Free Rival by Lacy Yager Page B

going on.
    "Why me?" Emily asks. She's between me
and Erick now. "My uncle is the head of the family. All the
fighters in this area will go if he does."
    Shane glances over her shoulder to
where the uncle—the first guy who danced with her—is helping
someone else off the ground.
    "I've tried," Shane says. "But he's not
listening. He thinks things are fine as they are."
    Erick shifts, and I think about him
taking the fall for the three of us at that first vampire attack in
the parking garage. "My dad won't want to leave. This is his home."
But I notice Erick doesn't say it's his home. Are things bad with
his dad?
    "I've been talking to another Chaser
family in the area," Shane says. "The Reyes family."
    As in Sam Reyes? From the martial arts
tournament? It had seemed like Emily knew her. Was being a Chaser
the connection?
    "They're going into hiding, unless I
can convince them to fight with us."
    Erick shakes his head. "We've only had
a few dealings with them. They're not as dedicated as we
are."
    "I don't know," Emily says. "Sam might
be interested. She's a hothead."
    Shane grins. "A lot of us are. So...are
you in?"
    Emily looks away again, and I follow
her gaze to her mom, across the yard, trying to clean
up.
    Many of the other people have cleared
out. I'm assuming some of them had to get medical attention. Some
are dragging away the vamp's bodies. I don't want to know what
they're going to do with them.
    "I don't know," Emily says. "I need
to..." She looks up at me, looks at the Shane guy, looks at Erick.
"I've got to talk to my mom." She turns back at me. "Can you
stay?"
    "Of course."
    I watch her walk away, and it's not
until Erick says something that I realize the other two have been
watching as well.
    "You gonna take care of her?" Erick
asks.
    I glance at him, and he's totally
serious. Deadly serious. "Yeah."
    "Promise?"
    I nod.
    "But not keep her from fighting?" he
asks.
    I crack a smile. "Nobody really tells
Emily what to do."
    He laughs. Then he turns to the new
guy. "I'm in, man," Erick says.
    "You sure?" I ask. "You don't even know
him."
    Erick and Shane slap palms, clasp
wrists in a handshake. "We're both Chasers," Erick says.
    "It's like a creed," agrees
Shane.
    I'm watching Emily with her mom, and
the words pop out before I can call them back. "How do I join
up?"

 
     
    20 - Emily
    When I go to her, my mom is attempting
to clean up the three layers of white birthday cake that have been
smashed into one corner of the parquet floor.
    "Mom."
    She doesn't seem to hear me the first
time, so I call a little louder.
    "Mom. Mom!"
    When she looks up, her eyes are wide
and panic-filled. She might be in shock or something, but
thankfully, I can see the .44 she used on the vamp earlier sitting
harmlessly next to a plate of empanadas. Far enough away that she
can’t reach it.
    "We'll clean it up tomorrow," I tell
her. I take her by the hand, and she must really be out of it,
because she follows me into the house like I'm the grownup and
she's a little kid.
    "Uncle Felix will board up the windows.
Brett and I will clean up a little before he goes home."
    She “hmms” in what could be agreement,
but she’s mostly silent as I pull her upstairs to her
bedroom.
    This door has an industrial lock on
it—it was sort of like the last hold in my dad's defense plans. I
intend to sleep in here with her tonight. For her, not for
me.
    "Your party was ruined," she whispers
as I push her down to sit on the edge of the bed.
    I can't help the snort of laughter that
escapes. "That's my kind of party," I say.
    She has enough gumption to
glare at me, so maybe she's just shocked but not in shock, or maybe she's
coming out of it.
    "Why did they do that? Attack us
here?"
    I shrug. "Maybe they somehow found out
that there would be a big group of Chasers here tonight? Or maybe
one of them got lucky and spotted one of the Chasers coming to the
party."
    I go to her chest of drawers and find
her pajamas and that favorite robe she's always