Chapter 14

Fighting the currents turned out to be less of an issue than the lack of visibility. Leave it to teenagers to steal a car in a snowstorm.

I flew over Little Italy until my destination came within sight. A few cars parked alongside the restaurant. I had to go to the end of the block to find a vehicle with exhaust trailing from the tailpipe. Front end surrounded by a snowdrift. Oh, shit. Must have had a snowplow come by and box them in.

And not just any car. A pristine two-door, powder-blue Cadillac with four teens huddled together in the backseat. Yeah, the car was that big. Had to be an early '70s model. The car definitely had a steel body. Also, if I wasn't mistaken, rear-wheel drive. Fuuuck. They couldn't have lifted an SUV with four-wheel drive? I'd driven in snow, but it wasn't like Baltimore had a lot, so I was no expert. Usually, I had enough sense to avoid being out in this kind of weather.

I did a few circles over the car before landing and shifting on what was probably the sidewalk. Damn, it was cold. The kids screamed from the backseat like they were in a horror movie, and I had to fight a laugh. Guess I'd startled them.

I trudged around the car, noting they'd obviously floored the accelerator and spun the wheels. They'd turned the snow beneath them to hard-packed ice. Great. That much harder to push the car out. Especially with a heavy steel body.

Marching to the driver's side, I climbed in the front, shaking the snow from my clothing. The ignition had been hot-wired. Not a bad job, either. The car idled, and its heater blasted.

Four worried faces peered at me from the backseat.

My turn to be surprised.

I looked them up and down. The girls wore wispy scraps of fabric that bared their shoulders and rose above their knees. Gold laced through Shandra's microbraids, and she wore a bright purple lip color matching her dress. Nyia's make-up was more subdued. She made up for it by wearing a blinding glitter nail polish and piling her long black hair into an elaborate updo, some strands painted to match her polish. They came by their love of shiny things naturally, as all ravens did.

Their dates—because now it was obvious this had been a double date—had draped their suit jackets over the girls' shoulders. The boys' matching bow ties and cummerbunds would have been cute on any other night, but their patent leather shoes weren't designed for pushing a car out of the snow. Nor were the girls' heels. I groaned. Looks like I'd be doing the grunt work.

"Are you all wearing prom outfits?"

Shandra snorted sarcastically, the way only a teen can. "No, prom isn't for months yet. Obviously, these are winter formal outfits."

"Ah," I said, like this should have been obvious. "Explain to me why you stole the car." Though I was now pretty sure I had the answer.

"We didn't steal the car." Nyia's hand flew to her chest like how dare I suggest such a thing.

"Yeah, Abe, we just borrowed it. Honest," Alex said, crossing his lanky arms over his thin chest. "We would have brought it back."

I hummed noncommittally.

"What? We would have," insisted Shandra. "It's not like we could drive it home without our parents noticing. We wanted a car as close to a limo as possible for the dance. And Alex has only got his mom's old Elantra."

All the kids shuddered at the mention.

"Not a proper date car," I said, keeping my voice neutral.

"Exactly," Shandra insisted. "Now you see why we borrowed it."

The only one who hadn't said anything was the non-raven in the car. I didn't know Kai well. From what Shandra had told me, this quiet wolf shifter was a recent addition to Tommy's Neighborhood. He'd arrived alone because his pack had cast him out for challenging his caste designation. Kai was born a gamma, but according to Shandra, he identified as a beta wolf. He wasn't having much better luck with acceptance from the wolves in Tommy's territory. Shandra had a crush on him and talked my ear off about him at her birthday party. My guess? She'd asked him to the dance.

Speaking of the dance . . .

"How did you end up here? I can't believe your school would hold the dance in this weather."

That earned me an eye-roll from all the raven teens, though Kai just stared at his shoes.

"Obviously, they canceled it," Nyia said in a tone suggesting I was dense.

I pinched the bridge of my nose. No wonder Poe was only too glad to have me handle the teens in the roost. "That still doesn't answer my question."

I didn't ask why they hadn't abandoned the car. I knew why. Nyia hadn't had her first shift yet, and no way they could walk back to Tommy's neighborhood in this weather in those clothes. Ravens might have sticky fingers but we were loyal. No way they'd leave Nyia behind, even if Shandra and Alex could have flown through this weather—which they couldn't. Took experience they didn't have. I continued staring them down. Said something that Kai didn't abandon them. In his wolf form, he could have easily made it back to Tommy's Neighborhood.

"Abe! Can we just return the car now? We didn't even have dinner and we're starving." Shandra batted her lashes at me.

"Don't get cute. You want my help? You answer my questions."

Shandra huffed. "Fine. The dance was canceled, but Nyia's mom works evenings, and I told my parents I was spending the night at her place. Everyone came over, and we got ready and decided to keep our dinner reservation. By the time we arrived, they'd closed because of the storm. And then we got stuck. Stupid snowplow only made it worse."

The kids all looked at me expectantly. They may speak in sarcasm, but I knew they wouldn't have reached out if they weren't in over their heads. At their age, I'd run wild and gotten myself into all sorts of messes. Poe's dad, the former alpha, had helped put me back on a better path. I wanted to be that bird for the teens in my roost now.

"Here's what we're going to do," I said, keeping my voice firm and addressing Shandra, since she was clearly the leader of this bunch. "You'll hop in the front seat and drive this bucket. I'll get out and push. You know how to drive this car?" I asked. It had the gearshift on the side of the steering wheel.

"The Internet, Abe. It's a thing." Shandra removed her heels, then crawled over the bench seat to land beside me in a graceless heap. She grinned up at me. "We had to look it up."

"Too bad you didn't look up rear-wheel drive," I muttered.

Her brow furrowed. "It's rear-wheel drive?"

I couldn't tell whether she was joking, so I didn't answer. "Put the car in reverse once I get in position and don't floor it. This is going to take some finesse."

I hopped out and let her slide into the driver's seat. Here's to hoping she didn't run me down. I slogged around to the front of the car, sinking up to my thighs in the snowbank, and tried to find the best grip to push this beast out. I leaned low over the car, digging in. I gave her a thumbs up.

Shandra floored it, and snow shot into my face and soaked my clothing. "Stop!"

She stopped. I wiped my face and glared at her through the window. Shandra's eyes were huge, though Nyia and Alex seemed to think me being covered in slush was hilarious. Even Kai cracked a smile.

I stomped back to the driver's side and tapped the window. She rolled it down.

"Sorry." She bit her lip.

"Let's try easing it out this time."

"I didn't expect it to react like that. I just tapped it."

I trudged back, and we tried again. They'd really wedged the car in good. I couldn't quite get enough traction to push it out. I signaled a halt so I could catch my breath. A back window rolled down.

"Um, try rocking it out," Kai called. He held up his phone to show he'd done his research.

Shit. I so wasn't a snow person. "Thanks."

I tried not to sound sarcastic.

Kai nodded before rolling up the window.

"Don't run over me," I called to Shandra.

"No promises," she shot back.

I hid my grin and went back to pushing. And this time we tried rocking it. Shandra got the hang of it. Forward, back, forward, back. Almost . . .

The car finally started to move when I glanced down the street in the fading light and had to blink to clear the snowflakes from my lashes. I stopped pushing. Was that . . . ?

Michael loped up to me in his huge dire wolf form, his tongue lolling, his red fur covered in snow. Looked like he was having the time of his life.