"She's stronger than she looks," Billy said.

This time, Edgar's eyes shot open.

"Oh crap. I forgot about her --"

He did not even get a chance to finish the sentence before Heda's Gift kicked in. The eagle-shifter's eyes were glowing and she promptly bucked, causing all three men on top of her to go flying off of the couch. Heda's Gift made her insanely strong and fast.

"I told Mom too," Ed said, running for the door.

"She's going to meeting with you guys out there."

"You told Mom? You candy-ass, chicken-shit, piece of --

"Gotta go!" he said, slamming the door in his sister's face. The rest of the gang managed to cause enough interference to keep her from getting to him before he got to the rental car. She was getting ready to give chase when her phone started to ring. A quick peek made her sigh.

"Hi Madison," she said, trying to keep her voice steady, aware that she was being watched by the rest of the crew from the doorway.

"Yeah, about that trip . . . no, of course I want to see you," she said through gritted teeth as she plotted her brother's death.

“No, I don't have a game this weekend. I don't know if he can. You'll have to ask him." She stormed back to the house and handed the phone to Billy.

It was the wereturtle's turn to sigh, then put the phone to his ear.

"Hey psycho. Yeah, I just heard. Well, I'm in charge of the station --" He rubbed his hand over his face.

"No, of course we want to see."

As she kicked back next to the pool in a hot little two-piece swimsuit drinking a flavorful fruity drink, Heda accepted that maybe taking the weekend off was not such a bad idea. Most of the gang had been able to make it out, all on Mr. Hannity's dime, though Kevin and Peter were still back at the university.

Joanna was in a suit that might better be described as green dental floss, and she was quite the center of attention. Once Morgan had realized that her sister's cool college friends were coming to visit, she had invited all of her "super cool" high school friends over, and things had turned into a party pretty damn quickly. Both Joanna and Anthony had been strictly warned against “hunting underaged game" by everyone who knew them, though they both certainly relished the attention.

Heda's parents had indeed shown up. Her dad was talking with Mr. Hannity about investment properties, the famous Jessica Adler was in the kitchen (of course) with Carla and Mrs. Sanchez, the voodoo priestess cook. Heda doubted she'd see her mother until dinner.

Mostly, she just let herself unwind. Sure, a few of the high-schoolers hit on her, but most of them were either staring at Joanna's chest or grilling Madison and Carla about their times in captivity. For Carla, it had become a kind of therapy. For Madison ... well, she was still getting there. For Madison, the real reward was being the center of non-hostile attention. It was another thing that was going to take some getting used to. But Heda noticed how much she glowed when people talked to her in friendship rather than about her in malice.

“Would you stop doing the googly eyes thing at her?" Joanna said with faux sternness.

"It's kinda sad."

“Hey, I am not making googly eyes. I'm just happy to see her enjoying herself." Heda sipped her drink.

“Besides, you're just jealous because my brother isn't here for you to drool over."

"That's beside the point. Hmm, I bet your brother looks hot in swim trunks, especially when he's doing that slow motion walk out of the water . . . yummy. Don't ya think?"

"I hadn't thought about it," Heda replied dryly.