"Ashe, are you ready?" Adele asked an hour later.
"Yeah, Mom."
"You go first." Adele would wait until Ashe was away before dropping her robe and shifting to peregrine falcon. "I'll make sure the doors are locked and the alarms set," she added.
"Okay." Ashe didn't need to lock the doors behind him—he could sail right through locked doors as mist. "I'll drop my clothes outside, Mom," he added, walking out the door. Adele watched as her son shifted to the bumblebee bat and flapped away before allowing her robe to drop. Soon a peregrine falcon flew through the bright moonlight illuminating Cloud Chief.
* * *
Chad, in werewolf form, ran behind the rest of the Cloud Chief Pack, just as he and Jeremy had planned. Jeremy, as a wildcat, had arranged to meet Chad near the six temporary homes located behind Ashe Evans's house. The vampires had to guard the entire community, giving the boys an opportunity to approach the new addition while Aedan and Nathan were checking the hidden entrance half a mile away.
Chad and Jeremy intended to have a bit of fun and perhaps frighten the humans—the empties—enough to make them leave. And if somebody got hurt in the process, well, that wouldn't upset either of them. All they had to do was coordinate a little, making sure the vampires were elsewhere before they struck.
Veering away as the Pack ran through a copse of trees, Chad knew he'd get away without being missed. The Pack had scented a deer and that was a fine meal to chase on a moonlit night. Feeling a small amount of regret for leaving the hunt, Chad slowed and reversed direction, trotting toward the eastern edge of the property and the six mobile homes waiting there.
* * *
Luanne loved scented candles; had a collection of them that she lit at times, just for the comfort of the dim light inside her bedroom. Two now burned brightly on her bedside table, giving her enough light to read. Limited on the number of books she could carry into exile with her, Luanne was rereading a well-worn and much-loved novel from a favorite series.
"Lu?" The walkie-talkie lying on the comforter beside her crackled with Macy's voice.
"What is it, Mace?" Lu pressed and released the talk button.
"Just wondering if you'd seen anything. Do you think any of them will come close enough for us to see?"
"I doubt it," Luanne replied, setting her book aside. "I can barely see outside, even with the full Moon."
"How dangerous do you think they are?" Macy went on.
"No idea. This is something new, and I doubt they're willing to talk about it. I'm curious, too, Mace. Maybe we'll see something before we leave. That would be nice. Maybe they'll trust us enough to show us something besides the little bat."
"That's a bumblebee bat—they're endangered," Macy said. "I did a paper on bats for a science class before all this happened."
"Are you still going to read vampire books after this?" Luanne teased.
"Well, I always thought they were fiction. Now the real thing shows up. I don't know what to think anymore. Lu?"
"What, Mace?"
"What are we going to do? Do you honestly believe we're half—whatever it is? Do you?"
Luanne breathed a troubled sigh before punching the talk button again. It was something she'd gone over in her mind, leaving the night sleepless and the day nearly listless. Her parents were putting on an act around her, but Luanne knew they were just as confused and upset over the information as she was.
"I don't know, Mace. But why did the others die? That's what I can't figure out. I can't see that any of us are special—not like that bat kid. None of us can do that."
"But what if we can? What if we just haven't concentrated or something? Admit it, we didn't know we weren't completely human. If what they say is true, anyway. And those two guys who came after me outside the pizzeria? What if they'd got me instead? I could be dead or somewhere else right now."
"I guess it comes down to whether we want to stay with our parents or go to those others," Luanne shuddered. "I want to stay with Mom and Dad. I want to go to college and do something. Here. Not somewhere else. Think about it, Macy. If they were desperate to increase their numbers and they're at war with the other side, then we'd be fighting the others with them. Wouldn't we?"
"I don't even want to think about that."
"Mace, the battery is about dead on my walkie. I'll talk to you later."
"All right."
Luanne got up to find the charger for her walkie-talkie when her bedroom window crashed inward, knocking candles onto the floor and setting her curtains afire.
* * *
Dad! Ashe sent desperate mindspeech to his father. Dad, I got a signal from something and now one of the mobile homes is on fire! Ashe had followed his mother as instructed, keeping her within distance using echolocation. It was only when Ashe had banked in flight, sending signals out in the opposite direction that he'd caught two—likely Chad and Jeremy—nearly upon the six temporary homes lined up neatly behind his own. And then the unthinkable happened; fire bloomed on one side of a mobile home, engulfing the structure quickly. Thinking swiftly, Ashe knew he had to help. Turning to mist, he rocketed toward the burning home.
Chapter 6
Aedan and Nathan were already at the home, but it was burning so brightly the vampires couldn't go in without risking death—fire could easily kill a vampire. And it was far too late to haul out the community pumper truck. The other new residents were all outside their homes, screaming and crying.
"Do something!" Macy begged Aedan and Nathan to help—Luanne and her parents were still inside the burning structure. Macy screamed as the house exploded in a fireball behind her.
* * *
"They're safe," Ashe appeared, dropping all three members of the Jansen family in front of his father. If they'd wanted to keep his misting secret, he'd just blown that by saving Luanne and her parents. Luanne was on her knees, coughing. She'd gotten the worst of the smoke and flames while her parents had rushed toward that end of the home to rescue her. If Ashe hadn't come, they'd all be burning inside the house.
Aedan pulled his shirt off swiftly and wrapped it around Ashe, who stood naked in the light from the fire. There wasn't enough water pressure to the temporary homes to save the house, and with the other Cloud Chief residents either shifted to animal form or too young to help, there was nothing to do except watch the home burn.
"You all right?" Ashe clutched his father's shirt tightly around him and knelt before Luanne, who was being comforted by her parents. They'd just lost everything they owned in the fire. "Dad, will the witch's shield keep the humans from noticing this?" Ashe jerked his head toward the burning home.