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

by C. J. Pinard

  I slipped out of the booth and began to wander through the church until I came to a set of offices. I found a small office marked Father Atkinson on the door in gold lettering.

  I knocked and waited until the door eventually opened.

  Standing before me was a tall white man with cloudy green eyes and wisdom lining his face. A shock of thinning white hair sat on top of his head, and he wore a crisp black suit with a white collar around his neck. He looked me up and down, seeing how I was dressed, and eventually asked, “May I help you, child?”

  I patted my hip. “Sorry to cut right to the point, Father, but I have a Dagestan dagger, and I need you to bless it. I have a demon to fight.”

  He opened the door wide, and indicated to a chair. “Please, have a seat.”

  I did as I was told and watched as he went around his desk and sat. It was then he put his elbows on the desk and steepled his fingers in front of him. He pierced me with an intense stare through those green eyes of his. After a few long seconds, he said, “Tell me about this demon.”

  Well, I wasn’t expecting that.

  Realizing he may help me, I took a deep breath and said, “I don’t know how to describe it. Scary, I guess? It was inside a woman. We sort of discovered her by mistake, as we were following—”

  “We?” he interrupted. “You and your werewolf friends?”

  That caught me off-guard for a minute, but I didn’t let it break my stride. I did a double-take at him and cleared my throat. “Yeah, my brother and I. And my vampire friends.”

  He nodded, completely unfazed by the vampire comment. “Go on, young wolf.”

  “So this demon was inside a woman we saw while following a certain newly turned vampire. This vampire attacked me a while back.”

  A gasp he couldn’t hide escaped his wrinkled lips. “A... vampire attacked a wolf? That is practically unheard of.”

  I looked up to see a hint of shock dancing in his eyes.

  I couldn’t help but laugh. “Yeah, imagine that, right, Father? Well, it’s not how you think. I was in my human form. The venom was not extracted in time. I am now what you might call a hybrid. I need to end this vampire for what he did to me.”

  “And what did he do to you, child?” he asked, now leaning forward in his chair, intrigued.

  “He turned me into a freak. I can no longer shift into the beautiful, sleek wolf during the full moon. I just turn into something... beastly and unspeakable. See, I’m no longer wolf, and not a vampire. I’m somewhere in between. I can drink blood, but don’t really seem to need it. My blood heats up during the full moon, and I have the urge to hunt, but cannot for fear of anyone seeing me in my strange, bigfoot-like form. He’s trapped me into a lifetime of monthly torture. He may or may not have known he was doing it, but he’s gonna be sent to Hell where he belongs for it.”

  “That’s quite a tall order to hand down to someone.”

  I stared at him for a few seconds and said, “Where else is he supposed to go? He deserves no less.”

  “Everyone is worthy of redemption, child,” he replied quietly.

  I nodded. “So I was taught in Sunday School as a kid. And I believe you... as far as humans are concerned. But not this guy. He’s a monster now, and even more so, as he now has a living, breathing demonic spirit inside of him. I’m being told I cannot exorcise him unless my precious dagger is blessed by a holy man. That’s where you come in.”

  He smiled. “I can do that for you, and I will. I can sense the passion of your mission through your words. But young wolf, I must issue you a word of warning.”

  I nodded and waved my hand. “By all means, Father.”

  “Revenge—vengeance for your lost wolf life, it will not satisfy you. You will continue to grow in anger and spite. You can kill dozens, hundreds... even thousands of vampires and demons, but you will not ever calm the storm of your soul until you make peace with the One who has given you life. He will quiet your spirit and give you peace where you feel like you may never find any.”

  “So noted. I will definitely keep that in mind.” I pulled out the dagger from where it sat against my belt. I laid it on his desk and ran a gentle finger over the engraving of my brother’s name.

  He looked at me hard, and then picked up the heavy metal piece. He, too, ran his finger over Austyn’s name, then up at me. “Your wolf brother,” he said, more of a statement rather than a question.

  I nodded once.

  He stood. “Follow me.”

  I trailed him out of his office and to the foyer of the church, where he completely submerged the dagger into the small pool of holy water set at the fountain, which had many candles burning next to it. He slowly lifted it from the water, closed his eyes, and began to chant in almost inaudible tones something I could assume was Latin. It sounded like the stuff Sanja said when she was doing her spell thing.

  He slowly opened his eyes, and for a short split-second I thought I might have been imagining it—his irises flashed red and then quickly went back to green. He handed me the dagger and said, “The Lord’s blessing is upon this weapon. Any demon killed with it will be sent straight back to Hell, to wreak havoc on this Earth no more.” He made the sign of the cross over it as I held it in my hands.

  I looked down at my dagger. It felt no different. Dragging my gaze back to the priest, I said, “Wow, cool. Thanks, Father.”

  As I went to walk away, he said, “Young hybrid?”

  I turned and said, “Yes?”

  “Please do not forget what I said. Vengeance and hate leave a dirty mark on the soul. Find peace with the Creator of this earth before you destroy yourself.”

  I nodded and walked out of the church, back out into the sunlight.

  I had forgotten to ask Jessica Swift if I could tell anyone about her, and since she didn’t say I couldn’t, I called a meeting that night at Moon Chasers.

  I got there early and put two tables together where we could all fit. Once I had them set up, I ordered three pitchers of beer and waited for my friends to arrive. Karina and Evan arrived first, followed by Aden and Sam, and then Beckett, and lastly, Ryder. I was so glad he had the night off.

  When everyone was seated, and I had given Ryder a very long kiss hello, I sat on his lap and it felt good to have his arms around my waist. I had missed him.

  “So, what’s up, Ayla?” Beckett asked, ignoring the beer and ordering a gin and tonic from Jeannie when she came to check on us.

  I tried to lower my voice, but knew it wouldn’t really do much good. It was only seven p.m. and the place wasn’t busy yet, so I wasn’t too worried. So I just blurted out the question. “Have you guys ever heard of the B.S.I.?”

  Not surprisingly, Karina spoke up. “Yes, why. Did they pay you a visit?”

  I nodded. “Sure did. The lady was pretty nice, just warned me not to hurt humans. It was a little strange, but definitely took me by surprise.”

  “It’s what they do,” Evan commented. “I got a visit from an agent in Texas when I was first turned. They keep tabs on every supernatural in their district. They’re like paranormal probation officers.”

  Everyone at the table let out of a low chuckle.

  “Good to know. Do I need to be worried about this lady? She gave me her card.”

  “Not at all, just don’t hurt humans and clean up your messes. They will leave you and all of us alone.”

  “I’ve never been visited by one,” Beckett said. “I’d heard of them, though. Just thought they were an urban legend or something.”

  “They’re nothing to be worried about,” Karina said. “Really.”

  Ryder had been quiet, but finally spoke up. “What a cool freaking job. I would love to do that.”

  “Do they let werewolves work there? This lady was totally human. Although she spoke very maturely and made some weird comments about being ‘much older than me’, but she didn’t look older than maybe thirty.”

  Evan shrugged and took a sip of his beer. “Who knows? I’ve heard most o
f them are odd ducks.”

  I chuckled. “She was gorgeous, but yeah, a little strange. Followed me around the damn Trader Joe’s for a half hour before approaching me in the parking lot.”

  “Maybe she wanted to see what you eat,” Beckett said. “You do eat some weird shit.”

  “Says the guy who drinks gin and blood for a diet,” I replied dryly.

  He grinned proudly. “Sometimes at the same time. Bloody Mary, anyone?”

  I wrinkled my nose. “No.”

  “You drink blood, so stop,” he chastised.

  “I have a couple times, but I don’t need it. So I don’t see the point.”

  Ryder shook his head. “Nasty.”

  “Says the boy who tore the raw flesh off of a doe last shift with his bare fangs,” I continued.

  “She was delicious too. Mmmm.” He rubbed his stomach.

  I smacked his arm and he grabbed it and pulled me in for a kiss, and then murmured, “You busy tonight?”

  “God, get a room,” Sam commented.

  “Fuck you, Sam,” Ryder said.

  “I am busy tonight. We’re going to kill Alexander once and for all, and you all are going to help me. Not only did I have a vision that told me he’s selling blood bags he steals from local blood banks—or maybe hospitals—that agent told me he’s got other people after him. Nobody kills that piece of shit but me.”

  “I was hoping you’d say that,” Aden said. “Finish your beers, I have a plan.”

  Chapter 15

  Since we knew from his habits that Alexander usually left his home between four and five a.m., Aden had the idea to beat him to his daytime resting place. At 4:40 a.m., we parked our vehicles around the back of the office building, and snuck in through the back door. It was unlocked, which we found odd, but then figured some of the vampires were probably already inside for the day.

  This was going to prove to be a problem, but nothing we couldn’t handle. I had the blessed Dagestan dagger, plus my sharpening tool. Beckett liked to carry a regular .22 pistol loaded with silver bullets, along with a wooden stake, and the rest of the crew carried combinations of both. Karina and Sam even had high-powered Tasers. We weren’t unprepared. We just lacked a strong plan, which was: Disable but don’t kill any vampires who got in our way. Only Alexander had to die today.

  We quietly entered through the heavy, steel door and went through a series of hallways, which led us to a lobby type area. We paused at the doorway while Evan looked for cameras. He pointed at four mounted to the ceiling from the corners of the room. The lenses were already smashed, though, no doubt having been done by the vampires who hung out here.

  “I think we’re good. Let’s take the stairs to the third floor. Sam and Beckett, can you stay here and make sure nobody comes in?” Evan then looked at all of us and pointed. “Y’all have that walkie-talkie app downloaded on your phones so we can communicate?”

  We all nodded.

  “Good. Okay, Sam, Beckett, wait five minutes, then meet us up there.”

  “Fine,” Beckett said, not thrilled with being paired with Sam, but he’d get over it.

  “Wait,” I said, looking around. “What if Alexander’s still a zombie-vampire-demon? Will he still keep the same routine?”

  Karina bit her lip. “I don’t know. We would hope so, but it’s hard to say. I hope he hasn’t harmed his wife and kid. It’s possible he didn’t even go home, but we can’t take that chance. You get that dagger blessed by a holy man?” She pointed to my precious weapon.

  I nodded. “Just today. We’re good.”

  She smiled and I followed the others as we rushed up the stairs with our weapons drawn. Once we reached the landing of the third floor, Evan slowly opened the door with his own dagger out in front of him. Aden had a small .22 handgun out and ready.

  The door opened up into a large office space littered with cubicles, just like we had seen through the window the first night we’d discovered Alexander had been holing up here during the day. Two vampires were making up beds in one of the empty cubicles. They didn’t see us. I looked around the space and it didn’t look like this particular floor was used at all, as most of the cubicles were empty but already had air mattresses with pillows and blankets in them.

  The smell of eucalyptus was strong.

  The two vampires finally spotted us and said, “Who are you guys? Are you new?”

  “Yeah,” Karina said. “We’re looking for Alexander. He here yet?”

  “Not for a couple days, actually,” the female answered. She looked very young and like she may be one step away from living on the streets. I kinda felt sorry for her.

  “Why do I smell a wolf?” the male answered. He was in the same state as her.

  I quickly looked around to make sure nobody else was there and walked slowly toward them. “Where does Alexander sleep?”

  The female was now suspicious and crossed her arms over her chest. “What do you want with him?”

  “He owes me money,” I replied, pulling the lie out of my ass.

  “You stink,” the male said to me. “You been hanging out with wolves?”

  “Just killed one earlier, and it got messy. He lost at a pool game; wouldn’t pay up. You know how their egos are,” I said, chuckling.

  They both relaxed and the male nodded. “Alex sleeps in that cubicle over there. But he ain’t got no shit in there. We take it with us when we leave each night.”

  “Cool, thanks,” I said. They both put their eyes back on my friends, who were still standing by the door. Then they went back to blowing up the air mattresses.

  As I approached the cubicle, which was by the window, I saw that it was empty. Then my phone made a loud chime, which was chorused by all the phones my friends had on them.

  Then I heard Sam’s panicked voice, “Get down here now! Oh sh—”

  This caused the couple’s heads to perk up, but I ignored them. We all ran toward the door and took the stairs down two at a time, flying through the concrete stairwell toward our friends.

  When we reached the lobby, we saw Alexander standing in front of Sam and Beckett, red drool dribbling from the corner of his mouth. And somehow, his left hand was there, intact. He had his black gaze focused on Beckett.

  “You’re a sinner,” it said, pointing at Beckett, the words slithering out of its mouth like a snake. “You have the curse of homosexuality. You’re going to hell, fa—”

  My skin heated up and my vision blurred. I began to see red around the edges of my vision and a growl escaped my mouth. Aside from when Austyn was murdered, I couldn’t recall ever being this blinded by rage. I ran so fast over to Alexander-demon, I didn’t even recall being in one place before the next.

  I barely registered a small chuckle coming from Evan. “Guess she’s learned how to blitz.”

  I didn’t even care about that at the moment. The demon fixed its gaze on me. “Hello, Ayla. You’re dying to kill Alexander Von Brass, but he is not here. It is only me.”

  I laughed, but there was no humor in it. “Bitch, I don’t care. Both of you are gonna be dead very soon.” I twirled the dagger in my hand.

  Imagine my surprise when Alexander-demon reached up and knocked it out of my hand.

  As I bent to retrieve it, a gunshot rang out. It hit the demon in the shoulder, which caused him to stumble back, but not fall. I glanced over to see Aden with his pistol in his hand, a murderous look coloring his face.

  Beckett also had his gun in his fist, his jaw bunching in rage.

  I glanced over at Alexander-demon. “Little wolf girl, you cannot kill me, and neither can your filthy wolf brother. The queer can take a shot at me, but he won’t kill me, either. Demons cannot die.”

  The anger in me was rising to fever-pitch levels. “Yeah? But I can send you both back to Hell where you belong.”

  With a banshee scream, I crouched down low and then sprung up like a gymnast, channeling my inner cheerleader. I flew so far in the air, I almost hit the dusty chandelier which hung
in the lobby of the building. Flipping one time, I landed on Alexander-demon’s shoulders, straddling them like I had so many times on the male cheerleaders in high school who were in charge of catching us. I covered his eyes with the palm of my left hand. “Guess who, asshole?”

  Without waiting for a response, I speared the side of his neck with my dagger and watched in satisfaction as black blood spurted out.

  The demon cried out an unholy screech that made me hop down from him. When I landed on my feet, my friends and I all had our ears covered with our hands. Its screeches were so loud and disturbing, I found I had squeezed my eyes shut in the hopes that they would stop.

  I slowly opened my eyes to see it was clutching at my dagger in the side of its neck, but Ryder, Sam, and Aden had tackled it. While all of their eyes were glowing yellow, I watched in horror as they all seemed as though they might turn into wolves at any moment. But that wasn’t possible, the full moon wasn’t for another two and a half weeks. They held Alexander down and I stared in awe as a thick, gray cloud began to float from its mouth and hover above the body before it violently rushed into the ground. What I didn’t like, however, was that Alexander’s body wasn’t turning into ash, as the stab to the neck should have ended him.

  A deep yelling-groaning sound replaced the screech, and I stepped back when I saw him begin to stand up. The wolves backed away, too. I was mortified, because I remembered the human female passing out once the demon had left her body to jump into his as he fed from her. In fact, she was still unconscious when we had dropped her at the ER. This was not the case now.

  With his hand to the side of his neck, he looked around, staggering like a drunk and looking thoroughly confused. “Where am I?” he asked, slurring.

  “Alexander Von Brass,” I said, walking up to him and yanking my dagger from his neck with a sucking-slurping sound, “do you remember me?”

  I reached over and grabbed the hem of his trench coat, using it to wipe off the blood. I really shouldn’t play these games. I should just end him. But I needed him to remember me. I needed him to acknowledge what he had done to me and God knew who else. I wasn’t sure why I needed these things, but I did, and what Ayla wants, Ayla gets.