Page 41 of Shifter's Homecoming

“Please, Rowan,” he said. It was all he could get out.

She backed away, shaking her head, but then she gave him one last bit of hope, even if she was talking about his injury, and not about… ‘them.’

“Ok, one more night. One more dose.” she said, “and that’s it, that’s all. You have to leave whether it works or not. I’ll change the metabolic pathways, I’ve already started work on something you can eat. It will have to sit overnight, but it will be done tomorrow,” she said, her light eyes flashing with finality.

Trent shook his head. Could he really just… leave her? He didn’t think he would be able to. He took a chance. “Can’t you tell me what I can do to make it right?” he asked her, gently, as sincerely as he knew how to do, knowing he would do anything.

Her expression went tight and cold. “You can’t make it right, Trent, you know that. You’ve admitted it.”

She turned away. She dismissed him. She went back to work.

Trent changed his clothes. He wandered around. He looked out the window. She did not stop working, even when night fell. She kept jotting notes, mixing chemicals, testing reactions, ignoring him…

Eventually, Trent fell asleep in a chair facing her.

27 - Reed Races Home

Reed startled awake in the airplane’s seat as soon as the descent started. It was dark, they’d been flying all night, but the sun would be up soon. Again, she was on a private jet. She and the team had walked for hours, then taken the reverse trip back to the airport, moving faster than she’d thought possible. It had been so many hours since Graeme had taken Troy and Trent and Smokey home, and they hadn’t yet heard any word of what was going on.

The airplane dropped lower and lower and then landed, and within minutes they were out of one airplane and onto another, as the sky began to brighten.

Reed settled into her third and last airplane and calculated the time until she got to Serenity. Three hours, and then it would take another thirty minutes to drive to VF. Her phone beeped. She looked at it and smiled. It was a video call from Troy. She’d only put him in her phone the day before yesterday, and this was the first phone call she’d gotten from him.

She answered. His handsome face filled the screen. He looked tired and worried.

“Hey,” she said, wanting to hear his voice.

“Rrreeeed,” he said, rolling his ‘r’ a little, still so pleased that he could.

“Yeah?” she grinned. “Your brother?”

She could see past him a little, at the people and house behind him. He was in Trevor’s house, in the living room, and there were people everywhere. She recognized a few of them, but not many. Everyone was rushing around or gathered in groups of twos or threes solemnly discussing something, or on their phones, their faces worried. She saw a lot of work uniforms, lots of guns and badges.

Troy saw her looking and turned the camera around so she could see everyone, then he walked down the hallway with the phone held up so she could see what he saw. “He’s not good,” Troy said. “Remington and Conri are with him and the cat now.”

He made it into the bedroom and she could see the black wolf stretched out on the bed, still and quiet. Trent’s black fur was burned and melted in places, and he had burn ointment on his nose and the pads of his feet. Two men had their heads together near the bed, one brawny and dark-haired, one slim and fair. They had a whole cart of medical equipment with them. The soft beep beep of his heart monitor seemed too soft, too slow, way too slow. Smokey was on the couch near the bed, wrapped in blankets, his eyes closed, his face slack, looking too much like he was dead for her comfort.

Something caught her eye. Her pendant! The one with the wolf on one side and the angel on the other. The one Grey had been after that day in the forest when he’d chased her as a child. Troy had told her he’d found it in the forest and swallowed it to keep it safe. They’d just been waiting for it to… ‘come out ok,’ and he swore he would have it well-cleaned. There it was, sitting on an end table, with five other pendants that looked a lot like it.

“Is that all of the pendants?” she asked.

“Not all,” he said, “We don’t have everyone’s, but we gathered all the ones we do have. We’ve touched him with all of them, we’ve put them around his neck. We’ve been trying everything we can think of. Nothing has worked.” Troy looked straight at her. “He’s still alive though.”

“Amnesty!” someone roared from behind Troy. “We’re not giving her amnesty!”

Troy raised his eyebrows. “Give me a minute,” he said. He put the phone down pointed into the room, so she could see what was going on.

She couldn’t see Troy, but she could hear him.

“Fuck off, Harlan. She’s getting amnesty if it will save Trent,” he said.

“Have you seen her note?” Harlan said. He didn’t wait for an answer, he just read it, his voice almost shaking with anger. “The wolves agree to grant Abigail White full amnesty for anything she ever has done or may have done. They agree not to seek punishment or reparations in any way. They all swear to be bound by means other-than-worldly, if necessary.”

Troy didn’t say anything for a minute. The house was quiet. Reed held her breath. She didn’t know what to think. She didn’t know who Abigail White was.

From her view, she could see out the window of the room. Heather was outside, holding Kendra, looking in. Graeme came up next to her, told her a few things, kissed her on the cheek, then transformed to a dragon the size of the baby, and pecked the baby on the cheek. The baby laughed and grabbed for the dragon’s neck, but the dragon was already flying away with purpose.

Reed watched the strange family scene, thinking that it almost seemed normal, and feeling a strange need inside her, a need to be there, with those people. That was where she belonged.

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