Behind them, males talked all over each other, with Eventine standing back, watching them.
Canyon and Timber crossed the driveway, then got in Canyon’s truck and left. Halfway down the driveway, they saw a tall male with short dark hair, wearing a KSRT uniform, holding a pudgy baby with a shock of black hair. The baby wore a purple onesie and stared at the male with adoring eyes.
The male pointed at a tree. “Tree,” he said.
The baby giggled.
“Leaf,” he said.
Another giggle.
“It’s Trent!” Timber said. He rolled down his window and stuck his body out. “Trent!” he called.
A black wolf pup ran by them like a blur.
From behind them a female yelled, “Track! Come back here!”
The puppy didn’t act like he’d heard. He ran for Trent.
“Trent, don’t let him touch his sister!”
But it was too late. The little black puppy reached Trent and climbed halfway up his pant leg like a cat, then lost his grip and fell to the ground. The baby in Trent’s arms squirmed this way and that, while Trent curled her close to him, trying to keep her under control. She shifted into a little black pup that looked just like the other one, but still wearing a purple onesie. She levered her legs against Trent’s chest and managed to wriggle out. The pup dropped straight down, landing on the other pup.
Instantly, they were wrestling and biting at each other, leaving Canyon and Timber laughing. The pups heard the laughter, and they stopped wrestling and sat on their haunches, looking at the truck. They both cocked their heads to the left, their teeny ears facing front, then they moved in close to each other and pressed their sides together.
“Oh no,” Trent said, and he reached down to grab one or the other, but it was too late.
Canyon felt woozy. The ground tilted. No, it wasn’t the ground, it was the truck! It was rising and they were already five or six feet in the air and going up fast.
My truck!Canyon shouted inruhi, grabbing at his seat belt.
“Abandon truck!” Timber shouted at the same time, shifting to a black wolf inside his clothes, looking about to jump out the window, but he must have had second thoughts when he saw how high they were. He shifted back to human and righted his clothes hurriedly, while the truck swayed and rose.
They were higher than the roof of the house and rising. Canyon stuck his head out the window just in time to see Trent about to pull both pups apart.
Don’t do it,he told Trent.Me and Timber might die. My truck definitely won’t make it.
Track and Treena had been born conjoined, but were surgically separated, and now whenever they touched each other, they could lift things with their minds. Canyon didn’t think they’d ever lifted anything heavier than a grown man, until now.
Trent looked up, saw how high they were, and he changed tactics, hugging both pups together tightly so they couldn’t stop touching. Ella came booking it out of the house, down the steps, to the tree line, straight to Trent, talking a mile a minute to the two babies. Slowly, the truck lowered to the ground, lower, lower. They touched down and the truck shook and settled. Timber and Canyon both breathed out theatrical sighs of relief.
Ella’s calm demeanor cracked. She took both pups by the scruff of the neck, one in each hand, and marched toward the house, her face lined with motherly anger.
“I thought she didn’t let anyone hold them by the scruff,” Timber said.
Ella must have heard him. She stopped walking and turned to look at him, very slowly, her expression homicidally blank, a black pup dangling from each hand.
Don’t shift,Canyon told him,because it looks like you’re next.
“Pssht,” Timber said. “She can’t pick me up.” But his face looked worried all the same. He turned and looked behind them, then said. “She can’t catch me if we’re hauling ass. Let’s find my mate. Go! Go!”
Canyon laughed and stepped on it. The truck lurched forward, and they sped down the driveway before Ella chose violence.
44—Bullshit Magic
Canyon drove north out of town toward Morning Bluff. Traffic was light, the air was smoky, and a few fires still burned, but no sirens wailed. Serenity was calm again. He drove over the bridge and turned left onto Morning Drive, where traffic dwindled to nothing and houses and businesses gave way to tall red and white oak trees. Canyon floored it, enjoying the speed, glad to be outside and working.
When all this is over, I don’t think I’m going to want to go back to working in the bunker so much,he said.
