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retort, his father walked into the kitchen.
    “I thought I heard a loudmouth.”
    “Hey, Dad,” Cole said. “Lana, my father,
William.”
    The elder Thomas grinned. “Well,
nice to meet you.”
    “Thanks,” Lana said, beaming.
    “We need to ask you about an old
legend grandpa told me,” Cole explained as his father grabbed a cup of coffee.
Knowing his father, it was at least his third.
    William’s eyebrow shot up. “What
legend?”
    “She knows, Dad. There’s
trouble,” Cole said quietly.
    William sat down next to his
wife. “Start at the beginning.”
    Cole briefly outlined the
situation to his father. Lana remained silent. “So, now, I need to know what
you can remember about the old stories Grandpa used to tell about the shifter
that could vanish.”
    Claire sat a bowl of eggs at the
table and two more place settings. “Cole, it’s a legend. You know that.
Shifters can’t disappear anymore than anyone else can.”
    Something in her tone made him
question the truth of her statement, but he didn’t press it. Not yet.
    “The one we ran across can,” Lana
said, finally speaking up.
    Claire sighed. “William?” she
asked, her hands shaking as she sat down.
    Cole caught the look his mother
exchanged with his father. “Okay, what’s going—”
    “There’s a legend passed down
through the generations,” William began. “About an evil power that had been
thwarted by the Druids. The way I heard it, from my father is that there are
two pieces this…being is after. It’s with those pieces, and only those pieces,
that it can be destroyed.”
    Cole looked at his mother, then
back to his father. “Two pieces?”
    William nodded and sipped his
coffee. “Two pieces. No one’s sure what exactly those pieces are.”
    “I need to find those pieces,”
Cole said in a rush. “This evil shifter—whatever he is—thinks Lana has them.
And if my theory is correct, her mother has already died for them.”
    “Stay out of it, Cole. He can’t
be stopped.”
    Cole gaped at his mother, shocked
by her words and vehemence. “Would you really expect me to leave her in
danger?” He paused. “Why do you say ‘he can’t be stopped’? You two believe this
legend, don’t you?”
    “It’s not that we—”
    “It’s okay, Claire,” William
interrupted. “Yes, we believe the legend. Rather, we started to believe in the
legend when we discovered you could shift.”
    Cole frowned. “Why?”
    William sighed heavily.
“Because,” he started, choosing his words carefully, “I—we believe you’re one
of the pieces.”
    “Which would make Lana the second
piece.” He turned to her then, found her face expressionless.
    “I can’t be,” she said simply.
    “Why not?”
    “If I’m one of the pieces, then
why wouldn’t he have come after me sooner? If he’s as powerful as the legends make
him out to be, he could have squashed me like a bug.”
    William shook his head. “Not if
he doesn’t know you’re one of the pieces.”
    “How couldn’t he know?” Lana
argued.
    “I don’t think he knew what the
pieces were—just that there were two. The way I see it, if he knew, why would
he have waited so long? He could have, using your words, squashed you two like
bugs as children since you posed absolutely no threat, or at least any great
challenge. My only real guess is he thinks you’re connected to them, or can possible
lead him to them.”
    Lana didn’t know how to respond
to that, Cole realized by the confused look on her face “Okay, so if he doesn’t
know yet, is it safe to assume he won’t figure it out? Or could the fact that
he doesn’t know work against us?”
    William shook his head and
shrugged. “Honestly, son, I don’t know. But you need to be careful. If the
legend is true, and we’re right, you’re in for more danger than either of you
realizes.”
    “Do you think he is just a
shifter?” Cole wanted to know.
    His dad shrugged. “I don’t know,
to be honest. With that vanishing