The Spirit Seducer

Chapter 14

It never came. Instead, that horrendous tugging, the pressure of the contractions swallowed us.

We landed in the entryway of my house in Santa Fe. Layla slammed open the door, pulling me out onto my front porch. Blood dripped from my shoulder, knees and palms. I winced at the pain building there—the tissue felt hot, swollen.

"Best placed sipapu ever," Layla yelled, dancing across the yard.

She started to giggle while I gaped at her.

"What? It's better than dead."

True. But—wow.

"Do you think the Kachina will follow us?" I asked.

Layla stopped laughing and snorted. "Yeah. We need to get out of here."

"Do you think the rest of the sipapus are messed up like this one?"

"Probably."

"So what do we do?"

"First, we get in your mom's car. Coyote's got to have your place watched."

Sure enough, a Kachina was already moving toward us, his spear angled at my chest. I jumped off the porch and managed to wrap my hand around the spear's shaft. I used the Kachina's momentum with my own and slammed the shaft back into his gut, trying to freeze him at the same time.

"Good shot," Layla said, standing and dusting off her dirt-covered knees. "Get in the car."

"Do you think there are more?" I gasped. My hands hurt and so did my shoulder.

"Of course," Layla snapped. "They can talk to each other telepathically."

"Shouldn't I try to close the sipapu?"

"Can you do it in half a second?"

"I'll do it," Honani offered. He was grayish instead of his usual translucent-white. He moved slowly, achingly, into my necklace.

"Get in the car, E."

She was pushing against my head, but I wanted to do this—I wanted to get away from another round of attacks and threats. I opened the door. I settled into the old cloth seat. How many times had I sat here on the way to some doctor's visit, hoping for more in my life than just another round of tests and debilitating pain?

Now I had more. And it was some scary shit.

Layla slammed the Corolla's dented door shut. "Do you have the keys?"

"No, Layla, I didn't grab the keys yesterday before I was transported from my house." I couldn't help the sarcasm.

Her silvery blonde head disappeared under the dashboard.

"I didn't know you could hotwire a car."

"Not very easy to do," came Layla's muffled reply. "Glad your mom's is an older model."

I heard her muttering as she ripped apart wires. There was a loud sizzle, a huge spark, and Layla slammed her head against the steering wheel. She shrieked a curse before muttering about foreign cars being more complicated.

Letting Layla rant, I gripped my necklace. It was the same temperature as my skin. Honani hadn't looked good.

"Are you okay?" I asked. Honani didn't answer.

That was unlike him. Something was wrong.

"Honani?"

The pendant warmed a little but Honani didn't appear.