Moon of Fire (The Blood Pack Trilogy #1)

by H. D. Gordon

  Warmth rushed over me as I held it cradled in my hands. “How?” I asked.

  Elian grinned. “Magic,” he said. “It’s called a fire flicker, and you may keep it.” As he said this, he released his hold on my hands and stepped away. The invisible force of his dark magic receded as well, and the loss of it was palpable, as if the world around us had been hushed, and now it rushed back in.

  I closed the lid on the flicker and stalked away, taking the damn thing since he seemed to insist upon it.

  From behind me, he called out, “A simple thank you would do just fine, crazy lady.”

  I was going to tell him to stop calling me that or else I would show him crazy, but he’d adhered to my demand that he leave me alone, and since he was behind me, I decided to forget the encounter entirely.

  When I finally made it around the side of the massive structure that was the Borden’s estate and saw Devon driving the carriage toward me, I wasn’t sure I’d ever been more relieved in my life.

  Whatever look was on my face must have revealed me, because worry flashed behind my brother’s blue eyes, and we rode the rest of the way back to The Mound in silence.

  “We need to leave,” I told my siblings, speaking directly into their heads so as not to be overheard.

  It was early the next morning, and The Mound was quiet all around us, the residents sleeping in their shacks after only having crawled into bed a couple of hours before.

  I had gathered Devon, Demarco, and Delia so that we could have this conversation. The twins were still sleeping, and so were my father and Jodi. Devon, Demarco, and Delia were the ones who needed to know what was going on, so that they could be aware.

  “What are you talking about, Dita?” Delia asked. “Why do we need to leave?”

  “And where are we going?” Demarco added.

  “There’s a boat,” I replied. “It leaves in two days for the coast and we need to be on it.”

  “Okay,” Delia said, placing a hand on her hip. “But, why?”

  Devon and I exchanged looks. The girl was always so full of questions, which was a quality I’d surely fostered while raising her, and sometimes at my own expense.

  “This place is no good for us,” Devon said, stepping in as he was surely observing my frustration. It had been a long night, and to say I was on edge would be an understatement.

  “The Mound is no home,” Devon added. “It never has been. You both know Dita has been working hard to save money to get us out of here, and now she has the means, and so we’re getting out of here. That’s all there is to it.”

  Delia grumbled a little more, for what seemed only the sake of grumbling, but finally, both she and Demarco agreed not to say a word to anyone about our departure, and to pack whatever few belongings they wanted to take with them on the trip.

  Once that was done, I had them go inside to start breakfast for the twins, who would be waking up soon.

  As the sun broke more fully over the horizon, glinting off the metal roofs of the houses making up The Mound, I stood beside my older brother and let out a long sigh.

  “Aren’t you going to ask me about what happened at the Borden’s?” I said.

  Devon was silent for a moment, his face turned toward the sunrise. He shook his head. “No need,” he replied.

  My eyebrows rose. “Why’s that?”

  My older brother’s arm went around my shoulders, and he gave me a little squeeze. “Because I knew as soon as I saw your face last night that the bastard had made it clear that he wanted to kill you… and to be honest, I guess I suspected it would end this way all along.”

  I took a moment to absorb this revelation, not knowing what to say for several long minutes.

  “Then why didn’t you try to stop me?” I asked. “Why help me?”

  Devon smiled, but there was only sadness behind it. He looked down at me from his taller height, a bit of dark hair falling onto his forehead. “Try to stop Dita Silvers? I’m very sure far better males have tried and failed.”

  I snorted, smiling a little at this, though I was sure it was only sadness lining my eyes as well. “There are no better males,” I said.

  Devon smirked, his handsome face outlined with the gold of the early morning. “That might be true,” he admitted. “But, Gods, I hope not.”

  His arm was still around my shoulders, and I leaned into him a bit. “All we need is each other, big brother. We’ve always pulled through, together.”

  “So we’re finally getting out of here, then? Going to that place in the picture, just like you always promised.”

  I nodded once. “That’s the plan.”

  Devon nodded, too. “Okay, Dita. Then, lead us home.”

  I slid my hands into my pockets, resting them over the irons hanging at my sides. All that was left to do was to talk to the ladies… And my father.

  And then I could lead us home.

  Home. I clung to the word.

  It seemed to me like a guiding star on a cold, dark night.

  Chapter 21

  My father had spent his entire life in the Southlands.

  Born and raised, as he would say. Though I’d never inquired, I was pretty sure that he’d never even crossed the Zouri, had not explored any further than his immediate backyard.

  As was often the case with such people, that was exactly the way he liked it. Why go elsewhere when everything you knew was right here? Why explore the world beyond, when the only world you knew was plenty good enough?

  His attitude towards leaving Borden and the South had always made me ponder my mother. I had not known much about her, had been too young when she’d died giving birth to Demarco, and so, the questions about who she was resurfaced every so often in my mind.

  Was she the one who I’d inherited the wanderlust from, the same way I’d inherited her curly brown hair and big brown eyes? Had she been reckless like Demarco, or steadfast like Devon? Was she fiercely loyal to those she’d loved? Had the world made her hard and cold, or had she remained warm until the end?

  The only people I could ask about these things, the only ones who had actually known her, were Devon and my father, Dion. Devon had been nearly ten when she’d died, which was plenty of time to get to know someone, but whenever I brought it up to either of them, they would get this haunted, sad look in their eyes. With Devon, I knew this look could lead to tears. With my father, to anger. Neither were reactions I’d ever felt particularly keen to incite.

  So I’d never asked, and I’d never known. I’d only picked up the tidbits they dropped willingly, coveting them like precious little things one locks in a box and hides under the floorboards.

  Telling my father that we were leaving would not be easy. I already knew that the male had no plans of ever leaving the familiar comfort of The Mound himself. And I also suspected that the fact that I wanted to would piss him right off.

  I’d debated long and hard over whether I should even tell him we were going, if it might not be wiser to just take my siblings and run. One thing I was sure of was that he would resist my taking of the twins and Delia, not because he loved them so much he couldn’t dare part with them (because let’s be honest, Devon and I were the ones actually raising the girls, and eighty percent of that workload fell on me) but because my father was as entitled in his attitude toward females as most other males that I’d encountered in my life.

  Male Wolves were particularly patriarchal and possessive when it came to the females in their lives, and my father was no exception. If anything, he was the rule.

  So I’d decided I would mention leaving, gage his reaction, and go from there.

  Because the bastard had spent the evening partying like the rest of the occupants of the slums, I didn’t get a chance to have this dreaded conversation until after midday.

  By that time, I was struggling to maintain my perpetually cool demeanor. I felt very much that there was a clock ticking over my head. Lukas Borden had not explicitly said he was through with me just yet, but my gut
told me that time was drawing nearer and nearer with every passing moment.

  I was not a stupid Wolf, so I used the time to finish packing the meager contents my siblings and I would take on our journey. I stuffed our clothing and essentials in bags that could be worn on our backs, and hid them inside one of the mattresses on the floor in the back room. I’d removed the old stuffing in order to do so, but it didn’t matter; we would only have to sleep on the pitiful thing for one more night.

  It was time to cut and run.

  After stashing our things, I’d shifted into my Wolf form and went on a hunt. It would make the conversation with my father easier if he had a full belly of fresh meat, and fresh drawn water from the well. I figured if I caught big enough game, I might even have a little extra for the girls before our long journey. Either way, in my experience, no matter the creature with which one was dealing, a full belly always made the process much smoother.

  So by the time my father stumbled out onto the porch, I had been waiting there an hour, and I had the libations and meal all ready for him. The smell of the fresh rabbit meat I had turning on a stick over a fire in a barrel was likely the reason he’d roused in the first place.

  I was leaning casually back in an old chair, twisting the rabbit I had cleaned and stripped on the stick, when the door to the house opened and my father came out to join me.

  “Dita, my girl,” he said, his voice deep and groggy with what was no doubt a killer hangover. He plopped his enormous body down on a chair beside me, dragging it closer to mine so that he could place a wet kiss on my forehead first. “What would I do without you?” he asked, as he took the water I offered him and gulped it down.

  I watched from beside him as his throat bobbed up and down, the stubble there rising and falling on his Adam’s apple, water leaking down the sides of his mouth to plop in splotches on his shirt, thinking that he was getting ready to find out.

  “I thought you might want something to eat,” I said. “Absorb some of the alcohol.”

  My father let out a long, stinky belch, and as usual, my teeth gritted against the urge to twist my lips in disgust. He ran the back of his hand over his mouth, smacking his lips. “And right you are, Dita, my dear.”

  Without waiting, he snatched up the stick with the roasted rabbit and began tearing into it with his big teeth, uncaring of the fact that it was still steaming hot from the fire. I watched in silence while he ripped into the meat, grease coating the dark stubble on his cheeks, eyes as wild as any creature I’d ever encountered.

  When he was finished, he tossed the now clean stick aside, belched again, and ran his hand over the back of his mouth. Grease smeared there, and he wiped it on his dirty shirtfront. Taking the second goblet of water I passed him, he drained the thing in a few gulps, and then rested back in his chair. His heavy arm snaked around my shoulders, and I told myself not to tense beneath it.

  “That was delicious, darling,” he said, licking his lips.

  “Don’t mention it,” I replied, then took a deep breath, and asked, “you ever think about leaving this place…? Seeing the world?”

  My father snorted, sucking at his teeth and eyeing me at the unexpected inquiry. “For what? I got everything I need right here.” His arm around my shoulder tightened a bit in emphasis.

  “But what if there was a better place?” I asked carefully.

  Another snort. “You know who you sound like?”

  “Who?”

  “Your mother. She used to say shit like that all the time. Never was happy with what she had.”

  I sensed the unspoken accusation there. “What if there were more job opportunities for Devon and Demarco and me, better schools for the girls, a better house for all of us? Would you go somewhere then?”

  My father’s arm fell off my shoulders, and he leaned back in his chair to look at me. “There’s no such place, Dita,” he said, his voice low and steady, like the calm before a storm. “And none of us are going anywhere. Certainly not the girls. Certainly not you.”

  And there it was; that male possessiveness that reared its head whenever I pushed just a little too far. It was everywhere in a female’s world, if one only looked for it. The signs that revealed that on a cultural level, females were viewed more as property than actual people. As far as my father was concerned, that property was his.

  “Right,” I said, slipping my hands into my jacket pockets and deciding that I would not tell him, then. That I would take my siblings and leave tonight. That I would leave this place and not look back, not for him, not ever. “I was just talking,” I added, waving a dismissive hand.

  This seemed to placate him, and he settled back in his chair once more, kicking his feet up and rolling his thick neck.

  It was not just Lukas I would have to run away from, I realized. Because when I left, in my father’s mind, I would have stolen away with his most prized possessions like a thief in the night. And I had no doubt that if he ever worked up the energy to find us, or if I ever decided to come back, that he might very well kill me for it.

  He loved me as much as he could, as much as he knew how, but when it came down to it, I was his property. Something to be owned, not loved.

  This was the male who had taught me everything I knew about the opposite sex, so it was no wonder they called me cold-hearted.

  Because sometimes ice is the only thing that can protect you from the burn.

  Following this conversation with my father, I needed to have a talk with the ladies. So I called a meeting and gathered them up, and we all met at the cavern.

  Devon and Demarco had stayed behind with the girls, getting things ready for departure as discretely as they possibly could.

  “Thank you all for coming,” I began.

  Kyra was perched on a stool near me, her hair puffed out into a majestic dark cloud around her head, her violet eyes gleaming with anticipation. I’d already told her what the plan was, and she had decided to take her earnings and come with me and my family when we left tomorrow evening. I’d suspected as much. Kyra did not have a family; she was an orphan who had taken care of herself for as long as she could remember, often committing small crimes in order to survive. As far as family was concerned, I was the closest she had.

  The others, however, I had just picked up by happenstance when I’d killed Ezra Ikers, but I had grown fond of them all. They were smart, capable females who had suffered more in their short lives than any one person should have to, and something inside me spoke deeply to this, frozen heart or no.

  “I’m leaving this evening,” I said, meeting the gazes of the two vampires, two Wolves, and Fae. “Lukas has… discovered my relationship with Erek Blackwood, and I think the best course of action for me and my family is to leave The Mound—to leave the Southlands, actually, and go somewhere far away.”

  There were exchanged glances, but the ladies waited for me to continue.

  I cast a look at Kyra, who nodded her head encouragingly, and I continued, “You’ve all made a good amount of money in our past dealings, enough to support you should you want to leave or stay, but you’re welcome to come with me and mine.”

  “Where are you going?” Cora asked.

  “Somewhere better,” I said. “Somewhere safer… More equal, I think.”

  “And you want us to come with you?” asked Emilia, the Fae among us.

  I nodded. “Only if you want to. I promised you when we started this thing that you could make your own choices, be your own person, but if you’re looking for a home, a family, I’m welcoming you into mine. I want you all to be part of my Pack.”

  The two Wolves, Zara and Nyla, looked surprised. Zara said, “Boss, you know Packs are made up of Wolves.”

  I tilted my head. “I know that the world tells us it supposed to be that way, that we’re not supposed to mix races, but this world hasn’t done shit for me, so I see no reason to abide by its rules.”

  I took their silence as cue to continue.

  “I say a Pack is a gr
oup of people who look after each other… Who protect each other. Who love each other.”

  Kyra’s eyes glowed bright violet as the Sorceress grinned broadly. “You know I’m in, D. I trust you with my life.”

  I offered my old friend a smile, then turned to the rest of them, my heart picking up pace a little in my chest.

  The five ladies of mixed races looked back at me, and then, the two Wolves—Zara and Nyla—stepped forward. They placed a kiss on my lips, which was an old ritual when new Wolves joined a Pack. A kiss on the lips of the leader was not meant to be sexual in any way, but rather, a show of trust, a show of submission.

  I had not said that I would be their Alpha, had not really even thought in terms of that, and I was shocked enough by Zara’s and Nyla’s actions that when the two Vampires and Fae followed suit, each placing a small kiss on my lips, I had to swallow hard to keep my eyes from welling up.

  “Take us home then, boss,” Zara said.

  And that, it seemed, was that.

  Chapter 22

  I was going to pull it off.

  After years of saving, of hoarding away whatever valuables and currency I could spare after clothing and feeding us all, we were going to get out.

  Out of the Southlands, away from The Mound. Just the thought made me so giddy that I had to stop letting it infiltrate my mind.

  I was not home free yet. I still needed to get myself and all those I loved away in one piece. Time was the only barrier, and it was winding down. When the moon rose on the following evening, we would be on our way out, never to look back.

  Currently, the sun was setting, and I felt pretty good about the fact that all five of the ladies had agreed to join me. Though I had only been working with them for less than a full moon cycle, I had grown fond of all of them for their own quirks and qualities. I’d never had friends, other than Kyra. I had never needed them. When one is born into a family full of siblings that need rearing, developing friendships was not high on the list of priorities. Kyra’s and my friendship had occurred by happenstance, and other than her, I’d never felt any sort of loyalty to anyone who did not share my blood.