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Jazz came awake when Freya jumped on her and buried her claws in her thighs. “Ugh, I got it, I got it. Breakfast is coming.”

Her normally placid cat wasn’t having it. Instead of the insistent meow, the cat screeched and slapped her several times in the face. The crazy behavior was enough to make Jazz fully wake up. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

The cat crouched on Jazz’s chest, trembling and staring with wide eyes. Saliva dripped from her panting mouth, and she growled instead of purred.

That’s when Jazz noticed the smell. Wood and chemical. Noxious. Smoky. Not like a campfire, but like?—

Oh shit!

She sat up and gagged as she sucked in a lungful of smoke. It was thick, rising in a steady haze up the stairs from the bottom of the house. The floor under her feet radiated heat. What the hell was happening?

But her instincts already told her.

Shit! Dammit! Fuck!

Where is Wolf?

She exploded off the couch and screamed for the boys. “Ian! Ivan! Get out of the house!” She snatched Isaac from his crib and scooped up Freya.

Ian stumbled into the living space and started coughing. The smoke was getting thicker.

“What’s that smell?” he mumbled.

“There’s a fire. Move faster.”

“I need shoes.”

“I’ll get them.”

“I don’t know where they are.”

The fire alarm finally kicked in and let out a shrill scream. Jazz lost it. “I don’t care about your shoes! Get out of the house! Now!”

She half dragged Ivan from the bed, but he didn’t act out for once.

Maybe it was the urgency in her voice that got the little boy to move, or the fact that the room was filling up with smoke.

Jazz snagged her cell phone from her computer table as she pushed the two kids to the front door.

She stopped short of stepping out and stared in horror at what she saw.

The walkway was gone. Pulled down or broken out so they couldn’t cross it to the street. And there was no way to get out through the bottom floor.

They were stuck in a burning house.

She could see the flames clearly licking up both sides of the house. The bushes that rested against the walls were on fire, sending sparks into the air.

How did this happen?

Worry about that later, Jazz. Just get the boys to safety.

Ian started crying, and Ivan followed his brother’s lead. They clung to Jazz as she stood trying to find a way out. The bridge was gone. Did she have anything that she could substitute? Planks from the bed? The closet door?

Short of leaping back and forth across the gap, she had nothing.

Could she do that? Jump across carrying a child?

She’d have to get a running start and do it several times.

Hopefully, she’d make it each way without dropping anyone or missing the mark.

The shrubs below had ignited and were flaring up. If she fell, it would be bad. Very bad.

She handed Freya to Ian, and the cat transferred her death grip to the crying little boy. Jazz forced her trembling hand to be still and swiped the screen on her phone.

“911, what’s your emergency?”

Jazz could barely hear the operator over the boys’ wailing and the dull roar of the burning bushes. There’s a fire! We’re on the landing! Can’t get out! “We’re on fire! Shit, I mean the house is on fire, and we’re trapped!”

“What’s your address?”

She rattled it off. Isaac added his protest to the cacophony. “Please hurry!”

Never before had she felt so helpless.

She huddled with the three boys on the remnants of the landing.

Sparks from the fire underneath spit into the air around them as the house continued to burn.

“It’s okay. It’s okay. Help is coming. We’ll be fine.

” Tears flowed down her cheeks as she prayed she hadn’t just lied to her panicking nephews.

She hugged them close as they clung to her, still crying with fear.

“Jazz!” a voice yelled from the road. The smoke was thick, but she could make out a form. Wolf was there just across the broken bridge. “Hang on!”

A ladder slid across the span. The same one he’d used to get to her roof and replace some shingles earlier this month and had rested in the dip ever since.

She moved slightly back into the house to allow it space to rest on the landing.

A moment later, Wolf appeared, crawling across the makeshift connection.

“Listen up, boys. We’re gonna play horsey, but one at a time.

Ian, you’re first. I want you to get on my back and hold as tight as you can.

It’s a short ride, and you can make it, yeah?

Then Ivan, and you’ll take care of him while I carry Isaac.

Once we get across, Jazz, you’ll follow. Can you do that, baby?”

“What about Freya?”

Wolf’s eyes landed on the trembling animal. “Sorry, cat. I’ll make it up to you later.” He took the feline by the scruff and tossed her across the span to the road. The screech was akin to a kitty cussword, but she landed alive and indignant on the road. “All right, let’s go.”

Jazz held her breath as Wolf made the journey with Ian clinging like a monkey to his back. She did the same while watching him do it again with Ivan.

“How will you carry Isaac?” she coughed out. The acidic smoke was thicker now and was starting to choke her.

“I’ll manage. As soon as you see me get to the other side, you come too. This place is ready to collapse on itself.”

“Okay.”

He held the baby with one arm to his chest and started across. His movements were slower, and Jazz’s focus pinpointed on the man as if her sheer willpower alone would keep him from slipping. He made it to the road and turned to wave her over.

A thought occurred to her. “Just a second!” She turned and ran back into the house.

“Jazz! No!”

She ignored his shout and dropped to her hands and knees, scrambling to her computer desk.

The goal was the external hard drive she used as a backup for all her data.

If someone was out to get them, there might be evidence on here they would need.

She shoved it in the waistband of her leggings and crawled to the open door.

Those few seconds were critical but costly.

Her lungs seized up with smoke, and she couldn’t get a clean breath.

Coughing violently, she made it to the ladder and started across, feeling the rungs underneath with her hands and feet.

It was harder than it looked. Only five or so feet, but it seemed like miles.

She had to stop several times, her head spinning like a Tilt-A-Whirl ride as she forced her way forward.

“Come on, Auntie J, you can do it!” Ian cheered her on, and Ivan copied his brother as he always did.

Sirens sounded, and a big rig pulled up with flashing lights. The vehicle disgorged a row of firemen who went to work immediately. Jazz made it to the road, and Wolf snatched her from the ladder just as soon as he could reach her.

“What the fuck?” He held her close in a one-armed bear hug since Isaac was in the other one. Jazz felt his whole body shaking. “I’m gonna spank you later for going back into a burning house, but for now, I’m so fucking glad you’re alive.”

Jazz would have answered him with some sort of smart-ass bratty rebuttal, but she was too busy trying to keep her lungs in her chest. She fell to her knees and tried her best to cough them out.

Ian and Ivan sidled next to her on either side as she heaved and spasmed. Her throat burned with the fire .

This is what it must be like on Venus with all the sulfuric clouds and heat. What an absurd thought at this time.

A flurry of activity caught her attention. Several paramedics were working on a strange man who was lying on his back in a pool of blood. She pointed to him, trying hard to ask a question.

Wolf squatted down awkwardly, balancing himself and the baby. “Tugger, your bodyguard for the night. The medics say a car might have hit him.”

“Got… call… Liz,” she choked out. “How… boys?”

“In a minute, baby. Let them take care of you. The boys are fine. All of them. They didn’t breathe that shit nearly as long as you did.”

Dizziness hit her, and she rolled to her back. No, that was a fireman who moved her. An oxygen mask came down over her mouth and nose, and cool, clean air filled her starving organs.

“Vitals are good. You’re a very lucky lady.”

She tried to give him the live-long-and-prosper sign, but she was too tired to move.

Her fingers waggled at the hard drive still jammed in her waistband, and Wolf cursed under his breath as he plucked it from her stomach.

One of the paramedics took the baby to be examined, and Wolf pulled out his phone. “Ian, what’s your mom’s number?”

The boy’s face was streaked with tears as he stammered out the number. Ivan wailed and lay down on the ground next to his aunt as if he could absorb into her. “Please be okay, Auntie J!”

She shifted her arm around the boy and continued to cough. “I’m gonna be fine, Tribble-butt. Just gotta get some clean air in me.”

The oxygen mask helped a lot, and the kids were a great distraction from her own pain. She didn’t want to think about what just happened. Her house, furniture, and clothes. All her treasured memorabilia. Her precious books, pictures, and memories. Gone. Just gone.

It hurt.

It hurt as a personal violation.

No way was the fire an accident. Both sides of the house had been alight. The acidic chemical smell had to be some sort of accelerant.

Someone had hurt Tugger and set this up deliberately. The Slaggers were her first thought, but they didn’t have anyone capable of finding her via a deep network dive. She had covered her tracks too well for anyone but a hardcore professional to find her.

An icy chill arrowed down her spine. Whoever went after the other shielders had come to town. It was the only possibility that made sense. She needed to talk to Copperpot ASAP.

Once she had her voice back. Her throat felt swollen and heavy.

She heard Wolf yelling in the background.

“Goddammit, woman, get your fucking ass here! Now!”

Must be having trouble getting Liz to cooperate. Jazz wasn’t surprised, but it made her angry. Liz and responsibility mixed like oil and water.

She moved to sit up, and Ian did his best to help her. “It’s almost daytime. Where are you gonna live now?”

The innocent question was a good one. She could take the boys to their grandparents’ house, but that would probably stir up drama she just didn’t want to handle at this time.

All of her bank cards were gone. Her computer too.

She’d dropped her phone somewhere in the burning tangle of bushes when she crawled across the ladder, so it was probably gone as well.

At least she’d kept the hard drive safe.

Her eyes still burned and watered from the smoke.

“I’ll think of something, kiddo. For sure. ”

Ian sniffed as he sat next to her. “My dad’s never around, and Mom says we’re a pain in her ass. Gramma complains about us all the time. Grampa just sits around the house.” His face screwed up in pain, and he started crying. “Nobody wants us, and your house is all burned up.”

An imaginary knife cleaved Jazz’s heart in two.

“Hey, buddy, I got your back. I really, really do. Pinkie promise and everything. I know your mom loves you, even though she yells a lot and stuff. We’ll have an adventure, yeah?

We’ll go get pancakes at Denny’s for breakfast with an ocean of syrup.

I’ll figure everything else out later, okay? ”

She hated this. Her nephew was too young to have to deal with all the shit life just heaped on him. Not even in school yet and already he had to grow up fast because his parents couldn’t be bothered to actually do the job.

Freya! “Where’s my cat?” she croaked.

Ivan pointed. “Over there.”

Freya had evidently forgiven Wolf for tossing her across the dip. She sat next to him with her leg in the air as she groomed her fur. He brushed the phone’s screen with his thumb and addressed the ragtag group.

“Hospital first. Quillon’s wife kept her place as an Airbnb rental. Three bedrooms, and it’s open. That’s where we’re going to go once we get everyone checked out.”

Ivan popped up from Jazz’s side. “Can we still have Denny’s pancakes?”

“Sure, kid.”

“Is my mom coming too?” a subdued Ian questioned.

Wolf gritted his teeth. “She’s not answering her phone. I’ll keep trying.”

“Can we ride in the amble-ance?”

“Sure. Now hop up, and let’s get this show on the road.

Everyone needs to get checked out, yeah?

” He turned to Jazz as the paramedics lifted Tugger into one of the vehicles.

“Camshaft is coming over with his big truck. He’ll take Freya and get us set up with supplies for tonight.

I’ll wait for him and then go to the hospital. ”

The boys were excited about the sirens and the drive to the hospital.

Jazz was worried about the cost and all the chores she had waiting for her.

It was overwhelming even for her. The list of tasks grew longer in her brain.

Insurance had to be called. The bank for new cards.

A computer, as that was a big need for her.

Clothes. Diapers. Food and litter box for Freya.

A thousand items filled her to-do list during the ride to the hospital. She added even more after they arrived.

Questions about insurance and guardianship came up for the boys.

Fortunately, the social worker was satisfied when Ian identified Jazz as his aunt and caregiver.

All three boys were physically fine, which took one load off Jazz’s mind, but none of them wanted to go anywhere without her.

The two oldest hung out in the curtained alcove crowded around the bed, the baby napping in a rolling crib, until Wolf made his appearance.

“How ya doin’, babe?” he asked as he leaned over to kiss her forehead.

It was only then that she cried. “My house is gone. I have to tell my parents and my brother about it. I have to call the insurance people. I don’t know where Liz is. I can’t… I can’t….”

“I’m not going anywhere, babe. We’ll get through this. I promise.”

“How’s Tugger?”

Wolf’s grim expression told her all was not good there.

“I’m real sorry about your house, Auntie J.” Ian sniffed.

Jazz swallowed her fears and ruffled his hair. “It’s just a house. I can get another one. What I can’t get is another super-cool nephew like you. I need to introduce you to space, the final frontier.”

“Is that the one with Luke Skywalker?”

Jazz’s jaw dropped. “Dude, we so need to improve your education. Once we break outta here, it’s pancakes, then Star Trek classics, pronto.”