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Chapter 83; The Exiles of Laurel Ridge

Surprisingly Laurel Ridge was only eighty-four miles North-North-East from the hotel and they made it there in a little less than an hour. Just as a storm front was moving in from Canada.

Angel and Daisy landed first and Angel took control of Iggy's mind, landing him simply because he was hanging there looking completely miserable.

"Angel, that was creepy, don't do it again!" He said once she'd given him back control over her body.

"How do we find this person, Iggy, how will we know them?"

"I don't know."

"I can see that ... But ... What if there isn't anyone here ... What if-" Angel bit her lip and gave her head a shake. There was no use arguing with him. His mind was set. He'd sooner listen to a tree than to her right now.

"Why are we here? What's going on?" Daisy-David said under her breath.

Angel turned, "I can't tell you right now, but I will soon, I promise."

Daisy nodded and scuffed the toe of one dirty pink sneaker against the ground.

Iggy pressed a hand to his forehead his lip between his teeth, mind racing. He had to find this person ... He had to find this person so he could save Ella ... So he could save the child they'd created.

I'm going to be a dad...

Iggy felt the thought as a physical force. A shock running through his body and settling in his stomach, seeming to boil its contents. He felt sick and the saliva in his mouth became bitterly hot.

Ella may not have loved him in the same way that he loved her, but they'd created a little life between them ... And he would do anything he could to save that life and to save Ella.

That black hole like drawing sensation was still there in the back of Iggy's mind, but it was fading. Ella was dying ... He was loosing his family...

Iggy cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted, as loudly as he possibly could, "We're here! I'm here!"

Angel grabbed his arm and yanked it down, hissing at him, "What is your problem!"

Iggy shrugged her off, "I'm here!"

Angel grabbed his arm and pulled it away from his face again, "You're going to get us killed!"

Iggy growled in his throat and started walking forward, heedless of anything that he might run into.

"What's around us?"

"Not much, the whole town is deserted, and I don't say that lightly ... I can like ... Sense people's minds if I look for them, and I'm not getting anything in our immediate vicinity."

Iggy nodded and kept walking. "Tell me if I'm about to run into anything."

"Okay."

They walked for a long while in the rain, Angel telling Iggy to step to the left or right to avoid running into things. It really was hard work, being the leader. You had to have a plan ... Of, which Angel did not. She wasn't even sure who they were looking for. They were just walking around in the rain waiting for something to happen. Meanwhile Iggy's mind was doing that odd thing again. That whirling, black hole thing. Where he seemed to be sucked off into oblivion and not hear anything that was going on...

Angel knew what this black-hole thing was now. It was that connection he had with Ella. And it was through this connection that Iggy had gotten the directions to Laurel Ridge and the knowledge of Ella's true intentions ... And the truth about why Ella had been so frightened the week before...

It all made sense to Angel now, now that she was looking into people's minds again.

She wondered why she had stopped looking for a month ... Why did she stop reading people's minds all of the sudden? And why did she suddenly start again?

Iggy's mind started wandering ... At first hovering over the memories of when he could see then slowly turning to the night Ter Borcht had taken his sight again.

Angel pulled back her powers. Deciding she should leave Iggy alone for a while and let him remember in private. She glanced down at her feet, at Daisy's feet and noticed they were walking in the same pace, left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot.

Angel felt herself smile and she sent Daisy-David a thought, 'You know ... I'm glad you told everyone ... Now we really can be sisters.'

Daisy smiled and took Angel's hand and started humming and dodging mud puddles so her pink shoes wouldn't get any dirtier.

Angel did like being the leader ... But she still had a lot to learn about leading...

Like, 'Never let your guard down in a strange place'...

One minute Angel was walking along, watching her and Daisy-David's feet as they made synchronized left-right-left-right-left-right steps ... The next she was aware of two minds. Two terribly frightened minds right ahead of her.

Angel's hand tightened on Daisy's and she threw her arm out to stop Iggy but the boy didn't stop, he just plowed past her and kept walking, his arms crossed head down, water running off the shaggy tendrils of his red hair, his chin and the tip of his nose.

Angel's eyes went wide when she looked up at the second story window of a building dead ahead.

There was a boy leaning out the window, aiming right down the long barrel of a rifle.

Angel opened her mouth and screamed...

"IGGY!"

She saw his feet give an almost hiccup and is steps faltered his head turning toward her, his body slowing...

And the boy with the gun pulled the trigger.

Angel saw Iggy turn, half of a degree back toward the sound of the shot his blind eyes going wide and his right arm jerked back, spinning him as he fell.

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Chapter 84; Evolved

Angel screamed and suddenly she found herself unable to move. Her knees were shaking and Daisy was stone still by her side one hand over her mouth the other tight in Angel's.

Iggy hit hard on his side, hand going to his upper right arm and he expelled a pathetic wailing sound, curling his body in on itself until his knees practically touched his chin.

The boy with the gun cocked it again and shouted out the window, "Nobody move or you're next!"

Angel just stood there trembling, forgetting that she could control minds and that Daisy-David could knock people out just by thinking it. The only thing she knew at that moment was, 'I was the leader ... I was supposed to be able to keep him safe!'

Another boy ran out of the building holding a handgun in his left hand, the hood of his dark red sweatshirt pulled up over his head... Something long and gray protruded from the seat of his pants...

Angel's eyes went wide when she realized what this long gray thing was...

The boy had a tail! And not just any kind of tail ... He had a wolf's tail!

This tailed boy ran up to Iggy, the gun shaking in his hands. His lip between his pointed teeth.

"Kill it, KIX! Kill it!" The boy with the rifle screamed.

Angel stared at him, noticing how young these two new people were. The boy in the window couldn't have been any older than her!

But the boy with the tail ... He looked to be about four or five.

Iggy lie there on his side quivering, his right hand clamped tightly over his arm, blood running from between his fingers.

Then the boy with the tail lowered the gun and stripped the hood backward off his head and Angel felt as if she might throw up.

His hair was grayish blonde and he his ears were not human ears, but were those of a wolf ... But there was no mistaking his face ... Angel would never forget Ari's face as long as she lived.

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