Page 89 of Sunsets & Other Dangerous Things

“Stop,” he said again. “She has a Family.”

Ashley stilled, his words not fitting together quite right. She had a family? A family was there for you when you were scared and alone, when you needed someone to talk to or laugh with. A family was people you counted on and trusted. Sure, she had her parents, but who was here to protect her now?

August climbed his way through the shrubs and stood between her and the witches, his hands raised like a human shield.

“She has a Family,” he repeated, gasping for breath after his uncoordinated trek through the loose sand.

Shuffling came from the woods along with an “Ow!” and “Is that a knife?” from a voice Ashley didn’t recognize. Then Esther tumbled out, her hair in knots and her switchblade out and ready. She was back and she was safe. Or as safe as they could be while confronting armed witches. Esther joined August in the human blockade.

One of the witches stepped forward, the one who’d shot the second dart which Ashley only now realized August had blocked. “We monitor vampire Families in this area, and no one recognizes her. Not to mention she’s dangerously young. You can feel that, can’t you?”

From this angle, Ashley could only see the back of August’s head as he nodded, his words still coming out between gasps.

“We’re traveling,” he said. “Just here for the week.”

“We?” The redhead looked from August to Esther, and finally Ashley as though trying to solve long division.

“Psst.” Uther appeared nearby, tucking his prize goat into his back pocket. “Do you need help?”

He offered a hand to Ashley, and she took it, grinding her molars when she put weight on her bad leg. Between Uther and the tree, she was able to regain a standing position. He tuckedhimself under her arm, which was only mildly awkward as they were about the same height but did make standing much easier.

“I figured we should just start moving while they deal with this.” He nodded back to August and Esther, who were still talking to the witches, their bodies a wall between them and Ashley. “We were just coming to find you. Good thing you and August have that magical sense-each-other-anywhere thing or we’d never have found you back here.”

“Will they be all right?” She glanced back over her shoulder, searching the dark for Esther. The crossbows were out of sight, and no one was following them. All good signs.

“Are you kidding me?They’llbe fine.” The sand slowed their pace as they worked to keep from falling over each other. “Of course, neither of them were shot with a crossbow, so I’m not as concerned at the moment.”

“Thanks, Uther. For coming and finding me and… Well, for everything.” The pain in her leg was dulling to a light throb. She could probably let Uther go. She only pulled his bony shoulders closer, his body serving as an anchor as some unnamed wave thrashed against her shields.

“Sure, of course,” he said. They reached the hard-packed sand of the fairground and stopped a moment to rest and wait on the other two. “What are friends for?”

30

Esther

The sun sparkled off the ocean, and Esther thought of how radiant Ashley was at the carnival last night.

What followed was a burglary.

A precious moment forever tainted by violence and fear.

She’d tried to get Ashley to talk about it that morning. Just a check-in to make sure she was okay. But how could she possibly be okay after something like that?

“It’s just something that happens.” Ashley had shrugged. Shrugged. Like a crossbow through her leg was the least of her worries. “It’s not like I can do anything about it. This is my life. Even if I wanted to, I can’t take it back.”

If Esther was honest, a thought had rooted in her mind for months, slowly digging deeper. The way Ashley’s energy doubled when she was in a crowd, her college acceptance letter and room of trophies, the way Ashley kept failing to join the Family because she couldn’t help being human, the mix of terror and frustration on her face when the witches appeared, ready to hunt her like an animal.

Ashley regretted becoming a vampire.

The thought continued to pop up at the smallest provocation. Uther would tell a joke or she’d happen upon a pearlescent shell and she’d turn to Ashley, hungry for her reaction, her thoughts, only to remember Ashley wasn’t there. Or when they were back at the beach house in the evening, winding down while watching a movie, and next thing she knew Ashley was helping her back to bed while the credits rolled and she couldn’t recall what they’d been watching. It snuck in like a whisper, and what followed was a growing itch of a thought.

Ashley regrets becoming a vampire.

It remained a floating thought. A brief cloud drifting across the blue skies of her week, and when it passed, Esther nearly forgot the thought had happened until it popped up again.

“Did you hear another Plattsburgh tourist went missing?” Uther lay on a towel next to her, the two of them sharing the beach umbrella. While neither was a vampire, they were still too pale to handle direct sunlight.

She rotated her head to see his face. “I didn’t. What do you meananother?”

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