A Killing Moon

by Alexis D Craig

  Vasi licked his lips. “We’re not sure. For either question. Her driver went to pick her up at the designated time, but she wasn’t there.”

  “You’ve been looking for her since noon?” He didn’t realize he’d been yelling until everyone in the room flinched and cowered just a bit.

  “Highness, I assure you, we’ve been doing everything we can think of to locate Cora,” Xander avowed, looking like this whole situation was a personal affront he planned to rectify if it killed him.

  “You’ll pardon me if your assurances aren’t doing a whole lot for me right now,” Finn snapped, though the rest of his tirade was cut off by Dev’s cell phone ringing.

  Everyone in the room fell silent as the man stepped away to take the call, looking more and more serious as the quiet conversation continued.

  “...thank you. Let me know what else you learn.” He turned to the waiting trio and blew out a breath. “Why don’t we all take a seat?”

  Finn felt a blistering heat wash over him at the lack of direct answer. “I will stand, and you will speak.” He did not like to pull rank like that, but goddammit, his fiancée was out there somewhere, and he needed to know she was alright.

  Dev’s dark eyes rounded as he swallowed loudly. “Of course, Highness. I sent men to her place to look it over.” He blew out another deep breath before looking Fin directly in the eye. “They found signs of a struggle and a significant amount of blood.”

  He had no idea how he ended up on the couch, or where the drink in his shaking hand had come from, but the burn of scotch over ice was welcome as he came back to himself. “I… what are you doing to find her?”

  Dev took a seat at the other end of the couch, her end, and looked like he’d just shot his own dog. “We’re canvasing the neighborhood, checking traffic cameras in the area, but so far, we don’t have anything yet. On the upside, it looks like there’s way too much blood to be just one person, and none of it is Corvid, though it shows up messy and vaguely Avian.”

  “That just means she took some with her. If she was fine, she would have contacted me by now.” Looking to Vasi, who was busy texting in the armchair, he asked, “Is there a way to track her?”

  The owl looked up from his phone. “Like with her cell phone? If it was on, yes. It’s not, we checked.”

  “Okay, but what about her handler?”

  Confusion colored his dark features as his blue eyes narrowed. “What about her handler?”

  “Would he have a way to track her?”

  Xander came over and perched on the arm of the chair next to Vasi. “I mean, sure. It’s possible. But we don’t know who that is, so…”

  “Nicodemos LeStrange. Do you know him? Her brother?” He hated selling her out like this, but desperation was now firmly in control of his decisions.

  “Mos? You gotta be fucking kidding me.”

  * * *

  CORA

  Cora spent the rest of the afternoon in a heavily wooded area in the middle of the city not far from Fenway Park. It was the only place she could think of that was close enough to hide a six foot tall raven in broad daylight in February. Naked trees were definitely a consideration.

  Shifting left her with two problems even as it solved the more immediate one of her kidnapping: she was naked if she changed back, and her animal form was damn noticeable. She didn’t shift around humans because even though there were treaties and things in place, their world still had no idea what to do when what they thought was human most decidedly was not.

  Once night unfurled across the sky and the streetlights came up in the city, she headed over to the safehouse she had Mookie and Samson stay in, over by St. Elizabeth’s hospital in Aberdeen. It was a cute little two-bedroom townhouse in a nondescript court with seven other units that all looked like hers. Perfect for hiding in plain sight.

  Mookie’s car was parked out front and she knew Sam was still on the job, so she felt safe touching down in the backyard and shifting back. The key was kept under the pot that would eventually hold bright red geraniums in the spring in the hanging planter she’d made in college when she fancied herself crafty. It didn’t count as a break in if you had the keys, right?

  Mookie had a sweet face. Admittedly, until you got to know him, that was the only thing sweet about him. To strangers and the uninitiated, he had the disposition of a giant porcupine and the size to match. He was a hulk of a man with shaggy gray hair who, by virtue of standing anywhere, was the definition of looming. There was nothing about his size that would indicate he was a big old gray-striped tomcat, but he was a Felid through and through with ridiculous reflexes.

  Reflexes Cora did not take into account when she broke into the house unannounced, which was how she ended up with a gun in her face.

  “My bad,” the deep voiced cringed as he took in her naked state before turning around, gun vanishing as quickly as it had appeared all in one smooth motion. “Sorry, boss.”

  In the darkened hallway, she could just make out his flannel shirt and old jeans he’d had on earlier. His lack of shoes said that she’d interrupted his relaxation time. “It was my own fault for not calling ahead, no harm no foul.” She snickered at her bird pun, but Mookie only blinked at her. The nice thing about her people was weird was relative and no matter the time, they were there to help. “Thank you.”

  He looked over his shoulder sharply. “Thank me? For what, putting a gun in your face? You got some weird fetishes, boss.”

  Cora wheezed at his sideways attempt at humor. “Dude, today is not that day.”

  The smile never left his face as he nodded. “No worries. Let’s get you some clothes.”

  She kept a couple changes of clothes in the guest room closet, as well as the more traditional safehouse features of ID cards, burner phones, money, and guns with extra magazines of ammo because that would not happen again. Having on a pair of jeans that fit and some old school Docs went a long way toward settling her nerves. Next order of business: a plan.

  Mookie never turned on lights he didn’t have to, and when he was home alone, everything stayed off. His jade green eyes were pretty in the daylight and let him see in pitch conditions. She drank a cold coke over ice as she powered up the burner phone at the kitchen table in the dark. The caffeine and sugar felt amazing, and damn but she was tired. And hungry. Seemed like anymore, she was always fucking hungry. “You got any leftovers?”

  Mookie nodded and dug in the fridge until he pulled out a big glass bowl full of soup. “Pozole,” he answered her silent question, batting away her grabby fingers as he went to heat it in the microwave. “You are not a heathen. Simmer down.” She felt the urge to pout, but Samson’s pozole was to die for, so cold or hot, she was down.

  “You feelin’ alright?” he asked as he slid the steaming bowl in front of her. “You look a little pale.”

  Coming from the giant Dominican dude who was sitting in the damn dark, that was quite the indictment. “I spent the better part of the day feathered or naked, in February, up a damn tree in The Fens. I’ve been better.” She blew on her steaming spoonful of hominy-studded goodness and fell into culinary heaven.

  Mookie spun a chair around and rested his chin on the back of it as he watched her eat. “You gotta go back out?”

  She shrugged as she attempted to set a land speed record inhaling the bowl in front of her. “I have to. I… this job has gotten weird. Personal weird. And the guys who tried to take me are still out there. So I have to go protect the prince.” She didn’t say his name because she knew Mook would know instantly that something hinky was up in their relationship.

  “Need to call your handler then.”

  She hissed in a sigh before blowing out a deep breath. That was quite the bind. “Not sure he can be trusted.”

  His green eyes glittered in the muted light coming in from the streetlight in the alley. “Why not?” he sounded personally offended at the suggestion.

  Simple question. Messy answer. “I know who he is now.”

/>   “And?”

  “I’m not sure I believe him.” She pushed the empty bowl away and rattled the ice in her glass.

  “He do something to you?”

  “Yeah.” Understatement of the century right there.

  “Would you still call if you didn’t know who he was?”

  That was a question she hadn’t thought of. “Probably.”

  Mooks sighed and pushed to his feet, turning the chair back around the correct way. “Then you need to set that shit aside for the greater good: the prince. The fact is, this guy, whoever he is, brought you in on this case to keep Prince Finnegan safe, which means right now you have the same goal.” He nudged the burner phone toward her hand as he picked up the bowl to take it to the sink. “The rest of that shit you can fight about afterwards.”

  Damn him and his minimalist logic. “Fine!” She held up the phone and waved it at him as he left the room snickering. Then she dialed the number from memory, stunned when he answered after half a ring. “Who is this and how did you get this number?”

  “Missed you too, Mos.”

  “Fucking hell, Coretta! Where the hell have you been? They are getting ready to put out an APB on you!”

  “What? Why? And how did you know I was missing?”

  “Vasi called me, and he’s going to chew us both out when we’re together next, so just keep that in mind.” She didn’t have to work to picture his snarling grin at that. “They said your brownstone had been firebombed and there were bodies inside?”

  Not quite, but close enough. “I had some issues today.”

  He hummed in what she was sure passed for amusement with him. “Apparently. You leave your cell at the palace?”

  “No? I had it on me earlier today. I had to ditch it when I shifted. Why?”

  “We have a problem.” She could hear typing on a keyboard in the background. “They’re searching for you on the grounds of the palace because your cell phone pinged there ten minutes ago.”

  If her cell phone made it back to the palace without her… “Shit! They’re trying to use that to lure out Finn! I’m on my way!”

  She ran through the house, grabbing the keys Mookie held out to her from the chair in the living room, not even bothering to look her way. “Bring it back with gas!”

  “Yeah, yeah.”

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  FINN

  The upper floors of the palace weren’t used very often unless there was a summit of some sort, requiring them to house multiple dignitaries. It was museum beautiful, but crypt quiet. He didn’t expect to find Cora up here, but once Vasi, Xander, and Dev opted for an outhouse-henhouse-doghouse-style grid search, he figured it wouldn’t hurt. Her phone pinged on the grounds, so she had to be there somewhere.

  He’d started off with his security detail, searching the ground floors and the terraces, but somehow, he’d managed to get separated from them. No big deal, considering he was in his own house. He only hoped she was alright and his father remained none the wiser. The last thing the king needed was the added strain of worrying about his future daughter-in-law and grandchild.

  He’d just stepped out of the conservatory when Driscoll came tearing down the hallway at a breakneck pace. He came to a halt, puffing and out of breath. “Holy shit! There you are! Highness, you gotta come with me! It’s Cora and it’s bad! Please!”

  “Lead the way.”

  They turned back the way the Guard had come, quickly coming to the end of the hall with nowhere to turn. The tall, skinny vulture turned and shrugged, both hands out.

  “What’s going on?”

  “Sorry, Highness.” And that was the last thing he saw.

  * * *

  VASI

  “How do you lose the future king? Huh? How does that happen?”

  He had long since given up the pretense of having chill and was just stripping bark off everything that stood still long enough. First Cora had gone missing, and now Finn? Xander was with the king, he was coordinating the search of the gardens and the woods, and Dev had gone to see to shoring up the perimeter. No one in or out until this shit is sorted.

  “And has anyone seen Driscoll?” The bellowed question dimmed the murmur of the room as he looked at each of the faces manning the phone bank and consulting maps before going back out. The fact that the Guard he’d assigned to Cora had also gone missing worried the hell out of him. He hoped he was alright. He hoped they all were. “Anyone?” Instead of an answer, his attention was drawn to a melee by the front of the Guard house.

  “You will let me in the goddamn door, or I will snatch the beak off your goddamn face!”

  “I’d know that bitching anywhere. Let her in,” he called over to the Guard who looked grateful that she was no longer his problem.

  The future queen consort of King Finn of Therantia came stomping through the door in a black pea coat over a black turtleneck, dark jeans, and a pair of well-loved shitkickers. Well, there was one problem solved. “The hell have you been, Commander? There are bodies and we have questions.”

  She shook her head, taking off her coat and throwing it across the desk artfully, revealing a black leather shoulder holster and a compact double stack pistol that all but screamed she was out of fucks at this point. “Those are gonna have to wait. We have bigger problems.”

  He knew ravens had a reputation as being magical, but what she psychic too? “You know about Finn?”

  “Yeah, my cell phone pinging here was a trap meant to lure him out. Where is he? I need to see him.”

  Vasi had been in fear for his life twice before and standing within arm’s reach of Cora Westgate in that moment was the third. “... I think you should sit down.”

  Gold eyes stared him down as the bullpen grew silent with anticipation. “I think you better start talking.”

  It didn’t take long to catch her up, and she was surprisingly not nearly as ballistically pissed off as he’d feared. Ever the soldier, she immediately settled down to work the plan, combing over video of the grounds in search of anything out of place.

  “Got him!” she called, standing up to grab her coat. “Top floor of the palace, last seen getting off the elevator. Let’s hit it.” He watched her pull her pistol out, chamber a round, thumb grazing the safety, knowing in his heart she was going to add to her body count very shortly if they didn’t find Finn, and soon. “Anybody got a vest I can wear?”

  * * *

  CORA

  Vasi held the door for her as she entered the palace. “Ma’am.” He dipped his head in mocking deference and she lightly elbowed him in the ribs. “Ow! So mean!”

  “Meh. You’re delicate.”

  They headed straight to the elevator and headed to the top, eager to retrace his steps and hopefully find the errant prince. When the doors closed, he turned to her. “So… about today…”

  “Short version is there was an ambush at my safe house. I shot a bunch of guys and had to make a quick exit.”

  He looked like he was making mental notes. “How’d they get your phone then?”

  “I had to shift to make that quick exit out a second story window. It was pretty dicey, and they may or may not also have one of my weapons.” That wasn’t the proudest moment of her life, but she lived and was able to keep the engagement ring, so she’d take the win.

  “Oh, that’s nice.” Like he was talking about the coming spring warmup and not the potential for taking fire as soon as the doors opened. “I’m gonna need the rest of that story later.”

  “No problem.”

  “What’d you do with the bodies?” he asked as the elevator dinged for their floor.

  She quirked an eyebrow. “Nothing. They were there when I left.”

  “That’s what I was afraid of.”

  The doors opened to silence, which only made her anxiety thrum that much harder. He shook his head, his acute night vision and hearing giving him no help at all. There was nothing at all to give them a clue as to which way to go.

  “I go left,
you go right?” she offered gamely.

  He nodded, checked his weapon and moved to follow her command. “Holler if you need me.”

  The rooms were empty, as expected. Clean, to five-star hotel standards, no dust, no carpet fibers out of place, nada. Still, she checked each and every one just in case. In the closets, under the beds, not that she expected to find a man Finn’s size in either of those places, but she also didn’t want to find anyone else lurking that should not have been.

  She would have missed it if she hadn’t been looking, the tiny tail flick just above her. “Another fucking lizard,” she snarled as she aimed her pistol at the shadow retreating across the hallway ceiling. She didn’t want to shoot in the palace but hell.

  The Lacertine was, again, too damn quick for her to feel comfortable opening fire, and she took off on foot after him. Ceilings, walls, windows, floor, didn’t matter, he was moving and no matter how she chased him, he was ducking away. This would have been a helluva lot easier if she could shift, but she wasn’t sure the hallway was wide enough to accommodate her wingspan, which would have defeated the whole purpose.

  She was so busy chasing after him, she had no idea where she was in the palace when she lost him. It was a long hallway with tall windows on both sides, that let in the moonlight and the security lights outside, casting everything in between the stripes of light in stark relief. It wasn’t a wing of the palace she was familiar with, but she figured if she kept going forward, she’d find her way eventually.

  A flick of a shadow caught her eye from down the hall, and clawed hands that grabbed her arms and held her materialized out of nowhere. The bastard grunted when she drove her foot down her assailants shin, and another set of hands grabbed for her flailing feet. She felt the toe of her boot meet a chin, and heard a body hit the ground, but the hood they shoved over her head prevented her from seeing more.

  * * *

  FINN

  The sharp pain in his face woke him, with the burning in his restrained hands and feet being the next things he noticed. Surprisingly enough, it wasn’t the yelling.