This time, Ashe followed his father's SUV as it drove away. Pat Roberts' body had been found on the eastern side of the boundary, so Ashe flew higher still; the dust and debris raised by the vehicle was flying through his mist and obscuring his vision. Ashe hovered as his father, mother and Radomir exited the SUV roughly ten minutes later, outside the barbed-wire fence marking the edge of the property. Micah Rocklin was still there, waiting.
"It's the damndest thing," Micah said. "Same as with James. No scents, other than Pat's, around the grave. Denise and Amos Thompson found the body after the witch said there was something here."
"How long do you think he was out here?" Aedan asked.
"Two, three days maybe," Micah replied. "Sounds like he may have died around the same time Harold did."
"This doesn't make any sense at all," Nathan grumbled, running fingers through his short, dark-blond hair.
"I'll change in the truck," Adele said and walked toward the SUV. Moments later Adele's peregrine falcon flapped away from the SUV, her wings catching the winds and flying gracefully into the night sky. Ashe watched as his mother flew widening circles around the area, looking for any clues from above. Her call, piercing when she gave it, put everyone on alert. What had she found? Ashe blazed through the night air in her direction.
Sure enough, his sharp ears caught the noise of something moving, but it was moving swiftly through the trees that ran along the eastern edge of the boundary and he couldn't pinpoint the source. Ashe increased his speed, desperate now to find whatever it was. Still he wasn't catching up. It was running away, that was certain, and Adele had been left behind long ago. Images of trees and fences blurred past as Ashe flew by them, still no closer to his quarry. Was there any way to tell what it was? How large it was? There might be. Echolocation. Ashe's clothing dropped away when he became the bumblebee bat in mid-air, his jeans, shirt and underwear falling onto a tall tree as he flapped tiny wings, still in determined pursuit of his prey. Ashe sent out a high-pitched call. Wondrously, it took a few seconds but it bounced right back to him. His mother always said instinct would take over. It did. Ashe knew his quarry was large. He could almost feel the shape of it. The bulk of it. Man-tall it was. Perhaps larger. But what man might move that fast, besides a vampire? Somehow, Ashe knew it wasn't that. A vampire could move more swiftly than this. It was traveling at top speed, whatever it was, and leaving Ashe's tiny bat behind. Ashe sent out one last call and waited interminable seconds for the echo to return. He'd lost this race, but he'd learned the size of the quarry.
Misting back to the tree, Ashe wondered how to pick up his clothing again. He couldn't materialize in the treetop; only thin branches sprouted there, with newly formed leaves budding from them. He couldn't lift anything as the tiny bat and he didn't want to leave his favorite shirt in the tree, waiting for someone to find it and point an accusing finger. Ashe moved closer until his mist touched the shirt. Incredibly, the T-shirt disappeared once he came in contact. Ashe drew back—the shirt reappeared. Lowering himself, he touched it once more. The shirt vanished.
Grateful that he'd been barefoot, Ashe quickly gathered his jeans and underwear the same way and flew homeward, arriving bare seconds ahead of his mother. Well, it worked with his clothing—Ashe flew right through the door, a feeling of elation hitting him as he passed through the heavy steel, ending up inside the kitchen. He performed the miracle twice more, through the middle door to the basement and then through his bedroom door.
"This is the best ever!" Ashe whispered as he danced and punched the air, his clothes hurtling across the room as he sent them flying.
"Ashe?" his mother called as she came down the steps.
"Just getting into pajamas, Mom," Ashe called out, calming himself. "Be there in a sec." Ashe pulled his PJs from a drawer, stepped into underwear and then slid into his favorite top and striped bottoms. "Did you find anything?" Ashe opened the bedroom door, finding his mother standing right outside.
"I thought we did, but it must have been a wild animal or something," she said. "Feel like a cup of cocoa?"
"Yeah." They had more than cocoa. They had a snack of cheese and crackers, too. Adele was always hungry after turning; Ashe discovered that he felt the same.
"An animal?" Ashe crunched his cracker, spread with soft cheese.
"We spooked it, I think," his mother said. "It ran away. It probably smelled the body and came to investigate."
"Oh. I never thought about that," Ashe said, sipping cocoa with tiny marshmallows floating in it. He felt his mother was attempting to protect him. He realized he was doing the same. Aedan, Nathan and Radomir walked in while Ashe and his mother were sitting at the table.
"Didn't find anything," Aedan said. "And Marcus called. Whatever killed James killed Pat. Same claw marks. Same problem with the heart." Ashe set his cup down. Was it aiming for all of them, whatever it was? Catching them alone so it could make their hearts explode? And who—or what—could do that?
"Aedan, will we have to move?" Adele stood, her face filled with worry. Ashe knew she was frightened.
"We can't. Not until we discover what it is. We could be moving it with us, you know," Aedan raked fingers through his hair in a gesture of frustration. Ashe knew his father was more than upset—he seldom showed this much emotion.
"I'll go downstairs." Ashe placed his cup in the sink and walked toward the door.
"Son, I'll stop by and talk to you later," Aedan said. "I have to drop Nathan off. Sharon and Jonas are going to plow the field tomorrow afternoon." Ashe nodded at his father before closing the door and walking heavily down the steps.
"Son, don't go outside alone," Aedan cautioned later as he sat on the edge of Ashe's bed. Ashe was sitting with his back to the headboard, an open book on his lap when his father knocked and came in.
Ashe nodded, wondering what his father might do if he knew what Ashe had done already and intended to do in the future. "Dad, what's happening?" Ashe placed a bookmark inside his book and closed it. Aedan took the book from his son's hands and set it down on the bedside table.
"We don't know, son. I've never seen anything like this before and I've seen plenty of strangeness in my lifetime. Scents either aren’t there or confused somehow, and I don't know what can do that. Marcus plans to talk to the witch tomorrow and see if she knows anything. Micah thought she might be involved at first, but she was in Tucson the past three days and in Phoenix before that."