Hunter Moon (The Moon Series)

by Jeanette Battista

  Laila felt her throat constrict, strangling the words she wanted to say. She cleared her throat, trying to work out the tightness. She wanted to punch something hard and often, but she knew it wouldn’t help. She shoved down the grief that threatened to swamp her. Later. Now she needed information.

  “Thank you, Master,” she said, in a voice almost like normal. “I’m sure my parents appreciated that.” She paused while her eyes scanned the surrounding area for possible threats. Seeing none, she continued. “I need your knowledge, Master.”

  “I know what you are trying to do, Laila.” His voice was quiet, but firm.

  “Please don’t give me a speech about how I can’t…” she began.

  He cut her off with a short huff of air. “I am not going to say any such thing. Your brother’s soul must be laid to rest. You are the only one who can do that.”

  Laila took the phone away from her ear, blinking in disbelief. She looked at it as though it might grow fangs and latch onto her face and begin to suck her brains out through her nose. Imagine that. Toshi actually agreeing with me. For once. She didn’t have high hopes for it lasting long.

  “Okay. I need to know everything you know about demons. Specifically one called Zamiel.”

  Silence from the other end. Laila waited a few moments, wondering why Toshi wasn’t answering her. “Hello?” she said. “Anybody home?”

  “I am here,” came the placid reply.

  Laila would have rolled her eyes, but she had the feeling that Master Toshi would know it, and then he’d have some arcane power that would enable him to kick her butt through the phone. She simply sighed. Loudly. “So what’s his deal?”

  “I have not heard that name in a very long time.” She could hear her master pacing on the other end. “Are you sure of his name—that it is Zamiel?”

  Laila nodded. “Yes, as sure as I am of anything.”

  “Hmmmm.” Another pause in the conversation. Laila ground her teeth and tried to be patient. A 900 year old kitsune didn’t like to be rushed. “He is a greater demon, very powerful. Is he somehow involved in your brother’s death?”

  “I think so. He seems to be working for or with, whatever, the guy who hunted Mebis.” Laila clenched her fists at the thought that Zamiel might have been there and done nothing. “He made a deal with him.”

  “Zamiel is a collector of sorts. If he finds something interesting, he will stop at nothing to possess it. The hunter must have piqued his interest.” Master Toshi sounded worried. Laila could just imagine his tails quivering in agitation. She decided to keep her conversations with the demon to herself.

  “He also mentioned a time table—that this hunter is almost out of time.”

  “Zamiel is notoriously tricky, even for a demon. If he has equipped this hunter to be able to hunt werebeasts, you must be very careful.”

  “He’s got a strange looking rifle I’d love to get a look at,” Laila offered. “It doesn’t look like anything I’ve seen that’s made this century.” She didn’t have to tell Master Toshi that her knowledge of firearms, both small and large, was extensive. “Maybe Zamiel gave him that?”

  “If the demon did so, there will be a catch.” Master Toshi went quiet, making Laila wait some more. He was thinking, and she knew better than to disturb him. She let her eyes glide over the people around her, focusing on nothing in particular.

  “This puts me in mind of an old folktale from the Black Forest,” the kitsune said when he spoke again. “A huntsman makes a deal with a demon for magic bullets that will hit whatever they are aimed at. But the last bullet is always the demon’s own.”

  “Zamiel might control the last bullet? So it can go anywhere he wants?” Terrific. This just kept getting better and better.

  “I will need to do more searching, but perhaps. You will need to be cautious.”

  “I don’t think Zamiel is particularly fond of Lukas Jaegar,” Laila told him. “I think he’s anxious for the time to be up.”

  “Be careful, Laila.” Master Toshi’s voice was still just as deep and resonant over the phone as it was in person. “Call me in a few days—at this same time—and I hope to have more for you.”

  Chapter Thirty

  Kess looked around the store, carefully assessing her surroundings. She couldn’t shake the feeling she was being watched. If there was one thing Kess was good at, it was recognizing that warning tingle of eyes on her—it was how she had eluded her father and brother’s private investigators for almost two years. If you thought someone was staring at you, they most likely were.

  It was a different kind of sensation than being stared at because she was pretty; she couldn’t explain the difference but she knew it instinctively. This was a feeling of watchfulness, of observation. Almost like tracking. Kess had hunted enough in her leopard form—and been hunted enough by her brother Sekhmet—to know what being prey felt like.

  Someone was hunting her.

  She didn’t like it one bit.

  Lukas. He’d finally decided to make his move.

  Kess was surprised. She hadn’t expected him to try for her anywhere so open and with so many possible witnesses around. Still, she shouldn’t have been too surprised; from what Laila had told her, Lukas’ time was running short, although why that would be, Kess still didn’t know. She suspected Laila wasn’t telling her everything she knew.

  Yeah. Real shocker there.

  Kess gathered up her bag and made her way to the exit closest to her car. The less time she spent walking through the parking deck, the happier she’d be. Cormac would absolutely kill her if anything happened to her, thus saving Lukas the trouble.

  Kess ran through a few of the defensive techniques Mebis had taught her in the months they sparred together. She felt confident she could take out a normal attacker long enough to get away, but Lukas wasn’t a normal attacker. He’d taken out Mebis. Kess swallowed the lump in her throat, and reminded herself to keep her eyes open.

  She made it to her car without incident, throwing in the bag and her purse over into the passenger seat. She was getting ready to get in herself when Kess saw the reflection of a man she didn’t recognize behind her in the glass of the window.

  Kess spun as quickly as she could, adrenaline giving her an added burst of speed. She struck out as she turned, intending to push him away long enough for her to get in the car and drive away to safety.

  Her blow never landed.

  Instead, hard fingers punched into the pressure points in her arms, causing them to drop lifelessly to her sides. She kicked out, but more fingers hit pressure points in her legs. Before she knew it, she sat on the ground next to her open car door, not entirely sure of how she’d gotten there.

  Kess stared up at the strange man, unable to do anything more than yell for help.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Cormac heard the doorbell ring. He thought that it might be Kess with her hands too full to manage keying open the door. They weren’t expecting anyone else. He began to walk down the hall, running into Finn, who was coming out of the kitchen holding half of an enormous sandwich.

  “You got it?” his cousin asked around a mouthful of cold cuts.

  Cormac nodded, waving Finn back into the kitchen. He continued on to the door. He opened it and gaped in surprise.

  Finn came up behind him and said, “Dude, why’s this guy carrying your girlfriend?”

  * * * * *

  Cormac paced the library, unsure of exactly what he felt. Anger, certainly; relief, definitely; frustration, oh hell yeah. He looked over at Kess, who sat in a wingback chair with her feet up on an ottoman. She was regaining feeling and movement in her limbs, but she was still not in full control of her legs. She looked exhausted and Cormac wanted nothing more than to gather her up in his arms and dump her into bed and demand she get rest, but he knew that was a pipe dream. They had work to do, and Kess wouldn’t think of resting until it was taken care of.

  So Cormac turned his attention to the work at hand: a tall
, nondescript man who leaned a shoulder against one of the many bookcases in the room. He had brown hair tinged with red that was salted through with grey. His green-grey eyes were flat and bored as he surveyed the room, but Cormac wasn’t fooled. This man was cataloguing every entrance and exit, every article present that could be used as a weapon, and every person in the room and their attendant weaknesses.

  Cormac gave his cousin a significant look. Finn barely nodded, but then he cleared his throat. “Don’t get me wrong,” Finn began, a little tentative when talking to the newcomer. “We appreciate you bringing Kess home and all, but usually one waits for an invitation. It’s considered rude to paralyze your potential host.”

  The man turned his implacable gaze to Finn, and his eyes were not amused. Finn looked away first. Cormac watched the exchange, finding this new man very interesting. When he’d shown up carrying Kess, Cormac had thought it had something to do with the werehunter that was on the loose. He hadn’t expected Kess to say the man was the one who’d put her in this condition, and then to be so cavalier about it.

  Kess spoke up, absently rubbing at one arm. “Sebastian is a Keeper who was sent here to find Laila.” Her voice was mild and her face was unconcerned, as if she had absolutely nothing to hide. Cormac was amazed at how good she was at keeping things hidden. Then he mentally smacked himself. Of course she was good at it; she’d had years of practice being another person when she was on the run from her family. It hurt him though, to see her have to resort to it again.

  “Why didn’t he introduce himself to you like a normal person?” Cormac bristled, unable to help himself. “Why’d he go after you in a parking lot?”

  Sebastian turned those flat eyes of his to him, but Cormac held his ground. He noticed this guy had more jackal-like features than either Laila or Mebis had—his eyes were slanted, and the bones of his face were sharper in the angles. It was kind of unnerving. “I am an Anubis Knight, youngling,” Sebastian said in a voice like a sepulcher. “I go where I wish and I do not present myself to anyone.”

  Cormac raised his eyebrows, but said nothing. He flicked his eyes toward his cousin; Finn was watching everything, Cormac hoped he wouldn’t give anything about Laila away. Right now, the best thing they could do is follow Kess’ lead.

  “As Sebastian was kind enough to explain to me after he undid the whammy,” Kess gestured at her legs, “he is here to find Laila.”

  Sebastian gave the faintest hint of a grin. “It was merely a few strikes in strategic areas meant to disable an opponent.” He inclined his head to Kess. “You did attack me after all.”

  “And we see how effective that turned out to be.” Kess kept her voice light and self-deprecating. She was in full-on clan leader mode, working hard to put a newcomer at his ease. She eased one leg off of the ottoman, carefully testing putting her weight on it while still seated. “I thought it would be a good idea to speak privately.” Cormac saw the look she gave him and nodded. She sent the same look to Finn, but he wasn’t sure if his cousin got the message—let Kess do the talking.

  Kess continued, turning a bit in her seat so she could meet Sebastian’s eyes. Cormac noticed how she seemed to gather a sense of power and confidence around herself and wear it like a coat. She’d come a long way from the girl on the run that he’d met almost a year ago. Being away from her had given him the ability to see the changes that being clan leader had wrought in her, ones that he hadn’t noticed—or hadn’t wanted to accept—when he’d been here before.

  “How much do you know about the situation in Miami?” Kess asked Sebastian. “I don’t want to bore you if you already know what’s going on.”

  “I have been briefed.” Sebastian folded his arms across his chest. Cormac could see Kess’ smile deepen as she tried to counteract the Keeper’s body language. She always did enjoy a challenge; she did live with Finn, after all.

  “Excellent,” she said briskly. “Then I won’t waste any more of your time. We thought Laila would be a good resource to tap into in dealing with this particular hunter. Her…skill set…would lend itself to tracking him down and trapping him.” Kess paused, her eyes flicking over to Finn. “We made the offer to her parents and they spoke with her. I assumed, mistakenly it appears, that everything had gone through proper channels.”

  Kess shook her head, her face growing serious. “Unfortunately, things haven’t worked out as well as we hoped. Laila has always been something of a wild card, but lately she has no interest in working with us. She’s cut communication with us and we’ve not had word of her whereabouts in at least a week.” Once again, Kess’ eyes briefly skipped to Finn. “She has even cut off contact with Finn here, and he has a much more cordial relationship with her than I do.”

  “I’m her boyfriend,” Finn added helpfully. Cormac wanted to smack him upside the head but thought now was not the best time.

  Kess nodded like Finn was a special needs kid she was humoring, then continued. “We would really like to help you as to Laila’s whereabouts, but we don’t know ourselves. She’s become pretty erratic since the death of her brother. But we’ll be happy to help you find her in any way we can.”

  “Hey!” Finn said, whipping his head around. Cormac glared at him, and Finn subsided into a pout.

  “Anyway,” Kess said, “That’s all we’ve got on Laila.” She dropped her other foot to the floor, absently rubbing at a tender spot on her leg.

  Sebastian was quiet a moment, as if weighing her words. Then, very quietly, he answered, “Bullshit.”

  Kess didn’t even blink. Her smile became just a fraction of an inch wider though. Cormac wondered what she was up to, but he’d possibly never wanted to kiss her more than he did right then. “Pardon?” Kess said.

  “You have no idea where Laila is?” Sebastian gestured at Finn. “Even her own boyfriend doesn’t know? Forgive me, but I call bullshit on that.”

  Kess pushed herself to her feet, wobbling only a little. “Call whatever you like on it. It’s the truth. We don’t know where Laila is staying.”

  “And you don’t have any way of getting in touch with her?” He shook his head in disbelief.

  “Oh, we can leave her messages all day long,” Kess clarified. “That doesn’t mean that she actually picks up. Or even that she has that phone number anymore.” She smiled sweetly. “And with someone hunting weres in my city, I thought I’d focus on the larger threat.”

  Sebastian stared at her, unfolding his arms and stepping forward to loom over Kess in a dominance move. Kess stared back, a bored expression on her face. Cormac grinned—it was the same expression he’d seen on the faces of housecats. He wondered if Sebastian recognized it as well.

  Finally, the werejackal looked away with a rueful grin. “Seems I may have underestimated you.”

  Kess said nothing, just continued to stare at him without expression. After a few moments, she spoke. “As I said, I’m happy to help where I can, but the hunter has to be my first priority. However, if you need anything, do not hesitate to let me know.”

  Clearly she was dismissing him. Sebastian was smart enough to know it, and he inclined his head in Kess’ direction. “I’ll be in touch. Count on it.” Cormac opened the library door in preparation of his exit. “I’ll see myself out.”

  “Like hell,” Cormac muttered under his breath, then followed the Anubis Knight out of the room.

  * * * * *

  When Cormac returned from seeing Sebastian out—which included watching the man leave, then doing several perimeter sweeps—Kess was moving a bit more easily around the room. She and Finn seemed to be in the midst of an argument. They stopped when he entered.

  “Well, that was fun,” Finn said drily.

  “Mind telling me exactly what happened in that parking garage?” Cormac tried to keep the anger from his voice, and he thought he was mostly successful.

  Kess didn’t seem to agree, if the look she gave him was any indication. “He came up behind me, I threw a punch at his head, he did something
weird to my pressure points and then I couldn’t move.” She ran a hand through her long, dark hair, pulling it back in a ponytail and securing it with the elastic band she always wore around her wrist lately. “He only told me who he was after I started yelling for help.”

  “What are we going to do about Laila?” Finn interrupted.

  Cormac bit back a snarl. He wasn’t done talking about Kess and her run-in with Sebastian, but Finn had neatly derailed the topic. Kess had already turned to answer.

  “Exactly what I said we’d do.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “We don’t know where Laila is staying, we know she’s not answering her messages from us. And she’s not been in contact with you, Finn, in well over a week. We’ve given Sebastian all of the information that we have. The rest is up to him.”

  Finn glowered. “We’re not even going to warn her?”

  Cormac spoke up. “She probably already knows.”

  Kess nodded. “Why do you think she hasn’t been in contact with us? She had to at least suspect that Keepers might send someone to retrieve her, even if she had our permission to stay in town. Rather than make us complicit, she’s trying to keep us out of it as much as possible.”

  Finn looked thoughtful. Cormac went over and clapped a hand on his shoulder. “Of all people, you know that Laila can take care of herself.”

  “I don’t have to like it,” his cousin muttered. “I mean, who knows what this Sebastian guy is capable of.” When Kess raised her hand, Finn grouched, “You know what I mean.”

  “I do.” Kess smiled slightly. “This just pushes us to find and deal with Lukas quickly. Then Laila can leave with Sebastian before she gets into any more trouble.” Her eyes went distant for a minute, then she frowned.

  Cormac knew that look. “You just thought of something.”

  Kess nodded slowly. “We need to find Lukas quickly because of Sebastian. He’s probably going to figure out that if he finds Lukas, he’ll find Laila.”