Singing to the Moon Chapter 9 by Maggie Finson

Well I'm in trouble. Again.

My aunt, uncle, and sister Carly all grabbed me when I got home from school. I did have the presence of mind to at least think 'Oh, this is not good' when all three kind of pounced on me. I didn't have time for much else there, so give me a break, okay?

You try getting away from both Alphas and a Beta of a were clan. See how well you do.

So there.

They dragged me, okay I did walk, but you have to let a girl get some drama into things here, into my uncle's study. Again, not good. We only got taken there when we were in BIG trouble. Other times us kids never even dared touch the door. Oh, they closed the door once we were inside, too.

“What are we going to do with you, Cindy?” Aunt Cecily shook her head and gave me an unhappy look.

“Whats that supposed to mean?” I asked as innocently as I could.

“You're hanging out with a vampire and dating a Wolf, for starters. My uncle put in then shrugged. “But we'll get to those things later.”

Uh, oh. If they thought those things were minor enough to talk about later, I had a pretty good idea about where this was going. “I can't help it, things just kind of, you know, happen to me?”

“Things like sneaking out of the house again last night?” My aunt asked very mildly, which wasn't a real good sign either. “Or spying on an innocent family who have done nothing to deserve that?

Or how about you doing things to a certain SUV down the block from there. Which just happened to be full of Hunters?”

“Doing what?”

“Don't try to play innocent with us on this one young lady.” My aunt gave me that direct, gimlet kind of look that tells anyone who knows her they've messed up. “We know you did.”

“How could you know that?” I asked, genuinely surprised while thinking of ways I could just kill Dani or at least get back at the crazy but likeable bi...

“This.” Uncle Patrick handed me a DVD that prominently proclaimed, Cindy's First Prank!

Oh yeah, I was sooo going to get even with Dani. Some way, some time.

“How can I get it into your head that playing with these people isn't a game?” Aunt Cecily asked with a truly worried expression on her face. “Hunters are very dangerous, Cindy and one almost killed you already, and this time around they're even more dangerous than usual. Once they nearly wiped out the Lockes, did you know that?”

“They did?” I was amazed, impressed and just a bit frightened about that.

“Yes.” Uncle Patrick let out a heavy sigh. “They killed all the Locke females but one baby, and that was three generations ago. Tracy Locke is the first female wolf in seventy odd years. That is how dangerous these people are. Leave them to the elders, please.”

I shuddered a moment while rethinking what I'd done the previous night, or early morning. But didn't say anything.

“Did you really steal their license plates?” Carly asked in near wonderment.

“Yeah.” I sighed then brightened. “Want to see them?”

My sister let out a choking kind of noise that had me worried until I realized she was trying to hold laughter in. Even my aunt and uncle seemed a bit amused.

“Oh, Lady!” Carly finally managed to get out. “An infant and she's already collecting trophies!”

Oh gawd, how embarrassing. She called me an infant!

The rest of that wasn't so bad, even if it did make for a long afternoon.

Evidently messing with the Hunters was lots worse than dating a wolf or hanging out with a crazy vampire. But I heard about those two things too, trust me. Worse, they didn't even touch on Chris dating Tracy Locke. Unfair!

Lately that was actually just another day in the life. Of me.

Hey, at least I didn't bore people or spend my time whining or crying.

I actually thought that was pretty good all things considered.

And they never once mentioned grounding me again, so that was a plus.

“Hey.”

I turned from my locker to see Tracy Locke standing there with a hesitant smile on her face.

“Hey, Tracy.” I answered then dove back into the chaos of my locker in another attempt to find that elusive biology textbook so the rest of what I said was kind of muffled and echoed. Kind of neat effect, there. I'd have to remember that one. “What can I do for you?”

“Can we talk?” She asked and looked so worried, that I just nodded and gave her arm a little squeeze.

“Sure, when do you want to do it?”

“Now?”

I had a class soon, but the look on her face told me she really needed to talk with me, so I shrugged and answered. “Okay. Let's get out of here so we don't get dragged back into class. There's a pretty good place about five minutes from here that the teachers don't know about yet, so we should be able to talk there without being hassled.”

“Okay.” She smiled and let me tell you, if I'd still been a guy I'd have done anything to see that again. As it was, I still felt good that she had favored me with it, even if it made me just a bit jealous.

The 'safe place' was in a shop that had only been closed for a few weeks. One of the sheets of plywood covering the doors and windows had kind of come loose — with help, but kids don't rat each other out for little things like that.

We settled into what had once been a little break room and got ourselves comfortable. It was pretty dark but we both knew the other could see well enough.

“So what's so important?” I opened the conversation since she had asked me for it.

“Its about me and Chris. You’re not freaked we’re dating are you?” She asked point blank.

“What?” I gave her a curious look and went on. “Why would I be? He likes you, you like him, none of my business if you don't hurt him.”

She sighed. “I thought maybe you didn’t want me dating your cousin”

I almost told her I was dating her cousin, but decided that was something for later. I was still feeling my way around all this 'being a girl' thing and just wasn't sure if that would have been right to do.

“Nothing like that.” I assured her. “I'm new in town too, so I'm still kind of groping my way through what I can and can't do, you know?”

“Yeah.” She let out a sigh and I had a very strong impression that she was groping around for things as much as I was. “I know what you mean.”

“Ahh, just be nice to him.” I shrugged then grinned. “Even if you end up breaking it off with him. If he does that to you and it hurts you, believe me, I'll give him a ration of shit over it.”

She got the implication that I'd do that to her, too, if she was nasty to my brother. I knew I liked this girl.

We spent the rest of our stolen hour just talking before we sneaked back out to head back to school. Our were senses, even in human form, were really good for that kind of thing by the way.

I was still watching the not-were Harpers. That family was just too normal. Almost like they were being all bland and uninteresting on purpose.

And had to work at it off and on. I watched the husband hold himself back when some big, young ass who smelled like some kind of were was hassling them and saying things that couldn't have been good to the guy's wife. And she was holding back just as much. More interesting, it wasn't because they were afraid of the guy at all. In fact when that happened I caught an elusive scent from then that was like nothing I'd smelled before and it wasn't human. I really got the idea from that encounter that if the jerk had pushed, these Harpers would have hurt him even if they really didn't want to do that.

Curiouser and curiouser, as Alice once said.

I know it was driving me nuts.

Oh, I kind of accidentally tripped one of those Hunter guys that were watching them too. No big deal, just a ditzy, clumsy, teenaged girl kind of thing and I was apologizing for all I was worth once I'd done it, blushing in embarrassment and humiliation at being so clumsy. It was fun actually.

I was beginning to understand the power of being a pretty girl. Huh.

And okay, I know, I know.

But I just couldn't leave this alone.

People have always said curiosity killed the cat. Obviously they didn't know that much about coyotes.

“Watchya doin'?”

I jumped a little and actually bit my tongue there before I turned to give a grinning Dani a glare. “How do you do that?”

“It's an art, babe.” The vampire grinned and kissed my cheek. “You're figuring it out yourself. I just had a head start on you.”

“I may have a heart attack before I do that.” I grumbled then chuckled and kissed her cheek in response. “You bitch.”

She laughed and nodded. “Yeah, I am that. But I have fun with it.”

“I noticed.” I shook my head. “Oh, thank you SO MUCH for sending that video to my uncle.”

“Hey, you'll love having that in your personal archives later on, trust me.” She grinned.

“I'll thank you later.” I grimaced then had to grin. “Like your top.”

She was wearing a black T-shirt that showed no little wear, but the neat thing about it was the skeleton's hands that seemed to be cupping her breasts.

“Oh, thanks.” She smirked. “Had it for years. I bought it to see if it would piss off Mama-san. She just thought it was amusing.”

“Can't win 'em all.” I shrugged.

“Oh that was actually a win.” Dani admitted. “Trust me, you don't want Carmilla mad at you.”

“I kind of got that idea.” I nodded, then had to ask. “So why did you do it if you knew that?”

“Pushing the envelope, learning the limits.” She shrugged in her turn. “Had to find out.”

“You are nuts.” I flatly told her.

“Well, yeah.” She nodded. “You got any new information to share?”

Now just how do you answer something like that?

I just shook my head and kept quiet.

There are times when you just can't win. That conversation was one of those.

“So.” She asked again. “Whatcha doin'?”

“Watching them.” I pointed to several people just wandering around as if they were normal and a couple of SUVs they'd gotten out of. More Hunters.

“Bad people to mess with, hon.” Dani told me, then added. “Really bad. You really should let the elders handle this.”

“Then why haven't any of them done anything yet?” I asked in frustration.

“Rules, hon.” Dani sighed. “If they just come to look around we aren't supposed to do anything to them. That way they go back to their caves or whatever they live in and are happy. Attack them just for being here and they have a reason to retaliate.”

“They're up to something.” I countered.

“They always are.” Dani shrugged again. “But if one of us 'notices' and does something about it, they just go away then show up later in force. Bad things happen when they do that.”

“Like the Lockes?”

“Yeah, exactly like that.” She nodded without a trace of her usual humor. “And like the time they killed almost every daughter Carmilla and Wisteria had. Those people are really bad news, little girl. And that isn't an insult because you have so much to learn here even if you are pretty damned good at some things already. Please stay away from them.”

“You said please?” I was almost in shock.

“Yeah, I did.” She hugged me. “I really like you and would be really pissed off if you went and got yourself killed just because you can't stop poking at those guys. It isn't worth the trouble. We watch them, they go away. Better to leave it at that, trust me.”

“But what if they're here for something else?” I asked. “Something besides just checking things out here?”

“The elders would know.” Dani assured me. “Don't start a war here over some scouts, okay? They come in, see what we want them to, then they leave. We attack their scouts they will answer in force and that is never good, believe me.”

“Okay.” I nodded while being a bit irritated that I had been saddled with a baby sitter even if she was cool.

But I also knew the Hunters weren't just scouting in town. They had a specific target. And I for some reason, needed to keep them from doing what they wanted with that target.

I did, of course, keep that to myself. Obviously, no one else was quite ready to believe me on that one.

But I wasn't going to stop, either.

I had a baby to save.