Moon 01 - Leopard Moon

by Jeanette Battista

  She shrugged. "I'm not sure how that would really be important, you know, now." Kess eyed him dubiously. It was all fine to look back on ancient history, but she couldn't understand what good it would do them today. Sekhmet had never really been interested in their origins before. She wondered what might be going on with him to change that.

  "The old ways are sometimes the best ways," he remarked. Kess frowned at his cryptic words. Best ways for what exactly?

  He was playing with her hair. She swatted at his hand, but he grabbed one of her pillows and popped her in the head with it. She rolled, snagging one of her own and swung wide; he dodged out of the way lazily. Then they were running around her room, each trying to smack the other, knocking over picture frames and lamps in their near misses. She leaped from the bed at him, putting all her weight behind the swing and sent them both over toppling over. They fell to the carpet, laughing in a tangle of limbs and Kess remembered how much she dearly loved her brother sometimes.

  He rolled on top of her and began to tickle her. She was very ticklish along her belly, which Sek knew and used to unfair advantage now. She tried to throw him off, but she was laughing too hard and finally, when she thought she might puke or pass out, she screamed through the laughs, "Enough!"

  He stopped but didn’t let her up. "Say uncle," he panted, having winded himself trying to hold on to her wriggling body.

  "Uncle," she said, worn out from the scuffling. Sek looked down at her, one of those looks that made her so uncomfortable on his face. "I said uncle."

  His mouth swooped down on hers and Kess was too stunned to do anything at first. Then she pushed at his shoulders, breaking the kiss. "Get off," she hissed. His mouth came down again, but she moved her face so he worked at her neck. "I mean it Sek," she shouted. "Get off!"

  "I love you," he whispered against her ear, but she shook her head, trying to buck him off of her. His grip loosened and she twisted out from under him, breath coming in short, sharp bursts. He was up off the floor in a second, all feline grace and stalk.

  "Get. OUT!" She was furious and revolted. He was her brother for God’s sake. They weren’t animals.

  He lunged at her, slamming her into the wall, holding her there. Familiar dark eyes stared back at her, but that wasn’t her brother in there anymore. It was a stranger who tried to kiss her again. When she turned her head away, he muttered, "Don’t fight, Kess. It's supposed to be like this with us."

  "I'm your sister!" She remembered all of his talk the past months about the Egyptian pharaohs, all of his research into ancient Egypt. She felt her stomach tighten with dread. Osiris and Isis were brother and sister.

  "So? Cats mate with their sisters all the time."

  "We’re not cats! We're NOT ANIMALS!"

  "But we are," he whispered, mouthing her ear and pressing up against her, pushing her harder against the wall. "Not all the time but the same needs drive us. We need to mate, to reproduce. You’ve felt it. I've seen it. You're like me."

  Kess dropped, using gravity to break his hold on her and skittered away from him on hands and knees. The house was huge, and no one usually was in her wing of it except her. No one would hear her screaming. She had to get away. For the first time in her life she was well and truly frightened.

  Sek grabbed her from behind, pulling her back to him and spinning her around. He was on top of her then, not gentle and not caring how much he hurt her. She screamed at him and he backhanded her. His face was twisted in a snarl, pupils mere slits. He didn't look anything like her brother; he looked like an animal. One of his hands slipped down to her hip, working at the waistband of her shorts.

  Kess had one option left to her and she took it. She changed beneath him, the force of it throwing Sek off of her. She spun, her shape now that of a black leopard, and hurtled through the glass doors and out into the Florida twilight. She'd fled Miami that same night.

  Griff was suddenly in front of her--she didn't know when he walked up--and helped her over to a barstool in the corner. He disappeared for a moment and then was back, a highball glass with amber liquid in hand. "Drink," he ordered, handing it to her, but her hand was still shaking so much that she sloshed some of the liquid down her shirt. She gritted her teeth and gripped the glass in both hands. Going into hysterics was not going to help her now. She needed to think. She swallowed it in one gulp, surprised at the burn as it went down. At her questioning look, he said, "Whiskey. You needed it. What's wrong? Is it those guys at your table?"

  "What?" Kess wasn’t sure how he knew, but was grateful he did.

  "I can smell trouble a mile away, girl, and those guys reek of it. And you’re so white I could use you as a tablecloth. What’s going on?" He crossed his arms over his burly chest and looked at her sternly.

  "That's my brother out there. He’s come to take me back." Kess wasn’t sure how much of her past Griff had been told. She knew that Cormac had told the pack about her and her were-status, but he didn’t go into details and she didn’t think it wise to pry in pack business, especially after they agreed to let her stay. That had been more than she'd ever expected.

  "Did he see you?"

  Kess shook her head. "I don't think so."

  "Good." Griff sounded relieved. "When’s Mac getting here?"

  She checked the clock on the wall. "Any minute." Then she stood up as she came to a horrible conclusion. "Sek can’t see him." Kess knew that if her brother ever found out about Cormac, he wouldn’t be safe.

  "I’ll take care of it. And we’ve got to get you somewhere safe for a start." His eyes were dark as he looked at her, weighing the options open. "Stay here. I'll send Mac to you when he gets here."

  She sat there in the kitchen, huddled as small as she could make herself. She wanted to know how Sek had found her so quickly--unless he’d been tracking her since she left California or even New Mexico. She thought she’d done a much better job at hiding her tracks this time. She wondered if he her father was with her brother or if he had stayed back in Miami. She had thought that when she'd received his package in New Mexico that it had been his way of saying good-bye, of respecting her wishes. She'd been wrong.

  Someone was in front of her, calling her name as if from a long way away. She slowly came back to herself. Cormac was crouched down, his face next to hers, saying her name. He held her bag and coat in one hand. She blinked slowly, looking around, not entirely sure where she was.

  "We have to go," he was saying, handing her the coat. "Griff is taking care of them." Kess nodded and forced herself to focus. She could fall apart later, when there were miles separating her and her brother.

  They went out the back way and were met by Burke and Finn. Kess was surprised to see them, but knew she should have expected it. Pack protected pack. A threat to Cormac meant a threat to all of them. Griff must have called them as soon as he realized something was wrong.

  It was raining harder than it had been when she'd come in and she flinched as the drops pelted down. The four of them ran quickly through the parking lot, toward Cormac's Jeep. They were drenched before they were halfway there but she didn't care. The cold and wet made her as unfeeling on the outside as she felt on the inside.

  "Finn, follow Cormac. I'm going to wait here for Dad." Burke looked each of them in turn, but when he came to her, Kess couldn't meet his eyes.

  "We'll meet you at the Lodge. Call if anything changes." Kess felt Cormac wrap his arm around her as he spoke. "We've got to let my dad know he's in town."

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  Cormac hustled Kess over to the Jeep and shoved her in, eyes open for an ambush. Finn was waiting in Kess' car, ready to drive it over to the compound. He climbed in and started the Jeep, turning the heat up as high as it would go. Kess hunkered down in her seat, water dripping from hair and clothes, a study in misery. She held her bag to her chest and stared out the window.

  Cormac drove on in silence, looking over every once in a while. At one point he caught the telltale glimmer of tears tracking
down her pale cheeks, but she cried quietly, no sobs or sniffles, as if she didn't even realize she wept. He clenched his hands on the steering wheel, wishing it was Sek's neck. Griff had grabbed him as soon as he came in the bar, whispering that Sek had shown up, and led him to the kitchen to spirit Kess away before her brother saw her.

  He reached over and took Kess' hand in his. It was ice cold, but her fingers squeezed his tightly for a moment. She still wouldn't look at him. He kept his eyes on the road, flicking up to check the rearview mirror frequently to make sure Finn still followed. He doubted Sek and the other one would try to follow them up the mountain, but Finn knew how to watch for a tail and if Sek did try it, well, Cormac would enjoy removing him from pack land. Permanently.

  He drove past the low stone wall that marked the beginning of the property and continued up the gravel road to the lodge. He drove around back, parked the car and went around to help Kess out. She slowly raised her head to look at him, the pain in her eyes almost a thing apart. "Come on, babe," he said, scooping her up and holding her against his chest. He ran through the rain, to the back door and let them in. She buried his face in his neck, holding on tightly. He climbed the back stairs up to the room that was still his even though he had a place of his own.

  The room was dark and cold, so he turned up the thermostat. He set Kess down in a chair by the bed and began pulling off her boots. He took the bag from her and peeled her out of her sopping coat. She let him, limp as a rag doll. Occasionally a shiver would break out along her entire body. "You need to get warm," he told her. She looked at him dully.

  "I'm scared," she said without warning. "I don't want to go with him."

  Cormac gathered her up in his arms. They were both wet and cold, but if she was talking now, warming up would have to wait. "So you won't. It's your decision to make, not his."

  "I'm scared for you too. If he found out about you…" She trailed off, winding hanks of wet hair around her hands, yanking on the strands. He placed his hands on top of hers to get her to stop. "You don't know what he's like."

  "It's okay," he assured her. "I'm right here, right now. I'm fine. And I intend to stay that way."

  She turned in his arms, facing him. Her face was drawn and serious. "You don't understand."

  "I do," Cormac insisted. "He's dangerous. He's not in his right mind and he's obsessed with you. And anyone he finds you with is in trouble. I know all that, Kess. And I'm not worried because he can't make us do anything. He can't make you go home with him, he can't make me stop loving you. These are our choices. Not his."

  She looked up at him, surprised. "You love me?"

  He pushed a strand of wet hair behind her ear. "Yes. I most definitely do."

  She wrapped her arms around his neck. Her mouth was turned up in a slight, sad smile as she put her face close to his. "I don't want to lose you," she whispered in his ear. "I just found you."

  "You won't." He held her tighter. He felt her lips tracing the line of his jaw. He clenched his teeth to keep from growling in the good way.

  He broke away reluctantly. He'd be content to sit here all night, but the pack would be arriving soon and Kess would need to be ready. This time she'd be in attendance since the problem directly affected her and her safety as well as their own. Much as he wished he could keep her from this, he knew she should be there, if only to make them aware of how dangerous Sek was. If Sek was any indicator of how wereleopards behaved, they would have to move carefully. Their pack was large and strong--one of the largest on this coast--but that didn't mean they'd want a war with another were clan.

  He pressed a kiss into the palm of her hand. "Get in the shower and get warmed up. I'll go find us some clothes."

  When she was safely in the bathroom, he went down to find his father. Alaric stood at the large glass windows at the front of the house, looking out into the night. "Hey Dad," Cormac greeted.

  His father turned, putting his back to the window. "You're a mess. The girl's with you?" Cormac nodded. "Might as well get cleaned up. It's going to be a long night tonight."

  "Mom around?"

  "In the kitchen."

  Cormac padded back there to the huge kitchen that could feed an army and did on most holiday occasions. His mother was putting out food for the coming meeting. She stopped what she was doing to kiss him on the cheek. "You okay?" she asked, turning a critical eye on him.

  "Just wet," he replied, shaking his hair at her. She snapped a dishtowel at him. "I need some clothes for Kess. Ours are soaked."

  "I can see that. I'll bring up some of Leonore's sweats for her. And you guys can drop your wet stuff down here—I'll throw it in the laundry."

  "Thanks, mom."

  "Off with you."

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  Kess pulled on the borrowed clothes that Cormac’s mother had dropped off. The shower had done some good, warming her up and calming her down. The dread inside her was yielding to anger, leaving a slow burning heat. She was furious, for the first time in a very long time. She was tired of running from Sek, tired of being afraid of him and what he might do. She was tired of letting her fear of him control her actions. He'd cost her enough—too much.

  She heard a soft knock at the bedroom door. Cormac stuck his head in, hair still wet from the drenching he took outside. He wore a pair of faded jeans and one of his ubiquitous dark t-shirts, looking sinfully good in the dim light from the stairway.

  "They’re here," he said. Kess took the towel from the bed and wrung her hair out in it to soak up some of the water from her shower and followed him down the stairs.

  She wasn’t sure what to expect from a pack meeting. She had already met some of them: Cormac’s parents and Griff and his sons, but never in a situation like this. The Lodge thrummed with tension, like the way the air gets charged before a summer thunderstorm. She knew it wasn't going to be all, since not everyone would be able to make it on such short notice, but whatever was decided tonight would be passed along to the rest after the meeting. She understood that Alaric didn’t want to panic anyone with the threat of a battle between clans, especially when it was barely a threat at present. It wasn’t like Sek had shown up with a battalion of wereleopards staking claim to the mountain and all that lived there. He just wanted her back.

  If a war was threatening, Kess would go. The wolves hadn’t asked to be dragged into this. She knew that if it came to a fight, she’d leave--draw Sek’s attention away from them. But she was hoping it wouldn’t come to that. She had finally found a place worth staying, and someone worth staying with. She didn’t want to give that up unless she absolutely had to.

  Alaric and Emmeline were talking in front of the huge window that, had it been daylight, would have shown the winding drive that led up to the property framed by evergreens and backed by the tops of mountains. Griff was standing next to the fireplace, using the poker to stir the burning wood before placing another log on the fire. Finn and Burke had their heads together, talking quietly, although Finn was gesturing broadly. When Kess and Cormac entered the room, the respective conversations stopped. Kess walked over to one of the couches and sat, curling her legs under her. Cormac perched on the arm of the couch.

  Alaric began without preamble. "We’ve got a situation. These two wereleopards—are we sure there aren’t more?"

  Griff shrugged. "We don’t even know where these two are hiding. With the rain washing away any scent traces, they’re going to be impossible to track."

  Kess cleared her throat uncertainly. She felt awkward sitting there, trying to enter the conversation, but what little she knew could be of help. Alaric turned his silvered gaze to her and she swallowed nervously but went ahead with what she was going to say. "I would assume there are more. Sek is going to be the next clan leader—he wouldn’t travel outside of his territory without backup."

  "How many more?" This from Burke.

  "No idea," she said, shaking her head. "But he won’t be able to be away from Miami long. There are too many factions to
watch and he’s my father's right hand. He can’t afford to let control of the territory slip--there are too many other clans who’d want it." She remembered the constant skirmishes from other, rival clans encroaching on their area. It had gotten so bad that her father had ordered all strange weres that were on clan land without prior approval be destroyed.

  "We wait them out?" Cormac asked.

  "We could do that, yes," Alaric answered, seeming to weigh all of the options he saw in his mind. "Or we could set a trap for them. Draw them out to see how many there are. If the numbers favor us, we could drive them out." He looked at each person in the room, but Kess thought he looked at her a bit longer than the rest. "They want the young lady."

  "You want to use Kess as bait?" Cormac was bristling beside her, anger in the lines of his body.

  Kess didn’t like it any more than Cormac did, but she could understand Alaric’s suggestion. She knew his father didn’t approve of them and he didn’t like her, but she didn’t think he offered up the option out of spite. This was an excellent way to draw Sek out. It scared her, even though she understood the reason for Alaric's suggestion.

  "As a last resort, perhaps," Alaric continued, ignoring the glares his son was currently giving him. "The leopards haven’t actually done anything to threaten our pack or our territory."

  "We know Sek wants to take her back against her will!" Kess could feel the tension in Cormac’s body as he struggled to remain seated.

  "Our pack. Our territory," Emmeline reminded her son gently. "She’s theirs."

  "So because they haven’t done anything to us directly, we do nothing?" Kess watched Cormac look at his parents, incredulous. For her part, it wasn’t anything that wasn’t expected. She wasn’t part of their pack and so there was no reason for them to step into harm’s way on her behalf. They were right to be wary too. Conflict between the leopards and the wolves would mean the possibility of violence and death, and possibly exposure to the regular world. It was not something to be undertaken lightly.