skin was cool but not cold like she’d expected. “Are you going to get in trouble for being here?” he asked, his eyes almost a human green except for the thick gold band around the green part.
“Only if we get caught.” She tried to sound brave. In the dreamworlds, she hadn’t noticed the gold band or the light strands of red through his black hair. Barely there, but they were super neat. “What about you?”
He nodded, his eyes widening. “Yeah. I was with family on a farm, an actual farm, and I borrowed a truck.”
She gasped. “You drove?”
He shrugged. “I just moved the seat closer to the steering wheel. I’m eight now, you know. And I’m tall.”
Way tall. Even taller than Libby. Hope looked at Pax. “That’s Pax—he’s gonna be nine—and that’s Libby. She just turned eight.” She pointed to the feline shifter.
Libby waved, her eyes wide, her face so pale her freckles stood out. Pax just lifted his head and didn’t change his face. He sure didn’t smile. Instead, he kind of looked like every mad vampire Hope had ever seen. “They’re not sure about this,” Hope said.
“Me either,” Drake said. “We could get in so much trouble.”
Pax edged closer. “This much sun doesn’t bother you?”
Drake stayed beneath the awning. “No. In fact, I can step in the sun for a few seconds without getting hurt. Some other kids my age can also. It’s called velution.”
“Evolution,” Libby whispered from her perch.
Drake shrugged. “That does sound better.”
Hope smiled. He was just as nice in real life as she’d hoped he would be. “It’s awesome we could meet.” What else should she say? “I want us all to find a way for the grown-ups to stop fighting.”
Pax moved closer until his elbow touched hers.
Drake watched him, and a small smile curved his red lips. A look passed between the boys, a weird one that didn’t make any sense. Hope wasn’t even sure they knew what they were fighting about. Or why they didn’t like each other. If they got to know each other, they’d probably be friends. In fact, they all had to be friends for her peace plan to work.
Pax jerked his head toward a black watch on Drake’s wrist. “Is that a fitness tracker?”
“No. Just a watch.” Drake leaned to look at Pax’s wrist. “Do you have one of those?”
“Yeah,” Pax said. “I took it off before we left the compound so nobody would follow us. How did you know where we were, Drake?”
Hope gave him a look. He sounded grouchy.
Drake laughed, and the sound was nice. “The world isn’t that big, demon. Or vampire. Whichever you want to be called.”
“Hybrid works for me,” Pax muttered.
Drake nodded. “Okay. Everyone knows where Realm vampire and demon headquarters are now. Just like the witches are in Ireland and Seattle, and the feline shifters in Montana. We all have defenses.”
“Wow. You know a lot, Drake,” Libby said.
“We have to study geography,” he groaned. “It’s so boring. I like art class better.”
Drake could draw? Hope smiled. Maybe he’d give her a picture someday. “I like art too.”
Pax snorted. Okay. She couldn’t draw good at all. But it was still fun.
Drake’s chest puffed out. “Lately I’ve studied your Seven. The guys who want to blow up the world?”
Pax gave Hope a look. The Seven were a secret, and she only knew about them ’cause Fate told her in dreams. She’d told Pax and Libby. “Nuh-uh,” Hope said, her face getting hot. Two of her uncles were on the Seven, Garrett and Logan. “They’re good. They want to keep a bad guy away.”
“Ulric is not bad,” Drake said, his fingers curling into a fist. “He was good, and they were wrong years ago. Don’t you see that?”
“My uncles are good,” she snapped. Pax slid kinda in front of her, and she shoved him to the side. Nobody ever needed to step in front of her.
Drake took a deep breath. “They might be good. But what they’re doing is wrong.”
Hope wanted to convince him, but what were the right words? She started to tell him, and then the whole world exploded.
Helicopters rushed above them, and black SUVs screeched to a halt outside the park.
“Shit,” Pax said.
Hope gaped. Pax never said naughty words. Ever.
Drake’s eyes widened, and he looked panicked, running to the yellow slide.
Soldiers dressed in full black gear dropped from the copters, their big boots slamming into the wood of the jungle gym. Hope’s daddy was the first to reach her, and he scooped her