by LeAnn Mason
She wiped swiftly at her eyes before visibly collecting herself, “We need to get your arm looked at. I’ll see him once he’s cleaned up… I’ll say my goodbyes then.”
“Do you want to say anything to his family?”
She shook her head. “No. They’re lost to grief now. This is a time for the family to come together, not us interlopers. They don’t need anything from us just yet. We’ll be there for them once they’ve had this time.”
Holden gave me a perplexed look as I turned his way. One I didn’t understand until I remembered that I still had my mental shield up. I couldn’t hear him, hadn’t heard him in hours. How could I have been so careless? I dropped my wall and was immediately flooded with the cloying and overwhelming thoughts of too many people who cared very deeply for my friend. Oh yeah, this is why I put the wall up. “I’m sorry Holden. I had my wall up… and would really like to keep it up while we are here…”
Of course he understood and just gave me a curt nod before moving his attention toward my father who was now making his way toward our team, which now included Devlin, Trent, Commander James and even Boat Shoes. Commander James had figured out early on in this situation that I wasn’t going to leave and get myself checked out until I’d found out how Dane was. Now that we’d been delivered the worst news we could have received, he was definitely ready to push me into my father’s waiting arms. Literally.
*****
Two days later, we were gathered around an open grave. Dane’s service was beautiful and it seemed that nearly the whole town was in attendance, the Wilsons being one of the few families who were kind to all. There was no divide of Sage, Primal or Non-Enhanced. Not today, and that was beautiful enough to make me smile for a moment as Dane was lowered into his resting place. A place he shouldn’t be for many decades, but his life as an enforcer had cut that short. Dane was a great man who was taken cruelly and too soon.
The cast on my arm itched, but I resisted the urge to scratch at it. As we had known, there were multiple fractures but no splinters, thankfully, so with the bones aligned, we threw a cast on it and waited for my healing to work its mojo. No one really knew how long said mojo would take, but we were apprehensive of how to move forward all the same.
Jade was resolved but distant. She wanted to be alone most of the time and actually spent a great deal of time with Dane’s family. I could feel her slipping away, and I didn’t know how to anchor her. We’d talked a bit about my healing as a means to avoid thinking about Dane, but it always circled back. We couldn’t help but think of that night and wish that Dane had had my ability. I don’t think she blamed me, but the question of why would always accompany our thoughts. Why Dane? Why hadn’t his physical superiority been able to pull him through?
At the dispersal of the funeral, the team and I headed toward the exit, still lost in contemplation. Most of us were watching our feet as we shuffled forward behind other exiting mourners. I bumped into Devlin’s back as he came to a sudden stop on the walk in front of me. “Geez, Dev, sorry.” I was forever attacking the man’s person, “Why’d we stop?”
“I can’t tell, but the procession has stopped… or at least slowed,” he mumbled as he looked around and above people in an attempt to see what the holdup was.
Slowly, we reached the gates of the cemetery and found two people, one man and one woman, handing out flyers. Curious, we each took a proffered page when we reached the solicitors. The headline of the paper had my feet glued to the pavement. I couldn’t move. How could he think this was the way to break it? And the timing? At Dane’s service for crying out loud?
The page read simply:
Town Meeting today at noon to discuss the eventuality of Minefield integrating into the Non-Enhanced world. Come to the Gardens to hear the news of how and why the gates will be opened. Every adult citizen is required for attendance.
That asshole.
This was Councilman Davidson’s payback for not deferring to him during the investigation or in general, really. This was him exposing our goal in a very calculated way, the way to bring conflict to our door. We all looked askance at the other members of our team and knew things were only going to get worse from here on out. As panicked voices emerged around us from those reading this paper, it seemed that would start now.
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LeAnn Mason is an author of YA/NA Urban Science Fantasy Crime. When she's not writing, she can be found out with her hubby and two munchkins around their Oklahoma home either herding chickens or racing ATVs.
Though currently horseless, she has been riding since her early teen years and adores the giant animals so much that she wrote them into her story. Music is another constant in her life, a literal muse to her writing, so it was no surprise to find it entrenched in the pages as well.
Just in case you like what you read and want to see what else she has brewing, or think you may like being an Enforcer, join her mailing list HERE and check her out at the following places:
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OTHER BOOKS BY LEANN MASON
MINEFIELD ENFORCERS SERIES
Illusionary
Fragmentary
