“Not really, she’s just dealing with stuff, you know with dad being back. It can’t be easy for her. I assume she still loves him. I’m not sure how you see it. If only you’d seen the way they hugged. You’d already left in a huff that night. I wasn’t supposed to be watching, but I’m a good spy, sis. Let me know if you ever need me to help you, alongside your friends.”
“You might be on to something there. We’ll just have to wait it out, observe what happens. I haven’t been around much. Homework never seems to end, then this? I didn’t expect to be...”
I stopped. Did my sister even know what was going on? Did she know I was a fox? Clearly she knew about the mystery, so that must be OK to bring up.
“I heard mom talking to dad on the phone. She mentioned a clan. What is it? Do you and I belong to a biker gang? What kind of word is clan anyway? We’re not bears, are we?”
“Nope, we’re not bears,” I answered her. “It’s just a group I’m meeting for the assignment dad gave me. You don’t have to be worried.”
“OK,” she shrugged it off.
I touched her shoulder. “Sis, I’d been hoping we’d get some time to spend together after the move. Then with me, starting at Denny’s I got caught up in making money to help mom with my tuition. Things have happened to me, I never expected to. Jenson, I really like him yet I’m not sure if it’s right. Then out jumps dad with this mystery he wants me to solve. I just want you to know I’m still here.”
She rolled her eyes at me and I pulled her into a hug.
“Please don’t get mushy in front of mom. I don’t want her to think that we’re best friends,” Megan chirped.
“No way!” I replied. Then shoved her playfully. We shot down the stairs like tornados into the kitchen.
“You girls are definitely up to something today,” my mom noted as she sat down at the table.
I pulled up a seat, grabbed for the cornflakes and placed them in my bowl. I munched on them without milk. “Not really. We just haven’t gotten our sibling rivalry in lately. I wouldn’t want you to think we’re best buddies. Not happening.”
“Nope,” replied Megan.
My mom grinned as if she knew differently.
We ate breakfast in silence, that’s how we liked to conspire. We weren’t against mom. It was just that some things were better left unsaid. Mom hadn’t always stayed at home with us. When we were younger, we relied on each other. I trusted my sister even if there were times we fought. I’d never had to be concerned when it came to her having my back or likewise. She may have been younger, but at times, she’d been wiser.
Chapter 9
Damn Jenson, where are you? I stood outside, freezing. My game of Bejeweled on my flip phone wore thin. I switched it off to check the time, almost one thirty. Where could he be? This wasn’t like him. In all the years I’d known him, he’d been adamant about arriving on time. Absent-mindedly I scanned pictures taken weeks ago at the college orientation. It was just before my job at Denny’s began. I considered calling Molly when her parent’s car pulled into the drive. Jenson sat next to her in the back seat. Jenson and church, I scoffed.
My heart raced with fear. Were they together? Why would they be? Molly wasn’t interested in boys, was she? She said goodbye to her parents while Jenson stood off to the side wearing a confused expression on his face. It sort of matched his clothes, a purple tie over a blue dress shirt and jeans. Not exactly church attire, but who was I to judge?
Once Molly exited the car, I grabbed her sleeve and pulled her aside privately.
“Give us a minute,” I said eyeing Jenson. Molly’s parents lingered in the driveway.
“What’s going on with you? What’s wrong?” she asked me.
“You can’t keep this up, you need to let go. When are you going to tell your folks, what’s going on with you?” I asked.
“What about you and Jenson? Are you going to keep leading him on? I’ve seen all the signals. You’re not up front with him. I just invited him to church, what’s so immoral about that!”
She was upset, and frankly, I didn’t have a response for her. She was right. I lowered my eyes, feeling her hand on my arm. She took her other hand and gently pushed my chin up so I could see her face.
“I care about you too, but I have to keep them at bay somehow,” she said, looking back at her parents as they pulled out of the driveway.
“Do you know what my church does to people like me? It’s not pretty. I’ll end up at one of those pray it away sessions, in group therapy, or they could even send me away,” she gulped. “It’s just until I can get out on my own, until then I have to act like Jenson and I are...”
She trailed off when she observed Jenson staring at us. I wondered if he thought we were going to kiss. What? Boys are like that, at least most of the boys I knew. Maybe they had changed since high school. Who knows?
I pulled her into a quick hug.
“Honey, does he know?” I asked. “We can’t both be giving him mixed signals.”
“He thinks it’s just a friend thing. I’ve dated guys and can’t stomach it anymore.”
“Tell Jenson, he’ll understand. It won’t be nearly as scary as telling your parents. It surprised me he even went to church with you today.”
“OK, but promise me that eventually you and Jenson... When I see you guys together it makes my own heart melt. That’s to say the least,” gushed Molly. We smiled at each other, our heads touching, giggled a bit, then separated, glimpsing where Jenson stood waiting.
As I waved him over to join us, I asked Molly, “Now how are we going to get to Hunters Park?”
“We’re going to get my car,” Jenson interrupted. “Are you girls done?” he asked, annoyed.
I felt the tension inside me grow. I wasn’t angry at him, more hurt than anything. Jenson and I had disagreements, but he had to understand that sometimes Molly needed me.
“How was the service?” I said, moving closer to him.
He fidgeted with his clothes a bit, “I need to get out of this outfit. It’s not very comfortable. Are we supposed to meet your... them at any certain time?”
“Nope, we’ll just head over to your place so you can change, swing by that coffee shop near the college, and we can eat on the way.”
Jenson started walking ahead of us. We followed.
“Hey,” Molly said. She grabbed Jenson’s shoulder. “Don’t be angry with Starla. I needed to talk to her about something. I have a lot going on right now. We need to concentrate on this. I promise we’ll fill you in later.”
He looked at her and kept moving forward. I heard him mutter under his breath “OK.” Slowing down, he let us catch up with him.
“Church was OK; I’ve heard it all before. I don’t know how you deal with it every Wednesday,” he said to Molly.
“It’s not that bad. I mean, if you think about the unconditional love, grace, and peace and understanding part. I like to think someone is up there watching over us. The fire and brimstone that is spoken of at times there, not so much.”
I stared out the window, admiring the sunshine that gleamed throughout the trees, leaving shadows on the pavement as we passed. I touched the molding on the glass. Then felt the car turn as Jenson pulled left into the Rangers station. It appeared deserted until I spotted a few cars in the lot. A moped, pretty cool, I thought. Pink too, sweet! Who did it belong to? The license plate had a fox paw on it, but other than that it was the usual Springville plate.
“Did you call Ranger Mike?” asked Jenson, parking the car next to a blue Tempo.
“No, I never had time, after you and Molly left it was pretty late. My teddy bear got more sleep than I did, in spite of his ability to fly across the room.”
“So--,” said Molly.
“Teddy bears don’t just fly across the room,” Jenson interrupted.
“OK, I threw the bear, Mr. Teddy deserved it, he was supposed to comfort me and he didn’t! It made me angry that I couldn’t sleep, also sort of afraid someone
from the clan might show up. Doubtful I know, but possible. I hit the files on a shelf in my room. As a result of Teddy’s adventure, flying papers went falling via Mr. Gravity. So I ended up digging around where I shouldn’t have.”
“Any new information?” asked Molly.
I realized Mike was jogging towards our vehicle. Great timing mister, I thought as I unbuckled my safety belt.
“Yeah, as usual, it will have to wait, or we’ll have to discuss it with Mike. I look forward to you both being cleared for take off.”
“Meaning?” asked Jenson.
“That you and Molly have been OK’d to be a part of everything involved in my new life. Not only the mystery, but my new identity, or old identity, I’m not sure which it is.”
Mike rapped on the car window. Jenson rolled it down.
“Hi, how’s it going?” Jenson asked.
“Good, you never called,” he said, eyeing me.
I felt guilty, but it was an honest mistake.
“Sorry,” I said, getting ready to open the car door.
“I have some donuts and coffee up at the station. Starla, did you go over those files? I thought maybe you might have gotten a chance to look at them. I know I never asked you to, but I just sort of assumed you being your dad’s daughter and all.”
“Teddy had an adventure and on that journey, I decided I ought to look at the archive.”
“You are a strange girl,” Ranger Mike, replied, shaking his head.
“No, she is just awfully witty,” said Molly and grinned.
“Oh Starla,” Jenson sighed, giving me a side glance, then busted out in laughter.
We exited the car en route to the station. Ranger Mike, must have thought we were all nuts.
“Here we are,” the ranger opened the door for us to step in. The room was fairly small. Straight ahead was the viewing area for the park. It had a few seats. Monitors sat on a low hung desk attached to the wall.
“The refreshments are over here,” he said, leading the way into a large conference area. “Let’s sit and talk about our current circumstances. I want to fill you in on what I couldn’t yesterday. Starla, your friends have all been given the OK to help you.”
“Thanks,” I said, sitting down. Jenson and Molly followed suit.
“So, you don’t want to discuss the files I found first?” I asked, reaching for a ring of yummy glazed goodness. I began to eat, and my friends helped themselves to the varieties at hand.
“I need to fill you in on how the park works. You can’t just be wandering about wherever you wish. You see, your clan lives on one side of the pines. The other side is wolf territory.”
“That must be why we saw that wolf, but he leaped out of the woods chasing after a deer. Was he coming from his territory, or the fox?” asked Molly.
“Oh, they are both allowed to cross lines for hunting purposes, but preying on each other is forbidden while they share the same habitat. My rules, not theirs, but they have managed to live by them so far,” he replied.
We nodded in response.
“The vampire hybrid wolves? Now where do they live?” Jenson piped up. “I can’t imagine they are too far away if they found Starla.”
“Ah, Shellena, and Lance have their own story. The wolf pack they once held a partnership with abandoned them once they, uh...”
“They were bitten by vampires!” I said, in my excitement.
“The pack they had belonged to was a sorry bunch anyway. I didn’t much care for them. I’d only met them once, and it wasn’t pleasant. It was during a festival called “The Peace of Difference.” That is where I encountered them attempting to create conflict. I had to break up the brawl before it got out of hand. In the case of the wolves, we have three different packs in the area. Trinity is a pack of three. They mostly keep to themselves. The Crusaders tend to watch over the park in subtle ways. I don’t see them often. They only contact me if necessary. Shellena and Lance pretty much stand alone as allies of ours.”
“The wolves that live on the other side of our fox clan, which are they? What can we expect from them?” I asked.
“The Crusaders live across from us, most of the time they are cooperative. We’ve had some issues of fights between the clans.” Mike took a sip of his coffee then set it down. “Things actually had calmed down. That is until Martin Du-Vance’s body showed up in our woods. The first thing I asked myself, is who is to blame?”
“They could be outsiders. We cannot assume the clans here had anything to do with it, can we?” asked Jenson.
“I suppose you’re right. You have the file I gave you as well as the newspaper report. Currently suspects are limited. Your father, Starla, is one of the best investigators we have. The police do their best to work with us. I’ve tried to get your mom to join for years, but she’s still being stubborn.”
“Have you spoken with Martin Du-Vance’s father? You have to ask yourself what the connections are between Martin and the clan. If he was an active member, is there a reason he may have been killed? If you don’t call his father in for questioning, then what have we got to go on? The reason I ask is because I saw no file in that pile pertaining, to his dad, except for a current address. The odd thing is the papers never mention any living family members,” I probed.
“It’s pretty taboo on our end. Rascal, that’s what Du-vance called his dad. He said he was a pretty private person. I know for a fact he asked the papers to only state what happened to his son. He didn’t want to be publicly involved, considering this an incredibly private matter due to his circumstances. Dan, I mean your father, has spoken with him briefly about this tragedy. I know little about Rascal except for what Martin told me while on duty here, divulging few details. I have no clue how they might fit together. Du-vance said after his mother died things changed between them. They grew closer than they’d ever been before. Then about a year later his father became involved with a woman. Martin said it was the happiest he’d ever seen him. Then all of a sudden she broke it off. Du-vance had no clue why this woman would want to hurt his dad. The only other detail I recall Martin sharing with me was the pride his father felt when he told him he wanted to become a ranger. He was learning how to protect the clans’ territories and to observe humans around him and others who could prove fatal to our existence. We have few human allies.”
“That’s all we have to go on?” I asked.
“For right now,” stated the ranger, getting up to remove the empty donut box from the table.
“I can’t sit anymore,” complained Molly.
“Me either,” I replied.
“About that, do you kids want to take a stroll around the grounds?” Mike stood up and stretched.
“I thought I was going to meet my clan today. What about the other people in those files? I still have a lot of questions.” I shot up out of my seat, “I knew Cal Summers!”
Mike’s eyes grew wide, his jaw dropped.
“Yes, we attended elementary school together in L.A. I was five. It shocked me to see her in the missing person file. She may have been a part of my clan. These missing kids must have connections to Du-vance; he ought to have known something. Was he trying to find them, and someone found out?”
Chapter 10
“Starla, if you’re going to meet with your clan today, you must do it alone. I’ll go over the police reports I was not yet permitted to disclose to you. I can’t make any promises when it comes to giving you answers. You wanted your friends with you, I get that. Right now even with the approval of the clan, things are pretty unstable with some of our members. If I send you in there by yourself, they’ll be more at ease. I’ll be here, observing from afar. Heck, your friends can stand on the outskirts near the entrance, but going by yourself, shows bravery. They truly admire that kind of thing.” He looked over at Molly and Jenson. “How do you two feel about that?”
“He’s right, you should go. Why would he send you out there, if something was going to happen?” questioned Molly.
&nb
sp; Jenson shook his head. “I don’t care if it’s in the middle of the day. Martin Du-vance is dead, we have missing people, and you want to send my girlfriend out into the woods alone! Nuh uh, I don’t think so, mister.”
“Jenson!” I exclaimed.
“You are a girl and my friend. Plus, I care for you, but we’ll talk about it later, in private,” he stated firmly.
“I’ll go. I’m not pleased about it,” I muttered, giving him an angry stare.
Mike instructed me. “When you get to the clearing, sit cross-legged, meditate. Find yourself, your center first of all. I realize you’ve only transformed through being startled, or was it panic? Anyway, they will be watching.”
“So not only do I have to go alone, but I have to transform into a fox?”
“Yes, that way they know you’re who you claim to be. It’s the only way,” he concluded.
My friends hugged me goodbye. I shot the ranger a bit of a dirty look. I didn’t hate him; I was just upset.
The pine trees smelled fantastic. Thankful for the cold weather for a change, I hurried along and hummed to soothe myself. It was a crock, this entire “meet them by yourself” crap. If, that was how it must be done, I would do it. Reflections swirled in my head, taking over. I let them run wild. I’d really stunned Mike when I’d told him about Cal. I’d never forget the expression on his face. If only he’d given me more answers. My only choice was to admit we’d hit a dead end until new evidence presented itself. Still, I needed to find out why my tattoo, or clan print, acted the way it did. Each step I took seemed to push me one step back.
I was in the middle of two lives, one I’d always known as a human and then myself as a fox. Was I scared? A little. Breathing in the sweet aroma, I took in my surroundings. It was just as it had looked before, big tall pines on either side of the trail. I sat cross-legged in meditation, pushed my arms out in front of me, flexed my fingers and moved my wrists as if I were making them dance. I brought them down to the ground, jamming my hands into the earth as I had my paws when I’d run to go to Jenson’s that night. Slowly rising up into my throat, the panic rose. I can’t say it felt any more pleasant this time than before. The transformation started from my torso and worked its way out. My whole body ripped inside out. I saw them, foxes started to trot out one by one. How many were there? I continued in pain until my last whisker set itself in place.
Myth (Book 1) Page 6
