The Vampire's Spell - Night of The Moon: Book 4 Read online

  The Vampire’s Spell

  Night of The Moon:

  Book 4

  Lucy Lyons

  © 2017

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  © Copyright 2017 by Persia Publishing - All rights reserved.

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  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 1

  I stepped off the private jet and onto the stairs, sucking in the hot desert air. The jet was a blessing when traveling with preternatural creatures. It was luxurious and well-equipped to handle our special crates. Unfortunately, the jet had landed in the middle of the desert and we traded Italian leather and air conditioning for dry, sweltering heat that made my eyes sticky and my lips burn.

  Before I hit the shimmering tarmac, sweat was running down my spine and beading on my forehead. I slipped on the trucker hat Fin had suggested and fastened it under my ponytail. I was grateful that the band absorbed the sweat, even if it held in the heat and felt like it was cooking my brain. Rae, Fin, and Dirk had been assigned to accompany me to Phoenix. I watched Rae and Dirk, the mated werewolf pair, unload the five long crates we’d brought with us, and placed a hand on each of the nearest two.

  My cell phone buzzed and I read the text from the liaison to the sorceress we were here to meet.

  “Please get settled in at your accommodations. Amitolane will meet with you an hour before sunset.” I reread the text to my guards and directed Fin to take care of our transportation, before the crates started to get too hot.

  Of the five crates, three held our weapons and ammunition. I didn’t think there was too much danger of them exploding, but I didn’t want to wait and find out. But, the other two were much more important, as they held more precious cargo. Colette, my second in command, was asleep in her coffin inside the first box. She rested comfortably, as far as I could tell, on a bed of her grave dirt. In the daylight hours, her vitals were so slow she might as well have been literally dead. The heat wouldn’t penetrate her vampire sleep. Rachel was in the second box. She was Nicholas’ second and his most trusted advisor. Her sleep was anything but restful, however, as the dark magic that slowly ate away at her mind rendered her incapable of being comfortable, temperature notwithstanding. We needed to get them off the hot concrete before they proved me wrong and boiled in the damn crates.

  Fin, the only were-rat on the trip, walked toward the hangar as fast as he could without running. His entire body was swathed in light clothes to protect his pale skin from the sun, while still trying to stay cool. He was happy to arrange for our vehicles if it gave him the chance to hang out in the air-conditioned office instead of out under the cloudless July sky.

  Not that I minded. My connection to the two vampires in the crates had become strong enough that being too far from them carried with it almost physical discomfort. Part of that was due to the blood bond I shared with their master, my boyfriend, Nicholas. The rest was just plain old family. I lived with them, cared about them, and they cared about me. Now, Rachel was under attack from a magic I couldn’t heal for her, and we were desperate enough to come to Arizona and plead with another master vampire for the cure.

  As though I had summoned him from his daily sleep with my thoughts, I felt a caress from Nicholas in my mind. I smiled and reached back across the invisible tether of power that connected us, but he was still deep asleep. To a human observer, he would appear dead, with no measurable vital signs. To me, he was just sleeping too deeply to wake. It made me flush, knowing even in his deepest rest he reached out for me, and I was grateful the heat had already brought color to my face so the others might not notice I was blushing.

  Three black Escalades were driven onto the tarmac and parked in front of us. Fin hopped out of the nearest one to help me pick up and load the first two crates into one of the vehicles. Thanks to my blood bond with Nicholas, my physical strength had grown and I could have lifted the crates myself. But it was easier to slide them into the truck with an extra set of hands. It was also better to appear as normal as possible to John Q. in public, as he remained oblivious to the existence of preternatural creatures like witches and werewolves.

  Rae and Dirk loaded the next escalade and moved to the last quickly. We split up, with Rae, Dirk, and Fin handling the driving, while I rode with Fin and navigated. We’d quickly realized that hotels were nothing but trouble for the groups we traveled with, and I’d had the brilliant idea to use HomeAway.com instead.

  Rae stopped me before I could climb into the passenger seat and pressed her forehead to mine, worry plain in her eyes. “You’re fine, Rae. I don’t like driving in new places either. Just follow me and we’ll have Dirk bring up the rear. I won’t lose you. I promise.” She bit her lip, but nodded and backed away. It never ceased to amaze me how timid she was, especially for a werewolf.

  Her husband, Dirk, more than made up for it: he was the only reason Rae was with us. The wolves had come to me on my journey to heal Rachel. Now they were my guards, or at least Dirk was. I was the cotter pin that held Nicholas, the wolves, and the rats together as we consolidated our power. Dirk stopped Rae and spoke to her, and I watched her face light up, love visibly glowing from her soft grey eyes, even from a distance.

  Watching them, my heart caught in my throat. I missed Nicholas. Even in the bright hot daylight, I could feel the thin tether of power that linked us and deepened our connection beyond that of most couples. We may have met when I was kidnapped to serve him as a conduit after a long hibernation, but we’d both realized that wasn’t enough for us.

  I reached across that line of power and sent him an image for his dreams. Unlike his people, when Nicholas slept during the day, it was almost like human sleep. As such, I could speak to him, even wake him up if I needed him. I glanced back at the coffin-length crates that filled the back of the Escalade. The two vampires with me were not so lucky. If we were attacked, and I failed to protect them, they were sitting ducks.

  Their daytime weakness was why I’d asked for the extra guards. I’d come to find a healer for Rachel, but I was a former Venatores lamiae, a vampire hunter. Well, a watcher, to be more specific. At first, my romantic relationship with Nicholas had been tolerated by the council, because he was so much more open with me than he would have been with them. They saw me as their ‘man on the inside’.

  I refused to betray the Venatores for the vampires, and the vampires accepted that without question. But, when I refused to betray the vampires to the hunters, refused to lie and accuse them of murders they didn’t commit, the Venatores had responded by spreading lies about me and making assassination attempts.

  The council knew better, but when I finally had enough and left them, they’d wasted no time in declaring me persona non-grata. I was locked out of the library, which had been my best hope for healing Rachel. I’d bounced from the Venatores to the local Seattle wolf pack, and the bruja, or human witch, that served the wolf pack had suggested we come to Arizona and speak with Amitolane, the local sorceress.

  She was named for a mythological creature, a rainbow spirit that had been captured and held captive for eons by a creature of the night. Nick had warned us that the stories might not be so far removed from the truth as we’d expect. With that in mind, he’d sent Fin along to strengthen my power through my ties to his leader, the rat-king.

  Our triumvirate of power was new, and without a full blood oath, we were depending on trust more than we would if Jeremy, Nicholas, and I were tied closer together through blood and shared power. I valued the trust that Jeremy was showing in letting me bring his second in command along, but I suspected he’d been pushed by my sweetie to help keep me safe.

  Amitolane was the human (ish) servant to master vampire Kele, just as I was to Nicholas. But, unlike us, they were not a romantic couple, at least as far as the West Coast va
mpires could tell me. My palms dampened from nerves and I felt Jeremy, the rat-king, reaching out to me in alarm.

  “It’s just nerves, Jer. Your boy is safe with me,” I thought and felt his warm chuckle as though he were in the car with us.

  “Our link is strong right now. You must be close to him.” I looked over at Fin and sent the image to his king, who seemed satisfied. At first, I had been sorely outmatched in our power base by my refusal to complete my blood bond with Nicholas. Now, I had wolves that answered to me, not to Nicholas.

  It was a confusing and uncertain time for us, as the vampire master, the rat king, and I tried to make room for the wolves, even though the alpha wolf was a secondary leader. She didn’t appreciate belonging to “the servant”. Fortunately, she had an aversion to donating blood to Nicholas. Once I’d done it for her, she considered me her protector, and stopped complaining about her lack of presence in Nicholas’ court. At least, she’d stopped complaining to my face.

  The vampires only answered to me as Nick’s servant and sometimes mouthpiece. The rats belonged to Jeremy. Anything they did for me was a favor. Anything they did for Nicholas was due to the blood bond he and Jeremy shared. Now I had the wolves and the power I got from them almost matched the bond I shared with both men.

  I sighed and Fin glanced at me questioningly. “Oh, it’s not easy being the only girl in the triangle of power, sometimes.” He scoffed and shook his head.

  “I don’t mind being just another soldier,” he admitted. “I like the lack of stress that comes from only being responsible for me.”

  “Well, my friends are in those crates, and while we’re here, they’re your responsibility too.” He shrugged and looked ahead without answering.

  “Is that a problem?”

  “It’s weird to be helping vamps, but, eh, whatever, right? As long as nobody’s sucking on me, I’m good.”

  “Well, that may not always be the case. I hope if there’s a severe need, you’re a team player.” I saw his shoulders stiffen. “Is that a problem, soldier?”

  “I’d rather not be a donor to the undead. I don’t want to wake up a vampire, you know?” In surprise, I laughed before I could stifle it.

  “I assure you, you won’t ever wake up a vampire. Your king needs to educate you better.” He didn’t respond and I continued, “But, I would only ask for your assistance if absolutely necessary to save a life.” Out of the corner of my eye, I saw his shoulders relax. I made a mental note to speak to the men in charge about educating their people better about both vampires and shifters. I’d already had to break up a fight because one of Nick’s more arrogant old boys had demanded to feed on a pretty young wererat, and she’d tried to gut him.

  I had explained to Nicholas that neither the rats, nor I, would miss the vampire in question if he disappeared. A week later, the vampire had been reassigned out of the community and placed in a position watching over the Venatores as an advance guard.

  Fin cleared his throat and I glanced at him. Following his gaze, I looked out across the vast, flat plain dotted with cacti and brush sage. But what had caught his attention was the mesa that rose from the horizon. We’d found a house out in the middle of nowhere, all right. He turned up the long drive and we backed into the driveway. We unloaded the crates into the free-standing garage while Rae and Dirk waited on the road.

  I waited in the garage and unloaded Rae’s two-crate load, then repeated the process with Dirk’s car, while Fin took the luggage into the house and Rae looked for take-out that wasn’t too far from us. One thing I’d learned was that shape-shifters ate more than teenage football players. That said, there was no way it was feasible to eat take-out for the entire trip. But this afternoon I was too tired and too nervous about meeting Amitolane and her master to worry about grocery shopping.

  I cast some protective spells over the garage and house and glanced at the clock for the hundredth time. The sun had never descended so slowly as it did while we waited to hear from Amitolane. I’d requested the meeting via the regular vampire mode of communication, with mirrors and magic.

  The spells to communicate by mirror were so convenient, I understood why the Venatores had not been permitted to know them. The vampire society seemed brutal and bloody to those of us from the outside. But they were very particular about respecting the boundaries of other masters. So Nicholas had dressed me in a high-necked, tight black mini-dress and explained mirror magic to me. He’d rubbed a salve on the gilt edges of his bedroom mirror and spoken in a language too ancient for me to understand, and Amitolane had appeared instead of my reflection, her face a round ‘O’ of surprise. I still wasn’t sure if her reaction was because another witch had contacted her on her boudoir mirror uninvited, or because Nicholas had posed several vampires and wererats on the bed behind me in some sort of a power-orgy collage.

  No one had been more surprised, or more grateful, when Amitolane’s personal assistant had appeared and asked for my cell number instead. And now, three days later, I sat by the phone, wondering when it was going to ring.

  “Geez, it’s like high school all over again,” Rae laughed, her sweet lilting laugh tinkling through the kitchen like fairy bells.

  “I wouldn’t know. Venatores high school wasn’t like real life. I mean, even the homework was spellcasting and anatomy of a vampire.” Rae laughed again, but my heart clenched a little for the life I’d left behind. “Anyway,” I continued, “there was no dating. Most kids just ended up getting involved with whoever they were assigned to patrol with.”

  “Where’s the fun in that?” Rae scoffed, and I glanced past her at her husband.

  “You were an adult when you were attacked, weren’t you?” I asked her, and she nodded, smiling.

  “If you can call it an attack, that is,” she said, still smiling. “I wanted to be with Dirk. I wouldn’t have survived even the lovemaking as a human, so we took our case to the elders, and our bruja supervised the change.” I picked my jaw up off the floor and shut my mouth against the flood of questions threatening to escape.

  “Please just tell me this isn’t a common occurrence.”

  Dirk stepped forward quickly, shaking his head.

  “No, no. We were a very special case.” I raised my eyebrows at him. “Really. She was absolutely unmovable in her persistence that we be together, for my wellbeing.”

  Rae pushed at Dirk’s thick natural curls and motioned for me to get closer. There along his scalp was a thick, knotted scar. “I came in when he was trying to use a very permanent solution to what turned out to be a very temporary problem, that involved him trying to eat his gun.” I gasped and Dirk shrugged. “I grabbed the gun,” she continued, “but it still went off, just not into his mouth.” I nodded, glad he’d apparently made peace with his new life, but my heart still seized at the thought of how close he’d come to ending his life over love.

  “They let you become a werewolf so Dirk wouldn’t come to harm.” I nodded, appeased. “That’s a special circumstance. I hope no other young wolves take your example as a good idea.” The couple glanced at each other and Dirk led Rae from the room as I checked my phone again. Sunset wasn’t until 9:00 pm, so I had two more hours to kill.

  “Who’s getting dinner?” Fin asked, sticking his head in the kitchen doorway. “I’m hungry enough to gnaw the leg off a wolf.” I handed him several twenties and he rolled his eyes.

  “I have to stay, in case Amitolane changes the meeting time. You know the rule. If I buy, you fly.” He flashed me a grin and hollered back over his shoulder.

  “Rat’s choice, Mexican it is.” I heard Dirk laugh and Rae groan. Fin winked at me.

  “Stop being a brat and go get food,” I chastised him, and he tipped back his head and laughed harder. His good cheer was infectious and I felt the mood lift in the living room, where Rae and Dirk were putting up maps and topography of the area. We were here for help. We just didn’t know if that’s what we were going to get.

  Chapter 2

  While I may have brought Fin along because Jeremy wanted a presence in Arizona, I appreciated the boost he gave to my magic. Nicholas thought it might encourage me to complete the blood bond if I could feel how much extra power it had given Jeremy. What I hadn’t realized, was that much like Nick’s ability to glamour people to feel attracted to him, Fin seemed to be able to create an aura of good cheer around him.