Read Once Upon a Haunted Moon (The Keeper Saga) for Free Online Page B

parked behind Adam’s Jeep and scowled, slamming the door again.
    “Hey,” Adam came up from behind me, “We’re meeting the others at the edge of the woods.” He nodded toward the other side of the village.
    I nodded, and we walked in silence for a few moments, then he turned to me, fixing his weird gold stare on me. “I want you to know that I love Nikki,” he said, then frowned, “I don’t know why, but it feels like it’s something I need to tell you now,” he took a deep breath, “I’ll die to protect her.” The way he said it didn’t exactly sound like a threat, but more like a strange omen that he had decided to share with me.
    Well, alrighty then. I didn’t know what to say to that, so I just gave him a slight nod, and waited for a definite uncomfortable silence to follow. Luckily, it didn’t last long when we came upon an old-fashioned hut that had smoke billowing out the top.
    An old Indian burst out of the canvas flap that served as a door, completely naked but for a cloth tied to cover his important front parts. Lean muscle bunched beneath the wrinkled skin of his legs, as he tried to keep his bare feet from sliding in the snow. He caught sight of us momentarily as he regained his balance, and straightened, standing proudly and as straight as a ramrod.
    Adam’s grandpa looked down his long nose at us, then turned his gaze completely to me as he registered that my mouth was hanging open in amazement.
    “First lesson,” he said in a clear, strong voice, “Respect your elders.” Then he nodded curtly, as if his job were done, and looked down at the watch on his otherwise bare arm, and then ran off in a flurry of bare limbs and snow.
    I looked over at Adam whose lips were pursed and his face was as red as a tomato in an effort not to laugh. He watched his grandfather run across the vacant lot to his house, screen door slamming against his leathery buttocks as he hurried inside and flipped the television on.
    Adam started laughing so hard he doubled over, then looked up at me, caught my shocked expression, and laughed even harder.
    “First…lesson…” he wheezed between choking laughs, “Respect…elders…”
    I grinned, “He does realize it’s a bit cold to run around with no clothes, right?”
    Adam wiped his face with the back of his hand, and returned my grin, “Yeah, he knows.” He gestured to the hut where another old Indian had stuck his head out the flap to see what the commotion was and said in a low voice, “The old men believe in the sweat-lodge when the weather is cold. It’s kind of like a sauna. It opens the pores on your skin, and releases toxins. It’s supposed to improve your health. But between us, I think it’s more of a social gathering than anything. They just enjoy each other’s company, and the snow gives them an excuse to get together,” then he looked toward the hut and said loudly, “They never catch cold though. The sweat-lodge works. They are always in good health!”
    The gray head in the flap nodded his agreement of the loud statement and disappeared. “Evan will be sorry he left so soon to watch his Jeopardy marathon,” we heard one voice tell others in the hut as we walked by, “I was just getting ready to tell him the best way to go about fixing his riding lawn mower…”
    Soon, we came up on four wolves that stood beneath a big tree on the edge of the village waiting for us.
    “The actual first lesson,” Adam smiled, nodding at them, “is not to be seen.”
    As if on command, the four disappeared into the brush behind the tree, melting into the woods like ghosts.
    “For those that do not have magic, we would be seen as a threat. We stay off the main trails, especially the Appalachian Trail, as it’s the most used.” he instructed, “Today we search another Deadland for any evidence of a Spriteblood, and then, depending on how that goes, we might go on a hunt.”
    As we both shifted to wolves, I wondered if the “hunt” meant we were