Vampire Instinct by Joey W. Hill Page A

jackals as well?”
    “Not exactly. Mal and the people who helped him set up this place knew they needed an environment similar to that of the different cats, to help with their rehab. We have meat flown in for those in the habitat, and to supplement the ones learning to hunt, but we also have small herds of gazelle, wildebeest and other game. Since cats don’t eat everything, and because we’re trying to make it as close to what they’ll experience in the wild, he also brought in the smaller scavengers. Jackals and the like. There’s a zoologist on the mainland who spent a lot of time helping him know what would work and what wouldn’t.”
    “Extraordinary.” She thought about the drive. Hazy, tired and flustered as she’d been, she did remember some details. “The island has very different terrain. Last night, it was like crossing through entirely different countries.”
    “Mmm.” Kohana’s benign expression turned into a scowl. “Yeah. He worked that out with someone, too. Someone he shouldn’t be tangling with.”
    Someone a vampire should avoid? Kohana didn’t linger on that curious statement, though. He pointed to the sky instead. “Can you see that many stars back in Australia?”
    “They’re arranged a bit differently, but it’s a lovely new view of it.”
    “We’re in the Northern hemisphere,” the Indian said. “Some things you see from one side, you don’t see from the other.”
    Nodding, Elisa turned her face back up to the sky. “I guess I’ve been distracted by so many other things, I haven’t appreciated what it is to be traveling half a world away from everything I’ve ever known. I’ve never been much of anywhere. Lady Constance met me in Perth, and sent me to school in Adelaide. And of course I went to Darwin to help Lady Danny and Dev when we first got the children.”
    “Fledglings,” Kohana reminded her helpfully. “He’s right about that part. Plus, it’s best not to rile a vampire for no reason.”
    “No worries. That part I do know.” She considered the sky again. “There’s the Milky Way. We can see that one, though it looks a bit dimmer here.”
    “The Tsalagi, the Cherokee, call it ‘the place where the dog ran.’” Kohana slanted her a glance. She wondered if he spent a lot of time here by himself, which made him so willing to talk to her, or if he’d been instructed to keep her distracted, though Mal hadn’t really projected such sensitivity. He might be merely gathering impressions to share with Mal later, but if so, she could only be herself. Plus, she was doing just as much information gathering herself.
    “Why do they call it that?”
    “That’s a Tsalagi story. I’ll tell you a proper Lakota story, which is much better.”
    She gave a mock snort. “Oh really? Better than a story about the Milky Way?”
    His eyes creased, showing his enjoyment of her. “Yes, young smart mouth. It’s a story about the creation of the world. There was another world before this one.” When Kohana looked out at the night, at the beauty of the darkened island, she saw something in his face that quieted her. “But people didn’t act as they should in that world, so the Great Spirit sang and it rained. The more he sang, the harder it rained, until the whole earth was flooded and nearly everyone drowned, swept away by his disappointment. However, Crow came to the Great Spirit and asked to please give him a place to rest his feet. The Great Spirit relented and decided to create a new world. He sent four animals who could swim into deep water to get him creation clay. Three of them failed, but Turtle succeeded, bringing back the clay that became the land. The Great Spirit cried over what had been lost, and the rivers and streams formed from his tears. He populated the new earth with animals from his pipe bag, and then, after much deliberation, he took red, white, black and yellow earth and made people again. He gave the people his sacred pipe and told them all would