Captured Moonlight

by Erin Kelly

  “Yeah, and let’s say the payout is better than the lottery at this point. I could open a whole chain of garages with that kind of bank. Not that I would sell you guys out, or anything,” Alex blushed and looked a bit sheepish.

  “You’ll have to forgive him, he hasn’t been sleeping well between his arm healing, refusing to take his pain killers, and worrying about you two,” RJ sipped his coffee and sighed. “Screw it. It’s late. You two look like you’ve been through hell, and as much as I am dying to know where you’ve been, and what happened, I think it’s better you get some rest. We’ll have all tomorrow at the station to go over the whole story anyway.”

  “Thank you, RJ, for understanding,” Sophie said with a small smile. Her mind was still reeling at their revelation about Lucas, but her brain was just too tired to process it just yet.

  They finished their meals then RJ gathered their plates up so they could go shower. Though she had showered a lot more recently than Korban, Sophie joined him and after they helped clean one another they held one another for a few minutes as hot water streamed down from above. His absence was still too fresh, and it would take time for her to let him out of her sight if she could help it. Korban felt much fresher after a long needed bath, coffee back in his system, and Alex’s robe around him. He let Sophie borrow his own and they headed for his bedroom. It wasn’t too different from how he’d left it, and he realized that the upstairs apartment seemed to be thankfully in better shape than the garage below. Korban was all too happy to crawl into bed with Sophie, and as they held one another it didn’t take long for both of them to finally drift off to a truly restful sleep.

  ~*~

  When they awoke it was the afternoon and a new anxiety began to take root as they got dressed and prepared to report in to the police station. Sergeant McKinnon hadn’t steered them wrong yet, Korban tried to reassure her, but Sophie had a sinking feeling in her stomach that she couldn’t shake. She caught a glimpse of his furrowed brow while he shaved and knew he was just as worried as she was about what would happen next. She brushed her teeth with her toothbrush, one of the few precious possessions that she could call her own, and reflected on what they’d gone through. He was carefully patting down his face with aftershave when she finished brushing and turned to him. “No matter what happens, from here on out, it’s you and me. We’ve faced impossible situations before. We’ll get through this together,” she gave him a hopeful smile and leaned in, kissed his now smooth cheek.

  Together, they dressed, Korban in his nicest interview outfit, a sharp charcoal gray suit that seemed to hang a little loosely on his frame. Sophie held back a growl when her thoughts briefly went to Davey, and hoped he was feeling hungry at that very moment. She didn’t let herself linger on it for long, there were more important matters at hand and that monster had robbed enough time from her and Korban. Alex had dug up a plain but nice black dress and pair of matching flats that had belonged to his mother from up in the attic. They fit decently enough and she thanked him. “When we get back, the first thing I plan on doing is taking you clothes shopping,” Korban vowed.

  Together, they headed to the car and sat in the back. RJ drove while Alex rode shotgun. The car ride was a quiet but tense one. Sophie held Korban’s hand to keep herself from trembling, and her touch calmed him as much as his did for her.

  Together they walked into the bustling police station. Most people were too busy dealing with their own problems at hand to spare them a second glance. However a few more observant witnesses did stare and whispered in wonder as Sophie walked past. She swore she saw someone snap a quick picture on their cell phone, but a candid paparazzi photo was the least of her concerns at the moment.

  When they went to sign in with Patty she greeted them with a warm smile, until she realized it was them, and her eyes went round and she gave an excited little bounce. “Oh! The Sarge will be so happy you’re back!” She cheered, then ushered them to his office. She knocked raptly on the door and peered in ahead of them. “Sergeant McKinnon, RJ Ramirez is here and he’s brought Korban Diego and Sophie Bane here to see you. Oh, and Alex too.”

  “What?! Get in here, all of you!” He stood up at his desk then asked Patty, “Can you get Andy for me, Patty? I think he should be here for this.”

  “Of course, Sergeant,” Patty nodded, and then headed off to find his partner.

  They filed in and sat down. Tim watched them with a carefully neutral expression in his piercing blue eyes as he closed the door and went behind his desk. “The whole city’s been in a tizzy looking for you two. I can’t even begin to tell you how many man hours have been put into tracking you both down. Not even including the hundreds of calls trying to cash in on supposed leads. They’ve been searching for you by land, by water, and by air. The damn press is breathing down my neck every day. It’s been one hot mess after another.” He paced behind his desk as he talked, then stopped, turned to them. “Still, I’m glad you’re both back and human again. Well, human-ish I suppose.”

  The office door opened again and Sergeant Ellyk stepped in. “Wow, we thought for sure we’d be finding you with a lot more fur on ya. Welcome back.”

  “Thank you,” Sophie said as Andy closed the door again and stood over behind Tim’s desk. “It really is good to be back.”

  “All right, before we get the details on where you have been and what you remember, I’ll give you the rundown,” Tim sat in his chair and pulled out a camera on a small tripod. “I’m going to be recording this, because no doubt this is going to blow up in a big way. Er, sorry Alex, bad choice of wording.”

  Alex only shrugged and smiled. It was a rare sight to see him so quiet but the tension was definitely as pungent as the tiny pine trees that perfumed the air. Tim continued on as a little red light began to glow on the camera and he pointed it to where Korban and Sophie sat across from him. “All right, here we go. Sergeant McKinnon here with Sergeant Ellyk, interviewing Korban Diego and Sophie Bane. Witnessed by Ramiel Ramirez, Mr. Diego’s legal sponsor, and Alejandro Cyrus.” He rattled off the date, time, and the case number, and then asked, “So, what do you remember from the time you have been missing?”

  Korban drew in a shaky breath. Sophie took his hand as he began their horrific tale. He did most of the talking at first, telling the story from his perspective. He started from the time he could remember them waking naked in the forest, and continued on, only leaving out some of the more intimate details. When he described being captured and tortured by Davey the color drained from everyone’s faces as he went into painful detail. Sophie didn’t realize just how bad it had been for him, and only regretted not punching Davey even harder. She squeezed his hand when he got choked up during certain details. There wasn’t much he left out, but he was careful to stick to nicknames, except for when it came to David Bailey and his two henchmen. The room was silent when he finished.

  Finally, Tim cleared his throat. “And you, Mrs. Bane? Where were you during most of… all this?”

  She told her side of things, a much more pleasant side of the story. She was thankful that Val’s pack used nicknames, and was careful to use them like Korban did to protect the ones who mattered. When she had completed her story, the room went quiet again.

  “Do you think you can describe how to get to this barn, so we can send authorities in to arrest David Bailey and his pals?” Andy asked softly.

  Korban nodded. “Yes. He is extremely dangerous and even though we left him in a cage, do not underestimate what he is capable of. He should be kept away from other werewolves especially since he can control them, somehow.”

  Andy nodded, rubbed his chin thoughtfully and looked to his partner. “Thank you, Mr. Diego.” Tim had a grim look on his face as he reached over and shut off the camcorder, then continued, “You’re sure it’s true, what you said about the whole… monster mojo? You were able to calm those other wolves down and… control them?”

  Korban bobbed his head again in affirmation and looked worried. “I don’
t understand how or why, exactly. The only thing we had in common really was that our eyes stay yellow. I don’t want to use that power again if I can help it. I wouldn’t want to force anyone to do something they wouldn’t want to do.”

  “Still, you helped those wolves calm down with your ability, that’s not something that should go to waste. Think of the lives you could save if you could just talk someone down from going rabid,” Tim scratched his goatee. “You’ve always been special, Korban. This just adds another element to it.”

  The door burst open and Commissioner DeRusso strode in, accompanied by several officers. Tim straightened up and frowned. “What’s the meaning of this, Commissioner? I’m in the middle of an interview with Mr. Diego and Mrs. Bane.”

  “While I appreciate your help in locating our missing lycanthropes, I’m afraid I have to intervene at this time,” she began as the officers moved behind Sophie and Korban, and before they could move two familiar sounding clicks sounded, and they both cried out in surprised pain as tranquilizers struck them.

  “What the…? Why?” Korban fearfully stammered as his vision began to swim and his limbs went numb.

  The officer behind him snapped silver cuffs around his wrists, which itched and burned only a little as the tranquilizer took hold. “What did they do wrong? They turned themselves in!” RJ demanded angrily, but the Commissioner stood her ground as silver cuffs were snapped around Sophie’s wrists as well.

  “Mr. Ramirez, thank you for doing your duty as a sponsor and upstanding citizen. However at this time we’ve deemed these two werewolves extremely dangerous and unpredictable. Until we know more about that serum that they were exposed to before they vanished, I’m afraid we have to take them in. I’m suspending your role as Mr. Diego’s legal sponsor, and you’ll be free to go. We’ll get that monitor off your ankle and you can resume your life as normal.”

  “Wait! No!” RJ protested. “Please, Commissioner, they’re cooperating. They haven’t done anything wrong!”

  “It’s not about what they haven’t done, at least not yet. We have a lot to learn from that serum, and I’m not putting my city at risk again of some new super infection by letting them roam free,” DeRusso snapped sharply. “Until we know what it is we’re up against, we have no choice but to hold them in quarantine.”

  Korban’s eyes went round and he moaned weakly, “No…”

  Sophie struggled against her bindings as the officers heaved her up to her feet, half leading and half dragging her toward the door. Two other officers guided Korban along the way. “Please, don’t do this! We’ve been fine since we turned back!” Sophie pleaded as the room began to sway and warp around them.

  “I’m sorry Mrs. Bane, but we don’t have a choice in this matter. I have to do what’s best for Syracuse.” DeRusso’s tone went cold as she followed them out of Tim’s office despite the protests and discontent coming from all their friends in the room.

  Together they were escorted towards the van that waited outside, and together they were escorted to the facility at Hutchings. Korban’s eyes were half-glazed over by the time they arrived. “Korban,” Sophie murmured to him weakly, struggled to stay conscious as they opened the van doors. “I love you.”

  “Sophie…” he whispered softly back, “Love you…”

  Together they were dragged into the complex, past doctors in white lab coats and nurses in a rainbow of scrubs. They moved through heavy, alarmed and armored doors though a hall that reeked of antiseptic and anxiety. Sophie’s stomach twisted and churned and her heart raced.

  The officers stopped to open a door in this hall, and to Sophie’s horror the other men continued dragging Korban past her, further down the corridor. “No!” Sophie cried out, her voice hoarse and heavy. “Korban! Please, don’t take him from me!”

  “Sophie!” Korban’s voice came, a panicked but feeble cry as they began to go through another set of doors. He struggled enough to turn back and she saw pure fear in his yellow eyes.

  “Korban!” She called back to him, but the tranquilizer was making the white hall twist and spin, or maybe they had lifted her.

  The doors that they had taken Korban beyond closed with a resonating and final slam. She still writhed against them, but her body had become too heavy to move. She wanted to scream but the only sound that came from her now was a low, desperate moan.

  Alone, she finally succumbed to the darkness, her last fleeting thought of Korban and their brief, blissful time together.

  ~*~

  ~*~

  Hungry for more?

  Sophie and Korban’s adventure continues in the third thrilling book of the Tainted Moonlight Series

  Infected Moonlight

  Sink your teeth into a sneak peek on the following page!

  ~*~

  Sophie’s head throbbed as she stirred and woke from a deep, troubled sleep. She didn’t feel rested but instead somehow more drained of energy, as though she hadn’t slept at all. The memories of horrible dreams still flashed in her mind until she remembered that the nightmare was real.

  Her eyes slowly opened and came to focus on an unfamiliar ceiling. White panels and a pair of long, fluorescent lights were fixed above her. The room had the same stinging, antiseptic smell of most hospital rooms. She went to move her hand to rub her aching forehead but restraints bound her wrists and ankles to the sides of the bed. She lifted her hand as far as it would go and saw silver chains carefully weaved around the bindings. It wasn’t burning her, but it strengthened the straps.

  She winced as her pulse seemed to echo the ache in her skull, and looked around the room. It was clean and fairly empty, with only her hospital bed and a small, long table and chair that was pushed over against the wall nearby. High, narrow windows lined the one wall and let sunlight stream in through the frosted panels.

  Her mouth felt dry and she made a face as she tried to speak in a hoarse voice. “Help,” she cleared her throat as best as she could and fought back the wave of nausea that came over her. A little louder, she managed to roughly yelp out, “Help!”

  The door opened like magic, and a nurse stepped in, a surgeon’s mask over her nose and mouth and a plastic clipboard in her hands. She peered at Sophie over a pair of safety glasses. The rest of her was covered in long scrubs. “Oh, Mrs. Bane, you’re awake. Good.”

  She scribbled down something and Sophie grimaced, clenched her hands and stretched them. She sat up as best as she could so she could put herself in a better position, and asked in a gravelly whisper, “Where’s Korban?”

  The nurse gave her a quizzical look, and then came a flash of recognition. “Oh, Mr. Diego. He’s secured in his room. Don’t worry; he won’t bother you in here.” Sophie slowly shook her head, about to protest that he’d saved her life, and wouldn’t be a bother at all, when the nurse smiled brightly and continued on, “Besides you have a very special visitor who’s been waiting quite a while for you to wake up.”

  “Visitor?” Sophie hoarsely repeated as the nurse opened the door and ushered her guest in. Her heart skipped a beat as time froze and a chill coursed through her entire body. “Lucas.”

  ~*~

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  ~*~

  SPECIAL MESSAGE TO THE PACK

  Thank you again to my dear friends Tina and Lisa for helping me dot my I’s and cross my T’s and keep all my werewolves in order. A special thank you again to my parents for your continuous love and support, especially to my Dad for helping to promote and share my book with his coworkers and friends, and to Mom and Bud for helping watch my fur babie
s while I travel around to do promoting of my own for my series. A special howl out to Uncle Miles for being a great movie buddy and for also encouraging me to keep writing. I’m sure I’ll be hearing from you soon and you’ll be nipping my heels to get the next book out ASAP (and don’t worry, it will be!). Thanks to Fay, Carrie, Tina (again!) and Linda for helping woman my booths during events, you ladies are amazing. Also a very special thank you to Chelsea, Mae, and The Roost Podcast’s league of awesome interns for helping me navigate conventions. Your advice from your show experience has been extremely helpful and I look forward to all of our events together this year (and hopefully many more to come)!

  My eternal gratitude to Sohaib with Fictional Frontiers, WebcamNick on YouTube, and Token Tom Clark and the guys of Necrocasticon for helping promote my series on their platforms. (If you want to check out my interviews with them, I have links posted on taintedmoonlight.com).

  Thank you as well to two special “Saints” for their unexpected and welcome support. A special mention to the “Funny Man” himself, David Della Rocco for becoming the first celebrity to purchase a copy of Tainted Moonlight. I hope you enjoy the story so far and continue to follow the series! A thank you as well to Sean Patrick Flanery for your advice from one author to another, as well as the social media bump on Twitter when my novel first debuted. Shine until tomorrow my famous friends.

  I really can’t thank you all enough for your feedback, reviews, love and support. Thank you to all my friends, family, and the growing community of fans. I would be nothing without you my fellow Pack Mates! Until next time everyone, be well!

  ~ Erin Kelly

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Erin Kelly lives in Syracuse, New York with two loving cats, a precocious Siamese, and her dogs Winchester and MacManus. When she is not writing about werewolves she is often drawing, reading, planning her next traveling adventure, swimming at the gym, or can be found at several local karaoke bars belting out ballads by the Backstreet Boys with her friends.