Goddess of the Night (12 page)

"I heard
about Catty." Serena sat down. "Is Catty different like
you? She is, isn't she?"

"Look, I'm
feeling really bad right now about--" Vanessa stopped. She had
almost said "about losing a friend." The words felt too
final to say. She thought of Catty spinning down the tunnel for
eternity. Hot tears rimmed her eyes.

"You
didn't lose her," Serena comforted Vanessa. "I hope not
yet, anyway--if you'll come with me, maybe my friend can help."

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"I'm sorry
you think this is another chance for a practical joke," Vanessa
spat out. All she could think about was Catty caught in the tunnel.
She pushed back her chair, grabbed her bag, and walked to the door.

Serena's heavy
platforms clumped on the wood floor behind her.

"If Catty
were my friend and someone told me they knew someone who could help,
I wouldn't hesitate," Serena called out.

Vanessa paused,
chewing on the side of her cheek. Serena was right. She didn't have a
choice. She had to go with Serena if there was any chance the person
she knew could help bring Catty back.

"All
right," Vanessa said, but she still felt unsure.

Serena smiled
broadly. "Jimena is parked down the street."

They walked
across the small parking lot, then down the block. A blast of music
filled the night and made her heart vibrate with the beat. The music
came from a blue-and-white '81 Oldsmobile. The girl she had seen in
front of Serena's house on Sunday night leaned against the

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car. The wind
whirled her black hair around her face. She wore Daisy Dukes,
athletic shoes, and a fuchsia T-shirt. Her long dark legs were
crossed in front of her.

Serena opened
the car door on the passenger side. "Jimena, this is Vanessa.
Vanessa, Jimena."

"Hey,"
Jimena called.

"Is she
going to drive?" Vanessa asked over the music.

"Sure,"
Serena said.

"She looks
kind of young to be driving," Vanessa said nervously.

"Jimena's
fifteen. Her brother lets us borrow his car."

"You got
to know how to drive if you're going to jack cars," Jimena said
with a wry smile and climbed inside.

Vanessa
hesitated.

"Come on,
I quit the life," Jimena yelled back at her.
"Te lo
juro."

Vanessa thought
of Catty. She really had no choice. She threw her bag in the back and
crawled in after it. Serena climbed in the front.

Jimena started
the engine. The sound of the

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mufflers
thundered off the road and shattered the night. The car shrieked
around the corner and the rear end fishtailed.

Serena and
Jimena squealed with joy.

Vanessa wished
she had listened to Morgan now. She rubbed her forehead. What was the
world coming to when Morgan was offering good advice?

The traffic
light ahead turned yellow, then red. Jimena blasted through the
intersection as the oncoming traffic started to move. Horns honked.
Tires skidded.

"We almost
had an accident," Vanessa shouted above the music, and yanked
her seat belt into place with a snap of metal.

"The light
was yellow." Jimena floored the accelerator. The driver of a
Jeep honked at her and a woman in a Corvette leaned out her window
and screamed profanities.

"Aren't
you afraid of getting stopped by the police?"

"In Los
Angeles? Who are the
placas
gonna pick? Everyone breaks the
law," Jimena said. "Besides, I can outrun them."

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The awful
gnawing in Vanessa's stomach got worse.

"You'll
totally get used to this," Serena explained cheerfully.

"No
doubt," Vanessa muttered.

"Don't be
so scared," Serena said and leaned over the seat. A silver chain
fell from her overalls. A moon amulet dangled at the end of the
chain. It looked identical to the ones Catty and Vanessa wore. Was it
just a weird coincidence? Maybe there was a shop in Venice Beach that
specialized in moon charms.

She started to
ask Serena where she got the amulet when Jimena slammed on the
brakes. There was a terrible squeal of tires. Vanessa gripped the
seat and squeezed her eyes, waiting to become a tangle of flesh and
metal. When nothing happened, she opened her eyes. Jimena and Serena
were both staring at her.

She leaned
forward to tell them she had changed her mind, but the car shot out
again. Inertia pushed her back with a quick snap of her neck. How had
she let Serena convince her to go with them? It only proved to her
how absolutely

159

desperate she
felt. But overriding all her doubts was a strong foreboding that
something important was about to happen that would change her life
forever.

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Chapter 16

THE CAR
SCREECHED around the corner and stopped in front of a small gray
apartment building near Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Waves of
disappointment rolled over Vanessa. She thought she was on the verge
of discovering something earth-shattering. She had at least expected
a dark alley off Melrose and some threatening punker in five-inch
platform boots with silver studs jutting dangerously from leather
clothes.

Jimena shut off
the engine. The music stopped. Vanessa rubbed her head against the
silence ringing in her ears.

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Serena opened
the car door. "Come on," she coaxed. "You'll like
Maggie."

Vanessa climbed
from the car. The sweet scent of night jasmine enveloped her. Jimena
walked over to the security panel and buzzed an apartment. A loud hum
opened the magnetic lock.

Vanessa
followed Serena and Jimena into a mirrored entrance. She glanced at
the reflection, three girls with nothing in common, an odd
combination.

"Who am I
going to meet?" she asked.

"Maggie
Craven," Serena told her.

"She's a
retired history teacher," Jimena added.

"How can
she help me find Catty?"

They smiled and
pulled her onto an elevator. The metal doors closed, and the elevator
trundled up to the fourth floor.

"Look,
maybe I shouldn't have come," Vanessa hesitated.

"Too
late," Serena said.

They each took
one of Vanessa's hands and pulled her off the elevator, then walked
her down a narrow balcony that hung over a courtyard four

162

stories below.
Ivy entwined the iron railing.

Before Jimena
could knock, the door opened. "Welcome, welcome." A thin,
short woman smiled. She wore flowing white pajamas that looked like a
kimono. Her long gray hair curled into a bun on top of her head. She
hugged Jimena and Serena. Then she touched the moon amulet hanging
from Vanessa's neck.

"My dear,
dear child, I've been searching for you a long time," she said.
Her warm, caring eyes looked so deeply into Vanessa's that she
thought the woman was inspecting her soul. "You're here now.
That's all that matters."

Maggie motioned
them to come inside and they continued down a narrow hallway to a
living room and kitchen. Candle flames and oil lamps lit the
apartment. Simple haunting music of four notes played from a stringed
instrument Vanessa couldn't identify.

"Do you
like tea, my dear?" Maggie said. "Really, I just wanted to
ask about Catty and then go."

* Maggie pulled
out a chair. "Sit, please."

Vanessa sat at
the small table. The tablecloth

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caught the
light from the oil lamps and candles and gave the impression that it
was spun with gold and silver threads.

Maggie scooped
five teaspoons of loose tea into a white teapot. The round face of
the pot looked like the face of the moon. She added boiling water
from a kettle on the gas stove.

"Milk?"
Maggie held up a small white pitcher. She didn't wait for anyone to
answer but poured a little into the bottom of each cup.

"Now we'll
wait a moment for the tea to brew." She looked at Vanessa in a
loving way. "I'm so glad you've finally come to me. I have so
much I need to tell you, but where to start? That's always a
difficult decision."

"You know
what happened to Catty?" Vanessa said.

Maggie smiled
at her and set the strainer on top of a cup, poured tea, and handed
the cup to Vanessa. She repeated the same for Serena, Jimena, and
herself.

Vanessa drank
the tea. It tasted of cloves and honey and something bitter.

"This is
great tea." Vanessa sipped again. She

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hadn't realized
how thirsty she had been until she was staring at tea leaves on the
bottom of her empty cup. "Now, what about Catty?" she
asked.

"More tea,
my dear?"

"Yes,
please. What kind is it?" She handed her cup to Maggie. Already
her urgency about Catty was melting away. She began to relax.

"Perfect
tea for the occasion," Maggie said.

In the candle
glow Maggie's face seemed to transform. She looked young, and her
eyes, something in them looked so familiar. Vanessa blinked. Maggie
looked younger still, and her hands were definitely those of a young
woman. Why hadn't she noticed that before? She wasn't old.

Maggie refilled
Vanessa's cup and handed it back to her. Then she pulled pins from
her bun. She shook her head and ran her hands through her hair.
Luxurious curls fell to her shoulders. Vanessa could see now that her
first impression had been wrong. Maggie's hair wasn't gray, but the
pale blond of shimmering moonbeams, and silky. Why hadn't she seen
how beautiful Maggie was before?

"There
now, has my tea relaxed you,

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Vanessa?"
Maggie asked. "After centuries of experience I find it works
best to give a little herbal tea before I talk the truth, something
to help you see with your soul, not your eyes."

Vanessa
blinked. The walls had given way and the apartment was a windswept
vault dominated with the classical colonnades of antiquity. She
blinked again and the four walls of a small apartment returned.

"To es
dea, filia lunae."
Maggie glistened when she spoke, as if an
aura of pure luminosity curled around her. The words seemed similar
in cadence to the words Vanessa had spoken when she was being chased.

"What
language is that?" Vanessa said in a drowsy sort of way.

"Latin."
Maggie smiled.

"I know
some Latin words." Vanessa tried to repeat the words as she
remembered the sounds, but her tongue twisted sluggishly in her
mouth.
"Oh, Mah-tare Loon-ah, Re-gee-nah no-kis, Ad-you-wo
may noonk."

"Yes."
Maggie seemed concerned. "You've used this prayer?"

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Vanessa nodded,
feeling bewildered and totally dizzy. "How can I know Latin?"

"You were
born with it," Maggie said. "You know ancient Greek as
well."

"I'm sure
I don't." Vanessa giggled.

"It seems
I've found you without a second to spare if you've already been
forced to use the prayer." Maggie looked at Jimena and Serena.
"It was easy to bring Jimena and Serena to me because their
dreams were open. You must have nightmares, Vanessa."

"Yes,"
Vanessa whispered.

"It
happens now and again, but I'm afraid it's not a good sign. It means
the Atrox has already discovered who you are and entered your dreams.
That's why it was nearly impossible to speak to you in your sleep and
bring you to me. Thank goodness Serena found you."

"Did you
say something about an Atrox?" Vanessa couldn't have heard her
clearly. The tea was making her feel so strange.

"Not an
Atrox. The Atrox," Maggie whispered. "The primal source of
evil. Since creation it has been jealous of the world of light and
tried to destroy it."

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Maggie
considered the shadows clinging to the corners of the room. "The
Atrox is always around, sending shadows like tentacles to be its
eyes. Tell me, dear," Maggie continued. "Have you noticed
any inexplicable shadows following you?"

Vanessa thought
of the unnatural way shadows had frightened her when she was a girl
alone in her room, but before she could answer, Maggie lifted her
hands. Silver tendrils pulsated from her palm to the corners of the
room and scattered the shadows hovering there.

Maggie stared
at Vanessa. "To put it as simply as I can, Vanessa, there are
evil forces in the world. The Atrox controls them and the Atrox wants
to destroy you."

"Destroy
me?" she whispered and began to tremble. "Why me? I'm
just--"

"To es
dea, filia lunae.
You are a goddess, a Daughter of the Moon."

"Goddess?"

"Yes."
Maggie smiled. "When Pandora's box was opened, countless evils
and sorrows were released into the world. But the last thing to leave
the box was hope, the sole comfort for people

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during
misfortune. Only Selene, the goddess of the moon, saw the demonic
creature lurking nearby, sent by the Atrox to devour hope. She took
pity on Earth dwellers and gave her daughters, like guardian angels,
to fight the Atrox and perpetuate hope. That is why you are here,
Vanessa, to keep hope alive."

"How?"

"By
stopping the Atrox, of course."

"I'm going
to fight the Atrox." Vanessa would have laughed
if
Maggie
hadn't looked at her so gravely. "What happens if the Atrox
wins?"

"The end
of the world as we know it."

Vanessa felt
fear spread through her.

"I'm going
much too fast for you, my dear," Maggie said. "Sip your
tea."

Vanessa looked
at the tea and felt a flood of relief. It must be the tea. There must
be something in it that was making her feel so strange. Drug dealers
weren't all young and streetwise. Hippies aged. The tea must be a
powerful hallucinogenic. None of this was real. Hopefully, the
effects would wear off so she could walk home. The whole thing seemed
silly now.