by Zoe Chant
“Sir, if you think it’s a waste of time, then let me track this lead down. You know I won’t blow it up to be more than it is, or ignore any evidence against it. I’ll just be more comfortable exploring it fully.”
Levi wanted to keep going, to protest the characterization of Maria as someone who didn’t know what she was talking about, when one interview with her had made it clear that she did. He knew it wouldn’t do any good, though, so he kept his mouth shut.
The lieutenant looked at him for a long minute, then waved his hand. “Fine, go ahead. Don’t let me see you neglecting any of your other cases, and if I need you on a different aspect of this case, I’ll expect you to make that a priority.”
“Yes, sir.”
“We need to maintain the appearance of absolute efficiency on this one,” Moyer continued. “The press is going to be all over it—a state senator shot at on the very steps of the Capitol Building. They’re going to like the anti-shifter angle too, I bet.” He snorted. “Probably in the end it’ll come out to be just random gang violence. Rage against the man.”
“Yes, sir.” Levi kept his tone even. “What about a safehouse for the women until it calms down? That way we can assure the press that Springfield PD is keeping the senator safe in an undisclosed location until the shooter is brought to justice—”
“Et cetera et cetera, yes, that’s a good idea, Hale. Make it happen.”
“Yes, sir. Is there anything else, sir?”
“Not yet. You’ll know when there is.”
“Yes, sir.” Levi stood and escaped.
He ran into Danny outside, who asked him, “What’s up?”
“We’re taking the senator and her assistant to a safehouse before we go off-shift, and tomorrow we’re checking out these anti-shifter crazies.” Levi kept his tone absolutely neutral; he didn’t want to be heard bitching about the lieutenant right outside his office.
“Sounds good.” Danny looked over his shoulder and grinned. “The senator lady just got here, and the lieu’s about to interview her, asked me to sit in. You think a senator would be interested—”
“Nope.”
Danny clutched at his chest. “You wound me! But you’re right: she’s too old for me. Maybe I can meet some up-and-coming alderwoman or something. I never dated a politician before.”
“You never date anyone, Danny, you just meet them for drinks and head back to your place.” Levi only had one ear on the banter; he was thinking about Maria, waiting back in the interview room. He wondered if she was still maintaining that hard-won control, even when nobody was there.
“Isn’t that dating?” Danny asked innocently.
* * *
Maria sipped her water and tried not to think about what the next several days were going to be like.
It was hard, though. Since Detective Hale had left the room, the awareness of her situation had been crowding in on her mind. She already wanted to look over her shoulder—she’d caught herself wondering who was on the other side of the one-way mirror, and had had to forcibly calm her paranoia down.
She was in a police station, for God’s sake! No one was going to shoot at her here.
No one had really been shooting at her in the first place. They’d been shooting at Laura.
But after Laura had shifted and flown away, they’d kept it up. There at the end, they’d sincerely tried to kill her, Maria Hernandez.
She guessed helping shifters out made you as much of a target as being one did. Well, she’d rather be on this side of the fight, even if it meant being shot at. Laura was a good senator and a good person, and Maria was proud to be working for her.
The door opened again, and Maria jumped, stifling a high-pitched noise.
Yeah, these next few days were going to be great.
It was Detective Hale again, though. She immediately felt safer, somehow. His big presence was immensely reassuring.
He said, “We’ve got a safehouse set up for you and the senator, but it looks like she’s going to be tied up a bit longer with questioning. It also looks like some other members of her staff have arrived—”
Maria smiled. “Lenny. He’s her PR manager. He never sleeps.” Lenny was the only person who had likely already been awake when Laura texted the news around.
“Right. So—the point is, there’s nothing stopping me from driving you to the safehouse right now. All you have to do is sign this, and you’re free to go.” He held up what was presumably a copy of her statement.
“Oh,” Maria said, startled. For some reason, she hadn’t expected to be allowed to leave. The police station had started to seem like some kind of eternal limbo, like she would just be existing there indefinitely from now on. “Can I see Laura now?”
Detective Hale shook his head. “No, she’s in an interview, so we can’t interrupt her. You could wait until she’s done, but I don't know how much longer that’ll be.”
If Lenny was with her…“I can text her,” Maria decided, “and tell her what’s happening. I don’t think she’ll need me again tonight, and she’ll be coming to the same safehouse after she’s done, right?”
“Right.”
“So—hand me that thing so I can get out of here!”
Smiling, he did, and she signed with a flourish and stood up.
Or tried to—once she was on her feet, her vision was taken up by black spots. Been sitting too long—oh—
“—all right? Maria?”
“What?” she asked fuzzily, and then suddenly became aware that there were arms around her.
Big, warm, solid arms, holding her up with no effort at all.
It took her a lot of effort not to just relax back into Detective Hale’s embrace—he smelled amazing, warm and masculine—but she pulled herself together and stood up. “I am so sorry.”
How embarrassing—falling over like a fainting Victorian heroine!
“Don’t be sorry.” His voice rumbled against her chest—he hadn’t let her go, and she realized that he was avoiding touching her hurt arm.
“You’ve been shot at, you haven’t had any sleep, and you lost a good amount of blood earlier tonight,” he continued. “I’m surprised you can stand up at all.”
That made her straighten all the way and step back a little bit. She hesitated for a second, but the dizziness didn’t make a comeback. She held up her hands. “Surprise.”
He laughed. He didn’t sound offended at all, just pleased. “I guess maybe I shouldn’t be. Are you okay now? We can take you to the hospital for a checkup—”
“No, I’m fine.” Maria shuddered at the thought of another bright room and more questions. “See?” She turned in a circle. “All fine.”
“Okay.” He took her at her word, which was nice. “Let’s get you over to the safehouse, then, and you can get some sleep.”
“Sleep.” Maria laughed. “I don’t know if that’s happening anytime soon. But I’ll give it a shot. Lead on.”
He picked up her purse for her, absently, as though he wasn’t even thinking about what he was doing, and headed for the door.
Maria thought about protesting—she was an independent woman who could carry her own goddamn purse. But her arm was throbbing and she didn’t feel so great overall, and the purse was heavy.
She followed him out the door—and found that at least she wasn’t too far gone to admire the view.
* * *
Levi drove them out to the safehouse, a little bungalow a short drive out of town. Maria was quiet on the way over, looking out the window. He respected that, and didn’t try to make any conversation.
As much as he wanted to. Although considering that the first question he could think of asking her was, So how did you get to be so fantastically brave and determined, anyway? that probably wasn’t the best idea even if she had been in the mood to talk.
It was only a fifteen-minute drive, so they pulled into the driveway about 5:30. The sky was starting to lighten, and Maria stared at the horizon for a second before she got out
of the car.
Levi took the opportunity to get out himself and circle around, so as to be ready in case she got dizzy again.
But she was fine—she opened the door and stepped out just as he came up, thwarting his plans to open the door for her, and seemed perfectly all right.
She was even holding her purse, so he couldn’t take it for her again.
“Here.” His own voice sounded awkward in his ears against the predawn silence. “I’ll show you around the house.”
“Sounds good,” Maria said distantly.
He wondered if she was finally going into shock. At the very least, she seemed a little out of it. He’d be sure to stay until he knew she’d gotten in bed, just in case. He didn’t want her to faint and hit her head.
* * *
Maria was more exhausted than she’d ever been, but at the same time, she was so wired she didn’t think she’d be sleeping until Christmas. She could feel her pulse over her whole body, centered around the throbbing ache in her temples. Her eyes felt hot and gritty, but she couldn’t even imagine lying down and closing them with the tension still thrumming in her chest.
Detective Hale let her into the house, and she followed him inside and looked cautiously around. It was small and simply furnished, but clean and neat, and it seemed like it would be a fine place to stay for a few days.
“The bedrooms are through here.” Detective Hale led her down a short hall and showed her two rooms.
Maria picked the smaller room, leaving Laura the master, so that she could have her own bathroom. The smaller room also had a desk in the corner, so she could work here if she had to.
If she had to—“Will we be able to go back to the Capitol building?” she asked suddenly. “At least by Monday? We can’t just abandon Laura’s work.”
“We’ll have to see how the case develops.” Detective Hale sounded cautious. “I’m sure we can figure something out.”
That didn’t sound super-promising, but Maria let it go for now. “I’d appreciate it if I could at least get my laptop from my office,” she said instead. “Or if someone could bring it here.” There was only so much she could do with her cell phone.
“We can make that happen,” the detective assured her. “For now, though, I’m sure you want to get some sleep.”
Maria looked around the empty room, and back over her shoulder at the empty house. “I don’t think I can just yet.” She forced a laugh. “I’m definitely going to be extra-paranoid for the next few days. I might just wait until Laura gets home before I try to sleep.”
Detective Hale frowned. “If you don’t want to be alone, I can stick around until then.”
Please.
But she couldn’t keep a police detective hanging around because she was scared of an empty house.
So she made herself smile. “Oh, no—I don’t want to get in the way of your job! I’ll just start a game on my phone or something and I’ll probably be asleep in five minutes.”
He checked his watch. “I’m off-shift in twenty minutes. It wouldn’t make any sense for me to drive all the way back to the station just to leave again, so I might as well stay here. And ensuring the safety of an important witness is part of my job.” His mouth quirked.
“Well—” She hesitated. “All right.” She hadn’t been looking forward to the empty rooms around her after he left.
Except now she was standing alone with him in a bedroom, and that was putting altogether the wrong idea into her mind about what they could do as a distraction…the bed suddenly seemed enormous, looming in her vision.
“How about we go sit on the couch?” she offered weakly.
“Of course,” he said, somehow making it not-awkward, and gestured: after you.
They settled themselves on the living room couch, and Maria resigned herself to awkwardness again. “I don’t think I’ve said thank you yet, Detective,” she started. “You arrived just in time for Laura and me.”
“I would’ve preferred a few minutes earlier, myself.” He shook his head ruefully. “And we’re not at the station anymore—you can call me Levi if you want.”
“Levi,” she repeated. She wasn’t sure she should give up the artificial formality of Detective—it was a good way to remind herself that this man was doing his job and was not for hitting on.
But who was she kidding—she wasn’t going to keep calling him by his title now. Who knew, maybe after this insane Humans Against Shifters thing was over, she and Levi could—
No. She wasn’t dating right now—focus on your job, Maria!
And like a gift, Levi said, “So how did you start working for Senator Davis?”
* * *
Levi was grateful to Maria for getting them back out of the bedroom and onto the relatively neutral territory of the couch. Standing with her in the small room with the bed right there had been putting the wrong type of thoughts into his head.
So he asked her about her job, hoping to keep the conversation also on neutral territory. Granted, he didn't do it until after he’d asked her to use his first name, but Detective just sounded so…formal from her.
And the way Levi had sounded when she said it back…he liked the sound of his name in her mouth.
But he reined himself in after that. Not that he wasn’t interested in her work—that was the problem. Everything about her was interesting.
“I started out volunteering with the campaign,” Maria said. “Laura was in Chicago for an event—that’s where I’m from.”
“You left Chicago for Springfield?” Levi couldn’t imagine.
“I—this is going to sound terrible, but I wanted some space from my family.” She blushed—it was hard to see on her light-brown skin, but he could tell. “They can be a little…smothering.”
“I know the feeling,” he admitted.
She flashed a quick smile. “I wanted to get involved, make a difference. I really believe in Laura’s work, and she’s doing an amazing job of paving the way for shifters.”
He couldn’t help but ask, “That’s important to you?”
She nodded. “Oh, yes. It’s horrible, how some people don’t believe they’re anything more than animals. They don’t understand, and so they’re afraid—and when people are afraid, they can do some terrible things.” She smiled sadly. “Like tonight, I guess.”
“Just like tonight.” He leaned in. “But why shifters in particular? Was there a reason?”
“Not really. Or—” she hesitated. “Well, I guess there is kind of a reason.”
“Yes?” he prompted when she didn’t go on. “If it’s private—”
“No, no, it’s just a story from when I was a kid.” She took a breath. “So once, my family and I went camping up in Wisconsin. We were out in the woods, and one night I got up to go to the bathroom—I was about eight—and I saw a bear.
“I froze in place—I was so scared, I thought I was going to be eaten. I couldn’t even scream. And then the bear transformed into a man. He told me not to be afraid, he was just a person like me, and then he turned back into a bear and ran off into the forest again.”
She made a frustrated gesture. “And now whenever people talk about dangerous shifters, I just—I think of that man. They’re just people like us. They’re not any more or less scary than another person. One man with a gun can do a lot more damage than one shifter.”
She looked sidelong at him, suddenly a little shy. “Anyway, I didn’t mean to get all political on you—”
“No, it’s all right. In fact—I have a confession to make.” He shouldn’t be doing this, probably; he hardly ever told people what he was. But if there was anyone who would understand—
She looked curious, the shyness disappearing. “A confession?”
It was going to sound like a line after her story about the bear in the woods. He stood up. “Maybe it’s better to show you than tell you.” The living room had enough room, he judged.
“Show me wh—oh my God!”
Levi shifted smoothly,
feeling himself grow until he had to fall down to all fours to keep his head from touching the ceiling, until he was a full-sized brown bear filling all the available free space in the room.
And all of a sudden, he could sense Maria with his full capabilities—see her, smell her, taste her in the air. It was intoxicating.
Maria’s mouth was open, her eyes wide. “You’re—I had no idea.” She reached out a hand, then immediately snatched it back. “I apologize, I didn’t mean—”
He leaned forward, carefully so as to avoid crowding her backward, and nosed at her hand. She smiled and lifted it again, petting his nose.
He was surrounded by her scent, and he would’ve been happy to just breathe her in, and then lie down on the floor in front of the couch and guard her against armed crazies for as long as she wanted. Instead, he reluctantly pulled away after a minute and shifted back.
“There,” he said once he was human again. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you earlier.”
“Didn’t—of course you didn’t have to tell me earlier!” She looked indignant. “You didn’t even have to tell me now. I’m grateful that you did, though. You’re—very impressive.”
He coughed. “Thank you.” That was always nice to hear from a beautiful woman.
“And here I’ve been talking all about shifter rights—I hope I haven’t offended you.”
“No! Not at all. I’m very glad you’re doing the work that you do. It’s good to know that not everyone’s afraid.”
“Not everyone’s afraid,” she said firmly. “And I think that you’re an excellent example of why they shouldn’t be—you’re a police detective. You help people for a living.”
“Thanks, although most of the shifters I know don’t do anything like this.”
“Oh?” She was clearly curious, leaning forward, her eyes sparkling, but she equally clearly didn’t want to ask anything too personal.
But he didn’t mind telling—he was sure she would understand. “Most of my family lives in rural southern Illinois. They don’t want to live in the bigger cities—they say they don’t like humans, but I think that’s just because they’re afraid of what people might think of them.”
