Blood Moon (Book Three - The Ravenscliff Series) (13 page)

“He was supposed to meet us,” Devon said. “He wouldn’t just not show up.”

He tried again to see Marcus in his mind’s eye. But all he came up with was blackness.

Is that what the pentagram meant all along? That Marcus was marked for death? Had the beast killed him before it grabbed Natalie? Were his parents out looking for him now—or were they down at the morgue, identifying his body?

Devon needed to focus and not let his fears overtake him. “Natalie,” he said. “Where’s your pendant?”

She looked up guiltily at Devon. “I wanted to wear it! I planned on it! You gave it to me, Devon, and I treasured it!” She sobbed. “But when I went to put it on tonight, it was gone! I had placed it on my bureau, but it was gone! Just gone!”

The same thing must have happened to Marcus
, Devon thought. Who would take it? And why?

Devon gave her a new star pendant; in fact, he gave one to everybody, including Rolfe and Roxanne, just in case. He ordered them to sleep with them around their necks. Whether the pendants would do any good or not, Devon didn’t know. But they sure couldn’t hurt. And clearly they had some power, if someone had taken the time to snatch them from Natalie and Marcus.

Back at Ravenscliff, Devon called Marcus’s house again. This time his mother answered.

“Hi, it’s Devon. I’m sorry to call so late but I’m looking for Marcus …”

“Why?” Her voice sounded strained, edgy.

“Well, he was supposed to meet us tonight and he didn’t reply to any of our texts …”

“He’s asleep!” Marcus’s mother was practically shouting into the phone. “He’s sound asleep in his room!”

Devon heard Marcus’s father in the background. “Who is it, Gigi?”

“It’s Devon,” she said. “I told him Marcus is sound asleep!”

“Get off the phone,” her husband told her.

“Is Marcus okay?” Devon asked.

“He’s asleep in his room!” Her voice cracked. “Why
wouldn’t
he be okay?”

“All right,” Devon said. “I’m sorry to have bothered you.”

Marcus was
not
okay.

But if he was in his room he was at least safe. Devon tried once more to see him, to see into Marcus’s house, but he couldn’t. Something was blocking his Nightwing vision. And when he tried teleporting himself into Marcus’s bedroom, he found he could not. Something was definitely interfering with his powers. Who was strong enough to do that? Clarissa? Or—something else?

The Madman?

It couldn’t be! Jackson Muir might have tried to reach Devon through his dreams, but he couldn’t affect them while awake. He was trapped in the Hell Hole. He was powerless.

Wasn’t he?

Devon let out a long sigh. He’d have to take Marcus’s mother’s word that her son was okay, and check in with his friend about what really happened tomorrow at school.

There was one thing more, however, that Devon needed to do before trying to fall asleep. He needed to look in on Alexander.

The boy slept soundly. To look at him one wouldn’t have imagined some entity had taken control of him again. He slept like a little baby, buzzing with soft, steady breaths.

Devon was about to close Alexander’s door when something caught his eye. A glint of light on the boy’s dresser. He knew he needed to look closer.

He gasped when he saw what was there.

Two star pendants. The ones he had given to Marcus and Natalie.

“Hahahahahahaha.”

Devon turned. Alexander was sitting up in bed now, laughing in a low, deep, horrible voice not his own.

Devon got nothing out of the boy but maniacal laughter. Alexander just kept laughing at him, his eyes wild. Devon backed out of the room, horrified.

He
was
possessed. Alexander was once again possessed by some malevolent spirit.

The Madman?

No, it couldn’t be!

Please don’t let it be! Not again!

As Devon suspected, he barely had any sleep after stumbling in fear and confusion back to his room. Why would Alexander steal the pendants? How had he gotten into Devon’s friends’ rooms? What force made him do it? Devon’s eyes remained wide open and staring at his ceiling even as the sun broke over the horizon.

Everything’s coming to a head
, Devon thought, getting dressed.
Alexander, Marcus, the beast … tonight everything came together.

When he got to school, he discovered Marcus wasn’t there. Just like what had happened last month when the moon had been full.

“I’m out of here,” Devon whispered to D.J., deciding geometry class was of secondary importance to everything else.

“Truancy can lower your final grade, you know,” his friend told him wryly. D.J. swung open his locker door to give Devon cover. “Go on. Disappear. Find out what the hell is going on.”

“Meet me at Rolfe’s after school,” Devon said.

D.J. gave him a little salute. “Aye-aye, capitan.”

Devon knew he couldn’t will himself to appear at Marcus’s house; that route was somehow blocked. So instead he just trusted that he’d materialize wherever he was supposed to, wherever there might be some answers. He nodded to his friend, then faded out behind D.J.’s locker door.

It took him a couple of seconds to realize where he had reappeared.

“The Misery Point public library?” he asked out loud.

“Shh,” scolded a librarian with short gray hair and blue cat’s-eye glasses sitting at the reference desk.

Why here?
Devon asked himself.
What possibly can I find out about the beast and Marcus’s condition in the Misery Point public library?

Libraries have answers to everything
, he heard his intuition tell him.

And maybe I can learn something about when the beast appeared here in Misery Point before, the way Marcus’s mother remembered …

“May I help you, young man?” the librarian was asking, looking at him oddly. “I didn’t even see you come in. Shouldn’t you be in school?”

“I’m—I’m here on a school project,” Devon said.

“A school project? What is it on?”

“Um, it’s on—well, it’s—kind of hard to describe—”

She narrowed her eyes at him suspiciously. “I hope you don’t think you’re going to use the public library as a hideout for playing hooky.”

“No, no, it’s not like that at all. I’m doing a research project. Really I am.”

I am
, Devon realized.
That’s no lie.

“I’m researching unexplained phenomena,” he blurted out. “You know, strange occurrences that have no explanation. And they have to have occurred right here in Misery Point.”

The librarian’s eyebrows pushed up into her forehead above her blue glasses. “Unexplained phenomena? You mean, like UFOs?”

“Maybe. Or anything. Sightings … like Bigfoot maybe.”

“Bigfoot? In Misery Point?”

“Or whatever.”

A small smile crept across the librarian’s face. “All right, young man. Let’s see what we can find.”

She stood, walking over to a row of metal filing cabinets. The third drawer down was marked local ephemera.

“If we have anything, it’ll be in here,” she said, pulling open the drawer.

Devon watched intently as she riffled through the manila folders, reading each tab. “I clip the local newspaper every day. I’ve been doing it for twenty years, and my predecessor did it for twenty years before me.”

“Cool,” Devon offered.

“Beach erosion,” the librarian read. “Crime statistics. Murders. Restaurants. Tourism. Watercraft.” She shrugged. “Nothing for unexplained phenomena. But I know there
have
been stories …”

“Stories like what?”

The librarian removed her glasses and looked at Devon closely. “Well, strange things. Like those ravens that for no reason at all clung to Ravenscliff up on the hill. And then disappeared.”

“And then returned,” Devon reminded her.

“And then returned,” she echoed, still looking through the folders. “There have been so many legends about the Muir family, so many ghost stories. The villagers love to gossip about strange rich folk. I know I’ve clipped stories …”

She suddenly extracted a folder and handed it over to Devon.

“They must be in here,” she said. He took the folder. It was marked miscellaneous and bulged with faded newspaper clippings. “Go through that and see what you find.”

He settled down at a table. Sure enough there were several stories about the ravens, and one, dated 1964, included a photograph of the great house covered with the birds, far more than even roosted there currently. TOURISTS FLOCK TO SEE HOUSE OF RAVENS read the headline.

But Devon could only glance at it. He didn’t have the time to read it thoroughly, or any of the other stories told by villagers of seeing strange sights, ghosts, and visions in the woods around Ravenscliff. He’d want to come back and read them all at a later point, of course, but for now he was hunting for something in particular. Just
what
he was hunting for he wasn’t sure. But he was certain that when he found it, he’d know.

He turned a clipping over and gazed down at the one below.

He sat back in his chair in surprise. The newspaper clip was
glowing
.

This was it!

STRANGE ANIMAL SIGHTING REPORTED.

The date was almost thirty years earlier. The day after Halloween.

Devon read:

Sheriff George Elcar today was investigating reports of a large animal in the vicinity of the village. According to Sam Pierce of Pierce Drug on Main Street, the animal was spotted around 3:00 a.m. last night, making a large growling sound. Pierce was awakened by the sound and saw the creature in his backyard. He described it as looking like a bear. Another local, Mrs. Fred Ingersoll of 16 Adkins Place, around the corner from Pierce, also reported seeing the animal, although she described it more as a cross between a wolf and a gorilla. “Sometimes it walked on all fours, sometimes upright,” she told this reporter. “And it was howling at the moon.” Sheriff Elcar assured citizens that his men are investigating.

“So it
was
here before,” Devon whispered.

He was drawn to the print on the back of the clipping. It was an obituary, cut off halfway, but it was still complete enough for Devon to see who the article memorialized.

Emily Muir.

It was a notice of her death. The day before the sighting of the strange animal, Emily had thrown herself to her death from Devil’s Rock.

There was a connection between the beast and Emily’s suicide.

Devon searched through the rest of the clippings, but none of the others in this batch were glowing. Devon turned to look at the filing cabinets behind him. Within one of them, he saw another glow, pulsing dimly through the black metal.

“May I look for myself?” he asked the librarian.

She nodded. “Just don’t get them out of order.”

He pulled open the drawer, his heart beating wildly. A ray of light rose in a steady stream. Devon saw that it emanated from the folder marked Murders.

Back at the table, it was easier to find what he’s looking for, as the glow had only intensified. The glowing article stood out from among the other clippings. Devon made a sound as he read the headline.

GIRL FOUND MUTILATED ON THE BEACH

An unidentified young woman was found dead this morning at East Seaboard Beach, horribly mutilated and mangled. Police have roped off the area as a crime scene. Residents nearby reported hearing a confrontation during the night. At this point it is not clear if the girl’s killer was human or animal.

Devon glanced up at the date. It was one day after the first sighting of the beast.

There were no follow-up stories about the killing. Apparently, it was never solved. But then Devon spotted another clipping that glowed toward the bottom of the folder, and he eagerly pushed aside the ones on top of it. And once again he gasped out loud.

It was a photograph of the ghost from the West Wing!

The headline read:

OGDEN MCNUTT SHOT TO DEATH

The date was two days after the first sighting of the beast, and one day after the girl was found dead on the beach. Devon read:

Mr. Ogden McNutt, a caretaker at Ravenscliff manor, was found this morning shot to death in the woods surrounding the estate. Sheriff Elcar has determined that he was killed with a single bullet through the heart. Mr. Randolph Muir has told deputies that he heard nothing unusual during the night, and did not know McNutt to have any enemies. The young man had worked on the estate for only a few months. Mr. McNutt leaves a wife and a three-year-old daughter.

An interesting detail to emerge from the autopsy is that McNutt was shot with a silver bullet. Sheriff Elcar hopes this will allow him to track down the killer.

A silver bullet.

I saw him change into the beast in my vision
, Devon thought. Ogden McNutt was the beast that killed that poor girl on the beach. Then someone who knew what was happening shot and killed him with a silver bullet.

But why had McNutt returned now to terrorize Devon and his friends?

“Please may I see him?” Devon begged, standing on the front step of Marcus’s house, his mother peering at him through a crack in the door.

“I told you he was sick. Just please go away, Devon.”

Devon considered asking her about the beast she saw as a girl, but knew it would just upset her further. Her eyes were bloodshot with dark circles around them, as if she hadn’t slept at all. She closed the door in Devon’s face.

This is all my fault
, Devon thought, trudging back down the steps toward the sidewalk.
I’ve put my friends in danger. I need to go away. I’ve got to find more of my own kind. Maybe I ought to leave Misery Point. They’d never find me if I didn’t want to be found. I could go in search of those Native American Nightwing …

But the thought of leaving Misery Point staggered him. This was home. It was as if Dad’s death, as hard as it had been for him, had opened Devon to a whole new way of seeing things, given him an opportunity to find his place in the world. And Rolfe, and Marcus, and D.J., and Natalie, and even Cecily were all part of that. He couldn’t imagine leaving them.

But he had to. He couldn’t keep putting their lives at risk. All of this was because of him. Natalie could have been killed. D.J. and Cecily had been at risk of death several times. And who knew what had happened to Marcus?

“Psst, Devon.”

He turned.

“Over here.”

Behind a thicket of forsythia bushes, just starting to pop into bright yellow life, stood Marcus. In his pajamas. Trembling.

“Hey!” Devon called. “Your mom said—”

“I know. I heard you at the door. So I went through my window. I had to see you.”

Devon approached him. Marcus was pretty scratched and bruised. His eyes were sunken, and his arms were wrapped around himself.

“Dude,” Devon said, gripping his friend by his shoulders. He could feel Marcus’s body shuddering. “You really
are
sick. What is going on?”

“I’m not sick, just scared,” Marcus said. “It’s just like last month. I have these horrible dreams, and then I wake up all scratched and bruised.”

Devon looked at the wounds on Marcus’s arms. “How do you get that way?”

“I don’t know. But I’m apparently sleepwalking. Last month my parents were frantic because I’d disappear from my room. I must have gotten out the same way I just got out now, through the window. It happened just three nights, and then it stopped. We thought whatever it was, it was over. But last night it happened again. We weren’t prepared. I disappeared, and my parents were out looking for me, but I didn’t show up again until this morning, passed out in my backyard.”

Devon gripped his friend’s shoulders tighter, looking into his eyes. “It’s the full moon.”

“Yeah,” he said. “The moon scares me. I admit it.”

“There’s some connection between you and the beast. I don’t know what it is, but I’ve found out who the beast is. It’s a ghost from Ravenscliff’s past.” Devon made a little laugh. “Big surprise, huh?”

“But why me? And what happens to me during the night?”

“Maybe you’re helping it somehow. Maybe you go to the beast, wherever it is. That’s why you’re so scratched up in the morning.”

“My star pendant,” Marcus said guiltily, looking at Devon. “I took it off to take a shower, and when I came out …”

“I know. Alexander stole it.”

“
Alexander
? Why?”

Devon closed his eyes and turned away from Marcus. “He’s under some kind of possession again.”