Chapter 8: Ghost Lake

Maia glanced at her sisters. They'd all dressed in medieval gowns for the ritual. Gemma had voted for togas, but Electra preferred the elegance of velvet, and Maia applauded the choice. Gemma was in emerald and Maia wore her favorite amethyst gown. Usually Electra wore garnet red, but tonight she was in sapphire blue. She'd commented that was to be her new color.

They'd teleported to the banks of Ghost Lake. The stars sparkled in the night sky. Vega was bright in the east as it rose over the trees.

Electra gently blew on an ancient oak stump that would serve as their altar and then placed the crystal basin on top of it. The sisters formed a circle while the scent of herbs in the bubbling infusion wafted upward in the night air. Maia softly chanted in Greek as she strummed her lyre.

Gemma withdrew several silk pouches of flower petals from a mesh bag tied to her belt. Casting a pinch from each pouch into the brew, she added her voice to Maia's. Electra joined them for the last verse. Their voices blended and swirled high above the treetops toward Vega.

As Maia sang, she pictured the fire orchids growing larger, metamorphosing into their new bodies. The thralls would have gathered, ready to lead them off—thirteen pure-blood princes to rule them and establish new dominions.

#

"Here, let me clean you up." Peter pulled his handkerchief out of his pocket and wiped the chocolate chip smears off Hannah's face. She beamed at him and scampered off to join her best friend Amita.

So many excited kids. They'd started camp early that night with special snacks prepared by El and Janet—lunar phase sandwiches, solar system fruit kebabs, and meteorite Krispies. The constellation cookies were Peter's favorite, and clearly Hannah's as well. Each giant cookie was decorated with chocolate chips representing the stars of one of the constellations. He and El had worked on those the week before.

On this final night, they also gave the kids space alien antennae to take home as Mozzie passed out certificates proclaiming them to be children of stardust. Travis had worn his Spock makeup and Vulcan uniform for the occasion and all the kids wanted their pictures taken with him.

Despite the earlier threats of vampires, nothing had marred camp. Mozzie and Neal were naturals with little ones. Neal always had a touch of Peter Pan about him, but this week he'd pulled out all the stops.

At the moment, he was lying flat on his back gazing up at the stars as the youngest kids took turns relating the stories they'd made up about the constellations. Janet was helping him while the older ones worked with Peter and Travis at the telescopes. Mozzie was a floater, sprinkling alien dust wherever he landed. In another hour, astro camp would be a wrap.

"You did good, hon," El said, walking up to him. Never had anyone looked so lovely in an astro camp t-shirt.

"We survived and may have inspired a few future astronomers."

"I overheard Ethan asking Neal to enroll him in next summer's camp. Are you interested?"

"Possibly, if I can get the rest of my crew to join me."

"You know you can count on me, and I bet Neal and Mozzie won't be hard to persuade either."

#

"Hey, Ethan, where are you going? The telescope demo's about to start." Neal had spotted the mini-pirate near the observatory building. The little boy was starting to run toward the meadow.

Ethan ignored him and took off at a dash. Neal sprinted forward and caught him.

"Let me go!" Ethan yelled, struggling to break free.

Neal tightened his hold on him. Ethan wasn't going anywhere under his watch. "This isn't like you. Is something wrong?"

Ethan's big eyes looked pleadingly at him. "Amita's gone to look for fireflies."

"By herself?" Neal groaned inwardly. "Are you sure? Do you know where she went?"

He nodded forcefully. "Hannah told me Amita wanted to see them. They'd heard Mozzie describe the fireflies he spotted when he found the bear. I looked for her and saw her running through the meadow. I want to go, too!"

"When was this?" Neal demanded.

"Only a few minutes ago. If we hurry we can catch her!"

Neal glanced around. The adults were all busy with campers. He couldn't take a chance of not being able to find Amita. He had his flashlight with him—all the adults wore flashlights attached to lanyards. He switched it on. "Okay, you and me, Captain Jack. We'll find her together."

Mozzie's meadow was north of the camp. As Neal and Ethan ran along the path, Neal caught a glimpse in the distance of Amita's phosphorescent antennae and began to breathe easier. If she hadn't been wearing the headgear, he never would have spotted her. As it was, they were up to the edge of the woods before they caught up with her.

If a bear had been around, she would have been easy prey. Neal swallowed. It'd been a close thing. He'd tried several times to call Peter, but was unable to get a signal. Perhaps that was for the best. They'd be back before he knew they were gone.

"Hi, Amita! Did you find any fireflies?" Ethan was happily chatting with her as if nothing was wrong.

Neal crouched down with the kids. "Amita, did you forget you're not supposed to wander off on your own? It's not safe. There could be bears or snakes around."

"I'm not scared!" she said indignantly. "I've seen bears in the zoo. They look just like my teddy bear. They wouldn't hurt me. And my teacher taught me all about snakes. I think they're wonderful."

Amita might not be a future astronomer, but she was well on her way to becoming the next Jack Hanna. "Yeah, but they might be afraid of you and think you were trying to hurt them. We'll talk about this some more when we get back to camp."

Standing up, he admonished them to stay close and they started back down the trail. Amita was excited because she'd seen a patch of fireflies—

What was that?

Neal stopped short and switched off his flashlight. "Shhh! Not a sound!" he whispered urgently.

Heading straight toward them at the far end of the meadow were five shadowy shapes moving at preternatural speed.

Vampires.

Nobody else could move that fast. He'd seen them first-hand in the swamp outside Buttonwood. That time he'd been with Sam. Now he had two seven-year-olds to keep safe.

He and the kids were close enough to the woods that the vamps might not have spotted them. But if they continued on the trail back to the observatory, they'd be easy targets.

He whipped off the kids' antennae, stashing them under his shirt. There was no time to waste. Once the vamps caught their scent, they'd be on them in an instant. He'd save panic for later.

Ethan started to speak, but Neal put a hand to his mouth. He crouched and grabbed each kid by the hand. "Bad guys are in the meadow," he whispered. "We have to hide. If we're as quiet as butterflies—they won't find us. Can you do that?" Their little faces nodded earnestly. Amita spread out her free arm like a butterfly. He smiled his approval and led them toward the trees.

Their only chance to escape was to head for the forest. He knew where to go, but could they reach it in time?

The others should notice their absence soon. They'd be able to find them by his GPS coordinates. Both he and Peter wore GPS watches because of earlier threats against them. But would a signal get through? Their cell phones didn't work. In the woods, among the trees . . . He shouldn't count on a quick rescue.

#

Peter's cell phone rang as they were rotating the telescope observers. He asked Travis to take over while he took the call. It was Sam. As Peter listened, he knew there was only one thing he could do.

He called Mozzie over to replace him at the telescopes, then led Travis a short distance away where the kids couldn't overhear them.

"Dean and Sam captured a vampire and got her to talk. Vampires are in the park. They're here protecting the pure-bloods. We can't take any chances. Everyone needs to go inside the observatory. I'll alert the park rangers. Sam says as long as they stay in their cars they should be safe. Sam and Dean are only a few miles away. They'll be here shortly."

Rounding up sixty-five kids was no easy feat. They didn't follow orders as readily as FBI agents, and the adults didn't want to scare them by giving specifics. El and Janet were a godsend, making a game of it.

Peter called the rangers from the radio room. He could hardly warn them about vampires. Instead, he alerted them to dangerous gangs heading in their direction. After the false alarm on the previous night, the rangers were skeptical of the threat. They were probably grumbling about city-slicker federal agents who overreacted at any whiff of danger. Peter was rapidly acquiring a much better appreciation of the difficulties of Dean and Sam's job.

By the time he'd finished the call, all the kids were inside. Travis and Mozzie were performing headcounts. Janet was getting out craft supplies. He didn't see Neal but suspected he was upstairs getting snacks.

El was talking with two of the youngest kids. She waved him over with a worried look on her face that made his stomach clench. Pulling him aside, she whispered, "Ethan and Amita are missing. We've been trying to find out if anyone saw them. Hannah said Amita mentioned something about wanting to see fireflies. She'd gone inside to use the restroom but no one can remember seeing her since. Ethan's also gone now."

"Where's Neal?"

"I thought he was with you," she said, her eyes widening with dismay. "Is he missing too?"

Peter didn't answer but grabbed Travis. "Have you seen Neal?"

"Not for a half-hour or so."

A quick canvassing of Mozzie and Janet provided little additional information. Vampires in the park. Neal and two kids missing. The nightmare he'd dreaded had arrived.

#

No need to panic.

Amita had taken it into her head to go chasing after fireflies, despite having been warned repeatedly to never wander off on her own. Neal caught Ethan just as he was racing off to join her. Cell phone service was unavailable. And now vampires were in the meadow.

Okay, Neal had permitted himself one tiny moment of panic, but it was up to him to fix this mess and fast.

His sense of urgency was transferred to the kids. He had one on either side of him. They gripped his hands so tightly, he longed to shake off the sting, but he wasn't about to ask them to ease up. No more wandering off.

In the woods, there were plenty of brambles where even vampires would be slowed down. He didn't think vampires could fly. Dean and Sam had never mentioned it. But pure-bloods? No one knew what their abilities were.

Resolutely thrusting that unsettling thought aside, Neal focused on his plan. Never had he been so grateful for Mozzie's obsession with cave slime.

Once they were several yards into the woods, Neal called a brief halt and whispered to the kids they were going to hide in a cave.

"A pirates' cave?" Ethan asked excitedly.

"That's right, and we need to run as fast as possible." He stood up and scanned the woods. Could he find Mozzie's cave again? He'd only been there once. When he'd visited it with Mozzie, it had taken them about thirty minutes, but Mozzie had ambled along, pointing out curiosities on the way. The kids were excited to race so they should make it in much less time. If they took the trail, they'd get there faster, but they'd be more exposed. If they went through the woods, one of them could trip on a log and break a leg.

Neal opted for the trail and prayed he'd made the right decision.

Their luck held. They arrived at the cave with no vampires and no bears. Ethan and Amita's initial fear had turned to elation over the adventure. How scared should he make them? Neal felt woefully over his head. He hoped to avoid the mention of vampires but they needed to realize this was no game.

Crawling into the low entrance wasn't a problem for his apprentice pirates. If he ever made a pirate movie, Amita would be his leading lady. She was fearless. He led them to the back alcove where Mozzie had made him look for slime. The opening of the pocket was too narrow for him to squeeze into, but the kids would fit with room to spare.

He first shone his flashlight inside. The crevice was about six feet deep. It stretched far enough back that a vampire couldn't grab them. Neal peered for snakes, spiders, anything scary, but it looked clear. He turned to the kids. "You'll have to keep the flashlight off when I leave. You won't be afraid?"

"Not us!" Ethan boasted. "We'll tell pirate stories."

"Can we make up our own story?" Amita asked. "I want to have fireflies in mine, and dragons, and talking snakes—"

"Great idea!" Neal said, interrupting her before she got too carried away. "I want to hear both your stories when I return. But you have to promise me that if you hear someone— anyone—approach the cave, you'll be absolutely quiet." He took off his watch and handed it to Ethan. "This is broadcasting a signal to Peter and Travis. They'll probably get here before me. I expect they're already on their way. I'll return as soon as I can, but first I need to see where the bad guys are. If they're close, I'll lead them away. If someone comes inside the cave and calls out to you, only answer if you're sure you know them. You promise?"

"Don't worry, Neal," Ethan said. "We promise." He turned to Amita. "I'll protect you. Barbossa can't get you with me here."

Amita sniffed. "I can defend myself." She turned to Neal. "Aren't there any girl pirates?"

"Sure there are. Lots of them. We'll celebrate our victory with a pirates' dance just as soon as we get back to the observatory." Neal crouched down and enveloped each one in a hug.

He hoisted Amita into the crevice first and gave her his flashlight to check out the space one more time. She quickly gave the all-clear signal. He then gave Ethan a boost. The kids appeared a lot braver than he was feeling. "Do you have enough room?" he demanded anxiously.

"Plenty!" Ethan called out happily.

"This is the best adventure ever!" Amita added.

"When Peter comes, tell him I went north into the forest from the fork in the trail. That's right at the edge of the meadow."

Neal took a breath when he left the cave and with an effort focused on the vampires rather than the kids. He sprinted back toward the meadow and cautiously peered through the trees. The vampires were only about a hundred feet from where he was standing. They'd formed a circle. Initially, he'd counted five vampires and there were five in the circle, but who was that in the middle? A vampire? Naked? Was this the anistemi?

One of the vampires turned his head and looked in Neal's direction, sniffing the air.

Neal popped out from the trees just long enough for them to take a good look at him then made a mad dash back into the forest.

Never had he raced so hard. Not even in Vienna when it seemed the entire Viennese police force was on his heels. That had been so much easier. He was in a city with street lamps to light the way, fire escapes to climb, rooftops to jump over . . .

His pounding footsteps punched out a loud drumbeat: Here I am. Chase me.

No time for stealth. No smooth pavement in the pitch-black forest to race on. He was scrambling through briars, tripping over tree roots.

The only other time he'd been chased by vampires, he'd been in a swamp with Sam. The vamps appeared from nowhere and were on them in an instant.

Why hadn't they caught up to him yet? Or had they? Had they circled around so he was racing straight toward them?

He sped ever faster . . .

Neal had deliberately let himself be spotted—he couldn't take the risk they'd catch the scent of Amita and Ethan. But he couldn't outrun vampires. He was in a pine forest. The lowest branches were far too high to reach even if he jumped as high as he could. He'd tried climbing one of them, but the bark flaked off in large chunks under his fingers and he was tossed back on the ground.

If this were the city, he could find a dumpster to use for a launching pad. Here, his only hope was to find a tree he could climb. And even then, it might not be good enough. Trees couldn't always be counted on.

This wasn't the first time he'd fled through the woods. Was that why he'd been so terrified for the kids? He'd only been a couple of years older than Ethan. Back then, he used to love to climb trees. But the tree hadn't saved him. His mom's boyfriend Vance had seized him from the branch he was hanging onto and sent him hurtling to the ground, breaking his arm.

Neal forced thoughts of the abduction out of his mind. How high could vampires jump? Would climbing a tree simply put him in more peril?