Moonrise

by Ines Johnson

  "Where are you?" His mother was a petite woman, but there was a bite in her voice that Jackson knew all too well. Her wolf was near the forefront.

  "I was just headed over now." It was time to go home and face the music. At least he'd have a decent meal. His mother's cooking was the best part of home visits. He'd just have to deal with the fawning over his brother and hope, for his parents' sake, that this was Pierce’s last trek.

  Jackson couldn't see Pierce as a loner. His brother loved his family. He never stayed away for too long and he always came back home. Even though he liked to roam, Pierce exhibited none of the other loner traits. He was a charmer. He loved being around others. Most lone wolves liked their solitude. Not Pierce. He thrived in social situations.

  Pierce was the one that had introduced Jackson to his last girlfriend. They'd been at a bar, much like this one. Jackson had been content to hug the wall all night. The women had flocked to Pierce, but he'd peeled one off, one who had been exactly Jackson's type, and introduced them. Jackson and Sheila had dated for four months until he'd gotten the itch.

  Jackson didn't miss Sheila. He did miss his brother. Pierce was great to hang out with. He was always good to talk to -when he was around.

  "Pierce isn't home."

  Jackson had to run his mother's words through his head a few times. "Did he and dad go out?"

  "No, he hasn't arrived and I'm getting worried. The train came in over an hour ago."

  Jackson grit his teeth at the sound of the worry in his mother's voice. The strong woman she was was at odds with the quiver in her tone. Anger at Pierce replaced the memories of a moment before, but he was certain to keep the anger out of his tone as not to increase his mother's worry any further. "Maybe he ran into some friends?"

  "He would've called to say he would be late."

  That's true. As much as Pierce loved to explore and disappear, he was always certain to leave word of his whereabouts, and comings, and goings. Another thing so unlike a lone wolf. "Maybe the train came in late."

  "I've tried calling, but I can't get through. Something's wrong, I can feel it."

  The hairs at the back of his neck prickled. His mother was a hovering parent, but not a worrywart. She let her children run and play, keeping a watchful eye. But if they hurt themselves, she'd brush the dirt and blood off and then, so long as nothing was broken, she'd tell them to be more careful the next time, and send them back into the thick of things.

  "Ma, I—"

  But Jackson didn't get a chance to offer another calming explanation for his brother's whereabouts. Falun appeared at Jackson’s side.

  "We got a magical transgression at the train station,” the elf said.

  Jackson covered the receiver on his phone to ensure his mother couldn't hear. But it was useless. She had a wolf's keen ears and a mother's intuition. "Ma, don't get upset. It's probably just some kids casting illusions again."

  "No," Falun shook his head, his expression serious. "The magical assault was against two humans."

  "What kind of magic?" Jackson asked Falun.

  "Witchcraft."

  Everyone in the bar froze. It had been years since there was a witch attack in the city.

  That would explain his brother's delinquency. He was likely safe, likely had tried to step in between the matter. Pierce was his father's son. Service was in the Alcede blood along with moonlight.

  "Ambulances have been called," said Falun. "A wolf has been taken to the ER."

  Jackson's blood turned cold.

  Chapter Seven

  Strong arms pulled Pierce from Lucia. She missed the warmth of his lips against her skin, missed the pressure of his body covering hers. True, she could take in a full breath now. But who needed to breathe air after having fallen in love?

  From above she saw Pierce being placed onto a cot with wheels.

  "Got a pulse," said a female dressed in a blue uniform with the snake and staff sign of a healer over her breast. "But it's weak."

  "He's non-responsive," said a male dressed in similar garb. "We need to get him to the ER."

  They each took an end of the cot and set it in motion, wheeling Pierce away from her. Lucia shot up, ignoring the proffered hand to help her up. Without Pierce's weight over her body, she could leap up to the platform. Her cloak slid from her shoulders and remained on the tracks as she did so.

  "Wait, where are you taking him," she demanded.

  The healers didn't pause in their motion of wheeling Pierce down the platform. Onlookers, the same ones who'd offered no help as a train barreled towards them, gawked now. They moved out of the way as Lucia raced to catch up with the moving cart and the man she loved.

  "Ma'am, stop."

  An arm grasped onto Lucia. She turned to glare at her accoster. Her eyes clouded over in silver. It was the owner of the arm that had offered to help her up from the tracks. The young man wore the same garb as the other healers. Concern etched his face as he held her still.

  "Hold your wolf," he said. "I have to check you out. You might be hurt."

  Lucia blinked at being called a wolf. But out of the corner of her eye, she saw Pierce getting away from her. "I can't. I have to go with him." Lucia turned to move towards the large auto car the healers were hefting Pierce into.

  "Are you family?" asked the healer.

  "No, not yet," she said. “I’m going to marry him." She hadn't realized she said the statement out loud until the healer spoke her heart's desire.

  "You're his mate. Then of course you'll ride with him. I'll check you out while we're on our way to the hospital."

  Lucia opened her mouth to clarify, but the healer was already guiding her towards the back entrance of the vehicle. She took one look at Pierce lying prone and helpless because of her and climbed aboard.

  Lucia held Pierce's hand as the motorized car went down the street. The shrilling horn was a constant ringing in her ear. But the loud noise caused the other cars on the street to give way.

  Pierce's brown face looked pale under the artificial lights hanging from the roof of the vehicle. The wound at the back of his head oozed a steady stream of his life's blood onto the white sheets of the cot. His eyes remained closed and his breathing labored.

  "Can't you go any faster?" she called to the front of the vehicle.

  The healer at the wheel glanced over his shoulder with a look of sympathy. "I promise we're going as fast as we can, ma'am."

  "But he looks so pale." Lucia ran a hand over Pierce's bronze face.

  "He's stable for now." The female healer came over and put her hand to Lucia. "There's nothing more we can do until we get to the hospital. But his vitals are good. He looks strong and healthy."

  They arrived at the hospital. The car slammed to a stop, and the healers sped into motion, forgetting about her momentarily. They moved the mobile bed that Pierce lay motionless on into glass doors that opened automatically, like magic.

  When Lucia looked up, the healers, along with Pierce, were racing inside the doors. On the other side there was a flurry of activity.

  "Pierce Alcede," said the female healer. "Male wolf. Struck to the back of the head with a blunt object then landed on the metal rail of a train track."

  They handed Pierce's cot off to several people in white coats, also with the same healer sign. But their coats read ‘Doctor’ followed by a surname.

  "We've got it," said one doctor. He took the wheeled cot and aimed it for another set of automatically opening glass doors.

  Lucia made a move to follow but was stopped.

  "I'm sorry, miss, but you can't go back there."

  "She's his mate," called the healer who'd tended her wound as he headed out of the doors that led to the street, likely to rescue another person who'd fallen victim to violence. Lucia shuddered that there was a need for such a job. Then she turned her attention back to the young woman in the pink coat who studied her. She had the same healing symbol, but her coat didn't read doctor. It read nurse; Nurse Everest.
/>   Nurse Everest studied Lucia. "Mrs. Alcede?"

  Lucia blinked in confusion until she realized the nurse was calling her by Pierce's name. Lucia tried to open her mouth to answer, but she couldn't.

  It wasn't exactly a lie, just not the complete truth at the moment. But there was no way the human nurse would know that. Wolves didn't use rings like humans to mark their partners. Lucia knew this because her mother had told her so. Though she didn't exactly know how wolves announced their mating. She knew it had to do with scent and bite marks. She also knew that human noses were not strong enough to sense it.

  Lucia pulled at her tattered sheath as the nurse continued to eye her, reading her like an open book. She got the sense she'd been found out. Just when she thought the nurse would call her out, the woman ran a gentle, comforting hand down her shoulder.

  "You must be in shock," said Nurse Everest. "But you have to trust that he's in good hands. The doctors will do everything they can. In the meantime, I'll need you to fill out some forms."

  Nurse Everest led Lucia not through the doors where they'd taken Pierce, but to a small room with seats of bright blue leather and angry yellow lighting that made Lucia's eyes hurt.

  The nurse handed her documents and told her to fill them out. Lucia didn't have the first clue what to put down.

  Full name? The only reason she knew that was because the driving healers had taken an identification card out of Pierce's pocket.

  Address? Well she would've known that soon enough. Pierce had been about to take her to his family's home.

  The list went on and on. And still she could only answer the one question. Lucia herself could sense the bond between her and Pierce. She'd felt it the moment he sat down next to her. She knew her life would never be the same now that he'd come into it. And she couldn't let him be parted from her. When he woke up, they would start their life together. So what if it started off on a small lie told so that she could stay with him, protect him? It didn't matter. Soon she'd know all the answers to these questions.

  By the time, Lucia reached the last page with barely any ink on the parchment to answer the questions posed, the nurse stood before her again.

  "Mrs. Alcede?"

  Lucia was prepared this time. She looked up in time to answer, but again she faltered. There was something in the nurse's eyes that told Lucia she wasn't buying this charade. Nurse Everest studied Lucia as Lucia studied her.

  The other woman was beautiful. She reminded Lucia of her mother. Same tall Amazonian, muscular build. Same sun-kissed skin and sharp eyes.

  Lucia blinked under the woman's gaze. A shiver went up her spine as though she were facing Mother Superior. Lucia couldn't see any hint of silver in the woman's eyes, but she felt it in her blood. It was too late. She couldn't look away from the woman's eyes. The truth was on the tip of her tongue.

  Nurse Everest's silver tinted eyes scanned Lucia as though she read lines from a book. At the end of the page, one perfect brow raised. "You're not quite Mrs. Alcede... yet."

  "No," Lucia answered honestly. "You're a witch?"

  "Yes," Nurse Everest sat down next to Lucia. "But you don't have to whisper. It's not a secret."

  "The humans know you're a witch?"

  "I'm studying to be a doctor; a witch doctor," She smiled at the irony. "I came to live here when I was ten when my mother left the coven. You look as though you just stepped off the mountain."

  "I did, just last morning."

  "And you've already mated?" Nurse Everest lifted a quizzical eye.

  Now Lucia averted her gaze, but not for fear of a spell. "Is Pierce going to be okay?"

  "He's in a coma," said the nurse. "He has a contusion on his head. The doctors don't think it caused any permanent damage. They won't be able to tell more until he opens his eyes."

  "So you can cast a spell?" Lucia asked.

  "No," said the nurse with a quizzical brow raised. "So we can run more medical tests. Magic is of no use to him. Only science can help him now."

  Lucia had never heard a witch talk like this.

  "You look like you need sustenance yourself," said Nurse Everest. "When's the last time you ate?"

  "Last night at my Rumwicca rites."

  "Let me guess, he was your first catch and you fancy yourself in love?"

  Lucia avoided her eyes.

  "Happens more often than you think. At their core, witches are women. The vagina is just another pathway to the heart."

  Lucia gasped at her lewdness. "How did you know we weren't mated?"

  "I didn't need a spell to see you're not mated. You're a terrible liar. Why don't you come with me to the cafeteria? We'll get some warm brew in you and you can tell me all about it. Don't worry. He's not going anywhere anytime soon."

  Chapter Eight

  There was a mass of people milling around the train station. A few had their suitcases and overnight bags underfoot. Most held coffee cups under the pale moonlight or food wrappers in their hands.

  Jackson and Warwick showed their badges and made their way through the mob. Inside the terminal, train activity had stopped and the suitcase holders were angry and annoyed that their travel was halted.

  Jackson looked around for his brother but didn't spot the dark riot of hair or the mischievous dark eyes. He opened his nose and caught the faint whiff of Pierce's familiar scent. He was here, or had been recently.

  At the edge of the platform, Jackson saw paramedics working on two young human males. The two males looked as though they'd been sent through the ringer, pulled out the other side, and sent back through. A human policeman in uniform stood before the two taking notes. When he saw Jackson and Warwick approach, he straightened and met them halfway.

  "Officer Mezzane." He stuck out a hand and both Jackson and Warwick shook it. "These two say they were attacked by a wolf who was trying to kidnap a witch."

  Jackson heard the man's words, but they made no sense. "A wolf and a...?"

  "And a witch?" Warwick finished for him.

  "Ask them yourselves." The officer made a motion with his hand that cleared a path for Jackson and Warwick to precede him.

  The two human men looked up at Jackson. When they saw his dark hair and trim beard that gave away the wolf inside him, they both reared back.

  Warwick put up a hand to halt Jackson's progress and preceded him. With Warwick's clean-cut looks it was difficult to place him as moonkind unless he revealed it. With his light blue eyes, and without his cloak, it would be difficult to see him for what he truly was.

  "Looks like you two have been through it," he said through a sympathetic grin.

  "We were just headed back home," said one male. "There was this girl, we didn't realize she was a witch until the wolf began harassing her."

  Jackson sniffed out the area for a trace of the assailant. Layered beneath the human sweat he caught a sweet smelling scent unlike anything he'd ever smelled before.

  "We were just trying to help," said the human. "We know what people think of coven witches on Rumwiccas. That they'll give it up to anybody."

  Warick nodded in mock understanding. "And the witch didn't take care of the matter herself."

  "Well, she looked flustered. Probably never seen a wolf before. She was obviously looking for a human man to... you know."

  Warwick nodded. "Obviously."

  The tantalizing smell gave Jackson a hangover, but it cleared as he processed the men's words. They made little sense. Witches could take care of themselves, and they wouldn't appreciate a man coming to their rescue, especially a wolf man. Witches avoided both warlocks and wolves like they were the plague on legs.

  "We offered for her to sit with us," said the pale human. "But the wolf got possessive. Kept her with him the whole ride."

  "Then when we got off the train and tried to offer her a way out," said the darker-skinned man. “He went crazy on us, just started wailing."

  Jackson turned back to the track and caught another scent. The scent was unmistakably Pierce's
. Pierce may be directionless, but he wasn't violent.

  Like Jackson, his brother couldn't stand to see injustices perpetrated on the weak. He would never attack unprovoked. But a witch was far from weak. And Pierce would never approach a witch on her Rumwicca. A wolf's instinct to stay with his offspring was too strong, even for a lone wolf. Lone wolves did not make for the greatest parents. They were at best infrequent, but at their worst they would never entirely abandon a child. There had to be some other explanation.

  "We were able to knock the wolf onto the track to get him to stop hitting us, but we were so hurt we must've passed out."

  Jackson turned around to look down on the track. There was blood on the rails. One whiff told him whom it belonged to.

  Jackson's wolf saw red. He turned, straight into Warwick's gaze. The male witch held up his hand, spelling Jackson to hold still. It was the only way the two humans kept their heads. The humans didn't notice the imminent danger of the wolf behind them.

  Warwick turned back to them with clear eyes. He nodded sympathetically at the humans' tale. "And the witch?"

  "The witch?" the dark-skinned boy asked.

  "Yes, the witch," said Warwick. "What did she do while the wolf wailed on you?"

  Yes, thought Jackson as he stood motionless. What about the witch? Jackson could imagine a wolf, even his passive brother, fighting for his mate. But this woman was a witch, not a she-wolf. And no witch would put up with this behavior, or need any rescuing.

  The human males looked at each other. Jackson didn't need to have a warlock's blood to know this was a tell that they were lying.

  "We don't know what happened to her," said the paler boy. "She probably took the chance to run off. When we came to, after he knocked us out, both she and the wolf were gone."

  Warwick nodded. He looked at the other human who was shifting uncomfortably in his seat. When the boy looked up, Warwick's pale eyes sharpened to metallic silver. "Is that really what happened?"

  "No," said the other man. "We were going to take the witch and fuck her, but she cast a spell to make us kiss each other. Then when the train stopped, we knocked the wolf out and she cast another spell to make us beat the crap out of each other."