Whenever someone makes you promise you’re not going to freak out, it’s usually time to freak out. We headed through the gate to the backyard. I was glad Mom didn’t have any of my underwear hanging on the clothesline. Now that would’ve been humiliating.
As we turned the corner, Rosie lifted her sleepy head from the shady grass and something came over her. Her eyes zeroed in on Brooks with a creepy laser focus, and in a millisecond she was charging us, barking like a lunatic.
“Hey, Rosie,” I said, stepping in front of Brooks to shield her with my body. “Calm down!”
But Rosie was possessed. She was like a completely different dog—a hungry, snarling monster, foaming at the mouth.
From behind me, Brooks gripped my shoulders so hard I was sure she had hands of iron. “You didn’t tell me you have a dog!”
“You never asked.”
Rosie froze within a foot of me and Brooks and growled like I’d never heard. Her hackles were raised, sharp and pointy. And who knew she had fangs that long?
I backed up to protect Brooks, and then the impossible happened. There was a sudden swish of air next to me and when I turned, Brooks disappeared.
5
Okay, maybe disappeared isn’t the right word.
Brooks changed into something else. To be more exact, the air shimmered gold and blue, then green. She went from being a girl to being a giant hawk in two blinks.
I gasped. At first I thought it was all a dream, or maybe I’d hit my head harder than I thought the other night and I’d only imagined her coming to my house, and the hawk circling overhead was just an ordinary bird (even though it was three times the normal size). It also occurred to me yet again that I’d taken a one-way trip to loco-land.
Since I was busy looking up at the sky completely dumbfounded, I didn’t see Rosie’s rubber ball underneath my feet. I slipped on it and fell backward, landing on my butt with a thud that did nothing to shake off my shock. Did Brooks see that? Probably. Hawks have keen eyesight. I searched the pecan tree where the hawk—Brooks, whatever—had perched, and yes, it was staring down at me from a high branch.
Rosie licked my cheek to make sure I was okay, then cowered next to me and whimpered, hiding her face under her paws. I loved her for making an effort to protect me, but she wasn’t very good at it. She was about as intimidating as a fifty-pound loaf of bread.
“Brooks?” The pitch of my voice hit a new high.
She just stared at me with those golden eyes like she was waiting for me to do something. But I was too shocked to do anything but stand there frozen in place. I’d seen plenty of hawks soaring over the desert, but never one that looked like Brooks. She had a hooked upper beak, chocolate-brown wings with white speckles, and her chest was a light tan color. But it was the black around her eyes that set her apart and made her look sort of mythical—in addition to the fact that she was also muy grande.
“I think Rosie’s done being crazy,” I said, hoping Brooks wasn’t going to stay a hawk, because that would seriously stink.
The air around her shimmered like before—gold and green and blue—and right before my eyes, she shifted back to human form.
My heart pretty much stopped.
“What the…? Who are you?”
She remained sitting on the tree branch and sighed. “I’m a nawal.”
“A na-what?”
Rosie whined again and nuzzled my leg. I patted her head.
“There are lots of words for what I am, but basically? I’m a shape-shifter.” Brooks pronounced shape-shifter in a tongue-twisted way that made me think she wasn’t used to saying the word.
I knew what a shape-shifter was from my Maya mythology book: a human that could change into an animal. In some parts of Mexico, they were called brujos, and some people even thought they were thieves who drank human blood. Great! Nice to meet you!
But reading about a shape-shifter is totally different from seeing one in person. Or in animal.
“You, er… you don’t drink blood, do you?” I had to be sure.
Just then, Hondo threw open the back screen door. “Why was Rosie making all that racket?”
“Uh—no reason. We were just playing.”
Hondo scratched at his stubbly chin and smiled. “The Strangler won, kid. We should’ve bet on him. Best headlock I ever seen. You want me to demonstrate on you?”
Oh God, not in front of Brooks.
“I think I might be getting sick,” I lied. “Maybe later.” He looked disappointed, either that he wasn’t going to get to drop me or I wasn’t sharing his excitement, so I added, “Strangler’s the best!”
Hondo’s eyes were on the dark line of the horizon and thankfully not on Brooks, who was still hanging out in the tree. The last bit of sunlight was fading from the sky. “Yeah,” he muttered. “The best.” He shrugged and said, “I gotta get to the old salt mine. See ya.” Then he went inside, slamming the door behind him.
I turned back to the tree. Now Brooks was walking along the rickety branch like there wasn’t twenty feet of air between her and the skull-crushing ground. “Can you not do that?” I really didn’t want her to splat all over my backyard.
“No.”
“No what?”
“No, I don’t drink blood, and whoever told you that is an idiot.”
“No one told me,” I said. “It’s in a book.”
“Then whoever wrote it is an idiot.”
“Except that in the last two days, two mythical creatures from that idiot book have appeared.”
She sighed. “Never mind. So who’s the Strangler?”
“A wrestler on TV. Look, Rosie’s fine. So, can you please come down?”
“She doesn’t like me.”
“She’s just protective of me. And to be fair, she’s never met a shape-shifter before.”
“Her teeth look pretty sharp.”
I squatted next to Rosie. “Are you done barking at Brooks?” I tugged on her collar to make it look like she was nodding. “And are you going to be on your best behavior?” Another nod. “See?” I said to Brooks, throwing her my most convincing smile.
Brooks didn’t look convinced. “What happened to her leg?”
“I found her like that,” I said with a shrug. I didn’t like talking about Rosie’s missing leg. It reminded me of my theory that her previous owner had abused her. When I first saw Rosie, she was all bones and no spirit, and I’d wanted to pound the person who had abandoned her. I made a promise to her then that no one would ever hurt her again.
“She’s fierce,” Brooks admitted. “I like that.”
Brooks had asked enough questions. Now it was my turn. “So where are you from, anyway?”
“A place.”
“You want to be more specific?”
“It’s not on any map, or at least none you’ve seen.”
I gazed up at her. “What is it, like, some bird place?”
“You’re impossible.”
“You’re the one up in the tree.” I needed a different tactic. That’s what the FBI does when they question a criminal who’s not talking—they come at him from a new angle to throw him off-balance and then boom, they go in for the kill. Theoretically, that is. “So have you always been a shape-shifter?”
Brooks frowned. “I’m not here to talk about me.”
“Fine,” I said, exasperated. “Then come down.”
“I’ll meet you at the base of the volcano.”
“There? Really? You can’t just talk to me here?”
“Don’t you want to find out what’s going on?” And just like that she turned into the hawk again and flew away.
Show-off!
It would take me a little longer to get to the volcano, since I couldn’t fly, and of course there was my bum leg. Rosie and I hurried as fast as we could, because apparently Brooks had something incredible to tell me. The whole way there I tried get a handle on the weirdness of it all. I mean, turning into a hawk was so not normal. The more I thought about it, the
more I wanted to backtrack home. I didn’t even know Brooks, or what exactly a nawal was, and now she wanted me to go back to where the demon had confronted me? What if she was on the creature’s side and trying to lure me into a trap? I mean, she did sort of dress like an assassin….
“What do you think, Rosie? Should we trust her?”
Rosie grunted in response.
“Here’s the deal,” I said. “I don’t know whether to keep going or turn back. You decide.”
Rosie barked and kept trotting forward.
My dog was an exceptional judge of character. If Rosie was willing to give Brooks the benefit of the doubt, I decided I could give it a shot, too.
When we reached the base of the volcano, Brooks was waiting there, looking up at the crater like she was wondering what was inside. Rosie treaded up to her, sniffing cautiously. I thought Brooks might freak and turn into a hawk again, but she didn’t. She squatted and held her hand out gently for Rosie to smell.
Rosie whined, sniffed, retreated. She did this a few times while Brooks waited patiently and I held my breath. I suppose I wanted Rosie to like Brooks because… well, just because. With one last whine, Rosie got close enough to Brooks to get a chin scratch, and my dog’s eyes rolled back with pleasure.
I let out a long whoosh of air.
“Hey, girl,” Brooks said, smiling. “You’re a little champ, you know that?”
Rosie ate it up, rolling onto her back so Brooks could rub her belly. Then her lips went up in her signature smile. (Yep, that’s right. You gods probably wouldn’t know this, but dogs can smile.) Rosie raised her eyebrows and grinned so wide her eyes looked like slits and we could see all her pearly whites.
Okay, enough chumminess. Brooks had dragged me back to the volcano—not exactly the place I wanted to see up close, at least not for a very long time—and she’d turned into a bird right in front of me, and she’d said I was in danger. It was time for some answers.
But before I could ask my first question, Brooks said, “Rosie, like most dogs… they don’t trust me at first. They sense my… that I’m…”
Part animal? I wanted to say, but I knew it would sound worse out loud, and I also didn’t want to make her say it. “Well, she likes you now,” I said.
After a small stretch of silence, I had to ask, “Are you even human?”
“Yes….I mean, mostly.”
Mostly was good. A lot better than barely.
“We need to get moving.” Brooks patted Rosie once more, then began climbing the narrow trail.
“I don’t think we’re allowed up there,” I said. “That’s the crash site, and there’s an investigation…”
“I thought you said this is your volcano.”
“It is.” I already hated the way she twisted things around. “But where exactly are you going? To look for the demon?” If so, I was outta there.
“There has to be a way inside… and since this is your volcano, I thought you could show it to me.”
I wiped my brow. I’d never even talked about the secret caves, much less shown them to anyone. But they might impress her, and that was important to me for some reason. “There might just be a hidden entrance….”
“I knew it!” Brooks pressed her lips together. “Will you take me there?”
I was about to negotiate—I still needed Brooks to give me more info—when Rosie barked and took off toward the caves. Traitor!
With a light laugh, Brooks quirked her left brow and said, “Okay, then, come on. Do you want to know the truth or not?”
How much truth could a person handle in one day? I hurried alongside her, wishing I didn’t have to use my cane, but she didn’t seem to care.
Thankfully, the entrance was only halfway up the Beast, but it was around the back, so it took some time to get there.
Brooks’s footsteps crunched along the ashy gravel as we followed Rosie, but otherwise she was quiet.
“So can you change into anything you want?” I asked. I was starting to realize how awesome her shape-shifting ability was. I mean, seriously, who wouldn’t want to change into whatever they wanted whenever they wanted? Definitely a hundred on the amazing scale.
“I can only change into a hawk, at least for now. I’m still learning, and when I get nervous I can’t really control it. It just sort of happens.”
The switchback trail was steep and rocky, bordered by clumps of wayward weeds that, in the dark, could definitely be mistaken for hairy sea creatures.
After some moments of silence, Brooks finally asked quietly, “So you don’t think I’m weird?”
“Weird? Well, yeah.”
Brooks stopped and turned to look at me.
I quickly added, “But in a good way. I think you’re about the most interesting person I’ve ever met!” I know, I know, I should’ve played it cool, but it slipped out.
Her eyes crinkled around the edges and I could tell there was a smile waiting there.
“How come you were at Baumgarten’s if you don’t go to my school?” I asked.
“I thought it would be better to meet you somewhere… you know, public. It wouldn’t be as creepy as me showing up at your front door.” She continued hiking.
“Right.” Not creepy at all. And she’d shown up at my front door anyway.
“So how come we’re climbing up here?” I asked. “I mean, I’d rather not run into Señor Demon again. He looked pretty vicious.”
“You ask a lot of questions. And officially, he’s a demon runner.”
Oh good. That sounded a whole lot better.
“You don’t have to worry about the demon runners, Zane,” she went on.
There was more than one? “But you said, and I quote, ‘You’re in danger, Zane. Big danger.’” What danger could be bigger than those ten-foot, knuckle-dragging monsters?
Brooks nodded thoughtfully. “You are, but not from those demon runners. They… they need you.”
“Why the heck would they need me?” Rosie barked like she wanted to know, too. “And why would you go to all this trouble to search for me of all people?”
“It’s what I’ve been trying to tell you. There’s a prophecy—a very big prophecy that was told hundreds of years ago—and, well…” She took a big breath. “You’re part of it.”
6
“Me?”
If there’d been a Rewind button, I would’ve pressed it just to make sure I’d heard her right. I mean, it’s not every day you find out you’re in the middle of some ancient prophecy and demon runners want to be your buds. “How could I be a part of anything? I wasn’t even alive hundreds of years ago.”
“That’s why it’s a prophecy, a divination. Seeing the future.”
“Yeah, I know what it means. I’m a psychic’s assistant, you know.”
Although Ms. Cab’s psychic gift was third-string quality lately. She’d never warned me about getting into dumb Holy Ghost. And how come she hadn’t seen Brooks coming?
On the other hand, she had told me that the volcano was dangerous, complete with lurking evil. It made me wonder how much she knew.
I gripped my cane. “So is that why you’re here? To tell me about this prophecy?”
“That and some other stuff. But first tell me what happened the other night. I need to hear it in your words.”
“Why?”
“To compare notes.”
Hold on. I was the one who had all the questions. Why was she demanding answers from me? Yet again I couldn’t shake the feeling that she was trying to trick me.
“I’ll make you a deal,” I said. “I’ll tell you what happened if you promise to give up what you know. As in, everything.”
She hesitated, like she wasn’t used to making deals, then said, “Fine.”
So I spilled the entire story, down to the nasty hair on the demon’s back and the way he dragged his bulging knuckles on the ground. I tried to sound casual, but retelling the whole thing sent shivers down my legs, and I sort of wished we weren’t hiking at dusk. �
�And then it hissed something like ‘Ah-Pook.’” My best imitation sounded more like a wheezing old man.
Brooks grabbed my arm, stopping me in my tracks. “The demon runner actually said Ah-Puch’s name?” She pronounced it Ah-Pooch.
“Ah-Puch is someone’s name? It sounds like some kind of insult,” I said. “Who or what is Ah-Pooch?”
I leaned on my cane as a sudden gust kicked up the sand. I rubbed a few specks from my eyes, and when I looked back at Brooks, she was gazing into the darkness toward the hidden cave as if she could see it. But that was impossible. It was about thirty yards ahead, and so well camouflaged by branches that any hiker would pass by without noticing it.
“There are two things I need to tell you,” she said. “Both are likely to freak you out. This part is the least freaky.”
Only two freaky things? Great! I braced myself. “Okay.”
“Ah-Puch is the Maya god of death, disaster, and darkness. His nickname is the Stinking One. Maybe because he smells like puke. He ruled over the lowest level of Xib’alb’a, the underworld—the darkest, worst, creepiest place anywhere.”
Being the god of death wasn’t enough? He had to be lord of three things? My mind played those awful words in a loop. Death, disaster, and darkness.
Brooks frowned. “Zane, you okay?”
Okay? I was definitely not okay! There was a picture of the god of death in my holy-water-soaked Maya book. I recalled a split skull and bulging deranged eyes. Man, I hoped my memory was wrong. “So this Puke guy, he’s like what, a myth?” I asked hopefully.
“Myths are real, Zane. Well, most are. And gods are very real—an important part of the universe and its balance. Long ago, Ah-Puch got into a war with some of the other gods and lost.”
Gods. Balance. War. Okay, this was bigger than I could ever have imagined. My mind was spinning so fast I didn’t know what to focus on first. “Gods… are real?” I tried to remember the other gods listed in my book. There were too many to keep track of, and on top of that, their names were impossible to pronounce.
“Of course they’re real,” she said nonchalantly.
“Which… which gods did he fight?”
The Storm Runner Page 4