Free Forgotten by Catherine Gardiner

Jessica asked.
    “Nothing, Jessica. Everything’s fine; Katrina just had a nightmare, that’s all. Why don’t you go back to bed?” Mrs. Sinclair answered.
    “Is there anything I can get you, Katrina? A glass of water? Or a cold compress for your forehead?” Jessica offered.
    Katrina shook her head mutely, and with a small encouraging smile in her direction, Jessica left the room.
    As soon as Jessica was out of sight, Katrina turned to Mrs. Sinclair. “Mom, I’m fine.”
    “Okay, sweetheart,” Mrs. Sinclair said. She let go of her foster daughter carefully and moved for the door. “I do worry about you and Jessica sometimes …” Trailing off, she switched off the light and left the room.
    If I start to cry now I know I’ll never be able to stop, Katrina thought angrily.
    She looked over at her alarm clock. The green neon numbers told Katrina that it was now 3:24 a.m. Katrina yawned and, realizing that she wouldn’t be able to get back to sleep straight away, pulled back her covers, stumbled out of bed, and over to her dressing table.
    Katrina stared at her reflection hard. From her neck the pendant still hung, and she reached behind her neck to unclasp it.
    “What the —” Katrina started to curse; the side of her neck was tender.
    Taking off the sweater she had fallen asleep in, she leaned closer to the mirror to examine her neck. There were no marks. She sighed.
    First nightmares and now I’m imagining things , Katrina thought bitterly.
    Moving from her dressing table, Katrina changed into her nightshirt and climbed back into bed. She reached over to turn off the lamp that was on her nightstand, but stopped midway when she realized that the light wasn’t on. Puzzled, Katrina pushed herself into a sitting position. Her room was as dark as a tomb, but to Katrina’s surprise she could see everything like it was in the middle of the day. She rushed back to her mirror and saw that her emerald eyes had an unnatural glow to them.
    “What’s happening to me?” Katrina mumbled to herself, frightened.
    *
    Suzanne Harvey looked out of her bedroom window at the Oregon night sky, noting a waning moon hanging high above. She could smell the promise of an approaching storm and a smile tugged at her lips by the thought of it; it had been too long since she had seen a good storm. She hoped that it would start soon so she could enjoy nature at its most dangerous and beautiful.
    Two months previously, Suzanne had arrived in Sycamore Heights, Northern Oregon, along with her best and only friend, Emily Rhodes, with high hopes of finally finding and reuniting with her sister, Katrina. That had been the plan, but that was before Marcus Townsend and Jonathan Granger had arrived. In Suzanne’s opinion their arrival had spoilt things and, to make matters worse, she now had to sit through another lecture from Marcus.
    Oh, here we go again , Suzanne thought, noticing that Emily had the same blank expression as she, too, was being admonished.
    Marcus chided the two girls on the dangers of running away and hitchhiking across America without his or Jonathan’s protection.
    The girls shared a glance. Why was he lecturing them? They all knew that they weren’t like normal girls and that they didn’t need protecting. Suzanne had been a werewolf for the past two hundred years, her immortality granted by the small amount of vampire blood flowing through her veins that had been enough to give her everlasting life without transforming her completely, whereas Emily had been a full vampire since the late seventeenth century. Despite Marcus’ concerns, they both felt that they were more than capable of taking care of themselves.
    Suzanne and Emily waited until he had finished speaking, nodded that they understood and smiled politely. Marcus was fully aware that they were just humoring him, but this wouldn’t be the last time that they would take it upon themselves to do something reckless. He also knew that he was one of the reasons