moment to emerge fully dressed from her room. Her eyes were almost entirely black, showing just how upset she was at what she’d overheard.
“Is it true, Eliana? You didn’t truly feed?”
I shook my head and hated the disappointment in her gaze.
“It’s no wonder you’re starving yourself if your father has been filling your head with such thoughts. Jason, get up and apologize to your daughter for casting your judgmental morals in her face.”
He rose and faced Mom. There was devotion in his gaze, but more. Anger. Fear. Resentment.
“No,” he said firmly. “I will not encourage her sexual addictions. She needs help. You both do.”
Mom flushed an angry red.
“She needs to feed. And if that means having sex with every human male on this earth, then so be it.”
I scrambled to my feet and stepped in front of Dad.
“Enough. Both of you. Can’t you see what you’re doing to me? I’m stuck between two worlds with opposing moralities, and your equal disapprovals are tearing me apart. Please just stop trying to help me. All you do is hurt me more.”
Tears falling freely, I ran from the house and ignored my mom’s call to come back. I couldn’t listen to them any longer. Isn’t that what Fenris had been telling me all along? I was listening to too many people and trying to make them all happy, and it was turning me into a self-hating ball of misery.
I was done. It was time to listen to myself. I needed to focus on getting my friends, the people who actually cared about me, back.
Determined, I wiped my face and drove back into town.
A thick layer of snow covered Ashlyn’s driveway and sidewalk. The indication of how long she’d been missing infuriated me as much as the neglect the Council was showing her home in her absence.
I went to her garage, thinking I’d grab the shovel and clear the snow myself, but the door was locked. As was the house. Taking a page from Megan’s book, I snuck around the side and started trying windows. Each one was locked tight, and my fingers tingled if I touched them too long.
“Can I ask what you’re doing?” Anne Regan’s familiar voice made me jump, and I guiltily looked over my shoulder at Uttira’s newest human liaison officer, who had her stun gun out and pointed at me.
“Trying to get in. Ashlyn’s driveway needs to be shoveled. I don’t want her to think no one cared that she was gone when she gets back.”
“That’s sweet of you, Eliana, but you should know not to try to break in. Her house is warded against your kind.”
I flinched at her choice of words.
“But I’ve been in there before.”
“Ashlyn allowed you in.”
“You can get in, right? Would you get her shovel from the garage for me?”
She considered me for a moment and slowly lowered her weapon.
“Having that pointed at you didn’t even bother you, did it?”
“No, but only because I’d never give you a reason to use it.”
“You’re one of the few, then.” She sighed and holstered her weapon. “Come on. I’ll get the shovel for you.”
“Any update on the search?” I asked as I followed her to the front of the house.
“Nothing promising. The Council is interviewing druids about a location spell, but they haven’t picked one yet. Sorry.”
“Keep pushing the Council. You need to be Ashlyn’s advocate. The Council only cares about her absence because they’re afraid of who Megan will find guilty when she returns.”
“I met Megan and can understand their fear. I’ve been pushing since we last spoke. It doesn’t seem to do any good.”
She opened the garage door and reached around the corner for the shovel. Ashlyn’s car waited inside, an untouched reminder of her absence.
“Go ahead and close it back up. I’ll keep the shovel in my car and clear her driveway until she’s back to do it herself.”
“Hopefully, that will be soon.”
I nodded and started scraping. Officer Ragen didn’t stay to watch me but got into the patrol car idling at the curb and drove off. When I had everything clear, I packed up the shovel and headed out of town toward Megan’s place.
While the shovel probably hadn’t been the personal item that the druids had in mind, it was likely all they would get unless they knew a spell to unlock windows. And if they did know one, I wanted nothing to do with breaking and entering.
I wanted to experience being shocked as much as I wanted to listen to my dad