Hidden Moon (17 page)

We walked back into the woods the way we had come earlier. My mind was still reeling from everything I learned. There was still so much that I didn’t know.

“Why does everyone keep calling the Keepers, ‘the Six’? There are only five of you,” I pointed out.

“There are only five of us, one is missing. There have always been six Keepers. We think maybe one of the other guys, Darren, may be our sixth. His dad, Reuben, is the only one of the elders that still is a Keeper. Reuben rarely runs with us anymore. He isn’t as strong as he used to be, which means he hasn’t passed on his gift yet, but it won’t be long. So far, the wolf’s gift has always been passed from father to son during a full moon. If Jenna told you about how the Seers sight fades as the one comes to take her place, it works the same way with the Six. Reuben’s wolf is getting weaker. He’s starting to fade,” he explained.

“Oh, there was just a full moon last week. I saw it when you were searching for the lost hiker. I guess you guys will have to wait for the next one.” I said, then stopped as I felt the tiny splats of ghost-like raindrops that hadn’t fell. “We’d better hurry. It’s going to rain soon.”

“How do you know that? Never mind. Dumb question. I already know the answer.” He grinned when he saw the large, dark clouds overhead moments later.

“We’re going to get wet,” I said staring up at the sky.

“Maybe not,” he looked down at me, “I could carry you. I’d have you home in a matter of minutes.”

“Carry me?”

The black mist had already rolled down him and he sat there staring at me. The wolfish smile on his face showed off his razor sharp teeth.

Sure, carry you. I’ve never done it before, but if you hold on tight, I don’t see how it would be a problem
. His shoulders did a small twitch that resembled a shrug.
Just get on my back. We’ll go slowly at first to see if it works. Worse case scenario, it doesn’t work, and we get wet
.

Well, it sounded logical, I thought, as I crawled up onto his silky back. My feet dangled several inches from the ground. Unsure where to hold on, I wound my fingers into the soft fur between his shoulders, where the collar of his shirt should have been had he been wearing one.

“I have a question,” I said as he began an experimental walk, “I don’t mean to sound crude, but where do your clothes go when you shift? Your shorts were there when you shifted back earlier, so where did they go just now?”

They’re still there, I guess. It works better when you shift with no clothes, though sometimes that’s not possible. As long as you wear clothes close to the same color as your wolf, they tend to blend in. That’s why I wear black most of the time. You can wear other stuff, but your fur ends up looking kinda weird when you shift in them
, he snorted, amused.

Erik, for example,
he continued,
loves tie-die stuff. We were called up to help look for a lost hiker on the trail last year. We split up to cover more territory. Erik was wearing a tie-die Mickey Mouse shirt and forgot to change. He found the hiker, who had fallen over a small embankment. He switched back when he realized his mistake, and managed to jerk off his shirt and hide it in a hollow tree, but not before the hiker had seen his wolf. When Erik reached him, the hiker told him he thought he may have hit his head and that he was going to need medical treatment. He said he had just seen a huge gray wolf with a neon colored chest in the shape of Mickey Mouse ears.

I laughed, imagining the hiker staring dumbfounded at a tie-die colored wolf. A loud clap of thunder made me look up at the sky. The clouds rumbled over us. It was getting darker.

We’d better try going a little faster
, he said, picking up speed.

I gripped his fur tighter as the trees flew past us. I leaned forward and buried my face in his neck, trying not to look down at the ground that passed beneath me in a blur. I breathed in the earthy, wooded smell of him and closed my eyes. His muscles worked beneath me in strong fluid motions. We were slowing down, I realized, as I turned my head to look and saw the trees with their outstretched limbs that seemed to move out of our way as if by magic. I saw my house up ahead as Adam stopped and waited for me to get off. I slid off him, and came around to wrap my arms around his furry neck in a big hug. I felt him lift me off the ground as he shifted, then his arms came around my waist to hold me close to him. The air sparked around us as a clap of lightening streaked across the sky.

“You need to go now before you get wet,” he said as he set me back down.

I leaned back and looked up into his eyes. He brushed my hair back and kissed my forehead, then turned toward the forest. I grabbed his arm and turned him back to me. I kissed him hard, and watched as his eyes widened, then closed. He kissed me back, holding my face between his hands.

“Goodnight, Nikki,” he whispered as he shifted back into the black wolf, and then turned to disappear in the trees.

“Goodnight,” I whispered to the empty spot where he had been.

A giant splat landed on my head, forcing me to turn and make a mad dash toward the house before the torrent of rain soaked me. I reached the front step a second before it poured.

GOOGLE WAS AN unstoppable force. There were over 800,000 links that promised information on werewolves, but nothing on the Wighcomocos legend. I sat there for hours in my room, trying to find the right source for information. It was exasperating. Everything I saw wanted me to watch this movie, or read that horror book. All the pictures were of horrific creatures that promised certain doom with beady eyes, sharp, blood-covered fangs and long claws. The only chance for my survival? A silver bullet.

It was all wrong. I sat, disgusted, and stared at the monitor where a grotesque figure with long, scary claws stood on its back feet and glared back at me. Adam wasn’t this monster at all. As a human, he was a gorgeous guy. But as his wolf, he was graceful, powerful, sleek and astounding. He was beautiful, plain and simple, as a guy and as a wolf.

I clicked on another link that informed me of the saving power of silver ammunition. I wondered if even that would slow Adam down. I wound one blonde curl around my finger as I looked at the screen. If he could tangle with a bear and come out untouched, a bullet wouldn’t stop him either. As long as he was a Keeper, he had to be safe. I hoped he would always be safe.

“Nikki, phone.”

I ran down the stairs and caught the phone as Mom tossed it to me from the kitchen.

“Hello?”

“Hey. It’s me,” an unidentified girl gushed on the other end of the line. “You’re never going to believe this.”

“Ronnie?” I asked, perplexed, as I curled up on the sofa and tucked my legs under me.

“Oh, yeah, sorry. It’s me. Listen, you know how Bernie and Beth were at cheer practice the other day? Well, guess what?”

“I…” one word was all that made it out.

“Never mind, you’ll never guess. Who would? I mean, it’s like, just amazing that’s all.” She sounded giddy.

“Ok, Ronnie. What on earth are you talking about?”

“I just talked to Beth. You’re the main story for the school paper tomorrow. Bernie took lots of shots of the pyramids at cheerleading practice last week. He took
tons
of close-ups, and they just developed them today. They saw where Tiffany’s leg was moved when you fell.” She sounded like a chipmunk chattering away.

“I’m the main story for the paper,” I groaned. Just great, as if I didn’t have enough going on in my life right now.

“Didn’t you hear me?” she asked, “It means that the crazy Barbie doll may have to answer for what she did. They could kick her off the squad. It’s proof in black and white. We could get a new captain. Maybe we could vote you in. You are better than she is, anyway.”

“No,” I bellowed into the receiver in alarm.

“Oh.” She sounded as if her feelings were hurt. I took a deep breath and made a mental note to grab aspirin for the migraine that had started to throb in my temple.

“Sorry, Ronnie,” I sighed. “What I meant was that I don’t think I could handle being captain, but thanks for the vote of confidence. Please don’t vote me in. I’m not cut out to be a leader, and there are other girls with way more experience than I have. We need someone who has been in the squad awhile that would know how to help the new girls. I think you would be the one that would be perfect as captain.” I needed that aspirin. I got up and made my way up the steps towards the bathroom.

“You think so?” she asked.

“Absolutely. In fact, if they ask for suggestions, I’m going to tell them you should do it,” I spoke with as much conviction as I could muster. My head felt as if it were going to explode. Small pulses of pain throbbed and my vision was starting to blur.

“I wouldn’t be against it. Listen, I need to make a couple more phone calls. Do you want me to call you back?”

“No, no, that’s ok,” I said, secretly rejoicing as I found the little bottle and popped the cap open. “I’ll see you at school.”

“Okay. Bye, Nikki.” The phone clicked and she was gone.

I had just swallowed two of the little white pills when it rang again. So much for a quiet evening. I snatched up the phone again.

“I’ll talk to you tomorrow at school.” I couldn’t keep the anger from seeping into the words.

“I hope so,” Brian said, laughing in my ear. “Or even on the way to school would be nice, too.”

“Sorry, I thought you were someone else,” I said, embarrassed.

“It’s okay. Beth just called me a little while ago, so I know what’s going on and how news travels. I was just calling to check on you,” his voice softened, “Are you okay?”

“Yes, I just don’t like being the center of attention. Maybe I shouldn’t go to school tomorrow,” I mumbled as I went into my bedroom and sat in my chair. I watched the rain come down, making tiny rivulets that ran down the window.

“You know it won’t help if you skip tomorrow. The whole school is going to be up in the air about it for awhile. You’re going to have to face it.”

“I know, but I still don’t want to go.”

“If it helps any, Tiffany will be getting way more attention than you will,” he pointed out the obvious in an attempt to help me.

“I know,” I said, “so how were your grandparents? Did you have fun in Roanoke? Was it a good weekend?”

“Yeah, change the subject, won’t you? But to answer you, they were fine and I didn’t have as much fun as I used to have going up there, but it was still okay. It would have been a better weekend if I could have spent it here. Did you get your berries?”

“Yes.” And a whole lot more, I thought. I hated lying to him, but what was I going to say? Well, I found out that I’m some kind of telepath/empath that can hear the thoughts of werewolves. Nothing major, just your usual weekend. Yeah, right. No way was I telling him this stuff, he wouldn’t understand. “Just berry picking and you missed the rain.”

“I didn’t miss the rain. I think we got home just in time for it. I wish I could have gone with you. Next time you go if you’ll let me know, I’ll come and help. Four hands are better than two.”

“Deal,” I said, glad not to have been questioned anymore on the state of events of the last two days. “Am I picking you up tomorrow?”

“If you’d like. I shall be honored to ride in your rag-topped chariot.”

“You should be. I don’t do that for just anyone.”

“Okay, so I’ll see you in the morning. Bye, Nikki.”

“Bye, Brian,” I listened to the faint click as he broke the connection.

Adam and the guys must have gotten a heads up about the paper. The next morning, they surrounded us as if they were secret service agents. As soon as I parked, Adam opened my door and waited for me to get out. Brian looked past me and gave him some kind of drop dead look that I had never seen on his face before. Adam ignored him and stood holding the door like a seasoned, professional doorman. I just stared from one to the other, wondering what I was supposed to do. It kind of felt like one of those western movies my dad used to watch, where the two guys come out of the saloon and challenge each other to a duel. I was stuck in the middle and I was wondering who was going to draw first. I picked my books up and held them in front of me, ready to smack the first hand that reached across.

Brian snorted and rolled his eyes. “Well, Nikki, the cavalry has shown up. I don’t think you have as much to worry about as you thought or maybe you have more, I don’t know. Either way, I’ll see you in class.” He got out of the car and shut the door a little harder than I approved of, then headed toward the school.

I looked at Adam, who still held the door. “Hi, what’s up?”

His solemn façade broke and he grinned at me, his amber eyes sparkling. “Power in numbers. Everyone leaves us alone, so now they’ll leave you alone, too, since you’re with us. We would have protected Brian, too, if he hung around,” he joked as he held out his hand for me.

“Yeah, I don’t see that happening—ever. I’ve never seen that look on his face before. He’s mad at you.” I took the offered hand and got out of the car.

“Yeah, I encroached on his territory. Or so he thinks. If you want to get technical about it, he’s on mine. It doesn’t matter, he’ll get over it,” he shrugged as if Brian was the last thing he was worried about.