The Waning Moon Read online

  This, on the other hand, was not neat. The two dead wolves shimmered and slowly turned back to their human selves. I didn’t recognize either of them—not that I necessarily would. I didn’t know many shifters. I cocked my head and looked at the wolf in my right claw. Now that I had them, it was harder to kill them than I’d thought it would be. Killing in the heat of battle was easy. Killing once I’d neutralized the enemy and scared the literal piss out them was different.

  I didn’t know how to shift back without letting them go, and they were terrified. The second they were free, they’d either run or do something incredibly stupid like try to kill me again. I wished Isaac would show up and help out. Unless he hadn’t turned around when I yelled turn, he should’ve only been a couple of minutes behind me. The fight hadn’t taken long, but he should be here.

  I panicked and one of the wolves made a hacking sound. I looked down and realized that in my own fear, I’d crushed its chest and caused it to slowly suffocate. I started shaking. This was not how I wanted things to go—I didn’t want to torture someone. I dropped the wolf I’d broken and then reached down with my jaw, braced myself against the taste, and bit its head off. I spit the head out of my mouth and it rolled across the clearing. By the time it came to a stop, it was a woman with long, silvery-blond hair and an ethereally beautiful face.

  The remaining wolf in my left claw went limp. I looked at it, but other than the knife wound caused by my first throw, there was nothing physically wrong. The wolf had fainted. Now was as good a time as any to turn back. I dropped the wolf and shifted. It was painful. Between the run, the brief fight, and the surges of adrenalin, I’d used most of my reserves. I rolled the wolf over and used strips of my ruined clothing to hog tie him. Then I walked back towards the trail and headed away from the car, looking for Isaac. I was naked and barefoot when I broke into a jog, one arm across my breasts to hold them still. I heard someone coming towards me, and I ducked off the trail. I didn’t want to explain my naked jogging. Seconds later, Isaac ran into view. I jumped out of the underbrush and ran towards him.

  He looked shocked.

  “Are you okay?” I said. I ran my hands over his face and body, searching for injuries.

  He raised an eyebrow. “Yes. Why?”

  “Why didn’t you turn around when I yelled out at the hour mark?”

  “I wasn’t quite ready to turn. I knew I’d catch up with you.”

  I punched him in the arm. “You asshole! What if you’d been attacked?”

  “I can take care of myself.”

  “Against how many?”

  “At least a half dozen before I’d need to even begin to think about worrying. Why are you naked?”

  “Because I was attacked. I killed people. Shifter people.” I burst into tears and he pulled me into his shaking arms.

  I hated tears. I hated weakness of any kind but having him hold me while I sobbed out my guilt was nice. Eventually, I got a hold of myself.

  “Sorry,” I said, rubbing my eyes.

  “It’s okay,” Isaac said. “Are you okay?” His eyes roved over my body looking for injury.

  “I’m fine, physically. I’m not fine emotionally. I didn’t mean to kill them like that.”

  “I’m still unclear as to why you’re naked, though.”

  “You know me—I always fight in the nude.” I tried to smile.

  Isaac gave me the sideways look that comment deserved and cocked an eyebrow at me.

  “I had to shift, and didn’t have time to strip first. My clothes were destroyed. My ruined clothing is currently serving as rope for the fourth wolf. Can we go back to the scene? We’ll need to call someone to clean it up. We can’t leave a bunch of bodies in a clearing in the woods.”

  “Do you want my shirt?”

  I eyed his sweat-soaked shirt and weighed the disgustingness of putting that on against the discomfort of being naked in the woods. “Nah, I’ll stay like this unless we hear someone coming.”

  I led Isaac back to the clearing. Everything was as I’d left it except the wolf was now conscious and struggling against his spandex restraints.

  Isaac growled at him. The wolf shrank in on itself and tilted its head back, offering Isaac its throat. Isaac reached out and snapped the wolf’s neck. Its body melted into its human form—this one appeared to be a young man, barely on the verge of adulthood.

  I gasped in shock and suppressed another wave of nausea.

  “We couldn’t let him tell anyone what you are,” Isaac said. He didn’t meet my gaze.

  “Shouldn’t we have questioned him or something first?” A note of hysteria was creeping into my voice.

  Isaac looked around the clearing. There was a man on the far edge with a silver knife in his throat, another man in the center of the clearing who’d been bitten nearly in two, and a torso lying a few feet from that one.

  “Where’s the head?” he asked. I pointed to the far edge where the woman’s head had rolled into the shadow of a stump. “How?”

  I gestured towards the first body, “Lucky shot with a silver knife. The second there, was an accident. I was trying to hold him still with my teeth, but bit too hard. The headless one,” I gagged and ran to the edge of the clearing where I emptied my stomach. I could taste the blood coming back up which triggered another round of gagging and vomiting. When I was finally done, I realized Isaac was standing next to me, rubbing my back. He handed me the water bottle he’d been carrying and I rinsed out my mouth.

  I continued, without looking at the carnage. “The third one was an accident, too. I was holding her in my claws, and I squeezed too hard. She was suffocating, so I killed her to stop the suffering.”

  “That was good, Eleanor. Merciful. As was what I did. Once you shifted in front of him, you sealed his fate.”

  He was right. I knew he was right. But something was wrong, and I couldn’t put my finger on it. “How do we clean this up?”

  “I’ll call Christopher. These might be his wolves, and if so, he has the right to know he was betrayed. If he sent them, his reaction will tell us if we were.” He rotated me until I was facing away from the clearing. “Can you go back to the car and grab some clothes and my phone? I’ll make sure no one stumbles onto this mess.”

  “How far is it?”

  “About two miles.”

  “It’ll be a slow jog for me without shoes or a sports bra,” I said. “You could be there and back in less than a half hour.”

  “I wasn’t sure you were up for staying alone.”

  “I made this mess; I can sit here until we get someone to clean it up.”

  Isaac kissed me and started towards the trail.

  “Isaac?”

  He stopped.

  “Can you bring food? I’m starving.”

  He nodded and disappeared towards the trail.

  I collected my knives and used the water I’d carried and my torn clothes to clean them. I gathered up the sheaths and examined them. They were destroyed as well. When I’d gathered and cleaned all the knives but the one in the first dead wolf, I sat cross-legged on the ground. I stood immediately. Naked cross-legged pose was not comfortable on the forest floor. I wished I had a watch to check. I’d been about twenty minutes since Isaac had left, but without a watch, my inner chronometer might be off.

  I walked a perimeter around the clearing, carefully avoiding any blood puddles. A few minutes later, I heard someone coming. I tensed until I was able to scent him.

  Isaac walked into the clearing and I went to meet him. He’d brought jeans, a lacy bra, and a low-cut t-shirt along with some socks and tennis shoes. “Really? This is what you were able to find?”

  “That’s it.”

  “Not the pile of clothes on the front seat that included panties and a more practical bra?”

  “Didn’t see them,” he said.

  I rolled my eyes and got dressed.

  “Christopher is on his way. When he arrives, unless he looks guilty, we can leave him to it.”

/>   I tore into the energy bars Isaac had brought along. We waited in silence until Christopher and two others showed up. If the expression on his face was genuine, this was a shock to him—and he knew the wolves we’d killed.

  “What happened?”

  I recounted my story, leaving out the part about the dragon, which meant two of the dead were difficult to explain. He looked at me sharply and I returned his gaze with my best poker face.

  “There’s more than you’re telling me,” he said.

  “There is, and Isaac can tell you the rest of the story tomorrow. But not now, when we don’t know who might be listening.”

  “Fair point. Thank you for your role in uncovering the traitors in my house.”

  We were dismissed.

  Chapter Ten

  DINNER WAS OVER, Florence had gone, and I was contemplating going to bed when the air stirred near me.

  Raj dropped out of the sky well away from the campfire and with no preamble announced, “I have news.”

  “So nice to see you, Raj,” Isaac said.

  “It’s always nice to see you,” Raj said. He stared at Isaac heatedly until Isaac dropped his eyes.

  “I can’t believe you let him out dominate you,” I said.

  “That wasn’t a dominance contest,” Raj said.

  “You can’t have a dominance contest with a vampire. They can ensnare you with their gaze.” Isaac told me.

  “And was he trying to ensnare you?”

  “Since we met,” Isaac said.

  “He’s such a jerk.” I met Raj’s gaze and I wasn’t sure if I hoped he’d try or not.

  His voice whispered in my head, “I would not seriously try to ensnare either of you. I want you in my bed of your own free will. I always get what I want.”

  “You have news?”

  “I have found the gate. Would you like to come with me to confirm it?”

  “How far is it?” Isaac asked. “Florence took the car already.”

  “It’s close—only about a mile and a half as the vampire flies.”

  I looked around the campground. “You don’t think anyone will see me?” I asked. Flying sounded delightful.

  “It’s unlikely. We’ll be flying over mostly forested land. However, I thought it’d be better if I flew us there and then, if you feel comfortable, you can fly back.”

  “What about me?” Isaac said.

  “You can wait here. We won’t be long.”

  “It sounds like a good plan. I’ll let you carry me because I’m already twitchy this close to the gate. I don’t want to lose control of my dragon when we get there—who knows what kind of havoc I’d wreak. Side note: can you believe we found a campsite this close? How lucky are we?”

  “Luck probably had nothing to do with this,” Isaac said.

  “Are you ready, my sweet?” Raj asked. He opened his arms.

  Isaac dropped a quick kiss on my lips and pushed me lightly towards Raj. “Go.”

  I stepped into Raj’s arms and he wrapped them around me. Before I could take another breath, he shot into the air. I was gasping and breathless in seconds. The ground zoomed away from us, and I felt vulnerable up here in my human form. I wondered if I could change before I died.

  “You’re immortal.” Raj’s voice in my head sounded amused.

  “I can be killed.”

  “Not from falling.”

  “It’d really suck, though.”

  “We are not quite as high as a skydiver’s plane. It would take you about a minute to hit the ground from here. How long does it take you to change?”

  I’d never timed myself. “Longer than a minute if I was plunging to my death.”

  “I promise not to drop you.”

  I reached inside and found the spark that initiated the shift. I grabbed on, ready to change if necessary, and forced myself to relax into Raj.

  We hadn’t been in the air long when Raj descended. Vibrations overtook me, although I couldn’t tell if they were having a physical effect or merely a mental one. Either way, I was nauseated. I was glad Raj had insisted on carrying me.

  “I’m right about everything I insist upon,” he said as we landed gently in a small parking lot.

  I tried to laugh at his arrogance, but the unopened gate consumed me. I held onto Raj when he would’ve stepped away.

  “Do you need me to carry you closer?” he asked.

  I wanted to say no, but nodded. “I wonder why it was so hard to find the first gate? There’s no ignoring this power—it’s even stronger than the last one.”

  “You are more powerful now. You’ve honed your skills and you’ve had the magic of two gates pour over you. There’s more magic in the world, now, too.”

  Raj picked me up. “Which way?”

  I pointed to the northwest and he headed in that direction. It was dark, but I saw enough to realize we were in the middle of a circle of sticks. “Is this a henge?”

  “It is.”

  “Holy shit. No wonder it’s a place of power. Who built it?”

  “This is a reconstruction, but the Mississippian Indians who lived here built it in about 1000 CE.”

  “This is younger than you, isn’t it?”

  “Yes.”

  “Holy shit,” I said again. “That is crazy. I’m at an ancient archeological site with someone who was already alive when it was built. My life is insane.”

  “This is it? The gate?”

  “It is. I wonder if any of these sticks mark the sunrise or sunset on Samhain?”

  “It seems likely. I stopped in the visitor’s center and read about markers for the solstices and equinoxes. Why not the cross-quarter days?”

  “Can we leave?”

  “Already?”

  “It’s too much. I want to do…things.”

  “What kind of things? Maybe we should stay.”

  I elbowed him in the ribs. “Not those kind of things, pervert.”

  He laughed. “Do you want to fly back, or shall I carry you?”

  “You’d better carry me. I can’t concentrate with all this music.”

  “Music?”

  “It’s the music of the spheres. Or the gates. It’s beautiful, but distracting.”

  “Your wish is my command.” He moved the arm supporting my legs and my body slid down the length of his until I was standing facing him, our bodies lightly touching.

  “Raj,” I said.

  He smiled and pulled me closer. “Wrap your arms around my neck,” he whispered. His arms tightened around my waist and he rose into the air. I yelped and did as he asked. Our lips were centimeters apart and when he opened his mouth and ran his tongue over his pointed fangs, heat flooded my body. Again.

  “You’re not playing fair,” I whispered.

  “Why would I do that?”

  I barely noticed the air rushing by as he flew us to the campground. I concentrated on not running my tongue over his teeth.

  He leaned forward and brushed my lips with his. I told myself it was only the fear of falling that made me tighten my grip and lean into him. It was a brief, gentle kiss, over almost before it started. Moments later, we dropped back into the campground, almost in the same spot we’d started from.

  Isaac sat at the picnic table, pointedly not looking. He could probably smell my arousal, and the fact we’d landed facing each other instead of my back to Raj’s front like we’d started must’ve looked suspicious.

  Raj let go of me, and I stumbled backwards. Isaac jumped up and steadied me before I fell. I looked at him, breathed in his scent, and then used a tremendous amount of willpower to keep from pushing him back onto the picnic table and ripping his clothes off.

  “Go ahead,” Raj said. “I don’t mind.”

  Isaac raised an eyebrow questioningly.

  “She was thinking of taking you right here on the picnic table. I was going to enjoy the show.”

  “Beer?” I asked. I needed to put some distance between myself and these men if I was going to maintain a shred of
dignity.

  Isaac grabbed a beer from the open cooler. He popped the top on the table and handed it to me. Then he pulled the loosened cork out of the nearby wine bottle and poured a glass for Raj.

  “Was it the gate?” Isaac asked.

  “It was.”

  “So we’re set now. Nothing to do for the next ten days.”

  “Lots to do, but the big things are done,” I said. I turned towards Raj. “Am I right in assuming you’re skilled with a sword?”

  He opened his mouth, and I interrupted, “That was not intended to be a euphemism.” Raj laughed.

  “I am, as you say, skilled with a sword.”

  “Would you mind sparring with me every evening? My skills are dropping off, and I’ve not had a chance to spar with someone who is basically immortal and is as fast as I am.”

  “I’d be delighted.”

  “Great! I’ll do magic practice with Florence, hand-to-hand with Isaac, work on the knife throwing skills, and then sword practice with you.”

  “Trying to lose weight?” Raj asked.

  In my head, I punched him. Hard. He winced and laughed.

  “You guessed it. I want to lose those pesky ten pounds and write a book. ‘Lose 10 Pounds in 10 Days with Combat Training and Actual Combat with Supernatural Creatures!’”

  Raj laughed, drained his wine, and stood up. “I’m off. I’m feeling a bit peckish, and since it seems unlikely either of you are going to offer to be my meal this evening, I’ll look elsewhere.”

  He bowed and then shot up into the air and disappeared.

  “Is there anything you’d like to tell me?” Isaac asked.

  “It was intense and beautiful. Maybe we can drive over there tomorrow. It really is close.”

  “I meant about Raj.”

  “No. I mean, he does that sexual thing to me all the time, but he does it to you, too.”

  “Are you still feeling that heat?”

  I looked up at him from under my eyelashes. “A bit. Maybe you’d volunteer as tribute?”

  “I could give it a try.”

  I set down my beer and walked into Isaac’s arms. He leaned forward and kissed me, then pulled back. “I can taste him on your lips.”