Keepers: A Timeless Novella by Laura Kreitzer

inside because Sara had burned my house
down.
    The officer didn’t give me
a second glance as he chuckled, placing a hand on his round belly.
“That’s funny,” he said. “You’re the fourth person to try that on
me tonight.”
    I turned to Lucia with
raised eyebrows. It was her turn to work her magic. She gestured
for me to step aside, so I did. She flung magic at the blockade,
and it exploded into tiny splinters of wood. The officer jumped at
the sound, whirling around with his gun out. I covered my face as
the debris rained down on the shocked crowd. The officer had aimed
his gun at me , I
realized when I lowered my arms.
    “ Go on, Joseph. He can’t
hurt you,” Lucia said, voice low and threatening.
    The fact I stepped forward
showed how much faith I had in the angel. The officer shouted at me
to stop, show him my hands, and that I was under arrest. When he
realized I wasn’t going to stop, he shot at me. I flinched away
from the magical barrier Lucia had put up. It caught the bullet and
spit it out in a way that came off as comedic. The tiny bullet
bounced back and forth on the ground before settling. I held in my
laughter, though there wasn’t anything funny about it. The officer
lowered his gun, staring at me with wide, brown eyes. He mumbled
something incoherent, but he didn’t try to stop us
again.
    As soon as I reached the
Director, he handed me a gun and new identification. “Had this made
up for you this morning,” he said gruffly. “Figured you’d lost
yours in the fire.”
    “ How’d you get it so fast?”
I asked.
    “ Seems you’re an asset the
department’s willing to bend over backwards for,” he informed. He
handed me a flak jacket. “She’s like a freak of nature, not moving
an inch for our snipers to take her out. It’s like she knows
exactly how to stand and hold a hostage to keep herself alive and
safe.”
    I snorted. “It wouldn’t
surprise me if this wasn’t the first time she’s taken someone
hostage,” I remarked.
    “ Listen, Joseph,” Tom said,
taking me off guard by how sincere he sounded. “This woman is
obviously off her rocker, so please be careful when you go out
there. The negotiator wants you to wear this—” he held up an
earpiece “—so he can help direct the conversation.”
    I shook my head, weary. “I
don’t think that’s such a good idea. She’ll know if I’m not being
sincere, and the last thing I need is for someone screaming in my
ear.”
    He nodded and shoved it in
my hands. “Take it anyway. If things get tough, you can always put
it in your ear.”
    “ Okay,” I agreed and curled
my fist around the device. He patted my shoulder, and I made my way
into the open space between the uniformed and the
insane.
    “ I’ll make sure you’re
shielded,” Lucia said softly as I passed her.
    “ Can’t you shield the
hostage?” I asked in disbelief.
    Lucia gave me that look
again—the one that said I was clearly a moron. “Not in this
situation,” she explained. “Sara’s holding the hostage against her
body; there’s no way I could fully protect the hostage.”
    “ Oh. Okay, thanks,” I
murmured, finally stepping free of the trigger-happy agents and
police officers. I could see it in their eyes; they were eager to
shoot, which told me they’d all heard about my house fire and were
looking for revenge.
    Sara’s hair was a tangled
mess, and her bangs stuck to her sweat-covered forehead. She had
one arm wrapped snuggly around a teenager’s neck, the other tucked
behind the girl, pointing the gun at the base of her skull. How had
Sara gotten the gun? Had she stolen it? Surely she’d been to a
padded cell lately and wasn’t allowed to purchase
handguns.
    “ I’ll shoot,” Sara warned.
“Stay back! Stay back!” It sounded as if she’d been repeating this
so much that she didn’t take the time to notice me.
    “ Sara?” I said
carefully.
    Her head snapped in my
direction, and the furious expression melted away. She smiled at
me,