The Enlightenment: Book 2 The Bloodmoon Wars (A Paranormal Shifter Series Prequel to Luna Rising)

by Sara Snow

  “Elinor!” I spun around as Ione screamed my name. She was waving and running breathlessly towards me. I wondered how far I’d wandered into the forest for her to appear so tired. “There is a way.”

  My heart skipped a beat. “What are you talking about?” I hurried towards her, quickly grabbing her arm as she swayed. She was almost wheezing now, and blood was running from her nose. “Ione, what the hell? What’s wrong? You’re bleeding.”

  She wiped away the blood with the back of her hand. “Skye was like a big sister to me. She-she still is, I mean.” She closed her eyes for a moment and swallowed hard. “There is a way to save her. I mind-linked with Cyrus.”

  “What?” I yelled. “You’re not experienced enough to mind-link, Ione. You could have . . .”

  “Please, Elinor, just don’t. I don’t need a lecture. Cyrus is the only one who can track her down. He’s a demon. As powerful as werewolves are, we’re useless without a scent to track. We need more information than we have now, which is nothing.”

  I stared at the fourteen-year-old girl in shock. Ione had always been wise beyond her years, but I'd never seen this side of her before. No wonder she was exhausted. Connecting to another person's mind took years of practice.

  “You spoke to Cyrus then?” I asked, and she nodded.

  “It was the first time I’ve ever done a mind-link, so all I could say was that he needed to come back and save Skye before the link ended.” Her blue eyes shone with determination. “I hope it was enough.”

  I squeezed her shoulder. “As reckless as it was, I’m sure your message will be enough.”

  “You do reckless stuff all the time.” She grinned, but her face grew pale, and she started coughing up blood.

  “Damn it, we need to get you to your mother.”

  A chill appeared in the air, a darkness I was now familiar with, and as I looked up towards the sky, something flew over our head. The power behind Cyrus's wings had the trees swaying wildly.

  "Cyrus!" I yelled. In seconds, he returned and landed with so much force, the earth beneath his feet cracked.

  His eyes were red as he walked towards me, the faintest cloud of black smoke rising from his body. “Where is she? What’s going on?”

  “A guy in a cloak abducted Skye.” I wasn’t surprised he had returned so quickly. Cyrus would do anything for Skye. "They took Ms. Clementine as well. We think it was the person, or people, who have been abducting mortals and supernaturals alike. But no one else from the pack was taken." I looked down at the girl beside me. The bleeding was getting worse. “But we need to take Ione back to her mother first.”

  “I’ll take her home.” Cyrus walked over and picked Ione up. His wings flapped once as he pushed off the ground to hover above me. “Meet me at Skye’s house.”

  I nodded. “Got it.”

  Then he flew up through the trees and disappeared. Quickly I began removing my dress, revealing the uniform given to me during my Werewolf Guard examination. Now that Cyrus was back, I knew there was no way he was going to sit around and do nothing. And I wasn't going to let him search for Skye alone.

  I shifted into my wolf and watched as my pants and top liquefied and slipped into the ring on my finger. It seemed as if I had made the right choice in keeping this uniform.

  Hang on, Skye. We’re coming.

  12

  Cyrus

  I sat down on Skye’s bed with my eyes closed, trying to remain calm. Someone took my Skye—that was a fact. And now every second would count until I got her back. My eyes slowly opened as I inhaled and clenched my fist. Her scent was completely gone from the room. Smells faded over time but not this quickly. I had been inside this house with Skye and her mother just hours ago, and now it was like they had never even lived here.

  As much as I wanted to lose it, that wouldn't help either of them. Ms. Clementine had accepted me from the moment I had arrived. She’d raised me, cared for me—never once making me feel unwelcome—and I wouldn’t rest until I’d returned both her and her daughter back home.

  Ione had drained her energy almost completely from doing that mind-link, but I’d be forever grateful.

  I listened as Elinor arrived and rushed straight to Skye’s room. Her eyes fell on me and her shoulders immediately slumped. Her eyes became glossy, and I got up and pulled her into a hug.

  “She was right there, Cyrus.” She pointed across the room. “I could have saved her.”

  “Shh, don’t do that, Elinor. Nurse Hilary told me about your wounds. If you blame yourself, then I would have to blame myself as well, and that won’t help anything. I could have stayed one more night as you both had asked. But I didn't, and someone snatched her. We can't change that. I know you must have done everything you could to save her, but right now we need to focus on getting her back.”

  I stepped back, and her face grew serious as she nodded. Her eyes fell on the wall across the room and her brow arched at the large hole. She took my bruised hand in hers and squeezed it.

  “We’ll get them back,” she whispered. “We just have to figure out how. We know nothing about what’s going on, and now we don’t even have Skye’s scent to track. Have you ever heard of a person’s scent being completely removed like this?”

  I shook my head. “I’ve heard of potions that can hide your scent, but I’ve never heard of something like this before. But clearly, it’s not impossible.” As I walked over to the window, I picked up Skye’s hairbrush from where it rested on her chair. As I realized what would have to be done, I sighed.

  “I’ll get her back.” I turned to face Elinor, who was eyeing me curiously.

  “Okay, I’m coming with you.”

  I knew that was what she’d want to do, the moment I saw what she had on—her Werewolf Guard examination uniform. It would allow her to shift and return to human form without losing her clothing. It would come in handy, but even so, there was no way in hell I was letting her come with me.

  “Cyrus, I wasn’t asking permission, so don’t push me on this. I promise you, I’ll lose my shit. And you know damn well I’ll follow you.” She pointed to the brush in my hand. “What are you going to do?”

  I looked down at the brush that still had strands of Skye's dark hair in it. "Something I wish I didn't have to do. I really can't take you with me, Elinor.”

  Her eyes changed to black as she walked toward me and pointed her finger at my face. "How about we don't waste time arguing about this? I'm coming. I might not have been able to save her from being abducted right in front of me, but I’ll be damned if I don’t do everything I can to get her back.”

  “Aren’t you forgetting something? They could have killed you, Elinor! Your father isn’t going to let you go with me, and you know that.”

  She inhaled and closed her eyes. When she opened them, she said, "And let me remind you that I'm not a child. I have no intention of asking him if I can go. So . . . I think that solves that. I'll deal with his anger after we return with Skye and Ms. Clementine."

  We stared each other down for a few minutes until I shook my head and walked around her. She was right. Arguing with her was wasting time, valuable time. Where I’d be going was dangerous, even for me, but knowing Elinor, I was sure she would follow me if left without her.

  And I totally understood how she felt. It was taking all my strength not to punch myself. If only I had stayed until morning. I clenched and unclenched my fists, allowing my nails to press into my flesh to stop myself from thinking about what might happen to Skye and Ms. Clementine.

  I can’t lose her.

  Shaking my head, I exited the house at the back and transformed into my demon form. Where we’d be going would take us days by foot, but less than twenty-four hours if I flew straight without stopping. Carrying Elinor would slow me down, but the faster we left, the quicker we'd get there.

  I turned to Elinor to tell her to get on my back and caught her staring at the bench I had made for Skye a few months ago. Whenever Skye wasn’t sitting there
and waiting for me to return from visiting the Demon Realm, all three of us would sit and chat for hours. I realized then that there were many spots that were special to us. Like the tree in the forest where I had saved Skye from a Bleeder that first time. My heart felt as if someone was holding it in their hand and squeezing it . . . I shook my head. I didn’t want to think like this . . . like Skye was never coming back.

  “We need to go,” I whispered to Elinor, and she nodded.

  My wings emerged from my back, and Elinor climbed on. Then we took to the sky. The night was chilly and the stars bright, a beautiful night to gaze at the heavens with the woman I loved. If only she was here . . .

  “The place we’re going, you’re going to see things—awful things. Don’t react in your usual way, okay?”

  Elinor placed her chin on my shoulder. “What usual way?”

  “Don’t start a fight. Just ignore the things you’ll see and let me do the talking, okay?”

  “I’m not an animal, I can control myself. But where are we going? Are we going to the Demon Realm or something?” she asked loudly, trying to be heard above the strong winds.

  “No, just don’t talk to anyone.”

  Elinor wouldn’t be the only one who would have to face her father’s wrath when we returned, not when I was the one who allowed her to come with me. Especially if she got hurt in the process of saving Skye. But if their roles were reversed, I knew Skye would do the same thing for her. How could I be the one to hold her back?

  Thunder rumbled around us, and Elinor sighed. “Great, just what we need right now. So, how long do you think it’ll take for my father and the others to realize I left?”

  I shrugged as I felt the first drop of water on my shoulder. "Not long, but after this rain, I doubt they'll be able to track our scent. Sorry for not asking earlier, but how’s your side?”

  "It's fine," she answered. "It healed pretty quickly. The two daggers that he threw didn't have any scent on them either. Surprise, surprise.”

  I hummed my response, and we flew on in silence as the rain started in earnest. Skye's hazel eyes flashed in my mind, and I quickly dipped to the side as a lightning bolt flashed right by us.

  “Can you watch where you’re flying? I’m flammable, and that bolt was a little too close for comfort.”

  Elinor

  As Cyrus lowered me unto the ground, I bent backward and groaned as my back popped. Then I fell forward and touched my toes to loosen my stiff muscles. We had flown throughout the night and had been forced to stop for an hour in the morning because of the storm. Finally, after what felt like an eternity of flying again, Cyrus descended.

  I turned in a circle after properly stretching and frowned. “W-where are we?” All around us, for as far as I could see, was a wasteland of sand. “Are we lost?” Even though it was evening, the heat rising from the ground was almost unbearable.

  “We’re in Kurto, the Land of Whispers. Listen,” he said. I stood still, and in a few seconds, I could hear the faint whispers in the wind.

  “What’s making the sounds, though? I don’t hear any heartbeats.”

  "Snakes," he answered, and I immediately looked down. "Sometimes they are louder, tricking travelers into thinking someone needs help." He started walking. "Stay close to me."

  He didn’t have to tell me twice. I followed his every step. “Yeah, I’m not interested in being bitten by a snake.”

  Despite my trepidation about the snakes, I was beyond excited. I’d spent very little time beyond the boundaries of my pack, so I knew very little about the world. As dangerous as this wasteland might be, I couldn’t help being a little intrigued about the kind of creatures that might live in such a hot place.

  “Look,” Cyrus said, pointing to our left. My mouth dropped as I watched the sand a few meters away from us begin to move.

  “Cyrus, is that a snake?” He nodded, and I shook my head. This was unbelievable. Even though it was beneath the sand, I could tell that it was at least thirty-two feet long. “That’s huge! You didn’t tell me these snakes could swallow me whole.” He shrugged as if he didn’t care, and we kept walking.

  We continued on for about thirty minutes, and I tried my best not to ask any more questions about where we were going. But I simply couldn’t hold it in any longer.

  “So, will we be there soon?”

  “Yeah, in a few more minutes. Have you ever heard of the Black Souls Market?” He stopped and turned to me. “I’m guessing from the look on your face that the answer is yes. If I had told you our destination earlier, would you have still come with me?”

  “I still would have come with you. But the Black Souls Market is avoided for a reason. It’s like a playground for dark creatures, and supernaturals are sold there,” I tilted my head to the side. “The market is always moving. How did you know where to find it? ”

  He didn’t answer me, just started walking again. Cyrus was always leaving the pack and venturing off somewhere, so I really shouldn’t have been surprised that he knew his way around here. But because of the wicked things that went on in the market, it wasn’t somewhere I ever thought he’d go. He was a demon, sure, but . . . he was Cyrus.

  “I found the market when I first got my cravings,” he answered under his breath a few minutes later. He cracked his knuckles as a crease appeared between his brows. “It’s where I learned to control my hunger.”

  There was a haunted look on his face as he scrutinized the area. I had noticed his demeanor change—become more brooding—the longer we had flown. It was as if the closer we got to our destination, the more his dark powers became noticeable. He hadn’t talked about that time in his life with Skye or me, not even once. And now I understood why. The horrible stories I’d heard about the market were fodder for nightmares.

  “Oh,” I muttered under my breath.

  He removed my cloak from the bag he was carrying and handed it to me. “Put your cloak on and pull your hood far over your face. And no matter what you do, don’t shift. Stories about white wolves are known in the market. I’d rather not have you become a target.”

  “Yeah, I understand,” I answered as I did what he asked. Then he held his hand out, and the space just beyond it shimmered.

  He held his other hand out to me. “Ready?” I nodded. “Good. Stay close to me.”

  He pushed his hand through the barrier, and it vanished. I inhaled deeply—grounding myself—and called on my wolf to heighten my senses further. I’d need to remain on alert.

  We stepped through the barrier, and the sensation of it on my face felt like slime from a snail. But once we stepped out on the other side, the sudden transition from day to night was the least shocking thing I saw.

  Cyrus pulled his hood over his head as a cocktail of screams echoed around us. “Welcome to Dark Souls Market.”

  13

  Elinor

  The air was thicker than it had been moments ago. The darkness that lingered in the Dark Souls Market felt dense and unnatural, as if I could touch it if I reached out. It was, however, just the accumulated dark energy from the creatures wandering around.

  Darkness shrouded the buildings, and dimly lit lamps lined the roads. The streets were surprisingly clean and free of trash. A few vendors were yelling from behind their stalls, selling items deemed to be rare or magical. My stomach clenched as we walked by a vendor selling skin from various supernaturals—werewolves included. I exhaled heavily through my mouth and kept walking behind Cyrus as we made our way through the town.

  We walked by bars and brothels filled with half-naked women whose calls to the men walking by echoed in the night like a song. Loud voices from a bar filled with vampires, demons, and even dark elves caught my attention, and a woman's scream pierced the night as a vampire grabbed her and sank his fangs into her throat.

  The men and women around him—the other Skins—all laughed as the girl's head lulled to the side, her eyes devoid of life. Two other girls walked up and picked up the girl's body, not caring that
she’d just been needlessly killed.

  "Keep walking," Cyrus whispered.

  What kind of place is this?

  I followed Cyrus quietly and did my best not to get distracted by every growl, howl, and scream I heard. I remained close to him and kept my head down, just as he had asked. The stench of death in the air was stifling.

  "Help!" A woman's scream met my ears and as Cyrus turned left to walk down a narrow alleyway, my black eyes fell on a woman being robbed of the items she was selling, a few jeweled necklaces.

  "This was where you spent your time learning to control your hunger?"

  Cyrus stopped before an iron door before pulling his hood back to reveal his face. "I did. You've only seen the smallest fraction of the market. I spent my time in this place, specifically." He pointed at the door and then knocked.

  A small window of sorts in the center of the door opened and bright green eyes stared out at us. The eyes wandered up and down Cyrus's body before the window slammed shut and the door opened, revealing a seven-foot incubus.

  "Welcome back, Cyrus," the incubus said, as he stepped aside to let us in. He bowed at Cyrus and my eyes widened a little. I was fully aware that Cyrus was royalty among his kind, but I never really gave it much thought. He was just so normal to Skye and me.

  The incubus's eyes scanned me from head to toe, and somehow, I felt like he was seeing through my cloak to my naked body. "Who's the girl? The boss doesn't like newcomers."

  "She's with me," Cyrus answered calmly.

  I avoided looking at the incubus. There was just something about his stare that made me feel uneasy. Cyrus said nothing further as he continued walking down a dark corridor, coming to another incubus who stood by a closed door. While the first incubus was massive with a bald head and multiple scars covering his shirtless chest, this one was slender with black hair that was slicked back into a ponytail. He was shirtless like the first one, and he, too, bowed to Cyrus before opening the door and allowing us to enter.