Skinwalkers

PROLOGUE

WARNING: This book (not necessarily every chapter) has violence, swearing, and some intense make-out sences. Be prepared and read at your own risks.

PROLOGUE Savannah's birth mother's POV:

"You can see for yourself," The handsome young man on the recording told us. I don't know of his name. When we gave that family our daughter on the night she was born we didn't exchange any personal information. We couldn't take the risk. Instead, every three years a video tape is mailed to an abandoned house out in the fields that know one knows about. On the date we agreed on, Victor and I travel out of our way to retrieve it. "The girl is safe." A girl appears on the television screen. I suck in a sharp breath. Victors hand instantly finds mine. He hold on with a strong grip. It never gets easier, seeing her. Our daughter sits cross legged in a field, the grass green and cut short. The breeze blows her wild auburn hair around but she makes no movement to tame it. She looks out to something in the distance then leans over a notebook in her lap and scribbles furiously inside of it. I watch in amazement. A poet perhaps. 

          I stare at the side of her face, focusing. I long to know what her facial features are. Have I passed down my thin lips and turnt up nose or has she gotten her fathers wide nose and plump lips? I can cleary see she has gotten my fiery red hair. But that still leaves me wondering, as any mother would, what colour are her eyes? Goddammit, what is her name? How is she doing in school? Does she have a boyfriend? What are her dreams? I want to know these things. I think about them all the time. Perhaps too much. But what do they expect? For us to just not care? Not wonder. We gave her up for her own safety, that doesn't mean we aren't her parents and aren't interested in knowing her.

          I sigh, shaking my head. What am I thinking? That is also the exact reason why we can't know information like that, to protect her. It could possibly put her at risk, Victor and I knowing. I shouldn't be throwing a hiss fit over it. Even if it is just mentally. In a flash, our daughters image disappears and is replaced by the refreshing young mans face once again. I wonder who she thinks he is to her? Brother, father, relative, good friend from town? Who is he pretending to be? Which role does he play in all this?

"As you know, I can't say much. But with the red moon approaching. she should be ready for anything. You be careful, too. The red moon's powers will be very strong. And you'll have to be on lock down until this over. I gotta go. Good luck." The tape ends and the screen goes blue. All three of us sit in silence, watching the blank screen for I don't know what, lost in our thoughts. Finally, my sister stands and ejects the disk. She sets it on the coffee table, staring at me knowingly the whole time. She knows I like to watch the tapes a few times over before we burn it like we usually do. Even short ones like this. I just want to see her, know her, hold her.

         Seeing my expression, Victor pulls me into his chest. I swallow around the thick lump in my throat, fighting down the tears. "She will be all right. We all are." He tells me in a matter-of-fact tone. Victor is such a skilled liar; sometimes I don't believe he even notices when he lies anymore.

"This isn't a dream anymore, Molly." My sister tells me, "Five more weeks. That's all." I bob my head, straightening myself up, pulling myself together. "You're right. All we have to do is get through a month and a half. Then it will be all over. They will be over and our little girl will be ours again."

"If she chooses that..."

"She will. I know it." Silence. Pause. My sister, Kylie, scratches her hair uncomfortably. Victor nods his head in one sharp movement then rises.

"You heard the man. We'll have to be on lock down for the next five weeks. Grab what you need, as planned, and meet back in the kitchen in ten minutes." I dread going down into that muggy, leaky, and small basement for five  weeks straight, but there is no other option. They will come looking for her. They do not know who the blood moon child's birth parents are but I am sure they will find out very soon. Here is the first place they'll look, of course. Hiding and protecting ourselves underground is crucial.