Blue Moon

by J. A. Belfield

  Humming and harring for too long, I narrowed my choices to twenty-five, returned them to the safe in their own pile atop the others and hit the road.

  • • •

  “This is a brilliant idea, Jem.” Poppy slid her camera’s memory card into the photo machine. “Sean will love this,” she continued as images began to appear on the small screen in front of us. “Didn’t I say you’d figure out what to get him?”

  “Yes, Pop.” I smiled as I studied my second batch of pictures of the day—ones taken at Ben’s birthday party.

  We took a few minutes to flick through. Poppy had taken more of Sean and me together than I’d remembered.

  “I’ll get all of those.” I nodded. “And one of you lot, and one of him with Ben, one with Lily.”

  We scanned through to find the ones I requested. When we came across the ones with Sean and Poppy, I burst out laughing. “Oh, yes. I have got to get him one of those.”

  “If he sees these, Jem, he may realise he’s with the wrong woman and elope with me.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous, Poppy. You’d never leave Jase.”

  “And Sean would never leave you.”

  I smiled. “Yeah, I know.”

  “My dream is shattering before my eyes.” Poppy sighed.

  I gave a quiet snort. “Now, which one shall I get framed?”

  Poppy flipped through the images and tapped the screen. “Definitely that one. The two of you are looking so adoringly at each other.”

  I peered down at the picture, its likeness, minus wedding garb, to the one I’d seen of Nathan and Beth screaming out at me. “I agree.”

  Within minutes, I had the photographs in my hand.

  Our first Christmas together, my first present to him.

  Rather than feeling daunted by the ever-looming date, an overwhelming sense of anticipation and excitement washed through me.

  For the first time since Poppy reminded me, I couldn’t wait.

  11

  Trying to keep Josh from the evil clutches of Marianne on her home turf concerned the crap out of me. Somehow, she’d managed to visit the rest of the week, clone in tow, and catch Josh whenever I’d nipped out. Reasons such as crystal balls had sprung to mind for her master evasion techniques. The creepiness of it lent an air of trepidation when Nathan pulled up outside the address Marianne had given.

  Connor’s truck parked in front of us as Nathan turned off the engine and peered at me over his shoulder. “Now remember, Jem. Keep your cool. If they bait you, do not bite. You do not want to undo what you’ve repaired.”

  “I know.” Vibrations in my pocket drew my attention down before the loud ring of my mobile pealed through the cab. I wriggled my fingers in to retrieve it, glanced down at the display before answering. “Hey, Jess.”

  “How are things going?”

  “Not bad …at the moment.”

  Josh appeared outside my window, one hand tapping the glass as the other beckoned at me to get out.

  “One second, Jess—too many ears.” I lowered the phone, waving it at Josh. “It’s my sister.”

  He nodded and grinned at me.

  I tilted my head to Sean, murmured only to him, “Carry on in. I’ll see what Jess has to say and follow.”

  He turned to Nathan. “Dad, let’s go. Jem can come in when she’s finished her call.”

  “Okay.” Nathan faced me. “Don’t be long.”

  The three doors opened, and the men climbed out.

  As soon as they’d gone, I returned the phone to my ear. “I’m back.” My gaze followed them down the path to a terraced, brick house.

  “So, how are things really going?” Jess’s voice brought me back.

  “Not bad. Josh still adores me.”

  She gave a small laugh. “Well, all’s right with the world then.”

  “Especially as we made a bit of progress on the identity front,” I said, ignoring her sarcasm. “How about you?”

  “Nothing concrete yet. Just a few rumours, which have been shared by mentioning the sisters’ names. What have you found out?”

  The door swung open, and Marianne appeared in the frame.

  “Well, as I’m now sitting outside an address with Marianne inside . . .”

  She took a step back, and Josh and Dan trailed inside, followed by the entire pack. A gulp lodged in my throat at their disappearance into the witches abode.

  “Don’t you think that’s a bit risky?” Jess asked. “You don’t know—”

  “We’re all here,” I cut in. “Marianne invited us to dinner. She said it’s to make up for disturbing our meal at Connor’s last week.”

  “Bullshit!”

  “Yep. She wasn’t too happy when Nate insisted I be included. Somehow, I don’t believe I was part of her plans.”

  “Ha!” Jess barked. “So, when are you all going in?”

  “I’ve sent the others in without me so I can talk to you.” My eyes narrowed at the front door of the house swinging open again. “Hang on. Somebody’s come to the door.” I took in the appearance of a girl with ash blonde curls tied back into a wild ponytail. “And it’s somebody I don’t recognise.”

  “What’s going on?”

  The blonde girl lifted her hand and wiggled her fingers—at me.

  My eyebrow lifted. “She’s waving at me.”

  “Friendly wave, unfriendly wave …piss-take wave?”

  “Well . . .” I waved back in a half-hearted manner. “She’s smiling.”

  “Wave back,” Jess said. “Play along.”

  “I did.”

  The girl stooped low to the floor.

  I frowned. “What the hell’s she doing now?”

  Her hand shook from side to side as though sowing something across the doorstep.

  “What is she doing?” Jess asked.

  “Chucking something on the ground by the looks of things.”

  The ponytailed girl straightened and went back into the property, the front door left wide in her wake.

  “She still there?” asked Jess.

  “No, she’s gone back in.”

  “So, go take a look.”

  ‘Go take a look’, I mouthed as I pushed open the truck door.

  Apprehension dominated the speed I walked up the path. I hesitated halfway down. “Maybe I should just go in. If they’re up to something, I don’t really want my boys in there alone.”

  “Call me if you need anything.”

  “Okay.” I hung up.

  A few more steps took me to the front door. My chest heaved with the deep breath I drew. Foot lifted, I went to step through but halted.

  The open doorway showed a long, narrow hallway that gave off a tunnel-like effect. I peered down its length. Although I heard the pack and female voices, I saw no one.

  A tilt of my head helped locate them toward the rear of the property, and I lifted my foot again, went to step through the door, and I halted again.

  Eyes narrowed, I stared into the empty space and tried again.

  Same result. Although the impact didn’t bring pain, I appeared to be hitting an invisible wall.

  I shuffled back down the path a few steps and redialled Jess’s number.

  “Problem?” she answered.

  “I can’t get in.”

  “Have you tried knocking?”

  “You’re funny. You know that?” I said. “There’s nothing to knock. The bloody door’s wide open. I just can’t get through.”

  A few seconds of silence, and she said, “The girl you saw was what? Sprinkling something?”

  “That’s what it looked like.”

  “Take a look. See if it’s visible.”

  I moved back to the step and dro
pped into a crouch, frowning when I spotted a fine powder spread in a line across the threshold. I straightened and stepped back again. “It’s a powder.”

  “What colour?”

  “Red. Brown.” I shrugged at the empty garden. “Brownie-red.”

  “Well, shit!”

  My pulse increased. “Why do you say, ‘Well, shit’, every time I mention something these witches have done?”

  “Because the sly bitches have taken advantage of you not entering with the men.”

  I stuck out my lower lip, blew at my hair. “In English, please, Jess.”

  “The dust you can see across the doorway is red brick dust. If you place it across your thresholds and windows—any possible entrance—it prevents anybody entering who wishes to cause you harm.”

  “But—”

  “Do you wish to cause this Marianne harm, Jem?”

  “Well …not today, particularly,” I murmured.

  Jess laughed. “How much have you fantasised about hurting this girl?”

  I scratched at my head. “I may have closed my eyes once or twice and imagined how it would feel to rip out her throat.”

  Her second laugh prickled my eardrum. “And therein lies your problem. You can’t cross the threshold—not whilst you want to do her harm.”

  My fists clenched, helping my cause not one bit. “Damn.”

  “Jem?” Nathan’s deep voice bounced from one wall to the other in its passage along the narrow hallway.

  “I’ll be there in a sec,” I called back before hissing into the phone, “What do I do? I’m going to look a right idiot if I have to admit I can’t get through the door.”

  “There isn’t—”

  “Can’t I just brush it off or something?” I squatted back down by the step.

  “No.”

  I reached out with my fingers anyway. The invisible barrier prevented me reaching even that. “Shit!”

  “Are you coming in, Jem, or what?” called Josh.

  “Coming. Won’t be a minute,” I sang back. “Where’s bloody Sean when I need him?” I muttered.

  A shadow coated the carpet from the end of the hall. My head snapped up as I stood.

  Marianne.

  “Got to go,” I whispered into the phone. “Witch alert.” I hung up, slid it into my pocket and watched Marianne’s slow saunter toward me.

  A smirk played on her lips as she reached the door. “Aren’t you coming in, Jem?”

  I folded my arms across my chest, staring at her.

  “Everybody’s waiting.” She smiled wider, took a step back with an arm gesture toward the room that housed the others.

  I stepped forward and hit the barrier for the fourth time. It took a whole lot of effort to suppress the growl bubbling in my throat.

  At footsteps hitting the path behind me, I turned to a small girl with brown hair bounding toward the house.

  Her red lips and unusual green eyes greeted me as she skipped past. “Sorry I’m late.”

  “It’s okay, Zoë.” Marianne flattened to the wall as though to allow her through. “We haven’t started yet.”

  My feet followed the young woman. Without incident, the newcomer entered the house. On her tail, I hopped for the doorway.

  No entry.

  Marianne smothered her mouth with her fingers, her eyes sparkling with malice. As her hand lowered, her smile twisted into a downturn, her entire body leaned toward me, and the humour vanished from her bright blue irises. “You think you can outwit me, Jem?”

  My head lowered, but my gaze remained on her. “I don’t think. I know I can.”

  Her body moved closer. “Well, you can’t get in here now, can you?”

  The raised step brought her to my level. A quick dip of my eyes revealed her almost venture to my side of the doorway—almost, but not quite.

  I’d have to fix that.

  My lip curled as my gaze rose to meet hers. “You may think you can keep me away, but you can’t,” I growled. “Your petty games are nothing but a bore to me.”

  She took a tiny step forward.

  I couched my smile. “You think Josh will ever be more interested in you than he is in me?”

  She took another step, a sickly scent wafting from her body. “Josh isn’t interested in you. Why would he want an old woman when he can have someone young and beautiful like me?”

  “Well, don’t you just have tickets on yourself?” Another brief glance checked the position of her feet before I locked eyes with her again. One more step and I’d have her.

  “Jem?” Nathan boomed.

  I shuffled a foot back.

  “Run along, Jem.” Marianne’s face became a picture of ugliness as it twisted further.

  Attention flitting between her eyes and her feet, my body moved back another couple of inches.

  “Jem!” Nathan shouted.

  Marianne matched my backward movement with a forward one of her own. “Run along, dog . . .”

  My head whipped up.

  “Your master’s calling.”

  My hand shot out. I grabbed her throat. A thrust of my arm to the right took her feet from the floor and sent her to smack into the bricks at the side of the door.

  She barely had time to grunt.

  I pressed my hand hard onto her larynx, pushed my face close with a quiet snarl. “You think I don’t know what you are, witch?”

  Her eyes widened, yet her lips produced nothing but gasped breaths.

  “You think you can take away my family? I’ve got news for you, Marianne. You have to go through me first.”

  No response.

  I guessed my compression held responsibility for that.

  “You think I don’t know what you’ve been doing to Josh? You must have realised I knew the second I flipped about the bracelet because nobody’s that stupid,” I said. “But, I suppose you must be stupid because only a moron would keep coming back.”

  Her mouth opened and closed. No sound arrived. Her eyes bulged a little, too.

  “Maybe if I just snap your neck, be done with it …then your hold on Josh will be broken.”

  She gave a frantic headshake, hindered by my grasp.

  “Jem!”

  At the call of my mate, my head tilted.

  Marianne’s feet flailed beneath her.

  I loosened my grip a little.

  “It won’t work,” she rasped. “Killing me …won’t work.”

  “No?” I smiled. “Doesn’t mean I wouldn’t enjoy doing it.”

  “Jem!” Curiosity and impatience tinged Sean’s tone.

  “Coming, baby,” I called.

  “You . . .” Marianne gasped

  I lifted my fingers, raised an eyebrow.

  “You’re not even tame,” she said. “You think you can huff and puff—”

  A hand tightening cut her off. Her gasp squeaked out. I squeezed that one quiet, too—though her words clanged around inside my head until they had my attention.

  I peered down at the doorstep. Huff and puff? “Bloody brilliant.”

  Confusion filled Marianne’s wide eyes.

  “That is a brilliant idea, Marianne, even for you.”

  Her frown almost folded her head in half with its deepness.

  I laughed, snatched away my hand.

  She landed in a crumpled heap on the ground.

  Back at the threshold, I dropped to my knees, lowered my head and blew—as hard as I could.

  The strength of my breaths hit the dust, lifting it into the air before it floated away to land in scattered formation. With Marianne on my side of the dust, I guessed it would no longer hold effect. I couldn’t have been more right.

  “Genius.” I sent one final grin to
the frightened witch, stepped over the doorstep and entered the house

  12

  A trio of shocked female faces greeted me as I stepped into the dining room where an encompassing smell as sickly as honey and fruit combined. The seven male werewolves sat around a huge dining table whilst their twitching noses followed every tiny movement of the women at the far end of the room.

  Controlling the twitch of my eyebrows, I headed straight for Amber, holding out my hand. “Good to see you again.” I smiled, wondering if I should take up acting classes with my improved skills.

  With a grin of her own, she accepted my handshake. “Hello, Jem.”

  I held on for a moment too long as I inhaled.

  Amber definitely expelled the sickly sweet smell.

  I turned my attention to a somewhat plump young woman behind Amber’s shoulder.

  Wide, hazel eyes shone beneath frizzy hair that, no longer tied back, fell across her face. Brick dust girl.

  I offered my hand to her. “Hi, I’m Jem.”

  “Nice to meet you.”

  I stared hard at her flickering eyes, gripped tight onto her clammy hand and held a smile in place at her hastened breaths.

  “Oh …sorry,” she eventually said. “My name’s Stephanie.”

  “And I’m Heather,” a tall girl cut in over her shoulder. Her tone held more confidence than Stephanie’s. She wore her dark brown hair and tinted, fashion glasses with ease, too. “I’ve been dying to meet you. Marianne’s told us so much already.”

  “I just bet she has.”

  An almost silent chuckle from Sean accompanied my quiet utterance as I stepped around the plump girl to Heather. A second waft of the alluring perfume drifted up as I accepted the outstretched hand of the confident girl. “Jem,” I said as we shook.

  Although Sean’s eyes found mine when I turned back to the pack, his nose wrinkled as wildly as the other men’s. Whatever the witches had dabbed on themselves had the boys’ attention for sure.

  Not good.

  “What took you so long?” Sean whispered.