Change of Law and Heart

Chapter 29: Beers by the Campfire

If you guys haven't heard, the rewritten version of The Time of Night is Midnight is out! I will post chapters every Friday, if I remember.

The red and orange flickers of the fire were the only source of light out by the fire pit. A cold Diet Pepsi sat in the cup colder of my fold up chair, a quarter of it gone. Dominick, Zeke, Talia, Jazz, Crosshairs and Bumblebee had joined me about an hour earlier when the sun was still shone barely.

All of us were relaxing after a hard day of work. The ex-military man had a beer in hand, so did Talia. He was on his third though and she scarcely taking drinks of hers. The only wife in the group was probably the driver for her husband and friend, meaning she couldn't drink much; good for her. Zeke had not taken up my offer of a beer and kept to a Coke Cola.

Off to the side, Jazz was holding the toddler of Zeke and Talia while keeping her busy. The mech in disguise acted like a natural for taking care of young kids, including Annabelle.

One bot that I didn't like much had to join us due to him being the guardian of Dom. Crosshairs sat off of to the side on the hood of his alt. mode and randomly sent glares in my direction. What was his problem?

Bee had been staring intently into the fire for the past five minutes, as if memorized by the flames. Zeke noticed this and sat forward in his seat, elbows resting on his knees. "Bumblebee, you're going to ruin your eyes by doing that," Zeke warned and took a sip of his Coke.

The yellow scout snapped out of his dazed state and gazed up at him. For some odd reason, Bee declined getting a chair to sit on and sat down in front of the fire. At first I didn't notice him staring at the flames but it finally caught my attention. "But it's so pretty to look at. How can you not look at it?" I mentally awed at his cute antics and hid any of those emotions off of my face.

"Because I need twenty-twenty vision as a Game Warden. Plus, I'd rather not be blind too." Yes, those two are very good reasons on why not to stare into the fire. Dom, thought, decided to join in and play along with Bumblebee.

He stood from his chair and sat down next to him. His eyes locked onto the fire and tears immediately formed in his eyes. Idiot. "Yes, fire good and pretty to stare at," Dom stated and fought against taking his gaze off the fire. I shook my head, slightly annoyed, but knew this was all fun and games. Well it was until someone shoots the cat.

Dom took it a step further and moved his hand towards the fire. I reacted immediately by grabbing his shoulder and yanking him back. He fell back and landed on his back with a surprised noise. I knew he's not that stupid to actually touch the fire but my instincts reacted first. "Idiot, why would you think it would be a good idea to touch something that can cause severe damage to you?" I decided to play along in this 'game'.

"Fire," he stated the obvious and pointed at the flickering flames. "I wanna touch." An idea came to mind while sitting in my folding chair. My eyes glanced over at the two dogs lounging on the ground.

"Kodiak, come, please." The black husky mix stood to his paws at the command and trotted over to me, seeming ready for the next one. I scratched his stomach and got him all worked up for a special reason. He needed to be completely focused on me or this could end not-so-well. "Kodiak, Schrecken! Schrecken, Kodiak."

Kodiak reacted nearly immediately. He turned around and faced the closest person to him which was Dom. His close to pearly white canines shone in the fire light. A deep growl rumbled in his chest and he released a bark.

The look on Dom's face was priceless, he was scared shitless of the dog listening to my command. Dom scrambled away from the fire and the two of us and kept his distances. "Not cool, Brey. Not cool." I quieted Kodiak down and released him so he could do whatever he wanted. Vivian got up from her spot and followed her brother to wherever on the property.