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  Shortly after noon, I heard her little car struggling up my hill. Shadow and I had returned to our tree and anxiously hopped off it to meet her. She pulled up in a blanket of dirt and came running out of the car to give me a hug.

  “Oh, I’m so glad to be back in your arms.” She rested her head against my chest in an embrace.

  “What’s up?” I questioned.

  “Well, a lot of things. Cops have been all over town, visiting people that attended the party. They’re trying to get information about the mass disappearance of kids from last night. They stopped by and questioned me this morning. They have that entire section of the woods in and around the party spot marked off for investigation.”

  “Mass disappearance?” I asked, perplexed.

  “Yeah, even though everyone that was there is reporting people getting killed, there are no bodies and no signs of a struggle. So they’re treating it as a mass missing persons case until bodies turn up. They think it was some kind of a cult ritual or something. It looks like about thirty or forty people are missing.”

  “What did you tell them?” I was curious to hear what she might have let slip out. Hopefully she didn’t give anything away.

  “I played ball, even though I did tell them that I didn’t see anyone get killed in all the mayhem. I don’t want parents to think their children are dead. Whether that was the right thing to do, I’m not sure.”

  I reached over and pulled her to me again, rubbing her back as I held her. “It was the right thing to do. There’s nothing wrong with giving people hope…we should know something about that, huh?” Shade looked at me and smiled.

  “I’ve gotta go deal with Shimmer. I need to leave as soon as possible. I’m not sure what, but his followers are up to something. They should have attacked us last night like they threatened, but they didn’t, and I can’t figure out why. They’re never ones to back out on their promises.”

  “When do you plan on leaving?”

  “Tomorrow morning. I must get to him before anyone else gets hurt…especially you.” I leaned towards her and gave her a kiss. “While I’m gone, no matter how long that may be, do not leave your house unless it’s absolutely necessary. Especially, don’t come up here and wait for me. Just keep Shadow with you. I have no idea what they’ve planned and I don’t like the fact they know I won’t be around to protect you. It’s too easy for them.”

  “What if you’re gone for months again? What if schools starts before you return, I have to go, don’t I?”

  “If I return. Of course, just be mindful, at all times, of your surroundings. You see red eyes, you get the hell out of wherever you are. Understand?”

  “Of course.”

  Just to make sure that the gravity of the situation was fully registering in her sometimes too laid back and playful brain, I took both of my hands and placed them on each of her cheeks, pulling her face away from my chest.

  “I mean it, Shade. You heard what they said, Shimmer wants to make you one of his vampire mistresses like Molina and Sierra. You can’t get complacent and careless while I’m gone, that’s precisely what they’re looking for. The next thing you know, you’re on the side of a milk carton.”

  “I know, Leo. I’ll be careful.” The look in her eyes told me that she indeed took things very seriously.

  We hugged further and decided to spend our last day together. Her phone constantly rang due to her parents, and some friends, mainly Sandra, making sure she was safe throughout the day. She too would call and check in constantly with her girlfriends when they weren’t calling her. It was easy to see what unsettling circumstances I brought to Mountainside. It was my fault. The more I tried to keep people away from harm, the more they were in danger, it seemed.

  Despite the anxiety in the air, we went and ate lunch at our spot by Gold Rock River. I even told her to swing in to Golf and Cart’s so I could treat her to an Avalanche. We laughed and talked all day, and when the sun started to lower just above the western mountain peaks, we knew our time was running out. We decided to cap off the day by going back to my spot and sitting up in my tree before we returned, together, to her house.

  “I can’t help but feel like I’ve pulled this town, our friends, you, underwater and I’m slowly watching everyone drown.” My conscience was killing me as I sat with Shade in my arms on our branch, watching the setting sun.

  “Leo, you couldn’t have known this would happen. They cheated, you said it yourself. You didn’t have anything to do with what they did.”

  “Yes, but if I hadn’t stood against the council, none of this would be happening right now. I’d still be on good terms with Scruffy, you and the town would be safe…”

  Shade interrupted. “Yeah, I wouldn’t be safe, I’d be dead right now.”

  “You may end up dead anyway, or even worse, undead as a bride to Shimmer.”

  “Well, although we may not realize it, all human beings are walking towards the grave. Every breath brings us one closer our last. I’m not afraid to die, but I am afraid of Shimmer. I’d as soon kill myself before letting him have me.”

  “Well, I won’t let that happen, so don’t kill yourself…It would make saving you be in vain.”

  “I won’t ever leave you, Leo.”

  We hugged and kissed through most of the sunset until her parents called and ordered her to come home. Shade wanted to stay a little longer, allowing the dark of night to fully set in so I wouldn’t have to wait as long for Shade’s parents to go to bed. She told them she would be there in less than an hour, which didn’t set too well with them.

  While she was on the phone, I heard some cracks and crinkles out in the woods. I didn’t think much about it because I hear noises all the time out here. Sometimes it’s the sound of small branches falling off the trees, but mostly it is the local wildlife investigating my spot before doing their best to avoid any place I’m near. But given this heightened state of awareness we’ve needed lately, I thought it best to hop off the tree and just take a look around from the ground level.

  Shade was still getting lectured by her worried parents as I studied the area below. I walked to the edge of the tree line where I heard the noises coming from and casually peered into the darkening forest. Nothing looked out of the ordinary as I paced between the trees. But suddenly my demon radar went off, sensing something evil in the vicinity although I couldn’t see anything. I immediately turned to Shade, who was saying goodbye to her folks on the phone.

  “Get off the tree, Shade, hurry…Grab Shadow.”

  “What’s going on?”

  “Just do it.” I waved my hands, urging her to speed it up.

  Realizing that it would be much faster to go up and pull her down myself, I did just that. She grabbed Shadow and I snagged her and quickly flew her to her car.

  “Are they here?” Shade questioned, knowing what I was probably sensing.

  “I’m not sure. Just get into your car and…” Then out of the corner of my eye I saw movement between the trees. “…Who’s out there?” I called out uncertainly.

  “I’m scared, Leo.” Shade pulled me close to her.

  “You’re not leaving yet, I’ll be ushering you home tonight.”

  The noises became louder as they got closer. Again I demanded, “Show yourself!”.

  “As. You. Wish.” A familiar voice, and set of figures came out of the trees. It was Jonas, who greeted us with a bow, followed by his horde of three jocks.

  “I thought I told you that if I saw you guys anywhere near us again, I would kill you. We have no further business together.”

  Jonas chuckled and locked his fingers together in front of him. “We beg to differ. Relax, we’re here to offer one more proposition to you—one you might like, hero.”

  “And the proposition is?” I asked before turning to whisper to Shade, “Hang onto Shadow and get in your car. When we start fighting, drive home, fast and hard. Don’t stop for any reason. When you get home, run inside and don’t come out for any reason.�
� Shade nodded and ducked into her car, laying Shadow in the passenger seat. It was odd, Shadow was growling and hissing at Jonas and his clique as he sat next to her. It was like he could sense their evil, something he never once did to me unless I was in shadow form.

  “It’s simple; we fight. If you kill us, your precious girlfriend there and the humans in her town will be safe from any harm by all vampires. If we capture you, no one is safe.”

  “What if I don’t fight?”

  “You lose.” Jonas raised an egotistical eyebrow as his snarky horde giggled behind him.

  “How do I know you’ll keep your word?”

  “It comes by order of Shimmer.”

  “That’s not good enough.”

  Jonas understood that I didn’t trust him so he turned to one of his minions, snapping his fingers. The jock handed him a knife. Jonas popped it open and sliced the center of his palm, causing it to bleed. He extended his hand out to me to come and grab it. This was known as the Blood Seal. When a vampire slits his hand and shakes yours, he or she is entering into contract with you, honoring the terms of a deal with a seal by offering his or her own blood as the signature. This is about as rock solid as it gets from a blood blister. I decided to take the offer, even though, naturally, I didn’t trust them. If even a small chance stood to keep Shade secure, along with the people of Mountainside while I was gone, it was worth the risk. Besides, I knew I could rip these dudes apart. I wasn’t going to lose to these idiots.

  “Then I guess I have to kill you.” I clasped my hand in his, sealing the deal.

  Jonas only sneered at my choice and we shook. I instructed Shade to start her car and get out of here. It was time to dance.

  We broke our handshake and I backed up in immediate defense mode. Shade went ripping down my hill, leaving us in a cloud of dirt. Jonas’s rabble spaced themselves out around me, very slow and deliberate, until they had me surrounded. I thrashed out my wings and prepared for battle.

  I expected them to charge me all at once, but that didn’t happen. Jonas nodded at one of the vamp jocks, a signal for him to come at me. That shocked me because he should have known that one single, lower ranking vampire, was no match for a Drift Demon.

  “I’ve always wanted to try a demon,” the moron sneered.

  “Come get you a piece…blister.” I waved my fingers at him to come on.

  With a battle cry, he took up my offer and charged. The moment he got within my reach, he swung a closed fist. I ducked and uppercut him on the chin. When he flew up in the air, I grabbed him by his foot and pulled him back down. As soon as he touched earth, I pounded my hand into his chest and ripped his heart out. His horde looked on in anger as he turned to ash in a flash.

  “That was easy,” I boasted. “You remaining boys may wanna take me on all at once or this is going to end fast.”

  Jonas laughed. ‘I have a better idea, hero.”

  “And that is?”

  Suddenly, Jonas and one of the jocks took off running into the woods, leaving one of the blood suckers behind. I started to run after them but the remaining vampire got in front of me and started swinging. All I did was block a left and right combination he threw at me and it left his chest wide open for the picking. One could guess what happened next.

  After I killed him, I gave chase after the remaining duo. I have to give them credit, they are fast, and man could they jump. When I closed in on one of them, they would jump up into the trees, leaping from branch to branch to avoid my pursuit. I was forced to follow by air. I don’t hop all that well. This continued on for quite a few miles. I could never get my hands on them. I even crashed into a tree once, busting it into toothpicks. It slowed me down, but didn’t stop me.

  The chase continued deep through the canyons and crevices of the Eagle Peak Mountain Range, taking me a quite far from my home. Finally, I was able to get a hold of Jonas while he was jumping from tree top to tree top.

  “You coward! You flee instead of fight!” I called him out as I struggled to reel him into my full grasp.

  “Keep your eyes to the skies!” he warned with a pointed finger.

  I looked up to see what he was pointing at just in time to see the last remaining jock leaping onto me from a nearby tree. He hit with force, causing me to lose my grip on Jonas and plummet to the ground with him on top of me.

  We hit the soil in a roll, which caused him to fall off. When I gathered my senses and stood back up, I saw Jonas’s henchman stumble to his feet as he struggled to find me. I completely lost track of where Jonas went so I figured I had better make quick work of this loser before I continued on in my chase to kill Jonas and win the deal.

  His back was to me as I marched up to him as casual as could be. He turned just in time. I was so confident I didn’t see him ball up a fist and punch me right in the mouth. It didn’t faze me one bit. If anything, it really pissed me off and the look on his face told me that he knew he’d made his final mistake. He tried to run but I grabbed him and plowed through his back and took his heart. Now only one remained.

  Just as I was about to get airborne, I heard clapping behind me.

  “Well done, Leo, well done. You played your part perfectly.” It was Jonas slapping his hands together like he was celebrating.

  “You really can’t be that stupid, Jonas? You stick around when you should run. You should have taken the head start while you had the chance.”

  “Delaying the inevitable, I’m afraid, Leo. You’re right in your assumption that I am no match for you…none of us were…that wasn’t the point.”

  I was perplexed by his admission. “Then why did you make the deal knowing you would die?”

  “Let’s just call it…a noble sacrifice. Hail Shimmer.” His sinister stare told me that maybe this chase wasn’t spontaneous, but pre-determined.

  “What are you talking about, Jonas?” I walked up to him.

  “Sometimes the wolves have to lead the mother away to get at the cub.” He just laughed. I grabbed him by his shirt and pulled him in to me.

  “What do you mean? You better talk or I’m gonna kill you,” I threatened.

  “Precisely the point, my dim-witted demonic friend….you better get to killing because I’m through talking.” He leaned back, tilting his head and closing his eyes. He spread his arms out, leaving his chest wide open, inviting me to go in for the finish. He started humming, seemingly inviting death to come to him. Since I was obviously not going to get another word out of him, and as strange as it was that he was putting up no fight whatsoever for his life, I honored his request and took out his heart. In seconds, the skirmish was over. The only thing left was confusion. What’s going on?

  These low-level vampires knew they were no match for a demon of any kind. Why would Shimmer have them enter into a Blood Seal deal with me? He had to have known that I would win. Something was most definitely up. Then I thought about what he said, Wolves leading the mother away to get at the cub. What did he mean by that? I wasn’t clear yet as to what all this meant, but I was getting a bad feeling.

  I shook my head and flew between the trees to get back home. Once there, I landed on my branch and squatted. I took in the town below, in thought as usual, while I waited for a good time to take off to Shade’s house. It wasn’t long before the time was right and away I went.

  When I got there, I could see that she’d made it home safely because her car was in the driveway. I was relieved. But there were a ton of lights on again in her house and I could see that Anne and Richard were still up by the movement of their shadows through the windows. It was no mystery to me that Shade wouldn’t have the candle in the window yet because of this, and sure enough, it wasn’t there. Her window was still completely closed, too. I would just have to wait a bit longer before I could sneak in.

  I figured since I had time to kill that I might as well go for a short flight in this beautiful weather. I soared among the clouds, trying to figure out what Shimmer was up to. Maybe he was playing psychological games
in an effort to weaken me. If that was the case, it was working. My mind was so stuck on making sure Shade was okay all the time that I didn’t have time to practice my fighting skills or get mentally prepared for a confrontation. I was distracted, without a doubt.

  The remainder of the night I kept swooping by Shade’s house to see if she had the candle in the window so I could sneak in, but dawn was settling in and still no invitation. Something must have been going on in the Lewis household because they were up all night. Every single light in the house eventually got turned on that I could see. Even the porch lights got switched on. I knew something was happening, but I thought it best to return home and wait for Shade to show up and fill me in. I decided not to leave until I saw her because I could tell there was disorder in her home for sure. I was disappointed that I didn’t get to spend what could be my last night with her.

  It was a lonely morning because I didn’t even have my little pal Shadow to talk to. I was almost jealous at the thought of him getting to snuggle up, all nice and warm, with my love in her bed while I sat outside all by my lonesome. Lucky little devil.

  Morning quickly gave way to late afternoon and still no sign of Shade. I was positive now that something else had to have happened. I suspected two scenarios going on, because Shade always comes to me in a reasonable amount of time after some sort of drama goes down, either Shade wasn’t being allowed to leave her house or she hadn’t been able to get away from whatever it was that was keeping her occupied.

  When the night was about to close in, I began to feel very unsettled. This wasn’t like her to not make some kind of effort, even for a second, to get to me and let me know she was all right. I still couldn’t leave for Romania, I had to find out what was keeping her. I thought for sure she would have the candle in the window tonight, but when I flew over to get to the bottom of things, again, there was a shut window and no candle. But her porch lights were on again and I could see the kitchen light on in the house, but that was it. I was completely frustrated. It was driving me nuts not being able to get to her to find out if everything was fine. Again, I flew back home and crossed my fingers that she would show the next day.