by Dannika Dark
Moonstruck
Crossbreed Series Book 7
Dannika Dark
MOONSTRUCK
Crossbreed Series Book 7
USA Today Bestselling Author
DANNIKA DARK
All Rights Reserved
Copyright © 2019 Dannika Dark
No part of this book may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the author. You must not circulate this book in any format. Thank you for respecting the rights of the author. This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance of characters to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
Edited by Victory Editing and Red Adept. Cover design by Dannika Dark. All stock purchased.
www.dannikadark.net
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Contents
Summary
Also By Dannika Dark:
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Back Cover
WHAT’S NEXT
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Books by Dannika Dark:
Summary
Evil forces are at play in this spellbinding continuation of the Crossbreed series.
Transporting goods is part of the job, but when Keystone accepts the daunting task of moving precious cargo, the team splits up. Raven has orders to follow, but Christian’s seductive ways draw out her violent soul. Their journey is dangerous, their enemies ruthless, and one misstep could prove fatal.
When one team member mysteriously vanishes, the rest must choose between cutting their losses in the face of chaos or seeing it through to the bitter end. Will Keystone have the fortitude to complete the mission, or will they fall like dominoes?
United they stand, divided they fall.
Book 7
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Also By Dannika Dark:
THE MAGERI SERIES
Sterling
Twist
Impulse
Gravity
Shine
The Gift
MAGERI WORLD
Risk
NOVELLAS
Closer
THE SEVEN SERIES
Seven Years
Six Months
Five Weeks
Four Days
Three Hours
Two Minutes
One Second
Winter Moon
SEVEN WORLD
Charming
THE CROSSBREED SERIES
Keystone
Ravenheart
Deathtrap
Gaslight
Blackout
Nevermore
Moonstruck
The most sublime act is to set another before you.
– William Blake
Chapter 1
Of all the pawnshops in Cognito, Pawn of the Dead sold some of the rarest antiquities I’d ever seen. After hours of relic hunting, this was our fourth and final destination for the day. Our unannounced inspections always inspired shopkeepers to find creative ways to conceal their contraband, but they all knew the drill. While our confiscating illegal paraphernalia cut into their profits, it certainly didn’t deter them. Weapons like guns, axes, machetes, knives, and so forth were permissible—they could even sell cannons for all we cared. What made an item banned from public sale was infusion with magic meant to subdue or kill Breed. Impalement stakes included, even though they were found in nature. It wasn’t illegal to own a stunner or carry one, but the higher authority outlawed those items from sale in public stores. They not only felt it sent the wrong message, but humans could easily get their hands on the weapons.
It had been a few weeks since I’d moved out of my father’s house and back in with Keystone. Viktor had wasted no time taking on new assignments. Christian and I had spent a week tracking down a Vamp who was leaving corpses in the human district after draining them dry. Blood addiction was a nasty thing, and this guy had been so out of control that it didn’t take long to apprehend him.
In the act.
I hefted a vase and studied the inscription on the bottom.
“Lookie what I found!” Gem bounded toward me, her arms clutching a book tightly to her chest, her eyes lit with excitement. With each step, her wavy hair bounced, the pale lavender locks just as vibrant as her violet eyes. Watching her run in stacked shoes was amusing, but she managed to do it with grace and flair.
I glanced down at her discovery. “What’s so exciting about a book?”
Claude barked out a laugh from the next aisle over.
Ignoring him, Gem set the book on a shelf and gingerly lifted the cover to let me peek inside. “Fifteenth-century Portugal, written by a Relic scholar. Just look at the calligraphy.”
Her bright pink fingernails hovered above the page but didn’t touch.
“What’s the significance?” I asked, setting my vase on a higher shelf.
“It proves that Breed existed in Portugal! Immortals like to trace back their ancestry just like humans, but it’s a little easier for us to go further back. Shifters insist that no Breed dwelled in Portugal until they claimed territory in the eighteenth century. This book not only proves unequivocally that they’re wrong, but there’s also mention of a Mage architect. Who knows how many others were there? That’s why I love pawnshops. We’re literally discovering history.”
Gem acted as if someone had rolled her up in unicorn sparkles and tossed her in a pink cloud of joy. She always got excited when discovering uncommon objects, but historical books were her catnip.
I scratched my eyebrow with my pinky. “What’s the point of learning history? All you have are these books written in secret or a few illegal paintings and photographs, but you’re not allowed to make them public. The higher authority doesn’t want us to know about our past. We’re not allowed to document or record details about our lives. No pictures, no names, nada.”
Unaffected by my cynicism, she lifted her chin. “Maybe someday that’ll change. If we ever go public and reveal ourselves to humans, names won’t matter anymore. But in the meantime, we have to save everything. Our history is just as important as theirs, if not more. Before the higher authority was around, there were simply elders who would try to maintain order. Most of them banned us from writing books, and they worked hard to destroy them. So the very fact that some survived is a miracle. Most wound up in personal collections, but think of how many were tossed as scrap after the owner died!”
A tall man appeared at the far end of the aisle with a mask on his face. I recognized Claude’s white T-shirt and V-shaped torso. While the paint was faded, the mask’s expression was exaggerated and demonic.
Gem rocked on her heels, oblivious to Claude’s antics as she closed the book and lifted it off the shelf. “It’s even written in a rare dialect spoken by Relics. They had
a language that was code so that only they could read it.”
“Why would they write it all down if they pass it in their DNA?”
“Not all Relics have children, so some of them used to document all their knowledge in books that would become their legacy.”
Claude inched closer behind her.
I regarded him impassively before looking at Gem’s new treasure. “What do you do with all the books you find?”
“I translate them. Not everyone understands these languages, so I copy all the text in English to new books and preserve the originals in the archive.”
“Maybe they belong in a library.”
She gazed up in wonderment. “A Breed library? Imagine, piles of books as tall as the ceiling and rows that go on forever. Alas, my dreams are dashed by politically enforced laws that prohibit the exhibition of Breed literature.” Gem spun on her heel like a cartoon character and shrieked at Claude.
The book hit the floor with a thwack.
Claude’s long arms reached for her, his fingers curled like claws.
“Jiminy Christmas! Look what you made me do, you big scamp.” She bent down and cradled the book in her arms before springing back to her feet. “And just so you know, that Polynesian mask is inhabited by an ancient spirit. Anyone you look at through its eyes is cursed.”
Gem strode away, her pleated skirt swishing from side to side. She was so petite that from behind, she looked like a teenager.
Claude removed the painted mask and shook out his curls of golden hair. “I love her vernacular.” He gave me a sheepish grin and set the mask on the shelf. “Do you think it’s really cursed?”
I looked up at Claude, who was a good ten inches taller than me. “Everything in here is probably cursed. You didn’t look at me, did you? I’ve got enough hexes going on. I don’t need another.”
Claude’s winsome smile could thaw an iceberg. “No, but I wonder what Cosmo would do if I put it on and had a little chat with him about the stunners he keeps selling.”
Cosmo was the surfer-looking guy with dreads who ran the shop.
“April Fools’ Day was weeks ago. He’ll never fall for it.”
Claude raised the sleeve on his shirt and scratched his arm. Wearing clothes that covered his muscular shoulders must have been hard for him. If Claude wasn’t in a tank top, you could usually find him shirtless. All that rope climbing in the gym paid off, and he liked displaying the fruits of his labor. But while on Keystone assignments, Claude dressed as if he was trying to avoid Viktor’s judgmental gaze.
He noticed my empty hands. “Didn’t you find anything?”
I reached in my back pocket and pulled out a long blade. “What do you make of this?”
He studied the gold handle and dull edges. “It looks like a letter opener.”
“I figured as much. Does it feel strange to you?”
His brow furrowed. “How do you mean?”
“I pricked my arm with it, and it’s not a stunner. But it feels weird.”
Claude chuckled. “Is that how you test them? You stab yourself?”
“This one hurt like a bitch. Dull blade and all.” I took back the object and admired the white stone in the handle. “You didn’t notice anything weird while touching it?”
“Perhaps there’s residual energy only a Mage can detect.”
I twirled it between my fingers and passed by him. “I think I should keep it. Better safe than sorry.”
Claude swaggered up beside me. “Careful or you’ll turn into one of those hoarders they show on TV. We’ll have to use a wrecking ball to get inside your room after an avalanche of useless shit buries you alive.”
“I’m not a hoarder.”
He clasped his hands behind his back and fell into an easy stride. “First it’s letter openers. Next it’s three hundred egg cartons.”
I poked his side with the dull blade. “Perish the thought.”
The pawnshop had a lot of tall shelves on the left side of the building. Cosmo spent most of his time at a glass display counter that ran along the right side of the shop and the back wall. Security guards watched for shoplifters, but most of the expensive stuff was beneath the glass or mounted on the wall.
Viktor sealed up a cardboard box on the counter, the tape dispenser loud enough to make heads turn.
Cosmo watched with a look of derision, his arms folded and the lines on his forehead deep. “What happens to all the shit you confiscate? Oh, wait, it gets sold.”
“It is sold to responsible people,” Viktor informed him.
Cosmo snorted. “Yeah, who turn around and sell it for a higher price on the black market.”
“You know the laws. If you choose to make personal transactions out of your home, that is not my concern. But when you store them under this roof or sell more than one or two, that is where I come in.”
I offered the letter opener to Viktor. “I’ve got another one for the pile.”
“I just finished taping the box,” he said. “Add it to Gem’s.”
“Wait a second,” Cosmo sang, reeling in closer to have a look. “That’s not an illegal weapon. You can’t just take whatever you feel like from my store. This isn’t a charity.”
“It looks suspicious.”
He swept his arm to the headsman’s axe on the wall. “Lady, everything I sell looks suspicious. If you want to collect stunners in the name of the law, fine. But you can’t just steal my bread and butter because it suits your fancy.”
Viktor always paid a fair price for anything of historical interest, so I didn’t want to raise a ruckus.
“Fine. How much?”
Cosmo tapped his fingers against his puka shell necklace, which matched his shipwrecked wardrobe. By his gaunt face, you’d think he’d spent the past five years on a deserted island instead of behind a counter. “Two hundred smackeroos.”
I marveled at the play of colors within the milky-white stone on the letter opener. The handle fit nicely in my palm. Too bad it wasn’t a weapon. “It’s not real gold,” I pointed out. “This looks more like brass.”
“You’re getting a deal. That stone is an opal, and I could charge a lot more in a human store for it.”
I gave him a sardonic smile. “So what you’re telling me is that it has no value in a Breed shop. I’ll give you fifty dollars.”
“Lookie, you people take more than enough from me. If you run me out of business, what’ll you do with all your free time?” Cosmo was probably a master haggler, so no matter what, he was going to walk away ahead of what he paid for it. “I’ll go as low as one seventy. Take it or leave it.”
I almost turned away, but then I considered what a cool gift this would make for Gem. Hooper’s death had been rough on her, and maybe we hadn’t done a good job of making her feel appreciated. Gem loved surprises, and I knew how she felt about gemstones. This one was probably loaded with all that chakra energy she was always going on about.
I took out my wallet and counted the bills before setting them on the counter. Meanwhile, Viktor and Claude collected two boxes and hauled them out to the van.
“So what’s the history behind it?” I asked.
Cosmo put the money in his cash drawer. “Beats me. That’s why it’s not in the glass counter. People like a good story tied to their shit. Enforcers confiscated it in some sting operation on a Mage who was buying and destroying artifacts and historical goods. He’s dead now. That’s all I know.”
“Why would anyone destroy history?”
“To hide secrets. That box your pixie friend made off with includes a few books from that bust. She’s lucky she got anything. The Mageri got dibs on everything pertaining to Mage history; the rest of it they hauled here. Most of the shit was unsellable. The spines were rotting and paper decayed. The only thing salvageable was leftover junk from his personal collection. Sometimes people keep old stuff from their past for sentimental reasons even though it’s damaged. Can you believe they also gave me his toothbrush and shaving kit?” Cosm
o rolled his eyes. “Do I look like I have time to go through a dead man’s toiletries?”
Cosmo turned away, still rambling about all the extra work he did. I didn’t have anything against the guy aside from the fact he was an asshole.
We all had our faults.
Once we made it home, Gem dashed off to her secret room to sort through her newfound treasures. Viktor disappeared with his box of weapons while everyone else gravitated to the courtyard. The weather simply demanded it. After weeks of gloomy skies and abundant rain, the grass had overgrown, making it perfect to lie on. While Kira had done a magnificent job pruning the native bushes and vines, Viktor scheduled for the lawn service people to stop by on their riding mowers.
Instead of joining everyone out in the sun, I relaxed on the veranda, sipping my tea and watching Hunter leap around the courtyard like a frog. Bees hovered near a holly tree as if they had found their oasis.
Blue strolled along one of the pathways, the breeze ruffling her long brown hair. Unlike mine, her hair was as straight as a board. She was barefoot, her cargo pants rolled up to the knee. After passing Wyatt and Shepherd, who were chatting on a bench, she stopped by her favorite winged statue of a grief-stricken man. I had to admit there was nothing angelic about the statues around Keystone. They were either battling or suffering. Niko snoozed on a patch of grass, his fingers laced across his chest and his eyes closed. How regretful that he couldn’t see how vibrant the sky looked against the stone exterior of the mansion, like a sapphire jewel in a crafted setting.
