Page 63 of Havenfall Harbor
“Good question,” I concur.
“I’m not gonna lie, Letty was the first person I thought of after the blood, but it just doesn’t feel threatening enough to be her,” Quinn reasons.
“If it’s not her, she knows something about it. There’s no other explanation.” Evan tips his head back and glares up at the ceiling.
“Unless she really did hear someone talking about it, the person who actually did it,” I muse, offering up another possibility.
Evan slowly lowers his head and gives a slight nod. “You’re right. She seemed kind of dodgy about where she heard it. I was thinking it was because she was lying. Maybe she’s protecting someone.”
Quinn
The fresh bowlof popcorn I made lies on the table, abandoned after Letty’s interruption. I’m still not convinced she has anything to do with the stuff going on, but Griffin and Evan both think she knows something. I can’t say I’m all that surprised.
The movie is still playing, but it has to be near the end. I’ve watched Denzel kill about fifteen people. My favorite was when he crushed a guy’s throat with a book. I haven’t really followed along with much of the plot though, considering sitting between Griffin and Evan would be distracting on the best of days. It’s getting to that awkward stage, however, where I don’t know if I should excuse myself to head into the bedroom or just stay here with them.
Deciding I’m staying, I turn a little to the side and curl my knees closer to Griffin, making sure my feet still hang off the cushion. Might as well get comfortable. The slight shift brings my back closer to Evan’s side, and it’s like having my own personal furnace with the amount of heat he’s kicking out.
I let out a heavy breath, I’ve missed having people around. After I left the apartment I had through my last few years of college and moved back home, I didn’t really see any of my friends. It was one of the few downfalls of moving so far away from home for school. But being far enough away that my parents couldn’t just pop in anytime they wanted to was well worth it.
“I just realized tomorrow is Saturday. You have a meeting scheduled for Saturday morning?” The thought pops out of my mouth as I begin to wonder when they will leave for the night.
“Yeah, we usually do it Fridays, an end of the week recap, but I rescheduled when I wasn’t sure we would be back this morning.” Evan gives a light scratch to the scruff on his jawline.
“You guys sure take security pretty seriously.” I think back to when I saw the gun mounted in his UTV.
“Not seriously enough apparently,” Evan mutters, and gives me a pointed look.
“Looked pretty serious to me the first day. You had a gun on your hip and one mounted in the UTV.” I haven’t noticed him with a gun since.
“I was on patrol that day,” Evan responds, as if it explains everything.
“To keep people out?” I’ve been wondering this since I got here. The kids all seem pretty content, at least the ones I’ve dealt with.
“Well, yeah, we monitor that too, but the stun gun and tranq are for the kids’ safety. Not all of them are happy to be here, especially at first. It’s easier to subdue them without risking them getting hurt.”
It seems extreme to me. If that kind of thing happened at a human school, you’d have a lawsuit on your hands. But we’re talking about supernaturals here, and I can’t even pretend to understand their strength. I blink a few times. “I hope that doesn’t happen often.”
“It doesn’t,” Griffin chimes in.
“Most of the time the kid is just scared, confused. That’s why using the stun gun is better, it’s not a show of dominance then or a challenge,” Evan reasons.
I mull over his words and see the logic. “What about outsiders trying to get in? Any issue there?”
“Once, but I think it was more out of curiosity than malice, a couple of kids looking for a thrill.” Evan shrugs one heavy shoulder.
“That’s good, I guess. I’ve seen some of those Human Eternal Rights Org videos.” I shudder, disgusted with the entire organization that says they only want rights for humans and performs nonviolent protests and informative meetings, but the evidence speaks for itself. They’re completely inciting in their methods.
“HERO my ass.” Evan rolls his eyes. “Bunch of scared assholes that have too much money and time on their hands.”
“There is, and always will be, a faction that fears what they don’t understand and can’t control,” Griffin states pragmatically.
Evan lays his warm hand on my shoulder and gives me a light squeeze. “We’re not trying to rip on humans,” he assures me, his eyes serious.
“I’m the one who asked. And I get it, believe me, I get it. Let’s just say my parents don’t share the same open-mindedness I do. That’s why this job is so important to me. I want to educate them, show them that we can all live together. I mean, we’ve been doing it forever, right? You guys just had to hide before, but you shouldn’t have to, not anymore.”
Griffin peers over at me, and his eyes are lowered, making him look slightly suspicious. I wonder if it was a mistake mentioning my parents and their beliefs. “It’s not just the humans that need enlightening. Our own traditions are stifling us.”
Intrigued by Griffin’s response, I ask one of the questions I couldn’t find any information about in my textbooks. “Have supernaturals always got along, been a united front?”
