Stolen

Ch. 14 Ro is secretly a werewolf

Ro:

Ace met Ro outside. She had left Laney and Dawson inside to get dressed. She turned to him, her cheeks rosy from the cold, and she buried herself in a hug, trying not to cry. "What if- what if I don't save Gwen in time? What's gonna happen if Gwen dies? Would I die? Ace, I'm scared." Ace rubbed her back and calmed her with his charmspeak.

"I am too, Ro. But being frozen in fear won't save her. We have to try our hardest."

She knew he had fears of his own. He had lost his mortal sister when he turned thirteen. It had broken his heart. She still saw twinges of sadness in him everytime he looked at a young girl. A monster had attacked his house and after she died, he struck out on his own and eventually made his way to Camp Half-blood. He met Ro when she joined the Undetermined Cabin after her mom died. He had comforted her and adopted her as a sister. Ace had confided that he was constantly scared of getting too attached to someone only to lose them and he hid that fear with flirting and sarcasm. Very few people ever saw this side of him. She pulled herself together and gave him a final squeeze before she went off to her room. He gripped her shoulders and said confidently, "We will save her." She smiled half-heartedly because she knew it was more to reassure himself rather than her.

Ro knew Fox was hesitant to share a room with her and the kids. Ro herself was having second thoughts but it beat sharing a room with the guys. The guys had offered to let Dawson sleep in the 'bro cave' with them, but he refused to leave Laney's side. And since Laney had declared rather loudly that she would not sleep in the boy's room, both kids decided to crash on their futon.

Fox excused herself to take a shower and Ro sat on the queen bed brushing Laney's shoulder-length hair, freshly washed. It took Ro nearly a half an hour, and about twenty little conditioner bottles before she had managed to get the hundreds of snarls out of the young girl's hair. Once Ro finished brushing her hair, Laney turned around and stroked Ro's copper colored hair. "Your hair is like mine," Laney informed Ro. "We must be sisters." Her face was completely serious.

"Of course. I would love to have you as a sister." The little girl beamed.

"Can I brush your hair now?" Laney's big brown eyes were pleading. Ro wanted to say yes, but she was so tender headed, she normally couldn't stand it when other people brushed her hair.

"Okay. Just let me brush it first."

"But I wanna brush it." She stuck her bottom lip out, pouting.

"And you can. After I do." Ro's hair was so slippery that it barely tangled, but she wanted to be sure. After a few long brushes, she passed the brush off to Laney, who wasted no time at all in gently brushing Ro's long hair. Ro let out a small sigh and relished the feeling of having her hair played with. Unfortunately, Laney got bored after a few minutes and went back to watching TV with Dawson.

Ro set out some clothes and, once Fox was finished, took a shower herself. Eventually, they were both sitting on the bed, chatting about their adventures in their pajamas as Ro braided strands of Laney's short hair. Ro had tried to get Fox to let her play with her hair, but to no avail. Ro had noticed that Fox didn't really like to be touched. Which baffled Ro, because she was someone who craved human physical contact more than almost anything.

The kids were vegged out on the futon, enthralled by the small television hanging on the wall. A shout and a loud thud rose from the room next door. Was there a monster? Were the boys being attacked? Ro seriously hoped not; she didn't want to leave this motel until she'd slept for at least nine hours. More preferably.

Ro got up and hurried over to check on the state of the boys, telling Fox to keep an eye on the little ones, but she followed her anyway.

"Stay here, and keep the knife handy. Lock the door behind me!" Fox barked to Laney and Dawson, whose eyes were wide with fear, as she followed Ro quickly.