Blue Moon Magic 4: Night of the Blue Moon

by Lynn Crain

  We’re on our way.

  “Talking to your sisters? It won’t matter. They will never arrive in time.” Kill continued to circle him. “That she-bitch is fighting like hell you know.”

  He could hear sounds of a struggle behind him but the biggest threat stood in front of him. Many times he had seen Kill on a hunt. The man was merciless; he didn’t care who he hurt or what he did. Murder was usually his number one thought. “She clocked me good when we first met,” Connor stated casually. Opening his third eye, he tried to gauge the things happening around them. Then he knew. They were going for Iain. “Mind telling me just how the boy is going to fit into your schemes?”

  “That would be giving you way too much information now, wouldn’t it?” Kill’s feral grin made him sick to his stomach.

  The man threw the first punch. Connor twirled and danced, hitting Kill again and again, never allowing him too close. The sessions with Cordy had definitely paid off. He heard a grunt off to his right and knew she had connected with Rufus’s big gut.

  “You can’t win this time, Kill,” Connor stated, satisfied with his conclusion.

  “Who says we need to win this one?” He looked over Connor’s shoulder. “Check.”

  The time portal winked out as quickly as it came. He turned around frantically searching for Cordy and Iain. She lay not more than ten feet away, sprawled where one of them had hit her on the head. Connor could see the blood over her left ear. Be alive, be alive, he chanted to himself, knowing his emotions were spilling over and that his sisters would know immediately.

  He began to breathe again when she groaned and pushed herself up, looking dazed.

  “What --?”

  “Quiet now, let’s get you back inside. Where’s Iain?”

  The panic on her face was contagious. Pushing herself up from the concrete floor, she looked around frantically. “Iain? Iain!” she screamed. “Connor…where is he? Connor, he’s just a little boy. Connor…” She slumped against him and sobbed, deep, heart-wrenching sobs.

  The elevator opened and Lucas launched himself out the door. “Connor?” He looked around, gun at the ready as the rest of the security team filed out of the stairwells. His immediate family cautiously followed Lucas out of the elevator. “Connor, what happened?”

  Connor shook his head. What had happened? He was confused as to what was going on. “They have Iain.” He held Cordelia in his arms, trying to give her some of his strength. There was something he was missing here.

  “Iain? He’s just a boy.” Lucas stood there, confused. “Did they use a portal?”

  “Yes. I thought they couldn’t have portals to places they’d never been?”

  Justin shook his head. “Apparently, we were wrong.”

  “I’m not sure that you were.” Connor looked around. He looked from side to side and all around the parking structure, analyzing it in his mind. “Are some of your other buildings built like this?”

  Charles came and stood in front of his son. “They’re all similar. Why?”

  Connor shook his head. This part was the simple part. “They didn’t need an exact replica. All they needed was something close and a guinea pig to toss through the first time. Most building plans are public knowledge because of building codes. This one isn’t because it’s privately held. Sure, it has to meet the same standards but the plans can be kept private.”

  “Crap,” Justin swore. “This is going to change some things for future projects.” Justin ran his hand through his hair. “I’m sorry, Charles, I should have thought of this.”

  “How could you? They’re getting more and more sophisticated in their attacks. It was as if they were anticipating our moves.”

  Clarity and Tom looked at each other. “Dad, I didn’t want to say anything but…” Everyone looked at her as she licked her lips. “I’ve been feeling what I would call…psychic leakage…it’s hard to explain.” She looked at her husband. “Give me some help here.”

  Tom shook his head. “Sometimes when a psychic is young, they will have more information than they can handle and they kinda broadcast what they can’t really process.”

  “How can that be, Tom? We’ve checked every young pup that we have.” Charles looked at his son. “We’ve tested Connor enough to know that he hasn’t been slipping out any information unintentionally.”

  “Okay. That might explain how they knew we would be here because one of us inadvertently alerted them. But why did they take Iain?”

  All eyes turned to Cordelia, who began to sob even harder. “Oh my God.” She lifted her head up, tears streaming down her face. “This can’t be happening.”

  Connor looked down at her and turned her face to look at him. “What’s going on?”

  “I’d like to know that myself,” Lucas stood, arms crossed.

  Cordelia appeared to get a grip on herself and stood straighter. “I thought I was wrong. I thought they were wrong.”

  “Cordelia?” Charles came to her side. “I know this is hard but we have to know what you’re talking about.”

  Cordelia shook her head. “I know. I know.” Biting her lower lip, she struggled to continue. “Remember the trip we took when Iain was a couple of years old? You know, when Aaron and I took time off to go to Scotland?”

  “I remember. You insisted on taking Iain with you.” Charles looked at her cautiously.

  She swallowed hard and began to fidget. “Iain had been showing signs of bewildering behaviors. Aaron had relatives he felt would be able to help us with him.”

  Charles’s eyes narrowed. “What’s wrong with your son, Cordelia? Never mind; I think I know.”

  She began to wring her hands. “Nothing is wrong with him at all, sir. Just the opposite. We were told not to let you know until he turned five. That’s in four months.”

  Connor squeezed her a little and let her have her space. This was very difficult on many different levels. “And what did they find, Cordelia?”

  She turned, eyes welled with tears. “My son is an intuitive.”

  “Wow.” Everyone turned and looked at Tom. “Sorry, everyone, but…are you sure, Cordelia?”

  She nodded her head, obviously not trusting her voice.

  “Would someone clue me in?” Justin looked around at everyone to see if they understood any better Tom’s revelation.

  “Well, that boy is about ten steps up on the evolutionary scale as far as psychics go.” Tom looked at Charles then Justin. “There are very few of them and it’s rumored that our wolfen genetic leaps come from them. I don’t really know much else…but I can bet that he’s the one who’s been leaking and broadcasting things meant to be kept private…and he wouldn’t have even realized it. He’s much too young even though he should have been in training already.”

  Connor rubbed Cordelia’s back. “Why didn’t they want you to tell anyone?”

  “Can…can we go sit down? I’ll explain everything I know.”

  Connor kept Cordy close to him all the way up to the offices. She was miserable. But she couldn’t have prevented what was going to happen. If wolfen elders told them to keep quiet about their son’s abilities, why should they not do what they were told? They had no reason to question the elders’ wisdom. “It will be okay,” he murmured and rubbed her back gently.

  “I should have told you.” She sniffed. “I should have told you when you told us that they sent you to kill him.”

  Connor could feel her pain and understood her reasons. But he hadn’t put that together from what he had told them that day; how could she? “Why would they want to kill him though? Wouldn’t they want to use him?”

  Cordelia swallowed hard. “Maybe at first…I don’t know.”

  Then it hit him, like a lead brick. She was psychic. She was psychic. It explained a lot of things. Like how once he had tuned into her. That was it. He looked down at her. You can talk to me, can’t you? You can sense everything about me.

  She shook her head.

  You’ve heard everything I’
ve ever thought about you!

  Not everything. I know when people want their quiet time…when things need to be personal.

  Connor’s sisters all stared at her, dumbfounded, and turned their surprised gazes to their father.

  Charles looked at them wryly. “Don’t look so dumb-stricken. I couldn’t very well have an assistant that couldn’t keep on top of everything…and I mean everything.”

  The elevator doors opened and Joanna stood there, waiting. “Well?” she questioned lightly, looking at everyone. “Oh.”

  “Mother!” Chastity cried. “You knew about Cordelia?”

  Joanna fidgeted and rolled her eyes. “Of course.”

  “Mother, you’ve had her listen in all our lives, haven’t you?”

  “Girls…” she began.

  Cordelia cleared her throat. “Girls, let me say one thing…” She stopped and rubbed her head. “Well…maybe two…I never intruded when I knew I shouldn’t.”

  Charity glared. “What makes you know that?”

  “Remember that boy you tried to slip through?” Cordelia looked at her pointedly, watching her face turn beet red. “After figuring out you were just trying to make your father mad, I left it alone.”

  They all glared at her for another moment.

  “Girls, I know how much one values their privacy from their parents. God, I’m not that much older than you, for heaven sakes. I only told them things that I thought were for your own protection. I never divulged your innermost secrets if I heard them. I would do everything that I could to put them out of my mind.” She licked her lips. “I think I’m ready for that second thing now.”

  “What’s that?” Connor asked and turned to see her slide to the floor. He quickly scooped her up and walked her over to the couch. Looking down at her face, tense even in unconsciousness, he realized he loved her. Startled with the revelation, he cleared his throat and gently laid her down. “Does anyone know what she’s talking about?”

  Everyone looked to Charles, who sat down heavily. Leaning into his hands on his desk, it was obvious that he was trying to get a grip on what was happening. Taking a deep breath, he let it out slowly before looking up at everyone. “The boy has a cap. I’ve known it since they brought him home from Scotland. The elders clued me in on the problem from their perspective as soon as they could.”

  “A cap? What do you mean a cap?” Clarity looked at her husband then her mother. “What does he mean a cap?”

  Tom rubbed his chin. “Oh.”

  “That’s all you can say…is oh?” Chastity questioned harshly. “What else haven’t you all told us?”

  “Chastity…all we’ve ever tried to do is to protect you girls…” she turned and looked at Connor. “We never expected to have Connor back with us and we certainly never expected Betas to come inside our own lair before we were ready. What the elders had told us suddenly came into focus when Connor came home.”

  “Dad, what the hell is our mother talking about?” Charity looked at her father, her husband standing behind.

  The man swallowed hard again. “We’ve always known that Cordelia was a psychic. Matter of fact, until we met Connor we thought she was the strongest one. But her son…her son…is way above anything we had ever encountered. You all need to sit down.” Joanna looked at him and shook her head slightly. “All of you.”

  Connor sat down on the floor next to the couch, watching his siblings and their mates find places around the office to plant themselves yet once again. Damn, he swore slightly to himself, I thought Rowan had secrets. His stomach clenched in dread, knowing in his heart some of what his father would say. Looking down at Cordelia’s beautiful and now relaxed face, he pushed her hair out of the way. He loved this woman and nothing his father said would change that fact.

  “You might as well spit it out, Dad. I know I’m not going to like it any more than my sisters are.” Connor turned to face his father. “There’s a lot more to the Blue Moon Magic than just the bonding of two souls, isn’t there?”

  The smacking sound coming from the old man’s mouth could only be one of irritation. “How perceptive of you, son,” he stated. “Any more insight?”

  “I don’t know the future and I can’t tell you what really happened in the past. But someone knows. I can feel it.”

  “That’s good, that’s very good.” He sat there nodding his head in agreement.

  “My God.” Everyone turned to Tom, who had spoken the euphemism. “If what you’re going to tell us is what I think, we have got to get that boy back.”

  Connor stared at the man coldly. “We would get that boy back no matter what. He’s Cordelia’s son.”

  “And possibly yours.”

  Connor began to feel sick as he gazed at his father. “What…what do you mean? The boy can’t be mine.”

  The pen in the old man’s hand began to furiously thump on the desk. “Ever wonder why you accepted the boy so readily? Most wolfen men won’t touch another’s child. Yet you weren’t afraid of the boy in the least.”

  He looked up at his siblings, at the look on their astonished faces. “I swear I never…at least I don’t think…”

  “Boy, that’s the least of our worries.”

  “And just what would you say is our biggest worry, sir?” Lucas scowled in his direction, rubbing Charity’s shoulders.

  Connor watched, dazed, as each of his siblings were comforted by their mates. If it were true, how in the hell could Cordelia even stand the sight of him, let alone ever have feelings for him? Hell, how could she even allow him to touch her? While he had never raped any of the women he was forced upon by Rowan in the breeding barns, he had always known deep in his heart that they hadn’t wanted to be there with him. He closed his eyes, remembering the many times that Rowan would get angry at him for not mounting the women right away. He had always made it as pleasurable as he could for them given the circumstance.

  Still, how could Cordelia ever forgive what he might have done to her? Hell…how could he forgive himself?

  Chapter Eleven

  “Sir,” Justin went over and stood by Connor, placing his hand on his shoulder. “I think this man…” he looked around at everyone, holding each of their gazes for a poignant moment, “…I think we all deserve to know what exactly is going on.”

  Sighing once again, the old man scanned the room. “The boy is our biggest worry. Not that he’ll try to harm us. He won’t…he has a very gentle soul…but because of his youth he can easily be swayed. If they are threatening those he loves, who knows what will happen?”

  Connor patted the hand on his shoulder. The unspoken alliance of his brother-in-law increased his spirits, if only a little. Justin gave a light squeeze and went to stand beside his wife. “Details,” Connor said hoarsely, “I want details.”

  “I’ll tell you everything I know.”

  “Don’t leave anything out,” Connor warned, scowling at his father.

  “I don’t plan to.”

  “Charles…” Joanna began.

  He put up his hand. “They all need to know what we know. They will be the ones taking the fight over soon if this continues beyond our generation.”

  She nodded her head in meek compliance.

  “We have thought for years now that Rowan was trying to breed an intuitive.”

  “Just what is an intuitive?” Chastity looked confused. “I’ve never heard that term before.”

  “Neither have I, until now, and I’m psychic,” Clarity mumbled.

  “He can predict the future,” Cordelia’s raspy voice stated. Groaning, she pulled herself into a sitting position as she held her head in her hands. “He also knows everything about the past. He can change things as long as he’s outside the time stream itself but he’s too young. And he won’t cause a paradox when doing it. He’s like the Dali Lama as far as experience goes. If there was an intuitive ancestor in his line, he will know all that person knew even if that person existed generations ago. It’s there within him, ready to be used
at a moment’s notice. He’s not like Lucas who learned to manipulate time. He does it naturally…it’s like he is time. But right now, he doesn’t know how to do anything yet. That’s why we put the cap on him. To make sure he didn’t know until his training. I was going to approach Lucas when the time was right.” She eyed Charles suspiciously. “Then again, you already know about the cap.”

  Charles frowned. “Did you think that the elders wouldn’t call me with the news?”

  “I don’t know what I thought.” Cordelia grimaced and held her head.

  “So he wouldn’t know about his powers…clever woman…clever council.” Tom nodded his head as if suddenly understanding what they had done.

  “That little boy can do all that?” Justin looked at the woman, confusion written on his face.

  “Cordelia, we don’t know that. We don’t know what he can and can’t do. I suspect…” Charles gave her a stern look.

  “The hell we don’t,” she growled, and cut him off, rubbing her temples.

  Lucas’s gaze flicked from the old man to the woman on the couch. “Look…I’ve known for some time now that there was something else at play here. Are you telling me that it was a four-year-old child wreaking havoc with time without even knowing he was doing it?”

  “I don’t think he can do anything with time. Yet. I’ll agree with Cordelia here. That’s why the cap was there. I do know this: that boy knows more about wolfen history than anyone alive today. Period. He can feel it and re-live it if he has to and God only knows what else.” There was a collective gasp in the room as Charles finished.

  “And this is a problem?” Lucas questioned again.

  “You’re right, history isn’t the problem.” Charles appeared lost in thought suddenly.

  “Then just what is the problem?” Lucas was obviously trying to get the man to focus.

  Charles looked at him. “What do you think would have happened if you hadn’t escaped from Rowan?”

  “I would have died,” Lucas stated bluntly.

  “Probably. But how about if you hadn’t been born?” Charles began pacing the room. “How about if Mariah hadn’t died? If I hadn’t married your mother?” He looked pointedly at each one of the girls. “How about if one minor adjustment was made to our timeline and we are the ones who became Beta? It’s my bet he’s already changed something or is being manipulated to change something. We would never know.” The man practically glared at the young woman on the couch.