“You want a smoke?” A pretty boy held out a drag for Katrina.

She thought of her aunt Cat, how cool and confident and good looking the woman was. She thought of how Cat looked down on smoking. Katrina shook her head at the boy. He shrugged and moved away.

Katrina mostly came to parties to mingle and gossip and observe the boys. But she was above all that other silliness, mostly. She’d drink a little, and she had to admit, it was sort of fun, but her aunt Cat, who was sort of her idol, looked down on the stuff. Plus, Katrina thought, as she noticed her older sister approaching, Gemma had obviously taken the opposite approach to life and Katrina liked to separate herself out from her sisters. Being the middle child of five, she had to find some different way to make her mark. She had to draw the line somewhere.

Gemma collapsed into the sofa next to Katrina. She was holding a beer and she was obviously already tipsy. “How’s it going little sis?”

Gemma’s boyfriend, and Kate’s father, Tobias, fell in next to Gemma, wrapping his arms around her in a hug. He was not much taller than Gemma. He had a friendly, freckle-covered face and perky blonde hair that tended to bounce when he walked.

“Hi young Kat!” he said cheerily.

Katrina hated when he called her that, but he was drunk so she let it slide.

“Fine. Hi Tobias,” she answered coolly. She considered chiding Gemma for the drinking, especially since baby Kate was only newborn, but she knew it would just slide right off her sister.

“Well aren’t you in a mood,” Gemma remarked, reading her little sister pretty darn accurately. “What’s the matter? Your boy toy not show up?”

“No, but if you must know. Lucille Vilan just...”

Tobias interrupted her as a new song started, “Hey, it’s that song, you wanna go dance?” He pulled Gemma to her feet.

“Sure,” she replied. As Tobias started to pull her away, Gemma turned and said, “Sorry, little sis, we’ll talk later.”

Katrina rolled her eyes and took another bored sip of her drink. She wondered if she should go and find Lucille. It was probably too soon. They’d had a fight a few moments ago and Katrina needed to wait the requisite amount of time before going and making up. Maybe she should wait until Monday? That would teach Lucille to be so obnoxious. Maybe she should go find her other friends and make sure they understood what Lucille had done was not to be tolerated.

Her younger brother, Salem slipped onto the couch on the other side of her.

“What do you want?” she asked grumpily.

“Have you seen Sasha?”

She shook her head.

He didn’t immediately rush off. “Hey..., what do think about Lily?”

“Bobby’s girlfriend?”

Salem rolled his eyes. “Zombie Lily.”

“Oh, I dunno. And you shouldn’t call her that.”

“I’ve been reading books on zombies and well, it’s really really rare, that necromancy on someone who’s been dead so long works long term. Like, given the date of her car crash and the day mum and dad turned up with her...”

“You don’t know when she was actually resurrected. They didn’t say.”

“It was implied it was recent, and given what Lily’s said.... like, do you think maybe we should be locking our doors at night?”

“That might upset Lily,” Katrina replied, shooting her brother a disapproving sideways glance.

“Mum and dad could come up with a good excuse I’m sure.”

“If you wanna lock your door, you can lock your door. I’m pretty sure Gemma does.”

Salem paused. “She does?” He shook his head. “Anyway, that’s not really what I’m worried about. I’m just saying what if she turns when we’re not paying attention...”

“I’m sure mum has...” Katrina trailed off as she saw her favorite ‘boy toy,’ as Gemma liked to call him, walking across the room toward them.

The tall, dark-haired, and handsome, Jade was anything but a toy to Katina though. Sure, she liked to tease the boys, but Jade was special.

“Hey,” he smiled that dream-melting smile, as he perched down on the arm rest to her right.

“Hi,” she replied back, meeting his gorgeous forest green eyes with her own emerald ones. Her evening just got a whole lot better.

Beside her Salem made a sound which she ignored.

Then Salem shot some finger guns at her and slipped off the couch. “Well I can see you’re gonna be distracted for awhile and I can tell when I’m not wanted.”

Jade gave Salem a friendly glance of thanks as Salem disappeared off into the crowd. Then he turned back to focus all his attention on Katrina.

----------------------------------------

Amanda and Sirius returned to an almost empty house.

"Where is everyone?" Amanda asked Bobby.

"Lily's upstairs, getting ready for bed. The others went out."

"To a party?"

Bobby nodded.

“All of them?”

Another nod.

Amanda rubbed her face. She hadn’t expected either their youngest or their eldest to be out. Sasha was more of a homebody, and Gemma had a newborn to take care of. “How’s Kate?” she asked of her grandchild.

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“Sleeping like a baby,” Bobby replied with a grin.

Amanda smiled and nodded, then she left him in the lounge where he’d been sitting and chatting with older Lily.

Amanda found Sirius seated at the kitchen table looking worn out.

She picked a bottle of whiskey off the top shelf, narrowing her eyes when she realised it was a lot less empty than she’d left it. Evidently one of the kids had thieved off with some. “Drink?” Amanda asked Sirius.

“After today, sure.”

She grabbed two shot glasses and poured one for each of them. Then she joined him at the table. “So what’ll we do while we wait for the kids to get home?”

Sirius yawned and looked at her with a tired smile. “I think I’m going to hit the sack soon, but you can wait up if you want.”

She nodded.

They chatted about the events of the day for a short while.

Eventually Amanda said, “I think I might try make one of those maps.”

“To see where the kids are?” Sirius asked.

Amanda nodded.

He thought about it. “Just don’t go drawing too much blood that you pass out okay. Actually if you’re going to do that, maybe take half of mine, it might be more effective that way anyway, and maybe it’ll help me sleep. Do we even have blood drawing equipment here.”

“Yeah,” and at the look on his face she expanded, “Not the horse stuff, I’ve got some human sized needles here somewhere. Gimme a sec.”

She disappeared into the storeroom that backed onto the kitchen.”From the first aid supplies,” she explained.

Sirius rubbed his nose as she laid parchment out on the kitchen table. “Didn’t you say they had an infused pen.”

“Yeah, I’ve got a few stones or... actually...” She clicked her fingers and disappeared from the room once more.

She returned and laid a compass on the table along with several other ingredients.

“Tracking compass?”

She nodded. “Got it from Wolf years ago. It’s not great but it’s something. I think I have all the other ingredients Wolf used. It’s been awhile since I’ve made one of these.”

Sirius smiled and watched her work. While she sorted the ingredients, he drew some of his blood.

“Hey, you’re only supposed to do half a pint,” Amanda remarked when she realised he’d gone over half way.

“Well you’re half my size so I think I can give a little more,” he replied.

He drew her blood and mixed it in with his, until they had exactly a pint.

“How do you tell it who to find?” he asked.

“Well, the blood helps, but the rest is just kind of willing it.”

“Does it work better with multiple people? Willing it I mean.”

Amanda frowned. “I’m not sure.”

He held out his hand and she grasped it. “Well let’s give it a try then.”

“Okay.”

Together they cast the spell. Dark red lines traced a map of Little Rock and the surrounding area. The compass spun and eventually settled on a direction that was actually close to north but a little off.

“Ah, they’re out near the wetlands,” Amanda remarked, referring to a small gathering of houses on the north side of town, where some of the more down to earth folks liked to live. It wasn’t far from where Amanda had grown up herself, just a little more inland where the lower elevation made it damp rather than dusty. The land to the north of Little Rock was raised up nearer the sea. There were no nice beaches up there, only sheer sandy cliffs and desert if you went far enough, but if one travelled inland before reaching the northern deserts, the elevation dropped and the fresh water beneath the earth rose up, soaking the land and promoting the growth of dense green undergrowth. There were often teenage parties out that way. It wasn’t far from Wolf’s cabin, although, his place was situated a little higher in elevation and surrounded by more sparsely populated pine and other taller trees. Slowly as they watched, little moving dots formed on the paper, all quite close together. One, which must have been Bobby, was right on top of their house. The other four were in another house out in the wetlands.

“That’s not a bad map,” Sirius remarked.

“Yeah, I think it’s actually better than the one we did in the house. We’ll see how long it lasts I guess.”

Sirius nodded and then stood up. “Well, I’m going to bed. Don’t stay up too late, and don’t draw anymore blood. He squeezed her shoulder gently on his way out.

“I won’t,” Amanda replied. She poured herself another glass of whiskey.

She flicked through and old spell book for awhile, tidied up the kitchen, played some single player card games, and practiced her magic.

Eventually she watched as one of the dots moved towards Wolf’s house, probably Katrina. She went there to hang with Jade sometimes. Amanda hoped they were being smart.

Salem and Sasha came back together soon after and said good night on their way upstairs. She heard Salem sneak back down and boot up the computer.

“Salem.”

“Yeah?”

“Go to bed.”

He groaned. “I was just going to play a short game.”

“It’s never a short game. Go read a book or something. Play in the morning.”

He grumbled but he started to make a move upstairs. Then he turned and popped into the kitchen. “Maybe a quick snack.” He paused and looked at the map, “What’s that?”

“It’s a map.”

“I can see that. What’s it a map of?”

“You lot.”

“Hmm,” Salem peered closer, a fascinated look on his face. “All of us? Can you show me how to do that?”

“Maybe tomorrow, if you go to bed.”

Salem grinned and nodded, but he kept staring at the map, his needs-a-haircut soon dark hair kept falling into his eyes as he looked and he had to keep brushing it out of his face. “Is that Katrina? He pointed to the dot at Wolf’s cabin. Hah, she did go to Jade’s.” He glanced at his mother with a smug look on his face.

She returned it with a stern expectant expression.

“Alright, alright, I’m going to bed. It might be awhile if you’re waiting for Gemma to get home though,” he replied as he grabbed his snack and wandered upstairs.

Gemma got back around 2 am. She stumbled through the door, almost falling over. She straightened herself up and made her way into the kitchen. Amanda had long since packed up the fading map. She looked up from a book as Gemma walked in.

“Were you waiting up for me?” Gemma asked with half wary, half guilty look.

“Just reading,” Amanda replied. She considered her daughter’s state.

Gemma took a seat and eyed the bottle of whiskey.

Seeing the look, Amanda pushed it over to her.

“Needed a break huh?” Amanda asked cautiously but softly.

“Yeah, something like that. Bobby was here. He said he didn’t mind.” Gemma ducked her eyes slightly.

Amanda could pick the small lie in that last sentence but she didn’t call her daughter on it. Bobby probably hadn’t minded too much, he was a good kid. Still, Gemma going out drinking tonight did have Amanda a little worried. Given Gemma’s current state she didn’t think now was quite the right time for that conversation though. Gemma wasn't breast-feeding so it wasn't a pressing matter.

Amanda did understand the need for a night off though. It was her own bad habits which Gemma seemed to have acquired after all. They’d have to discuss this tomorrow but for now Amanda just smiled sympathetically and asked, “Fun night?”

“Yeah.” Gemma smiled, sipped her whiskey. She was quiet for a moment and then she said, “You know I been thinking, maybe I don’t need to finish school, I could just work with the horses and...”

Amanda interrupted her with a shake of the head. Firmly but gently she replied, “You’ve got little over half a year left. As long as you are under this roof you’ll finish school. That was the rule my mother made with me and it’s the rule I’m making you. Once you’re done you can do what you like but until then. You want to take less classes and spread them out into next year that’s fine but you finish okay?”

Gemma sighed. She shook her head. "I don't want to drag things into next year."

“Fine but there's no problem if you do end up doing that. If you want to keep working with the horses after you graduate then we can work something out, or you can do some correspondence courses at uni. Whatever you do you’ve always got this place to call home okay? But you finish school first, no matter how long it takes.”

Gemma nodded again and in a moment of drunken weakness admitted,”I just, I don’t know what I’m doing, or what I'm doing it for.”

Amanda blinked a moment, surprised at the admission but glad for the confidence. She smiled warmly. “There’s no rush. You’ll figure it out. Finishing school gives you more options at least. Anyway, no one really ever completely knows what they’re doing.”

Gemma eyed her mum and then the bottle of whiskey between them. Ain’t that the truth, she thought. But there was enough confidence in her mother’s voice that for a moment she really did believe everything would be just fine. Satisfied with her own path for now, Gemma changed the topic. “So, how was the thing you were helping Kass with?”