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We usher the family inside, through the secured entrance. The house is beautifully decorated and, like all of the ones we’ve been inside since being here, reminds me of a decorator magazine. “Your rooms are this way,” Fran leads them upstairs.
“What the hell are we going to do with them?” Luna whisper-yells. “They’re human in case no one noticed!”
“We couldn’t leave Brayden out there,” Amelia answers. “Have you heard from Alex?” She looks at me as she asks.
“Not since the zoo.”
“Dammit. What was he thinking?” Luna asks. “I can’t decide if he was being brave or stupid.”
“He was thinking that someone needed to follow her, and he’s the one she was least likely to kill.” Angerfills my voice, thinking about the boy who sacrificed his safety for us.
Topher lays a large map on the dining room table. “I’ve been thinking.” He moves to one side of the paper. “Alex said Patrice was in the water. Aside from being on a ship, which the Coast Guard would’ve found by now, she has to be on land somewhere.” He points to a tiny dot halfway between the bay and the Gulf. “This is the only place large enough to hold anything. It’s a lighthouse that was built during the Civil War and used to keep Union soldiers from moving into the city.”
I move to his side. “You think this is where she is?”
Topher shrugs. “It makes sense.” He looks around the room. “That’s where I’d go.”
“We can’t just take a boat and demand that she gives us the kids back.” Luna crosses her arms in front of her chest.
“Luna’s right. We need a plan,” I agree.
Fran sets a laptop on top of the map. “These are the original blueprints for the lighthouse. The house next to the lighthouse was built to house the keeper and his family. There’ll be a large room on the bottom floor and bedrooms on these floors.” She points at two rooms above the main room. “If she’s there, Patrice will most likely have the children in the bedrooms.”
“Patrice is strong, but with the children’s help, we can overtake her.” Micah crosses his arms in front of his chest.
“You all are forgetting something important. Wecan’t get close without her recognizing our energy,” I add to the conversation.
“Not if you take me,” a young voice says from the landing of the stairs. “Sorry, I was eavesdropping. Mom says it’s a bad habit.”
“Brayden, we can’t take you. You’re human, and…”
“Is Alex there?”
I nod. “We think so.”
“Then I’m willing to risk it.” He nods his head toward Luna. “She can protect me.”
Luna laughs. “Although I look tough, I’m young and no match for Patrice. You’d be the one she’d be after.”
“How would you be able to hide us?” I ask, ignoring Luna’s words.
Brayden shrugs. “I don’t know. Like I did at the zoo, I guess.”
“Do you know how you do that?”
“I imagine a big clear shell and place it on top of whatever I don’t want to hear, or I guess, what I don’t want to hear me.”
“Is that what you did at the zoo?” Micah asks.
“Not on purpose. Sometimes it happens without me realizing it.”
“Can you do it now?” Topher asks the young boy.
Brayden closes his eyes, and the lycan and vampire energy disappears in an instant. It’s like I’m standing alone in the middle of a silent room.
“Holy shit,” Amelia whispers. “I don’t feel any ofyou. Even Topher’s energy is gone. We could leave him on the boat?—”
“No,” I interrupt. “We will not put him at risk.”
