by Jamie Ott
Chapter 7
It took a whole week to burn all the bodies. Though she scrubbed and sudded and soaked, she could still smell the sickening cinnamon, burnt flesh and bone, and char and ash.
After they’d burned their last bodies, they took the evening to feast on the opposite side of the bank, where the air was fresher.
Saying goodbye was sad, because she would have liked to have spent some time with Emil, but the last thing she wanted was to spend more time doing Fleet stuff. The best thing to do was distance herself.
A tingling sensation shot down her neck and chest when he kissed her lips and told her to call him as soon as she got another phone.
Starr knew that if she bothered with getting another phone, it would only be so that she could talk to him, as she hated talking on the phone normally.
Chanler, of course, scowled.
As she watched them levitate into the blue sky, she tried to think of what to do next. Should she try to find the kids? Or should she find a cabin and have some alone time?
She was always torn between the next thing that needed doing, and relaxing in peace and quiet.
Starr walked along the bank, thinking about everything that had happened in the last few weeks. Every once in a while, she’d pull out the Grimoire and flip its pages.
By late afternoon, she sat on a bald, sandy spot of the bank and stared at the water.
Making her jump, from up the bank, came the sound of laughing and talking.
She stood up and turned around.
Facing her was Misaki, Misty, and Lucas, from the clinic; they were both rescued and abandoned kids that Starr, and her friends, had vowed to look after. They stopped, still, and stared in silence; their eyes wide.
Starr felt a smile spread her face. An emotion she hadn’t felt in a long time struck her: happiness.
“Is it really you?” asked Misaki.
“Yeah, it’s me.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you smile before; it’s almost ghastly, like Wednesday Addams-ish,” said Lucas.
“Why aren’t you dead?” Misty asked.
“I was rescued.”
“How? The cabin was completely caved in. There’s no way you could have survived.”
But before Starr could explain, the rest of the kids from the clinic showed up, including her best and closest friends Marla, Mica, and Shane who couldn’t have looked more shaken by the sight of her.
“I knew you were alive!” shouted Shane. “Haha, didn’t I tell you. I kept telling you, I felt her; she’s alive! You were here, a while back, I felt it!”
With tears in her eyes, Marla grabbed Starr and nearly choked her to death. A second later, the arms of several others closed her in, tightly.
“If you’re alive, then where the hell have you been all this time? Why did you not tell us?” she asked.
“I’m sorry; I would have if I’d known where you were.”
“We were just, here, on the other side of the bank. You, being what you are, should have found us with little difficulty!”
“I got sidetracked. Listen, I can’t explain it all now. Have any of you seen Lily?”
“No, isn’t she with Lucenzo?” asked Mica.
Starr looked at her, and then looked at the kids, and then at the dirt.
“Well, let’s talk about it as we walk back to the house,” she said, and then walked back up the path; Starr, Marla, and Shane followed.
In as concise a way as she could, she proceeded to tell them everything; how she woke in Louisiana; how she found Lily in Lake George; about the CDC and how they betrayed them.
But then her speech slowed, when she got to the part about Credenza, the Primordials, and Lucenzo’s warning.
Instinctively, she felt for the Grimoire in her pocket.
“So the first vampires were a completely different race?” asked Shane.
“Yep.”
“And Lucenzo was one of these?”
“And so is Credenza; well, she said she’s half.”
They walked up the sandy bank and through a cluster of trees. Next, she followed them several miles up a steep incline and found herself atop a four square mile mesa top.
“It’d be hard for vampires to sneak up on us here,” said Marla.
“Wow,” said Starr, eyeing a large white three story house complete with white stucco walls, fencing it in.
They opened the wrought iron gate, and passed a pretty flower garden.
Inside, the house was cool with wood floors and a large living room. They gave her a tour through the back, which had a swimming pool, hot tub, and gas grill.
Then they led her upstairs to the last room at the top.
“This can be your room,” said Marla. “Oh, and I have something for you.”
She walked out and came back a moment later.
In her hands, Marla held her favorite ruby studded sliver moon-shaped sickles.
Year 2 schedule for release 2012.
Other works include:
Adventures of Jacko the Conjurer
Funk’s the Chocolate Loving Vamp
Maternal Absence
Misguided Trust
Blackthorn: In the Tween
A Very Blakely Christmas
Sisterlings