"Come on," Ashe hauled Sali toward the greenhouse and his mother. "Sali thought he smelled ozone," Ashe poked Sali in the ribs.
"Ozone?" Adele lifted an eyebrow in Sali's direction.
"Yeah." Sali ducked his head, suddenly unsure of his own abilities.
"If you say you smelled ozone, then there was probably ozone. Come on, I'll make dinner and we'll have cookies for dessert. Sali's mother had to run an errand and asked if Sali could come over until she got back."
"Sweet," Sali grinned.
* * *
"Hey, Mr. Evans," Sali said when Aedan joined them at the dinner table nearly two hours later.
"Salidar," Aedan smiled at Sali. "How's your brother Marco?"
"Marco's okay, but Mom says he's depressed." Sali picked at his green beans while Ashe watched his friend. Ashe knew not to talk about Marco. Sali felt overshadowed by his older brother much of the time so Ashe hadn't brought Marco up the past few days. He figured if Sali wanted to talk, he would.
"I'm sorry to hear that. What about you, Sali? Everything all right?"
"Yeah. I'm good." Sali speared two whole green beans and stuffed them in his mouth.
"You can take your cookies to Ashe's room if you're careful with the crumbs," Adele handed a plate of cookies and a small glass of milk to Sali after the dinner dishes were done.
"I wanted to do some surfing anyway," Ashe received his plate of cookies next. He led the way toward the middle door separating the upper and lower floors. Aedan closed it behind them as they clumped down the steps. Ashe heard, even though Sali didn't. His mother was explaining to his father about the scent of ozone Sali picked up behind the shop in Cordell.
* * *
"Dad, has any shifter or paranormal ever been able to disappear?" Ashe stood beside his father as they watched Denise DeLuca drive away. Sali waved from the passenger seat of the DeLuca's Honda sedan. Ashe waved back as he waited for his father to answer the question.
"Son, that's impossible, I think. Maybe some of the witches or warlocks can put up a shield so people can't see them, but they're not truly invisible. There are two very rare types of vampires, though, and one of those can turn to mist. The other can mindspeak."
"Really? Some vampires can turn to mist and read minds?"
"They can't read minds, but they can send messages to someone else with the talent," Aedan smiled down at Ashe. "And that may be more useful at times."
"What about the ones who can turn to mist? How do they do that?" Ashe blinked curiously at his father.
"Ashe, only two or three of those exist at the moment," Aedan herded Ashe inside the garage and shut the door. "The rest of us don't know much at all about them. All that information is kept secret and I imagine all of them work for the Council in some way or another."
"But what happens after they turn to mist? Are they still shaped like their bodies?"
"I've heard tales through the years that misters can slip through the smallest cracks or keyholes, even. And I heard an old vampire say once that their clothing and such turned to mist as well. I didn't believe that. After all, your mother and all the others must disrobe before they turn or their clothing can hamper them in their other shapes."
"Yeah. I've gathered up clothes for Sali and the others in class," Ashe agreed gloomily.
"It'll come," Aedan misinterpreted Ashe's comment. "Just relax. It will come." Aedan placed an arm around Ashe's shoulders as they walked into the kitchen together.
* * *
"You missed your chance to grab the boy!" Wolf's hands clenched as his eyes angrily grazed his two accomplices. They'd missed a perfect opportunity. Ashe Evans wasn't like the others and didn't belong in Cloud Chief. Let the shapeshifter mother and the vampire father worry over the boy's kidnapping and subsequent death. If human authorities found the body, there was nothing to indicate the boy wasn't just as human as they were. Wolf growled—they'd botched a perfect opportunity. At least nobody could connect him to the crime when the boy was captured and destroyed; he'd refused to give these accomplices his real name, ordering them to call him Wolf instead.
"There was much danger that we might be seen. The boy's mother was nearby and he was not alone; you said yourself that no more werewolf children were to be harmed." Only one of the two accomplices could speak; the other was misshapen—a genetically enhanced warrior whose specialty was killing.
"You could have distracted the other boy," Wolf hissed. This was turning out badly, all the way around. James's death was a mistake and threatened to tip their hand. Now, others would die before both targets could be acquired and disposed of. And all to cover up the first death and point accusing fingers in other directions. "You know what you have to do," Wolf snapped. "Do it!" Shockingly, both accomplices disappeared before his eyes, leaving the scent of ozone behind.
* * *
Ashe awoke Thursday morning with a terrible taste in his mouth, only to discover it was still dark. Turning on his side with difficulty, he searched for the bedside clock, finding only more darkness. What the heck? Dang. He was buried beneath the blanket. Flopping and struggling with the fabric that felt extremely heavy for some reason, Ashe worked his way toward the edge of the bed—and then dropped out of it. Well, plopped out of it might have been a better term. The word aptly described the sound he'd made after falling out of bed.
Ashe looked around, blinking in astonishment. Everything was huge. Really, really huge. And he could see popcorn and cookie crumbs on the carpet beneath his nightstand. What was going on? Ashe crawled toward the nightstand in question. The space between the wooden legs, normally a spare two inches off the floor, now looked like a massive cave entrance. Ashe crawled and fumbled his way toward that entrance. What was the matter with him? Was he dreaming? This might be the strangest nightmare he'd ever had, except he could feel the carpet fibers beneath his—wait. Those weren't hands.
Chapter 5
Forcing himself to remain as calm as possible, Ashe flopped and tumbled toward his dresser. A mirror was there and he'd get to the bottom of this as quickly as he could. Provided he could climb up the dresser that now resembled a forbidding vertical mountain of polished wood, that is. Hooking a tiny claw into a crack between the side of the lower drawer and the dresser, Ashe heaved himself up. Then, hooking the opposite claw into a higher position in the same crack, he heaved again. Ashe figured it took the better part of half an hour (with much slipping and scrabbling) to make his way to the top of the dresser.
Panting as he reached the top, Ashe navigated around the brush, comb, deodorant and pile of unread books that now dwarfed him until he could hook a claw into the bottom frame of the mirror. Cautiously he lifted himself up, frightened and unsure of what the mirror might tell him.
Dude, you're screwed, Ashe thought as he examined his image in the reflective glass. He knew exactly what stared at him from the mirror; he'd studied it in science class. A tiny, not yet fully-grown bumblebee bat frowned back.
I can't tell anybody about this. This is too embarrassing. Backing up against the bottom of the mirror frame, Ashe wrapped tiny wings around his body as he shivered, envisioning all his classmates laughing as he turned into one of the smallest mammals on the planet. His minuscule, fur-covered torso was reddish-brown, tipped with golden-hued fuzz about his head. Ears that seemed too large for such a small body picked up every sound inside the house. A tiny, pig-shaped snout wiggled a bit as he sniffed the air around him. He still couldn't scent things as well as Sali, but then bats relied on echolocation to find their prey. While they flew.
Unfurling wings that trembled with uncertainty, Ashe dragged himself to the edge of the dresser. Gulping in a breath, he launched himself off it, hovering briefly in mid-air before dropping to the floor with a squishy plop. Thankful that he had thick carpet on the floor, even if he did see that it needed vacuuming from such close range, Ashe flapped his wings and lifted partially away from the fuzz-filled rug. And then dropped immediately to the floor. Determined now, Ashe pulled himself up and t
ried again.
It took at least ten tries with partial successes before he was flapping and hovering around his room. The hovering was great—Ashe flapped for several seconds before the mirror, watching as his wings kept him aloft and bobbing about in the early-morning air.
"Ashe, time to get up!" His mother's shout and subsequent knock on the bedroom door brought him back to reality with a bang. Ashe lost his concentration and dropped onto the dresser, bumping his tiny head on the corner of a book. He discovered he could read while a bumblebee bat; The Last of the Mohicans' title looked to be as wide as Ashe's wingspan.
Need to be human, need to be human, Ashe chanted mentally and promptly dropped off the dresser in human form, completely naked and knocking a shower of books, toiletries and other bric-a-brac down on top of him.
"Ashe, are you all right?" His mother was still standing outside his door.
"Yeah, I just knocked some stuff off the dresser. Books and stuff," Ashe called back. "I'll be out in a minute."
"Clean up the mess," his mother said as she walked away. "Breakfast is nearly ready."
Ashe was still trying to get a heel stuffed into his right sneaker as he pounded up the steps to the kitchen. Somehow, all the changing had made him ravenous.
"Hon, slow down," Adele cautioned as Ashe pulled two more pancakes onto his plate and added syrup. Ashe was getting a taste (literally) of what Sali went through every day. "Sali's mother called, Sali won't come with us today. Marcus wanted him to ride along to the city to pick up the investigator."
Ashe nodded, his mouth full. His mother didn't like it if he attempted to talk around his food. "When?" he asked after swallowing. His mother answered while Ashe busily cut another triangle of pancakes to shovel into his mouth.
"The plane arrives at one this afternoon, so I figure they'll be back around three or four. They'll probably take the investigator out to eat before leaving the city."
"Are they gonna be out in the pasture behind the house?" Ashe and the others had been warned to stay away, but he now had the means to investigate with no fear of being caught. He could turn to mist or to bumblebee bat and fly around the area without ever putting a foot to the ground.
"Yes. Tonight or tomorrow, after the Enforcer looks at the body, I think."
"Mom, we're calling James a body. That has to be wrong, somehow."
"I know, honey. But we have to believe that James is somewhere else. That what he left behind is just a shell."
"Yeah." Ashe's appetite had suddenly deserted him.
"Go brush your teeth and let's get to work."
* * *
"The witch is coming to renew the concealment spells," Adele said during the drive into Cordell.
"I forgot about that," Ashe huffed out a breath.
"Not a surprise, with everything else that's happened," his mother agreed. "I almost forgot about it until Marcus mentioned it when he called your dad last night."
Ashe nodded. Every spring a hired witch came to renew the spell that hid all the aboveground structures from the outside world. Anyone driving by would only see empty fields. Non-residents would have to breach the spelled area and come within a few feet of the structures in order to see them. It kept Cloud Chief safe from the outside world. Aedan explained it to Ashe when he was eight.
"Son," he'd said, "With the weapons and technology available now, we wouldn't stand a chance if somebody truly wanted us dead. They have machines that can even detect things underground. They have radar, sonar and any other number of things to locate us, and any number of deadly weapons to kill us after they find us. That's why we remain hidden. We can't afford to expose ourselves."
Ashe understood that better as time passed. It terrified him to think that a hunting rifle could shoot his mother out of the sky during one of her flights. Shifters and werewolves healed notoriously fast, but a shot to the head or heart and they'd be just as dead. He shook himself to eliminate such morbid thoughts. "When will the witch do the new spells?" he asked.
"Next week, I think. She'll have to do the prep work, walking the perimeter and such." Ashe nodded at his mother's words. He had no idea if a witch might be able to detect him while he was mist or bat, and that concerned him for some reason. Leaning his head against the worn upholstery of his mother's truck, he stared out the window the rest of the drive into Cordell.
Fifteen tomato plants and six pepper plants went into a box later as Ashe rushed around helping customers. Everybody wanted to plant over the weekend, so they were buying plants that Thursday in preparation. Ashe figured Friday and Saturday would be even busier.
It was a good thing he and Sali had gotten all the seed packets out and stocked; those were flying off the shelves, along with gloves, trowels, hoes and hand plows. A few customers bought more expensive gas or electric tillers. His mother liked making those sales; they were a good return on investment, as she called it.
Adele was on the phone to her supplier right after lunch, ordering replacement supplies. Most of that would come in early the following week. Ashe realized he'd be back in school by then and he’d have to make a decision. Turn in class or not. A tough choice. Somehow, he didn't want to let anyone know he could become mist. That was a secret he wanted to keep.
"Tired honey?" Adele locked the door to the shop behind her.
"Yeah."
"Me, too. Let's go to Betsy's and order takeout."
"Okay. Sounds good." It did. Betsy's Diner made chicken and dumplings as a regular menu item. Ashe intended to get that if they hadn't run out of it. Five minutes later Ashe and his mother sat at a table in Betsy's, looking the menu over.
"I'll have the roast beef-dinner with mashed potatoes, spinach and a dinner salad," Adele handed the menu back to their waitress.
"I want the chicken and dumplings, with two pieces of cornbread and a side of fried okra," Ashe gave up his menu.
"Are you growing again?" Ashe's mother teased as they waited for their order to come. Adele asked for it to go, first thing.
"Maybe," Ashe shrugged and sipped the complimentary glass of water the waitress brought when they arrived.
"We'll have to shop for more jeans," Adele said absently.
"Can I get cargo pants?" Ashe asked hopefully.
"Maybe a couple pairs."
"When?"
"We can go to the city sometime next month I think." Adele turned her attention back to Ashe.
"What's wrong, Mom?" Ashe knew his mother was worried about something.
"The Council's Enforcer? Your dad said his name was Radomir," Adele said.
"What about him?" Ashe asked.
"He'll be staying with us while he's here," she sighed.
Later, Ashe carried the last box of Christmas decorations up the steps leading to the second bunker beneath the basement. His mother was already vacuuming the carpet in the nine-by-nine room, preparing to dust the dresser and bedside table. His father's bunker was a twelve-by-twelve square beneath the master bedroom. This second bunker had never been intended for anything other than storage and the occasional visiting vampire. In all his twelve years, Ashe had never seen a visiting vampire. He guessed his father's foresight was a good thing, since that's exactly what they were getting. Radomir wasn't just any vampire; he was an Enforcer for the Vampire Council.
"Bring clean sheets when you come back," Adele called up the steps. Ashe was headed toward the attic in the garage with the box of ornaments. His mother didn't like to keep things up there; Oklahoma summers could be sweltering in their intensity.
"Okay," Ashe called behind him and kept going.
"Will these do?" he brought the best queen-sized sheets he could find, with matching pillowcases.
"These are good," Adele nodded, unfolding the fitted sheet onto the bed. "Get the comforter out of the closet." Ashe pulled the comforter out of the protective plastic sleeve and unfolded it, grateful that his father had installed plenty of lighting. Otherwise, the bunker would be dark as a tomb. That might not matter to a vamp
ire, but Ashe needed light to see while he was human. Ashe went still for a moment. While he was human. He'd never had that thought before. It comforted him in an odd way.
He helped his mother get the top sheet and the comforter on the bed, then set about slipping pillows into pillowcases and two additional pillows into shams that matched the comforter. "There." Blowing a stray strand of honey-blonde hair away from her face, Adele Evans smiled at her son. "And just in time for your dad to wake, too. Come on." Ashe followed his mother up the steps and watched while she let the trapdoor down. If someone went inside the bunker, the door could be locked from there and nobody would be able to get in unless a grenade or something stronger was tossed inside the bedroom overhead.
"Son, you've got dust in your hair." Aedan found them closing the trap door leading to the second bunker. He ruffled Ashe's hair affectionately for a moment.
"He's been hauling Christmas decorations into the attic," Adele said.
"I could have taken those up."
"It wasn’t a big deal, Dad. Everything is up there and the bunker's clean and ready to go."
"So, your mother told you." Aedan searched Ashe's face.
"It's kinda hard to miss, Dad."
"He'll be here sometime before dawn tomorrow morning." Aedan leaned over to kiss Adele. "Go clean up, son. You look like you've walked through a haunted house."
* * *
Ashe awoke the moment the door opened to the stairwell, and then listened while his father showed their guest where the trapdoor was located leading to the smaller bunker. Shivering in the cool morning air, Ashe checked the time on the clock—six-thirty was displayed in big, red, digital numbers. They wouldn't have time to search the field behind the house—sunrise came at seven-fifteen. Unless the Enforcer arrived earlier and he and Aedan had gone out to look first. Ashe resolved to examine the site as quickly as he could.
* * *
"It'll be busy today and tomorrow," Adele set a plate of ham and eggs in front of Ashe.
"Is Sali coming?"
"Not today. Denise called and said she's keeping Sali at home. The investigator is staying there with them, so Denise needs Sali’s help at the house."
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