Up until now, I’d never considered how easily Emily had accepted the magical beings that she’d seen. Wolves…Spriteblood…water spirits…she hadn’t so much as blinked an eye at any of them. Excited to see something new? Sure. But never afraid or even surprised. Not really.
I heard gravel crunch and turned to see Brian and Tori pull up in the driveway, parking beside of my Jeep.
“Has your mom popped out at you yet?” Tori asked as she got out of the truck. “If she hasn’t, I believe I’ll just hang out on the porch until she sets the cake down.”
“Not yet,” I laughed, opening the door wider for her and Brian. “But you may as well come in anyway. There’s no way you’ll end up wearing cake two years in a row.”
“I’d rather not take any chances,” Tori joked, but walked in anyway.
“Happy birthday, Nikki,” Brian said, following her in.
“Hush,” Tori said in a whisper. “No one says that until her mom says it. It’s tradition.”
“Sorry!” he hissed under his breath. “I didn’t know!”
“It’s all right. She didn’t hear you. She’s busy putting the candles on in the kitchen,” Emily told him with a wide grin. “Mama isn’t very good at surprises, but we like to let her pretend. It’s fun.”
As if on cue, my mom called out. “Nikki, is that you?”
“Yep. I’m home,” I answered, loud enough that she would hear me. “Adam, Brian, and Tori are here, too.”
“I’ll be right there. Just give me a second.” This was followed by an immediate crash that made Tori wince and caused Adam and Brian to both move toward the sound. I found myself wondering what type of cake it had been and how much of it was on the floor.
But it must have survived, because my mom appeared with a chocolate-frosted cake, candles blazing. “Happy birthday, Nikki!” The happy grin on her face was an exact replica of the one Emily wore on Christmas morning.
“Ooh, that looks so good! Thanks, Mom,” I said as she stopped in front of me and waited for me to make my wish.
I thought for a second, then blew the candles out and they all sang. Then my mother set the platter down on the coffee table and began taking the candles off. Emily appeared a moment later beside of her with paper plates and soon everyone had a huge slice of German Chocolate cake.
When we all finished, I opened presents. There was a new coat from my mother and Emily, and Tori and Brian gave me a gift card to the movie theatre in the next town over from Bland.
It was full dark when everyone stood to leave. Brian and Tori left first, then I walked Adam out.
He stopped me before we walked off the porch. “I have something for you,” he said, reaching into the pocket of his jeans. “I meant to give it to you at the hot springs, but then everything kinda went haywire.”
He pulled out a small velvet pouch and handed it to me. I tugged the string loose and a necklace spilled into my hand. The golden chain glimmered in the light from the porch. The first thing that caught my attention was the intricate web of lines that had been hand-painted on a glass cabochon in the form of a dreamcatcher. A howling wolf sat in the center. Three small, delicate gold feathers hung at the bottom and they swayed as I lifted the necklace up by its chain to get a closer look.
The background of the dreamcatcher was brown and when I moved it, it shifted just a bit as if the back had been filled with sand.
“Mother Earth,” Adam explained when he saw what I was looking at. “Now you have your own bit of Bland County. Is it okay? Do you like it?”
“It’s beautiful. I love it.” I gave him a quick kiss. “Can you put it on me?” I handed it back to him and turned around, gathering my hair up so that he could fasten it. “Thank you.”
“You are very welcome.” I heard the clasp snap and then I felt his lips brush a kiss against my neck. “I hope you had a good birthday. I’m sorry you didn’t get to spend all the time you wanted at the springs.”
“There’s no need to be sorry. I’ve had the best birthday ever. And don’t worry, I plan on getting you to take me back there someday soon.”
I let my hair fall back down and turned to give him a big hug. The air sparked and warmed around us. “I love you, Nikki,” he murmured into my hair.
“I love you, too.”
He leaned back and kissed my forehead, then gave me a smile. “I guess I’d better head for home. See you tomorrow at school?”
“You bet.”
I watched as he walked down the steps, got into his Jeep and drove away, then I went back inside and helped Mom clean up the dishes and soda cans on the coffee table.
“Did you have a good day, honey?” she asked.
“It was great,” I said, giving her the biggest smile that I had. She’d tried so hard to make my birthday special and I wanted her to know that I appreciated it. “Thanks for everything, Mom. I love you.”
“I love you too, and you’re very welcome,” she said, following me into the kitchen where I dumped the trash into the can. When I turned around, I saw that she was crying.
“What is it? What’s wrong?”
She sniffled and wiped the back of her hand against her eyes. “Nothing. You’re just growing up on me, is all. I wish your dad could have been here to see you turn eighteen. He would have been so proud of you.”
“Oh Mom.” I didn’t know what else to say, so I just hugged her hard. So hard that I felt my new necklace dig into my collarbone.
When I pulled back just a bit, she noticed it. “That’s new. That must have been from Adam,” she said, leaning back an arm’s length to get a better look. “It’s beautiful. Someone very talented painted the web and that wolf on there.”
“Yes, it was my birthday gift from him. I think perhaps he had one of the ladies who creates the jewelry in the gift shop make it.” I knew several women from the tribe made jewelry to sell. I’d seen Penny beading earrings more times than I could count on the days that I stopped in to visit her as she watched the shop. I’d never seen Penny paint any of her creations, though. My brain skipped around for a second, finally landing on Marianne, Ed’s mom, who was an artist. Never had I seen her that she didn’t have paint splatters on her fingernails.
I’ll bet she made it, I thought, twirling the pendant between my fingers, listening to the earth in the cabochon slide back and forth.
“Whoever made it, did a wonderful job,” she replied.
A loud thump sounded above our heads, proof that Emily was jumping around upstairs.
Mom smiled, looking up at the ceiling as if she could see straight through to her youngest child. “My girls are the best things in this entire world. What do you say we finish the evening off with a movie? I’ll start the popcorn and you go pick out what you want to watch.”
“Deal,” I agreed, heading back to the living room.
As I passed the window near the door, I saw something move out of the corner of my eye. When I turned to look, I thought I caught a glimpse of a tail as it disappeared into the woods.
That’s weird, I thought, sending out feelers for any thoughts from the Keepers to see which one of them might be out there. I started with the cousins, and when I didn’t get anything from them, I let down my walls enough to let thoughts of Erik and Ed come in. When I didn’t get anything from them, I completely let my walls down.
Nothing.
It’s just your imagination, I chided myself. Nobody’s out there.
I strode purposefully over to the television stand and began rummaging through the DVDs on the shelf.
“Promise you’ll be careful, Nikki.”
I jumped at the sound of Emily’s voice and clonked my head on the shelf. I winced, rubbing my forehead.
“I’ll try to be more careful from now on,” I promised. “That shelf isn’t soft.”
“That’s not what I meant, but okay,” she grumbled.
“What did you mean?”
She shrugged, then hopped slowly from one foot to the other, her gaze locked on the
floor as if she didn’t want to meet my eyes. “Just a feeling I had. I just want you to be safe, is all.”
“Em, I promise you I’ll always do my best to stay safe,” I said solemnly as I stood. When she still didn’t look up, I reached over and pulled one of her curls gently, letting it spring back and bounce.
“Cross your heart?” she asked.
“And hope to die,” I said, finishing the promise.
She looked up and smiled. “Okay.”
I grinned. “Okay. Now that that’s done, wanna help me figure out what movie we’re going to watch?”
“You bet.”
THAT NIGHT MY dreams were a jumble of images that came and went.
I saw the earth beneath my paws as I ran through the forest. I jumped over one gnarled root that was arched enough to trip me. As I leapt, some small part of my brain wondered why it didn’t move for me as it did all Keepers, but that thought faded quickly and I continued to run. A house came into view, its windows lit, proof someone was home. Once again a part of me felt something wasn’t quite right as I looked at the house as if I didn’t know that it was my own, my gaze landing on the familiar porch swing as it swayed in the breeze. I pushed the feeling back, refusing to think about it. This was a dream, I reminded myself, and dreams didn’t have to make sense.
I crept through the inky darkness toward the front door.
I AWOKE WITH a start, completely drenched in sweat. I threw off my covers and went to the bathroom, quietly closing the door behind me so as not to wake Emily, then I turned on the light. I splashed water on my face, then filled a cup with water and drank it down.
“Just a nightmare,” I whispered as I sat the cup down. I stared at my reflection. “As a Seer, you should be used to it.” The girl in the mirror didn’t look convinced. I took a deep breath, then flipped off the light and went back to my room, stopping at my window that faced the woods, looking at the place where Adam always came through.
He wasn’t there now, and I hadn’t expected him to be, and nothing else looked out of the ordinary. Still, the hairs on my neck stood up. I had the feeling of being watched, though I knew no one was there. I crawled back into bed and covered up, all the while hoping that sleep would find me and that when it did, it would be dreamless and sweet.
But that was not to be.
6
WHEN ADAM AND the guys drove up in the Jeep, I should have known something wasn’t right. They always beat me to school and waited for me to show up. Today, I’d beaten them. A second later, Erik slowly pulled into the parking place next to Adam.
The fact that Erik had arrived last worried me. Even more strange was the fact that the rider behind Erik on the motorcycle wasn’t Penny. As soon as the bike’s kickstand hit the pavement, Ed leapt off the bike and jerked his helmet off.
“That is the last time that I ride on that deathtrap,” he exclaimed, shoving his helmet into Erik’s arms with a scowl. “I’ll ride with Hannah in the van tomorrow and help drop the little kids off at the elementary school. I should have gone with her anyway. She at least drives as if she has some sense. Tomorrow Penny can ride with you, though why she’d ever want to, I’ll never know.”
Erik rolled his eyes and handed both helmets to Adam to put in the Jeep and lock up. “I didn’t go a smidge above the speed limit. Every time I went around a curve, he squeezed my rib cage so hard I thought he was going to smash bones. We’re lucky we made it here before school let out,” he told me. Then he folded his arms and his eyes narrowed as he looked at Ed. “Tomorrow you are definitely riding with Hannah. That’s the last time I ask you to loosen up and have a bit of fun.”
Ed shook his hair back from his face. When he took the helmet off, static electricity had caused a few of the strands to stand up. He smoothed them down and gathered it all into a ponytail at the nape of his neck, winding an elastic band around to secure it. “If that’s what you call fun, you can keep it all to yourself.”
“But why—” I began, then stopped as I watched someone open the passenger door of the Jeep and get out. Now I understood why Ed had ridden with Erik. They had an additional passenger. One that hadn’t gone to this school before.
Darren didn’t say a word as he slung his backpack over his shoulder and brushed past me. Tommy and Michael followed on his heels, both giving me a quick “good morning” as they went by.
“His mom decided that it was time he went to school with us. She said that she wanted him to be around more kids his own age,” Adam explained as he came to my side. “He isn’t happy about it. He kept insisting that he had things to take care of around the house the whole way here, but he wouldn’t tell me what they were.” The line between his brows deepened and the worry in his silver eyes told me there was something else more than Darren that was bothering him.
“He’s probably just nervous. The first day of school is always tough. Especially when you’re starting so late in the year.”
He shook his head. “There’s more to it than that. We found another body of an animal last night, along with another Deadland. This one was a bear. It was skinned the same way the coyote had been. Have you seen anything new? Anything that might point us to what is doing this?”
“No.” I didn’t want to tell him about the nightmares—about the one that had happened afterward where I’d seen the face of a coyote pressed against my window and heard Emily’s voice, telling me to “be careful” over and over again while different faces of people I knew would replace the coyote’s behind the glass. I’d seen his face there first, then Darren’s, followed by a handful of the magicals who had volunteered to help. Wynter’s face had been one of the last in the dream, followed only by Crow Woman’s.
The lined, ancient face of the old woman made me remember the story Adam had told me. “This is going to sound crazy,” I told him. “But is there any way it could be Crow Woman?”
“I don’t think so. She was dead when we left the mountain. We checked, remember?”
“Yeah, but her body wasn’t there when your dad went up afterward. There wasn’t anything but the amulet she’d stolen to get her power back. Maybe she wasn’t as dead as we thought.”
“If the amulet hadn’t been left, then I’d think that it might be her. Without her magic, there’s no way she’d still be alive now. It’s been months. She wouldn’t have waited this long to try something,” he insisted. “I really do believe she’s dead.”
I frowned. “I guess you’re right. It was the only thing I could come up with, though.”
“Well, it was a good try.”
The bell rang and we hurried up the steps to the school. “See you in class,” he said, giving me a quick kiss before opening the door to let me go in first. “We’ll figure it out eventually,” he promised. “We have time. And time is always the answer to everything.”
I couldn’t help smiling as I recognized the words as those that his grandfather was so fond of saying. “You’re right. I just hope we can stop whoever it is before anything or anyone else dies.”
TRY AS I might, my crazy dream plagued me all day. Since Adam and I had somewhat ruled out Crow Woman as the killer, my attention stayed on the face that had flashed right before hers.
Wynter.
Granted, I was more than certain that she wasn’t the one responsible for her own sister’s murder, but she very well could be the one who had killed the coyote and the bear. Would a Spriteblood skin her prey? I wondered. I wasn’t sure that Adam would know the answer to that question, so I filed it away in the back of my mind to ask him later—after I did some investigating of my own.
During second period I headed to the library under the guise of checking out some resource books for biology class. I pushed through the ornate wooden doors and found Marianne, Ed’s mom, standing behind the librarian’s desk.
“What are you doing here?” I asked. I’d never seen her outside of the Res, so finding her here had caught me off guard.
She gave me a forced smile. “Mr. Giles call
ed and asked if I’d mind coming in to help. I didn’t know that he meant helping in here. I thought he was asking me to be the substitute teacher for art class again.” Her eyes darted to the bookshelves to her right, as if she expected them to move at any moment. “If I’d known that he meant for me to stay in here and keep up while Wynter was gone, I might have told him no.” She looked as if she was ready to jump out of her skin.
Then she noticed I was watching her and she laughed. “I promise I’m not going to run. At least not yet. What can I help you find in here, Nikki?”
“Actually, I just came in here to see if anything would give me a clue as to where she went,” I told her, not bothering to give her the excuse of resource books. “I thought maybe we might have missed something when we were here last time.”
She nodded. “It wouldn’t be hard to miss something in here. Things keep moving around every time I turn my back. She might not be here, but her magic still is,” she whispered as the doors opened and another student came in.
“If it’s all right, I’m going to wander around a bit and see if I can pick up on anything,” I said as the boy got in line behind me to wait his turn.
“Wander all you’d like and if you need any help, just let me know.” Marianne planted another forced, friendly smile on her face as I left.
I walked slowly down the first aisle, letting down my mental walls and focusing on the magic around me in the same way that I would to hear the Keepers’ thoughts. I ran my fingers along the carved wood of the bookshelves as I walked, waiting for something to move, to show me the secrets the library held. I rounded the corner and went down the next aisle.
“Wise am I, ancient in all things,” I murmured softly, repeating the password that Wynter had once entrusted to me.
Nothing happened. I felt as if I was walking in a completely normal library—one completely void of magic.
Either Wynter put a spell in here to guard everything from me, or the library’s magic wasn’t nearly as strong as Marianne had made it out to be. My guess was for the first, I decided. This was the first time that I’d been in this library that I’d felt absolutely nothing. I started down the final aisle.
Blood Moon Rising Page 4
