“How would I determine that?”
“You must call her to you and ask.”
I exhaled hard. “By doing that thing you taught me last time that I sucked at?” He simply nodded in response. “Well that doesn’t bode well for anybody.”
“If this ghost is—as you said—animated, you should be able to obtain information from her.”
“Like, she’ll answer my questions?”
“No.”
“She’ll show me something useful?”
“No.”
“We can play charades until I make out her cryptic message?”
“No.”
“You’re doing it again…” I said through clenched teeth.
“The daughter of the PC must learn patience and mastery over her temper.”
“Oh, I mastered that a long time ago. I just don’t require that level of control anymore, so I let my Irish roots loose. I find it very cathartic. You should try it.”
“You would not wish to see me unleash my temper, daughter of the PC.”
“Maybe Death would…”
I couldn’t help but bait him. I was in a shit mood after a shit night, and I wasn’t up for his shit secrecy. I wanted answers, not a lecture on holding my tongue.
“She might. Perhaps another time.”
He got up from the table and walked over to the worn-out cast iron sink in what I imagined he called the kitchen, though it was more like a couple of cabinets with plywood on top and no fridge to be seen. It made me wonder what trolls ate; then I thought better of it and abandoned that train of thought.
Instead, I took a deep, cleansing breath and mustered all the manners I could find.
“Could you please tell me how I can find out what she wants?”
He said nothing. The only response I got was him rummaging around in a cabinet, the clanking and banging of God only knew what echoing through the tiny home. When it finally stopped, he turned and threw something flat onto the table. I looked down to find a Ouija board looking at me.
“Are you fucking serious?”
He nodded. “Though I understand that the humans have made this into a game, it is an excellent way to commune with the dead. Their ability to move the pointer should only be increased by your empath abilities and Death’s energy. I am confident that your ghost, once called upon, will tell you what you need to know.”
“But what if she lies?”
That twinge of a smile pulled at his mouth again. “She won’t.”
“But how do you—”
“Because she cannot. The board will not allow it. But she will only answer your questions, not speak of her own volition, so you must be careful in what you ask to get the whole truth, daughter of the PC. Do not forget that.”
Hearing the dismissal in his voice, I stood up and collected the board from the table.
“Thanks big guy. I’ll let you know how it goes.”
“I imagine you will.”
He turned his back to me and went about setting things straight in the cabinet he’d just ransacked. Without another word, I made my way to the front door and opened it, stepping out into the crisp night air. Just as I was about to close the door behind me, his massive hand clamped down on my wrist, holding me still.
I looked up to find glowing eyes staring off into the distance, his tattoos illuminated. He was getting a premonition of some kind. I doubted I’d like whatever it was he saw.
When he came back to himself, he looked down at me and let go of my arm.
“Beware the full moon.”
I paused, waiting to hear more. When nothing came, I stared up at him, my confusion undoubtedly written all over my face.
“The full moon? What does that mean?”
“Beware the full moon,” was all he said in response. Then, ignoring me entirely, he stepped back into his house and closed the door on me. Frustrated and a bit unnerved, I made my way off his porch and across the yard to the fence.
“Why can’t I ever just leave this place without a creepy-ass warning?”
You have. Several times.
“Yeah, and I had creepy-ass ghost sightings on those occasions instead.”
Life is imperfect…
“Like I need a reminder of that,” I said, closing the gate behind me. “What do you think he meant about the full moon, anyway?”
To beware it?
“Your sarcasm is not appreciated.”
I find it rarely is.
“When is the full moon?”
Friday, I believe.
“Well then, I guess we have until Friday to figure this out.”
Might I suggest you call someone proficient in full moon matters?
I opened my mouth to argue, then snapped it shut. Nyx was right. I was the daughter of a werewolf. My uncle Cooper was a werewolf. I grew up in a pack of werewolves. And two werewolves had recently been murdered. It seemed hard to believe that Damascus’ full moon mystery wouldn’t have something to do with wolves. At minimum, I needed to rule out that possibility. So as I walked off in the direction of the bus stop, I pulled out my phone and called the only person I could think of who might be both helpful and forthcoming in the matter.
And it sure as hell wasn’t my mother.
Chapter Nineteen
“Hey, Uncle Coop! It’s me.”
“Fifi! What’s up? You need something?”
Fifi. Another nickname I detested. But from Uncle Cooper, I allowed it. He, and he alone, got a free pass.
“Is my mom there?”
“No,” he replied, sounding every bit as suspicious as he should have. “Why?”
“Great. I have to ask you something, and I need you to promise not to mention it to her or Dad. She’ll get herself all worked up, and it might be over nothing.”
“I’ll decide that. Now tell me what you need to tell me.”
I took a deep breath. “So a friend of mine here said something to me tonight. That I need to beware the full moon.”
“Who told you that?”
“The who isn’t important.”
“It is when he says ominous shit like that.”
“Coop, he sees things—like premonitions, except they’re not always clear.”
“Are you calling me to interpret what he said? Because it could mean a million things.”
“I know, but I’m not sure…we’re dealing with some werewolf murders right now. Maybe it has to do with that?”
“I think it’s safe to assume that werewolves are involved somehow, but that shit is awfully vague. It could have to do with those murders, or it could be something else entirely. Are you hanging out with any? Getting close to one?”
“I mean, I’m working for one—”
“Which one?”
I hesitated, knowing I was about to open up a can of worms. Cooper knew about everything that had happened with the case of the abducted girls. He also knew that a particular lone wolf had given me a lot of shit in the process.
“Jenkins…”
Silence.
A growl.
“Tell me you’re joking.”
“Afraid I can’t, Coop. It’s for PC business.
I’m stuck with him for now, so he can’t be avoided.” A cold chill ran down my spine. “Do you think it’s him? I know he’s a lone wolf—does something different happen to them on the full moon? Like maybe it makes them more violent? Unpredictable?”
“Lone wolves are lone for a reason, Fi. They also tend not to live very long because of it.
You need to avoid him on full moon night,” Cooper said, his suggestion more of an order.
Shit. That wasn’t going to work at all.
“Yeah…not sure I can swing that, Coop.”
“Sapphira, this is serious.”
“And I’m taking it seriously, hence the phone call. I don’t want to have to hurt him—or anyone else, for that matter—but I can’t shake the dread I felt when I heard that warning. Something bad is going to happen on the full moon.”
Cooper was silent for a moment, and I wondered if he was bolstering himself for a full-blown argument over the issue. I could imagine him pinching his forehead with his thumb and index finger like he did whenever my mother and he got into an argument—or disagreement, as they had called it when we were growing up. He was her alpha, and she didn’t make that job easy for him.
“Did you feel anything else?” he asked, his tone cautious. “Are you feeling odd at all? Off somehow?”
“Me? No. Why?”
He exhaled hard. “Because maybe the warning about the full moon wasn’t about Jenkins at all. Maybe it was about someone else.”
Ice ran down my spine at his words.
Perhaps it’s Gabriel he’s warning you about…
Nyx had a point. Though it was a possibility I couldn’t fully comprehend, pieces of the puzzle started to fall together. Many pieces. Damascus had warned me about Gabe before. “Beware the one that seeks to own you,” had been directed toward him all along—not Dennis or TS—and I’d never put it together. Then there were the (at the time) bizarre comments outside of Jenkins’ bar from the bouncer about Gabe’s Change and the need to get him under control.
I opened my mouth to suggest this option, then snapped it shut. I couldn’t say anything about Gabe to Cooper, or to anyone, for that matter. How could the dead farm boy be a threat to me on the full moon, or any other night? The answer: he couldn’t, at least as far as anyone was aware. The reality that Gabe was alive was one I planned to keep to myself until that problem was corrected—one way or another.
“Fifi? You still there?”
“Yeah, sorry. I was just thinking.”
“Are you distracted lately? Having a hard time focusing?” he asked, not waiting for an answer. “Are you feeling particularly irritable—more irritable than you usually are?”
“No, I’m fine.”
“Good. Let’s hope it stays that way.”
“Wait—are you worried that he was talking about me? That I might Change on the full moon?”
“I’m saying we shouldn’t dismiss the idea. Nothing about you is normal, Fi—”
“Thanks for that.”
“I’m serious! You seem to evolve a little more each day. We can’t afford to dismiss the possibility that you might get furry on Friday.”
“Shit…”
“Exactly.”
“What do we do? I mean, you can’t just let me Change—”
“I’m well aware of that.” His reply sounded grim, and for good reason. I’d heard stories of what happened right after a wolf Changed for the first time. They rarely ended well—not without the help of a strong alpha to keep them in check.
“Cooper, you cannot tell my parents about this. Mom will be a total wreck and demand to come out here. You know how she is in an emergency.”
He groaned. “A total hot mess—”
“Exactly! And Scarlet isn’t really a better option, even if Mom did let her out.”
And boy, wasn’t that the truth. The red-eyed wolf was far from reasonable. She’d drop bodies until she was satisfied I was safe.
“Yeah, no. Definitely not a situation for her. She’s best at killing things indiscriminately. Not the right person for this job. You need an alpha…”
I smiled to myself. “And I know the perfect one for the job! When can you get out here?”
“Give me a day or two. I have to come up with a legitimate reason for leaving. One your father won’t see right through.”
“Good luck with that.”
“Yeah,” he scoffed. “I’ll need it.”
“Keep me posted. I’ll try not to panic in the meantime.” I hoped my sarcasm had come across over the phone.
“Sapphira—if anything changes with you, and I mean anything—you call me. Immediately. I don’t give a shit if your mother finds out and freaks. You can’t risk the consequences of Changing without me there. Got it?”
“Got it.”
“Now go forth and think unfurry thoughts.”
“Smooth as silk. Promise.”
He groaned again. “Not that word. Please. Never use that word…”
“I won’t,” I replied, smiling so wide that my face started to cramp. “I promise.”
I hung up the phone, and my smile quickly faded. I was thrilled that Cooper was coming. I missed him terribly. But the circumstances under which he was coming were far from ideal. Maybe we were making a big deal out of nothing, but if we weren’t, my life was about to get a whole lot more complicated in some mysterious way.
And I sure as fuck didn’t need that.
Chapter Twenty
I was exhausted by the time I got home. Cy and Alek were the only two there when I arrived, and neither made an effort to stop me on my way to my room or asked about the Ouija board I was carrying. I was thankful for that. I’d dodged enough questions at the bar with Jenkins. I was all out of evasive maneuvers.
Once I had cleaned up, I locked myself in my room with the lights off and sat in a stretch of moonlight filtering through the window. With the board placed on the floor in front of me, I sat the sliding pointer down upon it and stared at them both. This was to be my great connection to the undead? It was hard to swallow—or maybe too clichéd.
“I think Damascus is fucking with me,” I said to myself, crossing my legs to get more comfortable. Then I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, focusing on the ghost I’d seen that night. The anger in her eyes as she’d stared at the victim. Silent rage had burned within them.
I needed to know what had caused that rage and why she’d unleashed it on him, and presumably Ward as well.
“I need you to tell me why you were there,” I said to the silence surrounding me. Seconds later, I felt a slight breeze blow across my face. I opened my eyes to find a ghostly silhouette standing before the window, her semi-translucent form blurring the light of the moon. The loose summer dress she wore rustled when she moved toward me. Her soft green eyes shone brightly. But she was not the ghost I’d expected.
I’d never seen her before.
“You’re not the one I want,” I said, surprise in my tone. She cocked her head at me, her auburn curls falling over her shoulder. There was a note of irritation in her stare that I couldn’t ignore. She looked pissed at what I’d said. Suddenly I felt like apologizing for my rudeness to a specter. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that. I was just expecting someone else.”
Her gaze fell to the board and then back to me.
“You want me to ask you something.” It wasn’t really a question, but the pointer started to slide across the board toward the ‘YES’. “Well that was simple,” I muttered under my breath. “Okay, why are you here?”
R-E-V-E-N-G-E
She got right down to business, a trait I could respect.
“That seems to be the usual motive,” I said, thinking of the others that had come to me. “Do you know the girl I saw at the fight club tonight?”
NO
“Are you here because of the fight club murders?”
NO
I paused for a moment, wondering if she was here about something totally unrelated, then another idea hit me. The timing seemed too spot-on to be a coincidence.
“Are you here because of something that has to do with the full moon?”
She hesitated, her features scrunched with confusion. She was already far more animated than any of the other ghosts I’d encountered. It was morbidly amusing.
NO
“Well this isn’t working out nearly as well as I’d hoped,” I said to myself, remembering Damascus’ warning about ghosts and the limitations of the Ouija board. “What’s your name?”
A small smile tugged at her lips.
R-E-A-H
“Reah?” I said, over-enunciating the syllables as I looked up at her. “Like Ray-uh?”
YES
“Now we’re actually getting somewhere! So, you said you wanted revenge—is it for your death?”
YES
“Do you know who killed you—I mean, what is the name of the person who killed you?”
A-L-E-J-A-N-D-R-O
Didn’t ring any bells.
“Is he human?”
NO
“What is he? What type of supernatural?”
W-O-L-F
Electricity shot down my spine at that word. Damascus’ full moon warning ricocheted through my brain. I couldn’t shake the feeling that these events were somehow connected.
“Were you at the fights tonight—with the other ghost?”
Her eyebrows pinched together.
NO
Shit.
“Were you at the rail yard? At Damascus’ place?”
NO
Maybe my theory wasn’t as solid as I’d first thought. Still, I couldn’t ignore the niggling sensation at the back of my mind that somehow all these pieces were related. I just didn’t know how. Two dead wolves, a full moon warning, a ghost at the murder, and another—not the one I’d tried to call—wanting vengeance against a wolf named Alejandro. The common denominator in that equation was werewolves. I just didn’t know how to solve it.
I looked up at Reah to see her staring at my bedroom door, her hand wrapped around the stone necklace she wore. It was then that I heard footsteps approaching. I looked over my shoulder when my door handle jiggled, the person on the other side frustrated that it wouldn’t open.
“Gimme a sec!” I shouted, getting up. I turned to say something to the ghost, but she was already gone. So much for getting more answers that night. I sighed in frustration as my door handle continued to shake. “For fuck’s sake, I’m coming already.”
I unlocked the door and threw it open to find Nico glaring at me.
“Why is your door locked?”
“Because I don’t want people like you barging in on me?” He scoffed, then surveyed the room like maybe I was hiding something—or someone—from him. “You wanna check the closet for boys? Not sure how they’d get up here without scaling the building, but if it would set your mind at ease, feel free,” I said, sweeping my arm wide to invite him in.
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