Page 129 of Veil of Death and Shadow

The walk back to the bus was chillier than it had been on the way out, but Sora kept us laughing through most of it and we made plans to grab an early dinner nearby, before heading back to our part of town.

But when we closed the gate behind us, leaving the happy dogs to their play, and walked towards the parking lot, the laughter dried up on Levi’s face, instantly, like some invisible hand had just turned off the tap, drought imminent.

His crooked grin transformed into something hard, and his posture went rigid, as a woman walked over to us, the expression on her face just as tight.

“Mom.” The word came out clipped, tinny, his jaw clenched. “What are you doing here?”

Mom? She didn’t look old enough to be his mother—unless she had him when she was absurdly young. Her hair was reddish brown; her skin a shade or two paler than Levi’s.

She was an inch or so shorter than me, and quite slim, but there was a severity in her posture that oozed control—power. If Levi told me she was an action figure model or the newest cast member in a superhero movie, it wouldn’t entirely shock me.

“You stop answering my texts and ignore my calls during a time like this, and what do you expect? Something’s changed and we need to go—now. There’s a chopper waiting for us.”

A chopper?

Who the hell were these people?

As if just noticing us, the woman—his mother apparently—studied us, the look in her eyes flat, like she found Sora and I decidedly unimpressive. She flared her nostrils, before drilling him with that terrifying stare of hers, some silent conversation passing between them that I wasn’t privy of.

“Really, Levi,” she said, her sheer exasperation finally breaking it. “I don’t know what’s gotten into you lately.”

“Mom—”

“Everything in the state that it’s in—andthisis what you’re up to?” She gestured behind us. “A dog park with,” her eyes slid to us before gripping him in her stare again, “with these girls? Stealing into the night, disappearing for days on end. You’re getting sloppy?—”

“How did you find me?”

“You were supposed to be prepping for a mission. You weren’t. And then you stopped responding to your phone, so I tracked it.”

A mission? Who the fuck did she think he was—James Bond?

“Thought something might’ve happened to you, or gone wrong, or—” She took a deep breath and straightened her posture, her voice quiet but firm when her eyes met his again. “We don’t have time for this. Wipe them, and let’s go.”

Wipe them?

Sora’s questioning gaze met mine and I offered a barely perceptible shrug in return.

I had no fucking clue what this was about.

“Mom,” he snapped, his expression dark and so unlike anything I was used to seeing on his face.

“Now, Levi. This isn’t a discussion.” She shot him a look of disbelief, like whatever she was asking was the most obvious thing in the world. “I’ll see you at the car. We’re down the block. Two minutes. Take care of it.”

Without so much as another glance in our direction, she spun on her heels and left.

He watched her silently until she disappeared around a corner, the lines of his back rigid.

“I’ll uh,” Sora glanced between us, “give you guys a minute. See you later, Levi. We’ll do dinner another time I guess.”

She walked back towards the fence to greet the new dogs making their way inside, until it was just me and Levi and a static silence that seemed to suck the air from around us.

“You okay?” I asked, not entirely sure where to start.

“Yeah.” He scratched the back of his head, the movement stilted with frustration he was trying his best to contain. “Fine.”

“Levi,” I said, shifting slightly until his eyes met mine. “What was that about? Your mom?—”

“Sorry about that, she can be . . . intense.”

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