After a night that had been blissfully free of attempted mental invasions, Shara stretched and looked over at her brother. As Slade started to wake up, she smiled.

"Hey," she said, as his bright green eyes opened at last.

"Hey, Shara," he said, peering at her more closely as he sat up. "You look rested. You have a good night?"

"Better than most," she said, nodding.

"Thats good," he said, leaning back and closing his eyes halfway. "Shara?"

"Hmm?" she turned back to him, having started to stare out into the barn itself, in an absence of something concrete to focus on.

"Do you ever start to get the feeling that were not supposed to be here?" he asked, his eyes still at half-mast, seeming like he was speaking more for his own benefit than anyone elses. "Like, theres someone out there, and we should be out there with them, instead of here with the Animorphs?"

Only when Darkon tries to break into my mind, she thought to herself. "No, not really. Jake and the others treat us well, and Cassie provides for us. I dont really think theres anywhere else we could be that would have all of the things that we have right here. Besides, Jakes a good leader, dont you think?"

"Yeah," Slade said, looking up at the ceiling of the barn, his eyes open and clear at last. "Yeah, he is."

"Well, there you have it," she said; she didnt particularly like the thought of manipulating her brother like this, but there was no way in hell she was letting Darkon sink his hooks into the last of her family. "We stay."

"Yeah," he said, nodding decisively. "We will."

They had breakfast after that, and she wrestled with the tiredness that Slade was so obviously succumbing to. Once he was asleep, she walked out to the edge of the hayloft and morphed into her Swallow-Tailed Kite. Flapping her wings, she rose into the air and shot out of the barn door.

(Cassie,) she called, seeking the other girls mind out with her telepathic powers. (Im going to be visiting Marco for awhile today. If Slade wakes up before I get back, tell him that for me.)

Knowing that she could count on the other girl to do as she asked, and knowing also that Cassie was bound to have heard her request, Shara made her way back to the suburbs proper. It was going to be nice to have someone to confide in, even if she probably wouldnt be able to do it all that often. To say nothing of the fact that neither of them were really the type to confide in other people.

At least, not anymore.

When she arrived at least over Marcos neighborhood, she made straight for his house. His hand was waving out of the window, and she chuckled mentally, even as she tucked her wings and dove. It seemed she wouldnt need to arrange a new all-clear signal between them after all.

Opening her wings and swooping in through the window of his room, Shara fluttered to the floor and gratefully began her demorph. The flying was nice, and it felt almost right that she do it under her own power, but being in such a small body for too long had a tendency to make her edgy; probably more of the Radams tampering.

"So, I take it your fathers not here right now," she said, smiling.

"He left about an hour ago," Marco said, nodding. "So now Im all yours, and Im all ears."

"Thats good to hear," she said, her good mood starting to fade slightly; it wasnt that she didnt want to talk, but this story of hers didnt have much to smile about.

Unless you liked sick humor, at least.