[b]I love you guys!
<3

18. Oh It’s On![/b]

They emerged one by one from the forest edge, ranging a dozen meters apart. The first woman into the clearing fell back immediately, allowing the other woman to take the front, orienting herself around the tall, dark-haired woman in a manner that clearly displayed who led the pack. The third was a man; from this distance, all I could see of him was that his hair was a startling shade of fire engine red.

They closed ranks before they continued cautiously toward Ashley’s family, exhibiting the natural respect of a troop of predators as it encounters a larger, unfamiliar group of its own kind.

As they approached, I could see how different they were from the Davies. Their walk was catlike, a gait that seemed constantly on the edge of shifting into a crouch. They dressed in the ordinary gear of backpackers: jeans and casual button-down shirts in heavy, weatherproof fabrics. The clothes were frayed, though, with wear, and they were barefoot. The man had cropped hair, but the two women’s hair were filled with leaves and debris from the woods.

Their sharp eyes carefully took in the more polished, urbane stance of Christine, who, flanked by Aiden and Christopher, stepped guardedly forward to meet them. Without any seeming communication between them, they each straightened into a more casual, erect bearing.

The woman in front was easily the most beautiful, her skin carmel-toned beneath the typical pallor, her hair a glossy black. She was of a small, but hard-muscled, of course, but she looked just as graceful as Kyla. She smiled an easy smile, exposing a flash of gleaming white teeth.

The other woman was wilder, her eyes shifting restlessly between the three facing her, and the loose grouping around me, her chaotic chestnut hair quivering in the slight breeze. Her posture was distinctly feline. The male hovered unobtrusively behind them, slighter than Aiden, his light brown hair and regular features both nondescript. His eyes, though completely still, somehow seemed the most vigilant.

Their eyes were different, too. Not the gold or black I had come to expect, but a deep burgundy color that was disturbing and sinister.

Shit.

I don’t think that is from contacts.

The dark-haired woman, still smiling, stepped toward Christine.