Once Upon a Haunted Moon (The Keeper Saga)

by Thompson, K. R.

  At the end of Chenoa’s gathering, it became apparent that they would not be able to carry all of the supplies in one trip unless they went out and bought more mules. Chenoa took them out to look at a neighbor’s animals, leaving the siblings to catch up.

  Billy told Ella the rest of his story. The man and woman who had adopted him had owned this store. They had passed away a few years earlier, and the store had been left to him. He met his young wife when she came in with her people. Her name was Chenoa, which meant White Dove. She spoke the white man’s language well, so she always came with them when they needed to trade. Before long, they realized that they had fallen deeply in love. She was an orphaned Cherokee and had been adopted by another tribe. So when they had decided to marry, Billy and Chenoa approached the tribe fearing the worst. Surprisingly, the tribe hadn’t fought the idea, choosing instead to think of it as a way to stay on good ground among the white people. The people of the town thought the same as the Indians, and so everyone had been happy with the arrangement. The store thrived, catering to both the Indians and the townsfolk, becoming the most well-known establishment for trade for miles. But that wasn’t the best part of his story, Billy told her, as his grin stretched even wider.

  Billy beamed with pride, as he told Ella that he and Chenoa were expecting their first child to be born within the next month.

  Ella’s story wasn’t as easy to tell, but still she told him about the Fire Witch, the nightmares…and then at the last, she told him about Bright Eyes. Billy listened to the heartbreak in his sister’s voice, and then he offered her the only solace he could give her.

  “I will always be your family and I will be here if you should need me. If you wish to stay, my home will always be open,” Billy said with a shy smile, “I would be honored to have my sister in my life again.”

  She didn’t stay, though she thought about it all through the night. She loved the people who had made her one of their own. She rode back with the Keepers the following day, but every time her people came to trade, she came with them, taking joy in the visits with the family that had been restored to her.

  Even though her heart would never be whole, she had found happiness again.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Brian

  Spriteblood

  The oldest race of faerie, whose origin dates to the first Magicks of Earth. Records of four remain alive in this world — The Sisters … Frollock, Zue, Aeolith, and Wynter.

  While the four possess the strongest of Magicks, their power is heightened by feasting upon the flesh of mortals and other creatures of Magick.

  The four Sisters do not share the same personalities, though Frollock and Zue enjoy warlike notions and general mayhem. The remaining two sisters favor solitude, though they have been known to join the previous two on occasion.

  The Sisters have been known to be accompanied by familiars, who increase the Spriteblood’s power by their presence. All Sisters have the ability to manipulate and reanimate death at their whim.

  There is no known means of destroying The Spriteblood, though it has been reported that one Sister has recently shown abhorrence to the inner flesh of the sycamore tree. The validity of this statement has yet to be confirmed.

  “Oh, wow!” Nikki’s eyes were as wide as saucers as she looked up from the book, “There are four sisters!”

  “Yeah, and we’re gonna hope that we only have to deal with just two of them and if we’re lucky, maybe one is still on our side,” I shook my head, “It figures we’d end up with one that enjoys ‘warlike notions.’ And ‘general mayhem.’ Whoever this Efflehurt dude is who wrote this thing, he really makes it sound like general mayhem happens regularly, and he isn’t too worried about it!”

  “Who knows what a ‘bog elf’ actually is. Maybe he likes mayhem, I don’t know. I do know who Zue’s familiars are, though,” Nikki nodded at the book, “I keep seeing them every time something happens. They’re crows. I don’t know how they are helping her, but they’ve got to be hers. They’re everywhere.”

  “So when we find her, we need to get her away from the crows, and that should help us a little. But how do we kill her and where do we find her?” I frowned, remembering that I just asked the same questions Adam had of his grandfather. We still hadn’t found any real answers.

  “I don’t know,” Nikki concentrated on the book again, re-reading the passage, “There really isn’t a whole lot to go on other than that bit about the tree…”

  “So what do we do? Treat her like a vampire and stake her with a sycamore tree?”

  Nikki grinned, a spark of life came back into her eyes, “It’s an idea. Even if she’s not actually a vampire, it’s a lot better than anything else we’ve come up with so far.”

  “Well, let’s look through the rest of that book to make sure we didn’t miss anything first, then we can go find a tree,” I suggested, returning her grin.

  She bobbed her head, sending her blonde hair curling and spiraling around her shoulders. There was a faint white mist edging around her again. It only happened whenever she was upset or excited.

  I bit my lip, not really sure what to do. I didn’t want her to morph into a wolf without being prepared. I did it that way, and it had scared the crap out of me. One minute you were yourself, then the next you were fighting to keep yourself in one piece.

  “Um,” I started uneasily, paused, and then blurted, “It hurts if you fight it!”

  Nikki looked up, and then blinked; confusion clouded her eyes, “What do you mean? What hurts?”

  I huffed out a breath and pushed my hair back from my eyes. Then I met her gaze, and found the courage to keep going. She needed to know what I knew. “Your wolf. You’ve been sparkling with a white-colored mist the same way the rest of us do right before we change. I don’t know how you got it, but I think you have one in there. If you fight it the first time she wants you to change, it hurts. Really bad. You needed to know that, it will make it easier.”

  There. I said it. I waited for her to look at me as if I were crazy. But she didn’t. Instead, she said in a quiet voice, “Thanks. I wondered about that, but I didn’t know who to ask. Adam was taken before I could say anything. I had called him and was planning on telling him when he got here. Then he was on his way here and Zue…” her voice cracked and her eyes filled with tears. The mist got stronger.

  “Easy now, it’s all right. We’re going to find him.” I hugged her, trying to calm her wolf back down into the shadows.

  “I can’t hear him anymore, what if we’re too late? It’s my fault for asking him to come, she wouldn’t have gotten him if he hadn’t been on his way here!” she asked through the tears that soaked through my shirt.

  “We’re not too late,” I said, making myself believe the truth in my own words, “We’ll find them. And it wasn’t your fault, she would have just found another way to get to him.”

  She cried a few more minutes. Then she sniffled, stepping back when she noticed my shirt, “I’m sorry. I’ve soaked your t-shirt.”

  I smiled, “Don’t worry about it, I’ll dry. What good is a friend who won’t let you cry on his shoulder?”

  “You’re the best friend I’ve ever had,” Nikki said, “Thank you for being so great with all of this, Brian.”

  “You’d do the same for me, and I mean it when I say we’ll find Adam. But since he isn’t here to tell you, I’ll try to tell you what I know. Having a wolf spirit isn’t all that hard. You just have to remember she’s there. When your emotions get out of control, your wolf will try to come out and help you — that’s what she’s there for. So unless you’re ready for her, concentrate on deep breaths to calm down, that works most of the time.”

  “And when it doesn’t?”

  “Then you’re a wolf, and you tend to think as both a wolf and a human, unless you choose to let your wolf do all the thinking, which I don’t recommend. If you do that, then things can go bad really quick.”

  “Right,” she sighed. “I wish we c
ould hurry up and find them, so I could quit worrying, maybe then I wouldn’t have to worry about this shifting into a wolf thing.”

  “Well, let’s get a look at that book again. You never know, we may find something that we missed.”

  We flipped through the rest of the pages, and even though we managed to look at some pretty strange looking creatures, including one that closely resembled the principal, there wasn’t any other mention of a Spriteblood.

  “So. Tori didn’t seem too surprised when Ed showed up as a wolf, or when the cats showed up. I thought she’d be afraid, but she wasn’t.” I stared at a weird sketch of a creature with odd teeth, though what I was really thinking about was a tanned girl with long black hair and sharp, beautiful, green eyes.

  “She’s a Sci-Fi nerd at heart, though you wouldn’t know it by looking at her. She thinks the truth is out there. It takes a lot to shake her up. Wolves and fairies by themselves won’t do it,” Nikki said, her voice lightening up as she talked about her friend.

  “The truth is out there, you just have to know where to look,” I mumbled, trying to concentrate on what was in front of me.

  “You two belong together,” she rolled her eyes, and then turned her attention back to the book. Looking back, I knew that one statement started it all.

  That’s when it happened. That’s when I knew.

  Suddenly, I was so worried that I actually felt sick. My heart felt like it was going to hammer out of my chest. I knew she was in trouble. I knew she was afraid, even though she wasn’t going to show it. She was in danger. And she needed me…

  “I know where she is!” I jumped straight up from the floor, adrenaline pumping through every nerve ending in my body.

  “Tori?” Nikki scrambled to her feet, trembling with excitement.

  “Yes! She’s at St. Claire’s tomb, they are moving her deeper in the mound!” I was ready to run out the door, but stopped at the unasked question in her eyes, so I stilled for a moment and said, “I don’t know if Adam is there and I don’t know why I know this — but I’m certain that Tori is in that tomb.”

  Nikki smiled, though it never reached her eyes. “You’ll see why you’re able to find Tori soon enough. Let’s go!”

  We were almost out the door when she stopped. “Wait!” she exclaimed, then ran back to the coffee table and picked up the book, putting it up on a high shelf in the corner closet before she ran back toward me, “Sorry, I can’t leave it out. There’s no way I could explain that book to my mom.”

  “You can say that again,” I agreed, then shivered as I stepped outside, “It’s still bad out here. Should we take your Jeep? The heater in my truck isn’t working right.”

  “Nothing works right on your truck! But you don’t want to take the Jeep, either,” a voice called out across the yard.

  Erik, Tommy, and Michael walked out from the trees, looking oblivious to the cold, even though their coats were icy.

  “All the roads are blocked, people have wrecked all over the place. I wouldn’t go out there if you can avoid it,” Erik explained, then came to the point of his visit as he asked, “Have you guys seen Ed by any chance?”

  “No,” Nikki shook her head, “Let me guess, he’s missing, too.”

  Erik nodded grimly, “No one has seen him since last night. He was acting better after we saw Evan and he did his thing with the Wolf Stone again. I thought he was okay, but now we can’t find him.”

  “He’s crossed over to the dark side,” Michael said in an ominous tone. His cousin nodded his head in serious agreement.

  “So what are you two doing out here?” Erik asked, suspiciously.

  “Brian knows where Tori is,” Nikki smiled, “We have a plan.”

  “Well, what are we standing around here for?” Erik demanded and switched over to his wolf, which looked rather weird as Erik had been wearing a tie-dye hoodie. His wolf was now a beautiful blue, pink, and purple, with the words I have flying monkeys, and I’m not afraid to use them…written in black squiggles. I was pretty sure he had snatched that particular piece of clothing from his girlfriend.

  “Yeah, we know. It’s Penny’s,” Tommy rolled his eyes, “But he’s in charge. That may make him a witch, but it makes us the flying monkeys.”

  Oblivious to the mumbling cousins and the psychedelic wolf, Nikki hopped up on Erik’s back, and for the first time, a smile touched her eyes. She didn’t have to say what she was thinking. It showed in her face. She knew she was going to find Adam.

  I just hoped that we were going to find him alive.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Ella

  The Village

  October 18, 1859

  Years had gone by, though she didn’t know how many. Ella fell seamlessly into the role Old Mother once held, and as she grew older, her visions became clearer and came nearly every day. Her people held her in the highest respect and learned to leave her alone when her eyes became vacant, as she saw things that none of them could see. Her predictions were never wrong. The village flourished under her guidance.

  Ella had grown very old, exactly how old she wasn’t sure. Time had lost meaning to her. The Fire Witch had been right, she lived a very long life, but the worse part of her prophecy had also been true — in all of her years, she never found love again. Instead, she watched the children of those she loved grow up, and then watched the next generation do the same.

  She loved them all, her heart breaking each time she watched one generation die, but loving the one that came after them, even though she knew she would watch them die, too, when their time came. Life was an endless circle, but it seemed she would be the only one who escaped death’s notice.

  She wondered if perhaps it was a curse given her by the Great Spirit — to live her life with no end, growing older and older, watching those she loved die. After all, she hadn’t been the only one to bargain with Him on that mountain, The Wolf still came to sit with her at night. She had become feeble, unable to make the climb up the hill, and so they sat now in the same place where she and Bright Eyes once watched the stars, though the stump had long since rotted away.

  One night, instead of the nightmares, a vision came to her while she slept. It was in a time and place she didn’t understand. She saw a young girl with curling blonde hair sitting under a bright, blue sky. The girl turned, and Ella could see her big, brown eyes. She was so full of life. Ella knew the girl was a descendant of her brother from her springing, corkscrew hair, and the wide, brown eyes that were so very much like Chenoa’s. Ella smiled as she slept, happy that the love Billy and Chenoa shared would still show in the girl so far away.

  The girl looked up then, smiling at the boy who sat down beside her.

  Ella’s breath caught. She was staring into familiar golden eyes again.

  The boy looked so much like Bright Eyes that it caused her heart to ache. Ella tried to look at him closer. He looked down at the girl, brushing a kiss on her forehead. The long blue-black hair, high cheekbones, and even the slight wrinkle between his eyebrows reminded her of her own love. They were smiling at each other now, so happy that they ignored the world around them. They were completely and utterly in love. They reminded Ella of the time she had spent with Bright Eyes. That was when Ella dared to hope the vision had come to tell her of their happiness and the future ahead of them. But that was not meant to be.

  A shadow passed over the boy’s face. She had seen this many other times, and in every vision, the shadow was a terrible omen. With a feeling of complete dread, she watched the boy with the golden eyes because she knew that their love was as ill-fated as her own had been…

  He was marked for death.

  She woke, feeling as if her very life were draining from her body. Even though she had awakened with the memory of the vision, she also had the feeling that she knew why her life had been so long. She still had a purpose yet to be fulfilled. Slowly, feeling even more feeble than she ever had before, she rose, and made her way out of the hut, walking until she came
to the spot at the edge of the village where The Wolf met her.

  “Hello, old friend,” she whispered, as she fell heavily onto the bench her people had built solely for her nighttime visits with the stars.

  The Wolf whined softly. He had watched as she left the hut. She moved so slowly now, it pained him to watch her. He knew something had happened; she had more life in her the night before. He feared she may soon see her end, so he nuzzled her fragile, veined hands, and then laid his head in her lap.

  Ella was still troubled over what she had seen, so she sat, patting The Wolf’s fur, and told him of her vision and the boy’s death. Then she told him what she wanted.

  “The gift you gave me when I was a little girl,” she said softly, “Can it be taken back?”

  The Wolf lifted his head, wondering why the white-haired creature wished him to take back the strength her wolf gave her. He was sure that strength was more than likely the only thing keeping her upright on the bench at that very moment. He whined again, wishing she wouldn’t ask anything more.

  “I wish them happiness,” she explained earnestly, as her mind read his. Her blue eyes plead for his understanding as they bore down into his, “May my life end, but I would have them happy. I would have the spirit of the white wolf stay and give them strength.”

  The Wolf once again admired the courage of the white-haired creature, willing to give up her life for a chance at another’s happiness. He understood her sacrifice, and reluctantly took back his gift, willing it to stay until the girl in the vision had need of it. Then The Wolf sat with the old woman through her last night, feeling her anticipation grow as they watched the Moon and the star, for whom she had waited so many, many years.

  Her people found her the next morning. Her life had finally ended, but they knew from the smile on her lips that she had found Bright Eyes once again. As they prepared to take her body, the spirit of a white wolf appeared on the hill and howled. They left to search for the wolf, but she had disappeared. When they returned, Ella’s body had disappeared as well.