Of Thieves And Do Gooders

Raven’s Point Of View

It was well into the night before I actually stood up, deciding that I had sat off in the wilderness long enough, Thoreau would have been proud.

No doubt the Christmas party had started and everyone was laughing and having fun. I was missing it because Damion had to be so damned persistent and I had to be so freaking flighty. I brushed the dirt off of my pants and started walking in the direction I had come from. When I came to the creek I squinted and realized I couldn’t see the running water too well, I could just hear it. So, I tapped my foot against the ground warily and found the edge of the bank. I couldn’t exactly measure how far I had to jump, so I took a leap of faith, hoping I wouldn’t land in the middle of the damn thing.

I yelled when my foot caught the edge of the bank and I slid down into the creek with one foot and swung my arms rapidly to try and stabilize myself. I failed and fell backward, caught my other foot on a rock, landing on my butt in the middle of the creek. I gasped at how cold the water was and felt it reach up to my chest completely soaking my clothes.

With a string of colorful words I lifted myself from the creek so that it was only up to my calves, then waded back to the bank and clawed my way up, acquiring grass and mud beneath my fingernails. Wonderful. I cursed nature as I continued my walk back to Jack Crawford’s house, now with freezing cold night air biting at my skin and making me shiver.

It wasn’t too long after that when I saw the soft glow of the mansion and could practically hear the laughter of Hayden’s family. I felt the guilt roll in at the thought of Hayden, I had a vague feeling that I had disappointed him, hurt him even. But that must have been my imagination. He was fine, because I was coming back, I had had time to think and everything was fine. That’s what I kept telling myself when I approached the front door and knocked on it lightly. No one answered, so I sighed and rang the doorbell, undoubtedly drawing everyone’s attention because there was a “new” arrival.

It was a minute before I heard the lock on the door turn and someone pulled it open. I let out the breath I was holding when I saw that it was Leon. The calm one, the comforting one.

He looked at me with a lasting smile on his face, as if he had heard a funny joke before he had saw me. Then he frowned, looking me from head to toe, and for a fleeting instant I thought he was mad, actually angry at me for once. And I winced involuntarily.

“You’re soaked,” he commented with a continued frown and looked out past me, skyward, to check for clouds. It wasn’t raining, but I could have told him that. “Jesus Raven, where’ve you been?” he asked looping an arm around my waist and pulling me into the house where it was instantly warmer, comfortable.

“I d-decided to t-take a quick s-s-swim,” I said sarcastically through shivering teeth.

Leon just shook his head and led me down the hall and into a side room that also led into the kitchen and then through the observatory. People turned their heads curiously, but I avoided eye-contact and so did Leon, he walked with an obvious purpose in his step. The entire time he kept his arm around my shoulders, getting his own shirt completely wet on one side, but he didn’t seem to mind.

We reached my bedroom door and Leon stopped to knock. I cocked my head to one side, confused, wondering who was occupying my room for the brief time that I had been gone.

“Go away,” Hayden’s voice called tiredly, as if we’d woken him up.

“We need in there, Dick,” Leon called back ruthlessly, evidentially not sparing Hayden’s feelings in the process of getting me dry clothes.

Hayden’s feet hit the floor with an annoyed thud, thud one after the other and then he came to the door, turned the lock and yanked the door open, looking prepared for a fight.

However, his eyes landed on me and he forgot what ever it had been that he had planned on saying. He looked at a loss for words. Leon didn’t give him time to search for new words, he grabbed Hayden by the front of his shirt and hauled him out of the doorframe so that I could go inside. “Thanks,” I muttered and hurried into the room, closing the door behind me. But I left the lock alone.

“I told you, now quit moping,” I heard Leon say fiercely and then I continued to my closet where I grabbed the nearest clothes and pulled them on, discarding my wet clothing on the floor when I changed. With a grimace I wrung out my hair and dragged a brush through it, finding twigs and even a bug here and there. Once I was in dry clothing I warmed up much faster, but my teeth still chattered slightly if I didn’t will them to do otherwise.

I took a deep breath of air and then pulled my door open, Leon was waiting there with a grin on his face. But Hayden was gone. “Come on,” Leon urged happily, pushing me back toward the stairs. “I have a few people you should meet, and Jack probably wants to know if you’re all right.”

“Okay,” I said tentatively and then asked, “Um…where’s Damion?”

“Talking with Hayden’s family,” Leon said casually with a shrug of his shoulders.

“And Hayden?”

“He went down before us, finally decided to get involved with his family, he’s been moping since you ran off again,” Leon said carefully, not accusingly, which I was thankful for.

“Oh,” was all I said, guilt heavy in my tone.

“But you came back and that’s all that matters, he’ll get over it,” Leon assured me cheerfully, ruffling my hair and scowling when his fingers got caught. “I preferred your hair short,” he commented, disentangling his fingers.

I laughed.

When we walked down into the observatory someone shouted, “Leon! Come here m’boy, I’ve something to tell you!”

Leon directed me toward the man who had said it. He had short-cut gray hair and dazzling blue eyes that reminded me of two people. Before Leon introduced me, I knew who the man was. “Raven this is Lawrence Crawford, Hayden’s grandpa, and Jack’s dad, obviously,” Leon explained, grinning during the entire introduction.

“Leon, Leon, come here…” Lawrence whispered, not bothering to introduce himself, he seemed too intent in telling Leon something. He gestured for Leon to lean in closer. He whispered something into Leon’s ear.

I watched suspiciously as a goofy grin spread across Leon’s face. “Ha, yeah, something like that,” he agreed with Lawrence and shook his head a little, still grinning when he looked at me again. “Oh, Lawrence, this is Raven Frost, she’s my friend, Hayden might introduce you guys later too,” Leon said, gesturing toward me.

Lawrence looked at me carefully, his eyes moving quickly over my appearance. He was taking a profile of me, I thought with a small smile, he didn’t trust me. After an insignificant amount of time, Lawrence smiled at me, seemingly at ease as he offered his hand. “Lawrence Crawford,” he said.

“Raven, nice to meet you,” I said, returning his grip with a decent amount of pressure, but nothing like Leon’s monstrous grip. He released my hand, looking intrigued.

“Do you like magic?” Lawrence asked suddenly, sending Leon a mischievous smile, of which he thought I had missed.

I pretended to be oblivious--what was the old man up to? “Sure,” I offered with a polite smile of interest.

Quickly, he reached back behind my hair and briefly touched my ear before pulling his hand back and producing a beautiful white lily. Oh, I thought with a mental shake of my head, that’s what he was up to. I widened my smile and took the flower when he offered it. “That was amazing,” I complimented with evident glee, and examined the lily with probing eyes before I suddenly tossed it to Leon and grabbed Lawrence’s right wrist--I had to stop him before he transferred it. He hesitated with a small frown creasing his brow. “I’d prefer my earring though,” I told him sweetly and released his wrist to tuck a strand of hair behind my ear, revealing my earring less earlobe.

Lawrence stood for a moment, perplexed and then he laughed. “A quick one! That’s refreshing, you must be the girl Jack was talking about. He did say you were perceptive,” he said, dropping my earring into my open palm.

“Thanks,” I said modestly, reattaching my earring absently.

“That doesn’t work on everyone, Lawrence, you should stop targeting women,” Jack said from over Lawrence’s shoulder, trying to sound reprimanding.

Lawrence rolled his eyes. “Find me a man that wears earring and won’t punch an old man in the face for touching him and I’ll then I’ll stop targeting women,” Lawrence scoffed with a small chuckle. “I would have given it back anyway,” he assured Jack.

“No you wouldn’t have,” Leon objected with a laugh, “you would have just stolen the other one later with the same damn trick.”

Lawrence shrugged and smiled sheepishly then said to me, “You should meet my wife, she’d love to see you.”

“Alright, I’m sure I’ll meet her,” I said pleasantly, deciding I liked the old man, he had some character in him and didn’t just tell old stories about himself, he seemed to have his head in the present.

With that conversation over, Lawrence wandered over to talk to someone else--a red-headed woman in her mid-thirties.

Subtly and with a pleasant smile, Jack leaned over and whispered in my ear, “Are you all right?”

I nodded with a genuine smile, completely embarrassed to find that Jack knew about my running off and that he had been worried about me. “Perfect,” I said convincingly, then gestured around the observatory. “Am I going to meet all of these people tonight?” I asked with a raised eyebrow.

Jack shrugged, and I noticed a cup of eggnog in his hands. “If you want to,” he said. I leaned forward and sniffed at the glass without thinking and without asking permission first. The pungent smell of alcohol filled my nostrils and I pulled back, looking like a startled animal. Jack laughed and took a drink of his eggnog, “There’s some boring eggnog in the fridge, although the kids might have taken care of it already.”

I gave him a mock scathing look and rolled my eyes. Maybe I would go get some eggnog, I was a little thirsty and hell, it was a Christmas tradition wasn’t it? I started toward the kitchen and glanced behind me when I realized someone was following me. It was only Leon, and I suddenly remembered that he had been standing with me. Oops. I waited for him to catch up with me before I disappeared into the kitchen with him.

Everything seemed to go quiet when the swinging door fell shut behind me. I spotted the fridge near the back of the kitchen and noticed that people were darting in and out of every door and that the farther I moved into the kitchen the louder it got.

“I want some!” A shrill voice demanded and I saw that a maid was looking frantically around the room for help, keeping the fridge shut with her hip. There was a small girl tugging resiliently on the door to the refrigerator, looking obviously exasperated.

I walked up and eclipsed the light above the girl and she looked up at me, scowling and glaring at me. “What?” she demanded, obviously irritated with my interruption.

Carefully, I squatted down so that we were eye-level and I continued to stare her in the eyes, unflinching and unblinking. The little girl wavered and almost let go of the handle, but some shred in her was trying to hold her ground. Of course, it didn’t help that every fiber of my being was screaming “authority” and she had probably grown up being told to listen to authority figures. I lifted my thumb and jerked it over my shoulder with a smirk, “That eggnog’s mine, so scram kid.”

The little girl lifted her chin indignantly and latched onto the refrigerator door again, “Mine,” she replied stubbornly.

“Look kid, we could do this one of two ways,” I explained calmly, “One: I could drag you away from that door kicking and screaming and two: I could tell your mom how you just broke a glass cup because of a tantrum.”

“But I didn’t break any--”

I reached over absently and knocked a glass off of the counter. It shattered. I smiled sweetly and the girl looked at me with narrowed eyes. “Who do you think the grown-ups are going to believe?” I asked in a baby voice.

With obvious resistance, the little girl let go of the handle and scampered out of the kitchen, giving me one last glare before disappearing into the observatory. I stood up and located a broom, and then swept the glass into a pile with a shake of my head. Little brat. I passed the broom off to the maid who was looking at me incredulously. “Sorry about the cup,” I offered with a shrug and pulled open the fridge to extract the carton of eggnog.

“Um, don’t worry about it, thank you,” she said earnestly and took the broom from me, then went in search of a dust pan.

“Shall we?” I asked Leon as I turned to him with the carton of eggnog in my hand, looking and feeling triumphant.

“You just intimidated a little kid in order to get some eggnog,” Leon summed up, looking at me with raised eyebrows.

“Huh? Well, yeah, she was probably going to finish it off. And she was a little shit anyway,” I said logically and popped open the eggnog and drank some from the carton.

“Wow, you don’t have a soul do you?” Leon asked jokingly.

I smiled back at him. “I guess not.”

From there, we left the kitchen, and I even shared some of the eggnog with Leon, assuring him that I didn’t have any disease that he would get from sharing the drink with me. Of course, he didn’t seem too worried about it, but some people were skittish about sharing drinks and such for that reason.

I left the carton on the counter as we left the kitchen and emerged back in the observatory. “Come on,” Leon urged me, grabbing my hand and carting me toward the hallway which led to either the front door or the living room. Leon hung a right and pulled me into the living room and instantly yells of delight sounded out across the room. We both hesitated, Leon smiling as he tried to grasp what was going on, while I just flat out frowned, trying to assess the situation.

“MISTLETOE!” someone shouted above the rest, sounding gleeful, I recognized it as Hayden’s Aunt Stacy, clapping her hands like a child and squealing with delight.

Something hardened in my chest and I jerked my head upward to see the hateful bit of shrubbery being dangled above Leon and I by a woman I had never seen before.

“You know the drill!” The woman said with a grin, apparently she didn’t mind that she had no idea who I was.

I rolled my eyes and looked at Leon who shrugged, looking to me for instruction. I stood up on my tip toes and pecked Leon quickly on the cheek, without saying anything and he bent over slightly to kiss me on the temple with a lopsided grin. “You happy now?” Leon asked our audience with raised eyebrows.

“No!” Stacy called and then asked, “Where was the tongue?”

Leon and I looked at each other, both imagined it and then shook our heads in disgust. Too weird. It would be like French kissing my brother, I realized. Suddenly I felt queasy.

“Hey, Martha, right here,” Leon beckoned the woman with the mistletoe over and she stood smiling between Leon and I, her brown eyes glistening brightly. “I have someone to introduce you to,” Leon told her with a grin.

Martha had short brown hair and lively brown eyes. “Who’s that now? This young lady here?” She looked me over quickly, absorbing a profile of me as well, just as Lawrence had done.

“I’m Raven,” I offered with a polite smile.

“I’m Martha, Hayden’s mother, if you know him, it looks like you would know him, since you know Leon anyway,” she said quickly and shook my hand briskly.

Hayden’s mom? Really. I thought about that, and the curiosity in my eyes must have shown. “Oh, Jack and I separated awhile ago, but I’m still close with his family, it was a mutual divorce,” she assured me quickly. She talked extremely fast, I almost missed everything that she had said. “By the way, have either of you seen Hayden? I haven’t seen him all night!” However, she didn’t wait for our answers before she turned at the call of Stacy who was trying to balance a wine glass on her nose and was spilling red wine everywhere. She abandoned the task anyway when a familiar beat boomed through the speakers followed by words that even I knew, not being much of a fan of that type of music in the first place.

“…Shawty had them apple-bottom jeans,
Boots with the fur,
The whole club was looking at her…”

Stacy squealed with delight and grabbed Martha’s hand, dragging her to the coffee table and pulling her up with her, while she dramatically shook her butt to the beat she heard. The only problem was, she couldn’t quite find the beat, so it was pretty damn funny to watch.

“…Baggy sweat pants and the Reeboks with the straps,
She turned around and gave that big booty a smack,
She hit the floor, next thing you know
Shawty got, low, low, low, low, low…”

Not exactly Christmas oriented music, I decided with a giggle, still watching as Stacy proceeded to bump hips with Martha, who was laughing hysterically.

“Well she seems…” I began.

“ADD?” Leon offered with a laugh.

“Ha, yeah, kinda,” I admitted, although I was going to say “nice”, maybe “crazy”, but oh well, ADD worked too.

I was introduced to every other person in the room, all of which ranged from “tipsy” to “shit-faced”. Stacy was undoubtedly one of the few shit-faced people there. After awhile though, Leon was dragged away by a horde of younger kinds ranging from five to ten, all demanding his attention, wanting to be picked up, wanting up on his shoulders or a piggy-back ride. He threw me an apologetic look but left the room with roughly six kids hanging off of him and shouting loudly. I nodded in understanding and he was gone.

But I wasn’t awkward once he was gone. I ended up getting in an animated discussion with some guy about his sexuality, he was named Geoffrey and I was certain that he was gay. He said otherwise, assuring me that he had had sex many times (“Yeah, with guys,” I would say with a snort of laughter).

Once he was done losing his argument with me, he left the room and headed into the observatory, claiming to be looking for his “date”. I had a feeling he didn’t have one, but he wanted to get away from me. I had that effect on people sometimes.

With a sigh, I settled back in one of the many beanbag chairs spread throughout the room, closing my eyes as the music played. I had a feeling that the living room had been meant for the children, but things didn’t quite work out that way. There was alcoholic drinks everywhere and the Christmas music had long since been exchanged for bass-filled dance music. The adults weren’t even trying to pull back on the swearing.

I opened my eyes suddenly, realizing that the light had been eclipsed above me, it had been dim light in the first place, but I still noticed. I hesitated when I saw Damion hovering over me, his mouth pulled into a wary smirk, it looked forced. I smiled back, encouragingly, I was expecting him to show up sometime throughout the night.

“You look comfortable,” he commented loudly over the music and yelling, sitting on the floor next to me.

“Yeah, I adjust easily,” I replied just as loudly with a shrug.

“Huh,” was all he said, staring at the ground for a long time. After awhile he leaned forward, his lips almost against my ear when he said, “I’m sorry, you know, about earlier…”

I closed my eyes again and sighed, pulling the smile back onto my lips, “Don’t worry about it,” I said back, leaning forward to whisper in his ear, no matter how awkward it felt.

Damion cocked his head to one side and then leaned in again, this time with a normal tone of voice and without getting as close to my ear he said, “So…I’m forgiven?”

I rolled my eyes. “Yes,” I said with a lopsided smile. I couldn’t hold it against him that he didn’t know how to talk to me sometimes. Or at least not for a long time, I couldn’t.

Damion’s eyes practically lit up in relief. “Thanks,” he murmured almost inaudibly.

I was about to say “don’t worry about it” but the words were lost when I realized that the shouting in the room had stopped. In the background I could hear Taylor Swift’s voice singing softly:

“…We were both young when I first saw you,
I close my eyes and the flashback starts,
I’m standing there…
On a balcony in summer air…”

With a frown, I peered around the room and started when I saw something dangling in front of my face as well as Damion’s. I glared at the demonic shrubbery for the second time that day and then turned the glare on Martha, who was giggling jubilantly at how funny she thought she was being.

“MISTLETOE!” Stacy cried for the second time that night and with the utmost glee, clapping her hands together like a delighted child yet again. “And none of that PG crap this time!” she warned, waggling a warning finger at me. I just rolled my eyes.

Damion looked at me almost apologetically, but I also saw the longing in his eyes when he looked at my lips. I hesitated and looked Damion in the eyes with a smile on my lips, thinking, What the hell? It probably won’t be that bad, just a quick peck on the cheek. I started to lean forward, but Damion was already halfway to me, one of his hands pressed against the floor as he closed the distance between us. His eyes flashed to my lips, but he steered himself to my right cheek and lingered there for a moment, his warm breath playing across my cheek and sending shivers throughout my body. Then, a half a moment later, his lips met my cheek slowly, stayed there for a long moment and then he pulled back, almost unwillingly. I could feel the hair standing up on the back of my neck and sat with a little bit of a dazed look on my face.

“Oh-h,” Stacy crooned dramatically and I blushed. I swallowed hard and leaned forward, remembering my part of the whole tradition.

I could feel myself get lost in Damion’s eyes and tried to focus on his cheek instead, but his eyes were so distracting I couldn’t seem to find his cheek, I had forgotten where it was. I could only zone in on his lips, soft and slightly parted as if he were about to say something.

“…Romeo take me somewhere we can be alone,
I’ll be waiting all that’s left to do is run,
You’ll be the prince and I’ll be the princess,
It’s a love story, baby, just say yes…”

Why the hell was this song even playing at a party? What ever the reason was, it definitely wasn’t helping me concentrate. Then, next thing I knew, my lips were on Damion’s, soft and gentle at first, almost like he was shocked at the contact. Hell I was shocked. Then, his lips moved beneath mine, slowly at first and I found that my lips were keeping pace, urging him to continue. Damion’s hand found its way to the back of my neck and he pushed his lips a little more fiercely against mine. My heartbeat went wild after that, pounding in my chest in quick, irregular beats. I moved my hand absently to the side of his face and brushed it back through his hair. I felt my entire body jolt with electricity when his hand moved through my hair and moved down the side of my neck, stopping to move back up and pause at my jaw. Warmth spread through my body at his touch, moving like fire, and reaching from my head to my toes.

And then we broke apart, both short on air and taking oxygen into our lungs in short bursts. I was staring at Damion with something like shock in my features, wondering silently what had compelled me to change my course of action. My face colored in embarrassment when the adults made their presence apparent by giving off whoops of encouragement and cat-calls. I stood up suddenly, smiling a little at Damion, who looked a little lost himself, but he smiled back genuinely. At that point, I moved out of the room, suddenly feeling a little too hot to be in such a crowded room.

My thoughts were a little hazy as I tried to collect them. But all I could think about was that kiss. How it had even happened. And then I kept thinking about the way Damion’s lips moved on mine, sweet and effortless. My lips were still tingling as I left the room.

I found myself wandering into a room filled with less drunk adults across the hall. The room was obviously a guest bedroom that had been shifted around for the occasion, now resembling a sitting room where adults could talk. I settled in instantly and found that one of Hayden’s first cousins was only two years younger than me and fond of talking, so, naturally, I got caught up in the conversation. Although, on the edge of my mind, I was still thinking about Damion, it was a mixture of confusion and dread. I had started it, I had kissed him, not the other way around. Why had I even done it? I couldn’t remember, had I just got caught up in the moment? Damn my teenage hormones to hell.

However, I wasn’t so caught up in the current conversation that I didn’t notice out of the corner of my eye, that a boy darted his head into the room, looked at me and then disappeared again. Hmm. I stood up casually and chatted with a woman who was apparently related to Jack’s cousin’s husband. The kid popped his head in again and then disappeared just as quickly. He looked to be about six if not that then a little younger, too young to be an efficient spy. I excused myself and stood along the wall that he kept peeking around. This time when his head showed up I grabbed it, pulling him into a headlock, much to his dismay. He squealed in terror and reminded me vaguely of a pig that was being chased around a muddy pen.

“Hey cool it kid, now what’s up with you spying on me?” I asked, happy to see that the adults in the room were ignoring me, or they couldn’t hear the kid due to the loud music.

“Let go!” he demanded indignantly, clawing at my arms.

He drew a small line of blood on my forearm and I frowned. It wasn’t funny anymore. I grabbed a nearby doily and stuffed it into his mouth, much to his surprise, muffling his shouts of protest. Next I grabbed him up and tossed him over my shoulder--he was extremely light, even for me--and I carted him out of the room, found an empty table where refreshments had been and set him down.

“Look here kid, I’ll make a deal with you. I’ll show you a really cool trick if you’ll tell me why you’re watching me,” I negotiated, watching as his eyes shifted from appalled anger to sudden interest. He pulled the doily out of his mouth.

“What kind of trick?” he asked skeptically, as if I were tricking him.

“It’s a secret lesson that will help you steal things in the future,” I told him devilishly and his eyes lit up eagerly.

“What is it? What is it?” he asked, leaning forward.

I pushed him back a little. “First, why are you watching me?”

He scowled at the catch in his retrieval of the secret information, “Because, I’m supposed to make sure you don’t go up in your room--Now tell me!” he ordered heatedly as if I were causing him physical pain.

I patted his cheek affectionately as if he were a pet who had done something silly. “Well, the lesson is to make sure your informant is really trustworthy, better luck next time, kid,” I said as I strolled away from him, toward the stairs that led out of the observatory. Who the hell was in my room? The little boy tried to dart past me but I caught him by the back of his shirt, “Whoa, whoa, whoa, where do you think you’re going? To warn your employer? I don’t think so,” I chastised absently and grabbed a few strings of ribbon that had been decorating a nearby table. Within instants I had bound his wrists together and tossed him into the middle of the room filled with inebriated adults all of which poked fun at him as he tried to work his hands free.

I walked a little more quickly out of the room and jogged up the stairs; it would probably take him awhile to get free, but I still wanted a decent head start before he decided to warn his boss before I got to my room. Whoever was up there was in deep shit.

________________________________________

Hayden’s Point Of View

Okay, so she came back and Lee was right, so you can stop rubbing it in now. That doesn’t mean I’m done being pissed off. I guess I could just be glad that she came back, but that’s not how the wiring in my brain works. She shouldn’t have run off in the first place, but then again it really was Dame’s fault…I think…I assumed.

I said hello to anyone who noticed me and avoided the living room for the most part, because I knew that was where my Aunt Stacy was, and she was probably starting a shitload of trouble in her drunken state. I spent most of my time outside on the back porch where barbequing was taking place and people were talking animatedly without even really noticing I was there. Every once in awhile screaming children would run past me, but they didn’t notice me. Thank God.

However, I got over my anger after about an hour of mingling and thought that I should go find Raven. And Dame, for that matter…But Raven first, because I sure as hell wasn’t apologizing to Dame yet. I was still mad at him for being a dumbshit.

I stopped talking to my great-uncle Fergus and went back inside, weaving through people to reach the observatory. My dad was standing near the middle of the room, talking to my second cousin, Geoffrey--I don’t care what that guy says, he’s completely flaming. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against gay guys, Geoffrey just happens to be one of the high and mighty, types and it put a stick up his ass every time I second-guessed his sexuality.

I walked past them when I saw Lee smiling and talking to probably five or six of my cousins, all of them looking eager to hear what he had to say. However, I slowed down with a slight smile on my face, hearing Geoffrey say to my dad, “Yeah, I met her, she seems…uh…”

Ha, the moron, there wasn’t just one word to describe Raven. I don’t know how I knew they were talking about her, but I just did--why else would someone be lost for words about someone? The only one new here that Geoffrey hadn’t met before was Raven, so it just made sense.

I caught up with Lee, his eyes flickered to me and he grinned, straightening up he pointed a large finger at me and said, “Get him!”

The six kids all flipped around to see me and the first to lunge was my second cousin Camille, she was the oldest of the group and triggered similar responses from the other five children. Two younger boys were locked onto my shins while two girls got hold of my arms and used all of their weight to pull me to the ground.

“Hey, hey!” I protested, trying to shake my legs free without hurting any of them. I failed and pitched forward, sending the last child scrambling to jump out of the way while Lee jumped on my back and shouted, “Dogpile!” I grunted when Lee flopped on my back with a dull thud. I’m pretty sure that was the sound of one of my lungs deflating. Then the kids abandoned their posts in order to pile on top of Lee and me, giggling hysterically as I struggled to get free.

I couldn’t help it, I grinned and shook my head, despite the lack of oxygen reaching my brain. “Alright you got me, now get off, before I suffocate down here,” I said in a strained voice, Lee was really doing a number on my breathing and the wriggling kids weren’t helping.

With a simple laugh, Leon stood up grinning as four of the kids somehow managed to stay on top of him, either hanging off his arms, his shoulders or just on his back. “Excellent work my minions, now fan out and find trouble to get into,” Lee ordered with a flick of his wrist. The children dispersed and headed off in separate directions.

“You have minions now?” I asked with raised eyebrows.

Lee shrugged. “Last year they were ‘munchkins’, they wanted an upgrade,” he explained simply. “Hey, do you know where Damion is?” Lee asked next, looking curiously around the room.

I scowled and shook my head. “I don’t know and I don’t care. I haven’t seen him all night.”

“Alright, well I’m gonna go look for him--Oh and Raven’s around here somewhere, you might want to save her from your family,” Lee added and then trotted off in the direction of the back door, which led onto the back deck.

I frowned, suddenly remembering that I had been looking for Raven in the first place. I guess I hadn’t realized that there was a possibility of her being by herself. I walked in the direction of the living room, that was probably the most risky place for me to go, since my Aunt Stacy was probably still there, but it was also the most logical place to look for Raven--the music was blaring into the observatory and I knew how much she liked music.

From the hallway, I peered into the living room warily, if she wasn’t in there and Stacy saw me, I was going to be caught in an annoying web, so I had to be prepared to pull back.

I froze when I looked into the room, watching as my mom triumphantly dangled that tiny bit of mistletoe that I had torn off the doorframe above a couple’s head. Of course, I recognized the “couple” immediately, my face going red with some sort of emotion I couldn’t place--anger? Embarrassment? Raven and Dame, and Dame was just pulling back from an “innocent” peck on the cheek. My jaw clenched and I could feel the muscles bunch in my back and arms, straining against my flesh. Raven looked a little dazed and short of breath, if I wasn’t mistaken. I knew I should have looked away then, while I still had a chance to dismiss the whole thing. But I couldn’t seem to force myself to move when Raven started to lean forward, her eyes fixated on Dame’s lips.

I could only manage to watch as they practically made out in my living room, in my house. With a physical cringe, I pulled out of the room and leaned against the wall, breathing heavily, and realizing that I had been holding my breath. What the hell had I been expecting? Raven to smack Dame across the face for reacting to her kiss? That would have been preferable to watching them do that, but it didn’t happen.

I took a deep breath and let it out, listening as the adults threw cat-calls and other encouraging sounds at the two. I couldn’t take it. I walked briskly toward the front door and pulled it open, stepping out into the freezing cold night air and forcing myself to keep from slamming the door.

I had to collect my thoughts. What was I getting all worked up about? If Dame and Raven liked each other, then fine, I didn’t need to get all high and mighty about it. They could make out all they wanted.

Okay that was a lie, I definitely didn’t want them making out in front of me all the time. That would suck major ass. I ran my hands exasperatedly through my hair and sighed, trying to get more air into my lungs. Why isn’t there enough air out here? I wondered with a growl of annoyance and I realized I was pacing on the front deck. I needed to go for a walk or something. Better hope it doesn’t rain, a voice warned in my head as I stalked off the front porch and into the night where dark gray clouds were swelling in the sky. Who gave a shit if it rained or not? The weather was the least of my problems at the moment. My emotions were on a rampage.

______________________________________

Leon’s Point Of View

Uh-oh, I thought with a small frown as Raven and Damion pulled away from each other, looking breathless. From across the room, I saw Hayden pull his head abruptly out of the room and he did not look happy. This wasn’t going to be fun, Damion was going to be giddy the rest of the night and Hayden was going to be pissed. Not a good combination.

I pulled out of the room too, and peered around the edge of the hall to see Hayden leave the house. Great, I was going to have to play the middle man again. Which definitely was not my idea of fun, so much for enjoying the party. I peaked back into the living room and saw that Hayden’s Aunt Stacy was trying to get Damion to dance and was failing miserably. But Raven was gone. Hmm.

So, I walked back around to see into the observatory, there were a lot of relatives in the room, but they were all a lot quieter than the one’s with Stacy and Martha. I frowned suddenly, seeing Raven disappear up the stairs at the same time that a ruckus exploded in the room filled with inebriated adults. I popped my head back into the living room and found the source instantly. There was a kid that was about five or six years old, one of Hayden’s cousins I assumed, that had been tied up with ribbon and thrown as a sacrifice to the drunk adults. Stacy was dangling a mistletoe over his head while he struggled to get free and was covering his face in alcoholic kisses, no doubt her breath smelled terrible. I felt bad for the kid, really, but I wasn’t about to break in and sacrifice myself for his sake.

I ducked back out of the room and looked at the staircase that Raven had gone up. What was she doing? It wasn’t long before I got my answer.

From the hallway at the top of the stairs came screaming, soon followed by a kid that was about thirteen--Hayden’s cousin Bret--who was waving…What the hell? Was that a bra? No, four of them? “She’s crazy!” he shouted, although he was giggling as he ran past me, still waving the bras around over his head emphatically for all to see. The adults in the room laughed at the show.

Not a moment later came one of Hayden’s other cousins, Adam, who was only a year younger than Bret and who couldn’t even get a word out because he was laughing so hard, I was surprised he even had the breath to keep running. He was holding two bras himself, although he was dragging them on the floor.

Next was Jim, another eleven-year-old cousin who screamed, “Run for your lives!” as he passed me, he was catching up quickly to Bret, since he wasn’t carrying anything.

Bringing up the rear was the youngest of the four, Lincoln, who was only eight and his eyes were bugging out of his head as he dashed behind me and stayed there, using me as a human shield. He obviously didn’t find the situation as funny as the other three.

The last to come down the stairs was none other than Raven herself, looking completely and utterly flaming pissed. Her eyes were wide with anger and she took the stairs two at a time. “COME BACK HERE YOU PERVERTED LITTLE BASTARDS!” she shouted angrily, not caring who heard her. She hit the bottom stair with an uncharacteristically loud thump! Then she continued to yell, “I SWEAR TO GOD I’M GONNA RIP YOUR ARMS OFF AND BEAT YOU WITH THEM! WAIT TIL I CATCH YOU!” She tore around the corner after them, not even noticing Lincoln behind me.

“She has such a way with children,” Jack said happily, unhindered by her foul language in front of family members. Everyone in the room laughed and went back to their conversations.

“Hey, Linc, it’s alright, I’m pretty sure she’s focusing on Bret,” I assured him, trying to pry his arms away from my leg.

“Y-you’re sure?” he asked shakily, looking at me with wide eyes.

I chuckled, the kid’s fear was funny, although, well placed. “Positive, just lay low for a little while, hang around your Ma or something, yeah?”

Lincoln nodded vigorously and released me only seconds before he darted into the kitchen. I shook my head and turned abruptly when I heard children screaming again. From the looks of it, Bret was taking Raven through another loop around the house, except this time, Damion was close behind him, pushing Adam backward to get closer to the front. I grinned when I saw the bra dangling from his hand, he had a huge grin on his face as he followed Bret on to the back deck.

“YOU FUUU-RICKIN BAD INFLUENCE!” Raven bellowed and tore out the door after the three, and I had a feeling that that last comment was both censored and meant for Damion. "WAIT UNTIL I GET MY HANDS ON YOU!" I heard her call from outside. She could really be loud when she wanted to be.

I noticed that they had lost another part of their group, the eleven-year-old Jim peaked out of the living room area with a grin on his face and raised eyebrows. He had apparently escaped Raven’s detection the moment Damion joined in. The little fool. I already knew how that little scene was going to play out, Damion was going to get cornered and try to sacrifice one of the children and blame it all on them. And then Raven was going to be blinded by rage, push the kid over and pounce on Damion like an angry tiger.

So, until they both decided to come back in, I was going to enjoy an always interesting conversation with Lawrence Crawford. The old guy always had something interesting to say, or some story to tell, helpful advice, everything and anything that an aspiring thief needed to know.