Demon’s Moon
A Celia Winters Novel (Book 2)
Author: D. L. Harrison
Copyright 2016. This is a work of fiction. Names, Characters, Places and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons living or dead, is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without permission.
Table of Contents:
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Afterword:
About the Author
Other books by D. L. Harrison:
Book Description
Prologue
Darrell Watkins started to get more than a little nervous. He was in a cell, had been for seven days without even one visitor. His maker had told him to be careful, to avoid towns with large numbers of witches. He had been arrogant, thought himself indestructible, immortal, and untouchable. He’d thought the world was his for the taking, that he could do whatever he pleased. He should have listened to his master.
He grabbed for the bars again, but his hands started to burn from the spells invested in the bars and he pulled his hands back with a hiss, his fangs dropped and a feral growl escaped his lips. He couldn’t help it, he was starving. He was also terrified. He regretted now, not listening to his maker. He was only a year old as a vampire, and now he was a prisoner of some witch coven in Albany, N.Y.
He sat dejectedly on the small bunk in the small windowless and barred room. He was afraid to die, but after a week of sitting in this cell with no contact with anyone, he was starting to worry more about what they had in store for him.
He heard a door open and jumped to his feet. He moved as close to the bars as he could and tried to look down the hall, and growled in frustration since he couldn’t see at all. He had in fact, already known he wouldn’t be able to.
“Hello, what do you want with me? Release me or I’ll kill you and bathe in your blood!”
He heard a deep chuckle as someone finally came into view. It was a man in his fifties, with a look of such evil in his eyes that he took a step back.
The man smiled knowingly, “Sorry about the accommodations, I merely needed to hold you until the full moon.”
The man threw Darrell a bag of blood through the bars, which he ripped open with his teeth and sucked down quickly. It was life, and he was so thirsty he couldn’t control himself. When he finished he looked up at the man with the dead eyes.
“What do you want with me?”
He grinned, as if amused by the question, “You’ll find out soon enough.”
Darrell’s eyes felt suddenly heavy, and everything went blurry. The last thing he remembered seeing before passing out was the wide grim smile of the evil witch in front of him. What had been in the blood?
He woke up slowly to chanting. He was filled with intense feelings, half shocked joy and half terror, that he was still alive. He looked around, he seemed to be in a witch’s circle, the evil witch intoning words before him, yet he couldn’t move at all, being restrained by some magic.
He looked around, the circle was drawn in blood, and there were twelve other witches surrounding him all around the circumference. It took him a moment to understand, they’d kept him until the new full moon so they could perform a spell rite. But what spell? He tried to move, but couldn’t even budge an inch with all the strength of his vampire nature.
“What are you doing? I demand to be…”
He gave up and hunched his shoulders. They didn’t even respond to his voice, they simply continued to chant creepily in a language he didn’t recognize. The floor lit with a blood red light that felt… evil. He had often wondered if he was evil, the way he craved blood all the time. He’d even killed a few people by accident, and had been more upset about that fact that those deaths hadn’t made him feel at all guilty than anything else.
Still, he could feel it now, he wasn’t evil, or at least, not nearly as evil as what he felt rising up through the floor. This was true evil, and insanity. He gasped as red shadowy smoke gathered around him, and shuddered in horror as it flowed into his mouth. He wished that he’d listened to his master one more time, and it was the last wish he would ever make…
Chapter 1
Celia Winters stared into the mirror feeling a bit conflicted. It had been three weeks since Berny had dragged her out of the store to update her wardrobe. The young woman had made a lot of good points.
She was wearing tight dark gray jeans, almost black, with calf high black leather boots that had two inch heels. She wore a white stretchy curve hugging shirt, with a loose red blouse over it mostly unbuttoned. She had to admit that she looked better than when she’d been wearing loose blue jeans and t-shirts.
That was an understatement she reluctantly admitted, she looked beautiful, and sexy… it gave her a major confidence boost along with being a shifter. She’d been passably attractive before, but with her shifter side kicking in she’d noticed she was more graceful, and between the physiology and her daily intense workouts, she’d become a lot more toned and shapely, and the new clothes showed that off to great advantage.
But… she also felt like a fake, she wasn’t used to it yet and it just didn’t feel like her, she felt like she was dressing up as someone else.
She blew a breath through her lips as she saw something out of the corner of her eye. It looked like the air was much thicker in a small area across the room, about the size of newborn baby. She just ignored it. She’d started to see things a couple of weeks ago. At first she’d panicked, but she was getting used to it now and disregarded it more than not. Once she’d even seen something in the candle flame as she meditated, it scared the hell out of her, but when she turned her head and focused on it, there wasn’t anything there.
The problem with that was she always felt magic nearby when she saw something, as if something was really there. It didn’t seem it had any harmful intent to it, but instead just watched her. But then hallucinations were supposed to be realistic right? Her mind was probably just messing with her. Either way, they’d never done anything to her. If they were real her wards had no effect on them.
She knew if she turned her head now, the thick air wouldn’t be there anymore. It was just one more thing to add to the crazy list, Silva wanted to pounce it, but she sent calming thoughts to her tiger half. She hadn’t made much progress magic wise, maybe between a two or three on the scale before Silva would freak out and she’d lose her concentration. So far she’d been lucky and hadn’t needed it. A little preparation making personal wards, plus her shifter abilities, seemed to be carrying her through.
She just hoped that would remain enough.
She shook her head at her reflection, and then grabbed a coffee before heading downstairs and opening up the store. She sat down, it was still a little before eight and she felt a little restless, despite running twenty miles this morning she knew her inability to sit still was from the shifter side of her. She wondered if all shifters were like this all the time, or if it wa
s just her.
After all, she had a lot more magic being half witch, than a typical shifter. She assumed her shifter side had full access to the magical core inside of her, to the point she was sure Silva could cast spells as well as she could. But there was no way to prove it, since Silva herself wouldn’t go near magic if it could be avoided. But she had endless energy, almost to the point where she was jittery, luckily she wasn’t quite that bad, just… very alert all the time now.
She didn’t suppose that was a terrible thing, but it made it more difficult to get to sleep at night.
Her phone went off and she snatched it up of the table, it was a text message from Ella, the tiger shifter on the local council, and Paul’s sister. She looked at the text and there were two simple words, No match, and she stared at it for a few seconds before replying with thanks.
She didn’t need clarification, she knew what it meant, neither Paul nor Ella was related to her, which was both a relief and a frustration right now. Since Paul was gone it wasn’t really helpful. A few days ago, Paul had indicated there wasn’t much more to teach her about fighting moves or style. She still had a long way to go, but improvement would come with pure practice and innovation rather than instruction.
After that, they’d only met once more two nights ago, where he’d told her he needed to leave for personal reasons, and he wasn’t sure when he’d be back here, just that it would happen sometime. Damn tiger shifter… her libido was going to kill her. She was tired of waiting, her newfound energy seemed to apply to all of her bodies… needs. More food, more activity, more… well, no sex actually, that was the problem.
Still, she had the iron control and discipline of a witch. It wouldn’t kill her to wait, or so she told herself. Unfortunately regular human men just didn’t do anything for her, and though she liked the wolves as friends, going farther was actually a little repulsive to her. No doubt a cat and dog thing, but there it was. A witch would have been acceptable, but she didn’t want a one night stand either, cravings or not, she didn’t want her libido to control her life, and none of the men from the coven seemed interested in more than that.
It was quiet right now, but the next shifter thing that came along she’d be working with Josh. He was a temporary replacement, she hoped. Oh, Kelly’s mate was a good enough man, but he was young for a shifter and had a short temper, to be fair though she hadn’t talked to him much since delivering rose, so maybe he wasn’t so bad. She’d find out.
Her business had equalized, she hadn’t lost any customers in over a week, and she’d even gained a little back from some curious witches who’d heard of her. Most likely so they could brag about knowing her for shock value when someone gossiped about the evil shifter witch in Rock Hill, but that wouldn’t stop her from selling to them.
Crap. She saw another one of those air things in the corner. This one was different, it was… almost agitated, the magic she felt was vibrating strongly and she got the sense of danger. Great, she was going crazier by the second.
But then the door opened. She looked up expecting to see Berny, or a customer, but it was a tall thin man wearing a ski mask, and he was lifting a gun with his finger on the trigger.
“Die abomination!”
As he pulled the trigger, she used her power over air to push the air inside the barrel of the gun to the side. She couldn’t do much, but it was more than effective as the bullet passed to her right as she rolled off the stool and onto the floor behind the checkout counter. Well this was new, her first assassination attempt. Her blood was pumping and her heart was pounding with exhilaration. She felt the excited smile on her face, and was surprised. There was no fear in her at all. She didn’t think she’d have reacted this way, but it was almost like relief that she wasn’t bored anymore.
She was crazy, or at least she thought so, and Silva was in agreement, although her cat had no room to talk, she was excited as well.
She peaked around the right side of the counter, and shot him with a stun spell while setting off a small flare of fire in his eyes. The spell bounced off, so he was a witch, but the fire caused him to scream and flinch back. She grinned with feral joy and dashed out from behind the counter. Her speed was incredible, and her senses were tightly focused. She heard the sound of him pulling back the trigger again and dodged to the side as she did the air trick again.
She wondered when she’d become an adrenaline junkie… because she’d never felt so alive as she did right now. She’d probably freak out about it later, think herself suicidal, but right now she was having too much fun to care.
He held onto the gun tightly, but failed to hit her as he pulled the trigger again, between the dodge and the air fouling his aim, he missed her by at least two feet. He didn’t get third try as she was there, and grabbed his wrist, twisted the gun out of his hand, and then flipped him on his back. She kicked him in the head, holding back enough to merely daze and disorientate, not kill, and then stepped on his throat and ripped his ski mask off.
She didn’t recognize him. She waved a hand and started to batter at his wards with her magic, casting a series of dispersal spells. It took almost a half a minute since she was limited in how much magic she could channel, all while he struggled to breathe underneath her boot, before his wards fell. Then she spelled him asleep. She hadn’t been purposefully cruel, but he couldn’t talk with her boot on his windpipe, that meant no casting for him either.
She guessed his primary gifts, those used without spells, like her control over weather, air, and fire, weren’t offensive gifts for him. Otherwise he probably wouldn’t have used a gun, and her approach would have been much less effective.
She walked into the back with him thrown over her shoulder and tossed him on the shipping table and started to go through his wallet. Shit, he was from Charlotte, and a young man. Obviously the council hadn’t sent him, but he must be in their coven.
That spelled something very bad. She verified her magic would hold for a while and walked back out front to call Ed…
Chapter 2
“Hi Berny, I have a would be assassin in the back, just so you know.”
Bernadette tilted her head at me, “Seriously?”
Berny looked around, and her eyes went up when she saw the bullet hole by the doorframe behind the counter that led to the back room.
“Well, I see your okay… are you okay?”
She shrugged, “It wasn’t a big deal, he’s a kid from Charlotte, so I’m waiting for Ed to get here before…” she trailed off.
Berny lifted an eyebrow and asked bluntly, “Before you kill him?”
That sounded so much worse when her beautiful young friend said it. Berny was definitely an adult, very mature at eighteen, but she still showed hints of a lingering innocence at times, which made the bald unconcerned statement that much more startling.
She nodded slowly, “That’s how it works, the idiot attacked his own council’s enforcer. But I don’t like it either, that’s why I’m waiting. Need to question him too, find out why or if anyone else was involved.”
Berny came around the counter and gave her a hug, “You sure you’re okay?”
She hugged back briefly and when Berny stepped away replied, “Yeah, actually I’m more disturbed about how okay I am, if that makes sense. It was kind of… exciting.”
Berny snickered, “That’s your shifter side no doubt, witches are too smart for that.”
She grinned, “They are a little nuts, aren’t they. Shifters I mean.”
Berny shook her head and let out a trilling laugh, “A little? You know I love you, and I even like Kelly and Tina when they stop by, but yes, completely nuts.”
For some strange reason that made her feel better. She wasn’t even crazier than she thought she was, she wasn’t suicidal, she was just a shifter. That said, Berny didn’t really know about the crazy option, only Paul knew about her alter ego. She was also having second thoughts however about her new hallucinations, she knew she didn’t have any powers to sense
the future, and the strange visitor out of the corner of her eyes had clearly been warning her right before the gunman came in.
So… feeling magic, can’t look directly at it, and not crazy. She’d have to do some research and figure out what it was, what they were. She’d seen air and fire versions.
The door opened again and it still wasn’t Ed. Cheryl Saunders, a nine year old girl, ran at Celia and leaped up at her. She caught the young lady and looked up at her mother as she came through the doors herself.
Elaine grinned, “How’s it going?”
Elaine had changed tremendously over the last month, and was seriously considering joining the coven officially. She was already living in the coven house under the protection of Fran, from her old coven in Albany. Surprisingly there had been no more attempts from that source to reclaim Elaine since then.
For some reason she couldn’t really understand, Cheryl really liked Celia. Surprisingly Elaine had no trouble accepting Celia was part shifter, since Celia had saved her life last month. She also wasn’t as anti-shifter as most witches were, simply because her ex husband hated them so much and acted like shifters were a plague.
She wasn’t complaining, she had two more people in her corner, even if one was still a rug rat.
“Going good, how are you two this morning?”
Elaine answered, “Great, we’re just here…” at the same time Cheryl said, “Good, were here to pick up supplies. We volunteered.”
Elaine snorted, “That’s what happened alright.”
Celia got the sense that Cheryl had volunteered them, and rather strongly, from Elaine’s tone of voice.
Berny said, “I’ll be right back,” and walked into the back without hesitation.
Berny came back out with the stuff she’d packaged for the coven last night and handed it over. Elaine and Cheryl chatted for a while about magic and the coven before they got ready to leave.
Celia had found out just last week why Elaine’s ex Gerald wanted to control their daughter so badly. Cheryl actually had water and psychometry as her primary witch gifts. Psychometry was one of the rarest and treasured gifts, it was worthless in a fight, but could be used to easily pull secrets from someone’s past, simply by touching one of their objects.
Demon's Moon: A Celia Winters Novel Book 2 Page 1
