Lunar Bound, page 29
part #4 of Sky Brooks World: Ethan Series
“You all are welcome to stay,” Gideon declared. “I don’t care, either. Understand that it is a collective decision. Any retaliation against any of us based on this decision is a retaliation on all of us and it will be treated as such.”
Sebastian nodded understanding—hardly a promise.
Marcia said, “I think the covenant should be enforced.”
“I disagree,” Gideon responded.
She rolled her eyes before looking to Claudia. “Do we need to ask?”
“It would be nice if you did, but you know the answer.”
Two to one.
“I support Marcia,” Liam announced with an arrogant flourish, as if reciting Shakespeare. “By allowing Sebastian to circumvent this, you are condoning his rogue behavior. At some point we must stand against this man who feels that the only rules he must abide by are the ones he chooses. When chaos ensues as a result of this, I want those who do not side with us to know you are to blame.”
Demetrius smiled at me, savoring the tension as he wielded power over my fate. Sky glanced back at the door as if she expected us to make a run for it.
“I think Ethan should die,” he decided, “and I am very happy to be the one to do it. But it will not be this way. Sebastian is a son of a bitch and his pack of animals are an annoyance at best, but one thing I am confident of is his commitment to not exposing us and his silly beliefs and rules. If he didn’t think it was within his control, he would do whatever he could to make it so. He found a way to do it before and I am sure will again.”
Three to one. I win. I remained stoic, enjoying the rage that built inside of Marcia.
Her cheeks were radishes. After an internal struggle, she regained her composure, plastered a cosmetic smile on her lips. “The decision has been made. It should be respected, but those who advocated for the demise of the covenant, understand that is essentially what you have done. Now we need to hold someone accountable for controlling the situation. I think it should be the elves, the Seethe, the fae, and the Midwest Pack. I’ve washed my hands of this situation.”
Demetrius scoffed. “I am not accepting that responsibility.”
She asked in a rush, “Then you are changing your vote?”
He frowned, cornered. He took a full minute debating if the trouble was worth my life. Only when he looked to Claudia did he utter a resigned sigh. “Fine, as long as they know I don’t plan an active role in this because I can’t express how much I don’t care.”
Sebastian, Gideon, and Claudia agreed without reservation. Liam regarded nearly everyone on either side of the table with the contempt only a Makellos could express. Only Marcia and Claudia escaped his disdain.
“Are we done here?” Sebastian asked.
Marcia hissed, “Yes.”
On our way to the door, she called my brother’s name in a low, commanding voice. “Stay, we need to talk.”
He gave her no more than a contemptuous glance as he offered his manacled wrists to Bernard. Once the cuffs were removed, he started again for the door.
She slammed her hands on the table, the sound ripping through the room like a thunderclap.
“Josh! We need to talk now!”
Turning back to her, he fished a small medallion from his pocket and tossed it onto the floor without a second glance, indicating the end of his association with the Creed. “There is nothing more for us to say, I am done.”
I followed him out the door, the heat of Marcia’s anger at my back.
Stepping outside the house, I felt the dark magic nearby. Ethos. The door slammed closed behind us. The dead bolt clicked home.
Marcia has a backup plan. Now I understood why he didn’t take Sky from her house—she needed to play her part in Marcia’s little treachery. Now that that was done, he’d come to collect Maya.
A signal from Sebastian and we converged on Sky, forming a square. The cleared area around the house reflected moonlight, giving us some vision. Beyond the clearing, Ethos lurked just inside the dark woods, his location betrayed by the vast stink of his magic.
Josh whispered, “He’s here.”
Sky took a defensive stance, worked to control her heartbeat, as did the rest of us. Fortunately, Ethos wanted her alive, or he’d probably have killed us all the moment we’d stepped out onto the porch.
Sebastian lead us toward the SUVs. Just a few feet away from them, nearly a hundred figures emerged from the woods, animals and humans—the Ares Pack. Anderson, in human form, loomed behind them as they converged toward us.
I edged closer to Sky.
Halfway across the clearing, a burly man broke into a run, charging toward Sebastian. In stride, he transformed into a cougar just before knocking Sebastian back into an SUV. Sebastian pushed the cougar back. When it lunged again, he struck it in the throat. The beast dropped to the ground, gasping for breath. A second later, it was dead, its neck snapped.
Sebastian changed into his wolf just as a coyote charged him. The two collided. Nearly half the size of Sebastian’s wolf, the impact flung the coyote several feet away into the shadows.
When a hyena clamped its jaws onto Steven’s arm, Sky drove her knife between its ribs. As the animal fell away, she kicked its wound. It snarled and snapped at her arm. It managed to tear off part of her sleeve, grazing her in the process. The smell of blood drove the hyena into a frenzy. It lunged. Sky pivoted away from the charge, positioning herself to stab the hyena as it passed. Gavin’s panther intervened, knocking the hyena to the ground where his claws raked open the hyena’s gut.
Josh, separated from us, shielded himself with a field. A lynx stood on its hind legs, clawing uselessly at the field while a dingo thrashed the field with its body. They were no match for his magic. He couldn’t fight with it against the were-animals in animal form, but they’d never be able to bring his field down.
Sky started for the coyote, her knife in hand. I tried to follow, but a cougar had other plans. He leapt at my face, exposing his belly in the process. My punch sent the animal sprawling. I called out to Sky. Oblivious, she was within inches of the coyote. I started toward her.
A wave of vile magic crashed across the clearing, scattering the Ares and knocking us to the ground. Josh’s field shattered. The blow stunned me. Blinking up at the stars from my back, urgency came back to me in a rush. I climbed back to my feet, looked for Sky. I spotted her and Josh on their backs a few feet apart. They were both still stunned, along with the rest of our pack and the Ares. Only Sebastian had gotten to his feet. I started toward Sky when Ethos appeared out of thin air, crouching beside her.
I screamed, “Sky!” and ran toward Ethos.
He touched her arm and transported the two of them away.
Rage overcame me. As others came to their feet, taking in the new situation, I knew only that I needed to get to Sky. Seething, I glowered at the Ares as they began to gather themselves. Sebastian’s wolf appeared on my left, Gavin’s panther and Steven’s coyote on my right. Winter, Katana in hand, pulled a groggy Josh behind us. I’d no idea where Sky was, or how I would find her. I only knew that I’d have to kill them all to get to her. My wolf rushed to the surface, howling for blood.
Happy to oblige, I shifted in stride. The others charged at my side.
The next few minutes were a blur of blood, fur, and flesh. Bites, slashes meant nothing to my wolf. I was violence incarnate, tearing, shredding, and killing my way through the clearing. My jaws crushed bones and ripped open throats. I fought to the point of exhaustion and beyond. Sky was the only thought in my head. With my pack, we killed until the remaining Ares broke and ran. Before I could charge after them, Sebastian in human form got in my way. He held his arms out to his sides.
“Ethan!”
I hesitated, panting. My fur dripped with blood. I started around him. Sebastian wrapped his arms around my neck and took me to the ground. I twisted, snarling at him, but instinctively I couldn’t bite. I tried to throw him off, but he commanded the change. A second later, I was in human form, cursing him. He climbed onto my chest, pushed me down with a forearm across my chest.
“Ethan! We have to find Sky!”
I hesitated. My chest heaved as I tried to catch my breath.
“Sky,” he insisted. “We’ll deal with the rest of the Ares later.”
All I cared about was reaching Sky. The field around us was littered with bodies. The SUVs were waiting. I nodded. Sebastian eased off of me and I climbed to my feet. Josh was nearby, watching me with a horrified expression.
“How do we find her?” I pleaded to him between breaths.
He showed me the piece of her shirtsleeve that one of the Ares had torn off. It was spotted with her blood.
Sebastian asked, “Is it enough?”
Josh nodded.
“Call Samuel,” I told him as we started for the SUVs. “Tell him he can have whatever the fuck he wants. We need him. Now.”
CHAPTER 14
In route to a nearby safe house where Josh could source Sky’s blood, he called Samuel. The conversation was brief. Samuel owed Sky, and he knew it.
How much time do we have to rescue her?
Sky would put up a fight. That would buy us some time, at least. Josh couldn’t say how long it might take to transfer Maya; an hour, a minute—the clock was ticking. According to him, the willingness of the new host—
A fresh dread came over me. I looked to Josh, frightened for him.
“Call London.”
His eyes widened in panic. When she answered her phone, we were both relieved.
Josh explained to Gavin after he pocketed his phone. “Ethos could transfer her to any human he picked up off the street, but without an inherent ability to use magic, Maya would be powerless. At the field, he was going to transfer Maya to London.” He turned to me. “She’s on her way out of town now. He doesn’t have her blood so he’ll have a hard time finding her on the move. He’ll have to keep Sky alive until he can find an appropriate host.”
Our relief was short-lived as Winter asked, “Why take her now if he doesn’t have a host ready? It’s not like Sky was going anywhere.”
The dread returned.
“I don’t understand.” Steven frowned. “Couldn’t they just grab any competent witch? Why Sky?”
Josh answered. “Maya needs a powerful witch to operate through. Sky can only borrow magic, but she’s a Moura. Through her, Maya could access the spells in the Clostra. That’s why Ethos has been trying so hard to help Maya gain control instead of just transferring her to someone else. The Clostra contains the most powerful spells ever conceived. If he could find anyone else who could read the books—”
Senna. Sky’s cousin shared her abilities.
He paused, realization dawning. Before he turned to me, I was on my phone with Cole, the Alpha of the East Coast Pack. The safety of Senna and her family were under his care.
“I’ll check and call you back,” Cole said.
I growled, “Make it fast.”
Tension hung in the air until he called me a few minutes later. His voice was clinical.
“The girl has been taken. The attacker transported in, or my people would’ve noticed. There were some injuries to the family, some serious but nothing critical. Tell Sebastian—”
I killed the call, resisted the urge to smash my phone. From the tension in Sebastian’s jawline, I knew they were going to have an uncomfortable conversation about this later. For now, I needed to focus on the problem at hand.
Sky was running out of time. How much she had was up for debate.
We arrived at the secluded rambler to find Samuel seated on the porch, the flaps of his trench coat draping the steps beneath him. He rose to meet us as we approached the house. Before he could negotiate, Sebastian cut to the chase.
“If we retrieve the Clostra,” he stated, “you’ll have one of the books.”
Samuel eyed him and us with suspicion. “I take the book immediately. At no time is the pack to possess all three books together.”
“Agreed. No one should have access to the spells within. I’m comfortable with you possessing one of the books.”
He considered asking for something else.
“Ethos has Senna,” I snapped.
Fear flickered in his eyes. “He’s going to transfer Maya to Senna.”
It wasn’t a question. I nodded anyway.
He turned to Josh with a newfound sense of urgency. “You have blood to source?”
Josh showed him. Together they went inside. While they worked the spell, I paced outside, wondering what I’d do if we couldn’t reach Sky in time to save her. Over the years I’d lost more friends and pack family than I cared to count. I’d witnessed death in all of its brutality. I didn’t want that for her. For the first time, there was nothing I could do to protect her. Nothing could stop Ethos from taking her. I was just a few feet away, reduced to a helpless bystander. What he might do to her now terrified me.
Magic flashed within the house.
I continued pacing, squeezing my fists, pulling at my hair. Only the lack of an enemy to kill kept me in control. Once we reached where Sky was held, nothing would stop me from reaching her, from making her captors pay.
When Josh and the others emerged from the house with an address, I had my doubts. London and Josh had taken a lot longer to source Ethos, and failed.
“You’re certain?” I pressed Josh.
We’d probably only get one chance.
He nodded, confident. “Samuel made the difference.”
He was more powerful than London. I grimaced as I climbed into an SUV with the others. I didn’t want to place Sky’s fate in anyone else’s hands, but there was no other way to find her. Once inside, I slammed the door and counted the minutes.
According to my phone GPS, the address was a simple, stone blockhouse in a secluded, sparse neighborhood surrounded by woods. The nearest neighbor was a farmhouse a mile away. We took two SUVs. I sat tense in the passenger seat while Sebastian drove, with Samuel and Josh sitting behind us. The others followed in the second vehicle.
A few minutes later, the winding road brought the house and surrounding field into sight. A gruesome scene carried out on the grass. Three wolves, heads down, backed toward the stone house dragging a supine figure through the dewy grass.
Sky.
I opened the door, prepared to jump.
“Wait,” Sebastian said, slowing the SUV dramatically.
I changed in mid-leap. Gravel bit into my paws as I landed on the road. Ignoring the pain, I raced toward the wolves. As I got closer, I confirmed the figure was Sky. Relief rushed through me as I saw her try to raise her head, but she was badly injured. Blood ran from deep wounds on her side and abdomen. Her face had been slashed up to an eye.
Rage consumed me.
Closing in, I recognized Anderson as the middle wolf pulling Sky toward the house.
They were too confident in their prey.
The nearest wolf yelped as my jaws clamped on its hind leg. Bones crunched between my teeth. I flipped the wolf onto its back and leapt on top of it. Pushing through a scrabble of claws, I buried my teeth in the wolf’s chest and thrashed, rending skin and flesh. Gore filled my mouth as I reached bone and tasted the marrow inside. Ribs snapped. The wolf howled in pain.
Anderson and the other wolf released Sky to challenge me from either flank. Attacking one would make me easy prey for the other. Fixing my gaze on Anderson, I was prepared to make that sacrifice to taste his blood. Gavin’s panther intervened, emerging from the shadows to pounce on the other wolf. While they scrambled for each others throats, I stalked Anderson.
His snout low and growling, he sidled toward Sky. I cut him off, snarling.
From the corner of my eye, I saw Samuel reach her. Bursts of magic from just outside the stone house lit the field. I could hear voices there, could make out the growls of Sebastian’s wolf.
My gaze remained fixed on Anderson as we circled each other, teeth bared, measuring each other’s weaknesses. I lunged, a feint to draw him out. He sidled quickly and snapped at my snout. His jaws missed as I reared back, following with a lunge of my own. He escaped the worst, but I caught the flap of his ear between my teeth, savored the blood as I tore it from his skull.
Enraged, he dropped down onto his front paws, preparing for another lunge.
Staring him down, a vision of Sky’s wounds flooded my mind.
He’d just launched at me when I bowled over him. As I knocked him onto his back, he buried his teeth in my shoulder. Amid the violent scrabbling, I clamped my jaws around his snout. Blood and gristle choked my throat as I chewed my way toward his panicked eyes. As my claws raked deep gashes into his chest, his cries only fueled my primal rage.
For a moment, there was just blood and bone and teeth. Only after his body went limp did I cast it aside. His heart still beat, but he wasn’t going anywhere—none of the wolves were. Gavin had left his wolf alive—barely—to join the attack at the house. Marcia and two of her witches had barricaded themselves inside the house. The other witch lay dead in front of the door. Gavin, Steven, and Sebastian—all in animal form—waited along with Winter as Josh and Samuel combined their magic to breach the front corner of the house. A storm of magic crashed into the structure, sending stone fragments raining down on us.
There was no sign of Ethos.
Glancing back, I saw a depressed area in the grass where Sky had been. Panic set in. Samuel had taken her, I tried to console myself. But the only way to guarantee her safety was to kill her kidnappers, all of them. Racing past the others, I charged into the house before the shrapnel settled. At the far wall, Marcia’s eyes widened as I bounded toward her. Terrified, she gripped the arm of the witch at her side. As I leapt, they transported away. Howling in frustration, my momentum sent me crashing into the wall. Scrambling to my feet, I found the remaining witch frantically gathering objects from a table. I recognized the Aufero as one. The books of the Clostra were there as well, along with the other stolen objects.
Nearby, Senna lay prone on the floor, unconscious. I smelled drugs in her blood, but her sedated heart still beat.
