Moon Glamour

by Aimee Easterling

  But the emptiness in my gut forced me to grasp at any possibility of assistance for Tank. My inner wolf was adamant about the fact.

  Still, I put off the unsavory task until I’d checked out of the hotel then driven aimlessly in my rental car to ensure Marina hadn’t sent someone to follow me. I was far enough from her current location that I hoped she’d ignore my movements. That did appear to be the case.

  Finally, though, I couldn’t put off the call any longer. I pulled into a grocery-store parking lot, eying shoppers through the windshield until I was certain none were shifters. Then I took a deep breath and dialed the number I’d been given.

  This time I rushed out my greeting as soon as the line connected. “You don’t know me, but I’m Athena,” I started.

  Only to be interrupted by a voice just as gruff and growly as the one I craved to hear again. “You’re Tank’s...”

  And Gunner, in turn, was interrupted by a female. “Hush!” she hissed.

  I blinked, trying to understand who this was with the temerity to silence an alpha. And, more relevantly, what she held over him to force him to obey.

  Because he was obeying. Gunner had hushed, giving me leeway to elaborate. I cleared my throat and dove in.

  “Yes, I’m Tank’s team mate in the Samhain Shifters. The thing is, I need your help.”

  The woman’s demand for silence was forgotten as Gunner pounced upon my statement. “Lupe already called us,” he acknowledged. His voice was frustrated. I was pretty sure the tapping I heard was fingers drumming on a tabletop. “But there’s nothing we can do. Everyone here is Tank’s pack mate. Lupe swore he wouldn’t be present, but I begged to differ. Tank doesn’t stop halfway. He’ll be there for the showdown, and if I come our bond will place him in danger.”

  If he came? The alpha himself?

  Of course, that’s what I was about to ask for, in a manner of speaking. For Gunner to put himself on the line...just not in person.

  “Your instincts are good,” I agreed, speaking carefully. “Tank’s at the node already.” Now, how to broach the massive favor I’d dreamed up while sitting by my silent phone all night?

  Only, I didn’t have to. Gunner bit out a curse. “He’s there? And you’re calling.” His voice hardened. “In that case, you need alphas from other packs.”

  “I’d hoped for anyone from other packs. Or, rather, one from each pack. Preferably people who can handle swords. People who can get there before sunset tonight.”

  Because that’s when the node would open. When it would be too late to send Marina back and halt the invasion.

  When it would be too late to disentangle Tank from whatever swamp he’d gotten mired in. The emptiness in my stomach intensified.

  Gunner’s response confirmed my suspicion—he was capable of delivering assistance if he was willing to expend social capital in order to do so. “Lupe said she hadn’t had much luck interesting other packs. I could call in favors, but it would take serious arm twisting.”

  “I know.” I hated this part. The promise I’d have to make. Hated it...but was entirely ready to take the hit to ensure Tank’s safety. “I’ll owe you anything you want if you do this for me. Anything that won’t injure my sister. But I, personally, will...”

  In the background, the other woman laughed. This was Kira’s sister, Mai. I somehow knew that. Well, not somehow. Knew because who but Gunner’s mate could have silenced an alpha so powerful I could feel the chill of his presence over the phone?

  “There is something we want,” Mai called, knowing I’d hear her even though it was clear her mouth wasn’t close to the microphone. “When everything is said and done, you’ll come here. I want to meet you.”

  “Good bargain,” Gunner agreed, his voice suddenly so warm it felt like the sun had broken through the clouds above me. I peered up at the sky, but there was no sign of our planet’s personal star. The day was still just as gloomy as it had been a minute before.

  “With or without Tank,” Gunner continued in a tone that almost sounded teasing. Then, returning to business. “I can promise you at least half a dozen sword wielders from different packs. More maybe. Where do you want them to meet?”

  I rattled off an address, feeling shell shocked. Hung up the phone. Then dialed the final person on my list.

  I’D EXPECTED STONEWALLING from Gunner and gotten sunshine. Lupe, however, bit back even harder than I’d suspected she would.

  “You realize Marina probably has him.” The leader of the Samhain Shifters was furious, but she kept her voice level. “You haven’t helped matters. You’ve made everything ten times worse.”

  If we’d been face to face, my wolf would have forced me to cower. As it was, I held my ground. “It was a valid risk to take. And I’m fixing it.”

  “Oh, you are?” she scoffed. “How exactly?”

  Between her words, the memory of my withheld information flowed between us. I hadn’t been a team player then, but I was being one now.

  “I have the promise of at least six sword-wielding shifters,” I told her, expecting at any moment to be interrupted. The line stayed silent, though, as I elaborated. “They’ll all tie red bandannas around their left arms so you can recognize them. I just need to know where the node is. Has Butch improved enough to track that down?”

  More silence, and when Lupe responded she didn’t answer my question. Instead, she did one better. She acknowledged that I’d succeeded where she’d failed. “I’m...impressed. And I apologize. I thought Butch was right and you were in this for the money.”

  My wolf sharpened my answer. “I was then. I’m not now. About the node....”

  I half expected Lupe to spout out something about need-to-know basis. Instead, her voice turned businesslike, almost as if I was back on the team. “As of now, Butch still believes it will materialize at the McCallister compound. We won’t know exactly where until later this afternoon. In the meantime, we’ll meet you and your backup. Where and when?”

  I shared the gathering location I’d agreed upon with Gunner. And I was about to hang up when Lupe supplied information I wouldn’t have thought to ask for.

  “Your connection to Marina—she owes you a favor.”

  “She owes me?” Simple solutions leapt to the fore. I could ask Marina to hop back through the node and take all other fae along with her. I could ask....

  “Something commensurate with what you provided. The museum job took only a couple hours of your time, so your boon would have to be similarly minor.”

  “I can’t just ask her to end this?”

  I could hear the rustle as Lupe’s head shook. “No. But you should consider what you might ask for. In a pinch, the boon might be turned to our advantage. You’d have to get the words just right though. She’ll be hoping you leave a loophole of inequality to let her reel you back in.”

  That was the only warning she provided. Lupe didn’t remind me that Marina would know the moment I headed in her direction. Didn’t warn me a second time that my presence could be worse than my absence.

  Instead, she accepted the fact that I’d be joining the strike force when we assembled an hour before sunset. She trusted me to make it work.

  Chapter 37

  I’d expected Gunner’s promised half dozen sword-wielding alphas, but cars kept pulling into the Walmart parking lot for the better part of an hour. Despite the danger of leaving them unattended, I rushed inside to buy bandannas and one other item. And when I came back out, thirty men and women milled around with wolves behind their eyes and swords belted at their hips.

  They were wild and dangerous and I assumed the driver of the ride-share van I’d booked would refuse to allow us inside once he set eyes on us. Instead, he greeted us with a big grin and a thumbs up. “Nice costumes! Let me guess—Lord of the Rings?”

  “Right,” I told him, glad he didn’t have the lie-sniffing abilities of a werewolf. “Exactly. We’re going to a house party....”

  Someone behind me snickered. Someone els
e rumbled out a growl at an accidental invasion of his personal space. The air grew so electric it seemed as if fur would fly.

  I glanced at Lupe, expecting her to take over. But she didn’t. Just shrugged and let the alphas be alphas. My heart was in my throat as I stuffed them into far too few seats, knowing full well that territorial werewolves only got ornerier in close proximity. By the time our driver returned his attention to the road and his music, their ire felt like ants running all over my skin.

  A sword grated against its sheath and I spun, expecting battle to erupt right there in the cramped confines of the vehicle. But Lupe’s hand on my shoulder stopped me. The intensity of her gaze suggested it was better to leave the alphas alone.

  “Ryder and Butch will meet us there,” she informed me.

  I blinked, trying to focus despite the reek of fur so intense I could barely breathe. “Good. Great.”

  Now someone was snarling. He wanted to open a window. Predictably, three other voices disagreed.

  And I couldn’t help myself. Lupe was keeping out of the mess because it was suicide to dive in the middle of such powerful werewolves. But if they couldn’t ride together in a van without arguing, how were they going to unite long enough to vanquish the fae? And free Tank?

  So I whirled, facing them directly. My gaze met alpha eyes, every single one amber with incipient wolf.

  “Is there going to be a problem?” I bit out, imagining the alphas were teenagers. I straightened my spine and glared, pretending they’d forgotten to turn in their homework. Had made up some half-assed excuse about a nonexistent dog.

  And, to my surprise, they responded just like Harper would have.

  “No, ma’am.”

  “You lead and we’ll follow.”

  “We know what we’re here for.”

  And while the electricity in the air didn’t lessen, every sword stayed in its sheathe for the remainder of the ride.

  GRUMBLING FADED AS we disembarked from the van at the far end of Rowan’s driveway. Now the alphas were alert to pending battle, their wolves visible behind their eyes for a different reason. One sniffed the air and pointed toward the forest.

  “There.”

  Sure enough, McCallister shifters slid out from between tree trunks. All were men, the women apparently not being allowed out of the harem. There was still diversity though. Some were lupine. Some human. The latter boasted swords as menacing as our own.

  But men and wolves all waited, standing in an unbroachable line for one long moment until Rowan emerged from their midst. His teeth were sharp as he scanned the alphas, even sharper when his gaze settled on me.

  “This is private property. My territory is closed to your kin.”

  The implication shook me. “My sister...” I started, the words torn out without my permission. My fingers slid to the cell phone in my pocket. Could Rowan have found Harper and...?

  Now Lupe did step forward, speaking over me. “We’re here on Samhain Shifters business. As you know, that provides free passage anywhere we wish to go.”

  Rowan didn’t even answer this time. Instead, he drew his sword.

  Metal rasped against metal all around me. If I’d needed any additional proof that Rowan was in Marina’s pocket, here it was. In the past, Rowan’s offensives had tended toward fangs and fur.

  Still, if his side was using swords, ours would also. I yanked out my weapon, wishing I’d found time to do more than learn two parries and a single attack. I’d hoped we wouldn’t be using our swords until fae materialized. I’d hoped...and I’d been wrong.

  Because the time for speaking was apparently over. I opened my mouth to try to talk Rowan around....and our forces crashed together. Grunts, roars, and growls. A blow swung toward my midsection and I barely dodged.

  We were outnumbered, but the alphas Gunner had assembled were masters. Better than Rowan’s underlings and ten times better than me.

  I did my best to hold my spot in line anyway, but I almost dropped my sword the third time someone came at me with a berserker’s fury. “Behind me.” The gruff growl emerged from a female alpha sporting a red armband. Rather than waiting for me to comply, she grabbed me with her free arm and pushed me where she wanted me to go.

  Then I was being pressed backwards over and over. Away from the fighting. Away from danger. I stumbled as my feet landed back on the road.

  Stumbled...and took in two final allies arriving with dramatically disparate modes of transportation. Ryder’s was what I would have expected, actually, if I’d taken time to think about it. His legs gripped the broad barrel of a motorcycle, and he whooped as he swerved toward the enemy line then back in my direction.

  Butch, in contrast, appeared atop what at first appeared to be the most beautiful horse I’d ever seen, in real life or on television. It gleamed. Purple, blue, and black, the colors intermingling from hooves to nostrils.

  But, no, it wasn’t a horse. An enormous silver horn emerged from its forehead.

  “A unicorn,” I breathed. Then I blinked and Butch was walking toward me, stride hitching as his injury slowed him. Maybe I’d imagined the unicorn? Regardless, I wasn’t the only one who noted Butch’s struggle to walk.

  “Here.” Ryder was gruff as he patted the back of his idling motorcycle. “My hog can take two. He glanced at me. “Three, I guess. You’re skinny.”

  I struggled onto the far back, behind both Ryder and Butch. Then, before the former could steer us to the frontlines, I provided alternative instructions. “We have to find the node.”

  “To your left,” Butch murmured, voice quiet. His body, before mine, was bowed.

  Ryder’s wasn’t. He was ready for any adventure. Revving the engine, he roared so loud my ears rung. Then we were off.

  IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN exhilarating, riding a motorcycle to the rescue. Instead, all I could think about was Tank. Where was he? He would have found a way to join this battle if he was in control of his own movements. Was he even still alive?

  Shaking my head against my own thoughts, I refocused. Marina. I was here to find the node and the woman who’d been toying with us. I was here to protect werewolves Tank cared about from the dangers of fae invasion.

  To that end, I clutched Butch’s waist, steadying him as much as hanging on while we skirted the margins of the battle. The directions he gave us, though, didn’t let us steer clear of the fighting entirely. Then Rowan’s forces swung out to meet us, slowing our forward progress. It wasn’t long before the motorcycle stalled.

  “Crap,” Ryder growled, kicking the ignition then revving the engine. “Hang on. This is going to get rough.”

  “Wait,” I countered, something off to our right catching my attention. It was one of the alphas Gunner had assembled greeting an enemy as if he was an ally. “Nice sword, Clifford,” the alpha called to the advancing man whose raised sword was ready to skewer him. “Do they need me out front?”

  But that wasn’t Clifford. Not that I knew who Clifford was. But I knew this guy was one of Rowan’s underlings. I recognized him by his long, curly hair and his extreme lankiness. This was the shifter who Lupe had ordered to change her lock.

  I slithered down off the side of the motorcycle and dove between the two shifters. By chance, the situation suited one of my two practiced parries and I managed to catch our enemy’s sword before it skewered my ally’s gut.

  Still, the reverberation juddered up my shoulder. My fingers buzzed painfully. The chances of me halting a second blow were zero.

  Then Ryder was there, driving between us with all the finesse of a stampeding bull. “What the fuck?” He roared. “Dude’s got a red bandanna.”

  Not-Clifford had no red bandanna. He was dressed in jeans and a hoody, nothing tied around his arm at all.

  But he grinned at Ryder’s words, breaking away from my so-called defense and swirling back toward his compatriots. Now he knew what we were using to recognize each other....

  “Glamour,” I explained tersely. “Get the bandannas off everyo
ne. Figure out an alternative marker. And don’t trust what you see!”

  Ryder, to my dismay, didn’t move. “I can do that,” he growled, “or I can drive you to the node.”

  Not both. Obviously.

  I closed my eyes for one split second, understanding at last why Lupe always looked vaguely dyspeptic. It made my stomach ache to guess the proper course of action. To send friends into danger without me.

  But there was only one solution. Ryder was the obvious choice to brute force our allies into understanding the danger of this new glamour. And...

  “We’re close enough so I can walk,” Butch agreed before I even had to state my case. Joining me on the ground, he swayed only a little. I steadied him with a surreptitious hand around his elbow.

  “Go,” I told Ryder, the emptiness in my stomach lessening. And he went. Roared back into the battle, stopping at intervals to fire off short verbal bursts at our allies.

  Convinced he’d get the job done, I turned away. Back to the darkness beyond the battlefield. Back to the one ally I had left. “We’re close?”

  Butch nodded, all the while walking a curving path that started large then spiraled inward. Minutes later, he stopped in what appeared to be an empty patch of lawn.

  “It’s here,” he murmured, prodding at the soil with one boot toe.

  “You’re sure?”

  I’d expected a fairy ring of mushrooms. An earthen burial mound. Something to suggest this wasn’t just a patch of lawn no different than the others.

  I’d also expected Marina. But she was absent, her presence only visible in the glamour that continued to trip up our allies.

  “I’m certain,” Butch confirmed.

  The confusion on our side was worsening, I noted. For a minute or two, ditching our armbands might have helped us. But our enemies seemed to have caught on to that already. In the distance, I saw one of my own allies turn away from Rowan as if expecting a friend to guard his back.