“A little, but that’s not it. It’s Rave. I miss him.”
Cali grinned. “So, what else is new? I told you not to get involved with a guy without a phone or car.”
“I’ve gotten used to that. This is different. He’s gone for a couple of weeks, at least. They’re all gone.”
Cali linked her arm around Leesa’s, a concerned look on her face. “What do you mean he’s gone? That they’re all gone?”
Leesa hesitated, trying to think of something she could tell Cali that would not reveal Rave’s nature. “All the Mastons are gone,” she said after a moment. “They left today. Went up north somewhere.”
“All of them? The whole clan? Why?”
“It’s some sort of pilgrimage thing. It has something to do with the winter solstice. I don’t really understand it,” she added, to keep from having to explain any further.
“Pilgrimage, huh?” Cali said. She grinned. “Are you sure it’s not for some secret human sacrifice ceremony?”
Leesa smiled back. When she had first told Cali she had met one of the Mastons, Cali said there were stories they performed human sacrifices.
“I’m pretty sure it has nothing to do with any sacrifices, human or otherwise,” Leesa said.
“They’ve always been strange and reclusive,” Cali mused, “but I don’t remember all of them disappearing at once. The solstice happens every year. I’m sure we would have noticed.”
Cali had grown up in East Hampton, which was one of the closest towns to the Maston’s isolated settlement. She would know this was something different, so Leesa decided she could safely tell her friend a little bit more.
“Yeah, I know. But there’s something special about this solstice. Rave said it happens less than once every hundred years. Like I said, I don’t understand exactly it.”
That seemed to satisfy Cali.
“And he didn’t say when he would be back?” she asked.
“No. He said he didn’t know. It’s not up to him. It’s up to the elders.”
Cali grimaced. “That sucks. But at least he’s coming back eventually, right?”
“Yeah, he is,” Leesa said. “I hope.”
Cali squeezed Leesa’s arm. “He’ll be back, don’t worry. I’ve seen the way he looks at you. There’s no way he won’t be back.”
Leesa smiled. She had seen it, too, of course. But she did not know if it would be up to him.
18. A NEW HOME
Leesa was sitting on her bed reading when her mom and Bradley walked in through the open door. She had gotten a good night’s sleep after the bonfire and was feeling pretty rested this morning. Smiling, she bounced up off the bed and gave her mom a big hug. When she was done, she moved into Bradley’s arms.
“Hi, pumpkin,” he said, squeezing her tightly.
“How are you feeling, big brother?” she asked when she stepped out of his embrace.
“I feel great.”
In truth, he did look great, a far cry from the gaunt, glassy-eyed apparition Stefan had led out of the darkness when he had come to fulfill his side of his bargain with Leesa. Bradley’s blue eyes were bright and clear, and he seemed to have put on another pound or two since she had seen him a week or so ago. But the best thing about him was his wide smile, a smile that had helped Leesa through so many difficult days during her childhood.
Her mom looked great too, but she’d had much more time to recover than Bradley. They were here to drive Leesa back to Aunt Janet’s house, where they would all be staying for the holidays, at least until they found an apartment of their own to move into. Leesa could have remained on campus, but she would have had to move into another dorm, one the college left open for students who could not go home over the break for one reason or another. It would be a bit crowded at Aunt Janet’s, but a lot more fun. Besides, Cali, Caitlin and Stacie were all going home for break, so Leesa would have been pretty much alone if she remained on campus.
Her suitcase was already packed so she grabbed her parka from the closet and was ready to go. Bradley beat her to her suitcase, so she let him wheel it out to the elevator. For a split second she thought of protesting, but realized the small gesture was his way of trying to restore their normal big brother/little sister relationship. He had spent most of his childhood taking care of her, and she sensed that he wanted to get back to his role of caretaker, even though they both realized she didn’t need it any more. She didn’t mind—she kind of liked the idea of having a big brother again.
The elevator stopped on the third floor on the way down. The door slid open to reveal Caitlin standing there, along with a slightly older girl who looked so much like Caitlin she had to be her sister. None of the others had met each other, so Leesa and Caitlin made the necessary introductions. Leesa was glad her mom got to meet Caitlin for the first time when Caitlin was wearing a coat, rather the one of the risqué T-shirts she liked to wear during the warmer weather. First impressions counted, and Leesa did not want her mom to get the wrong idea about her friend, who was much more talk than action.
Since Caitlin lived in New Jersey, Leesa would not be seeing her again until school started up in January. They hugged each other good-bye outside the dorm, and then Leesa limped over to Aunt Janet’s blue Ford Taurus.
“Can I drive, Mom?” Leesa asked. “It seems like forever since I’ve had a chance.” She had borrowed her aunt’s car once to drive to see Rave, but other than that, she hadn’t driven since summer.
“Of course, dear,” Judy said, handing Leesa the keys.
Leesa got behind the wheel. Her mom slid in next to her and Bradley climbed into the back seat. A moment later, they were on their way.
“We need to make one stop, honey,” Judy said when they pulled out of the main Weston College gate onto Washington Street. “It’s right on the way.”
Leesa guessed they would probably be stopping at a store to pick up something to bring back to Aunt Janet or Uncle Roger, so she was surprised when her mom told her to turn into the driveway of a large apartment complex three miles from campus. She swung the Taurus into the driveway. She had ridden past this complex many times, but had never been inside the grounds.
“Take the second right, and then the first left,” Judy said.
Leesa did as instructed, winding her way among a series of two-story apartments constructed mostly of grey wood. Narrow lawns fronted the buildings and small bare trees filled the spaces between them. The place had a weathered, lived-in look, but both the buildings and the grounds appeared to be well-maintained. Strips of bare dirt lined the front of each building, and Leesa could imagine them filled with flowers in the spring and summer.
“Park over there, in space forty-seven,” Judy told her.
Leesa pulled into the parking space. She switched off the engine and turned to her mom.
“What are we doing here, Mom? Do you know someone who lives here?” She did not see how her mother could know someone outside her family well enough to be visiting like this, but could not think of any other explanation.
“I have a surprise for you, honey. C’mon, let’s get out.”
Leesa looked back to Bradley, who was smiling. Clearly, he was in on the secret, but he wasn’t telling.
They got out of the car and her mom led them toward one of the apartments, number twenty-four. The door was painted a dark blue.
“This is our new home,” Judy said proudly. “At least it will be, right after Christmas.”
Leesa looked at the door, then back at her mom and Bradley, thoroughly confused.
“I don’t understand,” she said. “I thought we were going apartment hunting next week. How’d you get a place already?”
“I found it on the internet,” Bradley said. “On Craigslist.”
“We looked at it in person the other day,” Judy added, “and we both agreed it would be perfect. It’s got two bedrooms and a loft. You can use the loft as your room, honey, during the summer or any other time you want to come over from school. And I can’
t believe how much cheaper apartments are here compared to San Diego.”
“Wow, Mom, that’s great,” Leesa said. “It’s awesome you found a place already. I’m proud of both of you.”
She really was glad to see her mom and Bradley were well enough to go out and find an apartment by themselves, and it seemed like they had chosen a nice one. Best of all, the place was only three miles from campus, easy walking distance for her. She was mildly disappointed they had found it without her—she had hoped apartment hunting would help keep her mind off missing Rave.
“We don’t have it officially until January 1st,” Judy explained, “but the manager said we could move in any time after Christmas. I wish I had the keys right now, so I could show it to you. I know you’re going to love it.”
“Tell her your other news, Mom,” Bradley said.
Leesa looked at her mom, who was positively beaming.
“I’ve got a job,” Judy said proudly. “Can you believe it?”
In truth, Leesa could not believe it. Her mom had never held a job, at least not as far back as Leesa could remember. How could she, when she had refused to leave the house for more than ten years?
“Mom, that’s totally awesome! Where are you working?”
“At the bakery, for your uncle Ralph. He’s always extra busy during the holidays. I started last Saturday. I’m having so much fun, meeting so many people.”
Leesa gave her mom a quick hug. “Mom, I am sooo happy for you.”
“After New Years,” Judy continued, “I’ll start looking for a real job. Your uncle said he’ll be my reference, and he’ll tell anyone who asks that I worked for him for a year. Isn’t that exciting?”
“It sure is,” Leesa said, amazed at how quickly things were starting to become normal for her family. And normal was definitely not something they had much experience with.
Perhaps that explained her feeling that somewhere, somehow, another shoe was about to drop. She prayed it wasn’t going to drop on any of them.
19. SOLSTICE
Leesa sat on the front steps of her aunt’s house, arms resting on her thighs, gazing off to the west. The sun hung low in a cloudless sky, a pale yellow orb that seemed almost to balance atop the rolling hills on the far horizon. No wonder it was so cold out here, she thought—the barely glowing disc seemed incapable of providing any real warmth.
She had bundled up against the cold, adding a black wool scarf around her neck to her usual winter garb of ski cap, parka, leather gloves and Ugg boots. She had been sitting out here for almost half an hour, thinking and watching the sun slowly sink lower and lower. Max was running around the front yard, occasionally coming back to the steps for a few moments of petting before racing out onto the lawn again and resuming his fun.
Today was the twenty-first of December—the winter solstice. The reason Rave was gone. Leesa was watching to see if she might notice anything different about the sun today, some slight change that could account for the volkaanes retreating to their New Hampshire sanctuary. If there was anything different, she could not detect it. It seemed like any other winter afternoon to her.
She had read up on the solstice on the internet. Today was the day the sun reached its farthest point south in the sky. Tomorrow it would begin its slow trip north. Today was also one of the shortest days of the year. She wondered if one of those two things had the power to influence Destiratu, or any other magical phenomenon, for that matter. Perhaps it was something else entirely, something unaccounted for in the astronomical models she had found in her research.
She knew she was being foolish, but she couldn’t help herself. Rave had said even the eldest and wisest among the volkaanes did not clearly understand the effects of the solstice on the supernatural world. They just knew it was potentially dangerous and had opted for caution. Still, it made her feel a little closer to Rave, watching the sinking sun and wondering what kind of pull it might be exerting on him.
Max bounded up on the steps again, and this time she grabbed his neck and gave him a vigorous chest rub. His tongue hung out and his tail wagged furiously as he reveled in the attention and affection. When she was done, Leesa pulled his head close to her face. What the heck, she thought.
“I love you, Rave,” she whispered into Max’s furry ear.
Max gave three short barks and bobbed his head up and down. Leesa almost believed Max understood her words and was somehow sending her message across the miles to Rave. No, check that. She didn’t almost believe—she did believe. Suddenly she felt a little warmer, almost as if Rave were now sitting right beside her. A smile crept onto her face.
She waited outside another few minutes, until the sun disappeared and darkness began stealing across the sky. Finally, she got to her feet and turned toward the door.
“C’mon, Max. Time to go inside.”
That night, Leesa dreamed again.
She stood in front of a dark, narrow opening cut into a rugged gray stone cliff. How she had come to be here, she had no idea. Cold, fetid air seeped from the cavern, assailing her nostrils and forcing her back a step. There was nothing here to draw her forward—indeed, the opening seemed to reek of danger. Yet something kept her from doing what she knew she should be doing—leaving this place as quickly as her feet could carry her. The sensible part of her brain screamed “get away!” but another part of her whispered “you must go on.” Strangely, the whisper felt more powerful than the scream.
She stepped into the narrow tunnel.
Goosebumps rose on her arms as the cold air wrapped itself around her, seeming to enfold her in its clutches. To minimize the dank, rotting stench, she forced herself to breathe through her mouth, hoping she was not inhaling anything that might turn out to be harmful. The walls of the cavern were rough, but the floor was strangely smooth and worn. Again, the sensible part of her brain told her this meant something, something she should be worried about, but the whisper drew her onward.
No light filtered into the deeper reaches of the cavern, yet somehow she could still see. Not clearly, but well enough to make out the stone walls a few feet from her face, allowing her to follow the winding passage without crashing into the rock when the tunnel turned.
I’m dreaming, she told herself. That’s why I can see in the dark. None of this is real. She pressed her palm against the rough stone. It sure felt real.
Subtly, the “whisper” that enticed her to keep going changed. No longer was it an abstract feeling pulling her in—it now had the flavor of “help me, please.” She could almost hear the voice, but not quite. It was still a feeling in her head, not a voice coming to her ears.
She pressed on. Time seemed to have no meaning here. It’s just a dream, she reminded herself, puzzled that she could somehow know she was dreaming within the dream. Time does not matter.
The plea for help grew steadily louder in her head.
Without noticing the change, she suddenly found herself standing in a large cavern. The smell was stronger here. It was the smell of death, she realized, but a kind of death she had never encountered before—a rotting, lingering death that promised no end. She stopped and slowly surveyed the chamber. Deep inside the mountain, where there should have been no light, she could still see. Dreams sure can be strange, she thought.
As her eyes swept slowly across the cavern, she almost missed it. She had to bring her gaze back a few feet to the left, directly opposite from where she stood, to make sure she hadn’t imagined the shadowy presence. But she had not. A pair of pale yellow eyes glowed faintly in the blackness, watching her. The sense of danger grew. She had to get out of here—get out of here now. She was about to turn when she heard it again. “Help me. Please, help me.” The voice sounded hauntingly familiar, but it took her a moment to recognize it. Bradley! The tone was so weak and tortured she could barely recognize her brother’s voice.
She forced herself slowly across the chamber. I’m not limping, she thought out of nowhere. What’s that about? She’d never had a dream where s
he hadn’t limped.
The pale eyes remained fixed on her, but otherwise there was no movement in the cavern but hers. As Leesa drew closer, she became aware of a second presence, pressed against the wall, behind the first. She knew this one was Bradley, chained to the wall. But who, or what, was the other?
“The human is mine,” a female voice said. “You cannot save it.”
Leesa still could not see anything except the two yellow eyes, and perhaps a slight deepening of the blackness surrounding them. Somehow, she knew this apparition could not harm her—not here in her dream, at least—so she kept walking.
Suddenly, laughter cackled from the darkness. Below the eyes, Leesa could now see a pair of gleaming fangs. With no source of light here, the fangs should not have gleamed, but they did, almost as if they carried their own illumination inside them.
The shock of the laughter and the sudden appearance of the fangs stopped Leesa in her tracks. The blackness lessened slightly, enough for her to see that the figure against the wall was not her brother. She had been deceived. The captive was not even male. It was female. But who?
Leesa strained to pierce the darkness. She was certain she would recognize the girl, if she could just see a bit more clearly.
“You cannot stop it,” the voice said. “You do not have the power.”
Leesa ignored the voice, concentrating on the captive instead. There was something distressingly familiar about her. Something much too familiar. Almost as if it was….
Leesa awoke with a start, fully alert. She cursed silently. She had been but an instant from recognizing the girl chained against the cavern wall when she woke. For some reason, this dream felt eerily similar to her zombie dream. Somehow, she sensed they both held important information, but she had no idea what or why. She closed her eyes and struggled to bring back the image of the girl in the cavern. She could picture everything clearly right up until the instant she awoke. Unfortunately, that was not enough. The girl’s identity still eluded her. And this time, she was pretty sure there would be no YouTube video to help her.
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