Stray Moon

by Kelly Meding

  “Body was drained of blood,” Murphy replied. “Seems suspicious that less than twenty-four hours after you drop into town, one of my people ends up dead.”

  “I understand your suspicions, but they are unfounded, I assure you. I’ve lived long enough to know how to feed without killing. I am here in Gabriel to assist my companions, not murder your townsfolk.”

  “I believe you, but you gotta know I had to ask.”

  “Of course. You are doing your duty as a protector of this town. I expect nothing less than your best work, and I am happy to cooperate, as I have nothing to hide.”

  Other than chasing the guy out of town on some unknown threat, but none of us were about to bring that up. Hopefully, once Murphy started chatting with the neighbors, no one else mentioned it, either, but I trusted Tennyson had been discreet in tailing Hugh to his home.

  “Well, I appreciate the cooperation,” Murphy said. “You folks gonna be in town much longer?”

  “At least another day or two,” I replied. “We’re still looking for that rogue werewolf, and we have a new lead to investigate today.”

  “Good luck with that. Haven’t had any reports to the station about a stray dog or rogue wolf, but if I do, I’ll pass it along.”

  “I appreciate it, Officer.”

  Once Murphy left, Jaxon called Novak to pass the bad news along to him and Chandra. I ignored Tennyson’s curious look and went into the bathroom with fresh clothes, and then took a shower. Not that it would help if Novak came into the room anytime soon. He’d know Jaxon and I had had sex, and under the hot shower spray, I wasn’t entirely sure how I felt about it. Not Novak knowing, but me and Jaxon.

  At the time, it had been exactly what I’d needed. Physical comfort to help ease the pain of Vincent’s rejection. A little bit of certainty in an uncertain situation. I absolutely didn’t regret the sex, I simply wasn’t sure what it meant going forward. I’d known Jaxon for what? Three? Four days? And maybe it didn’t have to mean anything. Maybe it was just sex between friends and that was it.

  Yeah. Right.

  When I left the bathroom dried and dressed, Novak was smirking at me from the unused bed, hands behind his head as he reclined against the pillows. Tennyson lurked in the corner. “Don’t start,” I said to Novak.

  “Did I say anything?” he retorted.

  “I can hear you in your head, and I know you, so don’t start. Where are Jaxon and Chandra?”

  “At the diner getting coffee and shit to go. Can’t really talk about the case in a crowd of people.”

  “True.” The other bed was still messy, so I made it before sitting down to zip up my boots. “Kathleen?”

  “Still nothing.”

  I growled softly under my breath, annoyed at her continued absence, when her inclusion in this trip at all had been based on her promising to stay close and keep us informed of everything she knew. This disappearing act worried me, and not only because she’d already betrayed us once. We were also within a hundred yards of a place capable of restraining more than two dozen werewolves at once. Who was to say they couldn’t easily capture a dhampir, as well?

  The door opened. I tensed, but it was just Jaxon and Chandra with a tray of takeout coffee and a bag of baked goods. “The lady who waited on us said they make the best bear claws in the county,” Chandra said.

  I was starving, so I grabbed a coffee and a bear claw. Jaxon, I noted, sat on the opposite bed, which was gentlemanly. We hadn’t had a chance to talk about last night, and doing so in front of our friends—especially Novak—was not happening.

  “Someone must have been watching Warner,” Jaxon said.

  “Or his place was bugged,” Chandra added. “Either way, someone found out he blabbed. Or suspected he blabbed, so they removed him as a problem.”

  “So Dr. Ferguson and his people must know we aren’t just here for the rogue werewolf.”

  I washed a bite of bear claw down with too-hot coffee. “I’m getting to the point where I want to just walk in the front door, ring the bell, and demand they give us Gideon back.”

  “That receptionist will deny he’s there,” Novak said.

  “And he probably believes that, if he’s as out of the loop as Warner was on what really happens in that building. He doesn’t strike me as the kind of guy who’d resist too hard if we walked through the glamour wall and used Warner’s key card.”

  “If it’s still active, now that its owner is dead.”

  Good point.

  My phone rang. Mom’s name popped up on the screen, which was odd, since it was barely after seven in the morning. Maybe she had an early flight home. “Hey, Mom, what’s up?”

  “Hello, Shiloh,” a strange male voice said.

  I dropped my coffee in my lap and barely felt the burn over the icy pit in my stomach. “Who is this?”

  Jaxon was in front of me in an instant with deadly fire in his eyes. With a shaking finger, I turned the call over to speaker.

  “I’m someone who’s very eager to meet you, young lady,” the stranger said. His voice was deep and heavy, as if coming from a dark pit, and it sent shivers down my spine.

  “Why do you have my mom’s phone?”

  “She was not eager to part with it, but a few broken fingers persuaded her.”

  “You son of a bitch.” Instant rage blasted through me, and I tried to rein it in before it set off the Quarrel. “I will kill you for touching her.”

  The asshole had the nerve to laugh. “You’ll be doing no such thing, young one. I have something you want, and I’m willing to trade you in kind.”

  “What do you have exactly?” Someone had put a towel in my lap, and I wrapped my free hand around it so I didn’t accidentally lash out and punch someone.

  “I have your mother, a beautiful woman named Elspeth Ann Juno. I also have in my possession a young, fiery werewolf named Gideon who was delivered to me yesterday afternoon by a mutual acquaintance who is no longer among us.”

  Chandra, I noticed, had her phone out and was recording this conversation.

  Smart lady.

  “Seems like you’ve been busy collecting people who don’t belong to you,” I said.

  “And they are all in reasonably fine condition, if somewhat angry about their current accommodations.”

  “Broken fingers is reasonably fine?” I squashed down another rush of rage, because me getting pissed off and losing control would help no one. Especially not my mother.

  “She’s since learned it’s smarter to cooperate than resist, and I hope you will realize that, too, so no one else is unreasonably harmed.”

  “I like that idea. No more harm. Why don’t you let my mom and Gideon go, and while you’re at it, you let the twenty-eight werewolves you’re experimenting on return to their home Packs. That way we don’t have to tear your clinic down brick by brick.”

  The man laughed again. “You seem to think you have any true bargaining power here, and you don’t. I know your numbers and your collective abilities, and they are small. Not even your vampire Master could so much as scratch me if I didn’t allow it.”

  “You think a lot of yourself. Do you have a name, or should I just call you Pretentious Asshole?”

  “You may call me Damian for now, but soon you will call me Master.”

  I laughed out loud, but it was a bitter sound. “The fuck I will ever call anyone Master.”

  “You will if you don’t want thirty deaths on your conscience, young djinn.”

  Oh no. No, no, no.

  I looked into Jaxon’s wide, startled eyes. Damian knew what I was, and that was bad. Capital B-A-D, bad.

  “I’m listening,” I said.

  “You will come to me of your own free will, and you will bind your magic to me as my servant for the rest of your days, and in exchange I will release Gideon and Elspeth without any further damage.”

  I clapped a hand over my mouth as my stomach heaved. This was my absolute worst nightmare come true. Someone with power knew what
I was and potentially had the ability to bind me to him, not only for three wishes, but forever. I’d be a magical slave to his whims. I managed not to throw up and asked, “And if I don’t agree?”

  “Then I will drop the infertility act and turn all of the werewolves over for medical experimentation and certain death in likely painful ways, and your mother’s death will last for weeks. I can be quite creative when I’m upset.”

  Thirty lives in exchange for mine. Thirty lives in exchange for an existence of slavery and torture, because Damian was evil. He’d force me to use my magic for horrible purposes, and I’d live a long life of abject despair, because my djinn blood meant a longer life than the average human.

  Thirty lives.

  “I realize this is a very emotional decision,” Damian said. “So you have until sunset tonight to enter the DM Clinic lobby of your own free will. Think it over, Shiloh. Your mother is counting on you.”

  As soon as he hung up, I dropped my head into my hands and screamed. Screamed in fury, in fear, and in absolute hatred of the man who was forcing me to make this decision. To willingly choose my greatest fear to save the lives of others. Jaxon held me, but it wasn’t enough to calm the storm raging inside me.

  “You must calm yourself, Shiloh, you are distressing your teammates.”

  Tennyson’s oddly soothing voice floated in my mind, and unexpectedly helped lower my rage levels. I clung to that bizarre sense of peace, uncertain where it was coming from, but grateful for it nonetheless. It took time before I could pull away from Jaxon and even out my breathing.

  “Can I wish for you to teleport your mom to safety?” Jaxon asked.

  “Doesn’t matter,” I said, unsurprised at how hoarse my voice was. “He’d still have Gideon and the other werewolves as leverage. We might still need that wish for something, because we have until sunset to find another option. Besides, there’s a tiny chance that having an open tether to you via one last wish could interfere with what he has planned.”

  “Makes sense.”

  “You cannot go to him,” Tennyson said. “He will exploit everything that makes you unique and turn you into a slave.”

  I jerked to my feet and got into his face. “You think I don’t know that? This is my biggest fucking fear come to life, Tennyson! I fucking know!”

  His eyes flashed crimson, and I didn’t protest when someone pulled me back a few steps. Jaxon turned me around, his hazel eyes both loving and furious. “We’ll find another way, Shi. You cannot go to him.”

  “What if there is no other way? We can’t openly attack the clinic now, because he has hostages he won’t hesitate hurting, or killing in retaliation. Find me another way, and I’ll take it, Jaxon, but I can’t let thirty innocent people die for me.”

  “I know. Chandra?”

  “I’ll let Alice know what’s going on,” she said. “They deserve to know they’ve become expendable pawns.”

  “Make sure they know to stay calm and don’t act suspicious, or the place might lock everyone down.”

  “I will.” Chandra left, probably next door where she could concentrate.

  “Now are you willing to get your dad involved?” Jaxon asked.

  “Absolutely not,” I replied. “He can’t use his power to interfere, and if he found out what’s going on, he’d volunteer to go in my place, and that is an epically bad idea. An earth djinn bound to three wishes is bad enough, but to someone who is ostensibly powerful enough to force a permanent binding? Not happening. He can’t get involved, Jaxon.”

  “Okay, I understand. I’m just throwing out options here.”

  “My dad is not an option. I don’t want to make this trade, but I will, so let’s try to come up with feasible alternatives to me becoming a forever slave to dark magic.”

  “Dark magic?” Tennyson said.

  “I heard it in his voice. When people dabble in dark magic it changes them, physically, mentally, emotionally. Whoever this Damian is, he isn’t doing this for the powers of good and balance. He’s doing this for evil and we have to stop him.”

  “We fucking will stop him,” Novak said, speaking up for the first time since the phone call. His expression was stony, determined. “We protect our own, Shiloh.”

  “Thank you.”

  “I’d let you hug me, but you’re covered in coffee.”

  I rasped out a sound not quite laughter and went to get fresh clothes. I had one clean shirt left to go with yesterday’s jeans, but at least they weren’t coffee-soaked. After I changed, I sat on the closed toilet seat and rocked, allowing my body to work through some of the emotions still rocketing around inside. I was pissed at the situation, but I was also furious with myself for getting Mom involved in the first place. I’d sent her away, instead of keeping her close, and Damian’s people had gotten to her. She was in danger, with possible broken fingers, because of me, and if the only way to fix that was to trade myself for her?

  In a fucking heartbeat.

  Someone knocked. “Shi? You okay?” Jaxon.

  “I’m decent.” Not okay, no, but I was dressed.

  He came inside but didn’t shut the door. “Novak went next door to make some phone calls. Trying to raise Kathleen and maybe get us some backup.”

  “Tennyson?”

  “Gone, too. Said he had to check in with Drayden about something.”

  “Maybe Drayden will show up with a couple hundred of his friends.”

  “Maybe.” He squatted in front of me and brushed a stray lock of hair off my cheek. I usually kept my hair braided so it didn’t get in my way, but I hadn’t fixed it since yesterday. “Is it okay to admit I’m terrified right now?”

  “Yes. So am I, but I think you know that.”

  “I do.” His lightly Southern accent had deepened with his frayed emotions. “I have loved you since the moment we met, Shiloh Harrison, but I fell in love with you because of how big your heart is. You wanted to help Paras in need so badly. You wanted to make a difference in their lives. In our lives, and you did. You still do. I cannot imagine my life without you by my side, as my partner or my lover. We will find a way out of this.”

  My eyes watered, and I blinked hard against those tears. “Did I ever tell you why I’m scared to be bound to wishing?”

  He tilted his head, but didn’t say yes or no. Part of me wondered if I’d already told him this story once upon a time, but I needed to tell it again.

  “Before Tennyson bound me last week, I’d only been bound to the Rules of Wishing four other times. Three were because I’d agreed to help the wisher, but the fourth was . . . forced upon me by a man named Kress. He was a Wish Collector.”

  “A what?”

  “Magic users who abuse their power to collect wishes. They can sense when a tether is made between a wisher and a djinn. The powerful ones can trace the tether back to its source, if the tether remains in place long enough, and kill the original wisher with a spell that shifts the bond to him or her. They take control of the djinn’s power until the bond is broken by killing the collector, killing the djinn, or the collector breaking one of the Rules of Wishing.”

  “Kress did that? Collected from your other wisher?”

  I nodded, more angry tears stinging my eyes. “The woman who’d bound me needed my help, but Kress tracked the tether, and he killed her in a horribly painful way that I couldn’t stop. I watched a beautiful soul named Jenny die because of my magic. And somehow, because I was not fully djinn, Kress was able to circumvent the Rules. He made me do horrible things to people. A rival skidded out on black ice and became paralyzed for life. A woman who’d scorned him was left broken and battered by others, because he wished it so. An entire building burned to the ground, leaving hundreds homeless, so he could buy the property for redevelopment.

  “This is what I’m terrified of, Jaxon. Of another evil man forcing me to hurt others. To hurt Paras, or the people I care about.” I cupped his cheeks in my palms. “I don’t know what I’d do if he forced me to hurt you, or Nova
k, or Chandra. And maybe I don’t remember our past, but I do believe we had one, and that I once loved you with my whole heart. And that a piece of me still loves you.”

  His eyes went liquid. “I never stopped loving you. I just had to put those feelings away for a long time. I’d rather just be friends than have to leave the team, or you.”

  “Our timing sucks.”

  “Yeah, it does. But we had last night, and hope is not lost.”

  “No.”

  He frowned. “This Damian character isn’t going to kill me to take over the tether, is he?”

  “No, if he was a Wish Collector, he’d have done it by now. He wouldn’t have to bargain with me to get my cooperation. He’s using some other form of magic, so if he succeeds, you guys need to do everything you possibly can to find a way to break his hold on me.”

  “Believe me, we will. How did you break your tether to Kress?”

  “My dad found out, and since he couldn’t directly interfere, he called in a favor with another Para. He had Kress killed.”

  “Just killed?”

  My lips twitched. “Kress may have literally been drawn and quartered, and his body buried in the woods somewhere in Canada.”

  “I knew I liked your dad for a reason. So we find a way to kill Damian. Easy enough.”

  Not so easy until we knew the limits of Damian’s strength and the true source of his power.

  “So wait,” Jaxon said, “how old were you when this thing with Kress happened?”

  “Seventeen.”

  “Fuck me, that young? You went through all that when you were a teenager?”

  “Yup. It was the most traumatic experience of my life, and it was years before I let another person bind me to the Rules. Not until after I’d joined the Para-Marshals and gained some confidence in myself again.”

  “You seemed pretty cocky the day we met.”

  “That day I had backup in the form of an ex-Army Ranger and a pissy werewolf. If my dad hadn’t been kidnapped, I may never have found my courage.”

  “I don’t believe that. Not for a second.”

  “That’s just because you know me.”

  “Yeah, I do. You were always meant to be a hero, Shiloh Harrison. And a leader.”