Unleash The Moon (The Preternaturals Book 6)

by Zoe Winters

  The king looked up, and for a second she thought she’d only made things worse.

  “You’re strong,” he said.

  “Yeah.”

  Anthony got up and blurred to her, crushing her in a hug. “You’re strong!”

  Was he actually crying?

  “Okay, dad. It’s getting a little weird.”

  Anthony backed off and wiped his face with the back of his hand. She’d never seen a display of emotion like this from him, and suddenly it became clear what her mother saw in him. Despite all their romantic behavior, it had always seemed like an act with her father. And now she realized why. She’d never seen him show a strong emotion except for anger. This was the first time she’d seen him cry.

  There was another moment of frozen silence, as if everyone assembled had been put on pause. But then Anthony cleared his throat and took a seat at the table.

  That was it? She’d expected that he would never accept Noah as her mate. She’d expected him to try to drive them apart or keep her under lock and key, that it might even come to bloodshed, that she might have to go far away and never speak to him again.

  “Well?” he said pointedly at Noah, “Don’t we have important things to discuss?”

  Noah was as weirded out as Sydney, but in an odd way it felt as if the vampire king had actually just given his blessing. Or as close to it as they were going to get.

  Cole, was another matter. Now that the vampire king’s threat had been neutralized, it only drew more attention to the werewolf alpha who still seemed unhappy with the situation. He growled quietly from his seat, his eyes golden and deadly.

  “Look on the bright side,” Anthony said, “We’re permanent allies now.”

  Did her dad just smile? Like smile? It might be time to look for alien pods.

  Cole growled in response.

  Sydney turned to Noah. She knew he must see the questions and hurt in her eyes. Did the werewolf alpha not like her? She’d been so worried about her dad’s reaction, the thought that the wolves wouldn’t want her around, stung. Especially in light of the pack she was already half running with Noah. It wasn’t like she couldn’t fit in with wolves. She’d already proven that she could.

  “He’ll get over it,” Noah whispered, pressing a kiss to her forehead.

  Jane got up from her seat next to Cole and wrapped Sydney in a hug. “Welcome to the family, dear,” she said.

  The alpha werewolf growled again.

  “That’s it,” Jane said. “What’s done is done. You’re hurting Sydney.”

  “You know I have nothing against her, personally. It’s the vampire thing,” he spat, his arms crossed over his chest now like a petulant toddler demanding a cookie.

  Right, because hating Sydney’s race had nothing to do with her or anything.

  Anthony had shifted from psychopathic rage, to acceptance, to near beaming and giddy in the space of about five minutes. “We should have a party for them,” he said.

  Everyone just stared.

  “What? We’ve been hiding out and barely talking for years, let’s throw a party for once, to celebrate the joining of our two mini-kingdoms, so to speak.”

  And now he was back to strategizing, calculating, and controlling. The vampire king simply couldn’t help himself, but at least he didn’t seem to have goals of world domination in mind this time.

  When Sydney had been told the stories, her mother kept saying that it was because he wanted to protect them. Charlee’s explanation was starting to sound true, rather than the lies a woman told herself to excuse her husband’s crimes. Not that her parents had ever married in the human way.

  A throat cleared at the end of the table. Uncle Cain. He stood. “Why don’t we secure our borders, and then we can talk about parties?”

  Anthony growled, and Noah didn’t look thrilled. It didn’t matter who got together, Cain always ran things one way or another. Maybe he simply had more focus than the rest of them.

  Aunt Greta slid into the seat next to Sydney and gave her a hug. “I’ve missed you,” She said. “I wish the circumstances of this reunion were different.”

  Sydney couldn’t imagine a happy set of circumstances in which they’d all hang out together again. For years they’d lived a few miles from one another but mostly avoided each other, various feuds and spats getting in the way.

  “Hey kid,” Dayne said. The sorcerer smiled and joined Greta.

  “Hey Uncle Dayne.”

  She’d spent many weekends as a child in his cottage basement watching him concoct potions and testing some of them for him. Though her dad didn’t know about that part. Anthony might have murdered the sorcerer if he’d known she’d been helping him perfect potions that turned people into stink bugs.

  On the other side of the table was Hadrian, a vampire who used to work for her father. She’d only heard of him. She’d never met him. He’d been a priest once and now lived in the basement of the local abandoned church. There was a rumor that he could go out in the sun for short periods without burning, but it was probably just a rumor.

  Sydney knew it was him because she’d met his mate, Angeline, a few times over the years. Hadrian and her father hadn’t spoken since Sydney was a baby from what she’d heard. He’d betrayed them all and helped line up the events that had brought on the war. So this fantastic existence she’d had? Probably Hadrian’s fault.

  He squirmed in his seat, clearly uncomfortable facing everyone again. But Angeline was a guardian, and as a fallen angel she was strong and could help in the fight. They both were. It was the least he owed them.

  “Hey, missed you.”

  Sydney looked up, startled. Anna stood in the middle of the table. Not on the table, in the middle of it. She was Luc’s mate and also a witch. But her ability to permeate solid objects like a ghost came from her demon mate—Uncle Cain’s brother.

  “Anna, will you please stop doing that?” Luc said.

  “No, Sweetie, but thank you for asking. I’m about over this not being able to hold a solid form unless you’re touching me, thing. It’s been like thirty years of this!”

  “I told you it would last a century or so. Then once all your other demon powers have developed, you’ll be able to go solid on your own. It’s for your protection.”

  “No, you said a couple of decades, not a century!”

  “Did I? I forget,” Luc said. “Time runs together for me. Maybe I meant a few decades.”

  “Luc! It better not be a century!”

  Anna had always been difficult. Sydney hadn’t seen her in over ten years, but she remembered that much. Nobody complained about banal shit quite like Anna did.

  “Oh just grab her,” Cain said, annoyed.

  “I can’t without her getting stuck in the table,” Luc said.

  “Yes, it would hurt. And then she wouldn’t do it anymore.”

  Anna rolled her eyes and got out of the table. Luc held her hand so she could sit down.

  Only one person at the meeting hadn’t spoken to anyone, a guy in a black leather jacket. He sat next to a strange blonde woman who’d been making small talk with a squirrel. They were the two that weren’t on the guest list. He looked like a hit man, and Sydney wasn’t entirely sure he wasn’t there to eliminate them.

  “Okay, that’s enough!” Cain said, growing tired of the meet and greet and wacky antics.

  When everyone settled, the demon leader continued. “When Jane came to us a few hours ago about the meeting, we weren’t as surprised as you might expect. Tam, why don’t you take this? You explain the magic stuff better.”

  Tam stood as Cain sat down. “Some of you may know that I had a very dear friend decades ago who was my familiar for a long time. He was a raven therian and traveled with me extensively. Henry is in the angelic realm now. Though we closed the portals to physically come here, communication is still possible in dreams and vision states. I asked Henry to do reconnaissance and bring some information back to me.”

  Sydney found her hand
in the air like an overeager school child.

  “Yes?” Tam said.

  “How do you know it wasn’t just you imagining him? How do you know it was really your friend?” Tam had a reputation for magic, but dreams and visions felt too unreal to bet your life on.

  “I didn’t do this today. Henry came to me two days ago. He told me you guys were on your way but that the magic users in the hub city wouldn’t be far behind.” She looked apologetic. “I didn’t say anything because if you didn’t make it back, I didn’t want your parents to mourn you twice. And there was always a chance my information could be wrong.”

  Jane and Cole nodded their understanding, but Anthony looked like he wanted to kill her for withholding information.

  Tam ignored him and continued. “The people in the city waited because they didn’t want to just chase you down and kill you. They want to eradicate what is left of our city and take everyone who survives the fight back with them. It’s a capture, not a kill mission. Those require more planning.”

  It hadn’t occurred to Sydney that they wouldn’t simply rush up there seeking quick vengeance. The risk of death, she’d weighed and accepted. She hadn’t considered the horror of recapture or the capture of her family and friends as well.

  “Are you okay, Syd?” Tam asked.

  “I-I’m fine,” she lied.

  Tam arched a brow but went back into her speech. “Even from the beyond, Henry has watched out for me. When I told Cain about it, he suggested the same as you, that maybe it was just a dream. But I started preparing, anyway. When Jane told us of the meeting tonight, I got to say ‘I told you so.’”

  Cain chuckled from beside her.

  “Jane and Cole know Fiona,” Tam said. The blonde stranger gave a shy wave from beside the panther therian in the leather jacket whose arm she clutched as if he might keep her from going beneath the surface of the sea and drowning. “Fiona and Z took Noah in when he was just a pup after Jane died that one time.”

  Z. Yeah, he looked like a one-letter-for-a-name sort of guy.

  Jane stifled a laugh.

  “What’s funny?”

  “After Jane died that one time,” Jane said. “I love how casual you are about my untimely demise.”

  “Eh, you came back,” Tam said. Mystical deaths and resurrections and changing species was just another day for the bad ass superwitch turned demon mate. “Anyway,” she said, preparing to go back into catching the group up.

  “Ummm, can I?” Fiona asked from the table. “It’s my story.”

  “Sure, why not,” Tam said.

  “Some of you met me that time we had that big fight with Anthony.” She pushed a long strand of blonde hair behind her ear.

  Big fights with Anthony were fairly commonplace, but the group seemed to know which specific big fight she was talking about. Anthony had the good grace to look ashamed. He had briefly kidnapped Fiona, after all.

  Sydney had still been in the womb when all this had gone down, but she’d heard the stories about fifty times, mostly from Noah when they were kids, who she was sure had exaggerated what he’d heard from his parents. The story had directly involved Noah, as he’d been the one Anthony had taken to try to get Cole to spill the beans about his den’s secret location.

  Fiona continued. “I wasn’t a very good witch back then. I was too scared of my powers and of everything else. It didn’t become an issue until I spotted my first gray hair. Because I wasn’t using magic to the extent and level that other magic users were, I was aging like a regular human. Meanwhile I knew Z could live centuries. I panicked and looked Tam up. She taught me how to grow and channel my power. So that’s why I’m here, to help. I-I can talk to the animals.”

  Talking to the squirrel made sense now.

  “It’s a rare gift,” Tam said. “And it’s one we’re going to use to our advantage. The forests around here are teeming with deer, coyotes, wolves, bears, and birds. Without the humans around encroaching on their habitats, the wild areas have gotten very wild. We can use magic, but with only magic, we’re simply fighting them with what they already know to expect. When the wildlife comes after them as well, it might change their vindictive outlook. Once we fight them back, we can strengthen and create strong magical wards to keep them out in the future. But we don’t have time for that now. We didn’t have time for it two days ago. We’ll need the right moon and a lot of magic users. It’s not something we can do under pressure or deadline. But we can fight. We’re good at fighting.”

  Anthony interrupted Tam. “I let us down.”

  The group seemed startled by the admission. Her father admitting to doing anything wrong was pretty much unheard of.

  “It was foolish to try to control everything and every one like I did. It was for Sydney and Charlee, but it got out of hand. If I hadn’t set up a police state—no matter the overall good I intended for my family—it couldn’t have been taken over in so many places by the humans. We wouldn’t have had to hide and stay invisible like this. I ushered us into another dark ages for our kind. I’m sorry.”

  Everyone at the table sort of sat in a freeze frame until Cain clapped the vampire king on the back. “It takes a big person to admit to that.”

  Anthony seemed to search for a joke or insult, but it wasn’t there to find.

  Tam closed her eyes, and the wind swept up around her as she lapsed into a trance. When she opened her eyes again, she looked panicked.

  “They’re coming. They’ll be here in less than an hour. They’re moving fast.”

  “I’ll start my part,” Fiona said.

  Tam nodded. “I’ll get everyone else ready.”

  “I’ll go with her,” Sydney blurted out.

  “No,” Noah said, “I don’t want us to get separated.”

  Sydney felt her eyes flash, and her fangs begin to push out. Noah must have seen her resolve and realized that now wasn’t the time for a challenge fight between an alpha pair. He nodded slowly as if to convince those assembled that it was his call, and he’d decided to be magnanimous with his mate.

  Sydney didn’t need permission. She was finished getting permission to go on walks. She wouldn’t be locked inside compounds or cells or penthouses or dens any longer. She’d lost all her taste for cages.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Sydney followed Fiona through the woods. She was surprised the witch’s panther mate had stayed behind with the others, but Z seemed like a fighter by nature. He’d want to hear the plan for the big confrontation.

  Fiona pushed a long strand of blonde hair out of her face with one hand and pulled back a tree branch with the other. Sydney grabbed the branch before it could thwap her in the face. While nice, Fiona seemed off in her own world and perhaps a little scatterbrained.

  Sydney hadn’t felt any particularly strong connection to the witch, she just wanted to get away from the discomfort of not being accepted by Noah’s dad.

  Every few minutes, Fiona made various animal calls, but it was clear she wasn’t mindlessly calling like a hunter in the forest seeking to mimic. She knew and spoke their language. A line of animals formed behind them and followed as she collected more for her menagerie.

  Many were natural enemies and shouldn’t be able to be together without fighting. Sydney wasn’t sure what the witch had told them to make them play nice, but whatever it was, they’d jumped the moment she called.

  As they moved through the woods, a green glowing mist trailed off the witch. She seemed like a siren to the woodland creatures as the group grew ever larger.

  “So,” Fiona said when they reached a clearing, “You don’t know me. Why did you want to join me for the boring work?”

  Watching the witch expertly communicate with the animals and get such varying species to come along for their plan was anything but boring.

  “It was too much back there with everyone. I was about to come out of my skin.” If she’d been more thoughtful, she would have suggested Noah go on this mission, instead. If anyone needed space a
nd to get away from everyone, it was her mate. But Sydney knew he would have refused, insisting on acting as a pack leader. In just a few days he’d become attached to his new role. It was good for him to get out of his shell. He still needed to prove himself, and wandering off in the woods at a time like this wouldn’t accomplish that goal.

  “I know what you mean,” Fiona said. She paused when a crow swooped down and started squawking at her. She squawked back. The bird became enraged and dove toward her. She lifted a hand, flicked her wrist, and the bird went sailing back several yards. “Crows are seriously such pessimists.” She squawked once more and the bird flew away.

  “You don’t like crowds, either?” Sydney asked.

  “I used to be a shut in. Agoraphobia. I was a prisoner in my own home for years because the birds kept telling me that if I left my house something bad would happen.”

  Sydney could relate in a way. It wasn’t fear that had held her captive in her own home, but she’d been a prisoner since childhood all the same. “How’d you get over it?”

  “Z kidnapped me because he needed a babysitter for Noah. I’m glad Noah’s okay, by the way. I was sad to hear when he’d been taken. I know how heartbroken Jane and Cole were when they lost him the first time.” Fiona stopped walking, and the animals stopped as well. She turned to Sydney. “Cole will accept you eventually. Just give it some time.”

  Sydney nodded, concerned that perhaps Fiona could read her mind or something.

  “Wait, Z kidnapped you?”

  “Yeah, but I don’t think it’s because he wanted a babysitter.”

  Given the couple’s relationship now, Sydney was pretty sure about that as well.

  Fiona continued through the meadow, speaking to each animal in turn. Some—like rabbits—she dismissed or maybe told to hide. Sydney thought hundreds of aggressive hoppy rabbits might be just as intimidating as all the rest of the assembled wildlife.

  “Why are we bringing deer?” she asked. When one thought of hardcore animal fighters, one did not usually picture deer.

  “They’re normally quite docile, except during mating season. But they can kick like hell. I wasn’t sure they’d come, but they agreed. Who am I to turn away good help?”