to agree to get in an ambulance and go to a nearby hospital. I refused. Actually, I didn't even bother refusing. I stood instead.
Jack was right. This wasn't the time to mourn. This was the time to be pissed.
And I was. More pissed than I ever remembered being in my life.
I looked at Mel. 'They shot her.' Humans, older women, like the birders who I'd run off my property, like the one Bern had found dead. Who were they? And why were they targeting the Amazons? Why had they been here?
Mel glanced at the human male who was still trying to press a stethoscope to my chest. I shoved him. He stumbled back and fell onto the ground.
Two policemen moved in. Mel stepped between them and me, or tried to; one of the cops pushed her to the side.
My hands opening and closing at my sides, I stepped forward.
As my foot moved, dirt swirled from the stairs in a minitornado. It shot over the ground, descending over me and the officers. Coughing, I stepped back. The cops did too. And, just as suddenly, the tornado lifted. It rose above our heads, then with a puff it was gone. Dirt rained down over us.
'What the. .?' One of the policemen raised his hand to shield his eyes. The other, caught in a coughing fit violent enough to make him double over, waved for me to move back.
Bubbe stood behind them, her lips pursed and disapproval in her eyes. Beside her was Mel's mother, Cleo. The older warrior mouthed 'stay' in warning.
My world clicked back into place. The pain wasn't gone and neither was the anger, but seeing Mel's family, knowing they would both support me and punish me if I stepped out of line, reminded me of who I was and why I had to be strong and in control-why I had to be queen.
Things moved fast after that. The police broke the crowd into small groups, sending gawkers on their way while trying to corral those of us actually involved. I saw Bern in the back of the crowd beyond the front of the gym and motioned for her to leave.
A police officer approached her, and after a last glance at me she shook her head, denying she'd witnessed anything. He waved her toward the street behind us and she stalked off.
She wouldn't go far; I knew that. But the fewer of us involved even slightly from the police's point of view in this mess the better.
The police never got around to questioning me. I'm not sure why, but I suspected Bubbe had a hand in it. While the police were occupied clearing out the crowd, she'd walked in a wide circle around me and Jack, murmuring.
As the two officers who'd tried to question me earlier finished their crowd duties, a new group of police arrived. The first two turned as if to point at me, then stopped and stared at each other instead. They glanced at me again, then shook their heads.
I wasn't sure if they couldn't see me anymore or just didn't remember me, but either worked. I squatted down on the dirt next to Jack and waited for the human part of this drama to play out.
'What happened? Where did the women go?' I asked, my voice low. I wasn't sure how strong whatever spell Bubbe had woven was. I didn't want to do anything to draw attention to myself, at least not as long as it appeared Mel and her family had the situation under control.
'They got spooked. They didn't know what they were dealing with.'
The thought was there and then it was gone. The police were photographing my mother's body where it lay in the stairwell.
'She shouldn't be dead,' I murmured. Two humans against two Amazons and a son. How had we lost?
'We accomplished what she wanted. They didn't get your brother or Pisto.'
His words held little comfort for me. My mother, who had survived fights with legendary warriors, had been felled by two gray-haired women with guns.
I stared at Jack for a second, my anger shifting to him. He sold guns, could have sold the ones those women used. .
He laid his hand on my knee. His skin was warm, almost burning. 'She chose to draw their fire.'
Still angry, I glared. 'Why?'
'Why did you charge them in the first place?'
Because it was what I did. I hadn't made a conscious choice; I'd just done it.
I licked my lips and shifted my attention to my mother's body, now removed from the rubble. A man and a woman squatted next to her, examining her. They had found the gunshot wound.
I looked back at Jack. 'Who were they? Do you know them? Did you sell them their guns?'
Shock showed on his face; he shook his head. 'No. I didn't-know them or sell to them.'
I let that set in, waited to see if my anger lessened. Finally it did. He was on my side. Because of my past, I might not agree with how he made his money, but it didn't mean he was responsible for my mother's death.
I nodded, letting him know I accepted his answer.
He nodded his too. We were in agreement, focused on the same puzzle. 'Do you know them?'
'Maybe.' I told him about the birders and the two women I'd found at the safe camp when I'd returned from Madison.
I stared at him, willing him to see an answer I didn't. 'Why would two old human birders, if they even were part of the group I confronted, try and steal babies here?'
'Revenge?'
'Because they think I killed the birder Bern found?' My nunchakus had been used to kill her. Another birder could have found her first, seen the weapon, and recognized it as mine, but then why not go to the police? Why follow me to Mel's and take two infants? It made no sense.
Unless, while roaming our woods, they had heard something? Did they know more about the Amazons than they should? Had they heard the baby was in Madison and realized he was important to us? Did they plan to use him to get us to do something for them?
It was as logical an answer as anything else I could come up with.
'The babies. . ' Jack began, but I stopped listening.
I'd been so focused on why the birders were here, I hadn't thought of what might have happened before, how they got the children in the first place. I'd also forgotten my mother wasn't the only mother who would fight to the death for her child.
Forgetting I was keeping a low profile, I jumped to my feet. 'Dana. Where's Dana?'
Mel raced toward me. 'Keep still. We're almost done with them.' She nodded back over her shoulder. The police were questioning Bubbe now. It was obvious from the expression of strained patience on the officers' faces it wasn't going well.
'The'-I hesitated for a second, not sure what to call them-'birders. . women had two babies. One was Pisto, wasn't it?' I asked.
'Yes. He's with Mandy.'
I nodded; that was part of my concern. I hadn't seen Dana. I'd lost my lieutenant last fall; if I lost her sister too. . 'Is she okay? Was she with them?' I tried to sound calm and in control but knew by the understanding expression on Mel's face that I'd failed.
'Dana wasn't here. She took Lao to a neighbor's. We trade produce with them. She heard the explosion, though-everyone did.' Mel grimaced.
Tonight's happenings were going to cause a lot of problems for my friend. She tried hard to blend with humans. Attention like her shop was getting tonight would not be welcomed. But she seemed mostly unflustered by it. She smoothed her hands over her shorts, getting more dirt on them than she removed. 'You said birders. Who are they?'
'I don't know. I'm not even sure they are birders, but the coincidence. . ' I told her the same story I'd told Jack minutes earlier.
'Could they be Amazons?' she asked.
