Chapter 9
Stepping into the stairwell was a shock. The disgusting urine smell was gone and replaced with fresh paint and glue. The walls were a clean, bright cream, decorated with a border trim and fancy sconces on the walls. The carpet matched the interior of the apartment, plush and white! The dingy walls and ripped carpet were gone! She had to admit that the pack did an amazing job! The stairwell and landings were well lit and gave a comfortable, homey feel. She couldn't believe that they had done this so fast.
"Close your mouth, and don't touch the walls," Eamon said. "They aren't dry yet."
"Awesome, right?" laughed Harry. "My dad said that, maybe next weekend, they can replace the railings with something nicer."
Peering at Eamon, a small smile played on her lips. "You paid them, didn't you?"
"Of course! I can't very well hire Humans when they can't see the building! Besides, they have the best construction business in town!" Eamon replied.
Once in the garage, Harry ran around amazed by all of the cars and motorcycles. He shouted out makes, models, and some sort of statistics of his favorites while begging Eamon to let him drive them. Eamon led the teens to the Prius and told Harry that aside from the limo, it had the darkest tint on the windows. Harry dropped his shoulders and looked like the most depressed puppy you ever saw. But he couldn't argue, because Eamon even had the front windshield tinted a bit, and every other window looked almost black.
Savannah climbed in the front so she could show Harry where they usually entered the forest and parked the car. Eamon used his trench coat and hat to cover himself as best he could, while scrunching down in the cramped back seat. Harry had to push the seat all the way back and slouch in order to drive the small car. It was a rather bumpy ride, and Harry blamed it on the pedals being too close to his feet. There were a couple of times that Savannah braced herself against the dash and would have sworn something fell out from under the car and landed in the street.
Eventually, they made it to the edge of the forest, and there was a collective sigh of relief. Both Savannah and Harry helped pry Eamon out of the back seat where he had fallen to the floor and hit his head on the side door and the ceiling.
"Well, that was interesting," he said to Harry. "Savannah! I think it's high time we got you your driver's permit," he said, smiling. "You will be sixteen soon and will be able to get your license."
"Hey! It wasn't my fault! It was the car, I swear!" Harry said grumpily. Then he grumbled about ungrateful Vampires before Eamon shot him a look to let him know that he could hear everything.
"All right, let's get this over with, so we can get back to the apartments," said Eamon.
Savannah pulled her bow and arrows from the trunk. She hadn't used them in daylight before and wondered how it would affect her abilities. Ducking under the brush, she led the way to the stream, knowing that Eamon was listening for nearby prey. She tried to tune out Harry and breathed in the incredible earthy pine scent of the forest. She felt her whole body relax until she realized how quiet it was. It was too quiet; the forest was never this quiet. Bringing her bow up, she crouched low to the ground in her old attack stance.
"What is it?" Eamon asked, alarmed.
She held her hand up, to tell them to be quiet. Putting her ear to the ground, as she had done so many times in the past, she listened for something -- anything. Coming up empty, she felt a new kind of fear and looked at Eamon. "Do you hear that?" she asked, concern rippling through her.
"Hear what?" he copied her movements and put his ear to the ground. "I don't hear anything," he said. Then understanding hit him, and his eyes grew wide. "Oh!"
"Oh? What? What is it?" Harry asked.
"There is something wrong," Savannah said, gazing at her surroundings, trying to find something. "The forest is never silent!"
"So, then, that's bad," Harry said.
"Yes! We need to go!" she replied, turning back to the car.
"I need to eat, Savannah," said Eamon quietly, but firmly.
Dropping her head back, she rolled it around to look at him. "Eamon! No sounds, no food! Animals always have a reason for leaving. Do you really want to find out what that reason is?" She was getting frustrated.
"I'm a Vampire, and he's a Werewolf. We can protect you. But I have to try to eat. If you want, you can go back on foot. I won't think any less of you, I promise," he said calmly.
"No! It's fine. But I think you would have better luck finding rats in the dumpster than anything here, right now," she said grumpily, changing her direction.
Eamon closed his eyes, rethinking the decision to bring two teenagers on his hunt. He followed Savannah further into the forest, while Harry bumbled after him.
After an hour of still coming up empty and creeping along the stream, Eamon finally agreed to go home and eat rats. The sun was starting to make its descent in the sky, and they would barely make it home in time without leaving some sort of trail. Harry and Savannah changed into their Werewolf forms, while Eamon grabbed her bow and put their clothes into the sack that they had brought along.
All three of them raced to the Prius, Eamon beating them by a long shot, his Vampire speed leaving them in the dust. He left the bag of clothes by the tree line near the car before jumping in the driver's seat. There was no way he was going to let the cub drive again. He couldn't figure out how the wolf boy had gotten his Human license in the first place. At least the sun was fading enough so that his sensitivity wouldn't be much of a problem anymore.
Waiting for the teens, Eamon tried to start the car, only to find that the engine wouldn't turn over. Great! Harry had broken the car. Grumbling, he got out to look under the hood.
Coming out from behind the trees, Harry and Savannah saw the Vampire leaning against the Prius with a sour look on his face.
"Come on, man, we didn't take that long!" Harry said, trying to joke around.
"We have a problem," said Eamon. "There is good news, and there is bad news," he said.
"Okay, well, what's the good news?" Savannah asked.
"Harry didn't break the car. And he was right! It wasn't his driving, at least mostly," Eamon said, giving Harry a long sideways glance.
"And the bad news?" she asked, tentatively.
"George never finished fixing the Prius before he left. There are parts missing that he was supposed to replace," he said, waiting for the teens to understand what he was saying.
Panic flooded through Savannah, "Eamon! It's going to take at least twenty to thirty minutes to get through town! We would barely have ten!"
"I know!" said Eamon, dropping his head. "I should have listened to you, and I'm sorry."
All three of them could hear the Werewolf howls dying down. They were all packing up to head home, and any trail that the three of them left would lead straight to everyone that they loved.
"We don't have time for this right now! We need to find a place to hide! Any ideas?" Harry asked. He did not want to be in the open when the Siphons came out to play.
"I can't think of a place that they wouldn't immediately find us," said Eamon. He had really messed up. They had no way of knowing how many Siphons would be out there hunting. It didn't help that they were able to stay invisible until they attacked.
"We need to get to high ground!" Savannah said. "Follow me!"
She led the both of them deep into the woods until she found the path that she wanted. They weaved in and out through the trees to try to confuse anything that may follow. She used this technique a lot when she lived there. Once she found the path, they climbed up the side of the tallest hill in the forest. She knew that the top would still have a bit of sunshine left, and there were trees that they could climb. There were a couple of caves in the bottom of the hill. One of them had been the home of a Werewolf pack a few weeks ago, and she hoped that it could help mask their scents. She remembered how potent it had smelled, and was counting on it to have some leftover stench. She and Harry climbed first with Eamon bringing up the rear, hoping
that since he wasn't on their radar, his Vampire scent would throw them off.
Once they reached the top, Eamon found shelter in the trees while she and Harry basked in the remaining sunlight. Looking down, she saw that the rest of the forest had fallen to the darkness of the night.
"What's your plan here, Savannah?" Eamon whispered to her from the trees.
"There's a cave that was occupied by a rogue pack a few weeks back. It might offer us some shelter," she whispered back.
Harry's eyes lit up. "I told you the dog stench was a good thing! Why didn't we go there first?"
"Because we don't know where they are camping out!" she said, feeling the answer was obvious. "We know there are probably at least sixteen Siphons nearby."
"How do you figure?" asked Harry.
"Because eight people were attacked last night, and they always hunt in pairs. I would say there were only eight, but the attacks were spread out over the city. And it's better to overestimate than underestimate. It seems fairly clear that they have been camping in the forest since ALL of the animals are gone," she said, looking for a sign of understanding. "Animals don't take off unless they sense danger! What's more dangerous than Siphons? I figure if we try to wait here long enough, they will have probably made their way back into town to hunt. Then we can go to the cave. They shouldn't come up here, 'cause it's the only spot that still has sunlight."
Eamon stared at the girl. He didn't know why her intelligence and survival skills still surprised him, but he was impressed. No wonder they had been able to survive out here for so long.
"When the sun starts to set up here, we need to climb those trees as high as we can and stay up for at least an hour or two. Once we get to the cave, we will need to look for signs that tell us if that is where they are staying. All we need is a little luck on our side," she said, scanning the horizon.
They could no longer hear the Blood Moon Pack. The light began to fade around the edges of their hilltop, and Savannah dragged Harry towards the trees where Eamon was. Shoving the Werewolf behind a nearby tree, she told him to shed his clothing and climb up before changing into his wolf form. Then she went to another tree and did the same. She was about to tell Eamon to start climbing, when she heard a rustling and realized that he was already perched on a branch at least twenty feet above them.
Self-conscious as always, she changed her skin to look like she had an outfit on before undressing and climbing up the large red maple tree she found. Finding a sturdy crook to rest in, she turned into a mountain lion and clung to the branch with her claws and snuggled in. Part of her felt that they were in the safest place possible, outside of the apartments, and should probably stay there. But she knew that when the sun rose again from the east, it would turn Eamon into a crispy lobster. He would survive, and part of her felt like he deserved it for not listening to her earlier, but she couldn't bring herself to do that to him. She knew that he had stayed for them. He was the safest one out of all of them when it came to the Siphons. They weren't hunting him, and he would be able to move quickly through the city and make it back home. She appreciated that he didn't abandon them.
The three of them stayed as silent as possible for hours. At one point, Eamon threw a thick branch at Harry's head when they heard him snoring.
"Ow!" Harry growled. He could hear Eamon shush him as he rubbed the lump forming on his head.
Barely thirty seconds later, they heard a scuffling of leaves and the cracking of branches on the ground roughly fifteen to twenty feet below them. Scanning the forest floor surrounding them, they weren't able to see what had made the noise. Carefully, Savannah tucked herself into the crook, careful not to make noise, and pressed her back into the trunk of the maple. Peering down with her mountain lion eyes, she saw her clothes at the base of her tree being lifted into the air. Screeching sounded below her, and a Siphon appeared. A few feet away, below Harry's tree, another Siphon showed up.
"It hurts! Make it stop!" The voices screamed into the air. Wishing she could cover her ears, she closed her eyes and tried to block them out. The voices were begging her to put them out of their misery. She didn't know what the Vampires heard when they did their mind link, but every time she heard the pained souls, it tore at her heart.
After a few minutes, the screams stopped, and they heard the scuffling fade away into the night. She let out a breath that she hadn't realized she was holding and decided it was time to make their way to the cave.
Descending the tree, she noticed that her hunting clothes were missing. The Siphons had taken them. When she saw Harry coming down from his tree with his clothes in his mouth, she felt ridiculous for not thinking to do the same. Motioning for the others to follow her, she led them down a path that led away from where the noise had gone. It took them a very terrifying twenty minutes to get to the cave. They had to move as silently as possible, and the fear of being caught by an invisible monster was heart attack worthy. The closer they got, the stronger the smell of the rogue Werewolf pack grew. When they arrived, they quickly made their way inside. The stench wasn't nearly as pungent as Savannah remembered, but it was stronger than what she smelled around town. She was certain that even the Siphons would stay away from this cave for a while.
Harry led them towards the back of the cave through winding narrow passageways filled with stalagmites and stalactites. Some had been broken off by the cave's previous tenants. The passageways opened up to a large room, similar to the one they had found the pack in weeks ago. There was a small bundle of wood and a pile of pelts that had been left in a corner. In the center, there was a large ring of rocks that was used as a fire pit. The wood in there had turned to charcoal and was well past cold. There was no indication that anyone or anything had been here since the pack had left.
Eamon, using his speed, grabbed up the pelts and made beds for the three of them. "What do you think of a fire? Should we risk it?" Still in animal form, the two teens uttered low growls and shook their heads firmly. Nodding, Eamon said, "Yeah, you're probably right," and grabbed a few more pelts for himself. After all, they had their own fur to keep them warm, and his body was still dangerously low on blood reserves. The night's adventure had not helped with that, and more than ever he wished he had listened to Savannah. Feeling weak, he laid down on his roughly made bed and hoped that everything back at the apartments was going okay. For all of his planning, and safety measures, he had put the very girl he was trying to protect in danger out in the open. And in the end, she was the one trying to save them from his mistakes. Closing his eyes, he fell asleep, trying to preserve what little energy he had left.
Noticing that Eamon had fallen asleep, Savannah walked over to Harry, who was standing watch at the opening that led to the passageway. They sat in silence side by side, listening for anything that might be lurking, their tails twitching behind them in unison. After a few minutes, she whispered, "I'm sorry you got stuck in the middle of this. I never wanted you to be in danger."
Cocking his giant wolf head to the side, he stared down at her, "You don't get it, do you?"
"Huh?" she asked.
"I love this! And there's something special about you, Savannah. It's like a tangible feeling. You're on, like, one of those epic adventures I read about in my comic books! There is no way that I'm missing out on that!" he said, grinning, showing his large canines. "Besides, finally I get to be a part of it without Samuel tagging along like a worried little puppy dog," he chortled. "This is like my own chapter," he said. "Hmm, maybe I'll have to have an artist draw all of this up. That would be so awesome! We could sell it and be famous!"
Savannah laughed at his odd enthusiasm. She thought it was a bit misplaced, but at least he hadn't lost hope and was still having a good time. She, personally, was worried about her mother. She hoped that Johnna would put their differences aside and help her mother through the night, knowing that even if her mother had been able to remain lucid, she would be out of her mind with worry.
"You think that Johnna or He
nry will look after my mama?" she asked Harry.
"Henry and Samuel will make sure your mom is okay. I sent a text message awhile back when we found out that the car wasn't working. I told them that you were working on a plan," he chuckled. "Henry wondered why Eamon wasn't the one coming up with a plan, and Samuel told him not to worry, that me and Eamon were in good hands."
"I forgot we had phones," she said. They had all put their phones on silence to hunt, and now she was reminded that she had kept it in her pocket-- the same pocket that was in the hands of the Siphons. With any luck, they would know how to use it about as much as she did. Looking over at Eamon, she decided to let him know later. She was sure that he could make it so that the phone couldn't be traced. Right now, she didn't want to disturb him. Their first priority had to be surviving the night.
Harry shrugged. "It's all right; I got your back. Besides, you were busy making sure we got to a safe place." He looked down at her and smiled, before turning back to his watch stance. "Why don't you get some sleep?"
"I don't think I could if I tried," she said. "I would offer you the same deal, but you snore," she said playfully, jabbing him in the ribs.
"Nuh-uh! I do not," he said, pretending to be offended. "That's just me singing in my sleep," he shrugged. "My music's not for everyone." He rested his paw on her head and gave her a small noogie.
The rest of the night they stayed up talking about Samuel and Chrystal. Harry told her how much fun Chrystal had at the mall and how he thought the Prom might actually be fun; he just didn't want his girlfriend to know about it. Then he spent the rest of the night teasing her about Samuel. She couldn't for the life of her remember why she was so nervous spending alone time with Harry. He was so relaxed and easy to talk to. He never seemed to get offended as easily as Samuel did, even when she had trouble understanding the nuances of the Supernatural communities. Harry didn't get huffy about it; he would just make fun of her and correct her. A part of her felt bad for believing the stigma of Werewolves that she grew up knowing. She wished it was that easy with the Siphons, that they were just misunderstood. But, it wasn't.
Illuminated Embers Page 11