Five Moons Rising

by Lise MacTague

  “I will include a full report on MacTavish’s activities to Uncle Ralph, but Cassidy won’t be anywhere in it.” Why wouldn’t Stiletto drop it? All they needed to do was take care of MacTavish, and then everyone could go back to their lives. Well, almost everyone. Cassidy’s life was going to look a lot different than it had. Malice wished she could do something about that, but there was no going back now.

  “And I’ll have my own report to file.” Stiletto picked up another piece of her laptop. “There may be some discrepancies between our accounts.” She bent her head over it, dismissing Malice.

  “I have some things to handle before we move out.” Malice pushed herself away from the island and headed to the elevator without waiting for a response. If one even came, it was so quiet she didn’t hear it.

  While it was true she had things to do before they went up against MacTavish and his crew, Malice mostly needed to distract herself from the wait and from Stiletto’s’ veiled threat. If Ruri had been there, that would have been a lot easier. Her belly tightened pleasantly as she remembered their time together at the safe house. The wolven was hot as hell; that was for certain. Mate. Unbidden, Carla’s word came floating back to her. What did that even mean? Ruri had decided they were mates now? How could that be?

  She stepped out of the stairwell and into her studio. The organized riot of materials and tools barely registered as she tried to pull apart what it might mean to be the wolven’s mate. Maybe. There was no way that was a for-sure thing, right? She could have said something in the car—should have said something in the car—but she’d held back, afraid of what Ruri’s response might be. The wolven had shifted back to human form right after they’d left. Somehow, she’d managed to get dressed so quickly Mary Alice barely had time to gawk, which was good. Ruri’s body was more than a little gawk-worthy, but not while on the Tri-State.

  What if she’d asked and Ruri had confirmed Carla’s claim? Worse yet, what if she’d blown it off? There was no denying that she enjoyed Ruri’s company, though she had no right to do so.

  This line of thought was no help at all. Mary Alice shook her head to clear Ruri out of it for a bit. It wouldn’t last long; it never seemed to. Golden eyes were there every time her mind wandered. She pulled on a thick leather apron and gloves. The pile of scrap metal in the corner was exactly what she needed. Determined to kill some time and stop worrying about everything, Mary Alice got to work.

  It was hours later when the phone rang, startling Mary Alice, who was deep in the middle of a new sculpture. She’d finished what she’d come down to work on, but the urge to start something new had been impossible to resist. It was different than a lot of her other work. Gone were the harsh edges and uncomfortable joins. This one was all soaring curves and fine lines. She had no idea what the gallery would make of it. She wasn’t even sure if she wanted to sell this one.

  She dropped the tools with alacrity and shook off one glove to fish the phone out of her pocket before it stopped ringing. “Malice.”

  “I thought you were going to let it go to voice mail, darling.” Carla’s voice issued through the speaker in a crackly burst of static.

  “Hold on, I need to get upstairs. Stiletto will want to hear this, and I need a better connection.”

  “I’m afraid the connection won’t be improved. For some reason, we don’t work well with cell phones.”

  “Huh.” That was news to her, but then she’d never before had reason to speak with a vamp over the phone. “Hold on anyway.”

  She took the stairs two at a time and burst out into the loft. Stiletto wasn’t in the kitchen when she arrived, but she stepped through the opening to the living room, almost running into Malice who’d had the same idea. “It’s Carla.”

  “About time.” Was it her imagination, or had Stiletto’s face reddened when she’d said Carla’s name. She was probably still remembering being fed upon. Malice wondered if the heightened color was from anger or arousal.

  “Is my little snack there?” Carla asked. “How delightful!”

  The red was definitely from anger now. Stiletto didn’t like being anyone’s little anything. If Carla had been in front of them, she might have had a fight on her hands. The idea that someone might claim her was the only thing Malice had ever seen her snap on. Most of the rest of the time, Stiletto didn’t allow her emotions to goad her into action. She might run hot under the collar, but she kept herself under such iron control that she almost never acted upon it.

  “What’s the news?” They didn’t have time for Carla to goad her former squadmate.

  “MacTavish has agreed to undertake the retrieval of an item for me. He will be at Liberty Savings and Loan in Hoffmann Estates tomorrow night. What I need is in a safe-deposit box in the vault.”

  “At Liberty?” Malice mulled it over. It felt all right. It was a bank so there would be one way in, which should make it easy enough to keep the lycans bottled up. It would be the perfect site for an ambush. “But tomorrow night?”

  Stiletto nodded approvingly.

  “That’s right, darling. I’m sorry if the timing isn’t everything you’d like it to be. However, my people will be able to disable the alarm system for the night. I doubt you want the police arriving too early to this little party of yours.”

  “It’s fine. I guess this gives us more time to prepare. Thanks, Carla. I owe you.”

  “You certainly do, pet.” Carla terminated the call in a final burst of static. Malice was left to hope the final endearment was simply a nickname and not an indication of how Carla thought she would be paid back.

  “We can make a bank work,” Stiletto said. “Where’s your laptop? I want to take a look at the area.”

  “It’s on the first floor.” Malice stood up and headed toward the stairs, Stiletto right beside her. “I know the area. It should be far enough from where MacTavish’s new den is.”

  “Even better.”

  “If Ruri and Cassidy can keep the rest of the pack occupied, we’ll have plenty of time to take him out.” In fact, according to her plan, they needed to interfere with each group at the same time. The remnants of MacTavish’s pack at the den would be distracted and weakened by Malice’s attack upon him, while he would be laboring under the same disadvantage while they attacked him. It was handy to have another group working toward the same goals, one they could coordinate with.

  “As long as they can be trusted to hold on until we need them to move. If they allow their emotions to get the best of them, they could blow this whole thing.”

  “Ruri will handle it.” If the wolven was anything, she was cool under pressure. The way she’d handled Mary Alice while being held against her will was nothing if not proof of that. Admiration filled her, warming her to her toes and not for the first time. Ruri was exactly the kind of person she wanted by her side.

  Stiletto didn’t bat an eye at the fact that Malice’s laptop was behind a biometric lock in an enclosed cube of chain-link fencing. Her setup on her home turf was probably similar. Still, Malice wished Stiletto would show some other emotion than cold disinterest or anger. It was impossible to read the woman. She waited patiently enough while Malice unlocked the laptop before trying to take it over. Malice scooted the computer out of her reach and brought up the Internet browser. It was the work of a few seconds before they had an overhead view of the area around the bank.

  “It’s secluded enough. That’s nice,” Malice said.

  “We won’t have to worry too much about civilians bumbling into our operation.” Stiletto chewed on her lower lip as she examined the screen. “Nowhere high to set up an observation post, though.”

  “There’s some cover in those trees.” Malice pointed at the upper right corner of the screen. “Looks like a creek that runs through there. It’ll be a good enough place to set up and wait for the lycans to arrive.”

  “Sounds like a plan. I’d rather be up high, if we can.” Stiletto tapped her fingers on the table while looking over the bank building.
“If they’re heading for the vault, their options will be limited.”

  “Nothing we can’t cover if we set up over there.”

  “We need building schematics.”

  “I’ll get them from Uncle Ralph. I need to let him know what the plan is anyway.”

  “Good.” Stiletto grinned suddenly, her whole face lighting up. “It’s finally coming together, isn’t it, Malice?” She stretched hugely, all the way to the tips of her fingers. “I can’t wait to give those things what’s coming.”

  Malice smiled back. If her smile came across as little more than the baring of teeth, that was fine, too. They were almost done. The hardest part still lie ahead, but at least she could finally see it coming.

  “I’ll call Uncle Ralph, then we can really get down to prepping,” Malice said.

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  The moon bathed them in more than enough light to see by. It waxed just short of full, reminding Malice of what was at stake. Cassidy. A few days ago they’d been racing this, and now she wasn’t certain she even recognized her sister. But this was all for her. If they were to be rid of MacTavish, she needed to get her mind back to it.

  The corner where the bank stood was as deserted as Malice had hoped. The little stucco-sided building was soaked by the streetlights in the parking lot. It didn’t look like it was about to be the site of an epic showdown. From their little blind halfway up a tree in the woods that skirted the property, she surveyed the area again. All they knew was MacTavish would be there that night. Exactly when he planned to make his move, they didn’t know. Not knowing made her twitchy.

  Stiletto had insisted on setting themselves up high. It seemed unnecessary to Malice, but her partner had pointed out that the lycans might want to case the bank and they’d been planning to set up in the best place to do so. That there was no sign of the lycans had Malice on edge. What if they decided to go after Carla’s package another night? There had been neither hide nor hair of the vamps who were supposed to disable the security system either. If she’d seen them, she might feel a little better about sitting and waiting. At least then she’d know the plan was still on. She gave in to the urge and checked her watch. The barely glowing numbers told her it was a little after two a.m. Twenty minutes from when she last checked it. Great.

  “They’ll be here,” Stiletto said quietly. Malice smiled a little bit at the attempt to make her feel better. “Or they won’t. There’s more than one way to skin a cat.”

  The smile sloughed off her face and the tension that had momentarily abated returned with a vengeance. Malice forced herself to relax and lower her shoulders. They felt like they were up around her ears.

  “This is our best chance. Even you have to admit Cassidy’s pack helping out is an asset.” At least she hoped it would be an asset. When she’d spoken to Ruri, the wolven had seemed anxious. She hadn’t been willing to go into much detail, but the remnant pack wasn’t allied as strongly with her as she’d expected. Fortunately, it sounded like they’d accepted Cassidy’s leadership. Now if only Mary Alice could have a normal conversation with her sister that didn’t turn into a shouting match. It was better to go through Ruri for now.

  When had Cassidy gotten so contrary? Sure, she’d sometimes chafed at Mary Alice’s role as the older sister, but she could usually be brought around to see things the way they were. Ever since the revelation of Mary Alice’s real life, Cassidy seemed to question everything she said. Maybe Cassidy felt like she’d been betrayed, but she had to know Mary Alice had her best interests at heart. There was danger in mixing the two worlds she lived in; Cassidy’s current status proved that.

  And there she was again, in the same vortex of blame and doubt she’d already spiraled into more than once. The only things that derailed the cannibalistic spiral of her thoughts were action and Ruri’s presence. If only MacTavish and his lycans would show up. She tried to get back to the task at hand and to quiet the thoughts that chased themselves in circles, devouring each other and growing larger and harder to ignore with each passing moment.

  Her phone buzzed spitefully, reminding her that Ruri was also waiting.

  “You’re really going to check that now?” Stiletto whispered when she pulled the phone out of one of her jacket’s pockets.

  “What if they went off plan? Of course I’m going to check it.” There was no way she would turn on the screen. Even as concealed as they were, it wouldn’t take much light to betray their position. Instead, she plugged her ear bud into the phone and played it as an audio message. Relief washed through her when the message proved to be a query about whether there was any sign of MacTavish.

  “There’s no sign of him here. Must be on his way.” The mechanical voice reading the message conveyed no emotion, but Malice thought she felt Ruri’s tension all the same.

  “Nothing yet,” Malice murmured into the crappy microphone on the cheap headphone’s cord. “You’ll hear when we see him.”

  “What does your girlfriend want?” Stiletto surveyed the area through a pair of binoculars. She covered the bank; then stood up to get a better view of the road. The branch she was on barely rustled.

  “Says there’s been no sign of MacTavish at their end. Hopefully that means he’s on his way.”

  “We’ll take him out tonight or another night. It’s all the same, Malice. A dead lycan is a dead lycan.” She leaned forward a bit to get a better look at something on the road.

  “What do you see?” As the words left her mouth, a new sound hit her ears. The area had been quiet so far. The only noise was the very occasional car passing on the stretch of Highway 72 that went past the little corner where the bank was located. A large engine was coming their way and at speed. She could hear it laboring as it came into her unassisted view.

  “Looks like some crazy person in a semi.”

  “The lycans have been knocking over semis.”

  “Yep. Seems we have company.”

  The truck’s lights flashed suddenly into high beams, illuminating the side of the bank in sharp relief.

  “Holy crap, he’s going to—”

  A tremendous crash shattered the night. Chunks of masonry rained down on the paved parking lot. Even those were hard to hear over the tortured twisting of metal as the front of the truck bent back on itself. The hood cover slid into the windshield, which exploded into little squares of flying safety glass. Silence fell over the parking lot, punctuated only by the hiss of air escaping the semi’s large front tires and the tinkling of falling glass.

  “—ram it,” Malice concluded softly.

  “That’s one way of breaking in,” Stiletto said. “Come on.” She swung herself out of her perch and started down the tree.

  “Right behind you,” Malice said. First things first, however. She pulled out her phone and dictated a short message to Ruri. “We’re on.”

  Ruri’s phone finally vibrated. It felt strange to have one, but Mary Alice had insisted. How else would they stay in contact? Not necessary, her wolf whispered disapprovingly. She is bonded to us, she will know. But the mate bond didn’t work when only one of them believed in it. She turned it on to see the words they’d been waiting to hear.

  “We’re on,” she said to Cassidy.

  The Alpha inhaled deeply, and then exhaled a huge puff of air through her muzzle. Ruri was the only one not in fur-form yet; everyone else had shifted. Sadly, the phone required thumbs to use it, so she was still in skin-form. Opposable thumbs would also come in handy to get that door open so they could get into the row houses. Not that there were many of them. Surprisingly, Lewis had been the first to volunteer to come along, before even Cassidy. Some of the wolven had stayed behind at the safe house, those who were too damaged by the events of Dean’s death to fight, and Luther.

  Someone had to stay back with the others. Luther hadn’t been very happy about letting Cassidy out of his sight, but he had grudgingly agreed to watch the rest of the pack. Ruri knew Luther thought the whole operation was a bad idea. He d
idn’t want to bet his new Alpha on what he saw as a desperate gambit, and maybe it was. Luther had always struck her as being pretty levelheaded, but she’d been unable to convince him this was their best bet. His idea of dealing seemed to be hiding in the shadows until MacTavish forgot they existed. Ruri had met MacTavish’s type before, and she believed he would never forget about them. Sooner or later, he would have darkened their doorways to finish what he’d started those weeks previous.

  She was glad for the opportunity and for the chance to partner with Mary Alice. Stiletto she could have done without, but there was no such thing as a perfect plan. As much as she wanted to be the one to rip MacTavish’s throat out, she would happily leave it to Mary Alice if it meant getting some of her family back. Giving up the chance to take down MacTavish had been difficult, but the other wolven were the more important piece. If she’d been the one to go after MacTavish, the Hunters would have been responsible for bringing the others out. Mary Alice would have done it, but that Stiletto? There was no telling what she would have decided.

  There was no sign of life in the row houses that squatted before them in the moonlight. It seemed everyone inside was asleep. That, in itself, was sloppy. MacTavish should have set someone to guard. His skills as Alpha were lacking in the extreme, and contempt added another layer to the raging hatred that pulsed molten inside her whenever she thought of the lone wolf.

  The dark wasn’t enough to hide the neglected aspect of the buildings. They’d obviously been abandoned for years. The city’s glacial reputation for taking care of blighted properties was well earned, it seemed. On the other side, chipped concrete steps led up to front doors barricaded by large sheets of plywood. Boards had been nailed over most of the front windows but had been removed from some in the back, which was why they huddled in the alleyway. The four adjoining units with accessible back doors were the objects of their interest.

  At Cassidy’s signal, the rest of the wolven rose to their feet. Ruri feared seven of them wouldn’t be enough. Cassidy was their most decided advantage. Still, a large part of the plan hung upon the hope that the opposing wolven would be easier to overcome once MacTavish came under attack. Mary Alice’s message had let them know things were moving on her end, but it didn’t let them know when MacTavish himself was engaged. He hadn’t been attacked yet. If he had been, the row houses would be boiling with activity. But if their little group failed here, his wolven would descend upon Mary Alice and Stiletto and tear them apart. She had to trust that things proceeded apace at the other end. They had to, or she and her wolven would be annihilated.