Moon Bound

by Stephanie Julian

  What the fuck? “Well enough.”

  The other woman stood a little taller, throwing her gorgeous blond hair over her shoulders, looking like a life-size Barbie doll. “I am Impusa della Morte, feared by all and rightly so.”

  Struck dumb, Bella could only stare at the woman. She’d been truthful when she’d said she knew her mythology well enough to know Impusa della Morte was an evil sorceress who the Mal worshipped like a goddess, though she wasn’t a true deity.

  According to legend, she was a Mal strega, a witch who’d been born Mal. She’d died more than a millennia ago, an avaricious soul who had rejected Aitás to stay on this plane of existence to guard her supposed treasure. Her services could be bought and apparently had been bought by the Mal.

  Bella couldn’t help the laughter that bubbled up at the woman’s over-the-top performance. It helped to clear her mind of the fear and Bella crossed her arms over her chest and leaned back against the wall. “Wow. You sound like a bad Universal horror movie, lady. Who writes your script? John Waters? And what the hell do you want with me?”

  Impusa, if it really was her, looked dumb-struck before her sneer returned. “Your only use to me is as bait.”

  Yeah, that’s what Bella had been afraid of. “Steven’s not stupid enough to fall for your tricks. And my brother will hunt you down and tear you apart.”

  Impusa’s face twisted in a mockery of sympathy. “Poor little Arabella. Still relying on men to run your life? I would’ve thought you’d grown up by now. But at least your men do seem to love you. They’ll come after you. And when they do…well, that’s when the fun will start.”

  Bella refused to be afraid as Impusa stepped away from the wall. She would not cower, although anyone who could transport a person through the fabric of reality could probably stop Bella’s heart just by looking at her.

  “Steven is the one with true power,” Impusa continued. “He’s the one who will bring about change. You’re nothing.”

  Bullshit. Bella had been asked to join Menrva’s priestesses, an honor only thirteen women could boast about at a time. But this woman didn’t know that. And she never would if Bella had anything to do about it. “Well, if I’m nothing, then you won’t be able to turn Steven just because you threaten me.”

  Impusa snorted. “The man foolishly assumes he’s in love with you. After the Mal kills you and turns him, he’ll see how wrong he is.”

  Over her dead body. Which was a distinct possibility. “You’ll never turn him. I’m not a defenseless child,” Bella said, more for herself than Impusa. Then she smiled. “And you’re not a goddess.”

  Ah, she’d hit a nerve. The bitch scowled and Bella tensed for an attack, which never came. Instead Impusa, or whoever the hell she was, turned her expression into a sneer. “Don’t piss me off, child. You won’t like the results. ”

  “You hurt me and you’ll just piss Steven off.”

  A sly smile crossed Impusa’s face. “That’s what I’m hoping.”

  * * *

  “I don’t think she’s home,” Luca said. “We should go back, wait for Andrea and Serena to scrye for Arabella.”

  “I don’t think they’ll be able to find her and they can reach me on my cell if they do. Trust me, Luca. This is our best shot at finding Bella.” Steven pounded on the door of the garden district house. “Alpena, open the door!”

  He knew eventually she’d answer because he wasn’t leaving until she did.

  And, after three minutes, Alpena opened the door, a sour look on her face. “Hey, Steven. What’s up?”

  “Someone took Arabella.”

  Alpena’s brows raised. “And…?”

  “And I need you to help me find her.”

  She crossed her arms over her chest and leaned against the door frame. “Why would you think I’d help?”

  Steven didn’t let her indifference faze him. “Because I need you.”

  “And that matter’s why…?”

  “Because apparently you need me, too, and if anything happens to her, I’ll be of no use to you because I’ll get myself killed avenging her death.”

  Alpena smiled now. “Whoa, drama queen, slow down. Come on in.” She gave Luca the once-over then waved him in with one tip of the wings she’d kept hidden behind her back, smiling when Luca gasped. “Both of you. I’ll see what I can see.”

  * * *

  Bella didn’t know how long she sat in the room. Since there were no windows, she couldn’t gauge the time passing. The light—far enough overhead that she wouldn’t be able to reach it—never flickered and no one reentered.

  After sitting on the bed for a while and trying to think her way out, she decided that even though she couldn’t see a door in the walls, that didn’t mean there wasn’t one.

  Starting at the nearest corner, she used her hands to cover every inch of wall she could reach, searching for a seam. After she’d worked her way around to where she’d started, she admitted defeat.

  Of course, this had to happen just when she’d decided to take charge of her life. And now she had to wait for someone to come rescue her.

  Didn’t that just suck?

  * * *

  “So the woman who took your Bella, you think it was Charles Jones’ daughter, Tiffani.”

  Steven nodded, watching Alpena settle onto the floor in front of a shallow pool set directly into the floor in one of the rooms off the seemingly endless main hallway.

  Luca stood by the door, gaping at the folletta.

  “From the description Luca provided, yes. But the power, I never got a hint of power from either Charles or Tiffani when I worked there.” He grimaced and shook his head. “Obviously I missed it.”

  Alpena rolled her eyes as she hit a button next to the bowl, which began to fill with water. “Don’t sweat it, big guy. You kept yourself from cracking all this time, that’s what’s important. But it may be that the Joneses don’t have much power to begin with.”

  “Then how would Tiffani manage to get Bella out of there?”

  “I don’t think Tiffani’s in her right mind at the moment.”

  “What the hell does that mean?”

  Alpena huffed as she turned off the water. “Geez, you ask a lot of questions. What I mean is, I think the Mal may have called in Impusa della Morte.”

  Steven was too worried about Bella to dig through his own memories. “Who’s that?”

  “She’s a fairy tale,” Luca said. “The spirit of a Mal strega who refused to enter Aitás on her death and now walks the earth. She can inhabit the body of a living person at the moment of their death and keep the body for however long she wants.”

  Alpena threw a bright smile at Luca, making the poor kid blush like a teenager. “Ooh, I like smart guys. Very good, cutie. You go to the front of the class. What you might not know is that she’s worked for the Mal for centuries.”

  “Fine, it all makes senses,” Steven said. “But I don’t care. I just want Bella back.”

  “She won’t harm your little wolf. Not her style.” Alpena bent over the water and Steven felt the spell she was working brush against his arus. The water in the pool became cloudy, murky. “She’s more of a manipulator. She took Tiffani’s body because she knows you would go easier on a female than you would a man. And she won’t hurt Bella until it will do the maximum damage to you. So you have a window of opportunity to get your wolf out alive.”

  Alpena closed her eyes and the level of power in the room increased a hundredfold, crawling along Steven’s skin like thousands of tiny bugs. He rubbed his hands along his arms as the water cleared and Alpena opened her eyes.

  “Damn, I hate being right.”

  “Where is she?” Steven demanded.

  Alpena shook her head. “Not far. Impusa wants you to come for her. She wants you, Steven.”

  “Can you tell where she is?” Luca asked.

  “Good question.” Alpena stood and crooked a finger at Luca. “Come here, kid. I’ve got a use for you.”

  Al
pena pushed open a section of the wall behind her and led them into a small room filled with maps.

  A detailed map of New Orleans covered much of the floor.

  Alpena gestured at the floor. “Do a seek spell. I guarantee Impusa won’t make it that hard to find her.”

  Then the folletta crooked a wing tip at Steven. “You and I need to have a little talk.”

  * * *

  Bella heard a slight hissing pop and watched Impusa materialize out of thin air.

  The look on the woman’s face was hard to decipher. “Well, your so-called boyfriend seems to be uninterested in your disappearance. He’s nowhere to be found.”

  Bella noted the pissed-off look on the other woman’s face and decided against a smart remark as Impusa started to wear a path on the floor. “Where did he go?”

  Sue her. She couldn’t help herself. “Aren’t you supposed to be the all-powerful one? Find out yourself.”

  With the flick of one finger, Impusa threw her off the bed and across the room, smashing into the wall and landing on the floor on her hip. She hadn’t been ready for it and her body hit with a force strong enough to make her see stars.

  “Sure you don’t have an answer for me, little dog?”

  Bitch. With the taste of her own blood on her tongue, Bella’s wolf wanted to be let loose to rip out Impusa’s heart with her teeth, a few of which now felt loose.

  “You can toss me around all you want, but you won’t get anything out of me.”

  Impusa snorted. “Except blood. You can lose an awful lot of that without dying. Something your brother knows a little about, hmm?”

  Bella restrained herself from taking the bait. The bitch wanted her to come after her, but Bella wasn’t going to give her the satisfaction. So she bit her tongue and rose to her feet.

  Impusa’s sneer ruined her beautiful face, which wasn’t really her face, come to think of it. It was Charles Jones’s daughter’s. “Not going to play anymore?”

  “Playtime is for children,” Bella said. “Why don’t you just tell me what the hell your deal is?”

  “I want Steven,” Impusa said. “He’ll be a great asset to the Mal in the coming battle.”

  “What battle?”

  “Foolish little Arabella. Haven’t you noticed the world’s changing around you? Why does it seem to be a scarier place all of a sudden? Maybe because it is.” Impusa moved closer until she stood only inches away, an ugly sneer on her lips. “There’s a war coming. Good, evil. Light, dark. It’s going to be nasty and the players are already taking sides. You’re on the losing side, dear. Because in the real world, the dark always wins.”

  Bella rolled her eyes. “Who writes your scripts? J.J. Abrams? Your kind no longer rules the world.”

  Impusa shrugged though her eyes narrowed to slits. “That doesn’t matter. We only need a few persuasive men to further our cause. And when we’re ready, we will rule the world.”

  Okay, even as “Syfy Channel” as that sounded, it was a little scary. The woman had a plan. And she wasn’t working alone. She was working with the Mal.

  Bella needed to keep the crazy woman talking, get more information. If she lived through this, her people needed to know as much as they could.

  “Oh please.” Bella’s tone dripped with skepticism. “Now you’re beginning to sound like a bad George Lucas sequel. So the Mal have a little power? That doesn’t add up to revolution and overthrow of the free world.”

  Impusa merely shrugged. “Not from where you sit, no. But take my word…or don’t. It doesn’t really matter. There’s a battle coming, one you and yours are going to lose because you play by the rules. Too bad not all of your trusted advisors play by the same rules.”

  Bella refused to let this creature get to her. “Did you shoot my brother?”

  Impusa shook her head. “Guns have no class. But consider it a warning. A demonstration of how…vulnerable you really are.”

  Fury moved like liquid silver through Bella’s veins but she reined it in. She took a deep breath and tried to think. She needed to be smart, needed to have a plan for when Steven showed up. And he would.

  Bella shook her head. “So, now what? We hang out and talk clothes until Steven gets here? ’Cause I gotta tell you, that shade of pink washes you out.”

  Impusa’s gaze narrowed. “I’ve had more than enough of your mouth, Arabella. Time to show you just how much you really don’t want to fuck with me.”

  Impusa crooked her index finger in Bella’s direction and pain washed through her body like acid.

  She barely realized Impusa was forcing her change until her skin erupted with fur.

  Gods, no. This wasn’t right. This change wasn’t natural. Her body fought against Impusa’s control and the battle tore her body in different directions.

  Looking down, she realized her legs had changed into her wolf form but not her arms or her chest. Her face had elongated into the snout and her ears were pointed but nothing had finished.

  She was caught between human and animal and she had the terrifying thought that Impusa was going to force her to stay like this forever.

  She fought harder, struggled to make her body complete the change.

  Her throat raw from screaming, she dug deep for one final burst of energy…

  And everything went black.

  * * *

  Luca’s spell gave them Bella’s exact location.

  Alpena had been right. Impusa hadn’t made it difficult to find her.

  He and Luca walked the few blocks from Alpena’s to the location indicated by Luca’s spell.

  “I don’t think this is a good idea.” Luca stared at the unassuming house before them. “Help will be here soon. I’d rather wait a few minutes—”

  “No time.” And Steven already had a plan. “The Mal want me so I’m going to give them exactly what they want. The first chance you get, you take Arabella out of there.”

  The younger man looked at him, working out his meaning. “And leave you.”

  Steven nodded. “Yeah. If you have to knock her out to get her away, do it.”

  Luca continued to stare at him with cool, assessing gray eyes. “What are you planning?”

  He shook his head, not wanting to give away his plan just yet. “Something I don’t want Bella anywhere near. It could get…messy.”

  “Messy how?”

  “How much do you know about what I can do?”

  Luca’s gaze narrowed. “I know you’re a strong fulminifex. Other than that, not a lot.”

  “Ever seen the first ‘X-Men’ movie?”

  Luca’s eyebrows lifted. “Yeah?”

  “You remember that scene near the end, at the Statue of Liberty, where Storm calls down the lightning and starts zapping the bad guys?”

  The other man nodded.

  “That’s what I’m going for. Only, my control’s not so good and the last time I attempted anything like this, I lost it and my mother died to save my life.”

  Luca’s mouth dropped open. “Shit. Shit. That’s not a plan, that’s suicide.”

  He hoped not. Hell, he really hoped not but…

  Steven walked to front door and read the runes carved into the lintel. They were disguised as decoration, but anyone with any shred of magic could see the dark power they held.

  “Your only priority is Arabella, Luca. Don’t worry about me.”

  Steven didn’t bother to add, “I can take care of myself,” because he wasn’t sure it was true.

  But he was fucking sick of running.

  It was time to show the bitch who took Bella and the Mal she worked for what they wanted to see.

  “So,” Luca said, “you wanna knock or should I?”

  The door opened before he could answer to reveal Tiffani Jones, smiling at him.

  “Hello, Steven. So nice to see you again.”

  Gooseflesh covered his skin at the sound of her voice. It sounded like Tiffani but there was an undertone he’d never heard before. And her eyes… Her eyes w
ere no longer human. They glowed red beneath the blue.

  “Hello, Tiffani. Though I guess we really should stop the subterfuge and use your real name.”

  Impusa mock-shivered. “Ooh, subterfuge. Such a great lawerly word. And you are such a very good lawyer, aren’t you, Steven? Too bad we’re not in court because if we were, you’d be intimidate the hell out of a jury. But there’s no jury here. You need to bargain with me to get your little bitch back.”

  He refused to let her digs get to him. “Bring her out. Let her leave with Luca.”

  “And what do I get in return?”

  “Me.”

  The woman’s eyes narrowed to slits. “Seems way too easy. What’s the catch?”

  Steven shook his head. “No catch. You let Arabella go and I’ll stay. Then we’ll see if you can keep me.”

  Impusa smiled. “Ah, I get it. A battle to the death. How romantic. Alright, big boy. Come on in while I gather your baggage.”

  Without hesitation, Steven walked into the house where the spirit of an ancient witch might just kill him.

  Never a dull moment.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Impusa would’ve dropped Bella’s wolf at Steven’s feet like dirty laundry if he hadn’t been fast enough to catch her.

  And now he really wanted to kill the bitch because Bella was out cold, her body slack and her breathing shallow and pained.

  It took a hell of a blow to knock out a versipellis. He swallowed bitter anger as he gathered her close to his chest, his fingers stroking her soft pelt. But he refused to show that anger. He wouldn’t give Impusa the satisfaction.

  Trying to keep in check the emotion boiling in his blood, he turned to Luca and handed Bella to the younger man, dropping a quick kiss on her furry head before releasing her completely.

  “Take her back to the hotel. Lock her in her room. If she wakes up before you get there, she’s going to fight you. Knock her out before she realizes what’s going on. Worry about how pissed off she’s going to be later.”

  Luca looked him straight in the eyes. “Are you sure?”

  Steven nodded. It was the only way. “Get out of here now, Luca. Just take her and go.”