Chapter 76: 62. Another New Face

"Hey Cass? Can I talk with you for a bit, before you go?" Kenzie asked.

I hadn't even realized the small bunnygirl was there, but she was quick enough she might not have been there a moment ago.

"Sure," I replied. Then I turned to the others and said, "I'll catch up with you all in a bit."

"We'll walk slow," Paige smiled as she and the rest of the gang headed out the front doors of the school.

It was Monday afternoon, the end of a relatively boring day. We'd had a fairly quiet weekend too, I spent most of my time either reading or playing video games with Nina. My sister was teaching me some of her tricks, but mostly she said it came down to practice. The best way to get good at the games was to just keep playing until I got the hang of them.

The only interesting thing to come up was at lunch today, when we got a group text from Brooke. She'd spoken with the shape-shifter, and she was excited to join us. So we made last-minute arrangements for everyone to get together at Melanie's place again this afternoon to meet our new club member.

As the others headed out I looked back to Kenzie and asked, "What's up?"

She grimaced and replied quietly, "I'm really sorry to bug you about this Cass but I was wondering if you'd had any luck finding another of those plushies? Hopefully a kitty? For my sister Kimmie."

I'd actually forgotten all about that, but I didn't want to admit it to Kenzie. Instead I replied, "Sorry it's taken longer than I thought. I'll try again to get my hands on one, and let you know how it goes. If I don't see you tomorrow then by the end of the week for sure. Ok?"

"That sounds great," she smiled. "Thanks Cass, I really appreciate it!"

I smiled back, "You're welcome. Now I'd better go, before the rest of them get too far ahead."

She stifled a giggle, "Usually I'm the one who dashes away. See you later!"

I laughed as well, then hurried out the door. I put on a burst of speed and quickly caught up to the others, then the six of us continued walking towards Melanie's place.

"Are we going to order something in tonight?" Kaylee asked the wolfgirl. "Or did you and Cerys come up with more burgers or something?"

Melanie shook her head, "If you lot want to do dinner afterwards you'll have to do it somewhere else. I can't host a long meeting tonight, I'm hoping this will be over before six. For one thing my dad'll be home tonight, but more importantly the full moon peaks before eight? And I'm planning on going out for a run."

"Ok Melanie, that's not a problem," Paige responded. "We'll mention that when we see Brooke and Melody. Maybe the rest of us can go out for dinner someplace afterwards."

That was the topic of discussion for the rest of the walk, and by the time we got to the wolfgirl's house it sounded like Paige and Kaylee wanted to go visit one of the restaurants on Main Street. It mostly depended on whether or not Brooke and Melody were interested.

We all headed down into the basement as usual, but we had about a half hour before Brooke and Melody were supposed to arrive. Melanie offered us all some drinks then got her game console going, and we chilled and played some games while we waited.

When the last two guests arrived Melanie went up to answer the door, then brought them down to the basement with the rest of us. And we all got our first look at the shape-shifter, while Brooke and Melanie did the introductions.

Melody looked about the right age for a second-year college student, about twenty or twenty-one. She was petite like me, but curvier. Actually she had a similar size and shape to Cerys. Her hair was blonde too, and it hung down several inches past her shoulders. She had pretty eyes, they were a bright blue colour. She had a pretty face and a cute smile. And she was dressed really casual, in purple leggings and a light blue tunic top. She also had a green autumn jacket that was draped over her left arm, and a cute little purse hanging from her shoulder.

I couldn't see any magic on her, but I figured I might see some if she changed her appearance. Actually I was kind of curious about that, like how it would look when it happened. I hoped she'd give us a demonstration at some point.

After all the introductions the new arrivals got themselves drinks and found places to sit, then our former leader spoke up and got things started.

"So this is Club Luna," Brooke said with a smile. "Up until June the club was mostly a high school thing, but a bunch of stuff happened and we've changed the rules so it's not a school thing anymore."

"And you're all witches?" Melody asked. "For real?"

I shook my head, "Not all of us. That's another thing that changed in June I guess, but it's a longer story."

The shape-shifter looked at me and Nina and commented, "You two are obviously sisters. So can I ask what you are or do, if you're not witches? I know you all know about me, both Brooke and Melanie know I'm a shape-shifter and I'm sure they've told you."

"My little sister's a demon," I replied. "And I'm part demon."

Melanie spoke up next, "You already know what I am, but I'm also learning the witch stuff too."

Kaylee said, "The rest of us are witches."

"I'm a former witch," Cerys clarified. "Retired, I guess. I don't do spells anymore."

Melody grinned as she looked around at the rest of us, then commented "This is pretty amazing. Ever since I found out about all this stuff I've wanted to meet other supernatural folks? At first the only one I knew was my dad, which is where I inherited my abilities from. Then I met Melanie, and that was pretty wild. Now finding out there's all of you here in this one small town, is pretty exciting. I'm so happy you invited me to join!"

"Since we're all here we should probably get started with whatever we need to discuss?" Melanie suggested. She looked at Melody and apologized, "Sorry to rush things but I kind of need everyone out of here by six."

Paige added, "That's when her dad gets home. And incase Brooke hasn't made this clear already, Club Luna is supposed to be a secret. Nobody knows what we do, nobody knows we're witches and other supernaturals or that we investigate real supernatural incidents."

"That means not even our parents know about it," Kaylee elaborated. "We used to have a classroom at school where we could hold our meetings. But we lost access to that, so now we have to meet wherever we can."

Melody grimaced, "I get it. About the secrecy, and having to keep it from your family. If my dad found out I was joining a supernatural club... Let's just say you don't have to worry about me keeping this stuff secret from my folks."

"My and Nina's parents know about the club," I mentioned. "And they're mostly ok with it. They even let us meet there last month."

"Lucky," the shape-shifter smiled. "So I guess your folks are demons too?"

I shook my head, "Actually they're both angels."

She stifled a giggle, "Angel parents and demon daughters? I'd almost think you were messing with me, but you seem pretty serious."

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Nina nodded, "It's true. They adopted us."

Melody smiled, "Cool. So I know I'm new here and everything, but I actually have something you might be interested in? There was a vampire attack last week, here in town at Mill Creek Park. My dad works as an EMT and was in the ambulance that answered the call."

"The victim made a full recovery," she added. "Dad was keeping track to make sure, so we know it wasn't a fatal attack. But still, there's a vampire in town and they're bold enough to attack someone in a public park."

Brooke smiled as she corrected the shape-shifter, "It wasn't one vampire but two. A couple young men, probably boyfriends. The attack was last Tuesday night just after eleven PM."

"How'd you know all that?!" Melody gasped in surprise. "Here I thought I was bringing you all a big scoop and you've already solved the thing!"

Meanwhile Kaylee was frowning at our newest club member. "My dad drove the ambulance that attended the victim, and I know who his partner is. Her name's Alison Sinclair, and she's way too young to be your mother. She's definitely not your father."

The shape-shifter's eyes widened and her face went a little pale, then she actually face-palmed. "Don't tell me, your dad's Raymond Holt?"

"How do you know my dad's name?" Kaylee asked warily.

Melody sighed, "Dad's definitely going to kill me if she ever finds out about this. I'm Melody Sinclair, Alison is my dad. She's a shape-shifter like me, and for the last few years she's been a twenty-something year old girl named Alison."

Kaylee's face went a bit pale as well, and she looked shocked as that news sank in.

"Is your dad trans?" I asked with a smile. "That's really cool!"

Melody shook her head, "Dad claims she isn't trans. She says it's a shape-shifter thing, she gets bored of being the same thing for too long so she changes it up every few years? And I don't actually know what she was born as, I have no idea if she started out AMAB or AFAB. But according to mom, in the last twenty-five or thirty years dad's been a woman a lot more than she's been a man."

"Huh," Melanie responded. "That's pretty neat I guess."

Paige cleared her throat and said, "Since we're all here and the vampire subject was raised, perhaps we should continue that discussion. Cass, did you have a chance to talk with your moms over the weekend?"

I nodded, "They haven't had much interaction with vampires, but they know a lot of the stuff in pop culture is wrong. Like holy water, crosses, garlic, all that stuff has no effect on them. Oh and they said vampires don't burst into flames or turn to ash in sunlight? They just get sunburns, so if they have to go out in the daytime they wear clothes that cover everything up? Along with dark sunglasses and maybe a wide-brimmed hat too."

"They also said vampires have supernatural strength and speed," I added. "And they can't cast spells as such, but they can use auras which are sort of magical? According to my mum they have one that inspires fear in people, and another which makes people feel kind of nice and happy. She said that combination is what makes them dangerous, like between the auras and being so strong and everything."

"Did your moms know anything about how vamps turn people?" Brooke asked. "Do we need to worry about that woman they attacked last week becoming a vampire too?"

"Nope. They said turning is a complicated process," I replied as I shook my head. "Mum was pretty sure it wasn't the sort of thing that could happen by accident. Apparently the person has to drink the vampire's blood while the vampire drinks their blood, then the person has to die, and the whole thing takes a few days or a week or something. So there's no way the park victim could turn into a vampire unexpectedly."

Paige sounded relieved as she replied, "That's good to know. Thanks Cass."

Melody asked, "So what's the plan? Are you trying to find these vamps? What will you do with them when you find them?"

"And how do you know there's two of them?" she added. "I missed that part of the story."

Our club leader grimaced, "I'm actually not sure how to handle it if we find them? I suppose we'll try and talk with them? Maybe try and convince them to move on and find someplace else to do their thing. Assuming they're even still around. It's possible they were just passing through, since we're not aware of any vampire attacks happening before the one last week. And none since ether."

"As for how we know there's two of them," Brooke said with a smile. Then she went on to tell Melody about our visit to the park on Friday, and the spell she used to witness the attack.

The shape-shifter seemed fascinated as she listened to that account. Then she asked about what other sorts of magic we could all do, which led to a little discussion of the different spells Brooke and Paige and Kaylee knew, and how they had different areas of specialization.

Melanie hadn't specialized in anything yet, but she mentioned being able to do some small fire spells and stuff like that. And Cerys mostly stayed out of the whole conversation. In fact I got the impression the only reason she was present was because she was sticking with Melanie.

Then Melody looked to me and Nina and asked what sorts of stuff we could do.

"Right now my thing is I can see magic," I replied. "I can spot enchantments, I can see active spells, that sort of thing?"

Nina was almost as quiet as Cerys, she was maybe still a bit shy around the new person. So when it was her turn she replied quietly, "I can do some demonic magic. I'm new to the club though and haven't had much to do yet."

"Cool," Melody smiled. "I don't suppose I could see some magic? A little demonstration?"

A few people looked towards Cerys, since her spells were the most flashy. She reminded everyone she'd retired though, so Melanie volunteered to show off some magic instead.

The wolfgirl pulled out a half dozen candles and set them up, then she used the fire magic her girlfriend taught her. Melody watched with a wide smile as Melanie lit four candles with her first spell, then a second spell got the other two burning.

Then as Melanie put the candles out again the shape-shifter enthused, "That's so cool!"

"I don't suppose we can see a demonstration of your talents?" Paige asked her.

Melody agreed, "Sure. If you don't mind I'm just going to do something small though, since bigger changes take more energy?"

Without waiting for a response she suddenly gave her head a shake, and just like that her long blonde hair retracted and coloured into shoulder-length curly bright-red locks. At the same time her skin became a few shades lighter, while freckles appeared scattered over both cheeks. Her cheekbones moved up slightly, her nose became smaller, and her lips a little wider. Her eyes went from blue to emerald green, and her lips took on a deeper red tone. Basically in an instant she had a whole new face, she looked like a stranger.

At the exact moment all the changes happened I caught a faint flicker of purple magic around her hair. From that I figured most of the magic was actually contained inside her, and it was probably only active during the change. So I was relatively confident I could touch her without any danger to either of us.

After that we all talked a bit more, before Melanie decided it was time to end the meeting. Her dad would be home soon, and she was getting a bit fidgety and wanted to wolf out and go run around. Paige and Brooke both suggested the rest of us could head over to one of the restaurants on Main Street, but Nina wanted to head home. And Cerys wasn't interested either.

In the end Melody drove Paige and Kaylee to the restaurant, while Brooke drove me and Nina home. Then the tall blonde turned around and left to join the others for dinner.