Page 30 of Glass
“It’s okay,” Felix murmurs. “We just have to wait it out.”
Waiting it out doesn’t take long. The men on the ground fall perfectly still, and the gunfire ceases. In the distance, I can hear police sirens, and I realize in a panic that I don’t know if the gun I’m holding is even legal.
“Up.” I dig my elbow into Felix’s side the best I can from underneath.
“Be careful,” he says as he carefully picks himself up off me and stands, holding his hands out to me. I put the gun in one of his hands and use the other to help pull myself to my feet.
It’s such an absurd thing to say in the moment that an uncomfortably loud laugh bursts out of me. After everything that’s happened in only a few minutes, I think we’re past being careful now. We never should have left Acadia.
“Felix?” Corey’s uncertain voice wobbles from behind us.
Felix pulls me into his arms and runs his hand soothingly over the back of my head. “It’s okay, Corey. Your sister is in shock, but she’s okay. Are all of you okay?”
I feel guilty that he’s the one checking on them instead of me. I strain to listen until he confirms it.
“Yeah.” Corey’s voice grows stronger and more sure. “We’re safe.”
A wave of nausea hits me. “Those men are dead.” I saw how lifeless their bodies looked on the ground. I try to turn and get another look but Felix holds me tighter. “I want to see,” I tell him quietly. Those men tried to come after us, I want to know who they are.
“I know,” Felix runs his fingernails lightly across my scalp. “We have about two-and-a-half minutes before the cops show up. The kids need to go into Rose’s house.”
“Rose?”
He nods his head at something behind me, and I turn to see a woman with a scowl and a gun in her hand. Her gun is nothing like the one in my hand, it looks like it’s about half her size. I don’t smell an unfamiliar shifter in the air, which means she’s human.
“Who is that? Do you trust her?” It feels like a stupid question considering she just killed those guys for us on sight. Whoever she is, she’s earned more trust than anyone else that comes along right now.
“She’s human, but she’s the only friend we have in Trenton. Grab the kids.” Felix releases me even though his face scrunches like it pains him to do so. He steps around me as I move toward Corey, pulling him to me in a quick, tight hug.
I peer into the van at four sets of terrified eyes. It feels uncannily like looking amongst my older sibling group the day my parents left us behind with no warning. I know the fear of potentially not surviving all too well.
“We have to move, okay?” Four small nods. I have to fight to not release the sob building in my throat. “Is anyone hurt anywhere?”
“No, I checked them,” Corey says calmly from beside me. He really was prepared for disaster, and it hurts me to know that’s the kind of life these kids have been living. I want better for them than what I’ve had. I don’t want them to spend their lives looking over their shoulders or expecting the worst.
I have to save them, no matter what it might cost me.
“Don’t cry,” Lane says, climbing across the seat toward me so he can throw his hands around my neck. I lift him even though he’s more than half my size. I wish I could hold him close all the time and never let anything hurt him.
“Come on, hurry,” Corey tells his other three siblings, pushing a button on the side of the middle-row seat that releases the left-most seat so that the kids can climb out.
I keep Lane safely in my arms as we walk—eventually breaking into more of a jog—toward Rose’s house, though the porch is now empty. The sirens are growing closer and the sound brings with it a sense of panic. The rules of human police officers aren’t the same as they are for shifters; usually pack lands are governed by shifters themselves. And in places where shifters have taken up residence among humans, we typically try to steer clear, just in case.
Ending up imprisoned and unable to shift is a nightmare none of us are prepared to live with.
I pause on the threshold of the doorway, a deep red door hanging open on the hinges. I can hear Felix talking in a low voice inside. I motion the kids ahead of me before carrying Lane through, pausing to use my toe to slam the front door closed behind me.
Felix and Rose look up at us from the center of the living room, their heads slightly bowed together. There’s pity in the woman’s eyes as she takes in Lane clinging to the front of me. He doesn’t want to let go of me any more than I want to let go of him.
“I’m Rose,” the woman introduces herself, moving away from Felix and closer to me. “I don’t know much about how your group survives in the park, but I left a domestic abuse situation myself twenty years ago, and the nomads in the park helped me get on my feet by selling me this house dirt-cheap. I’ll return that favor ten times over,” she says, a determined glint in her eyes.
“Thank you,” I say earnestly, my voice barely a whisper.
“Don’t thank me, just get these young ones moving and keep them quiet. They can hide in the back bedroom. You, Felix, and I will have to take care of talking to the officers.” She pats my shoulder with a wrinkled hand.
I feel a little sick at the thought of going back out there. She must read it on my face.
“Sorry, sweetheart, but we need you to be the excuse Felix gives for coming across the bridge. It’s date night.” She wiggles her eyebrows, and if I didn’t feel like an absolute mess I might be able to find some humor in the gesture.