Hunter Moon (The Moon Series)

by Jeanette Battista

  “And it’s not like he could take a human body and dump it off at a taxidermist’s shop,” Rafe added.

  Kess stopped her pacing. “Has anyone given any thought to how Lukas got Mebis in the first place?”

  The entire room went quiet as they all stared at each other. Kess had been racking her brain about the were thing, but she’d overlooked the most important part. How did Lukas know who was a were and who was safe to hunt, and how did he get them in the first place?

  “He’s a hunter,” Finn said with a shrug. “Maybe he stalked him.”

  “Out of all of the people living in Miami, he just happened to stumble upon the one lone werejackal?” Kess pursed her lips. “I find that coincidence very hard to believe.”

  Rafe brushed hair from his eyes. “He’s got to have some way to tell who’s a were and who’s not. Otherwise he would have made a mistake long before now.” He looked to Kess for confirmation.

  “Yes,” she said. “From the number of trophies in that room, he’s been hunting us for a while now. He has to have some way of knowing. He can’t have been that lucky.”

  “We need to find out how he does it,” Finn said, but was cut off from saying anything else by the ringing of Kess’ phone.

  She picked it up and went pale at the number displayed. She felt her body tense as her adrenaline kicked into gear. It was Lukas’ number. “It’s him,” she told the room.

  “Don’t answer it,” Cormac advised.

  Kess shook her head. “We can’t afford not to,” she hissed, hitting the Answer button while trying to ignore Cormac’s worried glower.

  “Hello?”

  “Kess?” Lukas’ voice sounded so close on the phone that it almost made her jump. She looked around, as if she would be able to spot his hiding place among the library shelves. Then she mentally smacked herself. She was being just a wee bit paranoid. She hadn’t even felt this skittish when she had two master assassins staying in her guest house possibly planning to kill her. “Is this a bad time?”

  “No, not at all,” she said, putting a smile into her voice. “What’s up?”

  “I was wondering if perhaps you would like to get together this week. I would still enjoy seeing some of the places around the city that you offered to show me.”

  Kess frowned at his wording and wondered how much of the ‘foreign guy in a new country’ was a put-on. She’d really like her investigators to get more information on Lukas like yesterday. “Sure, sounds good. When were you thinking?”

  “I have some business to attend to for the next few days, so maybe Thursday? Is that acceptable?”

  Kess just bet she knew what kind of business he had to attend to, and it began with H and ended in -unting. “Let me check my calendar and I’ll text you. That sound good?”

  “Of course,” he said, and Kess could practically feel his satisfied smile through the phone. “I’ll await your message.”

  “Bye Lukas.”

  “Good-bye Kess.”

  Kess hung up with a breath of relief. She felt the need to wipe her hands off on her jeans, but ignored it. Ever since she’d discovered Lukas’ trophy room—and Mebis—she’d felt the overwhelming need to shower whenever she thought of him. Failing that, sandblasting off her outer dermis would also be acceptable. Neither was practical however, so she made do with a low level of ick inside her, wondering if she’d ever feel clean again.

  “He wants to meet on Thursday,” she told Cormac and the others.

  Finn flopped back in his chair. “That doesn’t give us a whole lot of time. What do we know about this clown anyway?”

  Kess walked over to one of the built-in bookshelves that lined the walls of the room. She ran her finger along the spine of one row. “Not much. I put my people on him as soon as I suspected he might be a were, but they haven’t been able to come up with much. If he had a record, things would be easier, but he’s squeaky freakin’ clean.”

  “Great,” Finn growled, looking sour.

  “What about looking into missing persons cases or contacting other wereclans to see if they’re missing any members?” Rafe asked. “That might help us track his movements, right?”

  Kess paced, a thoughtful look on her face. “That’s a good idea,” she said, trying to think through the logistics of it. “It’s going to take time though. Getting in touch with rival clans to get information will take a while. Especially if they don’t want anyone to know about a missing member.”

  “Why wouldn’t they want to find out what happened?” Rafe’s eyes flashed with puzzlement.

  Kess knew that though Rafe had been through a lot in his short life, he still didn’t possess the political acumen that dealing with clans of werebeasts sometimes required. She began to explain. “They’d want to know, sure. But not if finding out revealed a weakness to a rival clan that might decide to swoop in and take their territory. Or, in the case of some clan or pack leaders, it might make them look weak and leave them open to a challenge. We have to be very careful in how we approach them.”

  Rafe nodded. “I get it. I think.”

  “Good.” Kess smiled at him, then turned to Cormac, who had yet to speak up. “Think your dad would be willing to help us out with this?”

  Cormac ran a hand through his hair, then down the back of his head to rub the back of his neck. “I think so.” He met Kess’ gaze with his silver one. “But we shouldn’t limit ourselves to the U.S.”

  “Why not?” Finn asked from his chair.

  “Kess, you said this guy had an accent—European—right?” At her nod, he continued. “Well, that doesn’t necessarily have to be faked. What if he did his hunting—at least some of it—overseas? He may not have been as careful there. He may have been more relaxed on home turf. Maybe he made a mistake, and that’s why he had to start hunting over here.”

  Kess stared at Cormac, remembering again why he was destined for pack Alpha. He was a natural at this: at running things, at taking the long view, and seeing the big picture. She walked up to him and gave him a hug. He wrapped his arms around her tightly. “You. Are. Brilliant,” she said into his neck.

  Rafe broke them up with an awkward cough. “So we’ll try and find a pattern that links Lukas to some missing weres here and in Europe. And we’ll wait to see what else Kess’ investigators find.” He looked over at Finn, who shrugged. “What’s next?”

  Kess stepped out of the hug with Cormac reluctantly. He wasn’t going to like what came next. “I think I need to meet with Lukas.”

  Cormac took her statement well, which surprised her. “How so?” was all he said.

  “We don’t want to scare him off—if we lose him, we may never find him again and he could go on killing weres for who knows how long. I’m not willing to let that happen.” She ticked off her points on her fingers. “We still don’t know how he was able to hunt Mebis in the first place. How did he get him to change? How did he know Mebis was a were? Where did he hunt him? What’s his weapon of choice? I may be able to find out some answers if I play along.”

  “Or you may wind up with your head mounted on the guy’s wall,” Finn warned darkly.

  Kess grimaced at the image. “Point taken.” She met Cormac’s eyes. “But I don’t see another way, unless you guys have information that I don’t.”

  Cormac shook his head. “I think you’re right,” he said. “I don’t like it, but you’re our best chance of catching him. But you’re not going to be alone with him.”

  Kess arched a brow at him. “I hadn’t pegged you as the three-way type,” she teased. She heard Rafe’s spluttering laughter behind her.

  Cormac leered at her, grabbing her around the waist and spinning her up and around. Kess laughed, shocking herself as much as everyone in the room. It had been a while since she’d truly laughed, despite living with the walking comedy routine that was Finnegan McNeil.

  “Hey, before you and Mr. Brilliant over there tear each other’s clothes off and make with the bow-chicka-bow-wow, can we figure out w
hat to do about Laila?” Finn stood up and began to pace, which made the room seem even smaller now that all of them were on their feet. “She’s going to come after you.”

  Kess stood next to Cormac, arms at her sides. “She can get in line with the rest,” she said, only half-joking. When Finn’s frown deepened, she held out her hands. “What do you want me to do, Finn?”

  “You’re a girl. I don’t know—talk to her!” He flapped his hands in frustration.

  Kess thought he looked like a penguin having some kind of fit. “Just because we happen to have the same parts, doesn’t mean that I’ll have any better luck with Laila than you did.”

  “Dude, even I know that,” Rafe said with a snicker.

  Finn shot the werehyena a dirty look. “Look, she’s not listening to her parents, she’s not listening to me, the only one who stood a chance of getting inside her head is currently sitting stuffed in some guy’s apartment, and short of more Keepers flooding into Miami, you’re the only one with any authority that might have a chance of getting through to her before something worse happens. So go talk to her.” Finn crossed his arms over his chest and glared at Kess, as though daring her to make light of the situation again.

  “Okay, Finn.” She smiled at him, trying to let him know that she understood his concerns. “Okay.” Kess was surprised to hear him speak this way about any girl, but Burke’s girlfriend Lindsay had been right; when Finn fell in love, he fell hard. She knew that his concern wasn’t just for their newfound council of weres. The bulk of his concern was for Laila. If the Keepers were called in to retrieve her, none of them knew what that would mean for the werejackal assassin. Kess suspected it wouldn’t be good.

  “Where’s she staying?” she asked.

  Finn looked abashed. “I don’t know. She won’t tell me.” His next words were defensive. “She doesn’t trust me not to rat her out to her parents.”

  Kess forced herself to relax. Of course Laila would be in hiding. That probably nixed her idea of the two of them meeting at the house. “Can you set up a meeting?” she asked, reaching for patience. “Someplace in public, preferably. You do have her phone number, don’t you?”

  “Yes, I still have her phone number,” Finn snapped in a voice laden with sarcasm.

  “We’ll go with you to the meeting,” Cormac said, ignoring his cousin. “All of us.” His gaze included Rafe and Finn.

  “That might put her on her guard,” Finn said as he dialed her number.

  Kess shared a look with both Cormac and Rafe. “Finn, perhaps you are confused as to the woman you are dating. This is LAILA. She’s always on her guard.”

  Finn gave her the finger, then left the room to speak to Laila in private.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Laila got to the restaurant well in advance of the scheduled meeting time. She wasn’t familiar with the location and she wanted plenty of time to look around. She wasn’t expecting a trap—not even Finn was that stupid—but she always felt better when she had at least two avenues of escape open to her besides the obvious doors. When her security needs were satisfied, she took a seat at a table and ordered some food, settling in to wait for the others.

  Kess walked in with her entourage, and it took everything Laila had not to revert to her prior assessment of Kess. Still, it galled her that the wereleopard always had lots of people to defend her, including—when he was alive—her brother. Yeah, and look where that got him. Laila gritted her teeth and tried to ease the tension from her body. This was going to be hard enough without her so wound up she’d likely snap at anything.

  Finn sat down on Laila’s side of the table. Rafe and Cormac sat on either side of Kess, who took the chair directly across from Laila. Everyone looked so serious that for a moment Laila thought they were all gathered to discuss peace in the Middle East or how to stop the polar ice caps from melting.

  Then Finn exclaimed, “Ooooh, salsa,” and everyone seemed to chill out.

  While the boys grabbed chips and set about demolishing the appetizers, Laila stared at Kess. They sat, appraising each other, neither of them in any hurry to speak first. Laila held out for as long as she could, but eventually she snapped. “So? Finn said you wanted to talk.”

  Kess nodded. “I do.”

  “And if I have nothing to say to you?” Laila whipped back, her blood surging for a fight. She wanted to lash out, to destroy, to give physical form to her pain.

  “Then why did you bother showing up?” Kess kept her face neutral but there was a snap to her voice that made Laila recoil a bit. “I’ve never thought you were stupid, Laila, so let’s cut the crap.”

  The werejackal felt herself leaning forward with interest and forced herself back into her seat. She didn’t want Kess to know that she was curious about what the wereleopard might have to say. Laila tried to sound bored when she said, “So talk then.”

  Kess cut her eyes at Cormac who, so far, had been remarkably quiet and calm. Laila was surprised he was so willing to take a backseat, but there was a calmness that radiated from him now. He seemed content to let Kess handle things. Then again, his sister wasn’t being held captive by crazy werehyenas either. That probably had something to do with his Zen-like demeanor.

  “Finn told us that your parents want you to return to New Orleans.” Kess paused to thank the waitress for bringing the table glasses of water. Once the waitress left, she continued. “He also told us that you have no intention of going.”

  “Can you blame me?” Laila’s voice still held that edge of conflict, like she couldn’t help challenging everything Kess said.

  Kess ignored the tone, but responded to the question. “Not at all. And I think I have a solution to your problem that will allow you to remain in Miami and satisfy your parents.”

  “I’m listening.”

  The wereleopard took a breath, then plunged in. “We need you on this one, Laila. I propose I call your parents and tell them that we need your help with our investigation of this hunter. I request that you be allowed to stay, but that you’ll be housed with me—in the guest house—and you’ll be in contact with them as often as they wish until the matter is resolved.” She broke off a corner of a chip and popped it into her mouth. “Does that work for you?”

  “And what about after?”

  “After what?” Something flickered in Kess’ eyes.

  “After we catch this guy. What about then?” She locked eyes with Kess.

  The wereleopard lowered hers delicately. “If you still feel we have business, we’ll deal with it then.”

  Rafe spoke. Laila sometimes forgot the kid was even around, so good was he at fading into the background. Laila reminded herself that she should study him to see if she could pick up how he did it, but she had a feeling it came from being raised by a mother like Samara and was something she couldn’t be taught without the, ah, proper motivation. She eyed his scars carefully.

  “You’ll have business with all of us then.” His voice had gotten deeper, Laila observed.

  She raised her eyebrows at him, but otherwise said nothing. She didn’t have to. Kess did it for her. “Rafe,” the wereleopard began, but he shook his head.

  “No, Kess. It’s not fair.” Laila nearly snorted when he said that. Life wasn’t fair and to expect it to be was insane. Was it fair that Mebis had his hand crushed in the jaws of a werehyena fighting Kess’ battle? Was it fair that he’d been hunted and killed while in her city? Was it fair that Kess was still drawing breath while he was stuffed like some museum piece, unable to find proper rest?

  Rafe continued. “If you’ve got a problem with the way things are handled, you’ve got a problem with the council. And that’s all of us.” He nodded his head at Finn and Kess, then gestured to himself. “Kess had nothing to do with what happened to your brother, but if you want to hold her responsible, then you have to hold the rest of the council responsible too.”

  She saw Kess drop her head into her hand. Laila leaned forward, across the table, as far as she could.
“You eager for me to finish what your sister started?” She smiled as Rafe paled.

  “Laila,” Finn hissed from his seat next to her.

  She ignored him. “You think I won’t come after all of you because my boyfriend is in the line of fire?” Her grin grew colder, as did her eyes. She felt made of ice, like frost would burst out and lace her skin any moment. “Then you don’t know Keepers at ALL.”

  She stood, turning her attention back to Kess. There wereleopard’s eyes were hard, like peridots and her face was a cold mask. “I’ll send you my parents’ number in New Orleans. You can have Finn let me know what they say.” Without another word, she stalked away from the table.

  “Damn it,” Finn muttered, getting up to follow her. He cuffed Rafe on the back of the head as he left.

  “What?” Rafe asked, rubbing his head. His confused eyes sought out Kess’. “What did I do?”

  * * * * *

  “Laila!” She heard Finn shout as soon as he hit the street.

  She didn’t turn or slow, just continued walking. She really didn’t want to talk to anyone right now. What she really wanted to do was…well, she didn’t know actually. There was too much running through her and she couldn’t figure out what she wanted, other than the impossible.

  She wanted her brother back.

  But that wasn’t going to happen and Laila knew it. Death was a part of life. It was nothing to be feared. So why did she feel so horrible?

  And the one person who would have understood all of this, who would have been able to help her work it out in her head was dead. She wanted to walk back inside and smack Rafe all over again. Not fair. What did he know about unfair? What did any of them?

  She was working herself up into a spitting froth, and she knew it, but she had no real urge to stop it. Let it come. At least it was better than feeling this gaping emptiness where her brother used to be.