Force of the Falcon

The hint of danger tapped at Sonya’s nerves as the minutes ticked by. Alarm niggled at her at the thought of returning to her house. Even before the attack, the house had begun to creak and groan, the eerie sounds sending pinpoints of fear through her each night. In the darkness, she thought she’d heard a ghost whispering in the eaves of the wooden boards, and she imagined the dead that had gone before her walking underground and sending tremors through the earth that shook the walls and made the pictures on her nightstand rattle.

She shivered, and slipped off the hospital gown, wondering if she was going crazy. All this talk of ghosts in Tin City, and now of a mutant bird-man… Heaven help her. She had to have imagined the ghost sounds. And Katie had to have imagined the monster.

If her husband had any inclination to sue for custody and he caught wind that she suspected her house might be haunted, he’d have a good case to take her daughter from her.

But Stan wouldn’t do such a thing. He didn’t want her or Katie.

She swallowed back the hurt, then winced at the soreness in her limbs as she pulled on the sweats the nurse had brought her. Thankfully, the ER kept a stash of extra clothes in case of emergencies. At least the shapeless clothes were loose, warm and nonabrasive against her bandaged arms and back.

A knock sounded at the door just as she pulled on socks. “Come in.”

The door squeaked open, and Dr. Waverman poked his head in. Behind him, Brack Falcon appeared. Surprise made her chest flutter. He’d pulled his hair back into a ponytail with a leather thong, and his bronzed cheeks looked chafed from the wind. Beneath the hospital lights, the dark beard stubble grazing his jaw stood out, making him look impossibly formidable and rough, as if he might have been out fighting wild animals in the wilderness.