“Huh…okay,” I stared at her, knowing my mouth really must be hanging open. I hoped I wasn’t drooling. “How do you know so much about cars?”
“Vo-Tech.” The statement was short and simple. She apparently expected me to know exactly what that was.
“Okay,” I said with as much enthusiasm as I could muster as if I knew exactly what she was talking about.
She didn’t buy it. She rolled her eyes, “Vocational Technical School. You know, it’s where you can learn a trade of some sort. I like cars, so I learned auto mechanics. It comes in handy sometimes.”
“Yeah, it seems it does,” I murmured, backing down the driveway, trying to concentrate on the road instead of the sharp green eyes that were sizing me up, “So what brings you up from Florida? Don’t you have school, and that Vo-Tech stuff to do still?”
“I don’t recall saying anything about Florida,” her eyes flashed.
The truck lurched as I accidentally dropped the back wheel in the ditch across the road.
She smirked. “I’m thinking that walking was probably safer.”
“Sorry, no, you’ve just got me distracted. Nikki’s from Florida, so I figured you were from there, too.” I felt my face turning red.
“All right, so I’ll stop looking at you when I talk. Yeah, I’m from Florida and when you’re suspended you don’t go to school,” she turned and stared out the window.
The truck lurched again as the tire came free. I bit my lip, not sure whether to say anything, or let it go.
A couple of really long moments went by.
The mud-caked tire sounded like we were riding with a flat.
Thunk…thunk…thunk…
The edge of her lips quirked up, and I realized she was smiling, “You aren’t going to ask why I was suspended?”
I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I had been holding, “Sure. Why were you suspended?”
“Fighting.”I hadn’t really expected that, but said the first thing I thought of, “Please tell me you won.”
She grinned.
“Of course.”
The white, two-story popped into view and I parked. Tori hopped out of the truck, and sent me a quick grin over the hood of the truck. “Thanks for the ride.”
“Sure, no problem.” I watched as she made her way across the porch and planted some rather solid knocks on the front door. I knew Nikki wasn’t in the house, I could sense her coming around the side. I leaned against the front of the truck and waited.
“Nicole Harmon, if you’re in there, you’d better come out!” she demanded, her voice dropping an octave with the last few words, as if daring to be contradicted. She glared at the closed door with her hands on her hips, then apparently thought better and dropped her hands, straightened her black leather jacket and fiddled absently with the shiny little metal buckles on the pockets, “Ok…please?”
“Well, since you put it that way,” Nikki said coming up behind her on the front steps with a huge grin on her face.
She jumped, startled, and whirled around, her shining black hair (with blue streaks) fanned around her in a wide arc, glinting in the sun. Somehow she had managed to snag the broom from beside the door and was wielding it in front of her like a sword.
I stifled the urge to burst out laughing.
The girl on the porch stood with an expression so ferocious, that had I been anyone else, I would have been afraid. Muscles taut, she was ready to skewer any attacker with the soft part of Mrs. Harmon’s favorite broom.
“Geez, Tori, did you want me to come out or not?” Nikki asked, quivering with the urge to laugh as she looked at her friend from around the straw fringe that waggled a few inches from her face.
Tori lowered the broom, and set it aside, and (with a rather authoritative air) pointed a glossy-black painted nail, “Most people use the door, there, Mary Poppins. Since when do you just appear out of thin air? You scared the crap out of me, I could have hurt you!”
I couldn’t hold it in any longer, as I looked at the sword/broom and the scowl planted firmly on her face. Her tough girl façade broke as Nikki laughed, too, and tackled her in a tight hug. I watched as they did a funny girl dance/hug thing, completely ignoring everything else around them.
“I knew you’d missed me! If you’d actually ever answer your cell phone I wouldn’t have had to deck Molly Gunner and get suspended so I could come up here and check on you! You know I’ve sent you like a million text messages and called like a gazillion times. You’ve had me worried sick! Your best friend moves, no calls, no letters — no nothing! What gives, anyway?” She pulled back and demanded. A big chunk of blue hair fell into her eye. She brushed it back impatiently, and stood waiting for an answer, shoving her hands into the pockets of her jacket.
It was in that instant, I sensed a wolf coming through the woods and toward us fast. I cleared my throat, trying to get Nikki’s attention.
“Yeah, the cell towers don’t work up here. The mountains screw up the signal…” Nikki had started her lie easily, then broke off as she, too, realized someone was coming.
Ed came barreling toward us, a charging, enormous cream-colored blur that stopped mere feet from the front porch, changing back to human directly in front of us all.
I winced. “Actually, it’s the magic that screws up the signal.”
Chapter Ten
Brian
“Something’s happened to him. He’s gone.”
Ed opened his mouth, but it was Nikki who spoke.
She didn’t sit, but rather dropped onto the porch steps as if her legs suddenly had forgotten how to support her.
Ed gave her a barely perceptible nod and I felt a weight drop in my stomach. Ed shouldn’t have been the one to tell Nikki if something was wrong, it would have been…
“Who’s gone?” I asked quietly, but I already knew the answer.
“Adam.” Nikki whispered. Her eyes had a wild, vacant look in them, as if she were somewhere else…seeing something else. I knew then she had tuned into the Keepers, and had started to search for him.
I sat beside her on the steps.
“Who’s Adam? Why is Nikki upset he’s gone?” Tori demanded, looking at me, then turned to look at Ed, “And when did you get bitten?”
“Huh?” Ed looked at the girl as if she were nuts.
“You know, bitten? Obviously you’re a werewolf, right?” she was addressing Ed, but was staring, at Nikki.
“I am NOT a werewolf!” Ed glared at her, standing up straight and proud, so he could look down his nose at her, even though she wasn’t looking at him, “I am a Keeper!”
“Yeah, ok, Werewolf, whatever you say, just keep your fangs to yourself. I know it’s a full moon, but try to contain yourself. Stay over there,” Tori waved, dismissing both the conflicting conversation and Ed, as she bent down to look in Nikki’s unfocused eyes, “What’s going on, Nikki? Are you ok?”
“He isn’t dead, I still feel him. I can’t hear his thoughts, though. Maybe he isn’t conscious,” Nikki whispered, huddled on the steps. Her eyes still wandered, seeing the things none of us could see. “…she has him…”
Tori turned to glare at me, “Okay, since you must be the normal one and you seem to know what’s going on, you’d better start talking.”
“Okaay,” I answered cautiously, wondering where to start.
“Start talking!”
“Adam is Nikki’s boyfriend,” I looked over at Nikki. Wanting to comfort her somehow, I patted her awkwardly on the back, “He’s the lead ‘werewolf’ or Keeper, and Nikki is the Seer for the Keepers. That means she’s kinda like a psychic when it comes to wolf stuff…”
“Zue has him.” Nikki broke in, turning to stare at something to her left.
Tori looked at her, then back to me expectantly, arching a brow for further answers.
“Zue is a flesh-eating fairy known as a Spriteblood. She had been trapped by Adam’s people in a Deadland for centuries, but now she’s free, and she’s out for revenge. I gues
s she’s started by taking Adam,” I looked at her to see how much of the story she had bought. So far, she acted like she dealt with this kind of stuff on a regular basis. So I went on, figuring there wasn’t much of a point in leaving anything out. If Adam was still alive and wanted to complain about breaking rules, I’d blame it on Ed for showing up wolf, “I’m not the normal one. Lately I’ve found that there aren’t very many normal people who live here. I’m like him,” I pointed at Eats Dirt Young Eagle, who was still standing as proudly as ever, arms crossed over his chest.
“Werewolf, huh?”
Ed rolled his eyes and dropped his arms to shove his hands in his pockets as he gave up on his attempt to impress her.
“She’s moving him, but I don’t know where. I just keep seeing crows everywhere,” Nikki said, then snapped out of her trance, “Where are the others?”
“They went to the Deadland Adam had been going through, but they didn’t find anything. They’re headed to see if Wynter knows anything else.”
“That’s a waste of time,” Nikki shook her head.
“Why?”
“Because I’ve got a weird feeling that she’s gone, too.”
***
Zue
It had been easier than she thought — this strange, wonderful game of conquering her enemies. It still felt odd to consider Wynter an enemy. But then again, she had made her own choice. She could not be allowed to help her precious humans any further.
She thought, surely, her dear sister would have fought harder. True, she was weak, but with the exception of a show of magic in which Wynter pelted her with a whirlwind of thousands of books as she entered the spelled house, there hadn’t been much of a show of resistance. It was more a show of resignation. Zue had more strength than Wynter, even though she had been the one trapped for the last few centuries. Of course, the magic she had taken from the three boys, who just happened to be in the Deadland when she escaped, had been an immense help. But in simple truth, she had been the one who fed — her sister had not, and they both knew it.
The boy with the golden eyes, however, had been a most worthy adversary. He fought valiantly even though he knew the odds lay not in his favor. Still, it took quite a bit of effort on her part, and had the other wolf people been present, she may very well have lost her war for revenge.
The boy’s eyes were as gold as the sun. Mirror images of the eyes of the one so long ago who had trapped her and kept her prisoner…
No matter now, she reminded herself as she took a deep breath. The strongest of the wolf people had been no match for her. The others would soon follow and she would take them even more easily. There was only one who might still have the magic to stop her…
She stood over the boy’s body, watching as he slowly stirred, and his golden eyes partly opened.
“I shall kill you soon. How your death is dealt, either slow with pain, or quick, shall depend on your answer, so think of yourself and tell me now…
Where is the White Wolf?”
***
I decided I didn’t like Tori’s combat boots. Or at least, my wolf didn’t.
At least not when the huge, hard leather things jammed into my ribs.
Somehow we ended up in unanimous consent that we should meet the others at Wynter’s house…just in case they needed our help convincing her to talk to them. I’m not sure what kind of help we were going to offer. As far as reinforcements go, ours weren’t exactly stellar — we had one wolf who hadn’t even been on an official hunt, one wolf who had been acting really weird ever since he stepped on the briar in the Deadland, one girl who was trying to hold it together over her boyfriend’s disappearance and tended to space out and see stuff no one else could see, and another who wore clunky leather boots and just happened to show up and didn’t know squat about the magic world.
We should have thought our plan through better than we had. Nikki suggested Ed and I switch to wolves and go through the woods, letting her and Tori ride piggyback. In theory, we’d get there faster that way.
We agreed, and I started to hope that I’d have Nikki on my back. But I guess that’s the thing about hope, normally you don’t get what you’re hoping for. Somehow, I ended up with the girl with hard boots who was clinging to the fur between my shoulders so hard I thought it would soon be tearing out by the roots.
Nikki, of course, accustomed to riding Adam’s wolf all over the forest, sat up easily on Ed’s cream-colored back as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
I whined, hoping Tori would take the hint to watch how Nikki was doing it.
Apparently, my point came across loud and clear, because she snapped, “Quit complaining, I can’t help it. I feel like I’m getting ready to fall off!”
I wriggled, causing her left boot to bounce against my ribs, then I yelped for emphasis.
“Fine, I’ll take my boots off, but you have to promise we’ll come back and get them. Just stop for a minute…”
Ed turned, and waited for us as Tori hopped off my back, and pulled the boots off, setting them under a tree to get on the way back, “I hope I don’t need shoes wherever it is we’re going.”
It ended up that we all needed more than just shoes when we showed up to the old shack by the railroad tracks. Fire-retardant suits would have been handy, actually.
The spelled house was fully engulfed in flames.
Ed and I switched back from our wolves as we watched the fire department pull the hoses around the shack in an effort to contain the fire.
I saw the others standing by the tracks. Apparently, the fire had started before they had arrived, too, because Erik and the cousins had matching strange expressions on their faces that seemed to translate into, “Well, now what are we supposed to do?”
As we walked out of the woods, we heard one fireman say to another, “It was a matter of time before the old thing fell in or caught fire. Kinda surprised it hadn’t happened before now, really.”
His partner nodded to us as we passed, “Keep back, kids. We don’t need anyone getting hurt.”
“Was there anyone in there?” Nikki asked him.
“No, it’s been vacant for years. No one was crazy enough to go in there,” he said, then turned back to the truck to adjust the flow of water to the hoses as the flames licked higher, mumbling to himself, “…can’t figure out what’s feeding it…it’s not that big a house…”
I didn’t figure it would do any good to tell him it was bigger than he thought, and that the tons of books it held would probably feed that fire for a really long time.
“Well, has anybody got any suggestions?” Erik asked as we approached, then he saw Tori, and froze, “Who are you?”
“My name’s Tori,” she grinned at him, “You guys werewolves, too?”
“Who’s been breaking the rules?” Erik demanded loudly, glaring at both Ed and me.
I pointed to Ed, making sure blame would be laid on the right person, “He showed up and changed right in front of her, so she knows everything now.”
“So much for the first rule,” Tommy sighed, “Adam’s going to have to make up some new ones when we find him.”
“If we find him,” Michael said, “We can’t find any trace of him past where he fought her. There was some blood, and we saw where he fell, but then…nothing. It’s like they both just disappeared.”
“We’ll find him,” I said, as much for their sake as for Nikki, who had paled at the news and looked ready to cry, “I suggest going back into the woods, there’s too many people here. Once we get where we aren’t being watched, we can figure out what to do next.”
Three tall, muscular Indian boys met us at the edge of the forest. They were all bare-chested, in spite of the chill in the air. “Why does it seem like we always are missing the action around here?”
They were the Lakotas, a tribe of the Sioux, and they were here to help out with the powwow that was taking place at the end of the month. The powwow was a pretty big event for the county as a whole. A
dam and the others had worked on it for months, and most of the work was finished when the Lakotas arrived. The three boys arrived early, leaving someone else to bring up the van with the sound equipment later on. They had been here a few weeks with very little gear, which I thought was sort of weird as they basically lived in the woods as cats. I said something to Adam about it, but he just shrugged, and said they didn’t get the chance to roam the forest much, their reservation was small with no national forest close by, so they considered coming early more a vacation to connect with their inner spirit. I translated his explanation into “mountain lions have extra time to run around the woods wild and free, hunting whatever and whenever they want.”
Rune, the one who spoke, was the oldest. While all three of the boys had different tribal tattoos and piercing, Rune wore an enormous tattoo of a mountain lion on his chest. It was so lifelike it seemed to come running from inside of him, ready to jump from his body and out into life. What really set it off was the way his muscles rippled, making the cat shimmer and move as if it had come from deep within his spirit, and was ready to pounce on us from its position on his chest.
“Nice tattoo,” Tori remarked, supposedly looking at the muscles in his upper body solely for the purpose of inspecting the mountain lion.
“Thanks, he is my na-gi, the spirit of my mountain lion,” the boy, named Rune, smiled politely at her inspection of his torso. Some of the muscles bunched up and flexed. I didn’t think it was coincidence. I rolled my eyes.
“I guess you’re going to tell me you have magic, too, and that you’re a were-lion,” Tori finally stopped looking at the muscles and grinned up at him. The cat on his chest shifted, seeming to come alive a bit more as its eyes narrowed.
Once Upon a Haunted Moon (The Keeper Saga) Page 6
