Shadow Keeper (9 page)

“That could work,” Carson said. “Maybe your mom could take all of us in to Woodland for pizza or something.”

She smiled at the suggestion, but glanced at me. “That would be fun. I’ll see what I can arrange.”

“Talking about pizza makes me hungry.” Sherry scooted out of the chair. “I’m going to see how my mom is coming with dinner. We’re having spaghetti if you guys want to stick around and eat.”

I figured Carson would want to stay, but he did a brief shake of his head. I went with his lead. “Thanks, Sherry, but we have to head out soon.”

“Yeah,” Carson agreed. “We can’t stay much longer.”

“Then I’ll bring out some sodas.”

“I’ll help you.” Carson jumped up and followed her.

When we were alone, Lisa turned to me. “My mom thinks she knows what’s wrong with my dad, but the doctors won’t let her do anything to make him better. They think that what she wants to do is too unorthodox. You know how doctors are. If they can’t see it with a microscope, they don’t believe it exists.”

“What sort of treatment does your mom want to do?”

“Exorcism.”

My body twitched. Was she serious?

“You think that’s weird, don’t you?”

“Not really,” I lied. Exorcism was at the top of the weird list, but I tried to say something positive. “Don’t the Catholics do that all the time?”

“Maybe, but my mom isn’t Catholic.”

“Then what’s she going to do?”

“We found my dad’s notes about the research he was doing. My mom and I read through them, and she figured out what happened. Only an exorcism will heal him, but finding someone to perform the proper ritual will be difficult. If it’s not done right, his condition could get worse. He could even die.”

“Wow. Sounds pretty scary. No wonder the doctors won’t let her do it.”

She stood up and took a step toward me. “While Sherry and Carson are in the house, I was wondering if you would…” She caught her lower lip between her teeth.

I hopped out of the chair. We stood so close, I only had to flick my hand and our fingers touched. The warmth of her skin zinged up my arm. Her scent surrounded me. The peachy fragrance of her shampoo and the floral smell of body lotion mingled together and overloaded my senses. I gazed at her flawless face. “If I would do what?”

The intensity in her blue eyes came up a notch. “Would you do something for me without asking why?”

Anything. Whatever she wanted, I’d do it. My mouth went dry, and all I could do was nod.

“Would you take off your shirt and let me see your chest?”

She was into naked chests? I swallowed hard. If she liked looking at strong, muscular bodies, she came to the right man. Between football practice, lifting weights, and bucking heavy bales of hay all summer, I was buffed. I grabbed at the collar band and skinned the shirt over my head.

She put her fingers to her lips and nibbled at her nails while staring at my bare chest.

“Anything else?” I cocked one eyebrow and waited. I wasn’t in the habit of stripping down in front of girls. If Lisa asked me to take off my jeans, I wasn’t sure I’d do it—not with Carson and Sherry due outside at any minute.

She shook her head and glanced away. “You can put your shirt back on.”

“Can I ask you
now
why you wanted to look at my chest?”

Her forehead crinkled. “Whoever performs the ceremony on my dad has to be a mystic, or a medicine man with special powers and protections.” She glanced into my eyes. Her unflinching gaze made me think she tried to peer into my soul. “You don’t happen to know any medicine men, do you?”

I would’ve laughed out loud at the absurdity of the idea, but something about the intense look on her face told me she was serious. “Sorry, but like I told you the other night, we’re Baptists.”

“Perhaps you are, but what about your father?”

Now I did laugh. “You think my father was a medicine man? Did you know he’s been dead for several years?”

“Yes, Sherry told me.”

“You’re serious, aren’t you?” I tipped my head to one side to study her better. “You think my father was involved in some kind of weird religion?”

“Not weird, just different from the modern Western belief.” She pointed to my chest. “That would explain the scar you have there. Your father branded it on you to protect you from the evil elements.”

“Is that what this is all about?” All the pieces of the puzzle fell into place and I finally made sense of it. She wasn’t interested in me. She only wanted a better look at the burn on my skin. “You’ve been getting friendly with me, rubbing your hands all over me, and trying to get my shirt off just so you could look at this scar on my chest?”

“I…I wasn’t certain I’d seen it correctly,” she stammered out a lame excuse.

I tugged on my shirt. “It’s just a burn. A weird looking scar and that’s all. There was a fire. I don’t remember when or how, but I’ve got burn marks on my body in a couple other places. Maybe you noticed them when I had my shirt off.” I jerked up the sleeve on my arm. “Do you see that? That scar extends almost to the middle of my shoulder blade. Do you think my father deliberately burned me, scarred me like this because of some crazy voodoo crap?”

Her lower lip quivered, and her eyes filled with tears, but I didn’t care. She didn’t know my father. He would never hurt me for any reason. I turned away when a tear trickled down her cheek. Out of the corner of my eye, I glimpsed Carson and Sherry standing by the patio door. Their hands were full of plastic cups and soda cans. Both of them stared at me, their mouths opened wide.

I walked past them to the house. “Carson,” I said over my shoulder. “The party’s over. It’s time to hit the road.”

Chapter Eleven

Stevie was sound asleep so I used the light from the hallway to make the bed. After tucking the edges of the clean sheet under the mattress, I glanced around the bedroom to make sure I hadn’t missed anything. The room was good. Nothing remained that might carry Lisa’s scent. I’d even showered and washed my hair, because tonight I intended to get a good night’s sleep.

I flipped off the hall light and stumbled through the darkness to my bed. As soon I closed my eyes, I realized the one place I’d forgotten. Lisa appeared on the inside of my eyelids.

I opened my eyes and stared at the bottom of the upper bunk, but it didn’t help. She lingered at the peripheral of my vision, waiting for me to close my eyes again.

What was this attraction I had for her? Why did she haunt me? I barely knew her. Was today only the third day since I’d met her? What quality did she possess that made her stick in my mind?

Her blue eyes? They were just ordinary blue. Half the time I couldn’t even see them. She always looked down, or looked away. But there were a few times she’d stared directly at me. Her gaze had locked onto mine, and she’d stared into my eyes as if looking beyond the hazel color and searching deep into my mind—my soul.

Perhaps her hair held the key. Her long blonde hair had flowed silky and soft on my skin. I liked that. When she leaned over me, her golden strands had brushed across my naked chest and teased my senses. Wait. That was in my dreams.

I closed my eyes and envisioned her. Mentally, I cut her hair short, but it didn’t matter. I still wanted to thrust my fingers through her short, blonde tresses and pull her to me.

Her body might be the answer. She stood fairly tall for a girl—an inch or two over the five and a half foot mark. A good match for my six foot, one frame. She was slender, but not in an anorexic way. Her arms and legs were lean and toned. Her rear end round and firm. Her belly flat. Her breasts were…I didn’t know. Girls liked to disguise that part of the body. She wore her shirts loose and didn’t expose any cleavage, but my imagination filled in the missing details. “Oh, yeah,” I whispered. “Nothing wrong there.”

All that remained was her personality. Her character. She’d come to my house to see me, but only wanted help with homework—or so I’d thought. Curiosity about the scar on my chest had been the driving force that brought the shy new girl to my door. And to my bedroom.

Everything added up in my mind. The way her fingers circled over my heart, her persistence to get me naked, or at least strip the shirt from my body, all made sense now. Even in her car when we’d parked outside the minimart, that had only been to see the scar on my chest in a brilliant light. Meeting her at Sherry’s house wasn’t to get to know me better, but to probe me for information about my burn and about a medicine man. She’d use me, played me, manipulated me. The thought that she really wasn’t interested in me deflated my ego.

Flickering images, like an old movie, played in my mind. Visions of my last moments with Lisa, her lips trembling and her eyes filled with tears appeared and vanished. The scenes played in reverse, moving backward through the day from Spanish class, to lunchtime, to the night before, all the way back to that first day in class when she’d looked at me with disgust just because I’d sniffed her hair.

My heavy eyelids closed. Lisa didn’t materialize. I took a deep breath and released it. My pulse slowed. My muscles relaxed. I’d purged her from my body and mind. The black void of sleep crept over me. I drifted deeper into slumber while the last flickers of the old movie played out, showing the first moments of meeting Lisa when she’d stepped out of the car and walked to the entrance of the school where I stood. At that instant, she’d been interested in me and nothing else. She’d glanced at my face, and then did a double take. Her gaze had lingered on my green and brown eyes, and she’d complimented the hazel color. Then she’d smiled.

My blood heated, my pulse quickened, and my ego swelled. I opened my eyes and squeezed them shut again, but it didn’t help. The vision of Lisa hovered over me. Her long blonde hair brushed across my chest. Her moist lips lingered close to mine. Her warm body pressed against me.

“Dang it, Lisa,” I mumbled out loud. “You’re back.”

****

I stood atop a large precipice. Scrub oaks and diminutive red–barked Manzanita trees scattered the landscape below. Small rocks and gravel covered the ground. The chirping of birds filled the air. Rays from the sun warmed my back. A breeze carrying the scent of dry grass ruffled my hair. Lisa felt near, but I didn’t see her.

Along a winding trail in the distance, a man approached. He stood tall and appeared fit. His dark blond hair was sprinkled with silver at the temples. He hiked toward the rock with a confident stride. As he neared, black storm clouds drifted across the sun. The sky grew dark. The wind kicked up. Twigs and leaves whipped through the air. I lifted one arm to protect my face from the debris.

The blond–haired man moved to the base of the rock on which I stood, but his steps faltered and he stumbled to his knees. He tried to right himself. His boot pressed on the gravel, but his foot slipped, and he lost his balance. He fell, this time on his chest and face. He lifted his head and looked at me. His arm rose, and his fingers reached out to me. His strength failed him. His head and arm went limp, and he lay motionless on the trail.

I hurried down the rock to where he’d collapsed. The wind whipped harder, almost blowing me backward in my struggle to climb down. As I approached him, his body lifted for a brief moment. A black shadow slipped out from under him. A faint ray of sunlight flitted across the dark form. A screech like pain echoed all around. The shadow darted for the protection of the shade beneath the trees.

The body of the man twitched and squirmed. Not certain if he was alive or dead, I approached him slowly. I put my hand on his shoulder and rolled him onto his back. As his face came into view, his features changed. His blue eyes filled with blood and glowed red. The tip of his nose turned black and contorted into a snout. A guttural snarl gushed from his lips. His mouth widened and long, sharp teeth snapped at me.

His bony, hair–covered fingers with razor sharp claws swiped at my chest. I jerked back when he lunged at me. The gravel beneath my feet gave way. I fell flat on my back. He crouched on all fours and sprang at my chest. I caught him by the throat. My hands clenched around his neck as his jagged teeth nipped mere inches from my face. The stench of his foul breath carried the odor of rotting flesh. I squeezed harder. Green spindle oozed from his mouth. The filthy slime dripped onto my face.

I awoke with a start. My hands clenched in front of me, holding nothing. I dropped them to my chest. Perspiration saturated my tee. I gulped in and exhaled rapid, shallow breaths of air. My body shook and my heart hammered. I swiped one hand across my face to wipe the sweat from my eyes.

In the dark, I crawled from the bed and stumbled down the hallway to the bathroom. After several splashes of cold water on my face, my pulse slowed and my breathing returned to normal. I glanced into the mirror. “Holy crap,” I said to my pale reflection. “That was too real to be a dream.”

****

“Carson, what do you know about dreams?” I asked after jumping into the cab of his pickup.

“You mean hot ones with girls?”

“No, scary ones.”

“Oh, nightmares.” He maneuvered the pickup out of the driveway and headed for school. “Sometimes I have nightmares that I walk into class completely naked.” He started with the donkey laugh. “That’s not really scary. I was thinking that on the last day of school I’m going to walk into Miss Dudley’s class—”