Free Octavia's War by Tracy Cooper-Posey Page A

body temperature. She could feel it in the heat between her legs. She was almost glowing with it. Remmy could sense that.
    “Lie down and close your eyes,” Remmy said, his voice low. “Sleep will come.”
    “What if they come instead?” Ángel asked.
    “You’re both working with higher senses now. You’ll wake if they do. And I am not going anywhere.”
    Octavia wanted to protest, except that the heaviness of her body said that sleep was still waiting for her. She laid down, cushioning her head on her arm. She settled into the most comfortable position possible on raw rock. She wished they’d had room for one of the blankets that Ángel had spoken of.
    That was her last thought before waking with the last light of day beaming almost directly into the mouth of the cave, dazzling her with the red and orange display, while Remmy stood silhouetted in the blazing light, looking out upon the desert.
    “They have been on the move,” he said.
    “Who?” Ángel asked, yawning.
    “Everyone and everything,” Remmy replied.

Chapter Seven
    They started walking again even before the sun was fully set. The bluffs and knolls sent long shadows over the dry land, as the sky drifted from blue to indigo to deepest black. The stars came out overhead and Octavia found herself studying them with growing wonder. “There are so many,” she said.
    “It’s very dark here, with no cities nearby,” Remmy said. “You can see more. Even the planets themselves, if you have a keen eye.”
    Ángel started to look up every now and again, instead of constantly turning his head. He was restless, too. “I can feel them,” he said. “They’re all around. Why aren’t they attacking?”
    “They like enclosed spaces and dark corners. It is too open here.”
    “Perhaps we’re going exactly where they want us to go,” Octavia said, the unpleasant thought make her heart work even harder. She pulled the denim jacket in around her.
    Neither of them responded to that. Perhaps it was as unsettling for them to consider as it was for her. Only, once she had established the idea of being herded, it wouldn’t go away.
    “What lies ahead?” she asked Remmy. “A bluff and an arroyo, you said. What else? What would make them wait until we reached it?”
    “The whole park is plateaus and rifts and canyons,” Ángel said.
    “And very few people,” Remmy added thoughtfully.
    Octavia came to a halt, her heart sinking. “Oh God, the people….”
    They turned back to look at her.
    She looked at Ángel. “The whole town. Manuel Benavides. They all headed into the park to get away from what they thought was your brother’s excesses. They’re walking right into the middle of the vampeen and they have no idea they’re there.”
    “They will only go to the nearest canyon for shelter,” Ángel said slowly.
    “Will they?” Octavia said. “If they think someone is trailing them, they’ll keep going to try to get away from them. They’ll think it’s someone human.”
    Ángel shook his head. “We can’t go back,” he said flatly. “The townsfolk…they’re not who the vampeen want.”
    “They’ll herd them to where they can deal with them!” Octavia cried.
    “You don’t know that,” Remmy said softly.
    “I know . I know it here!” She pressed her hand to her chest. “Humans are food to them, you said. Of course they’re going to round up a herd of food on foot!” As she spoke, she edged backward. The urge to flee back the way they had come, to sprint back toward the town and find everyone and warn them was almost overwhelming.
    Ángel moved over to her and put his arms around her. “Shh…” he said. “Breathe.”
    “They’ll kill them all!” she cried.
    “You can’t help them if you go back,” Remmy said.
    “They’re trying to draw you out,” Ángel added. “They want you to dash back there and save them. It separates you from us, where we can’t protect you.”
    Octavia drew in a shuddering breath. “You don’t