Chapter 5
Somewhere in New Hollywood
To call New Los Angeles a planet would be too generous. It was a colony on a rock, a fancy rock that was big enough to have its own gravity, but a rock nonetheless. The city was housed beneath a dome on one side of an asteroid, which orbited a yellow star that was not unlike the sun. None of the planets here were within the habitable zone, but the pull of the star, and one rather large gas giant on the edge of the system, kept this asteroid in the sweet spot. From the outside it looked like some kind of mining operation, and maybe that’s how it started. From the inside it was something else entirely.
Within the dome was an array of shops, hotels, theaters, clubs, and even some beaches. Along the edge of the enclosure were fake grassy hills that displayed a replica of the old Hollywood sign. A false atmosphere kept it livable, with the star holding the temperature at a steady twenty-six Celsius year round. Just warm enough for a swim. The far side of the asteroid, away from the eyes of tourists who wanted to pretend they were in the real City of Angels, hosted the gravity generators. Big as it was, this rock needed the assistance to give that authentic Earth feel. It was the place to go for the rich and unencumbered, one of whom was making a home in Elias’s personal space right now.
“Felix, if you don’t back away, I may just let Mark have at you after all.”
“What?” Felix asked. “Oh, sorry.” He took a step back from where Elias was posted at one of the windows.
They were in a suite that was on an upper floor of one of the more expensive hotels in the city. Felix had insisted on putting them up as a thank you for not leaving him alone and helpless in Murder City. Mark could care less about fancy hotel rooms, but Elias wasn’t about to say no to a hot shower and a real bed. Three weeks in a cramped ship, running interference between Mark and Felix, had almost driven him mad. Well, more like keeping Mark from killing Felix, but it was the same difference. This particular hotel room overlooked half the city, including the building that their target worked in.
“Zztickti-ii-tckt-i-tcktitckti?”
“We’ll go to the beach in a bit,” Elias answered, distracted. He was leaning back in a chair near the window, looking through a monocular scope at a high-rise office space at the edge of the city.
“Tckt-i-tckt,” Mark grumbled.
“You’re probably right.” Elias had been surveilling Lucky Fandell for three days now, and their routine hadn’t changed. “I don’t think they know they’re a target,” he said, setting the scope on the windowsill.
“How can you tell?” Felix asked, snatching it up to gaze at the building. “Do they have a tell or something?”
“If you knew someone was coming to kill you, what would you do?”
The other man thought about it for a moment. “Run, I guess.”
“And yet, our target is still here.”
“Oh, right.” Felix went back to watching the office. “You’re still going to let me help, right?”
If a beetle could look annoyed, Mark was the epitome of it. “Zzckt-tckit-tcktz-zzickt-ii.”
“What’d he say?” Felix asked, lowering the scope.
“He said it’s time for a swim,” Elias answered, the front legs of his chair hitting the floor with a thud as he stood. It was a lie. Mark was not the biggest fan of their new follower, especially if that follower would be removing all the fun from their job. Elias headed for the door, Mark flying to his shoulder.
“Is that really what he said?” Felix followed them from the room.
“What do you think?”
“I think he said something rude.”
They entered the elevator, and Elias smiled at him. “Now you’re starting to get it.”
“Not really,” Felix mumbled. “He just always says something rude. Lobby.”
“Exactly.”
Mark’s laugh chirped in his ear.
The elevators in New LA were much nicer than the ones in Murder City. A notable lack of graffiti, and it took less than ten seconds to transfer them from the seventy-eighth floor to the lobby.
“Should he be so exposed?”
“Who, Mark?” Elias asked, stopping at the front desk and directing his next question at the woman behind it. “Would you point me in the direction of the nearest clothing store?”
The clerk at the desk had silver hair that was pulled into a tight ponytail on the crown of her head. She looked him up and down, her pearlescent wings tucking closer to her body. The angels worked in every customer service position in the city. A cliche that was a bit too literal for Elias’s tastes, but they were nice to look at when they weren’t judging every aspect of his existence.
“My friend here…” he started, grabbing Mark from his shoulder. He leaned on the counter, turning his hand as Mark crawled over his fingers. “He forgot his swimsuit. You wouldn’t happen to have something in his size, would you?”
Mark opened his casing, spreading his wings for the woman, shimmering gold reflecting in her eyes.
She inhaled in surprise, her own wings opening a fraction. A smile spread over her face when Mark began to chirp, and she looked at Elias with delight.
“He’s something, ain’t he?” Mark was speaking gibberish at the girl, but she didn’t need to know that. “Almost as beautiful as you.”
Her smile disappeared, cheeks paling with a blush. “West from the hotel, a quarter leg to the better shops. I can call you a car, Mr…?”
He held out his hand, Mark flying back to his shoulder, and she took it. Her skin was cold with a static hum where it touched his. “Thank you, love. You can call me Elias.”
She smiled, unsteady, continuing to hold onto his hand. “Kiel.”
“Well, Kiel…” He returned her smile with a smirk. “Thanks for your help. We won’t be needing the car.”
“What the fuck what that?” Felix asked once they were outside of the hotel.
“Most people have never seen anything like Mark in their lives,” Elias explained. “In three years the only time someone recognized him was on the night that we met you. Anyone else who gets a look at him thinks, ‘oh, how pretty,’ and moves on with their day. So, no to your earlier question. There’s no need to hide him away in a place like this.”
“Zzickt-ii!” Mark said, flying up to land on Elias’s head.
“You know you can sunbathe on my shoulder just as well.” He had to resist the urge to swat the beetle away, little legs spreading out in his hair.
“Tcktit-zckt-zzicktit.”
His hair was flattened by the spreading of Mark’s wings. “You’re pushing your luck, bug.”
“Aw, he’s kind of cute,” Felix said. “Like a little bug pancake.”
“Tckti!” Mark yelled in indignation.
“Too soon for the pancake comments, I think, mate.”
“Shit, I’m–” Felix turned his head away with a laugh, clearing his throat. “Sorry, I forgot.”
“Tckti-zzi-ckt-ii-zzckit! Tcktit-i-tcktz!”
“Oh, alright! That’s enough, the two of you. Jesus, Mark, I didn’t think your language could get any worse.” It was lucky that Mark couldn’t see Elias’s face from the bug’s current seat atop his head, or else he’d have a few expletives for him as well. Felix could see it just fine though, and had to walk away from them to laugh again. They waited for him to finish before entering the shop.
This place was definitely out of Elias’s price range. Half of the clothes were made of an exotic wool that Valen would find appealing. That, or silk from the giant worms of the ocean planet, Ler. Felix had grabbed no less than ten different styles of men’s swimwear to try on, and was already occupying a dressing room. Elias was having more trouble deciding.
“What do you think, Mark? The shorts that will cover my ass, but be useless once wet, or the pair that look like women’s underwear?” He held one in each hand.
“Zzckt-tcktit-ii-tck-ckt?”
Elias laughed. “I don’t think anything in this shop is designed with the imagination in mind.”
“How about this?” Felix asked.
He was standing in the open door of a dressing room with a pair of white silk shorts on that showed more of his body than Elias cared to see. Mark burst into chirps of laughter at the sight of him. It wasn’t necessarily Mark’s laughter, but the combination of it and the look on Felix’s face when he heard it that did Elias in.
“Fuck you guys,” Felix mumbled, stomping back into his dressing room and slamming the door.
“Oh, come on, Felix!” Elias laughed. “Mark didn’t mean it!”
“Tcktit-i-icktz!”
“Ok, he did mean it, but be reasonable!”
Felix emerged from the room, back in his white suit, and marched for the shop door without looking at them. “I’m going to a different shop.”
“Zckt-ttckti-zckt,” Mark said between a series of chirps.
“Stop it, now,” Elias admonished with a laugh before sobering. “Though, you’re right, tackiest in the galaxy, that one.”
The second shop was much more Elias’s speed, and he left with a pair of black shorts that wouldn’t show his dick to the entire beach crowd. Felix found a much more sensible, though still quite ridiculous, speedo.
The beaches in New Los Angeles were nothing like a normal beach. White sandbars branched out like a tree, spotted with private cabanas every few feet, and bright blue bays of water between them. Their hotel room came with a larger than average cabana space, leaving plenty of room between them and the groups on either side. Stripping off their clothes until they were in nothing but their new suits, Felix ordered drinks from an angel while Elias and Mark waded into the water. At the center of each bay was a platform where the angels played, and where they got the drinks for the tourists. They spiraled above and around the bar while they waited for orders to be ready, their wings shifting colors of white, pale pink, blue, and green in the daylight.
“Zzckti-tcktiti.”
“Yes, they’re very pretty. This is far enough.” Elias sat in the surf. The waves were small and gentle, and the water cool against his skin. The angle of the beach was perfect for lounging on his back, the waves coming halfway up his side before receding again. Mark crawled over his chest, jumping into the water each time it rose to meet him. “Don’t drown yourself. I’d hate to have to explain it to Valen.”
“Zcktzz-tckt-cktiti-ttcktt.”
“What’d he say?” Felix asked, standing over them with drinks in hand.
“He said that Valen can go fuck himself,” Elias answered, accepting his and Mark’s drinks. He set Mark’s glass on his stomach, the cup tilting with each breath he took.
Felix sat down next to them, cradling his drink in one hand and rubbing his head with the other. He stared out at the bay with a troubled look. “Oh.”
Elias sighed and sat up, crossing his legs and moving Mark’s drink to his knee. The bug was alternating his jumps into the surf with his jumps into the rum that Felix had provided. “He didn’t mean anything by it, Felix. Valen can’t very well risk a stranger hearing him conduct business.”
“No, I know,” Felix said, dropping his hand from his head. “It’s just, I can still feel him in there, you know?”
“Actually, I don’t know. Valen has never used his ability on me before.” He sipped at his rum, and finding it spiced, grabbed Mark’s glass and threw it, and the bug, into the bay.
“What the hell?” Felix yelled.
Elias grabbed his arm to stop him from chasing after Mark. “Trust me, you do not want to see Mark on cinnamon.” He waved down their server, who was now one of the male angels, wearing nothing but a pair of tight white shorts.
“Unsatisfied with your drink, sir?” The man asked, eyes looking over Elias’s tattoos.
“Eyes up here, soldier.” The angel’s eyes snapped back to Elias’s face and he smirked. “Our friend can’t have cinnamon, I’m afraid. Bring us a new rum, will you? Dark.”
“My pleasure,” the man said, giving Elias one last look before taking flight.
“Interesting,” Felix mused.
“What is?”
“Nothing.”
The angel tucked his wings and dove into the water, emerging a moment later with the empty cup in hand. He was followed by a glint of gold, a very pissed off glint of gold. The angel almost fell back into the surf the way he was flailing around, trying to swat the attacking Mark away.
“Oh, that’s amazing,” Felix laughed.
“Mark! Leave him alone! You’re going to get us cut off from the bar!”
The angel straightened out in his flight once Mark was gone, glaring after the bug before shooting off to the bar. Mark flew back to land on Elias’s arm, making for the drink he was holding.
“No.” He grabbed Mark with his free hand and set him on his knee furthest from the spiced rum. “Your new drink will be here in a minute.”
“Tckt-zzckti!”
“Well we made a deal after your last cinnamon adventure, didn’t we? You can have as much of the dark as your little body can handle, but this,” he gestured with his glass, “is off limits, eh?”
“Tckt-cktiti,” Mark said, flying up twenty feet and diving back into the bay with the speed of a bullet.
“Fuck you too, bloody brat. Should’ve left you to die at that casino, you fucking bug.” He mumbled this into his rum before downing the rest of the drink.
“Wow,” Felix whispered. “Good to see his diskish nature isn’t only directed at me.”
“No, Mark hates everyone equally.”
Felix laughed. “He doesn’t hate you the same way he hates me and your handler.”
“Oh, please.”
“I’m serious! From what I’ve seen the last couple weeks, he only hates you when you stop him from drinking.”
“Trust me, those aren’t the only moments.”
“I’ll take your word for it.” Felix finished off his own drink, tossing the glass in the sand and resting his arms on his knees. “So, your handler… What’s with him? Is he an assassin too?”
Elias glanced at Felix. “He wouldn’t want me to talk about him with you, no offense.”
“I guess that makes sense,” Felix conceded. “I didn’t hear or see him, just awake one second, and asleep the next. It was like he was never really there…”
Elias could practically see the wheels turning in the other man’s head, and hear a little ding when his eyes widened.
“Oh my god!”
“Felix–”
“Is he?”
“Stop talking now.”
“He’s the Wr—” The rest of Felix’s statement was a muffled yell as Elias wrapped an arm around his neck, covering his mouth with a hand.
“Are you insane?” Elias whispered. “You’re going to out one of the top assassins on a beach in Los Angeles?” He looked around them. The women in the cabana on the left were busy laughing at something a male angel was saying to them, and on the right a couple were teaching their two small children to swim in the shallows. He returned his attention to Felix, pressing his lips against the other man’s ear and speaking so quietly that Felix may not be able to hear him at all. “Yes, ok? He’s who you think he is, and if he knew what you almost did here he would almost certainly kill you. You can’t just say these things. Many creatures have better hearing than we do.”
Felix shivered at the mention of his own murder.
A throat cleared behind them, and Elias let go of the other man to whirl around. It didn’t go so well in the sand, one foot sinking and sending him to his knees in front of their server. “Sorry,” Elias said, out of breath as he looked up at the server, “we didn’t hear you.”
The man raised an eyebrow, looking between the two of them. “I can tell.”
“Give me the bloody drink.”
The angel set the cup in Elias’s open palm. “You know, if you two are looking for a third on your vacation, my rates are more than fair.”
“What?” Felix asked.
“Leave.” Elias didn’t even bother to glare at the server. He was tired, and it was a reasonable assumption.
The winged man smirked at him. “Think about it.”
Elias closed his eyes, feeling the gust of wind as the angel flew off. “I hate it here.”
“Tckti-ii-tcktzzit.”
His eyes flew open. Mark was laying on one of the lounges under the white linen shade of the cabana, his chirping laughter a flint striker to Elias’s rage. He struggled to his feet as fast as he could in the sand, slamming Mark’s drink down onto a small table next to the chair. Rum splashed over the rim, darkening the wood. “Fuck you.”
“Elias! Where are you going? What’d he say?”
He ignored Felix, following the path of open beach behind the private cabanas. Mark’s hysterical chirps followed him for the first twenty feet. Felix could watch the damned bug for a bit. It should amaze him that the little bastard could still get under his skin so easily, but it didn’t.
People may not be able to understand Mark, but that insect could read them like a book. He was a fucking pro at breaking down anyone he met, only everyone else was lucky enough to be oblivious to it. They didn’t have to hear his perfectly aimed insults, designed to stab at every flaw and insecurity that they may possess. It was Mark’s favorite sport.
The daylight in the dome faded as he trudged through the sand, fairy lights coming on to light the beaches, and fake stars appearing in the sky. The star was too bright, and the dome too artificial to see real stars. People around him cheered. The night cycle was when the real parties started in LA, and soon the beaches would be twice as crowded. Elias couldn’t think of anything he wanted less than to be surrounded by a bunch of drunk civilians in the dark. He stopped walking when the fireworks started, though that was only because of the body that landed in front of him.
The angel stood up from his crouched position, shoulders broad and the colorful light of the explosions casting his muscles in sharp relief. He stepped forward, his palm a tingling buzz against Elias’s cheek. “I would have you, if you would have me.”
Elias swallowed, his eyes moving from the man’s face, to his chest, and back again. The night air was too thick to breathe. “I’m not gay.”
The angel leaned closer. Stopping before their lips could touch, he smiled. “Neither am I.”
Can’t sub, but you’re loving my writing? Consider leaving a tip so that I can afford to continue writing like it’s my job. <3
Reminder: This story is unique in that it’s being posted as it’s being written, and that it’s up to you, the reader, if it will continue. So, don’t forget to vote in the poll above if you’d like to see another chapter. If majority yes, there will be a new chapter. If majority no, the story will end here. :)
That said, let’s get down to some author comments! I’m considering moving the upload day for future chapter to Saturday mornings instead of Wednesdays. It seems that the majority of you wait until the weekend to read it, so I figured that could be a better suited time to update. Let me know if you think that’s a horrible idea.
Onto other things. Somewhere in New Hollywood. As you know by now, the chapter titles are inspired by songs. We’ve got What’s My Name Again (What’s My Age Again by Blink 182), It’s Just Another Day (Another Day by Paul and Linda McCartney), Murder City (Murder City by Green Day, Under The Influence (I genuinely don’t remember which song this came from. My playlist was on shuffle and I can’t find it lol), and now Somewhere in New Hollywood (Celebrity Skin by Hole). Some nights I just lay in bed listening to one of my iPods on shuffle, letting my imagination run wild about this story until the inspiration for the next chapter hits me.
This chapter was difficult. Originally it was nothing but a conversation between Elias and Felix in the ship after they left Murder City, and while Mark was still sleeping off his exertion. They didn’t reach Los Angeles until chapter 6. It was an ok chapter, I guess, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that it just wasn’t it. So I tossed the original 5 and 6 and started again from scratch. I’m still not sure if I nailed it, probably not since it’s a first draft and all, but I’m definitely happier with 5 and 6 now than I was before.
The city itself was a fun challenge. I had to find a nice balance between glamorous and ridiculous, and researching the possibilities of building a city on an asteroid was a lot of fun. The angels were the obvious choice for an alien species to encounter here. The pun, plus making them customer service grunts instead of celebrities, made me chuckle, and that’s about all I need to add something to this story.
Anyway, this is really more of a character development chapter than anything. A chance to see what the characters may get up to as they hunt the next target. Next chapter we’ll meet this new target, Lucky Fandell. That should be exciting, right? Maybe not as exciting as seeing what happened with Elias and this angel…
I’m starting to seriously consider submitting this story to agents in the future, after a second draft and plenty of edits. There are already some changes I know I’ll be doing in the next draft. We’ll see how this one turns out. Until next time.
Great twist with the angel, and I can’t wait for the next chapter. This story is so great!
I love this story. Your imagination is amazing. Felix is such a great addition. I don’t trust him though.