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

up. Come on Eve, Bette, Dawn, boys. Let’s go.”

My mother shook her finger at Mr. Deacon. “You ought to be ashamed of yourself. Prejudiced against my little girl. How dare you accuse her of anything, you…you…you wolf.”

Travis and Will exchanged glances then looked to Rick. The three of them shrugged. Rick’s father saw it, peering up at my family once more. Dawn waved at Rick, giving one last flirtatious smile before our dad dragged us all outside. I had been distracted, hearing all their imps shouting odd suggestions, though Mr. Deacon’s was constantly telling him to bite my father. That was why I had interfered. Despite now knowing a cure for a werewolf bite, I didn’t think I wanted to smell garlic on Dad’s breath. I was still allergic. 

We walked back from the lodge to the gate and out, my dad steering us all towards our cabin, whispering to us as we went along.

“Ok,” he said, as grave as I have ever seen him, all logic in his manner, “You helped save a werewolf. That’s fine. I don’t care. If Eve thinks that Deacon kid is harmless, I’ll believe her. You all came back in one piece, and that’s all that matters to me. However, we have to decide what to do in the mean time to deal with this. So let’s start with today. First off, I want you all showered and in a change of clothes. I’m going air out the tents…”

“We got a lot of wolf hair in one tent,” Travis murmured.

“…and your mother is going to make lunch. I was hoping for a barbecue, shish-kabobs and hamburgers, but uh, maybe you kids want something a little lighter.”

“No, no, no,” Travis said, “I’m hungry for meat. Rick ate one of our hotdogs.”

“He ate my hotdog,” I said, punching Travis lightly in the stomach.

“Hey! She hit me!” Travis ducked away, laughing.

We started to joke again, the tension dissipating with playful jibes even as we carried our packs right into the cabin. We were safe. The hunters wouldn’t dare attack us while we were in camp. And Rick was in his home, safe also with all those guards to watch him. In way, though, I felt sorry for him. He didn’t seem like the kind of guy that liked living away from other people, even in a fancy house.

Friends and Family

 

“Hey, space cadet!” Dawn smacked me on the back of my head. I had been sitting on the porch of the cabin eating my shish-kabob, thinking long over what had happened. All of us were clean, and Dad was chatting with Mom about something in secret. Their imps were suggesting to ground me for helping a werewolf, but I knew they wouldn’t actually do it.

Dawn tilted her head to the side and said with a smile, “We’re going to play scrabble. Come join us.”

I got up and walked inside, listening for imps of the hunters. So far I hadn’t detected them. It was clear they had run for it, knowing I would tell who they were.

After our usual scrabble word struggle where Travis made up words, and Dawn and he bickered over the meanings while Will and I racked up points looking for obscure words for Z and Q, I went to the room that Dawn and I shared with the intent to take a nap. I hadn’t slept much that night so I was exhausted. Dawn went with Travis and Will to look at the camp map to plot out tomorrow’s walk to the lake, though I could have sworn I heard their imps suggest they sneak off to the camp store to buy some junk food. I crashed on my wonderfully soft cabin bed, not even using the blankets. The funny thing was, I could only sleep for just a couple hours. When I woke, it was to a number of questions suddenly going through my mind, all of them about our last confrontation with Mr. Deacon. They bugged me so much that I sat up and decided to get some answers. Unfortunately getting the answers would be something of a problem since Mr. Deacon didn’t like me at all, and I knew the best source for those answers was Rick. He was probably resting his wounded leg in his room.

So, I decided to be sneaky about it. I drew out my wings from my back and went invisible first, then immaterial, slipping right through the cabin wall. Pushing off into the air, flying up so I could see all that was in the camp, I headed towards the Deacons’ lodge.

As a note, flying invisible is not the same as flying visible. Being partially immaterial when invisible, I don’t feel the wind as much, and though I am lighter in the invisible state, it just isn’t as fun. Also, I hear the imp chatter more, which has always been distracting.

The folks in one cabin were punks, and I don’t mean by their hairstyle and clothing either. Their imps tempted them to trash the place, and they listened to their imps often. In the cabin where the family with the spoiled kids was at were imps that practically sang with joy when tempting the brats to do naughty things. I was half tempted to sneak into that house and give those kids what for, but I stopped myself. Instead, I listened to the sound on the air, hoping to spy out those hunters—but I got nothing.

So, when I reached the edge of the lodge I pushed off the stone wall to get a good look at the place. Two large flaps, and I lighted on the roof resting on one gable. It really was quite large, the tile somewhat slippery as if on purpose. From curiosity I hopped off the roof and peered into the windows, not breaking in, though I really wanted to talk to Rick about what happened. And if luck would have it (though I really don’t believe in luck) I spotted him in the second room I peered into. I didn’t think he’d appreciate me just floating in through the wall and appearing there. So, going solid and visible, I rapped on the window instead. 

Rick jumped, saw me, and clenched chest. “Don’t do that!”

But he walked over, helping me open the window to let me in, removing the screen. I smiled, sliding my feet in first.

“If my dad finds out you’re here, he’ll kill you,” Rick said.

I decided not to argue over that as I hopped inside, realizing it was his bedroom. His room was twice the size as mine at home, rustic wood everywhere, though there was also a feel of him in the place. Posters of basketball stars hung on almost every wall, a computer on a desk to one side, a queen-sized bed with NBA sheets and blankets, a small hoop in one corner with a foam basketball, and a huge blue micro fiber bean bag chair in the corner.

“Wow, so this is how you camp,” I said.

Rick huffed, and with his limp, pushed me to the chair at the desk to make me sit. “No. This is just one of many homes. We don’t come here to camp.”

Pulling most of my wings into my back so that they were smaller, I glanced around the room, ignoring the chair at the desk, steering clear of the bed and meandering towards the bookshelf I had just noticed, silently reading the titles. Most of it was stuff by Ray Bradbury, though I saw some Heinlein and Orson Scott Card stuff in there. His most serious book was a history text about the Salem witch trials called The Devil in Massachusetts. I turned and peered at him.

“Ok…” I walked back to the window. “You obviously have issues.”

Rick stepped in my way so I could not go out. “What is it that you came for? You didn’t just come to tour around my room.”

I nodded, sighing as I leaned on the windowsill. “Ok. It’s like this. What exactly does your dad have against me? I remember you freaking first, but got over it. Your dad doesn’t seem so ready to get over it. Did you tell him anything we talked about last night?”

Rubbing the ridge between his eyes, Rick then looked to me with a sorry expression. “I did. But, Eve, you have to understand, what you are is pretty freaky.”

Pausing, I nodded slowly. “Ok. But so are you.”

He pressed his teeth together, trying to choose the right words. “Yes, but you have a specific purpose, and that purpose happens to…uh, attack…well…. I told you the Holy Seven are my friends, that my best friend is one of them. They’re unique people, Eve. I’ve never met anybody like them. And neither has my father.”

Now we were coming to it. The answer.

“Eve, I would protect my friends with my life,” Rick said with a reading stare at my face. “When they discovered I was a werewolf, they didn’t exactly freak, though they were cautious. But when they heard me out—the fact that they did hear me out like you and your family did—they treated my situation as if I just some regular kid with a difficult problem.” He then smiled with a reminiscing expression on his face. “Kind of like how your family is, though the Seven are more skeptics with a wider range of characters.”

“Tell me about the Holy Seven,” I said.

“What?” He turned his head with a wary glance.

“I don’t mean I want to know specifics about those ones,” I said already on my guard. “I have no intention of hunting them down. But what are they for anyway?”

Rick nodded. “Ok. I guess I can tell you that much.

“The Holy Seven are chosen people from all walks of life whose calling in this world is to put balance back into the world by clearing out magical mayhem, ending curses, eliminating demons that cause trouble, and basically battle the influence of witchcraft.” He then looked at me gravely. “It would be their duty to get rid of you.”

I felt sick. It was no wonder they stirred up a fear in me that made me want to lash out. Just seeing Michael Toms in my town had made me want to bite his head off. Hearing he was one of the Seven had only made it worse. I prayed in my heart that I would never meet up with any of the others.

“It should have been their duty to get rid of me and my father,” Rick continued. “But for some reason this Seven is different. They didn’t just see us as monsters. They could see into our hearts.”

“Into your hearts? Like, with magic?” I had never really been a believer in magic, though I was starting to with all that crazy stuff that happened after Halloween. By then I had seen my share of weird.

Rick shook his head. “No. It’s just…how they are. Their personality. They are good judges of character for the most part.”

“What makes them the Holy Seven? Who decided this?” I asked, still wondering how all of that worked.

He shrugged and then lifted his head as if he had smelled or heard something coming. I detected another heartbeat approaching. Rick turned to me. “You have to go.