Chapter One #2
She checked in, sat down, and read her phone.
Twenty minutes later, she was called in and had rolled up both sleeves to get the jabs.
Her doctor had been shocked that she didn’t have any vaccines, so the cycle had begun.
Two years after they started, she would finally be free of the threat from the insects of spring and the jabbing plants of high summer. She was safe.
The bill was less than she expected, and she was told to rest for the rest of the day. She smiled, thanked them, and left the clinic to head home. She had a date with a frozen pizza and couldn’t cancel that again.
Val lay back in the sun and just relaxed as the sound of shrieking seventeen-year-olds rang in the air. This was nice. Bailey was fretting over Mira’s very adult appearance, and Val was keeping her ears focused for trouble while the sun gently baked the aches of the vaccination out of her.
She heard her timer and rolled over, untying the straps to let her back remain strap-mark-free.
Bailey snorted next to her. “And now all the teens are doing the same thing.”
Val sighed. “Sorry, but it just feels so good.”
“I told you to go to the club.”
“Nope. Not for me. I also can’t afford it.”
“You get good money.”
“Yes, and now that my medical care is up to snuff, I can actually start spending money on fun stuff. Though how getting under a guy and sweating is considered fun is beyond me.”
Bailey snorted. “It can be a lot of fun if you can just let yourself trust them for the time you are at the club.”
She laughed. “I did try to, but the guys that I could afford were not particularly interesting to me.”
“Did you disclose virginity?”
“No. Why?”
“It makes a difference. Trust me. The guys who want to be your first line up out the door.”
“Right. Well, maybe I could consider it after my next payday.”
“First time they don’t charge. I am guessing that they just didn’t believe you are a virgin.”
“It didn’t come up. I saw the price list and then had to look up half the references. I turned around and got my ass out of there.”
Bailey laughed. “Okay, that explains a lot. I have seen you do the same at a restaurant.”
“Well, if I don’t wanna put it in my mouth, I don’t wanna put it in my mouth.”
Bailey hooted.
When her timer went off, Val retied her top and then sat up. She reached for a drink when she heard a scream. It was not a good scream.
Val couldn’t help herself. She was up and running to the growing crowd where a woman was wailing and a small figure was on the ground, pale and still. A little boy.
Val checked him, and he was still alive, but he had started to glow, and that wasn’t good.
She knelt next to him as the person who was giving emergency treatment tried to get the child breathing.
She held the soul in place until the other responder leaned away.
Val leaned forward and whispered, “Do you want to live?”
The energy under her hand writhed in confirmation. She made a fist and pinned his soul to his body with a solid thump. The child coughed and started to cry. Val got out of the way as the ambulance services arrived, and the child was taken for treatment.
Val walked away slowly, and no one seemed to have seen what she did, so she got back to her spot, and Bailey asked, “What happened?”
“He got some water in his lungs. He’s awake and alert and being taken for treatment.” She sat, took out a drink, and opened it.
“Val, what did you do?”
“Nothing. I just had to see that there was someone who could help. There was.”
“You hit him.”
“Just to wake him up. It worked.” She sipped at the berry soda.
There were peacekeepers who were talking with witnesses, and someone pointed toward her. Val spluttered and capped her bottle. “Right. I should be going.”
Bailey frowned. “Why?”
“I don’t get along with peacekeepers.”
A deep, growly voice said, “Why would that be, miss?”
Val winced and turned around. “Just something about all the questions makes me feel like I am doing something wrong.”
His features had the cast of one of the many lion shifters that lived in the city. He currently looked like a man with a nice tan.
“What can I help you with, officer?”
“I would like to ask you what you saw just now?”
“Oh, I heard a scream, ran toward it. I took a lot of first aid training in my youth, so I wanted to see if I could help, but someone else had it well in hand. I just stayed to the side.”
“Someone says you struck the child.”
She rubbed her forehead. “I hit the sternum with a closed fist to use enough force to knock some water out. People tend to go light on kids because they are delicate.”
“And then the child began to breathe.”
“He began to cry, but yes.”
“Do you know them?”
“No.”
“Why did you run?”
“Because someone needed help, and if I could, I would.”
Bailey chipped in. “She volunteers in the neighbourhood and generally keeps an eye out for people.”
Val snorted. “Right. I bake cookies for her daughter’s bake sale.”
The peacekeeper smiled. “Right. Fair enough. Are those burns?”
“Yup. I am a baker.”
“Hence the cookies.” He smiled.
“Correct.”
“Do you have any other plans for today?”
“Well, Val is going to go to the club for her first time if I can nag her into it.”
The officer smiled. “First time in town?”
Bailey shook her head. “First time ever. Can you believe it?”
The peacekeeper looked her up and down. He swallowed slowly. “But you look like that.”
“I wear an apron for eighty percent of my waking hours. The bikini hampers my use of the oven.”
His skin darkened. “Right. I need your name, miss.”
“Valhay. Valhay Windwith.”
“Can I get your contact information?”
“Sure.” She rattled the number off.
He nodded and then said, “When were you heading to the club?”
Bailey grinned. “I am going to try and get her there by seven. She starts work at five in the morning.”
He nodded. “Good to know. I will be in touch if I have any questions.”
“Right. Thanks.”
He grinned and nodded before he left.
Bailey elbowed her. “See? I told you. You will have a line.”
“I don’t want a line. I just want to get it over with.”
“Well, you could save up forever and hire an opener.”
Val snorted. “Don’t be stupid. No one has that kind of money.” She started packing up.
The girls came up and asked questions, but Val put on a cover-up, answered the questions about the peacekeeper and how nicely he filled out his uniform, and then she got into her tiny car and headed home.
It was too nice a day to spend trying to hide from witnesses.
Her time in the city might be at an end if the peacekeeper ran her face through the database.
She had removed most of the paper trail of her life, but there was always an annoying cousin out there who would want the money for turning her in.