Chapter 2

We decided to go out for lunch as a group and ended up inviting Simon’s team—also known as Harriet’s or Charlie’s or Ash’s—with us. It was so weird not having Charlie and Harriet on our team, but our two groups worked so closely together that it wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been.

But I did miss that big goofball, that was for sure, so it wasn’t surprising that he ended up in the seat beside me or that he kept bumping my shoulder with his. I was pretty sure he missed hanging out with me at the office, too.

Cos was on my other side, Ash was on Char’s other, and Jude was straight across from me with Kulani beside him.

We’d come to a diner about two blocks away from the office, and we’d been here often enough in the past two months that the servers seemed to know us and treated us kindly. It was becoming one of my favorite spots since we didn’t have to deal with any non-human slurs thrown our way or any other bigotry.

“You doing okay?” Charlie asked me, pulling me out of my thoughts.

“Huh? Oh, yeah, I’m fine. Why?”

“You’ve been really quiet for the last twenty minutes.”

I shrugged. “I keep daydreaming, I guess.”

“About what?”

I pursed my lips in thought and glanced at him. He had makeup on again… at work, which was fucking awesome. I was so excited that he’d been wearing it lately whenever he wanted instead of having to hide himself at work. Yeah, there hadn’t technically been anything stopping him before the Shifter and Magi Equality Act took effect, but he hadn’t wanted to draw attention to himself before in case one of the humans didn’t like it.

Now, they weren’t allowed to punish us for stupid shit like that—no more punishments for whatever they wanted—so he’d taken the chance. Of course, he’d talked to Cos about it first, not for permission, but because he’d wanted to make sure my mate thought it would be safe… or at least safer than it would’ve been pre-Equality Act.

Cos and I had both encouraged him because no one should have to hide who they were.

And now, every time I saw him wearing makeup, it made me smile because I knew how much he loved it and how much his confidence was growing each and every time.

“You look pretty today,” I mumbled.

He lifted a brow at the very random statement since he hadn’t been privy to my thoughts, but a small smile quirked up his lips. “Thank you. Although, you told me that already this morning.”

“Did I?”

He nodded. “Yep. But I’m glad you like it. I tried a new eyeshadow color.”

“It looks good on you.” I shoulder-bumped him, then took a bite of my chicken sandwich. “Do you guys have any plans this weekend?”

Ash leaned forward, looking around Charlie to meet my eyes, and said, “We’ve been talking about going to that festival this weekend, but we’re not sure.”

“The one near the Poplar Union Mall? Is it open this weekend?”

Ash nodded. “It’s the last weekend, so I really want to go, but we’re worried someone will find out we’re non-humans and try to… you know.”

I frowned because I did know. They were afraid some prickhole would try to hurt them for being non-human, just for existing. I couldn’t say I blamed them because we were getting called out to hate crimes several times a week at this point. It was appalling. And so fucking disgusting.

“I can’t say I blame you,” I said.

Cos leaned in, disrupting his conversation with Simon and Harriet to say, “I don’t think you guys should go. I know it sucks, but I think we should pick safety over fun at the moment. Hopefully, by next year, there won’t be any problems, and you can go then.”

Speciesist-free in one year? Ha. That was some wishful thinking if I’d ever heard any.

Ash deflated a little with a sigh. “I know you’re right. I just… I’ve never been to a festival before, and they look really fun.”

The piece of Cosmo’s soul that was around my heart went through a complicated array of emotions, but his concern for everyone’s safety outweighed everything, and he said, “I know, and I’m really sorry, but I truly don’t think it’s safe.”

Under the table, I set my hand on my mate’s thigh, giving it a squeeze, then turned to Ash. “I’ve never been to one, either, but I think Cos is right. It sucks, but I think it’s too soon.”

Charlie cleared his throat. “They usually have a smaller festival in the fall in Shifter City. Maybe we could go to that when it comes around?”

Ash’s eyes widened in surprise for a moment. “Really?”

“Yeah. I’ve never been to that one, but I know several shifters who live in the area, and they all say it’s awesome. They can even take their kids to it without worrying about their safety.”

Ash leaned in and kissed Charlie’s cheek. “I’m sold. You should’ve told me about that when we were talking about it before.”

“I forgot about it until Simon mentioned it when we drove past the mall festival earlier.”

The two of them started talking about it in greater detail, so I turned to Cos and leaned against him. “Don’t feel guilty. It’s not your fault.”

“It’s my fault they’re not going.”

I rolled my eyes. “Actually, it’s not. Everyone knows we don’t need your permission to do something. All you did was give your opinion, and all you’re doing is trying to keep them safe. I happen to agree with you because the humans in this city have been disgusting. The NHSO has had a huge presence here for a very long time, so the feelings about us—all the bigotry and everything—are much stronger here than in some other cities.”

Although, from what I’d heard, it was like this almost everywhere in the country with very few exceptions. I knew there were non-human safe towns. I knew they existed, but I’d never seen one for myself, so who knew just how non-human safe they actually were.

He let out a long sigh. “Yeah, I know. You’re right, but that doesn’t stop me from feeling like a prickhole, if I’m being honest.”

Leaning in, I gave his lips a quick peck. “Honestly, I can’t imagine you ever being a prickhole, honey. Like ever. You’re fine. You have nothing to feel guilty over.”

He huffed, but when I smiled up at him, he sent a very tiny smile back.

As everyone was finishing up their meal, all of our HIDs went off at the same time. The office knew we were at lunch, so either something glitched or the issue was so severe it couldn’t wait another ten minutes for us to arrive back.

As quickly as possible, we hurried out of the diner—Cos paid the bill before heading out behind us—and we rushed to our TRD trucks.

Cos got into the driver’s seat of ours while Harriet got into the driver’s seat of the other team’s, and we were all off within a minute or two.

Luckily, we stored extra clothes and gear in the truck under the seats. It sucked gearing up inside a moving vehicle with so many giant shifters around me, but it was doable as long as we helped each other with straps and things since there was little elbow room.

We’d overhauled our TRD truck a little so there were no sectioned-off areas. We’d even removed the mesh wire cage thing that separated the front seats from the back of the truck. So now, if I really wanted to, I could shove my head up to the front and give Cos a cheek-kiss while he drove—I did it the first time we removed the mesh wire, but hadn’t since then because I still tried to be professional while we were working… for the most part.

“What’s going on?” Cos asked from the driver’s seat.

Jude answered from the seat beside him—it was weird having him ride up there, but it made sense since he and Cos did a lot of planning together while we drove. Jude read from his HID and summarized for us. “Some prickhole ran into a movie theater with a gun, ranting about how the theater was supposed to be a human-only one, blah, blah, blah, and he started shooting up anyone he thought was a non-human.”

“That’s fucking disgusting,” Haiden mumbled under his breath, then louder, he said, “I really don’t understand why some of these humans are freaking out so much about us having equal rights. I mean, why the hell do they even care? Does it really affect them at all? Human rights aren’t pie. Giving us rights doesn’t take away theirs. If they would just let everyone else live their lives, everything would be so much more peaceful. Hate doesn’t help anyone, not even them. Prickholes.”

Logan reached over and grabbed his mate’s hand, squeezing it, and I was beyond happy to see how well his hand had healed. There had been an accident on a call a few weeks ago, and Logan had ended up pushed against a veil tear.

Thank the goddess I’d been able to snag him back before he was… beyond repair.

I’d thought he might lose his fingers or even part of his hand from the injuries he’d sustained. After surgery, he’d mainly lost some muscle in his arm and had to recover from many, many burn marks. But he’d lucked out, and now, he only had scars to show for it. Every magi in our pride had used a thousand healing spells on him, so he was looking really good and able to use it, although he was still doing physical therapy to build strength in that whole arm.

Dare gave Haiden’s shoulder a pat from his other side, saying, “I don’t think it’s truly possible for any of us to understand that kind of hate. All we can do is help people as much as possible and try to spread kindness.” He gave him another shoulder pat and a squeeze before changing back to the subject at hand. “What other details do we have, Jude?”

Jude shot me a look, like he was checking on me, before facing forward and saying, “The guy shot twenty-one people—a mix of humans and shifters—and of those twenty-one, eight are deceased, and six are critical. There could be more victims. We won’t have the final death toll for a few days.

“The perp is currently holed up inside one of the theaters with at least thirty hostages. There are no windows to see inside, but one of the citizens managed to place a call to dispatch, and before the gunman caught on, she reported that several hostages had been shot or were injured. We lost contact with that civilian two minutes ago, so we don’t have current updates.”

Good goddess.

Jude continued, “They found video footage of the guy walking in and were able to ID him. Curtis Babcock. A human born in Fairview City. Lived here his whole life. Graduated high school. No college. He’s currently a bank teller for Better Trust Corp.”

His name settled around us with a wave of unease.

This wasn’t the first situation we were walking into like this, but I really freaking hoped it’d be the last. These things were never easy, no matter how prepared you were.

By the time we got there, there were EMTs, firefighters, and police everywhere trying to help the injured and question people for more information. The human police were also doing their best to negotiate with the perp with no success, so Cos immediately took over—even Harriet let him take the lead without issue.

We had a plan in place within five minutes.

“Take your place, Logan, okay?” I asked him.

He gave me a nod before heading out of the building so he could walk to the emergency exit with the manager, who had a key to that door. Ash and Wren followed him as his backup, and Haiden, Charlie, Simon, and Dare trailed them in case they were needed. Meanwhile, Jude and I headed to one of the interior doors and waited for Lo to give the signal that he was in place. Zara and Kulani were behind us, and Cos and Harriet were right outside the theater door, watching from the body cams they made us wear and prepared to rush in if needed.

Most people couldn’t simply barge inside the way we were planning on doing, but since I was quick enough with my magic to be able to trap the perp under one of my shields—and therefore eliminating the risk to everyone else—we were going with my plan. I’d had to disarm a threat so many times I’d lost count, so I was prepared.

Being TRD, we didn’t have such strict guidelines as the regular police, so we were able to infiltrate when they couldn’t. Which worked well for me, that was for sure.

“I’m ready, Mads,” Lo said through my HID mic.

“I’m going in, putting up the shield, and you’re doing the same, yes? But I’m covering the gunman. You’re covering your team and civilians. You need to wait for Jude’s signal,” I said.

“I know the plan and how to follow orders, Mads.”He sounded exasperated with me, and I couldn’t blame him. We’d only gone over the plan about twenty times already. But excuse me for being nervous about sending him in there on the opposite side as me.

Goddess, it was going to take a long time for me to get used to sending my little brother, my little ce’oso, into dangerous situations. Ugh.

Jude and I exchanged nods before he gave the signal to Logan, and we pushed through the now-unlocked door and headed inside. We kept our steps quiet, doing our best to move silently down the long hall and towards the front of the theater. Hopefully, as soon as we turned that final corner, we’d be able to see the gunman.

I had a small, flat shield guarding the two of us, plus I already had the runes activated for the shield I planned on using around the perp. It would only take a second or two to cover him and prevent him from hurting anyone else.

The second I turned the corner, already weaving the shield together, the gunman turned and saw us. Curtis Babcock reacted immediately and grabbed a girl, who he’d had standing at the front of the theater, lined up with a bunch of others, and put his gun to her head.

I obviously couldn’t get my shield around the prickhole with the girl standing against him. Shit.

As quickly as I could, I dropped the sphere rune and traded it for plane, so I had fire, resistant, steel, strength, plane, growth, and immobile activated and formed a very small wall-shield before the man even opened his mouth.

“Stay back or I’ll shoot her!” Curtis Babcock yelled, spittle flying from his mouth.

Logan, Ash, and Wren came in on the other side, and I felt and saw them all using their magic to shield every group of people in the theater, just in case.

The second Curtis opened a small space between the girl’s head and the gun, I pushed my tiny wall-shield in front of the gun, blocking her head so his bullet couldn’t kill her. Unfortunately, the bullet would ricochet off my shield, so I couldn’t guarantee that someone else wouldn’t get hurt.

And since the man was so wildly losing his shit, I created another shield and plopped it over him—and incidentally, the girl—the way I would a taragorian.

Which meant his bullets now had two shields to ricochet off of, so we needed to tread lightly so this poor girl didn’t get hurt. If it had just been Curtis, it wouldn’t have been that big of a deal if the man, you know, shot off his gun and it ricocheted off my shield and killed him. Honestly, he deserved it.

But that poor girl was in there, and there was no way in hell I wanted her to get hurt because of me.

So as calmly as possible, I said, “It’s okay, Curtis. You’re Curtis Babcock, isn’t that right?” He glared but sort of nodded, so I went on. “My name is Madeo. I’m with the TRD, and we’re here to help you.”

He wrinkled his nose in disgust. “You’re one of them, aren’t ya? A disgusting, dirty shifter.”

Ignoring the question, I said, “Put the gun down, Curtis. No one else needs to get hurt.”

He scoffed. “You think I give a shit about another shifter dying? You all deserve to rot in Hell!”

“You know if you shoot your gun again, we’ll react, right? If you shoot, we shoot.”

A sort of manic grin spread on his face. “At least I’ll take another one of you bastards down with me.”

What the actual fuck is wrong with people?

As I distracted the gunman, I could see Logan weaving a spell on the other side of the room. I figured out what his plan was and gave a small nod without looking at him so Curtis wouldn’t notice.

“That woman you’re holding? She’s not a shifter, Curtis, she’s human,” I said. This guy was a freaking idiot. I tried to portray patience, but I wasn’t a patient man, and this guy was really trying mine something fierce.

I felt a wave of warmth come through my bond with Jude, and it helped me take a deep breath. I needed to remain calm and collected so this guy didn’t freak out and kill that poor girl.

“What?” The guy asked. “She’s a shifter, just like the rest of her friends.” He said the word shifter like it tasted bad in his mouth as he gestured to the group of people he’d lined up against the theater’s screen.

It only took me one glance to realize this guy had absolutely no clue who was human and who was non-human. Most humans couldn’t differentiate between us, which was why they’d forced us to tag our ears for so many decades—to make it easier for them to discriminate. Now, for them, it was just guesswork, unless they saw a mage use magic or a shifter shift into their cat form.

For me, it was as if the magic in my own body called to the magic in other non-humans. It was more about me feeling or sensing the person rather than looking at them and being able to tell with only my eyes. My magic knew other magic, and it easily differentiated between magi and shifters.

I said, “Half of those people are human.”

He sneered at them. Looking them over with disdain. “Yeah, well, they shouldn’t be mingling with the enemy. They should be with their own kind. They chose the wrong side, and now they deserve to die, just like their… friends.” He said friends like it was a bad word.

Logan’s spell was ready, so I opened a hole in my shield around Curtis and let Logan slide his weave inside.

“No one else needs to die, Curtis,” I said again, trying not to let his attention move over to Logan, Ash, and Wren, who definitely looked like they were up to something, even if the human couldn’t see their magic.

The man continued spitting out his vitriol as I watched Logan’s magic wrap around the gun. Logan had created a small shield in the shape of a sphere with a large opening on one side. He attached the shield to a sort of magical rope.

Luckily for us, Curtis had loosened his hold on the girl enough that there was space between her and the gun, so Logan was able to wrap his small shield around the gun and his hand, all the way down to his wrist.

As soon as Lo had the shield in place, he tightened the opening, closing it up around Curtis’s wrist and tightening it so there was no way it could come off, even if the man started flinging his arm around.

Curtis let out a surprised yell when Logan yanked on the magical rope, pulling the gun—and the man’s arm—away from the girl. He yanked so hard the man lost his grip on the girl completely, so I opened my shield, pulled the girl out of the way with what Jude referred to as my grabby hands spell, and wrapped the shield back around Curtis tightly.

The man was trying to flail about, but I simply closed the shield tighter around him, not giving him room. Logan held the gun shield tightly to one side, so he couldn’t move that arm at all, anyway.

Into my HID, I said, “We have him trapped in a shield, unable to hurt anyone else. We’re going to start sending out the hostages.”

Cos responded, “Roger that. Any new injuries to report?”

I couldn’t help but snort at that. My man obviously wanted to know if any of us had been injured while we apprehended Curtis, even though he’d been watching the entire time and knew we were uninjured. Such a worrywart. “We’re all fine. No shots were fired once we came inside.” He had to have known that already with his superior hearing—and the vid feed—but I was sure it was nice hearing it straight from me, too.

“Good. Let me know when you’re ready for transport to come inside.”

“Will do.”

The second I turned off my mic, the human girl practically tackled me into a hug. I let out a loud “oomph” and planted my feet so she didn’t knock me over. Then I stood there, rigid and uncomfortable for a few seconds before patting her back awkwardly.

Curtis flipped out inside my shield, but I ignored him, and when the girl didn’t let go, I murmured to her, “Are you alright?”

She nodded and pulled back with tears in her eyes. “Thank you so much for saving me.”

I shrugged uncomfortably and gestured to Logan as he walked over. “He helped.”

She shot me a smile, then rushed over to hug Logan. He didn’t seem quite as uncomfortable with the touch as I had, but he also looked like a stiff board when he hugged her back. It was entertaining—when it was happening to him instead of me—and I could only imagine how much worse I’d looked.

She thanked him, then rushed back over to her group of friends.

Lo and I exchanged a look and a shrug. We hadn’t done anything special—we’d only been doing our jobs. But… I suppose that was sweet of her, and I could understand her appreciation. But… that hug had been weird. And super uncomfortable.

A call came over my HID, and I blinked in surprise when I saw Cosmo’s name pop up. Why in the world was he calling me rather than speaking to me over our TRD HID channel?

I answered with a “Hello?”

“Are you okay?”my mate’s voice asked, clearly filled with concern.

I blinked. “I’m fine. Why? Are you?”

I heard him release a long rush of air. “Yeah, I’m fine. You seemed like you were panicking, but when Jude said everything was under control in there, I thought I’d ask you privately.”

Oh. “Um… a teenage girl hugged me.”

He was silent for a beat, then huffed out a small chuckle. “Got it.”

“So glad you find my trauma comical.”

His chuckle got bigger, making me narrow my eyes even though he couldn’t see me. “You’re good now?”

“I’m good.” I rolled my eyes at the amusement in his voice. I had to force my lips not to twitch into a smile. He was so not funny.

“Alright, let me know if you need anything, baby.”

“Will do.”

We hung up the call, and I focused on the situation. Jude, Ash, and Wren were sending the civilians outside to the rest of our team members while Logan and I stood beside our shields, staring at the evil human inside.

He kept cursing us out and going on and on about how disgusting we were and how we weren’t human, so we shouldn’t be allowed to walk around free. How we should be trained like dogs and bow down to our masters, and so many other disturbing things.

“I kind of wish I could just let my shield keep closing in on him,” I murmured.

Logan turned to me with a raised brow. “That’s rather murderous of you.”

I shrugged. “I’m sick of these prickholes hurting so many innocent people. It needs to stop, but I don’t know how.”

He sighed. “I think we’re already doing everything we can. Just live our lives and show them that we’re not so different from them. I think most of them will come around. It’s just going to take time.”

“Yeah, and in the meantime, we have to watch speciesist pricks hurt, maim, and kill innocents.”

Logan shoulder-bumped me. “At least we’re here to stop them, right?”

I blew out a breath. “Right.”

“I think… I think that maybe right now is going to be the hardest part, but after a while, things will get better. It’s just going to take time.”

I sighed. There was that stupid time thing again. The one thing I couldn’t do anything about. Ugh.