They’d cleaned the blood off as best they could, enough to get back to their accommodation. Amanda had done the clothes with a light coating of fire, removing all traces of the blood by denaturing the bonds without even singeing the fabric. Her control of the flame was so precise, not a mark was left on the garments.

  Kass had assumed they’d burn the clothes as evidence and that she’d have to go grab them more. But it wasn’t necessary. Even the new outfit Kass had bought was saved. She put it back on.

  They all walked calmly back through the streets. Kass led the way, only glancing back once to check the others were still following.

  Sirius walked like he wasn’t injured at all, almost. It was subtle but Kass could definitely see a slight unevenness to his stride.

  Lily was humming, which Kass found a little disconcerting, but at least she wasn’t skipping.

  Amanda looked lost in thought.

  Kass had folded when Amanda had insisted that they deal with Sirius’s wound back at their room first rather than look for the boy. Both matters were pressing, neither could be ignored. And then there was Lily herself. She would turn eventually. There was a guarantee of that. Given she’d already bitten someone, they’d already proven they couldn’t contain her.

  Kass knew Sirius needed stitches. She knew they needed to find the boy. She knew Lily needed to be watched closely. She didn’t trust Amanda and Sirius to watch her or to deal with the boy. She could have gone hunting for the boy herself but she didn’t know where to start and she didn’t want to leave Amanda and Sirius alone with Lily. Their visit to Witchaven was not subtle. There were too many of them for that and they all stood out. If anything more went wrong she wasn’t sure how they’d cover it up. Everything was a mess.

  They reached the street where the others had been shopping earlier. Kass eyed the store where she’d last seen half the group.

  “I’ll just pop in and see if the others are still in there,” she told Amanda and Sirius, as she headed toward the store.

  “I don’t think we should...” Amanda started to say.

  Kass briefly hesitated and then decided to ignore her. Amanda didn’t sound that confident in her own statement.

  But when she popped into the store she found only Indi.

  “Where is everyone?” Kass asked, hovering on the threshold.

  Indi glanced her way, smiled, and then replied with a shrug, “They went for a walk.”

  Kass hesitated again, wondering if she should bring Indi in on what had happened.

  “Everything okay?” Indi asked.

  “Yeah. Me, Amanda and Sirius are gonna head back to the room okay?” Kass told her.

  Kass thought she saw a brief flicker of puzzlement on Indi’s face but then Indi smiled and replied, “okay, I’ll meet you back there later.”

  Kass hurried to join up with Amanda, Sirius, and Lily, who had progressed some way down the street. Sirius moved fast for an injured man.

  They reached the old meeting house without incident. Cat was there, sitting on a mattress, with scissors and a needle and thread. She appeared to be making some alterations to the clothes she had bought earlier. She looked up briefly to see who was disturbing her peace and then again a second time with a sharper and longer stare.

  Her eyes narrowed as she watched them enter, watched Sirius walk slowly across the room. Cat may not have the best perception but she certainly knew her brother’s walk.

  “What happened?” she asked in an accusatory tone.

  Amanda ignored her question. Her gaze fell instead to the needle in Cat’s hand. “Do you have a first aid kit?”

  Cat’s gaze narrowed so much that Kass was surprised she could still see. “Not here. In the car.” One by one she looked them up and down, assessing each of their movements. Then her gaze returned to Sirius once more.

  Sirius shed his coat and took a seat on the floor. Carefully he lifted up the edge of his black singlet to reveal the partially healed knife wound. Amanda must have healed from inward to outward because, while it was no longer bleeding heavily, there was an obvious gaping cut in his skin. Kass didn’t need a medical degree to know that needed to be held together in some way.

  But Amanda didn’t seem in much of a rush now they were back. She crouched down next to Sirius, leaving Lily standing near the door, and she studied the wound for quite awhile.

  Kass backed up so she was near a side wall and not far away from Lily and the door. She watched the young girl closely.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  Lily watched Amanda and Sirius.

  “What happened?” Cat asked again as she got up and walked over to get a closer look at Sirius’s wound.

  “Got stabbed,” Sirius replied.

  “By who?” Cat asked.

  Lily’s gaze turned sideways. She looked at Kass.

  Kass glanced downward but not away. She pretended like she was watching the others but really she kept her focus on Lily in the corner of her vision.

  Lily watched her for awhile. Kass got the sense that the girl knew that Kass was still watching her. Then Lily moved away from the door and more into the room. She glanced at Kass and then at the other three before taking a seat on a mattress.

  “Doesn’t matter,” Amanda replied still just looking at the wound.

  Cat frowned and started to open her mouth.

  “We need some water,” Amanda decided aloud, and before Cat could say anything, Amanda was up and gathering things she needed. She returned to Sirius with a drink bottle and a travel cloth.

  Kass eyed the door, wondering if she should go in search of that boy, or maybe check to see if that soldier had been staying in one of the inn rooms. But currently no one was really watching Lily.

  Cat, meanwhile, turned her attention to Kass with narrowed eyes.

  Kass avoided her gaze and looked back toward Lily again, which caused the expression on Cat’s face to change to the expression of someone who had just figured something out.

  Cat eyed Lily then she looked to Kass again. “What happened?” she demanded.

  Kass could feel Cat’s eyes on her. They weren’t leaving. Finally Kass said, “We got attacked by a soldier.”

  Amanda paused mid-step in her return to Sirius’s side. She half turned and looked at Kass. “How do you know it was a soldier?”

  “I know,” Kass replied.

  Amanda seemed to accept that. She knelt down next to Sirius again and got started on cleaning the wound with the water.

  Cat was eyeing Lily again, with more suspicion than she had earlier. Evidently she had read something in Kass’s gaze at the girl. “Why’d the soldier attack?” Cat asked. Her sharp eye line moved from Kass to Lily to Amanda and Sirius, and back to Kass again.

  Kass didn’t hesitate this time. “Because Amanda was doing a resurrection ritual.”

  Amanda shot Kass a glare.

  Cat’s gaze moved around the room, one by one again, this time with much more understanding in her expression. She seemed to be considering what to do.

  Amanda was watching her with worry, while still trying to clean Sirius’s wound.

  Then the door to the meeting house suddenly opened and in walked Indi.

  The speed at which everyone assumed the most casual position had to be a new record. Amanda yanked Sirius’s shirt down and then spun to sit beside him with the now damp cloth still tucked in her hand but hidden beside her. Cat dropped back onto her mattress and immediately picked up her needle and thread. Kass and Lily didn’t move at all.

  As fast as they were though, Indi must have seen or noticed something, because she paused in the doorway, arms laden with new purchases and gave them all a curious look. Finding nothing obviously out of place, she put her bags down near her mattress and said, “Hey guys, what’s going on?”

  “Not much,” Amanda replied.

  “Just hanging out,” Cat added.

  Kass didn’t say anything.

  Lily gave Indi a strained smile.

  Indi returned a more genuine one and then her gaze caught on what Cat was doing. “What are you doing? Are those your new clothes?”

  Cat gave a nod and held up what had been a t-shirt. In the short time she’d been there she’d cut the sleeves off, shortened and ruffed up the bottom edge, and tightened the sides to give it more of a figure-hugging shape.

  “Oh, that looks cool!” Indi remarked. “Can you improve mine too?”

  Cat gave another nod. “Sure.” Her eyes betrayed her real thoughts though as they drifted in the direction of Sirius and Amanda. She was worried.

  Evidently none of them wanted to tell Indi. Kass didn’t disagree with them and she suddenly had an idea. Walking around the village on her own looking for the boy Lily had bitten would be a little suspicious to the others but distracting Indi was a good excuse and it might give her a lookout if she needed one. Lily would probably be okay for now. At least Cat knew about her.

  “Hey Indi, you want to go for a walk?” Kass asked. “Have a look around?”

  “Yeah, sounds good. Anyone else want to come?” Indi looked around the room.

  Cat held up her half-sewn clothing and shook her head.

  “Nah, we’re beat. We’re gonna chill here for a bit,” Amanda replied.

  Lily looked at each of them and then at Indi. She smiled and shook her head. To Kass that smile looked as fake as anything but Indi didn’t seem to notice. Lily looked scared. Kass felt bad for her but she was definitely the wrong person to comfort her, and when she remembered what the girl was becoming, she didn’t want to get too close.

  On her way out the door, Indi called back to Cat, “Don’t modify any of my clothes until I get back though.”

  “I won’t,” Cat replied.

  They all looked tense as hell. Poised in positions that Kass knew they would spring out of the moment she and Indi left.

  Kass followed Indi out the door and then took the lead when Indi momentarily paused. Kass took them in the direction she hoped would be most fruitful. What she was going to do if they actually found the boy she’d have to figure out later.

  “Are you going to sew that shut?” Cat asked, springing to her feet the moment Kass and Indi had left.

  Amanda was inspecting the wound again. She shook her head.

  “I could make a run to the car for the first aid kit?” Cat suggested.

  “That might seem suspicious,” Amanda replied. She didn’t look at Cat.

  “Better than the sewing needle you were eyeing up though, right?”

  “I might not stitch it at all,” Amanda replied. “I think we just keep an eye on it for now. Re-look at it in the morning.” She was avoiding looking Sirius in the eyes too.

  Sirius seemed to be trying to get her attention silently. His gaze jumped from Amanda to Lily and back again.

  Cat frowned and turned to look at Lily as well. Now that was an elephant in the room. What were they going to do about her?

  Lily gazed back up. She was so young. Cat suddenly grew very angry. This wasn’t fair at all.

  “We need to talk,” Sirius finally said.

  “Later,” Amanda replied.

  “It’s better we have a first aid kit though right?” Cat said, deciding she didn’t want to be involved in the other conversation, at least not yet. “I could get Wolf to run back via the forest?”

  Amanda gave the barest of nods.

  Cat thought about taking Lily with her so Amanda and Sirius could talk, but while she didn’t want to be part of that conversation, she also didn’t want to be left out of it. She understood that was a contradiction but she didn’t care. She doubted they’d hurt Lily. No way would Amanda let that happen. No way would Sirius do that.

  There was one thing she did want to know before she left though. She paused with her hand on the door and asked, “Did it work?”

  This time Amanda met her gaze.

  Cat could see fear in her eyes.

  “For now.”