Wolven

3. shards of glass

We'd set out a plan: find the girl from the woods, see what she knows. She didn't seem particularly threatening that night, but we felt better safe than sorry. It just happened to be the perfect weekend for it, with Ostara finally come around and Ma wanting us to make friends with the locals. The parents loved April's carefully planned luncheon: conservative company deemed respectful enough to mingle with the older folk.

Ivy showed up among the early chatter, and April had been excited to point her out to me. Before I could get carried away by my own hot-headed jealousy to see her clearly with a boyfriend, I determined off instinct it wasn't the same girl from the woods.

"I could have told you that," Coal told her in good humor. "Ivy doesn't look the kind to wander the woods stoned out of her mind."

"Twins," April said. Her head shook at the delight of having been duped.

"Maybe she's one of us after all," Coal mused.

"Imagine triplets," Flint joked.

I tried not to imagine triplets, but as the afternoon went on and the girl from the woods didn't show up, it became a running joke for Flint and Jag to point out Ivy every time she passed within sight. Until finally Jag got bored and went to go find Amber, and April disappeared somewhere with Rowan and Flint to help close out the luncheon and prepare for the rowdier guests sure to come for the evening party.

It took a lot of debate to allow this part. Dad tried to argue it was too much of a risk, being so new to the community and the region itself, not to mention what kind of unforeseen disasters a group of spirited high schoolers could cause. But Ma stood in our favor: we'd tried isolation and it had failed us twice as hard. Strengthening our ties with the community could be our best chance of protection until Dad found what he was looking for.

And we were responsible enough, weren't we?

But then the sun began to set and our parents disappeared up into the woods for ceremony. A new wave of guests started to arrive in awkward clumps of friends and classmates; none of which made a move to acknowledge any of us without our initial approach. I couldn't blame them for it. We were a bunch of strangers moved into their quiet-enough town with hardly a hint of warning. Almost as if we were hiding from something...

Which was true, but they didn't know it for sure.

Flint finally said, "This will be much easier if we spike the punch."

So Jag spiked the punch. And the lemonade, and the sodas, and just about all the rest of it that wasn't water. Flint was right, anyhow. Once they'd washed away enough of those sober walls, they were hard to keep away. The music got louder, the food disappeared, and Rowan found me trapped in a literal corner by a couple dancing just a bit too close to each other.

"I've got you beat," Rowan said, pulling me out from my wedge. He rubbed at his forehead, smudged with a peach-pink lipstick. "I think I was just molested, but on the bright side: I think I've also found your girl."

I'd already given up on finding her at the party. Ivy had long since disappeared, and most of the people in my house were trashed enough to fill a dumpster. I was a drink or two in myself, but when he mentioned that bit of hope, the rush of the room as we moved towards my backyard hardly swayed me.

She was talking to Coal. Good ol' Coal, standing there with her in the middle of the yard under the silvery moonlight, the drunken flush of her cheeks emphasized inthe aggressive way she handled her conversation. As soon as Rowan pulled open the glass door, I could already hear her voice.

"I lose her every goddamn time," she told Coal, who nodded in absent understanding. "She's like a fucking fish, really... she spots something flashy in the crowd and boom she's just gone—"