Qaletaqa (5 page)

Harvey shook his head. “No offense, but
talking about some guy Melody was dreaming about every night kind
of put a damper on our honeymoon.”

My knuckles ground together under Uriah’s
vice-like grip. I had to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from
yelping at the pain. The tears in my eyes matched the ones showing
in Uriah’s, but I knew his pain was of a different kind. His head
dropped and a hand came up to cover his face. If he failed to break
the bond, he would be ruining a marriage, not just a relationship.
Harvey watched Uriah, confused by his response. I decided it was
time for me to take the lead.

“When were you and Melody married?” I
asked.

“Last Tuesday.”

“Tuesday, that’s an interesting day to get
married,” I said.

“Melody wanted a small ceremony, just our
immediate family, so we got married in the middle of the day on a
Tuesday. It was beautiful,” Harvey said. The smile on his face
momentarily cleared away the fear.

I wanted to get married on a Saturday so all
my family would be able to attend, especially my aunt Valerie.
Uriah had once suggested getting married in the middle of the week.
I knew he was thinking that fewer people would be able to come. He
was never very comfortable in front of a crowd, at least outside of
a sports stadium. I fought to keep a pleasant smile on my face as
the similarity between Uriah’s and Melody’s choices in dates was
not lost on me.

“We left on our honeymoon that night and got
back Monday. I thought maybe once we were home, the dreams would go
away, but they only got worse. She was waking up in the middle of
the night crying,” Harvey said. “I didn’t know what to do for
her.”

Helplessness, that was also a feeling I knew
all too well. Fortunately, I had learned to hold my own against it.
I felt a sense of responsibility toward Harvey to make sure he
could do the same.

“It will be okay, Harvey. Melody will be
alright. Why don’t you tell me a little more about the dreams? What
did Melody say was happening in them?”

“She said Uriah was in trouble, that
something was hunting him. And when I say something, I mean
something. Melody tried to explain it, but I couldn’t even picture
something to terrifying. She said it was like a big black mass that
kept changing its shape into these horrible, dangerous creatures.
She dreamed of the creature fighting Uriah once. That was the first
time she woke up screaming and crying.”

“Was there anything else?” I asked.

“Just more of the same,” he said. “One night
it was Uriah being hunted, the next they were fighting, then back
to hunting. It was frustrating to watch her so worried and afraid
and not be able to help her.”

I glanced over at Uriah. He didn’t look
interested in taking over. I squeezed his hand and turned my
attention back to Harvey. “Tell me about Melody. What’s she
like?”

Harvey jumped up out of his chair. He moved
around some boxes and packing material before finding what he was
looking for. He took a photo frame out of a box marked “Fragile”
and handed it to me. “This is her. That picture was taken last
summer. We drove up Trail Ridge Road in the national park to see
the alpine tundra.”

I held the frame in my hand and stared at the
photo it held. She was beautiful. Melody and Harvey were standing
together in front of a set of towering peaks. I hardly noticed
anything but Melody, though. Her long auburn hair hung down in
rippling waves. The sun had caught the highlights of her hair and
lit up her entire being. Her face was clear and bright. I knew she
was good and kind just by looking at her. In the picture she was
looking up at Harvey. The love in her expression reminded me of
what I saw in Uriah’s sweet face when he looked at me. Without ever
being in Melody’s presence, I felt I already knew her because I
knew Uriah.

I wanted to believe Daniel and I had been too
different to ever be together. It was just a lie I told myself.
Being loved by Uriah changed me in ways I never expected, but my
days of manipulation and vanity were too close to forget. Even
though I had grown by the time I met Daniel and widened the gap
between our similarities, the pull to abandon Uriah for him was so
incredibly strong. Strong enough it almost broke me.

After experiencing the Twin Soul bond with
Daniel, it was hard to imagine anything stronger, but looking at
the picture of Uriah’s Twin Soul, I knew the bond between them
would be at least ten times stronger than what I had endured. I
wondered if my presence would even faze Uriah when he reached
Melody.

My hands started to shake. Slowly, I handed
the frame back to Harvey. “She’s beautiful,” I said. My smile could
not have looked very sincere. I would have felt much better if
Melody had buck teeth, too many freckles, and acne.

“She is,” Harvey said, “but she’s so much
more than that. We met in a veterinarian’s office. My dog, Shasta,
caught kennel cough two winters ago. He was getting really bad, so
I rushed him to the nearest vet I could find. Melody was the
technician who called us back. She was so kind and gentle. Shasta
instantly relaxed. I took her back three times in the next month
just so I could see Melody. When I finally asked her out, she just
giggled like she had been expecting it and said yes.”

“Melody likes animals?” I asked, thinking of
Uriah’s love for the animals on his ranch back home. Would the
similarities never end? Why couldn’t she at least be one of those
girls who got grossed out by drool or dog poop? She probably
volunteered at homeless shelters and nursing homes too.

“Yeah, she’s starting her undergrad work in
Animal Sciences at CSU this fall so she can get into their
veterinarian school in a few years,” Harvey said.

Just like Uriah. I searched for something
besides Melody’s good deeds and wonderful qualities to talk about.
We had come to the little cottage for answers. The cottage was
where Melody had been captured, so maybe there was something
special about it. “You have a very nice home. You said you just
moved in?”

He glanced around the small living room with
a smile. “Melody was really excited to move out here. This was her
grandmother’s cottage. When her grandmother died, she left it to
Melody. After we got married, it was the perfect place to live,
despite being a little far from campus. When you’re a couple of
poor college students, free is perfect wherever it is. The only bad
part of moving into the cottage was that Melody and I had to leave
our pets with her parents until we can build a fence.”

I wondered if the house being in Melody’s
family for several generations had any bearing on her capture. I
really had no idea where to go with my questioning. I looked over
at Uriah, hoping he was ready to jump in by now. I was surprised to
see him staring intently at Harvey, at the photo still in Harvey’s
hand.

“Why weren’t you here?” Uriah’s voice was
much weaker than usual, but the accusation was clear.

“What?” Harvey asked.

“Why weren’t you here today, to protect her?
She was taken early this morning, and you barely noticed she was
gone a few minutes ago?” Every word was more firm and
confrontational than the previous one.

“Uriah,” I whispered, “calm down.”

He didn’t listen to me. “Why weren’t you
here?”

“I…I was out of town. My dad was having an
operation up in Wyoming, so I drove up to be with my mom until he
came out of surgery,” Harvey said. Confusion at Uriah’s attack
quickly changed into affront. “And what do you mean taken? How do
you know when she disappeared?”

His sharp tone finally brought Uriah out of
his attack. He stared at Harvey, surprise on his features as if he
just then realized how hostile he had been acting. “I’m sorry,
Harvey. I didn’t mean to attack you like that. I’m just worried
about Melody.”

Harvey’s body language softened and he sank
back into his chair. “Do you know who took her?”

Uriah began nodding slowly. “Yes, I do.”

His eyes came up, level with Harvey’s. Harvey
sat forward in his chair eagerly, begging Uriah to continue. “The
creature you mentioned from Melody’s dreams, it’s called the
Matwau. Claire and I belong to a Native American tribe called the
Tewa. We have legends about the Matwau. It’s a creation of the dark
gods.”

Harvey sat up straight. One eyebrow cocked,
his mouth held a disbelieving smirk conveying how he felt about
Uriah’s explanation. “The Matwau? That thing from Melody’s dream is
supposed to be real?”

“I know it sounds ridiculous, but it’s true.
Those things Melody saw in her dream, they were all real. The
Matwau has been hunting me, and we have fought. I fought him the
night you said Melody woke up screaming,” Uriah said. “The Matwau
took Melody this morning.”

“So you think this Matwau thing has Melody?
Why? Why would it come after her? She has nothing to do with you,
or your legends,” Harvey said. He crossed his hands over his chest,
inviting Uriah to offer some kind of believable explanation for
what was happening.

What could Uriah possibly tell him?

“The legends of the Matwau say he is the
vilest creation in the world. His goal is to destroy happiness. He
does this by capturing and killing humans who are capable of great
love and kindness,” Uriah said.

I was amazed by the calmness in his voice. I
had never before heard Uriah lie. It was astonishing that he could
do it so well. I knew the Matwau cared nothing for humans who were
capable of love and kindness. If he did, there would never have
been people in the world like Mother Theresa or Gandhi. The Matwau
cared only for keeping the bond of Twin Souls from forming.
Normally, he would simply kill one of the humans involved in the
bond. Unfortunately Uriah was not exactly normal when it came to
the Matwau. I wondered how Uriah would pull the rest of his
explanation together.

“Another Tewa legend tells of two people who
are meant to destroy the Matwau,” Uriah said. “I recently learned
from one of our shaman that I am one of the two. Melody is the
other.”

Harvey practically jumped out of his chair
and started pacing back and forth, bumping into boxes with every
other step. “This is a joke, right? Melody would never kill
anything. She cries every time one of her patients dies. She has
four dogs, three cats, two birds, and a really fat hamster because
she can’t bear to turn away a stray animal. Melody is not part of
your legend.”

“Then explain the dreams. Explain to me why I
ended up here, tonight, the day Melody goes missing,” Uriah
said.

That was a dangerous question. Harvey could
just as easily go a completely different route and decide that the
coincidences were not coincidences at all, that maybe Uriah was
involved in Melody’s disappearance. Harvey, however, looked too
stunned to consider any detailed conspiracies.

“The dreams…they’re just…and you…” Harvey
stopped and turned back to Uriah. “I can’t. I can’t explain it.
What is going on?”

“The Matwau found me first. He tried to get
rid of me, but I was too strong. Unfortunately I wasn’t strong
enough to beat him by myself. The Matwau ran off after our fight
and came searching for Melody,” Uriah said.

“Is she dead?” Harvey took a step forward, as
if trying to decide where to run to rescue his new wife. Uriah and
I both leapt up from the couch and grabbed his arms.

“She’s alright, Harvey,” I said. “She’s going
to be alright.”

He struggled against us. “I have to find
her.”

“Harvey,” Uriah said. The strength in his arm
and voice was enough to halt Harvey’s push to get to the door.
“She’s not dead. He didn’t take her so he could kill her. He took
her as bait.”

“Bait?”

“He’s trying to lure me into a trap, and he’s
using her as bait,” Uriah said.

Harvey dropped his hands and shook his head
in confusion. “Why wouldn’t he just kill her?”

For the first time since Uriah began his
fabricated explanation, he faltered. I jumped back in before Harvey
noticed the pause.

“Melody was never meant to fight the Matwau.
She is supposed to channel the spiritual strength, the help from
the gods, that Uriah will need to defeat the Matwau,” I said. I had
no idea where the explanation came from, but it seemed to cool
Harvey’s desperation. Uriah looked over at me with a look of
careful thanks.

“You see, Harvey, Melody will be fine. He
can’t hurt her, only me,” Uriah said. He slowly let go of Harvey’s
arm and nodded for me to do the same.

“So she won’t be harmed? Are you sure?”
Harvey asked.

Uriah nodded, his face hard, so as not to let
any of his emotions show through as they usually did. He did a
surprisingly good job of it. A small part of my heart was chipped
away at every change I noticed in him. Uriah’s face had always
shown his every thought and feeling, a tribute to his tender heart.
In such a short time he had learned to harden himself, and I
wondered whether that would ever leave him.

“Okay,” Harvey said, “so what do we do
now?”

I balked at the thought of Harvey
accompanying us on our search. Having been in the exact same
situation, I should have been the most compassionate to his needs,
but selfishness overruled my heart. I did not want to share my time
with Uriah. Harvey knew nothing of our legends. He would be more of
a hindrance than a help. The thoughts and emotions shamed me, but I
couldn’t shake them away.

I risked a quick glance at Uriah, to find him
doing the same. The look on his face was clear. Harvey would not be
coming with us. I made a quick nod to show that I understood and
turned back to Harvey.

“Claire and I will continue looking for
Melody. You will remain here,” Uriah said. Harvey’s head instantly
began shaking back and forth. Uriah’s hardened façade remained, but
I could tell it was beginning to wither.