First Moon (The Ternion Order Book 1)

by Daniel R. Marvello

  Amanda glanced up at the cupola with an expression of nervous excitement as the light of the room shifted to dusky tones. The sun was setting, and the ceremony was progressing right on schedule. She kneeled next to Kyle’s chair.

  Having reviewed the exorcism ritual Amanda had put together, Kyle knew more or less what to expect. Noreen might have altered it, but he doubted she would risk messing with the original ritual too much.

  Amanda lit a piece of charcoal inside the crucible and added the herbs she’d prepared. Thin, pungent smoke rose from the herbs and floated around the circle. Kyle hadn’t noticed it before, but the shimmering air column had a distinct swirling flow to it. The smoke was drawn toward the edges of the circle, where it rippled against the air column and spread up its inner surface.

  Amanda stood and positioned herself directly in front of Kyle. She held the wolf skull at chest height with the jaw facing her. The ruddy colors of sunset eclipsed the glow of the skull, even though the sun’s light was fading from the room. Amanda called on the spirits to help her drive the demon from Kyle, as she had during the first exorcism.

  Kyle’s vision narrowed and he could feel the demon coming forth, but this time he wasn’t going to let it take over. He was never going to the abyss again. He gripped the knife in his fist and placed the point under his chin. The demon halted its assault on his mind for a moment, but then it continued. Kyle pressed the blade into his flesh until it drew blood. The demon paused again.

  That’s right, you bastard. If you try to take over, we both die.

  Amanda gasped and glanced over her shoulder toward the altar when she saw Kyle raise the knife. Noreen leaned to see around Amanda and cursed when she saw what was happening.

  Amanda’s voice took on a desperate edge as she continued to call upon the spirits for help. The column of air became more turbulent, creating a breeze within the circle that fluttered against Amanda’s clothing.

  Kyle was aware of the instant the sun dropped completely below the horizon. A chorus of muted howls leaked into the room through the cupola windows as the werewolves called to their companion.

  The demon changed tactics. Rather than clawing for control over Kyle’s body, it tried a direct assault on his consciousness. The effect was like being repeatedly hit on the back of the head with a baseball bat. If the demon succeeded in knocking him out, it would be sitting an arm’s length away from Amanda with a knife in its hand.

  He couldn’t let that happen. The ritual wasn’t working, and he couldn’t hold the demon back much longer. He closed his eyes and tilted his head back, bracing himself to plunge the knife up and into his brain. The demon cringed and growled across his mind. It was so close to winning.

  A cold hand gripped his forearm. “Kyle, wait. Give me the knife.”

  Amanda didn’t understand what he was doing and he couldn’t let her stop him. He opened his eyes to look into hers one last time, immune to the desperate plea they held. He tightened his grip and shook his head once, painfully deepening the puncture in his neck.

  “You have to let the demon manifest,” she insisted. “I can’t trap it until you let it come forth.”

  Shit.

  The demon’s presence was like a looming shadow. It waited to see what Kyle would decide.

  What if Amanda was wrong? Kyle would be forever locked in the abyss. He was far better off dead.

  But what if she succeeded? Kyle would get his life back, and this whole nightmare of werewolves, magic, and demons would be over.

  It all came down to one question. Did he believe in Amanda enough to give her control over whether he survived or spent the rest of his existence in the abyss?

  Kyle lowered the knife and held it out in his open palm. Amanda grabbed it from him and kneeled, slipping it under his chair.

  The wolf skull was in her hands again when she straightened. She raised it, positioning the skull over Kyle’s head, and started calling to the spirits again.

  Sensing Kyle’s surrender, the demon wasted no time. Its presence slipped over his mind like ink spreading from a tipped bottle. His awareness was unceremoniously shoved into the abyss.

  But this time was different. Rather than plummeting endlessly in dark silence, he was buoyed just beyond the edge of sensation. Amanda’s voice was an echo of sound from far away. The pain from the wound on his neck was a disconnected throb that belonged to someone else.

  He wasn’t alone. Warm sensations buffeted him, calming him and giving him patience.

  Then came the scream. It was unlike anything Kyle had heard before. It tore through the abyss like the blaring horn of a freight train, shocking Kyle into numbness. The demon’s departure created a forceful vacuum that sucked Kyle’s awareness back into his body with a slamming jolt of confusing sensations.

  His vision slowly cleared. Amanda still held the wolf skull over his head and called to the spirits to banish the demon. Her braid whipped over her shoulder and her clothes rippled in a tornado of wind that scoured the inside of the circle.

  Amanda took a deep breath. In an authoritative bellow, she demanded, “Spirits of light, banish this dark spirit and let it plague the living no more!” Green filaments of light appeared in a lacy eggshell around Amanda. The shell expanded until the whirling wall around the circle absorbed it.

  The wolves outside howled in unison again, and they were joined by a howl that came from the skull. Kyle cringed from the totem as a thin, silver bolt of lightning flashed from the swirling column of air and struck the skull with a thunderous crash. The howl from the skull stopped instantly, and the werewolf chorus outside slowly faded away.

  Amanda lowered her arms and blew out her breath in relief. She swayed for a second and Kyle reached forward to steady her. She stopped him with a look that told him they weren’t done yet. Kyle sat back, recognizing the danger of the unseen forces that still swirled around them and had yet to be released.

  Kyle had difficulty remaining seated while Amanda completed the ritual and released the spirits. He itched to stand up and whoop while waving his arms in the air. He wanted to hug Amanda and twirl her around in a circle. He was alive! The demon was gone from his mind like a black stain bleached from a white cloth. He would not be turning into a werewolf tonight or any other night.

  By the time Amanda finished, Kyle’s initial euphoria had passed. For the first time in many days, he dared to think about what he was going to do after First Moon. Would the werewolves leave him alone now, or would he have to leave the area? Would they follow him if he did leave? Could he get his job back? Did he want it back?

  Amanda reached out a hand to help him up from the chair. He ignored her hand and got up to envelop her in a tight hug. He closed his eyes over her shoulder so he wouldn’t have to look at Noreen’s disapproving face. “Thank you, Amanda. I owe you my life.”

  She hugged him back just as tightly. “I’m so glad it worked. I was afraid I’d lose you.”

  As much as he wanted to, Kyle tried not to read too much into her remark. A friendship had grown between them over the past few weeks, and they had flirted with each other a little, but he didn’t expect a romantic relationship to suddenly blossom. He smiled to himself. All in good time.

  Chapter 19

  Hunter

  Kyle hurried down the walkway, dodging the few pedestrians who strolled through town on the blustery day. Gunmetal gray clouds hid the midday sun, making it feel much later in the day than it really was.

  When he reached McWort’s, Kyle pulled open the heavy wooden door and stepped into the warm interior. Other patrons enjoying their lunch filled the space with the noisy clink of glasses and scattered conversation.

  Amanda waved to him from her seat at the table where they’d first met. Tiny streams of bubbles rose in her half-empty glass of golden beer.

  “Sorry I’m late,” Kyle said, pulling out the chair opposite her and sitting down. “I hope you haven’t been waiting long.”

  “Only about ten minutes,” she said with a
smile. “Long enough for the waitress to ask about my order a half-dozen times and for me to fend off a few guys who wanted to join me.”

  Kyle looked around the restaurant with narrowed eyes. “Which guys?”

  Amanda reached out and touched his hand. He almost missed the tingle he used to get from her touch, but didn’t care to repeat the conditions that had made it possible. Amanda had explained that the mild shock they had experienced was because of her magical alignment with the light forces, which had reacted to the dark spirit within him.

  “I’m kidding,” she said. “But it’s cute that you care.”

  Kyle squeezed her hand with his and waved with the other to get the waitress’s attention. “Of course I care. If this seat is in demand, I want top dollar for it.”

  Amanda let go and pinched him. “Very funny. If anyone gets the money, I think it should be me.”

  Kyle mocked a thoughtful look and then shook his head. “Nope. They have a name for girls who do that sort of thing.”

  “I would have a name for you too,” she said, and they laughed together.

  The waitress came by and took their lunch order, returning only moments later with the dark beer Kyle had requested.

  He lifted his glass toward Amanda and said, “Happy Equinox.” She raised her glass and clinked it against his, repeating the toast.

  When Kyle found out that Amanda celebrated the equinoxes and solstices rather than the typical religious holidays, he invited her to lunch at the brewpub as his treat.

  He was glad to see that she seemed happy and relaxed. She was dressed in blue jeans with a green and teal flannel shirt, and her hair hung to either side of her face in dark waves. His breath caught as it often did when he looked deeply into her intelligent hazel eyes. She was leaning back in her chair, smiling slightly at him, while her hand turned her beer glass.

  He leaned forward to explain his tardiness. “I got a call as I was headed out the door to meet you. I should have let it go to voicemail, but I had a feeling I should answer it. I’m glad I did.”

  Amanda caught the emphasis he placed on his last sentence. She wrinkled her forehead and asked, “Is everything okay?”

  “Yes, actually. It was Garrin Brisbane.”

  The name caught Amanda’s attention. She sat forward with excitement in her eyes. “As in the master hunter from the Order’s technology discipline?”

  Kyle smiled and nodded. “The very same.”

  “What did he want?”

  Kyle watched Amanda’s reaction closely. After the exorcism, they had seen each other only a couple of times over the subsequent weeks. They had decided to “just be friends” while Kyle got his life back in order and figured out what he wanted to do. He had done that and wanted to ask her if she would still be willing to pursue something more with him.

  He took a deep breath and answered her question. “Garrin wants to interview me. I’ve been talking with Jonathan about joining the Order, and he agreed to sponsor my request.”

  Kyle had been working with Jonathan off and on at the marina doing guided kayak tours. The money wasn’t good, but it was a lot of fun.

  The two of them had spent a lot of time talking about the possibility of Kyle joining the Order. Many of the physical alterations the demon had wrought on his body remained. He was still supernaturally strong and fast. He wore colored contacts to hide the fact that his irises were still amber. Unfortunately, the quick healing was magical in origin, so it had left with the demon. Everyone had expected that he would lose his ability to see magical auras as well, but he hadn’t. That one still baffled everyone at the Ternion Order.

  Regardless, the abilities he retained made him a paranormal by Order definitions, and he suspected they would want to keep an eye on him, one way or another.

  Amanda’s gaze was steady and unreadable. “When did you decide to join the Order?”

  Kyle chose his next words carefully. This wasn’t all about her, and he didn’t want her to worry that it was. “When I decided that I didn’t want to leave the area.”

  She drained the last of her beer and looked down at the empty glass, still with a blank expression. “I thought you had things to work out before you made that decision.”

  “I did. And I worked them out. Sherry has moved on. She won’t even talk to me. Last I heard, she was planning to leave town again. I haven’t heard anything from the Pack since the ceremony, either. In fact, I was offered my old job back, so it seems they’ve stopped trying to sabotage my life. However, I’m looking into freelance programming, in case I’m accepted by the Order. The income wouldn’t be as steady, but I could work from home and my schedule would be flexible. I could even continue to work with Jonathan once in a while.”

  Their food arrived, and they waited until the waitress had left before continuing their conversation.

  Amanda stared at her food for a moment. She didn’t seem interested in eating it. When she looked up at him, he thought he saw disappointment. Had he said something wrong?

  “That’s great, Kyle,” she finally said. “Congratulations.”

  Kyle couldn’t stand not knowing what she was thinking. “Is something wrong, Amanda?”

  “No, I’m good.” She started eating. Between bites, she said, “I’ve just been really busy. Lots of work to do. Great money, but no time.”

  She didn’t have to tell him about that. Over the previous weeks he’d had to beg her to leave the farm. He’d been able to pry her away from her work on only two occasions—once to go hiking and once to meet him for lunch. Maybe she’d decided he wasn’t a good match for her after all.

  He dug into his own lunch while he tried to figure out what was up with her. After a few minutes of uncomfortable silence, he tried again.

  “Hey, maybe we’ll end up working together some time,” he said.

  The idea seemed to surprise her. “Maybe we will. That would be interesting.”

  Interesting was one of those words that could be taken at face value or interpreted as something sarcastic or even ominous. Once again, her tone gave him no clues to go on.

  He tried the direct approach. “Maybe we could see each other again before that. Like soon. Repeatedly, even.”

  She put down her sandwich and wiped her hands. There was something at the corner of her eyes, a telltale wrinkle hinting at amusement. “You mean like a date?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Sorry, I don’t date co-workers.”

  Kyle swallowed hard and stared at her in disbelief.

  Amanda laughed and leaned forward. “I’m kidding! You should have seen your face. Of course I’d like to go out with you. I was starting to think you preferred being just friends.”

  Thinking back on it, Kyle could see how she might have misinterpreted his behavior over the past month. He had been trying to respect their mutual agreement to keep their relationship on a friendship level. Had he become a little too distant?

  “I’d prefer to be more than friends,” Kyle said.

  Amanda looked into his eyes for a long time. When she spoke, her voice was husky. “I’d like that too.”

  Thank You for Reading

  Thank you for dedicating some of your reading time to First Moon. I hope you enjoyed the adventures of Kyle and Amanda and that you look forward to more tales of the Ternion Order.

  If you would like to be notified by email when I release a new book, please subscribe to the New Releases list at my blog: www.DanielRMarvello.com/releases. I only use the list for release announcements, and you may unsubscribe at any time.

  I know that not everyone likes to write book reviews, but if you are willing to spare the time to write a sentence or two about what you thought of First Moon, I encourage you to post a review at your favorite book vendor site or recommend the story to your social networking friends.

  I love hearing from fans. If you would like to share your thoughts with me privately, you can reach me through the contact page on my blog: DanielRMarvello.com/contact. I look for
ward to meeting you.

  Happy reading,

  Daniel R. Marvello

  Dedication

  First Moon is dedicated to my lovely and talented wife.

  She is the real magic in my life.

  Acknowledgments

  My thanks go out to my readers and my family for supporting my writing career. I couldn’t have done it without you.

  Thanks also to my beta readers, who helped me make First Moon a better book than it would have been without their feedback. I sincerely appreciate their time and effort:

  Susan Daffron (author of the Alpine Grove Romantic Comedy series)

  Becca Mills (author of the Emanations series)

  Nancy Brashear (contributing author of the Grimm & Grimmer Volume Two anthology)

  Paul Sheriff (author of the PDSA programming series).

  Ken Rahmoeller

  Cynthia Daffron

  Melanie Griffin

  Finally, I’d like to thank the 70’s rock band Klaatu for giving me decades of listening entertainment, and especially for their song, “Howl at the Moon,” which inspired me to write my first werewolf story.

  About the Author

  Daniel R. Marvello writes magical fantasy adventure stories. He lives deep in the forest of the North Idaho panhandle just south of the Canada border with his wife of twenty-plus years and a small collection of wonderful pets. His professional background is in database and software development as well as technical writing.

  Daniel’s fiction writing was inspired by his love for reading magical fantasy and his years of enjoying fantasy role-playing games. His fiction works include The Vaetra Chronicles, a swords & sorcery adventure series, and The Ternion Order, a contemporary paranormal fantasy series.

  Visit Daniel’s blog at: www.DanielRMarvello.com

  Books by Daniel R. Marvello