Fire in The Moon (The Bound Series Book 3)

by JF Holland

  “Where is he? I told you to carry him. We need him as a bargaining chip.”

  “He didn’t’ make it, I told you to leave him alone.”

  “What do you mean he didn’t make it, he’s immortal?”

  “Supposedly, but he no longer has a heartbeat or pulse,” Davion shrugged.

  “Fine, we’ll torch the place once outside. Now get moving,” she hissed, reaching for the link so she could once again control him.”

  Davion ground his jaw a she began to seep back into his mind. Her madness and evil like oil, dark and sludgy as his will was slowly overtaken. He made one last ditch attempt to reach help for Balin.

  Lara stood in the tree line with Agatha, pacing and biting her nails. Douglas, lay prone in the grass, Daniel and James the other two wolves slightly behind him as they were smaller than Douglas by quite a bit. Douglas’s fur was also a shade lighter than theirs. Jaden was further to their right, also lay prone, and if she squinted she could make out Sam and the tigers. They were all lay low to the ground, making torturously slow stop start motions forward - commando crawl style across the grass.

  Agatha rushed past her as arcs were seen in the air, as if a fire bomb was coming down towards the centre of the clearing where it would do maximum damage to the shifters.

  Lara watched Agatha from her spot in the treeline, she could see Lana pacing in the treeline, her fingers twitching. They needed to do something as she wasn’t sure how long Lana would stay put. She lifted her own arms in the air and sent out a blast of fire over the shifters heads, at the same time that Helena did. The fire, lighting up the clearing and setting off several smaller spells, that arced before going out - done while Agatha disarmed the first spell with a counter one. Bubbles the only things left drifting around in the clearing now, as darkness fell once again. Smiling at the innocuous orbs, she felt what had become a familiar buzzing in her head.

  “Lara, sorry, no time, she’s leaving out the back. Older tunnel comes out on the other side of the river bank - inside the tree line. Balin is still in the caverns, he’s hurt bad and she’s ready to set fire to the place. The spells are a diversion, a way to give her time to get away. Goodbye.”

  “Davion, why are you going?”

  “No…will… losing battle…” then he was gone as if he’d never been. Turning, Lana rushed towards Agatha who stood with her hands up, waiting for the next counterattack, the shifters still motionless.

  “It’s a diversion, she’s not there. You need to move now,” she shouted as she ran. “The place is going to go up and Balin is still in there,” Lara screeched, seeing Lana’s head turn her way, eyes widening.

  Jaden must have heard as he shot forward, the other shifters following on his heel as they headed towards the mound. They bobbed and weaved around the arcs of spells that shot towards them, Agatha running and sending out counter spells, and her and Helena throwing out blasts to clear their path, the sky lit up like bonfire night.

  Lana watched her mother run out of the treeline, shouting a warning about Balin and the cavern ready to go up in flames.

  “Balin, Balin, can you hear me?” she desperately tried reaching for him, but there was no response just static. She watched the shifters up their pace across the field. Agatha, her mother, and aunt Helena running with them throwing out counter spells and fire to clear their way. She took off herself heading straight for her mother.

  “What’s happening?”

  “This is just a diversion, a way to keep us busy and give her time to get away.”

  “How, the entrance is visible?”

  “There is an older tunnel that heads under the river and comes out in the treeline on the other side.”

  “Balin?’

  “Still inside, your father got her to leave him there.”

  “That’s good, what about dad?”

  “Dad’s lost his battle for control again.”

  “Oh no, mum… I’m sorry…”

  “No time, she’s set the caverns to burn to the ground.”

  “But Balin…”

  “Yes, he’s still in there,” her mother told her reaching for her hands.

  “No,” Lana swallowed, head swinging towards the shifters, watching as they flew across the grass. Her head then moved towards the mound, smoke visible as it began to rise from the earth.

  “Lana, no wait,” her mother called out as she took off after them.

  Breathless, Lana reached the entrance of the tunnels, no visibility, thick cloying darkness and smoke making it impossible to see inside. She felt her hands go sweaty, her chest tightening as she was thrown back in time, hearing her mother scream as she burned to death. Closing her eyes, she took several deep breaths and concentrated, Balin was in there, and he was going to die if she didn’t get to him.

  The men had shifted back and were quickly making plans to go in after him. Mouth firming, Lana slipped past them and began to feel her way along the walls reaching for Balin to get a bead on where he was.

  “Hey, dickhead, wake up, I need to figure out where you are. God, damn it, wake the hell up and give me an idea where you are – make a noise, shout, sing, whatever the hell you want but made a god damn noise.”

  Fear and anger pulsing through her veins, Lana moved further inside the tunnels, her body practically vibrating with suppressed emotions. She could hear her own heart slamming against her breastbone, her footsteps echoing in the silence of the tunnel. In the darkness, she stumbled over debris left behind, hand stinging where she’d cut her palm on the rough surface of the walls when she’d thrown it out to stop herself falling.

  “Go back… can’t move, can’t help you,” she got back and took another shallow breath, trying to calm herself.

  “Are you still chained?”

  “No.”

  “Can you shift?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Well try, it will help you heal, but I need you to start making a noise so I know which way to go.”

  “Fucking get out now, I can’t help you.”

  “Well, tough guy, suck it up as it looks like I’ll have to save you - so make a fucking noise and stop whining.”

  Outside the cavern’s, Jaden sent a message to Maya who he’d made stay behind as they’d took off. He needed her to get hold of Luc and Sophia. That bitch had escaped across the river and he wanted Luc to take Sophia and the Grizzly’s to see if they could pick up her trail. He’d stopped to wait for a reply when Lana rushed past them and into the tunnel.

  “Oh for fuck sake, Lana get back here,” he shouted after her but she ignored him. “Douglas, go back and take your boys with you, we are going to need Agatha and the car Leonard brought.”

  Douglas shifted back, his pack on his heels as he took off towards Agatha, head lifting as he spotted Luc above, Sophia held against him. The grizzlies came bounding through the trees, running full out as they followed Luc and Sophia on the ground. It seemed they’d come to the party without an invitation.

  Jaden stood, torn, head moving from the tunnel and his need to check that his brother was safe, but then swung out over the river.

  “I’ll locate Balin, you go,” Sam told him, “you take off but leave me John and Edwin to help. If you take Helena she can keep me updated on your whereabouts, and if Maya comes back with the car she can stay and do the same for you. We have Lana so you are going to need Lara, and Helena with you as the phoenix will be needed in a fight. Agatha is going to be needed here to help heal Balin, Douglas will keep them safe with his boys. Once we’ve sent them back to the house, we can then join you and hunt down this bitch. She can’t be allowed to get away again - it’s time to end this,” he told Jaden grimly - who with one last look shifted. Turning, he took off around the mound, looking for a suitable spot to cross the river, the others on his tail.

  The grizzlies stopped by Lara, Nathan changing and shouting to her. She nodded and he shifted again, watching as her hair rose, feet lifting from the floor - as she seemed to float across the g
round. He took off again, heading towards the river and Maya could hear the car coming through the treeline and took off again towards the mound.

  Balin, blinked, trying to wake up, his head spinning but he had to do something or Lana was going to end up in trouble trying to save his sorry arse.

  Taking a breath - as he knew this was going to hurt - he tried to roll over, biting back the scream that tried to crawl up his throat. Any movement made his legs feel like they were being smashed all over again, throbbing, the pain so intense it radiated throughout his body in waves. Each one stronger than the last as it crashed over him. He couldn’t roll over onto his front as his stomach still wasn’t healed so he struggled, trying to shuffle over onto his side. Swearing up a storm, he finally managed it, body shaking with the excursion, arms like jelly and sweating like he’d run a marathon. Weak and trembling, he tried to claw his way across the floor, but only managed to move a couple of inches before his vision began to waver.

  Shift, could he shift? Taking another breath, he reached for his cat and nearly vomited, a scream escaping, unable to hold it back as his body began to change. The way his bones altered and muscles flexed and contracted was more than he could take, heaving, the change reverted and he passed out again.

  “Lana, hold up,” Sam shouted somewhere over her shoulder and her eyes slit. She could feel Balin’s pain, knew he was trying to move and her stomach rolled with him in sympathy. Her heart turned over in her chest and her eyes flashed amber as his agonised scream lit the echoing silence ahead of her. Her hair began rising, floating around her as her feet left the floor, her anger waking her other self. The glow from her eyes broke through the bleak, dark, smoggy interior of the cavern and she turned right at the next cross section of caverns. Following her gut instinct as his agonised scream began ricocheting off the walls, making it impossible to pinpoint his direction.

  “Wake up, wake up,” she scolded as she felt him begin to go under, the pain too much. She sent him the feeling of stroking his back, her hands soothing him as she ran them through this hair. “Balin, do you remember anything from when you were brought down here?”

  Hearing Lana’s voice in his head, Balin tried to bring himself around again. Squeezing his eyes tightly, he opened them again, trying to think and see past the pain, sighing as he felt her hands running over him, trying to offer comfort. Coughing, he shook his head, ear scraping over the rough ground as he brought up a hand and scrubbed the back of it over his mouth. Luckily, he’d only brought up fluid as he’d not eaten in so long, and his stomach roiled again with nausea at the continued pain.

  “Is there anything near you that you can pick up and use to make a noise?” she asked him. Throwing out an arm he felt around himself, no light left in the interior as the lamp had extinguished. His fingertips brushed over something and he tried to wrap his hand around it. Feeling along it he realised it was the lump hammer she’d used to smash his legs, taking a firm grip on it he tried to lift it and slammed it against the ground hearing a satisfying thud. “Is that you?” came her response in his head.

  “Yes, can you make out my direction?”

  “Do it again.”

  Lana picked up speed, her ears pricking up and trying to listen when Sam reached her, the others on his heels.

  “Lana…”

  “Shush,” she told him with a finger to her mouth – head cocked to one side. Sam went quiet and signalled behind him for the others to be quiet.

  “Balin do it again,” she told him and held her breath, slowing her breathing as she tried to listen.

  Gritting his teeth, Balin lifted the lump hammer again and slammed it down, the vibration of impact wrenching it from his hand.

  “Got you,” Lana told him as she set off again. Just then another sound made itself know, a whooshing sound and Sam knocked her to the ground as a fire ball came over their heads.

  Coughing, Lana slowly clambered to her feet, her head swinging in the direction Balin was. The flames were crawling up the wall, slowing filling the tunnel with more smoke.

  “We don’t have long,” Sam told her and her head turned.

  “Shift,” you can find him through scent. Nodding Sam reached for it and dropped to all fours, moving in front and making his way down the tunnel. They took another turn to the right and then a couple to the left before they came to a doorway on their right. Stepping inside the small room, they spotted bedding and another door built into the far wall.

  “Balin, son, you in there?” Sam called out.

  “Sam,” came the weak, muffled response from the other side. Lana looked towards the door as Sam went to pull the bolt back, and nudge it open with his foot, too hot for his hands as the fire had receded but had left the door smouldering.

  The door didn’t move when he began kicking at it, and they realised it had also been locked with a key. Sam frantically looked around him trying to locate it in the room they’d stumbled into, recoiling at the body lay in the far corner.

  “Nymph,” Sam informed them, noticing the red hair. Mouth grim, he nodded to one of the leopards at his back who walked over and kneeling beside the bloody mangled corpse on the floor. “Take her out,” Sam told him. “She needs returning to her family,” he explained quietly before returning to his search of the room. As Edgar Linley, the leopard left with the body in his arms, they heard the crackling of the fire making its way through the interior of the tunnels – the air thickening with smoke.

  “Move out of the way,” Lana told Sam, staring at the flames visible and coming up on them. “Balin, cover your head,” was the only warning she gave. Her hands came up and shaking them she lifted them – aiming at the door she opened her hands. Instantly, the wood was engulfed in fire, white hot flames that incinerated it to nothing but a pile of ash in seconds.

  “You are definitely your mother’s daughter,” Sam said, shaking his head as the flames vanished. Stepping over the ash left behind as he went into the room.

  Lana covered her mouth at the sight that met them. Balin was collapsed on his side, legs bleeding and mangled, a dirty, blood stained bandage wrapped around his torso. Swallowing, she moved forward, but Sam shook his head, bending beside the broken figure on the floor.

  “Hey, you with us?” he asked, brushing the hair off Balin’s forehead.

  “Dad?” Balin croaked.

  “Yeah son, we’ve got you,” Sam answered, swallowing at the state he was in. “This is going to hurt, but we have to get moving,” Balin nodded, eyes closing. Sam put his arms beneath his shoulders and knees and lifted, grinding his jaw at the agonised sound that left Balin’s throat before he lost consciousness again.

  “We need to go,” Sam told Lana as she stepped to the side and let him pass her.

  Eyes watering, she looked around the room, taking in the chains and manacles hung on the wall and attached to the floor. The smell of blood, sweat, fear and human waste was overpowering, her eyes lighting on a bloody hammer abandoned on the floor. She stepped out of the room, her hands coming up again as Sam moved out of the second room and disappeared around the corner. Leonard appeared in his stead and stared at her, mouth grim as he pointed over his shoulder, his eyes dropping to a bucket in the corner, blood still visible and his jaw went rigid.

  “Bitch has been bleeding him,” he spat.

  “Move back,” Lana ground out, eyes flashing as she stepped backwards out of the rooms. Her hands once again came up letting out a couple of blasts, incinerating everything inside the rooms. Removing every trace that they’d ever been there, cleansing the scene with white hot flames.

  “Come on, we need to get him back, Agatha has her work cut out,” Leonard told her as he led her back down the tunnels, his vision better than hers in the dark interior.

  Once outside, Lana blinked, eyes stinging as they adjusting to the moonlight after being in the pitch-black interior.

  “What are we going to do about her bolt hole?”

  “It’s already burning,” Sam said, straightening u
p after placing Balin on the back seat of the grizzlies Land cruiser.

  “Not quickly enough, and I want to make sure she can’t come back and use this place for anything else,” Lana said. “Is everyone clear?” Sam looked around as Edgar closed the hatch on the back of the car, Stephanie’s body tucked inside.

  “All clear, Sam said opening up the passenger door and getting in, Leonard moved around to the driver’s side, got in and turned the engine over. Edgar Linley shifted shape and took off after Nicholas Raymond, the leopards vanishing into the treeline, Maya’s black jaguar right behind them. “Come on Lana, we need to get him back, Agatha is already there waiting on him,” he told her.

  “Coming,” she told him. Lifting her hands towards the entrance, she aimed several blasts of intense white hot flames at the interior before climbing into the back of the car. Watching out of the back window, she saw the flames rise, burning as bright as a torch. The moon highlighted in its intense flames, lighting up the sky like midday before vanishing and leaving nothing behind but charred earth.

  “That one will stump the authorities,” Sam said, looking over his shoulder and checking on Balin as Lana ran her hands through his sweat soaked hair, his head now resting on her lap.

  “Better this than them coming across that bitch and her depravity,” she replied.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  B alin was in agony, the water from the shower hitting his wounds like knives, excruciating pain shooting through him as if he were being stabbed and tortured all over again. Grinding his teeth, he swallowed convulsively, mouth-watering as nausea crawled up the back of his throat and his vision began wavering again.

  “Son, I could do with you being unconscious for this,” Sam gritted out between his teeth as he held Balin in his arms in the shower. He’d come around with an agonised groan as he’d stripped his trousers and shoes from him, his own stomach churning at the mangled mess of his lower legs. The wound inflicted to his abdomen was a gaping, vicious, puss filled void, red and swollen - the stench eye watering. He’d give anything about now to not have to do this, but he desperately needed to clean him up as it wasn’t helping with the infection now raging through his system. Sam was worried over it. Shifters didn’t normally suffer with infection, their own metabolism and immune system kicking in and fighting it off before it could get a hold. Unfortunately, due to Balin’s blood loss, being starved and dehydrated as well as being left in his own waste he’d not fared very well.