Lunar Marked (Sky Brooks Series Book 4)

by McKenzie Hunter

  “I stand by what I said. Either you tell him or—”

  His finger pressed against my lip, cutting me off. “You know how I feel about threats,” he warned.

  I bit his finger—hard. Enough to draw blood. He pulled back and brought it to his lips trying to stop the bleeding.

  “You know how I feel about people doing that to me.” I held back the grin as Ethan scowled. “I understand why some things need to be kept secret, but there shouldn’t be any between Josh and you.” The one he was keeping from Josh was the only secret we had. They had opened the closet and spilled everything else just to bring down Marcia.

  “I’ll think about,” he said, before he backed out of the room and left.

  He could have just said no, because the amount of time he was there was about as much consideration as he planned to give it.

  Dr. Jeremy had moved back to his desk in the corner, looking over papers while scanning his computer. His frowned deepened.

  “Did the man say anything else besides Kelly’s name?”.

  He actually didn’t say Kelly’s name, either, but I had a feeling he needed that to be the case. “No. Did you find something?” I looked over his shoulder. Most of the pages consisted of lab work and photos and comparisons of the differences between a born were-animal, a turned were-animal, and the manimal that died in David’s home. Steven was the only turned were-animal that I knew of, but there could be more, it just wasn’t discussed. Changing a person to a were-animal didn’t happen often and was usually a final option in trying to save them.

  Leaning back in the chair, he scrubbed his hands over his beard before he said, “I hope she isn’t going through what he went through.” His face was solemn and his voice laden with sorrow and guilt. The sorrow I understood, but not the guilt.

  “This isn’t your fault, you know that, right?”

  “Then whose is it?” Pain reigned over his features, his words tinted with a heartbreaking sadness. His guilt was woven from fraternal love that he had for Kelly. In his mind he was supposed to protect her, and no matter how little control he had over a situation he would find a way to make it his fault that ’he didn’t.

  “You’re positive Liam wasn’t involved with it?” I hated referring to the manimal as it or even manimal but I didn’t have a much of a choice.

  “No, there isn’t any magic present. He was injected with a virus, look at this.” Dr. Jeremy went on to explain in the only way he knew how, unnecessarily complicated. In essence he was injected with a virus that replicated all the enhancements of the were-animal, but a binder forced the body not to change. It was definitely science. Someone was creating animals, strong, with enhanced hearing, vision, and speed but in human form.

  “So it has to be in a lab or something.”

  He nodded. “Winter said you saw something like that a few days ago. Where?” He brought up a map. I pointed to a spot close to Kelly’s home. He marked it, Kelly’s home, and then David’s.

  “I bet you the lab or wherever it is being done is near David’s home,” said Sebastian’s satin baritone voice. I jerked in his direction, surprised by his presence.

  We are going to have to discuss the bell thing. Everyone needs to wear one.

  He moved in closer, frowning as he looked at the map. “If she sent him to get help, she would have sent him to the closest pack member’s home near where she is,” he suggested.

  As Sebastian continued to look at the map, he said, “Gavin has been looking for homes, but we should be looking for buildings as well. We’ll send a team to look for her. I’ll call Joan and ask if she can send some people up to help. She has great hunters and investigators.” He took out his phone, then made a face. “We need to get in touch with Chris, too.”

  “I think she should stay lost,” I blurted before I could tame my renegade tongue.

  “Any other time I would have to agree, but things like this are her specialty. She will know something about it.”

  “Are you sure she is actually missing?”

  She seemed to be okay with her new role as Seethe Princess and Demetrius’s mistress or whatever the kids are calling it these days. Although she adamantly denied a sexual relationship with Demetrius, whatever was going on between them was far from platonic. I would never understand the polyamorous relationship he and Michaela had and Chris was deeply entwined in it.

  Jeremy’s relief was palatable as Sebastian made a few phone calls, one to the Alpha of the East Coast Pack and one to Joan.

  Being around Gavin was one of my least favorite things, but he needed to know what was being worked on. All I had to do was find what corner he had skulked into becoming nearly invisible to anyone who was looking for him. Here kitty, kitty. I have some information for you.

  No matter how many times I came to the retreat the size of it was always overwhelming. Twelve bedrooms, a multiroom basement with two entrances, two spiral staircases, a huge eat-in kitchen, a formal dining room, living room, sitting room and an ostentatious media room, library, gym, fitness center, infirmary, recovery room and an office, it was quite easy to get lost in the house and that made it even harder to find someone. After looking for Gavin for fifteen minutes, I finally found him coming out of Sebastian’s office.

  Before I could call his name to get his attention he turned, brushing his midnight hair from his face to reveal deep emotive eyes. His wide mouth pulled into a full line. “Don’t call me kitty,” he snarled.

  Oh you heard that. I guess my bad isn’t going to cut it.

  “What do you want?” he asked in a curt tone.

  “I want to discuss Sable.”

  “There is nothing to discuss, I am done with her.”

  “I get that. I know you have the fractious, ominous, broody, sexy dominant thing going on. Thumbs-up, you nailed it.”

  His chuckle was just as dark as his eyes. His vocal cords were probably shocked from producing a sound they hadn’t made before.

  “You think I’m sexy.” A smile reached his eyes but barely curled his lips.

  “I said like thirty things before that and twenty more after it, and that’s what you took from it? If it weren’t for Sable we wouldn’t have a lot of the information we have now. She’s a very disturbed woman, and the way you ended things with her was cruel. You have to do something about it.”

  I was speaking quickly because it was only a matter of time before he lost interest and just walked away from me mid-sentence. It wasn’t paranoia to be worried about it. It was part of the Gavin package—I had watched him do it to others. He didn’t excuse himself; once he was bored enough he simply walked away. Surprisingly, I had his attention and he held my eyes intently as I spoke.

  “She helped because of you. I think she’s sorry for what she said.” I didn’t want to have sympathy for her, but somehow it had squirmed its way in. Sebastian was right, she was like Quell, and there was a part of me that needed to help her. Even if helping her was mending whatever the heck was going on with her and Gavin. “Just give her some closure. Something better than telling her it’s over in front of a room full of people.”

  When I saw the back of his head as he turned and walked away, it was safe to assume the conversation was over. Gavin, be weirder.

  Before he cleared the corner, he said, “I will talk to her today.”

  “Thank you.”

  “I’m not doing it for you.”

  “You couldn’t just give me that one!”

  He turned around and smiled.

  Did I just get a laugh and a smile from Gavin? I may be a superhero.

  Riding high on my conversation with Gavin emboldened me in an odd way. I guess it’s the little things for me. I was ready to see Senna. She Tasered me and tried to expunge Maya the first time we met, so pretty much other than assaulting me or trying the kill me, this meeting couldn’t be worse.

  Senna was being a stubborn pain in the ass. The two days I was sedated, she refused to come out of the room, opening it only to accept clot
hes and occasionally food. I wasn’t surprised that she didn’t immediately answer the door when I knocked.

  “What!” she snapped when I knocked harder.

  “Open the door Senna,” I urged softly. “Please.”

  She was agitated and rightfully so; I doubt she got any more of an explanation other than she needed to stay until they determined she could leave. The pack was very rigid in their tactics and didn’t offer a lot of room for disagreement or even explanation. It was their way, period.

  She snatched the door open and then immediately went to a spot at the window. The room was one that I had come to consider mine because it was where I stayed when I first came to the retreat. Her long dark curly hair was stacked on top of her head in a messy bun, the white t-shirt was definitely new or borrowed and was a little too big, but her black yoga pants fit, and if it weren’t for the sneer on her face she would have looked like a person just hanging out at home. Just like I had the first time I stayed in the room, she seemed to have an appreciation for the view. The trees that stretched for miles made a blanket of variations of green that was comforting and serene. She moved closer to the window, her face just inches from the glass, her body resting against the frame.

  “Believe it or not, we are trying to keep you safe,” I said, fighting the urge to move closer. She was on edge, probably scared and definitely angry. If she could, without injury, I imagined she was ready to go out the window, like I had the first time I was brought to the house. But she was a witch with the same limitation as most humans. She couldn’t jump from a two-story house without possibly breaking something.

  She twisted enough to look at me, her emerald green eyes far more expressive than her face, telling me she didn’t believe me.

  Information would be more comforting than any platitudes that I could give her, so I told her everything. Mostly everything, it was hard navigating the complex situation, giving her what she really needed to know while protecting sensitive pack information. But in light of everything that had happened, was there any more sensitive information?

  “What would have happened to you, if we would have removed her?” she asked softly, looking at me for a brief moment before returning her attention to the window.

  “I can only survive as Maya’s host.” I’d told the story of my birth, or rather death, so many times that I had a spiel. I told it from a dissociated state despite it being a problem that weighed heavily on me. At any given day, if the Tre’ase that created Maya dies, so do I. Or if she is ever expunged from me, I die. It was something I ’thought about every day. Even if Logan came through and found the Tre’ase that created me, did that really protect me? Unless we had him under watch at all times, how can we ensure that he continued to live? The only comfort was that it seemed to be very difficult to kill a Tre’ase. Not impossible, just difficult. In the two years that I’ve known of their existence, I’ve seen two die.

  Senna stared at me for a long time, and the glower that had been fixed on her face since I entered the room wilted. Her features softened and she opened her mouth to say something but decided against it several times. When she finally spoke, it was so low it was barely audible. “We just wanted the other book, nothing more. Your mother left the family, and to me, you weren’t family, so I didn’t treat you that way.” She frowned. “I grew up hearing the stories of your mother’s betrayal of the family and the disdain I had for her was naturally transferred to you.”

  Knowing what I did about the Clostra it was a good thing that she took one. One person shouldn’t have them all, including us. They should be separated.

  Her eyes dourly downcast, her voice breaking, she asked, “Is my family alive?”

  Irritation burned in me. They hadn’t told her about her family? How could they not let her know about her family? And then I quickly realized that they might not be alive. She was already in a pretty bad state; the last thing she needed was to learn that ’she’d be going home to an empty house without her family. My heart ached at the idea. It was hard to hate them despite the fact they had tried to remove Maya from me to get the other books for money. They were still her family and she loved them. I didn’t know what it was like to have a big family. Family consisted of me, my mother, and my grandparents. There weren’t any cousins, aunts, and uncles in my life, and for the first time in a long time I felt the emptiness of it.

  “I’ll find out,” I assured her, hoping that I wasn’t going to have to deliver bad news. Please don’t let them be dead.

  She chewed on her bottom lip, and tears welled at the edge of her eyes. “Even if it’s bad, you have to tell me.” She turned back to the window. “We shouldn’t have done that to you. If I knew what I know now, I don’t think we would have. But people are willing to pay so much money for it. Enough money for us to live off for years, and the books aren’t that special. Most of the spells in it can’t be done without the other protected objects, so they are pretty much willing to pay millions for a book with only a few spells they can use.”

  ’.

  “What do you mean?”

  Her eyes narrowed and I was treated to a very sharp look of derision.

  I don’t need that from you, missy. But obviously I had missed something. We all had missed something.

  “At the beginning of each spell there’s an insignia that tells you which object to use,” she said, the look of disbelief at my lack of knowledge of it ’not changing.

  “Show me,” I said, leading her out of the room to the library. I thought Josh would be in there, but it was empty. I left her in the room and went Sebastian’s office first before looking for Josh. The door was slightly open so I peeked in; he lifted his head but didn’t say anything. Greetings seemed like a bother to him, so he just looked at me, waiting for me to speak.

  Closing the door behind me, I asked, “Senna’s family, are they still alive?”

  “Yes. Her uncle was injured pretty bad, but I was told the he will recover.”

  “Are there meds you all should be on? Is there a program that we need to enroll you all to help with your social skills?” I snapped. “Why wouldn’t you tell her that? She’s been up there wondering about her family for two days? How can you do that to someone?”

  My outburst didn’t seem to affect him. His full lips were set in a thin line, his appearance indiscernible, and if at any point he felt shame or regret he wasn’t showing it. He shrugged. “I didn’t have clear confirmation. I do now” was his cool response. There was a pause, and when he continued his voice wasn’t as cool but was all business. “What is crueler, telling her we didn’t know whether or not her family was alive or allowing her to be hopeful until we had verified the information? We have that information now. Please let her know.”

  Sebastian was pragmatic and rarely let emotions change the way he handled things. That wasn’t going to change no matter how much I willed it.

  Then he returned to his computer. I waited, and he looked up again. “Did you need something else?” His tone was an invitation for me to leave.

  “Just the Clostra. I need to look at them.”

  “Josh has them.” I started to back out, and just as I was about the close the door, he added, “I’m glad that you are okay.”

  I started to come back in. It just seemed like a hug-it-out moment—which Sebastian quickly squashed. “Please close the door all the way behind you. Thank you.”

  Guess not.

  He’d called “sweetie.” That little display was equivalent to him hugging me and giving me butterfly kisses, and I’m sure it wasn’t going to happen again.

  When I returned to the library Senna was at the table with Josh on one side and Samuel on the other. Ethan was in the corner, arms crossed, carefully watching Samuel. I didn’t blame him; I didn’t trust the guy, either, and the way he was salivating over the Clostra only supported my suspicions.

  “Have a seat,” Josh said, using his feet to push out the chair across from him.

  Senna was scrolling over the
pages, and when she stopped, she turned the books in my direction. “See this. This symbol here”—she pointed to a small marking at the beginning of the spell in book one and then a different one at the end of the spell in the third book—“I know this means the Gem of Levage and this one is the Fatifer.”

  We looked over each spell with the symbols; there weren’t many, but I assumed that the strongest and most dangerous spells required a protected object. I couldn’t help but be concerned that these spells required a booster to work, or perhaps the requirement served as an obstruction, to prevent most people from doing them. The protected objects were separated for a reason. What were the chances that one person would have them all? Although we only had four of the five, Claudia had the fifth one, which was as good as saying we had all the protected objects.

  “Some of them are freaking scary,” Senna said, frowning as she scanned over the books.

  “Which ones?” Samuel asked, nearly jumping over her to look at the page. The moment he did, the words disappeared.

  “It doesn’t like you,” she teased. Samuel smiled, the first one I’d ever seen. I was convinced that instead of a resting bitch face he had a resting glower face. He sat back in his chair, thin wide mouth spread, exposing teeth dimmed from smoking and two deep dimples. His deep cognac eyes were mesmeric and easier to see once he pushed back his disheveled dirty blond hair. Seeing him relaxed interacting with someone instead of spouting his magic-less world rhetoric made me look at him in a different light. His rugged features added years, but his eyes were gentle as they focused on Senna. I placed his age around late twenties; early thirtyish.

  As she continued to garner a great deal of his attention, a gentle rose coloring blossomed over her cheeks. He instantly became old. Too old. Creepy old.

  “Too bad,” he said.

  She winked. “’You seem okay to me.” For a long time they didn’t seem to be able to take their eyes off each other.