Goddess of the Night (21 page)

Vanessa felt a
strange glow tremble through her. She glanced at Serena and Jimena
and saw relief on their faces as well, and then she looked at Catty,
who looked totally confused.

"Welcome,
my last daughter."

Catty smiled.
"You're the lady from my dreams. You're real! How cool!"

They went
upstairs to the apartment. The room smelled of ginger and cinnamon
and glowed from candles placed around the room. The table was set for
tea. They sat down and Maggie poured tea as Serena and Jimena told
her what had happened.

"You all
did well tonight," Maggie praised

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them. "And
to think this is the Nefandus Moon, a dark moon special to the Atrox.
Very good, my dears."

"They're
not defeated," Jimena said.

"But
they've been stopped on a very momentous night, and my daughters are
still together."

Maggie talked
quickly as she wrapped Catty's arms in bandages and applied a
slippery goo to the cut on her forehead. She told Catty everything
that she had explained to Vanessa about the Atrox and its followers.
When she finished, she added something Vanessa hadn't heard before:
"Your gift only lasts until you are seventeen, and then there's
a metamorphosis. You have to make the most important choice of your
life. Either you can choose to lose your powers and your memory of
what you once were, or you disappear. The ones who disappear become
something else, guardian spirits perhaps. No one really knows."

The girls sat
silently, taking it all in.

Then Vanessa
remembered the strange words that Serena and Jimena had spoken. "What
were the incantations you yelled when you came in to rescue Catty and
me?"

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"Non
aliauis incipit convivium sine nobis,"
Jimena said.

"Nos
sumus convivium"
Serena finished.

Maggie looked
at them sternly. "That's what you said?"

Jimena nodded.
"It means 'No one starts the party without us.'"

"Yeah,
'cause we are the party!" Serena grinned and then they were all
laughing.

"But
wait." Catty put her hand up and touched the poultice that
Maggie had put over the bruise on her forehead. "How did you
know where to find us?"

"That's
easy." Serena looked at Jimena. "She had a premonition."

"Yeah, I
saw you all dolled up in blue." Jimena smiled at Vanessa.

"But I
didn't even know where I was going." Vanessa leaned back in her
chair, bewildered.

"It's not
like reading minds," Serena explained.

"I saw the
warehouse." Jimena tapped the side of her head with her finger.
"I used to be one of the girls who hung out there, so I knew
where to go."

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"So how
did you fight them?" Vanessa asked.

"The
amulets." Serena cupped her hand around hers. "They give us
power."

"Now, I've
told you that's not it," Maggie warned. "The amulets are
only symbols. They mean nothing without your faith. It is your faith
in yourselves to turn their evil away that makes you stronger than
they are."

"But the
amulets glowed," Catty pointed out.

"That was
your power, my dear." Maggie spoke softly. "The amulet is
only a reminder of the power inside you. Each of you has a special
power to fight the Atrox. Jimena's premonitions will tell us when
someone needs our help. Serena with her mind-reading will know when
someone is being tempted by the Atrox. Vanessa's invisibility will
enable her to go among the Followers unseen and tell us what they are
planning. And Catty can travel into the past or future to confirm our
suspicions so that the Followers cannot deceive us. Together you are
an unstoppable force."

The girls
looked at each other and smiled.

"Why does
the dark of the moon give me the creeps?" Vanessa sipped the
tea.

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"Evil
forces are stronger in darkness. I suppose some would blame Selene
for the dark moon." Maggie turned her face away. "There
wasn't always a dark of the moon, you know."

"What
happened?" Catty asked.

"Selene
was responsible for guiding the moon across the skies. One night
Selene looked down and saw Endymion in the hills, the most beautiful
man, a shepherd."

Vanessa thought
of Michael. Then she blushed and looked around the table.

Maggie cleared
her throat. "She fell in love. First sight. All that
heart-flipping, adrenaline- surging wonder of it. She couldn't resist
him. She crept down to lie beside him, abandoning her duty. Some say
she asked Zeus to make Endymion sleep for eternity so she would
always have him with her. But the truth is Zeus was so angered by the
darkened sky that he punished Selene and made it so Endymion should
sleep forever. But that didn't stop Selene from loving him. She slips
away for a few nights each month to visit her sleeping lover and see
if she can wake him."

288

"What
would happen if she did wake him?" Jimena asked.

"After all
these years I'd hate to consider the consequences. She'd probably
stay away for months, wreak havoc with the tides and weather."
Maggie started laughing. "What would scientists think of their
theories then? Gravity?" she said as if it were an absurd idea
and laughed some more.

At sunrise,
Catty and Vanessa walked home.

"Wow, what
an adventure," Catty said. "Let's go back and do it again."

"No!"
Vanessa grabbed Catty's arm. She looked at her watch. The hands were
gratefully still.

"Just
kidding." Catty laughed and hugged her.

289

Chapter 27

WHEN VANESSA
CREPT back in her bedroom, she found a red velvet pillow leaning
against her other pillows on her bed. She picked it up. GODDESS was
embroidered in deeper reds and golds on the front.

"Stanton,"
she whispered and stared at the pillow. She was going to toss it, but
something made her hold it tight.

"Goddess,"
she read again, and smiled.

She took a long
shower, letting the hot water wash the glitter and paint from her
body. She

290

crawled into
bed and didn't bother to close the window. She sensed that she was
safe, for now. She curled against the red velvet pillow and fell
asleep thinking about Michael.

She woke later
that day, a little stunned by all that had happened, and dressed.
Catty had planned to spend the day in bed sleeping, but Vanessa had
two things to do that couldn't wait.

At dusk, she
walked down Fairfax Avenue carrying the lawn flamingo she had
purchased at Armstrong's. She turned down Melrose Avenue and walked
for several blocks, past boutiques named Street Slut and Wizard, then
turned again. She found the house with the missing flamingo and set
the new one in the ground.

She still had
something important to do. It was risky, but she felt she owed it to
herself. She walked over to Michael's house and knocked on the door.

"Vanessa,"
Michael said in surprise when he opened the door.

She pretended
not to see his look of irritation. "I just wanted you to know
that none of the things I did were ever about you."

291

He looked
confused.

"I had
something going on in my life. Something that made me act odd at
times, but it's nothing to do with you. I really like you. And I
wanted to kiss you and I wanted to hold your hand, but when you touch
me, I get nervous and I feel all crazy inside and I act weird."
She stopped. Was he smiling?

She started
again. "And I'm probably never going to stop acting the way I
do, because that's just who I am."

She looked back
at him. Why didn't he say anything?

"Well,
there, I said it. That's the truth."

He still didn't
say anything.

"So I
wanted to let you know that."

She bit her
lip, shrugged, then turned and walked away feeling totally
humiliated.

"Vanessa,"
Michael called.

Her heart
flipped. She turned back. He was definitely smiling.

"You want
to go to Planet Bang with me Tuesday night?"

"Yes."
Did she answer too quickly? Her

292

molecules
buzzed in a dreamy way, and she smiled back at him. "Yeah, I'd
like that."

"I'll pick
you up early, and we'll eat first."

She nodded.
"That sounds great."

"You want
to come in? I was just playing the piano."

She smiled
mischievously and walked toward him. "No," she whispered
and looked deep into his eyes.

"No?"
he teased.

And then he
reached out, and his arms were around her. She breathed in the spice
soap smell of him. He bent his head down, and his lips pressed
against hers. Waves of desire rose inside her. Her molecules swirled
in pleasure, but they stayed together tight and strong. She let him
kiss her again before she stopped him. Then she opened her eyes and
looked at him.

"So I'll
see you at school tomorrow," she said, and turned to leave.

"Tomorrow."
He grinned.

"Bye."
She blew him a kiss and hurried down the walk.

And then she
was running back to Melrose.

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She looked up
and saw the crescent moon. She glanced behind her. The street was
empty. She smiled and let her molecules go. Her spirits soared. She
sailed beyond the neighborhood toward Hollywood. Catty was right. It
was a gift. She wished she had used it more.

Soon she flowed
above a boy selling souvenir maps to the stars' homes for eight
dollars. The maps were years old. Most of the stars no longer lived
at the addresses listed on the cover.

She
concentrated. "Three maps, please," she said in a ghostly
whisper.

The boy looked
up and down, then turned completely around.

She laughed, a
phantom in the wind, and caught the next breeze.

At Hollywood
and Vine, a bus filled with camera-clicking tourists drove by. On a
whim she tunneled through an open bus window. Then, in her best
Marilyn Monroe voice, she whispered, "Welcome to Hollywood, my
fine folks."

The tourists
looked bewildered, astonished.

"Don't be
afraid," she said. "I'm just Tinsel Town magic."

294

The tourists
clapped.

She spent
twenty minutes being Marilyn's ghost and making tourists laugh. Then
she spilled out the window to a burst of applause and waited for the
next breeze.

The wind picked
up and carried her away. She could stay invisible forever. She didn't
completely understand her power, but she was beginning to understand
who she was.
Goddess,
she thought, and her molecules formed a
smile before she rode the breeze with arc-shaped leaps, like a
dolphin, up and down toward home.

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DAUGHTERS OF
THE MOON book,

INTO THE COLD
FIRE

WHAT'S UP?"
Jimena asked Serena.

"Can we
just go now?"

"Sure."
Jimena didn't hesitate. They started walking toward the door.

Outside, Serena
tried to push into Jimena's mind but it was like a stone wall. "What
is it you don't want me to see?" she said in an accusing tone.

"What do
you mean?"

"You know
what I mean."

298

Jimena was
silent. Her lips tightened.

"I thought
you said we were always going to keep it real," Serena pleaded.
"Always real between you and me."

"I had a
premonition," Jimena began slowly. Serena waited. Her heart beat
rapidly. "I saw you standing in the cold fire," Jimena
whispered. "That's what we've all been hiding from you. We
didn't want you to worry."

"You think
I'm going to become a Follower?" Fear trembled through Serena's
body. "How could you not have told me?"

"We're
watching over you," Jimena assured her. "We'll make sure
it
doesn't come true."

"But
you've never been able to stop any of your premonitions from coming
true."

Jimena was
silent for a long time and when she finally spoke, her voice broke.
"I know," she said sadly.

299

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DAUGHTERS OF
THE MOON »2

INTO THE COLD
FIRE

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