Hidden Moon (21 page)

Shaken back into reality again, I broke the kiss and leaned my head back just a little to look in his eyes. “Adam?”

“Forgive me,” his voice came out low, and choked as he stared down, not meeting my eyes. “I couldn’t keep us from hurting you. We made you
cry
, Nikki, and I’ve never wanted to do that, ever. I should have taken you to Jenna sooner. Please forgive me.” His voice was still low, but he raised his amber eyes to look at me through his thick, dark lashes.

“Oh, it’s okay. You didn’t make me cry, I was just, frustrated, I guess is the word I’m looking for. But you did take me to Jenna, and I’m okay now,” I reassured him and patted him awkwardly on the shoulder. I gave myself a mental kick in the butt. A gorgeous guy stands in front of you and begs your forgiveness because you cried and that’s the best you can come up with? A pat on the shoulder? I wondered what Adam would do if I threw myself at him and swooned in his arms like Scarlett O’Hara.

“You’re sure you’re okay?” he asked again.

I nodded a little too quickly, my blonde curls bobbing in rhythm with my head. Exit Scarlett, enter Bobble-Head Nikki. “I guess we’d better start heading to the house. I didn’t leave Mom a note.”

“Right,” Adam watched me for a moment, then nodded, straightened and turned to start walking again.

So much for romance. Maybe next time. I stifled a sigh. I decided that I was going to practice swooning on the bed. It might come in handy later on. We walked in silence for a few more minutes, Adam treaded as stealthy as a ghost, and I followed behind him like a thrashing machine, tripping over roots and vines that seemed to grow wherever I put my feet. I kept a few feet behind him and wondered what was the most romantic way to suggest that I would like to be carried. I smiled at the thought of Adam holding me tight to him like he would never let me go as we walked through the green, beautiful forest, as if we had all the time in the world.

Well, nice thought, but what I wanted was a piggyback ride on his wolf.

I gave up the notion of how to ask politely. I was just going to say I needed to get home soon. That would work. I opened my mouth to make my request and got a rather unpleasant surprise instead.

Where there hadn’t been a limb two seconds before, one appeared and swung into place just in time to slap me across the face. It left my whole face stinging.

“Okay, that was not there,” I complained, wiping at my watering eyes.

Adam turned around so quick he was just a blur. “You okay?”

“Yeah, but I swear it seems like everything moves for you, and just snaps back into place just as I follow behind you. It’s like that tree didn’t like me. It did move, didn’t it? Or am I just imagining things?” I stayed motionless watching the offending limb.

He opened his mouth and started to speak, then turned his head as if listening. Then he smiled.

“Come here,” he whispered, taking my hand and pulling me to his side. “Now look at that tree over there, with the fallen log next to it. Do you see that?”

“No. What am I supposed to see?” I squinted at what looked like an ordinary tree and a rotting one lying beside it.

“Concentrate and keep looking. Focus on it, but be still. Don’t speak,” he urged.

I shrugged and turned to look back at the fallen log. I resisted the urge to just walk over to it and see what the big deal was, instead I just stared at it, waiting for whatever it was I was supposed to see to jump out at me.

It looked like any other tree that we had walked past, long limbs and branches splayed out from the log, reaching like long arms, the leaves long since dead. My eyes roamed up to where it seemed to meet up with the other tree. There was a big dark shadow where the two trees met. I focused on it, thinking it an odd place to be so darkened, even with the canopy of the other trees.

Something moved in it, just the slightest bit, and my heart sped up. It felt as if it were about to beat out of my chest as I stared at the big shadow. It moved more now, and at first I thought it was one of the guys in wolf form, out to scare us, but it stood on its back legs. Long arms dangled by its sides, as it stared back at us with small, beady eyes. It looked human. I gulped, looking at the biggest, hairiest thing I had ever seen and the good Lord knew I had seen lots of big hairy things as of late. It had to be eight feet tall if it was an inch.

I remembered watching an episode of
Unexplained Mysteries
. At the time, I thought that the entire episode was kind of kooky, but kind of cool, too. It was one of those shows that made you wonder if stuff did exist that you didn’t know about. I thought it should have been on the Sci-Fi channel. If I had remembered it right, the title of the episode was
Myths and Legends
. At the time I had wondered who the tall guy was that they got to wear the hairy suit and if he was wearing stilts. I thought now that their re-creation wasn’t off by much at all. The guy in the car had seen one of these things walk across the road in front of him. He had explained what it looked like well. He claimed it only took three huge steps to get across the entire road. I looked down at the thing’s long, hairy legs and humongous feet.

Yep, it wouldn’t take many steps at all.

“Bigfoot,” I said weakly, gripping Adam’s hand. I wondered what the odds were that I would be holding the hand of a werewolf while I stared at Bigfoot. They had to be slim if nonexistent. Still, here I was doing it.

The huge, hairy mass that hadn’t moved an inch since it had stood up and made its presence known.

“Sasquatch. Hello, friend,” Adam’s voice was soft and lulling as he switched into his native tongue. I relaxed just a little, knowing Adam would know what to do. But then, I remembered the episode with the bear. He had gotten his chest clawed open that time. What would Bigfoot do to him? I bit my lip, and got nervous all over again.

A low humming sound answered him that sounded almost like a purr intermixed with periodic clicking sounds. The Sasquatch straightened, standing to its full height. It was bigger than eight foot now. I fidgeted next to Adam. It stared at us a moment longer, still humming and clicking. It looked at us one final time and snorted, as if thinking we were the oddity instead of itself, then turned and walked off through the trees. Its enormous steps not making a single sound as it made its way through the dried, dead leaves like an enormous, hairy ghost.

“They don’t come this close. They usually avoid human contact. But this one was curious, he wanted to see what you were since you were with me,” Adam smiled. “Are you alright?”

“Yes, I’m fine,” I said, turning his hand loose. I watched as he flexed his hand to get the circulation moving again. “I thought they were only myths.”

“Every myth has some basis in truth,” he explained, “and you as you can see, he was very real. They are very shy creatures. He never would have come so close to you if he hadn’t known you were with me. That’s one reason they are thought only a myth or a legend, very few people ever see them.”

“You told me before that there were things in the forest I wouldn’t understand. Is he dangerous?”

“No, they have never attacked anyone and are strictly vegetarian. They’re docile creatures and don’t like conflict of any kind. Like I said, they tend to avoid all contact, even with us. They know we are the Keepers and that we would never hurt them, but they still keep their distance. I’m surprised that he came that close.”

“So the library has a Spriteblood. What else does this forest have? Just werewolves and Bigfoot?”

“Wherever there is life, there is magic. So many people just don’t see it. They look, but they don’t see. Every tree and every animal are full of life and magic. It’s not just in this forest, but in everything, everywhere. The trick is to teach yourself to see, like you did with the Sasquatch. When you learn to see, you’ll find things you would have thought were only in your dreams.” His amber eyes were warm, their onyx specks pulsed lightly as his wolf came just below their surface to stare out at me and prove that he, too, knew of the world’s magic.

“Show me something else,” I said, excited with my new-found knowledge.

Adam laughed. “We have to get going. We’re going to be late, and I don’t want to explain to your mother the reason why I kept you out was to show you how to see wood nymphs and fairies. She might think I’m on something and not let me come back to you.”

“It doesn’t matter, no one can keep me from you,” I whispered, “I’m yours, remember?”

“I know,” he whispered, leaning his head down to brush a chaste kiss against my brow, “and I belong to you. But it’s time for us to go.” A dark fog flowed down his body and the black wolf watched me with big golden eyes.

Sitting atop his back, I stared at the trees and the underbrush and tried to learn how to see something I hadn’t seen before. Adam seemed to pick up on what I was trying to do, and kept his thoughts silent as he padded along the forest floor. I closed my eyes for a few seconds and breathed in slow, deep breaths, willing myself to relax.

I opened my eyes and focused on different things, a leaf here, a flower there. I took in deep breaths of the forest. I saw a slight flicker on a branch as we went by and turned my attention to it.

It was just a butterfly, I thought, as I got ready to turn my head back. But then I stopped, and looked again. A pair of powder blue wings fluttered next to a clump of leaves. A tiny pair of hands clasped the edge of a large, round leaf while a small head with curly brown hair watched us with big, curious eyes.

ADAM TOOK MY hand and half-dragged me down the dirt road. “It won’t be bad, Jenna has already told them you are the new Seer, so they already know. Trust me, everything is going to be fine.”

I cringed. “That didn’t help. Are you sure we have to do this today? Can’t we do this later? Like next year, maybe?”

“No,” he laughed, “If we get this over now, then there isn’t anything to worry about later, right?”

“I guess,” I grumbled.

The last thing I wanted was to go meet the elders of the tribe. Now or ever. These guys were the ones in charge. The Keepers watched over the forest, but the elders watched over the Keepers. Everybody had a boss. And if Adam and the others had given me more than my mind could fathom at the time, what were the elders going to do to me?

I had one last try.

“If they already know about me, then what’s the use of going? We’re just wasting their time.” I gave him my most convincing smile.

“We’re not wasting time. This is very important. You have a test to pass to prove you are the new Seer. The entire tribe will be there for this. It affects us all.”

I stopped dead in my tracks, while Adam kept pulling on my arm.

“A test in front of the whole tribe?” my voice came out in a squeak.

He stopped and took my face in his hands. “Do you trust me?”

I managed a slight nod.

“Then believe when I say everything will be okay. You are mine. I won’t let anything bad happen to you. They are people the same way that you and I are, and soon they will be your people, too. You have nothing to prove, you are the new Seer. It’s nothing that you can fake, so there is nothing to fear. Just be yourself.”

“Okay,” I closed my eyes as he leaned forward to kiss my forehead.

The sounds of laughter came from the circle around the campfire. Erik appeared to be trying to start a fire. His tanned face was scrunched in concentration as he blew on the kindling, trying to coax a flame to life.

“How long has he been at it this time?” Adam asked Ed as we came to the edge of the circle.

“Awhile. It’s a good thing he doesn’t show the school kids how our ancestors built a fire. They would have to bring sleeping bags and spend the week with him.” Ed grinned.

“I’ve almost got it. Honestly. I swear there’s a little flame in there just waiting to come out.” Erik looked at the little pile of sticks.

“I’ll show you a secret,” Ed offered.

“Sure. What is it? I’m open for suggestions.” Erik flopped down on the ground.

“Secret white man trick,” Ed said as he took out a lighter, and set the little pile of sticks ablaze.

“But this is a tribal meeting. Shouldn’t we be building the fire in the old way?” Erik protested as he got up from the ground.

“Only if Nikki wants to spend all night here and wait for you to improve your fire building skills. Trust me, son, the lighter is fine.” A tall man with Erik’s big grin walked up and clapped him on the shoulder.

Jenna came up behind the man and linked her arm through his. “Hello, Nikki. How are you this evening?”

“Well, okay. No, I don’t think I’m okay at all.” Panic flared up in me again.

“You’re going to be just fine, you’ll see. Nothing to worry about at all,” she smiled.

“I promise we won’t eat you or anything.” The man’s eyes sparkled with humor as he put out his hand. “I’m Luke White Hawk, Erik’s dad.”

I shook the offered hand. “Nice to meet you.”

“So how is the Wrangler working out for you?” he asked, switching tactfully to another subject.

“It’s great. I love it,” I smiled.

More people drifted in. I squeezed closer to Adam’s side as I watched them come in and take their places around the campfire. Everyone was at ease, talking and chatting with one another. Tommy and Michael came in with their parents and I saw why they looked so similar. Tommy’s mom and Michael’s dad were twins.