Once Upon a Haunted Moon (The Keeper Saga) (7 page)

I heard the gravel crunch underfoot, as a pair of black combat boots came up the driveway and stopped a few feet from me. A set of nice legs sprouted up from the boots, but my view ended at about her knees, thanks to my truck being in the way.

The only girl I could think of who would be coming up my driveway was Nikki, and had I shifted to wolf, it wouldn’t have worried her in the least, since her boyfriend could turn into one faster than I could. But the scent was all wrong. Nikki smelled like strawberry shampoo and the chocolate chip cookies her mom always baked, with the small tinge of the wolves that surrounded her. Still, I tried it anyway…

“Nikki?” I asked cautiously of the pretty, dark, tanned legs that were laced tightly into the black leather boots, knowing before the answer came, that had it been Nikki, she would have shown up in her pink-and-white sneakers.

“No,” a voice answered me curiously, “but that’s who I’m looking for.”

I shimmied out from under the truck in a few seconds, though it seemed to take forever. A little voice in my head reminded me that had my visitor been a real threat, I would have been dead by now. Finally free, I sat up, leaned my back against the door of the truck, and looked at the owner of the legs I had been talking to. Naturally, being a guy (which I could not help) I started at the legs and went up from there.

The legs went up to a red plaid skirt that fell to the middle of her thigh, and then a black leather bomber jacket covered the curves of her torso and arms, which were folded across her chest. Long, black hair, a shade or two darker than mine, had shocks of blue dyed through it. It brushed the tops of her arms.

“Who are you and how do you know Nikki?” she asked me in a steely voice as if I were the intruder and that knowing the girl she looked for was a direct insult. Her arms moved away from her chest and she set her hands on her hips.

“That should be my question, don’t you think? You
are
standing in my driveway,” I pointed out, while looking into the pretty, oval face whose mossy green eyes bore down on me.

She sniffed and tapped one leather clad foot impatiently, “Well?”

“Well, what?”

“Who are you and how do you know Nikki?” she demanded once again.

“I’m Brian Shaw,” I deliberately ignored the other half of the question. I wasn’t going to give directions to someone I didn’t know, even if I did find her intriguing. The wolf inside me shifted, and I felt as he came closer to the surface, as if he too, were curious about the girl who stood before us. “Who are you?”

Seeming only slightly more mollified, she inclined her head a fraction toward me, “I’m Victoria Creed. Call me Tori. Nikki is my best friend. I came to visit. Well, I would be visiting if I could find her.” she frowned, brushing a big streak of blue hair back from her eyes, then looked down at me again, dug in one of the pockets of her jacket and came out with a tissue, which she handed to me, “You’ve got a big chunk of grease that’s getting ready to fall in your eye again.

“I wiped the tissue over my eye, and found the glob stuck to my eyebrow. Feeling more generous, I said, “Thanks. The Harmons live about a mile that way.” I pointed up the road with my free hand, “I’ll give you a ride if you want. It’s not a very good road to walk on. It’s pretty rough.”

She nodded slightly, and the sun glinted off a tiny silver stud in her right nostril that I hadn’t noticed before, “Ok.”

Deciding it would be a good idea to give Nikki a heads-up for her incoming visitor just in case her “Seer power” thingy wasn’t working, I concentrated on her and on the image of the girl across from me and sent her a silent message…
A girl named Tori Creed is coming up to visit you. I’m bringing her up. Just wanted you to know…

I hoped she had gotten the message. I knew Nikki could pick up anything from the wolves if they tried hard enough, especially from Adam, to whom she was totally tuned in. I had never deliberately tried before, though.

I jumped up into the truck, barely remembering the sandwich I had thrown in there. It looked even less enticing now. And it had started to stink. Embarrassed, I opened the door and chucked it in the bed of the truck.

Still eyeing me cautiously, Tori hopped up into the cab, pointedly ignoring the yellowed streak of mayonnaise between her feet and waited while I put the key in the ignition and tried to crank it up.

“I guess I should have seen if I had fixed it before I offered a ride,” I said, taking back my previous wish as I hoped the rusty old thing would decide to start up and go.

She listened as it turned over and over, then it finally gave up and made a weird clicking sound. “It’s your starter,” she announced and jumped back out of the truck and walked around to my side, picking up the wrench I had lost earlier.

I opened my door, gaping at her as she walked to the front of the truck, sat down carefully in the gravel, and peeked under the hulking metal frame, “What are you doing?” I asked the pair of boots that were the only indication she was there.

“When I tell you, crank it up again,” her voice came muffled from below.

I was still trying to figure out if I was imagining things when she said, “Ok, now,” and started beating the underside of the truck with the wrench as I turned the key.

Magically, the old truck groaned, then started up and purred. Tori popped back up into view, brushing loose gravel from the back of her skirt. She hopped into the cab again, tossing the wrench on the seat between us, and buckled her seat belt.

“You’ve got a dead spot on your starter.” She grinned. A small smudge of dirt shaped like a fingerprint rested high on her cheekbone. “You’ll have to get a new one, unless you want to beat on it every time you want to go somewhere. Oh, your oil pan is leaking a little bit, too, you’ll want to keep an eye on that. You know, they make these things known as ‘creepers,’ you lay on them and they roll under your vehicle so you can work on stuff easier. If you’re planning on keeping this truck, you may want to look into getting one, it’ll save your back from that gravel.”

“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 guess 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.