Kissed by Moonlight (3 page)

"I wouldn't do that." The voice brought me back to myself with a crash.

I whirled around, startled. "Inigo? Oh my gods." I started to run toward him, but the mist grabbed at my ankles, holding me back.

Inigo gave me that adorable lopsided smile that flashed a perfect set of dimples. "Hi, Morgan."

"I miss you. Are you okay? How did you get here? Where are we?" Words spilled from me as I tried desperately to pull myself free from the mist and run to him. The harder I fought, the tighter it pulled until it felt as though I was rooted to the spot. "What the hell? Why can't I move?"

"You can't touch me, Morgan. It's not safe."

I looked into his beautiful sapphire eyes and hot tears welled in my own. All I wanted to do was touch him. To know this was real. "What do you mean? Why isn't it safe?"

"You have to move on, sweetheart." His expression was sad, but his tone was firm.

>"Move on? Are you nuts? I'm never giving up on you. Never. You are going to wake up." I didn't much care that Drago thought otherwise.

"Maybe. Someday. But by then, years will have passed. If you're still alive, you will be an old woman, and you will have wasted your life waiting. I will not let that happen." He gave me a fierce look. "You will not waste your life on me, do you understand? You must forget me and move on."

"No... "

"Move on, Morgan. Promise me."

"I won't." Had he faded a bit?

"Move on, or I will never have peace." He was definitely fading. Disappearing before my eyes.

"Wait, Inigo, don't go." I tried to reach out, but realized the mist had moved up, wrapping itself around my waist, my arms, holding me in place. "Inigo!"

"Forget me."

I woke up thrashing in bed, the blankets and sheets tangled tight around me and my face wet with tears. With a sob, I managed to free myself. The duvet, with its cheerful aqua and coral cover, slid to the floor. I didn't bother picking it up even though the coolness of the room made me shiver. It was no worse that the mist.

Without thinking of the time, I grabbed my cellphone and dialed Cordelia. It rang several times before my friend answered. She sounded half asleep.

"Cordy." It was all I could choke out past the sorrow that welled in my throat.

"Morgan? Is that you?" Sleep disappeared from her voice.

"Yes." A sob caught at my throat.

"Oh, my goodness, I haven't heard from you in weeks. Are you okay? What's wrong?"

"I had another dream." I'd had one nearly every night in the weeks since I'd left dragon land and Inigo's... egg. Each one was worse than the last, and each time, my heart broke a little more.

"Tell me." Cordy's tone was completely alert. No sign now I'd woken her from a dead sleep.

I told her about Inigo and the dream. Every detail I could remember. By the time I was finished, I felt like my heart was shattering all over again.

"Oh, Morgan," she whispered. "I'm so very sorry."

"What do I do?" I sobbed. "I can't let him go. I can't."

She was silent for a moment. "Listen to me carefully, Morgan. I know you put a lot of faith in your dreams, and that's good. They've shown you a lot. Dreams are important. But you must remember one very important rule: you can't always trust your dreams."

I frowned. "Why not?" So far my dreams had never led me wrong. They'd always been dead accurate, which was kind of scary, but also oddly comforting. Until now. This time, I hoped Cordy was right because beneath it all what I felt was fear and guilt. Fear that the dreams came from
me,
that part of me really wanted to just move on. Guilt, because I still wasn't over Jack.

"Because," Cordelia said softly. "Dreams can be meddled with."

***

The kitchen tile was cold against my bare feet. Despite the warm spring days, the nights were still chilly. I thought vaguely about grabbing a pair of socks from the bedroom, but didn't have the energy to move. So I stood there, feet freezing, staring out the window at the moonlit backyard.

After the dream and the chat with Cordy, I couldn't sleep. Par for the course these days. Ever since Inigo...

I shook off the memories. I wished I could shake off the soul biting sorrow as easily. And the hot tears that tightened my throat and threatened to spill over.

Cordelia hadn't been able to tell me much more about the dream manipulation. Part of me hoped she was right, because that would mean Inigo wasn't really telling me to move on. The problem with that was, if she was right, and Cordy usually was about such things, somebody was messing around with my head. I definitely did not like that idea. Still, if my amulet had meddled with my dreams in order to show me truth, why couldn't someone else meddle with them for another reason? Maybe a bad reason.

But who? And why?

Running a hand through my short hair, I turned on the faucet and splashed my face with cold water. I poured myself a glass of the stuff and chugged it down. The lump in my throat remained. I was getting used to it.

I fingered the amulet that hung around my neck. Sometimes I wished the thing had never chosen me.

I went back to bed, but sleep would not come. My brain kept churning until I wanted to scream in frustration. I sat up and braced my head in my hands, willing my mind to still.

No.
The voice whispered through my head.

"What the hell?" I shook my head. Crazy. I was finally going batshit crazy for real.

Kill.
Dark tendrils leaked out of their hiding place, wrapping themselves around my heart.
Kill.

"This is insane. You are now officially certifiable." I guessed playing hermit for weeks on end had finally done what years of hunting hadn't.

Images flashed through my head. Visions of blood and death. My hand itched for a blade so I did what any hunter would do: I got up and threw on some clothes.

It was time to hunt.

Chapter 4

It was that time between night and dawn when everything was perfectly still. Even the birds were silent, as if the entire world was waiting to exhale. The ancients called it the hour of the wolf. I called it the hunting hour.

I parked my car in front of one of the enormous houses perched in the hills of Arlington Heights, near the International Rose Test Garden. This one looked like it belonged in an English forest. It even had the cottage garden to match. Technically, it was illegal to park here this time of night unless you were a resident, but Kabita didn't run a fake PI firm for nothing. I pulled a resident permit out of my glove box and stuck it in my front window.

My trunk held an entire arsenal of vampire hunting equipment: knives, swords, and a machete, not to mention UV guns and flash bangs. There was even a small bucket of salt and an old detergent bottle full of holy water, which, by the way, only worked on demons. I found myself staring at them, mind blank. Inside, the Darkness whispered. All these weapons made it too easy to hunt. Too easy to kill. I needed a challenge.

I nodded as if the Darkness could actually see me. I curled my hand around one of the simplest, most humble weapons I owned: a machete. Perfect for killing vampires. It would be all I hunted with tonight. Sliding the naked blade into the sheath strapped to my leg, I headed into the park.

The Rose Test Garden was the oldest of its kind in the entire United States. The purpose of the garden was to test new varieties of roses in our Pacific Northwest climate. Those that survived were joined by hundreds of other varieties over the years. Acres of roses stretched out across the hillside, interspersed with walkways, statues, and water features set within miles of forested parkland. During the day, the place was crawling with tourists. At night, it was supposedly deserted.

Much like Pittock Mansion nearby, the Rose Test Garden with its sweeping views and heady scents was a hangout for daring lovers and stargazers. It wasn't like the place was fenced or guarded. Anyone could walk in at any time, and the vampires knew it.

I finally found a break in the line of tennis courts bordering the street and followed the narrow pathway between them. A long flight of concrete steps led down to the main parking lot, now barricaded until morning. From there, I took a second flight of concrete steps down into the gardens themselves.

The sweet smell of thousands of roses hit my nose. I inhaled, dragging their perfume into my lungs. For the first time in what seemed like forever, the tight ball of pain inside me relaxed.

I gave myself a mental slap. I didn't need to relax. I needed to hunt, to fight, to kill. Such thoughts should have given me pause, but instead I found my heart pounding with excitement as I hurried deeper into the gardens, eager for a fight.

A slight breeze kicked up, rustling the leaves all around me. I ignored the sound and the natural inclination to believe it meant something. Instead, I honed in on that other sense of mine, the one that told me when a vampire was near.

The amphitheater was the natural place to check first. With its wide grassy steps open to the sky, it was the perfect place to stargaze. Tonight, however, it was empty.

As I moved around the upper rim of the amphitheater, I felt that gripping at the back of my skull that told me a vampire lurked nearby. I paused to listen, trying to tune out the natural rustle of wind and foliage. There, just beyond the tall evergreens marking the back of the amphitheater stage. Voices.

I took the stairs down as quickly as I could without breaking something. Like my neck. Granted, I'd be more likely to survive the fall than a normal human, but it would hurt like hell.

The farther down I went, the tighter the gripping on my skull. Definitely getting closer.

The thick wall of evergreens ended before the edge of the hillside began. A narrow pathway wound between the trees, partially hidden by a low-hanging branch. I darted beneath the branch, into the grassy hideaway behind the stage, and stopped dead in my tracks.

Two faces stared up at me from a rather... compromising position. Clearly, the young men had thought this secluded section of the garden would make for a perfect trysting place. They hadn't counted on yours truly crashing the party. Nor had they counted on the vampire currently hiding in the bushes on the other side of the clearing. It must have seen me, though, because it took off down the hill with very little finesse and a whole lot of noise.

"Er, hi, boys. Just out for an evening stroll. Don't mind me." I scurried across the grass to the other side as quickly as possible, trying really hard not to stare at their rather spectacular physiques. "As you were." I gave an airy wave as I slipped into the bushes.

The minute I was out of sight, I broke into a full run. Well, as full a run as I could get while running headlong through rose bushes and other flora. The vampire was hella fast.

The waffle soles of my leather boots thudded against the hard ground as I hit the edge of the rose beds and plunged into the forested area below. Branches snagged at my leather jacket and swiped at my exposed skin. After a few hundred feet, I burst out onto one of the blacktop drives circling through the park. I saw a flash of movement farther down the road and took off after it. The vampire was headed toward one of the reservoirs.

A smiled tugged at my lips as I pushed myself a little faster. If the vamp thought it could hide underwater, it had another "think" coming. I happened to know that particular reservoir was empty for repairs.

Sure enough, the vampire paused at the edge of the reservoir and let out an angry howl. His hesitation allowed me to close the gap. Now I could tell it was a male, and a young one at that. No more than a year old. Maybe two. He looked kind of scrawny and malnourished.

With nowhere to go, he turned and snarled at me, curling his fingers into fists. Definitely new. Vampires didn't usually fist-fight.

"Hey, big boy," I taunted as I pulled my machete out of its sheath, the blade gleaming dully in the starlight. "Wanna dance?"

He hissed, his face twisting into an ugly parody of humanity. "That's fucking stupid. You been watching Schwarzenegger movies, bitch?"

"That's Miss Bitch to you, vampire. And don't you know better than to mock a hunter?"

His eyes widened. What? Had he honestly thought ordinary citizens ran around chasing vampires armed with machetes? Gods, what a newb.

He recovered his bravado quickly. "Whatever, bitch. No way you can take me on, hunter or not. You're just a dumb girl."

Was he serious? "Dumb I may be, but believe me, I'm all woman. I can kick your droopy ass any day of the week and twice on Sundays."

With a snarl, he launched himself at me. I darted to the side, and he hit the pavement with a sickening thud and a winded grunt. I raised my machete, but before I could bring it down on his neck I found myself on my back staring up at the stars. I hadn't even seen him move. Either I was getting slow, or I was letting my emotions get the better of me.

The boot came out of nowhere, nearly snapping a rib in two. It was my turn to grunt as I curled against the stabbing pain.

"That's what you get for messing with me, bitch." The boot lashed out again, but this time I was ready. The machete blade caught the vamp in the calf mid-kick. He let out a howl of pain as thick, dark blood oozed from the deep gash in his muscle and soaked through the leg of his jeans. "I'm gonna fucking
kill
you, bitch!"

He kicked my arm so hard, I heard the bone snap as the machete fell out of my useless fingers. I felt it too; the pain came so hard and fast, I'd have spewed my dinner all over the street if not for the fact I hadn't eaten in... well, I wasn't sure how long, but it had been awhile.

I tried to crawl away, but the vamp grabbed a handful of my hair, twisting until tears poured from my eyes. I was half surprised it didn't rip from my scalp. He dragged me along the ground, the asphalt scraping chunks out of my skin.

"You think you can take me on?" he was practically screaming. "I'll show you, you stupid bitch."