Going up the mountainside higher and higher through the pine trees where the air was fresh and thick, I just stared out the car window sulking. Generally I didn’t sulk. Usually I was the cheerful one that had no problems with our parents’ decisions for vacations, but this year I really wanted to go to Hawaii and try out the surf there. Dad said it was too expensive. Mom said she didn’t want to fly that year. My two brothers and my sister said nothing, probably thinking that Hawaii was a great idea also. But I was vetoed and my parents told us that they had already reserved a cabin for us where we were headed.
“Kids,” my father spoke us as he drove further up the hill. “When we arrive do you want to rest in the cabin or do you want to start the hike right away?”
My oldest brother Will sat next to the other window on the back seat. He lifted his head with a tired look and said, “Oh, probably right away. We’ll want to fill our canteens first, though.”
I moaned, slumping with my head against the glass.
“Eve,” my mother said with a warning tone she usually reserved for my sister Dawn. “If you continue with this attitude you can just sit in the cabin while your brothers and sister hike without you.”
I made a face, too irritable to feel like acting nice. “I don’t see why we couldn’t just hike in the mountains near our home. What’s the point in driving all the way out here?”
“The point is to get away for a while,” my mother said. “Besides, I don’t want any of you in those mountains even in the day time.”
I rolled my eyes. “The vampires don’t come out in the day, and even if they dared they wouldn’t come near me or anybody with me, and you know it.”
I wasn’t joking about the vampires. Everyone in our town knew that vampires lived in the mountain caves just on the skirts of our northern California town. And every camper and hiker that ever dared go into that forest at night never returned. It didn’t even have forest rangers. It didn’t need them. Fear of vampires protected most of the forest animals from hunters.
My father gave a warning growl that said he was not going to listen to me moan and complain. “Do you want me to stop this car?”
Nearly replying and do what?

I bit my tongue instead and looked out the window once more.
“Eve McAllister, you know why we have to leave town for the week,” he said.
And I did. Since Easter when the school board stole away our Spring Break everyone in town had learned the true nature of what I was. It wasn’t only my creepy History teacher Mr. McDillan anymore that understood that my parents had adopted a demon those fifteen years ago when I was dropped into their laps by a vampire bat. The mayor had been fielding calls since the day all my classmates saw me fighting with a demonically possessed man on the cliffs near the beach, most of the calls from worried parents. Just days after the incident the mayor came to our home himself with several of his lawyers and the police to confront both my mother and my father concerning me. If it weren’t for my father’s lawyer, and Mr. McDillan’s (who also happened to be a vampire hunter) acceptance of me, I’m sure they would have found some way to legalize mobs, gathered up their rakes and hoes (torches and pitchforks being scarce in an American suburb), ransacked our house and hauled me off to a newly built guillotine to have me beheaded. Instead, since April to the end of the school year I had been under severe watch. And when school let out, my parents took us right on vacation.
“I still don’t see why we couldn’t at least go south to L.A. or San Diego and rent a beach house,” I said, remaining sulky.
My dad slowed down and pulled to the side of the two-lane highway where there was a truck run.
Tensing up, I also straightened up as he turned around in his seat. His normally kind and soft face had hardened into a look that was uncommon for him. It was clear he was already under a lot of stress. His imps, which only I could see, were shouting for him to take me out and spank me, even leave me on the roadside. However, I had learned a long time ago not to take the words of imps as the real thoughts of the ones they were trying to tempt.
“Eve Marie McAllister…” Bad sign, already, him addressing me like that. “…your mother has already told you enough is enough. We have come here for your benefit. The least you could do is be grateful and silent. You spend too much time in that ocean anyway.”
I tried to look away. It was true I surfed in whatever spare time I could find. It was my one escape since the mayor also requested that I not be allowed to go flying at night anymore. When he had found out that I had wings, wings that I didn’t even know I had until last Halloween, he freaked and accused me of stalking the people of our town at night. The fact that I had never actually attacked anyone was a moot point. Surfing was my only outlet those days. I guess I had been overdoing it lately.
Seeing that I was silent, my father started back onto the highway again.
“Will, make sure Eve has enough suntan lotion on when you all go on your hike,” he said.
“Make sure you all do,” our mother reminded us, trying to smile.
But we were all tense. It was my fault really, which was why I was in such a bad mood.
It just seemed that my life had gotten worse and worse since I found out I was a vimp, an impossible cross between a vampire and an imp, and not someone with a freakish kind of albinism that I had always thought I was. Since Halloween to Easter when I met Michael Toms, whose first inclination was to hunt me, nothing but trouble happened. It was like I was cursed. I just wanted to go back to the way things were before my reflection and shadow vanished and my canines grew back in. I think the only thing I would regret giving up were my wings. I loved those.
We arrived at the campground within the hour without my father stopping to chastise me for being sulky. And as we passed through the gates, I heard Dawn, who was just a month younger than I was, read the sign aloud. “Wildlife reserve? I thought it was just a campground.”
My mother gave a more cheerful chuckle, glancing to my father. “Oh, no. We chose it because it was a wildlife reserve. The owner, Mr. Deacon who is a philanthropist, is reputed to preserve deer, antelope, wild birds, and wolves here, among other animals.”
“Wolves?” Travis sounded interested, even excited.
But Dawn moaned as our father steered the car on the gravel lot and parked it car near the ranger’s cabin to check in.
“Oh, great. And near the full moon too,” she said. “They’re going to be howling all night.”
Will chuckled, unbuckling his seatbelt. “That’d be cool.”
“I won’t be able to sleep,” Dawn complained looking like she would hit her head on the car dash.
My father set the emergency brake then undid the door locks to the entire car. All of us climbed out, eager to get on our feet again. As I emerged from the car all the strong smells in the air smacked me in the face, and I wrinkled my nose. Pine air, much more powerful than near our mountains, it was also somewhat muggy.
Taking them from my pocket, I slid my sunglasses over my eyes and looked over the clearing, peering at the signs and the rustic log fences that divided the parking lot and camping areas from the actual wooded forest. Toddling from a Lincoln nearby was a fat man that looked like a lime green spinning top with his aloha shirt barely covering his middle though at least his belt held his pants over his rear, his small lower legs carried all that weight as his camera bounced on his chest as he walked. His wife was only slightly thinner than he was but at least her body was balanced. Only slightly more tastefully dressed, her shirt was sleeveless but at least covered her midriff. There were other campers walking around. One family with two spoiled looking kids in designer jeans and shoes screaming for something they wanted and would probably get if they shrieked loud enough; a group of wild looking college students that were packing up a truck to leave; a pair of men in green and khaki vest and shorts combination outfits with flopping hats on their heads with feathered lures sticking out of them; and three men dressed in suspiciously heavy and long looking coats that seemed too warm for the weather up there. I heard the imps of all of them. Most of the chatter was the usual mischief though the three men’s imps caught my attention.
“Hit on that girl over with those guys,” one imp said, implying Dawn who was rather pretty and curvaceous. The man only cast her a look and headed towards the mountain trail.
“Get a cigarette out. No one will notice,” another imp called. But that man wisely ignored that temptation, knowing all fires in that area outside fire rings, great or small, were seriously considered arson.
But the third one disturbed me the most.
“Load your gun now. You’ll need it.”
Walking over to Will, I tugged on my brother’s sleeve. “Hey. Will, there’s no hunting in wildlife reserves, right?”
He turned to me and blinked. “Of course. Why are you asking?”
I exhaled sharply knowing now that trouble was afoot. Pulling him aside, I pointed out the three men in the unusually long coats. “That one’s imps are suggesting he load his gun. That means he has one, and I don’t think he’s a ranger.”
Nodding, Will led me from the car where we were waiting, and we walked into the ranger’s hut were Dad was talking with the woman there, filling out the details of our paperwork. He was nearly done.
“Hey, Dad.” Will leaned over to him in a whisper. “Eve overheard something out there that makes her think one of the campers is carrying a gun.”
My dad turned to look at me. “What did you hear?”
Cringing, I repeated what I had said to Will and then added, “I really do think they’re suspicious looking too. They’re wearing oddly big coats, big enough to hide a shotgun.”
Nodding, my dad reached out to the woman ranger behind the counter to get her attention. She looked up.
“Excuse me,” he said. “But my daughter thinks she saw three men outside, one of them talking with one of the other about a gun he has on him. They’re wearing strangely large coats. I think you’d want to know about it.”
The woman rose, nodding and looking at me with an honest smile. It was a good thing I was wearing my sunglasses at the time. My orange eyes would have freaked her out. “Yes, thank you. There is no hunting on this land. I’ll contact the other rangers right away to check it out.”
She then went over to the radios and called it out to the rangers in the campground.
I waited. It was unnerving hearing the urgency in her voice as well as the rise of her heartbeat. Being part vampire also made it easy to tell when people were anxious. Liars were easy to pick out. The fact that my father had to alter the truth to make it more believable didn’t ease the anxiety I felt when his own heart jumped.
But the ranger called back to us, nodding more gratefully as she said, “They found them and are now escorting them out of the campground. Thank you. You’ve done us a service.”
I tried to smile back, but I really just wanted us to go back down the hill and take the freeway to the nearest sandy beach with good surf. Instead I walked back out of the rangers’ office and leaned on the car, waiting for Dad to finish registering. As the forest rangers with the three men passed by, I watched the hunters struggle in their grips as one ranger carried their confiscated hunting rifles with a nod to us. Unfortunately that drew the eyes of the hunters onto Dawn and me as we stared after them.
“What was that all about?” Dawn asked, nudging me.
I just shrugged.
“Eve just stopped three hunters from sneaking onto the wildlife reserve,” Will said coming out of the lodge.
Dawn looked back at him and blinked. She had that cherubic blonde airhead look about her when she did that, but I knew her better. She was probably annoyed. As she made a face at me I knew she was. “You can’t just mind your own business?”
“We’re hiking up that mountain, Dawn,” Will said, shaking his head at her and patting the trunk as if he could open it without the key to take out our packs. “You don’t want people up there shooting guns up there near us, do you?”
“I should say not.” Travis produced the keys. He had taken from our mother who was resting on the stoop to the ranger’s cabin.
Dad walked out not long after with all the registration documents in hand and trotted to the back of the car also. “Ok. Do you kids want to ride up to the cabin with your mom and me and then go hiking? Or do you want to start here? The beginning of the trail is right there.”
He pointed over where I had seen the three men heading into the trees.
Dawn looked like she’d rather stay in the cabin but Will jabbed her in the side and spoke for us all. “We’ll start here.”
Travis opened the trunk. Each of us reached in and took our individual packs, all ready for the hike. My dad was like that. He planned out the entire vacation from start to finish. Hike up the first day. Reach the summit the second and hike down that afternoon. That evening we were to rest and clean up in the cabin where there was shower and running water. The following day we were to go on a short nature walk as an entire family to the lake, something my mother preferred to long hikes. The last day we planned to go into the canyon and take pictures with us as a group. My mother liked having pictures of us in sunny cheerful places, preferably with lots of green around. That was also one of the reasons why we never really went to the beach on family vacations. She didn’t like the sand. The long stretches of it and the flat ocean made her feel lonely, she said.
Will took up the canteens to the ranger’s cabin, searching for a waterspout or hand pump.
Our mother rose up from the stoop and walked to where we were heaving on our packs. She seemed to be bidding us farewell for a long journey, hugging Travis then Dawn, whispering something in her ear before turning to me. She said as she embraced me. “Eve, we love you. Which is why we are bringing you here and not the beach.”
I stiffened, wondering how taking me to the middle of nowhere far from the ocean was showing that she loved me.
“We know you have been wanting to stretch your wings, and if you’d sit still to listen long enough you’re realize that in a crowded beach you would not be able to.” She then pulled back to look me in the face. “Honey, darling…my sweet Eve, please, try and have a good time. Nothing can hurt you out there, and I don’t know how it will be when we return home.”
A shiver ran over my skin, realizing I was at last hearing the truth.
“We may have to move,” my mother said.
“Move?” I felt tears burn in my eyes. “All because of me?”
“Not because of you,” my father replied, putting an arm around me. “Because of them. We can’t live in an intolerant neighborhood.”
“Dad, I’m a monster,” I said, wiping my eyes.
He put his face in mine. “I don’t want to hear you say that, Eve.”
“Fine, a demon then.” I stepped back. “What difference does it make? We’re going to have to move because of me.”
“Our town sucks anyway,” Dawn said, rolling her eyes. “I say we move to San Francisco. The people there will accept just about anybody.”
I rolled my eyes at her. “I doubt they’d accept a blood sucking monster that—”
“I said not to say that.” Our father stepped between us, halting the argument was about to start. “First of all, you have not hurt a soul in town. No one has the right to call you such names, especially you. Secondly, we are not leaving our home without a fight. They have nothing to stand on except their own ignorance and fear. And thirdly, Eve, you have got to get out of this slump you are in. Quit hanging on the doom and gloom that those ignorant jerks are trying to make you feel. That kid, Michael Toms, gave you his seal of approval. I think that is enough proof that you are not a danger to society.”
But I tilted my head and lowered my sunglasses so that my orange eyes looked directly into his. “Dad, Michael Toms is a first class weirdo who is also a menace to society. The fact that he thinks that he is number eight of the Holy Seven should be sign enough.”
However, he knew that I knew what he was talking about. In reality, I was closer to a vegetarian than my father was, I hated conflict and I was a follower of the rules. The nickname ‘goody-goody’ Eve was one that had been attributed to me along with ‘creepy’ and ‘freak’ for years. The only way we would truly have to move would be if the town got a new dentist to replace my father. He was the only one in town.
My mother hugged me again, and so did my father. They then patted Will on the back and charged him to lead us safely, though I am sure my mother reminded him also to make doubly sure I put on more suntan lotion after the hour. I usually put on the high SPF lotion on every two hours, but the sun was said to be hotter in the mountains.
Each of us headed to the hiking trail and followed Will up after he had passed us our full canteens.
“We’re off,” he said, and smiled to show his enthusiasm.

After the first half hour of the hike I was ready for a rest. So was Dawn. Travis looked winded, but he kept waving for us to keep going, at least until we got to the first campground. Along the path were markings showing how far we had come, also marking how far to the summit we had to go. The first campground was still a good way in. The map Dad gave to Will showed that there were only five campgrounds on that particular hiking path. Will intended for us to stop at the fourth one for the night, but by the time we reached the first I was thinking we just ought to stop at the second one and pretend we went up to the summit the following day.
“You baby!” Will said playfully. “I thought you were athletic.”
I made a face at him, pulling off my baseball cap to wave it in front of my face. Seeing me do that, he reached into his side pocket and tossed me the sun block.
“Put it on,” he said. “If you’re sweating, you’re losing cover.”
“It’s waterproof,” I answered him, but I did as he told me. I learned ages ago not to skimp on the sun block. I burned way too easily. Squeezing the lotion into my hands, I then rubbed them together, looking around as I first smeared the lotion on my face, covering my ears and the back of my neck the most, though I did not stint at all on the lotion on my nose and cheeks.
The path really was quite pretty. After I had gotten used to the strong pine scent and the thick oxygen filled air, it was much easier to take in the scenery. The sky through the trees was a pure pale blue. The few clouds that were in the sky were thin and fluffy, like someone had shredded a cotton ball so that it was webby. I tilted my head with wonder that I thought of spider webs while looking at them, but Dawn nudged me to continue on.
We reached the second campground well after noon. Though we had already been munching on our trail mix and granola bars, we stopped to eat our packed egg salad sandwiches, resting our legs and our feet.
Peering at the fire pit that had only ashy remains of someone’s campfire, Will walked around it as if thinking. He then looked to Travis and me. “I think we ought to collect dry wood while we walk up to our camping site.”
“I am not carrying wood along with my pack up that hill,” Dawn said, shaking her head at him and setting her hands on her hips.
“I wasn’t talking to you, lazy. I already knew you wouldn’t help.” Will then walked back to me who was actually thinking the same as Dawn though we did not often agree. “Unless you want to do all the wood gathering when we get up there, we can start now.”
Travis gave a shrug. “I’d rather wait.”
“Me too,” I said at last, raising a hand.
Dawn grinned at us then turned to Will with triumph. We didn’t often out-vote Will. Usually it was the other way around.
Rolling his eyes and slumping his shoulders, he exhaled. “Fine. We’ll gather wood when we get to camp. I just don’t want us going too far off the path. It is a wildlife reserve and there are wild animals running about.”
“Nothing in this forest could possibly be scarier than Eve,” Travis said, though Dawn actually peered over her shoulder to search for a bear or a wolf. I myself wondered if it was cougar country, imagining how I could actually fight off one of those pretty dangerous mountain lions if they came on to the camp. Looking at my hands where at one point claws had formed when I was in desperate need, I noticed how thin my ordinary fingernails were, thinking that no way was I really all that capable of fighting off every animal that existed.
I started to pick up some pieces of dry wood. Will broke into a laugh watching Dawn practically jump to help me. Only Travis stared at me as if he thought I was just trying to be funny. He didn’t find it so amusing.
Between the second and third campground I noticed three other hikers were in the woods but not on any path. I could hardly make out their silhouettes in the shadows through my sunglasses, so I lifted them. I could see better in the dark than anybody, a vampire trait. In the dim I peered at them and saw what I realized were those three hunters. They were dressed differently, in camouflage this time with hats. They had other rifles in their hands and they crept up the mountainside as if they didn’t want to be seen. No one else but me had noticed them. Dawn and Travis were talking about the summer picnic our town usually held on the Fourth of July, wondering if we would be going to that or not while Will walked ahead of us on the path, listening to his MP3. I had been taking up the rear for most of the way since Dawn had caught her second wind and we were all walking at slower pace, taking more breaks. But in the distance over their conversation, I could hear those imps shouting, though through Dawn’s imps constantly suggesting she drop trash wherever on the trail it was difficult to hear clearly. What was certain was that they had spotted us.
“…shoot her. Accidents happen in the mountains. They’re going to the summit. Just push her off.”
I froze.
“What is it?” Dawn turned, looking at me.
I rushed up to Travis and Dawn, whispering low. “Don’t look now, but I think I see those hunters. They got by the rangers somehow.”
But I should have known whenever anyone says ‘don’t look now’ they’re going to look. Both Dawn and Travis squinted, peering at the dark under the trees, both of them searching to see what I had seen.
“I can’t see a thing.” Dawn straightened up. “Can those eyes of yours really see—?”
I slapped a hand to her mouth. “They can hear us.”
“No better than us, them,” Dawn murmured, looking only mildly hurt.
But Travis rushed from us up the hill and pulled one of Will’s earphones out of his ear. At first Will was annoyed but then he listened to Travis’s whispers and waited for Dawn and me to come up the hill. When we reached him, Will looked me in face then glanced at the forest where I noticed the three men duck down. He spoke in a lower voice. “Travis says you see those hunters. Are they following us?”
I shook my head. “I don’t think so. But I think we are headed in the same direction.”
He frowned. Lowering his head to whisper more, he said, “Ok, there are no rangers up here with us, so we need more than ever to stay on the path so they won’t have an opportunity to do anything weird. Eve, if you don’t mind, just keep an eye on them. All of us should act as if we don’t see them.”
“Well, duh,” I said, glancing to Dawn and Travis.
Will smirked, knowing I had tried to keep things inconspicuous. “Fine. But Eve, just in case, be ready to fly.”
“That means I need more suntan lotion.” I unbuckled my waist belt and slipped off my pack, taking off my button down shirt next. I always wore a tank top under my other shirts. It was a practice I started since I discovered I had wings that sometimes popped out from the birthmarks between the nape of my neck and my shoulder blades when I get startled, tearing any shirt that sits tight to my skin.
My brother handed over the bottle.
I suppose from where the men were hiding in the forest it looked like we had paused because I was tired. I was hoping it at least. Either way, as I stood there on the path and slathered up my bare arms and shoulders while my sister helped me with my back so that nothing would burn, I noticed the threesome had continued to creep up the mountainside. Their imps still shouted that they ought to at least make spooky animal calls to frighten us, though one suggested shooting at our feet. But I didn’t think that they suspected we knew they were there anymore.
Travis started to sing camp songs to get our minds off of the hunters. Will took off his earphones and joined in. I sighed, wishing I were at the beach with my surfboard, wishing we didn’t have to climb all day long, but Dawn suddenly chimed in and jabbed me in the ribs to do the same. Tilting my head, I also started to sing the words, almost forgetting that three men with guns had gone ahead somewhere in the forest with some ulterior motive that was obviously against the rules of the wildlife reserve.

We reached the fourth campground just as the sun had moved behind the trees towards the horizon. Will cleaned out the fire pit and had Dawn collect pinecones while Travis and I stacked our rather scanty collection of wood next to it. I went out to gather more wood so that we would be able to roast hotdogs and marshmallows and make s’mores, while Travis started to set up the tents. We brought only two of them. One for the boys and one for the girls. As long as Dawn and I gathered pinecones and wood for the fire, Travis agreed to set up our tent also.
I had lost sight of those three men around the third campground. And since I could not see them, I figured it was safe to stretch my wings and fly about rather than walk. The first stretch felt wonderful, taking wings from that itchy cramped position somewhere inside my back to at least the span of my arms. It wasn’t broad enough to take me high or fast, but with the trees so close together I didn’t want to risk bruising them with an ill-placed flap. I had learned that my wings were just as real and tender as my arms and fingers were, sometimes more so. In the past, I had been a bit too careless and I had a few tears and scars in the skin between each clawed finger of my wings. I carried the wood in my arms as I flapped over the forest floor, diving down whenever I found a good piece. I got back just as Will had made the fire high enough to really start cooking, the light in the sky growing dim.
“Here you go.” I set my wood down next to Dawn’s collection of pinecones.
He grinned up at me. “Did you have a good fly about?”
“Not yet.” I returned that grin with a real smile.
I suppose my fangs must have shown because I could see Will twitch as if he was about to flinch and thought better of it. He gave a small smile and nodded. “Ok. Just wait a little longer, until the sun sets at least.”
Nodding, I walked over to one of the felled logs set purposely next to the fire pit for a seat, resting my rear on it as I retracted my wings into my back again. “That’s fine. Then, should I start dinner?”
He nodded, gesturing to his pack. “Go get it out. I think we packed it in my bag.”
Hotdogs.
We always packed hotdogs when we went camping. Will had carried the condiments in his pack, including the pickle relish, which I liked, and the mustard, which I didn’t. In Dawn’s bag were the buns, only slightly smushed. Travis had carried the actual hot dogs and the prepared coat hangers we always used for our hotdog and marshmallow roasting. I had to undo the twist ties that bound them together and set them so the tips leaned over the fire, just in case they were not washed properly last time they were used. In my pack were the fixings for s’mores. I carried them in my pack only because I was the least likely to be tempted to eat them before it was time to get them out. There was an advantage to seeing and hearing imps at times.
As I set out the fixings for dinner, also opening up the pre-made pasta salad our mother packed in Dawn’s bag, I smelled something funny. Actually, I thought I heard a gunshot first, but it was distant and muffled by the noises of the trees and all the scurrying animals and insects in them. The smell I first thought was from the hotdogs. When I had opened the package some of the juice got onto my hands and I had to wipe them off on my shorts. But when I leaned in to sniff them, the smell did not get any stronger. The real source of the odor was somewhere distant, yet growing stronger and more familiar as I stood there taking in the forest air with a deep breath.
“What is it, Eve?” Will stood up.
I shook my head slowly, still listening to the air for sounds. The shouting of distant imps, I was sure I could hear them from across the path and deep into the forest from two places. One imp noise was coming closer quickly. And unlike the shouts from Travis’s imp that told him to sneak out a chocolate bar from my pack when I wasn’t looking, this one was screaming to find that human he could smell and bite it.
My wings popped out, and I flew up.
“Eve!” Will called after me.
But I was in the air, my wings high and wide as I listened, going invisible and intangible as the imp blood from my birth mother allowed me to be when I needed it, and I flew through the trees, literally, to where I was hearing that imp.
It was moving fast at first. I then heard another gun shot. The bullet split the bark of one tree below me, and whatever the imp was shouting at yelped like some kind of dog and scurried towards the campfire, limping. Most normal animals would have been frightened by the fire, but this one seemed drawn to it. I followed it, then him, realizing that it was a boy, somewhat hairy and ragged looking, but a teenaged boy all the same. He ran rather fast, looking more and more like a regular boy with each step as he panted, nearing our camp. If he really had any ill intent towards us, I knew I had to stop him from reaching my brothers and sister. However, even his imps were shouting as if they were desperate rather than gleefully believing that he would do as they wanted.
I flew straight over his head, materialized back into something solid people could see and I landed in front of him before he could even cross the mountain path. “Come no closer.”
Yelping like a dog, the hairy boy fell back to the trees, peering out at me with wolfish eyes. He panted hard, trembling even as his imps shouted for him to bite me.
“What do you want?” I asked, peering at him as I recognized the smell I had detected earlier now. It was blood. His unusual blood.
He straightened up, shaking his hairy brown head and walked forward. He was shirtless, wearing jean shorts that were torn from thorns, and one bullet wound in his thigh. Showing me his empty hands that were mildly hairy, his fingernails thicker than normal, and said, “Normally I wouldn’t bother you, but—”
He then peered at my increasingly red eyes and stepped back.
“You’re a vampire.”
“Hey! Eve!”
Will jogged over to me, taking hold of my arm.
“Why did you run off like that? What happened? Did you—?” Will’s eyes fixed on the strange hairy boy. “Oh, crap. What have you unearthed now?”
“I didn’t unearth him,” I snapped back. “I smelled blood and then thought I heard gunfire.”
“I thought I heard some too,” Will murmured still staring at the boy, backing slightly away from him.
The boy was watching us, looking from Will who was about as ordinary as a blond Californian could get, to me who was far from ordinary. He opened his mouth and then cast a glance over his shoulder, ducking down. He whispered to me. “Look. I don’t know who or what you are, and you don’t know me. But all I’m asking is a favor. Please let me hide here.”
“What?” Will just stared at him.
Practically falling on his knees, the boy winced. “My name is Howard Richard Deacon the third. Those hunters are after me. If you have any sympathy at all, please hide me.”
I looked to Will and then Travis who had suddenly walked up, staring at our hairy newcomer.
Lifting my eyes beyond the boy through the darkness, I could see the hunters coming from far off. I could tell they were trying to make our figures out from our silhouettes in the firelight. “Ok…”
“What?” Will and Travis both stared at me.
I returned the look with a shake of my head. “Come on. This is an animal reserve, and they shouldn’t be shooting at anything here. Especially people.”

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Tag der Veröffentlichung: 16.02.2010

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