Total eclipse of the moo.., p.9
Total Eclipse of the Moon, page 9
"You’re leaving?" she asked the vampire as she peeked out the windows, seeing no one coming up the drive. No one found me…yet. Cora's spell hadn't worked, which baffled her aunt. She'd agreed to meet Cora in a month to try again.
Her wristband didn’t burn, nor was it glowing. Staying in one place, especially with these two, wasn’t safe for them. If some international corporation with deep pockets was involved, they probably satellite tracked the car. She should move on. Being on her own was better, more controllable. Plus, tonight she needed privacy to talk to her son's ghost.
"I have business to attend to before daylight. I'm not a day walker. You'll stay here and give Shane his due. Talk to him."
Dealing one-on-one with Shane? Bad idea. He’d whittle down her resistance. All it’d take was a few penetrating stares of those honorable eyes or, God forbid, he touched her again. Another kiss, and she’d forget the danger he represented to her. She couldn’t allow him to be this close to her body or her heart. He might’ve tamed the demon within him, but his spirit howled on a frequency she was acutely tuned into. He was completely lycan and unashamedly Shane. Something about the combination called to her soul.
She was afraid. Afraid. This was an emotion she hadn’t allow herself to acknowledge in Puerto Rico, Mexico, or back in the gardens. Was this a new self-awareness? She’d gotten good at burying difficult emotions over the past few decades. Cora would be proud of her for recognizing this for what it was.
"He gets weird when the sun’s about to come up. He’s got a few hours before sunrise and stuff to do," Shane walked in and sat in a chair at the kitchen table. "Then he’s got to go find a bat-friendly hole to hide in."
"Are you a shape shifter?" Her tone softened to one of wonder as she wheeled around to Antonio.
"Now you made her think I can turn into a bat." Without a good-bye, the vampire stalked out the door and disappeared.
"Can he turn into a bat?"
Shane laughed while shaking his head. "Never seen any species change into a smaller animal. Have you?"
Yes. The power was rare, or so Cora informed her.
She ignored the question, wrapping her hand around the strap of her backpack, which she hadn’t set down. "This has all been great and I appreciate the help, but I’ve got to get going."
"No." As if a cloud descended, his brows lowered. He looked as if he just tasted something bad.
Her need to run kicked up higher. "Thank you for the rescue. I truly appreciate it, but I have somewhere to be tonight."
"We have things to discuss. How about some food? We can start with that." His tone sounded diplomatic, but his face reflected a stubborn resolve that this was going to go his way.
"It’s almost midnight."
They stared at each other for countless seconds. Her stomach growled, breaking the silence. He smirked.
She chewed on a hangnail. "I promise we'll talk, but I've really got to do this."
He peeked inside both food bags. "You good with pasta? Looks like it’s our only option. I can whip up a decent marinara from this. This place must have a few spices somewhere."
"I don't want to eat." She adjusted the backpack over her right shoulder and eyed the front door.
"Pasta it is, then. I need food." Shane studied her. "No one will find you here. It’s warded to allow only Antonio and whoever he gives permission to to enter. There’s a strong deter spell on the property for everyone else. About as safe as we can get right now."
"I'm not worried about safety, although they might've tracked us via satellite. Wasn’t like we were careful. Someone could bomb us."
"I doubt they want to incite an international terror incident over us. Have you been bombed before?" His penetrating gaze made her squirm.
She swallowed, remembering the bus station in Karachi. The initial boom wasn’t memorable, but she’d never forget the whooshing that came after the bomb detonated. Glass had shattered. Chairs and people lay on the road near her outside the station. She’d smelled and tasted the burnt metal and flesh. Nothing more than superficial cuts affected her, which was a miracle given the number dead. She’d held people’s hands, telling them to hold on until the ambulances arrived.
Enough remembering that awful day.
"I assume that’s a yes. Why are they so intent on killing you?"
She was not ready to discuss that, but his tone suggested he already knew the answer.
"Are you…" She nibbled on her lower lip while scrutinizing his face. "Yourself?"
"I’m never completely myself anymore, but I’m in charge right now."
She squinted to catch the color of his irises in the low light. "Your eyes… At least, that’s how I can tell. They went completely dark when the demon ran the show." Somehow his gaze sucked her in and stole her thoughts. She shook her head and eyed the exit.
"Madeline. You're staying until we talk about a few things."
One shaky breath. One more glance at the door. Maybe she could delay a few minutes to get information on how to undo the boomerang spell, or at least find out who cast it. "All right. A half hour."
He crossed his arms. "So that you and I can have an honest conversation and not want… How about before anything else, we resolve this spell you cast on me. The desire spell."
She looked upward and held up her hands. "I swear, there's no desire spell."
"You clearly wrote in your note: Your desire will bring you back to me."
"I meant your desire to get free of the curse."
"It'll make me happy if you reverse it. Humor me."
"If it helps you believe there's nothing connecting us." When he continued to glower she said. "Fine. I'll reverse this phantom spell. Then I have to go. I just need a few hours alone. Then I promise I'll return for us to chitchat about whatever." Perhaps, Shane's belief in her words had been strong enough to will magic into existence. But she wasn’t sure how to reverse a fictitious or imagined curse.
Energy buzzed through her, wild and free. And such a relief. The singing had replenished her energy. Or maybe it was healing Shane that did it. When she healed dragons, it energized her. Music had never recharged her in the past. If it had, she would've been at every dance club across Europe over the past year. "Let me see if I can find what we need to do a spell reversal. Can you look around for a lighter or match? And I need a piece of paper or something I can easily burn for smoke."
He pulled a lighter out of his inside jacket pocket.
"Perfect," she said.
A dash through the lower floor and she found one standing mirror on the wall and a small mirror that comprised the top of a jewelry box. She propped the jewelry box on a chair and opened it so that its mirrored top faced the wall mirror.
"Stand next to me between the two mirrors," she directed.
He moved in close, but not touching, and handed her the lighter and a piece of paper. Too close. Too warm. Oh my God, he smelled amazing—fresh like coconut soap and something masculine that was all Shane. Everything about him was large—his hands, shoulders, forearms.
You’re staring. She cleared her throat. "Take off any talismans, charms, trinkets, and whatnot that might prevent a spell from working on you."
"I’m giving you a high level of trust here. Last time I was free of these you cuffed me to a bedframe." He removed one medallion from around his neck and laid it on a nearby table. Then he removed four things from different pockets in his jacket to lay next to the medallion.
"What about the other one around your neck?"
"It's a patron saint medal. Nothing magical."
"It's magical too," she muttered but assumed it to be a different type of power. She rolled the paper and lit it. While waving the smoke around them, she said, "The magic spell upon us be trapped between mirrors in this night. Never let it see the light."
She instructed, "Say it with me. We must visualize the spell becoming entangled in the mirrors’ reflections."
They both said it twice more.
He stood too close, her body hyperaware of him in the aftermath. One step away barely helped. "That’s it. We leave the mirrors facing each other for a month. Should work."
"That’s it?" he asked, following as she stalked back to the kitchen.
"Spell should be undone, if there was one."
"Will that work on the bigger curse?"
"That one’s more complex. The mirror trick won’t cut it."
"If that was supposed to work, then why do I still…"
She turned to face him, finding him a lot closer than expected. He didn’t break eye contact. The air thickened. His eyes darkened with a need that made her breath catch. Her body itched to move closer. To feel his mouth on hers again. One more taste. One more touch. Anything to ease the escalating buildup of longing she’d harbored for over a year.
Air moved in and out of her lungs in choppy gasps.
She couldn’t decide if she was loopy from the low oxygen or from the need for this gorgeous, completely off-limits lycan standing in front of her.
Shane growled under his breath and squeezed his eyelids shut. "It didn’t work."
"I don’t think it’s spell-induced."
Chapter Ten
"We can’t," Shane declared, backing away from her. "Whatever this is has to be a no."
"Glad we agree. It’s absurd." Brusquely, she grabbed one of the grocery bags and walked it into the kitchen, shoulders stiff and back tight. He couldn’t unglue his gaze from the curve of her hips in the tight jeans.
Nobody made him this unbalanced. This crazed. All he could think about was touching her, kissing her, and undressing her. He was furious at her, but not for the stupidity of handcuffing him naked and leaving—all right, perhaps still a little bit annoyed about that. He was angry for the decades of being cursed to serve a human monarch. Decades of him and his brothers fighting beings no one should ever have to face. Of almost dying once or twice on a weekly basis. Of being forced to fake his death to release his brothers from their worry over him while he got the demon trapped in his mind—because of fighting one of those evil beings they'd been forced to hunt—sorted out. To top off everything, now he desired her with a mind-consuming foolishness he found both distracting and addictive.
It was the same level of want he’d felt when he first saw her in the Puerto Rican bar. Even though this was about to become incredibly painful, he wouldn’t initiate anything with her. That kiss in the gardens—it’d been mindboggling—had been a mistake.
Baku said, "This nauseating need for sex is annoying. She's pretty, I guess. I vote you screw her, realize it isn't all that, and then we can focus on her being the dragon healer."
"I’m not sleeping with the woman who inflicted this curse. She’s the reason my father died trying to free us from this. She’s the reason all of us have suffered for decades. If she really felt any level of remorse, she’d have found us and worked to undo it. I don’t trust her. She’s a witch. Everything she says could be a lie."
"You’re such a crybaby. You're going to make a move. It's inevitable. Do it now but be warned I might be puking in your head."
Shane rubbed his temples as his head began to pound. "Stop it."
"You okay, Shane?" she asked.
How long had she been staring at him? Had she asked him anything else while he’d been arguing with Baku?
"I’m fine," he muttered.
"Okay," she said sarcastically. "Looked like I lost you there. You kind of zoned out and weren’t yourself. Your eyes swirled with that darkness. They looked like a kaleidoscope." She squinted and looked deep into his eyes. "Now they’re blue again."
"I’m in control." He needed to keep his mind focused on his mission to get free of their curse once and for all. Then they could track down everyone associated with FenCor.
He asked, "Why exactly does MI6 want you dead?"
She pulled out ingredients to make marinara. "I'll start pasta for you, but I still must go. Soon. I'm sorry. As to why they want me dead? I’ve been running since the day after your curse was cast."
"They're punishing you for casting it?"
"No." Madeline pinched the bridge of her nose and dropped her head. "You think I wanted to do it? That I wanted to force you four to serve that bitch? If I had a choice…if I hadn’t done it…the why's of me doing it are moot at this point. We’re all in this mess."
"Why are they determined to kill you?"
"Isn’t it obvious? There’s no way in hell she wanted any of you to talk to me. We might collaborate. We might figure out how to reverse it. If I die, you four can never get free. She wanted all four of you to be her legacy to all her heirs."
"It must be you to reverse the curse? It can't be any old powerful witch?"
"It has to be me. That's how ancient curses work."
"I didn't know that," he whispered. He backed up to support his weight against the counter. "How would the queen know that if you die we can’t get free of the curse? We didn't know this, and we've talked to every magic person you could imagine about it."
"I was stupid and told her. She was the Queen of England. She'd never spoken two words to me and always seemed to wish my entire family would disappear. Then she became interested in us. I was flattered." She closed her eyes for a second, and when they opened, she stared heavenward. "The queen decided she didn’t want an out-clause hovering in the world for you guys. So, she came after me. That’s why I’ve been running for…"
"Forty-eight years."
Silence sat heavy around them.
His throat felt tight. For as long as they’d been fighting inhuman terrorists she’d been in her own war to stay alive. If she hadn’t fought to survive, then they’d truly have no way out. Ironic that the witch who they all despised for causing their misery was the same one who fought for her life, which kept alive the possibility of them getting free.
His respect for her notched up a few pegs.
Wouldn't it have made her life easier if she did find them and reverse it? Then there'd have been no reason for MI6 to hunt her down. Dread coiled in his gut. Old magic often involved something nasty to wield. Perhaps it asked for something awful to reverse it. Something she didn't want to face. Now he needed the details.
"I’m not sure why this FenCor is targeting me," she said. "I bet they found out that if I die, you’re locked into serving the Crown. Maybe they think they can control you four through the monarch?"
"The new king is a member of FenCor—"
"That makes no sense. Your sole purpose is to police misbehaving nonhumans. Yet the king is aiding to produce exactly that type of creature. You're obligated to hunt them down. Why wouldn't he want all four of you gone to make sure this project works?"
"I think he thought it'd be fun to have more nonhuman assassins under his power, but this time ones that could hunt humans. Imagine sending lycans into war."
She chewed on her lip.
He moved to stand in front of her and picked up her hands, touching gently over the knife cuts. He hated that she’d been defenseless in that fight. "You could’ve reached out to us—to me—at any time."
"You guys were hunting me and not in a good way. The queen was hunting me. What happens when the monarch gets wind that you found me and orders you to kill me? I'm a supernatural threat, aren't I? Then we're both screwed." She yanked her hands free of his and focused on gathering ingredients.
"Why didn't she order us to kill you?"
She rolled her eyes. "That risks us talking about things. There's no way she wanted all of us getting together in the same space." Abruptly, she turned to face him. "Can you undo the boomerang spell someone put on me?"
He blinked at her. Then finally said, "What's so horrid about the curse reversal that you won't do it?"
"That's not what I asked about." She paused the can opener’s rotation on the tomato can to glower at him. "The scroll burned. It's gone."
"So, you don't know how to remove the curse?"
"I'm willing to help all of you with the curse but before I cooperate you must undo the boomerang spell. Can you do that?"
Nice dodge in not answering how to remove the curse. She knew.
"I know who cast it," he said. "Maybe you can convince her to undo it. She’s kind of a wildcard. The curse tried to kill Roman when he resisted the monarch's order. She got angry and did the boomerang spell."
"That person’s not going to release me from it, is she?" With a sigh she dumped ingredients into a saucepan.
"I'm sorry it's hurting you." He wondered how the boomerang spell affected her.
"Are you? I feel everything when one of you gets hurts. Not like a twinge. I feel exactly whatever painful thing is happening to you. Not just you, Shane, but all four of you. If more than one of you is getting hit at the same time, I feel all of it."
He turned away quickly to find dishes for the food in order to hide his desire to force Nova to reverse the spell. As in force her right now. The agony of feeling everything was unimaginable. He was desperate to fix this for Madeline and confused about the depth of this desire to help and protect her. "Bet Antonio has some wine around here somewhere." He searched through cabinets until he found two bottles of red.
He uncorked and filled two glasses to the top. "We need this."
She stared at the glass intended for her. "I don’t drink."
"Why not?"
She nibbled her lower lip again. "I have a low tolerance. A few sips and I’ll be buzzing. Half a glass and I’ll be giving you a lap dance. A whole bottle and neither of us will have clothes."
She was killing him.
"I’m not kidding." She glanced up. "This pull between us is strong. Me without inhibition is a bad idea."
