Blood Moon (5 page)

Luv u Rowan

U2.

Well that went better than I hoped
, he thought. He tried to not be too optimistic, but maybe there was still some hope for them.

Chapter 4

Cathy Davis was working at the UC Santa Cruz campus late Friday night.
 
Professor Sorensen had made her retype the entire report she had finished on Monday.
 
He was so old fashioned that he wouldn’t let her use the computer even though she explained that if she had used a computer in the first place, there would have been a backup file and she wouldn’t have had to retype it.
 

“Tut, Tut, Ms. Davis.
 
I will have no part of that electronic froo froo.
 
Now get to work.”

Why did I take this job?
Cathy thought.
 
The money was bad, the hours were bad; she received no college credits for her work, and Professor Sorensen was obviously insane.
 

“Tut, tut.
 
Who says stuff like that? Winnie the Pooh?” she grumbled to herself under the hum of the 1970s electric typewriter.

The crazy old coot had gone home and Cathy had just finished typing.
 
“Finally. I’ve got to get a life! For that matter, I need to stop talking to myself or they’ll put me in the asylum right next door to Prof. Sorensen.”

She put the report on his desk, grabbed her stuff, and turned out the lights as she went out the door.
 
She had parked at the end of the building next to where the sexy guy with the red 300ZX parked this morning.
 
Of course he was long gone now, but at least this morning she got to say ‘hello’ to him as she walked in the building.
 
There were no lights out here, but she had been in this parking lot a million times and she’d never seen a car broken into once.
 

She reached into her purse and grabbed her keys, but when she pulled them out they snagged on her sweater and dropped to the asphalt by her car.
 
She bent down to grab the keys when someone hit her from behind and everything went dark.

It had been three or four days before Blake heard back from Rowan with her answer about his seeing Dean.
 
It was killing him not to ask her, but he was trying so hard to give her what she wanted. She had finally replied and told Blake that if he still wanted to go, she had spoken to Dean.
 
She had explained to Dean that Blake wanted to learn all he could and thought he was the best person to teach him.
 
Dean had been suspicious of his request, but for her sake and the sake of Devon, he’d try to be accommodating. He didn’t say he’d be nice, just that he would not kill Blake – at least not right away.

Blake thanked Rowan for her help and booked a flight to Colorado for the next day.
 
He wanted to get in as much time with Dean before the next full moon which was now about two weeks away, and he was ready to do some serious groveling to do it.

Rowan had had about all she could stand of her room.
 
She had hibernated there since they had all gotten back from Colorado and Blake made his apology.
 
She wasn’t ready to deal with him face to face, but she knew he was in Colorado now with Dean and there was no chance of running into him.
 

She had received some entertaining text messages from both of them.
 
Neither was dead yet, but according to some of the messages she was surprised there hadn’t been any serious injuries.
 
Blake was trying very hard and Dean, she was sure, was being brutal on him.
 

She had found Mr. Bear on the table looking quite handsome.
 
It was apparent that Devon was keeping Darby at bay.
 
She had appreciated this as sometimes Darby could hover a little too much under circumstances like these.
 
She knew her sister and that this was probably very hard for her.
 

Under Mr. Bear was what looked like a diary with a post-it note stuck to the cover.
 
It said:
 

Interesting Reading…

Grandpa George’s Diary re: Magic!!!

Darby

She tossed the diary on her bed and kissed Mr. Bear on the top of his head. She walked to the kitchen to find Darby sitting at the table reading the paper and having some coffee.
 

“Hey, stranger…found Mr. Bear did you?” Darby said.

“Yeah!” She set Mr. Bear on the kitchen table, walked behind Darby and grabbed a cup and some coffee, and then kissed her sister’s head and sat down with her coffee. “Thanks! Where did you find him?”

“Grandma’s trunk in the basement. I also found that super long fuchsia feather boa we used to dress up in.
 
Remember that?”

“I do. Weren’t we the beauty queens?”

“Any thought on how you want to play the Full Buck Moon this month? Are you going to have Dean come here? Are you going there? Or are you going to try it on your own?”

“You’ve been studying your lunar months haven’t you? I was thinking of going to Memorial Park the first night and trying it on my own.
 
If that doesn’t work out so well I can always fly to Colorado the next day.”

“Would you like Devon and I to come?
 
We could go camping and you and Devon could go off running.”

“I would like that, if he’s up for it.
 
I’m a little scared to be completely alone. Maybe if it goes well, I’ll try the second night on my own?”

“We have no problem with all three nights, Sweetie.
 
You’re not putting us out at all.
 
I think Devon’s looking forward to it.
 
He talks about how much fun he had with you and Dean.”
 

“Really? I’d really like that, but I don’t want to make you think I’ll always need someone. I just think I’m lacking in confidence right now. I’m hoping with time..”

“Devon will be thrilled,” Darby interrupted.

“I’ve asked Dean to come for a visit for August’s Full Sturgeon moon. We talked about heading north up to the American River and maybe going rafting or something.”

“Fun! I’m glad to see you’re making some plans,” Darby smiled.
 

“Where’s Devon?”

“Sleeping. He’s been making up for all the craziness we put him through.”
 

“Anything been going on while I was hibernating?”

“A few things. I assume you found the diary I put under Mr. Bear.”

“Yeah.”

“Seems there was a rival witch family living in Oljone back in Grandpa George’s time and even some time before that.
 
Their name was Keaton. Apparently there was a rather evil one that our family ended up having to vanquish.

“According to the diary, the vanquishing spell, and the nasty lunar spell that included sacrificing thirteen girls, is in our Book of Shadows too.”

“EEEW! I’ve never seen anything like that,” Rowan said.

“That’s the weird thing.
 
According to the diary, there might be a protection spell on the pages so that they wouldn’t fall in to the hands of the Keatons again.”

“Interesting. Anything else?”

“Hmmm, well there have been two young women abducted in neighboring towns since we’ve come back from Colorado.”

“That’s creepy.”
 

“Yeah and scary, so be careful if you go out at night.
 
We don’t need any more excitement for a while.”

“I’ll do my best,” Rowan said.

“How are Dean and Blake getting on?” asked Darby.

“Well, no one is dead yet.
 
Dean’s been enjoying the groveling – probably a bit too much. Blake texts me everyday just to say hi – no pressure. He’s trying very hard to give me space. Which I must say, you too have been very sweet in giving me some space. Seems I have a lot to thank Devon for.”

“It’s been hard seeing you so hurt, but I’m trying.”

“Thanks, D! You’ve been great. And thanks for finding Mr. Bear.”
 

“My pleasure. I was thinking of hitting the town archives today, to see if I could find anything on the Keatons.
 
Want to come with me and get out of the house for a bit?”

“Sure.”

“I want to stop by the bookstore real quick to pick up some messages. Apparently some woman has been coming in almost every day asking for me. I don’t know why she won’t just leave a message with Allison, but she insists on talking to me in person. Weird.”

“Yeah!” Rowan nodded.

“I was going to take a shower so maybe we could leave in about an hour, hour and a half?
 
Does that work for you?”

“Yeah sure.”

Darby and Rowan headed for the Oljone’s Hall of Records.
 
Given the small population, it wasn’t very large, but there was a lot of history in that old building.
 
It was near the Oljone Chapel, which had been there since the mid-1800s.
 
Since most records are birth, marriage, and death, it really had been located in the best possible place, right near the church. Churches have always kept very good records of their townspeople. What better place to record births and baptisms, marriages and deaths than where they were celebrated and mourned?

The Oljone Chapel had always intrigued Darby.
 
She never really knew for sure why.
 
She had always just thought it was a rather pretty chapel in the middle of a graveyard.
 
Like a beacon of hope surrounded in death and sadness, the graveyard itself had never seemed spooky to Darby or Rowan.
 
Maybe something about living in the town and visiting the chapel throughout their lifetime made the place too familiar to them to be creepy.
 
Darby thought to herself,
or maybe it’s just that we are witches and creepy things are not scary to us.