Page 53 of Missing Moon
“Hang on.” Tammy waves me off. “Are we going to ‘get into it’?”
“What do you mean?” I ask.
“Fighting vampires.” She smirks.
Anthony gazes into space for a few seconds, then nods at her.
“One sec.” Tammy ducks into the tiny bathroom in the back corner of the hospital room. A moment later, she emerges wearing her leaf dress with her clothes and sneakers bundled up. She stuffs them in one of the cabinets. “Hopefully, those will be there when we get back.”
I shift my attention to my son. “Where are we going?”
Ant pauses as if thinking, then says, “That place you used to swipe veggies from.”
Easy enough. The big farm. I close my eyes, squeeze my kids’ hands tight, and summon the single flame.
In an instant, our surroundings change from an empty hospital room to the abandoned corporation farm. The daylightmakes it look even more run down. Pity an actual farmer hasn’t taken over the land.
“Okay. We’re here in this dump.” Tammy turns in place, then points at a derelict piece of farm equipment. “What the hell is that?”
I have no idea what the hell the machinery is used for, other than it being huge. It’s some kind of motorized vehicle with all sorts of mechanized stuff sticking out of it. Harvester machine or some such thing.
My daughter looks like she dressed up as a nature elf for Halloween… though that is significantly less awkward than being stuck naked in public. That is one advantage actual faeries have over us: zero shame.
As for me, I don’t plan on asking Talos for help today, so my clothing should remain right where it is. Unless I get shredded by claws again. Oh, speaking of… no sense being subtle now. I jog over to a rusting steel drum in hopes of finding water. Sure enough, it’s been sitting there long enough to collect rain and not completely evaporate. If I thought the rain barrels at Dad’s place were undrinkable,thiswater is absolutely horrid.
Thankfully, I’m not planning to drink it.
Doesn’t matter how filthy water is, it works to summon my ice sword.
No sense not being prepared this time. My family isn’t here to see supernatural stuff.
Anthony starts walking off toward the surrounding woods. Giant, golden wings sprout from his back. His own massive, fiery sword appears. For the sake of his clothing (which I appreciate), Anthony doesn’t go full fire anymore; at least, not lately. Partial Fire Warrior is enough to solve most scrapes.
Okay, I guess it’s game on then.
I follow him. Tammy scurries to catch up, then walks beside me. What a sight we must be. We reach the end of thefarm property where a giant chain link fence blocks our path. I remember it being even bigger. Then again, the last time I climbed this fence, I was ten years old. Still, it’s a pretty significant fence; has to be fourteen feet high. Anthony flaps his wings once and leaps it without too much difficulty. I do the same, with my own dark wings. Tammy in the spirit of flight, shifts into a hawk and flies over before returning to her normal form.
Anthony continues leading the way into the woods.
After maybe fifteen minutes of walking, Tammy asks, “Do you know where you’re going, Ant?”
“I’m following my gut,” he replies, nodding confidently.
“Oh, boy.” Tammy puffs, blowing her hair off her eyes for a second.
I chuckle. “Hey, listening to my gut has worked more often than you’d think it would.”
“Yeah, but you’re a ‘psychic vampire’.” She grins.
“And he’s an angel-in-training.”
She bites her lower lip. “So, angels can find vampires now?”
“Nope.” Anthony shakes his head.
“What are you following, then?” Tammy gazes around. “We’re getting lost.”
“We can’t get lost.” I pat her on the arm. “No matter where we are, home is a candle flame away. Plus, I roamed these very woods as a kiddo.”