Lunar Rebirth (Lunar Rampage Trilogy Book 3)

by Samantha Cross

  “But you’re still alive, and so is your boyfriend. You can rectify it all. It’s too late for me.” There was a deadness to her voice that sent a shiver through my body. Everything she said she meant, and she had eerily accepted it.

  I was used as ransom, as a way for them to get access to Melanie, but it was at this moment that I knew, no matter the outcome, Molly was going to kill me. She couldn’t see past her resentment for me.

  The chapel doors opened again, but this time it was Veronica, and she was escorting The Master into the room. The atmosphere around us seemed to get darker the further he strolled in. I half expected the flowers in the vases to wilt and die when he passed them.

  “Wonderful news,” he announced. “Melanie has agreed to graciously turn herself over in exchange for you.”

  Oh, no. I didn’t want to be here, but I didn’t want her throwing the towel in either. I prayed that Max had concocted a plan that she was in on, and that Melanie wasn’t really crazy enough to hand herself over.

  Master tilted his head at me and said, “Does this displease you? Surely a part of you feels some sense of relief. Now, you get to live.” He knelt in front of me, his hands clasped together. “The possibilities of wrinkles, gray hair, and little mutts running about can finally come to fruition.”

  My heart skipped a beat. Either he could read minds and knew I had been thinking about this minutes prior, or he was a good guesser. Though, I suppose these were assumptions anyone could make about me. The fact that he called my future children mutts with disdain in his voice gave me the impression he wasn’t too fond of werewolves. Good. I hoped he was afraid of them as well.

  I swallowed the lump in my throat that I didn’t even know was there and asked, “When?” I needed to prepare for whatever was about to occur. I also selfishly wanted to know how long I’d have to be here.

  “Tonight,” he coldly answered.

  A sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach grew. Tonight? That didn’t give them enough time to conjure up a plan to kill these guys. It hit me hard and fast that things probably weren’t going to end well for us.

  No. I reminded myself that if we could survive Lunar City, then we could survive this. We had to. I couldn’t entertain the idea of anything but victory.

  “You almost look sad to leave,” he observed. “Are we really that exceptional as hosts?”

  I lightly scoffed and responded, “And everyone says my jokes are lame.”

  The corner of his top lip curled ever so slightly into an almost smile. “This generation’s humor continues to let me down, but it’s good to see true sarcasm hasn’t died.”

  I think I was supposed to be flattered that he thought my response was cute, and that it didn’t send him into a violent rage. I wasn’t flattered, I was annoyed. Everything about him made my skin crawl, and I wanted him out of my face immediately.

  He rose back to his feet as I said, “You don’t have to kill her, you know. If they found a way for her to walk in the sunlight, then there’s most likely a way you could too. No one would have to get hurt.”

  “I’ve been around a very long time, dear.” I hated that he called me dear. That was Grandma’s thing. “I have explored every option as deeply and intensely as one can. Never in my life have I jumped into a plan without knowing it is the absolute best and most successful option. Melanie’s sacrifice is that.”

  My blood boiled. “Her murder,” I clarified.

  “You humans have such a narrow view of life and death. Not everyone can live forever, and when your time is up, all you can really ask for is a good death. To create a legacy that makes your life feel like it was worth something. What I’m giving to Melanie is a true honor. An honor no different than if you gave your heart to your dying child.”

  That was the most absurd thing I had ever heard.

  “Had you not reconnected with her, you would have continued thinking she was dead and would never know the difference. So, in essence, nothing is truly lost here,” he said.

  I wanted to punch him. So much.

  He was done with me and began to walk away, but I stopped him. “If you think so low of humans, why are you trying to be like us?” The way I asked it sounded spiteful, but I didn’t mean it to. I had no intention of poking the hornet’s nest, and taunting a vampire with a yearning to eat you was doing exactly that. But I had a habit of sticking my foot in my mouth.

  The Master slowly peeked over his shoulder at me and then turned back around. “I don’t want to be like you, I want to be more than you. Imperfections, weaknesses…those are very human traits. I’m not human, Cora Nash, thus I should not have a single part of me that could lower myself to your level.”

  “But you were human once.”

  “Was I?” he asked with his head coyly cocked to the side. I didn’t know the answer to that question, and he wouldn’t tell me. His origin, his age, and his name remained a mystery. He could have been a newbie vampire or could have personally hung out with Judas. Heck, maybe he was a demon. I had no freaking clue.

  “What do we do with her?” Molly asked him.

  “Prepare her for the trade.”

  Her bottom lip dropped. “You mean we’re actually going to go through with it?”

  “She’s useless to me otherwise.”

  “You can’t be serious. They can’t get away with what they’ve done to us, To Tiffany. They’re making fools of us!”

  The Master’s eyes shifted toward hers and locked. “Speak out against me one more time,” he dared her, and I could almost see Molly shrivel up inside of herself. Her face squished with shame, and her arms pulled in at her chest as she looked to the floor.

  Suddenly, The Master was turning his attention to me, only there was something strange and electric in his gaze. Despite his calm warning to Molly, his demeanor seemed to suggest that her words struck a nerve, and he was looking to blame me for it. I tried to get to my feet as quickly as possible, but he was charging right toward me.

  Shit, shit, shit.

  Suddenly, he was in front of me. He coiled his hands around my throat and yanked me toward him, promptly exposing his teeth and slamming them into the side of my neck. His fangs pierced through the holes that he had left on me from earlier, and the tissue and skin was still so sensitive that I felt like I was being torn apart. I screamed and beat my fists against his shoulders, but any legitimate fight seemed pointless or stupid. He was going to drink from me whether I wanted him to or not. If I made too much of a fuss, he could hypnotize me to stand still. Or worse, kill me.

  Thankfully, it was just a quick taste. A few seconds after the bite began, he let me go, throwing his head back and sliding his tongue across the top row of his teeth to clean them of my blood. I fell onto the floor, weakened.

  It was quiet, but I heard him chuckle. I got the impression he hurt me just because he could, and not because he was actually hungry. I’m sure a part of him hated what Molly implied and resented returning me in one piece. He wanted to make sure I was as banged up as possible.

  Just as quickly as he appeared, he left.

  I pressed the flats of my palms to the floor and tried to hold myself up, the whole time my body shivered and ached from his attack. I was in so much pain I wanted to cry. He probably would have left me alone if Molly hadn’t opened her mouth.

  I already agonized over what them biting me meant for my fate, but this guy doing it again only worried me further.

  “Don’t look so pouty,” Molly said. “He’s taking it easy on you.”

  “I don’t deserve this and you know it,” I trembled, as I weakly sat on the floor.

  “When has life ever been about what we deserve?” She hopped down from the altar and headed to the main doors.

  I stopped her from leaving. “After what you guys did to me, am I…will I turn?”

  Molly’s hand was on the doorknob when she looked back at me. “What?” she asked.

  “I’ve been bitten. Will I be like you?”

  The c
oldness in Molly’s eyes temporarily faded. “No. It’s more complicated than that. You’ll be fine.”

  I exhaled and my entire body eased up. I had no reason to believe she was telling the truth, yet somehow I knew she was.

  For whatever reason, Molly took away my worries. When I glanced up at her, I caught her staring, and there was sadness in her gaze. Jealousy even. Because while I would be fine, she never would be.

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  MAX

  We put Priscilla into an oversized winter coat that we found in one of the closets upstairs, then tore holes into the interior and slid the silver knives inside of them. We had to keep those backups hidden. Silver didn’t exactly hurt us outside of our werewolf form, but having that much around me did unsettle my stomach. I was relieved I had given Priscilla this role.

  But in typical Priscilla fashion, she bitched the entire time we fitted her.

  “One slip and I’m a kebab,” she griped.

  “Then don’t slip,” I warned her and zipped her coat up in one swoop.

  She grumbled and made a face. “Easy with how you manhandle me. I’m not a pair of Daggett’s pants.”

  “Be glad you’re not,” he said. “They’re feeling a little soiled at the moment.”

  Priscilla stepped away and curled in her lips.

  “Kidding, kidding,” he assured her, but she still stared at him like he was disgusting. The guy loved making himself the brunt of the joke. It was never gonna get him laid. Daggett shook his head and said, “Jeez, a guy tries to make a tense moment feel a little lighter, and he’s treated like a leper.”

  “You implied you’re pissing and or shitting your pants.”

  “It was a joke!”

  I grumbled. “Can we save the piss chat for later? Everybody get in the fucking car and let’s go.”

  “We’re driving there?” Melanie asked. She had been standing beside Priscilla and Daggett, but had been so deep in thought I almost forgot about her.

  “They know we’re coming,” I began. “Being stealthy seems kind of pointless.”

  “So, we just knock on the front door?” Daggett asked.

  I nodded. “Yeah, Daggett, we knock on the fucking front door.” And then I rip that fucker’s throat out and send Molly back to whatever shallow grave she crawled out of.

  Melanie confidently nodded. “Let’s get the show on the road then.”

  We packed into the van we had rented, and Melanie insisted on driving because she knew the way to go. The prick did mentally send her the directions. I also think a part of her was too wired up to sit by and do nothing, even for a short trip like this.

  I sat in the passenger seat and stared out the window, my nerves acting up. I wasn’t afraid of meeting with this guy and fighting him. I wasn’t even afraid of getting killed. I was afraid it was too late and Cora was already dead. A trade between the two girls seemed awfully simple, and I knew there had to be a catch. This could be a giant trap, and I had no choice but to walk straight into it because it was the only way to save Cora’s life. If there was even one left to save.

  I told myself if we got through this night in one piece, she and I would move to someplace in the country and away from the supernatural world. She deserved a normal life. I owed her that, at least. God, I owed her that so fucking much.

  The drive felt like time out of time. It felt fast, but also slow. I wanted to get there quickly, but I also wanted to run through every worst-case scenario and how to deal with it in my head and needed a long drive for that. I fucking hated that feeling.

  We took a turn down a dirt road that brought us deep into the woods. We drove for miles with nothing but trees to our left and right, and a narrow view of the road in front of us illuminated by our headlights. Wherever we were heading was heavily secluded, and by the lake. I could smell the water from the car.

  At the edge of the road, the thick mass of trees finally opened up, and I could see it a few miles beyond us: a fucking castle. The property was big and was guarded by a steel fence that ended with a gate at the center of the yard. I couldn’t even get a scope of how far back the land went. The backyard was even bigger than the front.

  Not being able to see what we were dealing with meant he could have all kinds of shitty little tricks back there to kill us. He could try, but I wouldn’t let him come out on top.

  We parked in front of the gate. The light from our headlights created such a glare against the steel that we could see nothing else as we exited the vehicle. It wasn’t until the engine was killed and all four doors were closed that the lights faded. On the opposite side of the fence, two figures appeared. They had been there the entire time, but were hidden by the glare. I led the walk toward the entrance, and the closer I got, the clearer the figures were. They were in dresses.

  Instead of finding this Master guy on the front lawn, it was Molly and Veronica. They stood side-by-side in the snow, dolled up in their torn up gowns, the cold weather not bothering them.

  And there was no sign of Cora.

  My blood boiled. If I didn’t see her face and have undisputed proof she was alive, I was going to take both of these assholes out.

  “Where is she?” I practically growled.

  “You think we were gonna slide her under the gate like she’s mail and then walk away?” Veronica sassed. “She’ll be here when we know there’s no funny business.” With a shrug, she added, “Real talk, I’m shocked any of you even showed up.”

  “Of course he would,” Molly replied with disdain as she stared holes into me. “He has to play the hero. Because he’s such a good person.” The resentment dripped off her tongue, and the rage inside of her turned her eyes black. If the gate weren’t between us, she’d probably be tearing my throat out.

  Even in death, she couldn’t let our beef go.

  I threw my arms out wide and said, “Well, we’re here. No funny business. So, where is she?”

  “We said she’d be here when she got here,” Molly barked.

  “I’m not gonna trust anything coming out of your mouth. So, open the fucking gate.”

  Veronica leaned in close to Molly and whispered, “I remember him being a lot better looking.”

  Molly snickered. “Dating trash rubs off on you.”

  “Look who’s talking,” Priscilla spoke up. Molly’s eyes slowly, unwillingly drew toward Priscilla who stood next to me. She didn’t want to look away from me, but couldn’t deny the chance to fight someone. Priscilla was bundled up in her big, black coat and stood defiantly. If she was afraid of facing off with Molly, she didn’t show it. “You’re not looking too fresh these days either, Molly,” she finished.

  Molly shook her head and moved a few steps closer to the gate. “Well, look who it is. It’s the miserable bitch cashier. Whose brilliant idea was it to invite such a black hole of a human being?”

  “Nobody had to invite me.”

  Through a laugh, she said, “Oh, right, because you’re so needed. You gonna give a big speech about friendship now? I guarantee you they’re only condoning you. Nobody likes you, Priscilla. Nobody ever has.”

  Priscilla was unaffected. “Shouldn’t you be someplace rotting?”

  Molly stumbled back a step, her mouth twisted with fury. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”

  “Duh. I just fucking said it.”

  “I’d be careful with what you say, Priscilla. I’m not the same girl you once knew.”

  “You practically had your liver pulled out through your asshole and was left to die, and you’re worried about who Max is dating. You’re the same thirteen-year-old I remember.”

  “No. I’m stronger and faster than you’ll ever be. So shut your mouth, or I’ll pull out your tongue.”

  Melanie extended her arm out in front of Priscilla and acted as a shield. Even with the fence between us, she felt it was necessary. “We don’t have to get hostile. Master and I already talked this over and I’m here, as he requested. So, bring him to us.”

  �
��Beg,” Veronica purred.

  “That won’t be necessary,” a voice echoed from the darkness. In the blink of an eye, The Master came strolling through the snow. I don’t know what I expected him to look like, but I know it wasn’t a tall, thin, gangly looking motherfucker who could probably be the frontman to a poser black metal band. His left hand coiled around Cora’s arm as he dragged her along with him like she were a ragdoll, coming closer to me quickly. Cora could barely keep up with his speed and kept slipping and sliding across the ground. She looked pale and exhausted, and I wanted so badly to bend the steel that divided us and fuck him up for whatever he did to make her look that way.

  Goddamn…the feeling, though…the way my chest felt lighter when she appeared and I knew she was alive. It was indescribable.

  “What a pleasant surprise to see you all congregated here,” he said as he tossed Cora forward. Her body bounced against the fence, and she winced in response. Between the bars of steel that she gripped, she looked right at me and our eyes met. I could feel her relief that I was there, but also the fear of what was to come afterward.

  She mouthed the words “I’m sorry” to me, as though her being snatched up in the middle of the night was somehow her fault. It was mine. I never should have left her out of my sight with all of this shit going on. I failed her. I fucking failed her.

  The Master continued. “I knew Melanie wasn’t the type to keep her word, so I’m appreciative that you are. Max, is it?”

  “That’s me,” I said dryly, with a clenched jaw. I didn’t want to make small talk with this asshole.

  “Well, Max, I’m glad you’re here. And no cavalry on top of it.”

  “It’s what you wanted, isn’t it?” I seethed.

  “I never specified, but any human with half a brain would know such a thing would displease me. So much so I might have to hurt someone. I guess that puts you in the top tier of your kind. It’s a small victory, but a victory nonetheless.”

  My eyes flickered over at Melanie and hoped she remembered our plan, and when she gave me a small nod, I knew she understood. We just had to get them to open the gate first.