I am officially sick this week. The heat is killin' me, and I'm so sleepy, but fear not I will not disappoint. 

Even thought I am not whole, all of me still love you, and all of me wishes you well, and never give up on yourself.

Firefly by Ed Sheeran

Be Still by The Killers

This Year by Mountain Goats

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Three hours later, I sit in my kitchen watching the rain pour down with Harper and Charlie, drinking coffee my mom made for us. "I agree with your dad." Harper rocks back in her chair. "Avery has two cats, and they don't scream like they are being flayed alive."

"Did his wife have their baby?" Charlie asks, trying to steer the conversation away from gore.

"Sick, babies come to your mind when you hear the word flayed."

"Come on, you know I'm squeamish." Charlie complains. "Anyway, they're in New York, and it would be a great excuse to go there, I haven't been in a few years."

"That's a day trip that no one wants."

I keep looking outside, expecting someone to signal for me, but so far dead silence after the text. I ask Charlie without looking at them. "Have you heard from Nya?"

"Yeah, I got a text this morning after I called her a bunch. She said she wasn't sure, and that Mr. Raka was keeping her inside today. I was actually going to ask you, seeing that you're basically dating her brother."

"Smooth transition." Harper sighs as I swing around to glare at her.

"I am not dating Milo, who says I'm dating him?" I hiss.

She shrugs. "The fact you spend all day Saturdays with him, according to Nya, he actually acknowledges you when you're there, I've seen that with my own eyes."

"And yesterday." Harper cuts in.

"Oh, yes, and that."

"What about yesterday?" I nearly yell, my dad sticks his head into the kitchen, glaring at me. Football is on. "Sorry." He went back to the family room. Then more softly. "What about yesterday?"

"Thea, he assumed you two were on a date. I saw him throw away the flowers, and he bailed early." Charlie puts her hand over mine. "He likes you; I honestly believed you reciprocated his feelings, and I know you can see it.

"I do like him back."

"Like a friend? Or more?" I am uncertain of how to convey that, indeed, I have stronger feelings for him, but there appears to be an obstacle preventing me from progressing. Fear, eyes, blood, Milo, all mix in my mind as I tightly close my eyes. She sighed loudly. "See, Thea, he likes you more than a friend."

"I know."

"Just don't string him along, if you don't like him like that, you should rip the band aid off, so he can move on sooner. He's 15, he's too young to be hung up on one girl."

I gaze into my coffee, observing the bubbles slowly moving in endless circles. It's not worth discussing, and I regret how it turned out. I listen as my brothers come charging in, and one comes screeching to a halt. When Charlie releases a small laugh, my attention shifts to see Caleb leaning against the counter. "Hello, ladies," she greeted them warmly.

"Oh, no." Harper laughs, and Charlie giggles into her hands.

"Ew," I shriek. "Get out of here, you disgusting child."

"Hey! Football is on." Dad grumbles from the living room.

"Get out!" I remove my shoe and throw it at him, and they quickly run into the next room. "Sorry about them."

"If I have to get out of this chair, everyone is leaving this house." My dad calls out.

"It's okay." She grins at me as we disregard my dad. "I wish someone our age would be like that to me, but of course I'm the girl with the mom who is our principal. Forbidden fruit."

"You'll get someone, you're pretty, guys find you attractive." Harper taps her spoon against her cup.

She sighs. "Someday maybe. Probably college."

My phone buzzes, and I glanced at it. Finally, something from Nya came in. I opened her message.

Come up soon, we can explain everything.

"Who's that?" Charlie sits up.

"Nya." I stand up. "She wants me to go head up."

"you?" Charlie looks hurt.

"Oh, uh, no us. She wants us to head up."

"You sure?"

"Yes," I grin at her. "sorry I really did mean us."

She jumps up. "Okay, you coming, Harper?"

"No, I'm going to go see how our boy is doing. Perhaps I'll take him shopping. Let him pick something shiny out." She gets out of her chair, grabbing her jacket and umbrella. "See you two tomorrow."

After she had departed, we put on our jackets, and I inform Dad of our destination, he signals me away. I shoot Nya a fast text, notifying her that Charlie is coming, then, after I get an umbrella, we head out into the subsiding rain. Finally, when we got to the gate, I got a response.

That's okay.

With a sigh of relief, I enter the numbers and ascend the hill. Once there, I open the door, and Charlie looks at me, confused.

"You know the code and you don't knock? Are you sure you're not dating him?" We walk in, and the second I shut the door, Nya is next to us, looking right at Charlie as we wipe our feet.

"I met you down at the gate and let you inside. Please go sit on the couch." She takes a step back, and Charlie's face relaxes, her eyes glazed over, as she goes to sit on the couch.

Nya gestures for me to follow her over to the kitchen where Levi and Milo stand. I establish direct eye contact with Milo for a moment, but this time I'm the one who averts my gaze, that uneasiness about the Abe flooding me.

"Adam is dead." Levi covers his eyes with his hand. "I don't know why, but he was bound and left out in the sun right outside the fence. I tried to talk to Enni, but she's beside herself. We'll get answers soon, though."

"Why didn't he break from the bounds? Why didn't anyone go get him, why did it stop?" I glance back and forth between the three of them.

"Powerful workers could induce a sense of elevation or intoxication in other kites, usually for the purpose of creating an effect, but occasionally for manipulation. The other possibility is certain herbs can be mixed to weaken us, but it takes a skilled hand to make it. I'm guessing he was pumped full of something that left him disabled. He was out far enough to make it impossible for us to rescue him without causing harm to ourselves, and he was staked."

"How did it not hurt them enough to stake him?"

"Not us, a human." Levi looks out the blank slate over the window. "I've never seen him before, but he staked Adam and then left. In my opinion, Jude was involved in it."

"Does... did Enni say anything?" I look from Levi to Milo, who shakes his head.

"Nothing," He grumbles. "She was attacked too, drugged, and didn't wake up until she heard the screams."

I reflect on the unsettling sensation I had regarding her, the sense of doubt we had in placing our trust in her. "Maybe you should ask her again." I try to be gentle.

"What are you getting at?" Milo's voice hardens.

"Are you sure she's telling the truth?" My attempt to avoid sounding accusatory fails miserably, evident by the shocked expression on Nya's face.

"Don't you dare!" Milo whirls on me. Levi puts his hand on his shoulder, but he shrugs it off.

"I've had an off feeling about her since I met her. I don't know. It is my belief that she can't be trusted."

"She is more of one of us than you are, she has been in this community for decades. You, you've stumbled your way in a few months ago."

"I'm still waiting for you to wipe my damn head off that." I snap back, not standing to listen to him insult me anymore. "No, I did not stumble my way in, I don't want to be a part of this."

"I have a great idea," Milo turns to Levi. "we don't have to give her to Jude, but we can send her away to a remote location, away from us."

A contemptuous laugh eludes me. "Hey, I don't want to be any part of this, don't want to have to be scared to walk out the damn door! I'm trying to be helpful, unlike you."

"You can't come into this community, act like you can be one with us-"

"Manius, that is enough."

This time, he turns on Levi. "No! Stop letting a human-"

Levi gazes deeply into his eyes and speaks quietly, but clearly. "Don't start this again."

Milo bites down hard, I can see the muscle jump, and pushes pass us, heading towards his room. Damn, so much for him not hating me, I'm burning all my bridges this weekend. After he slams his door closed, I turn to Levi. "He's not going to want to train with me anymore."

"He will need to, now that the threat is crossing boundaries I considered unbreachable. I will have a talk with him."

"No need." I sigh. "I think I should be the one to talk to him now."

"Thea, my dear, there's no negotiating with him. Once he has his head set on something, that's it. We will meet soon about this, I promise. Take your friend home." Levi put his hand on my shoulder. "And make sure for my sake, you are not wandering around after the sunset. You're under my protection now, and I need to make sure that you're safe."

I nod. "I promise."

He grins warmly at me. "You two better go."

Nya comes up to me as Levi turns out of the room. "How did you practice with him? That was brutal."

I open my mouth to say we don't fight, but I don't feel like lying. "I have no idea. He wasn't that pissed off, and he mostly made fun of me for being weak. He blames me for all of this." I look at the door. "I guess he has the right to."

"No way." She laughs. "I've experienced another war in the past, and it was over something even more senseless than this, he will move on from it."

"Can't you read minds? You know, being a mind worker?"

She shakes her head. "I have the power; I don't know how to use it. Levi has been looking for an adequate teacher for me, but in the meantime, he's been trying to work with me. I believe I have reached a plateau in my work, even though I am stronger than when I first arrived here."

"Have you fought in war before?" I intended to ask Milo about it, but I believed Nya would be the next suitable alternative.

"Fought? No, but there was a war going on when I was turned. I don't have a lot of information about it, moody would be knowledgeable. I think it was over a broken treaty, but to me, that doesn't seem right."

"Why?" I glance back at Charlie, who is still chatting away to our invisible beings.

"To quote Milo the Great, within the ranks of the kites, there is an imbalance of power. From what I understand, and that's not a lot, that kites are very particular about who stays where, and the parameters."

"You're right I... I don't get it. Do you have your own government? Your own hierarchy? Land?"

"Yes? No? I don't know how to explain it right. Ask Milo when he's less in a mood, but there is a form of government. As of this moment, there is a consul across the seas, where most kites still remain, and there are officials here, but I don't believe they adhere to the rules as much. With kites, the older you are, the more respect you have. Levi has a lot of leverage with the higher ups because he's older than them, that's how he's able to run their communities without much problems. But in return, so does Jude. At this point, they are both exempt from the law, or they were, but this war is going to impact them directly, meaning things might change for them."

"What happened in the war when you turned?"

"I'm not fully sure. Like I said, other kites follow rules, especially those with power. They have their territory, and they do not care for those not invited in. Normally the consul or the representatives will step in, but for some reason or another, they could not, or did not, before war was declared."

I shiver. "Why didn't they step in with this one?"

"I'm sure they tried, I'm sure there's a reason Levi didn't call a meeting until last Friday, but it's like I said, both he and Jude are powerful in the kite community, they are feared by a lot of us, including the consul. There's only a handful of kites old like that, and I guess when war breaks out between them, there isn't much anyone can do."

"Are there any old mind workers? Someone Levi had influence with to help train you?"

"If there was, he would have considered that, or at least I wish he would have."

"I hope you find someone soon." I smile and give her a tight hug.

"Call me if anything is off or strange, especially at night. I'll make grumpy go down and kick whoever's ass we need to."

"You call me too. I don't like being left in the dark." I take Charlie by the hand. "Even if you stub your toe."

She laughs. "Deal."

Nya makes it so when Charlie steps beyond the gates that she should snap out of it, with a memory of us talking about the events as the cops told it. Once outside I gaze upwards into the cloudy sky, but the rain had subsided, and I embark on the walk to contemplate whether I had overstepped in there with Enni, but also what Nya had said about her sticks to me. Is it us? She is a mind worker, after all. I should have asked if she ever brought it up to Levi, but I decided that's for another day. When we got to the bottom of the hill, and Charlie interacts with me again, I put it out of my mind for now.

She pouts about how boring the truth is. "I mean, I expected someone to be burned a live or something. Nothing interesting happens here ever." She said, heading away from my house towards her home. "See you tomorrow at school."

I waved her off. If only she knew.