“Stay back!” Deanna warned the enthralled shifters, many of whom were slowly surrounding her and Bari on the floor. She transformed only partially, clearly not wanting to hurt them, her fur black like Maximus’s but sleeker as a panther.
“Ethan, please!” Bari cried, not bothering to transform at all.
“Stop!” came another voice—familiar, though Ethan had never heard it so frantic.
It was Jesse, who he’d thought might become family if Preston and Luke agreed to adopt her, hugging the wall.
Preston and Luke! One of them must have been who Deanna called, because something like a portal opened in the middle of the shelter, and suddenly, they both came flying out of it, followed by Nell and Siobhan.
Ethan never would have believed a wererat could look imposing until he saw Preston’s sleek black fur and his wickedly sharp front teeth. Luke had feline features like Deanna but with orange tabby stripes, his fangs and claws smaller but still fierce. Siobhan, in contrast, had platinum scales all down her skin to match her hair, her head elongating as she snapped her maw in warning, her tattoos looking like they’d been painted on tiled canvas.
Meanwhile, Nell cast a translucent dome around Deanna and Bari, protecting them from their attackers as the others charged past enthralled and cowering shifters alike, straight for Ethan and Bash.
Only for Gordon to step in, as fast as Ethan could be, zipping in front of them to snatch Preston and Luke up by the necks and toss them, and then grab Siobhan by an arm to swing her away as well. She refused to let him throw her, so he swung and swung and pulled—until her arm tore at the socket with a sickening rip of scales and spattering of blood.
Ethan’s stomach dropped. Had his father ever been so cruel? He couldn’t have been. Ethan remembered Gordon as patient and kind.
Jesse screamed, still on the other side of the room, keeping children back, since many of their parents had been enthralled. She shouldn’t have to see so much brutality. None of them should.
“Please don’t kill my dad!” Another cry whipped Ethan’s attention around.
Bash had Maximus on the ground, bloody and beaten, defeated save the killing blow he currently had raised to swipe at Maximus’s throat.
William got there first.
Breaking from Theresa, who’d been clinging to him amidst the carnage, William dove across his father’s chest to block Bash’s blow with himself, causing Theresa to scream as her son stoically accepted his fate if only it spared his father—a father who was watching history repeat itself, losing loved ones to a vampire and those he had enslaved.
“No….” Ethan stopped his draining of Jay, seeing that the Alpha was barely conscious now, but alive.
Bash wasn’t stopping. William was in the way, and Bash thought he had to kill Maximus, so he had to kill William, all because Ethan had told him that’s what he wanted.
“Stop!” Ethan flashed forward to stop Bash like before, grabbing his wrist. This wasn’t what he wanted. Ethan’s father was wrong.
The force of Ethan’s scream cut through every other sound in the Shelter, bringing the din to a quaking halt. In his larger wolf form, Bash blinked back to full coherence, no longer enthralled, and though several of the other shifters had been under Gordon’s power, they froze, too, shaken by the force of Ethan’s stronger will.
“Ethan,” Gordon snapped like he used to when scolding his young son for disappointing him.
“No,” Ethan said, as William hugged Maximus tightly and Theresa hurried forward to join them.
Jay had slumped to the floor, struggling to stay awake as Ethan’s thrall left him, a smear of blood still staining his neck. So many others were hurt and bleeding and scattered about the Shelter with fear on their faces—including Deanna and Bari, who’d never made it up from the floor after Ethan tossed Bari like a rag doll.
“I don’t want this,” Ethan said to his father, standing resolutely to face him. “And I don’t understand how you could either. The father I remember was a good man. He’d never let children, or any innocent person, get hurt just to get what he wanted. What happened to you? What happened to Mom? Why—”
“Enough,” Gordon cut him off. “After we control the city—”
“No. Tell me now. Explain it to me now. Why… why would you make me a killer?”
The strangeness Ethan saw in his father’s expression shimmered away to reveal a deep sorrow that showed at least some of the man Ethan remembered.
“Ethan,” Bash said warily from behind him, rising from the floor now, shifted back to Stage Two, almost to Stage One, with his pants hanging low around his waist from how they’d stretched. “We have to stop him.”
Ethan heard Bash, but he couldn’t tear his eyes from his father’s face. “Just tell me, Dad. Explain. Make me understand without making me into something I’m not.”
The others were crowding in, even the civilian shifters. It seemed Gordon could no longer take control of them with Ethan set against him. Ethan’s unique version of being a vampire, Focus, and Seer combined was serving him well, but he didn’t want to witness his father get torn apart by an angry mob.
“Dad….”
“Soon. I’ll show you. Once you have everything you ever wanted, Ethan, you’ll be able to forgive me.”
There was a blur of movement that Ethan had only ever seen from Leo, never knowing what he looked like when he ran himself, and before anyone could pounce to catch Gordon, he vanished in a flash.
“Jay!” Maximus cried, lurching to his feet to scramble over to Jay, who was propped in the doorway between rooms.
So many of the others shrank back—or maybe sagged in relief that Gordon was gone—as Ethan remembered that Jay might not be the most injured among them.
“Siobhan! Oh my God—” Ethan spun toward where he’d last seen her, only to stop short at witnessing a brand-new arm finishing growing back into place from her torn shirt.
“I hate having to do that.” She shook her arm as if to confirm feeling in her fingers, seemingly nonplussed.
“Thank you!”
Ethan was startled by small arms wrapping around him. William had attached himself to Ethan’s waist in a vigorous hug.
“You did it! You beat him, even though he was your sire! And your dad?”
What little pride Ethan had been feeling after overpowering his father’s control sunk low in his stomach—because it was his dad.
How could it be his dad?
“Yeah….”
“It must have been so hard,” William said.
“It was. But I did what I had to.” Ethan looked at Bash again, who was bookended now by Bari and Deanna, making sure that none of the damage Maximus had done while defending himself had been too deep.
Honestly, Maximus looked worse off, though not as bad as Jay.
Luke and Preston had recovered, and Nell hurried over to Jay to heal him as best she could. Jay would need a blood transfusion, she said, but if he stayed conscious, he’d be fine.
Ethan was caught between wanting to go to Bash and beg his forgiveness and wondering when Maximus would finally maul him for still having William attached to his waist.
When Maximus did turn to Ethan, however, it was with a look of gratitude.
“I thought I was going to have to watch my loved ones die this time instead of seeing the aftermath,” Maximus said with a catch in his voice. “But you didn’t let him rule you. You saved them.” He stretched out a hand for Ethan to shake, even though Ethan had almost drained Maximus’s Alpha to the point of death.
Jay looked on with a weary smile.
Once William finally released Ethan, Theresa flew over to hug Ethan next, which was when he started to notice that the onlookers weren’t watching him with the same fear as before.
Ethan was hugged equally vigorously by Bari once the Thorntons returned to Jay.
“I don’t know how you did that, darling, but you were amazing,” Bari said, before ducking away to check on Jay as well.
That left Ethan with nowhere to go but Bash’s side.
“Maybe that was it,” Deanna said. “The prophecy. Because of what Bash and our pack means to you, you beat him.”
“It’s not enough,” Bash dismissed. He seemed out of place in a shredded pair of slacks.
Ethan bent to pick up Bash’s shirt and jacket for him, but the buttons had popped off the collared shirt, so he only handed Bash the jacket. Bash accepted it with a warm graze of his fingers.
“That was all you, Ethan. The prophecy needs both of us to end this. Now that we know your sire’s identity, we can be ready.”
“Bash….” Ethan pulled away at the spark of their touch. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t remember enthralling you last night. We almost… I almost made you….”
“You won.” Bash smiled, and it was in that expression of pride that Ethan felt contentment and acceptance, which wasn’t at all what his father had instilled in him. “Against nearly impossible odds, you beat your sire—your father—to save everyone. You have nothing to be sorry for.”
“And hey—” Deanna punched Ethan’s arm. “—you even got Maximus to like you.”
Ethan laughed, mostly in amazement that no one was afraid. They still welcomed him as part of their family.
Bash came closer to grip the side of Ethan’s jaw, which felt so much better when he was in his right mind. “Are you all right?”
“I don’t know.” Ethan covered Bash’s hand with his. “But I’m better than I thought I’d be.”
“We’ll track the vampire and make sure there was no lasting damage to anyone here,” Luke said as he and Preston came over.
“I’ll help too.” Siobhan joined them.
“I am so sorry about your arm!” Ethan turned to her. “That looked just… awful.”
“More a nuisance, really. Handy trick for getting out of a grapple, though.” Siobhan shrugged, and then grimaced at her ruined shirt and the fresh skin of her regrown arm. “At least I’ll get to think up all new tats.”
“That was sick!” Jesse exclaimed, the young teen having pulled away from the children now that all the adults were back to their senses.
“I’d say what was sick was you protecting the little ones.” Luke beamed, hooking her around the shoulders for a half hug. “Future inner circle material right here!”
Jesse lit up just as brightly.
“Hey, Preston,” Ethan said before anyone could start to disperse. “Have you met Jesse yet?”
Chapter 23
ETHAN WAS unlike any vampire Bash had ever heard of. He’d surpassed his sire’s control and even paused to help broker the beginnings of an adoption before calling it good at the Shelter. He was amazing.
It helped that the average shifter under Bash’s rule now looked at Ethan in awe, too, realizing what an asset he was after seeing him stand up for their sakes.
Jay would be fine. It turned out Bash and Bari were both matches to his blood type, so of course Bari volunteered to be the donor so Bash and Ethan could head back to the den.
For all of Ethan’s successes today, however, he stared ahead blankly, face pale, as Leo finally told them the whole truth.
“It was my fault, in the end. If I’d been more vigilant, I would have fed before I was that far gone. You know how caught up I can get while researching.” He tossed a somber smile at Ethan.
Leo was an anthropology professor, Ethan had said, and often worked on getting papers published. Why Leo had chosen anthropology made even more sense, now that they knew he was over a hundred years old.
“I kept telling myself—tomorrow night. I’ll feed tomorrow. When the full force of my hunger hit me and I realized how weak I was, I knew I had to choose my victim carefully. It had to be someone sturdy, young, and large enough that even if I took too much, they’d be okay.
“But it took me hours to find someone like that who was alone. I followed your father home. All the lights were off, so I knew he would still be alone once inside, and we would be safely out of view from anyone seeing us. I tried to hold my sanity long enough to merely feed from him, but I lost control. He would have died. The only thing I could think to do was turn him.
“I had no idea he had a wife and child. I stayed with him, waiting for the change to finish and for him to wake up so I could feed him more. Otherwise, fledglings wake up feral their first night. Then I heard you and your mother come home. I was so stunned to see you both, I froze.
“I stayed hidden, but by the time I collected myself, you’d moved past me into the living room where I’d left your father. The timing couldn’t have been worse. He woke up… saw your mother and….”
Bash wanted to hate this man, but he believed the guilt and sympathy he saw in Leo’s eyes as he sat there on the bed in the basement, hands clasped between his knees.
“By the time I realized what was happening, he’d done so much damage, I couldn’t save her, not even to turn her too. I grabbed you and tried to use my power as his sire to stop him, but it didn’t work. I realized then that he was a Focus and couldn’t be affected by my thrall. You’re similar, Ethan. You are strong enough now to overpower him if you focus correctly.
“He snapped to his senses as the blood coursed through him, looking down and realizing what he’d done. You were so hysterical, just a boy, you repressed it all, but in that moment, when your father was thinking clearly, he wanted you as far away from him as possible. He asked me to take you, to protect you, to never let you know what had happened, because he feared that one day, he might come for you too.
“It’s easy for our kind to fake our deaths. We have no pulse and can be still for hours. The police never questioned it, and I took you in, took you back to Glenwood. My thrall was enough for the authorities to believe I was family. I left Gordon a PO box to send letters to, but that was all. He never knew where we were, and I used the runes to hide us. The last time I saw him was shortly afterward to teach him how to ward himself as well. The Glenwood Shaman was kind enough to provide me with a second powering rune that I gave to him so he could disappear just like we had.
“It wasn’t even a full year later that his tone in the letters began to change when asking after you. I think the guilt of what he’d done drove him mad. The solitude. What I’d made of him. He began asking to see you. Demanded it. But I could tell he wasn’t the same, that it wasn’t right to hand you back to him, so I refused and kept you as my own.
“I knew I couldn’t protect you forever, but when you were sent to prison, I feared the worst, and the worst was realized. The runes’ power faded, and you chose to go home. It was only a matter of time before he found you.
“I’m sorry, Ethan. I thought if you never knew, you’d be happier. I hoped you’d listen to me and run away without ever having to hear the truth.”
Standing beside the chair where Ethan sat, Bash squeezed Ethan’s shoulder tightly. Bash had killed his own father gladly. For Ethan, it wasn’t that simple. They’d been a good family, happy.
What Leo had let happen was the whole reason vampires were reviled.
“I can’t believe it was Dad who….” Ethan clenched his eyes shut, allowing stray tears to leak free. “He’s so far gone he thinks this is how to make it up to me? There has to be some way to reach him.”
“I don’t want your faith in your father to be what undoes you,” Bash said, lost the moment Ethan’s eyes looked at him, shimmering green.
“But you had faith in me. I just want to give him a chance—”
“And if it’s not enough? If he tries to kill innocents, people from our pack, Jay and Maximus again?”
Ethan had no answer, but he turned to Leo with a breath to steady himself. “How do we find him?”
“He could be anywhere,” Leo said, “but I don’t think it’ll matter. He’ll come to you or find some way to lure you out exactly where he wants you. I can’t fight him, Ethan, even as his sire. But you can. You already did. I wasn’t sure it was possible, but you proved me wrong. So, do
it again. I don’t know if you can reach him, but you can defeat him, especially with Bash’s power to amplify your own.”
A knock sounded at the door before any of them could say more. Bash squeezed Ethan’s shoulder again before going to answer it.
“What’s wrong?” Bash allowed Deanna into the room, her face scrunched as she held a cellphone to her chest.
“I’m not sure. It’s Rio, but he sounds strange. He told me to find you—all three of you—and to put him on speaker.”
Bash, Ethan, and Leo looked to each other in surprise as Deanna held the phone aloft and pressed the speaker button.
“It’s time to come home, Ethan,” Rio said, distant and monotone. “Tonight. The moment the sun sets. Meet us there.”
“Us?” Ethan bolted to his feet, but the line went dead.
“He has him.” Deanna pulled the cellphone to her chest again. “Your father must be enthralling Rio. Do you think he knows—”
“That Rio is a Focus?” Bash broke in. “I’d wager he does.”
Leo sat taller, with growing dread darkening his expression. “A vampire Focus, a human Focus, and the two of you, all in the same city? Those prophecies you mentioned, this is what they mean. That kind of power amplified could enthrall everyone in the city.”
Bash felt a cold chill stir in his gut. He knew that if he had killed Ethan that night under the red moon he could have prevented all this, but who knows what wrath Gordon would have unleashed on Centrus City if he had.
“I never saw my mother have a vision,” Ethan said, staring forward distantly. “At least, I never thought I had. But I can almost picture it now, her eyes, blue on black, glowing. I don’t know if she knew what she was, but I saw her, right before we got home that day. It’s why we rushed inside. She must have seen….” He clenched his eyes tight, and Bash wondered if he remembered everything Leo had described.
When Ethan opened his eyes again, shimmering wet, Bash linked their hands together with a firm squeeze.
“I don’t know if I would have done things differently, Ethan, if I’d known how powerful you would become,” Leo continued. “The runes didn’t only protect you and keep you undetectable all those years. They also lessened your abilities. Now those abilities are so strong, I can feel them resonating from here, especially with you two together.
By the Red Moonlight Page 21
