Allen:

It had been hours since the meeting, the sun was setting and search parties from all of the societies were combing all over Oregon. There was no immediate trail to the missing children, so the search parties had simply started combing in larger and larger circles, each search team having a werewolf along so they could use their sense of smell to pick up any trace that a human would not think to clean up.

With sixty teams, more than half them from out of state, in just two hours we had word, the scent of the children had been found. When word was given to me over the radio, I ran to my wife. "Nadine, they found something!"

She looked down at the dish she was working on in the sink. She looked out the window despondently. "How is he? He's still alive right?"

"Well, they just have a scent... really just Jezreel's, but that makes sense, she was missing long before him. But they're on the trail, I mean, it's just a matter of time."

"I see..."

I put a hand on her shoulder. "Nadine..."

"Bring back my son. Bring him back to me." She just kept staring out the window over the sink.

"I'll join the team if I can..."

"Why would someone do this? I don't understand." She just kept cleaning the same dish. "If they want a fight, why not attack adults?"

"I guess... I guess they're trying to make a statement."

"You'll make a statement right? No one. Hurts. My. Son." The dish, that must have been half an inch thick stoneware, she broke in half without even looking at it. "Bring back my child." She started shaking.

(***)

Judith:

I breathed slowly and looked at my werewolf friend. Maybe, just maybe... as a banshee there was no way I could get out of this quickly- werewolves were twice as fast as normal humans and banshees and they had stamina to boot.

I looked at him, meeting his eyes, and pointed behind me mouthing "go". Jessica seemed to take notice of our communication and clapped twice, causing everyone but me and Jaden.

Jessica looked at Venice and screamed, electricity surging from her body as Jaden tore off past him. Venice unsheathed his sword, me hearing the click and watching Jessica's form suddenly stop emitting. Jaden kept running as I pulled air into my chest. I threw my head forward and screamed, preparing to knock everyone on their butts- nothing happened. I just screamed like a normal child as Venice shot after Jaden, grabbing him with ease.

He came back to us and tossed my friend at me, both of us toppling over.

"Maybe I should explain something children," Venice said. "My sword can deactivate any power or device that is not purely biological. Pharaoh electricity, banshee screams, the powers of the mystics... and a number of other things. I have been alive since the beginning of this struggle. I have seen all of the monsters that call us monsters. I am five hundred years old, if any of you think there is something you can think of that I cannot let me assure you, your confidence is misplaced."

I grabbed a knife from Jaden's belt before my friend could respond, shoved him off me, and threw myself forward, jamming the knife into Venice's leg.

A hand landed on my face, throwing me back and forcing me to slam into the bars. I quickly scrambled away from the snarling monsters in the cage, just dodging several sharp claws. Venice chuckled, taking out the knife and tossing it away. He shook his leg and then returned to standing on it. "Did you know gargoyle powers are almost entirely biological? I might have nixed a few minor abilities... but I could kill you all right here, and it wouldn't bother me. But Seraphim would never let me hear the end of it... care to continue pushing your luck?"

"What do you want?" I asked. "You can't just keep us here..."

"Your parents will probably track you here, indeed, if only Seraphim had listened... So we will probably have to move before they do." He started to walk back to the hall. "Let me be clear. If you all wish to survive, you will simply accept that your new home is with us."

"Venice... stop..." Jessica said. "I know the families of these children, they won't stop until they're returned. You... you have no idea who you're dealing with..."

"Then their families feel no different about what is theirs than I do. Good for them." He sighed. He then looked back. "Understand, I know we could be found. It has not escaped my notice that you children represent a number of the societies, so your disappearance will be an issue for many of them. So we will do what we have to. Those who cannot fight, the children, many of the women, they will move to a new safe house. I will remain behind with a large contingent to destroy any werewolf parties coming after us. They will have to field heavy numbers to get past us, and display so much power... the public will notice if they do too much. We will force them to retreat or risk revealing the societies to the world."

"If you do that, how many will die?" Kyle asked.

"No way to know. Maybe your people will take too long to catch up to us, maybe we will avoid a fight altogether. However, if that does not happen... how many will be sacrificed before they give up on their children? We will not back down. If the werewolves find us, they will try to exterminate us, there is no retreat left for us." The towering man walked away from us, not even glancing back.

I shook my head. "Look, Venice... my people are wrong about yours."

"This should be news to me?"

"I mean, you don't want to fight. So, I don't understand, just give us back," I said, quickly walking after him.

"You think it's that simple? I don't want to fight, but I have to remember, your people do. Of all of you, what guarantee do I have that none of you will give reports on our defenses, our population, or key individuals like myself and Seraphim to your people? Instead of existing in secret, your people will know we exist and start actively hunting us. Seraphim and I, at first, wanted to just rescue you and drop you off where you could be found by other kind souls. This didn't happen. You were being hunted so my naive lady friend wanted to secure you with us. She cares for you and will fight even me for you, and so... foolish as it may be I am prepared to fight for what she cares for."

"You love her don't you?" I asked. "She going to be your wife someday, or is she already?" I started to wonder if I could become his friend, then maybe reason with him... maybe? Grasping at straws but why not try?

"I am over five hundred years old. She isn't even three hundred. I don't know how she sees me. Perhaps I see her as a daughter..."

Jezreel grabbed my arm and whispered to me, "What are you doing? Stop talking to him! He's just a monster, lets just-"

"Whispering near me is a dumb idea," he sighed. "Let us return to the surface."

(***)

That night I laid on the cement floor of the gargoyle shelter, only having a small blanket under me, which I had used for my covering from the cold. Not being able to sleep, I started walking around the facility, looking at those sleeping.

Venice slept near the door, two gargoyles, awake on either side of him. I had not been able to sleep in several hours, so, I watched them. They must have been guards. One of the men watched me for a while, but as I waved at him sheepishly, he lost interest, not seeing the imposing figure of an eleven-year-old girl as much of a threat.

The boy who had danced with me earlier, I found with his family. The poor kid was shivering under his thin blanket, while his parents were just sleeping on the floor. I remembered learning that gargoyle powers allowed them to pretty much ignore the elements- powers that normally didn't develop until their twenties.

Well, I wasn't sleeping any time soon. I ran back, got my blanket, came back to the boy, and threw it over him.

I sat down and just looked over the facility.

I still wasn't tired. Hours had passed me just staring at the ceiling, longing for a book to read or something. I looked down at the boy, starting to feel a sense of possession of him like he were a long-lost brother or at least a friend. Seeing him sleeping, I couldn't resist the urge to reach down and push his hair away from his eyes.

He woke up to that. Seeing me, I kinda expected him to be creeped out or angry, I was not even sure myself what I was doing. Was I being the creepy stalker girl? Instead, he just smiled.

He sat up. "Can't sleep?" he asked.

"What tis your name?" I asked, figuring his question's answer was too obvious.

"Jeffery," he said yawning. "You?"

"Judith." I sat back using my hands to keep myself up. "So um... I was wondering about something. I heard a couple of you guys are different... really different from me and my friends."

He nodded, looking around. "Yeah, guess there's no point in keeping that from you, I mean, you live here now. Most of the folks here are mutants. We're called gargoyles." It was apparent Venice told the truth, these people mostly had no idea what me and my friends were. "There are a lot of mutants out there, but we're probably the most powerful... well, aside the mystics, but that's for entirely different reasons, still I'd take a gargoyle over one of them in a fight." He bit his lip. "By the way, sorry if I was pushy earlier. I just... kinda think you're cool."

"Well... the way I acted back I don't really deserve that," I replied. "How about you just accept my apology for being so cold to everyone, and call it even?" He shrugged. I decided to try to keep him from getting suspicious with a few questions I would have to already know if I was in the societies. "So how strong are you?"

"Me?" He asked pointing at himself. "Probably not much more than anyone else really. We don't get our powers till we're like twenty or something. But hey, you've seen Seraphim right? They're really cool powers, like hers. In fact, that guy Venice who came in with you guys, other than her, he's probably the most powerful guy here."

"He's kinda scary..." I noted.

"Yeah, he gets like that, kinda the big boss man," Jeffery said, scratching his head. "But he's a good guy." He looked up. "See that scaffolding up there?" He pointed. "I was playing up there once. There's no railing so I fell. He morphed and shot over to me, snatching me out of the air and saving my life. I mean, he was furious and I practically peed myself when he started yelling at me, but... I could see it, he cared about me. He cares about everyone here."

"Wonder what his story is."

"I know a little of it. He used to protect a small town way back in the fifteen hundreds- yeah, he's THAT old. Apparently, they were...p-p-purged," he paused after saying that word. Wow, did that word mean different things between the two of us. "It was something that happened... Seraphim tells me we're his new town, his new family."

"Why do you people not, you know, live in houses?"

He sighed. "Sometimes people live where they choose, sometimes, they live where they have to." He looked at me and sighed, "Well, guess you already understand that somewhat, segregation laws and all. Though, to be fair, the reason for this isn't the same. You see, there are other mutants out there. There's something my people did in the past, hundreds of years ago... something that was very wrong. We tried to hurt a lot of people, we tried to- pretty much rule the world. We thought we had a divine right because, well unless we're killed, we're immortal once we get our powers."

He looked down, looking ready to cry, but continued. "Some people say, we're getting what we deserve for our greed and arrogance. The other mutants are basically trying to wipe us out... I don't know that they're failing. We don't have medicine so... I've seen my friends die..." I quickly put a hand on his shoulder. "Thing is, if I were there, when my people tried to take over, I don't know, would I have been with the bad gargoyles? Would I have tried to stand against them? I have no idea. Am I a bad person? Was I born to be-"

I hugged him. "No. It... look I do not know what happened, it sounds pretty bad, but you do not deserve to be hunted or to die because of something someone else did. That is wrong. You are a good boy. You are nice, you treated me like I belonged, even though we are not alike at all. In fact... I think you are crushing on me." He blushed looking away from me.

"Well... I don't have a chance do I?"

"Well... I mean, not because of what or who you are, just... probably not. I-I do not know how to explain it."

"White?"

"No..." Truth was, my parents would not care at all if I fell for a werewolf and they were generally white. They would care that I would not be able to have children, as the different mutant races can not have children together, but... a gargoyle? Besides, to be honest, I liked this boy, but not in that way. "Tis not there. I do not know how to explain it, tis just not."

His shoulders went down. "I'm alright though right?"

"Yes, you are alright."

He shrugged. "You kinda talk like Seraphim, I like it. I'm gonna go back to sleep I think. You're pretty cool too." He laid down.

"Jeff, offhand are there any books I can-" he was out like a light before I could finish asking. I sighed. "Bet you don't know why, but I kinda deserve that."