Once Upon a Haunted Moon (The Keeper Saga) (9 page)

Erik looked grim, “I don’t know. There’s only one way to find out. We’ll split up. Ed, Tommy, Michael, and I will trail them and see what we can find out. Brian, you take the girls back home and guard them.”

Nikki opened her mouth to object, but Erik cut her off, “We need to keep you safe and we don’t need Tori getting hurt. Plus, you’re the only one who can search your attic safely. That was one of the last instructions Wynter gave us, you know.”

She looked ready to cry, but she nodded, “If anything is there, I’ll find it.”

We split up, the four wolves following the trail the cats had left, while the two girls and I went the opposite direction on foot. It took quite a bit longer to get back, especially since Tori was barefoot and made us detour to go back for her boots.

When we got back to Nikki’s house, her mom and sister had just pulled into the driveway.

“Hey, I was wondering where you were. I saw Brian’s truck outside,” Brenda Harmon lugged two pizzas and a bag full of groceries on her arm, while Nikki’s little sister, Emily, gave a little wave to the group of us and zinged up the steps to her room.

“Yeah, he brought Tori up, we were showing her around,” Nikki smiled in an effort to seem normal.

Brenda dropped the pizzas on the counter and gave Tori a hug, “I told your mom you would call her as soon as you got here. The phone is on the wall over there, so go call and we’ll grab a bite to eat.”

“I called when I got off the bus, Mrs. Harmon. She knows I’m here,” Tori smiled.

“If it’s ok, Mom, we’re going to head upstairs. I’ve got stuff I want to show Tori and Brian,” Nikki smiled her huge, fake smile that showed tons of teeth.

I bit my lip to keep from grinning. Nikki was always readable. When nervous or upset, she smiled. Really big. Lucky for us, her mom had her back turned to grab a pizza. Who knew what she would have thought if she saw that particular smile.

She turned back and handed us a box of pizza “You guys have fun.”

I bet that whatever we were going to find in the attic, it might be adventurous, but I doubted it was going to be fun.

***

Zue

She made no progress whatsoever with the golden-eyed boy. Not that she expected to. She shrugged off her irritation. She should have known he would be just as hardheaded as those before him. Actually, he was even more so, refusing to give her any kind of information, regardless of the pain she inflicted upon him. His courage had not served him well, but it kept the ones he loved safe — for a short time, anyway.

The holes in her dress knitted, shifting their rotten places for new ones, as if as irritated as the fairy who wore them. The crows circled above her as they kept a safe distance from their master, who frowned in concentration while she retraced her steps through the forest.

She couldn’t move as easily or as quickly as she liked through the trees. Nature did not like her. In fact, she was fairly sure it hated her. Tree limbs slapped at her, going out of their way to hit her as she walked past, roots jumped in front of her to trip her, and the animals ran as quickly as they dared in the opposite direction of whichever way she walked, scurrying away in terror.

The only places in the woods she felt comfortable were the places nature avoided. The dead places — the places where the old magic thrummed through the ground, taking the magic of others unlucky enough to happen to traverse through them.

Like the one where she had been trapped until the boy had unknowingly set her free with the blood that poured from the wound in his hand. He was one of the wolf people, and had a magic so strong, it had given her the strength to break free from her prison.

She smiled to herself, ducking another branch that snapped across her path. That boy would soon be easy to control. Dark magic ran through him now. That would make two wolves soon hers, and would leave four to be taken, well…five if you counted the white one.

But if she could find and kill the white one first, the last four would come easily.

She came to the Deadland where she had taken the boy with the gold eyes. He had been on his way somewhere…to someone. From the way he had fought, he struggled to protect the one he loved. She had seen love like that once before, a long time ago…and it had ended very much the same way. Odd how things tended to repeat themselves over time, she mused.

She walked along the edge of the Deadland, skirting its border to make her walk easier, before heading back into the thick brush. Walking even slower than before, she knew she was close. An enormous oak tree fell in her path, glancing off her shoulder as it sacrificed itself in an effort to stop her. If she were human, she would have been crushed beneath it.

She was almost there.

She finally came to a small path where the grass had worn down. This was the place the golden-eyed boy came many times. She smiled, staring up at the old white house, where a window hung open in the attic.

A tanned girl with long, black hair, stood illuminated in the dull light.

Chapter Eleven
Ella

The Path to the Village

September 20, 1774

She was walking back from the stream when the vision hit her. She stumbled and the buckets of water she had been carrying dumped everywhere…

Smoke was everywhere. It filled her lungs. Choking, black smoke…

She gasped, and then pulled in a deep breath of crisp, autumn air. Her moccasins were soaked through; she looked down, expecting to see water…

Blood. Everywhere. Running across the ground and over her feet, as it made its way toward a village. A village so much like her own…her scream echoed with others…

She was being shaken, quite literally, back into reality, and stared up into the worried face of Bright Eyes.

“What happen?” he glanced behind her, as if making sure the threat was not following, then took in the pools of water she stood in, and the bleak look in her eyes, “What White Wolf see?”

She opened her mouth to answer, but was interrupted by a shout, and people ran from every direction to the other side of the village.

“Come!” Bright Eyes said taking her hand, pulling her into a run to see what had happened.

A young boy lay in a trembling heap at the edge of the wooden barricade, so covered in blood that it seemed impossible he should be living. White Wolf noted a blood-soaked design in the beaded belt that seemed to be the only thing holding his innards in. Silvery muscle and dark bulges peeked through the deep slashes in his skin. White Wolf turned her attention to the belt again, and knew the design as a mark from the next Indian village. Ella had visited the Turtle clan only once and it had taken her two days to walk to their village. How he had made it to them still alive? He should be dead by now.

Old Mother sat by his head, and brushed the hair from his eyes; they glared a shining black in the mass of red.

“You come long way. Tell of your people,” Her sightless, white eyes filled with tears as if she knew what he was going to say, and she lightly patted his hair with her fingertips…the only part of him not hurt and bloody.

“Dead. All dead…red…demon…” he choked, and blood seeped out of the corners of his mouth. He took another gasping breath — and went still. He had only barely lived long enough to give them warning.

“Keepers go to Turtle clan, see if more live,” Running Wolf said quietly to Old Mother, who nodded her consent as tears spilled down the lines of her leathered face.

The six wolves shifted, and ran out of the village faster than they ever had before. Though he didn’t believe there would be any survivors, Running Wolf’s plan had been two-fold. After checking the village, he intended to find the Fire Witch before she came to their village next.

Two days later they returned. There had been no survivors, only the remains of a burned village. The Keepers had tried to track her, but could find no scent, or any means of finding which way she had gone. She had disappeared, taking the existence of one tribe while leaving a gnawing fear in the hearts of another.

Days passed as the people waited in fear of her return. The Keepers stayed at the edges of their village, waiting for any sign of her. Though guarded on all sides, not even the wolves left their watch of the village’s border, even as the supply of food dwindled.

Weeks passed and Old Mother’s fear of the Fire Witch dimmed in response of the oncoming winter. Preparations had to be made or they would starve in the months ahead. She coaxed the people out of the sanctuary of their huts, urging them to go back out to the fields before the harvest moon had passed. The Fire Witch may have brought the fear of death, but hunger would bring the certainty of a slow death in the cold winter months should they not soon prepare.

The people trusted her wisdom and put away their dread of the unseen for that which would soon be inevitable. And so they began working earnestly to make up for the weeks lost.

Soon the fear of the Fire Witch was forgotten by all but Ella, whose nightmares now not only held memories of long ago, but also of a dying boy, and the promise of coming Death.

Chapter Twelve
Brian

Nikki’s attic didn’t look any less spooky than the last time I was up there. If anything, it looked worse. It was on the edge of dark, and the dust motes hovered eerily in the dull light of the bare bulbs that swung from the ceiling.

The weird magic wall still had a glowing corner, so of course Nikki wanted to show Tori the weird scene with Wynter. She walked over and pulled the paper and the wall played out as it had before, holding a new audience member captive to the end.

“That’s
awesome
!” Tori’s black hair swung around her bare shoulders as she twisted to grin her enthusiasm at us, “This house is so cool! Does it do anything else?”

“Not so far,” Nikki frowned, “I wish it would.”

“Maybe it would change if I tried it…” Tori reached down, fingers nearly touching the edge of the paper.

“No!” I jumped in front of her and grabbed her around the waist a second before she would have gotten zapped, lifting her up and stepping back a safe distance.

She looked up, startled, and her mossy green eyes locked onto mine. We stood there for a minute, not moving, as some kind of strange energy seemed to zing between us. Her hands rested lightly on my shoulders, but she didn’t push me away, even though I still had my arms wrapped around her waist, trying to shield her from the wall.

I didn’t want to let go and that should have worried me, but it didn’t.

“Um, don’t touch the wall, Tori. Sorry, I should have warned you. It doesn’t like anyone but me. Lucky that Brian caught you in time or it would have zapped you,” Nikki laughed, from somewhere behind us.

“Yeah,” Tori whispered still staring at me, “thanks.”

I suddenly felt awkward, so I dropped my hands and stepped back, “Sure. No problem.” I felt heat creep up my neck. My t-shirt felt like it was out to strangle me and the humidity level in the attic must have gone up twenty degrees. I jerked open the window behind us.

“So, since the wall isn’t giving us any more help,” Nikki said quickly, as if she were trying to distract us both, “I’m thinking maybe we should search through those boxes over there. I saw old family albums and stuff before. Maybe there’s something in there that can help us.”

“Sure!” “Okay!” We both answered a little too quickly. I looked over and noticed a blush creep into Tori’s cheeks. She was embarrassed, too.

I needed to get a little distance from the girl whom I hadn’t minded holding. I marched to the farthest box stacked in the corner and set it on the floor, sitting down beside it to open the flaps. Nikki took one near me, and Tori, apparently needing the same distance as I, stayed a few yards away and opened a giant trunk with rusting hinges.

The only prizes my box held were musty, moth-eaten clothes. My fingers went through the holes of an old sweater, fabric disintegrated wherever I touched. I searched through my box in a matter of seconds and the best discovery I made was an old army jacket with rips down the arms, but that had been it.

Nikki was doing slightly better. Noticing I had run out of useful stuff in my box, she started handing me clippings of old newspapers out of hers. The majority of them didn’t seem to be earth-shattering news, though. Still, we sat and read each one from beginning to end. Nikki’s relatives seemed to save any information that involved Bland County — from the new interstate being built to the newest child being born — there was a clipping of each event in that box.

Getting bored and aggravated with getting nowhere, I sat back against the wall (not the magical one) and took a break, watching as Nikki still attacked each piece of newspaper with the same vigor as when we started hours before.

Her blonde hair, normally as tight as corkscrews, fell into limp curls, spiraling in a mass down her back. A frown etched the edges of her lips, and her brown eyes narrowed as she concentrated on the paper in her hands.

There was a time, not long ago, when I would have killed for the chance to be alone with her. Weeks ago, if you told me Adam had disappeared, I would have been ecstatic. I’d have been more than ready to convince Nikki that I wanted to be a lot more than just her best friend. She was gorgeous, funny, loyal, amazing, and so full of life; I’d wanted to be around her every second that I could. But I watched her, and I saw how she’d changed. I knew — part of what made her come alive was Adam.

So I had my chance, but I didn’t take it. I wanted her to be happy. And if there were ever two people who belonged to one another, it was Adam and Nikki.

I wanted her to smile again, so I decided I’d do anything, even if it included giving up any hope I had to be something more to her. I’d find Adam for her. I’d do it because that’s what it would take to make her whole again.

Wondering exactly how I was going to do that, I reached into the box and picked up the next clipping. I didn’t get the chance to read it or think of any more when the silence broke.