Page 44 of Even Robots Die (Even Ever After #3)

Florentine

“ S tarting the descent,” says the automated voice coming from the jet.

In front of me, Daniel grips the edge of the bench on each side of his thighs and his fingers turn almost as white as the bench itself. His eyes stay tightly closed and it looks like he might be counting in his head or reciting something.

I finally look through the window, and my neighborhood comes into view. Well, what it has become since I left to retrieve Dad.

Where there used to be colorful streets with open windows, people hanging out, and music at every corner all day long, there are empty streets. No music can be heard and I’m not sure anything else can be heard either.

For a second I think that might be because I’m inside the jet—it barely makes a noise, but maybe it is soundproof for all I know—but as the jet reaches the ground and the glass doors open upward, nothing changes.

This is unsettling.

“Name and business,” asks a man—no, a bird-shifter, according to the brownish wings resting at his back—who seems to appear out of thin air.

It’s my fault, though. Between Daniel not feeling well and the shock of seeing my street so eerily silent, I didn’t pay attention to anyone being around.

I should have. Especially since the man who just questioned me doesn’t seem to be simply strolling around if the gun he’s holding and the one strapped to his right thigh are any indication.

“Florentine Beaumont, I live here,” I tell the man.

I don’t bother with asking his name. I’m pretty sure he won’t take well to my sass, and I have lost enough time sleeping my period away.

“Address,” he barks more than says.

He could be handsome with his dark skin, brown hair tied into a man bun, and his blue eyes, but the deep set of those eyes and the frown that seems to be a permanent fixture on his face ruins the appeal.

“24 rue Paul Vaillant Couturier,” I say, and I can’t stop myself from letting it show that I don’t like being questioned this way.

The man activates something on his holo and a whole list appears in front of him. I see him sort through street names until he finds mine and the list of all of my family member’s names next to the number corresponding to my door.

Two of them are in red, while the other four are highlighted in green. He touches one of the red lines and my name turns green.

Only my dad’s name is left in red.

The birds know Dad isn’t home.

What they do with the info I have no idea and I don’t want to discover.

I grab Daniel by his arm and pull him after me.

“Stop,” the bird says before I manage to take two steps.

It was too good to be true.

“Daniel Hemond,” Daniel says without missing a beat.

For someone who was barely hanging on a few minutes ago, he’s quick with his answer and doesn’t seem to be all that bothered.

That is until the bird speaks again.

“Business.”

It doesn’t sound like a question at all, more like an order.

Daniel looks at me like he doesn’t know how to answer. We cannot very well say that he is some kind of bodyguard. I don’t think the bird would like that answer and I don’t want to test what would happen if he indeed didn’t find the answer to his taste.

“He’s my boyfriend,” I tell the bird as I pull Daniel closer to me by the arm I’m already holding.

“He’s going to kill me,” I hear Daniel mutter.

It’s so low I don't think the bird actually heard him, but I also don’t think I was supposed to hear it either.

It doesn’t take me long to realize the ‘he’ Daniel just referred to is Brice, but I have yet to understand what would warrant a death threat from him.

The bird looks at us like he doesn’t believe my answer and I can’t really blame him.

We don’t really look like a loving couple.

Other than when I grabbed Daniel’s arm, we didn’t even touch and neither of us is sporting that lost puppy look that most people in love wear like an armor when they’re in the first stages of their relationships.

“Kiss him,” the bird commands.

“What?”

What the fuck is wrong with this man?

“I threw up in the jet,” Daniel says right after me.

The bird’s face contorts in disgust before he enters Daniel’s name in his database, and then his eyebrows rise in surprise when the address that comes up with his name is Notre Dame.

I guess no one thought about updating where he actually lives lately.

It occurs to me that the mere presence of Daniel might endanger my sisters. If the birds start thinking that they can get their hands on one of Elhyor’s men by raiding my home, I don’t think they’re going to think twice.

We are either going to be collateral damage, or worse, we’ll be prisoners.

Knowing what they did to Brice, I almost prefer to be collateral damage.

“Milton, any chance you could jump in that thread and find me that database?” I mouth without a sound while the bird is still toying with something on his holo.

Surely, he’s currently reporting to his superior about Daniel’s presence, and probably calling backup to apprehend him.

“I'm in,” Milton answers faster than I had expected. “What do you need to know?”

“How long do we have?”

“According to my calculation, four minutes and forty-seven seconds.”

We better hurry.

“I guess I’ll see you later,” I tell the bird with a fake smile and this time, when I pull Daniel after me he doesn’t stop us.

I unlock the door, let Daniel in and lock it again after us before my sisters are all running to us.

“At last, she arrives,” Elodie says dramatically.

I don’t have time for this.

I stop them all with a sign of my hand.

“I have,” I say.

“Four minutes and thirteen seconds,” Milton says on the speaker from our living room as if he can read my mind—and more often than not it feels like that’s the case, but it’s born from my mind so I guess it’s not so surprising.

My sisters hold their breath, and Daniel does the same.

“I’m going after Dad. I can’t stay here or the birds are going to come after Daniel.

They will not care that you don’t know him or that today was the first time you met him.

They won’t discriminate. I need you all to think, and fast. What is the last thing Dad told you that could pinpoint a destination? ”

I wait a couple seconds before I hurry them to talk with my hand.

“He withdrew everything we had left. That should be answer enough,” Elodie says as she crosses her arms under her breast. She’s the perfect picture of bored annoyance.

“I heard him say if there was someone who would know what to do, it would be Christina when he thought I wasn’t listening,” Coralie says.

She is the quietest of us all, but it means sometimes people don’t even realize she's there unless she’s right under their nose.

I’m not surprised that she is the one with something that could help.

“Don’t turn off your holos, and lock after us. Don’t let anyone in unless it’s me or Dad,” I tell them before I unlock the door.

“How long, Milton?” I ask without bothering to mouth without sound this time.

Before I close the door, Milton’s voice is heard through the house again.

“Fifty-two seconds.”

“Shift or run,” I tell Daniel before I’m sprinting for the jet.

Luckily, Brice rented it until I can go back to Blois, or else this escape would be even more difficult.