As she guided me out of the showroom, I glanced at the art we passed, appreciating the wonderful and unique creations, fully aware that they had price tags to match. But Claudia had a way of convincing you that high four figures was never too much to pay for art. I’ve even watched as she persuaded people to pay even more for what I would have described as unfinished pottery work. I wasn’t a virtuoso and didn’t share the same appreciation that many people who visited the gallery had for art.
Always exquisitely outfitted, Claudia wore a pearl-colored pantsuit, accented by a blush camisole. A string of pearls draped around her neck. It was an outfit that only she could get away with wearing without coming off as pretentious. Gray was barely distinguishable in her ash blonde hair. Her refinement often overshadowed her ageless beauty.
“I wasn’t expecting you; but as always it is a pleasure,” she said, urging me into her bathroom. “The tea will be ready when you return.”
It was her polite way of telling me not to come out until I looked presentable for tea. I surveyed the bathroom before I made my way to the sink. Only Claudia would have a vanity and cheval mirror in an office bathroom. I took a look; it wasn’t that bad. I fixed my ponytail, tucked in my shirt, and washed the grime off my hands and face as best as I could.
“That’s better,” she said when I came out, pressing her gloved hand against my cheek before giving me air kisses on each side of my face. As an augur her situation was made more difficult by her skills as an empath. I felt a special connection with her, even more so when I found out that she was a Moura, like me. Because she was Ethan and Josh’s godmother, I felt there were boundaries that I needed to respect and made an effort to distance myself, but I couldn’t quite commit to doing it.
Warmth was something she possessed in droves and she didn’t mind sharing it. She comforted me. With everything that had transpired over the past few weeks, I realized that Claudia had turned out to be more than she seemed and a bigger player in the otherworld that she ever led anyone to believe. There was a small part of me that questioned how dangerous she was to command so much respect. When Kelly was injured and Sebastian couldn’t get anyone to cooperate or assist, one call to Claudia started the sequence of events that led to us helping her. She was a powerful enigma who hid behind the disguise of a peddler of overpriced modern art and the promoter of the most avant-garde work in the city.
“I really need to talk” I said, taking a seat at the small table in front of the tea and biscuits she set out for me. I really wanted coffee, and these things that she gave me every time I had tea with her were an insult to cookies. But I knew if I dared to ask for anything else I would insult her refined sensibilities.
She glanced at her watch and smiled. “Well, of course, but my time is limited today.”
That was a first. Her schedule, when it came to me, always seemed open. I assumed it was one of the benefits of owning her own business.
Like her gallery, her office was a large open space where her personality came alive in the design. Original art decorated the walls and nothing was more fitting than the traditional furnishings, complete with an antique writing table, vintage ivory letter opener, and pen with inkwell. On the far end of the room was a fainting couch.
She sat in the chair next to me, the warm inviting smile coaxing me to talk, but her eyes were clouded by distraction. She was present but her thoughts were somewhere else.
“I can come back,” I offered.
“Of course not, don’t be silly. I will make time for you. How are things, Skylar?”
Claudia’s presence made me drop my guard and give more information than I should. She often listened, which made me talk more to fill the silence. I wasn’t the only one she did this to. I’ve watched her employ the same tactic with Josh and Ethan, but it never worked with Ethan because he was just as comfortable with silence as she was. So conversation between them was like being at a tennis match or a golf tournament, complete silence as you waited for someone to serve or tee off.
“Why didn’t you tell me you were a Moura?”
“As you should follow, it is something that you shouldn’t advertise. I don’t see how it changes things between us or how it is information you needed to know,” she said softly.
“It would have been good to know.”
“Why?”
I didn’t have a response. Because I like to know things. Because I am hosting a Moura reunion and I need to know who to invite. Because. That was all I had. “Just like you, I don’t like to be in the dark.”
“We are all in the dark about many things, and I do believe at times darkness is where you need to be to stay safe. The light is where you are most visible—a perfect target,” she said, crossing her legs.
“I don’t function that way.”
She nodded, always agreeable, which made me believe that she was a person who would agree with you and still do whatever she wanted. “I apologize, I will remember that.”
Yep, she’s going to do whatever the hell she wants.
“Is there anything else you would like to talk about?”
My tried and true response was something that I heard a lot, and it was very fitting at this time—“What are you”—but I felt it was inappropriate when it came to Claudia. Her refined presence always demanded a certain level of propriety when speaking with her. As much as I wanted to just say, let’s drop the pretenses and tell me everything you know, for some reason it felt as though I would be committing a horrible faux pas.
As she took furtive glances at her watch I realized I needed to prioritize. “Do you know Logan?”
She nodded. “I am aware of who and what he is.”
“I don’t trust him, but Sebastian wants to use him to find the Tre’ase who created Maya.” I didn’t bother explaining who Maya was because I had a strong suspicion that anything I brought up, she already knew about. She probably knew I was a Moura before I did. And I am pretty sure she knew about Maya’s existence before anyone else. This woman was a vault of knowledge; I just had to ask the right questions. But what were the right questions?
“I don’t question many things Sebastian chooses to do, he has earned that from me. Of the Tre’ase that I’ve come in contact with, he will be your best choice.” She watched me carefully, and limited time didn’t seem to be a problem any longer because the silence stretched into minutes. “I know whatever I say will not give you the confidence and comfort you need, but keeping you alive is something Sebastian wants to do. I don’t want to deny your curiosity but I need you to trust me on this, he wants you alive. He needs you alive.”
There was more to this. He needs me alive? Why?
“Why?”
She looked at her watch again, this time a more dramatic statement announcing the ending of the conversation. “Samuel will be here in a few minutes, and from my understanding he would like very much not to see you again. I am going to request that we continue this conversation at a later time,” she said as she came to her feet.
What? Who? Huh. I wished that all stayed in my head, but it didn’t. I blurted them out trying to make sense of the situation.
“You are meeting with Samuel? How did you find him? When did he agree with this? What is the meeting about, the Clostra?” I didn’t have problems coming up with the appropriate questions at the moment. I had many more.
She smiled. “It is my understanding that he will meet with me, but it was confirmed through a third party.”
“But Ethan and Josh said he went deep underground and couldn’t be found.”
“Yes, he did,” she said as she walked me to the door, a subtle invitation for me to use it. “Ethan has many great qualities, but I do believe Theodore Roosevelt said it best, ‘speak softly but carry a big stick.’ Ethan has the latter down but it is the former he has difficulty with.”
It’s okay Claudia, you can say he is a mordant, domineering jackass. That is how I describe him and often to Josh and to Ethan’s face. But instead I simply smiled a
nd lingered at the door.
“Skylar, I will discuss my meeting with Samuel with you later,” she said. And that was all I needed to hear.
Damn. Damn. And I tossed in a couple of fucks as I drove up to find Sable sitting on my car. It wasn’t even three o’clock—how in hell was she out in the day? She didn’t have the tell-tale gray coloring they got when they fed from faes in order to walk in the day. No, she was her typical parchment color. Even with her looking me straight in the face, I considered scooting down in the seat. I just couldn’t and didn’t want to be bothered.
Her approach to Ethan’s car was slow. Maybe she thought this was as big of a deal as I did. I took in a deep breath and got out and she flanked at my side. I tried not to be nervous, but she was erratic and a lot of crazy in a small package, which made her even scarier. Her large eyes stayed on me as she sidled in next to me and fell in step as I headed to the door.
“What’s wrong, Sable?”
“He won’t take any of my calls and when I go to his home he will not let me in. He has a ward, I can’t get in his house now.”
Gavin and Sable were a couple made in boundary-less stalker heaven. Neither one seemed to adhere to the expectations of privacy or limits, and a person’s personal space and autonomy seemed like a mere suggestion to them.
“Give him time, he’s concerned about Kelly,” I offered, and I hoped that was enough of a consolation because I didn’t have anything more to offer.
“So?”
I sighed as I rested my head against the door, wanting her to leave before I considered opening it. Turning to her, I had to ask, “Do you have anything to do with her being missing?”
She shook her head. “But I think I know what happened to her,” she admitted.
“What?”
“I think she was taken. The same men that were watching three other women’s homes were watching hers, and those women haven’t returned home.”
That just gave me more questions than answers. Did she just watch random homes? And if she did, why?
I mumbled a couple more curses under my breath and then opened the door, whispering the words to break the ward that prevented vampires and all the other things from entering. But it was especially for vampires because unlike everyone else, my home didn’t have a natural immunity that prevented them from entering since I was connected to vampires due to my odd birth—or rather my unique death.
Without being invited, the minute I dropped the ward, she walked in and took a seat on the sofa.
Go ahead, make yourself at home.
“So there were men watching Kelly; why is this the first time we’ve heard about it?”
“Because I don’t care who watches her. I promised Gavin I wouldn’t touch her. So I just hoped they would kill her. I didn’t want to break my promise to him.”
I winced at her words. “You know you don’t have to tell me everything that comes to your mind,” I offered. I’m sure on some days vampire’s honesty was refreshing; their tenet that they could do whatever they pleased with impunity was deeply rooted in their narcissism.
The dark marbles watched me with interest. “You will tell him I’m trying to help, won’t you?”
I shook my head. “No. If we find her and she is unharmed, if it is because of you then I will tell him. And I will also let him know that you knew that someone was watching her and didn’t care enough about her safety to warn him or any of us. I don’t think he will be pleased with that at all.”
The obsession she had with Gavin was dysfunction on steroids but I might as well use it to my advantage to help Kelly, if in fact she was missing.
For the first time Sable showed an emotion that wasn’t lust for Gavin, anger at Gavin, or indifference to everyone else: she looked sad. The onyx eyes glistened with unshed tears. I looked away. Don’t feel sympathy for her. Don’t. I scolded myself but it was easier said than done.
“Can you locate the men, again?”.
“I can take you to the last house where I saw them.”
When I pulled up to Winter’s two-story French Provincial home, with its steep roof and formal style, I still thought it was just a little too posh for her personality. The inside definitely didn’t match. Winter was minimalist right down to the sparse decor of her home. Her living room had just a sofa and chairs. The storage ottoman was just a leather armory. One of the four bedrooms was made into a makeshift sparring room, and her guest room consisted of a bed only. If by any chance you were under the delusions that she wanted guests for any extended period, the bare room would confirm the opposite. And the basement reminded me of a prepper’s bunker.
She was already standing outside, a knife holstered at each side of her waist, a sword in her hand, and a gun in her shoulder holster. Her long charcoal-colored hair was pulled back and pinned atop her head, drawing attention to her exotic features: high cheekbones, narrow-edged nose, and full lips complimented by her sun-kissed complexion. Winter was beautiful but she preferred if it to be ignored by everyone. I looked around for neighbors. Like most were-animals, her house was a distance from the nearest home, nearly fifty yards away.
“Oh are we doing a hostile takeover of gang territory?” I joked as she approached the car.
Sable laughed loudly, an odd high-pitched sound.
She was twenty shades of crazy but at least she got my sense of humor.
Winter didn’t take her eyes off of Sable and kept her hand placed casually over one of the knives at her waist. I wished I could have assured her that Sable was harmless, but I wasn’t so sure about that. She was unpredictable with a violent past, and there wasn’t anything innocuous about her. When Sable offered the front seat to Winter, she declined, opting for the back, and they kept a careful eye on each other the entire drive.
Sable jumped out of the car before it came to a full stop, looking around the area, her search becoming more frantic as time passed. “They were here,” she said.
I surveyed the area, but the home looked empty and there weren’t any cars parked on the side of the street. “Do you smell that?” Winter asked.
Inhaling the air, it hit me—fumes—oil, and an acrid medicinal smell. Something seemed off about the place and before I could acknowledge it, both Winter and Sable had made their way into the house. The setup was similar to Kelly’s. Everything looked tidy, as though the person was gone on vacation. Winter studied the pictures on the wall, looked through the mail, and then searched throughout the home.
I went through the rest of the small home, looking for anything suspicious, but the only thing I gathered was “single woman.” If she had a boyfriend or a man in her life, she wasn’t allowing him to keep his things in her home.
“Have you spoken with Gavin?” Winter asked.
“Not since the other day when he suspected that Kelly might be missing.” Winter was silent for a long time, considering the situation. She inhaled a slow breath and then exhaled, shaking her head. She spoke but it seemed that she was speaking to herself. “They are only taking women,” she mumbled.
Worry spread across Winter’s face as she started to chew on her bottom lip.
“What do you think is going on?” I asked.
She shrugged. “You all have been getting this jackal with the ability to use magic and now women are missing.” I followed her out of the house to the car, Sable was nowhere to be found. I didn’t bother to look for her. I was sure she was investigating Kelly’s whereabouts. I wish she would have done it because it’s the right thing to do, as opposed to trying to make things right with Gavin. But despite her motives, I was glad to have her skills. As a teenager, she tracked down the people who killed her family when the police department had failed, so I felt more confident knowing she was assisting.
Winter leaned against the car, stroking the handle of her knife as though she was trying to console it for not being used. She had an affinity for violence that I would never understand.
“The vampires are no longer restricted by the daylight,
” she acknowledged once we were in the car.
The weight of guilt settled in my chest, and I couldn’t ignore it. “I know.”
Aware of her gaze on me, I glanced in her direction. Her face was strained with uneasiness. “Do we know if staking them through the heart still works? What about holy water?”
Unfortunately, Steven had prevented me from finding out whether staking someone actually worked, and holy water just hurt like hell, it didn’t kill them. But if you let them tell the story, it didn’t work at all.
I wanted to fill the silence with idle chat but I had too much on my mind. Was the jackal, who could use magic, a result of us using the Clostra? We had unleashed dark magic, different from anything I had experienced. The Tre’ase were free and I could only imagine the problems they were causing.
“I didn’t change last night,” she said in a tight voice. “We had an eclipse and I wasn’t forced into change.” Winter was a rarity, a were-snake, and only forced into her animal form during an eclipse.
There was a full moon at the end of the month, so I would find out if it affected the canidae, and next month Mercury would rise again and we could determine if the felidae were affected as well. We didn’t have any ursidae and equidae in the pack so when transit of Saturn occurred we’d have no idea of how they would respond. I think there were a few in the Eastern Pack.
Each day was a new discovery of how we had changed the otherworld. I needed to find out what the jackal was. I was considering going back to Logan’s, the last place it was encountered. It wasn’t a stretch in logic to think there was a link between Logan and it. After all, if he could make a spirit shade, what else could he do?
“Sky!” Winter yelled then grabbed my steering wheel and jerked it to the side, keeping me from slamming into the man who had run into the road. Dressed in shorts and bloodstained shirt, he stopped, looking panic-stricken. His odd amber eyes resembled that of a wolf. Typically, were-animals’ eyes sparked the color of our animals, often when angered or in fearful situations as if it were awakened. He was human with wolf eyes. His eyes widened and then constricted before he shot past the car.
Lunar Marked (Sky Brooks Series Book 4) Page 10