The Waning Moon Read online

  “A few dozen?”

  “Give or take. It was rather a lot, even for me.”

  “And you’re sure you’re okay?”

  “I’m irritated and hungry, but no lasting damage was done.”

  “Can I get you anything?”

  “I hate to ask, but I lost a lot of blood…”

  “I’ll do it,” Florence said.

  “You don’t have to,” I said.

  “Yes, I do.” She rolled up her sleeve and held her wrist out to Raj.

  “You honor me,” he said, before biting down. He fed deeply but quickly, and before much time had passed, he was healing the puncture wounds. I held out a cold, wet washcloth.

  “May I clean you up?”

  He submitted to my ministrations, and I was pleased to see all of his wounds were closed, and once the blood was washed off, it looked as though he’d been healing for weeks instead of an hour. By morning, he’d look good as new. I opened my mouth to ask more questions about Savannah, Blake (heh), and how one goes about slaughtering a few dozen supernaturals and emerging relatively unscathed, all things considered.

  “What have I missed?” Raj asked, clearly heading off my questions at the pass.

  After we filled Raj in on the not-so-informative conversation I’d had with Arduinna, I decided to grill him a bit.

  “Is this what you’ve been up to since we arrived? Fending off local vamps? I noticed you haven’t been around much, except last night and Thanksgiving, and your flirting has been sub-par.”

  “You’ve noticed?” Florence asked.

  “I’m royalty. Isn’t it my job to take credit for other people’s thoughts?”

  She shook her head and smiled at me.

  “What do you mean my flirting has been sub-par?” Raj looked offended.

  “You didn’t even try to hit on me last night.”

  “You were grieving.”

  I couldn’t help it, I started laughing.

  “How is that funny?”

  “Florence and I had this exact same conversation this morning.”

  “Which of you threw out the grieving line?”

  “Me. Florence knows us all better than we know ourselves.”

  “I’m not going to take advantage of you when you’re emotionally compromised.”

  “You didn’t even flirt a little at the cemetery. You were comforting, which was nice, but it was devoid of sexual innuendo.”

  “I apologize that my preoccupation with Blake of Savannah kept me from your side.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Is Savannah yours now?”

  “Yes.” He didn’t sound thrilled.

  “Are you going to stay?”

  “Definitely not. If I’d wanted the city, I would’ve taken it when we arrived.”

  “You could’ve just done that?”

  Raj grinned and a shiver ran up and down my spine. It was easy to forget this man—this vampire—was a thousand years old.

  “All by design, my sweet.”

  “Between the Pacific Northwest and Savannah, you have a great deal of territory and power.”

  “I’ll show you how powerful I am.”

  “Much better!” I treated him to a polite golf clap. “But seriously, what’re you going to do about Savannah?”

  “I’ll appoint a lieutenant, much as I have in Portland and Seattle. Then, if we need to incentivize the Queen to grant us safe passage, I’ll offer her Savannah. With a competent lieutenant in place, she can add the city to her territory without needing additional administrative staff. More taxes, not more work.”

  “You’re a generous man.”

  “Something else I’d be delighted to demonstrate. We’ll add that to the list.”

  “There’s a list now?”

  “Of course. Power, generosity, what else?”

  “Stamina?” I suggested.

  “Would you walk me back to my motel room?” Florence asked. I gave her side-eyes, but complied with her request. She asked me in. “Do not sleep with the vampire out of pique or hurt feelings.”

  “I have no intention of sleeping with Raj.”

  She tapped the side of her head. “I’m psychic. I know what you were thinking.”

  “Idle speculation and desire do not equal intention.”

  “You’d feel badly about it tomorrow.”

  “I’m not having sex with Raj.”

  “A word of advice: no matter what happens, don’t go to bed with him until we leave New Orleans. What happens there will change you, change him, and might change your mind.”

  Florence did not often offer advice; I couldn’t afford to ignore it. “I’ll go say good night to Raj.”

  “You don’t have to kick him out of your life. Just don’t let him into your pants.”

  I hugged her, which surprised us both, and said good night.

  Raj was waiting in my room. “I can stay if you’d like,” he said.

  “I’d like, but you have to keep your hands and all other body parts to yourself.”

  “Deal.”

  The closer we got to the full moon, the antsier I got. I tried to convince myself Isaac wouldn’t do the sensible thing, wouldn’t come back for the full moon, but no matter how many times I tried to dash my own hopes, they kept springing eternal.

  Raj was around more now than he had been before, but not a lot more. He was trying to figure out which of the remaining vamps would be best suited for leadership and least likely to betray him. He was interviewing everyone who was left, and although I was, for some reason, not allowed at those proceedings, it amused me to imagine the vampires showing up to Raj’s corporate office in ill-fitting and uncomfortable suits, to try to convince Raj why they were the right ones for the job. In addition to being amusing, it gave me a chance to imagine Raj in a suit and tie, which was kind of nice.

  Still, he carved time out of his busy VR (vampire relations) work to spend the early part of each evening with me. He flirted outrageously, turned every other sentence out of my mouth into sexual innuendo, but never once tried to push past the boundaries I’d established between us. He was waiting for me to come to him. It’s a good thing he was patient, because I had no intention of crossing that line.

  If I did it now, even without Florence’s warning, I’d regret it because there was still a chance Isaac would pull his head out of his ass and try to salvage our relationship. And even if we were ‘on a break,’ it would still hurt Isaac that I’d slept with Raj.

  If I slept with Raj after the full moon, it would be out of hurt and anger, and although that wasn’t the worst reason in the world to have sex, it wasn’t a good enough reason to cross a previously established relationship line, at least not when I planned on remaining friends with said someone.

  I was less clear on the reasons to stay out of Raj’s pants between opening the fourth gate and whenever New Orleans was, but Florence said to keep my libido in check, and I would listen.

  I heard a quiet knock at the door and smiled. “Come in.” Raj walked in, and for some reason was wearing a gorgeous, obviously insanely expensive, suit. I gasped.

  He held out his arms a bit and spun. “Good?”

  I tried to restart my brain and list all the reasons why sleeping with him now was a bad idea. “Why?” I sputtered out.

  “I enjoyed your fantasies about my interviewing practices.”

  We were headed down a dangerous path and I needed to rein it back in.

  “I thought you were going to stay out of my head?”

  “When did I ever agree to that? I certainly won’t now that I know what lovely things are happening in there.” He loosened his tie and unbuttoned the top button. I tried not to stare.

  “You’re not playing fair.”

  “Why would I? You’ve known my objective since day one.”

  “The objective to capture and imprison me?”

  He chuckled. “That is still my objective, although figuratively rather than literally. I want to capture your affections.”

>   “I have great affection for you, Raj.”

  “I don’t know why you hesitate. Your only objection before was the presence of Isaac. He is no longer in a position to object. Why aren’t we spending our nights in sensual discovery?”

  “You’re busy with your VR duties.”

  “I wish you wouldn’t call it that. Unless you’re going to put on a power suit—and skip the blouse.”

  “And secondly, Isaac is not out of the picture. He has until the moon rises tomorrow to show up and try to make amends.”

  “And when he doesn’t?”

  “If.”

  “My apologies, my sweet, and if he doesn’t? Will you then seek comfort in my bed?”

  “No.” My thoughts flicked to what Florence had told me and Raj picked it up immediately.

  “You won’t sleep with me because the witch told you not to?”

  “I do everything she tells me to do. She’s very wise.”

  “And it all comes down to New Orleans?”

  “That’s what she said.”

  “I hope we go there next. I am eager to get that barrier out of the way.” He stared at me, and my resolve tried to flee.

  “Stop.”

  “Stop looking? At such a one as yourself? Don’t ask for impossibilities.” He was back to being outrageous, which meant he was letting it go.

  “For now.”

  Moonrise of the first night of the full moon was late afternoon. When Isaac hadn’t shown up by noon, I opened up our bond as wide as I could without cooperation and searched for him. He was almost due east, and I got the impression he was surrounded by swamp lands and small animals. Before he shut me down, I got a name. Turtle Island.

  “He’s on Turtle Island,” I told Florence. “I don’t know where that is, but it’s not too far and it’s almost due east. He has no intention of coming back and asking for my help.”

  “Do you want to go to him, or leave him to it?” she asked.

  “I don’t know. He seems to have found an uninhabited island which should minimize the potential to cause damage. Maybe I should let him be.”

  “What do you want to do?”

  “I want to go over there, turn into a dragon, and sit on him until he admits he’s a giant idiot.”

  “How long do you think that’s likely to take?”

  “Probably longer than we have. What is wrong with the men in my life? Why are they all stupid?”

  “It is the way of men to be stupid,” Florence intoned solemnly.

  I laughed, as she meant me to do.

  “Well?” she prompted.

  “He needs to make his own choices, and if he’s going to continue to think I need protecting, it will never work out between us. By that same token, I suppose I should stop treating him as someone who needs protection. A partnership of anything less than equals was doomed from the start. I’ll assume he’s made a logical, rational decision that will not result in any unfortunate human casualties.”

  “That’s it?”

  “You don’t need to sound skeptical.”

  She raised an eyebrow at me.

  “Fine. And after dark, I’m going to turn into a dragon and do some stealthy, dragon recon.”

  “That sounds more like you.”

  “It’s not that I don’t trust him.”

  “You don’t. You care about him, and you know he cares about you, but you don’t trust him to make the right choices or to be strong enough and wise enough to handle his change. That’s why you won’t consciously let yourself love him—it’s not because you’re incapable of love.”

  I wanted to argue, but I couldn’t. She was right. The hollow ache in the center of my being that had shown up when Isaac told me what he’d learned at the last opening grew and I fought back tears.

  Florence didn’t relent. “You don’t trust anyone.”

  “You’re my posse.”

  “I’m not part of anything that’s labeled a posse.” Florence said, cutting me a little slack.

  “My sidekicks, my Scooby gang.”

  Florence ignored my witty repartee.

  “If you can’t convince yourself you trust him, you’ll never convince Isaac.”

  “He doesn’t trust me either.”

  “He doesn’t. I’m not exonerating his idiocy. You came together quickly and passionately, but didn’t have time to build a foundation. You trusted each other with some of your secrets, you had heat and passion and affection, but you never developed trust.”

  I blinked, trying to dash away the tears from the corners of my eyes. “It’s a shitty situation.” Tears streaked slowly down my face.

  “It is, but it’s not hopeless.”

  “I said if he didn’t come back for the full moon, I didn’t want him back at all.”

  “You said that to me and Raj, not to Isaac. And it’s okay if you change your mind, and it’s okay if you don’t. Get through the next few days, open the gate, keep going. This doesn’t have to be the end.”

  I cried until my throat hurt and my head throbbed and I’d used the world’s supply of tears. Florence held me until my tears subsided, tucked me into my bed and kissed the top of my head before leaving me alone. It was still early afternoon. I was asleep by moonrise.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  I MADE IT through the three nights of the full moon fairly well, if I do say so myself. I did fly-overs the first couple of nights. Yes, multiple. Yes, after saying I wasn’t going to. Yes, I have issues.

  I had a couple of tense moments when Isaac’s wolf tried to pick a fight with an alligator, but the alligator—the wiser of the two—took one look at the enormous wolf and declined to engage. I don’t know what Isaac did during the day, but at night he roamed the island generally not being a danger to anyone but the local waterfowl. I stayed in the motel the third night to pretend I trusted him.

  I woke up Wednesday morning feeling both self-satisfied and a little panicked. I’d stayed away from the island for the entire previous night. However, now we were only three nights away from the winter solstice. I was having a little trouble wrapping my head around all the ways my life—not to mention the world—had changed since the last solstice. I decided to stop trying to wrap my head around it and to keep moving forward. Gazing too intently into one’s navel is a good way to run into a wall.

  Because solstice was likely to be a bit busy, what with the gate and me probably being unconscious, I convinced Raj and Florence to have a small celebration the night before. We didn’t go all out like we had at Thanksgiving, mostly because I couldn’t convince Florence it was necessary, but we had a miniature feast.

  After dinner, we sat in the motel parking lot and tried to catch a breeze. I excused myself after a few minutes and went back to the room to get the gifts. I’d blown my wad on Florence’s birthday gift, and her solstice gift wasn’t nearly as personal and thoughtful, but I hoped she’d like it anyway.

  I’d gotten Raj a few small items, a mixture of funny and sweet, and one thing I’d run across in a weird antique store in downtown Savannah. Isaac’s gifts were wrapped and waiting by the bed, in case he showed up. When I got back outside, Raj and Florence were sitting exactly where I’d left them, only now they had gifts on their laps. I grinned. This was going to be awesome. I loved getting presents.

  I sat down, dropped my pile of gifts on the ground, and held out my empty hands. “Gimme!”

  “So gracious,” Florence said.

  I folded my hands demurely in my lap and looked up at her through my lashes. “Thank you in advance for my presents, although your friendship is gift enough.”

  She and Raj both laughed, and Florence started to hand me something.

  “No, wait! Me first,” I said.

  I handed Florence her gift—not wrapped in bandanas this time. She started to open it, and I interrupted. “It’s not as awesome as what I gave you for your birthday. You should probably lower your expectations.”

  “Lower than a pole-dancing cowgirl dashboard doll?”


  I rolled my eyes but conceded the point. “Maybe not quite that low.”

  She laughed and finished unwrapping the present. It was a framed photo of us Isaac had taken at the Arch in St. Louis.

  “Thank you. This means a lot to me.”

  “Now you, Raj,” I said, handing him three gifts.

  He opened the first one and glared at me a little before turning the box to show Florence. It was a gift box containing Twilight branded body glitter, a crucifix tie tack, and a Spike action figure. I clapped my hands in unsuppressed glee.

  “How much do you love it?” I asked.

  “On a scale of one to ten? Are negative numbers allowed?”

  I stuck my tongue out at him. “Please, please tell me you’ll wear the body glitter at some point.”

  “Is it edible?”

  I shivered. “Stop. You promised.”

  “No, I didn’t.”

  “Open the next one.”

  “I hope it’s a signed, first edition of Breaking Dawn.”

  “Better.”

  He tore off the paper and held up a miniature coffin.

  “Open it!” I said.

  He opened the coffin, and nestled in the white satin lining was a bottle of his favorite wine. “Perfect! Let’s drink this now.” He opened the wine and poured us each a glass.

  “Last one.” I held my breath.

  He opened it slowly and then turned the full force of his grin on me. “Eleanor, this is magnificent.”

  “I want to see,” Florence said.

  Raj lifted his gift out of the expanse of wrapping and tissue paper on his lap and showed Florence. It was an antique sword in a similar style to his current sword but inlaid with rubies on the hilt.

  “Matches your eyes,” I said.

  “Ha,” he replied, rather absently. He was caressing the scabbard, and his gaze was a little unfocused. “This is a magnificent gift.”

  He knelt in front of me and handed me the sword. I wasn’t quite sure what to do with this. “I pledge my sword to you and promise to always be faithful, to never cause you harm, and to go forth in all dealings with you in good faith. My sword and my life are yours.”