Jenny tightened her grip on her knife and held it in front of her for protection, since the rest of her body wouldn't work. Even in the fading evening light, she could see the muscles beneath Tiffany's deep velvety fur tighten and stretch taut as she leaned back on her haunches in preparation for a leap. Jenny took a deep breath and mentally yelled at her body to get moving.
Amazingly, it worked. Suddenly free from her temporary paralysis, Jenny dove forward to the ground right in front of Tiffany. Simultaneously, the panther hissed and flew over Jenny's head, claws extended. Jenny hit the ground and rolled to her right, unfortunately where the stairs were. The cat missed Jenny completely and smashed into the wall of Jenny's house, stunning her momentarily. Jenny's roll spilled her over the edge of the stairs and she bumped and bounced down them on her side, each stair striking a chord of pain in her side. She was sure her ribs would all be broken by the time she reached bottom.
She spilled off the last stair onto the sidewalk, gasping for breath, her hair plastered sideways across her face. From the top of the stairs, she heard the panther gathering her senses and her legs together again. Jenny used the momentum from her painful tumble to roll onto her knees and back on her feet in one sweeping move. By the time Tiffany attacked again – this time from four feet above Jenny's head – Jenny was standing in stance, ready for action.
"Come and get me, fleabag," she muttered to herself as she stood. She brushed the hair out of her face and stood sideways, her knife clenched tightly in her right hand. For a second, Jenny and Tiffany just stared at each other, eyes locked. Each was used to being the predator, not the prey, and neither of them wanted to give that up.
"I don't know who you are, or what you want with me," Jenny said softly to the cat, "but if you want to fight me, I will kill you. I don't care if we went to school together. You're still a Night Person, and that makes you my enemy." She put her own confidence in herself behind the words, filling her voice with strength. She would fight to the death, if it came to that. Of course, she would rather not, but if this 'shifter was going to refuse to be reasonable and talk, then so be it.
Tiffany stared at her, and Jenny knew she understood every word she had said, even if she couldn't answer her back. She let out a high-pitched cat yowl, again baring impressive looking fangs, and stalked back and forth on the porch. Her long, thick tail stayed rigid behind her as she paced. She seemed to be debating if she wanted to take on Jenny and her knife. Jenny hoped she wouldn't, because confident as she was in her abilities to fight vampires, she just didn't know how she'd fare against such a lethal animal. Experience wasn't something to help her in this area.
Suddenly, Tiffany stopped moving and stared beyond Jenny. A car door slammed, and Jenny spun around in surprise. She had been concentrating so hard on the cat, she hadn't even heard a car come up the driveway. She almost expected it to be her foster parents. She hadn't seen them since the night before – where were they?
But when she finished turning and faced the driveway, she found an unfamiliar car in the driveway and an unfamiliar pair walking up the sidewalk. Instinctively, she tucked the knife behind her leg, still in her hand but out of sight.
The two newcomers – a man and a woman wearing casual clothing – appeared to look right through Jenny. She stared with her mouth open to say something as they walked past her without a glance. They stopped at the foot of the steps.
"Tiffany," the woman said, her tone slightly disapproving. Jenny was too surprised to feel alarmed. They were with the panther. What the hell was going on? "Why have you shifted? You know what your job was. Killing this girl was not in the description."
Jenny turned around and was shocked to see the tall girl standing on her porch again. No more signs of the panther.
"I'm sorry, Liv," Tiffany said, looking properly contrite. "But she wouldn't tell me what she knew! I got angry. It will never happen again."
"Damn right it won't happen again!" the man, a rather short but somehow imposing blond, said. Rage seemed to fill his entire body. "If you don't get a handle on this temper of yours, we're going to have to move you to a job requiring less diplomatic skills! What if you had killed her?! What would we have done then? Did you stop to think about that?"
Tiffany bit her lip and hung her head. The other woman, the one called Liv, placed a hand on the man's arm. "It's okay, Peter. The girl is alive. No need to get upset."
"I'm sorry. It's just been a rough day, that's all," Peter answered.
Ha! Rough day! Jenny could tell them all a thing or two about a rough day! "Excuse me," she said loudly. "But I would like to know what's going on here. Who are you people and what are you doing at my house?" The two turned to her, as if noticing her standing there for the first time. She folded her arms across her chest and stared pointedly at them. She would be damned if she was going to just stand here all day – night, actually; the sun had set sometime during the cat fight – and let some total strangers argue on her front lawn. Especially after a shapeshifter had just tried to make her into dinner! Somebody had better start explaining, and fast.
The two strangers, Liv and Peter, looked at each other. Then Liv sighed. "Alright, I suppose you have a right to know."
"I'm guessing you guys aren't here to kidnap or kill me," Jenny said. "Or you would have done it by now."
Liv laughed. "Of course not. Believe me, Jenny. We are not the enemy here."
"Then who are you?"
"Come, let's sit down and talk about this." Liv turned and walked up the steps to the porch, where a swing and a few chairs were positioned against the front wall of the house. Peter followed, still scowling. After a moment, Jenny sheathed her knife and did the same.
Liv and Tiffany sat together on the swing, and Peter sat in one of the chairs. Jenny remained standing and leaned against the rough wooden railing facing them.
"You can sit too, you know," Peter said roughly.
Jenny made a face. "That's okay. I think I'll stand for now."
Liv nodded as if she understood, then started talking. "My name is Liv, and this is Peter. You already know Tiffany." Jenny restrained herself from rolling her eyes because she already knew their names. After all, they hadn't been formally introduced, and it was the polite thing to do. Instead, she just nodded.
"You of course know of the disappearances of your two friends," Liv continued. Her voice was friendly enough, an effective contrast to the rancor of her partner.
Jenny's patience was wearing thin. "Of course I do! Do you think I've been living in a cave for the last couple of days?" She sighed, trying to gain control of herself. "Is there a point to this?"
Peter scowled and glared at the ground, obviously wishing he was elsewhere. Liv, however, just gave a tolerant smile. "Of course. I'm sorry. I'll delay no longer. We," she gestured to indicate all three of them, "are from Circle Daybreak. We're trying to find out what the Night World has been up to. These kidnappings have been taking place elsewhere, too. We come here seeking your help, any clues you may have to indicate who is behind this and why."
All Jenny could do for a full minute was stare. These people were from Circle Daybreak! Jenny had known the group existed – they were hardly the "secret" organization everyone made them out to be – but she had never met anyone actually involved in it, excluding the Silverwinds.
Liv watched Jenny expectantly, waiting for some kind of reaction. Finally Jenny sighed and shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know if I have any information to give. I don't know anything about any of this. I'm just trying to figure it out myself. I'd kind of like to get my friends back!"
"I realize that," Liv said gently. "But you may have seen something, however insignificant it may seem, that may be of some help."
"Well," Jenny said slowly. "I was there when they took my friend Mari. I did see the vampires who took her."
Peter showed the first sign of interest and sat forward. "That's excellent. Can you describe them?"
Jenny nodded and thought back to that morning. "There were three of them. They came in a white van. I killed two of them." She noticed a glimmer of respect in Tiffany's eyes as she said that. "One was tall and blond, and he was wearing a white long-sleeved T-shirt. The other one was short, and he had dark hair that was pulled back in a ponytail. I think they called him Jason." She paused as Liv and Peter shared a worried glance. "What? Did I say something?"
"Just continue," Liv said. "What about the third vampire?"
Jenny nodded. "He's the one I remember the most. I think he was the leader. He took Mari." She fought down a cold wave of anger at the memory of Mari being dragged into the van. "He seemed really old, that's what struck me the most about him. That and his eyes – he had gold-colored eyes, really strange looking."
Peter was now sitting forward, visibly holding in excitement. "His hair. What color was his hair?"
"His hair was different too. It was red, but not like your normal red hair. I mean red red, like blood. Do you guys know who he is or something?"
Her face pale, Liv nodded. "I think we do. He was tall and very slim, right?" Jenny nodded. Liv swallowed. "Yes, we know. This is much worse than we thought."
"How is it worse?" Jenny asked impatiently. "Who is he?" Tiffany looked equally curious; she obviously didn't know either.
"Well," Liv began carefully. "Whatever is going on is big. Very big. And it's going to be very, very difficult to find out what exactly has been happening and put a stop to it." She looked pointedly at Jenny. "I wouldn't put too much stock in getting your friends back. If they're not already dead, they probably will be soon."
Jenny's heart seemed to beat against her rib cage with more force than usual as she waited for Liv to give the name. But even before Liv said it, some part deep inside of Jenny already knew.
"The vampire who took your friend, the one with the red hair," Liv finally said softly, "is Hunter Redfern himself."
The porch seemed to spin around Jenny. "Oh shit," she whispered. She turned around and leaned heavily on the porch railing, simply breathing suddenly becoming a challenge. What a great feeling it was to discover that in order to get the other Executioners back, she'd have to go up against the most powerful vampire in existence. Hell, if she was going to do that, she might as well take out the rest of the Council. Or maybe she should just go ahead and finish off the entire Night World!
She covered her face with her hands and groaned. "I should have just stayed in bed this morning."