Full Moon Hike - Julie Steimle (red queen free ebook .txt) 📗

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, most likely 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 in the mountain where we were headed.

“Kids,” my father spoke us as he drove farther 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 blond head with a tired glance 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 grimaced, 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 emitted 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 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. 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 sunblock 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 had. 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 long 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 reprimand 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 cheerfully chuckled, 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 got interested, even excited.

But Dawn moaned as our father steered the car on the gravel lot and parked it 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 all the door locks. All of us climbed out, eager to get on our feet again. As I emerged from the car, every smell 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 gazed 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, his camera bouncing on his chest as he walked. His wife was only slightly thinner than he was, but her body was balanced. Only slightly more tastefully dressed, her shirt was sleeveless but had the relief of covering her midriff. There were other campers walking around. One family with two spoiled kids in designer jeans and shoes screaming for something they wanted and would probably get if they shrieked loud enough; a group of wild 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 coats that were 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 a rather pretty and curvaceous blonde. 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 lifted her head.

“Excuse me,” he said. “But my daughter thinks she saw three men outside, one of them talking 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 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