Kamila needs us now!

*Kelly*

"Are you there?" Heather asks.

I just started talking to Eli on the mind link, so I must have gotten a little distracted in the middle of my conversation with Heather. But Eli has good news, so I need to focus.

'This piece of shit is just getting started,' he's saying. 'Hurry up and get to the garage, and let's get out of here before I change my mind.'

“I need to find the garage,” I tell Heather.

She nods. All I have to do is point toward the door, and Trevor understands. We're more than ready to get out of here.

“We have to hurry,” I tell them both.

We left Pete behind, just sitting in the room. He finally stopped looking out the window, but now he's just staring at the ceiling. No wonder things don't get done around here.

Heather takes my hurry seriously and practically runs towards what I hope is the garage. I don't know if there's more than one, so I'm hoping that where she's taking us is where Eli is. It seems to take forever, but we finally reach a group of buildings scattered around a completely paved area.

And I hear a car.

A van, to be precise, and soon after, I see the vehicle pulling out of one of the garages with Eli behind the wheel, smiling smugly but also looking incredibly impatient. And I clearly see why she called him a piece of shit. Apparently it was once a ferry of some kind with lots of seats like a bus, and it has the name of the resort, which was apparently Wooded Acres Resort and Spa, plastered all over it in faded letters. There's more rust than paint, and it honestly looks like it's held together with glue and tape. Even if I ignore its appearance, the engine's sputtering can't be good.

But I go up anyway, followed by Trevor. Heather jumps up and sits next to me in the middle seat as if we're going for a Sunday drive in the countryside. I guess we are.

"Won't your parents worry about you?" I ask. —We will be gone for a long time.

She shrugs her shoulders. “They've never worried before,” she says, and now I worry about what kind of parents this young woman has.

“Maybe you should have brought some of your stuff,” I say, knowing it's too late for that anyway because Eli is already driving down the road.

Heather shrugs her shoulders again and says, "I don't need anything."

I nod because none of us have anything with us; I'm not even going to ask what they did with the stuff in our utility vehicles. I turn around and smile at Brent and Sean, who are sitting in the back seat along with that person named Eustace who had taken them to fix this thing earlier. He smiles with brown teeth, and I turn to look forward and look at Eli.

"Do we even have gasoline?" I ask. I can't imagine there's anywhere to get gas for this thing so far from here.

"There was a gas station," he says. —Surprisingly with a lot of gas in the tank.

"Is it still good?" I ask. "It's probably been decades since she was stuffed." Heather looks at me a little weird, and I realize I'm probably insulting her, so she switches to her mental link. 'Are you sure this shit isn't going to leave us stranded?'

'It doesn't sound great, nor does it look great, but it's actually pretty solid,' he says, also in the mental link.

'Are we heading in the right direction?' asked.

'Yes,' he says. 'Eustace says this old road goes to Highway 30, and that goes right into Kane's territory.'

I look ahead at the road we're on, or at least what's left of it. Decades of neglect and Mother Nature's attempts to reclaim it show with the wide cracks and excessive vegetation. In some places, I can barely see the road as it looks like a pile of brush. 'This is definitely an old road,' I say.

'At least we're finally going in the right direction,' he says. I can only see the side of his head, but I can make out the determined look on my brother's face. I know all he's thinking about is getting to Kamila.

I'm in no hurry to get into the middle of a war, but I can hold my own in battle, and I think it will be better for Kamila to have me there with her in case the babies start arriving. Not that she's an expert at anything, but I can imagine how all these ET1s might start to panic when the babies are being delivered, and I think Kamila needs a strong female hand to lean on.

I can't even imagine having four babies at the same time. Well, I can more or less imagine, but I've never had a single puppy before, so I have no mothering experience to rely on. While he was taking care of Kamila in the castle, he had read many of her childbirth books while she was sleeping, and that's a scary thing.

Even after babies are born, there's a lot to worry about: whether they're eating right, whether they're growing right, whether you're doing something wrong that's going to ruin them for life. I'm glad he has the four ET1s as a support system. It's going to be a wild ride.

Speaking of which, I suddenly jolt when the bus shakes, and I almost fell off the seat. Eli is cursing non-stop, and I want to cover Heather's ears, but she just sits there and smiles. I guess she's used to it with Pete and company.

"What's wrong?" I ask as Eli stops the van.

“Looks like we blew a tire,” he says, thankfully stopping the cursing because he just saw Heather in the rearview mirror.

We all get out of the van and walk to the driver's side, which has a flat tire in the back. “I hope we have a spare,” I say.

“Yes,” Eustace says, still smiling and keeping his gaze on my chest a little too long.

I take Heather's hand and lead her to the other side of the van. There's a nice shady tree on the side of the road, so we head there to sit out of the sun while Eli and the others deal with the tire. Sure enough, I see them bringing out a spare and a fairly sturdy jack, so I breathe a sigh of relief. Being stranded here would be the worst, but I'm sure they'll fix it. I'm starting to wonder about the trip back and how far we'll have to drive before we can use the mental connection again to talk to the other ET1s, and hopefully Kamila too.

"Are you Eustace's partner?" Heather asks suddenly.

It takes me out of my thoughts. "What?" I say. I'm not sure I heard her correctly.

"Eustace," he says. -They are a couple?

I shake my head and wish I could do it more vigorously. -I do not say. -What makes you think that?

"I've seen the way he looks at you, that's all," he says. —I thought maybe you felt a couple connection.

“Oh, Goddess, no,” I say, then wonder if maybe I'm offending her again. I'm sure Eustace will be a great companion... for someone other than me. "I mean, I'm sure he's a good man, but no, there's nothing there."

“Oh,” he says, looking at the ground and pulling up some weeds in the gras....

I watch, fascinated, as she wraps the weed stem around its top, which has a rigid seed capsule, and with a flick of her finger, shoots the capsule into the air.

"How did you do that?" I ask him.

She smiles and picks up another stalk of weed, handing it to me, then takes her own and demonstrates. I get mine to shoot up several feet. Soon, we're both laughing and shooting weeds like schoolgirls.

“I wish you were his partner,” he says when the laughter calms down a bit. —Then you could join my pack.

I'm not sure what to say. I want to tell her that she's not in a pack, and she never has been, but I can see by the sincere look on her face that she's not ready to hear that yet. I'll tell you, but not now. Maybe Kamila can help me tell him when we get back.

"I guess the Moon Goddess doesn't have that in her plans," I say, finally thinking of something. —But she brought me to meet you, so I think she destined us to be friends.

"Really?" she says.

“Yes,” I say, nodding. —I think we could be good friends.

"I'd like that," she says.

I stand up as I see the men getting back on the bus and motioning for us to come closer. Heather has a new shine in her step, and I smile a little, relieved that the tire is fixed. And I guess I've made another friend. Now I just have to get back to my other friend before her babies are born.

I can feel that Kamila really needs us there, and fast.