Four Moons: The Complete Collection: (Books 1 - 4)

by Amos, Richard

  Clicking again, those big black eyes reflecting the moonlight. “Two will do.”

  “Then tell me your name, mer. Bind yourself to me, and you shall be rewarded.”

  “I shall bind. My name is Saler, sir. I bind myself to you.”

  “In the name of the tenshi, do you swear fealty to me?”

  “I do, sir.”

  “Aki?” G’s voice came from behind me.

  I spoke in Japanese next. “To the tenshi you give your word, for fear of the damnation of the mazoku. Break this bind, and the dark shall have you, and never will you know the warmth of the light.”

  “I do so pledge myself to my master,” Saler replied in the same language. “Praise the tenshi and all of their blessings.”

  River mer were lesser creatures that could easily be manipulated into a binding. Binding was a spell everyone had to play with—human or supernatural. To bind was to form an oath. Break it, and you were off to the bad place when you carked it.

  Poor fucker. Made me feel like I was taking advantage. But I needed Saler’s loyalty to keep his mouth shut. He would. River mer were respectful like that.

  “Aki?” G came to stand beside me. Saler looked up at him with his wide eyes, flinching a little.

  “He’s a friend,” I told the mer. “Don’t worry.” I turned to G. “Saler here is gonna be filling his belly with banshee.”

  “Lucky Saler.” He stabbed the spade into the mud.

  “Yep. Okay, that’s all. Chow down all you want. Remember, you’re bound to me now. This never happened. Okay?”

  “What would that be, sir?”

  I winked at him. “Good lad. Well, we’ll be off. Enjoy.”

  The mer crawled across the mud for his food. That would be three missing banshees now. The case of the missing Daria still hadn’t been solved. Well, not publicly. Some twat knew what’d happened, though. Top priority to kill the root of suspicion attached to me.

  Wow! So much fucking mystery all over the place. At least the thing with Violet had seemingly gone unnoticed. Not one report on a big green mushroom cloud in the sky. Go figure.

  Me and G picked up the warlock corpse, the sound of bodies being dragged into the water so satisfying.

  “Beth and Carl good?” I asked him as we headed for the fence.

  “Yes. They’re reading.”

  “Cool.”

  Man, this warlock was heavy.

  “We’ll head straight for The Spire to drop this off, then we can go back to mine for something to eat. I don’t think we’ll come across anything else tonight.”

  “Good. So over being outside.” Fucking press!

  Estranged son, they’d called me. Wankers. Opinion pieces suggested I get over whatever problem I had and embrace my family, especially with a baby on the way. Of course, they did. No facts needed. The High Alpha couldn’t be the wrong one. No. It had to be me, the scruffy bloke bringing shame to the ruling family.

  Fuck family. Fuck all of them.

  Back at the car, we dumped the body in the boot, ready to head off.

  Gabriel sniffed the air. “Something’s wrong.”

  “What?” I scanned the empty streets. All that was here were rotting warehouses. There was no one around. I looked up to the windows for squatters, snooping junkies, and the like.

  “Silver,” G said.

  “Seriously?”

  “Silver and blood.”

  “What the hell?”

  “Beth and Carl!” He tore off to the car parked on the corner.

  No, no, no. This wasn’t happening. His nose had gone wrong. Silver and blood? No way. Nope.

  Yeah, the brain could be a dick sometimes with the denial. G’s nose wasn’t broken. His sense of smell was hardcore, tuned to the max like the beta’s should be. If he’d only just caught it, then it’d been hidden until now.

  Oh, shit.

  Beth’s car was dark, the windows tinted, just like a parked car should be. But now, I could smell the silver and the blood.

  “They’re okay, right?” I said. “They’re fine.”

  G pulled open the driver’s door, and Beth fell out, landing at an awkward angle on the asphalt.

  Dead. Her throat cut.

  It took a moment for me to register what I was seeing. Beth. Dead, her eyes wide with surprise, her clothes soaked with blood.

  Blood…

  Blood was dripping off the frame of the car, from the…roof. I tiptoed to look. There it was, the symbol drawn on the top of the car.

  “No,” I whispered. “Not Beth.”

  “That makes six,” G said.

  “Seven,” I said, but then realized I hadn’t seen Carl. He wasn’t in the vehicle.

  Gabriel sniffed the air. “Over there!”

  We hurried down the street to find Carl’s body slumped up against a bin, sitting in a pool of blood. There were multiple stab wounds, including several to his thick neck. No symbol, though, and no silver—not like with Beth.

  So, it was six dead, not seven.

  “How did this happen?” I said. “We weren’t gone that long. Why didn’t we hear anything?”

  Gabriel was on his phone. “Wolves down. Beth and Carl. Yes. Immediately.” He hung up.

  The cavalry was on its way as we walked back to Beth.

  “Silver,” I said as we reached her. “All that silver.”

  It was shimmering in the wound of her neck, leaking with the blood, liquid metal splattered over the steering wheel, traces of it oozing down the sides of her mouth.

  G took a step back.

  I crouched beside poor Beth. “What the hell is going on?”

  * * *

  To my shock and horror, dear Papa stepped out of the black van and twenty other vehicles that showed up, including an SCU truck.

  I’d been wondering why there were so many vehicles.

  He approached me, elegant in a black suit, grossly regal. I was frozen to the spot waiting for him. I didn’t dare move.

  “Should you be out in the open, Dad?”

  “Those are the words you greet me with?”

  I licked my dry lips. “Just dangerous, you know.”

  He stopped a few feet away, holding me with his cold regard. “Do you think I got to where I am by cowering in my tower?”

  “That’s not—”

  He lifted a hand. “Enough, Son. This is neither the time nor the place. What we have here is overwhelming evidence that cannot be denied any longer.” His eyes moved to the body of Beth, now covered with a sheet infused with lead to contain the silver, nothing more than a figure on a stretcher.

  “What’s that?” I asked him.

  “Elves. This is the work of the elves. Another uprising is coming.”

  “No, Dad. I—”

  “I have tried to see the other side of the coin, but it is nowhere to be seen. Silver and symbols that can only be elven enchantments. They mean to start war once again.”

  “But why?”

  “Fresher evidence still.” He clicked his fingers, and a male wolf scurried over—one of the servant geezers, not a fighter. The guy handed my dad a scroll.

  “What’s that?” I asked.

  Dad pulled the red ribbon free and unfurled the battered parchment. “Here.” He handed it to me.

  I felt my forehead crease as I took in the familiar symbol.

  “The symbol at the crime scenes is indeed elven,” my dad said, “ancient power, and used to seal things.”

  “Seal things?”

  “Yes, Son. There isn’t much information on that scroll, and that is all we can glean. Our scholars in The Spire have surmised that the killer is aiming for a certain number of werewolf victims in order for this magic to come into effect. This scroll was discovered this morning within our vaults.”

  The vaults beneath The Spire were creepy and cold and full of things from the long past. “Shit.”

  “Mind your language, Akira.”

  Seriously? “Any guesses on the number?”

  �
�Seven or eight,” he replied. “Those are numbers of consequence, along with five. But we have passed that figure now.”

  “I don’t get it.”

  “Are you stupid, Son?”

  “No. I just don’t get why. What’s this gonna achieve?”

  “What is there for you to understand? You are not elf.”

  “No?”

  He caught that barb, that simple word laced with a ‘what am I, then?’. “Destruction, Akira. What else would it be?”

  “Okay. Sealing something.” I folded my arms. “Sealing the city and blowing it all up?”

  “Possibly.”

  Whoa. “Have the SCU picked up on anything?”

  As if my mouth had the power to summon, Paul came striding over.

  Shite balls!

  He barely looked at me, though. Paul bowed to my father. “High Alpha, sir.”

  “Do you have a report for me?”

  Paul’s eyes flicked to me. If he held his gun any tighter, he’d crush it. “Hyde Park, sir. There has been some elven activity on the walls.”

  “Oh, fuck!” I barked.

  My father ignored me. “Any breaches?”

  “No, sir. The mazoku are stirring, though. We’ve put more agents on the walls, infused more power into the stone to be safe.”

  “Good. I want reports every thirty minutes on the—”

  Silver burst through Paul’s head. An arrow. My jaw dropped open at the pointy thing dripping with blood that’d gone right through his skull, jutting out of his forehead.

  The wolves went crazy, grabbing my dad, smothering him with their bodies, Gabriel caught up in the thick of it.

  “My son!” I heard my dad roar. “My son!”

  “Aki!”

  G’s voice, along with the cries of everyone else, was muffled. I couldn’t stop staring at Paul’s head.

  I hadn’t had a chance to talk to him.

  He was still alive, his eyes on me. I took a step forward. Paul dropped his gun, then collapsed heavily to his knees.

  “Paul?” I said.

  He toppled to the side. Dead.

  “Aki!”

  Snap! I went from shock to fighting mode. My hands were on the hilts of my katanas, the steel out, and ready for action. Gabriel had broken free of the scrum around my dad and was coming for me, dear Papa carrying on with his raging as he was dragged away by his wolves.

  I saw it glint on the warehouse roof. “Get down!” I yelled at G, leaping to his side.

  He did as he was told, hitting the asphalt as the arrow came at him. Focused on the deadly thing, I cleaved it in half before it could do any damage.

  “We need to get out of here,” G said, jumping to his feet.

  I scanned the roof. A figure running.

  “Follow—”

  Before my babies could come out to play, there was an almighty shriek that rocked the night. A familiar sound.

  “mazoku!” someone yelled.

  “What? How the hell did they get out?”

  Yeah, that activity Paul had talked about at the walls around Hyde Park had been super-serious.

  Ah, nuts!

  Gunfire, wolf howls.

  “Protect the Alpha!” some guy bellowed.

  I sent out Bob and Rose up to the rooftops. The figure was gone, but maybe they’d pick up a scent to follow.

  Gunfire. Yelling, vehicles screeching away. My dad would be whisked to safety, no matter how much he’d bang on about staying. An assassin with silver arrows was on the loose. Paul wasn’t the ideal target, seeing as he wasn’t a wolf, and it was only a matter of time before a wolf went down.

  We ran to G’s car, my babies finding nothing as I continued to scan our surroundings. I told them to stay close, not to run too far. They were part of my senses, helping me listen for any change in the air, for the drawing of a bowstring, or the cock of a crossbow. Even the smell of some wank stain lurking in the dark.

  Nothing.

  G’s phone went off. “Yes?” he answered, crouching down beside the driver’s door of his car.

  Smart move.

  “Right. Thanks. We’re leaving now.” He hung up.

  “Don’t tell me,” I said, “werewolf dead by arrow.”

  “Two. Your dad’s safe. They want us at The Spire.”

  Shite! Where was this rooftop fucker? My babies were still running cold.

  “Get in,” he said. “We—”

  A hiss and a mazoku landed on the car bonnet. The black creature eyed up Gabriel with those twin red orbs, hissing some more.

  Before G reacted, I stepped in. “Oi!”

  The mazoku turned to me and hissed, leaping off the bonnet in surprise. It lurked on the other side of the car for a moment before hissing again, then darted off.

  To stop a mazoku, you needed to have the right equipment. Didn’t have any of that to hand, so thank the tenshi for the weird freak out they had whenever I was around. Mega lucky for G.

  “What was that?” he asked.

  “A mazoku.”

  “No, not that. The thing that just happened.”

  Oh, yeah. Hadn’t discussed that with him before. “Get in the car, and I’ll tell you.”

  As I shut the door, a white light boomed in the sky so damn bright I had to shield my eyes from the brunt of it.

  White wisps spiraled down to the ground like snakes made of snow, blinking as they descended. Anti-magic. Perfect for the mazoku. The snakes zipped off one by one, no longer floating, hunting down their prey.

  Ah, the SCU did have the gear with them. Good. This mess would be cleaned up quick, then there’d have to be some more investigating.

  “Who’d have the power to break the mazoku out?” I asked. “That’s some heavy shit.”

  G started the engine. “Why did that mazoku run off, Aki?”

  I shrugged. “Dunno. They always have done.”

  “Always have done?”

  “Yeah, whenever I have to hunt a warlock in Hyde Park.”

  “Okay.”

  “I’d love to know why,” I added. “Doomed to mystery, init?”

  He pulled away. “Do you think it has something to do with your mum?”

  “Bingo. But maybe not.”

  “Grateful either way.”

  As the vehicle slowly made its way through the warehouses, the mazoku wrestled with snaky snow. Well, more like they were snared in their coils, writhing and hissing to be free. No such joy for those bastards. Good!

  More SCU vans were rolling up, guns pointed at the sky. One vehicle had a huge cannon strapped to the top, moving back and forth, clearly searching for movement. Hope no squatters decided to poke their head out the broken windows, or pop on the roof for a ciggie. Bang would go their whole body.

  The wolves were gone. All of them. I tensed up in my seat as the SCU cleared us through. More violence was holding its breath, waiting to blow big. Sometimes you could just feel a shit storm brewing.

  Ancient elven symbols.

  Silver.

  Six dead werewolves.

  On top of that, I had a gang after me, banshees out for revenge, and I still didn’t have Cindy back!

  Great. Just great.

  My phone rang at the same time as G’s.

  Phi. “Hi,” I said as G answered his.

  “Akira! This is awful! So awful! They have Zach! This is so awful!” She was hysterical, a lot of noise in the background.

  “Where are you?”

  “Charing Cross SCU station. Zach’s been arrested for murder.”

  “That’s seven,” Gabriel spoke to his caller.

  “Arrested?”

  “Please, help us, Akira! Please!”

  Chapter Sixteen

  A body found on The Strand, same old crap as the other werewolf killings. This time, Zach had been there, blood on his hands, prime suspect number one.

  And that made seven wolves.

  Fuck!

  Gabriel had to help me through a sea of press barking stuff at me, baying for
a scoop, cameras flashing. I kept my head down all the way to the entrance.

  Inside the white conical stone building that was Charing Cross SCU, I bumped into my dad in the lobby, werewolves all over the place.

  “What’re you doing here?” I asked.

  G was at my side, bowing to his lord.

  “I am glad to see you are safe, Son,” Hitoshi answered formally.

  “You too,” I blurted.

  “In answer to your question, I am here because of the recent discovery.”

  “Murder number seven.”

  “Yes.”

  All the playing it safe with me going to the elven caravans had been thrown to the wind. My dad meant business now. To hell with diplomacy. Once the elves found out one of their own had been arrested and thrown into a cell without the proper procedures followed, they’d go mental.

  Ah, the complexities of life, eh? Couldn’t wait for that turd to reach the fan.

  “I am led to believe you are friends with this elf suspect,” my dad added.

  “Yeah, I am.”

  “And your hunting didn’t ever lead to him?” The way he said ‘hunting’ was as if it were a joke I wasn’t aware of.

  Prick. “No. Never. All leads have been cold.”

  “Like the warlock in the back of Gabriel’s car,” he said.

  “I will deal with that situation immediately,” G responded, bowing.

  “No. Later. You will not be on the streets alone.”

  “As you wish, sir.”

  My dad sniffed the air. “It reeks of elf in here. As for that circus outside… The press has already infringed on too much.” He clearly hated that I was back in the stories about him and his family. Yeah, too much of a reality for the wanker to deal with. “Did they converse with you?”

  “No, Dad.”

  “Good. Come, Gabriel. I wish to speak with you.”

  G offered me a nod and followed my father through a door on my left.

  Wolf eyes were on me amid all the commotion. I ignored all of them until a pair I recognized had my throat closing up.

  “We meet again,” Colin said as he came over.

  “What do you want?” My mouth was hit by a sudden drought.

  “I was there,” he said, “on the Isle of Dogs when the attack happened. mazoku are contained now, being taken into…storage.”