Four Moons: The Complete Collection: (Books 1 - 4)

by Amos, Richard

  “I don’t know. Didn’t see a body.”

  “I’m not that lucky.”

  “Neither are the people of the slums she suppresses. But that’s how unjust the world is. Very much like your father’s iron fist being an injustice to us.”

  Keep cool. “I ain’t doing this. You ain’t holding me here. I got stuff to do.”

  Xavier let out a really deep sigh. “Sorry, sunshine, but you have no choice in this. At all. We can’t let you go.”

  “You been using silver?” I asked.

  “What?”

  “You heard me. Silver.”

  He looked at Melody, then back to me. “Yes. I had silver bullets in my gun. Had to with the way things were.”

  “Did you kill any wolves?” I asked.

  “Yes. Three.”

  Whoa. “Right. Not G?”

  “No. I didn’t hurt him. I promise. I would have, though.”

  “Yeah, you made that pretty clear. You trading silver to gangs?”

  “No. Well, not me or anyone I know.”

  “Fine.” There was a black market for silver, so it wasn’t fair to put the blame on the elves—even though their homelands were rich with the stuff.

  “Look, sunshine. Have a shower, come and eat. You must be starving. We can talk more then. Does that sound alright?”

  “Guess so.”

  Melody left the room. Xavier paused by the door. “I’m really sorry things have gone this way.”

  “Yeah. Same.”

  “There’re fresh towels for you. Shower is just down the hall to the left.”

  When I could function better, I’d need to make a great escape before I was passed around like some valuable piece of meat.

  I never thought the elves would be my enemies. They weren’t fully. Yet. On the cusp now, though.

  Where the hell were my swords?

  * * *

  Phi was at the breakfast table, looking as sullen as she had been in the car. Her silver eyes seemed tired, none of the usual sparkle there. In fact, Xavier and Melody were missing theirs—all elves had silver eyes that were usually brighter than this.

  Her crimson hair was scraped back into a ponytail, her dark skin a little pallid, and she was thinner in the face. Two weeks of suffering, not knowing what the hell was happening to your boyfriend would do that.

  “Morning,” she said as I hobbled in, fresh from the shower and wearing my new clothes.

  Keep me prisoner, but make me an outfit. Talk about a clash of the extremes. Melody had also made some silk boxers for me. Weird sensation between my legs, yeah, but better than going commando. Did that once, never again. Ended up mooning a night club by accident. Yeah, lock that memory away tight.

  “Hi.” There was a stack of pancakes on the square table.

  The room was small, with a kitchen attached. Xavier came out of the kitchen, holding a coffee pot. “Ah, you look better, sunshine.”

  “Hot water always helps.”

  “Fully agree. Sit.”

  I did, on a chair with a really soft cushion. “Wow.”

  “Cushion?” Melody asked.

  “Yeah.”

  “Made by yours truly.”

  “Cool. Nice work.” This light convo would do for now. I wasn’t going anywhere fast, so wasn’t gonna rock the boat until I was fit enough to bust out of here.

  I did have a question to get out of the way, though. “Don’t suppose you managed to get my swords?”

  Xavier poured me some coffee. “Sorry, sunshine. Didn’t see them. Cream?”

  “Please.”

  “Sugar?”

  “Two.”

  He handed me a bowl of sugar cubes. “Here.” He sat down and dished me up two pancakes.

  “Thanks.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  “Xavier’s pancakes are the best,” Phi said, not sounding very enthusiastic.

  “You’re too kind,” the glamourous guy replied.

  “Reminds me of Zach getting them stuck on the ceiling. He wasn’t very good at pancakes.” She teared up. “What I wouldn’t give to see him make a mess of one right now.” The tears started to flow. “I’m sorry.” Her voice was a squeak.

  Xavier handed her a tissue. “It’s okay.”

  Phi was looking at me, dabbing her eyes. “Is he alive, Akira?”

  “Yeah. He is.”

  “Even though he’s…the way he is…”

  “He’s alive, Phi. But trapped.”

  “I can’t believe this happened to him. He must be so scared, so confused. He’s got no one to talk this through with but her. Does she even know sign language?”

  Talking is the last thing on his mind. “Once upon a time, I’d have said he’s in good hands with her, but not now.”

  “I’m so scared. I just want to see him for myself, tell him I love him.”

  I didn’t want Zach to die. Not at all. If there was a way of getting him out of that body, I’d go for it mega hard. I wanted him back, to have more time with him, to get to know him. He was my brother. We’d been robbed of a life together twice.

  You have another sibling coming…

  Reality was a wanker. I had no clue how Zach was not gonna die, and that stung worse than a scorpion with a bad attitude stabbing madly with its stinger.

  Fuck.

  “He talked about you, Akira,” Phi said. “A lot. I think he knew you were related. All that weird connection you had. Even though he always believed his parents were his true parents, it was there, that belief. I was expecting a cousin or something, not brother.”

  “Completely mental.”

  She nodded. “We never should’ve stayed in London.” More tears.

  “You weren’t to know,” Xavier said, leaning over to take her hand.

  We let her sob, then she got up and left.

  “I’ll go,” Melody said.

  Xavier nodded, then turned to me. “You haven’t touched your pancakes.”

  I picked up a fork. “Where are we?”

  “Not far from Aldwych, in an apartment just off the main tunnels.”

  Those same tunnels had been elvish trading areas—an underground market full of traveling elf caravans.

  “Thought you all lived in the caravans,” I said.

  “Most do. But I’m quite partial to these bigger spaces. The rent is expensive but has been suspended for now. Thank goodness.”

  “Tunnels have secrets, eh?” I cut myself a piece of pancake, hooking it onto my fork.

  “Not really. The apartments aren’t really the business of anyone other than us elves. No offense.”

  I shrugged, popping the pancake into my mouth. “Nice,” I offered after the mouthful.

  “Thanks.” He didn’t fish for more.

  “How did you get up to the surface without being spotted?”

  He sipped his coffee. “We’re sneaky folk.”

  “Dangerous, though.”

  “Extremely. We would’ve been executed for breaking the law. But what is life without risk?”

  “A one where you’re alive?”

  “I really am sorry about this, sunshine. I’d never want to hurt you. You’ve been a good friend to the elves over the years. We appreciate all the help you’ve given us, and how you’ve always been on our side.”

  “Elves get a bad rep.”

  “And now we’re failing you.”

  “Not really. Just don’t wanna see you lose your heads. Plus, well, you know, I’ve got shit to do. I need to see Gabriel. He’s my people. Wolf or not, he’s a good guy. Not like my dad and the other pricks who throw their weight around.”

  “I know that. And I know I wouldn’t be breathing much longer if I’d have killed him.” He smiled.

  “No point beating around the bush.” I cut more pancake. “Anyway, I need to know he’s alright.”

  He sipped more coffee. “Pardon me for poking my nose in, but what is it you’re up to? Any closer to the moon problem?”

  Ah, here we were. Now I had t
o think about this. The plan was to come see the elves anyway, talk to them about the dream witch. It’d been in the back of my mind, then this hostage bullshit had come along.

  I chewed another bite of chocolatey pancake.

  He waited.

  “You ever heard of a dream witch?”

  I swear the color drained out of his face. “Sorry?”

  “I’ll take that as a yes.”

  He licked his glossy lips and cleared his throat. “How do you know about dream witches?”

  I went for transparency. “G did a little digging. We’ve been trying to solve this moon mystery, along with everyone else, and what Mama Rita’s really up to.” I relayed the info about the mazoku queen and the dream witch stuff, then went into my petal dreams, laying it all out for him.

  Halfway through, Melody and Phi rejoined us, so I repeated it all for them.

  “I need more coffee,” Xavier said at the end of the story.

  “So, that bitch wants to be queen?” Melody said. “She’s fucked up.”

  “I’ll say.”

  “Poor Zach,” Phi added.

  Done pouring himself more coffee, Xavier said, “So, these moon dreams of yours need to be unlocked.”

  “Sure do, bruv.” I loaded my gob with more food, feeling hungrier by the minute.

  “This changes things,” Melody said, not looking happy about it.

  “Yes,” Xavier added. “It certainly does.” He smiled. “My sunshine Akira. Aren’t you a fascinating guy?”

  “Rather not be,” I said. “But here we are.”

  He tilted his head. “What is your connection to this? What is that other part of you no one can see?”

  “Wish I knew.”

  “Right.” He sat up straighter. “We need to start planning this. It isn’t going to be easy getting to Hyde Park.”

  Good job, I’d just swallowed my latest bite. “You what?”

  “There is one dream witch left in existence. As far as I or any other elf knows. We don’t talk about her, and we never seek her out. Too dangerous.”

  “She lives in Hyde Park? I’d say that’s proper dangerous.”

  “She lives deep beneath The Serpentine.”

  I put my fork down. “Whoa. Okay. Wait. Serpentine? That’s the warlock and witch haven. We can’t rock up there.”

  “We can. We have to pass through it to get to her.”

  “Ah, fuck.”

  “I know. It’s not going to be fun. But we need to do this. You being a hostage to trade is dead. For now. The world is at stake, and we’ve just found our hope. Our ray of sunshine.”

  I’d always thought it cute when he called me that. Not so much now. “Then I’d better get myself fighting fit again, eh?”

  “And we’d better get you some new swords. Okay, let’s get things in motion.”

  “I reckon I’ll be ready for action in a week.” I didn’t wanna wait that long but had to be realistic.

  “That’s enough time to prepare.”

  “What about G?”

  “What about him?”

  “I need to tell him about this.”

  “For now, let’s not.”

  “But, I need to.”

  “Akira, you’re not stupid. We’ll figure that out later. Okay?”

  It wasn’t okay. But he was right. I wasn’t stupid. Well, not all the time.

  Man, I really needed G, though. So fucking badly.

  Chapter Eleven

  Boredom is a bitch.

  I’d spent day after day either in Xavier’s bedroom, or playing cards at the dining table. I mean, yeah, cool. For like two days. Then it started to drive me crackers. Fresh air, being out and about in the city life—my body was in need of all the stuff that wasn’t me being in lockdown to get over my injuries.

  I’d been on some uber coffee that the elves drank when they were sick. Every day it tasted different. Hazelnut one day, coconut the next. On Wednesday, it was caramel and then other sweet flavors that started to blend into one because, like everything else, I’d got so fed up with drinking it four times a day.

  But I didn’t moan out loud. Nope. Just took it, and it worked. I was healing up good, though my nose was a little bit crooked now. My energy levels were going back up, and Xavier had found me some katanas from deep within the elf tunnels from one of his contacts.

  I practiced on the platforms of what used to be old railway stations when the Skytube was underground. Swing, slash, roll, and cut, taking on the edges of walls to get back into the rhythm—all the moves busted out to practice.

  * * *

  Day seven of lockdown healing time was suddenly here, the big night of going up onto the streets hours away.

  Melody came onto the platform, along with Phi.

  “Hey,” Mel said, holding a couple of swords of her own. “Fancy a spar?”

  “Yeah.”

  These new swords weren’t bad. Along the same lines of the ones I’d had before Violet had attacked me. They weren’t my lost ones, though. Never would be. Still, better than nothing. I also had some small knives fixed to my ankles, just like I always did.

  I was starting to feel like me again. Sort of.

  Phi took a seat on a bench that was covered in graffiti, and Mel got ready for a sparring match.

  We were at the Kennington trading post in south London. Hot spot for artists. Most of the elven trade caravans that rocked up to this post sold paints and stuff. Loads of awesome graff covered the walls and floor, and the tunnels leading up to the surface were brilliantly colorful with all the awesome artwork. There were some really talented peeps out there, down here, all over the place.

  Me and Mel got into it. Clash, spin, clash, blades meeting in a dance of steel and twirling limbs. She never got in a blow, and neither did I. That wasn’t what it was about. It was all for the body, to limber up, to let the muscles know they hadn’t been abandoned. Plus, it was good to work off the lemon drizzle cakes I kept whipping up. Thank the tenshi the elves had all the ingredients for me to bake some masterpieces.

  Man, we’d eaten a lot of cake. Despite my constant anxiety about what was going on in the world beyond the elf tunnels, I defo hoovered that sugary goodness up hardcore.

  I was officially a missing person. Word was out in the media that I’d vanished during the werewolf drama. My dad had appeared on TV, asking citizens to keep a lookout for me, but not saying much else.

  Wow. Surrealist moment ever.

  I wasn’t allowed to make contact with anyone, not that I had a phone or device to do that with anyway. If I wanted news, I could watch the TV or let one of the elves fill me in. I was a sort of a prisoner, with perks and freedom to wander the tunnels—which I did once. After a while, a tunnel was just a tunnel, and market purchases were restricted to elves. If I wanted anything, Xavier would get it for me.

  Yeah, mega fun.

  The news was dominated with me being missing and the werewolf attack, along with so many panel programs delivering scathing attacks against the wolf regime. That never happened on the news, but the boat had been rocked so bad it’d almost capsized. Shit was getting realer every day.

  There were also the continued non-sightings of Mama Rita, as well as concern for the health of Sarah, seeing as her due date was upon us.

  Shit.

  Gossip, gossip, analyses from dickhead ‘experts,’ and a lot of horrible stories about peeps who’d been slaughtered in the streets. Seven days of it.

  The global death toll had hit 100,000 in the end. No wonder the foundations had been proper rocked. Another seven days would see a fucking revolution.

  Phi was on her tablet, waiting for the latest press conference. The wolves, apart from my dad’s statement, had been invisible. Not one of them on the streets since the chaos. This conference was gonna clarify some things.

  Please, let G be okay.

  I did a backflip, then spun at Mel, clang, clang, clanging her into a corner.

  “Show off,” she hissed. “I give up.”


  “Oh.”

  “I’m knackered. Thought I was in pretty good shape and could use swords like a boss. Then you showed me my arse.”

  I grinned, blowing a loose strand of hair out of my face. “Can’t help myself.”

  “Is that a bit of arrogance I hear?”

  Haha! I’d missed being cocky. “Never.”

  “Yeah, right. If you didn’t make such awesome cake, I’d read you to filth.”

  “Go on, read me.”

  “Dude, you’ve broken my spirit too much.”

  “Ah, soz. I’ll make you some brownies, yeah?”

  “You’d better.”

  “It’s starting,” Phi said.

  Sparring over, me and Mel sat either of Phi on the bench, bunching together to watch the conference.

  Dad again, in the Alpha Chamber.

  “Fuck!” I gasped.

  G and Colin flanked him.

  “G…” I whispered. “He’s okay. What’s that?”

  No one answered, and I kept my mouth shut. Around G’s neck was a collar, a pure black circle that had a ring of red lights that pulsed one after another in a steady pattern. Colin too, and my dad.

  “Dear citizens of the world,” Hitoshi Murakami began, “I am speaking to you today to inform you of the progress we have made in containing the affliction bestowed upon werewolves in all countries—including the free territories. I want to be transparent regarding the technology that has been developed these past days so brilliantly by my SCU technicians. I would like to thank them from the bottom of my heart for all of their determination and hard work in achieving this new sense of peace in these troubled times.”

  A syrupy dad? From the bottom of his heart? What the actual fuck?

  “The anti-magical wind which initially contained the wolf affliction has now been distilled into a permanent, localized form.” G stepped forward, coming closer to the camera. I leaned over the tablet, scrutinizing as best I could without blocking the view. “As worn by my beta here, all werewolves are required to wear these suppressant collars, which blocks the effect of the moon. Containing safe levels of aconitum, or wolf’s-bane, which is constantly administered into the bloodstream, laced with anti-magic, which acts as a protective agent against the aconitum, making it so it does not poison the wearer. We are still unaware of the true nature of the moon, but we know enough now to protect you and ourselves during these troubled times. All wolves have been administered with collars, and a new law has been passed to keep it mandatory. Should any wolf attempt to remove the collar, the SCU will be swiftly notified, and the offending wolf dealt with in accordance with the new law.”