"Yeah. Nathan probably told Philip he couldn't go outside," Ashe nodded. He didn't bother to explain that compulsion had been employed. He knew that without having to ask. Compulsion was likely employed to keep Chad and Jeremy from wandering off as well. Ashe hunched his shoulders angrily at the thought. If Chump and Wormy had just kept away, Edward and the others could have stayed all summer. Now they were being forced away from their homes again.
"It's just not fair," Keith muttered, surprising Ashe. "We were just getting used to this. It's nice to be able to go outside and throw a football around without worrying you'll hit a car. And you can actually see the stars at night. I never knew there were so many of them."
"Edward, there's something I've been meaning to tell you," Ashe said. "About your mom."
"What about her?" Edward was immediately interested. After all, he barely remembered her; he'd been so small when she died.
"My mom doesn't know it, but last year I found her unconscious on the passenger side of her old truck, weaving down a road outside Cordell. I had to mist in and drive her truck home. My parents still think Mom managed to drive herself back, even though she doesn't remember doing it. She didn't. Those Dark Elemaiya tried to kill her like that last year."
"So, that's what happened," Edward said softly. "Can I tell my dad?"
"When you're away from here," Ashe nodded. "I don't need to be grounded again if that information gets out."
"Understood," Edward said.
"They'd ground you for saving your mother?" Bryce stared at Ashe.
"For waiting this long to tell them," Ashe replied. He was grateful that Edward, Bryce and Keith hadn't been at the Awards Assembly to see how winning the essay contest had turned into such an embarrassing failure. And that because he'd gotten upset over Elizabeth's death and misted home after saving someone else's life. "We're not destined to have normal lives," Ashe observed philosophically.
"Here comes Sali," Edward dropped off the porch as the young werewolf approached.
* * *
"The Queen would be better off without him," Ruby grumbled as they waited at a local diner for a waitress to bring their meals. Hilbah had been left behind in the cellar—most unwillingly. He was just as hungry as Diamond and Ruby, but Diamond was in charge and he'd left the whining Miriasu behind. Diamond ordered a third meal to go, and he didn't care that it might be cold when he brought it to Hilbah.
"Have any ideas how that might be accomplished?" Diamond studied his brother sitting across the small, Formica table in Betsy's Diner. "With Hilbah and his foolishness out of the way, she'd be forced to bring Rabis back. At least he knows what he's doing when he opens his mouth."
"Rabis won't come willingly," Ruby pointed out.
"But he is subject to the crown, just as the rest of us are. He'll be compelled to do as commanded."
"He'll resent it. After all, Gwynitha was his daughter," Ruby sipped the glass of iced tea he'd been served.
"Old news. Surely, he's over his daughter's death by now. And when she was Queen, she kept us in the regular guard, if you recall." Diamond halted his comments as the young waitress set a plate of food in front of him and asked if he and Ruby needed anything else. Diamond shook his head and waited for her footsteps to recede before continuing the conversation with his brother.
"We were always stronger than those fools Gwynitha kept around her. And she never saw Friesianna coming. Too bad she never asked her father to look out for betrayal from within. She kept Rabis busy searching for King Baltis and his horde." Ruby cut into his meatloaf. He'd been on worlds from one end of the universes to the other, and all of them had some variation of meatloaf available.
"She was always convinced that the Bright and Dark could never be on the same world together," Diamond agreed, dipping into a bowl of chicken and dumplings. "Yet, here we are. The only danger I see is that we kill some of them, they kill some of us."
"It is enjoyable at times to watch them die," Ruby observed with a smile.
* * *
Certain that he was being followed; Vince ducked inside the small bookshop and waited for his tail to catch up with him. Except it didn't—they'd stopped when he stopped. Vince wanted to report this to Director Jennings, but that would require that he be honest with the Director. That would be a mistake—one that would lead to a prison cell. And there was always the possibility that the Director already suspected him of passing information to the other side; that meant the tail was sent by Director Jennings to begin with.
Vince didn't know which might be worse—having the ones to whom he'd sold information trailing after him, or the Director and his many operatives. Either way, it could turn out badly for Vince. Cursing softly under his breath, he barged through the bookshop door and onto a busy sidewalk to continue his journey.
Chapter 17
"Full moon is less than a week away," Adele Evans pointed out over dinner that evening. "Can you believe it? Honey, your birthday is less than a month away. Have you decided what you want?" Ashe was picking at green beans while he listened to his mother make conversation. He and Sali spent the day with Edward, Bryce and Keith, while Macy and Luanne had gone to visit with Dori and Wynn. Cori and Marco had driven to Oklahoma City to shop for the day, but Ashe had heard Marco's car drive past moments earlier and knew they'd made it home safely.
"I don't know what I want," Ashe replied listlessly.
"Honey, things will work out."
"But what if they don't? Mom, those people are hunting Edward and the others. They already got Elizabeth. The minute those kids drive past our boundary, somebody could be waiting for them. Edward and the others could die, too. Stupid Chump and Wormy."
"Chump and Wormy will be locked up inside Old Harold's house. It has no windows and Marcus will hold the keys," Aedan walked through the middle door and sat down at the dinner table with a sigh. "Marcus phoned the Grand Master last night. From the conversation I overheard he was not happy, and it's likely the Head of the Vampire Council will not be pleased, either."
Ashe realized his father was more upset than his face or his words indicated. It had likely taken a great deal of money and work to get the housing trucked in and arrangements made through Director Jennings' department just to move the families to Cloud Chief. And now, thanks to Cloud Chief's two mischief-makers, they had to leave again, less than a month after they'd arrived.