The Moon Tells Secrets by Savanna Welles Page B

run inside, the dog prancing ahead of him, and then I heard him stop and scream, the sound as sharp and piercing as it always was when he was afraid. I ran down the hall and into the room, snatching him toward me.
    It was Pinto who knew he was shifting. His growl told me that, and his snarl, those little teeth sharp and white as he backed away from Davey almost into the wall. I pulled Davey close to me, as big as he was, trying to hide him from the dog, from anything that could hurt him.
    â€œPinto!” Luna screamed. Whimpering but obedient, the dog slunk toward her, head down, but his eyes, so wide and friendly before, glared angrily and fiercely at Davey now. Davey was afraid, too. But it wasn’t Pinto that scared him. He had seen or sensed something in the room, and I felt his body changing against my own: his limbs shrinking ever so slightly, fist balling, mouth puckering against my breast like that of some beast he knew he would become.
    â€œDon’t, Davey.” I bent and whispered in his ear. “Don’t. Don’t. Breathe like you tell me to do when I’m scared. Breathe to stop it from happening. Nothing is here. I will keep you safe.”
    He couldn’t speak. His voice was lost somewhere deep inside him.
    Pinto growled from across the room, snapping, snarling at the air.
    â€œStop it!” Luna ordered the dog as she whacked him across his snout, then grabbed his collar, holding him tight.
    I pushed Davey into the hall as far away from the door as I could, then stepped into the room lit by the morning sun pouring in through the curtain-less windows. A wedding picture sat on the desk. Cade and a pretty woman with a wide, bright smile. Stacks of paper and unopened folders piled around them, and on a small table in a far corner, dried daisies bunched in a white china vase.
    â€œGo sit on the couch and wait for me, now!” I whispered to Davey.
    â€œNo! Mom, I’m scared.” He had found his voice, but it had changed. It was deeper, with a hoarseness to it.
    â€œI’ll be right there. Go,” I said, and he left, his body shaking as he tried to control what had begun to happen. Pinto growled again, barking at Davey as he left. Davey looked back at him, and the sadness in his eyes pulled deep into my heart.
    â€œStop it, you foolish little beast!” Luna snapped, and Pinto, suddenly cowed, kneeled at her feet.
    â€œWhat the hell is going on?” Cade stepped forward, his eyes wide as he confronted first me, then Luna. “What’s wrong with Davey? How come he ran like that?”
    I said nothing. An object on the desk had caught my attention, a piece of a claw that lay a few inches from the wedding photograph, bone gray and as grotesque as the one I’d seen at Anna’s house all those years ago; the one wrapped in white cotton kept inside a lead box. They do that sometimes, Anna had told me. Leave bits of themselves behind to warn those who need to be warned, scare them before they tell their secrets. It was a token; its spirit still within. You can tell if you feel it, she said as she’d grabbed my hand, making me touch the horrible thing. I was back into that memory now, of her rough fingers grasping mine, of the sharp edge of the thing, which looked like a fingernail, when it pricked my finger, drew my blood. Never forget this, she told me. This is what you must protect him from.
    I looked at Cade and fear shot through me. How was he tied to the creature? Had I nearly given him my child? “What are you?” I said to him, barely able to speak.
    â€œWhat do you mean, what am I? Luna?” His gaze, unfaltering and angry, had shot to Luna for an answer.
    Luna answered, quietly but firmly. “You two are as bad as this damn dog. Both of you calm down,” she said. “Cade is fine. He’s just what he looks like. Children and animals have a sixth sense that picks up things we don’t. Something sad or evil happened here,