Moon Bound

by Stephanie Julian

Now that the curse was broken, he’d known eventually the twins would separate and Furia would need her own guardian since Maddie and Donal were practically mated.

  Serena smiled. “I’m so glad to hear that. And I hope you’ll be glad to hear that Furia will be moving back to Reading with me for the foreseeable future.”

  Now, that he hadn’t expected. Reading wasn’t far from Marco’s home in Allentown and the grigori were based in Reading.

  “As you know,” Serena continued, “my home is huge. It has numerous bedrooms and two full suites that are unoccupied at the moment. Gabriel, Shea and Leo spend a lot of time there as well but there would be more than enough room for you and Amy Jo.”

  Gabriel was Serena’s son and a grigorio who’d fallen for the woman who’d broken the curse on the boschetta. Diego had always gotten along well with Gabriel. Shea and Leo had been through their own personal hell and would be able to relate to Amy Jo.

  “I believe the safety of my home would be an asset for Amy Jo’s continued recovery,” Serena continued. “The acreage would allow her space to run and become more comfortable with her newly acquired abilities. And she would be close to the lucani and Arabella, as well.”

  Serena paused, as if trying to gauge his response to her proposal. “Or if you’d like, I’m sure we could find you—”

  “I know this is a lot to ask but…would you mind if Marco moved in, as well?”

  Serena’s smile made a weight lift from his shoulders. “I would be pleased to have Marco. My home has been so lonely for so long. Having it filled again is wonderful.”

  “The Brady Bunch” theme began to run through Diego’s head and he gave a short, sharp laugh.

  He sincerely hoped Serena still had that sunny outlook once they all moved in.

  * * *

  When Steven woke the next time, he saw sunlight lining the edges of the window drapes.

  Experimentally, he shifted his jaw back and forth, relieved to find it didn’t hurt. Actually, as far as he could tell, nothing hurt.

  He sat up, taking it slow, the sheet sliding over his naked body. The pain was gone but he felt like he had a huge black hole in the center of his body. A dead, empty space.

  He heard a faint movement to his right and turned to see Bella asleep in the bed next to his. In the pale light seeping beneath the curtains, he could tell she was deeply asleep, her face relaxed in utter exhaustion.

  Swinging his legs over the side, he let his feet touch the carpet, testing his balance before he stood. It was only a couple of feet but he didn’t want to embarrass himself by needing someone to lift him off the floor.

  Cool air brushed his naked skin and raised goose bumps. The air conditioning was way too damn high.

  Carefully, he crossed to her bed and slid between the sheets, turning her on her side, so he could mold his cool skin to her warm body.

  He pulled her into him, her back to his front. He needed to hold her. Arms tight around her, he knew instinctively only she could fill the hole in his chest.

  Sighing, she burrowed back against him, rubbing her perfect ass against his stirring cock. He couldn’t believe he could get a hard-on after everything his body had been through. At least it still worked.

  “How are you feeling?” Her voice sounded husky with sleep as she ran her fingernails along his arm, bringing his body to full arousal.

  His arms tightened around her, emotion surging. “Surprisingly better.”

  He could practically hear her smile, though her body was still tense against him. “Yeah, I can feel that for myself. But really, Steven, how do you feel?”

  He thought about her question, knowing exactly what she was asking. “I feel…empty inside. Like there’s a part of me missing.”

  She went still. “Is your magic gone?”

  Ah, the sixty-four-thousand-dollar question. Frankly, he was a little afraid to dig around in there and find out.

  When he didn’t answer, she turned in his arms, trapping his erection between their bodies. He wondered what she’d do if he shifted her up just a little…

  She looked into his eyes, hers filled with questions and tears. “That was a really stupid thing to do, Steven. And don’t think I won’t make you pay for it later. You nearly killed yourself. How could you do that to me?”

  Now, there was his spoiled beauty. He wouldn’t have her any other way. He pulled her up so he could look straight into her eyes. Just good fortune that his erection now nestled between her legs.

  “I didn’t want to die, Bella. I don’t want to leave you.” He pulled her even closer. “Hell, I won’t, not ever again. Remember that choice Turan talked about? I thought it meant I’d have to choose between you and my life. But that wasn’t it. The choice was choosing you over death.”

  Her mouth dropped open before she said anything, shock evident on her pretty face. “What does that mean?”

  “It means I’m not leaving you. Not again. If the job’s still open, I’ll take Cole up on his offer to join the inner sanctum. He’s going to need help. I’m a damn good lawyer, babe. I can make a grown man cry in less than five minutes on the stand. And I know you’re planning to join the boschetta so you’re going to need protection.”

  Her eyes widened. “You know that, do you?”

  “I know you, Bella. I know how very much you want to be useful.”

  She nodded, eyes welling with tears. “I want to make a difference.”

  “And you will make a damn fine priestess. And I’ll be right there with you. You get into too damn much trouble when I’m not around.”

  Her lips tilted in a small smile. She was starting to relax, her face losing that pinched look. “I get into too much trouble? You’re the one being hounded by an ancient evil spirit.” She frowned again. “Who’s nowhere to be found, by the way. Steven—”

  “Shh, Bella.” He smoothed the hair from her face then let his fingers sink into the curls and cup her head. “We’ll find her. She won’t be able to stay hidden forever.”

  That just made her frown deepen. “And what happens when she comes for you again?”

  He shook his head. “I don’t think she will. Without my magic, I’m of no use to the Mal. But my father was a grigorio and I will protect you to the ends of the earth.”

  It took a few seconds but finally her smile emerged as she linked her arms around his neck, stretching her body against his and sliding her smooth calf along his thigh. It wouldn’t take much to thrust into her. His erection strained toward her, brushing the short, soft curls on her mound, making his breath catch in his chest. “Well, I’m sure I can find a few uses for you.”

  Damn, he really wished she would.

  Then she sighed and removed her leg. “We should probably get up and get ready—”

  “Honey, I am up. And more than ready.”

  Flipping her onto her back, he spread her legs with his knees, lifted her hips and sank into her with one smooth push.

  Her tight sheath surrounded him, sending sharp blades of heat from his head to his toes.

  Groaning, he rested his forehead against hers and stilled, letting the warmth of her body surround him, the heat of emotion making his blood heat and his cock throb.

  “I love you, Bella mia.”

  Her arms and legs wrapped around his body and held him close, her skin smooth against his.

  When she placed her lips just beneath his ear and kissed him—sharp, stinging little kisses that made sweat slicken his skin—he started to sweat. And when she ran her tongue along his jaw, his restraint broke.

  His hips thrust and retreat in an ever-quickening motion as his mouth fastened over hers. Their tongues dueled as their bodies moved together in a rhythm they’d perfected so many years ago and had never lost.

  Unable and unwilling to slow, he let his body dictate the pace, feeling her climax build in the tightening of her arms and legs around him and her short, sharp gasps. And when she came, her sex clasping around him, her hips pressed into his, he felt the wash of
her arus flow over and into him, settling into his soul, filling that empty space and pushing him into his own orgasm.

  “You know I love you, Bella,” he whispered when he had enough breath. “That I can’t live without you and I don’t want to.”

  “You don’t have to, love.” She tightened her arms around him. “Not ever.”

  Epilogue

  “You have no idea what happened to Impusa?”

  “No, sir. She’s disappeared.”

  Remo sighed. “And Steven?”

  Peter hesitated and Remo knew he wasn’t going to like this answer either. “We’re not sure. There were reports that he was taken out of the building and died later but we can’t confirm.”

  Well, shit. Remo hated losing.

  Time to regroup.

  And to break a promise.

  THE END

  Excerpt from SPELL BOUND

  Book One in the Darkly Enchanted series

  Purchase

  www.stephaniejulian.com

  Chapter One

  Present Day

  Blood. Everywhere. The floor, the walls.

  Her dad.

  Blessed Goddess, no…

  Thick, dark. On her hands, her clothes. The metallic odor in her nose. Overpowering.

  Her mother…oh, gods, what did they do to her mom?

  Can’t breathe. No air…

  Too late. She’d been too late.

  Wait…Someone here? No, someone in her head, whispering. Her mother…

  In the basement.

  Sneakers sliding in—No, don’t think. Move. Basement. Dad’s workroom.

  Beneath the workbench.

  Her mother’s voice. Her dead mother…Oh, Mom—

  The spell.

  Runes beneath the table. A spell of concealment. The ancient Etruscan language rolled off her tongue in fierce bites. Knife across her palm, her blood on the runes.

  The workbench slid away from the wall.

  And she screamed and screamed as blood poured out…

  * * *

  Shooting straight up in bed, Shea Tedaldi gasped for air in the semi-dark bedroom, tears in her eyes.

  The bed creaked as her hand shot to her left. Warm, soft skin, rising and falling in the rhythm of sleep. Leo’s small body huddled on his side under the covers.

  She breathed a sigh of relief.

  Just a dream. Another dream about that awful night that left her terrified and shaking.

  Whoever was on their tail was getting closer. The voices in her head—those maddening, unintelligible, buzzing voices in the back of her mind—were frantic.

  It was time. She and Leo needed help or they needed to leave this dingy apartment in Reading, Pennsylvania, and run like hell. Just like they’d done four months ago in Atlantic City.

  The voices had put up a clamor then, too, so much so she’d decided to move here and finally look up the man her mother had believed she could entrust with Leo’s life.

  So why are you thinking about running again? Without even talking to the guy?

  Well, that was easy. Because five years on her own had taught her that people screwed you all the time. Since running away from home at seventeen, she’d learned to rely only on herself.

  Yeah, and how’s that working for you so far?

  “Oh, just shut up,” she whispered as she slid her legs off the side of the bed and sat on the edge, willing the shakes and the tears to stop. No need for them. Leo was fine. At least, as fine as a six-year-old with monsters on his ass could be.

  Turning, she watched her brother sleep, his too-long hair inky black against the stark white sheets.

  Everything about him was growing fast. He needed a haircut. And, since shopping wasn’t exactly on her to-do list, he needed new clothes. His ankles had started to show beneath his jeans. He’d need new shoes, too, and socks, because his were full of holes.

  But mostly, Leo needed not to worry about boogeymen who wanted to cut out her heart and turn him into a monster. He needed his parents…

  She took a deep breath and straightened her spine, twisting her neck back and forth until it cracked.

  Time to get off your ass.

  Because the men who’d killed their parents were getting close again. And the man who’d ordered their murders, Dario Paganelli…he wanted Leo.

  Her stomach rolled and she rubbed it with her hand, trying to ease the ache. But nothing helped.

  Dario Paganelli was the boogeyman her parents had whispered about behind closed doors, the monster who had forced them to live like hermits. He was the cause of Shea’s every fear and heartache.

  He’d made her life hell without ever meeting him. And now that monster wanted Leo, a little boy who looked like an angel but controlled enough power to burn a house to the ground.

  Goose bumps danced on her skin. Paganelli was a cold-blooded monster who would break Leo, remake him in his own evil image. Then turn him loose on his own people.

  Great Goddess, he’s only six.

  Sighing, her gaze shifted to the small round table in the corner.

  The altar at their home in Wisconsin had been made from the base of a lightning-struck walnut tree from the dense woods enclosing their property. Nearly five feet in diameter, that altar had dominated the small clearing where her parents had held their rituals for the Great Goddess Uni. Passed down through the millennia, those rituals connected them to the Etruscan Mother Goddess, renewed their faith in Her and Her protection over them.

  Shea prayed every day, just as her mother had. But so far, she’d gotten no guidance from the supposedly all-mighty Uni. No inspiration. No help.

  Which was why she’d moved them here. To get help. And to hide.

  The largest population of the once mighty Etruscan race, maybe five thousand or so, lived here in Reading and Berks County, conveniently located over a ley line of earth power and smack up against the Schuylkill River. A ley line and running water to power their magic must have seemed like a hole-in-one to the first Etruscans who’d moved here from the old country in the early 1800s.

  They’d blended into the melting pot of nineteenth-century Reading but maintained their ancient culture. They lived outwardly normal lives but instead of adding to the collection of churches that stood on every other corner, they built hidden temples for their goddesses and gods.

  The eteri who shoveled lasagna and rigatoni at Marelli’s Trattoria on south Seventh Street would choke on their food if they discovered Uni’s Temple was built into the back of the building.

  Here, she and Leo were just another two faces in the Etruscan community. Two more bodies at temple where they sat in the back and kept their heads down. Until everyone lifted their faces toward the ceiling to ask for Uni’s protection for the Etruscan race. Then she begged for Leo’s safekeeping.

  But did Uni hear? Did She care?

  Hell, after everything she’d seen in the world, after her parents’ murders, Shea wasn’t sure the Great Goddess existed anymore.

  But monsters did exist. And for those, she had weapons.

  She lifted the attonitum from its spot on the bedside table. It looked like a cross between a revolver and an inoculation gun and would be useless in the hand of an eteri.

  But in hers… The iron grip warmed to her touch, while the quartz crystal concentration chamber pulsed with a pale pink light, responding to her arus, the magic inherent in the blood of all Etruscans. The solid copper barrel would focus that power wherever she pointed, strengthening it into a heated blast similar to a laser.

  There was nothing sleek about the attonitum, nothing like the Beretta Px4 Storm her dad had taught her to shoot and that she always carried. But the gun didn’t give her the headache the attonitum did.

  Such a failure.

  Using magic was always a lesson in pain. Her head pounded whenever she worked a spell or used her Goddess Gift to heal even a minor cut. And though she’d developed a mental shield to keep the voices to a dull buzz, a migraine was never far away.


  But she’d use the weapon, to protect Leo. She’d made a promise. And she knew, even in death, her mom would hold her to it.

  Like someone had twisted the volume dial, the voices grew louder, chattering over each other like angry hornets. Though she couldn’t understand them, Shea knew they were warning her. She and Leo were out of time.

  Reaching under the bed for the backpack always within arm’s reach, she pulled out her mom’s grimoire and a sheet of paper fluttered out from between the pages.

  She didn’t have to read it to know what it said. She’d memorized months ago what her mom had written before her death.

  “Too much to say and not enough time. Know we love you and your brother. In time, we hope you can forgive us for all we hid from you. Please understand that we did what we thought was right.

  The men who will kill us will come after Leo. These men work for Dario Paganelli. If Paganelli catches you, he’ll kill you, Shea. He’ll take your brother and pervert his powers to hunt the remaining Priestesses.

  Neither you nor your brother can fall into Paganelli’s hands. The consequences are unspeakable. Use the locator spell to find Mr. Brown in Reading, Pennsylvania. He’s a grigorio and a friend. He’ll protect you both. Tell him I sent you and that all is done in time.

  And always remember we love you.”

  Tears filled her eyes but she blinked them back.

  Their dad had been a grigorio, too, one of the legendary Etruscan warrior priests. Great warriors who could handle a sword as easily as a gun and who always had a ready smile. Her dad had seemed invincible.

  And Dario had killed him.

  The bed jostled and she turned to find Leo staring at her.

  She smiled at the drowsy look on his sweet face and ran a hand through his soft dark hair.

  “Hey, bud. How’d you sleep?”

  He shrugged but said nothing.

  Biting back a sigh, she leaned forward to lay a kiss on his forehead. “Think you’re awake enough to give me a hand with something?”