Lunar Marked (Sky Brooks Series Book 4)

by McKenzie Hunter

  Sebastian’s rushed voice was on the other line telling him that he needed to get to the pack’s retreat home because it was under attack.

  Neither Ethan nor Josh asked by whom. They assumed it was the Ares Pack in retaliation but I suspected it was Samuel. He had been gone for too long. It was only a matter of time before he attempted to get the third Clostra again. A fanatic with an agenda like him wouldn’t go away quietly. A world without magic was such a heavily held tenet, he would not rest until he had done everything he could to make it a reality.

  I expected it to be a full onslaught attack but I wasn’t prepared for the number of were-animals that surrounded the house. Dismembered parts and lifeless bodies scattered over the open space, some so battered I barely recognized the faces and others I didn’t know because they were part of the other pack. The ground was tinted red and sodden with blood. How did Samuel get them to come over to his side? How did a man offering to divest them of the ability to change into their animal forms convince them to fight for him?

  While I focused on the fighting outside, Ethan watched his brother with concern. Josh winced, beads of sweat pooled at his temple, his eyes shifting to that darkness as he did when he used stronger magic. “He’s breaking the blood ward.”

  It was the strongest ward a witch could do and because it required them to be actively connected to it at all times, they were rarely done. He’d placed one on the pack’s retreat once we had the Clostra in our possession. And now Samuel was trying to get to them.

  Ethan jumped out of the car, Josh close behind him. I scanned the area but didn’t see Samuel. We couldn’t let him get to them.

  Nearly thirty members of the pack were trying to hold off a small army of were-animals. Steven, Gavin, and Dr. Jeremy were in animal form along with the others. Steven stood over the body of a disemboweled lynx and was baring his bloodstained teeth at an approaching wolf. The vicious massive tiger that showed no signs of being our pack’s mild-mannered physician took off after a retreating leopard that had realized it had lost the battle. Gavin coalesced with his panther whether in human or animal form; it was always present, making his transition to savage animal seamless. His black coat was sodden with blood, the bodies of several animals lying at his feet. Winter held her sword steady, prepared to engage as a small pack of wolves and a man started to approach the house.

  Another man, who I hadn’t seen before, approached Sebastian who was still in human form. The man’s stocky build easily emulated that of an animal, I suspected he was a feline. His agile, graceful movements were quick and sharp and Sebastian watched his approach carefully. Within moments, it was a run as he charged at our Alpha. Sebastian lunged at him, and they hit the ground with a powerful impact.

  A quick jab into his throat left the man gasping for air, and tears streamed down his face. A sharp thrust into his nose and his face became stained with the blood streaming from it. Unable to breathe or see, he wasn’t able to respond when Sebastian tossed him to the ground, then grabbed him, a hand on his head and chin. I looked away—seeing someone’s neck get broken is something you only need to experience once. I turned in time to dodge a hyena that lunged at me, hammering a front kick into his torso hard enough to send him back a few feet. He started for me again, and I shot another side kick into his jaw. I couldn’t let him near me, or he would be able to use his best weapons: his claws and his teeth.

  He was about to charge at me again when a sharp pop barked through the commotion. I looked over in time to see a bullet slice through Sebastian. The impact sent him back; another shot went through his chest and he collapsed to the ground. Winter tried to get to him as she slashed her sword chaotically through air, cutting through anything in her path. Ethan also started toward Sebastian but another were-animal lunged at him and they crashed to the ground. Seconds later that animal lay on the ground, its head twisted at an odd angle away from its body. The attacks continued, preventing us from getting to Sebastian. The car door was still open so I jumped into it to check the glove compartment for a weapon while trying to keep the hyena away. As I kicked at its face, it clenched my ankle in its mouth but the positioning put it at a disadvantage and its grip faltered enough for me to yank it loose while hammering my fist into the side of its skull. Its withdrawal allowed me enough time to search the glove compartment. I knew there had to be a weapon of some kind in it. A hunter’s knife nearly fell out when I opened it. I had just grabbed it when the hyena jumped into the car, his teeth clamping down on my arm as he attempted to drag me out. I shoved the knife into his gut and twisted. It snarled and whimpered and I only had to twist a few more times before it released my arm. I lunged at it again, and forced it back until it gave up and took to the woods.

  Scanning the area, I could see Winter heading toward Sebastian. Another shot whirled past her; it missed her but hit its intended target—Sebastian. He had stopped moving.

  Winter’s scream rang out through the commotion, a bloodcurdling sorrowful wail. Although I knew things weren’t slowing down, it seemed like they did. Another shot punched through the ground barely missing his head. We all tried to get to Sebastian. Josh got to him first, his body covering his, and a protective field stretched out and covered them both. Sebastian was dead weight, solid muscle, and Josh struggled to lift him and position him in a way to move with him. Seconds later they were gone, a pool of blood left in his place. The animals retreated, running to get away. I wanted the shooter.

  I ran in the direction from which the shots came. It was level, so the shooter wouldn’t be in a tree. I didn’t have to look long or hard. The piercing gaze stared at me from the woods, and a satisfied smile swept over his face as he turned and ran. Clenching the knife, I gave chase, following him into the thick bosk that was once our haven but now had been turned on us, camouflaging our enemies and cloaking them from sight. He darted around the trees, swiftly changing direction once in the middle of the thicket. It was too late when I realized I wasn’t chasing him; he was leading me somewhere. To someone.

  The jackal stood between two large oaks. That odd aura of magic drifted off it, its eyes different than I remembered, and as it slowly padded toward me, it shed his animal form with the ease of a person taking off a shirt. The odd platinum hair was the same as before, the distinctive amethyst eyes fixed on me in a hard stare. And I would never forget the ominous smile that vowed torture and death if his demands weren’t met. Ethos.

  I held the knife closer as he approached, ready to defend myself when he attacked. He was going to attack. I was sure of that. After all, I had stabbed him in the neck and left him for dead, and now Ethos was back.

  We stood in silence just inches from each other; his relaxed appearance didn’t match the stern gaze. He opened his hand; a sword appeared and he held it casually at his side. “Derrick, please stay, I may need you to hold something for me if Ms. Brooks chooses to become unnecessarily violent.”

  The violence was necessary. He may have just been responsible for killing Sebastian or at the very least had a big hand in it happening. Derrick didn’t understand, but I did. Once I was dead he would need another body to host Maya.

  “Ms. Brooks, are we going to be civilized so that I can allow Derrick to leave?” he asked in a low, polite voice. I forgot he was a courteous psycho—the worst kind. Polite enough to ask if it was okay for him to kill you now or if you wanted to wait to enjoy the moment a bit longer. He was that kind of cruel.

  I hesitated and dropped the hand with the knife to my side, making sure to keep a distance between us. His sword disappeared, which most would have considered a good thing, but as easy as it disappeared for him, he could make my knife disappear, too. Without the Aufero, I was magicless and needed to be near it to use it. Josh and I had estimated that I had a range of about fifty to sixty feet to have access to its magic.

  “My little amphora, we meet again. You’ve been quite busy since we last met, haven’t you?”

  “You seem to have been, too. After all, the n
ot being dead part surely had to be rather time consuming,” I said with a forced smile.

  He chuckled. “That glorious sense of humor. How often has it nearly gotten you killed?”

  “I lost count.”

  “Hmm. Well, this will be the only warning you get from me. I don’t care to hear it. The next one will cost you dearly.”

  I guess I won’t be cutting the tension with a joke this time around. “What do you want?”

  “My desires haven’t changed. Now that I’ve seen what has become of the Midwest Pack, I see they are in need of guidance more than ever.”

  It took everything in me to keep my eyes from rolling at the absurdity of his desires. Ethos wanted to be the “Lord of the Otherworld.” His words, not mine. Because the vampires and the pack were the most powerful, he wanted to acquire their allegiance first and force the others to concede to him. He failed, and it ended in an epic battle with me stabbing him in the neck and him trying to suffocate me with his magic. Ethan told me that Ethos was Maya’s brother. It seemed like he was trying to reunite with his sister.

  Taking several large steps, he was just arm’s reach away from me, and I gripped the knife tighter.

  “You are just full of surprises. I thought I had you when Marcia and I cursed you. I thought you’d be desperate enough that you would accept my help when I came to you. And once again, my little amphora rose to the occasion. How clever you have proven to be.” There was an amused expectant look on his face. Did he expect me to be flattered that a narcissistic psycho was blandishing me?

  Damn. It had been him in the cloak, hidden as he helped Marcia place a death curse on me. I should have known she would gladly accept his help. Drawn to power, she would ally herself with anyone who possessed magic that she could use. It all made sense now. Her ability to hide the Aufero with dark magic, her ability to perform dark curses that most witches couldn’t. How long had she been aligned with him? How long had he been the puppet master pulling the strings behind everything? Had he given her the Aufero in return for her alliance?

  “So Marcia has been your little business partner all this time. Then you aren’t as wise as I thought, because I assure you the moment she sees a weakness that she can exploit, she will.”

  “You mean like stabbing me in the neck? Well, I’ve survived that. I am sure I can survive anything she doles out,” he said, dismissing me. “Ethan, your lover, is the next in line as Alpha. As his partner, you will be able to influence him more than Sebastian. Hopefully Sebastian will not survive, and you and Ethan will understand the gift I have presented to you.”

  He was like a cat presenting a dead mouse to me. In the cat’s mind, he had given the ultimate gift, a grand sacrifice, but in my eyes, it was just that—a dead gross rodent in front of me that I didn’t want or ask for.

  “You do realize there are other places to get your information than Wikipedia, right?”

  The bark of a tree bit into my skin and I groaned as my head smashed against the trunk. Ethos had me by the throat, my knife now in his hand. Warm blood trickled from the cut the knife left. I slowed my breath, closing my eyes, warding off the sudden influx of dark magic that had swept over the area. Ethos’s magic always felt wrong. It was a dark eruption of energy that overtook and destroyed everything in its path— a subversive wave that could never be controlled. I’d been foolish enough to try, and it never behaved as it should.

  “We will have no more of that. Do you understand me?” he whispered.

  Silence, extended and cold.

  I studied him. The ability to assess a heartrate, changing breathing patterns, and eye blinks was a skill I hadn’t mastered and probably wouldn’t, but the nuances of expressions was something I was good at. There was a desperate resolve to him, urgency and even panic behind all of his blustering. As angry as he was, he would be just that—pissed off. But he wouldn’t act on it. I’m not sure why, and at the moment I didn’t care.

  Gingerly taking hold of his hand, I moved the knife away from my throat and pushed him back. For whatever reason, he needed me alive or he would have killed me and used Derrick, someone who would have been more acquiescing.

  I slowly backed away, watching his reaction as his eyes narrowed into small slits, the coolness of his ire drifting over them as the grip on the knife tightened.

  “I’m leaving,” I said.

  When I turned a diaphanous wall closed around us. “Why don’t you stay.”

  I pressed with force against the wall, but it gave and rebounded with equal force. It wouldn’t give. Concentrating, I allowed the magic of my wolf to flow, accepting the pain as my joints slacked, preparing to contort and accommodate my new form. My skin tingled and pricked, the familiar tightness crawled over my body, tugging at my skin as I prepared to transform. It hurt like hell as tension against my bones increased, preparing to break some and stretch others as I transformed. The fur punched through my skin, making me grind my teeth to keep from yelling out. And then my heart lurched in my chest, as it stopped for that fraction of a second as the transition started. That small moment when the breath and heart stopped had always before convinced me it was the wolf trying to kill me. Sometimes I still felt like it. The symbiotic relationship I was supposed to have with my animal half, at times like this, seemed to be missing.

  In wolf form I lunged at Ethos, he vanished, the wall disappeared, and I darted through the thick forest taking a circuitous route, only cogently aware of the magic in the air that breezed over me ineffectively while in I was wolf form. But a well-placed ward would stop me, or another magical wall. Please have the ward down, I thought as my paws pounded against the ground and I started for the pack’s retreat. Would Ethos follow me there and risk having to go up against Josh and several angry were-animals? My howl held the necessary urgency and distress I felt, hoping someone heard it and could disarm the ward, because if not Ethos would catch me. He didn’t want me dead but he definitely didn’t want me near the pack.

  I nearly skidded into the house, slipping on the pool of blood at the entrance and tumbling over Josh’s foot. He closed the door. After giving me a quick once-over for injuries, he moved away, trying to get out of the way as people moved quickly throughout the room. Urgent voices went back and forth. I needed to concentrate to make them out.

  “Get Ethan in here,” Dr. Jeremy’s voice rang over the chaos.

  “How is he?” Winter asked, her words choppy and barely discernable through the sobs.

  “Get Gavin, too,” Dr. Jeremy ordered.

  “Winter, you have to move aside,” Josh said softly. I didn’t see him until he stepped closer, gently guiding her out of the way. His hand glided around her wrist. Eventually she pulled away and walked past me, her features distorted by her frown, stains from tears marked her skin. The weight of today hung heavy on her usual smooth, graceful movements now lumbered and fatigued. I whined a mournful sound. Is he dead?

  There was too much commotion, Jeremy was still barking out orders, people were moving about, speaking with urgency, and I hadn’t heard anyone say he was dead. Surely there would be more mourning if he was.

  Josh said something but I couldn’t make it out. I needed to change—deciphering conversations were harder in animal form. I followed Winter and Josh up the stairs and went into a room and changed. I found a t-shirt that was too big and a pair of sweatpants that fit okay.

  The room that Josh and Winter went into was slightly ajar. I peeked in and found Josh with Winter’s face buried into his neck. He was hugging her with one hand and gently stroking her hair with the other.

  “Leave,” he mouthed. My heart started to beat too fast, surely they could hear it. The hope I held on to that Sebastian was going to survive vanished. Winter must have felt the hopelessness, too. “Now,” he mouthed again. I stepped back and the door closed in front of me. Leaning back against the wall I closed my eyes.

  I convinced myself not to go down to the infirmary because I would have just been in the way. I was scared. I
t was so easy to think that were-animals were indestructible and easier to view Sebastian that way. Each time I tried to force myself to go downstairs, I came up with a million reasons not to. Instead, I laid on the floor in the room I thought was closest to the infirmary and listened to the noise. Lots of it, and I appreciated every minute of it. It meant things were happening. Sebastian was still alive, and Dr. Jeremy was fighting to keep it that way. It was silence that I dreaded: it meant the fighting had stopped, the battle had been lost.

  The gruff sound of Dr. Jeremy barking orders, the machines that were just murmurs and swooshes from so far away, the urgent padding of the feet below were all welcome sounds.

  Ethos’s magic still lingered around me, dark, ominous, and powerful. Like the smell after a smoke-filled run, it fused to my hair and clothes, a constant reminder of his presence in my life. He’s alive. Dammit. The most powerful purveyor of dark magic, who wanted to use me to control the otherworld, was alive.

  The door opened and a blanket of different magic spread over the room, familiar but just as powerful. Despite being a little off, I welcomed the cool ocean breeze that defined Josh’s magic. It was what I needed and the closer it came, the more comfort I felt. I opened my eyes to meet his, and at first curiosity blanched his appearance as he looked at me on the floor and then over to the empty bed next to me. He simply shrugged and lowered himself down and laid next to me. His hand covered mine, and I wasn’t sure who was comforting who at this point, as he fiddled with a loose strand of my hair, his fingers coiling and uncoiling around it.

  A sharp, ragged breath accompanied my words. “Ethos was behind the attack.”

  Josh noticeably tensed next to me, I’m sure remembering his last encounter with him. “That explains a lot. They took it all, the Clostra and finis book.” Finis was the book that held the Gem of Levage after Josh used magic to contain it.