Moon Spun (9 page)

My peaceful moment ended when Chad spotted Blaster. He jumped off the tractor. “Hey, is that the bull? Can you make him fart?”

I sighed. “He doesn’t fart on command, Chad. But wait a couple of minutes and, trust me, you’ll get your wish.”

“Cool,” Chad said again and scampered toward the pasture.

“Hold it,” I yelled and took off after him, but I was wearing flip flops and there was no way I could keep up. “Slow down, Chad, Blaster’s dangerous!”

That statement was about one percent true. Ninety nine percent of the time, Blaster was like a big, old cow, chewing his cud and blissfully contributing his share of methane gas to the universe. But, he was a bull and as such, could be dangerous. Since he didn’t like me and, if Chad was right about the faery thing, Blaster wouldn’t like him either. We needed to be careful. Chad screeched to a halt a few inches from the electric fence. Blaster, who’d been trotting toward the fence, stopped in his tracks, flared his nostrils and pawed the ground. Not a good sign. My heart banged against my chest as I raced toward Chad. When I reached him, I grabbed his arm and whispered, “Start walking backward . . . slowly.”

Chad looked up at me, his eyes clouded with confusion. “Won’t the fence stop him?”

With a hiss of exasperation, I said, “Buddy boy, when Blaster gets ticked off, he can go through that fence like it’s not even there. I saw him do it once when a coyote was standing right where you are. Now, please, do as I say.”

We crept slowly backward, never taking our eyes off Blaster. I was getting ready to grab Chad and make a run for it, when the bull lifted his head skyward and let out a high-pitched bellow of rage so terrifying, I swear my heart stopped. The very next second, he lowered his head and charged toward the fence, his hooves throwing up bits of mud and grass as he thundered closer. I threw Chad behind me. “Run, Chad! Go!”

Chad darted behind the apple tree. I started to stumble after him, but Blaster was just inches from the fence. No way would I make it! I’d stopped him before. I could do it again. I clutched the moonstone with one hand and extended the other, palm forward, praying my magic wouldn’t fail me. I focused on the bull and summoned every ounce of the strength and power I felt building in my body. “Stop!” I screamed.

An arc of iridescent blue light shot from my body and slammed into the huge, black bull, lifting him from his feet. He floated up and sailed backward a good twenty yards. His droopy ears and tail shot straight up. His eyes, normally little pools of meanness, opened so wide I could see white all around them. With his front legs stretched forward and hind legs extended behind him, he looked like 296

he was trying to stick a ten point landing in bovine gymnastics. If it hadn’t been so scary, I’d have laughed.

I let him hover in the air a while before dropping my arm slowly, making sure Blaster floated gently back to earth. After all, he was Uncle Sid’s money maker. He stood motionless for a few seconds, a look of utter surprise on his face, before lifting his tail and proving, once again, why the name Blaster suited him so well. Then, with a soft moo that sounded more like Bossy the cow than Blaster the bull, he shook his head, turned and trotted away. I resumed breathing. A wave of dizziness swept over me. My stomach did a couple of nausea-inducing flips. I looked over at Chad, who was peering around the tree trunk, his face ghostly white in the dim light. He shot out from behind the tree and launched himself at my body like a heat-seeking missile. Before he threw his arms around my waist, I clicked the moonstone back to twelve o’clock to keep him from getting zapped. “I’m sorry, Allie.”

As I held his trembling body, I visualized what could have happened. Chad, bloody and broken on the ground, maybe even dead. Chad . . . my responsibility. Gently, I loosened Chad’s grip and stepped away. “Not your fault,” I said with a shaky laugh. “I forgot to tell you the number one rule around here. Don’t mess with the bull.”

He gave me a wobbly smile. “No kidding. I coulda been Flat Chad.”

I decided to go with the flow. “Yep, Flat Chad, the paper doll. Complete kit comes with a charging bull and irresponsible teenage girl.”

My knees were feeling a little weak, so I sank to the ground and leaned against the tree trunk, my head in my hands. I took a couple of deep breaths unable to shake the image of what could have happened. Geez, Chad was just a little kid. I should have warned him about the bull. I felt Chad’s slight body settle in next to mine. He patted my arm. “It’s okay, Allie. Guess what?”

I raised my head and looked at him.

“You saved my life.” He reached a hand toward the moonstone “And that thing helped you do it.”

I took his hand and put it in his lap. “Second rule. Don’t touch the moonstone.”

He frowned at me and huffed, “I wasn’t planning on touching it. Even if I did, so what?”

“It can hurt you.”

“Huh?”

“There’s lots of stuff you don’t know.”

He narrowed his eyes. “I told you lots of stuff. I’m pretty darn good at keeping secrets. I’ve had lots of practice.”

Score one for the kid. He’d been different all his life, and when he found out why, it wasn’t exactly something he could share with the world. I knew how he felt.

“Besides, I already knew you could do magic.”

“Oh, yeah,” I said. “Caitlyn.”

“So, are you going to tell me or not?” Chad demanded.

Good question. Would sharing info about my special abilities put Chad in even more danger? Or, since he was hanging out with me for hours at a time, would not knowing be worse?

My teacher, Mrs. Burke says, “Information is power.” Power in the hands of a ten-year-old could be dangerous, but somehow it felt right to trust Chad with my bizarre personal history. I took a big breath and dove in. “This isn’t the first time I’ve used telekinetic power on Blaster. But, back then, I didn’t even know the moonstone existed.”

Chad listened without saying a word while I told him the whole story. How I fell off the ladder, bounced off the electric fence and made Blaster run backwards. I showed him the star on my palm, 297

told him about Kizzy and the prophecy and that it was my destiny to have the moonstone. By the time I filled him in on the Star Seekers and Trimarks, it was fully dark. A bright half-moon peeped over the roof of the trailer, bathing Chad’s pale cheeks in silvery light. When I ran out of words, Chad took my hand. “Don’t worry, Allie. Your secret’s safe with me.”

I smiled. “I know. That’s why I told you.”

“So, does the moonstone make the TKP work better?”

I nodded. “For sure.”

He glanced over his shoulder at the rising moon. “What happens when moonlight hits the moonstone?”

Strangely, I’d never considered that scenario. I shrugged.

“Wanna try?” Chad said.

“Sure.” We scrambled up and stepped away from the tree. I checked to see where Blaster was and spotted him grazing in the middle of the pasture, his tail still switching angrily. I grasped the moonstone still hanging from its silver chain around my neck and moved it three clicks in its setting to the nine o’clock position. With the pendant lying on my palm, I turned to face the half moon. Moonlight glistened on the iridescent stone, its reflected light creating a dancing rainbow on its surface.

Slowly, it began to warm and pulsate in my hand. Chad inhaled sharply. “Whoa! Is that thing glowing?”

Mesmerized, I stared at the moonstone, and realized it was not just reflecting light, but growing brighter by the second. Was it possible the moonstone was creating its own energy?

Driven by an instinct I didn’t understand, I lifted the moonstone higher into the shaft of moonlight. An icy tingle spread from the stone’s point of contact in my hand as the strength and power of the moon surged through my body. I know it sounds crazy, but I swear I heard the moon call my name. The only way I can describe the feeling is this: even with my feet firmly planted on earth, a part of me separated from my body and became one with the moon. Swear to God, I was looking down at Uncle Sid’s orchard from above. For the second time tonight, my stomach flipped over and I was engulfed by a heady dizziness that almost toppled me. And then, the world stopped turning.

298

Chapter Twelve

Blinded by painfully brilliant light, I let the moonstone fall from my nerveless fingers and bang against my chest. I staggered sideways, my arms flailing the air as I desperately tried to keep from falling. Bitter bile rose in my throat. After lurching a few more steps, gravity won out and I crumpled onto the ground, landing on my right side. I sucked in air and tried to figure out where I was and what was happening to me. Was I having a stroke? A heart attack?

Slowly, the dizziness and nausea began to fade and my vision cleared. I pushed up to my hands and knees and waited a few beats to make sure my legs would hold me when I stood. Instead of the usual night sounds—wind rustling through the apple trees, Blaster chomping grass, cars whizzing by on Peacock Flats Road—I heard the ba- bump of my beating heart, the whoosh of blood rushing through my veins and the sound of my lungs expanding and contracting. My nostrils were filled with the scent of ripe oranges and crushed mint leaves, an odor so powerful, I could taste it. Speechless and struggling to process what I was seeing, I gazed in wonder at a world bathed in silver. Uncle Sid’s apple trees . . . silver. Our crappy trailer . . . silver. Uncle Sid’s tractor . . . silver. Blaster the bull and Chad . . . both silver. Make that silver and frozen in space and time. Chad’s mouth was hanging open. Crouching slightly, he was standing with his right arm extended, pointing at the moonstone.

Blaster’s head was turned toward us, his tail frozen in mid-switch, a long string of slobber hanging, frozen, from his half-open mouth to the ground.

I looked up and saw a plane hanging motionless in sky. With my heart pounding in my chest, I stood in the moonlight and gazed at my silver-coated world, trying to wrap my mind around a totally foreign concept. Somehow, some way, I had used the moonstone and stopped the world dead in its tracks. I could come to no other conclusion.

I raised my hand and wiggled my fingers, double checking to make sure I was able to move in the strange atmosphere I’d created. I waved my hands in front of Chad’s face and watched silver particles fly from my fingertips. When I glanced at the apple tree, I saw wind chimes canted at a strange angle. Wind chimes meant Trilby, my screwy guardian angel, was on her way. I must have stopped her, midjourney, from whatever level of heaven she now occupied. Trilby would just have to wait, because as my confusion lifted, I made a decision. Since I’d managed to stop time, might as well have a little fun. I laughed out loud as I thought of the things I could do. Walk into Uncle Sid’s house and use a magic marker to draw a mustache on Aunt Sandra. Use my TKP and park Matt’s Jeep on top of the roof.

For starters, I crawled under the fence and danced around Blaster, darting in to touch his wicked horns. With a running start and a loud grunt of effort, I leaped up, grabbed a handful of silver fur and pulled myself up on Blaster’s back. Moonstruck and sitting astride a killer bull, I raised a fist to the sky and screamed at the top of my lungs, “Yes! I did it!”

Then, reality set in and bit me in the butt. It was possible I was altering the course of history. Did I really want that on my conscience? Maybe I should think about reversing the spell. What if I couldn’t figure out how to do it? Scary thought. I slipped off Blaster who, by the way, wasn’t even breathing. That worried me because, as previously stated, he was an extremely valuable animal. Making sure the fence was between Blaster and me, I turned away from the moon and moved the moonstone back to its original setting. Three things happened simultaneously. Blaster bellowed, Chad said, “Hey, what happened?” and Trilby, dressed in a flowing pink gown, plopped down at the base of 299

the apple tree.

Chad whirled toward the apple tree and yelled, “Hey! Where did she come from?”

I stared at him and murmured, “No way.” Up to that point, nobody could see Trilby but me.

“Who’s the faery kid?” Trilby said. She stood up and fluffed her skirt. Okay, in a weird way, it made sense. Trilby was no longer among the living. Her status as an angel-in-training must have given her the ability to identify faeries, and since Chad claimed to be a faery—which was looking more and more likely—he was able to see her. Trilby popped into my life every now and then. She was working her way up the ladder to full angelhood. At last report, not very successfully. Unfortunately, our fates were tied together. Very frustrating for both of us. I was her ticket to the top floor because, every time she screwed up, somebody “up there” gave her another assignment. That assignment always involved a message for me. And, since Trilby had ingested a lot of controlled substances during her time on earth, the message was usually garbled in some fashion, forcing me to read between the lines. Chad walked over to Trilby and stretched out his hand. “I’m Chad.” His hand passed through Trilby’s body. “Cool. You’re a ghost, huh?”

Trilby glared down at him. “I am not a ghost, little boy. For God’s sake, don’t you recognize an angel when you see one?’

Chad glanced over at me. I nodded. “Sorry,” he said. “Never saw one before.”

I sat on a stump and grinned up at Trilby. “What’s with the pink gown? I thought you were on the second floor now. You know, business casual, not pink gown.”

Trilby floated up into the apple tree and perched on the branch next to the wind chimes. She slapped at her pink gown. “Hate this thing.”

“So, what happened?”

She made a face. “Nobody told me I couldn’t go back to the first floor for a visit. Remember, Micah? The extremely hot angel I told you about?”

I held up a hand. “Okay, I get it. You messed around with Micah, got in trouble, and now you have to fix it by giving me some sort of message that won’t make any sense at all.”

That sounded really bitchy, but I had quite a lot on my plate, what with Grandpa Claude, Mike Purdy’s newly-discovered supernatural father, the faery biz, stopping time, etc. etc. Knowing Trilby as I did, I was sure she would make everything more confusing.