Darkening Moon

by Gaja J. Kos

  And they were going for the kill.

  I placed myself firmly in front of Greta and Voit, closing my eyes just as the first shot cut through the deathly silence.

  28

  Grunts swept through the room, a cascade of punches and shots. Shots like the one I expected to push through my chest with searing pain.

  But what I felt was warmth.

  A scent my wolf recognized.

  A presence that sang to my very soul.

  All the fear I had kept locked inside me erupted. I collapsed into Afanasiy’s arms, the realization that this was real wrenching a sob from my throat.

  Together, we slid to the floor. More shots rang out, and the stench of burnt flesh rode the air with such intensity my stomach twisted into a tight knot.

  But amidst the pulsing violence, Afanasiy cradled me, blanketed me in security that kept the worst of it at bay. My head buried in his chest, I allowed the tears to fall.

  The fighting stopped before my sobs did.

  I peered over Afanasiy’s shoulder, seeing a myriad of ICRA agents through the haze, their guns pointed at the men several demons had ensconced in ethereal fire.

  “It’s over.” His fingers brushed through my sweaty, bloodied hair. “It’s over, kāros.”

  The word flowed through my mind like the first breeze of spring.

  Beloved.

  I looked into his violet eyes, holding on to the devotion as darkness claimed me.

  “You felt me,” I said once all of us were finally outside—and conscious.

  The blazing sun revealed I’d lost a lot more time than I had initially thought. Two and a half days, actually, as Afanasiy had corrected.

  What he didn’t have to put into words was that I hadn’t been the only one to walk through a nightmare.

  Ambulances, much like the one I was sitting in, were scattered across the brush surrounding the gray slab of a building, ICRA agents crawling all over the place. Faintly, I registered Morozov standing next to Greta where a team of paramedics were checking her over, while the demons lingered around Voit, his body now hooked up to tubes that reminded me just a little too much of what I’d seen inside.

  I shuddered, then calmed myself.

  The tubes wouldn’t drain what little life force Voit still had within him.

  They would nourish it.

  Afanasiy’s fingers drew a delicate trail down the side of my cheek. “I felt you, kāros, but lost the link before I could follow. All I had was a general direction of where you were.”

  His words were clipped, as if he were barely holding back the rage and panic I felt in echoes through our proximity. I leaned into his touch and pressed a kiss into the palm of his hand.

  “So you went to ICRA?”

  They had burst inside together, after all. And since he knew I was working with Morozov, it wasn’t too much of a stretch to presume it was the werewolf he turned to after hearing my call.

  “I did. But long before you reached out. We worked together ever since Morozov lost your signal just outside Sturm.”

  The fury in his eyes was wild, vicious. Greta’s boss was a lucky man to still draw breath.

  “Later, I told him where I was sensing you, but it took us a long time to scour the area, and narrow it down to this property. Even so, since we don’t have the mating bond established between us yet, I was going in as blind as the rest of them. If any of the guards raised the alarm and you were too far away for me to protect you…” He let out a shuddering exhale. “It was a risk I never would have taken. If it hadn’t been for that agent you sent me to—”

  “Isa?” I cocked my head to the side. “Isa Vogt joined you?”

  “She led us,” he said simply, then leaned over to brush a kiss on my forehead. “It took her a while to break through the…scrambled signal, I believe she called it. But eventually, she succeeded in locking onto the tracker she had placed on you, giving us your precise location to establish the best point of entry.”

  “But Isa never…”

  I closed my eyes and cursed silently.

  It came to me then, that fragment of a memory I had almost forgotten. How her touch had prickled like electricity when she brought her hand on the nape of my neck, steadying me after the attack behind Albtraum.

  Locking my gaze with Afanasiy, I reached around and rubbed my fingers over the spot. There was a slight unevenness beneath the skin, like a pimple taking form before it pushed through.

  “She tagged me,” I hissed. “Isa fucking tagged me like a dog.”

  “And it saved your life.” The agent in question’s voice fluttered through the cool air.

  Her boots crunched as she walked over to the ambulance, but remained out of reach, a perfect display of impassiveness with her usual immaculate appearance and glacial demeanor. Only those cunning green eyes revealed a hint of annoyance as she took in how close Afanasiy and I were.

  But the emotion was quickly gone, and the Ice Queen of Fang reigned once more.

  “With your track record, I figured it was only a matter of time before they tried to take you again.” She shrugged. “I was right.”

  There was truth in her words, even I had to admit it. Still, something seemed…obscured.

  Greta had started digging around on my behalf when I couldn’t just brush aside the fact that Voit was missing, but it hadn’t been until—

  Oh, fuck no.

  “That’s why you told me everything you had about the case, didn’t you?” I seethed. “After I found Manfred’s body? Because when your fucking leads went cold, you wanted to use me as bait?”

  She arched one perfect eyebrow. “Isn’t that precisely what you agreed to do for Morozov?”

  “He asked,” I hissed. Afanasiy’s hand tightened around mine. “He prepared me for it, for fuck’s sake. Laid out the stakes. You would’ve just thrown me in—”

  “And I would have gotten you out.” She shot me a stare that was just as hard and pointed as were her words. “I have gotten you out, like your lover here said.”

  I groaned and leaned over until my forehead rested on my knees. Not a smart move, given the shitload of wounds littering my body. A head injury among them.

  Luckily, my werewolf healing had already kicked in, but still, when I eased myself back up, I did so with a lot more caution.

  Afanasiy placed his free hand on the small of my back and started to draw gentle, reassuring circles. I met his gaze briefly to let him see how much his presence and support meant, then focused back on Isa.

  I could have sworn there was a flicker of hurt there before she erased every last trace of it, but I honestly couldn’t care less about her feelings right now. So maybe I hadn’t been the only one who thought we might have something between us. Maybe she wanted something more, just as I had. But in the end, it had been her who’d pushed me away.

  Then used me as a means to solve her case.

  Fortunately for everybody, I was just too worn out to be pissed any longer. All I wanted was to go home, slide next to Afanasiy under the covers, and drink in his warmth until sleep whisked me away.

  I sighed as I shook my head, then looked up at her. “I’m sure your agents will find it in time, but there’s something you need to know.”

  The gleam in her eyes went predatory once more, and I was glad to see it.

  This, I could handle.

  “This lab, whether connected to that Kauer creature I’m sure Morozov filled you in on or not, they are”—well, were, if we were being specific, since ICRA shut the entire operation down—“linked to some old friends of ours.”

  I thought back to the office, to the binder spread before me and spilling out secrets I would never have dreamed of finding in the Frankensteinean stronghold.

  “Who?”

  Isa’s question sliced through the chatter of agents and medics like a blade, matching the sensation spreading within me as the answer formed on my lips.

  “The people responsible for Nill.”

  29
/>
  “Are you sure you don’t want us to fight our way out?” Alec asked for the second time in the last ten minutes.

  I peered up from behind my desk that was, for once, moderately organized, but the snarky comeback died on my lips when I noted he was dead serious. With a tight little group of like-minded individuals to back him up.

  Elsa, Felix, and Melina stood behind him in a sort of half circle that I very much suspected would fan out and block my exit should they choose to take this to the next level. And while Afanasiy lingered by my side, he certainly wasn’t taking it in this particular argument.

  I huffed and shook my head, then finished the last of the signatures. Some battles weren’t worth fighting. Especially after they had been decided and all I felt were just the ripples of consequences.

  Once the ink dried, I shuffled the papers together in a neat pile, then placed them on the side of the desk where the rest of the vital information waited in two binders, along with a handwritten note of my personal tips and tricks. There was a dried coffee stain creeping up one end where I’d spilled it earlier in what had been my very last moment of weakness, but I couldn’t deny it added a bit of character.

  An additional touch of me that would linger in case times got hard.

  Sensing I was ready—and despite his reservations—Afanasiy stepped aside to give me some space.

  “The chair is yours, acting CEO of the Olympiapark Tennis-Zentrum,” I announced as I stood up, making a dramatic gesture at the freshly vacant seat.

  Alec only scowled at me, though it didn’t take more than a second before his expression fell, dark blue eyes filling with resentment, uncertainty—but most of all, regret.

  “There has to be another way.” He shifted as if to move forward, but his feet remained rooted to the spot. “You don’t have to do this, Lotte. Please don’t do this.”

  It took every ounce of my control not to break. “Alec, this isn’t easy for me, either, but it’s the right thing to do. What I have to do.”

  The sigh that came from Afanasiy made it perfectly clear he disagreed even before his voice filled the space. “What can they do for you that we can’t? You have the entirety of Raya’s court at your disposal in gratitude for Voitsekh’s safe return.”

  He had a point.

  Demons were remarkably fine-tuned to people’s energies, able to sift through layers and pick up on even the slightest changes the instant they began to manifest. And after word of what had gone down at the lab facility spread—thanks to Greta filling in the twins who, in turn, told Katja, who then informed Caz—Lena had rang me with a similar offer. Not only part demon, but part Koldunya, too, a being of energy and nature alike, she would more than likely be able to figure out what had been done to me a lot sooner than ICRA if I’d come to stay with her.

  But somehow, I wanted to play it by the book. Just this once.

  I stepped into Afanasiy’s embrace, then turned to the four people still affectionately glaring at me. I never thought such a combination was even possible, but they proved me wrong. Even Alec had managed to school his face back after his previous slip.

  I met his gaze and offered a small smile. “It’s only three months. Three months in quarantine along with my sister and the rest of the supes who’d been experimented on.”

  It had come as a surprise when Isa told me what ICRA suspected. That my three-day stay hadn’t been exactly idle for the scientist. They couldn’t tell just yet what kind of procedures I’d undergone, but the fact that I had woken up strapped to an examination table made them believe the bastards had at least tried prepping me, if nothing more.

  I didn’t feel any different, not really, but on this, I trusted Isa’s word.

  “If all of you need to be quarantined, then why doesn’t Voit have to stay there with you?” Alec grumbled.

  “Because he’s smart and accepted the protection of our court,” Afanasiy said dryly, but the warmth pulsing from him told me that as much as he hated my decision, deep down, I had his support.

  Still, I rolled my eyes at the handsome demon as I stepped out of his embrace and extended my hand to Alec. “So, do you accept the role?”

  For a moment, he actually looked like he was going to decline. Then his fingers wrapped around mine, the grip gentle, yet decisive. “Only until you get back.”

  “You bet.” I grinned to mask the stirrings of tears. “I’d hate to haul your ass out of here by force.”

  Alec snorted. “As if you could.”

  This time, there was no stopping the waterworks. I drew him into a hug, and once he nearly choked the air out of me, I moved over to Melina, then Elsa, and, finally, Felix, who smelled of that excellent coffee—one of the many precious things I was leaving behind.

  I wiped away my tears when I tore myself from the group and took them all in. The four people—four friends—who represented the life I’d always wanted. The normalcy and safety of a job with zero ties to violence.

  Well, supposedly zero ties.

  But as I inched back and Afanasiy’s hand curled around mine, it felt just as right. I looked up at him, those purple eyes carrying a warm undertone in the last of the afternoon light that spilled through the windows.

  “Are you ready?” he asked softly.

  I nodded.

  The group didn’t follow as Afanasiy led me into the hallway, then down the familiar flights of stairs all the way to the underground garage. The bare concrete opened up before us, only instead of taking us across and to the smaller lot outside where ICRA waited with my bags already loaded up, Afanasiy pressed me against the wall.

  His tongue parted my lips, and I couldn’t help but groan at the sheer demand of his kiss. He tasted of power, of possession, an intoxicating flavor that fueled the desire stirring in my core.

  I placed a hand on the nape of his neck and drew him closer.

  With the length of his body pressed against mine, I gave myself over to his affection until the need for air forced me to break the contact I could never get enough of. As I rested there in his arms, caught between the wall and his equally immovable body, I realized where exactly we were.

  The oh-so-regal Blade of Raya, as Lena had put it, wasn’t quite so regal after all.

  My company must have started to rub off on him, because the sneaky demon picked one of the few spots the newly installed cameras didn’t cover.

  I chuckled and drew back slightly, meeting the mischief in his violet gaze. “You know they’re waiting for me.”

  “And they can wait a little longer.” His voice slid across my skin like silk, teasing me until my breaths grew ragged once more. “Three months is a long time, Lotte Freundenberger, to stay parted.”

  “I’m sure you’ll find a way to slip past their defenses and slide in, kāros.”

  Carnal was the only word I could think of to match the heat flaring to life on his handsome face as I called him beloved.

  “I know,” he whispered. His breath dipped from my lips to my neck, then back again, while his fingers tugged on the drawstring of my sweats. “But I would very much like to slide in now.”

  I sucked in a breath, my back arching as he claimed my mouth with unrepentant hunger.

  I was a packless, experimented-on werewolf, facing three months of close observation under ICRA’s scrutinizing eye. Yeah, having one last tryst with a drop-dead gorgeous demon who just might turn out to be my life-long mate seemed like the proper way to go.

  So I did. Twice.

  Thank you so much for reading Darkening Moon!

  If you enjoyed the book, please consider leaving a review.

  * * *

  Lotte’s story will continue in Transient Moon (out February 2019).

  * * *

  In the meantime, let me offer a few suggestions:

  if you want to read more about Lena and Caz, I kindly invite you to check out the Nightwraith series, see how the two of them got together in Nightstorm

  if you’re looking for some more kick-ass demons,
danger, and action, then Shadow World might be the read for you

  and remember, the Black Werewolves series is where it all began

  Acknowledgments

  Once again, this book wouldn’t have been possible without the people who nurtured my love for tennis. I’ve already named all of you in Shadow Moon, and while I will refrain from repeating myself, I will say thank you once more. I’ll be forever grateful that I have something I care about and that feels…well, mine.

  A huge thanks to Boris for all your support—and not looking at me funny when I run around the house shouting Lotte’s name whenever I get a touch too excited about this series. Sometimes, I still don’t know what I did to deserve you.

  A massive thank you goes to Rebecca Hamilton. Your courses and advice made me fall in love with every aspect of writing, even outlining (which I used to dread with a passion), and made it possible to spend countless hours sitting behind my desk, working on edits—all of it without ending up as grumpy as Lotte is in the first chapter.

  Of course, none of this would be possible without my amazing editor, Lindsey R. Loucks. I really don’t know what I’d do without you. If there ever comes a time when there isn’t an entire ocean separating us, I’d love to invite you on the tennis court and see some of that murdering firsthand.

  And last but not least, thanks to all of you who picked up Darkening Moon. You’re the absolute best, and I could never thank you enough for reading my words. Love you!

  About the Author

  Gaja J. Kos is a USA Today bestselling author with a mission to breathe fragments of Slavic lore onto many, many pages of fiction.

  * * *

  She resides in Celje, Slovenia, with her husband and two Chinese Crested dogs.