Blood Moon's Fury: A Young Adult Fantasy Thriller (Curse of the Blood Moon Book 1)

by Leah Kingsley

  Susan’s shoulders shook. She tried to speak without her voice shaking like a baby’s. “She’d tell me to stop crying, ‘cause there’s no point in crying over something that hasn’t happened yet.”

  Justin rubbed her back. “No point in crying over something that will never happen.” He wiped her eyes with the sleeve of his sweatshirt. “Amy’s tough. She’ll pull through this. I know it.” Fierce determination burned in his eyes. He acted as though his faith alone was going to make Amy better.

  Justin’s words woke Zack from his trance. He turned to them and scrubbed a hand over his unshaven face. “Hey,” he rasped and paused to clear his throat. “Are either of you hungry? I could grab us some food.”

  Susan pouted. Zack had gone from a monk statue to Mr. Helpful Man in the blink of an eye. Five seconds ago, she had been handling this better than him, and she was only nine.

  “Thanks man, that’d be great.” Justin looked around for his wallet, but Zack was already gone. The door swung shut behind him with a hollow thud.

  Susan discarded her untouched tray of food and turned her pout on Justin. “Zack better bring back something good. Like burgers or sushi!” Her stomach grumbled.

  “He’s a good guy.” Justin leaned back in his chair and put his arms behind his head. He had puffy bags under his eyes and unkempt stubble on his chin.

  “You like him, then?” Susan asked with an innocent tilt of her head. “I do too, but right now he’s being annoying.”

  “He’s freaking out over Amy.” There was a hum of fear beneath Justin’s words. Her skin prickled with unease. Her siblings tried to protect her too much. What if Amy was worse off than he said? Justin gave a lock of her hair a playful tug. “Why didn’t you guys tell me Amy had a boyfriend?”

  She rolled her eyes and smirked. “Because she doesn’t have a boyfriend.”

  “Oh yeah? What do you call Zack?” He mock tossed a pillow at her.

  “I don’t know, her stalker?” She laughed. “He only met her last week, and now he shows up everywhere she goes.”

  “That was me last semester with Kimmy.”

  Susan lit up with interest. “Who’s Kimmy? Your girlfriend?”

  “Not anymore.” He shrugged one shoulder.

  She sat back against her pillows. “You can’t be mad at Amy for not telling you about her stalker if you forget to mention whole relationships to us.”

  “True that. I’ll tone down the teasing, I promise.”

  “Oh no, you will tease her, and I’ll help!”

  He laughed. “Okay, munchkin, how about you get some sleep while you think of ways to torment our sister.”

  Susan scrunched up her face. Justin hadn’t used his pet name for her in years. She had hoped she had outgrown it. “But I’m not tired.” She yawned. “What’s Zack getting? I want ice cream!”

  “Right.” He snorted, ruffling her hair. “You’re wide awake, and Amy is single. Now we have that sorted, you go to sleep. I’ll bring you ice cream when you wake up.” He tucked the hospital blankets around her, ignoring her feeble protests that she wasn’t sleepy yet. It was four in the afternoon, but it felt like the middle of the night.

  She clutched Justin’s hand. “Let’s go to Dairy Queen when Amy’s better.” Dairy Queen was an Evans family staple. From birthday parties to Thanksgiving, no occasion was complete without a hot fudge sundae or a chocolate dipped cone. Katie had been especially delighted with a visit to DQ, sitting in her high chair with a chocolate syrup mustache and ice cream in her golden blonde hair. Their baby sister had been a messy eater, but a happy one. And after she died, during the year Justin had lived with them in Toronto, they had gravitated to her happy place in search of a little bit of Katie’s joy. The three of them used to ditch the house whenever their mom had a boyfriend over and always escaped to Dairy Queen. Susan’s favorite Toronto afternoons had been spent in that booth with her siblings and three vanilla milkshakes.

  “Okay, milkshakes on me. But seriously, Sue, you’ve been through a lot. Zack needs to keep busy, and you need to rest. Amy won’t recover by both of you acting like you’ve been turned to stone.”

  Susan stuck her nose in the air. “Zack was the one acting like a stone guy. I was completely normal.”

  Justin patted her head. “Sue, I hate to break it to you, but you’re never normal. Ever.”

  “I’ll take that as a compliment.” She grinned up at her big brother and rolled onto her side. “And I’ll even try to sleep. I am a little tired, I guess.” She shut her eyes. The hospital room faded into a sunny field in summertime.

  Forty-two

  CHARLES LAY IN his hospital bed, staring blurrily at the stuccoed ceiling. His mom had stepped out to buy a few things as he was staying in the hospital overnight. He doubted he’d get much sleep because he refused to close his eyes. Images of shotgun-wielding Alexes plagued his dreams whenever he dared. He’d rather stay conscious until Alex was behind bars.

  Alex had a nasty surprise awaiting him in jail. The cool angelic cop planned to detain him with holy light, the one supernatural phenomenon able to imprison a Dark. Alex was about to get exactly what he deserved. Charles allowed himself an exhausted smile. Alex’s father had gotten away with murder. Alex had been put away for the attempt.

  The floor creaked near his bed. A girl with sleek blonde hair and intense, piercing green eyes had teleported to his bedside. She glared down at him with undisguised malevolence. Lara Tzadik, Ash’s girlfriend, was an even more powerful Dark than Alex. She was the child of two Dark parents, which intensified her power level as well as her instability. Children of such unions pompously labeled themselves Super Darks. Charles more accurately labeled them super psychotic.

  “Hello, Charles,” she purred. “How are you feeling?”

  “A lot worse since you arrived.” He sat up and swung his legs out of bed.

  “I’m glad.” She gave him a poisonously sweet smile. “I hoped my visit would have that effect.”

  “What do you want, Lara?” He scrubbed a hand across his forehead, feeling a headache coming on. Would the universe ever allow him to feel safe?

  “They say Ash might die,” she hissed, her voice raw and filled with pain.

  Shock skittered through him. Lara had real feelings for her boyfriend? She wasn’t just using him? He blinked and shook his head. No. Darks enslaved humans. They did not fall in love with them.

  “I’m sorry.” He ducked his head. His apology was genuine. Ash had been annoying but never his main tormentor. He had only done what Nathan and Alex ordered. Dying for a few poor decisions was a tragedy.

  “You caused this. You and your pathetic human friends.” Lara’s slender frame was rigid, her face taut with fury. Animosity rolled off her in waves.

  “Hey! No. Alex was the one who fired the gun. He accidentally shot Ash and—”

  Claws shot from her fingertips and sank savagely into his arm. “Stop talking.” Her green eyes blazed with hate. She jerked him forward so their faces were inches apart. “Shut up and listen, you worthless, pathetic mage. If Ash dies, if you succeed in killing that boy …” Her voice caught. For one horrible moment she looked about to cry. “I will ruin you,” she said. “I will delight in crushing everything you love. I will make you experience every miniscule bit of agony you have put me through.”

  His eyes widened. “Lara, I had nothing to do with his accident. Ask Alex, hell, even ask Nathan!” He swallowed. She did have a point. He had helped Justin with the rescue, and that had resulted in Ash getting shot. Plus, he had rigged the gun to miss, but he had done so to prevent injuries, not cause them. Ash and Assassin’s Honor had kidnapped the girls and threatened to murder them. Ash’s gangster friends were the ones responsible, not Zack, Amy, and Charles.

  “Stop!” Her voice cracked with grief. “You will never dodge the blame on this. You better hope he lives, because if he dies, you will deeply regret it.” She sank her claws deeper into his arm. “I will make you regret it.”

&nbs
p; “Is there a problem in here?” Officer Kimmy Wolf breezed into his hospital room. She was carrying a paper plate with five banana nut muffins stacked in a precarious pyramid. She had a sixth sense for Dark trouble and a major sweet tooth.

  “Not at all.” Lara smiled serenely. “I was just checking on a classmate.” When genuine, Lara’s sweet smile could just about melt your heart. But the way she smiled at Kimmy made it clear she’d rather poison her.

  “Charles is tired.” Kimmy calmly took a bite of her muffin. “Continue your visit when he’s more rested.”

  “Of course.” Lara retracted her claws, leaving five angry red welts on his skin. “Get well soon, Charles.” She tossed a final venomous look over her shoulder as she stalked out the door.

  Charles slumped back into bed. “Thank you,” he said.

  “You have an unhealthy habit of incurring the wrath of the Darks,” Kimmy said and snorted, offering him the plate.

  “I don’t understand why I provoke them so much.” He accepted a muffin. They were warm and smelled divine. Definitely not hospital fare. He peeled away the paper sleeve. The pastry was sweet and crunchy on top, and fluffy and moist within. He glanced at Kimmy to thank her. His cheeks heated with embarrassment as he met her deep blue gaze. This was the second time today she had saved him. She had also pulled him from the lake. He grimaced. He needed to man up and stop girls from rescuing him all the time.

  Kimmy placed her hand on his bleeding arm. Warmth spread from the place where she touched him and soothed away the pain. She removed her hand. His skin was healed. He flashed her a grateful smile. Angels were one supernatural creature the world needed more of. His smile grew wistful. If only Kimmy could heal Amy the way she had healed him. Amy’s injuries would vanish within seconds. Charles sighed, bone-deep weariness tugging at his heart. Such actions were forbidden. Since Amy had no knowledge of the supernatural world, Kimmy would face serious consequences with the Office of Supernatural Containment if she interfered. The OSC, the government agency responsible for monitoring super-to-human interactions, was supposed to prevent supers from abusing their power. In reality, the OSC existed to ensure humans never learned of the supernatural world. Kimmy healing Amy was a direct violation of their code.

  Kimmy released a wistful sigh, silently agreeing with his unspoken thoughts. “Hospitals are tragic places. So many frightened and hurting people that I am forbidden to help.” Her eyes were deep blue pools of swirling anguish. Kimmy sharply shook her head as if sweeping aside a painful memory. “I’d better stick around until your mother returns.” She settled herself in a chair across from his bed and cast a wary glance at the door.

  “I don’t need a babysitter.” He dropped his eyes to his lap, his face burning with shame.

  “That Dark girl was strongly bonded to her human boyfriend. He’s in critical condition, and if he dies, you will bear the brunt of her fury and pain.”

  Charles jerked his gaze to her in surprise. “But bonding only enslaves the humans.”

  “The bond goes both ways.” She leaned back in her chair and hooked her feet around its legs. “If the Dark in question has several bonds at one time, all are weak. But if a Dark stays faithful, as Lara has, they end up strongly attached to their human. The human’s well-being becomes as important as their own, and this attachment often evolves into love.”

  “Love?” His forehead puckered. “Darks have fallen in love?”

  “Yes. As unbelievable as it sounds, it can happen.” She spoke with an air of intellectual confidence, but her depth of knowledge hinted at firsthand experience.

  Charles leaned back against his pillows and put his hands behind his head. Had Alex ever bonded anyone frequently enough to fall in love? He smirked, picturing his archrival head over heels for some poor, unfortunate human girl. He’d pay good money to see that.

  Forty-three

  ZACK RETURNED TO Susan’s room with burgers and fries and a black hole of despair in his gut. Susan was fast asleep in bed, and Justin was staring morosely into space. The boys attempted polite small talk as they ate and eventually lapsed into miserable silence. The White Spot burgers he had bought turned to cardboard in Zack’s mouth, and the weight of their unspoken words weighed heavy on his heart. Amy. Her name was a yawning chasm of grief. He and Justin clung to opposite cliffs, together but alone. Time passed, the minutes turning into hours, every passing second leaching them of hope.

  A light knock at the door at last ended their suffocating silence. A middle-aged doctor wearing navy scrubs and a weary expression entered the room. She had jet-black hair with a streak of silver down the middle, and wan hazel eyes that had seen more than their share of heartbreak. “I’m looking for Justin Evans?” Her gaze flicked between the two boys.

  “That’s me.” Justin leapt to his feet. “What’s happened with Amy?”

  A dagger pierced Zack’s heart with every word the doctor spoke. Amy was breathing with the help of a ventilator. She was being kept alive by beeping machines, holding to the slim hope that her condition would improve within the next twelve hours. A thick fog of despair blanketed the room. It saturated his pores and soaked into his soul.

  “And if she doesn’t improve?” Zack cut the doctor off midsentence. “What happens to her, then?”

  “Who are you, exactly?” The doctor narrowed her hazel eyes, disapproval etched all over her tired face.

  Justin gave a dismissive wave of his hand. “He’s a friend of the family, and I would like to know the same thing.”

  “Very well.” She sighed, her rigid shoulders slumping. “I avoid giving families and friends percentages and statistics because analytical odds are never concrete. Ms. Evans is critical but stable. She experienced multiple concussions which caused a brain bleed. Though we caught it quickly and have treated the rest of her injuries, Ms. Evans is still in a coma. Surgically, we’ve done everything we can. The ball is in her court now. If she doesn’t wake within the next twelve hours, she will likely never regain consciousness.”

  Silence enveloped the room like a hopeless black void, the kind of silence that could hold and swallow worlds. Zack’s heart dropped from his chest, its dead weight slowly sinking into his shoes. Amy might not wake up. The stubborn, fiery, unreasonable light that was her soul could go out forever. A knife twisted in his gut. How had he gone to school with her for years and never noticed her? Why had he been such a jerk to her all the time? She deserved better. A hell of a lot better.

  A sob punched through the dreadful stillness. Susan was sitting up in bed, face ashen. She clenched handfuls of the hospital blanket in her fists. Her dove gray eyes, so similar to Amy’s, bored furiously into Justin’s. “You liar! You told me Amy was fine! But she’s not. She’s going to die! You liar!” Susan fell back onto her pillows and hid her face as she cried. Justin tried to comfort her, but she rolled to face the wall. “I hate you,” she sobbed into her pillow. “I hate you, I hate you, I hate you.”

  Her heartbreak slammed into Zack and doubled his own. He rose with the intention of rushing over and hugging her. But no, the siblings needed privacy. He shook his head to dislodge his opaque cloud of sorrow and followed the doctor from the room. He eased the door shut behind them with slow, quiet care.

  Zack wandered the hospital corridors, plagued with dread and haunted by regret. His miserable footsteps eventually carried him to the entrance of the main lobby.

  A girl shrieked his name as he trudged through the doors. He blinked in horrified disbelief at the tall blonde blur. Why was Chelsea streaking toward him like a missile on route to its target? How had she found him? Why the hell was she here? Zack braced himself for an explosive impact with what little strength he had left.

  The girl’s hair swung back from her face and he sagged with relief. “Zack!” His older sister launched herself into his arms. “You are so stupid!” Her long blonde hair had half obscured her tear-streaked face. Even so, her resemblance to his ex was strikingly off putting. Was it just the hair? No. It had b
een the way she shrieked his name that had thrown him back into the old nightmare.

  “Clarisse?” He laughed at her greeting. “What the hell are you doing here?” His sister lived halfway across the country.

  Zack held her at arm’s length and surveyed her with concern. Clarisse was slender and tall with movie star platinum hair and dancing mint green eyes. She was usually immaculate in dresses, skirts, or the occasional pair of figure-hugging jeans. Today, she was uncharacteristically dressed in simple black leggings and a long, lacy blue blouse that matched her scuffed-up ankle boots. Smudged makeup and travel-knotted hair completed her new look.

  Mrs. Donnellson nudged her daughter aside. “We’ve been so worried!” She clutched Zack in a smothering embrace and burst into tears.

  “That looks fun.” Chris snickered sarcastically. He and their father stood a few feet back, a safe distance from the crying women. Chris took pity on him and towed Clarisse and his mother away. “Come on, guys. Zack’s fine. Let him breathe.”

  “My poor baby.” Mrs. Donnellson dabbed at her face with a tissue. “You really are okay, right? You’re not just saying that?” She fluttered her hands around Zack as if shocked to find him whole.

  His cheeks heated. “Mom, I wasn’t even admitted here. Let’s go sit.” He nodded to a thankfully empty corner.

  Mr. Donnellson took his wife’s arm and guided her to a chair. William Donnellson was tall. He had thick red hair like Zack and smiling, sky blue eyes like Chris.

  “I’m super glad Zack’s okay,” Chris blurted as soon as they were seated, “but tell me about Sue. She’ll be okay too, right?” His expressive sky blue eyes begged for the answer the doctor had failed to give Justin.

  Zack furrowed his brow. “Physically, Sue will be fine. They just want her to stay overnight for observation.”

  “That’s great!” Chris beamed. “When can I see her?”