Red sparkiing lights appeared in a dark sky hovered a few miles from us for about 10 minutes - then blinked out with one flying away.

At 10 pm on this moonless night full of stars, I went out on my 2nd story deck looking NE  towards a large dark mountain in the distance.  (We live in the country and there are no visible houses or lights in this direction.)  I first noticed 3 large sparkling red lights.  I assumed they were stars - all in a vertical row in front of this mountain in the valley.  They were not moving but glowing very red.  
I called my boyfriend to come look.  We noticed two more red lights rise up behind the trees together side-by-side to a 4th position in the line with one then dropping into a 5th position.  A 6th red light appears at the bottom just over the trees at the end of this vertical line.  Red light number 1 seems to be getting smaller – but does not seem to be moving.  Then it disappears, and the line moves upward.  #2 then disappears, and then # 3 disappears.  A bright red light appears briefly over to the left then also disappears.
During this viewing time – maybe 10 -12 minutes – some of the red sparkling lights disappear and then reappear in the same position.  They all appear to be hovering in this valley within a few miles of us.
As the other lights just blinked out, the top red light starts to move away to the upper right and gets smaller and smaller, until it is just a dot as if flying away.  It doesn’t just blink out like the others.