Untamed (32 page)

“Oh, okay.”

I reached up with both hands to pull apart the thick drapes. They opened, and I felt a stab of raw fear as I looked directly into the hideous face of a gigantic black bird with terrible glowing red eyes shaped like a man’s. The creature was clinging to the outside of my window with arms and legs that were human. Its dangerously hooked black beak opened, showing a forked red tongue. The thing let out a soft “
crooo-ak
“ that sounded mocking and threatening at the same time.

I couldn’t move. I was frozen by its mutated red eyes—human in the face of a terrible bird—a creature that existed only because of ancient rape and evil. I could feel cold spots on my shoulders where one of these creatures had clung to me earlier. I remembered the touch of its disgusting tongue and stinging pain its beak had caused as it had tried to cut my throat.

As Nala began hissing and yowling, Grandma rushed to be beside me. I could see her reflection in the dark glass of the window. “Call wind to me, Zoey!” she commanded.

“Wind! Come to me—my grandma needs you,” I cried, still trapped in the Raven Mocker’s monstrous gaze.

I felt wind fluttering restlessly below and beside me, where Grandma stood.

“U-no-le!”
Grandma cried. “Carry this with my warning to the beast.” I watched Grandma lift her hands and blow what was cupped in her palms straight at the creature that crouched on the other side of the window.
“Ahiya’a A-s-gi-na!”
she cried.

The wind, conjured by me but commanded by my grandma, the Ghigua Woman, snatched up the sparkling blue dust that she had blown from her palms and whizzed it through the tiny cracks between the panes of beveled glass. The wind whirled the dust around the Raven Mocker so that it was caught in the vortex of the sparkling dust. The beast’s too-human eyes widened as the specks surrounded him and then, as the wind whipped fiercely, pressing the dust into the creature’s body, a terrible scream was wrenched from the open beak, and in a flurry of flapping wings, it disappeared.

“Send away the wind,
u-we-tsi-a-ge-ya
,” Grandma said as she grabbed my hand to steady me.

“Th-thank you wind. I release you,” I said shakily.

“Thank you,
u-no-le,
“ Grandma murmured. Then she said, “The dream catcher—be sure you hang it.”

With shaking hands, I hooked it around the inside of the curtain rod and hurriedly closed the curtains. Then Grandma helped me off the chair. Scooping Nala up, the three of us wrapped together while we shook and shook and shook.

“It’s gone . . . it’s over now . . . ,” Grandma kept murmuring.

I didn’t realize that we’d both been crying until Grandma gave me one last squeeze and then went to find Kleenexes. I sank down on the bed, cuddling Nala.

“Thanks,” I said, wiping my face and blowing my nose. “Should I call the others?” I asked.

“If you do, how scared will they be?”

“Terrified,” I said.

“Then I think it would do more good if you called the wind again. Can you send it in a big burst around the dorms so that if anything is lurking around outside, it’ll be blown away?”

“Yeah, but I think I should stop shaking first.”

Grandma smiled and stroked the hair back from my face. “You did well,
u-we-tsi-a-ge-ya.
“

“I freaked and froze, just like I did last time!”

“No, you met the gaze of a demon without flinching and managed to conjure wind and commanded it to obey me,” she said.

“Only because you told me to.”

“But next time it won’t be because I told you to. Next time you will be stronger and you will do what you must on your own.”

“What was that blue dust you blew at it?”

“Crushed turquoise. I’ll give you a pouch of it. It’s a very powerful protective stone.”

“Do you have enough to give the others, too?”

“No, but I’ll put it on my shopping list. I can pick up some turquoise stones and a mortar and pestle to grind them with. The grinding will give me something constructive to do while you sleep.”

“What was it you said?” I asked.

“
Ahiya’a A-s-gi-na
means ‘leave, demon.’”

“And
u-no-le
is wind?”

“Yes, sweetheart.”

“Grandma, did it have physical form, or was it just a spirit?”

“I think it’s some of both. But it is very close to its physical form.”

“Which means Kalona must be getting stronger,” I said.

“I believe so.”

“It’s scary, Grandma.”

Grandma pulled me into her arms and stroked my head like she used to when I was a little girl. “Do not fear,
u-we-tsi-a-ge-ya.
The demon’s father will find that today’s women are not so easy to subdue.”

“You kicked butt, Grandma.”

She smiled. “Yes, daughter, we certainly did.”

With Grandma watching in approval, I called wind back and had it whip around campus, especially focusing on the dorms. We listened carefully for sounds of shrieking demons, but all we heard was the comforting whistle of the wind. Then, exhausted, I put on my pj’s and finally got into bed. Grandma lit a full-moon protective candle for us, too, and I curled up with Nala, liking the sounds of Grandma brushing out her long silver hair as she went through her familiar nighttime rituals.

I was just drifting off when her soft voice caught me. “
U-we-tsi-a-ge-ya,
I want you to promise me something.”

“Okay, Grandma,” I said sleepily.

“No matter what happens, I want you to promise me that you’ll remember Kalona must not rise. Nothing and no one is more important than that.”

A little trickle of worry made me wake up all the way. “What do you mean?”

“Exactly what I said. Do not let anything distract you from your purpose.”

“You’re sounding like you won’t be around to keep me straight,” I said, feeling a flutter of panic start in my chest.

Grandma came over and sat on the edge of my bed. “I plan to be around for a very long time, sweetheart, you know that. But I still want your promise. Think of it as helping an old woman sleep well.”

I frowned at her. “You’re not an old woman.”

“Promise me,” she insisted.

“I promise. Now you promise me you won’t let anything happen to you,” I said.

“I’ll do my best; I promise,” she said with a smile. “Turn your head, and I’ll brush your hair while you fall asleep. It will give you good dreams.”

With a sigh I rolled over onto my side and fell asleep to the loving touch of my grandma and a softly hummed Cherokee lullaby.

At first I thought the muffled voices were coming from the nanny cam, and not even fully awake, I sat up and reached for the little viewscreen. Holding my breath, I clicked to
ON
the video button, and then I let out a big sigh of relief when the solitary table came into view with its unchanged, shrouded occupant. I turned off the video and glanced over at Grandma’s now empty but tidily made-up bed. I smiled as I looked blearily around my room. Actually, Grandma had done a nice little bit of cleaning up before she’d gone out for her day of shopping and lunch. I looked down at Nala, who blinked at me sleepily.

“Sorry. Must have been my overactive imagination making me hear things.” The full moon candle was still burning, though it was definitely smaller than when I’d fallen asleep. I glanced at my clock and smiled. It was only two o’clock in the afternoon. I had several good sleeping hours left before I had to wake up. I lay back down and pulled my quilt up around my neck.

Muffled voices, this time accompanied by several soft knocks on my door were definitely not my imagination. Nala grumbled a sleepy
mee-uf-ow,
which I couldn’t help but agree with.

“If it’s the Twins wanting to sneak off to a shoe sale, I’m going to strangle them,” I told my cat, who looked pleased at the prospect. Then I cleared the sleep out of my throat and called, “Yeah! Come on in.”

When the door opened, I was surprised to see Shekinah standing there, along with Aphrodite and Neferet. And Aphrodite was crying. I sat bolt upright, brushing my crazy bedhead hair out of my face. “What’s wrong?”

The three of them came into my room. Aphrodite walked over to me and sat on the bed beside me. I looked from her to Shekinah and finally to Neferet. I couldn’t read anything but sadness in any of their eyes, but I continued to stare at Neferet, wishing I could see past her careful façade—wishing everyone could.

“What’s wrong?” I repeated.

“Child,” Shekinah began in a sad, kind voice. “It’s your grandmother.”

“Grandma! Where is she?” My stomach clenched when no one said anything. I grabbed Aphrodite’s hand. “Tell me!”

“She was in a car wreck. A bad one. She lost control as she was driving down Main Street because . . . because a big black bird flew into her window. Her car left the road and hit a light pole head-on.” Tears were running down Aphrodite’s face, but her voice was steady. “She’s at St. John’s Hospital in intensive care.”

I couldn’t say anything for a second. I just kept staring at Grandma’s empty bed and the little lavender-filled pillow she’d placed there. Grandma always surrounded herself with the scent of lavender.

“She was going to the Chalkboard for lunch. She told me so last night just before—” I broke off, remembering how Grandma and I had been talking about her going to the Chalkboard for lunch just before I opened the curtains to find the horrible Raven Mocker. It had been listening to us, and it had known exactly where Grandma was going today. Then it had been there to run her off the road and cause her accident.

“Just before what?” To the uninformed observer, Neferet’s voice would have seemed concerned—that of a friend and mentor. But when I looked up into her emerald eyes, I saw the cold calculation of an enemy.

“Just before we went to bed.” I was trying hard not to show how much Neferet disgusted me—how truly vile and twisted I knew she was. “That’s how I know what she was doing driving that way. She told me what she was going to be doing today while I slept.” I looked away from Neferet and spoke to Shekinah instead. “I need to go to her.”

“Of course you do, child,” Shekinah said. “Darius is waiting with a car.”

“May I go with her?” Aphrodite asked.

“You already missed all of your classes yesterday, and I don’t—”

“Please,” I interrupted Neferet, appealing directly to Shekinah. “I don’t want to be alone.”

“Don’t you agree that family is more important than academics?” Shekinah said to Neferet.

Neferet hesitated just for a second. “Yes, of course I do. I was just concerned about Aphrodite falling behind.”

“I’ll take my homework with me to the hospital. I won’t fall behind.” Aphrodite gave Neferet a big reassuring smile that was as fake as Pamela Anderson’s boobs.

“Then it is decided. Aphrodite will accompany Zoey to the hospital, and Darius will look after the both of them. Take your time there, Zoey. And be sure to let me know if there is anything the school can do for your grandmother,” Shekinah said kindly.

“Thank you.”

I didn’t so much as glance at Neferet as the two of them left my room.

“Fucking bitch!” Aphrodite said, glaring at my closed door. “Like she’s
ever
been concerned about me falling behind in anything! She just hates it that the two of us are friends.”

Okay . . . okay. I have to think. I have to go to Grandma, but I have to think and make sure everything is taken care of here, first. I have to remember my promise to Grandma.

I wiped tears from my face with the back of my hand and rushed over to my dresser, pulling out jeans and a sweatshirt. “Neferet hates that we’re friends because she can’t get inside our heads. But she can get inside Damien, Jack, and the Twins’ heads, and I can promise you she’ll be sniffing around them today.”

“We have to warn them,” Aphrodite said.

I nodded. “Yes, we do. This nanny cam thing won’t reach all the way to St. John’s, will it?”

“Probably not. I think the range is only a few hundred yards.”

“Then while I’m getting dressed, take it to the Twins’ room. Tell them what’s happened, and also tell them to warn Damien and Jack about Neferet.” Then I took a deep breath and added, “Last night, there was a Raven Mocker clinging to my window.”

“Oh my Goddess!”

“It was horrible.” I shuddered. “Grandma blew crushed turquoise at it, and I had wind help her out, and that made it disappear, but I don’t know how long it had been listening to us.”

“That’s what you started to say. The Raven Mocker knew your grandma was going to the Chalkboard.”

“It caused her accident,” I said.

“It or Neferet,” she said.

“Or the two of them together.” I went to my bedside table and grabbed the nanny cam monitor. “Get this to the Twins. Wait.” I stopped her before she’d left the room. I went to Grandma’s blue overnight bag and search through the zippered compartment that she’d left open. Sure enough, just inside it was a deer hide pouch. I opened it up to double-check and then, satisfied, I handed it to Aphrodite. “This is more turquoise dust. Have the Twins split it with Damien and Jack. Tell them it’s powerful protection, but we don’t have much of it.”

She nodded. “Got it.”

“Hurry. I’ll be ready to go when you get back.”

“Zoey, she’s going to be okay. They said she’s in intensive care, but she had her seat belt on and she’s still alive.”

“She has to be,” I told Aphrodite as my eyes filled with tears again. “I don’t know what I’d do if she wasn’t okay.”

The short ride to St. John’s Hospital was a silent one. It was, of course, an obnoxiously sunny day. So, even though we all had on sunglasses and the Lexus had heavily tinted windows, it was uncomfortable for us. (Well, us being Darius and me—Aphrodite looked like she was having a hard time not hanging out the window and basking in the sun.) Darius dropped us off in the ER drive-through and said he’d park the car and meet us in intensive care.

Even though I hadn’t spent much time inside a hospital, the smell seemed to be an innate memory, and one that wasn’t positive. I really hated the antiseptic-covering-disease sense of it. Aphrodite and I stopped at the information desk, and a nice old lady in a salmon-colored smock pointed us to intensive care.