"And you say the kid found it?"
"Yeah. We assumed the locals had collected all the evidence. They missed one piece. One important piece. The wolves say the scent is the same. We may have a serial killer on our hands."
"Are the two victims connected?"
"Sheriff says they knew each other pretty well."
"So, you think the Mayor gave up the second victim's name, somehow?"
"Could be. We'll have to look into that."
"Find out everything you can," Director Jennings said. "I need to know whether this is related to those families or not. Keep me informed."
* * *
"Ashe, keep an eye on your mother," Aedan put an arm around Ashe's shoulders just before he went out to guard the community.
"I will, dad. I'll use echolocation."
"Son, I wish I knew how you did that," Aedan tightened his hold on Ashe before letting him go. "Contact me if there's any trouble."
"I will." Aedan Evans usually went out to watch Adele fly on full moons. Tonight, he was watching the newcomers instead. Ashe would have to take responsibility for his mother's safety. "Dad, does everybody know to stay away from those houses?"
"They do, but if a few of the younger ones want to make things difficult," Aedan replied. Ashe nodded, thinking of Jeremy. Chad was expected to run with the Pack. Would Marcus know if the young werewolf slipped away? If Chad and Jeremy met up while in animal form, they could definitely cause problems for the relocated families.
"Son, Nathan and I will watch for trouble," Aedan reassured Ashe. "Just send mindspeech if you notice anything amiss." Aedan was still astonished that he could hear Ashe's mindspeech—most vampires with mindspeaking ability could only send to someone else with the talent. Grateful for what Ashe had been given, Aedan smiled at his son before walking out the kitchen door to join Nathan.
"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.
"I sure hope so, son. Nathan, let's get water on the grass around the home so the fire doesn't spread," Aedan muttered grimly. Ashe watched as his father and Nathan Anderson went to find hoses to do what they could. The heat from the burning home was almost unbearable, so Ashe helped Luanne stand and walk farther away. Other parents assisted Peter and Linda Jansen. They followed Ashe and Luanne, eventually turning to watch as the two vampires sprayed the field surrounding the burning home.
"How did you get us out?" Peter Jansen thought to ask Ashe.
"It's just something I can do," Ashe shrugged. "Not important. Ask my dad about it." Ashe knew his father would place compulsion, but it couldn't be helped. He'd rather expose himself than allow three people to die. "Look, if you don't need anything else, I have to go find my mom." Allowing his father's shirt to drop, Ashe turned to bumblebee bat and flapped silently away.
Sending out echolocation signals again, Ashe found whom he believed responsible—two forms huddled beneath a tree roughly a quarter mile away. Ignoring them for the moment, Ashe went in search of his mother's falcon.
* * *
Chad and Jeremy sat inside Principal Billings' office while Marcus paced. Benjamin Billings waited outside, listening in on the conversation. "So you thought you'd get away with this," Marcus DeLuca growled. Chad was the one whose condition had given them away—he had burns on his hands and across his chest. His cheek, too, bore a cut from broken glass. Chad had already offered an insincere apology to the Cloud Chief Packmaster; the feigned contrition hadn't escaped Marcus' harsh scrutiny, however.
"We just wanted to scare them," Jeremy whined.
"Shut up!" Chad hissed.
"You burned the whole damn house down," Marcus exploded. "What do you expect me to do about that? What kind of punishment do you think you deserve? They were frightened enough to begin with. Now they're terrified. We offered them hospitality, and you do this? Chad, if Ashe hadn't acted, those three would be dead now and the Director of the NSA and Homeland Security Department would be here asking questions. As it is, he still may come and I may turn you over to him. Is that what you want?"
"I didn't mean it, Packmaster," Chad lied, groveling before Marcus.
"I'm taking this to the Grand Master and allowing him to make a decision as to punishment, Chad. Jeremy, I know you were in on planning this, but the school administrators will hand out your punishment." Marcus was one of the three administrators, along with Nathan Anderson and Jonas O'Neill, Wynn's father. All three of Cloud Chief's races were represented.
"Go back to the cafeteria; you'll know soon enough what your punishment is," Marcus said. Both boys left Principal Billings' office quickly; Ashe misted away right behind them.
* * *
"It's the empty's fault we got caught," Jeremy hissed as he and Chad walked down the hall toward the History classroom. They'd decided to skip the noon meal; everybody would be staring and whispering if they walked into the lunchroom now. Jeremy was obviously upset; not that he and Chad had done wrong; just that they'd gotten caught.
"Yeah. Packmaster DeLuca pats him on the back for saving the Jansens, and he blabs that he found us afterward by echolocation. You can't convince me he did that. He was making a stab in the dark, man. He accused us with no evidence."
"Too bad you got burned and cut up a little. Most of it was healed up already, but you still have a cut on your cheek and your hands are blistered. No way to convince the Packmaster we were innocent, once the stupid bat pointed him in our direction," Jeremy cursed softly under his breath. This was Ashe Evans' fault; start to finish. The empty was becoming more of a problem every day.
"We'll get back at him," Chad snarled. "It may take a while, but we'll get him."
* * *
"Dude, the Grand Master is gonna hand out punishment for Chad, but the school administrators have to decide what happens to Wormy," Ashe settled into his cafeteria seat next to Sali. He'd misted straight to the lunchroom after leaving Principal Billings' office.
"What do you think they're going to do?" Cori had helped hide Ashe's absence from Mrs. Rocklin, who was supervising the crowded cafeteria. She and Sali had huddled together to conceal his disappearance from the other students, too—all of whom were eating, laughing and engaging in boisterously noisy activity.
"No idea. Cori, those people could have died," Ashe muttered, staring at his now-cold cheeseburger. Making the best of congealed meat and cheese, Ashe bit into it and chewed.
"Dad said the girl was burning candles in her bedroom. Chad wouldn't have set the house on fire if she hadn't done that."
"Cori, don't take their part in this," Ashe lifted his milk carton. "None of this would have happened if Chump and Wormy hadn't decided to terrorize those people. Now the Jansens are living in Old Harold's house because theirs burned down, with everything they owned inside it."
"I know. Mom is going through our stuff to see if we can donate anything." Cori crumpled her paper napkin and dropped it onto her tray.
"I think those two agents are working to get furniture for them; Old Harold didn't have a lot and most of it was ancient," Ashe said. "They'll need clothes, too."
"I think Mom is taking dishes over; Aunt Marcie had a bunch of stuff she didn't need." Sali's Aunt Marcella now lived in Pat Roberts' old house. She'd moved to Cloud Chief after leaving her husband and two sons behind in Phoenix.
"Mom said she'd go by the grocery store on her way home tonight," Ashe said.
"But this separates that family from the others," Cori pointed out. "They're more than a quarter of a mile away."
"I get the feeling that the other kids lean on Luanne a lot," Ashe observed. "I overheard that Philip kid saying he wanted to ride with her on the way up and Macy, one of the other girls, had just talked to her on her walkie-talkie before Chump set the house on fire."
"Even I can't believe he did that," Cori shook her head. "Talk about dumb."
"Well, they've never been particularly intellectual," Sali grinned.
"Sal, you just used two five-syllable words back to back," Ashe pounded his friend on the shoulder.
"Just checking to see if you were listening, dude," Sali said.
* * *
"No, I don't have any idea why someone would target the Mayor or my husband," Wanda Hicks wiped tears away as Agents Nick Lawford and Derik North questioned her. She was only now learning that the same person was responsible for both deaths. "They knew each other, but," she tossed out a hand in helpless frustration. "There wasn't any reason for this. None."
"Ma'am, we don't have a lot of information, other than the same person likely committed both crimes," Derik said as gently as he could. "We're just trying to figure this out."
"When you do, please let me know," Mrs. Hicks wept. "So I'll know why my children no longer have a father."
* * *
"Boss, look at this," Trajan, Trace's older brother and Winkler's Second in the Dallas pack, set a paper copy of a map in front of Winkler the afternoon following the full Moon.
"What's this?" Winkler lifted the map and studied it.
"The route they took to deliver those mobile homes," Trajan pointed out. Like Trace, Trajan was nearly seven feet tall with dark hair and dark eyes. With martial arts experience and a sports background, Trajan was a capable Second for the Dallas Pack.
"So, the Mayor was off the path, but the second victim wasn't? You think there's some connection?" Winkler studied Trajan's face.
"Well, the two men knew one another. W
ho knows? I might be reading more into this than there is, but what if there's a leak somewhere? Besides Director Jennings, who else knows where those families were relocated? Even knowledge of a general location for those families could be dangerous. What might happen if the murderer had vague news of their whereabouts and then went looking for information on people moving into the area or anything unusual going on?" Trace settled into the chair beside Winkler's desk.
"And six mobile homes moving along a two-lane road is definitely unusual."
"Yep. Not easy to hide that, boss."
"You think I should contact Bill and ask him to investigate his own department?"
"Well, it isn't like that sort of thing hasn't happened in the past."
"It's worth a try," Winkler agreed. "I'll give him a call." Winkler's phone rang before he had a chance to dial Director Jennings' number.
"Weldon?" Winkler recognized the Grand Master's number on his cell.
"Winkler, two of those kids from Cloud Chief managed to burn one of the mobile homes to the ground last night." Winkler was on his feet and cursing immediately.
* * *
"Ashe, I think we should talk to those people. Maybe show them we're not all prejudiced and nasty," Wynn and Dori stood beside Ashe's locker, surprising Ashe and Sali. Hayes, Larry and Jeff, three other classmates, stood behind the two girls. Hayes and Jeff were werewolves; Larry was a bobcat and Mrs. Campbell's son. Wynn, already very pretty and showing signs of growing into a beautiful woman one day, brushed back long, white hair unconsciously as she pleaded with Ashe to take her and the others to the remaining mobile homes.
"How do you plan to do that? Chump and Wormy did their best to destroy any trust they might have," Ashe grumbled. "And most of them are decent. I was hoping Edward could be included in activities and stuff, and then the others might come along. Now," Ashe shrugged in near-resignation.
"Let's give it a try at least," Hayes offered. "Make a peace offering of some kind. I'm willing to take my new games over."
"I'm willing to turn for them." Ashe stared in shock at Wynn—she never volunteered for that. When she changed for the full Moon, she stayed close to her mother, Sharon, a shapeshifting mare, and her father, Jonas, a rare bald eagle. Wynn was a unicorn that shone brightly in the moonlight—Ashe had flapped over her many times as the bat just to get a glimpse of perhaps the rarest shapeshifter in existence.
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