If that weren’t enough to muddle her head, there were also the bizarre feelings David Bray invoked in her. It was as if something or someone had taken control of her emotions and she was helpless to stop it. David was dangerous - she no longer had any doubt about this. Like some predator, he seemed to naturally radiate danger. It came from the very core of who he was.
Now that she was calm enough to think clearly, it dawned on her that’s exactly what he reminded her of. Being near him was like being too close to a wild animal. His movements were graceful - almost stealth-like, and though his nearness had rattled her, Mya had sensed something lethal hovering just beneath the surface of what he was allowing her to see.
It was like being in close proximity to a lion or tiger. Mya could only remember feeling that once before. It happened one night when she was fifteen. She’d been walking home from Jen’s house, just like she’d done a hundred times before. With no moon in the sky, the night was even darker than usual. There was the occasional streetlight, and a few illuminated porches, but that was all. She’d gotten about halfway home when she heard it, a low - viscous growl coming from the darkness behind her. Spinning around on her heels, she saw what she assumed was a large dog. It was following her.
Because the animal was sticking to the shadows, it was difficult to see enough detail to know for sure what kind of dog it was, but she could see that it was big.
It was then that she’d felt it - the heart pounding terror of being hunted. Her first reaction was to start running and it took every ounce of willpower that she possessed to keep from doing just that. Mya couldn’t remember where she’d heard it, but somewhere in the back of her mind she remember that if an animal were stalking you, the last thing you wanted to do is start running. Once it sensed your fear, the animal would go into attack mode.
Holding her breath, she’d walked the last block to her house. She couldn’t fight the urge to glance over her shoulder every few seconds. Each time she did, the animal was still there, keeping pace with her. Strangely enough, it never got any closer.
Being with David Bray gave her that same feeling of being too close to a predator, but without the intense fear that she’d felt that night. Though she sensed danger in him, it felt natural to be with him. Like that’s exactly where she was supposed to be. Nothing she was feeling made any sense.
Chapter Seven
Her head was spinning with so many unanswered questions that Mya was immensely relieved when she pulled up to the trailer and saw that Donny was back from Window Rock. She was practically bursting with curiosity about what had happened the last time she was in Arizona, and she also had a number of questions about David Bray and the Sinapu. What she knew about them was too vague. She wanted more information, especially if her life was really in danger as David had claimed.
Mya knocked on the door.
“Come in!” he called from inside.
Opening the squeaky screen door, Mya stepped into the cool interior of the mobile home. “Donny!”
“In my room. I’ll be out in a minute.”
From where she stood in the kitchen, she could see his closed bedroom door at the other end of the hallway. Realizing that she must have caught him while he was dressing, Mya sat at the kitchen table to wait. A few minutes later, she heard his bedroom door open.
When he entered the kitchen, Mya was a little shocked to see Donny all dressed up. He was wearing a white cowboy hat, and a shirt with an intricately embroidered Navajo design on the front.
“Wow! Where you off to?’ she asked.
“Oh … I’m just going to have some dinner with Tina,” he admitted.
“The waitress?” Mya arched her brows. “That’s great. I knew she was hot on you.”
Donny frowned. He hated to be teased about his chronic bachelorhood.
“So did you keep yourself busy today?” he asked, obviously anxious to change the subject.
Now it was Mya’s turn to scowl. “I talked to my mom today. She told me that I’ve been here before … and with the way she acted … I guess something happened. She didn’t want to talk about it over the phone, but you must know what happened.”
“Joan actually told you that?” he asked in disbelief.
Mya nodded. “She didn’t tell me much though … that’s why I’m asking you.”
Donny looked away. “Well … if your mom wants to wait to talk to you about it, you should probably respect that.”
“She didn’t exactly say that. She just said she didn’t want to talk about it over the phone.”
Donny glanced over at her and Mya noticed that his face had twisted into a grimace. She could tell that he wasn’t finding the conversation very pleasant, but that had been the case with most of their conversations over the last few days.
“You know that’s what she meant though,” he sighed.
Of course he was right. Her mother didn’t want her to know what had happened to her as a child, at least not yet. Regardless, Mya felt it was important that she know.
Leaning back in her seat, Mya folded her arms in front of her. “At my age … don’t you think that it’s a little ridiculous to keep this a secret … especially if it concerns me?”
His lopsided grin was wary. “I guess you’re right, but I don’t want Joan mad at me.”
“My mom will get over it, but I really think this is something that I need to know about?” she pleaded.
Donny shrugged. “I’ve actually been thinking about it, and maybe it’s a good thing that you know. Maybe it will help you to stay out of trouble while you’re here.”
Her nerves were fried, but Mya tried to maintain and wait for Donny to tell her what he knew. She found it maddening the way he would prolong a conversation by stopping to do other things. Right now he was pulling a can of soda out of the refrigerator.
“Do you want something to drink?” he asked.
Mya shook her head. She seriously doubted that she could drink anything at the moment. The butterflies fluttering in her stomach were making her feel sick.
“Your parents warned me that you seemed to have no memory of what happened that night,” he said, just before taking a big drink of his soda.
“No I don’t remember anything … except I did have a really odd dream last night. I dreamed of being here when I was younger. That’s why I asked my mom about it.”
“I’m not surprised. When they found you that night, you were scared stiff.” Donny had settled in the bench seat across from her.
“So what happened?” Mya was getting impatient.
Donny stared at her, seeming to gauge her emotional state. Finally he took a deep breath and started talking. “Steve had brought you and your mother down here for a visit. I think it was early summer … June maybe.” Donny stopped long enough to take another gulp of his drink.
“You guys were staying with me. Well … it was about the third night you were here … your mom got up to get a drink and found you gone. That was around midnight. At first we just thought you’d gone outside and wandered off. We searched without any luck. Finally we had to call in the police. They put together a search that lasted the rest of the night and into the next night.”
He grew quiet - lost in that long ago memory. “At last we got a call from Chinle. You were found at a gas station. There were some witnesses that claimed someone in a truck let you off in front of the station.”
“Where was I for a whole day?” she asked.
Donny shrugged. “Only you can tell us for sure … and you never have.”
“I don’t remember.”
“That’s what you said at the time, but you talked about painted faces and fire.”
“That’s what was in my dream,” she told him.
“We also found corpse powder all over you,” he muttered in a soft voice.
“What’s that?” Mya asked, nervously tapping her fingers against the table.
“It is a powder used by skinwalkers. It’s made of ground human bone and other things
… I don’t know what. That is information only a skinwalker would have. But I can tell you that corpse powder is used to witch people.”
Mya stood up and began pacing the floor. “Why would skinwalkers take me?”
Donny shook his head. “I would only be guessing. The elders believed the skinwalkers put some kind of spell on you … a spell that was meant to come to fruition at a later time. The truth is … we have no idea. Right after that, your family left.”
Mya paused, and giving him a sidelong glance she asked, “You’re sure that it was skinwalkers that took me?”
Donny nodded. “There’s no doubt about that. But what their purpose was … well only time will tell.”
“So that’s why my mom didn’t want me to come back?”
“I can understand her fear,” he said.
“But why? I know my mom doesn’t believe in such things,” Mya voiced her thoughts out loud.
“I don’t think she did. Joan thought you’d been taken by some pervert.”
“Was I? Is it possible?” Mya asked, wondering if her mother’s suspicions could be a real possibility. Maybe the dream she’d had was a masked version of what really happened?
“I doubt it.” Donny was shaking his head. “You were taken to the hospital after they found you. The doctor said that you had not been assaulted in that way. Plus … there is still the corpse powder. That for sure came from a skinwalker.”
Mya was chewing on her bottom lip, a habit she fell into whenever she was feeling particularly agitated. “Did they ever find out who it was that left me at the gas station?
“No … but one of the witnesses swears it was Old Man,” he answered.
At Donny’s words, Mya suddenly remembered the old man in her dream. That is also when she realized that it was the same man that she’d asked for directions to Red Canyon.
“I know who it was,” she whispered.
Donny’s face was a mask of shock. “How could you? Even if you remembered something from that night, it’s doubtful you would know the person … especially if it really was Old Man.”
“I saw him on my way out to Red Canyon. He was on the side of the road selling souvenirs. I stopped to ask for directions.”
Donny wrinkled his forehead. “And he told you he was Old Man?”
“No,” Mya shook her head. “I didn’t ask him his name, but the guy in the dream said he was Old Man and I’m sure it’s the same person.”
“You must be mistaken. Maybe you heard the name somewhere else,” he suggested.
“Well I know what I saw,” Mya was irritated that he didn’t seem to believe her.
Donny’s smile was tolerant. “If you actually saw him, then you’d be the first … at least that I know of. Old Man is a myth of the Sinapu. He is their spirit protector.”
“Okay … just suppose that he is real and not just a myth. If he is their protector … and he is the one that returned me that night … wouldn’t that mean that the Sinapu had me?”
“Hmm … that’s a far stretch. Everything about your abduction pointed to skinwalkers, and the Sinapu are not skinwalkers.”
“How can you be sure?” She wasn’t convinced.
“Take my word for it. They are far from being skinwalkers. The Sinapu hunt skinwalkers … remember?”
Now Mya was really confused. If the skinwalkers had been the ones to take her, how did she end up with an old man who was associated with the Sinapu?
If you can make yourself remember what happened that night, you would have your answers,” he pointed out.
Mya knew that remembering might be the only way she’d get answers. The events of that night were the key to unlocking the mysteries that seemed to be closing in around her. She had a very strong feeling that what was happening now was somehow connected to what happened the night she was abducted.
Sliding the chair back, Donny stood up. “Well kid … I need to be going.”
On impulse, Mya went to Donny and gave him a hug. She felt incredibly fortunate to have her step uncle there to help her work through it all. There were still questions she wanted to ask him about David, but they could wait for another time. In any case, she wasn’t anxious for the scolding she knew was coming as soon as Donny found out whom she’d been talking to.
“Thanks. I hope I didn’t make you too late,” she told him.
“I run on Indian time … remember?” he said with a wry smile.
Mya knew what running on Indian time meant. When someone was on Indian time, it meant that they would be there when you saw them.
When Mya followed him outside, her eyes drifted to the western horizon. She was suddenly awestruck by how beautiful the desert could be at this time of day. It was like she was seeing for the first time how the sunset cast the red cliffs and desert floor in enchanting shades of pink and orange. As the day cooled, the sweet - tangy scent of sage became even more pronounced. She couldn’t help but wonder how a place of such beauty could hold so many dark secrets.
“Call me if you have any problems,” he told her before getting into the orange and primer gray truck he drove when he wasn’t on duty.
“I will,” she promised.
“Oh,” he popped his head out of the truck’s window. “Lock your doors and stay inside tonight. It’s a full moon.” Donny pointed to the ghost moon that had already started its ascent in the eastern sky.
“Why? I thought that skinwalkers could be out and about at anytime of the day.”
“Yeah … they can. But skinwalkers are not the only danger out here,” he said, a mysterious tone in his voice.
“And?”
“There’s a certain breed of shifter that likes to hunt by the full moon.” He gave her a sly smile. “They too can shift at will, but they like hunting when the moon is full.”
Mya wasn’t sure if he was serious or just trying to scare her. “You’re kidding … right?”
Donny shrugged. “Well you never know. I might be … but then again, maybe not.”
Mya watched Donny drive away, but it wasn’t until she could no longer see him that she felt the loneliness and isolation sneaking up on her.
For a long time she just stood there in the deepening shadows of night, not too anxious to face her lonely trailer. In the distance she could hear the baying of wolves and she shivered as goose bumps spread over her flesh. She rubbed at her bare arms, trying to ward of the chill that suddenly had her in its grip.
Mya turned toward her dark trailer, wishing that she’d had the foresight to bring along a TV and DVD player. At least then there would be some noise to distract her from the sounds of night creatures.
When she heard a rustling noise in the brush near her trailer, she had a sudden flashback of what Donny had said only moments before. But then she scolded herself for even thinking about something as ridiculous as shifters. Donny had just been teasing her - he had to be. There just wasn’t any such thing as skinwalkers that could take the shape of animals, or werewolves hunting by the light of a full moon.
Of course he was just teasing her!
Mya didn’t doubt that the skinwalkers could be dangerous, but only because of what they believed they could do. Of course Donny had been teasing, but when Mya went inside, she was careful to lock the door behind her.
The heat in Arizona was unbearable and could suck the energy right out of you. A combination of heat and an emotionally taxing day left Mya feeling drained. When she went to bed, she fell asleep almost immediately, but it was a troubled sleep.
Her dreams were haunted by the ghostly howls of wolves and those eyes - those eyes that reminded her of a moonlit night sky. Those beautiful - enchanting eyes that were simultaneously serene and lethal.
Suddenly Mya was awake. She was so alert to her surroundings that she had to wonder if she’d been asleep at all. Something had startled her - stirring her from sleep. The atmosphere in the room was so thick with tension that the air felt too heavy to breathe. Her sixth sense was screaming warnings at her. She coul
d feel that she was in trouble, but couldn’t decipher what the danger was.
Moving her head slowly, she looked to the side of the bed, but couldn’t see anything. That’s when she heard it - the steady rhythm of the snake’s tail rattling. The sound seemed to be coming from the foot of her bed.
Feeling movement near her feet, Mya froze. She barely dare breathe for fear of provoking the snake. If it was rattling, it was likely coiled and ready to strike.
She had to fight off the urge to jump from her bed and run. It would be a fatal mistake to make any sudden movements with the snake so close. Her only option was to be as still as possible and wait. As long as the snake didn’t feel threatened, it would slither away eventually. At least she hoped that’s what it would do.
It had to have crawled into bed with her and when it felt her move, it had coiled.
As she lay motionless, each second went by so painfully slow that in a short time Mya was ready to crawl out of her skin. There was no way for her to measuring the passing of time, so she had no idea how long she laid there before the snake finally slid off the bed. Still, she didn’t dare stir. Though it was no longer on the bed, it could still coil and strike if she moved.
Mya continued to wait, giving the snake enough time to crawl away. Finally she moved, slowly getting into a sitting position. Taking a deep breath, she reached for the light that was attached to the wall near her bed.
There was a click as she switched the light on. In the utter stillness of the moment, the sound was deafening. Mya held her breath, hoping that wherever the snake was, the sound would not provoke it. Though she couldn’t see it, she knew the snake had to still be in the trailer, maybe even nearby.
Bad Moon Rising - Paranormal Romance Page 6
