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To Isnil and Ande: Thanks for all your review and I hope you enjoy this chapter.

Chapter 19

The door closed with a quiet clicking sound behind Jamie's back. If anyone had heard it, they weren't paying attention. They hadn't likely with the noise coming out of the child's lungs. Jake had Leigh's dark hair and gypsy blue eyes, but he had none of her composure. Jamie wanted to slap her hands over her sensitive ears, but she suspected that would only escalate the situation.

"I'm coming too! If you can go, I can! I don't have to stay here with Connor!" Jake was going on like the world was going to end. He had quite the set of lungs for a ten-year-old boy. "He's a cry baby!"

Four-year-old Connor's big blue eyes were tearing up. He picked up the train from his train set and threw it across the room. It hit the wall with a resounding clatter. "I'm not a cry baby!"

"Yes you are! Cry baby! Cry baby!" Jake taunted.

Jamie closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. She could feel a headache coming on. She understood now, why Leigh had such patience. Little siblings would bring that reaction about in anyone. There was only so many times a person could get annoyed before the fighting would just wash over with little effect. Jamie wished she were to that point.

She took Porter's outstretched hand, lacing her fingers through his. She sat down, leaning comfortably into his black-clad form. Alec and Amber were cuddling in the corner, also clothed in dark colors. Alec's lip had curled disdainfully at the two arguing children.

"Enough!" Leigh spoke loud enough to be heard.

Surprisingly, Jake obeyed. Connor began to take apart the railroad tracks with big gulping breaths. He couldn't seem to keep from sniffling.

The biker girl sighed and squatted to pick up the child. Connor hid his face in her leather jacket while Leigh rummaged through her pocket. She pulled out twenty dollars and waved it for Jake to see. She offered, "If I pay you will you take care of the tyke?"

Jake's eyes lit up greedily and Jamie could feel he wanted it. Then he frowned at Leigh. "Do you think I'm that cheap?"

Leigh rolled her eyes. "You got to learn to hide your emotions. Take it or leave it."

Jake snatched the money from her hand.

Connor was sliding low in Leigh's grasp. She used her knee to boost him back up again, ruffling his hair affectionately. "I'm going to ask him how you treated him when I get home," Leigh warned Jake.

"I said I'd take care of him, all right?" Jake growled.

"So what do you have for us?" Leigh asked Jamie to change the subject.

Jamie leaned forward and pulled the map from her back pocket. She'd managed to get a couple of them from the Gas Station yesterday. The adults wouldn't notice if one of the copies went missing. She unfolded it before her apt audience. She smoothed the crinkles with a hand.

"This is where we'll be coming in," Jamie said, drawing a line from the tiny road up through the countryside. "It's an easier climb than what you'll be doing. We'll probably get there before you do. I want you to come in through this direction. The main thing is to stop them from picking off Mr. Carlyle while he tries to go into the mansion."

"We're leaving right now?" Amber asked, looking out to glance through an open window. Light still streamed in across the room, creating a rectangular lighted area. The sun wouldn't be going down for another couple of hours. Jamie checked her watch. It wasn't quite six.

Jamie nodded. "The bomb will go off right at midnight. We need to get Bella out long before that. Besides, the enemy's going to be camped out since like now—if they haven't been keeping watch all week. They're going to be prepared and so should we."

"But how's my dad going to hide?" Amber asked.

"There's one scraggly bush that's a little larger than the rest. I was hoping, if he could sneak up right after the sun's gone down, he could hide there until we give him the signal. He'll be right in that muddy area, so hopefully it's dried up by now or he'll have a really hard time running anywhere."

The others were nodding thoughtfully.

"Is everyone clear on what they need to do?" Jamie asked.

"What about weapons?" Alec asked.

"Your mother managed to get a hold on some. I don't know how she did it, but they'll be useful," Jamie replied. "There's a whole load of them down in the den. Once the parents have gone through with them and we've left—you can have your pick."

Porter nodded, touching her cheek. "Take care of yourself."

She smiled, wanting to kiss him just then, but not wanting to do so with such a large audience. She settled for a hug instead. There was just something so comfortable about being in his arms. Jamie could have stayed there forever. She pulled back, knowing this wasn't an option. "Make sure you do to," she said.

She turned to the others, pulling herself smoothly to her feet. "I'd better get back," she said. "I told the adults I was just taking a bathroom break. They'll start to get suspicious."

"Constipation," the ten-year-old boy snickered. "Con-sti-pa-tion."

Jamie rolled her eyes, keeping hold of Porter's outstretched hand a moment longer. Their fingers separated and she headed for the door. The cold air rushed back in, touching her sides where Porter had been a moment before. It reminded her of how alone she was. But I'm brave, she thought, hoping to affect her psychological state.

If it had been any other battle, she would have been brave. But the thought of running head-to-head with either the Colonel or Doug scared her. If it came down to hurting them—even possibly killing them—she didn't know if she could do it.

She hurried back to the washroom where she had left an outfit folded by the sink. She shut the door behind her and pulled the green shirt over her head. It hid her black, form-fitting top marvelously. She took a pair of fashionable loose green sweatpants—and pair Amber's—and pulled them over the black, hip hugging pants. It was too light yet to be wearing pure black. She'd stick out like a sore thumb. But this would do nicely until she needed to change. The adults had also opted for green clothing like hers. The others would be coming up the steep side, so they wouldn't reach the Colonel until after dark.

Jamie moved down to the den where the adults were picking through the weapons scattered across the floor. Guns of every kind—illegal kinds. And some knives and sword-like blades for close range. There were even some sticks and staffs with their ends carved into sharp, needlepoints. Mrs. Hindley's supplier was clearly superstitious, Jamie thought, getting a picture of a vampire in her mind. But then, who would have thought werewolves existed either. Just thinking the word werewolf sharpened her teeth right up. She knew there was a feral glint in her eye.

Jamie hadn't changed to full wolf before. To be truthful, she was afraid to. She was afraid that she would lose control of herself. She was afraid she would become a wild beast that preyed upon humans and didn't differentiate them from the squirrels hiding in the bushes. She would only do so as a last resort.

She picked up a small, snub-nosed revolver. A semi-automatic. She tucked it in the band of her pants and smoothed her shirt over it, so the lump barely showed. She caught sight of something else, a smooth-bladed dagger. Silver, she knew immediately. She picked up the object, entranced. One cut from this, and her blood wouldn't clot properly. She would bleed continually until she was able to get some TryptoKeri in her system. But it had a comforting weight, like the dagger she carried around before she had joined the 'wolf side. She sheathed it carefully and placed it in the leg of her pants. It may have been poison to her, but it would hurt them as well.

The doctor moved to her side, handing her a small bottle sloshing with a dark liquid. The adults all had identical bottles. TryptoKeri. "Keep it with you," he said, "in case you get hurt."

"Thank you, Mr. Maxwell," she said with a wan smile.

She opened her mouth again and said. "I've noticed you have an especially quiet step. You and I are going to move ahead of the group—to pick off the scouts before we're spotted."

The doctor nodded, lifting up his bottle of TrytoKeri as if he were making a toast. "To the element of surprise."

Jamie turned and spoke to the group loud and clear. "Are we ready to go?"