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

by Amos, Richard

  I needed to explore, discover more about the workings of this place, and hope that I didn’t bump into Aki. Because he had to be alive, having survived the attack in that strange place with the pagoda.

  I tried to ignore the skeleton cat chasing a skeleton rat I’d seen on the next street over. As a word, ‘weird’ didn’t cover it.

  The second confusing thing was the dreamcatcher around my neck. Wearing it was imperative to both myself and to Aki, according to the dream witch. When I’d been killed, it’d grown hot against my chest, and the red beads on it were now black.

  What did it mean? Something wasn’t right here.

  As soon as that clock above the café’s counter struck twelve, I’d be back on the streets again, digging deeper.

  What was beneath these layers, the dead sky, and the dead-looking moon?

  The kitchen door opened. Rather than the potent smell of coal soap, Gerald had about him, the scent of custard wafted into the café.

  The other occupant of this building.

  I turned my head to see a girl walking around the counter. She paused, looked over her shoulder at the kitchen door, then hurried over to my table.

  Her hair was copper and pulled into a ponytail, her fair skin speckled with freckles, and her eyes were a soft green. She must have been about fifteen or sixteen.

  “Hi,” she said. “I’ll be in a lot of trouble for coming out of my room, but I had to come and see you.”

  “You did?”

  She nodded. “I’m Jessie. Gerald’s my dad. He’s a bit overprotective. So, you’re a werewolf.”

  She spoke so fast.

  “You know I’m a werewolf?”

  “Yeah, we’re sensors.”

  I folded my arms, leaning back in my chair. Sensors were humans who could read a supernatural creature’s trace immediately, see through all magic. They were all dead, a failed experiment by the SCU.

  “I know,” she added, “big shock seeing as we all died out.”

  There had been an experimental drive announced by the SCU, by order of High Alpha, for human volunteers to submit themselves for trials to test a new liquid form of anti-magic requiring an injection directly into the brain. Five hundred people from different cities around the world signed up. The aim was to give humans the ability to see through magic, especially as witches and warlocks could cloak themselves and would only reveal their nature by breaking their own cloak. Initially, it’d worked, and recruitment into the SCU had begun, with another five-hundred humans set to be injected later in the year after the six-month window. When those six months expired, the injected humans suffered brain hemorrhages all at the same time. Every single one of those five-hundred people had been wiped out. The program was shut down, families heavily compensated, and the tragedy left to the past.

  That’d been ten years ago.

  Tragedy, like the one I’d been a part of when the red moon came. So many dead, blood on the hands of the werewolves…again. The slaughter because of the red moon wasn’t his fault, but under him, there’d been carnage…again.

  The bloodlust…

  Hunting Aki…

  Losing control under the moon, my mind and desire to kill locked onto him. I could still feel it, how I’d been a prisoner in a violent killing machine of muscle, unable to stop myself, wanting to tear open Aki’s flesh and bathe in all of his life force.

  “Are you okay?”

  I blinked to clear my thoughts. “Yes. I’m fine, Jessie. It’s nice to meet you. I’m sorry for what happened to you and your father.”

  She shrugged, drawing a circle on the table with her finger. “We all knew there would be risks.”

  “You’re very young, though.”

  “Sixteen,” she said. “Legal to take part in the experiment.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  She picked at the chipped blue polish on her fingernails. “My mum had an affair with a warlock. He murdered her when she wouldn’t leave my dad. We never did track him down, but Dad wanted us to get the sensor skills so we could maybe find him.”

  A combination of that asshole warlock and her father’s revenge had doomed them.

  “That’s horrible.”

  “I know.”

  “You’ve kept your abilities, though,” I added.

  Gerald hadn’t told me he’d known I was a werewolf. He would’ve known what I was as soon as I’d entered the café. If this was the city all the dead came to, which I wasn’t sure of, that would mean all five-hundred sensors would be here. Not important, but a fact that passed through my head.

  Unless they’d died this so-called second death.

  “If you’d been warlock, Dad would’ve used his best bread knife on you.”

  “Thank the tenshi I’m not,” I replied.

  “You seem nice. What’s your name?” She looked to the kitchen door, keeping her voice low.

  No sign of Gerald.

  “Gabriel.”

  “Nice to meet you. We don’t get wolves around here. See them on TV in the games. You know about the games, right?”

  “I do.”

  “I’ve never come across a werewolf here myself. Some people are glad about that. They’re scared of them—of you. Dad says the hound gets them first. Anyway, wolves never did us any harm, and Dad says Hitoshi Murakami is a decent man who saved us all from the mazoku, and it wasn’t the High Alpha’s fault or any wolf, or the SCU, that we died. It was the magic-users and their sly ways.”

  I nodded, my mind drifting away once again.

  I want to go back. For Aki. Even if to just see him break the curse on the moon. I can live in this dead place happy then, knowing he could live his life free from Mama Rita, give up the violent life, be the superb baker he was, creating masterpieces all day long.

  My Aki.

  Not mine… Can never be mine now…

  Aki…

  Aki…

  Aki…

  “Did you know him?”

  “Sorry?” Yanked back to reality.

  “The High Alpha,” Jessie said. “Did you know him?”

  “I met him a few times.”

  Jessie was a sweet girl, but also a stranger in a strange land. Sweetness could be rotting, a perfume to hide the badness beneath. Vigilance was always a top priority, no matter what. I didn’t divulge secrets easily. Hitoshi would have enemies here, along with me. I was taking no risks with my true identity.

  “What was he like?”

  “Powerful,” I replied.

  “I bet. Did you work in the wolf army? You look strong enough to.”

  “No. I worked in construction.”

  “That’s why your muscles are so big.”

  I offered her a smile. “Lifting all of those bricks would do it.”

  She played with a loose red curl at her neck. “You’re American, right? Texas? Sounds like Texas. I always wanted to go to America. Wanted to see New York first, get myself a big car, and drive everywhere.”

  “Everywhere?”

  “All the states. Get a plane when I had to but drive to all the ones I could drive to. See every single corner.”

  “That’s some ambition.”

  There was a terrible sadness in her eyes. “But here I am now. It doesn’t matter. I’m with Dad, and I’m so happy we got to be together. We arrived here separately. Took us two days to find each other. It was so scary.”

  “I’m glad you did find one another.”

  “Yep. Apart from the Butcher Hound, things are alright here. There’re some nice people around this neighborhood. Some idiots too, but mostly nice. I just wish I’d had more time back in the living world, you know?”

  “I do.”

  A brief silence. Still no Gerald.

  “How old are you?”

  “Twenty-six.”

  “Cool. Wish I could’ve met the High Alpha.”

  I didn’t answer.

  “How did you die?” Her skin flushed red. “I’m being nosey. Sorry. Dad always tells me off for grilling pe
ople.”

  “It’s fine. Really. I was murdered.”

  “Oh, no.”

  “Wrong place at the wrong time.” That’s all I’d tell her—all the lie I could summon.

  “That’s horrible.” She leaned closer. “I wanted to talk to you about something, see if you’re game.”

  “What’s that?”

  The kitchen door flew open. “What did I tell you, Jessie?” Gerald was purple-faced and scowling.

  Jessie stood up, hurrying over to her father.

  I stayed where I was, not wanting to antagonize in any way.

  “Sorry, Dad, but I wanted to talk to him. He might come in handy one day.” She looked at me over her shoulder, every part of her look sheepish.

  Gerald was not happy. “When I tell you to do something, you do it. And don’t make me shout! This is not the time to rile me up.”

  “You seriously need to stop being so stroppy, Dad.”

  The argument continued around me, voices lowered to whispers as the back and forth went on.

  I barely listened, thinking about that sheepish look from Jessie.

  She wanted to tell me something.

  Chapter Six

  The wanker hound still hadn’t made its move.

  It was still watching me, now drooling gloopy saliva on the road.

  No way was I going for the first move. In fact, I wasn’t gonna be hanging around here, waiting for it to charge much longer. The smartest part of my senses was telling me to run the hell out of there instead of diving in for the full-on showdown. Problem was, where did I run to?

  The Butcher Hound didn’t move much, just padded the ground a bit, and never took its yellow eyes off me. Not once.

  Shit. I was torn up now. Stay and fight? Could I go up against this fucker with those jaws and claws? If I hit it with my katanas, I’d suck its essence out. Did I really want hound juice inside my blades, though?

  “Check out the next street,” I told Bob and Rose as I called them up. “Find possible shelter.”

  They did their thing. Empty street ahead. Cool. They were hovering in a certain spot, sitting on their backsides, staring at a building. I didn’t wanna scrutinize it while trying to keep my actual peepers on woofy over there.

  The skin on its back bulged into sharp peaks, pushing that red fur up into like ten painful looking, stretched mounds of skin. Reminded me of spots.

  Tenshi! If they were spots and burst and sent pus everywhere, I’d get to puking again.

  No gunk released when they popped. Didn’t even make a sound when they all burst. The hound didn’t even flinch.

  Honestly, I’d have taken pus over the red tendrils that slithered out of the ten wounds on its back. Yeah. Gross was better than these creepy things.

  They were like red tongues, but more jagged. Their edges were serrated, their tips hooked. Kind of like a fishing hook, but rustier and just pure nasty.

  Ten tongues, one hound, and one me.

  Fuck.

  Two dropped to the ground and shot forward in a straight line, firing off sparks as they scraped against the asphalt.

  What the hell? Were these made of metal?

  Balls!

  They reared together, stinking of dog breath, and my stomach lurched. The one on the right swung at me as I hopped back, the edge of the hook missing my cheek by an inch.

  The left thing made its move, coming straight for my legs. Again, I leapt back, but not quite in time. The hooked end snagged my jeans and pulled as I moved. My legs tangled beneath me and I hit the ground, dropping my katanas.

  The hound growled, tongue thing dragging me forward. It hadn’t got my flesh, only the denim, so I kicked out hard and rolled, the material tearing away.

  Another growl, deeper, rumbling through the road.

  I rolled again, avoiding a downward strike of the right tongue, and scooped up my katanas, leaping back onto my feet, then dashing to the left as the two tongues came at me like twin spears, whipping up the air at my side.

  Too close!

  More diving and dashing, always keeping my eyes on the hound and its bonus weapons. The moment I was properly snared, that would be it. No more trial, no getting to G.

  Goodbye, world! Enjoy the silver moon, yeah?

  With every move they made, I tried to get in a slice, even a tiny jab with my blades. That’s all I needed to end it. But they were too quick. I had to focus on getting the hell out of the way over sword swings.

  So didn’t want a hook in my face.

  My katanas buzzed. My arms moved of their own accord, bringing the blades to form an X shape across my chest.

  This wasn’t the first time my swords had acted to show me something.

  Stirring. Wolf and mud monsters and baku in the katanas. I’d taken Colin’s wolf, and some baku energy too. No, not baku. Mazoku. The baku were mazoku-made, not a natural breed (they were extinct). The wolf, the mud monsters, the mazoku energy, all stirring, reaching out to me.

  What the hell was going on?

  My arms flung open, a globe of red energy exploding from my blades. It shifted and transformed into a huge, glittering white wolf, threaded with red veins.

  It lifted its white head and howled. And, man, did it howl. It shook my bones, hands wanting me to cover my ears.

  The hound howled back, stepped back too.

  It was worried.

  Something clicked into place, a connecting force coming up between me and the white wolf. It was telling me this was my new toy.

  I was in control, this wolf was mine, a new energy, its affiliation to Colin long over. My swords were talking to me, showing me what they could do, what I could do with them in my hands.

  Power.

  My power.

  Try it again, they said as I crossed my blades into an X. Flinging out my arms sent out a huge puff of white clouds. Mazoku were shadowy black creeps, but this new version was all the stolen mazoku energy I had in one big white fluffy cloud of fun. Maybe not so fluffy. I mean, it had talons.

  Whoa.

  “Got get it,” I ordered my two new weapons.

  The wolf and mazoku cloud charged at the hound, crashing into the big bastard. Growls and grunts and jaws tore into one another, hissing from the mazoku as it smothered the fight in white, buying me some time.

  Yeah, time. Funny thing. I wanted to stand and be all ‘whoa’ some more at what I’d just done, but the smarty-knickers part of me was really yelling and telling me to run while I still had the option.

  So I did, trying not to whoop as the hound yelped within that weird mazoku cloud of pain.

  The katanas. They took power, then turned it into a bonus weapon just for me. Awesome. Talk about leveling up.

  Nice one, Uncle Ryoka!

  Please, be okay.

  Bob and Rose were waiting outside a boarded-up house—one of three in a row. The difference with this one was the garage attached to it. An open garage ready for me to dive into if I needed it.

  Never the sort of geezer to look any gift horse in the gob, I ran for the garage, my babies at my heels, and whacked my katanas into the holder on my back.

  Hide here or keeping going? The fight was still going on and—

  A howl, then a yelp, followed by a shrieking hiss. Several buzzes rang through the steel at my back. I didn’t quite know how, but I knew it was a message telling me my toys were broken.

  My cue to slam the garage door down and hide in the dark.

  Ah, look at that! Some luck! The door actually shut and stayed shut.

  With Bob and Rose still out and about around me, I could see better in the dark. The garage was empty, a damp oil patch on the floor. There was a door on the other side of the square space, all boarded up with heavy-duty bars across it.

  Fine. I wouldn’t go that way.

  I went to the furthest corner and sat down, catching my breath. My babies joined me, snuggling up, happy with their heads getting rubbed.

  “Good babies.”

  Well, this had
n’t gone the way I’d wanted it to. But I guess I had to wait for a bit, catch my breath. For all the bravado, that was one big nasty out there. And it wouldn’t be happy after that tangle.

  Think, think, think. How to move on and not spend the whole three hours trapped inside this garage. At least the hound was over this way and not sniffing around G.

  Sniffing. I could hear it…

  Oh, shit. There was sniffing outside the garage door.

  Brace yourself. Look at me trying to reassure myself.

  A figure, a shadow appearing in the room. Tiny. A doll?

  “What the hell?”

  Chapter Seven

  I hate dolls. They’re freaky and just, well, wrong. This fucker was losing its shadowy look as a spotlight manifesting from nowhere appeared, revealing a creepy porcelain thing in a purple dress and pillbox hat, complete with creepy blue eyes and a mean grin.

  The Butcher Hound was working its trickery to lure me out. That was its weakness. It couldn’t go inside, at least Janet thought so. My weakness was G and the need to move.

  Guess we were at a stalemate. Fine. Woofy out there could throw all its creepy tricks at me ‘cos I wasn’t backing down. Especially not to some stupid doll.

  The doll giggled, her brown ringlets bouncing around her face.

  “Shut the fuck up,” I told her.

  “Akira…” Not the doll, but a voice swirling around the room.

  Colin’s voice.

  “Oh, I see,” I said. “You’re gonna play this game. Eh? Try and torment me using that wanker. You think that’s enough to get me running with my tail between my legs? What a dickhead you are.”

  “Akira…”

  “Woofy…” I whispered back.

  “You’re mine, Akira. Only mine—”

  I laughed in the face of the pathetic attempt. “Gonna take a lot more than that—”

  Next thing I knew I was standing in a field of corpses in a rainstorm, some fresh, some rotted, all of them G. Every time the lightning flashed, the bodies that still had eyes in their sockets rolled, pointing at me—including the ones being pecked out by crows.