by Gaja J. Kos
Darkening Moon
Gaja J. Kos
Copyright © 2018 by Gaja J. Kos
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
* * *
ISBN: 978-961-94374-2-1
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Published by Boris Kos
Celje
August 2018
Contents
Kolovrat Universe
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
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Thank you so much for reading Darkening Moon!
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Also by Gaja J. Kos
Kolovrat Universe
The Lotte Freundenberger series sits at the heart of the “Future” portion of the Kolovrat universe. However, several other works exist in the same sphere.
Each series/standalone title can be read individually, or as a whole for a more complex insight into the universe where myth and reality blend into one.
* * *
PRESENT
* * *
BLACK WEREWOLVES SERIES
Urban fantasy
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Novels:
The Dark Ones
The 24hourlies
The Shift
The Ascension
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Novellas:
Never Forgotten
Chased
* * *
NIGHTWRAITH SERIES
Paranormal romance
* * *
Windstorm
Blackstorm
Nightstorm
* * *
FUTURE
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PARADISE OF SHADOWS AND DEVOTION
Standalone paranormal romance
* * *
LOTTE FREUNDENBERGER SERIES
Urban fantasy
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Shadow Moon
Darkening Moon
* * *
SHADE ASSASSIN
Urban fantasy
* * *
Shadow World
* * *
DESTINY RECLAIMED
Urban fantasy standalone novella
For Lindsey.
Keep on murdering those tennis balls!
1
Keeping everyone in check while the world did its best to derail me was fucking stressful.
In all honesty, I wasn’t even surprised that so many individuals in a position of power and responsibility dropped dead from heart failure. Human or supe, the boss always pulled the short straw.
Unfortunately, that cheerful lot included me.
I gave the off-white piece of paper in my hands one last disgusted look, then set it aside before the instinct to rip it to shreds won over reason. It fluttered towards the edge of the desk when I sighed, the cup holding my assortment of mostly used up pens the only thing preventing it from making the plunge to the floor. A damn shame.
Should have known it—or its contents—wouldn’t leave me alone that easily.
Controlling my breaths, I leaned back in the leather swivel chair and rubbed my temples. Wonderful. This was just fucking wonderful. Thanks to some universal law of Let’s Make Lotte’s Life Shit, the Tennis Association just had to implement changes within a month of me taking over the Zentrum. As if learning the ropes and dealing with the aftermath of Schultz’s betrayal wasn’t enough.
With a wince, I rolled my chair over to the secondary switch on the wall and flicked it on. The glare of artificial light did little to alleviate the multitude of hammers pounding within my skull, but it definitely beat having nothing but the bleak grayness of the day looming just outside the window and giving the otherwise pleasant space a dreary makeover.
Still, the muted tones continued to seep through. They crept across the office, painting it that dull shade of awful that matched my mood.
If I had any humor left in me, I would have laughed.
Kicking my feet, I rolled back towards the desk when my nostrils flared. A faint whiff of coffee slithered beneath the closed door. Dark. Strong. Mine.
I latched onto the scent as if it were a lifeline, shoved the pain aside, and brought a finger down on the proper button on the bulky stationary phone, then switched on the speaker.
My secretary’s bright voice came over not a second later. “What can I do for you, Lotte?”
“Could you buzz Voit’s office and tell him to get his ass in here?”
The growl in my tone was evident, but Felix had gotten used to it by now and didn’t hesitate for a second.
“On it.”
When the call disconnected, I glanced at the damn letter again. Voitsekh had missed the new yearly seminars the Association had made mandatory for every coach. Even the ones teaching recreatives. It seemed getting our licenses wasn’t good enough for them any longer, although I suspected money had a lot more to do with it than actually making sure the coaches’ knowledge and techniques were up to date. The seminars were far from cheap for the load of crap they offered.
The phone buzzed.
“Lotte?” Felix. “Voit isn’t answering. Do you want me to go—”
“No.” I waved my hand as if he could see it. Although given how well the werewolf seemed to know me, his mind probably supplied him with the gesture anyway. “I’ll walk over there myself.”
“Need to get out of the office for a bit?”
I let out a bitter laugh. “Something like that, yeah.”
“If you drop by, I have a fresh pot of coffee ready.”
And he did, too. It was the lifeline I was still clinging to—and had every intention of tasting.
“Sounds good to me,” I said with the barest hint of a smile before I closed the line with a tap of my finger and marched outside.
I glanced left at the floor-to-ceiling windows that lined the end of the corridor and overlooked the park. While my former boss’s office was just too tainted for me to ever feel comfortable in, even after all the months that had passed since the Munich Games, I had moved up to the third level. Not something I did with any amount of enthusiasm since it all but cut me off from the rest of the Zentrum.
Unfortunately, faced with the shitload of paperwork I always had on my hands now as the CEO, my old, much smaller space just didn’t cut it any longer. My severe lack of an organizational system contributed, too.
Neat I was not.
It had taken me a while to get used to the different bed of scents that surrounded me, but I had to admit the view up here was spectacular. On a good day, at least. Plus, the several flights of stairs I battled daily came with the benefit of keeping me in shape since I was spending far less tim
e out on the court thanks to all the work.
Couldn’t complain about that.
I said my hellos to a few employees on my way to the second floor, then marched down the corridor I knew like the back of my hand. Voit had moved into my old office after he joined the Zentrum, and my legs seemed to carry me there without any input from my mind. I rapped my knuckles on the wooden door, sampling the air at the same time.
Nothing.
Since I didn’t have my master keys with me, I had to settle on filtering information from the currents seeping from beneath the door. Even so, it was clear Voit hadn’t been in since last night. Last afternoon, more like it. He wasn’t the kind of demon to work overtime.
Blowing out a breath, I turned around, slowing my steps only briefly as I passed Alec’s office. He was abroad with Rihard on a grand slam, and the absence of his scent hit me like a blow. I could really use some of his sunny vibe right now. In all honesty, even Rihard’s would do.
As it was, I kept walking.
I ascended the stairs then turned left when I reached the third floor. As much as I craved the coffee permeating the air from the first office in the other wing where Felix reigned, there was one more face I had to see. Not only might she have information on Voit’s whereabouts, but she was a friend who was more than equipped for dealing with my moods.
“Hello there, boss.” Elsa smiled when I popped my head through her slightly open door. “Come in.”
I shimmied inside and returned her smile. As always, Elsa was nothing short of stunning. Her long auburn hair was pulled up in an intricate ponytail that draped across her shoulder, the deep red of her dress complementing her dark complexion.
Compared to me, clad from head to toe in casual black, she actually fitted in with those last breaths of fall visible through the window behind her.
I chuckled. She was probably the only person I knew who loved every single season and wasn’t afraid to show it. Vividly.
“What brings you here, love?” she asked, propping her elbows on the desk. “I thought you were up to your neck in paperwork?”
I was, actually. It was why having to deal with this matter made me even crankier.
Ignoring the empty chair, I skirted around and perched my butt on the windowsill. “Have you seen Voit around?”
“What did the dashing demon do now?”
The coyness in her voice brought a grin to my face. Elsa had grown close with our newest coach. There was nothing romantic between them, just friendship, although I had a distinct feeling that just might change somewhere down the road. Immortals tended to seek out their mates, and the two of them seemed to be getting along astonishingly well.
“You know the mandatory seminars the Association enforced?” I asked.
“The ones you’ve been bitching about for the past three months?”
“Those would be the ones, yes.” The corners of my lips twitched. “Voit missed his, and I received a lovely notice today, telling me his license has been temporarily suspended.”
“Ah, that explains the scowl.” Gold bracelets jingled as she waved her hand elegantly at my face—and the scowl that was, indeed, resting there. “What do you plan to do?”
I leaned the back of my head against the cool glass. “Honestly, Elsa, I don’t know.”
Regardless of how well the club and our players did, it was fucking hard to find a good coach willing to come on board. Schultz’s fiasco had done its fair share of harm to our reputation, and those individuals who did come in for an interview were usually a bit less experienced than what we needed. With Rihard on the rise and Alec now acting as his head coach, we had to pull in people who knew how to take the younger athletes up that step that would turn them pro.
Those, unfortunately, were few in between and in very high demand.
Not to mention reluctant to devalue themselves by associating with a club that had been tied to doping.
Among all the candidates, Voit had been the only one who fit the bill. Finding someone now and on such short notice… Shit, I might as well start working double overtime myself.
“So have you seen him around?” I brushed a piece of lint off my pants and peered at Elsa. “From the smell of it, he hasn’t even been in today.”
“Maybe he knew he screwed up and wanted to escape your wrath,” she offered, then shrugged. “It could be that he was called to the Shadow World. You know demons aren’t exactly the most patient bunch.”
“Isn’t that the truth,” I grumbled.
Elsa’s subdued, but no less amused chuckle vibrated through the air.
Voit had been summoned to the demonic land numerous times before and almost always had to leave on short notice. A massive pain in the ass on its own, but he’d never failed to inform someone where he was going. Even if it often was the first person he laid his eyes on, which meant the news took some time to reach the intended ears.
“He mentioned he was going out with Schweiger and Georg when I spoke with him yesterday. Maybe those two could tell you more.”
“Thanks,” I said with all the warmth I could muster as my irritation grew, then glanced at the flat-screen TV fixed to the wall opposite Elsa’s desk. Its muted display was showing reruns of the matches in Australia, but neither player on the court was Rihard.
My gaze caught on the bulky clock perched awkwardly next to the TV, the annoyance returning. “I better get going if I want to catch them before they disappear on their break. Would be just my damn luck to miss them.”
“Happy hunting, Lotte.” Elsa’s voice followed me out into the corridor before fading away for good.
Much like the scent of my elusive coffee.
I found the two weres, but the results were far from satisfactory and only produced another stop to make.
Voit had been with them, yes, but after a couple rounds of beers, the two of them went home while the demon took off to Albtraum, one of the bars that catered specifically to the supernatural. I’d visited it myself once or twice, but despite what the name promised, it was just a regular dump with regular patrons of the non-human variety. I much preferred the Biergarten near my parents’ house whenever I wanted to be surrounded by supes and supes only.
Peering at the darkening sky stretching beyond the Zentrum, I pulled on my helmet and climbed onto my Kawasaki Vulcan. The leather pants and jacket I changed into were lined with fleece, although I still felt the bite of cold air as I wove into traffic and made my way over to Voit’s place in Aubing.
About halfway there, fate gifted me with the absolute last thing I wanted.
Snow.
Dainty white flakes descended from the blanket of darkness, deepening the chill that pressed against my skin. I swore under my breath and kept my gaze firmly on the road.
More often than not, the first snowfall made assholes out of drivers, and the sudden, dramatic decrease in speed of the vehicles in front of me told me I wasn’t that far off the mark.
Once I cleared the main roads and drove through the outskirts of the district, some of the tension in my shoulders eased. The tightly packed buildings gave way to stretches of grass, and the traffic grew lesser. Not so frantically cautious, either. A bloody relief. I sped up, pushing my Vulcan around the bends to make up for lost time. While the change in weather was harmless for now, the damned snow just might start sticking to the pavement if I lingered. And that was never a pleasant thing while on two wheels.
I pulled up into a short driveway before a cream-colored blocky building with rosebushes hugging its sides, then climbed off the bike. A brick path led to Voit’s door, echoing my footsteps. All the windows were dark and the house seemed abandoned, but I rang the doorbell nonetheless, hoping the bastard was just sleeping off a hangover.
Naturally, such luck was beyond my reach.
I groaned and returned to my bike, giving the persistent snow an evil eye. A part of me whispered that I should just call it a day and head home, but the other—the one that had risen to the surface after I took ov
er the Zentrum—nagged I should find Voit and get this over with tonight.
After all, if we appealed straight away, there was still a slim chance the Association would cut down his suspension from a year to three months. While those cases were rare, if Voit had truly been on some important Shadow World business at the time—and if they had an empty slot at the final seminar of the year—then we just might avoid the brunt of the shitstorm.
I pushed back the edge of my sleeve to peer at the time. Six thirty. Albtraum didn’t open until nine on workdays, so I had some time to kill. And I knew just who to spend it with.
Not wanting to take my helmet off in this ghastly weather—the gloves were a painful enough sacrifice—I quickly connected my phone to the Bluetooth piece embedded in the inner lining and phoned Melina. Unpleasant awareness slithered down my spine as I listened to the steady rings, my instincts picking up on something they didn’t like.
Muscles tense, I turned around, but the street was empty.
I frowned and sampled the air. No particular traces that stood out, although that wasn’t surprising. This was a residential area after all, and while the houses had some extra space between them, the scents mingled freely and vividly, a testimony to the many strollers who liked to enjoy the moderate quiet of the neighborhood. I forced my shoulders to loosen.
