Hunters of Chaos (18 page)

Doli grew quiet, and nobody else seemed to know what to say.

“That doesn't sound crazy,” I said after a moment. “In fact, it sounds . . . right on.”

Lin and Shani nodded. After a pause, Doli said, “I'm glad it happened that way, and not how the Navajo legends say people usually become shape-shifters.”

“How's that?” I asked.

She twisted her lips to the side. “They perform all kinds of evil rites to get the power. I'm talking witchcraft and murder. Shape-shifters aren't quite as bad as skin walkers—who can turn into other people—but they still end up banished by the tribe.”

“Well, that seems harsh,” Shani said. “Some shape-shifters”—she pointed to herself—“are perfectly nice people.”

Doli grinned. “If I ever get up the nerve to confess to my parents, I'll tell them you said so. For now, we've got to figure out how to get the Chaos Spirits back in the vase.”

“You mean the vase that Anubis turned into a pile of dust?” I reminded her.

Doli slumped. “Oh, right. I almost forgot.”

“Who says it has to be the same vase?” Lin said. “If they were trapped once, they can be trapped again. We just have to find some other container.” We all looked at Lin with shocked faces, surprised by her participation. “Hypothetically,” she added, shrugging as if she couldn't care less.

I smiled. “You're right, Lin. That could do the trick. Although it would help to know what it was about the vase specifically that held them prisoner. If they could burst through a concrete-and-plaster ceiling, why couldn't they break out of the vase?”

“Hmm . . . ,” Shani murmured. “Maybe if we knew more about the vase, that would help. Ana, the vase was donated by your family. Had you ever seen it before?”

I shook my head sadly. “I didn't even know my aunt and uncle owned anything like it. And now it's been destroyed. But hey—I know there's information about the museum collection on the Temple website. Maybe there's a listing for the vase?”

“If it's there, I'll find it,” Shani said.

Within a few minutes we were looking at a picture of the vase that had started the battle. There wasn't a lot of information about it, other than that it was of Mayan origin, which we already knew. But as I studied the photos, something finally occurred to me. “See those gems in the corners?” I said, pointing them out. “Where did they go? They were real gemstones, and those aren't easy to destroy. I'd bet you anything they secured the Chaos Spirits inside the vase.”

“But where did the Chaos Spirits come from in the first place?” Doli asked.

“I don't know,” I replied. There was so much I didn't know. “But according to Ms. Benitez, powers can be used for both good and evil. So maybe we can use them to our advantage—once we figure out where the heck they are now, that is. And once we get them out of the way, we can handle Anubis.”

“How do you know?” Lin said, only a slight hint of annoyance in her voice.

“Because . . .” I turned to Lin. “Before Ms. Benitez passed out, she told me that together we are stronger than he is, and that we should have faith in our power.”

Suddenly I heard a clatter outside the room and the sound of heavy footsteps walking away. The girl who'd kept shushing us at the next table had left, and we'd thought the librarian was the only one in the library. But she always stepped lightly. Those footsteps belonged to someone else. I felt the back of my neck prickle and I shivered. Was there someone spying on us?

“Is your Spidey sense tingling too?” Shani asked.

“Something like that,” I said. “My jaguar sense, anyway.” Slowly I crept out of my chair, tiptoeing over to the open door. I looked behind me and saw that the others had followed me without making a sound. We really were becoming more like cats every day. When I got to the entryway, I jumped out, hoping to catch the eavesdropper by surprise. But no one was there. The hallway was empty, and the nearest person searching the stacks was way on the other side of the library.

“Whoever it was moved fast,” I said.

“It could just be our new weirdo cat senses,” Lin reasoned. “I've been hearing a lot of things that sound as if they're happening right next to me but turn out to be far away. We need to be more careful about where we talk about this, though. If someone was really there and overheard us, we'd sound crazy. Last thing we want is the whole school gossiping about how we think we're big cats.”

“Agreed,” the rest of us said at once.

I hadn't forgotten that Lin had texted Nicole after our first meeting with Ms. Benitez . . . and I still wondered how much she'd actually told her. But she was finally starting to thaw toward me, and I didn't want to ruin that. We headed back to our table.

“Okay, you guys,” said Shani, packing up her laptop. “I don't know about you, but I've had my fill of our little
National Geographic
saga for one day. Besides, we should probably cool it on discussing all this until we're absolutely sure we're alone.”

But even as she said it, my earlier paranoia began to seep back in. Were we ever alone? Or was someone keeping tabs on us, watching our every move and just waiting for the right time to pounce?

W
ITH THE MUSEUM OFF LIMITS
and Ms. Benitez still in the hospital, there wasn't much we could do. Six days later, at our Monday morning assembly, Principal Ferris stood at the podium looking less bubbly than usual. Her eyes seemed a bit glassy and flat, and she spoke in a monotone. Jason had said his mom had a crush on Dr. Logan, who'd now been gone for a whole week. I wondered if she would still miss him if she'd seen him in his true demon form. I also couldn't keep my eyes off the Egyptian-style necklace she now wore around her neck, which was gorgeous, but not exactly Principal Ferris–style. Was she taking fashion risks to lure her man? Or had the whole world just gone crazy on the night we'd turned into cats?

I had unofficially moved out of my dorm room, bunking with Doli and Shani every night and avoiding Nicole as much as I could. I had to see her in history class, of course, but the school had arranged for a sub to cover for Ms. Benitez, and she mostly had us work quietly by ourselves. I spotted Nicole now, sitting next to Lorna a few rows up to my left. As I watched, she spotted me too, leaned over and whispered something into Lorna's ear, and then giggled quietly, her shoulders shaking. I was sure she'd just said something horrible about me, but whereas a few days before it might have shattered me, now it just made me feel sorry for her. Aunt Teppy often told me that happy people don't need to make others unhappy. Nicole must have been miserable.

At the end of morning announcements, Principal Ferris took a deep breath and said, “Finally, I have something important to tell you, which may come as a shock.” She paused and looked up, over the crowd. “I've been puzzling over the right way to say this.”

“She's not a natural blonde,” Shani joked beside me. “I knew it! No one's hair is that perfect.”

I grinned at her, but little butterflies of worry were fluttering around my stomach. What was Principal Ferris talking about? It sounded big.

Principal Ferris took a deep breath. “Since lightning damaged the museum, Dr. Logan has decided to continue his work at the New Mexico State University lab. However, according to Dr. Logan, word of the Anasazi temple's discovery has reached far and wide. In fact, the top archaeologists in the field have deemed the discovery so historic that Dr. Logan has offered to finance the temporary relocation of our school to another campus so the entire area can be excavated.”

She may as well have taken a grenade out of her pocket, pulled the pin, and tossed it into the crowd.

The whole room erupted in angry shouts of, “This is our school!” and, “Where are we supposed to go?” The teachers didn't look any happier about it. Our math teacher, Mr. Gerard, stood and pulled up his pants, which always drooped below his generous gut. “You can't be serious about this,” he shouted. “The whole idea is ludicrous!”

Ms. Duveaux, the French teacher, shouted out as well. “I've taught at this school for twenty years, and never have we been forced to vacate the premises. It's outrageous!”

“And some of us live here on campus,” another teacher shouted from the back of the room. “What about us?”

That earned a chorus of “yeahs” and shouts. Students turned in their seats, excitedly talking to their friends in nearby rows or taking cell-phone pictures of the building mayhem.

“This is crazy,” Doli said to me. “I feel like there's going to be a riot.”

But before the protests went any further, Principal Ferris tapped the microphone several times, urging everyone to calm down. “Nothing is certain,” she said. “We are still in talks, but I wanted to let you know that it is a very real possibility, and if it should come to pass, we will make sure everyone is accommodated. Our top priority is education, and that will not be disrupted.”

“This has Anubis written all over it,” I whispered. “He just wants us gone so he can get to the temple without a problem.”

“So let's fight this and give him a problem,” Shani said with a wicked grin. She and Doli fist-bumped and I smiled.

After everyone finally calmed down, the teachers grumbling quietly to themselves, Principal Ferris went on. “In other news, I regret to say that the rash of thefts has continued. I'm getting more reports from students every day of stolen items. This behavior is utterly unacceptable,” she said, raising her voice. “Any student with information about the thefts
must
come forward. If we find out later that you knew who the culprit was and remained silent, you, too, will be held accountable.”

She finally called assembly to an end, and when the crowd separated me from Shani and Doli, I ended up walking next to Nicole. She turned to me and said loudly enough for everyone to hear, “Hey, Ana. My phone was the most recent thing stolen. Funny how all the thefts started when
you
showed up!”

I rolled my eyes at her. “You
must
be
joking,” I said.

“Not at all.” She held up two fingers and pointed them at her eyes then swung them around at mine. “I'm watching you,” she said, and sashayed down the hall ahead of me.

Irritating.
I sighed. Nicole was the least of my problems. I had bigger issues to deal with now. Life-or-death issues.

I took my laptop to the computer lab and set myself up in a private room. It had now been more than two weeks since I'd heard anything from Aunt Teppy and Uncle Mec, and I was determined to reach them. I needed them more than ever. I knew that the Wildcats had all agreed not to tell anyone the truth, but I felt certain they'd make an exception in this case. I mean, maybe my aunt and uncle could help us. Since they'd donated the vase, it was possible that they knew about the Chaos Spirits. Or the Wildcats! Or my connection to all of it . . . whatever that was.

Since my aunt and uncle hadn't responded to my Skype invitations, I used the program to call their home phone, instead. It rang three times and then a man answered. “Hello, Navarro residence.”

“Finally!” I cried, relieved to have gotten through to my uncle at last. “Where have you guys been? And why did you answer the phone like that?”

There was a pause on the other end of the line. “I'm sorry,” he said. “But you must be looking for Mec and Tepin Navarro. They seem to be away.”

I felt like I'd been doused with ice water.
It's not Uncle Mec?
Only then did I realize the man's voice was thinner and higher than my uncle's. “Who is this?” I demanded.

“Who is this?” he shot back. “You called this number.”

“Ana Cetzal,” I said. “I
live
there.”

The man's tone immediately warmed up. “Ana, I'm glad to hear from you. This is Steven Waterman. I used to be your parents' lawyer, and I've been managing their estate for many years.”

I searched my mind. I knew I had heard his name before, though I'd never met him in person. When my aunt and uncle had started the process of accessing my funds to pay my tuition, Mr. Waterman had been the lawyer who arranged everything.

“Yes, I remember. I'm sorry for the way I spoke to you, Mr. Waterman. It's just been a hard week and I really need to speak to my aunt and uncle. Can you put them on?”

“I wish I could,” he answered. “I've actually been trying to get in touch with them for several days now. I finally decided to come over to the house in person today to check on them. But they aren't here. I haven't been here long, but I don't see any sign of them.”

I felt my hands begin to shake. If they'd been out of touch for so long that even their lawyer was worried, their silence had not been some tough-love strategy to let me thrive on my own, as Ms. Benitez had suggested. My stomach began to roil. “Well, where are they?” I cried, trying not to panic.