We had all woken up early and left at seven-thirty. We got there just when it was starting to get dark which Everest said was 'Perfect.' I had never seen the Rayville Forest and that's exactly where we were. I watched the others grab their gear and make sure it was working. Then I got bored and walked to the closest path and looked around. There was a puddle of blood on the ground and drops kept falling into it. I looked up into the tree and gasped. There was a dead human up there.
"Didn't you say that one of the witnesses was supposed to meet us here, Eve?" Darla asked.
"Yes. I don't think he's here yet," Everest replied.
I couldn't take my eyes off the body. I swallowed hard and forced myself to talk. "He's here," I said.
Everest came over and looked where I was looking. "Oh, no!"
"At least we know it's still here," Jordan said as he knelt next to the puddle of blood. "This blood is still pretty fresh so it must have happened recently."
You can tell that from the dripping blood, I thought to myself. Lizzy looked around with her thermal. "Well, the Steelfang isn't here now," she said.
"Dad forgot to mention the thing could fly," Scott grumbled.
I shook my head. "Or it dragged the guy up there."
Bennet walked over to the tree. "There aren't any claw marks on the trunk."
I pulled out my notebook from my bag on my hip and a pen. "So It did fly up there?"
"Looks like it."
I wrote that down. I had decided that I'd write anything we found out about this thing down. Then I saw movement to my left and turned. I put my notebook and stuff away quickly and grabbed my gun with my right hand. I had strapped the thing to my hip when we got here. Slash started growling and moved protectively in front of me. The others whirled to see what he was growling at. "Oh, wow," Everest whispered.
I glanced at her, "I think he came back for the body," I said.
Darla snorted. "So you think this thing's evil?"
I shot a glare at her. "Yes, now will you please pay attention to the monster that could attack us any second now?"
She glared. Lizzy pointed the thermal at it. "It's just sitting there," she murmured. "Brook, are you getting this on your camera?"
Brook had a camera in her hands and was pointing it at the creature. "Of course," she answered sounding a little annoyed at being asked.
It launched into the air and landed on a tree closer to us in less than a second. "It's fast," I mumbled. The others nodded in agreement. Scott looked like he wanted to murder our father right now. Morgan looked like he wanted to too.
"Eve, we need to get away from his meal before he thinks we are going to take it from him," Vincent said.
Everest nodded. "Let's go into the forest in the opposite direction from the Steelfang." She headed in and we followed.
Slash was still growling and rubbing up on me at the same time which made it hard to walk. "Shh," I murmured. "We're getting away from it and would you please stop rubbing up on me? You're going to make me fall over." He listened but was still growling a little. When we were far enough away we stopped and I pulled out my notebook then I quickly wrote down that it was fast. I don't know why my father didn't put that into his information file. It's a very important detail. Maybe he was still working on it?
"Did you see it? It was amazing!" Everest said enthusiastically.
Darla rolled her eyes. "Yeah, we saw it. Can we go now?"
Everest frowned. "Leave? When we have a hot leave and haven't captured it?"
"Why stay? We know why it's deadly. It's because it can fly and it's fast."
Slash looked at her and his growling grew louder. I ran my fingers through his fur. I knew he wanted that thing dead. "Shush," I admonished. "Don't get involved." He fell silent but still watched her while pressing against me. He wasn't going to leave me alone anytime soon. Which was irritating but if he started knocking me over I'll get him to stop.
"Darla, there are other things we'd like to test. We're just observing tonight to see what we need to make a trap with and where," Lizzy said.
"We'll use deer meat," Vincent said.
"Do you think this thing will go for that?" Scott asked.
"Yes, because those are the only other things that big that it could be eating at this time of year."
"That and humans," Theodore muttered.
I shook my head. "I think it rarely gets human," I said thoughtfully. "Otherwise it wouldn't have come back for the body."
"Luke," Morgan said. "His name was Luke."
"True. If the Steelfang got a lot of humans we would have heard of strange deaths and the Steelfang wouldn't have minded leaving Luke behind," Lizzy said smiling at Morgan. Obviously, he didn't like it when people didn't use the dead person's name.
I have so much to learn about my siblings. "Hmm," I said. "We could make the trap look like a den but have it in a tree because this thing seems to like being up high."
Vincent nodded. "I can make something like that."
Darla snorted. "How are you planning to get a full deer into a tree? How will you get it up there? And the monster will know it's a trap because deer don't go in trees."
"We'll build the trap on the ground, bait it, and then heave it up there," I said. "I doubt it will care that deers don't climb because it's obviously hungry."
Everest smiled. "That sounds perfect. Vincent, will you let Sapphire help you build this trap?"
"Sure," Vincent said.
"How big do you think the trap will need to be?" Lizzy asked.
"Six feet by six feet," I blurted.
Vincent nodded and smiled. "We'll want to give it plenty of room to move around. Sapphire and I will go to the scrap yard tomorrow and get the supplies." Slash growled. "And Slash," Vincent amended.
Guess Slash isn't letting me out of his sight. "I'll find more witnesses and make sure we meet them at their homes," Morgan said glancing in the direction of the Steelfang and Luke.
Everest nodded. "Good idea. We don't want all our witnesses to end up like Luke."
I shuddered. "If we did it would be like giving the Steelfang a feast."
They all nodded. Including Darla! "We should head back," Lizzy said.
Scott yawned. "Sounds great. I could use some sleep."
Theodore and Morgan both smirked at each other. "Could you?" Morgan said as we started heading back to the cars. "Because I believe you slept on our way here."
I scowled. "You fell asleep?"
"Vincent had everything under control," Scott replied glaring at Morgan who stuck his tongue out at him.
Apparently, he's going to tell on Scott to me. "Maybe you should drive to the hotel," Martin said. That was the first time I heard him talk tonight.
"Fine by me," Scott said grinning at Vincent who looked unhappy with the idea. We were silent until we got to the cars.
Vincent handed him the keys, "Let's get this over with."
Several people in the group laughed. Guess Vincent doesn't like people driving his truck. Everyone got into the cars after they put their equipment away. It only took us twenty minutes to get to the hotel. I ate a burrito or two and collapsed onto the bed in my room. I was asleep before my head hit the pillow.