Rise of the Moon (Moonlit Series Book 1)

by Rachel Hera

  Fireworks. Between one and the next, I heard the slamming of the trunk through the open doorways.

  “Does this town usually do fireworks in the middle of October for no reason?” Jason asked from behind me. His guess was as good as mine.

  I glanced at Evelyn, who was breathing hard, her hand pressed to her side. Another firework went off before anyone answered.

  “Yeah,” Philip nodded. “Except it’s usually on the last day of fair. This feels like… who’s watching Cole and my sister?”

  I looked back. Jason and Dante had followed, their curiosity getting the best of them.

  “It’s fine. We closed the jeep and locked it,” Jason said. “Their hands and legs are taped together tight. They’re not getting away.”

  “That’s what you think,” Philip showing the first sign of anger I’d ever seen from him. “They must have set the fireworks up somehow.”

  When nobody made a move, he sighed, wiping his face with his hand.

  “They’re foxes. It’s what we do. We escape. It’s a distraction.”

  Chapter 41: Evelyn

  All of us rushed to the backroom, but I stopped short when I got dizzy. Maddie suffered from the light-headedness, too. The shock, and the adrenalin, was fading quickly from my body, and suddenly I felt like I had no energy at all. Blake hesitated to leave me, but I waved him on. I could handle being faint. I could not stand to know that the foxes had escaped.

  Marissa had tried to kill me. If that wasn’t evident with the torture she and Cole had inflicted on Maddie and I, then it was clear when she took one of those knives and aimed it for my heart. Shayne may have not been able to grab her, but I was relieved when he kicked my chair far enough to avoid a fatal injury. The cut on my arm stung, but I’d rather have that than the knife driven into my chest.

  “Damn it,” Dante smacked his fist against the back door, leaving a clear, defined dent. Well, I guess that answered the question as to whether they’d gotten away. Though I knew Philip was right the moment he’d voiced his thoughts. They had said they’d scoured the area for potential places that Blake’s Pack brothers could watch the parlour, but I was willing to bet that they’d been planning their getaway. The duffle bag could have definitely fit fireworks inside of it.

  “Well, let’s go after them,” Philip urged. “Before they get out of town –because believe me, after a stunt like this, they’re not going to wait around to be found. They’ll head back to the Den. And that’s a place that I won’t be able to lead you to.”

  “Heal her, too,” Maddie told Shayne as he hovered above her.

  “Ah, yes, of course,” he said it as though he’d forgotten I was there. I called it, didn’t I? It’s why I kept them from meeting while we were dating. I just knew Shayne was going to fall head over heels for Maddie.

  He came to me, and I lifted my shirt, exposing the sliced skin. I had only been able to excuse myself from the one cut, so I had seven to Maddie’s nine. If Shayne noticed, he didn’t say anything. I closed my eyes as he brushed his thumb over each gash. I didn’t realize he had finished until he stood up. It hadn’t looked painful when he’d healed Maddie, but I was still expecting to feel something as the wounds closed up.

  The pain didn’t go away with the disappearance of the wounds though, at least not right away. But the pain I could handle.

  “You should eat something,” Blake came back to me.

  “Are you going after them?” I asked.

  “I am. But I want to make sure you’re okay first,” he said. Kaya handed him a damp handful of paper towels, and he began wiping my face with it.

  “I’ll be better when they’re both dead,” I muttered.

  He nodded, clenching his fist. He handed the paper towels back to Kaya, who took over Evelyn-clean-up-duty, “Kaya and Jason will take you home as soon as Jason cleans up the room. Dante and Philip are going to come with me.”

  “There’s still two more hours of work,” the words fell dumbly from my mouth.

  He laughed loudly, taking everyone by surprise, “I’m sure Harry will understand.”

  “I’ll call him and let him know what happened,” Shayne promised.

  “There. See?” Blake ran a hand over the side of my face, kissing my forehead. “I’ll be back before you know it. Kaya –get them something to eat.”

  She nodded as he walked away. He left out the back door, getting into the jeep with Dante and Philip and driving off. Jason closed the door,

  Kaya continued to dab my skin with the paper towels. “You have a change of clothes, right?”

  I shook my head.

  “Then we’ll drive you back to the Alpha house to get you another change of clothes. Keep on getting into messes like this, and pretty soon you’ll have taken my whole wardrobe,” she smiled, attempting to throw some light humor into the night.

  I offered her a smile, but couldn’t be sure of how genuine it came across.

  “Hey,” she turned to Shayne. “Can you heal this last wound on her neck? It’s not bleeding a whole lot, but –”

  “Of course,” Shayne said, reluctantly moving away from Maddie. He licked his thumb before dragging it across my throat. As soon as he was done, he went straight back to her side.

  “You’re cold,” Kaya said, rubbing my arm. “We should get you into the truck and turn on the heat.”

  “Maybe if you’re lucky, Blake will warm you up again tonight,” Jason grinned. He folded the tarp in half, then in half again. Most of the blood ended up on our clothes, so there was very little on the tarp itself, making clean-up easy. Except for the chairs. But they were metal and plastic and Jason had already found the bleach in the bathroom. For now, it was just set aside.

  I managed an eye roll but just leaned into Kaya as she wrapped her arm around me. She said, “It’s going to be okay. Blake will get them. Hell, he’ll probably bring you back their heads. We’ll dry them out and hang them from the ceiling in the basement like those old tribes. You can come and throw darts at them any time you please.”

  “Shrunken heads,” I said. I’d watch an episode on it on the history channel just the other day. From watching it, I knew the process was a little more complicated than simply ‘drying them out.’ I continued, “From the Jivaroan tribes.”

  “You’re so smart,” she said, rubbing my back and comforting me. “Blake picked out a good one, eh, Jason?”

  “The best,” he said, kneeling beside the chairs with rubber gloves on. “You can probably take her home, Kaya. I’ll comb this place over to make sure there’s no trace of what happened here. I’m sure both just want to get home.”

  “I’ll drive Maddie,” Shayne offered.

  “When she changes out of those clothes, burn them,” Jason told Shayne.

  “Are we destroying evidence?” Maddie mustered. “Can’t we bring them to court?”

  “The supernaturals handle things… differently,” Jason answered. “But more than that –I don’t think we should have any of Evelyn’s blood left anywhere. If she’s a rare supernatural, there could be indications of it in her blood, and I don’t want those foxes coming back to collect any of it.”

  “Angel of the Moon, my ass,” I muttered. “I couldn’t do anything. I’m so sorry, Maddie.”

  She looked at me for a long second. “I think I can forgive you. But just so you know, I’m sorry, too.”

  “And they all lived happily ever after,” Kaya smiled. “Now let’s get you guys something to eat. Then it’s time to go home.”

  * * *

  For the second time that week, I showered at Blake’s house. I watched the water going down the drain go from red to pink to clear. Part of me thought that I should be more of a mess. Mentally, I mean. But I was oddly at peace. Maybe it was because I knew that Blake was going to get them. Or, maybe, my emotions were all wrung out of me.

  I turned off the taps, grabbing a towel and wrapping it around me. I still felt cold and tired. Would I have nightmares tonight? Or would I be so exhauste
d I just sleep, and sleep, and sleep?

  What if Olivia hadn’t become sick? What would the foxes have done if there’d been another human at the scene? Or had they planned that, too? Just how far ahead did they plan?

  Not far enough, or else they would have killed us and been gone before Blake and everyone else arrived.

  Was it because they were young foxes? Jason had said something about me being their first mission. Could it have been their inexperience that was their downfall? And if they were more experienced? Would it have been mine and Maddie’s tragic end?

  Kaya had thrown the clothes she’d brought me into the dryer for ten minutes, but already they were back to their normal temperature. Still, I threw them on, then brushed my hair out with the brush I’d used the last time I was here. I opened the door to Blake’s room instead of the hallway. I hadn’t taken a good look at it last time. But now that I did, I could clearly see that it defined Blake.

  Little decorated the tops of his dresser beside the bathroom door, except for the beloved plush cat that he’d told me of on our first date. He had a desk on one side of the room, tucked snugly into the corner, and beside that was a bookshelf. There were a few books on it, despite his unwillingness to read, but most of them were non-fiction: books on plants; books on animals; books on chaos theory.

  I picked up one of the books on chaos theory. The butterfly effect. A butterfly bats its wings in America and a storm hits Africa. Was that what happened here?

  I returned the book to its rightful place, then glanced over my shoulder as the door opened. The Alpha stepped through the doorway.

  “I was just… snooping,” I admitted, flipping open the first page of the sketchbook on Blake’s desk. It was me. He’d drawn it during one of our spares. I closed the notebook.

  “Shall I take you home? Or did you care to wait until Blake arrived?” he asked, strolling over to the bed and perching at the end of it.

  “I’d sort of like to stay –if that’s not a bother,” I said quickly.

  “You’re welcome to stay as long as you like,” he told me.

  “Thank you,” I felt the smallest of smiles reach my face, though it faded away quickly.

  “Did you think of any questions?” he asked.

  “Blake said the change is painful,” I turned back to the bookshelf, wondering what interests Blake really had. “He also said he’d never bite me.”

  “It is. And I’m sure he won’t.”

  The next question was harder; “You told Blake –multiple times, from what I’ve heard –to lay off the foxes.” I turned to face him, “I’m not trying to make this personal, but why?”

  It was personal though. I could have died tonight. I wondered if Kaya had explained things while I’d been in the shower. Or, maybe Noah was finally back from helping Jason clean up the parlour.

  He exhaled slowly, looking at the ceiling for a moment before meeting my gaze. “For Blake, there are two kinds of people. People he can tolerate and the people he’d love to shove into the Gulf of Mexico. He’s the kind of guy that’s going to make a lot of enemies in the future. On his own, he might be able to handle it. He’d probably be the strongest lone wolf the world had ever seen. But he found you. And to try to protect someone when you have enemies breathing down your back is not easy. He saw that on Wednesday. And he saw that tonight. Without Jason, Dante and Kaya, who knows what could have, or would have, happened. But I think Blake knew that already.”

  Carlos cleared his throat, “I don’t set boundaries to suffocate him. I set them so that he knows discipline. Sometimes information is important. Sometimes action is important. And it’s hard to find a balance between one and the other. That being said, I didn’t foresee the foxes striking so quickly after Wednesday evening. So I would like to apologize.”

  Well, when he put it like that, how could I not forgive him? “Apology accepted.”

  “It would have been awkward if you didn’t,” he chuckled, then stretched his legs out before him, as if he was done with formalities. “You’re going to be good for him. The change in his behaviour is phenomenal. Of course, I’ll apologize to him, too, when he comes home.”

  “Well, it may have been my life on the line, but it was his mate,” I joked feebly.

  But he laughed loudly nonetheless, “That’s certainly how Blake will see it. Good question. Any others?”

  “How many Pack members do you have?” I moved to lighter questions.

  “Fourteen of us are capable of shifting,” he answered. “After Jason’s son comes into the world, we’ll have sixteen total.”

  “And you’re all like one big happy family?” I asked.

  “More or less,” his lips twitched.

  I hesitated, then questioned, “How does that change with me in the picture?”

  “It doesn’t. Well, except we’ll be a bigger, happier family.”

  “And… how does my life change?”

  Before he could answer, my phone started ringing in the bathroom. I excused myself and rushed over to grab it. To my disappointment, it wasn’t Blake. It was Sophie. For an instant, I debated not answering. I didn’t want to put on a fake smile and talk to her like it was just another day. With that thought in mind, it further swayed me to not pick up. I let it ring in my hand.

  “What’s wrong?” Carlos asked as I re-entered Blake’s room. He looked towards the hallway, and I saw Jason at the end of the hall, giving a small wave to let us know that he was back. Carlos beckoned him forward.

  “My little sister is calling. But she thinks that I’m at work right now.” The phone went silent. It lit up a few seconds later when it received a text message: “Sorry, accident. Was trying to call Mom.”

  I almost laughed. How weird was it that everything else –rather, everyone else’s lives –continued regularly, as they were supposed to, while my night had been anything but ordinary.

  Chapter 42: Blake

  My biggest worry was that Marissa and Cole had changed their appearance and we’d drive right past them on the street. But Philip reassured me that he would be able to see through whatever disguises they hid themselves with. I didn’t want to trust him, but it wasn’t like I could turn around and bring Evelyn along on the off chance that he’d lie to us. She’d been through enough tonight.

  The first place that Philip led us to was their house: a small two-story house that sat surrounded by trees and bushes on the north side of town. It felt like we’d missed covering so much ground between here and the parlour, but Philip said that he knew them better than I did. If that meant he could predict their next moves, then I had no choice but to follow his lead.

  I could smell recent scents from Cole and Marissa the moment I stepped out of the car, and I grew hopeful. I kicked in the door, Dante trailing behind me, not happy with the scene laid out before us.

  The place looked like it had been ransacked, anything and everything thrown off the surfaces and scattered across the floor. It seemed like they’d taken anything of value and ran off. It was dark, but that didn’t matter to me or Dante.

  But Philip didn’t have night vision, and he reached out to turn on the light. The room remained dark. From the broken glass on the ground and the broom that was thrown aside, it looked as though they’d taken the time to smash any source of light. I was willing to bet that all the bulbs in the house were now shards on the ground.

  Maybe they were still here after all.

  Dante gestured that he’d take the second floor while I took the first. I nodded, stepping first to the room towards the left. The kitchen. Again, everything was swiped to the ground. I kicked a plastic cup out of my way as I made my way further into the room.

  I inhaled deeply, but their scent was everywhere, on everything. Philip followed behind me slowly and quietly. Glass crunched beneath his shoe. Upstairs, the floor creaked under Dante’s weight. The only sound was our steady breathing and the methodical ticking of the clock on the living room wall.

  The living room was oddly cl
ean in comparison to what I’d seen already. The lamps were knocked over, light bulb shards glinting on the sofa and table surfaces. A single piece of paper lay in the middle of the room. Philip crossed over and picked it up. He held it up to me, showing that it was blank. I kept my ears and eyes open. The emptier the place appeared, the more certain I was that they were there.

  Suddenly I heard the slap as liquid hit a solid surface –the smell of gasoline flooding my senses shortly after. I pushed past Philip back into the hallway to see Cole holding a gas can by the front door. He struggled to get a match lit, but I flew down the hall and knocked him out the door and to the ground. The container of gas flew from his hand, landing a couple of metres away.

  I choked him, my forearm pressing hard against his throat. He gasped for breath, his fingers clawing at my arm. I pulled him up into a standing position.

  “Time to see how the wolves have fun,” I growled, a small grin finding its way to my lips.

  “Shouldn’t we ask him where my sister is?” Philip asked.

  “If he’s here, she’s close.”

  “But her car’s not here. I think she’s gone.”

  “Don’t care. He’s the one I’ve wanted to wring the neck of this entire time. And guess what? This time, my Alpha’s not going to stop me.” Again, I smiled down at Cole. He continued to gasp for air. I loosened my grip only so that I didn’t kill him. I wasn’t done with him yet. “You’re not going to want to live once I’m through with you.”

  * * *

  The foxes had picked a pretty decent place to live. Surrounded by fields and trees, it had a lot of privacy. Not that I continued with Cole out on the lawn. Couldn’t risk a car driving by and hearing him scream.

  Philip led me to the garage. When I asked for something, he gave it to me. I asked for rope, he found some there in the garage. I asked for a cloth; he fetched one from the kitchen. When I told him I needed the gas canister from the lawn, he got that too, though he handed it to me reluctantly. I doused the cloth in gasoline and shoved it into Cole’s mouth. I’d found tape on my own, and used it to secure the cloth there, leaving a drenched tip exposed.