Canticle to the Midnight Moon

by Val St. Crowe

  “Yes,” she admitted. “But—”

  “So, you have every right to hate me.”

  “Look, what you have with Landon, it’s the real thing. I can see that between the two of you. You’re both crazy about the other. That’s rare, for two people to come together without any strange complications.”

  “Um, there are a lot of complications with Landon and me.”

  “But not in your feelings for each other.”

  “No,” I said. “Not in that.”

  “Anyway, I can’t be angry about it,” she said.

  “You just were angry about it,” I said. “You haven’t been locked up in here for that long.”

  “Feels like a long time,” she said. “Stuck down here, you have a lot of time to think, and you think about what the most important things are to you. Family is important to me. You’re important to me. I’m not going to lose you because of Landon. Anyway, all I ever wanted was for Landon to be happy. And he seems to be happy with you. So, I don’t know. Maybe I could be angry about it, but I choose not to be.”

  I nodded slowly. “I get that.”

  “Good,” she said.

  “Thank you,” I said. “I know it can’t have been an easy choice to make.”

  “Not an easy one, but the only right one,” she said.

  We smiled at each other.

  “Do we hug now?” I said.

  She laughed. “Definitely.”

  We hugged.

  And when we let go, we stared out into the dark gloom of our prison. I could see the shadows of other figures sleeping in the distance. And there were people moving around as well. It was a depressing place, full of the stench of defeat. We needed to get out of here.

  “So,” said Desta, “how’d you end up with Viggo?”

  “He came looking for you,” I said. “He showed up right after you were captured. The minute he heard that you were gone, he moved heaven and earth to try to find you. I don’t think he expected that anyone would be able to capture him too.”

  “He was looking for me?”

  “Yeah, that’s what he said. He told me he had trouble tracking you through the woods, but he’d managed to figure out where you were.”

  “I wouldn’t have expected him to come after me,” she said. “I thought he would have been out there, gathering an army to take back the city.”

  “He says he doesn’t want to be king anymore.”

  “So what does he want?”

  “I don’t know. He made some noise about playing house with you, not that you’d ever agree to that.”

  “Oh, right,” she said. “Of course not. I would never…” She turned to look at where he was lying on the floor. She swallowed.

  “Desta,” I said. “Come on. What are you thinking?”

  “Nothing.” She turned back around, sucking in a breath.

  “The fact that he was looking for you doesn’t mean anything. He’s Viggo. He’s horrible.”

  “He’s not always horrible,” she said.

  “He turned Landon into a bloodhound.”

  “I know,” she said. “I know.”

  “You hate him,” I said.

  “Yes,” she said.

  “Desta, you hate him.”

  “Yes.”

  I took a deep breath. “Okay.”

  “Okay,” she said. “Maybe we should be quiet and keep watch. Maybe talking will distract us if a threat appears.”

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Days passed.

  We spent one of them walking around the room, looking for any way to get out of there, but there was only one way in and out, and that was in the middle of the room. Far above, there was a door. We all cooperated and managed to get Viggo up there, but he couldn’t open the door. He said it must be spelled from the other side or something.

  When we got back down, Slater sneered at us that there was no way out. Didn’t we think the others had tried everything?

  “Do we have to rescue him?” said Landon. “I think we should rescue everyone else and leave him down here tied to the pole in the center of the room.”

  Slater shoved Landon, baring his teeth.

  “Stop it,” said Viggo darkly. “Let’s not antagonize them, bloodhound.”

  “Um,” said Landon, “are you under the impression that you tell me what to do, Viggo, because—”

  “Landon,” I said. “We have to stick together.”

  Landon glared at me. “Have you forgotten that we hate him?”

  “No,” I said. “I haven’t forgotten. But we need him.”

  We spent another day talking about various ideas to get the door open. I asked Viggo if there was any kind of other spell he could do by mixing vampire and human blood together, and he said that he couldn’t think of anything that would get through the spells on the door.

  No one else knew magic.

  Talk strayed back to the witch who was holding us here, what she might want and why she might be doing this. We all thought that if we understood what was happening to us, we might be able to mount a more effective attack. But we couldn’t think of any reason a person might be doing this.

  “Why does anyone capture anyone?” said Ewan. He had his arm around Sinead, and she was burrowed close to him. I looked at their closeness and wondered if Landon and I could ever have anything like that, or if it would always be too dangerous.

  “I don’t know,” said Landon. “Let’s ask Viggo. He’s the only one of us who’s actually captured people.”

  “Well, that can’t be true,” said Viggo. He pointed at me. “You’re an alpha. Certainly, you understand that sometimes difficult things must be done to protect your pack.”

  “Right,” spoke up Aston. “You guys captured me. You did that personally, Landon. You have a very short memory, I see.”

  “That was different,” said Landon.

  “It wasn’t really,” I said.

  “We treated him well,” said Landon. “We made him a lab. And we fed him and gave him a bed to sleep on and access to a bathroom. It was different.”

  “Well, we still captured him,” I said.

  “Right,” said Ewan. “We captured him because we wanted something from him. We wanted him to dechip the bloods.

  “You dechipped bloodhounds?” said Viggo. “More? Besides Landon? Oh, that’s disastrous.”

  “What do you care?” said Desta. “I thought you didn’t want to be king, anymore.”

  “That doesn’t mean I want bloods running wild,” said Viggo.

  “Right,” said Sinead softly, “because without their chips, they’ll turn on their vampire masters.”

  “Look,” I said. “We were talking about why people capture other people.”

  “To extort them,” said Ewan. “That’s one reason.”

  “And when you captured Camber, Viggo?” said Landon. “Why did you do that?”

  “I saved her,” said Viggo. “She was better off with me.”

  “And then you captured Landon,” I said.

  “Again, I knew that Desta would be angry if I had the bloodhound killed,” said Viggo. “I was saving him. As it turned out, being soft like that was a very stupid move, because it meant that you two got the drop on me and got away. And then I had nothing.”

  “You were using us to extort Desta,” I said.

  “No,” said Viggo. “I never threatened to hurt you. I just… I seem to remember there was a very complicated political situation at the time. They all wanted Camber’s blood. I really was saving her.”

  “It’s obvious that this witch isn’t trying to save us,” I said.

  “Who knows?” said Sinead. “Maybe she’s prophetic, and she knows there’s some disaster coming, so she’s saved a number of every species down here away from the destruction.”

  “Oh, wonderful,” said Landon. “The bloodsucking Noah’s ark.”

  “If she was saving us,” I said, “we’d be treated better.”

  “And if she wanted us to do something,�
� said Aston, “like you wanted me to do something, then she’d be treating us better as well.”

  “Maybe she’s just a sadist who enjoys making people suffer,” said Landon. “After all, that’s the true reason Viggo captured us.”

  “Oh, stop it,” said Viggo. “I’m wounded, truly, that you think such awful things about me.”

  “Yes, considering everything you’ve done to me, you and I should be best friends,” said Landon. “What was I thinking?”

  “This is getting us nowhere,” said Sinead. “We don’t know what the witch wants with us.”

  * * *

  The next day I woke up to a strange prickling at the back of my neck, and I knew that the full moon was close. It would be that night, in fact. I had known that the time was soon, but I hadn’t been able to keep track of the days down here.

  I knew that I was in charge of my shifts, because I’d shifted back and forth when I’d first gotten down here, and I knew that I could control Sinead and Ewan, because I could feel them through the bonds of the pack. But there were a lot more wolves down here, and I had no control over them. When wolves shifted under stress, they were violent and volatile. When a group of wolves shifted, and they were emotionally distressed, that was when bad things happened.

  Wolf packs could take down the fences that surrounded the human towns. They could prowl the streets, killing indeterminately. When wolves shifted like that, they had no sense of what they were doing.

  I knew that the wolves trapped down here would be out of control if they shifted.

  So, I went to talk to Slater. Landon offered to come with me, but I told him that I didn’t think Slater liked him very much, and I didn’t think Landon would be much help.

  Slater was sitting in a circle with some other werewolves. They were playing some kind of game they’d made up that involved throwing pieces of gravel. I didn’t understand the rules.

  I stepped into the middle of the circle. “It’s the full moon tonight.”

  Slater looked up at me. “Hello to you, too. Decided you want to submit after all?”

  “Even if these wolves have submitted to you, you’re not their alpha,” I said. Honestly, I didn’t know how it worked. Lone wolves could join existing packs by mating into those packs. I didn’t know how new packs were formed. I knew that the current packs had formed out of family groups. The alphas had offspring, and then their offspring had offspring and on and on it went. So, it stood to reason that a new pack couldn’t be formed out of random wolves, that it could only be formed between parents and their children. “You can’t stop them from shifting.”

  Slater stood up. He folded his arms over his chest.

  “Can you?”

  Slater leaned closer to me. When he spoke, his voice was patronizing. “Listen, whatever enchantment is on this place, it strengthens the moon. No one can stop from shifting when the moon is full, not even us alphas.”

  “Wait, what are you saying?”

  “I’m saying that whenever it’s a full moon, it’s a bloodbath down here. Lots of death. Some of ours, some of theirs. Of course, they’re just defending themselves. Maybe I’ll see you on the other side. Maybe not. Now, if you don’t mind, I was playing a game here. Might be my last day on earth. Don’t screw with me right now.”

  * * *

  I shared this news with the others, panic in my throat.

  “Maybe he only said that to scare you,” said Viggo.

  “No,” said Sinead. “They’ve talked about the full moons before. Not in a lot of detail, and Ewan and I didn’t really understand, but it all makes sense now.”

  “Besides,” said Ewan, “I can feel the moon, and it’s a different feeling than it usually is. You know what it reminds me of?”

  “The call?” I said. “The first time you’re called?”

  “Exactly,” said Ewan.

  I gulped. “This is awful. There’s got to be some kind of way to restrain us. Keep us from hurting anyone.”

  “I’ll keep you guys contained,” said Landon.

  “Bloodhound, you’re strong,” said Viggo. “But against three werewolves?”

  “So, you’ll help me,” said Landon.

  “Well, of course,” said Viggo. “I will do my best.”

  “Could you compel us?” I said. “Compel us not to shift. Compel us to be calm. Try it.”

  Viggo did. He compelled all of us, but we knew it wasn’t going to work, because the call of the moon was still as strong as ever. There were some things that vampire compulsion had no effect on.

  We began to try again in earnest to get out of there, but we weren’t successful. In fact, when the others in the room realized that it was the full moon, a panic rippled through the place, and everyone was on edge. There was talk from the vampires and bloods of killing all the werewolves as a preemptive strike.

  The wolves weren’t having this, and they formed ranks, ready to fight. I tried to shift to help bring some order, but I couldn’t. I was a slave to the moon, and only the moon, just like the other wolves.

  The vampires and the bloods attacked.

  It was chaos.

  The wolves’ strength was heightened, because they were affected by the moon already.

  I didn’t know what time it was, so I couldn’t be sure when the change would come, but I could feel that it was becoming stronger and stronger with every passing moment.

  There were casualties on both sides. The wolves worked together to behead vampires and bloodhounds.

  But the werewolves were the ones who were being killed left and right, because they were outnumbered and outclassed by the stronger supernatural creatures.

  We stayed out of it, as did the humans. We watched as the carnage played out in front of us, unsure of who was winning.

  And then, I could feel the change pressing against the back of my skull, like something savage and pure and undeniable. I cried out. The first time I had shifted, it had hurt, but this wasn’t pain, it was ecstasy.

  I grabbed onto Landon, panting. “It’s happening.”

  “Camber.” He grabbed my hands. “Fight it.”

  “I can’t,” I moaned.

  I could see that the wolves were already shifting. A muzzle was ripping its way out of Slater’s human face. Another werewolf was on all fours and his spine was rippling.

  Slater bit one of the vampires.

  And my whole body stiffened and twisted.

  “I can’t fight it,” I said again.

  And the change barreled through me, like a rush of icy water, and I was nothing but the beast within me.

  CHAPTER NINE

  I woke up to the smell of blood. It was all around me. I was naked, in human form, and the air smelled like pennies.

  Someone was sobbing, somewhere. I didn’t know who or where they were, but I could hear it. A woman. Her heart had been broken.

  I sat up, pulling my knees to my chest instinctively to protect my bare breasts and belly. I looked around.

  Sinead and Ewan were next to me, also naked. We were in the corner of the room, where our group always was. Landon was standing in front of us, back to us. Viggo was looking down on us. His face was streaked with blood, and his shirt was torn. He threw us all clothing, but it was bloodstained, probably taken from dead bodies. I wouldn’t have worn it, but I knew there were bloodhounds down here, and we couldn’t take any chances.

  Dressed, I stood up. I stepped forward, next to Landon.

  He seized my hand.

  And together, we surveyed the prison.

  Almost everyone was dead. Perhaps twenty percent of the original population had managed to survive, and they were huddled in the corners of the rooms like we were.

  “Desta?” I said to Landon.

  He nodded.

  She came forward, dragging Aston along with her. “I was watching this one,” she said. “I don’t know if there’s a reason to keep him alive, but I did.”

  “And I’m really grateful for that,” said Aston. “Really
, really grateful.” He beamed at her. Viggo had been feeding off of him, but there wasn’t any bond between them. I’d been feeding Desta, but I hadn’t noticed a change in our bond, either. Probably because we were sisters, and I loved her already. There had been very little of that, though. We weren’t eating, and the vampires weren’t taking advantage of us. We were weak, and they didn’t want to hurt us.

  “So, we all made it?” I said, and my voice cracked.

  “It wasn’t easy,” said Landon.

  “Viggo, he…” Desta looked up at him. “He protected us all.”

  “We couldn’t have done it without him,” said Landon quietly. “Not only was he keeping the three of you contained, but fielding any attacks that came our way. He was… well, anyway.”

  I raised my eyebrows. It was the first time I’d ever heard Landon say anything complimentary about Viggo.

  Viggo cleared his throat. “Yes, well, I’m the sturdiest and the strongest. It only stands to reason I be of service.”

  Desta peered up at him. “Is that why you did it?”

  Viggo furrowed his brow. “I don’t know, to be honest. It’s been a very long time since I’ve ever felt that I was in any danger or that anyone I cared about was. At first, it was only exhilarating, but then, last night, I think I was truly afraid. I forgot how motivating fear is.”

  “You thought you could be hurt?” said Landon.

  Viggo looked at him. “I… I didn’t want any of you damaged. I’ve grown rather… I don’t know, fond is perhaps stating it strongly. Accustomed to you all. Also, Desta rather likes you. I couldn’t bear it if she was hurt in that way.” He glanced at her, and then away.

  Desta was gazing at him, almost as if she had never seen him before, not truly seen him.

  I had to admit, he seemed different.

  Viggo sucked in a breath. He crossed to Desta and he spoke quietly, but there was no way to have a private conversation down here. “Listen, we are going to get out of here. I will see to it. But I want you to know, you won’t owe me anything once that’s done. And if you truly don’t want me around, which I’ve come to accept that you don’t, then I will let you be. I won’t pursue you anymore. I’m sorry. When I think that I’ve caused you distress, I feel rather wretched about it. I want you to understand, Desta, I truly wish you well. It’s not simply that I want you around. You’re not an amusement to me, no matter what you might think.”