The Lunar Curse (The Ayla St. John Chronicles, #2)

by C. J. Pinard

  “Understood,” Evan said, as if appeasing me.

  “You’ll have to tell us about your biological father one day,” Karina commented.

  “Besides,” I continued, ignoring her comment, “if it was my goal to kill all vampires, Beckett would be dead. And so would you, Karina.”

  She smiled at me. “I don’t think so.”

  I sighed. “Sorry, I’m in a bad mood today, it’s the anniversary of my brother’s death and I just want to find this Linden and kill him so I can stop being so angry.”

  “Well... Killing him won’t make you less angry, and it won’t bring Austyn back. It’ll make you feel good for a little bit, but you will still have grief. Trust me, I know,” Karina said, her eyes softening.

  I wanted to argue with that, but instead, I shoved the dagger into the strap wrapped around my thigh. “Let’s do this.”

  Hopping up in the boxing ring, I did the same type of stretches I used to do before a big game where I knew we’d be cheering nonstop. I looked up at the dirty, stained windows at the top of the warehouse-gym, and could see the almost full moon. I groaned, knowing soon I’d be stuck for three days, hiding out as the wolf girl.

  Evan came over, dragging what looked like a dummy, but it was upright and had some kind of large spring-loaded base at the bottom.

  “This is Bob,” he said, shoving the dummy hard in its chest. I watched it swing toward the ground, but bounce right back upright. The dummy had an angry expression on its face, a thick neck, and wide shoulders. He basically looked like a peach-colored Hulk in dummy form.

  “Hi, Bob,” I said, walking up and kicking him in the stomach. He bounced toward the ground, but then sprung back up.

  “Nice kick,” Evan said. “But I’ve brought Bob out so you can use your dagger to practice with. Because you’re not using that thing during training with either one of us. And, you’re going to be leaving the sheath on it. I don’t want holes in the dummy.”

  “Oh, you’re no fun,” I said, smirking.

  “Hand it to me?” Karina said. She pulled the sheath off and inspected it. She bounced it in her hand, and then replaced the sheath, and gauged its weight again. She looked at her husband. “It’s heavier with the sheath on.”

  He nodded and put his attention back to me. “We want you to get familiar with the weapon as you’ll be using it, and if it’s heavier, then we’ll have to let you take the sheath off.”

  “Yes,” I said, smiling.

  “But do not stab Bob.”

  I frowned. “God, you two are a couple of party-poopers. Maybe you should make a scarecrow or something I can practice with. Get some vampire teeth from the Halloween store and put it in its mouth. That would be fun.”

  They both laughed and Karina said, “You’re crazy.”

  “But you admit, it’s a good plan,” I said, raising my chin while spinning the dagger in my hand, eager to train with it.

  Evan shook his head. “Give me the dagger. First, I want thirty kicks on Bob. You know the regions.”

  I handed Evan the dagger and nodded. I began to bounce in place a little bit, like a boxer. Then I threw a kick to Bob’s nuts, because let’s be real, that was the first place I was going for. Nothing will incapacitate a guy faster—vampire or not. That being said, vampires have super healing ability so I would have to be quick about it. Three lightning-fast kicks there, then I followed it up by twirling around and landing a kick to his stomach. After that kick, I ducked, anticipating a very angry vampire lunging at me after that. Once I’d stood up from the duck, I spun once more and landed two quick kicks to Bob’s very large, impressive jaw. Ducking again, I spun on one foot while still crouched down and swung my free leg in hopes of taking out Bob’s legs—even though he didn’t have any. Raising myself up behind the dummy now, I landed a hard kick to where I would anticipate the back of the dummy’s knee would be. Then, for good measure, I made a fist and punched Bob in both his kidneys. Spinning one last time, I kicked him in the side and landed in front of him once more. I pulled my pretend dagger from its strap on my thigh and jammed my fist into his chest.

  “You’re dead, Bob!” I said in a low voice, while trying to catch my breath, and then I did a little victory dance.

  Evan and Karina laughed.

  “Very nice moves. You’re a natural,” Karina said. “Very flexible.”

  “Twelve years of cheerleading and gymnastics,” I said proudly.

  Then Evan handed me a rubber practice knife, and I put it in the thigh strap.

  “This time, I’m the vampire. So we’ll try this again. Just don’t actually kick me in the balls.”

  I grinned. “No guarantees.”

  Karina blew a whistle I didn’t know she had, and said, “Go!”

  Evan and I circled each other a few times, and when he lunged at me, I ducked, rolling in a summersault and popping back up to my feet. He turned around and I kicked him in the stomach. I did not kick him as hard as I would have kicked Bob or a real enemy, but it did knock the wind out of him. As he tried to catch his breath, I lunged at him and tackled him to the floor. Straddling him, I pulled out my rubber knife and shoved it on his chest, dead-center.

  “You be dead, freaky hybrid wolf-vamp!” I cried, then I jumped up and started twerking.

  Evan laughed and got up when I offered him a hand. “Are you going to do a dance every time you kill a vampire?”

  I smiled. “Yep. Totally am. I call that one the hybrid-twerk.”

  “Did you feel like doing a dance when you killed Johnny a few weeks ago?” Karina asked, her eyes dancing with amusement.

  “No,” I said, frowning as I remembered the first contract kill. I hadn’t had much training when they had allowed me my first, but I also knew they were hiding out of sight to help at a moment’s notice. It had also taken quite a few ‘flying’ lessons with Karina to get the jumping perfected. Leaping off a tall building that high was like parachuting out of a plane, but with no parachute. I apparently had some freaky ability to be able to control my speed once I got closer to the ground. It terrified and thrilled me at the same time.

  “Well, you might after killing a few more,” Evan said, laughing.

  Evan handed me my dagger and waited as I handed him the rubber one back. “You can practice on Bob but leave the sheath on. I don’t think the slight weigh difference will matter.”

  Nodding, I put it in my thigh strap and squared off against Bob once more.

  A week later, Aden and I sat outside the suburban home where vampire asshole, whose name I still didn’t know, hung out. After our obligatory three-night shift up at Wolf Pointe, Aden had begun tracking the movements of this guy. Tonight was the fourth night.

  “It’s really strange, and I have a theory, but let me tell you his pattern, because this guy rarely deviates from it. In fact, by the third night, I probably could have just taken him out myself, but I knew you wanted to do it. So here’s the deal.” Aden picked up his can of Dr. Pepper and took a swig from it, then set it back down. “So every morning, before it’s light out, he leaves the house wearing a business suit. Instead of the red sports car, he gets into his very boring four-door sedan, and drives to that building we first tracked him to. Now, at this point, I have to go to work myself, so I leave. But once my shift is over, and there were a couple days when there wasn’t much work so we got to leave early, I would then come back here and see that his car was still parked in the same spot in the underground parking garage.

  “Once it’s dark outside, he leaves the building. He usually goes back to that house, but a few times I saw him park on a side street and go walk around downtown. I never saw him take any victims, but I also couldn’t watch him for hours, as I had shit to do.”

  “That is really weird,” I said, looking at the house.

  “Ayla, the area he stalks is very, very close to where he attacked you. This guy has a pattern. Anyway, once he gets ‘home’ to this house here, he kisses the wife, and has dinner with her and what looks lik
e a young kid, maybe six years old? A boy. Then they all go to sleep. So I’m not sure what that orgy thing was about, but maybe they’re swingers or something.”

  I furrowed my brow. “Well, that was a Saturday night, and I didn’t see no kid around. So maybe they fuck around on the weekends?”

  “Maybe,” he replied, tapping the steering wheel.

  “So are you thinking what I’m thinking?” I asked, looking at my brother.

  “What? That he’s a vampire, whose wife has no idea he’s a vampire, and thinks he’s just a workaholic who works twelve hours a day?”

  He nodded. “Exactly. Obviously he and the other vampires sleep somewhere in that office building all day. So strange.”

  “I wonder what she thinks he does on the weekends? Works, too?”

  “That’s a good question,” Aden replied. “I’ll let you take the weekend shift. I’m going camping with the guys on Saturday. Gonna get some fishing in, too.”

  “Sounds nice,” I replied. “You deserve it.”

  “You know,” he said. “We could go in there right now and kill this motherfucker. I could hold down the wife, and you could just stab him with the dagger.” He jutted his chin toward my leg.

  “Tempting,” I replied, pulling the knife out and twirling it. “Go look in the windows and see if you can see the kid. I’m not gonna do that with him there.”

  Aden nodded and ran across the street. He went around to the back of the house, and within two minutes he returned, hopping in the car. “Yeah, the kid is asleep in the back bedroom.”

  “Well, I’m not a complete monster, unlike him. I will corner him on his way inside the building tomorrow morning and end this.”

  “I will meet you for backup. And to make sure you have the right guy.” He winked.

  “Speaking of, you’re sure this is the guy? I mean, I do remember his face and scent, but only you’ve gotten close enough. When I had to witness their swinger orgy, his back was mostly to me so I didn’t get a good look at his face.”

  “You losing your sense of smell?” he asked, concerned. “Wolves have a very acute sense of smell.”

  “No, but it’s changed,” I admitted. I hadn’t ever told anyone what I was about to confess to my brother, because I sometimes wondered if I was imagining it.

  “Changed... how?” he asked.

  “Well,” I said, still twirling the dagger in my hand. “My smells are by species, not specific to an actual person, except family. For instance, when another wolf is nearby, I smell citrus in the air around them. When a vampire is nearby, I smell something earthy and strong, and I’m trying to narrow it down. I think it might be eucalyptus because I hate the smell of that shit. And when I see Sanja or our parents, it seems rose is the witch’s scent of choice. But in their case, I know witches use fresh roses for spells, so I am gonna have to ask Sanja more about it.”

  My brother looked at me with his mouth open. “That’s the weirdest fuckin’ shit I’ve ever heard. So, what do humans smell like?”

  “They don’t have a smell, so that’s how I know someone is just a human.”

  Aden looked at me for a minute. “Well, what does your friend smell like... Evan the hybrid?”

  I smiled. “Of course his is the worst. Lemon mixed with eucalyptus. Gah.”

  “You are seriously screwed. Does Evan say he smells these things, too?”

  I looked at him and cocked my head. “Ya know, I’ve never asked him. I think I will next time I see him.”

  “Do you ever smell anything else, and not know what to make of it?”

  I nodded. “Actually, I do. Some people smell strongly of lavender, but again, it could be something in their surroundings and not them.”

  “I think we’ve covered all the supernatural creatures, so it must be some popular perfume,” Aden concluded.

  “On men?” I asked, my eyebrow cocked.

  His eyes went wide temporarily. “You smell it on men, too?”

  I nodded. “Men, women, even kids. Is it possible there’s a supernatural creature we don’t know about?”

  He stared out the windshield and into the quiet suburban neighborhood and shook his head. “I don’t know, but maybe you should ask your trainers. They might know.”

  “Looks like Evan and I are going to be having a long talk,” I said on a sigh.

  Chapter 8

  Because I was an irresponsible vampire hunter, my window of opportunity to kill asshole vampire had passed for the day. Unless I caught up with him tonight. Being that I usually stayed up all night and slept most of the morning to early afternoon, I had slept right through the alarm. I had been exhausted.

  As I woke around two p.m., I lay in bed and stared at the ceiling. I had a text and missed call from Aden from around six a.m., but of course had slept through those too. Aden told me he had to go into work early at the construction company and couldn’t stalk the vampire. He also said he knew I was still asleep. He knew me so well.

  He also told me he had a date with the waitress from the taco bar later tonight and wouldn’t be able to stake out asshole vampire then either. I quickly replied to the text and apologized for sleeping through his call, and wished him good luck on his date.

  Scrolling through the rest of my notifications, I had a text from Ryder telling me he loved me before going into work. I sighed. We were literally on opposite schedules. He worked two p.m. to ten p.m. at the prison, while two p.m. was about the time I was starting my day. When he got home at around 10:30 p.m., I was either training, or, like last night, scoping out vampires. Or at the bar with my friends, hoping to run into Kellan.

  That was the plan for tonight, as it was a Thursday, but this time, I had hoped to run into him for another reason. I didn’t think he knew I was having premonitions about him, so I wasn’t going to give that secret away, but he was going to get an earful about spying on me. I didn’t give one single damn if he questioned how I knew, either, because I would never tell him.

  I would just have to watch my thoughts around him. The whole telepathy thing still freaked me out, but I was beginning to learn that I could use it to my advantage.

  After slogging out of bed, I walked across my apartment to the small kitchen and put on some coffee. Then I opened my laptop to see what was going on in the world. A scan of local and national news didn’t show me anything earth-shattering, so I went to pour the coffee and a fix myself a bowl of cereal.

  Realizing I hadn’t checked my social media in, like... probably months... I logged into Facebook and looked around. I had a billion private messages, and after reading the newsfeed and seeing what was going on with everyone, I felt a bit sad, and a whole lot guilty. My high school best friend, Gemma, who I hadn’t talked to in months, was apparently going to be having a baby soon. My other high school friend, Kiera, was newly engaged and had a crapload of ‘likes’ on her engagement post. Found herself an Airman and would soon be leaving Colorado to be stationed with him in Texas. My mom had made random posts with her recipes, and a very long one yesterday about the anniversary of Austyn’s death. Salty tears fell into my cereal bowl by the time I was done reading it, and I sighed. My poor mom.

  I picked up my phone and shot off a text to her: I just read your FB post about Austyn. I’m sorry I didn’t call yesterday. I was too busy selfishly collapsing in on myself. I love you.

  Wiping my tears away, I pushed the sad thoughts away and continued reading everyone’s posts until I grew bored and closed the page.

  I had an idea to do an Internet search of the house asshole vampire lived in, so I plugged his address into the search bar.

  The first hit to come up was the developer’s name (Carter Homes, ugh!) and Sunrise Estates, the name of the subdivision. I didn’t bother clicking on those, but I did see a result that piqued my interest, so I clicked on it.

  “Find out who lives at 1810 Dawn Avenue now! Searchme.com!” Of course, I clicked on it. It wanted me to pay to see who lived there. But then I remembered something I had le
arned from when I worked at Carter Homes. All home purchases were public information, available on the county’s website. I typed in “Douglas County assessor’s office” and up came a property search.

  Jackpot!

  I quickly typed the address in. Up popped the lot number, the date of the sale, the tax value, purchase amount, and finally, the purchaser name: Alexander Von Brass.

  “Oh, is that your name, asshole?” I whispered. I quickly Googled his name and found a lot of very interesting information, including a very startling article about him. It was dated almost two years ago, titled: Missing Aurora Man.

  “Alexander Von Brass, a 32-year-old architect from Aurora, has gone missing. He was last seen leaving McAllister’s Pub around one o’clock a.m. on April 24th. If you have any information, please contact Aurora PD,” I read aloud. There was a photo attached, and when I clicked on it, a chill raced down my spine. Flashbacks of that face, a lot more pale now, with bloodshot eyes and very scary fangs, came back to me as he held me down in that alley and fed off of me. I shuddered and blew out a breath.

  Then I clicked on another article headlined: Missing Man Found.

  I read aloud: “Missing Aurora architect, Alexander Von Brass, has been found, safe and sound. Missing six days, he showed up at his home in southeastern Aurora, much to his wife’s surprise. He claims to have no memory of the past six days. Police have questioned him, and are looking into the matter. The Missing Person’s case has been cancelled for now.”

  I shook my head and stared at his photo again. “No memory, my ass. Some vampire got to you, and now you are trying to live like a normal human. I hope you enjoy what little time you have left. Because you attacked the wrong girl, and I’m coming for you, you son-of-a-bitch.”

  I slammed the laptop closed and shot off a text to my brother: Alexander Von Brass. Google him.

  I saw a text from my mom, thanking me for contacting her, and telling me she understood my grief. God, she was so amazing. My brothers and I really did get so very lucky to have been adopted by such beautiful people. I shuddered to think about how much worse it could have been if we’d been sent to live with regular humans—or worse, raised in a home with an abusive Alpha for a father, and a mother who couldn’t protect us.