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“Are you going to join her coven?”
“No, not right now,” Lozen said. “Once you join, you’re in for life. They said I can come to meetings without joining, and then decide when I’m a little older. One of the witches basically said, ‘You’re not going to settle here, but this can be your halfway house until you find yourrealcoven.’”
“Fascinating,” Saber said, and meant it.
Back at Saber’s house they both watched TV in her bedroom for a little while, but Saber felt restless. The sun had barely begun to set, and it was still early in the afternoon.
“I want some ice cream,” she said, and Lozen made a quietmmmsound.
“The sun is setting. We’d have to be really fucking fast.”
“I’ll go get my keys.”
“We can get to the grocery store and back before five,” Saber said, walking across her yard toward her car. She felt a breeze and heard the trees rustle and had a momentary second thought about leaving the house. It would be dark out very, very soon. Her determination that they shouldn’t live in fear, that the vampires wanted secrecy more than revenge, hardened her resolve. She unlocked the car and they climbed in.
As always when Saber was out in the evening, she was struck by how few streetlights there were on the island. While they drove, they heard the sound of an ambulance siren, and when it passed, Lozen rolled down her passenger side window. The sun had definitely set, now, and it was getting darker fast.
“Listen,” she said, and Saber did.
“I don’t hear anything.”
“Pull over.”
Saber pulled over to the road’s wet, grassy shoulder and listened again.
It sounded like the siren was repeating an eerie version of itself all around them, high and whining, like something from a horror movie.
“Coyotes,” Lozen said. “They always respond to sirens like that.”
“It’s so spooky,” Saber said, and Lozen shrugged.
“It’ssupposedto be spooky. They’re telling the other coyote, what theythinkis the other coyote, not to enter their territory.”
Saber felt a shudder.
“Can you understand them?”
Lozen shrugged again.
“I can just feel it. The scary thing is they can feelme, too.”
“Is that normal for witches?”
“Uh, no actually, just me. I have some kind of connection with animals. We’re still figuring out—”
Just then, a raven landed with a thud on the hood of the car. Both girls jumped. It gave Lozen a long, serious look, then croaked a shuddering, preternatural sound, and flew away. Saber blinked, and she realized her heart was pounding.
Lozen started breathing hard.
“What’s going on?” Saber said.
“I don’t know.” Lozen looked around as she spoke. “Maybe nothing.”
“Did it… like…saysomething?”
Lozen swallowed.
“Yeah.”
