Dark Moon Falls: Volume 2

by Bella Roccaforte

  Levi thought for a moment before he nodded.

  Silas took the stairs two by two to get up to his room. He opened the door to an empty room. He looked in the bathroom and called out to her. She was gone.

  He bolted back downstairs.

  “Where is she?” Levi demanded.

  “She’s gone.” Silas was preparing to shift. “I’m going to find her.”

  “I’m coming with you.” Samira insisted.

  “That’s fine, but nothing happens to her.” Silas ground it out through his teeth.

  “If she attacks me, I’ll defend myself.” Samira warned.

  “Samira,” Levi scolded. “I want you to be cautious, but let Silas handle her.”

  Silas shifted into wolf form and went out the door. He sniffed at the air to catch her scent. He had a suspicion of which way she was headed, but he wanted to be sure.

  It was oddly still outside. The forest was quiet but for one bird singing on the porch railing.

  He ran full speed through the woods to the cabin. The scent of blood grew more overwhelming the closer they got to the cabin.

  Samira, who was usually one of the fastest of the pack hunters, had trouble keeping up with Silas running toward his mate.

  Samira used the pack link to reach out to Silas when she saw blood stains on the ground. “Kill site.”

  “I have to get to the cabin.” Silas didn’t stop to investigate.

  Samira let Levi know there had been another kill site near the cabin. She was on high alert and was concerned how fast they were approaching the cabin. There was no caution in Silas’ movements. He was barreling toward his mate.

  They reached the cabin and the air was hauntingly still. The smell of ozone and fog emitted from the cabin door.

  “She’s gone.” Samira said in nearly a growl.

  “No, she’s not.” Silas insisted. He ran around the perimeter of the cabin before going in. The walls were smoldering where the portal had been opened.

  “How much more evidence do you need?” Samira snapped.

  “She didn’t leave.” Silas ran out the door and headed for the ranch. She had been drawn to the ranch before and it was the next logical place to look for her. Then the falls.

  Silas came to the end of the trail head that ended at the barn. Blake was exercising one of the horses in the pasture. Maynard and Ayry were picking herbs in the garden.

  He shifted into human form in the barn. “Blake!”

  Blake came into the barn. “What’s going on? Is everything okay?”

  “No, I’m looking for Cierce. Have you seen her?”

  Blake thought for a moment. “No, I haven’t seen her today.”

  Stasia came into the barn leading another horse. “Hey guys.” She greeted them.

  Samira shifted into human form. “Stasia, why aren’t you at the sanctuary?”

  Stasia’s cheeks reddened. “I don’t spend nearly as much time there as I used to.” Her eyes landed lovingly on Blake.

  “No, I mean Phaedra was calling an emergency coven meeting.” Samira was confused and exchanged a glance with Silas.

  “I hadn’t heard anything.” She went to the tack room and came out with her phone in her hand. “No one has called me.”

  “Can you call Phaedra?” Samira asked.

  Stasia dialed the number. “No answer.”

  “Call the sanctuary, find out what’s going on.”

  “What’s wrong?” Stasia’s brow wrinkled with concern.

  The lighting in the barn darkened. Dark ominous clouds were forming outside.

  Everyone headed outside. Ayry and Maynard met them in the pasture.

  A chilled wind blew through and Ayry wrapped her arms around Maynard. “Let’s get you inside, storm’s coming.”

  “Mommy.” Maynard tugged on Ayry’s shirt gazing toward the tree line. “It’s not a storm.”

  “What is it?” Ayry looked Maynard in the eye.

  “Darkness.” Maynard answered.

  Silas wasn’t going to stand around waiting for an answer. He turned to Ayry and commanded her to get inside with Maynard and Stasia. To put a protection on the house before he shifted into wolf form.

  Samira and Silas stood at the ready waiting for whatever darkness might come from the trees. His heart raced not knowing what he would do if Cierce was evil? What if his one true mate brought a darkness that rattled everyone’s bones. Blake and Clayton joined them standing in formation.

  “What’s happening?” Clayton asked using the link.

  “I don’t know.” Silas answered. “Just be ready for anything.”

  Silas’ concern grew. If Cierce could take on the form of the horror she had, what else could be coming for them.

  Blake let out a howl to alert any other wolves nearby.

  The Pack Hunters burst from the trees and joined them in formation.

  The trees twisted in time with a tempest wind blowing cold darkness straight down their spines. The skies fully transformed to an ominous grey-blue as though the clouds were about to burst with evil. Thunder rumbled in the distance and all the wolves readied themselves for whatever was coming out of the forest.

  “Cierce!” Ayry cried out.

  Silas turned and saw Cierce running toward the trees. She held her hands toward the forest. Her cloak whipped around her as she fought against the wind.

  A dark rolling cloud billowed from the trees. Everyone quivered, evil permeated the air with electricity making their hair stand on end. Levi dug in his paws and surveyed the front line of wolves.

  Using the pack link he called out. “Hold your ground until I say go.”

  Silas ran to Cierce. He wanted her out of harm’s way. She held her hand out to him freezing him in place. She focused on the woods and lifted her chin to the skies chanting in a language none of them had heard before.

  The thick, black cloud swirled and took form. It grew larger until its huge shoulders unfurled upward revealing a beast on two legs with cloven hooves. It easily stood at twenty-five feet with the grotesque face of an orc with crooked fangs jutting from the top and bottom of its square jaw. Twisted antlers crowned its head, twisted and mangled together with razor sharp edges and pointed ends.

  The ground shook as it stomped toward Cierce.

  Silas was losing his mind. He couldn’t move, couldn’t help and couldn’t do anything to protect his mate. He called out in his mind hoping that maybe she could hear him. “Please Cierce, let me go.”

  Cierce stood her ground with her hands in the air still chanting with more fervor than before. Her voice boomed over the wind and thunder.

  Four purple iridescent wings sprouted from her back. She recoiled and spun slowly in a circle upward. The monster had almost reached her. Everyone held their breath watching the collision unfold.

  She threw her arms out to her sides and shot to the ground at a break-neck speed.

  When she made contact with the ground the earth shattered in front of her. The pasture shook and the ground opened up swallowing the monster up to its neck.

  Cierce waved her arms and the earth closed around the monster. He was unable to move.

  She walked up to him with hatred in her eye and grit in her voice. “You will leave this place and never come back.”

  In an instant the monster disappeared into a fast swirling cloud and reappeared as a large man looming over Cierce. “Your time is running out. I will destroy anything and everything you have left.”

  “You already have.” She said and turned away from him and went toward Silas. “Leave.”

  The man smiled and said, “Charlotte will never accept your failure. You know what must be done. Since your father’s life isn’t enough motivation, I’ve procured a few other things that will help you with your mission.”

  “Trachis do not test me. There is nothing here for you. The power you seek doesn’t exist here.”

  “You can take whatever you want, destroy whomever you like, it will not change the fact that what you
need is not here.” She continued toward Silas.

  “We’ll see about that.” He turned to the line of wolves. “I have your priestess.”

  Cierce turned back toward Trachis. “You have nothing. You have no power here. Go. Leave. My sister already has my power, there’s nothing more I can give her. If she cannot rule the people the people will rule her.”

  “We shall see.” He reached out with a gloved hand and took her by the throat catching her by surprise. “Get me what I want.”

  Trachis lifted her off the ground. Her wings flapped behind her and feet kicked frantically. “You won’t be the only thing to die.”

  He dropped her and turned back toward the forest.

  Samira started toward Trachis.

  “No. Stay.” Levi commanded.

  “But he’s getting away.”

  “We need to know what that was first.” He ordered the rest of the hunters to stand their ground until Trachis disappeared into the forest. The pack hunters held their ground.

  Silas was able to move and ran to Cierce. He shifted to human form and wrapped his arms around her. “Are you okay?”

  She looked up at him with sadness clouding her expression. “I will be fine.”

  She had burns on her neck where Trachis’ hand clutched her throat. Her eyes were not the vivid color violet that Silas was used to. They were nearly black and blue striations riddled her face as though she were a decaying statue.

  “We need a healer!” Silas’ voice cracked with panic.

  Stasia came running and stopped when she saw Cierce. “I think we need to get her to the sanctuary.”

  Silas scooped her up in his arms. “Can we take your truck?” He asked Blake.

  Blake nodded and shifted into human form.

  Stasia studied the wounds on Cierce’s neck. “We may need Phaedra.”

  “Trachis has her. She’s the one that has put the protections on all the hidden power here. He will do whatever he has to, to get the power.” Cierce’s voice grew weaker by the moment. She rested her head against Silas’ chest and she went limp in his arms.

  “Cierce!” Silas called out to her.

  Stasia opened the door to the truck and Silas slid in still holding Cierce. “I’m going to meet you there.”

  Blake jumped in the driver’s seat and the truck roared to life.

  “Please hurry, I think we’re losing her.” Silas choked back the lump of emotion caught in his chest.

  “I’ll get us there as fast as I can.” Rocks and dirt kicked up behind the truck as Blake took off.

  Chapter Eight

  Jeramiah was visibly rattled. “That thing…” he stopped trying to think of how to describe it. “How do we defeat that?”

  “I’m more concerned about what she was able to do.” Levi turned to Elias. “She is incredibly powerful.”

  “We’ve faced a lot of things here. I’m sure that if we band together and come up with a plan we can figure out what to do.” Elias paced the room. “Do we know why it’s here?”

  “For the girl. She brought all this trouble to Dark Moon Falls. She was killing in the forest and she brought that thing with her.” Levi stated.

  “Now hold on. We don’t know that.” Jeramiah tried to deescalate.

  “Screw that, they need to go and we need to figure out how to keep them from coming back.” Fear had taken over.

  Elias stood up and gave Levi a hard look in the eye. “I haven’t made a decision on anything. I want the facts and no one, I mean no one, is to start a panic. I will make the final call on this.”

  “Don’t you think Phaedra may have something to say?” Levi asked.

  “When Phaedra is Alpha, she’ll have the final say over something that affects my pack.” Elias shut the conversation down.

  “Then we need to find where that thing went and eliminate it.” Levi said raising his brow.

  “Agreed.” Elias nodded. “We start at the source. Where’s the girl now?”

  “Silas was taking her to the sanctuary. She was injured.” Levi pulled his lips into a straight line.

  “Tell Silas we need to talk to her as soon as possible.” Elias addressed Jeramiah.

  “I will. I was going over after this meeting and see how she is.” Jeramiah started for the door.

  Elias followed him outside. “I need to know where you and Silas stand on this.”

  “She’s his mate.” Jeramiah said apologetically.

  Elias inhaled a deep breath through his nose and nodded. “This does complicate things.”

  “I don’t think it does at all.” Jeramiah raised a brow.

  “If she’s killing in the forest and was here to steal magical relics? That’s a huge complication that Silas is going to have to answer for.”

  Jeramiah stopped and turned to Elias for understanding. “What are you saying?”

  “She has to answer for her crimes. It doesn’t matter who she’s mated to.”

  “We don’t know what her crimes are yet, if there are any.” Jeramiah argued.

  “Killing the way she was, that’s a concern.”

  “While I’ll admit that the kill sites were gruesome, she wasn’t killing wolves, witches or humans. She was killing animals to eat. It’s not against the law, it’s just something unspoken we have here. How can you consider punishing someone for breaking a guideline? She also didn’t steal anything.”

  Elias set his stance reminding Jeramiah who was Alpha. “We’d all better hope for a good outcome to all of this.” Elias didn’t give Jeramiah time to respond before walking back toward the door.

  Levi met Elias at the door, “They found Phaedra’s car up by the cabin.”

  “I don’t understand what that has to do with me.”

  “That thing said he had her.” Levi widened his eyes. “She met us up at the cabin to see if she could identify the magic. No one’s seen her since.”

  Elias paused searching his thoughts. “Stands to reason, we find that thing, we find Phaedra.”

  “I’m going to get all the pack hunters ready and form a search party.”

  “I’m going to call Silas and I’ll let the coven know.” Jeramiah volunteered.

  Elias shook his head in frustration. “One day Dark Moon Falls will be a quiet town.”

  Levi huffed a laugh heading for his truck. “No, Elias, it won’t.”

  Chapter Nine

  Silas rushed into the sanctuary carrying Cierce. He cried out for someone to help. He brought her to the center circle. Stasia arrived shortly after them. She told Silas she was getting help and some medicine.

  An older woman in a long blue dress hurried in. “What’s happening?”

  Silas looked at Bethany with pleading eyes. “She was hurt.”

  Bethany leaned down beside her with her hands hovering over Cierce’s body. Her brow wrinkled with curiosity. “What is she?”

  “She’s a fairy. You need to heal her, she’s hurt.”

  “I can see she’s hurt but I’m not sure what I can do.”

  “Anything, just try anything.” Silas was fixated by the marks on Cierce’s neck.

  Bethany closed her eyes and began to summon the white light to heal Cierce. She waved her hands in a circular motion above her.

  The faint smell of burning flesh encircled the area. Cierce sputtered and choked. Her eyes opened wide and her hands flew to her neck. Her lungs were desperate to draw breath but they wouldn’t work.

  Silas pulled her hands away from her neck and noticed the hand marks Trachis had left were getting worse and burning deeper into Cierce’s flesh. “Stop!” He held his hand up to Bethany.

  Bethany opened her eyes and examined the marks on Cierce’s neck. “Oh, this isn’t good.”

  “What? What are you doing to her?” Silas’ eyes widened and he held her closer.

  Bethany put her hand on Cierce’s chest. Cierce reacted in pain still struggling to breathe.

  “Everything I do makes it worse.” Bethany stepped back away from Cierce.


  The wound on Cierce’s neck was pulsating and glowing as though there were shards of metal and crystals lodged in her skin. “We’ve got to get those out.” Silas demanded.

  “I don’t think we should.”

  “We have to do something.”

  Stasia slid to a stop on her knees in front of Cierce. She immediately applied a poultice to Cierce’s neck. The panic that had taken hold of Cierce’s eyes subsided, but not all the way.

  Bethany reached her hands toward Cierce to heal her again. The glowing fragments on her neck became brighter. Her fear increased and her body went rigid.

  “Stop.” Stasia held her hand up to Bethany. “Something’s not right.”

  “This is a basic healing spell. It should be helping with the inflammation.” Bethany insisted.

  “But it’s not.” Silas pulled his lips into a tight line. “Why aren’t you self-healing?”

  Cierce raised a weak hand to her neck, “Cholorite.”

  “I don’t understand.” Silas shook his head.

  “Trachis’ glove.” She sputtered out.

  “That glove did this?” He asked.

  She nodded.

  “Wait, I’ve heard of this in my studies.” Stasia stood up and went toward the library. She returned a few moments later with an open book and read from it. “Cholorite has been used as a weapon against fae folk. They can be controlled with it and may be one of the only things that can destroy them.”

  Cierce nodded again before losing consciousness.

  “How do we fix it?” Silas craned his neck trying to look at the book.

  “We can’t. We don’t have the magic to heal fae from cholorite burns.” Stasia closed the book. “I’m going to keep looking, there could be another way. But basically light magic may only make it worse.”

  “But the herbs helped.” Silas questioned.

  “They can help some, but since she is unable to self-heal it may not be enough.” Stasia avoided eye contact.

  “We have to come up with something, there has to be some solution.” Silas closed his eyes. “We need Phaedra. She’ll know something we could do.”

  “We can’t find her.” Bethany said.