Chapter 37
Aunt Bev appeared to be in shock. If I hadn’t caught her, she would have hit her head when she collapsed onto the floor.
She looked up at me for the longest time without even blinking. Finally, she spoke.
“I must be losing it.” She laughed hollowly. “For a minute I actually thought I heard you say Camilla is alive.” She smiled briefly, still mildly shaking as she pushed herself up into the chair. Her mascara left black smears on her face.
I leaned back against the island with my feet crossed and waited until she finished her drink of water before I repeated myself. “My mom is alive, Aunt Bev.” I paused for a minute to allow it to sink in this time. “Zane has her.”
Her eyes got huge and her complexion paled. She tilted her head to one side like she was really thinking hard about the possibility of her sister being alive, but she didn’t say anything.
“Did you hear what I said? Camilla is alive.” I smiled warmly.
It startled me when she suddenly leaped from her chair, and grabbed my shoulders.
“You’re sure about this? You’ve seen her?” Her hands trembled on my shoulders.
I nodded and pulled out my mom’s locket from inside my pocket. “I got this from Zane while we were in New Mexico.”
“Oh, honey,” she uttered, and turned away. “This doesn’t mean she’s alive. I want to believe she is just as much as you do, but he could have taken it before he….” Her voice trailed off, probably because she couldn’t or didn’t want to say the words “killed her”.
I pushed myself away from the island. “You don’t understand! When Zane tossed me her locket and I closed it in my hand I saw her, but it wasn’t like a picture of her. My mom was in a room, leaning against a dirt wall. I think she was trying to show me how to find her, but then the vision quickly vanished. And before that a voice lead me to a room in the Ice Cave. I saw my mom on this table thingy. I touched her, Bev. She was real,” I cried, and tears streamed down my face. “The voice that lead me to the cave said I can save her and everyone, but I have to be willing to do things that I would have never imagined.”
“Calm down, Gen.” Aunt Bev rubbed her hand on her forehead while she paced the floor. “Tell me exactly what you saw,” she said, stopping to face me.
“Does that mean you believe me?” I asked, nervously biting the inside of my lip.
“I want to believe you, but Zane is so powerful. You don’t realize the terrible things he’s capable of.” She paused, and started biting on her thumb nail. “Okay…think. What did she show you? If it was really her, then she would have shown you something that he couldn’t have knowledge of.”
I raked my fingers through my wet tangles. “Um…let’s see…a snow covered mountain, a frozen lake with a big wooden thing sticking up through the ice, a cave opening behind a waterfall, and a path leading out beside the old fisheries.”
“That’s it?” Bev looked up from where she’d been writing down the descriptions.
“Yeah, I’m afraid so.” I sighed and dropped my shoulders. “I told you they were just quick flashes. It stopped when I was startled by a loud noise.”
We both grew quiet as I thought about my mom and how my heart ached for what that monster must have been putting her through, and how when I had seen her in my vision, she appeared frail and hopeless; her long slender fingers twirling a tiny white clover between her fingers. Hang on, mom. I’m coming for you…soon.
I felt so depressed and helpless. I didn’t know how I was going to find her or even where to start looking.
For some reason, every time I pictured my mom, she was twirling that clover. Then it hit me and I stopped chewing the inside of my lip. “Hey, wait a minute. Maybe there is something else. I didn’t say anything about it because I didn’t think it fit.”
“What is it?” Aunt Bev asked, studying the piece of paper she’d written the descriptions on.
“When I saw my mom, she had this little white clover, twirling it between her fingers.”
Aunt Bev’s head snapped toward me. “Are you sure it was a clover?”
“Yeah…why? Does it mean something? Do you know where my mom is?” My heart sped up.
Aunt Bev dropped into her chair like she was exhausted. “No,” she simply replied. It means I definitely believe you. When we were kids, we had a beagle.”
“Okay? And that means…what?” I asked, wondering if maybe she was having some sort of breakdown.
“When we found clover, she was nothing more than skin-covering bones and so weak she couldn’t lift her head. We didn’t know what to do so we ran and got our dad. You see, someone had starved her, and then dumped her on the side of the road to die. She looked up at our dad with the saddest big brown eyes I had ever seen and wagged her tail. Dad picked her up and she licked his jaw.”
“Aunt Bev, what in the hell does that have to do with clover?” I didn’t mean to go off on her like that, but I was getting so frustrated.
“The ditch we found her in was covered with white clover. Hence, the name Clover. It was Camilla’s idea.” She barely got the last sentence out before she broke down.
I rushed to her. “Shh, everything’s going to be all right,” I whispered, leaning my head on top of hers.
She patted my hand, and then stood, turning to face me. “I guess Camilla knew I would be skeptical, so she showed you that silly little clover, knowing you would tell me. There’s no way Zane or anyone else could possibly know that.” She grabbed up her purse from the counter. “I’ll go to the library and start going through maps of Alaska. I’ll start with caves that are located behind waterfalls and go from there.”
“Do you want me to go with you?” I asked, already headed for the door.
“No! Uh…I mean, stay here and wait for me. I don’t need anything happening to you. Try to figure out what it was you saw sticking out of the lake.
“All right, but promise me you’ll call as soon as you find out anything.”
Aunt Bev disappeared through the kitchen door and a minute later I heard her tires bark against the pavement as she tore out of the driveway.
I waited until I was sure she was far enough away before I ran upstairs to grab my shoes and jacket. When I entered my room my cell phone was vibrating across my nightstand.
I scrolled through several text messages from Luna. All of them basically said the same thing. She wanted to know where I was, and what my plans were. I assumed she meant my plans for finding Zane, but the truth was I didn’t have a plan. Not yet anyway. I didn’t have a clue where to find him or how to go about starting.
I jumped when the doorbell rang. Who could that be? I rushed across my room and pulled my curtain back just enough to see Luna’s grandfather’s truck parked in the driveway, and the bright sun beaming outside.
“Damn, Luna! Give me a minute to answer your texts,” I mumbled under my breath. We had just gotten home, and she was already pressuring me to give her a decision about how we were going to stop Zane.
I stomped down the stairs, unlocked the front door, and threw it open hard. So hard in fact, it put a nice hole in the wall.
My anger turned to surprise when I found Joseph standing on my porch. He raised his head just enough to lock eyes with me. He had his hands stuffed deep inside his front pockets, and he had a worried look on his face.
“Joseph!” I said, shocked. “What are you doing here?”
“Uh… I need to talk to you. Can I come in?”
I stepped to the side. “Yeah…sure.” I smiled thinly.
After I closed the door he followed me into the den. “Have a seat,” I said, then dropped onto the couch.
Joseph took a seat on the front edge of the couch at the opposite end, and turned his body to face me.
“So…what did you need to talk to me about?” I asked, tucking one foot under the other knee.
“What has William told you?” Joseph asked sincerely, scooting a little closer to me.
I raked b
ack my hair, and realized I hadn’t even brushed it yet. “About what?” I asked while looking down at my pants where I pulled at a loose string.
“Himself?” His voice grew more harsh. “Has he told you what he is?”
My head shot up, turning to face him. I wanted to shout that I knew, but I held my tongue. “Has he told you?” I asked. I didn’t want to reveal what William had told me without knowing exactly how much Joseph knew. I mean, it’s not every day a girl finds out her boyfriend is a vampire. Even when I just thought about it, it still sounded so weird.
Joseph’s eyes narrowed. “I know all about him… but, do you?”