The plan was simple. It relied mostly on me convincing the bad guys to go away. Everyone had ideas about how to do that, but, as I was the only one that could walk out there without having to worry about getting shot, it was ultimately up to me to say the right things. Which was actually really stupid, since I rarely did. Everyone seemed to think since I was a nurse, I was a people person and therefore up to the task. I hadn’t bothered to explain I was a nurse because it paid the bills and I rarely liked anyone. I had to fight the urge to laugh again or cry.

While I was doing the talking, Ben was going to tip me off to anyone feeling froggy and Sean would take care of anyone that actually got froggy. Everyone else was going to hang back, watch, and defend the house if everything went to shit. It was a great plan.

I hesitated before opening the door. Dear God, please don’t let me get everyone killed. But I needed to move fast before I lost my nerve to the terror that was creepy up my chest. I gasped as Sean moved up behind me and put his arm around my waist.

“What do you say?” He muttered in my ear. “After you’ve talked them out of killing us, you let me buy you that drink, angel?”

I couldn’t help but laugh. “You’re an idiot.” But his interruption was what I needed. I opened the door.

The outside lights lit the circular drive but left everything outside their reach in inky blackness. I hated the dark and thought briefly about how useful Ann’s talent would be right about now. But seeing the guys out there wouldn’t help very much if they started shooting. I strained my eyes to make out the people I knew were there. Ben moved next to me and I heard the door shut, but stopped myself before looking back. I didn’t want to draw attention to Sean and Stephen. I thought I could hear them moving behind me.

“You’re stalling,” Ben whispered.

I threw him an angry look, but he was right. He was an absolute ass, but he was right. I walked down the front steps and halfway out onto the gravel drive. I didn’t want to get any further away from Sean, they would have to come to me now. Ben’s head was frantically searching the woods, and he was breathing hard.

“Hello?” My voice cracked. I cleared my throat and tried again. “Hello? We know you’re out there and we just want to talk. We don’t want anyone to get hurt.”

Nothing. No answer, no movement. I waited for a full, nerve shredding minute, standing there in the open, knowing you were being watched, waiting for some to jump out and start shooting.

“We just want to talk. Give us a chance to solve this peacefully. Nobody wins if we fight. We will not hurt you.” Again, nothing. “Damnit.” I muttered.

Ben moved closer. “I can feel them out there.” He was watching the woods along the drive. “They’re afraid.” He curled his lip in disdain. “And disgusted.”

A voice directly ahead made both of us jump. “You didn’t have any problem hurting my men earlier.” A woman dressed all in black stepped to the edge of the light. She was still a good distance away, but not far enough that I couldn’t see the gun on her hip. Well, at least she wasn’t pointing it at us.

“We only did what we had to do. To protect ourselves. One of your men tried to shoot us without warning.”

“She’s shocked by that,” Benn muttered. “She didn’t know.”

But when she went on, she didn’t betray that. “How can we trust you? This could be a trick. Why have you all gathered here? Decided to stand against the law?”

I breathed a little sigh of relief. A huge part of this working depended on someone actually coming out in the open. This woman wasn’t exactly what I’d call friendly, but she was talking at least.

“We are not gathering an ambush. And we have walked into the open to talk even knowing you are. I know you have men in the woods. We are here because we are scared.” Ben stirred beside me, but I went on. “Scared of people like you coming in the night and snatching us up.”

Ben hissed at me under his breath, “she’s waiting on something.”

The woman took a step forward. “Why would you want to talk to us, then? “

“Because we’re tired of being hunted. And we don’t want to hurt you!”

Movement from the east side of the drive caught my eye, and I turned in time to see a man emerge and raise a gun in our direction. I stepped in front of Ben, but before the man got more than a few feet, the gun flew from his hands. He let out a startled yell as he was thrown to the ground.

The woman looked on calmly. “So you don’t want to hurt anyone?”

I couldn’t believe she had the nerve. “No, we don’t! But would you ask us to let your men shoot us to prove it? We will defend ourselves if we have to and you will regret it! Stop giving us reason!”

“It was only a stun gun. He was not trying to kill you.”

“You think that makes it better? We should roll over and let you carry us away? Because you don’t want to kill us, yet? What, haven’t got enough of us to experiment on?”

Ben nudged me. “Tone it down. She’s getting pissed.”

“We simply want you to comply with the law.”

“I’m sorry, we can’t do that. That law is not safe for us. But we can compromise. All I’m asking is that you talk to me. Try to find a way out of this that doesn’t end in a war. Please.” The woman just stared.

“She’s considering attacking us.” Maybe having another person’s emotions whispered in your ear wasn’t a great idea.

“Alright,” she finally said, “My agents will stand down, but they will stay in place. Try anything and they will move on the house no matter how much we regret it. We can talk.” She took a phone from her belt and said a few words I couldn’t make out before moving toward us slowly.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

I glanced at Ben, and he gave me a quick nod. So she was telling the truth. Well, it was a start. When she’d covered half the distance between us, she stopped. “It is traditional for the parties in a negotiation to meet halfway.” I only hesitated a moment before walking out to meet her. Losing the distance from Sean was worth it if it gained her trust.

She was a stern looking middle-aged woman with wispy dark hair peeking from under the hood of her black jacket. She radiated confidence and strength and bitchiness. I held out my hand when I got close enough.

“My name is Jemma.” I let my hand drop when she just stared at it.

“Supervisory Special Agent Mara Knoll.”

“Thank you for talking with me, Agent Knool.”

“Who’s your talkative friend?” She gestured to Ben.

“This is Benjamin. Now, I don’t suppose there is any chance of us asking you nicely to leave and you...you know, doing that?”

She startled me by laughing. “At least you have a sense of humor. But no, I’m afraid that will not happen. We are here to take you all into custody. Like it or not, you are breaking the law.”

"Are you okay with a law that arrests people who have done nothing wrong just because you don’t like them?"

“I don’t get paid to judge the morals of the law, only to enforce it. People like you are a danger to society. People out there are scared. They want answers and to know they’re safe. Can you disagree with that? If you are not out to cause problems, then why band together and hide?”

“People like us?” I laughed. “Architects, interior designers, bike messengers, nurses? That is what we are, normal, everyday people. And we are scared, we want answers, we want to know we’re safe at night. Can you disagree with that?” I tried to moderate my tone, but it was difficult. “We aren’t hiding from the world, we’re hiding from people like you. Is that really so hard to understand, Agent Knoll?”

“You’re the same people you were before, except with the power to kill everyone around you. You conveniently left out that part.”

“We don’t want to kill anyone.”

“Then the power to control…”

“We don’t want to control anyone.”

“Then why do this? What do you want?”

“We didn’t do this. We don’t know how this happened any more than you do. All we want to do is to live our lives in what peace we can find now.”

I hadn’t realized we were yelling until we stopped and the silence crashed down. Oh great, I was yelling at the person I was supposed to be talking out of killing us. But the agent didn’t look angry. She looked thoughtful. I tried to get Ben’s attention, to get some clue to what she was thinking, but he was watching the woman like she was a good action movie.

“Ok,” she said more calmly. “Let’s say I believe that what you say is true? That you’re not out to hurt anyone or cause trouble. That doesn’t change that you are breaking the law by being here and my superiors sent me to take you in. All of you. I can’t go back and say, ‘she seemed nice, so I let her go’. And even if I did, they would just send someone else, someone less willing, to talk. Why not come with me? I promise I will put in a word for you, do everything I can to keep you safe.”

“I appreciate the gesture, but no. We’re not going anywhere. If you try to force us, we will fight and you have no idea what we can do.”

“Is that a threat?”

“No. It’s just a statement. No one here wants to see it come to that. We can walk away from this if you are willing.”

“Alright, let’s say I walk away. And please believe me, despite what you might think, I don’t want a fight anymore than you do. But like I said, somebody else is just going to replace me. There are plenty of people, even some of my own agents, who would be happy to fight no matter how strong you say you are.” She shook her head. “There are some who don’t even see you as people anymore.”

I knew what she said was true, but it still hurt to hear. I shook my head. “We’ll deal with them when we have to. Right now, you're the one standing in our driveway. You’re the one that has to decide. I promise you, we will not do anything unless you force us.”

“I can’t change the law.” She sighed, “look, maybe if I can take something to my superiors. A few of you could come with us…”

“Out of the question.”

“Ok then, information, make it look like I walked away with something at least.” She was looking for a way out. She believed this was a fight she couldn’t win.

“What kind of information?”

“Tell me what you can do, you and the others, what your abilities are.”

“I’m sorry, no. I can’t.” I couldn’t lose the only advantage we had.

She gave an exasperated laugh and looked away. I had to keep her going while she was still willing to walk. She just needed for some way to cover her ass.

I took a breath. “Maybe I can offer you something better.” I felt Ben shift beside me, but I kept my eyes on Agent Knoll and willed him to keep his mouth shut. “You can come here, onto the grounds, into the house, unhindered. Just you. I will guarantee your safety while you are here.”

“And I’m supposed to trust you?”

“Why would we hurt you? All that would do is guarantee you come for us in force. It would be stupid. Besides, if we wanted to hurt you, don’t you think we would have tried by now?”

“What would be the purpose of this visit?”

“Negotiation.” God, I hoped this worked. “Changers are out there and you can’t catch us all. The gatherings of them will keep getting bigger and eventually something has to give. This could turn into a war that causes devastation on both sides or we could start working on a solution now. We have access to other groups and those groups to others.” I felt Ben move closer, but tried to ignore him. “What we do here, Agent Knoll, will spread, for better or worse. I’m offering you a chance to stop a war before it starts. You can take that back to your superiors.”

She smirked. “That all sounds lovely Jemma, but I’m not sure I could make anyone that matters see it that way.”

“You can try. Will you be able to sleep at night if the world goes to hell, and you didn’t at least try to stop it? How many people will die if we decide fighting is the answer?” This was too risky. I was betting everything that she was a decent person. Ben would have been a tremendous help here, but when I dared a look in his direction, he was just starting again. Knoll looked around the yard, up at the house, at Ben, and finally back to me.

“Okay.”

“What, really? I mean, you’ll go?” I was supposed to be intimidating these people. I tried to regain some composure. “Thank you, Agent Knoll.” There was still far too much relief in my voice.

“Don’t thank me yet. I can’t make any guarantees, I told you that. They might decide I’m a complete idiot and fire me. They might tell me to come get you, regardless. And if they do, I won't have much choice.”

“Then we will deal with that if we have to.”

She nodded and pulled out her phone. “Stand down, fall back to the cars. We’re leaving.” She looked back at me. “You’re not what I thought you would be Jemma.”

“I have to admit, I’m a little surprised by you, too.”

“I’m sure we will see each other again, good or bad. Get some sleep, would you? You look like shit.” She headed back down the drive.

“You did it.” Ben breathed next to me.

“You sound awfully surprised.”

“Probably because I am.”

“Is she telling the truth, Ben? Are they really leaving? Will she try to help?”

He was still staring at her retreating back. “What... oh yeah, yeah. You got to her. She actually liked you, by the end. It was crazy to feel it. You changed her mind. She was dead set on hauling us all in at the start, but by the end, she wanted to leave.” He lowered his voice. “She means what she said, Jemma. All of it, even the part about her getting fired and then the feds sending more people back, but...”

“But what?”

“She’s hiding something. Not about this, tonight, but something.”

“Like I said, Ben, we’ll deal with rest when we have to.” We turned and walked back to the house.

When we got to the porch, Sean and Stephen appeared.

“They’re leaving. Come on, let's tell the others.”