Ghost Bird Fanfiction: Sang's Lyric, The Story of Sang Sorenson's Mother

Computer Glitch- Kell's Point of View

James slammed both his hands next to the computer keyboard before standing up quickly and sending the old wooden desk chair teetering and crashing backwards. I raised an eyebrow.

"You're going to wake..."

I heard footsteps hurrying down the hallway and then Taylor stalked angrily into the room. "What happened?"

"...Taylor," I finished.

"Someone hooked into our goddamn landline remotely. That phone call? I can't trace it. It didn't come from our house. It was re-routed to look like it came from the house."

Taylor crossed his arms, his feet shoulder width apart. "So figure out who did it. I'm going back to Lyric. I don't want her alone."

I pulled out my phone, opening the camera to the bedroom. With the night vision, I could see she was curled around her new body pillow, one leg thrown over the top, her belly wedged over it. I smiled. Even though we'd had the bed specially made to fit all four of us, it wouldn't be long before we were relegated to the floor and Lyric and her pillows took up the space.

"She's fine." I tore my eyes away from her figure and made myself close the app.

James moved back to the computer, clicking away. "It was a cell phone and I can't trace it. I haven't seen someone use a burner phone with this capability before. It's..." He pushed away from the computer and pulled at his hair, making the strands stand up. His face was pale, and his eyes had dark circles underneath them. He looked as horrible as all of us felt, knowing that someone had purposefully put Lyric in harm's way.

"Who would do this?"

That was the question. We had a very small circle of intimates. We'd never been on a team with any one else. We'd all been recruited by Constance, who remained our Academy liaison until James had turned eighteen. Now he was our lead and liaison. We had Academy instructors, the Council, but none of them would have done this. What possible benefit would someone get out of this?

"One of us needs to talk to Garret," I realized.

"Let me," Taylor said, dropping his arms from across his chest and stepping forward. His eyes shone bright with anger. "I would love to talk to him again."

"They're not going to let us near him," James said thoughtfully, rubbing his hands down his face.

I opened up the app on my phone again. Lyric had kicked off the covers and was fully wrapped around the pillow now. I couldn't help chuckling deeply.

I heard movement and then Taylor was grabbing my wrist to pull the phone to him. His face softened immediately. "I'm going back to bed."

"Me, too." I needed to hold her, put my hand on her belly and feel our baby kick and flip again.

James walked over, peering over Taylor's shoulder. I turned the phone so he could see her.

"We'll work on this tomorrow," he said. "I need her."

"We all do," Taylor said gruffly.

Taylor gave me a look, and I raised my eyebrow, looking down at my phone.

Hmmm...

It was something we'd discussed before she was assaulted. Something we wanted to do, but then there was the attack and then the baby, and...

"We can't live defensively," Taylor whispered. "We will always have stress, and bad things will happen, but we need each other. We need that intimacy, Kell. We need to move forward with our lives."

I looked at James, and saw him nod nervously.

I stared down at Lyric, sleeping peacefully and felt a rush of excitement. I met the gaze of my brothers and nodded.