Bonnie finished her story to a smattering of applause and comfortable chatter arose around the bonfire once more. I stood and glanced around, restless.
"I'm going to see if either Allie or Cat is up for taking a walk," I told Scott, already turning toward the snack tent.
"Sure, kid. Get back in time for Goat Man - that's the next one, right?"
"Yes."
The snack tent was hopping. Cat had barely said a quick hello before she was asked to load up a fresh set of skewers with hot dogs. Allie was just as preoccupied, red-faced as she spoke to George in low and unforgiving tones.
With a sigh, I put my hands in my pockets and struck out on my own. I skirted the outside of the clearing, sticking to the shadows beyond the reach of the firelight to avoid Scott's eyes. He probably wouldn't approve of a walk sans proper buddy system.
Walking in the absolute dark would probably err on the suspicious side, even if I could manage it with my dark-vision. I pulled out my cell and flicked on the flashlight. Stones shifted and clattered away from my feet as I headed toward the water's edge. A few other little beams like mine were already out patrolling the shore and little bubbles of laughter lifted above the rushing of waves every now and again.
"Too many emotions for one night," I sighed to myself, finally catching a glint of water in the white beam of light.
It quickly receded out of view, then flushed in again.
Scott's level headedness reminded me of my own father. But that was about where the similarities ended. No, the protectiveness was the same too... I brought up a gloved hand to smear away tears.
"Hey."
I jumped, whirling on the spot and accidentally stepping backward into wet, squishy sand.
"Careful," Caleb warned, reaching out to grab my elbow and tow me back to safety. He inspected my face in the semidarkness. "You good?"
"Y-yes," I rasped, "Just thinking about family. That's all."
"Mm," he hummed, falling into step beside me, "You could've blamed it on the scary stories. I wouldn't have teased you."
I shot him a doubtful look.
"That last one set my hair on end," he admitted, "Didn't Morgan tell you what she saw out in the mountains? Do you think it's the same thing?"
"Morgan said that what she saw was a bear," I reminded him.
"Well..."
"What do you think it is?"
"I dunno, but you believe in magic and stuff, right?"
"I suppose," I mused, then smirked, "Are you implying that I practice?"
"I think I would know if you did," he chuckled, flashing me a smile, "I wouldn't be here if you were a witch."
I snorted. He cocked an eyebrow, but answered his question, "As far as that thing goes, it's definitely magical. It defies the laws of nature."
"Those being?"
"Physics, chemistry, biology."
Caleb frowned at this, "Really? That much?"
"Yes. Magic isn't all-powerful, though. Thank goodness."
"The more you know..." he whistled and looked down when I shivered in the wind, "We should probably get you back to the fire."
We turned.
"I promised I'd come back for the Goat Man story, anyway."
"Told by a friend of yours?"
"George? No. Scott just said to be back."
"You can probably take your time, if you want," he sounded hopeful, then shrugged his jacket off when I shivered again, "Here."
"O-oh," I pinched it by the collar, hesitant, but the radiating warmth from his skin made the garment feel as if it had just come out of the hot dryer. I quickly donned it and sighed, "Thank you; you're not cold?"
"Nah, I run warmer than everyone else," he shrugged, then continued, "I liked your story."
"I learned it from my grandmother."
"Who's the kind stranger? Just some random person?"
"Supposedly one of my ancestors," I allowed.
He nodded, intrigued, "She knew her stuff."
"Well, it's based on the idea that there's police for supernatural criminals."
"We could use one of those right about now," he chuckled dryly.
The fireside became brighter and closer. A pair was walking down from the clearing toward us, their shadows lengthening toward us. Another duo venturing on a walk.
"Well-" I started, but words fled me.
Stones shifted under my feet, one slipping away entirely. Caleb was quick. Before I had the chance to fall sideways, his arm looped securely around my shoulders. The embrace tightened, closing the space between our bodies. Immediately, I twitched away as panic leapt into my throat.
"There's solid ground over here," he muttered and I finally realized his intention.
I let him guide me to where he'd been standing and took a second to catch my breath.
"Thanks-"
"Caleb!" The voice piped up from the pair.
Caleb's arm relinquished me and he took a few steps back, resentful guilt etched into the arch of his brows.
"Come on, man."
Gavin's and Aaron's faces resolved out of the darkness. Worry sunk into the pit of my stomach at the severity of their expressions. And at Caleb's reaction to them. Ray's warning from a few weeks back drifted to the forefront of my mind:
"Minimal contact is best for the time being. For your safety and hers. She is young. She needs time and space. We'll help you."
Were they imposing a limit on his interactions with me? Had he just crossed a line?
"We need to be going," Gavin said firmly, glaring at Caleb, "C'mon, Sara, let's get back."
"Right," I muttered as Aaron fell into step between Caleb and me.
George was already presenting his story when we returned, but the Lawatscoh weren't listening as attentively as they'd been previously. Morgan and Owen were standing, watching us as we returned.
"We're going to head out," Owen said under his breath to Ray and Terry as our groups merged, "Community watch, what with so many folks out tonight. Can you give Emma a ride home, Terry?"
"Sure thing," Terry nodded, but his expression was somber in comparison to the carefully bright tone, "You kids stay safe."
Caleb stared at the ground now as the others stood up to flank him. All wore similar, down-turned expressions. Fear replaced my worry.
How would they handle this? What would they do to Caleb? Would they-?
"Come sit back down, Sara," Scott patted my seat.
His eyes warily followed Caleb as the man retreated.
"Uh, I'm going to get some candy," I said quickly, moving past him toward the end of the line.
"You've got a hollow leg."
I didn't have time to think about what that could possibly mean. The group was already making their way back toward the parking lot... no, they were headed off-path, northward, into the trees. Standing at the back of the line, I put my fingers up behind my ear and imbued sense augmentation.
At this distance, their voices were hard to make out, even with the spell. But I could hear their footsteps as they retreated into the brush. With another glance at Scott, Terry, and Ray, I slipped out of line and into the trees.
Careful to dampen the sound of my passage with light footfalls, I followed at a distance. Just far enough to know the direction in which they were headed but not close enough to alert suspicion.
Their trail traced along the coastline but stayed within the stubby coastal spruce trees. They were quick, faster than I could manage without making noise. I imbued strength and speed upon my core. Careful to duck beneath brush and scale rocks on the mere balls of my feet, I dared to draw a bit closer. Their voices were low and urgent and then -
"Enough!"
The company came to a halt. I continued for a few more muted steps and came to a crouch in the middle of the boggy deer-path they'd tracked through. Club-shaped leaves tickled my arms, but I stayed still and listened.
"She's in pain, Owen, I can't just sit around and let-"
"She's got Scott, Ray, and Terry. Morgan's getting to know her."
"Morgan doesn't give a damn about her."
Morgan didn't make a peep in protest.
"It's not on you, Caleb."
"And who knows when the bloodsuckers might get violent. If he's dating her they'll be close- "
Caleb's voice choked with a snapping of teeth, as if he bit down on the sentence.
"I mean," either Gavin or Aaron was speaking, I leaned toward Aaron, "That guy was around the first time they came to Homer. Foster-Senior recognized their faces and scents; they're at least a hundred years old. If anything, Cal's a far safer choice for her, even if - "
"Just because they stoop to that level doesn't mean we will," Owen growled.
"She's hanging out with the Chief," the voice was one of the others, Jeremy or Liam, "Cal can't be sniffing after her like that."
"She's a child, he stays away from her period."
"A few months out from eighteen-" Gavin tried.
"The law is the law," Owen reiterated.
"Is it?" Aaron wondered, "Don't they have Romeo and Juliette laws or something?"
"If I hear that any of you have googled that pedo shit, I will fight you," Morgan snarled.
"A human is in danger," Gavin continued, "We should be trying to get her away from that vampire by any means. Are you really okay with leaving her to that thing for three months? We can't let anything happen to a bonded of one of our own."
Bonded? Another word for mate? I wondered.
"Aren't you all forgetting the fact that she may know what he is?" Morgan finally pointed out.
"Are you suggesting that she's with him by choice?" Caleb growled.
"I'm suggesting that there's more to her than meets the eye. She might know what she's doing."
"Regardless of whether she knows," Owen argued, "She's incapable of making good choices for herself. Even with regard to Caleb. We continue as we have. Morgan makes efforts to befriend her and limit her time with the vampires as much as possible. The rest of us keep an eye on Caleb. If you can't abide that, Caleb-"
"Don't treat me like a criminal!" Caleb roared suddenly, "I haven't done anything-"
"Dude, you bonded to a junior in highschool," Liam's barking laugh cut sharply, "You're a freak. Don't act like-"
The sickening thud of flesh-on-flesh cut hard through Liam's words. Guilt wracked through me, yanking my gut downward. The sound of tearing cloth and remolding muscle shot through the quiet, stoic trees.
Feral, animalistic snarls and growls ripped the air in spite of Owen's drowned-out orders, making my teeth chatter. Before I was aware of them moving, my legs were carrying me forward. With abandon, I threw myself at the gigantic, furred forms tussling dead-center in the clearing.
The smaller one, trapped beneath the bigger, was still three times my size, but I didn't care. I snatched at the fur along the top one's flank as I leaped. The remaining momentum rounded me over the back and I secured my other fist firmly into the mats of hair on its other side. Coarse fur scratched at my knuckles and damp, animal musk choked my mouth like smoke.
I was firmly mounted. Then, with a gigantic, strength-imbued heave, I wrenched my weight backward. It cracked my back. The brown bear was forced into a rear on its hind legs. We hung in the air as it twisted back and forth, but it had been grappled away from its opponent. The wolf scrambled out from beneath it with a frantic, burbling growl.
"Caleb! Liam!" I shrieked.
No effect. The bear's jaws snapped around, going straight for one of my arms. I let go, letting myself be flung from it entirely. I scrunched my stomach and rounded to skid my feet through the muddy earth. A peeling burn ran along my knee as I scraped it open on an exposed root.
"Knew it couldn't be that easy," I huffed.
The gold-bladed pocket knife I'd packed into my zippered-jacket pocket weighed heavily, but I suppressed the desire to pull it. That would escalate the situation. Another roar from the bear displayed long, brutal canines, but the gray wolf leaped in front of me and peeled its lips away from its own lethal teeth.
"Enough of this!" Owen bellowed from the underbrush, "Return to form at once."
The wolf snorted, squaring its shoulders at the bear, a clear 'you first' challenge as it backed a pace or two in my direction.
I stared at the wolf open-mouthed; it was far bigger than a regular wolf, nearly on-par with Liam's bear form, but missing it just-barely. Though, if Liam were the size of a regular grizzly, Caleb would have reached him.
Like this, he and Liam were the size of Beasts. The large, furred form standing defensively over me strummed an instinctual calm in my chest. It was similar to the way Father or Bruno would protect me if I'd fallen in battle.
Eventually, the bear's form began to shimmer and shrink. The wolf followed suit, its bulk dissipating as I watched Caleb emerge in a crouch in front of me. The tan expanse of his back continued to present to me as he sat back on tense legs, still regarding Liam with immense distrust.
"You good?" Caleb asked, tilting his head to glance my way.
His long black hair, loose now, slid over his shoulders with the movement.
"I've fought worse," I answered.
He let out a dry chuckle.
"I was so right," I heard Morgan's whisper carry from where she hid.
"Sara," the voice was Owen's.
"Yes?"
"You can see in the dark?"
"A hunter's got to have her tricks," I responded warily.
"What did you hear?" he asked.
"Everything," I admitted quickly. Caleb's teeth clicked together as he turned his head away. "You think I'm seventeen: I couldn't let that stand. Even the vampires figured out I'm older."
Caleb's head whipped back around, "What?"
"I... well," I hedged, then remembered the assumption Mason had made about me. I began my lie, "I came here because of the murders in the parks. Upon arrival I noticed the vampires and integrated into high-school life to study them. I'm not actually seventeen."
"Then how old are you?" Morgan probed.
"Legal."
She snorted, "So the dead family's a lie too?"
"N-no, this is a dangerous line of work. That part's real."
I chewed my lip anxiously, glancing around at the partially concealed figures in the trees. Liam was still crouching in the middle amid shredded fabric, panting heavily and shaking with anger. My gaze trailed over to Caleb again who was watching me curiously from his periphery. When our eyes met, his shoulders suddenly bunched up near his ears.
"Sorry," he muttered, shifting his weight a bit more and closing off his posture.
"For what?"
"Everything's on display."
"It's fine," I shrugged, averting my gaze at his chagrin, "That's pretty standard for skinchangers."
"Skinchangers?" Liam piped up, voice gravelly, "What are you on about? We're were-animals."
In spite of myself, I giggled.
"Variable body temperature, high metabolism, intolerance to gold," I started listing, watching expressions change as I rattled on, "True shadows despite your animal forms. The ability to be called out of form by your true name."
"Is that why you tried yelling their names?" Aaron asked, coming out from the brush a little bit, "You knew what we were?"
"It was worth a shot, but most skinchangers don't share their true names."
"It seems we need to have a talk," Owen said stiffly.
"Look, Scott will start looking for me if I'm gone too long," I said evasively, shuffling out from behind Caleb, "What's important right now is this; the lot of you should never be out in the parks alone. That thing out there is being controlled by the witch, the shopkeep, Carmen, and she's particularly interested in you."
"Can that thing be killed?"
"Everything can be killed," I assured him, "My bet is on decapitation or removal of the heart; most things can be killed that way. But avoid fighting it; especially on a full or new moon."
"You know your stuff," Owen appraised.
"I've killed my fair share of things."
Liam stood, ignoring his nakedness as he squared off with me, "Any skinchangers?"
I hesitated, turning part-way back toward him, "On very rare occasion, even my people have been subject to our own laws. We protect humanity at all costs. There's usually a black sheep in every flock."
"We'll meet again soon," Owen promised interrupting as Liam opened his mouth again.
I nodded, turning on my heel.
"Damn, she didn't even check you out for a second, dude," I heard Aaron hiss at Caleb as I retreated.
I rolled my eyes.