Moonlight's Ambassador

by T. A. White

  "Thomas lost track of his descendants more than a century ago," I said, knowing it was useless.

  A blow landed against my ribs, the pain negligible compared to what came when he flipped the switch. "Exactly. He should have turned us then instead of allowing our line to be hunted through the decades."

  "You know it was Steven who was responsible for all that."

  Fire landed on my cheek.

  "Of course, I know that. Who do you think raised me and my sister after he killed our parents?" After that revelation, he paced away from me heading towards Caroline.

  "Why do you care anymore if Steven is dead?" I asked, needing to distract him from her. I couldn’t imagine what horrors that vampire had visited on two young children, the descendants of his enemy. Their childhoods would have been difficult. Maybe horrible enough that Theo had a driving need to please his former captor? Enough to carry out his agenda even in death?

  He looked over his shoulder. "Another thing that can be laid at your feet."

  I watched Theo with wariness, not bothering to deny the accusation. I didn't kill Steven, Thomas had, but I might as well have given it was my blood that proved Thomas had a yearling. That was enough to make him master of this territory, giving him permission to challenge Steven. Everything after that could be blamed on me. I didn't feel guilty about it. Steven had been a monster, responsible for so many deaths and the one I blamed for Caroline's change. Sondra might have been the weapon, but he's the one who put everything in motion.

  "This is revenge," I said in understanding. It finally made sense—not why he wanted revenge. I didn't understand that given Steven had killed his parents and probably subjected Theo to a horrible childhood, but if revenge was his motive, it explained why he had struck at Caroline. All for the purpose of making me suffer.

  Theo clapped. "Very good. Tomorrow night when she changes—she won't be able to fight it—she'll rip out your throat. Added benefit, this way will no doubt cause both of you maximum pain and suffering. When the vampires find out she killed another one of theirs, they'll be forced to retaliate."

  "I doubt it," I said. "They barely blinked when they thought she'd killed you and Catherine. It won't be any different for me."

  He lifted an eyebrow, the corners of his lips half twitching into a small, barely-there smile. "Do you think so? Really?" he stepped closer. "Those were companions. Humans. Expendable. Your sire is among the most powerful in their ranks. They won't let an insult like that stand."

  I kept my chin lifted, not letting him see how his words affected me, sending a chill down my spine.

  "Enough talk. Time for part two of today's plan." Before I could respond, he flipped the switch. Pain coursed through my body, growing and growing as he watched. This time he didn't end it, just waited as my screams got louder.

  The blood's power kept me awake and conscious long after I prayed to pass out. It felt like an eternity, all of it spent in purgatory, before my body shut down, allowing blessed darkness to claim me.

  As I drifted off my last thought was that I really hoped that the next time I woke, I wasn't staring into the jaws of a demon wolf.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  "I DON’T CARE what you want. This was a bad plan," a woman shouted. There was a rumble where I couldn't quite make out the words as I raised my head, feeling woozy. Leaves stuck to my cheek, and my skin felt like little ants were biting every piece exposed to the sun beating down on my unprotected skin. "Why couldn't you have just left well enough alone? We were free. Why did you have to go and screw it up?"

  Another low-voiced rumble. The woman sounded like she was moving closer, soft footsteps crunching over the thin layer of dead leaves. "I don't care what you want. I'm done. I didn't agree any of this shit."

  "You’re part of this too," Theo said, his voice low and dangerous.

  "I'm not," Lisa snarled. I could barely see them out of the corner of my eye as she rounded on him. "You and he made sure of that when you decided to throw me away. This is on you, and only you, brother dearest."

  "And what about the companions you killed?" he asked, a sly look on his face. "The ones you ate?"

  Lisa looked horrified and slightly sick to her stomach. "That was an accident. I thought we were just going to scare them, get Caroline banished. Nothing would have happened if you hadn't cut the woman."

  "Yes, but something did happen," he said with a gloating smile. "And you lost control and killed two people belonging to the vampires. What do you think they'll do to you when that comes out?"

  Lisa was quiet for a long moment. I kept still, feeling that my continued unconsciousness was more useful than trying to plant more doubt in her mind.

  "Better that come out, rather than for Brax and the vampires to learn we played a part in the death of these two," she said. "Besides, I'll just blame you. Tell them you stabbed the woman and man and my wolf took over. Brax will understand."

  She sounded like she was trying to convince herself of that.

  "You don't know that," Theo argued.

  "I don't care. This is your problem," she spat.

  "So, go. I don't know why you're here if that's what you think," he snarled.

  She snarled back, the sound animalistic. "They already know the role I played in driving Caroline out of the pack. Brax isn't an idiot. How long do you think it'll take him to put the two events together once he finds the family tree you so stupidly left where she could find it?"

  The derogatory way she said 'she' left me in no doubt who she meant. I tensed my arms, feeling rope tying them down so I lay flat, face down on the ground. Not enough that they planned to kill me through wolf attack, but they'd staked me out in the sun like this was some fucking B-movie horror flick.

  My exposed cheek felt hot and tight, as if I had the mother of all sun burns, and the back of my neck felt like one giant blister. How long had I been out here? I closed my eyes, turning my face so the burned cheek was lying against the cool ground. At least I hadn't burst into flame yet.

  There was a slapping sound and then a cry of pain. I cracked open my eyes, squinting against the bright sun. Theo cradled his cheek as he glared at his sister.

  "You don't get to do that to me anymore," Lisa growled. "I'm stronger than you now. Courtesy of the life you forced me into. Think about that the next time you want to hit me."

  She turned her back on him, advancing on me. I watched, unable to move as she crouched next to me, fumbling at the rope wrapped around my wrists. Seeing I was awake, she said, "You'll tell Brax I helped you. That when I found out what my brother was doing I tried to fix it."

  "Yeah, whatever you say," I mumbled, knowing if I disagreed she might decide her chances of surviving were better if I weren't alive.

  Movement shifted behind her.

  "Watch out!" I cried as Theo appeared, a tire iron in his hand. She started to turn when he brought it down hard on her head, the crack of her skull loud in the sudden silence, his face a murderous mask.

  Lisa dropped to the ground unconscious, blood pouring from the wound on her head. Theo panted above her, the tire iron clutched in his hand.

  "Bitch," he spat, throwing the tire iron to the ground. "You want to get soft; you can join them in their fate."

  He grabbed his sister by the feet, dragging her across the clearing to a tree. There, he sat her up before stalking back out of view.

  I hissed at her. "Lisa, wake up. You need to shake this off. Get up now."

  The crunch of snapping branches alerted me of his return, and I fell silent again, dropping my head back to the dirt as I played unconsciousness. I watched through cracked eyes as he took a bungie cord and wrapped it around her feet before doing the same with her hands. Next, he took a chain and finished tying her to the tree. The same aura that had been on Caroline's cage and my chains in the shack covered the silver he used on Lisa.

  Finished securing his sister, he made his way back over to me, checking the chains that still tied me to the ground. I feigned s
leep, not wanting him to know I was awake lest he decide to fix that. My bonds must have passed his inspection because he aimed a kick into my side, one that had me fighting not to grunt or groan—the bastard had a pretty sharp kick—before he wandered out of view again.

  I waited several moments, listening before I lifted my head and looked around as I took better stock of the place where I'd been staked out. I was in a small clearing on mostly flat land, trees all around. They were young trees as evidenced by the thick underbrush that surrounded me. To be honest, my new accommodations didn't tell me much. I could have been anywhere in Ohio.

  Lisa was still unconscious against her tree. I scanned the clearing as far as I could with my limited mobility, my gaze coming to a stop as a pair of bare feet came into view.

  I released the unconscious breath I'd been holding at the sight of Caroline slumped, boneless against the ground. Unlike me she wasn't tied face-down, her arms held immobile by stakes in the ground. She lay on her side, her face slack in sleep, the pinched, tight look from earlier gone as she rested, blissfully unaware of our current predicament. Looking closer, I could just glimpse something barely visible around her neck—a collar with a silver chain attached to it running from a loop in the front to wrap around the base of a tree. It was thinner than the chain he'd used on Lisa, probably so it could snap when the demon wolf made her appearance.

  I dropped my face back into the dirt, trying to ignore the discomfort in my body. This wasn't good. Nobody knew where we were, and given where I estimated the sun to be, I figured it was already late afternoon. There were four to five hours until the sun set.

  I tugged on my arms again, testing the strength of my bindings. My right arm didn't budge, but the left had some give in it that hadn't been there before. I turned my head, trying to get a better look at that arm, rotating the wrist so I could see it better. It looked like Lisa had undone one of the loops.

  Perhaps if I could loosen it just a little more, I could slip free. My wrist twisted and jerked as I tried to fight loose, my heart leaping every time there was the slightest give. It wasn't much. Soon the skin around my wrist turned bright red as the rope and chain bit into my skin, abrading it until blood oozed from the marks.

  The afternoon slid by as I struggled to free myself, each moment ticking by with an inevitable finality. When I couldn't summon the strength to continue, I rested for a moment, my eyes sliding shut as the sun sapped more and more of my strength.

  Forget the fact that I was tied down. Given my current state, I wasn't sure I could make it more than a few steps once I did manage to free myself. The sun felt more taxing than it had just a few days ago. Could be because it was at its strongest and most intense, or maybe it was the fact that I'd been lying out here exposed for an indeterminate length of time. Maybe I was just weaker despite the top me up from Liam and Thomas. Torture tended to do that to a person. If I survived, I'd have to ask Liam.

  I gritted my teeth, tugging and pulling on my arm as my hand slipped an inch, and then two out of the loop. The skin at my wrists tore further, the blood making the task a bit easier. With one last final wrench, I pulled my hand free before collapsing face first back into the dirt, the last of my energy sapped.

  My eyes drifted shut as I promised myself a break. Just a minute, and then I'd go back to working myself free. My body relaxed into the earth's cool embrace as I drifted, half aware of the sun blazing down on me and half dreaming.

  I was on a rocky beach, the shoreline a mass of rugged cliffs behind me, and the water a dark, stormy gray before me. This weird half-existence tugged at my focus, and for a moment I felt myself slipping back into my body, the sun an insidious thing above me.

  "Aileen." Liam's deep voice pulled me back into the dream. I looked over to find his gaze steady on me, his hair a mess as if he'd been running his hands through it, and his clothes in a state of disarray. Normally, he was well dressed, his outward appearance another facet of the cool confidence and seductive vampire that was Liam. At the moment, his shirt and pants looked like he'd been wearing them for days, wrinkled and mussed. His skin was sallow, the skin under his eyes bruised and delicate-looking.

  "Liam," I said in surprise, not sure if I was dreaming or if the link had finally started working.

  "Where are you?" he asked, his voice urgent.

  I blinked, looking around the rocky beach I found myself on while hoping it was all real.

  "I don't know." The skin over his skull drew tight. "There are trees around us."

  Liam's head turned as if he was listening to something I couldn't hear. For a moment, I thought I heard voices and then the murmur faded.

  "I need more information," he said. "Can you tell us anything?"

  "Can't you track me? I thought that was what the mark is for." I fought despair. There wasn't a lot more to tell.

  "I've been trying, but someone has been hiding you from us." Frustration was a live thing in his voice. "I don't know what's changed, but this is the first time I've gotten close to you. Even now the connection is tenuous."

  Maybe because I got my hand free?

  "I don't know where I am, but I can tell you who is responsible for my current circumstances," I said. If I didn't make it out of here, perhaps I could still make sure Theo paid for this. I'd prefer to live, but in the absence of that I would settle for vengeance from the grave.

  "Good. Nathan said he never saw his attacker."

  "He's alive?" I asked. I hadn't dare hope that Theo had been wrong about killing the enforcer.

  "Barely. Whatever was used on him would have killed him if I hadn't felt him fading and been close."

  I felt relief. Last thing I wanted was to have the enforcer's death on my head. "It’s Theo. He's the one who did this to us."

  Liam looked shocked and vaguely disbelieving. "That's not possible. He's dead."

  I shook my head already anticipating his denial. "No, Pierce is the one who is dead. I'm sure once the DNA results come back they’ll confirm that."

  His brow furrowed. He looked like he was considering the ramifications of what I'd revealed.

  "Liam, Caroline is here." The carefulness of my tone must have warned him because he focused on me with a guarded expression on his face. "The full moon is tonight."

  Understanding dawned as well as fury.

  "He's planning to use her wolf to kill me," I said, struggling to keep my voice even. Freaking out wouldn't help matters. I needed to remain calm if I had any hope of getting out of here alive.

  "Something is blocking Brax's connection to her," Liam said. "He hasn't been able to get an idea of her location either."

  "Lisa's here too," I said, not sure if that would help or not. At this point, I figured the more information they had the better. You never know when a single piece might come in handy.

  "The woman Caroline attacked?" Liam sounded surprised.

  "Apparently Theo and she are siblings." I bared my teeth in a feral smile. "She tried to help me get loose, but he knocked her unconscious."

  Despite my best intentions, the beach landscape was wavering as fatigue set in. I didn't know how long I could remain here.

  He stepped closer, his hands coming up to grasp my arm. There was some expression on his face, one I couldn't quite read that spoke of pain and fear and something else. Something I refused to see. I wasn't ready for such an emotion from him. If I'd ever be ready.

  "You need to get away from her. I know she's your friend, but once the change is on her she won't recognize you." His words were intense and hushed as if he could impart his desperation through them alone. I nodded. I knew that. She'd told me as much. "Run. Run as fast as you can. Don't look back, and don't stop for anything. We're coming for you. Just hold on."

  The word 'run' echoed in my head as I came alive with a gasp, the last of the sun's light fading from the sky. Damn it, that hadn't been wise—napping when I needed to be escaping. With one hand free, I was able to divest myself from the rest of my bonds in moments, us
ing some of the increased strength being a vampire gave me.

  I gained my feet just as the sun began sinking below the horizon, turning the world a golden orange as it went.

  Caroline stirred, a groan announcing her return to consciousness.

  "Caroline," I said, taking a step in her direction and stopping.

  "Aileen." Caroline's words were groggy as she sat up, coming up short as the collar and silver chain jerked. "What's this?"

  "Don't touch it," I warned, moments too late as her hands closed around the chain. She yelped and whined, letting go of the chain—her palms bright red and blistered.

  Awareness returned to her eyes as she looked around with dawning horror. Her eyes flickered, the color of her wolf shining through for a moment before returning to Caroline's normal blue. She looked up at the sky, fear on her face.

  "You need to kill me," she said, her voice a few decibels lower than it should be.

  I shook my head in denial, then kept shaking it. There were many things I could do, many levels I could sink to in the interest of surviving. Some horrible, some necessary. That was not one of them. I could not kill my best friend—not even if it meant saving my own life.

  "Aileen, please," she pleaded. "I'm not going to be able to stop myself."

  "No, no, I'm not doing that," I said, backing away.

  She strained against her collar, her face a mask of rage for one moment before the old Caroline gained control. "How do you think I’ll feel waking up after the change covered in your blood?"

  Horrible. Terrified. Full of self-loathing.

  “Same way I’ll feel if I kill you.”

  "You're my best friend, and I'm begging you to do this. I don't want to kill you," Caroline said, her voice breaking.

  "And I don't want to kill you," I said, taking another step back.

  "Then go. Run and don't let me catch you," Caroline roared, hair sprouting along her hands and face.

  "But—" I took another step closer, every fiber of my being telling me I should help free her first. It went against the grain to leave her attached by a fucking collar and leash to a tree—as if she was a dog to chain up.