Dust

XIX

With Tiya's help, Damien is back on his feet and all of us are at headquarters well before Sloane's deadline. After Sloane makes sure Damien knows the details of his behavior the night before (he looks horrified), she tells me to go to evidence, Dame to the mission room, and then drags Gael off towards training.

When I arrive in the evidence room, I at first think I'm alone. The metal shelves stretch taller than my head, filled with labeled cardboard boxes, Manila folders, and shipping envelopes. All of their contents are unrevealed to me, and as to why Sloane wants me here, I don't know.

Creeping among the maze of shelves causes me to startle a girl when I turn the corner. Crouched down at the lowest shelf, she jumps up, hitting her head. Remorseful, I cross the distance between us and help her up; searching for features gives me nothing, and I realize as I watch the blood on her temple disappear that she belongs to the same species I do.

"Oh, sorry," I manage to blurt once she's standing. She looks even younger than me, with the profound, darting eyes of a mouse. Sandy freckles, the same color of her fine hair, pepper her nose.

The girl, unnamed to me, pushes her hair back behind her ear and chuckles shyly, her soft brown eyes on the floor. "It's no problem at all. I'm just a scaredy cat."

I offer an encouraging smile and extend my hand towards hers. "I'm Gemma, by the way. You...you're a hunter?"

The girl nods. "A new one, relatively, but yes. I'm Willow. Sloane told me I was getting some help today; I imagine you must be it?"

After we exchange a brisk handshake, I shove my hands into the pockets of my jeans, rocking back on my heels. "I must be."

Willow and I spend some time in the evidence room, sorting through items by date, relevance, and place found. The same evidence room that is used for the Bureau's inner city and suburban cases is used for evidence that's found in the Ancient Forest, and Willow cautions me on the importance of keeping those two separate. We keep sorting and sorting until it's done, but then only more is added to our plate. By the time it is lunch, Willow and I are acquaintances well on the road to friends, and I'm exhausted.

With a bag of takeout from a hole in the wall deli down the street, I stride down to the training arena to see how Gael is doing with the trainees. I can't imagine he's doing much but watching Sloane teach the kids, what with it being his first day and all. I mean, there are still some things Gael doesn't even know how to do.

I come to the entrance, marked by a set of bulletproof glass double doors, using one finger to pull the doors open. Before me is a scene of chaos, but the controlled type: Kids coming from all species, and of all ages, all clad in protective hunting gear, running around the arena like zoo animals. A few older ones, maybe ten or so, sharpen knives at the workshop table, while six-year-olds spar in front of them. Little girls in pigtails kick the heads off of dummies, which earns them a deal of scolding from Sloane, and a boy in the corner shows off his shapeshifting skills to his non-shapeshifter buddies. This also causes Sloane to chide him: "Timothy, there are no birds in the arena!"

As the bird boy returns to his human form, only to receive applause from his posse, Sloane catches sight of me. Her cheeks are flushed, her hair escaping a bun at the base of her neck. "Gael, can you watch...everyone for a second?" she calls, beginning to make her way in my direction.

Gael's head turns as he looks over his shoulder from showing a small werewolf girl how to grasp a dagger, a respectful smile on his lips. I hadn't seen him back there, near the window, down on one knee so that he sees as the girl does. Seeing him interact with her, seeing that tiny, adorable smile on the little girl's face as Gael assures her she's getting it right, makes my heart swell. There are so many angles to Gael I have yet to see, angles like this one.