"I'm using your nickname, aren't I?" Marlene replied.

     "Alright, just let me get rid of these losers, Marlene, so we can continue on home." Gracie assured her worried friend.

     For some reason, the mention of Marlene's name managed to pierce the alcohol induced fog surrounding the seniors' brain when nothing else had. It wasn't a good thing though as the seniors remembered her in the worst possible way. She winced slightly as one of the seniors spoke up.

     "Mar-Marlene? You don't mean Marlene Grayson, do you?" the senior asked.

     "And what if I do?" Gracie replied as she crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes at the senior.

     "Don't you know she's bad luck?" he said to her. "There is a reason why they call her 'Black Luck Mary' at school!"

     "Yes, I do know, and I don't care!" Gracie growled at him, uncrossing her arms and intensifying her glare from 'Pissed Off Goth' to 'You Will Die If You Touch Me'.

     Marlene took a few steps back from Gracie when she uncrossed her arms, so she would have room to swing if need be. When she backed up, she ran into a warm body standing behind her and a large narrow hand with long clawed fingers place itself gently on her shoulder. She briefly looked over her shoulder to see if anything was there, but she saw nothing.

     'Shadow, is that you?' Marlene sent silently through the link.

     They were able to send not just emotions and feelings but also words and images when they were in physical contact with each other. The ability to communicate like this was a fairly recent development and it was unclear to her what it meant. Shadow seemed to know something about it, but he was reluctant to tell her what he knew. She didn't press him too hard about it though because he would always tell her things when she needed to know them. He always did. Unless she figured it out first, of course.

     'Yes, Miss Shard,' answered a soft whispery voice inside her head.

     Marlene breathed a mental sigh of relief when she heard it. She hadn't realized it until then that she had been worried without him. His calm and gentle demeanor had always soothed her, and his voice reminded her of soft sheets of hanging fabric being rustled by the wind. However, she tensed back up when she recognized the muted angry aggression emanating from him towards the group of drunk and disorderly senior high-schoolers.

    'Shadow?' Marlene asked him tentatively through the link.

     'Yes, Miss Marlene?' he replied.

     'If you have to fight them,' she told her guardian slowly in a firm voice. 'Do Not hurt them, or at least don't do anything permanent to them. Do you understand? That is an order.

     'Yes, Miss Grayson,' he replied, acknowledging the command.

     'Also, do you see that girl over there talking to those under-age drunks?'

     'Yes, Miss Grayson?'

     'She is Gracie Jones, my friend from school I've told you about. You are to protect her too.' She told him.