Happy thoughts. Happy thoughts.

It’s the only thought in my mind as I try to concentrate, using the knowledge my guardians showed me. It’s harder than it seems, trying to think happy things while running toward a pack of armed gunmen who have your sister hostage . . . but then the answer comes, and it’s so easy.

Alyssa. I love you.

“TAEN!”

The ball of Faelight that forms between my hands is intense, the colors blending to a blinding white so quickly that I can barely get it up and over my head before I throw it like a baseball, praying that it will burn the gunmen or at least scare them off.

The ball flies from my hand like a fastball, but instead of hitting, it careens, almost drunkenly flying from face to face in the group, shifting colors from green to yellow to blue before going back to green and splashing in the middle, exploding in a nearly silent pop that lights the very dirt itself on fire.

Almost immediately, the sky above flashes, a green lightning bolt ripping the near-dawn clouds apart and cracking, scaring everyone. “What the fuck is that?” one of the vigilantes asks, gripping his shotgun more tightly. He sees me and raises his gun. “There!”

“Fuck,” I mutter, diving to the side. I should have known I was going to fuck this up. If I’ve done anything, all I’ve done is make myself a target, perhaps saving Alyssa or the wolf they were going to finish off. I roll into a shallow ditch, feeling dirt spray my back. “Smooth move, Eve.”

Daring to look over the edge of the dirt, I see Alyssa yanked free of the man who has her, her boyfriend landing an impressive left hook that knocks him loopy before helping Alyssa run toward the barn.

“Eve!” Alyssa screams as soon as the gag is out of her mouth. “Eve!”

The vigilantes recognize the name like blood in the water. “It’s the fairy whore!”

I mutter as I try to form another Faelight, wishing I had my gun right now.

Instead, I’ve got Faelight, sort of, and it’s totally unreliable so far. I throw another ball, chucking it wildly over the edge of the ditch, and roll as another shotgun round chews up more dirt and I scramble for a tree.

“This would be the time I could use my guardians,” I gasp. But of course, I left them snoring, and who knows where Cole and Noah are?

“Let my sister go, leave the shifters alone, and no one gets hurt!” I yell, hoping they take my bluff as I throw another Faelight. “Don’t make me angry!”

“That’s right, you fucks!” Alyssa yells as she hides in the barn. “You’d better run. My sister is here. She’s gonna turn all your heads into tomato soup!”

Dammit, Alyssa, be quiet. It’s happened once, I don’t know how, and in general, other than chucking unpredictable light balls, my powers are about as reliable as an old man trying to get it up without Viagra.

Still, I gotta play the hand I’m dealt. “She’s right!” I roar, trying to sound intimidating and powerful. “Walk away, and I’ll let you live.”

The lead vigilante pulls something out of his pocket, holding it up and pulling a ring on it. Shit . . . a grenade. And the only thing keeping it from exploding is him holding the ‘spoon.’ “Try it. I’m not going out alone!”

Spying Alyssa’s boyfriend, I remember that shifters are connected to the Fae, and I reach out with my mind, hoping this works. I do my best to picture him, hoping that I’m even doing this right. I feel like a kid playing with a phone for the first time, but instead of calling Grandma, I could end up calling Hong Kong, just ten times worse.

Zack!

The boy looks around, startled. Who the fuck is this?

Eve. Alyssa’s sister. I’m going to try something, but I’m a newbie with all this. I need you and anyone with you to be ready.

There's silence for a moment, only undercut by a low buzz. I wonder if I somehow lost the connection, and I focus again, but when I do, the deep hum begins to clear, and though I can't distinguish what's being said, I realize Zack is telepathing to someone else. Almost like the line clears of static, he comes back solidly. Better move fast. My father’s wounded. And that’s my brother in the yard.

I close my eyes, concentrating on one of the vigilantes, the one holding an AK-47 in his hands. Get out of here. Just leave. Go. It’s not safe here. Go away. Go home.

My heart leaps as the guy with the AK-47 turns to his leader, not raising his rifle but still not firing. “Howard, we need to go.”

“What?” Howard, who’s still holding his grenade, says. “Are you nuts, Earl?”

“I said we need to go. Put the pin back in the grenade.”

Howard shakes his head in disbelief. “I’m not doing a damn thing with this grenade. It’s the only thing keeping us alive.”

But a few of the other vigilantes seem to follow suit, backing away along with Earl. It seems I’ve scared the shit out of them.

I know I need to use this time. Soon! I call to Zack while concentrating on Howard. I focus on his mind, trying to encourage him to put the pin back in. No dice. Instead, he starts itching, dancing around while trying his best to hold onto the armed grenade in his hand.

“What the—” he starts. Suddenly, Howard falls to the ground screaming, scratching at his body and rolling across the ground. “Oh, God, it hurts! Get it off me!”

His body starts to expand, and he lets go of the grenade to claw at his skin. Thankfully, he’s on his belly . . . but I can only wince as I know what’s going to happen.

Three . . . two . . . one.

In his last instant, Howard’s eyes gain some desperate clarity, realizing what’s about to happen.

Either my powers or the grenade beneath him, maybe both, explode at the same time. Earl drops his AK-47, already having backed away, his eyes going wide with terror. Now, he and the rest are full-fledged running away.

That wasn’t what I was expecting, but it works.

One of the vigilantes stays behind, raising his shotgun toward me. “Die, you bitch!”

Now, Zack!

I don’t even complete the thought before wolves are out of the barn, even leaping from the hayloft door down onto the sole vigilante. He manages to get a shot off, but from the looks of it, none of the wolves appear hurt. It only takes a few seconds, the wolves ripping his throat out before howling just as the sun cracks the horizon.

The wolves shift and stand before me, three women and four men, the youngest maybe eleven. Zack steps forward while the two youngest women and one of the men go back inside, presumably to check on Zack’s father while another checks on the wounded man lying in the dirt. He looks bad, but I think he’ll recover.

“Holy fuck,” Zack says, seemingly in awe of what just happened. But before I can say anything, I’m half-hugged, half-tackled by my sister.

“Eve!” she cries as we hug, the air reeking of blood and smoke, but I don’t care. She’s alive. That’s all I care about. “Oh, Eve, I was so scared, I—”

“It doesn’t matter,” I murmur, hugging her tightly. Tears trickle down my cheeks and we hug tighter. “I found you. That’s all that matters.”

“I thought I’d never see you again,” Alyssa sniffles.

I cry harder, knowing that this is going to be tough. When we let go, I hear someone clear their throat and I turn to see a man who’s obviously Zack’s father come limping out of the barn, his leg wrapped in a bandage. “Thank you.”

“Thank you for keeping her safe," I reply, offering my hand. “We should get out of here.” I gesture at the bodies lying on the ground.

“No need,” the man says. “Those’ll be gone by moonrise. Faster if we’d had another twenty minutes of darkness.”

“So, what’s going on?” Alyssa asks. “You break out of jail? I mean, how?”

There’s a lot to explain, but I need a moment. “First, tell me what happened to you. I got your ‘message’, but that’s all I could do.”

Alyssa nods, looking over at Zack, who hugs her. “Alyssa wanted to stay at your apartment, but when the riots started, I feared something would happen, even with the police presence. After what happened to me the other day . . . I’ve just had this feeling, and I don’t trust them, frankly.”

“Don’t discount it,” I reply. “So, how’d you get captured?”

“I had the same idea as Zack,” Alyssa admits. “But as soon as I stepped out of the building, these guys snatched me. It seems the man named Howard was the leader of the group trying to string up Zack, and he wanted to finish the job and make me watch.”

Bastards. I arrived here just in time. “Then we did the right thing,” I declare, looking at the bodies. “Whatever the result.”

“So, does this mean you can control your powers now?” Alyssa asks. “Zack says you’re like mind-Skyping him or something.”

“It’s . . . a long story,” I admit. “I’m still learning what I can do and how to do it.”

Alyssa looks around, seeing the remains of the guy who fell on the grenade, and shivers. “How do you have these powers?”

I look up at the slowly softening sky and rub at my arm, where I scratched myself without even knowing it. Opening my mouth, it all comes out in a tumble, my being a Halfling, my guardians, my powers, what happened with Cody Reigns . . . all of it. “So, I trusted my feelings,” I finish. “You guys saw the rest.”

The shifters look back and forth, Zack’s father humming. “So, you share a sort of bond with us?”

“That’s what I was told,” I confirm.

“There’s something else, though,” I add, saving this for last. It’s going to be hard.

“What?” Alyssa asks, her smile fading. “Eve?”

I sigh. “They want me to go with them,” I confess. “They say it’s to help me learn to control my powers. That without discipline, I’m a danger to everyone. I know you’ll hate me for it, ‘Lyssa, but I got them to promise to let me stay until at least this vampire uprising is taken care of, but after that—”

“Stop,” Alyssa says, hugging me again. “It’s okay, and I’ll be fine. Go learn to be the badass bitch I know you are . . . then you can come back and tell me all about it, deal?”

“Deal,” I promise, tears threatening again. “I’m glad you’re understanding, but it’s not that simple. I need to know you'll be safe or I can't leave you."

Zack wraps his arm around Alyssa's shoulders. "I've got her. Not because of you, but because she's mine. She's everything to me."

Alyssa looks at Zack with tears in her eyes, the love they share palpable in the air between them. Zack's dad steps forward too. "She's ours as long as she wants to be. We'll protect her."

I scan the group of people in front of me, full of love and strength. Alyssa finally has the family we always dreamed about in the orphanage. It doesn't matter that they're shifter and she's human. It just matters that they love each other.

I swallow thickly. "I'm sorry I ever defended the Para squad, Alyssa. I thought we were doing the right thing. Or at least, I thought I was, and I turned a blind eye to those who took it too far. I should've done more.”

“You weren’t totally wrong,” Alyssa admits. “I was just upset and took it out on you. But . . . how’re you going to clear your name and stop the vampires if all the cops are looking for you?”

I need to find Joe, I think. He’ll know what we should do.

Like fate tossing me a bone, a car flies up the dirt road, dust spewing from behind it. Pulling to a stop, Joe jumps out along with a young detective I’ve seen only once before, a rookie who just transferred into the 54th. “Joe!”

He looks around in total shock at the carnage, his partner equally surprised before he raises his weapon. “Down on the ground!”

“Joe, these people didn’t—”

Joe pulls his gun, pointing it at me. “Eve, I’m not here to arrest you. I’m here to get you to safety. Fuck the DHS, fuck those black uniform fuckers. But I can only help if you let me. You come along quietly, and your sister and the shifters can go free.”

Alyssa clutches at me, but I shake my head. “Let go, Alyssa. Zack and his family can’t help me. That would only bring them trouble,” I whisper as she starts to babble. “I’ll be okay.”

“Eve—”

“Shush,” I whisper, hugging her. “Stay with Zack. I’ll be back. If the Fae find you, tell them what happened. But promise me, you’ll stay safe?”

“I will,” she replies, nodding and sobbing. “Eve, I love you.”

“I love you too,” I reply, stepping back and giving Zack a nod. He looks pissed, but he understands. This isn’t his time. I turn and walk over to Joe, holding out my wrists. “Handcuffs?”

“That’s not why I’m here, Eve. We’ve got to figure out what the fuck’s going on and maybe you and your boys are the key to it all. Besides, what’s the point?” Joe asks. “Just ride in the back, and we’re all good.”

I get in the back of their car, Joe’s partner holding his gun on me just in case. As we back away, I clear my throat. “You know, Joe, I was just thinking I wanted to talk to you right before you pulled up.”

Joe looks into the rearview mirror, chuckling darkly. “Well, you know the old saying. Speak of the devil—”

“And he shall appear,” I finish.

Problem is, I never spoke of him.