“Son of a bitch, come on. Give me something to do.”
“Oh, hell, I shouldn’t say anything, but sounds like we don’t have a choice. You need to keep your ass there under Conclave orders. Got it?”
“Damn the dark moon. I’ll stay, but give me a project. Something. Anything.”
“What do you know about the Thurston family?”
“Pair of brothers called Irvine and Robert, both of whom are questionable. Irvine is the High Alpha for the last century and has three sons. Henry is the oldest, a useless drug addict, and mated. The middle one is Alexander who disappeared, don’t know much about him, but seems the best out of the three. The youngest is a crybaby called Joshua. Don’t know much about Robert. Why?”
“Not a bad recall.”
“I grew up here before I joined Operations. I don’t forget my home clan,” Etienne muttered. “What gives?”
“You missed a few things while in recovery. Irvine is no longer the High Alpha. Alexander came home and took over after Irvine and another High Alpha abused their positions and tried to force a mating with an unwilling female, who was being courted.”
“What else?”
“Joshua and his new mate were involved because they tried to attack the female after her mating dance. They’re in secured cells with both High Alphas, awaiting their trials before the Conclave judicial court.”
“What about Robert?”
“Yes, this is the tricky part. He disappeared after Irvine became High Alpha.”
“Dead?”
“No. He built a powerful splinter group of rogue warriors and followers. Since you took out Kaveh, this is the dominant group. He keeps close to the Fire Moon valley, on the outer edge. So far, he created a toxin and attacked multiple guardians and others. The victims were trapped in jaguar form, and things weren’t looking good for a recovery.”
“What happened?” Etienne wondered why the long discussion.
“The appearance of a doctor and a Luna jaguar changed things.”
“Luna? There’s a Luna here? I thought they were a myth.”
“The Lunas are real and she’s a doctor in the Fire clan. She appeared within the last few months, after the first attack. We don’t know her whole story.”
“Do you want me to research a Luna?”
“No, we don’t go against the Goddess. The Lunas belong to her and are under her protection. You need to become a guardian, learn everything you can about the rogues, their patterns, and Robert Thurston. We know nothing about his personal life, possible children, the rest of the rogues under him, and where they stay. Your home is near the border so you can check things out. The clan attacked the rogues to remove the poison, but nothing else.”
“Become a guardian?”
“It’s something you can do to keep your mind occupied. You’re cleared for the job.”
Etienne blew out a long breath.
“Will you accept this?”
“I’ll take it. I’ll speak with the Alpha.”
“I’m going back to bed.” Paul hung up on his end.
“Sleep, my furry butt,” Etienne muttered as he glared at the screen. He took a long drink from the bottle. Dark moon, I wish this was alcohol.
From the far side of the patio, hidden in the inky darkness, someone called out, “Who’s there? I heard voices and can smell you. This is the Fire Moon Guardian Patrol. Identify yourself. This home is off limits.”
Guardian Patrol, what the hell?
“Ahh. Son of a…” He finished the curse under his breath. Before he could get his mind wrapped around everything, Etienne needed to be back on his feet. The eye-blinding light lifted to shine in his face and forced him to squint. He lifted the bottle to shadow his eyes. “Sweet Goddess, could you lower the light? I can’t see a damn thing.”
“Who are you? This house is closed to all visitors. No one is allowed here.”
“Shit, this isn’t the best time, kid.”
“Either you answer me or I’ll shove your ass into a cell. We don’t fool around this close to the border. Who the hell are you?”
“Relax, please. I own the damn place. I’m de la Fontaine,” Etienne said.
“Impossible. Last one died ten years ago in the rogue attack.”
“Though my parents wish I joined them or my siblings, I’m not dead. I’m their son, the forgotten one, Etienne.”
The flashlight wavered and lowered. “Etienne?”
Etienne squinted and blinked to try and get his night vision back. He couldn’t get a glimpse of a slender, black shadow figure behind the flashlight. “Contrary to rumors, I’m still alive. I arrived a few hours ago, fell asleep, and woke. Don’t have power or anything until I make a few calls when the sun rises.”
The male stepped across the patio, keeping the beam pointed down so as not to blind either one. “What the hell are you doing back in the valley? It’s been sixty fucking years and you had the whim to make an appearance in the middle of the night.”
“Oh, shit.” His body stiffened as Etienne recognized the voice. Instead of the tone being filled with laughter and jokes, it was filled with anger and sarcasm. He knew the voice. It haunted his dreams. “Isaac.”
Chapter 2
“Well, thank the Goddess. The man even remembers my name. He can’t remember to call or write for sixty years, but he figures out my name in the dark,” Isaac Deforrest said, his tone full of sarcasm as the flashlight moved to bathe the youngish appearance face in light.
Etienne pulled in a sharp breath at the sight of the boy he’d loved and left behind who grew into a gorgeous, powerful jaguar guardian male. Deep-brown hair flopped across his forehead while the rest blended into the night around them. The dark piercing gaze which he knew was a bright baby blue drove straight through him, leaving nothing to chance. The coltish, long-limbed, angled frame of a youth reached a full five-eleven height and filled with lean, ropy muscles. They were both in their late seventies, but thanks to jaguar genes, they had the appearance of men in early thirties.
The crackle of a radio broke the silence between them.
“Deforrest, this is Base. Come back,” another male called over the radio.
Not removing his gaze from Etienne, Isaac unclipped the radio from his hip. He hit the button. “Base, this is Deforrest. Go ahead.”
“Report on intruder at Fontaine place. Come back.”
“Intruder is Etienne de la Fontaine. He came in late. No power or anything in house. The closest neighbor saw his flashlight and shadow.”
“Etienne is back?” the voice replied.
“Yup. Staring right at him, Gage,” Isaac said.
“No shit,” Gage said. “Hey, Etienne, welcome back.”
“Hey, Gage,” Etienne said. “Thanks for the welcome.”
“Is there anything we can do to help you out?”
“I could use some help with the utilities,” Etienne said to the trio who had been a tight-knit group until he disappeared from the valley.
“I’ll put a note to get the utilities going first thing in the morning.”
“Appreciate the assist, Gage.”
“Not a problem. Things are running a little different around here since you last walked through town. In the morning, you better get your tail in to see the High Alpha.”
Etienne cursed at the order. He rubbed a hand over his facial scruff and scratched a spot. He heard all of this from Paul, but needed to play his new role. Either way, he would be going against another Thurston and wasn’t sure if he would have a fight on his hands with the Alpha. “Old Man Thurston in charge?”
“No, he got his ass kicked out and arrested along with another High Alpha. His son, Alexander, took over the clan.”
“Alex returned to the clan?”
“Yeah, he showed up before a full moon,” Gage said.
“Like someone else we know,” Isaac said.
Etienne met Isaac’s stare.
“Okay, cool down, Isaac,” Gage said. “Anyway, Alex is
changing things. Collin Thompson is the Guardians’ captain. There are no more seasonal dances. Thanks to a triad mating, we enacted the Courtship Laws.”
Etienne stared at Isaac. “Wait. Did you say a triad mating?”
“We have two triad matings and both of them were blessed by the Goddess,” Isaac corrected.
“During a Fire Moon Dance, the epitome of a blessing for a mating,” Gage added over the radio. “We couldn’t believe it, but the Goddess herself appeared to bless the second mating without a dance.”
“Damn. Wait, back up a minute, did you say an appearance from the Goddess Selene?” Etienne asked to verify what he heard. Okay, Paul and the Conclave didn’t hear this one. “What the hell else did I miss?”
“We got a dangerous rogue clan taking over the northern edge. They burrowed in the caves. Old Man Thurston’s bastard of a brother Robert leads them. He concocted a poison from herbs, plants, flowers, and metals as the base. When we’re shot, we shift into cat-form and are stuck, helpless,” Isaac said.
Again he knew this, but not all the details. Etienne rolled the bottle. “How did we learn about this shit?”
“He had a scientist under his control.”
“Who were the first victims?”
The poison dart attacks by the rogues were still recent in the minds of everyone within the valley and kept everyone on their guard. Doors were even locked tight for the first time in years in fear of what the rogues would attempt next.
Guardians were the first to be attacked since they patrolled the outer areas. The first time was unexpected and took out one of their finest guardians, Zacharias Stein, and his patrol partner, Grant Carson. No one knew what had happened until Gage was unable to get in touch with them. With only a trained single EMT, Nathan Thomas, and no doctor, things had become frightening fast until Doc Melinda arrived.
“Isaac? Who were hurt first?” Etienne asked again.
“You remember Zach, right?”
“Of course, he taught our guardian class. No one could get the drop on Zach.”
“Zacharias and Grant were hit while on the northern patrol. It took Nathan and three others to find and get them back to the clinic. Other victims were found as Thurston increased his plans and demands. One of those victims included me when I was on the wrong path on the wrong time and I got a dart in my ass,” Isaac said.
“What?” Etienne asked.
“Yeah, it’s true. He was on one of the later patrols with David, a new guy, to control the outer perimeter. I heard nothing back. Collin and Luca were unavailable for assist since they were busy at the hospital with the doc. There was a bad feeling we had more victims and we reacted fast. Several groups were sent out in a search pattern and we found them unconscious in jaguar form,” Gage replied over the radio, which he kept in constant connection. “David and Isaac were the last patrollers until we could stop the attacks.”
“Luca? Who is Luca?” Etienne asked.
“Luca Constantin. He’s another guardian who transferred here. A good cat. He’s in the second triad mating with Collin and the new doctor.”
“A lot of new faces,” Etienne said.
“What happens when you disappear for over sixty years,” Isaac said.
“Do you need to keep going there?” Etienne asked as he glared at the other man in front of him.
“Do you know how long I counted on you to contact me?” Isaac tapped his fist against Etienne’s shoulder. “It’s a shit load of a long time with nothing from you.”
“I couldn’t—”
“Don’t give me the excuse! I counted for sixty-two years, eight months, two weeks, and five days. I didn’t have time to check the hours and minutes.”
“What?”
“I counted the entire time. What the hell else am I supposed to think about what you did? Dark moon, you flipping disappeared on me! Gone! Poof! Vanished!” Isaac pointed those words with a finger in Etienne’s shoulder.
Letting himself be abused by Isaac’s anger, Etienne dropped his gaze from the man he’d left behind while he made his escape from his despicable family. “I couldn’t…” He shoved a hand through his hair. “What about this poison, Gage? How did…” His Adam’s apple bobbled as he swallowed hard. Again, he got the basics from Paul, but didn’t know one of the victims was Isaac. His Isaac. “How are you standing in front of me?”
“You wouldn’t believe it.”
“Try me.”
Isaac smiled at the thought of how things turned around and happened during the initial attacks. “When Alex took over, he made Collin Thompson the new captain. Luca Constantin was a recent transfer and they hooked up together.”
“Like Sebastian and Raphael did.”
“Yup. While Collin was on a long patrol, before the attacks happened, he met a pretty cat in the woods. Feeling the connection to her and Luca, they went to Alex to see if they could figure who she is. The cat turned out to be Melinda Hurst, a trained human doctor and veterinarian waiting for her transfer papers to be approved by Alex. After the initial attack on Zach and Grant, they called the local vets and Doc Melinda appeared and took over everything.”
“I thought the clinic was gone.”
“The structure stood, but was badly neglected. I heard she ripped into Collin and Luca about the condition of the place.”
“Good for her.”
“Anyway, thanks to her skills, she and Nathan supported them and figured out an antidote with River Essex,” Gage said.
“River? Oh, the nerdy cat who went away to study science. He returned to the clan?”
“Yeah, he came back and is a top-notch scientist,” Isaac said.
“We came close to losing Isaac,” Gage added. “Though he was one of the last ones hit, the poison seemed to hit him and Grant the worse.”
“Gage,” Isaac growled.
“He deserves to know. Besides, the doc released you yesterday for full duty, even if we’re keeping you on town patrol. You’re not supposed to exert yourself. Anyway, the danger is still there. We destroyed the garden and bombed the lab.”
“Did someone let Raphael and Sebastian play with combustible chemicals?” Etienne asked with a sigh.
“According to a pleased Raphael, it went boom.”
“Oh, boy. Anyone hurt?”
“Not on our side.”
“Can someone still make this poison shit?”
“Yeah, according to the doc, the rogues can grow the plants and combine the mixture. We learned we killed the scientist in the attack, but Thurston got away.”
This doc must be the Luna jaguar Paul mentioned, Etienne figured. Something about her bringing about Luna moon flowers helped restore Isaac and the others. How close did he come to losing the one man who had captured his heart?
Rising from the lawn chair, Etienne moved to Isaac. Without a word, he wrapped a hand around the other man’s neck and tugged him straight into his embrace. He held onto him for a long, hard moment and pressed his face deep into the dark hair, grateful for the inches in height difference. A few minutes ticked by before Isaac relented and snaked an arm around Etienne’s waist.
“It’s okay, big guy,” Isaac reassured him.
“Gonna let you two talk. Isaac, I’ll sign you out for the night,” Gage said.
“Copy. Night, Gage,” Isaac said.
“See you tomorrow,” Gage said and the radio went silent.
Isaac pounded a fist twice on Etienne’s back and broke the embrace. He stepped into the shadows, the flashlight pointed at his feet to break the darkness.
Etienne wanted to yank him back in his arms, where he belonged after all this time. Damn, he missed holding the smaller man. To think he’d come so close to losing Isaac and he’d had no clue. He sat down hard on the lounge chair. When another wave of dust and debris wafted, he let out a soft cough of disgust. A wave of the light went over him and he knew Isaac checked him out.
“Shit, I wish I could say sixty plus years did you good, but, nope. Dayuuum! What the hel
l? You grew into your height and added a few more inches, damn you for it, but…” Isaac shook his head.
“What is it with all these buts?”
“You look like someone clawed your ass. Not to mention, you’re rather scruffy.” Isaac tapped his fingers against Etienne’s covered chin. “Going for a goatee?”
“More like not giving a shit about shaving.”
“What happened to you?” Isaac moved his fingers and turned him so he could shine the light over the angry scar on his temple. “What the hell is this?”
“I got caught in a fight. Heavy metal bullets with molten centers screwed me up in a big way.”
“Is there nothing else to explain? You were in some kind of fight where there were gunshots. You’re not giving me a whole helluva lot of detail.”
“All I’m allowed to say. I’m here on medical leave.”
“What have you been doing?”
“I’m an agent and guardian for a council.”
“An agent? What kind of agent? Which council?”
“I can’t tell you. I work with confidential information, similar to the level of the normals’ federal government type of clearance but for our kind. I can’t talk about my work.”
“Is this where you’ve been?”
“I had to do a lot of specialized training, which accounted for ten years, but yes, I joined with them after I left here.”
Isaac dropped on another chair, sneezed at the dust, and shined the light around. “This place is a mess.” He sneezed and sniffed several times. “I hate dust.”
“Tell me about it. Are you allergic?”
“Yup.”
Etienne looked around with a raised eyebrow. “I didn’t think the situation would get this bad and knock me out for a few weeks. I thought I hired a caretaker to keep up the place, guess the message didn’t get through.”
“Duh! No one’s been here since your parents’ death. Old Man Harvey shut everything down.”
“Perfect. No wonder it’s a haven for dust bunnies. Lemme get a lantern from inside so you can put away the flashlight.” Etienne fumbled for the large camping lantern, turned the knob, grabbed another bottle of water, and returned outside. He tossed the bottle to Isaac, who caught it in one hand.
Dark Moon Dance [Fire Jaguars 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) Page 2