yard that also doubled as a pick-n-pull for demolished automobiles. I was all game when it came to fighting monsters, but I wasn’t too keen on breaking and entering.

“I just want to get this over with,” said Charice. Beneath the makeup, her heart shaped face was painted with determination.

We planned to do this last week. But then Nehemiah got super sick. One night turned into two, then four nights, and now we were here a week later.

I rubbed her shoulder, careful not to touch her wings. They were super impractical. When she rode in my car it looked like she had a backpack on, her shoulders far away from the chair itself. Her head was no longer able to sit on the head rest, creating a humpback-looking effect, which isn’t flattering for women, I would guess.

For a whole extra week she’d had to go out of her way to keep the wings a secret from her family and friends, which usually just meant staying inside during the day, locked up in her room. Due to that, people involved in her life were starting to get very concerned for her health. Not to mention, she’d not been able to go to college for almost a month. She concealed her wings under a zip up hoodie and I was curious as to how she was able to fold them up so tight and compact underneath.

We walked on the dirt pathway in between piles of stacked trashed cars. Most of them had their windows blown out, fenders bent, tires missing, and rust forming. I kept expecting floodlights to pop on and a pack of yard dogs to pop out and bite our throats. But Nehemiah seemed at ease. In fact it could even say he seemed at home. He walked taller than normal, with pep in his step.

“If anyone can do it, Nehemiah the wizard can,” said Rob the Hob. “I mean look at all the Chaos around us.” A muppet-like grin spread across his wide face.

I hadn’t thought of it that way. Physically we were in a junkyard. But what we were actually in was a massive collection of Chaos all piled up in one place.

Donn the Red, lord of the dead and resident god of Tech Duinn, had laid some foul magic on my girlfriend. Over the next few days after that event, Charice didn’t notice anything wrong, other than back pain. But the pain grew severe and she felt the growing power within her threatening to escape. And escape it finally did, in the form of wings exploding from her back.

Flying was cool and all, but not when she had to deal with the awkward apparatus suspended from her back, because that’s not normal in any form or shape. Since Donn the lord of the dead had used Chaos to warp my girlfriend, the logical answer was that we needed Chaos to undo the mutation.

“Let’s not forget whose idea this was,” said Rob, beaming. He skipped and hopped alongside us, floating as he went, like some kind of NASA astronaut.

“Yeah, mine,” I said.

“But I thought of the junkyard,” said Rob.

“No,” said Nehemiah. “I thought of the junkyard.”

Rob hovered higher. “But without me you wouldn’t have gotten that idea.”

I rolled my eyes. “If it works we’ll give you all the praise.”

“It will work, it has to,” said Charice. Her tone was resolute, and unaccepting of any other outcome.

I honestly didn’t know which way it would go, so I said nothing. I squeezed her hand gently, offering my support. We made our way to the dead center of the junkyard, pillars of thrashed vehicles surrounded us in a circle.

“I can’t make any promises, Charice. And I’m sorry that this happened to you,” said Nehemiah. “I also can’t guarantee that this won’t hurt. You do understand that right?”

Charice nodded her head.

“Also goes without saying that I’ve never done this before, and the outcome may be wildly unsuccessful. I —”

“We get it. We know the risk,” I said. I knew what he was trying to say. There’s a chance Nehemiah could hurt Charice. Bad. But living with a ten foot wingspan needed to come to an end. It wasn’t practical. So here we were.

“Why don’t you stand right here,” said Nehemiah gently directing Charice. “And face that way.” He directed her away from himself so that her wings faced him. Then he himself backed up fifteen steps away. He looked at the distance between them and then to the piles of cars surrounding him.

“Yep, looks good,” he muttered. “Expand your wings all the way out and keep them away from your body as much as possible.”

Charice nodded and clenched her fists. I removed her hoodie from her shoulders. Goosebumps raised all over her arms, but with the wings, a tank top was the only type of shirt she could wear on a cold night.

She gazed into my eyes, biting her lower lip.

I nodded to her and whispered, “You can do this. It’ll be over in a few minutes.” I tried to smile but it felt wrong.

She closed her eyes and extended her wingspan. I had to admit they were magnificent. The feathers were midnight black and the wingspan was double Charice’s height. It was a shame they had to go. If I were her I would really love flying. But the more I thought about all the things that you take for granted when you don’t have wings, the more I thought of how annoying and frustrating it would be to have them myself.

Nehemiah produced the birch wand embellished with magenta gems. He raised it but I could see the wand shake a little.

“Naw,” he shook his head. “Not familiar enough yet. I’ll have to do without.” He paused, taking a deep breath. “Okay, here goes nothing.”

The wizard closed his eyes and raised his palms upward. His trench coat billowed in a wind that I could not feel. But I did sense his aura growing. He inhaled loudly through his nose and exhaled through his mouth. His hands began glowing like mine do when I use Good Luck, but instead of emerald light they glowed amethyst. Around us the cars began shifting, creaking. I could hear metal scraping on metal as cars uncrumpled themselves.

A nervous smile spread across my lips. “He’s drawing the Chaos out of the damaged vehicles. Nice!”

Nehemiah needed a considerable amount of Chaos to funnel through himself and use as Bad Luck to attempt to remove the wings. Rob’s suggestion to find a place where Chaos abounded was really smart. Nehemiah opened his eyes, his pupils gone, the whole of his eyes aglow with the same amethyst light. I shuddered, wondering if that’s what I looked like when I was completely overtaken by my Good Luck a few weeks ago when I thrashed the Raza del Norte gang.

“All right,” yelled Nehemiah, filled with power, “Brace yourself Charice. Let’s do this!”

My stomach filled with butterflies and my palms dampened with sweat. I didn’t know how bad this was going to hurt Charice, but I trusted that Nehemiah was going to do everything in his power to not let needless harm befall her. At the same time, no one likes going to the dentist to get their wisdom teeth pulled out, and these wings were a lot bigger than wisdom teeth.

I was as close to Charice as was reasonable, but not too close as I didn’t want to get hurt myself. Charice for her part looked way more courageous than I felt. She spread her legs shoulder width apart, knees and arms bent at her sides like she was ready to jump into a brawl. I could see her jaw and her temple were tight as she clenched her teeth bracing for impact.

Chaos imbued Bad Luck shot from Nehemiah’s hands, two pure beams of magic. When the magic hit her wings Charice let out an involuntary screech. The Bad Luck spread out from the point of impact, racing over the feathers until it had enveloped the wings completely. As if on their own volition the wings flapped wildly.

Nehemiah cried out as he funneled more Chaos through him, more Chaos than I had ever seen him wield personally. My eyes darted from my girlfriend to the pillars of cars around us. Quite a few of the car frames were no longer scrap, but looked as if they had just come off the production line brand-new.

I felt small hands on my back and knew that Rob hovered behind me. The little guy got skittish easily.

“Whoa,” he said in my ear as he gazed at Nehemiah.

Nehemiah levitated a few feet off the ground and purple flickers showered around him, falling away from the beams shooting from his hands, like magical welding sparks.

A cry from Charice brought my attention back to her. Her wings flapped wild but now feathers were flying off in heaps and chunks. Underneath the feathers lumps of charred wing tissue fell to the dusty dirt road. The meat sizzled with a sickening smell.

Tears ran down Charice’s face and she couldn’t help but cry out from the pain. Though the wings were a new addition to her body, they were still part of her body whether she liked them or not. The pain assaulting her was unimaginable. I’d be screaming bloody murder if Nehemiah tried to burn one of my arms off with his Bad Luck.

“You can do this babe! Keep fighting for it.”

If she heard me I couldn’t tell. But I was distracted by what happened to her wings next. All of the meat and feathers burned off, leaving the skeletal structure exposed. The bones themselves glowed brightly. And all of a sudden the bones themselves melted, revealing a wingspan made of pure Chaotic Bad Luck magic.

Nehemiah yelled one last time and then cut the energy off. He fell from the air knees first into the dirt.

Charice collapsed to the ground. I lunged and caught her in my arms.

“Rob! Meds,” I yelled to my hob servant.

“Here you go boss,” he handed me some extra strength naproxen. “Soda,” I said. He produced a can of Dr Pepper. I cracked it open. “Here Charice, swallow these and drink this.” I helped her get the meds into her mouth and down some Dr Pepper.

We sat there in the dirt until she quieted down. I heard Nehemiah’s boots crunching in the dirt road.

I looked up at him. “Are we done?”

He squatted behind Charice, his eyes wide examining her back. “Incredible,” he grunted. “But not what we hoped for.”

“I still feel them. Why are they still there?” Charice asked.

I looked over her shoulder. “They aren’t, but they are.”

“What?” She looked at me, eyes watering and wide.

Rob jumped up and down clicking his heels together and doing side flips through the air, his mouth like a machine gun of words as he spoke quickly. “It worked, it worked. Well sorta. But the wings are gone for sure. I mean physically they’re gone. But the magic is still there. You have awesome magic wings. Like Psylock from X-Men but on your back and not coming out of your arm. You’re like Psylock and Archangel put together. So cool. And it was all my idea. You’re welcome.”

The hobgoblin took a bow.

“Calm down,” I commanded Rob. “Give her some space.”

“I’m okay,” said Charice. “It was super painful when he was shooting the magic at me. But I feel better now. The wings are still there?”

“I don’t know how to explain it. Stand up and see for yourself.”

I helped Charice get to her feet and then I circled her as she extended her wings. “The physical wings are gone. But now there’s just these —”

“Bad Luck wings,” said Nehemiah. “The wings are made entirely of Bad Luck, which means when you ease off the power and let it dissipate, the wings should disappear.”

Charice closed her eyes and I encouraged her. “Just focus on breathing and let the power go.”

With soft inhales and exhales she relaxed her face. Her wings fluttered matching her breathing. The glow of the wings faded until they disappeared altogether.

“They’re gone.” I exclaimed.

“Really?”

I threw my arms around her. “We did it!”

I lifted her into my arms turning circles.

“Actually I suggested it and Nehemiah did all the work. Charice didn’t really do anything. You least of all Sean,” said Rob.

We ignored Rob.

Nehemiah’s violent hacking ended our moment.

I put Charice down to check on him. He arched his back, turning inward on himself. It reminded me of myself the week before after the vampire bite. It freaked me out. When he was done he spit a bunch of blood from his mouth.

“You all right?”

He frowned, drawing ragged breaths. “Yep. Just never taken in that much Chaos at one time before. Bad Luck does wonders.”

As much as I worried for Nehemiah, I worried for Charice too. Would this be happening to her if she never removed the wings completely? Only time would tell.

“Oh shoot,” said Nehemiah. “You feel that Sean?”

Figures lurked in the darkness under the shadow of the tall scrap metal piles. I heard a junkyard cat hiss.

Darting shadows moved in my peripheral.

“What are those?” I asked, realizing that my Keening burned strong. Before I could react a sharp pain cut across my chest as a shadow knocked me to the ground. Silhouettes danced around us through billowing red mist. We fell to the ground. “Rob!” I yelled, realizing they snatched my shape shifting hobgoblin.

Rob shouted and squirmed in the deadly pale white hands of someone stepping towards us. He looked like a man of Japanese descent except for his canine teeth of irregular proportions. The claws emerging from his fingers were a dead giveaway that this guy wasn’t human.

“Takahashi,” I growled as I got to my feet.

“Well well, Chaos Wizard, we meet again.”

“John T,” spat Nehemiah, a bit of blood dripping down the corner of his mouth. “Spawn of the Dearg Due. You don’t know how to die, do you?”

The man eyed the droplet on Nehemiah’s mouth with the sick and twisted hunger.

“More vampires,” I realized out loud.

Three more vampires, actually. They emerged from the shadows. Besides Takahashi there was a black woman with a scarlet weave, a massive blonde white guy with no neck and a flattop, and a pale white-haired vampire whose ethnicity looked like death. Talk about forced diversity. Wasn’t too surprising though. The Bay Area is one of the most ethnically diverse places in the States.

The vamps bared their teeth, hissing.

Way too much hissing going on. It clawed at my ears.

“I brought my friends this time,” said Takahashi. “Let’s see how you and yours do.”

As one their eyes burned scarlet.