Lunar Marked (Sky Brooks Series Book 4)

by McKenzie Hunter

  “Step away from me,” Ethan ordered. Logan was so enthralled he didn’t immediately respond. “Now.” Ethan’s command rumbled deep in his chest. After long consideration Logan returned to his place against the kitchen counter.

  Logan’s attention grazed over Sebastian. He gave me a little more consideration, eyeing the canvas bag at my side. His head tilted, and he started toward me but changed his mind, choosing to direct attention to Josh, giving him a shallow smile of appreciation and curiosity that lingered for far too long. It was the same creepy boundary-less look he’d given Ethan.

  If a person were drawn to magic then they would be in a state of euphoria around Josh. He was magic in its rawest and most potent form. It existed at his fingertips, strong and potentially catastrophic. I could see traces of the old Josh who viewed magic differently, as a casual tool at his disposal. The years had inured the old Josh and his magic. Were-animals had a symbiotic relationship with their beast. It remained dormant most times as we took advantage of the benefits it offered while in human form: speed, agility, heightened senses, and strength. Magic was the beast that shared Josh’s body, and the relationship wasn’t very symbiotic, it was possessive. I had a feeling Logan could see it and had an appreciation for it as it seemed that his magic had the same hold over him.

  “Let me see what we have here.” Another sweeping glance went over the room. “The Midwest Alpha, Beta, and their witch.” Logan shifted his gaze in my direction, eyes narrowed to thin slits, and then he frowned. “And my betrayer.”

  Ouch.

  “I didn’t betray you,” I refuted.

  The glower remained as he gave himself over to his ire, and although he was in human form, I could imagine his snout flaring with anger.

  “To what do I owe this pleasure?” he asked, focusing on Sebastian once he had calmed.

  “I need your help,” Sebastian said.

  Logan snorted. “I am sure Ethan has informed you that I am all out of favors for you. And now that I know your pack can’t be trusted, I choose not to enter into any agreements you will not honor.” Once again I was treated to another angry glare. “I definitely do not care to do business with you.”

  “We aren’t going to bitch fight about how ‘wronged’ you feel by Skylar’s alleged betrayal. It was a foolish agreement anyway. If you knew her, there isn’t any way you thought for one second she was going to give you a person as a pet, so get over it.”

  Sebastian and Ethan must have attended the same seminar on negotiation and the finesse of the deal and left with the idea of winning friends and negotiations by telling people to “get over it.” They didn’t mind inviting people to do it at any given moment.

  “We had an agreement and she reneged.” The same anger that reflected on his face that day rekindled into something just as ugly. His glamour wavered, magic coming off him in jarring bursts.

  Sebastian exhaled a slow breath and started to pace the area, measured, graceful steps that made him seem more predator than man. His toffee-colored eyes were now as cool as an arctic breeze. “You want to screw Chris, seduce her like anyone else. Don’t pull us into your sick little perversions. Please don’t think for one moment that I am naïve enough to believe you only wanted her for companionship, you sick bastard. The subject is moot. I am not giving you a fucking person. And I advise you, if you plan to try seducing her, this look—get rid of it. Looking like Ethan is not going to help you get in her bed any faster than the way you probably look without your little glamour.”

  Logan crossed his arms and looked over at the door, a subtle invitation for us to use it. “You know what I want, and if you’re not going to give it to me there doesn’t need to be any further discussion.” Then he thought for a moment. “If not Chris, then Winter.”

  Sebastian sneered, rueful and hard. His whetted gaze fixed on Logan, who seemed uncomfortable, shifting and crushing himself into the corner of the counter as he attempted to distance himself from a very agitated wolf in human form. “Okay, let’s get all this out of the way so there isn’t any more of this foolishness. I am not giving you anyone, whether it be Chris or Winter. No. One. Period.”

  Sebastian paced the small area in front of Logan. “We can be mutually useful to each other. You seem to be enjoying your new freedom, which is only possible because of us. Do you think curses are just magically removed because you willed it? We did that. Just as easily as we removed it, we can restore it.”

  Just as easy? Are you kidding me.? Sebastian must be the best poker player ever.

  “Do you expect me to believe you had anything to do with the curse being removed?” Logan refuted as a frown distorted his appearance.

  “We have the Clostra, so yes, we had everything to do with it.”

  Logan watched Sebastian with a level of fear and admiration. “How did you manage that?”

  “We have two of them and access to the third if we need it.”

  We do? Now he was having a free-for-all with the truth.

  “I think we can help each other,” Sebastian said, but Logan still seemed disinterested in working with us. His lips twisted to the side, his gaze roving slowly over us until it finally remained planted on me.

  “What do you want?” But he was finished with me and directed his question to Sebastian.

  “Are you able to find out who created a particular spirit shade?”

  “Yes.”

  “Good.”

  “And if I can do this for you, what do I get in return? Do you accept this as an obligation you must fulfill?”

  He never gave it a rest. The odd inscriptions on his arms came alive, dark markings slinking about his arms, and his odd eyes pulsed as they constricted and widened. Josh frowned, like I did, probably feeling the wave of peculiar magic that overtook the room. I kept a steady eye on Ethan, who was unemotional, and if he felt the odd magic, he wasn’t going to show it. After moments of feeling my attention on him, he relaxed into a simple smile. It was peculiar how easily Ethan slipped back into his role as a magicless were-animal. As if the last couple of weeks had never happened and I was a victim of an overactive imagination.

  “No. If you can find it, you will remain as you are, free to roam the city, the world, without restrictions. If you don’t—” Sebastian simply shrugged, allowing the threat to linger. A threat that I had no idea if he was going to be able to carry out if Logan refused. “So shall we do this now?”

  Sebastian didn’t seem bothered by the look Logan gave him and simply brushed it off and took a seat at the kitchen table, stretching his legs out in front of him and clasping his fingers behind his head. If looks could actually kill, Logan had destroyed Sebastian several times over in that moment.

  “Give me a week. I am flattered by your confidence in me, but this isn’t something I do often and it requires a few days to prepare.”

  “You have three days. I am quite confident you can make it happen in that time frame. I trust that you will not betray us or try to leave without doing this. Am I correct in my assumptions?”

  Logan rolled his eyes in my direction. “I enjoy my new life,” he said.

  Sebastian smiled, well, I am sure when he attempted to move his facial muscles it was supposed to be a smile, but it was an unsuccessful attempt and came off as a sneer.

  “Are we done?” Logan asked.

  Sebastian didn’t answer immediately; he peered around the room and sighed before making his way through the house. Logan started to move but decided against it when both Ethan’s and Josh’s stances changed.

  Sebastian stopped at a door, placed his ear closer to it. “Who’s in here?” he asked Logan.

  Irritation sparked and became a dense reminder that Logan wanted us gone. “That isn’t any of your concern.

  “Of course,” he said before he opened the door. I heard him speaking to someone, and after a few minutes he guided a pleasant-looking woman dressed in just a shirt out. Logan’s frown lines hadn’t relaxed since Sebastian had gone toward the room.
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  “She’s not here against her will,” Logan said. But how could we be sure? Had he tricked her into it? A spell?

  We waited for Josh, who had inched closer, his lips moving as he performed an incantation. Her static wide smile remained, her eyes glassy, her movement indolent and purposeful.

  “Do you want to leave?” Josh asked her.

  She shook her head slowly then looked over her shoulder at Logan. “I want to stay here, with him,” she said softly.

  I wasn’t convinced, but everyone else had been. She was wholly human so it was doubtful that he had performed a servus vinculum—the spell he wanted to do with me and Chris so that I could gift her to him—but maybe he had.

  As we walked out, I couldn’t help but recall his words about pain being subjective and death being cleansing to the palate. I looked back in time to catch Logan’s baleful glare as he closed the door behind us. It was the click of the lock that made me want to bust in and take the woman out and I wasn’t really concerned if she came willingly. I would drag her out and tell her the handsome guy that had invited her to his house was in fact a horned creature.

  I’d decided to do just that when we were a couple of feet from the house. I turned, but Ethan’s hands pressed into my back, urging me forward.

  “She wants to be there, you can’t take her, Sky,” he said.

  “But—”

  “But, nothing. The topic isn’t up for discussion. You can’t make her decisions for her. She wants to be with him. Period.”

  “She doesn’t know what he is and I am sure that if she did, she would want to leave. I just need to talk to her.”

  “That is what you want to believe but it doesn’t mean it is reality.” You feed a vampire regularly, something most of us find reprehensible, but it is what you chose to do.”

  I stopped walking, his response stunning me into silence. It wasn’t the same thing.

  “Stop doing that!”

  “Doing what?” I decided I really hated when his voice dropped low and he spoke in a soothing tone. He was being condescending and treating me like a child who needed to be placated into behaving.

  “Just stop it.” I picked up the pace and got in step with Josh, who was a couple of feet away. I considered questioning him again, asking him if he would go back to make sure the woman hadn’t been enchanted or something, but Josh was good and if at any moment he suspected there was a spell keeping her there he would have been with me, hauling her out of there.

  I smelled an odd fetor, before I saw the jackal just several feet from our car. The turbulent waves of magic that accompanied it stopped both Josh and me in our tracks. It barked, an unusually high sound for a jackal, and then belched magic that sent us back, stumbling to get our footing. Josh smashed into the car. Responding quickly to the assault, his hand gripped the air, seizing the jackal with magic and pulling it toward us. The jackal resisted, its paws gripping at the ground for stability.

  Its howl whipped through the air and more animals emerged from the surroundings: two wolves, puma, coyote, lynx—I think, it was larger than I’d ever seen—and a snow leopard. Their movements were slow as they edged around us, forming a full circle. Sebastian’s eyes narrowed, giving in to his predator, something worn so close to the surface at times he seemed more animal than man. His eyes locked with the leopard that was directly in front of him. His advance toward it was slow at first, becoming more powerful with each step, and with a sharp burst of movement, Sebastian shifted midair without breaking his stride. He careened into it, sending it back several feet. His powerful form overpowered the felidae, but not before its claws raked across his side.

  There was a light rustle as the two wolves attacked, one from the left and the other from the right. Ethan had changed into his wolf form just moments after Sebastian, and when the wolf attacked from the right, Ethan waited. Just as its upper body was at Ethan’s advantage, he thrust forward, his teeth capturing its throat. It wasn’t moving by the time it slammed to the ground. I couldn’t change fast enough to stop the puma that was just inches from me. Its claws raked at me, and I blocked it with the canvas bag. Another swipe and it ripped through the fabric, but I was able to grab the remains and get a close enough grip for leverage to use it as a weapon. It sprang at me and I punched the Aufero forward, into its face, stunning it and throwing it off balance. Before it could recover I landed a powerful side kick into his flank. It stumbled back, but it didn’t put enough distance between us. When it charged me again, its claws caught my jeans, just enough to shear them and give me a superficial cut that drew a small amount of blood.

  It was enough. Blood and fear ignited something rapacious in them. It edged their desire to have more: more blood, more fear, more violence. They devoured it as though it were food. I watched the puma, trying to anticipate its next move, aware that violence and blood was what it wanted. It would go for the kill. Staying close gave me the advantage. It didn’t have the ability to advance or lunge at me. Because of the immunity that were-animals possessed against magic, the Aufero was useless except as a bludgeoning weapon. I heard light padding approaching from another direction, but I couldn’t sacrifice the time it took to look. The puma reared back and lunged, a quick jolt of speed. I thrashed into it, slamming it on its back. Stronger in animal form than I was in human, I couldn’t hold on to its paws long; if it were to strike me at this distance, the predator would get its wish—death.

  At the high-pitched bark of the jackal, it stopped, easing back to the ground, placid. The fight was drawn out of it. But I didn’t move immediately. Was this a trick? I sprang back with a quick hop, far enough to react if it changed its mind, and crouched into a defensive stance when it moved to roll to prone and then to stand. With a slow trot it left, and so did the wolf, coyote, lynx. When I looked around for the jackal, it was gone, too. The bodies of the wolf and snow leopard lay lifeless on the blood-sodden ground.

  Josh’s approach felt bizarre. He was recoiled magic, stepping cautiously back to the car. Strong magic, darker than anything that I had felt before, clouded the air. “What the hell was that?” he asked.

  Magic had a fingerprint. If you were around anyone when they did it, then it could be detected in the future. I didn’t know this magic, and based on the portentous energy that clung to the air and wrapped around us, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to know it. A jackal that performed magic and somehow commanded a group of were-animals. I was with Josh on that. What the fuck is going on?

  Sebastian was stepping into a pair of pants he’d pulled from his backseat. “The snow leopard was the Beta of the Ares pack. Anderson will want revenge for me killing his second-in-command.” Sebastian cursed under his breath. He didn’t mind confrontation—at times I think he enjoyed it—but I suspect he was considering the big picture. Why were the Ares involved? And what was their link to the magical jackal? Was this the beginning of a battle over territory or a potential hostile takeover?

  Ethan and Sebastian looked at each other, the primordial tension still fastened to them. They always seemed resistant to settling back into human form and the tacit civility that accompanied it.

  “What has emboldened them to do this?” Sebastian asked the question that needed to be answered. Did Anderson just wake up one day and decide he wanted to take over the Midwest, and why now?

  “I don’t know, but we need to pay him a visit.” Josh got into Sebastian’s car, and when Ethan handed me the keys to his car, I looked at them then stuffed them in my jeans and followed him to Sebastian’s SUV.

  Ethan stopped. “Be careful going home,” he said.

  It was worth a try.

  As I sped down the street in Ethan’s overpriced indulgence, it drove so smoothly that I was shocked to find that the speedometer was creeping past ninety-five. I expected to see flashing lights behind me. I would just tell the police the truth: I was preoccupied thinking about the perverted Tre’ase that we needed to help locate the Tre’ase that created Maya, because if someone finds them be
fore we do and decides to kill them, they kill me. That’s how the crazy host/spirit shade thing works. And to make things worse, Mr. Officer, we removed a curse from me and we have no idea how badly it affected the otherworld. By removing the curse, we removed a ward that limited the depraved Tre’ase Logan from leaving his home. The dark magic that the jackal performed—yes, Officer, that is correct, a jackal used magic. Crazy, right? If that isn’t dire enough, we have a pack that seems to be increasing and mobilizing and we don’t know why. So Officer, I think I have earned the right to drive ninety miles an hour because life is a real clusterfuck and I needed to clear my head. That should get me out of the ticket, or get me committed.

  My intentions were to go home but instead I found myself pulling into the parking lot of my favorite art gallery. When I walked in, Claudia’s eyes widened as she quickly walked toward me. Gently taking hold of my arm she said, “Oh dear, you’re going to scare away my customers.” She swiftly guided me out of the showroom toward her office.

  Distracted, I hadn’t noticed the splotches of blood on my jeans and my tattered shirt. Any other time I would have been embarrassed to visit her in my blue jeans and shirt. Bloodstained and disheveled definitely wasn’t acceptable. Most of the time I made an effort to never wear jeans. She hated them, but was too polite to say so. Instead, in her soft voice enriched by her beautiful South African accent she would tout, “I do believe I was born in the wrong era. I would have fit in quite well in a society where women wore beautiful things.” And if that wasn’t enough of a gut punch, she would always lightly brush aside the hair that always managed to spill from my braid or ponytail.