Sanguine Moon

by Jennifer Foxcroft

  “Oh my God.”

  “Decker and a bunch of pups were flying back to the roost when two owls swooped down on them. One owl had two of the pups locked in its talons. Decker …” Rocks looks at me. He chokes so I take his hand. “Decker saved them. He wrapped his wings around the creature’s head, blinding it. It let go of the pups, and they both plummeted down, twisting and turning. He let go and was winging it back to the injured pups when the beast grabbed him.”

  “What happened?” I don’t want to ask, but I owe it to the kind Camazotz that befriended me.

  “It tore him in two.” Rocks sobs once, letting go of my hands to cover his face.

  “No!” I wrap my arms around his shoulders and pull him in against me. My emotional pit was close to overflowing before, and now it spills over the edge. My tears join his as I try to push the horrific visual from my mind. Poor Decker—so kind, sweet, and accepting. The colony has suffered an enormous loss. Rocks says the owls eat their prey and my stomach churns in horror.

  We sit crying together for I don’t know how long. I know some of my tears aren’t just for Decker. They’re for Mini, what my parents are dealing with, and for Rocks and I. It’s all too much. Rocks gets control of his emotions way before I can stop mine. Now that the floodgates have opened, it’s hard to stop the flow. He sits up straighter and is suddenly holding me and giving comfort.

  “I know you told me to stay away, but I figured you’d want to know,” he says quietly. I nod against his chest.

  “Thank you. Decker was my friend too.”

  Rocks pulls back and wipes the tears under my eyes with his thumbs. A faint smile pulls at his lips. “He was your friend. He never said a bad word about you—ever.”

  Rock shifts to the side and pulls out a piece of folded paper from his back pocket. I watch as he opens it and nestled inside is one of the photos of Decker. He’s standing tall with a hand on his hip posing for the camera. Seeing his happy, carefree, smiling face tears at what’s left of my heart. I bite my lip so I won’t start crying again.

  “You must have done this. It’s your room.” Rocks points to my lace curtains behind Decker. He frowns again, and I can’t even begin to understand how hard this must be for him. “When did you do this? I don’t mind. Honestly, I’m ever so grateful, but when?”

  I tell him about the night Decker came to check on me, and that he refused to come inside my room because Rocks wasn’t here. Rocks smiles and agrees it’s so like his brother. I recall how shy he was acting when he made his request, and the only way I could lure him in was when he asked for a photo.

  “Do you have the others?” I ask.

  “What others? Jet found this at the tin shop hidden amongst Decker’s tools at his workbench. There’s more?” Hope fills his features, and it allows me to breathe deeper seeing him look more like his old self.

  I grab my phone and show him the four photos—three of Decker, and the one of Decker with his arm slung around my shoulders laughing. Rocks takes my phone and flicks back and forth between the photos, a gentle smile on his face.

  “Oh, Connie.” He looks at me. “You’ve given us so much. Thank you. I can never repay you. Now, I will never forget my brother’s face.” My heart beats faster. I have given a gift to Rocks that nobody will be able to tarnish. Regardless of all the trouble I have caused, I have done another good thing, and Jeremiah’s words suddenly make sense.

  When I ask about the pups that Decker saved, the solemn look Rocks gives me sends my emotions swirling. One of the two pups bled to death the next day. The other is badly injured but still alive. Swearing loudly, my hands fist as Rocks explains that the wings are divided. Judge wanted Rocks to bring the wounded pups to me so I could take them to the animal doctor. The Sire put his foot down and decreed that since I was no longer involved with Rocks, all aeronaught interaction was strictly forbidden—except with customers at the markets.

  “Judge thinks you could’ve saved little Harper. She was his niece. His brother was killed last year in the first attacks, so his bloodline has come to an end.”

  “What wing is the wounded pup from?” I’m trying to work out how the wings are feeling about technology. Change might be in the air if modern medicine can save them, and that will make Rocks less of a target for their disgust and mistrust.

  “Gems. Little Sapphire has some deep talon wounds. They’re still bleeding. I think she’s only got a fifty-fifty chance.”

  “What does Carnelian have to say about it?” Judge has always been on my side. I wonder what the Fold member of the gemstone wing is thinking now that one of his own is potentially mortally wounded.

  “Not much. I think he might be siding with Judge, but he hasn’t said. He’s in a difficult place politically. For two generations, the Gemstone wing wasn’t in the Fold. Carnelian—with the help of his father—got voted back into power like his great-grandfather was. He plays his cards close so he doesn’t ruin Malachite’s—his son—chance of taking over, allowing the Gemstone wing to remain influential within the colony. It’s part of the reason the union between Graceland and Malachite is encouraged.”

  Malachite was the Camazotz sent to scare me away last year in the park. He’s being politically aligned with the Land wing on purpose in order to gain votes when the time arises.

  “So the, the” —I swallow— “union between two Camazotz is sometimes political?” I need to get over my aversion to the term mating.

  Rocks nods. “More often than not. Because the Gem wing was out of power for two generations, Carnelian selected daughters of Fold members to mate with. The Little wing was a powerful wing, except they’ve been plagued with female offspring. As a result, they keep losing their Fold standing, but they’re a well-liked, large wing. Carnelian had Malachite with LittleBee—her father was Fold member LittleSong. Next, he mated with Sawyer—Judge’s sister and a daughter of Fold member Ranger—to sire Jet. To ensure long-term stability for their wing, he’s given his offspring a good start politically because by blood they are aligned with two large influential wings.”

  “Whoa! No way.” These bats mate for political gain.

  I’m beginning to see why I’m such a black mark on the Land wing. Every time I’m at the colony, Strickland must be tallying up how many votes my presence will cost his son when the next generation vote.

  “The smallest thing can sway votes,” Rocks continues. “Judge is disappointed in Strickland. I can’t ever remember a time when the Land wing and Trade wing were against each other. Judge wants to make sure the pups Decker defended survive so that his son—and wing heir—didn’t die in vain.”

  I had no idea that Decker was destined for the Fold. He was always so relaxed about life and more focused on Rocks succeeding Strickland. But Decker and Rocks’ mother—Zada—is the daughter of a previous Fold member, and her brother is a current Fold member. Decker’s father—Judge—is also a Fold member and the son of a previous Fold member. Bloodlines like this made Decker a Camazotz prince too. Judge’s anger at their lack of medical access makes sense, and I’d feel the same way. Rocks picks up my phone and flicks through the photos of Decker in silence.

  “I’ll get them professionally printed.”

  “I’ll give you some money.”

  “Don’t worry about it. I got this.” Considering all Rocks has been through I can’t take any more of his precious cash.

  “But—”

  I grin at him. “I know you usually win the yes/no game, but this time I won’t budge. I’m paying. The end.”

  Rocks gives me the shy little smile that still manages to curl my toes. “Thank you.”

  “You have a camera you know.” The fact that Rocks has technology he isn’t aware of has been bugging me far more than I would have predicted.

  “I do?” Rocks slips his phone from his other pocket and holds it out to me.

  “I thought you would have hit every button by now and found it.”

  He shrugs and unlocks his screen. I hate the tension
in his body, gone are the days of him lounging in his chair relaxed and carefree.

  “What?” I ask. Rocks being guarded is bizarre. I don’t like it one little bit, but I guess I’m being the same with him. “You came here to talk to me, so talk.”

  He sighs. “My phone isn’t the same without you texting me, and some of the stuff on the Internet is not very nice.”

  I bite my lip trying to imagine what he’s discovered, because he’s right. There’s some crazy, awful stuff on the net that would curl the wings of a technologically naive Camazotz. “What did you find?”

  Color tints his smooth cheeks. “One day there was an advertisement with a cartoon lady, but she didn’t look anything like the drawings in my Superman comic.” His eyes flick to my chest so fast I almost miss it. It’s the first time I’ve ever caught him looking. I try not to laugh when I realize why.

  “Let me guess, she had big boobs and wasn’t wearing very much?”

  His eyes pop open wide. “You’ve seen her too?” he asks.

  This time I can’t contain my laughter. I nod, giggling. This lightens the mood, which is exactly what Rocks needs.

  “When I clicked on it, there were more advertisements for lonely ladies waiting for me to call th—”

  “Tell me you didn’t? Tell me you didn’t?” His credit won’t last long if he calls those numbers.

  “No, I …” He looks away. “I wanted you to be my first.”

  Oh Rocks.

  Now, I can’t look at him, and wish my bangs were long enough to hide behind too.

  “After more clicking, I discovered pictures of ladies …” A heavy frown creases his brow, and I know he’s considering his words. “Put it this way. If the Sire saw those photos, he would ban the Internet FOR-EVER.” Hanging around Tiff at the hot dog stand has rubbed off on him.

  “There’re lots of websites on the net that you just don’t click on.”

  “I know that now.”

  Pointing to the screen, I click on the camera and Rocks is back on a technology high. He goes to take a photo of me but stops. He gets up and walks over to Feathers in her cage. My heart initially skipped a beat, but now it’s flopping around inside me like some dying fish. Not being together but still being around each other sucks and is going to take some adjusting. I join him at her cage and explain the zoom and focus.

  “Can I take one of us? As friends?” His voice is low, and I’m guessing he thinks I’ll say no.

  I don’t understand why I feel like a traitor in this situation. It doesn’t make sense. Maybe all breaker-up-ers feel this way? Rocks—as the break-up-ee—wants to get back together. I’m the one that ended what we had, even though what was going on at the colony was the cause. The painful part is that I do want to be friends with him; it’s simply that not being his girlfriend hurts too much still.

  I smile, trying to hide the turmoil swirling inside. “I taught Decker how to take his first selfie, now it’s your turn.”

  Rocks has to duck down to my head height and that causes both of us to laugh. It’s so weird looking him in the eye. Having his lips so close makes my ears ignite as I remember how it felt to kiss him.

  Focus on the camera.

  What camera?

  Fudge.

  The skin on my cheeks is heating up to match the temperature of my stupid ears. I curse my choice of my usual high ponytail. Rocks is mesmerized by our image on the screen and thankfully doesn’t pick up on my body screaming to reach out and touch him. Or maybe he does and is just being polite.

  “You’re not looking,” he says as I drag my eyes off his mouth and look at our reflection.

  The advantage of his long, strong arms is that they’re perfect for a good selfie. Staring at each other on the screen, we laugh again. He’s still Mr. Midnight, and I’m the golden midget. Our laughter makes it hard for the camera to focus. He snaps pic after pic until we eventually get one right, but I have a feeling he’ll never delete the others.

  As he flicks through the pictures, I push him into his corner chair. Just him being here has helped the tightness in my neck and shoulders ease up for the first time in a week. I feel almost normal. It’s not that I’ve forgotten my little sister, but facing that dilemma seems easier with Rocks at my side.

  “I’m going to take photographs of all my family.” His eyes are filled with the brightness that I love.

  “The Sire?”

  He grins. “Yep, but that will be a stealth mission. Speaking of which, he wants to know if the authorities have said anything more about culling the rogue Camazotz—well, bats to them?”

  “How come each Halloween the Camazotz don’t make the news from your creepy attacks?”

  “What?”

  “You told me last Halloween not to go out because that’s the one night the Sire won’t get upset about the Camazotz feeding from humans. So how come that never makes the news like these bat attacks have?”

  “Oh, that. No, when we feed, we wait till our host is asleep. On Halloween, you never want to go camping. I told you to stay inside because I didn’t want to risk any of the less aeronaught-friendly getting any stupid ideas. It would’ve been hard for the Sire to punish them for attacking you.”

  “Hmph, so just because I know about you all, I’m fair game?” I cross my arms.

  “No, you’ll never be fair game because I will always protect you. They wouldn’t have been trying to feed; they would’ve been trying to hurt you—very different. But even now, I will protect you from any threat I know about—us dating or not—and the colony knows it.”

  Oh Rocks.

  My heart skipped a beat when he said he’d always protect me.

  I hate to admit I have no clue what the government is considering, since all I’ve been focused on is Mini and Enzo. My guilt level rises, but I stomp it back down. There is a threat against Mini, but there only might be a threat against Rocks. I’m doing my best to deal with what I can. Opening Google, we start a search. As we scan the news items, I suggest Rocks needs an email account so I can email him anything I find. He stands behind me, leaning over and takes control of the mouse to click on the articles he wants to read. All I can smell is the forest on a moonlit night. It’s a scent that will forever calm me, but I’m sad I don’t get to be this close to him any more.

  Despite the fact he refused all food, I open the bag of pretzels. I hear him take a deep breath—his senses analyzing the new smell. I hand the bag over my shoulder, and seeing no alarming headlines, I watch him return to his chair and dive in. He munches away constantly in the corner while I set him up an email account.

  “Jeremiah would demolish these,” Rocks says, holding up the packet to study it.

  “He’s probably finished the pizza. I’ll go give him some.” Rocks grabs a massive handful and hands me the packet back. “No, I’ll get him his own. There’s more in the cupboard. You want a soda?”

  He nods, but as I go to leave, he grabs my hand. “Are you okay?”

  I nod, but my skin begins to itch as though I’m going to break out in hives. He senses something’s wrong.

  “Just … you know … Decker.”

  His eyes roam my face. “You look tired.” I don’t know why, but him noticing I’m not fine squeezes my heart tighter than a vice. I pull my hand away before my confession spews out.

  Jeremiah is entranced by cars that turn into robots. He’s so lost in the action on our flat screen it takes a moment for him to notice me.

  “Cars don’t really do that, right?” His eyes are flicking between the screen and me. The Victorian-era gentleman inside of him wants to be polite and look at the lady that’s talking, but the lure of Hollywood CGI is hard to ignore.

  “Right.” I grin, handing him two sodas and a full bag of salty pretzels.

  “Was gonna say you need an upgrade bad.” Chatty Jeremiah is as foreign as Rocks not being hungry.

  “You dissing my Honda?” I raise an eyebrow.

  “Dissing?”

  “You know
, disrespecting?” I explain.

  “Nope, I’m pretty envious of that thing.” His eyes flick back as rockets try to take out the good guy. His mouth hangs open, and I have to leave before the giggle I’m choking on embarrasses him. I can’t imagine what I would think of some modern movies if I’d never seen any of this stuff before.

  “You good for a bit longer?” I squeak. He nods, opening the bag of pretzels on autopilot, but then an ad break gives me his full attention. I watch his lungs fill with the aroma of his new snack exactly like Rocks just did, and he stuffs his mouth without waiting.

  “Um, Rocks says you made that photograph of …” He doesn’t say his name, just swallows the mouthful he’s chewing before stuffing more in. Rocks hides behind his hair—Jeremiah stuffs his gob. Boys and their emotions are so awkward at best.

  “Yes.”

  Jeremiah chews for a second longer, then scratches what’s left of his missing ear. When his shoulders relax, I know he’s made a decision. “Could you make one of Rocks and me?”

  Oh, God. He’s worried he’s going to lose Rocks—whether from the attacks or because of his aeronaught obsession, I don’t know—but that makes me sad all over again. “Come on. Follow me.”

  Back in my room, Jeremiah doesn’t know where to stand. I point to my bed, but his wide-eyed look tells me to find another chair. God, I’ve missed these well-mannered bats.

  “You ask her?” Jeremiah questions as Rocks grabs the still full bag from Jeremiah’s hold. My eyes flick from the scrunched up packet in my waste paper basket to the I’m-not-hungry boy.

  “Not yet.” Rocks notices my stare and his cheeks gain a touch of color. I vow never to listen to him when he says he’s not hungry. “Judge wants you to research all the vet doctors near Helen. See if any know about bats.”

  “Seriously? I thought interaction’s been banned? Holy sugarplums, should you two even be here?” Some days I’m so slow, it’s mortifying.

  “No, but I don’t care.” Rocks looks at Jeremiah. The pair seems to be communicating with their eyes, and I almost wait to hear voices in my head, but they’re both human. “Judge came to me afterward. I think he knew I’d tell you about Decker, and he said a little research couldn’t hurt. Strickland does not know about this. I’ve never seen the two of them face off like that.”