I adore the sweet change and the beauty it brings me in the night. When I hunt, I hunt wild prey by the laws of the Goddess. I don’t kill pets for the fun of it.
A machine-gun rattle above made her look up to see shooting stars between the leaves. A warbling whistle came fast on its heels and a fountain of fire dripped red in the sky.
I’m missing it, she thought.
She raced back to the Amoeba, winding through the color-bathed crowd. She found Aiden waiting, and her heart leaped at the sight of him.
“Where did you get to?” Aiden asked. He hugged her.
“I could say the same.” She didn’t hug back. Now he was safe she could be angry with him-for a moment anyway, until he struggled to make amends with kisses. Then, wrapped in his arms, she oohed and aahed with the faceless multitude around her, made one with them under the bursts of chrysanthemum light.
But danger lurked for the crowd out in the wood, and she prayed to the Moon that all who watched with her came home safe this night. The Five killed a human once. Did they still have the taste?
The thunder crescendoed. The night was full of whistles and the whoosh of man-made comets. Smoke singed the air and was sharp in her throat, and when she saw sparks falling, she remembered another night more than a year before.
The fire was my fault, too, she thought. I should have told my father that Axel and the Five were running wild.
She buried her face in her human boy’s shoulder and clung to him to suffocate her pain. He kissed her hair, and the tremor of his laughter vibrated through her chest. He was full of rushing blood and smiles and dreams-things her father would never have again.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, too soft for him to hear, but those she spoke to were all dead.
On their way back to Vivian’s house Aiden stopped by the river. “Don’t go home yet,” he asked, so they made a nest in the knee-high grass and gazed at the sky.
“Isn’t midnight magical?” Vivian asked, and stretched her arms to the stars.
“Not real magic,” Aiden said. “I wish it was. Life is a drag most of the time-birth, school, work, death-you know. I wish something magic would happen.”
You want magic? I could give you magic, she thought. “What kind of magic?” she asked. “Like finding a door to a magical country? Or a coin that grants wishes? Or meeting a witch?”
Aiden laughed. “All of the above.”
“What if she’s a wicked witch?”
“Maybe I’d find the good in her.”
“What about vampires?”
“I dunno. Maybe there’s some good ones, too.”
“What about horny werewolves?” Vivian said.
Aiden slid his arms around her. “Now you’re being silly.”
They sank into the long fur of the river meadow, entwined with each other. The smell of sweet crushed hay filled the air.
“You’re wild,” Aiden mumbled woozily into the cleft between her breasts before he kissed the mole there.
“Um-hmmm.” Vivian stroked his hair, reveling in the way she’d made him drunk with wanting her.
He kissed her mouth, and she returned his kiss fiercely, pressing hard against him, holding him tight by his shirt. Her fingers found a circle behind his pocket-the rolled rim of a rubber encased in foil. A thrill ran through her so sharp and delicious that for a moment she thought she was changing.
With trembling fingers she unbuttoned Aiden’s shirt. She smoothed her hands up his firm abdomen and across his chest. His flesh was burning hot and oh so sleek and alien to her touch. She tested his neck with her teeth and tried not to bite too hard. His breath became ragged.
A chorus of howls echoed down the river. A cherry bomb burst in the distance.
Or was it a gun?
Vivian froze.
“Ow! Your nails.” Aiden pulled back.
She quickly sheathed her claws. “I’m sorry. I…”
Aiden laughed wickedly and reached for her again. “You wild woman.”
Vivian felt a vibration in the ground. She struggled to her knees while Aiden held on and murmured in protest. Out in the night a dark mass swept though the grass, coming their way.
“What’s wrong?” Aiden asked and rose to kneel beside her.
“It’s nothing,” she said, and flung her arms around him and carried him to the ground.
That can’t be the pack, she thought.
They wouldn’t run in town.
But there were too many to be only the Five.
Aiden rolled over on top of her, and she tried to fake interest. She had to keep him occupied. If he saw what hunted tonight, he might panic and run; if he ran he was prey.
The grass hissed louder and louder as if a storm approached. Voiceless they came-many paws softly thundering.
They passed to the right.
“What the…” Aiden sat up.
Vivian snaked an arm around his neck and dragged him back. “Stay down,” she told him. “Dogs. They’re crazy in packs.”
Aiden looked startled. “Jeez, there’s a lot.”
The musk of them filled the air-familiar scents. Astrid was in the lead.
Damn the bitch.
What was she thinking to lead a run this large through the middle of Riverview?
After Astrid came Lucien Dafoe, Rafe’s father, stinking of drink. Rafe was rapidly edging him out. The rest of the Five were there, but so were others, mostly Astrid’s age-mates, no elders, and all male. Ulf brought up the rear. She could hear him pant with an asthmatic wheeze.
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