"Let's get out of here," Winn said, grabbing her arm. "I'll tell you everything."

At the car, Deem watched as the two Navajo men placed Sani in the back seat, lying down.

"Will he be OK?" Winn asked one of them.

"He's breathing, so I think so," the man replied. "We're done here. Thank you." He extended his hand to Winn, and he shook it. Then he got in the Impala and they drove off.

"Goodbye to you, too," Deem said as their car disappeared in the distance. She grabbed her Big Gulp and took a sip. "Ugh. Warm."

"Let's get a cold one," Winn said, starting up the Jeep and driving them back into Kanab. "No 7-11 here, how about Walker's?"

"I'll take it," Deem said, waiting for him to park in front of the store. She jumped out of the Jeep and ran inside. Winn followed. They both bought drinks and snacks.

Winn began the drive back to Leeds. "You want to call Carma, let her know our ETA?"

"Sure," Deem said. She pulled out her phone and gave Carma a call. She told her they'd be about an hour.

"Wow, it's later than I thought," Deem said, checking her watch. "How long were we in there?"

"Longer than it seemed," Winn said. "Couple of hours."

"I think I've been pretty patient," Deem said. "Let you take me to the store, get me all caffeinated up, get something to munch on for the ride back. My sugar's all balanced now. Are you gonna tell me what the h.e.l.l happened in there?"

Winn smiled. "I'm a blank," he said, looking at her.

"A what?"

"A blank," Winn said. "That's what Sani called it."

"What's a blank?"

"I thought it was odd that you, your mother, and your aunt all were targeted by the skinrunner, but not me."

"True."

"And then, once we were inside the school, I couldn't see any of the things you saw."

"You saw the ghosts in the auditorium."

"Those were just normal, downwind ghosts, naturally there," Winn said. "Not put there by Ninth Sign, like the bear. When it came to him, things that used his power, I was a blank. Like the sounds you heard, the animal in the hall, the blue light, all of that."

"Did you see him? Ninth Sign? When Sani confronted him?"

"I saw a man. They talked back and forth."

"You didn't see the bears? The f.u.c.king bats?"

"No, none of that. Just a man, standing there talking to Sani."

"Is that what Sani was talking to you about, by the car, before we went in?"

"He had me swallow something," Winn said. "A small, round, flat rock. It was hard to get down. He called it a compa.s.s."

"Ninth Sign said something about a compa.s.s," Deem said. "He told Sani what he was doing was a waste of time, because he didn't have a compa.s.s."

"Sani hid the compa.s.s in me," Winn said. "All those green barriers, all over the complex? They were to alert Ninth Sign if a compa.s.s came through. He knew it was the only thing powerful enough to threaten him. Hiding it in me was Sani's way of keeping it hidden from Ninth Sign long enough to get close to him, so he could disperse him."

"Is that what he did? Disperse him?"

"Sani told me Ninth Sign was too powerful to simply kill. He had to split him into the four elements, to weaken him. He needed the compa.s.s to be able to do that. Then he scattered what was left, underground."

"Why not tell me?" Deem asked. "Why keep me in the dark while it was going on?"

"Sani said you'd already been tagged by Ninth Sign from when we went in earlier. If you had known about the compa.s.s, Ninth Sign would have picked it up in your thoughts and tried to take it out of me. Sani needed the element of surprise."

"I saw you duck when the bats flew," Deem said. "But you couldn't see the bats, could you?"

"No. I fell over when Sani removed the compa.s.s from my stomach. I'm guessing if he caused bats to fly at the same time, it was to create a distraction."

"How did he get the compa.s.s out of you?"

Winn raised his shirt. There was a two inch scar in the center of his chest, just below his pecs. It was bright red, and looked sore. "He warned me it would leave a mark," Winn said, lowering his shirt.

Deem remembered seeing Sani point at Winn's chest when they had been talking before they went in. Now that she had the whole picture, she felt a little sheepish for being upset.

"I guess I owe you an apology," Deem said. "For being so snippy before."

"I couldn't tell you," Winn said, "or you would have had to wait outside the fence. And I knew that would have really p.i.s.sed you off."

"True," Deem said, sucking on her straw. "I would have been angry if you'd said, 'wait in the car,' and then the four of you went in without me. Did you see the snake? The spear Ninth Sign threw?"

"I saw the spear, and I saw the guy catch it. Which was pretty cool."

"It turned into a snake in his hand," Deem said. "Bit him. The other guy cut it off him, but I thought for sure he was poisoned."

"I'm pretty confident all three of them were full of some kind of protection," Winn said. "Probably drank a gallon of it before they came."

"So you're a blank?" Deem said. "I wonder exactly what that means. If it means more than just being impervious to Ninth Sign's creations."

"Don't know. I'm not too happy about this scar though."

"Worried it might screw up your love life? All the little s.e.xpots in Moapa will run away screaming from the ugly scar? Like you're the Beast?"

"I'll have to make up a story, like a battle scar," Winn said. "Something that will make them want to sleep with me even more." He turned to Deem and gave her his widest, most charismatic smile.

"I guess you earned it," Deem said.

Chapter Seventeen.

Carma sat at the head of a large dining table that was made of rough-hewn, polished wood planks.

"Deem, another?" Carma asked, motioning to her tray of pies on a nearby antique buffet.

"No, I'm stuffed, thank you!" Deem said, trying to speak through her laughter. She'd been listening to a story Awan was telling, and she'd been laughing for almost a minute straight. It was cathartic.

"Awan? How about you? You look hungry still."

"No," he said, still laughing as well. "Thank you. I can't."

Winn picked up his wine gla.s.s and drank the remaining half inch of merlot. "Awan, there's one thing I don't get."

Carma, seeing the empty wine gla.s.s, hopped up from her spot at the table and brought a new bottle over from the buffet. She corked it as Winn talked.

"How did Sani know about me?" Winn asked. "When she arrived..."

"By the way," Deem interrupted, "is Sani a 'he' or a 'she'? We couldn't figure that out."

"He," Carma said, pulling the cork from the bottle. "He's been gender bending for years."

"When HE arrived," Winn continued, "he knew all about me. He didn't ask, he just started telling me what the plan was, what to do. How'd he know I was a blank?"

"Lyman," Awan said. "Lyman picked up on it when you were first here. He told Sani. When I told them that you were going to go into the school, they traveled up from the reservation to be ready once you came out. Sani realized you were the opportunity they needed."

"Why did we have to go in first?" Deem asked.

"Sani's old," Awan said. "But he was the one with the most experience at dividing elements, which they knew was the only way they would be able to bring down Ninth Sign. They were worried Sani could handle it, at his age. They wanted to be sure they could go straight to Ninth Sign and finish him off, without searching the whole school. Letting you find him first helped with that."

"I was kind of disappointed they didn't stop to talk more after it was over," Winn said. "They said nothing as we walked out. We got back to our cars, they loaded Sani into theirs, and they took off. It makes sense that Sani was wiped out. But I would have liked to know more about them."

"The Navajo have never been comfortable talking with white people about medicine," Awan said. "Most Natives aren't. You have to understand. They don't even say the word 'skinwalker,' let alone have conversations about it. It was nothing personal."

"Sani called Ninth Sign 'Shilah', and Ninth Sign called Sani the same thing," Deem said. "A Navajo name?"

"It means 'brother'," Awan said.

"As in tribal brother?" Deem asked. "Or were they related?"

"I don't know," Awan said. "But since Ninth Sign had been expelled by the tribe, I doubt Sani called him Shilah because they were tribal brothers."

"Deem?" Carma said, holding the merlot bottle. "A sip?"

Deem hadn't been drinking during the meal, but she'd been enjoying how relaxed and uninhibited the others had become as they had imbibed. Her whole life she'd said no to alcohol, in accordance with her religion. Now I'm losing my religion, she thought. The wine doesn't seem to have hurt these three people. And in a few days, I won't be a member anymore, anyway. What the h.e.l.l.

"Sure," she said. "A little."

"Whoa!" Winn said, pushing himself back from the table and laughing. "You're going to do it?"

"A sip," Deem said. "Don't get all worked up."

"I've been trying to get her to taste a beer for the last two years," Winn said to Awan, smiling. "No go."

"You don't tempt a woman with beer," Carma said. "Wine, especially a good one like this."

Deem raised the wine gla.s.s to her lips. She smelled the bouquet, and it surprised her. She was expecting it to smell like grape juice. I'll bet it doesn't taste like grape juice, either, she thought. Brace yourself.

Everyone was silent and all eyes were glued on Deem as she let the wine pa.s.s her lips and rest in her mouth. She swallowed.

"Yea!" Winn cheered.

Deem scrunched up her face as the alcohol hit. "It's a little bitter," she said.

"Not this wine!" Carma said. "No, my dear. This is the good stuff. If you want to taste bitter, try some bad wine."

"She's used to sugar drinks," Winn said. "Hot chocolates and Diet c.o.kes."

"Deem," Carma said, "I want you to try something. Take that last bite of pie you left on your plate, and wash it down with the wine. Right on the heels of it, OK?"

Deem did as instructed, and after she swallowed, a smile slowly spread across her face.

"Oh, I see," she said. "That's why people drink wine with food. I get it now."

"Oh, Deem," Carma said, reaching out to hold her hand. Deem almost laughed; Carma looked like she might cry.

"Pour her another gla.s.s!" Winn said.

"No!" Carma said. "She said a sip, and that's all. You just want to get her drunk and take advantage of her. Don't lie to me, young man!"

Awan started laughing, and so did Deem.

"You watch out for that one," Carma said to Deem, smiling. "He's after you, I can tell."

"He's after half of southern Nevada," Deem said.

Awan started laughing again, and Carma joined him.

Carma offered dessert, but everyone turned it down, too full. Carma said she'd save it for later, and they all moved into the sitting room overlooking the back yard. It seemed to be the favorite place to hang out in the house. Deem flopped into her favorite chair. The wine started moving through her, and she felt warm.

"Now to deal with your extortion brothers," Winn said to Awan. "That ghost chalk ready yet?"