The day had started well enough.
I met Dana at the corner café in Elmridge just after sunrise. She was already seated, nursing a black coffee and scanning the pavement like she was waiting for trouble. Typical.
“Thank you for coming D,” I said, sliding into the booth opposite her.
Her eyes flicked up, steel sharp. “I take it that Ava is back, and safe?”
I shook my head. “She is back, but I wouldn't say safe. She’s skittish, feral… Spent most of the time knocked out cold. When she did momentarily wake up, she wouldn't so much as look at anyone. But she’s not hostile. Just scared.”
Dana exhaled, her expression unreadable. “I'm just glad she is back on pack lands. The doctors will fix her up, they'll have to.”
She then dropped the next bomb. Jasmine had been the one to find Ava.
Not st
