Goldie narrowed her eyes as the figure in the dark suit stepped into the moonlight and warned, “Keep your hands where I can see them. If I think that you’re reaching for a weapon, you’ll be dead before your hand can touch it.”

The man kept his hands in the air and didn’t make a move for the weapon that she could smell on him. “My name is Nick Hunter, I’m an agent with the FBI, and I investigate supernatural threats.” Then at the glower that the Vampire gave him, he quickly corrected, “Don’t worry, I try not to kill them unless it’s absolutely necessary and they are an immediate threat to the public or risk exposing the existence of the Arcane.”

Neither Goldie nor Berry said a word as they continued to watch him cautiously, so he continued to talk, probably in hopes of keeping the situation from escalating. “My family have been dealing with rogue Arcane for a very long time, but only the rogue ones. I have been tracking Phoebe there, and a new Witch named Greta Heinrich, since they were both turned, to make sure that they aren’t a danger to people. Greta is the one who summoned that slime creature for you, right?”

The Slime-girl in question moved to stand beside the Vampire and took a defensive stance to block the agent’s view of Red. “Hey! I have a name, you know! I’m Berry, and who the hell is this Phoebe person you’re talking about?! I swear, if you’re a threat to Red I’ll make you regret it!”

Agent Hunter’s eyebrows rose in surprise. An independent summoned creature with a personality? And that defensive of someone other than the magic user who had summoned it? He had never encountered, or even heard about, something like this before. He took a deep, slow breath, attempting to not appear threatening as he considered this new hiccup.

“So, she does go by Red then?” the agent finally said thoughtfully. “Her former roommate did say that she prefers that name. I assure you, I am not a threat to her, in fact, I see her as a victim in this and have shut down the police investigation into her grandmother’s death. As long as she is taking measures to ensure that she cannot harm anyone when the moon is full, and your Witch friend is receiving some sort of training for her magic, I have no issues with either of them.”

Goldie frowned, not convinced yet, and Berry remained in a defensive stance as the Vampire asked, “What is it that you want then?”

“I just wanted to be sure that none of you are a danger to the general public. Red is a Werewolf, you have an untrained Witch and a Vampire among you as well, and the last anyone saw of any of you, you vanished into thin air after chasing down an unknown man. I assume that you have all taken shelter in a Fae settlement?” Agent Hunter explained before asking for clarification.

“Yes,” Goldie answered, though she was still guarded. “The man we were chasing was a pedophile with a long history, one of the clans of the Summer Court placed a price on his head after he assaulted a young girl under their protection.”

Agent Hunter winced as she mentioned that the man had crossed the Fae. Even the Summer Court could be ruthless in their punishments when someone crossed them, but to attack a child under their protection? The Fae are nearly as possessive and protective of those they welcome into their clans as they are of those born to them. Fae children are rare and those adopted by them are treasured beyond measure, the price for attacking one of them would be steep indeed.

“I assume that the man is still alive and will be suffering for a long time then,” Nick said with a grimace. If the man truly was a criminal, then he likely wouldn’t be missed and he knew better than to get between the Fae and their justice, especially when that punishment was deserved.

“You could say that, but it depends on your definition of alive. You are dead right about the suffering part though,” Goldie replied with a shrug, though her eyes did not stray from watching his every movement. “We got our reward out of it, and more, they offered us a deal.”

“Making deals with the Fae can be dangerous,” Agent Hunter cautioned. “May I ask the nature of the deal?”

Goldie crossed her arms and stated simply, “No. I won’t reveal any more to someone I can’t trust without the Clan Chieftain’s consent. All that you need to know is that Greta is getting training for her magic and they’re helping us make sure Red won’t hurt anyone when she’s like this.”

“Fair enough,” the agent said with a sigh. “I have information that might be useful to you, so I would like to meet when Red is feeling more herself. If you can get permission from this Chieftain, then I would like to know more about your current situation as well, so I can be certain that none of you are a threat to the Arcane secret or the normies. There is a business card in the front pocket of my jacket, it has my cell phone number.”

Goldie glanced toward Berry, who didn’t move other than to stretch her arm out to carefully reach inside the pocket and hand the card in question to the blonde Vampire. The card displayed the name that he had already given the pair, had the FBI letterhead on the top, and had both his cell phone number and a branch number to contact him. She gave it a quick glance and nodded before warning, “If I smell you anywhere near us before I contact you then the deal is off, and I will consider you a threat to us.”

Another sigh escaped the agent, but he nodded in agreement before speaking once again. “Call me once the third night of the full moon has passed, I will leave the time and place of our meeting up to you so you can be sure it isn’t a trap.” With that, the agent slowly backed away from the pair guarding the Werewolf girl. Then, once he was far enough that they were only shadows in the darkness, he turned around and headed back to his car.

I woke up, cold and aching, on the hard floor of the cage. As I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and took a look around, I saw Goldie lying a few feet away from the bars on the other side with what looked like a big pink umbrella shading her from the morning sun. I tried moving, only to discover that everything hurt, even my throat was sore.

I felt strange too, not quite my normal self anymore. Was that because of the change, or was it just that I expected something to feel different? I was about to dismiss it as my imagination when I caught sight of the bare skin of my arm, where my grandmother had bitten me. Before there had been a bite wound there that had refused to heal properly, but now there was a mark there instead. It wasn’t a scar, more like a silver tattoo in the shape of a crescent moon that glowed dimly in the midmorning light.

There were my hands too, my fingernails were longer, thicker, and sharper, like they had been filed into a stiletto style. They were almost like claws. I groaned as I shakily attempted to get to my feet and look for any other changes. Surprisingly, the sound didn’t wake Goldie, but Berry reacted immediately.

“Red! Are you okay?!” the Slime-girl asked, sounding worried as the big pink umbrella turned to viscous liquid that oozed through the bars of the cage. Once inside, the slime’s shape once again shifted to Berry’s familiar humanoid form.

“I feel… weird,” I admitted uncertainly, as I glanced again at my fingernails and leaned against the bars of the cage to steady myself. “I’m kinda cold too, and really hungry.” Talking felt strange too, and not just because I was parched and had a sore throat. Running my tongue around the inside of my mouth and across my teeth provided the answer to that though. My canines were sharper and definitely longer than they were before I changed.

At least I wasn’t covered in fur and trying to eat Berry. I wondered briefly if she really tasted like cherry Jell-O like she claimed, and the thought immediately brought a blush to my cheeks. At least I didn’t feel any different on the inside, at least, not compared to the past couple of days leading up to the full moon. I still felt… feral, for lack of a better word, as if the littlest thing might set me off and like I needed to burn off energy, despite how sore and tired I felt.

“I’ll wake up the bloodsucker and grab our clothes, so we can get out of here and get you something to eat,” Berry quickly promised.

“Thanks, Berry,” I replied with a tired and uncertain smile. “Uh… speaking of Goldie, why is she sleeping in the open like that? I thought she was going to sleep in one of the cages so she wouldn’t get sunburned this morning.”

“Nice chompers,” Berry teased with a grin at seeing my smile, causing me to immediately blush and close my mouth as soon as my query was made. I could see right away her regret for making me self-conscious as she looked away guiltily and mumbled, “Sorry. Yeah, well we had a visitor last night, the bloodsucker called him a government spook, so neither of us wanted to be too far away.”

“Wait, what?!” I sputtered as I gaped at her wide-eyed. “What happened?!”

“He must have followed us from Shadowtown,” the pink-hued girl supplied. “He said he’s been tracking you and Greta both for a while, though he called you Phoebe at first, so obviously he was wrong about you. You’re Red. He left peacefully after making sure you couldn’t hurt anyone and asking a few questions, but neither of us wanted to take chances. Blondie tried to keep watch all night, but she passed out and needed her sleep so I figured I should watch over you both and protect her from the sun until you woke up.”

A chill ran down my spine and it suddenly felt like I had ice water flowing through my veins. A government man was tracking me and now knew where I was? This was bad. This was extremely bad, and I had to shove down the anger that threatened to boil over at the thought. I was scared and worried, but in my current state, it was the anger that threatened to overwhelm me. “W-what did he want?” I managed to ask as I clenched the bars with shaking hands.

“He said he just wanted to make sure you weren’t a danger to anyone or might reveal the Arcane secret, and something about seeing you as a victim and shutting down the investigation into your grandmother’s death. Anyway, he wants to meet up after the full moon. He said he has some information for us,” Berry replied, though she didn’t seem sure about the whole thing.

I wasn’t sure either. If this guy was after me and Greta and this was a trap, then we could both be in trouble. On the other hand, if he knew about the Arcane and really did have useful information for us… maybe he knew about Werewolves and how I could learn to control this curse. Either way, we might have to invoke the protection of the Fairy Godmother and the BriarRose Family sooner than I thought.

My mind was spinning in circles as my stomach loudly protested its hunger. Dammit, I couldn’t think clearly like this. I needed to eat something and try to calm down a bit. I could talk it over with the others later, the problem wasn’t going to go anywhere by waiting an hour or two and I wanted to tackle it with a clear head.

While I was lost in my thoughts and worries, Berry had slipped through the bars and gathered my clothes. She quickly passed them through the bars to me before dressing in her clothes while I did the same. A few minutes later, she retrieved the keys for the padlock from a very sleepy Vampire and unlocked my cage as Goldie attempted to wake up.

We were all quiet on the way back to Greta’s van, lost in our thoughts. I found myself worrying about this mysterious government man and how this would affect us, despite my earlier resolve to shelve it for later. There was something different about Goldie and Berry too, in the way that they interacted.

Berry seemed almost as concerned for the Vampire as she was for me and had gone out of her way to keep her safe from the sunlight. Goldie seemed less hostile and more forgiving of the Slime-girl’s quirks this morning too. Just what had happened between them last night? It was something else to consider later, when I was less tired, irritable, and hungry.