Moon's Rite

A Clue

"Tony?! What the hell are you doing here?!"

"Rescuing you, obviously! Let's go!"

I jerked out of her grasp as she tried to tow me towards the window and lunged for the fight again. Now that I had some reference, I identified Zachary as I grabbed his shoulder and jerked him off of Vladimir. "Stand down! For Sire's sake, everybody just calm down and take a breath!"

Zach gave me a confused look as I hauled Vladimir off the floor again and placed myself solidly between him and my would-be rescuers. Vladimir winced when I lightly checked his face, but I thought it was more the contact than the pain. I sighed as I pulled up his hood again.

I turned back to Tony and Zach, and Tabitha as she crawled through the window. My littlest sister took a look around in confusion. "What's going on?"

Tony folded her arms over her chest as she glared at me. "That's what we're trying to figure out."

Zach was still watching Vladimir carefully. "Katty? Why are you protecting him? Didn't he kidnap you?"

"Hey! What's the hold up?!" My eyes widened when my son Logan came sliding through the window. He grinned when he laid eyes on me and tripped a little over the sill as he finished getting into the room to leap forward and crush me in a hug. "Mom!"

"How many of you came?!" I grunted as Logan squeezed the breath out of me. Then I was pulling from his grasp to better shield him as the door burst open and Peaches filled the opening, breathing hard, eyes narrowed, and gun drawn. I sighed. "And the gang's all here."

Vladimir murmured something in Russian that had Zach relaxing out of his readiness to attack and Peaches dropping her gun, however reluctantly.

I turned back to my family. "Okay, long story short. This is Vladimir. He kidnapped me because his social skills are a little off and he wants to find his brother who has gone missing. He hasn't hurt me and technically, left my escape wide open several times too. I've agreed to help him find his brother."

Tony snapped, still seeming irritated. "Well, so nice for you two that you've reached a mutual understanding. Doesn't change the fact that he attacked you, worried us, and put himself on my shit list."

Peaches tightened her grip on her gun, raising it a little. Vladimir took his cue from her, since he was having trouble with the rapid English, and backed up a step.

I grumbled back at my sister. "You know I can handle myself."

"I know you can." Tony sniped. "But I can't handle the stress as you handle whatever trouble you get yourself into. You have responsibilities you know! Poor Max has been fighting panic and despair ever since we started to suspect foul play. He's been freaking out for the better part of two days and it's all your fault!"

I stiffened in affront. "Well I-!" Then wilted in defeat. "I'll call him." Whether it was my fault I had been kidnapped or not, I should have tried harder to get in touch with somebody. I had to admit that I had been having a little too much fun with this, remembering old days when the only person I'd had to look out for had been myself.

Tony finally relaxed, stepping forward and waving Logan out of the way so she could hug me herself. I smirked as I held her tightly in return. "Sorry."

She lightly smacked the back of my head. "Handle your boys. We'll get up to speed on the missing brother."

I grinned as she moved aside and Tabitha almost bowled me over. She bounced a little in excitement as she hugged me. "This is gonna be just like old times." I chuckled as she released me. Then I was looking up at Zachary. He gave me a scolding look before dragging me into an embrace and almost crushing the undeath out of me.