Bad Moon Rising - Paranormal Romance (20 page)

Donny shook his head. “There have been no reports of accidents on that route, but at least we know they did leave the airport. According to the information I got, they picked up their rental car about 6:00 PM, but that’s the last anyone saw of them.”

Mya felt as if her head would explode. Everyday there seemed to be some new crisis to deal with, and now her mom and Steve were missing.

Thinking back to the night before, Mya realized that she couldn’t even be sure that Jen had been home then. She hadn’t actually seen her friend asleep on the couch. It had been too dark when she came in.

It was strange for Jen to be gone all night, but she could have met someone. Mya quickly dialed Jen’s number. It rang until her voice mail picked up. “Hey give me a call when you get this.”

The horror in Donny’s eyes was telling. “I have to go. Someone reported a car abandoned out by Ganado … turns out it was the one your parents rented.”

* * *

From where Mya stood, she could see the back of the blue rental car. It had been partially hidden by juniper trees. Several officers were standing around the car so Mya wasn’t able to get a good look. They’d found blood in the front seat, as well as smeared across the trunk.

The police were in the process of prying open the trunk, but Donny wasn’t letting her near the car. To ensure she stayed well away from the scene, two officers stood on each side of her.

It didn’t matter. She no longer felt the need to see what was in the trunk. The scene would be ugly and Mya wanted to remember her parents the way they were when they were alive and well.

Donny was right. If her parents were in that trunk, and she knew in her heart that they were, the image would haunt her for the rest of her life. Mya heard the trunk pop open and quickly turned away so that she would not even get a glimpse.

A moment later Donny was beside her, his eyes glistening with unshed tears. “I’m sorry,” he said, his voice cracking with emotion.

Mya’s chest felt like it was filled with a ton of led and she struggled to breathe. She was too numb to feel that sharp - devastating pain that one expects to experience when a loved one is gone. She knew that would come later, but right now it just felt as if the world had come to a standstill.

“Why would they do this? Why would they go after my mom and Steve?” Mya asked in a tight voice.

Donny clasped a hand around her arm and led her away from the group of men standing nearby. “Mya we really don’t know who did this.”

“Yes we do!”

“If it was
them
… then it’s possible they feared your parents would talk you into leaving the reservation. I don’t know.” Donny shrugged.

Mya closed her eyes, trying to get a grip on the anger that was tearing away at her. She had to remember that it wasn’t just her loss - Donny had also lost a brother. “If everything you have told me is true, then they not only killed my real mother, but now they’ve murdered the only parents I have ever known. I won’t rest until I’ve destroyed them,” Mya forced her words through clenched teeth.

Donny shook his head. “You have to remember Mya … these skinwalkers may look like men, but they are really the vilest creatures in creation. They are demons,” he warned.

“Yeah, but isn’t that what I am too … in a way?” Mya’s eyes burned with a fury that was foreign to her. Never before had she felt such rage.

“Don’t give into them Mya. Maybe that’s what this is all about … maybe they are trying to reach that darkness that has remained dormant in your spirit.”

“Yeah … well maybe that’s what I’ll need in order to fight these monsters.” Mya looked away, the first prickling of tears stinging her eyes.

“We have always been pawns in the fight between angels and demons. Though the opponents in this war are known by different names, don’t be fooled. You cannot win because it is not your battle. You are a pawn … the same as your parents were,” he said, draping an arm around her shoulders.

Donny’s words did nothing to appease the turmoil boiling up inside of her. “I guess we’ll see about that.”

Donny sighed and hugged her tightly. “If you are serous about this, you need to go back to the beginning … go back and remember everything that has been forgotten.”

“How?” Mya’s words were choked off by the sobs that were making their way to the surface of her grief.

“There are ways … but there’s something that you have to remember too. You have to remember what their purpose is for you in the first place … and don’t let it happen.”

Mya knew he was talking about David. The purpose of all of this was to lead him astray so that they could destroy the
Sinapu
.

But how could she?

How could she deny what was in her heart. Regardless of everything else, Mya felt something for David that she’d never felt for another person. She felt bonded with him in ways that she could not even begin to explain.

Yes there was the physical attraction. She couldn’t even be around him without feeling a tingling all through her body, but it was so much more than that. It was like he was the man she was meant to be with.

“I know what you are thinking Mya,” Donny frowned. “You are thinking that you can skirt around that one little detail … that part about having to stay away from David Bray. But I promise you this … if you let yourself fall in love with him, not only will you be hurt, but many other people will be too.”

Mya tried to believe that what she was feeling for David was all part of some evil plan, but she just couldn’t. When she was with him, it felt pure and right. David had some strange beliefs, but that didn’t change the feelings that he’d stirred within her.

* * *

From the outer edges of her consciousness, she could hear hissing as the water hit the hot rocks, sending clouds of steam into the air - blanketing her with suffocating heat. She could hear the shaman’s words, but they seemed far away, like a half remembered dream.

Ren was pulling her back in time - coaxing her to relive all that she’d forgotten.

Mya blinked rapidly, trying to bring the world into focus. She was standing in front of a mirror - staring at her reflection, but the Mya that looked back at her was a child.

The child lifted a toothbrush and began brushing her teeth. Though Mya was there, she didn’t seem to be able to control her actions.

“Well hurry it up. Try to remember that we are guests here. We don’t want to be keeping Uncle Donny up all night.” Joan turned and left the bathroom.

Mya scrunched up her face, drawing her brows together. It’s not like she’d asked to come here and visit. There was no game system - no phone - no anything. She was even missing Jen’s sleepover party.

Baring her teeth, Mya began brushing each one of them meticulously, just like mommy had taught her. She didn’t want to have to go see the dentist. She’d heard horror stories about the dentist from her friends at school. Because she was so afraid of the dentist, Mya was always careful to brush every single tooth in her mouth. It was a small price to pay to keep that mean old dentist away.

When she was done brushing, she rinsed her mouth out with water a few times before picking up the brush. Her long blond hair was always difficult, but it was even more tangled after getting out of the shower. Running the brush through her wet hair was just too painful, so she spent a moment going through the surface of her hair before setting the brush down on the bathroom counter.

Mommy would be mad at her, but she probably wouldn’t notice until morning. At least she could avoid the torture until then. The secret to getting away with it until morning was to make sure she got into bed before her mom came back to check on her.

Mya ran into the guest bedroom at the back of the mobile home and jumped into the little rollaway bed that had been set out for her. Mom and Steve slept in a double bed that her uncle kept in the guest room.

She jumped into bed and quickly pulled a sheet over her. It was summer, and way too hot for blankets. Mya pretended to be asleep a few minutes later when mommy came to check on her. She had been pretending so well that she actually felt herself drifting off to sleep, but there was that strange noise. It sounded like a humming or the distant voices of singers chanting in some strange language.

Hours had gone by when Mya again opened her eyes. Mom and Steve were asleep and all of the lights were off. She could still hear the chanting, but now it was so much louder.

Where was it coming from?

There was an overwhelming urge to find out. She had to find out where it was coming from.

Careful not to wake anyone, Mya left the bed. She found her slippers where she’d left them on the floor. The long nightgown she was wearing was good enough to cover her. Putting on a robe would only make it too hot.

Mya tiptoed out of the bedroom, making her way in the dark to the front door. When she opened the door, she could hear the chanting even louder. It seemed to be coming from somewhere in the yard.

Holding tight to the rail, she slowly descended the porch stairs. Beneath the light of a full moon, Mya stood in the yard - listening. Now the chanting seemed further away - out in the desert.

Mya hesitated, glancing back at the door. If her parents woke up and found her gone, she would be in such deep trouble. They might even ground her for a whole year.

“Myaaa …” She weird voice vibrated through her head. But that couldn’t be right. You couldn’t hear something unless it was with your ears. It had to be coming from somewhere.

She started walking in the direction she thought the chanting was coming from. At first Mya only ventured a little ways from the house, but before she knew it, she could no longer see the shadowy outline of the mobile home.

Then they were there - the men with the painted faces. They would have looked like reapers, but instead of wearing black robes, they had on feathers and buckskin. Before she knew what happened, one of them swept her up and tucked her under his arm as he ran.

Mya’s shrieks tore through the night, but there was no one around to hear her. By the time they stopped, her throat was raw from screaming.

She was still under the man’s arm when he ducked into a hogan. Inside there was a small fire burning, making it easier to see. Mya was carelessly flung to the ground near the fire.

The heat was so intense that she felt it would burn her lungs if she breathed too much of it. They were poking at her with long sticks, spitting out words that she could not understand. Now she could hear drumming - the loud thumping was so close that she felt her body vibrating in time with the beat.

The skull men scattered to make room for someone else. The one that stepped forward was so much taller - so much larger than the rest. This one had no makeup on, but his features were so obscured by shadow that she could not tell what he looked like. She didn’t really need to see him to know that he was bad. The being emitted a darkness that was so putrid and evil that she found herself in the grip of utter terror. His eyes were completely black, like solid onyx with no whites visible at all.

Mya’s screams were ignored. The skull men began dancing around her as the being held out two large hands. He blew into them and a cloud of powder filled the air, coming to rest on Mya.

It felt as if her skin was on fire. Screeching, she began kicking at the thing that was standing over her.

“Mommy!” Mya screamed.

She heard it then, but she was too petrified for it to register at first. There was the sound of crashing and the snarling of an animal. As the growls and snarls grew louder, she became aware that something had changed. Mya’s eyes were those of a wild - trapped animal. She searched for the source of the noise and saw a gaping hole where there had been a wall just moments before.

There was screaming, but this time it wasn’t hers. The skull men were crying out in pain and there was so much blood. Before she could scramble to her feet and away from her captors, the wolf had a hold of her nightgown with its teeth and was dragging her out of the hogan.

The rough earth ripped at the flesh of her arms and legs as the animal dragged her through the sage. At first Mya was too dazed to fight off the animal, but as the pain of her raw and bleeding skin penetrated her terror, she began punching at the wolf.