by Bethany Shaw
“Don’t knock Mario Kart until you’ve tried it,” Aric said. “Come on, Ethney. You can play next.”
Ethney didn’t look up from her book. “No thanks.”
“Give it a try,” Kevin said.
Ethney sighed and set her book facedown on the counter. “Fine. One race.”
“Here; you can have my remote.” Daire stood and handed the remote to her. It was fun, but Kevin and Aric were much more into it than he was, and of course, no one was going to ask Caden to give up his remote.
When Kevin wasn’t sleeping, he was playing video games with Aric. The two were kindred spirits in that respect. He’d never gotten the concept of video games, but this little racing game was fun. Too bad he was no good at it.
A door creaked open, and Grace’s footfalls thudded softly against the wooden floorboards. “No, Dave...I’m not keeping him from you on purpose. We have something going on that came up last minute. Besides, how am I supposed to know when you’re going to actually decide to be a parent?” She huffed, shaking her head as she flicked on the light in the kitchen. “Yeah. Whatever. You can see him on Sunday.”
Daire got up and followed after her, leaning against the doorframe as she hung up her phone.
“Everything okay?” he asked.
Grace sighed and set her cell on the counter. “Yeah. It will be. Dave’s a butt, but that’s nothing new.” She chewed on her lower lip.
“You sure?”
“I lost my job. They sent me a formal email letting me go.” She covered her face with her hands. “I figured it was coming, so it isn’t a surprise, but...”
“You haven’t missed that many days,” Daire said with a growl. It had only been a couple days.
“It doesn’t matter. I’m an assistant and can be easily replaced.”
“I’m sorry, Grace.” He put his hands on her shoulders to give her a massage. “I’ll make sure that you get more than a fair compensation for all of your help here.” Money wasn’t something he was short on. He’d make sure before he left to set her up with enough money to make her life comfortable into the foreseeable future.
“It’s not your fault. I chose to help you. Too bad I can’t tell my boss what I’m really doing.” She laughed. “No, I take that back. If I could share this, I’d have the story of a lifetime. Papers and news channels would be paying me money left and right to share my experience. But I’m going to have to hope my book takes off instead.” She leaned in and pressed a kiss to his lips. “It’s going to be a romance novel. Those are hot right now.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes. I’ll show you just how hot it is tonight after Caden’s in bed.” She nibbled his bottom lip. “Until then, I’m going to go finish racking my brain to find a connection with these lycanthrope.”
Daire pressed his forehead against hers. “I guess I have to go play Mario Kart again. Who knows, maybe I’ll win eventually.”
“Thanks,” Grace said, kissing his cheek.
“For?”
“Spending so much time with Caden. He wouldn’t stop talking about how much fun he was having with you while I got him cleaned up this morning. He really enjoys your company.”
“I enjoy his, too.” He wasn’t sure what was going to be harder, saying goodbye to Grace or Caden after the full moon. In such a short period, they’d wormed their way into his heart.
***
Grace set her pen down on her notebook pad. It rolled and then tumbled to the floor. She grumbled to herself as she bent over to pick it up. Her eyes went to her computer screen when she sat back up. She cocked her head to the side, sitting all the way back in her chair before leaning in again. Then she pushed back.
“Huh,” she mumbled, putting the pen in her mouth to nibble on it. “It’s a paw print. Interesting.”
She stood up and shuffled through her papers until she found an old map of the town. Glancing between the computer and the map, she plotted the points on it.
“I think I found it,” she murmured to herself, then a little louder, “Daire. I’ve got something. Can you come here?” She plopped back down in her chair, double-checking her findings. It had been right here in front of their faces the whole time. They’d just been looking too closely to see it.
Footsteps thudded against the hardwood as Daire made his way down the hall. “What is it?” He peeked his head in the partially open doorway.
Grace grinned as she leaned back in her chair. “I think I figured out how to tell where they’re going to be next.”
“You did?”
She lifted the map and showed it to him. “It’s a paw print.” Her hand gesticulated around the drawing. “I just need to do a little math to figure out where the next plot point is and I can give you exact locations.”
“That’s great.”
“I’ve narrowed down their locations for the full moon to a few as well.”
“You’ve been busy,” Daire said. He came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her. His lips met her neck, peppering kisses all the way down to her collarbone.
The past few days had been nothing but referencing material and reading up on the guardians’ reports. It took her mind off the fact that she’d lost her job and that her town was about to be inundated with savage lycanthrope. With any luck, she’d help to thwart their efforts.
She melted against him, inhaling deeply. The papers started to slip from her fingers. She grasped them tighter and cleared her throat.
Daire quit kissing her but didn’t release his grip on her. “What do you have?”
She scooted forward and spread her hand over the map again. “I found points in the city limits that were closest to large populations. It looks like there are four different places that would draw the largest crowds.”
“Four?” Daire sighed.
“But,” she began again with a smile, “they have to come down this road to get down from the cabin. There are several steep declines from where the cabins are. Even if they are supernatural, they’ll still make the best time coming down the road. We can head them off here,” she said confidently, tapping a spot on the map.
“No ‘we.' Their howls will lure you in. Think of it like the pied piper who lured in all the children. You can’t fight it. I want you someplace far away from town, Grace. Both you and Caden.”
She huffed but didn’t fight it. If he was right, she’d only be in the way. That wouldn’t help anyone. “Fine. I can stay with my parents. They live on the opposite side of town. Can we block out the howls?”
“If you can’t hear them, you can’t be lured out. Turning up the TV or radio should suffice.”
“Okay. I’ll talk to my mom first thing tomorrow.”
At least she’d be appeasing her mom. Grace had told her she’d come over on Saturday. How convenient that was the same night as the full moon.
“I think you’ve had enough for the night. Or did you forget that it’s your birthday?” Daire asked. He nuzzled her neck again.
It was the tenth, wasn’t it? She closed her eyes and fought the urge to laugh. How could she forget?
“I promised to take you out, remember?” he asked. His hands went to her shoulders, massaging the tense muscles.
“Yeah, but what about Caden?”
“Ethney and Aric will watch him. I already heard them talking about a Mario Kart tournament with Kevin.”
“Really?” she asked. All three guardians had been exceptionally nice to Caden. He’d taken a quick liking to them, as well. She didn’t know their backstories, but she couldn’t help but wonder if they too had been parents at one point. They certainty seemed to enjoy her son’s company.
“Is that okay with you?” Daire asked.
“Sure. Is there anything else we should be doing here? The full moon is tomorrow night.” Time had flown by, and she couldn’t believe it. After tomorrow, she would never see Daire again. A lump formed in her throat at the thought. She wasn’t ready to say goodbye. She may never be. But it was going to happen
. Tears pricked her eyes at the thought.
“You okay?” Daire asked.
“Yeah.” Her voice came out a croak. She cleared her throat. “I just... Our time has gone by so fast. It snuck up on me.”
He pulled her chair away from the desk. “Which is why we should enjoy tonight. The lycanthrope won’t do anything tonight. They need the rest to prepare for their change tomorrow evening. It’s safe for us to enjoy ourselves. Ethney, Aric, and I will plot our strategies in the morning.” Daire took her hand and hauled her up, so she was in his arms. “Come on. I owe you a proper date.”
Grace let him lead her out of the office and down the hall. “Should I change?” she asked. “Where are we going?” Would her jeans and tee be okay? She hadn’t brought anything else with her. At the time, she didn’t think it would matter.
“You look beautiful just the way you are,” Daire said. He handed over her winter jacket.
She shrugged it on and zipped it up.
“Bye, Mommy,” Caden said. He bounded across the front room and tossed his arms around her. “Have fun.”
She bent down to kiss the top of his head. “You too. Be good. I love you.”
“Love you too.” Caden took a step back, waved, and then sprinted back into the kitchen where the other two guardians were.
Daire opened the front door for her. Grace went out first and shivered. The cold air knocked her breath away, and her teeth started to chatter. She wrapped her arms around herself and hurried to her car, which was already turned on and warming up.
Snowflakes flitted to the ground. It was odd that they hadn’t had a heavy snowfall yet this year. She wasn’t going to complain. They were only expecting a few flurries over the next few days—no accumulation. After the full moon, she didn’t care what the weather did.
Grace climbed in the driver’s seat and put her hands up against the air vents, letting the hot air warm her already numbing fingers. The snow wasn’t sticking to the ground yet, but with the sub-zero temperatures, it would be soon. She wiggled her fingers until Daire hopped in and shut his door.
“Thanks for taking me out,” she said, glancing his way.
“I thought you might like to get out of the house. Plus, it’s your birthday. You shouldn’t be inside doing nothing on your day,” he said, reaching to put his hand on her thigh.
“Do you celebrate all of your birthdays?” she asked, curious. He was well over 1500. That’d be a lot of birthdays.
He shrugged. “I get a drink and do something. Unless it’s a full moon.”
She frowned. That didn’t sound much fun. “I’d like to return the favor for you this year. Do something fun. It’s next Saturday, right? Do you have to leave right after the full moon?” She held her breath and focused on the drive as she made her way down the gravel road.
“I won’t have a choice, but maybe I could speak with Astraea, and you could be a consultant for us. You’ve found out more about the lycanthrope than any of us have. You have a way with using the Internet that none of us do.”
“It’s just fresh eyes.” She shook her head. If the goddess agreed to that, she could stay with Daire, but how long would that work?
“Would that be something you’d be interested in?” Daire asked. His hand left her thigh, and his fingers curled around her hand resting on the gearshift.
Yes was at the tip of her tongue, but instead, she shook her head no. “I can’t, Daire. It’s not that I don’t want to. Caden will start kindergarten next year. You have to move around monthly, and I can’t be uprooting him like that. Then there's Dave. He might be a total dick, but he’s still Caden’s father. It would crush Caden if he didn’t get to see his dad on a semi-regular basis. Then what about us? It might work for a few years, but in ten years my age would start to show. I’d continue to age, and you’d stay young. It wouldn’t work. I think a clean break is probably for the best.” Her voice broke on the last sentence. She blew out a breath and stared out the windshield.
Daire squeezed her hand. “Let’s just enjoy tonight. We can worry about the rest tomorrow.”
She forced a smile. They might as well enjoy the night. It was all they had left together.
Chapter Twelve
Daire hung up his phone and put it in the back pocket of his jeans. He stared out at the yard. Snow blanketed the ground as more fluttered down. Grace was safely at her parents. His eyes drifted to the darkening sky.
The full moon would crest in another hour. Then, the lycanthrope would execute their plan. His team had to stop them to keep the citizens of St. Joseph safe.
“Hey,” Ethney’s voice said from behind him. “We have Kevin chained up. Do you want to come check the bindings and see what you think?”
Daire turned around to face the mermaid. “Yeah.” It didn’t matter what he thought of the other two. They’d never done something like this before. In fact, they knew very little about the lycanthrope other than what they did on the full moon. It was anyone’s guess if this would work.
He hoped it would for the kid’s sake. If it did work, he had no idea what they would do with him after this month. He couldn’t come with them. But then they couldn’t leave the kid alone either, could they?
He chased his thoughts away and took the steps into the basement two at a time.
Aric was with Kevin. The cuffs were tied tightly around both wrists and ankles, loose enough for him to transition into a wolf, but hopefully snug enough that they would hold. Daire tugged on the chain. The metal was thick, so much so he almost couldn’t put his palm around it. It was the thickest they could find.
“How do you feel?” he asked Kevin.
Kevin glanced up. His eyes were bloodshot. A fine sheen of sweat already coated his ashen skin. “Not so good. It’s going to happen soon, isn’t it?”
“You have about an hour,” Daire said. “We have to go out to stop the rest of the pack. We’ll be back to check in on you as soon as we can.”
“I know. They won’t find me here, will they?” Kevin asked. His bottom lip trembled, and his eyes widened.
“No.” Daire put a hand on his shoulder. “They’ll go into the town. You’ll be safe out here.” As long as the chains hold. He didn’t want to think about what would happen if they didn’t.
“It’s going to be okay,” Ethney said, offering the boy a sympathetic smile. “We’ll see you when we get back.”
“Thanks for everything,” Kevin said, meeting each of their eyes. “I know you could’ve killed me, but instead you’ve helped. That means a lot. I appreciate it.”
“It’s been our pleasure. See you soon.” Ethney inhaled and then let it out. She waved while backing up to the stairs.
“Will it really be okay?” Kevin asked when Ethney disappeared.
Daire offered the boy a small smile. He didn’t want to promise something he couldn’t guarantee. Hopefully, this worked. He gave one last tug on the chains. They seemed solid enough. Only time would tell.
“We should be going,” Aric said.
Daire followed Aric up the steps and back into the living room.
“Are we ready?” Ethney asked. She flicked her hair over her shoulder, staring at him.
Daire shifted on his feet. “I’ll meet you two at the rendezvous.”
The two moved best in the water and could cross the lake in the amount of time it would take him to fly over it.
“We’ll see you on the other side.” Aric went to the door first, leading the way down to the lake.
Daire stepped onto the porch, discarding his clothes and setting them in a neat pile on the wooden railing. Then, he pictured his dragon. Within seconds, his beast had taken over. He flapped his wings, stretching them out before he took off.
He circled the lake once before flying over the cabins. He paused. The lycanthrope were going three different directions—some by car, some on foot, and others by boat.
He flapped his wings harder, rising higher so no one would see him. Did that mean they had three different
locations, or were they just being extra vigilant? He focused his attention on the water, looking for ripples on the surface to indicate where his team was. There were none. Maybe they’d caught on and were hanging back.
The two could easily take on the two dozen lycanthrope in the boats. Water was their strength, and the soon-to-be wolves wouldn’t stand a chance against them. That would leave him to take on the two groups on land.
It’d be easy to take on the car. Fire would blow it up. The ones on foot would be tricky. They’d scatter, making it impossible for him to get them all. He weighed his options while keeping his eye on the activity below. Did he go for the easy target first or the more difficult one?
The cars would be best. The people on foot would run everywhere regardless. Best to take out the ones he could first.
Daire hovered in his spot, waiting until the boat’s motor started and motored its way into the lake. He didn’t have to wait long for his team to strike.
A blue tail flew out of the water, curled around the boat, turning it over. The lycanthrope spilled out into the water with screams and shrieks. Ethney lunged out of the water, wrapping her arms around one woman and dragging her back beneath the surface of the water.
He didn’t wait any longer to strike. The wolves weren’t in the cars yet, but they were close enough. Daire swooped down, drawing in a deep breath before blowing fire toward the cars. The flames engulfed the cars. Explosions erupted into the air as the gas combusted.
More lycanthrope fell to the ground, their tortured screams filling the air. The people on foot sprinted into the woods, disappearing into the darkness and trees. He’d go after them in a moment. Hopefully, Ethney and Aric could help.
Daire cast a quick glance to the water. The duo was making quick work of the lycanthrope there. Only a few lycanthrope bobbed and swam in the water, but even they were being dragged under.
He turned his focus back to what was left of the cars. A few men slithered across the ground. The flames were not enough to stifle their fight. He drew in a breath and forced it out, incinerating them.
