“Big Nasty?”
“The giant snake with horns. Mishiginebig. But that’s too big a mouthful.”
His eyes narrowed with distrust. “So there really is a giant horned snake loose on Roanoke Island?”
“Why are you looking at me like that?” I angrily swung my feet to the floor. “You were the one who was intrigued that there were three reports about a giant snake. You were the one who was convinced it was something.”
“I know.” His voice rose with frustration. “But suspecting something and hearing it confirmed are two entirely different things.” He tried to sound neutral, but a hint of cynicism laced his words. Not that I blamed him. He was an educated man. He had a doctorate degree in this subject. Of course he was skeptical.
But I was toast unless he agreed to tell me what he knew anyway. “Well, thank you for your truthfulness, I guess.”
“We promised to be truthful with one another.” His tone was accusatory.
“I’ve been more truthful with you than I have been with anyone about the curse.”
“You have to admit that this is a lot to take in.”
How could I make him believe me? “I can prove it to you.”
His eyebrows lowered over his eyes. “You can prove that the gods were locked up in Popogusso, and you’re a Curse Keeper?”
I lifted a shoulder in a half shrug. “I don’t know about that, but I can introduce you to a god or spirit.”
“How?”
“Spend the night here and you’ll see a deity before morning.”
A strange expression spread across his face. “Is that some kind of euphemism? Has this all been a ploy to get me into bed?”
I stood up, shuddering. “What? Good God, no!”
His eyes widened. “Are you suggesting that the thought of sleeping with me is repugnant?”
Putting my hand on my hip, I shook my head in disbelief. “Which is it, David? Do you want me to want to sleep with you or not?”
“Neither!”
“That doesn’t make sense!”
“I know.” He slumped into the chair, covering his eyes with his hand. It seemed like all the fight had bled out of him.
I wasn’t being fair. My father had raised me with the story of the curse, and I still hadn’t believed it until the reappearance of the colony. Wouldn’t I think less of Dr. David Preston if he took my words at face value without a hint of cynicism?
I sat back down on the sofa, closer to him. “Look, I don’t blame you for being dubious. I didn’t believe it myself at first. But almost every night at around three or four in the morning, I get a visit from some type of spirit or god. Sleep on my sofa tonight and you can see it for yourself.”
His hand dropped, and he lowered his gaze to mine. “You’re kidding, right?”
“I wish I was.”
A war of emotions played across his face before resignation set in. “Okay.” He stood and stared down at me with equal parts fear and irritation. “But first, I’m going to the inn to get a few things for the night.” He headed to the door and stopped to examine the markings when he opened it.
I glanced past him and saw that the sun had set. The henna tattoo was still working, albeit barely. The spirits wouldn’t attack me while we were waiting for Okeus to spring his special surprise, but what if they saw David as a threat? What if they tried to kill him? “I think I’d better go with you.”
He grimaced. “Uh . . . that’s not necessary.”
He probably wanted to get as far away from me as possible. I was sure he wouldn’t be pleased by the explanation if I told him I was coming along to offer what little protection I could. “I have to go back anyway to get my laundry.”
“Okay . . .”
Both of us remained silent as we walked to the bed and breakfast. When we met at the side entrance five minutes later, he seemed distant, slinging his bag over his shoulder and opening the door so I could get through with my laundry basket on my hip. He followed me to my car and opened the back door as I put the basket in the back. He stared out the window on the short drive to my parking lot, doing his best to ignore me.
But when we got to my front porch, I shrieked and dropped my basket, some of my clothes flying out of it and onto the landing.
A mauled cat lay at my front door, its guts spilling out of its body. Blood was smeared all over the floor and splattered on my door.
My heart racing, I stepped backward and bumped into David’s chest. His hands grabbed my arms to steady me, his fingers digging deeper than necessary as he too caught sight of the giant badger’s calling card.
Turning away, I swallowed my rising bile.
David kept his hands on my arms. “What did that?” he asked.
“You and I both know.” I forced myself to glance back at it. The animal didn’t look familiar, not that I was a cat person. I supposed the badger hadn’t had much time to find its next victim. But this also meant it knew something about my comings and goings.
It was watching me.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“Bloody hell.” David still gripped my arms.
Trying to catch my breath and control my panic, I broke his hold and bent to pick up my fallen laundry. Some of it had landed in the blood, and I tossed it to the side.
“What did this, Ellie?” he repeated.
“You know.” Everything was suddenly too overwhelming. “I don’t know how to make it stop.” I shoved the basket to the side and sat down on the steps, turning my back to the mess in front of my door. I couldn’t face this.
He took another look at the cat and then sat down beside me. “Why do you think you’re responsible for the behavior of a wild animal?”
“Because I set it loose.” I leaned my head against the post. “Not on purpose, but I was part of it all the same. It’s like I told you, I thought we were closing the gate.”
“You see these monsters in your dreams?”
“Yeah,” I took a deep breath. “That badger. Mishiginebig. A couple of others. I used to just see blobs, which is how the messengers of Okeus and Ahone looked right after the curse was broken. But as they got stronger, they began to look like things. I’m guessing their previous images.”
“Why does it eat the hearts?”
I squeezed my eyes shut. “The badger told me that their Manitou is purest in their heart.”
David rested his forearms on his thighs. “Bloody hell.”
I sighed. “It’s taunting me. My neighbor’s dog . . . my daddy loved that dog. And now this cat.”
“Why would it taunt you?”
“I don’t know.” I sighed. “The animals come to my dreams every night too, begging me to save them from the spirits. And when I’m in the ocean, I can feel the creatures of the water crying out to me.”
“What do you mean you feel them?”
I rested my elbow on my leg and my cheek in my palm. “It’s hard to describe . . . I can sense them.”
“Who?”
“The living things. Fish. Insects.” I turned to look at him. “Plants, amoeba.” I paused. “I can feel their Manitou.”
“As a collective?”
I shook my head. “No. Individually.”
“Omniscience? How can that be?”
I hadn’t considered it that way. “I don’t know, but it’s the only good part of the curse. Collin told me that Manitou are recycled from being to being. But when the spirits and gods consume a creature’s Manitou, it’s not recycled and the being is doomed to Popogusso.” I leaned over my knees. “I told you that Okeus’s mark protects my Manitou from the supernatural beings that have been released, but they also tell me they’ve been forbidden to take it. Okeus says he’s waiting for me to be ‘ready.’ I suspect that means he’s waiting for me to be unmarked.” I decided to keep to myself for the moment the fact that Okeus had vowed to make me suffer for four centuries.
“And then what?”
“I think he plans to take me.”
He clasped his hands and whispered, “Then
you really are running out of time.”
“But I’m not entirely defenseless.” I extended my hand, showing him the mark. “I can send the creatures away to protect myself, but I can’t lock them away. I need Collin’s help to do that.”
“So where is this mysterious Collin?”
I shook my head with a grimace. “Doing what Collin does best.” I stood and took a deep breath before I turned around to face the mess in front of my door.
David stood. “And that is?”
“Looking out for Collin.”
That cat was lying on the mat. I stood in front of it, my stomach reeling as I leaned over and unlocked the door.
“Should we call Animal Control to clean this up?”
“In a normal world, yes. But one in which the Manteo police officers are watching every move I make? If I call, this will only make them more suspicious of me.”
“Don’t tell me that you want to clean this up yourself . . .”
I stepped over the cat and kicked off my shoes at the entrance so I wouldn’t track blood. “The Native Americans you’ve spent years studying dealt with worse than this.”
“Well . . . true . . .” but he didn’t sound convinced.
I grabbed several plastic trash bags and a kitchen spatula, along with a pair of cleaning gloves Myra had left under my kitchen sink one time as a “subtle” hint. I handed the bags to David, who was still standing on the porch, staring at the cat with a gaping mouth.
“You’re really going to touch it?”
I offered him a sweet smile. “Only if you won’t.” His eyes widened. “Okay, then hold the bag open.”
He obeyed, watching me as I tossed the spatula to the floor and pulled on the kitchen gloves. I was suddenly thankful I hadn’t eaten much for dinner.
Gagging, I squatted and folded the mat, turning my head in revulsion. David was jolted out of his shock, and he lowered the bag close to the floor so I wouldn’t have to lift the mat very high to get it inside.
He quickly cinched the top closed and held it out from his body. “What in the bloody hell do we do with this now?”
“There’s a Dumpster downstairs. That’s where I tossed all the dead birds the spirits left on my porch.” I glanced up at his pale face. “Don’t ask.”
David tromped down the wooden staircase, and I would have worried that he wasn’t going to come back if he hadn’t dumped his messenger bag on the steps first.
I went back inside and grabbed a pitcher of water, using it to wash as much blood off the wood slats as possible.
When David came back, he stood at the top of the stairs, looking apologetic. “I’m sorry I didn’t help more.”
“It’s hard to take it in the first time you see it. I’ll cut you some slack.”
“How many times have you seen something like this?”
“Twice in person. Twice in my dreams.” I grabbed the charcoal out of the planter. I’d inadvertently washed some of the marks off the bottom of the door, so I needed to replace them before we went inside. I’d never replaced only one section before, and for all I knew, it couldn’t be done that way. I’d just have to do all of it over again to make sure.
I started on the bottom corners, placing the symbols for night, and then moved back up to the top, scratching over the still fresh symbols Collin had placed only hours earlier.
David stood behind me, watching in silence, and I was reminded of the night Collin and I had marked this door together. The night before his betrayal. Tears burned behind my eyes, but I blinked them away. It always swung back to Collin.
I moved on to the sun and the other signs, forcing myself to concentrate and mentally ask the forces to protect me. When I reached Collin’s symbol, I placed my own beside it, hoping it would be enough.
“They’re just markings,” David murmured behind me. “But there’s a certain amount of reverence in the way you place them.”
“I felt that way when I watched Collin place them for the first time,” I said. “But then again, he was placing them to protect me.” I groaned. How could I be so stupid? “What are your initials?”
“What?”
“You don’t have a symbol, so what are your initials?”
“Oh . . . DMP.”
I scratched his initials below mine, concentrating on including David in the protection spell.
“And this will work?”
I released a heavy breath. “It will protect us when we’re on the inside. Outside we’re fair game.”
“Maybe we should head inside then.”
I opened the door and David glanced down at the spatula lying by the front door.
For the first time since I’d started my tale, a smile cracked his lips. “Were you planning on flipping it over?”
I laughed. “Shut up. At least I cleaned it up. You just watched.”
He shook his head with a derisive grin. “Why do I have a feeling you’ll never let me live that down?”
“Probably because I won’t.” I picked up the spatula and tossed it into the sink after we walked back into the apartment. “I’m going to go clean up. I feel disgusting.”
He set his bag on the coffee table. “Don’t worry about me. I have some unfinished work to tend to from before I left Chapel Hill.”
I held onto the doorknob of my bedroom door. “You’re welcome to help yourself to anything in the kitchen, although I have to warn you that there isn’t much there.”
“Thanks.” He sat on the sofa and pulled out his laptop.
I struggled with the strong desire for a shower versus the need to make my tattoo last as long as possible. In the end, I decided I couldn’t wait any longer to shower because I needed to wash my hair. I put on a pair of shorts and a tank top and wandered out to the living room to find David focused on his laptop.
“You’re still here,” I said.
He looked up at me and lowered his reading glasses.
It struck me again: David Preston was a very good-looking man. I wondered how all those college girls ever took notes in his class during his lectures.
“You think I would miss the chance to meet an Algonquian god?” There was a teasing lilt to his voice, but his eyes were serious.
I picked up the wine glasses and took them into the kitchen. Thank God I’d cleaned the apartment up a few days ago during one of my bouts of insomnia.
“I e-mailed my friend, and he’s agreed to FedEx the books to your mother’s bed and breakfast.”
“Oh.” I stopped wiping the counter. “You remembered.”
“Honestly, I almost forgot with all the excitement. He’s also promised to thumb through some passages to see if he can find the symbol before he sends them off.”
“Thank you.”
He shrugged. “I figured you were pressed for time. One day could make all the difference.”
“So you believe me now?”
His eyes locked with mine. “I’m getting there.”
I offered him a tight smile.
“I’ve been searching for anything about a badger in the Algonquian legends.”
I shook my head. “I’ve searched every which way on the Internet, and there was nothing.”
He grinned. “I’m a professor. I have access to papers online that you wouldn’t have been able to find.”
My eyes widened. “Really?”
He put his glasses back on his nose. “Do you have any coffee? I’d like to stay up awhile and spend more time on this.”
I finished cleaning the kitchen as the coffee brewed. I poured us both a mug and took them out to the living room, setting David’s on the coffee table.
“Is that it?” he asked, looking at my shoulder blade.
My hair had tumbled over my shoulder, exposing my back. “My henna tattoo? What’s left of it.”
“Can I get a closer look?”
“Sure.” I sat on the sofa next to him. I had stripped down to my bra when Collin applied the tattoo, but I couldn’t bring myself to do that with David. Ins
tead, I turned away from him and pulled down my tank top strap, exposing my back.
“Have you checked this recently? Okeus’s mark is barely visible.”
My shoulders stiffened. “What about the rest?”
“It’s just as faded.” He studied my back in silence. “Do you know why it was designed the way it was?”
“No. It’s identical to Collin’s as best as I can tell, except mine is henna. Like I told you, Collin said all the Keepers in his line get this tattoo on their eighteenth birthday, so I think it’s been handed down for years. Maybe centuries.”
“Why is yours henna?”
“Collin knew I’d never agree to a permanent one. After Wapi attacked me, he was worried the other spirits would realize I was a pure soul, and I’d be on their most-wanted list. He marked me that night after I got off work.”
“So you need to duplicate this?”
“I think so . . . except for Okeus’s mark, of course.”
He pulled the strap back onto my shoulder. “Would you e-mail me the photo you showed me? I’d like to send it to one of my friends and see if he can give me an opinion.”
“Sure.” I sank back into the cushions next to him. “Do you want to take a shower or change clothes? You’re welcome to use my bathroom.”
He picked up his coffee mug and took a sip. “You don’t mind?”
“Of course not. I hope the shampoo isn’t too girly for you.”
He laughed. “I have some in my bag. I’ll just finish this up first.”
I propped my feet on the coffee table and listened to the clicking of laptop keys—an oddly relaxing sound. My eyelids grew heavy, and before I knew it, I fell asleep.
The animals were back, like always, calling out to me for help, but tonight was different. The air was full of static, making the hair on my arms stand up. In the distance I heard the faint sound of my name, “daughter of the sea, witness to creation,” but instead of the usual pleading, it was slurred and threatening.
My heart sped up as I walked through a marshy field. The faint odor of salt stung my nose and the water came up to my thighs, making the folds of the dress I was wearing cling to my legs.
“Daughter of the sea and witness to creation,” a different voice called out. “You have abandoned us.”
The Curse Breakers Page 14