Two officers leapt forward to grab it.
Kegan’s mother let go of the cage with obvious regret.
“Where are my parents and sisters?” I asked nervously. “You said, ‘No need.’ Did you find them?”
“Dad did while Mom fought Rodrigo, which I could totally have handled all by myself,” Kegan said in a miffed voice, folding her arms. “He turned the car insubstantial and went driving through all the houses on the block until he found the one they were in.”
“That’s illegal!” the ogre officer exclaimed.
“I didn’t see any signs forbidding it,” Kegan’s father announced in a holier-than-thou voice, stepping through the door behind his wife. His amethyst-purple eyes were sparkling.
“The Specter Trespassing Non-Prosecution Law does not apply to insubstantial cars!” the ogre shouted. “If there had been an insubstantial specter on the bottom floor of any of those houses, you could have killed them!”
“So write me a ticket,” Kegan’s father shrugged. “I’ll pay it. In the meantime . . .”
He stepped aside and pushed his wife out of the way, too. My dad and Annette stood behind him.
“Dad! Annette!” I screamed, dashing over to them. I tried to hug them both at once, which didn’t work very well. “Are you okay? Are Mom and Collette okay? Where are they? What about the werebat police guy Rodrigo captured? Is he okay?”
“Antonio?” the cyclops roared. “What about Antonio?”
Dad held up his hand. “They’re all at the hospital. Don’t worry, they’ll be fine. Nothing a few vampire blood infusions can’t fix. Your mother woke up when Rodrigo sedated me, and Collette managed to bite him, so they’re both a bit hurt, but they’ll be okay.”
“The other guy was a werebat?” Annette asked. “I thought he was a dracula. I was going to ask him how people apply to join his clan. All the draculas at school have clans that are super-exclusive. I think it’s because they don’t want too many draculas walking around because there wouldn’t be enough donated blood to go around, but I figure I could argue my way into it if I got the chance . . .”
She was Annette, all right. But I still had to test Dad.
“Dad,” I said nervously, my heart thumping, “you know what you’re supposed to tell me if it’s really you and not Rodrigo in disguise, right?”
“Oh.” Dad blinked, looking mildly surprised. “Yes. The last time you lied to me was when you were six years old. I asked if you’d cleaned up the marbles you’d left on the kitchen floor, and you said you had. A few minutes later, Collette walked into the kitchen, tripped over them, and broke her arm.”
“And?” I prompted.
“And I sat you down and gave you a two-hour lecture on the importance of honesty,” he finished.
I breathed a sigh of relief. It was Dad. It was definitely Dad.
“Hey, speaking of stuff all over the floor, what are those?” Annette demanded, pointing at the green stones that had rolled all over the floor.
Police officers parted to show more of them, and Kegan’s mother leaned forward with clear interest.
“They’re turning stones,” the furry-faced man said briskly. “The same ones that Rodrigo and his cohorts attempted to taint. As you can see, they didn’t succeed —”
I glared at him, folding my arms. If he thought I was keeping my awesome power secret, he had another thing coming. I was so going to blab about it to everybody I met. And post it on the Internet. And make sure all the cute guys at school knew all about it.
“Are any of them dracula stones?” Annette asked, her eyes gleaming.
“No,” the ogre police officer said. “They’re wereporcupine, tomte, sasquatch, kobold, brownie, dryad, and gui, and we’re not sure which is one which. If you aren’t turned, don’t touch them.”
Annette’s eyes still gleamed.
“You don’t want to be turned by a stone without a clan guiding it, Annette,” Dad said with faint exasperation. “The chances of it going wrong or failing outright would be close to fifty percent.”
Annette looked pouty.
“Also, they were tainted,” I announced. “I untainted them. It’s my awesome power. I’m amazing. And yeah, I’m gonna tell people about it, so there!”
The furry-faced man gave me an indignant glare.
Kegan gasped. “You mean, like . . . you can save all those clans? The ones Rodrigo was trying to destroy?”
“Yes!” I squealed. “Being a griffon vulture is the greatest!”
“Yay!” she shrieked, and bounced over and hugged me.
The furry-faced man looked ticked off, but I didn’t really care.
Then I had an amazing idea. A fantastic idea. A phenomenal idea. The best idea ever.
“What clan does Rodrigo’s turning stone belong to?” I demanded, turning away from Kegan.
The police officers looked around at each other.
“I assume aswang, because that’s what he is,” the furry-faced man said at last.
“But isn’t it more likely that it was stolen from somebody else in the first place, so they didn’t have to taint their own stone?” I asked excitedly. “Like maybe one of the werevulture clans that used to exist?”
The furry-faced man frowned. “There’s no way of knowing unless somebody shows up to claim it, but it’s . . . plausible.”
“Then can I have it?” I squealed. “Please? When I tell everyone about my awesome power, everyone will want to be one!”
“That . . . would ameliorate the disadvantage of the power not being kept secret,” the furry-faced man said thoughtfully. “All right. We’ll have to check the paperwork and the legalities, and if anyone steps forward to claim it, we’ll have to relinquish it to them. But, provisionally . . . it can be yours.”
I grinned fiercely.
“I changed my mind,” Annette said promptly. “I don’t want to be a dracula. I want to be a werevulture. Can I be turned right away?” k12
Next Book:
Trifles of a Teenage Werevulture
Kegan’s family is going on vacation to New Yeti City, and Lisette’s invited! She figures this will be great fun. She’ll get to shop, sightsee, and meet up with the only werevulture clan in the country.
But unfortunately, the werevulture clan isn’t interested in Lisette, her opinions, or the “trifles” she raises as concerns.
Which is a shame, because a hundred baobhan siths are about to converge on the city.
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Henina tends to irritate people. She can’t help it — she’s bad at shutting her mouth. So when a prophecy is made that someone will stop the war, she figures she’s the worst possible choice.
Too bad.
The Fates have their sights set on her, and it will take all her cleverness and quite a lot of offending the king to foist the prophecy off on somebody else instead.
But she can do it. After all, there are a lot of potentials to choose from.
You can get it here.
Trials of a Teenage Werevulture (Trilogy of a Teenage Werevulture Book 1) Page 20