Read Bad Moon Rising - Paranormal Romance Online
Authors: Lorraine Kennedy
Bad Moon Rising - Paranormal Romance (16 page)
“These protectors … are they like gods?” she asked doubtfully.
Trent shook his head. “No, they are protectors. They have never used the power that is right in their hands. Such a waste,” he said, shaking his head.
“But what does all this have to do with this girl, or your brother’s murder?”
“Her name was Lucy.” Trent continued as if she hadn’t spoke. “They needed a baby, and that’s why they brought her here.”
Trent fell silent, his eyes straying to the wall behind her - staring at something that only he could see.
“And?” Mya urged him to continue.
He turned his attention back to her and smiled. “And that’s why you’re here. They needed a girl child with the power to witch a guardian, and not just any guardian priest, but their alpha. Without him the heart is vulnerable.”
“And you are trying to tell me that this alpha is David Bray.” Mya was now smiling. Trent’s story reminded her of a campfire tale. “This all sounds more like some kind of fairytale. You know that, don’t you?”
Trent’s laugh was dark and unsettling. “Why do you think David Bray can’t kill you like he should. You are the seductress sent to lead him astray. He knows this, but your power over him is too strong.”
Mya frowned. “Okay! We need to back up. I really don’t know what you are trying to say, or what any of this has to do with our investigation. In fact, I don’t believe a word of it.”
“They brought Lucy here so that the
Tchin'dih
could father a girl child with the power to bring the alpha to his knees. The
Tchin'dih
is what you might call … a demon.”
Mya’s mouth twisted into a sarcastic smile. “You expect me to believe that I was fathered by a demon?”
Trent lifted his brows. “It’s true Mya. Though I have to say, you have way more of Lucy in you that what they had hoped.”
“So what happened to Lucy then?” Mya asked, deciding that it was probably best to go along with him for now.
“The birth killed her, but it may comfort you to know that she prayed up to her very last breath. She was pleading with her savior to deliver you from evil.”
“Where is she buried? I want to see some kind of proof that any of this is true at all.” Mya told him.
Even if there was no truth to most of what he was saying, she did believe the part about Lucy dying. She could almost feel Lucy’s presence in the crumbling little shack. It was as if the terror and despair of what she’d experienced was so profound that it had been imbedded into the atmosphere.
“That part I don’t know,” he confessed. “I would think they disposed of her body in a way that no one would ever find it.”
“So you have nothing to collaborate this story … except for this shack?” Mya shook her head in disbelief. “If all of this is true, why would you even be telling me? I’ve heard that you are a skinwalker.”
“Yes … I’ll bet you have.” He smiled. “But you see … they killed my brother, and now I’m going to bring them down. Besides … you are one hot little lady, and I kind of like you.”
Ignoring his last comment, Mya asked, “Who is it that killed Ben?”
“The skinwalkers of course. You see, Ben always did have a soft spot. He could never make himself do the things that one might consider bad. That’s why he never truly became.”
“Explain please.” Mya was becoming inpatient. It seemed that she was only getting fragments of information - just pieces of a puzzle, and she was in no mood to try and piece it together herself.
“To become, a
Tchin'dih
must enter your soul. It is when you are at your most powerful. Some skinwalkers are so entwined with their
Tchin'dih
that they become that spirit, or demon.”
“So they killed Ben because he couldn’t do this?” Mya asked.
“No … they killed him because when he found out that you were coming back, he was going to warn you. The same with Jay Walker … the guy they found on the highway. He wasn’t a skinwalker like your uncle thinks. He was a holy man that knew what was about to go down. Walker was going to warn you to leave … he was going to tell you.”
Mya eyed him skeptically. “Well you have told me. Why haven’t they killed you?”
“They will try.” He shrugged. “But I figured my best defense against them was to bring the truth out into the open.”
Before she could ask anything more, they were interrupted by the sound of a vicious growling outside the door.
Trent put a finger to his lips. Leaning down, he lifted his pant leg and pulled out a gun that he’d had strapped to his leg. Mya stared at him, her eyes wide with alarm. This whole time he’d been packing a gun and could have easily killed her.
He motioned for her to get behind him, but before she could move, a thunderous blast rocked the shack. She barely had time to shield her face from flying wood before the door exploded.
Mya froze. Terror crawled through her like billions of tiny worms eating away at her flesh. She suddenly realized that she wasn’t breathing and had to will herself to draw in life sustaining oxygen.
The wolf’s eyes burned with fury as it advanced on them. Snarling, it crouched low to the ground - ready to spring. It was huge; probably the biggest wolf she’d ever seen.
Trent leveled his eyes on the animal, betraying none of the fear she was sure he must have been feeling. Lifting the gun, he took aim. “Don’t make me kill you!”
Mya’s eyes darted from the animal to Trent. “Are you crazy?” she asked, unable to believe that he was wasting time talking to the wolf.
At that moment the wolf leaped at him. Trent pulled the trigger and the sound of gunfire shook the tiny shack. It happened too fast to see, but she heard a loud yelp before the animal hit the floor.
Trent grabbed her arm, practically dragging her out the door behind him. “Get in the car!” he yelled.
Mya glanced over her shoulder. The wolf was not coming after them. “I think it’s dead.”
“Maybe … maybe not, but you can bet that the rest of the pack isn’t too far behind. Let’s get out of here.”
Mya didn’t have to be told twice. The last thing she wanted was to come face to face with an entire pack of wolves.
Trent brought the car to a stop some distance from Donny’s trailer. Mya was relieved to see that his lights were on. At least she wouldn’t have to wait until tomorrow to talk to him. She was still convinced that Trent’s story was too wild to be true, but she wanted to hear it from Donny. If he told her it was ridiculous, she could brush it off.
Though there were no lights on in her trailer, her car was there so she wouldn’t have to spend the night worrying about Jen making it back.
Mya started to open the door, but stopped and looked back at Trent. “Can I ask you something?”
“Go for it.” He smiled.
“Why did you talk to the wolf? I mean … I know that your beliefs about animals are a lot different than white folks, but still.”
Trent’s smile faded. “That’s a story you’re not ready to hear yet.”
Mya’s brows came together. “I can’t see where it could be any more bizarre than what you’ve already told me.”
There were dark overtones to Trent’s laughter. “Oh you might be surprised, but it doesn’t matter. I promise you … this is one story you are not ready to hear.”
“But …”
Trent interrupted her. “Right now you are blowing off everything I’ve told you … so it’s no big deal, but the rest of it … well it’s going to hurt. But you can’t say I didn’t warn you.”
“You’re keeping secrets again,” she accused.
Trent shook his head. “Another time maybe. Hell, maybe I won’t even have to tell you. Maybe someone else will, or you’ll figure it out on your own.”
“Fine!” Mya opened the door and got out, but before closing it, she leaned down and told him, “I know what you’re hinting at. You think that wolf was a skinwalker.”
He smiled and shook his head. “Nope, it wasn’t a skinwalker.”
Scowling at him, Mya backed up and shut the door. She walked directly toward Donny’s trailer, not bothering to look back when she heard Trent drive away. It seemed everything she’d encountered since coming to the reservation was just too weird. Mya hoped Donny would provide her with some kind of logical explanation. She was so ready to be done with all the chaos and get back to something close to normal. She couldn’t shake the feeling that she was now stepping onto the beginning of a very long and bizarre road.
Mya knocked and waited for Donny to open the door.
“Who is it,” he called from inside.
“It’s me … Mya.”
When he opened the door, Mya couldn’t help but crack a smile at the image that greeted her. Donny stood there in old cut off jeans and a plain white T-shirt. In his hand was a big bag of potato chips. He was always chastising her for eating junk food. Now she’d caught him not practicing what he preached.
“On a binge tonight?”
Donny’s lips spread in a small - contrite grin. He knew he’d been caught. “Well I’m too old to have to worry about my health.”
Mya cleared her throat. “I see.”
Donny held the screen door open so she could come inside. “What are you doing out. I thought you were in bed.”
“No, Jen had my car. I was with Trent,” she told him, her eyes straying to the TV program he’d been watching. It was another of his shoot-em-up cop shows that he was so fond of.
“Girl, you didn’t listen to a thing I said about the skinwalkers, did you?” he frowned.
“He wanted to show me something,” Mya said, taking a seat on the little couch.
Donny dropped the bag of potato chips on the coffee table before sitting down. “Well at least you’re still alive. That’s something I guess,” he said before plopping down in his recliner.
“Did it concern the
Sinapu
?” he asked, a hint of anxiety in his voice.
“A little, but mostly it was about me.”
“Oh?” Donny picked up the remote and muted the TV.
After hearing the alarm in his voice, Mya felt her nerves start to short circuit. What if there was something to what Trent had told her?
“He said that my mom wasn’t really my mom. That my mother was some girl named Lucy.”
One look at Donny’s face and Mya felt her heart drop into her stomach.
“It’s true!” Donny nodded. “I don’t know about the girl, but you were adopted. This is something your parents should have told you a long time ago.” His voice shook with anger. “I told them over and over again that they had to tell you this stuff before you came here.”
Mya was at a loss for words. She was too numb to even think. It was like everything about her life had been a lie, and she had no idea who she really was.
Taking a deep breath, Donny looked into her eyes. “We never knew who your parents were, but the people around here … they believe that you were fathered by a
Tchin'dih
. They think that you are here to destroy the guardians.”
“Am I?” she asked in a soft voice.
“To say that you were fathered by a demon is a far stretch, but everything you have been doing is feeding the rumor mill. It doesn’t matter if it’s true or not, you are putting yourself in danger because the people believe it to be true.”
“How did I end up with my mom and Steve?” Mya stood up. She was too antsy to sit in one place.
“You were only a couple of weeks old when you were brought in as a foster child. Joan took care of you, hoping that they would find you a home, but …” His words faded.
“But what?”
“They couldn’t place you because of what everyone thought you were. Joan didn’t want them to send you out of the area … she’d grown too attached to you. When she found out that they planned to send you to Santa Fe, she decided to adopt you herself. Then her husband was killed.”
“My dad,” she muttered. At least he was the man she’d always thought of as her dad. “Was he really killed in a car accident?”
Donny nodded. “Yes, but she believed it was orchestrated somehow. Joan began to get real paranoid. It was Steve that helped get the two of you out of here.”
“If she was afraid of being here, why did we come back?”
Donny shrugged. “Once she’d been gone from here long enough, her fears started to fade and she began rationalizing it all. After a few years she came to the conclusion that it was all nonsense.”
“But you don’t think so.” Mya stopped pacing.
“I don’t know, but what’s important is that the
Sinapu
want you dead, as do many of the people on this reservation. At first I thought it would all be okay, but now I’m no so sure.”
“What do you mean?”
“The people haven’t forgotten like I thought they would, and now that you’ve been chumming around with David Bray, you also have the
Sinapu
worried. I think that the people are starting to pay attention to the old tales.”
“What are these tales?” Mya’s voice shook, her frustration and anger bubbling to the surface. “What exactly is it that I’m supposed to do? I could only get bits and pieces out of Metzger … so why don’t you tell me?”
Donny shook his head. “You have to remember, these are just stories.”
“So … tell me what they are.”
“You are supposed to be fathered by one of the demons that inhabit the skinwalkers. Your destiny is to lead the alpha of the
Sinapu
priests astray so that he will abandon his duty. When that happens, the skinwalkers can go after the heart of the people.”
“Really! If this leader already knows this, can’t he just … I don’t now … ignore me or something? And what is this heart?”
