“Aunt Dodo!” I said. “She called once at two in the morning! She had insomnia and wanted to chat with somebody!”
“I somehow don’t think that would qualify as not suspicious,” the werebat said.
A chilly breeze blew past us, and a tall, red-haired woman was standing beside him. “He’s right, you know,” the aura said. “It doesn’t matter what’s normal for your family. What matter is what he thinks is normal for your family, and I don’t think phone calls at one am would qualify.”
“He wouldn’t hear it. My parents charge their phones in their bedroom,” I protested. But I knew they were right. If Rodrigo was awake, he’d hear their muffled ringtones down the hallway.
“Sorry,” the aura said as the werebat shook his head.
Well, fine. If I couldn’t get my family out of there, I had to get in there. I had to get in there and steal that tainted turning stone without Rodrigo noticing, so that it would be out of the house and away from my family.
No pressure.
Chapter 20: Rescue Mission
Because they probably didn’t trust me, and admittedly with good reason, the police bat and police aura made me sit in the back of their car with the doors locked so that I couldn’t get out. There was a barrier between the back seat and the front seats, too, so I couldn’t even crawl into the front and get out that way.
At least they hadn’t handcuffed me, though they’d threatened to.
So, okay, yes, I could have just left the protection of my family to the police and trusted them to keep my parents and sisters safe. Except the police hadn’t done a very good job of protecting those turning stones tonight. Sure, fine, they’d had a good excuse, but I didn’t want them to have a good excuse for why they couldn’t save my family next.
I knew what Rodrigo was capable of. I knew how he worked. I even had a good idea of what he wanted. He probably wouldn’t taint my family outright, because he wanted people to think taint was a safe and useful thing. But he probably wouldn’t hesitate to change their species and turn them into taint carriers. If he did, they’d never be werehawks again. They certainly wouldn’t be kept in the clan. They’d hate that, and I wouldn’t let him do that to them.
And that was only assuming he didn’t kill one of them to take their place.
I shivered, even though it was pretty warm in the police car out of the wind, and I reached into my pocket and pulled out the phone I had stolen from the pocket of the aura. She was going to be realllllllly mad when she noticed it was missing, but I had to contact Kegan.
I turned the phone on, and was greeted by a locked screen.
Oh, right. My stomach clenched. I didn’t know the password. I tried swiping my finger across from left to right, just in case she’d left it at the default setting.
It worked.
Seriously? I thought. I can’t believe you never bothered to change it!
Well, what was bad for her was good for me. I dialed Kegan’s number and put it on speakerphone, holding the phone in my lap just to make sure nobody invisible glanced over while flying by and got furious over my liberation of their totally unsecure phone.
The phone rang for a long time. I waited with rising impatience and worry. Kegan wasn’t hurt or sick or in danger somewhere, was she? What if Rodrigo had found her and had tied her up someplace?
Her voice finally answered. “’Lo?” she mumbled.
“Kegan!” I whispered, flooded with relief. “I need your help! You need to get down to my house right away!”
“’Smiddle of the night,” she mumbled. “C’n talk t’morrow.”
“It’s your fault I’m trapped in a car in the middle of the night instead of safe at home in bed, like I should be,” I hissed. “If we’d stayed put at Loretta’s house, I wouldn’t have gotten captured by Rodrigo, and he wouldn’t be currently in my house right now with my family!”
“Wha?” She sounded more awake now. “No, that can’t be right. He got away, and then the police caught up with us —”
“And then you went and gave a statement at the police station with Rodrigo, who was imitating me?”
“What? No way.” Kegan sounded like she was hyperventilating. “No way. That was you. That had to be.”
“It definitely wasn’t, and I can’t believe you couldn’t tell the difference,” I fumed. “I was getting kidnapped by Rodrigo’s goons. Thanks for nothing for not rescuing me.”
“Oh, no!” Kegan wailed. “I thought you were acting weird, but I thought it was just because you were mad at me because Rodrigo got away! I can’t believe I didn’t realize! I’m so, so sorry! I’m the worst best friend ever!”
I felt a lot better hearing her say it. If she said it, I didn’t have to.
“Yeah, you should’ve realized,” I said, not fuming nearly as much. “Okay, Rodrigo’s with my family right now, and we’ve got to get in there and rescue them. That, or get his tainted turning stone out, so that he can’t do anything horrible to them. How fast can you get your parents to drive you here?”
“Like a lightning bolt,” Kegan said, and I heard noises that were probably her scrambling out of bed and throwing on clothes. “Okay, not really, but as fast as possible. I’ll wake them up now.”
“Good,” I said. “I’m in the back of a police car because they don’t want me to go in and rescue them. When you get here, you’ll need to make the side of the car insubstantial so that I can get out —”
There was a tapping at the window beside me. I glanced over to see a furious aura reaching her arm through the door to grab the phone.
“Gotta go bye,” I said quickly, ending the call.
The aura snatched the phone, and then she jumped into the car and sat next to me. She went substantial.
“What did you think you were doing?!” she exclaimed.
I wished she’d just stayed insubstantial. Insubstantial specters couldn’t talk.
“Just calling my best friend,” I said casually. “My phone got thrown out the window, so I had to use yours. You should really change the password so it’s not the default.”
“Well, I will now,” she snapped. “Thank you so much for that helpful security tip.”
“You’re welcome,” I said. “I’d think a police officer would know better.”
“I’m not an officer, I’m a consultant,” she snapped. “And I’m only that because they needed extra auras tonight!”
“Ohh,” I said, interested. “You’re like buzzards? The police call you in when they need extra invisible people at a stakeout? Hey, does that mean they have rakshasas on call, too?”
“Don’t try to change the subject,” she said furiously. “You stole my phone!”
“You locked me in a car while my family’s in danger,” I shot back. “Consider us even.”
“Who were you calling?” she demanded. “You were talking to somebody!”
“I told you, my best friend.” I shrugged.
“I don’t believe that for a minute,” she glowered. “There’s no way you were just calling up somebody to chat.”
“You’re right,” I agreed. “I told her to come over here and help me save my family. She’s a specter, by the way, so she can get me out of here. She should be on her way now.”
The red-haired woman’s nostrils flared. “Have you ever heard of ‘interfering with a police investigation’?”
“Have you ever heard of ‘I’m not going to let my family get tainted’?” I shot back.
“You are very difficult to deal with!” she snapped.
“Thanks!” I said.
“That wasn’t a compliment,” she glowered.
“Agree to disagree,” I answered, grinning. Being difficult to deal with was the reason why Rodrigo hadn’t been able to fool me.
“I’ll call them back and tell them not to come,” she said, redialing. “And you stay here and don’t make trouble!”
She turned insubstantial, hopped through the side of the car, and put the phone to her ear and started
speaking in a quiet undertone.
I was pretty confident that Kegan and her parents would ignore her. Kegan’s mother was kind of a troublemaker — she’d been thrown in jail for political protests several times while she was in college — and Kegan’s father didn’t scare easily.
So I didn’t waste my time worrying. I just tried to figure out what I was going to do once they got here and got me out of the car. I had to get into my house without warning Rodrigo, and I had to get the turning stone out of there, but . . . how?
I had one idea, but it made the flesh crawl up my spine, and I wasn’t going to do that. If I touched the stone directly, it would taint me, and that was something I just wasn’t going to let happen to me. One creepy tainted werevulture was more than enough. I didn’t want my face showing up in boring history books that nobody would ever willingly read.
So yeah, picking it up and carrying it out was just not going to happen. Nor was I going to fly out with it disappeared inside me. But maybe if I held it with gloved hands? That ought to be safe. Too bad I couldn’t wear one of those hazmat suits, like you saw in the movies. But if I stopped by the coat closet, I could get my dad’s thick gardening gloves and my mom’s baggy winter coat, the one with sleeves so long they fell over the edges of her fingers and she had to keep them rolled up.
We’d made fun of her for that coat before, but she insisted she loved it despite it being way too big. It had brass buttons and a picture of a flying hawk on the back, and she always said it was the best yard sale find she’d ever made.
I’d always mocked that coat before, but now I was glad she had it. It wouldn’t matter how stupid I’d look with that huge coat and Dad’s grass-stained gloves. All that mattered was that they’d keep me safe if I had to run out of the house holding the tainted turning stone with Rodrigo chasing after me.
Of course, the problem with that plan was that I’d have to sneak into the house, get dressed up in the coat and gloves, and then sneak upstairs without Rodrigo noticing.
I could do that, right?
Could I do that?
I was still trying to decide whether it was a good idea or not when headlights appeared down the street.
I sat up excitedly. It’s Kegan’s family!
The car raced down the street way faster than the speed limit and pulled straight into my house’s driveway. Kegan’s parents jumped out through the sides without bothering to open their doors, and Kegan followed. Her parents ran straight for the side of my family’s house without stopping.
Whoa, whoa, wait! I thought. That’s not what you’re supposed to do!
Too late. They were already in the house without bothering to ring the doorbell or knock or anything.
You were supposed to get me out of here! I wanted to scream. Kegan, didn’t you listen to me?!
A red-haired woman appeared out of nowhere by the side of my house and dove through the wall after them.
It’s not fair! I’m not supposed to be trapped here! I’m supposed to be part of this!
The seat went insubstantial underneath me, and I fell through into the grass.
A glowing-eyed Kegan waved a hand in front of my face and pointed urgently off to the side. I scrambled up to my feet and through the walls of the car. She let go and went substantial again.
“My parents can’t keep her busy forever,” Kegan hissed. “What’s the plan?”
“There’s a werebat around here somewhere,” I whispered. “I’m sure he’s noticed that I —”
“Yes, I have,” a quiet voice said from behind me.
I spun around, and it wasn’t the werebat standing behind me. It was Rodrigo.
Chapter 21: The Last Resort
Kegan let out a muffled shriek.
“What are you doing out of the house?!” I exclaimed as loudly as possible, hoping the werebat would hear me and divebomb Rodrigo right in the face, or something. I couldn’t see him anywhere. Where was he?
“You’re really very tiresome,” Rodrigo said. “And I see your friend was not, in fact, a dracula after all. Last chance, Lisette. I can make use of you if you’ll join me. If not, you’re going to have to die.”
Kegan let out an unearthly shriek and flung herself at him, scratching him in the face. He held up his hand casually to stop her, and the scratches healed up again.
“Why on Earth,” I shouted, wondering what was taking the werebat so long, “do you think I’d say yes to that? Are you stupid?!”
Kegan launched back a fist to punch Rodrigo in the face, and he caught her arm before she could and seized it tightly. She winked insubstantial and yanked back, glaring at him.
“Because I have your family,” Rodrigo said. “They’re not in the house, either. They haven’t been for hours. If you want them alive and untainted, you’ll agree to do what I say.”
My breath caught in my throat. I hated him very, very, very, very much. And where was the werebat officer? Shouldn’t he be around here someplace?
“Make it quick,” Rodrigo said, and he sounded tense. “It won’t take long before those specters notice that the house is empty. Do you agree to do what I say?”
“I want my family alive and untainted,” I said.
“Good.” He smiled briefly. “Then when you come out, neither of you will say anything about — ah —”
I glanced over in the direction he was looking. Three specters were now running out of the house: a terrifying banshee, a long-haired, way-too-beautiful-to-be-somebody’s-dad nymph, and an insubstantial aura who was only visible because the wind had died and she wasn’t currently flying.
“Not a word,” a less familiar voice said, and I glanced over to see the human form of the werebat officer where Rodrigo had been. Kegan’s horrified expression told me all I needed to know.
The werebat wasn’t coming to save us.
He wasn’t here at all.
How long had the werebat been replaced by Rodrigo? At the police station a few hours before, when he’d come in to report that two stones had been tainted? Far before that, when I’d come in with the paramedic?
All the way back at Loretta’s house?
… No, it couldn’t have been him back then, because he’d been with the new Rarity Clan members while the werebat had been outside Loretta’s house with us. And immediately after that, Rodrigo had been imitating me, so he couldn’t have been imitating the werebat.
But it definitely could have been him later.
I swallowed. This explained how Rodrigo had known what the police had on him. He didn’t have a contact in the police. He was his contact in the police. Anytime he wanted, he could have walked into the building, asked a few questions, and walked out again.
How had he gotten the werebat’s blood? I hoped it was something simple like stealing it from a Red Cross donation. But given that he’d been able to imitate both the werebat’s human and bat forms, I doubted it. No one would donate blood as a bat.
Which meant Rodrigo had probably taken the blood by force both times. Which meant either the werebat officer was dead, or he was a hostage with my parents.
I never thought I’d hope somebody was a hostage.
The three adult specters ran over to us.
“The house is empty!” Kegan’s mother called.
“There’s no one there!” Kegan’s father added.
“We’ve been watching an empty house this whole time!” the aura shouted. “We’ve been fooled!”
Rodrigo looked horrified. “Then our time here’s been wasted. We’d better call in right away and see what else we can do. The hunt has not been going well, so they might need us elsewhere.”
Of course not, I thought furiously, because you’ve been tipping your friends off about everything the police are doing!
“The hunt for what?” Kegan’s mother demanded. “What can we do to help?”
“You can let me take your daughter down to the station,” Rodrigo said. “Miss Wereclanvulture has already agreed to come and give a statement. Since her f
riend was there when they captured the baobhan sith, it would help to hear her side of the story again. Perhaps there will be some clue about these criminals that we’ve missed.”
“What’s a baobhan sith?” the aura asked, looking confused.
Kegan’s mother hesitated. She didn’t look like she wanted to agree.
“Please, Mom,” Kegan said. Her face was pale — paler than normal. “I wanna stay with Lisette.”
Kegan’s mother looked at her father. They both looked at Rodrigo, then they both looked at Kegan and me.
“All right,” Kegan’s mother said slowly. “Try not to get in trouble.”
“I won’t do anything you wouldn’t do,” Kegan promised.
Both parents’ eyebrows narrowed.
“Try not doing anything I wouldn’t do,” Kegan’s father suggested.
I swallowed, not saying anything. It was clear that Rodrigo wanted to take us somewhere where we couldn’t blab to anybody about who he was imitating and what he was doing. He probably wanted to turn me, too. I didn’t want any of that.
But I also didn’t want him to taint or kill my family. So I didn’t say anything. Besides, what could he do as long as the aura was with us?
“I think you should stay here,” Rodrigo told the red-haired woman. “We need someone to make sure Rodrigo doesn’t return, and you can be invisible.”
She nodded.
And he’d just ditched the aura. Perfect.
Kegan and I got into the back seat of the police car silently. As he slammed the door, I felt my shoulders starting to shake. Kegan put her arm around me.
I leaned into her shoulder, wanting to cry. My family was in danger, I didn’t know where they were, we were going somewhere with a bad guy, and now that he knew Kegan was a specter, she wouldn’t be able to use that as a trump card anymore.
We drove in silence to wherever Rodrigo wanted to go. I tried to think of some clever plan to outwit him, but I felt numb. I was tired and miserable, really feeling the fact that it was about three in the morning, and terribly worried about my parents and sisters.
Trials of a Teenage Werevulture (Trilogy of a Teenage Werevulture Book 1) Page 18