would also kill the dozen or so humans gathered about watching the ceremony. Humans who still had a chance to redeem themselves, to be saved.
Rann was many things, but he wasn’t an indiscriminate murderer.
Not to mention I have no idea how many more vampires might be hiding in here or nearby.
Taking on three vampires was a task in itself. Rann needed to get out, grab his team, and come back in force the next night, when they could be sure to catch everyone. To make a plan and get all the vampires in one go.
Turning he crept for the back door, hating himself for leaving, but knowing it was the smart decision in the grand scheme of it all.
I’m going to be the clan leader, I need to think long-term, big-picture. The others need to know what’s going on in here.
So he raced back out into the night, heading back up the mountain.
Even as he did, a part of his mind stayed behind, stuck at the door to a small bungalow and its sole occupant.
Chapter Twenty
Gayle
“All recovered from the weekend now?”
Gayle stiffened, glancing up at Claire as she approached the worktable.
“What do you mean?” she asked warily.
Had someone told Claire what had happened? The only people who knew were Gayle’s parents and Rann. He had better not have blabbed to her about the catastrophe that was Sunday morning!
Gayle gritted her teeth, trying to temper her anger at the idea.
“Oh nothing,” Claire said as she grabbed a bag and started placing items in it with practiced ease. “I just figured that maybe you’d had a bit too much to drink. I know we left a bit early and you hadn’t really started drinking yet, but it was your birthday, after all.”
They’d been making the same kits at Balance the Scales for several weeks now, and it only took a few hours to get good at it. The pair could talk and work at the same time without fear of making a mistake.
Gayle relaxed. “No,” she said. “I didn’t feel like dealing with the hangover. You know how it is.”
Claire snorted. “Trust me, I know far too well. Once you hit thirty, they become two-day hangovers, right?”
They laughed, each finishing up a kit and tossing it into the completed bins and reaching for another pair of bags, flapping the ends to use air to open them fully.
“The worst,” Gayle confirmed. “I just had a few drinks. It was a really nice time, but nobody was drinking that way, so I didn’t feel the need for it, you know?”
“Hey, no pressure,” Claire said with a grin. “How did things go with Rann, by the way?”
“What do you mean?”
Claire frowned. “Weren’t you two supposed to hang out last night? Spend some time together so you could be comfortable faking it at the wedding?”
“Oh. We didn’t see each other last night,” Gayle said tightly, hoping Claire would get the hint and drop the subject.
There was an uncomfortable silence between them.
“Is this all we have?” Claire asked eventually. “Seems low.”
Grateful to the other woman for not pushing the subject, Gayle looked up from her work. “I think we’re getting another truck today,” she said.
“It won’t be enough. We’re going through the kits too fast,” Claire pointed out. “We’re going to run out, and it’s going to get bad out there.”
“It’s already bad out there,” Gayle said. “We need more help. More aid.”
“Think the mayor will call in the state or even the national guard?” Claire mused, thinking aloud.
“I hope it doesn’t get to that,” Gayle said. “But if I’m honest, I’m kind of shocked we haven’t had to yet. There’s what, closing in on ten thousand people out there, between this field and the one on the south side of the interstate?”
“I think that’s the latest estimate I heard, yeah,” Claire agreed with a nod, doing up the zipper on her bag and tossing it into the finished pile.
“There’s no way Five Peaks could have provided all this aid so fast,” Gayle said. “It shouldn’t have been feasible. We’re too small of a town for it.”
“This isn’t publicly funded though,” Claire said.
“It’s not? I thought it was.”
“No. It’s the dr—the Five,” Claire corrected herself. “The families have done it all. From tent rentals to paying for supplies, food trucks and deliveries, the soup kitchens. Even the port-a-potties were organized by them. It’s quite the operation.”
“Amazing,” Gayle said thoughtfully.
Though she’d been volunteering there longer than Claire, she’d not actually thought much about who was organizing it, just