Shadow could hear sirens too, getting close now. He stayed by Finch’s side as a firetruck parked in front of the house.

The firefighters jumped off the truck as soon as it stopped, moving with practised efficiency. Just as they were getting the hose laid out, a window smashed and something too fiery for Shadow to look at directly screeched as it shot off into the night.

“What the fuck!?” one of the firefighters shouted over the combined noise of the truck and the fire.

“Phoenix!” Adin shouted back. He leant in to talk to Finch more quietly. “We won’t be able to deal with that one ourselves, considering our current situation. Make sure you tell the police about it when they get here.”

Finch nodded.

An ambulance arrived, and Shadow pushed attention away from himself just enough that anyone not specifically looking for him wouldn’t notice him. Finch considered him for a moment, but it was Malyn, who was still coughing, who he ultimately focussed on.

“You need to get checked out,” Finch told Malyn.

“I’m fine,” Malyn said, his voice strained from trying not to cough. He tried to say something else, but it was too much and he started coughing again.

“Uh huh,” Finch said as he took him by the arm and led him over to the ambulance.

Shadow didn’t want to go over there, so he hovered next to Adin instead. Adin kept his arms crossed over his chest and his eyes on the strangers around them. His heart wasn’t hammering like it had been during his fight with Katrina last night, but it was beating a lot faster than it did normally.

Shadow heard the sound of another large vehicle approaching and assumed it was another firetruck or ambulance, but when he turned to look, he realised it was a bus. Not a city bus. It was like… like a tour bus musicians and other performers travelled around in.

As it parked further down the road, Shadow took a step closer to Adin, but when the doors opened, it was Luther who stepped out. Shadow ran to meet him.

Luther put an arm around Shadow as soon as he was at his side, his gaze skipping between him and the burning house. “Are you okay? Is everyone okay?”

“Yes,” Shadow said. “Well, mostly. Malyn keeps coughing.”

“Katrina, I assume?”

Shadow nodded.

Luther raised his voice to speak to Adin as he approached. “I’m sorry. Genuinely. I didn’t think she’d find you.”

“I can tell you care about Shadow and you left him with us,” Adin said as he stopped in front of them. “So of course you didn’t.”

“I wish…” Luther stared at the burning house for a long moment and then shook his head. “I wish a lot of things, but none of it matters.”

“The problem with wishing to change the past is that changing the bad things often changes the good as well.” Adin offered Luther a small smile. “And that it doesn’t do anything, of course.”

Luther returned the smile. “That last part is particularly problematic, yes. Well, then, what can I do now?”

“You can provide transport,” Finch said as he joined them. He was holding Shadow’s bag, and when he reached them, he passed it to Shadow. “My car’s a fucking inferno right now. I’m going to take the bike and follow Malyn to the hospital. Can you take Adin and Tyla somewhere for me?”

“Yes,” Luther said. “Just tell me where.”

Finch’s gaze cut to Adin and he gave him a significant look. “I’ll meet you under the lemon tree. Okay?”

Adin nodded. “I understand.”

Luther opened the door to the bus and held his arm out towards it. “Let’s get settled, shall we?”

The inside of the bus wasn’t as fancy as a rock star’s tour bus, but it had seating, a little kitchen area, and four curtained bunks in the back. Shadow sat down in one of the seats as Adin looked around the tiny kitchen.

Luther leant his hip against the kitchen counter. “This is what I came up with. You always did want to run away when you got scared. Maybe you had the right idea. Predators can’t find you if you keep moving, as you always said.”

Shadow opened his mouth to tell Luther that he’d liked having a home, but he shut it and nodded instead. This is what they had now. There was no going home. 

“I’m still looking into other solutions,” Luther assured him. “But for now, I think this will work. If I hire someone to take over driving during the day, I doubt she would be able to catch up. Or rather, I doubt she would be willing to commit to the degree needed to chase us down.”

Tyla stepped onto the bus, Finch nudging him forward with his arms burdened with the other items he’d rescued from the house. Tyla didn’t look happy.

“He wants to go with Malyn to the hospital,” Finch explained to Adin as he dumped the items he was carrying on the floor of the bus. “But he can’t because he can’t drive the bike and if both of us go, it’s gonna be a problem when we all need to get back and we have to try to figure out how to stack three people on a motorcycle.” 

Tyla made an unhappy sound in the back of his throat, but he didn’t disagree.

“Besides, I’m gonna pretend to be Mal’s brother so I can go in with him, and that probably wouldn’t work as well for you,” Finch said. When Tyla didn’t respond, Finch placed a hand on his shoulder. “He’ll be okay. Really. It’s just important to take this one seriously because his lungs are already kinda fucked.”

“I know. I want him to go and get checked over, I just…” Tyla shook his head. “I’m sorry. I’m being silly.”

Finch gave him two firm pats on the shoulder. “It’s okay to be scared. I’m scared. I just also happen to be shit at expressing my emotions, which can sometimes be confused with being tough.”

“You are tough, Finch.” Tyla offered Finch a strained smile. “You should go now. He needs to see a doctor.”

“He does,” Finch said. “Take care of each other and I’ll see you where I’m seeing you.”

Luther watched Finch leave, then turned and gave Adin and Tyla the lopsided smile he pulled out whenever he wasn’t sure which emotion he should be expressing. Sometimes he leant a little too heavily towards being cheerful when it wasn’t appropriate. “So, is someone else driving, or will you give me directions to this mysterious lemon tree?” 

“Drive around for a while and make sure we’re not being followed, and then I’ll tell you where to go,” Adin said.

“Smart,” Luther said. “There’s chilled water in the fridge if anyone’s thirsty. Don’t mind the bags of blood.”

Luther went to start the bus and Adin and Tyla found seats near Shadow’s.

Adin tried to talk to Tyla, but Tyla just stared down at his hands on the table, murmured single word responses, and eventually just buried his face in his folded arms and went quiet. Shadow was tempted to go and hide in one of the bunks at the back of the bus, but this was probably the last he would see of these people. He wanted to be present for it.

Luther drove the bus into the most densely trafficked part of the city where it would be difficult to track from a distance and then back out to quiet suburbs where anyone following them would be noticed. Shadow sat by the window and listened carefully. Luther’s hearing was every bit as sharp as Shadow’s, but he didn’t have the same ability to interpret what he took in. He might be able to hear a distant car making turns, but it wouldn’t be so clear to him if it were following them or just driving nearby.

Adin went to join Luther in the driver’s compartment to give him directions and Tyla got up to pace the moving bus. He looked pale and slightly shaky.

“He’ll be okay,” Shadow told him. “I’m not a doctor, but I have good hearing. His lungs were irritated, but I don’t think they were damaged much.”

Tyla nodded as he forced himself to sit back down. “Thank you. It’s just… he already had lung damage.”

“Oh,” Shadow said, because what he really wanted to say was ‘did he?’ He hadn’t heard anything in Malyn’s breathing that would have led him to guess that.

“The doctors know what they’re doing, I suppose, and if they don’t…” Tyla dipped his head and took a deep, shaky breath. “Well, humans aren’t allowed in Nuuvatu, but I’d find somebody to help him.”

Shadow nodded.

Tyla pressed a hand to his stomach and made a face. “My stomach feels…”

Shadow waited for him to elaborate, but he seemed to have become distracted by whatever he was feeling. His skin was pale and his breathing was laboured. Suddenly he stumbled to his feet and lurched towards the kitchen sink, throwing up into it.

From the front of the bus, Shadow heard Luther say, “Your boy just threw up,” like it was a casual aside.

Adin immediately returned to the main area of the bus and headed straight for Tyla, helping him pull his shoulder length copper hair away from his face as he threw up again.

Tyla took a shaky breath in and accepted a tissue Adin offered him to wipe his face. “I’ve never thrown up before.”

“You may be in shock or reacting badly to something you breathed in,” Adin told him. “You don’t get sick, but that doesn’t mean you’re completely immune to all physiological reactions to stress or toxins. The bus ride probably isn’t helping, either.”

Tyla nodded. He seemed intensely focussed on bracing himself over the sink.

“I need to finish directing Luther, but we’re almost there and then you can lay down somewhere quiet.”

Tyla nodded again and Adin headed back to the front of the bus.

Shadow went and got a bottle of cold water out of the fridge for Tyla. There were indeed bags of blood in there, but Shadow was used to that.

Shadow held the bottle out. “I think drinking water helps.”

“Thank you,” Tyla said as he took the bottle with a shaky hand. He took a few small sips and then paused to concentrate on breathing through whatever his body was subjecting him to. “I feel awful, but I’m not even sure how awful because I’m always fine. Is this as bad as it seems, or does not feeling well always feel this terrible? Sometimes Malyn gets a headache or an upset stomach and I have no point of reference for how he feels.”

“Well, now you do,” Shadow said. “Sort of, maybe. You know what it’s like for your body to feel bad. I guess that’s all any of us ever know.”

“Mm,” Tyla said, leaning his face against his arm and shutting his eyes.

The bus started making its way up a hill, and when Shadow looked through the window, he saw trees. Not long after that, it pulled to a stop.

Adin came back in and helped Tyla off the bus.

Luther glanced at them on his way past before sitting down next to Shadow. “They’re very dramatic.”

“They almost died.”

“I suppose. I imagine they almost die all the time, though. It’s part of their job.”

“Their house burnt down.”

“Is that worse than almost dying?”

Shadow shrugged.

“Well, it is what it is, I suppose. Shall we get going?”

Shadow hesitated and then shook his head. “Something is wrong with Tyla. We should wait until Finch and Malyn get back.”

“I suppose,” Luther said. “Do you like them?”

Shadow nodded.

“Hm. You don’t like many people.”

“I don’t give many people a chance. But… most people don’t give me a chance, either.”

“I didn’t know it bothered you.”

“It didn’t, really.” Shadow looked away. “It’s fine. I know we have to leave.”

“I’m sorry. You were never big on kids your own age, but, well. You’re not a kid anymore. I think children were just a bit intense for you. When all of this is over, we can work on your social life and see if you can make some friends.”

Shadow shook his head. “I don’t want to. I don’t want friends. I just liked them.”

“Ah.”

“But it doesn’t matter. All I’ve done is ruin their lives and I don’t want to make things any worse. I know we have to go.”

“We do, but you’re allowed to not be happy about it, Shadow.”

Shadow leant his chin on his hand and stared out at the dark woods surrounding the bus. “I’m not happy about it.”