Eternal by V. Forrest (new reading TXT) 📗

was. How important she was to the sept, and how much they would rely on her once she reached adulthood again. “No one said Mahon and Bobby were killed by slayers,” Kaleigh responded.

“No one saying it doesn’t mean it isn’t so.”

Kaleigh’s gaze bore into Fia. “Who else would know how to kill us?”

“I don’t know,” Fia said.

“You don’t know,” Kaleigh whispered. “None of us do. At least we agree on that. But I’m not going to live afraid. I’m not going to give up my life, my friends, Derek, just because someone might come out of the dark and chop my head off.”

“No one’s asking you to give up your life,” Fia countered. “We’re just asking you not to be stupid.”

“You’re not in charge of me. No one is.” Kaleigh crossed her arms over her small breasts. “You have no right to sneak up on us like this. We weren’t doing anything wrong. We were just sitting here, talking.”

“You could set the whole forest on fire with that thing.” Fia nodded in the direction of the campfire which had died down to a smolder.

“Could not. We dug down to the dirt. Made that log ring to contain it. Derek used to be a Boy Scout.” She said the last sentence proudly.

Fia glanced in the direction of the tallest of the boys, who was cramming an old blanket into his backpack. “That a beer can I see next to your foot, Mr. Neuman?”

The boy leaned over, snatched up the can and stuffed it into his backpack.

“Anything else you have in that pack illegal?” Fia asked. “I probably don’t have to remind you that these girls, that all of you, are underage, Mr. Neuman.”

“Fee,” Kaleigh warned under her breath. “Don’t you dare.”

The other two boys were already slipping into the woods, but to Fia’s surprise, Derek walked toward her.

“I didn’t mean to get Kaleigh in any trouble, ma’am.”

Fia hated it when young men ma’ammed her. Her first impulse was to walk Mr. Neuman and his pimply-faced buddies out of the woods and have one of the Clare Point patrol cars pick them up and deliver them to their parents. But she knew that wasn’t realistic. It was never a good idea to stir up trouble in the surrounding human communities, if it could be helped. This was already a dangerous time for the sept; she didn’t need to make it worse.

“How old did you say you were, again?” Fia scrutinized the young man more closely.

“Fifteen. Well, now he’s sixteen. He just had his birthday,” Kaleigh said, jumping in.

Fia narrowed her gaze further. “You don’t look sixteen, Mr. Neuman. You look older. Almost old enough to be an adult, influencing minors,” she intoned.

The human stared at his big feet.

Fia let the silence grow uncomfortable before she spoke again. “Didn’t I just remind you kids the other night that we have a killer in the area who has yet to be apprehended?”

“We stayed together,” he said, glancing up. Sounded like a big, dumb, human kid. “And we were going to walk the girls back to town. I swear it.”

“Derek, I’m really sorry.” Kaleigh ran her hand up and down his arm. “We didn’t tell anyone, I swear we didn’t.”

“Um…is it okay if I go?” Derek asked Fia. “I’m not sure the guys know how to get out of here.”

Fia hesitated, then raised her hand, pointing northwest. “Sure. Go ahead. But don’t let me catch you out here in the middle of the night with these girls again, or I will call the cops.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Derek leaped over one of the logs they had been sitting on and took off into the woods.

“And I better not find any beer cans littering this federal wildlife preserve, Mr. Neuman,” she called after him.

Fia heard a muffled “Yes, ma’am” as Derek disappeared into the darkness. The women were talking quietly to the other girls.

“Didn’t tell anyone what?” Fia asked Kaleigh as soon as the boys were out of earshot.

“Didn’t tell anyone”—Kaleigh shifted her weight from one sneaker to the other—“about us coming out here.”

Fia really wished she could read the teen’s thoughts right now but there was nothing there but a tangle of emotions and random words, none of which made any coherent sense. “So exactly what were you really doing out here?”

“I don’t know. Hanging out.”

“And…”

“What, you mean were we having sex?” The teen crossed her arms defensively again. “No, we weren’t having sex. We were cooking marshmallows and…and so maybe we were kissing a little.”

“You weren’t practicing witchcraft?”

Kaleigh looked at Fia as if she was crazy. “What are you talking about? Is that what you think happened to Mahon? Witches got him?”

“So you don’t know anything about an altar? Sacrificing rabbits?”

Kaleigh wrinkled her freckled nose. “Ewww. Gross.” She took a step back. “You were out here looking for people sacrificing animals?” She gave another laugh. “Lot of people out here tonight, you know. I saw Uncle Arlan a little while ago. He was like a saber-toothed tiger or something stupid like that. All creeping through the bushes spying on us, too.”

A smile threatened to tug at the corners of Fia’s mouth but she resisted. She could just imagine Arlan slinking around the teenagers’ campfire cloaked as some prehistoric cat. Maybe he was who she needed to scare a little sense into those boys. If a four-hundred-pound saber-toothed tiger walked into their quaint little camp site, they might think twice before they entered the wildlife preserve after dark again.

“I can’t believe you were so rude to Derek.” Kaleigh began to kick dirt over the glowing embers of the campfire. “He’s going to be so pissed at me.”

“I can’t imagine a fifteen”—Fia cleared her throat—“sixteen year old could be angry that an adult suggested you all didn’t belong out in the woods in the middle of the night. And if he is, you don’t need a guy like that.”

“What do you know about Derek?” Kaleigh kicked the dirt. “You don’t know anything about him.”

“What I know is that