A Cursed Moon

by Cecy Robson

  The gal’s lids flickered, probably temporarily blinded by the color of Dan’s attire. But then she shocked the hell out of me when her lips parted into a smile. “How about two?”

  Dan smiled back at her and motioned to the bartender . . . and while he paid for the drinks the chick walked away with her drink and his. She hurried her way back to where some idiot waited, and handed him Dan’s drink. He smiled and waved after Tube Top said something to him and motioned our way.

  Dan cleared his throat. “Um, looks like she’s with someone.”

  I slung around him. “Don’t worry, Dan. You did a good thing. That poor bastard was probably thirsty.”

  As the night went on, Dan struck out left and right. Celia asked him to dance twice. Both times he turned her down. She walked away shaking her head and made her way back to me. My hands slipped around her waist and I pulled her onto my lap just as one of Misha’s vampires passed by. The vamp narrowed her gaze through her tiny librarian glasses and hissed. I swatted at the air as if batting a fly. “Don’t you have someone to eat? Go away.”

  “Agnes Concepcion, please. I told you he’s just a friend. Go back to the others.” Celia watched her until she disappeared into the growing numbers taking up the dance floor. We were already at capacity, the bouncers on duty letting too many clubbers in. “It’s getting too crowded and my tigress is on edge. Do you want to call it a night?”

  “Nah. I need to keep an eye on Dan. What was his excuse for not dancing with you? It might have worked to his advantage to be seen with a cutie like you.”

  She gave me a small smile. “He said he’s afraid that if he dances with me, it’ll ruin his chance to hook up.”

  “Did you tell him his suit has already done that for him?”

  She laughed. “No, I didn’t want to hurt—”

  Celia tensed as my hackles rose. A sudden chill overtook the air around us. She slipped off my lap. I stood, releasing the throaty growl rumbling my chest. Gray mist crept its way from the exits and crawled along the floor, thick enough to blanket the feet of the dancing patrons. The humans continued to bump and glide against each other, their steps growing louder as the music faded and the hairs on my arms curled tight against my skin.

  The air grew denser, tightening my chest. Something had entered the club from all directions. I didn’t know what the hell it was, but knew we needed to get rid of it—fast.

  “Do you feel that?” Celia whispered.

  I nodded and motioned to the vamps. They’d stopped dancing and straightened, their keen sights taking everything in. “Your girlfriends felt it, too.”

  “Can you tell what we’re dealing with?”

  “No. But it’s nothing good. Looks like the spirits aren’t done for the night.”

  Chapter Six

  Celia pulled a cell phone out of her back pocket. “My phone’s dead. How about yours?”

  I yanked out mine. “Yeah. The paranormal activity must be interfering with the electrical equipment.” The flashing strobe lights flickered in and out and music reached an abrupt end. I reached for her hand again. “Come on, let’s take a look around.”

  We made our way through the crowd of sweating bodies. Celia stopped and tugged on my arm. “Bren, look.”

  I hadn’t noticed the clubbers’ eyes. They stared expressionless at their partners, despite how hard their bodies moved against each other and to the beat of music that no longer played. “Shit. Their souls have been numbed.”

  “What?”

  “A poisonous spirit can paralyze a weak soul—especially if their prey is intoxicated. Think of a snake that’s bitten a rat. Makes the rat easier to eat.”

  “Jesus,” Celia whispered taking in the swarm of drunk humans. “There are a lot of rats around here.”

  Speaking of which. The she-vamps slinked their way around the bodies, charging to Celia’s side. “We have to get you out of here.”

  The ice blonde reached for Celia but withdrew when Celia hissed. “I’m not going anywhere until we dispose of whatever entity has trapped the humans.”

  Blonde bombshell shook her head. “We’ll deal with it once we get you back to the master.”

  “No. It’ll take too long. I’m not risking some poor sap having his soul devoured.” Celia’s husky voice was absolute and she squared her jaw. “I’m staying to help Bren. And so are you.”

  The blonde swore before whirling to face the chick with the dark pigtails and little glasses. “What are we dealing with here, Agnes?”

  Agnes frowned. “I won’t know until we find it. It, they—whatever the hell is scattered around. We have to wait until one takes physical form to feed. It’ll entice the others to present in their physical forms and feast.”

  “We have to wait until it chooses its prey?” Celia’s head whipped around. “Aw hell, there’s got to be a hundred people crammed in here.” She prowled toward the center. “Spread out in pairs. Bren, you’re with me.”

  I pounded after her and almost ran her down when she stopped short. A stunning Latina with skin the color of warm chocolate and long black hair that dragged to her feet stood swaying in the middle of the floor watching Dan. His eyes remained partly in focus; unlike the other fools surrounding him, he wasn’t drunk and therefore not trapped in the spirits’ magic. He was, however, making an ass out of himself. In a mad effort to “wow,” Dan had thrown common sense, pride, and his balls out the window. There he stood in perfect nerd glory: one hand clasped behind his neck, the other square in front of him jerking erratically. He was, no lie, trying to impress the hot babe by doing the “the sprinkler.” If I wasn’t busy trying to find the evil that continued to burn my senses, I’d have slapped the shit right out of him.

  The Latina’s head whipped in our direction, fast enough to toss the blanket of hair shrouding her naked form behind her. Black, unearthly, immortal eyes blinked back at us. She bared her jagged teeth and snarled, “Mine.”

  Oh, hell no.

  Dan’s hands dropped to his sides and his face blanched. Celia and I shoved aside a few bodies and bolted to him. “Get back, Dan!” I growled.

  Celia disappeared in a blur of speed. My steps grew heavy, weaker, despite how hard and fast I tried to propel my body forward. The thick air solidified in my chest, smothering my wolf and forcing him to lose consciousness. I fought to stay alert and lift my feet while coaxing my beast to wake and rise.

  The mist slithered up my thighs, morphing my muscles into lead and pulling them from my bones. I groaned from the strain. And still I pushed. I had to destroy the spirit. She’d chosen Dan. I had to save him . . .

  A trumpet blasted and a second Latina stepped in front of me. Good God. This one was younger, no more than twenty, and the most beautiful being I’d ever laid eyes on. The muffled crunch of a fist meeting hard bone made me want to tear my gaze away from her. Someone . . . something screeched in agony as skin was punctured and sliced like beef. I thought I picked up Celia’s pained grunt. And still I kept my focus on the vision of sex and desire before me. The fight—or whatever was happening ahead of us—didn’t matter. Nothing did. The lovely lady standing before me became my world.

  Long dark ringlets curved around her heart-shaped face and the swell of her breasts. Brown perfect nipples punctured like bullets through the sheer fabric of her white dress. She ran a hand between her legs and rubbed, adding enough friction to make her lids flutter.

  She was offering herself to me. And who was I to deny her? We needed our bodies to join. It was the only way. The only way to end her suffering . . . and mine.

  “Bren!” Celia flung herself at my love.

  My love answered by punching her in the jaw and sending her reeling into me. I snatched Celia’s wrists with one of my hands when she lurched back to attack. She fought my hold, screaming, “Damn it, Bren, snap out of it!”

  The woman approached me slowly, her smile
widening and her nipples taunting me to play. I jerked Celia to the side, extending my arm to keep her away from us and giving my lovely beauty space to work. She yanked my T-shirt over my head and flicked her tongue down my chest and toward the strain pounding against my jeans. Celia lurched forward and kicked her in the stomach, despite my best efforts to keep her still. My love responded with a growl then ignored Celia to return to me.

  The room darkened as she unbuckled my belt. All I saw was her, my entire being mesmerized by the sultriness behind those large brown eyes. The desire to have her mouth around me consumed me. I yanked the waistband of my jeans, helping her to pull them down.

  Celia twisted and wrenched her body. I forgot she was there fighting me and became only partially aware that she’d begun to jerk away from us. Instead I focused on my lovely admirer and how she latched onto my boxers and pulled them down with her pretty pointed teeth.

  Pointed teeth?

  She licked me again . . . with her long gray tongue.

  Gray tongue?

  My wolf jolted awake, howling inside me and insisting something was wrong. I think he also called me a horny moron, but I might’ve misheard.

  My beast’s rage shot to the surface. I could sense his growls, demanding to be released. Odd considering I was about to get some head . . . from a gal with pointy teeth and a gray tongue. What the—

  Something cold hit my crotch; smacking me out of my stupor.

  Celia had dumped an entire pitcher of beer on Little Bren. My hands slapped to my sides, releasing Celia and, son of a bitch, did she ever lose her shit. She nailed the Latina with a spinning back kick to the head. The woman whirled in the air and crashed with a hard thud on the concrete floor. Her skirt flew upward, exposing one gray leg and another shaped like some strange-ass kitchen utensil made of wood.

  The spirit kicked out her leg, nailing Celia hard in the stomach. I lunged at them but failed to move anything but my arms. My body jerked viciously and my muscles strained from the effort. I remained stuck, watching and helpless to stop the devil’s version of Martha Stewart from taking on my friend.

  What the hell?

  Celia and the freak rolled around me, toppling the patrons now frozen in place. And they weren’t the only ones brawling to the death. Misha’s vampires battled bare-ass-naked women whose skin alternated from shades of brown to dark blue. Despite their malevolence and thirst for blood, the spirits’ exotic beauty proved hard to ignore. Their lovely faces drew me to them, and so did their aroma of sin and sex. Whatever they were had the same power to lure me, just like the one Celia had stopped from going down on me.

  Instead of kitchen utensils for legs, the vamps’ opponents kicked with backward facing feet. Their long hair whipped around as they wrestled and clawed at the Catholic schoolgirls. The vamps grunted and screamed. Their opponents chirped like exotic birds. It was all kinds of hot and would’ve made one hell of a porn. Too bad these porn stars wanted to munch on my soul like pretzels.

  Edith Anne, the Catholic with the crazy long tongue, let out a scream and slammed one of the spirits into the floor. She straddled her and hammered her fist repeatedly into the spirit’s skull until black blood smeared her white shirt and the spirit’s body buckled inward.

  The vamp with the librarian glasses cleaved into another spirit’s stomach and yanked out rows of decaying bowels. I continued to catch portions of the action as the vamps bashed into the entities. They held their own and then some. Thankfully, so did my girl, Celia.

  The freak Celia fought tried to kick her with her wooden limb. Celia was ready for her. She locked onto the leg with her arm and belted it with the heel of her foot. The spirit shrieked. A loud snap followed by splintering wood signaled the abrupt loss of her bizarre and creepy-ass appendage. It also provided Celia with one hell of a weapon. She lifted the cracked piece and stabbed it through the spirit’s chest. The spirit bolted up, releasing a flow of gray foam from her mouth and slicing her wicked nails at Celia. Celia scrambled behind her, yanking back the entity’s hair and using her claws to sever the spirit’s head.

  Blood the color of concrete splashed me across the face and bare chest. Celia held the head of her opponent, scowling at me.

  “What?” I asked defensively. “I’m numb from the waist down.”

  Celia gave Little Bren a quick glance, her voice less than patient when she spoke. “That’s not what it looked like to me.” She tossed the demon’s head aside just as Misha’s vampires hurried to her. “Did we get them all?”

  The naughty librarian/even naughtier Catholic schoolgirl wiped her bowel-smeared hands on the back of some guy’s shirt. “Yes. The trance should lift soon.”

  Celia watched the mist recede into the spirits as their bodies bubbled and frothed. “What were those things, Agnes?”

  Agnes adjusted her cleavage before she began rebraiding her long pigtails. For a vamp, she had her priorities straight. She motioned behind her to where the body she had fun disemboweling had begun to disintegrate. “Ciguapas. They’re Dominican. They’re said to lure men into the forests to have sex with them.”

  I shrugged. “That doesn’t sound so bad.”

  That earned me a smile from Agnes. “No, but then they kill them afterwards.” Her smile widened. “Slowly. Sometimes even over weeks.”

  Celia pointed to the one with the leg found in the culinary section. “What about that one?” She jerked back when the abandoned head popped, fizzled, and crumpled inward.

  Agnes eyed the cracked limb as it began to char and crumble. “That’s La Tunda. She’s Columbian and downright nasty.”

  Celia shuddered. “Yeah. That wooden leg is hideous.”

  “It is,” Agnes agreed, stepping back and adjusting her tiny glasses. “But that’s not what I meant by nasty. She emits a gas by breaking wind in order to keep her victims docile and dazed.”

  “Ew,” the rest of us said. Hell, I guess that explained the blasting trumpet. “I told you I couldn’t move,” I mumbled to Celia.

  Celia threw her hands out. “Then how come the vampires and I could?”

  Agnes watched me fix my pants. “La Tunda’s powers don’t work on supernatural beings. Unless, of course, they’re easily influenced.” She giggled. “Or aroused.”

  Celia pushed her hair away from her face. “Well, the important thing is that they’re back to blazes where they belong.” She lifted a few of the swaying bodies off the floor when they started to stir and the music exploded over the speakers. “Help me get them up, and be sure to alter their memories. They’re starting to wake up and God only knows what they saw.”

  I hoisted a few off their feet, pausing when one of the vamps stopped for a bite. “Edith, cut it out!”

  She scowled at Celia and took one last defiant lick. “What? I haven’t eaten all night and I’m thirsty, damn it.”

  Celia opened her mouth to say something to her, but then stopped suddenly. Her head whipped around. “Bren, where’s Danny?”

  I straightened and veered behind me. His scent failed to reach my senses. “The last time I saw him, he was with the naked chick you took out.”

  Celia urged the vamps forward. “Find him. Make sure he’s okay.”

  We raced around the dance floor in a mad rush, searching for any trace of his scent. My feet pounded down the hall toward the bathrooms. I threw opened the doors. “Dan. Dan! Are you in here, man?” Silence was my only response. Shit, was it too much to hope he was hiding in a stall?

  Celia sprinted up behind me. “He’s not in any of the offices, and the vamps can’t find him anywhere.”

  I backed out of the bathroom and froze. My nose fixed onto a faint trickle of Dan’s obnoxious cologne. It trailed in the direction of the emergency exit down the dark hall. I bolted toward it and latched on to the smell. The alarm blasted as I barreled through the door with Celia hot on my heels.

  The air
in the alley mixed with the rotting garbage from the dumpster and still I scented Dan’s musky cologne . . . and drops of his blood.

  “He’s been taken,” I growled.

  Chapter Seven

  According to Agnes, legend states that a Ciguapa can only be tracked by a black and white dog, with extra digits, during a full moon.

  Well, screw that. The full moon wasn’t until the next night and no one I knew had any extra fingers. That wouldn’t stop me. I may have been a loafer, but I was the best damn tracker in California.

  I punched Aric’s number on the speed dial when Celia ran off to get her Lexus. The reception was shitty at best. We obviously hadn’t destroyed all the damn spirits. Their dark energy continued to interfere with the reception. Aric answered on the first ring, and surprise, surprise, he was pissed as all hell and growling. “Did you send a wereskunk to gas bomb my Warriors cars?”

  “Dan’s been taken,” I said in way of a response. “We’re at the Hole. A bunch of Latin ghosts showed up and wreaked havoc. We destroyed the few we saw, but there must’ve been more.”

  Screams from the club cut me off. “What’s happening?” Aric pressed.

  I poked my head inside. “The humans here are waking up and I think someone stepped on a melting head. Don’t worry. The vamps are on it.”

  Suspicion lowered Aric’s voice. “What are you doing with vamps at the Hole?”

  I debated whether to tell him. In the end I knew there was no way around it. “They shadowed Celia. She’s with me.”

  “I see.” Aric paused briefly before switching into Leader mode. “I’m sending a team to scout the area in case there’s more spirits seeking to feast. Stay. There. The Warriors will help you track Dan.”

  Celia screeched her car to a halt along the curve and flung open the passenger door. I hauled ass toward it. “Sorry, boss. No can do. The trail’s getting cold.” I jumped in, immediately lowering the window and sticking my head out. In the distant I caught the exhaust from Dan’s car. He needed a new muffler. Perfect. My nose locked on the stench. The hunt was on.