Five Moons Rising

by Lise MacTague

  She opened her arms but managed to keep her hand wrapped around one hank of fur. If Cassidy lunged again, she would have warning and hopefully enough grip to at least alter her trajectory. Cassidy looked over at her, odd eyes glowing reproachfully. She couldn’t read Mary Alice’s thoughts, she knew that, but Cassidy definitely seemed to understand her struggle. How could you? those eyes seemed to ask.

  There was nothing for it. Mary Alice stood up, letting go of her final handhold, feeling like she was letting go of everything she’d ever had with her sister. She grabbed Stiletto’s elbow on the way by.

  “Let’s go,” she pushed out through gritted teeth.

  Stiletto said nothing and allowed herself to be drawn along in Malice’s wake. She watched their six, making sure none of the lycans in the room made a move on them. Malice wasn’t worried about them. The damage had been done. She knew exactly where she stood with her sister, and it hurt far worse than if one of the wolves had disemboweled her. The only solace she could take was in the way Ruri had placed herself between the lycans and Cassidy. Her sister was as safe as she could be if Ruri was around, probably safer than if Malice was there.

  The two Hunters were finally gone from the house and silence reigned in their absence. Ruri had thought they would never leave. This was a disaster. A complete, unmitigated disaster. Things couldn’t have gone more wrong if she’d tried.

  “So you’re sleeping with my sister.” As if Cassidy’s blunt words were a signal, the wolven flowed into action. Half peeled off to cover all possible entry points, while the rest stuck around. While Ruri approved of the instinct, she felt it was misplaced. The true enemy was MacTavish, not Mary Alice. That Stiletto could be trouble, however.

  Lewis had regained his skin-form and stormed forward, completely naked. “You’re fucking Malice? You really have turned your back on us.”

  Cassidy turned on him in a flash. “Back off. She doesn’t answer to you.”

  He sneered at her. “And you. Malice is your sister.” The word dripped with contempt, turning into something ugly. “Why should we trust you? How can we?”

  Cassidy stalked up to him. The top of her head barely came up to his shoulder, but somehow she managed to loom over him. “Are you trying to make something of it?” Where his eyes glowed in the sunlit room, hers were dark. He should have been the dangerous one, but Ruri found herself far more worried for him than for Cassidy.

  He opened his mouth to answer, but the wolven who’d held on to skin-form during the fracas got there first.

  “Lewis.” His voice was quiet, but the warning was clear.

  Lewis looked over at him and the rage contorting his features smoothed out, leaving petulant disappointment instead. “Luther.” He turned to leave, but Luther’s hand shot out and grabbed him by the shoulder, forcibly turning him back around and holding him there.

  “Alpha.” The words were forced out through clenched teeth, but it wasn’t until Lewis bowed his head in what someone with no social skills might have been taken as respect that Luther let him go.

  Their little group watched him leave the room, a storm cloud hovering over him.

  “It is a problem, you know,” Luther said quietly.

  Ruri closed her mouth with a snap. She’d been about to make much the same comment.

  “Which one?” Cassidy asked.

  “All of them,” Ruri said quickly, pleased to get a word in before Luther could. He didn’t seem overly discomfited, however. “Mary Alice is a problem for both of us. The pack needs to know what’s going on.”

  “More importantly, they need to know you’re still able to lead them. To protect them.” Luther’s voice dropped. “They’re still shaken by what happened to Dean.”

  When Cassidy raised a questioning eyebrow at her, Ruri leaned forward. “Our old Alpha, remember?”

  “She’s my sister, not a monster,” Cassidy said.

  “No, she’s just the boogeyman.” Luther shook his head, shoulder-length hair brushing the tops of his shoulders.

  “That’s as may be. I’m not her. She has nothing to do with what I do. I’m my own person.”

  “So show that to the pack,” Ruri said. “Or show them your relationship isn’t a liability.”

  “Then I’m not the only one with that problem.”

  The point stung, and Ruri opened her mouth to deny it, but closed it without saying anything. It might sting, but it was also true. The fact was she simply didn’t feel part of Cassidy’s burgeoning pack. They were all wolven she’d known for years, though she wasn’t sure she still knew who they all were. Lewis was being the same old asshole, but Luther? The wolven had been content to fade into the background before. He’d never been interested in a position of authority, though he certainly could have given most of them a run for their money. Probably not her or Dean, but the strongest wolven had always stepped warily around him. His lowly pack status had been his choice. Something had finally changed his mind.

  “You’re right, Alpha.” Ruri bowed her head. Who was she to advise Cassidy? She needed to get her head screwed on right before she could act as Beta again.

  Cassidy turned to Luther. “First things first. We need food and bedding. What resources does everyone have? I have some money, but I need to get to an ATM to get cash.”

  “Yes, Alpha. I’ll speak with the others and see what they have. We only need enough food to get through the day. We can go for a proper run tonight, that should fill everyone’s bellies.”

  They had everything under control and didn’t need her. Ruri slipped from the room into the kitchen. She needed to do something. Her body fairly burned with the need to prove herself. Her wolf paced within, urging her on. There was only one gesture she knew that would be big enough to show she was still committed to the pack. It would also go a long way to demonstrating how advantageous an alliance with Mary Alice could be.

  Confident she wouldn’t be missed, Ruri closed the back door behind her. She had a Hunter to see about a wolf.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  How had Stiletto tracked her down? Malice watched her comrade discreetly as she puttered around on her laptop in the living room. First things first, however. How did she keep Uncle Ralph from being pulled into their little drama? The last thing she needed was her government leash-holder sticking his nose into things.

  “Your sister?” Stiletto neither looked up from the computer screen nor stopped typing. She might have been discussing the cool fall weather.

  “That’s right.” Malice tried to match her tone for unconcern but knew she failed miserably.

  “I assume you didn’t report it.”

  “Of course I didn’t!” There was no point in trying to hide her anger on that one. “You know as well as I do what they’d have done to her. I’m not putting my own sister through that.”

  “It’s your loss.” Stiletto actually shrugged. She looked back at Malice, the light from her laptop lighting the side of her face from below, giving her a slightly sinister cast. “It’s ours also. The scientists could learn a lot from a tame werewolf.”

  “A tame werewolf?” Not able to believe what she was hearing, Malice moved to stand in front of the coffee table so she could see Stiletto’s face clearly. “That’s my sister you’re talking about.”

  “I’m sure she would’ve been well-treated. Think what we could have discovered! New ways to kill the monsters that don’t involve going toe-to-toe with them. Maybe some kind of nerve agent. Think about it, we could gas the things into oblivion without having to worry about civilian casualties.” Her eyes glowed with terrible excitement. Malice had never seen her this animated without being in the midst of battle.

  “That is the most obscene thing I’ve ever heard.” The laptop jumped on the coffee table when Malice slammed her hands down on either side of it. “And it’s not how we do things. We don’t go after them all. Most of them haven’t done anything wrong. We take down those that screw up and become a threat, that’s all.”

 
“Do you really believe that? Grow up, Malice.” Stiletto’s sneer twisted her face into an ugly facsimile of its usual bland mask. “Everyone’s life would be better if we could purge those cancers from our existence.”

  “Fuck you, Stiletto.” Her life wouldn’t be better without the supras, not now. Maybe if she’d never heard of them. But then Ruri would be decades dead. And now… Now she’d be all alone. “If you report Cassidy, I’ll—”

  Stiletto leaned forward, her face right in Malice’s. “Kill me? Why don’t you do me a favor and give it a try.” A fine spray of spittle misted the lower half of Mary Alice’s face.

  Malice grabbed her collar, hauling Stiletto across the coffee table. The laptop clattered to the floor along with a glass of water and half the books she owned. They landed in a heap on the concrete floor. The thin throw rug did little to cushion their fall, but Malice barely noticed. She kept their momentum rolling until she sat astride Stiletto. Her hands batted Malice’s away from her collar and Malice gladly relinquished her hold. A shock ran through her arms as she boxed Stiletto along the ribs.

  They’d never fought like this, not even during training. The gloves were off, finally and for real. A corona of light and pain exploded through her face, flooding her vision with brightness and snapping her head back. Stiletto took advantage of her head butt and dumped Malice onto her back. This time it was her turn to straddle Malice, her legs clamped around her rib cage, twin vises trying to force all breath from her lungs.

  Blows rained down at her face, each one designed to kill or at least incapacitate if it landed. Malice intercepted or turned them aside. One grazed her temple, sending her ears ringing. With each exhalation, Stiletto’s legs tightened around her, making it that much harder to draw the next breath. She was running out of time. A knee to Stiletto’s back loosened her grip so Malice could drag in a tortured breath. With the next kick, she nailed Stiletto in the back of the head, stunning her long enough for Malice to roll her over and bounce up. She dropped into a defensive crouch. Blood dripped from the side of her head, running down the side of her face from her temple.

  Stiletto lay on the ground, her shoulders shaking. Shock stopped Malice from attacking when she realized the woman was laughing.

  “What’s so funny?” Her jaw was sore and didn’t want to work properly. She had to work to get the words out without slurring. Stiletto must have snuck one past her defenses without her noticing.

  “I don’t think this is what Uncle Ralph had in mind when he sent me up here.” She pushed herself over, moving as gingerly as Malice.

  “I don’t think there’s any need to tell him.”

  “Absolutely.” Stiletto rotated her left arm in its socket before reaching up to finger the cut on her lip. It oozed blood but only for a moment before Stiletto ran the tip of her tongue over it. Since the government injected them full of who knew what, their saliva had some mild coagulating properties. “The man’s a creep.”

  “So I’m not the only one who thinks that?”

  Stiletto barked out a short laugh. “I don’t know anyone who can stand him. He treats us like we’re a very small step up from the things he sends us after.”

  “Are we that different?” Malice’s voice was soft, the question meant more for herself than for Stiletto.

  “Of course we are.” Stiletto answered anyway. She stood up and paced the length of the room. The more she moved, the faster her various aches and pains would subside. Malice knew she should be doing the same thing, but she didn’t need another reminder of her differences. “We’re still human. We control ourselves and don’t go after civilians.”

  “No, just each other.”

  Stiletto’s smile was almost warm. “No one else is a match.”

  “True enough.” If only they were. Malice relaxed out of her defensive pose. Her ribs felt like they’d been used as a bellows, which they pretty much had been. “I need to get moving. I’m going for a run.”

  “Suit yourself.” Stiletto leaned over to pick up her laptop. “Uh oh.” Malice looked over at the expression of dismay, and Stiletto wordlessly tipped the laptop to one side. Water drained out of the keyboard.

  “Ah, crap. I’m sorry.”

  “I won’t be using this for a while. Do you have any rice? Like a lot of it.”

  “Sure, in the kitchen. There’s a bag I just opened.”

  “Good, I’m going to see if I can salvage this. I don’t want to have to requisition a new one through Uncle Ralph.”

  “Good call.” Malice left the living room and stopped to change into her running clothes and clean up the blood that was already drying on the side of her head. From the waistband of her pants, she pulled the cell phone she’d lifted off Stiletto during their fight and stuck it in the pocket of her track pants.

  “I’ll be back in a bit,” she called on her way out. From the noises in the kitchen, Stiletto was making good on her plan to dry out her laptop. It really was the best possible outcome. If the computer had been smashed, Stiletto would have needed to call in for a new one. This way, she had some breathing room. It wasn’t much, but if she was careful it might be enough.

  The run felt good; Mary Alice could already feel her battered muscles returning to normal. The more blood she moved through them, the faster they healed. The cut at her temple had been deep but had already stopped bleeding when she cleaned it. By the time she got back from her workout, it would look days old.

  She stopped at a small park a few blocks away from the warehouse and pulled out her phone. The number she dialed went straight to voice mail and she didn’t bother leaving a message. The sun shone weakly through a light haze, but it wasn’t enough to warm her now that she was no longer running. The pants and light shirt she’d chosen were fine when she was moving, but fall’s chill was definitely settling in. With a start she realized it was almost Halloween. The days had flown by.

  To keep from stiffening up while she waited and to make sure blood kept pumping through those injured areas, Mary Alice dropped and worked her way through fifty push-ups. When that was done, she started on yoga. As she transitioned from a headstand to Chaturanga pose, Mary Alice heard the sound she’d been waiting for. The park was nice not only because it was one of the only green spaces for blocks in the area, but it was also home to one of the city’s few remaining payphones. Every time this payphone was vandalized or destroyed, it was mysteriously replaced within a few days. Better yet, it only allowed incoming calls from one number.

  “Hello.” It wasn’t a question, Mary Alice knew exactly who was on the other end. Rather, she knew who should have been on the other end. It didn’t pay to assume in her line of work.

  “Malice.” TC’s voice issued clearly from the speaker, reminding Mary Alice that there was no substitute for a landline when it came to clarity. “What’s up?”

  “I need you to route a number to a dummy voice mail box on this phone.” She held up Stiletto’s phone and read the serial number off the back.

  “That’s one of ours.” He didn’t sound surprised, merely matter-of-fact.

  “That’s right,” Mary Alice replied as dispassionately. “Can you duplicate the voice mail message into the dummy box?”

  He snorted lightly. “Of course I can. It’s a lot easier when everything is in-house. Give me a second to…there.”

  “Thanks. Then the last thing I need you to do is route any of Uncle Ralph’s incoming numbers to that voice mail. Give that about three days, then dump them back into her actual voice mail.”

  There was a long silence on the other end. “Malice, what are you up to?”

  “The less you know, the safer you’ll be. I wouldn’t be doing it if I didn’t have to.”

  “I don’t know if I can do this.” A heavy sigh came through the line. “I know I owe you, but—”

  “You do owe me, TC.” It wasn’t fair and Mary Alice knew she was putting her friend in a bind, but she had no other choice. There was only one way she could see to unravel this whole mes
s, and she had to keep moving forward with it, no matter the cost. “Without me, your brother would have been dead or worse, in that vamp den. And how long do you think you’d have kept your job if I hadn’t kept my mouth shut? You know as well as I do how the sins of the family overflow onto the rest of us.”

  More silence met her words, but at least it wasn’t a dial tone. She pressed her case further. “Look, once this is done, we’ll be square. If this is done right, the way I say, there won’t be any blowback and we’ll both be in the clear. But if it isn’t, there’ll be a whole lot of questions, ones I’ll have to answer.” She took a deep breath. “Answers our bosses won’t like to hear.”

  “Damn you, Malice.” Equal parts anger and resignation dragged down TC’s voice.

  Jubilation shot through Mary Alice. He was going to do it. A small part of her felt shame at pushing him so hard. She realized she’d likely lost more than an ally within the organization; she’d probably lost a friend. Still, if everything went according to plan, they’d all be safe. Hopefully he’d come around. Would you? the reproachful voice in her head asked.

  “Thanks, TC.”

  “Don’t mention it.” Sarcasm dripped like acid from his words. “If there’s nothing else.”

  “That’s it.”

  The line disconnected, and Mary Alice stood for a few moments listening to the dial tone drone on in her ear. It needed to be done, and she’d done it.

  When she returned home, Stiletto was still laboring over her laptop in the kitchen. Electronic pieces were laid out across the island, each one in a specific place. Stiletto dried each one meticulously with a cotton swab before depositing it in the bag of rice on the ground next to her. She didn’t even look up when Malice cut through the kitchen on her way to the bedroom. The bruises on her arms had faded almost to nothingness, just as Malice’s had.