Blood Moon (5 page)

It was for a good reason. I had just discovered he was the Were that changed me. I had searched for that Were for five years with the intent of killing him. I didn’t realize until Jared lay dying on the ground that my love for him transcended that rage. Walking over, I lay down in that spot and watched the cardinals fly from tree to tree as the squirrels scampered about.

I sensed someone else coming into the clearing, but I didn’t make a move to find out who. Had it been a Blood Moon Corporation assassin, I would have been dead the moment I stepped into the woods. I felt concern emanating from that person, and I knew through our bonds that it was Damian. He stepped into my line of sight, and I saw the sun add bluish highlights to his long, black hair. With the sun on him, he didn’t look like an all powerful vampire Lord. He could have been a witch or a Were, even human, with his lean, tanned body. He sat next to me, leaning back on one arm. His hair hung like an ebony curtain over his shoulder and his plum-colored eyes flashed with desire. We didn’t say anything for a long while. I watched the wildlife and Damian watched me.

“I’ll keep you safe, Sarah,” he finally said. His accent sounded like a caress on my skin. “I promise.”

“You can’t keep that promise.” I sat up. “The BMC wants me dead, and when they want someone dead, they always die.”

His hand caressed my cheek as he leaned closer to me. “I’m not going to lose you. Not again.”

“I’m not Phaedra,” I said softly. “I’m sure that you’ll find your wife again one day, but I am not the person to take her spot until you do.”

“Sarah…” he began, but I cut him off.

“What happened between us...” I paused. My cheeks filled with color as I remembered our intense, blood-induced sex. “That was out of necessity. I had to drink your blood or Marcellus would kill all your vampires. I couldn’t let that happen. Your blood brought on what happened between us, not because I loved you.”

Damian’s eyes darkened, and I felt his anger at my words. “You think I don’t know that? I know you aren’t her. I can see that every single day. You may look like Phaedra, but she would never say the expressions you use and things you say. I don’t want to be with you because you look like her. I want you because of who you are. I’m falling for you, Sarah, not for the memory of a woman long dead.”

My heart wrenched at the truth in Damian’s words.

“I know that you loved Jared,” he said with his voice softer, “and if he was still here, I’d gladly step aside to see you happy, but he’s not. Can’t you be happy with me?”

“I just found out that…about Jared,” I whispered. “Maybe, with time, I could be happy with you, but not right now, not so soon.”

Damian nodded and leaned forward. His lips came forward to meet mine. His kiss felt soft and sweet, and my body tightened with need. Damian pulled back with his plum-colored eyes ablaze.

“I felt that,” he growled.

“It doesn’t change anything.”

Damian looked into my eyes and then nodded, seeming to give up. “Time heals everything, my darling Sarah. I will be here when it does. In the meantime, I will try to be content just… How do you humans phrase it? Just being friends?”

Before I could respond he disappeared, leaving me alone in the clearing with my heart pounding. Pulling out my phone, I wasn’t too surprised to see that it was three in the afternoon. I felt nervous about returning to Donavan’s house, to see Damian, but I knew I had to. The sun would be setting soon, and I had a feeling that the BMC wouldn’t be far behind.

Chapter Six

As the sun started to set, the vampires slowly came out of the basement. I smiled as I caught a part of their discussion. Damian’s vampires liked watching soap operas. I would have found more humor in that, had our impending doom not been weighting over me.

Dez had received a phone call from the remaining vampires at Malevolent Dead, warning that a man with BMC credentials had stopped by during the day looking for us. After searching the premises, he left without hurting or threatening Damian’s people. Amythist had said the truth; they had orders not to harm Damian or his people.

Dom spent the night acting overly helpful to Monique, getting her settled into the couch and making sure the TV remote stayed within arm’s reach. He patrolled with the other vampires around midnight, but returned at 3am. He remained at Monique’s side, and I saw grief flash before his eyes when Monique brought his icy hand to her stomach to feel the babies kick.

Donavan didn’t seem to think anything odd about the vampire’s behavior as he sat beside his wife with his hand on her stomach.

“How are your babies today?” Dom asked as the sun was about to rise.

Monique laughed. “It seems that everyone knew but us. How did you find out?”

“I can hear their heartbeats,” he lied. “I’ve got to go help Damian.” Dom turned on his heel and left.

I turned to follow him, but Donavan motioned to me.

“He can hear the heartbeats?” Donavan asked.

I nodded as I played along with Dom’s lie. “I guess so. You know vampires and their hearing.”

Donavan’s smile spread from ear to ear. “Twins!”

A vampire’s hearing was good, but not that good to distinguish two sets of heart beats within the womb. Dom’s guilt was palatable, and my gut told me to warn Damian. If Dom was siding with the BMC, he deserved to know.

“Damian!”
I called to the born vampire across our metaphysical bonds. When I felt his side of the connection flair, I continued. “
I think Dom is the one that called the BMC about the twins. Please don’t confront him. I thought you should know.”

“I know.”
Damian’s voice sounded rough with anger.
“You can’t just sit around waiting to see what he has planned. You just vouched for this vampire and now he has betrayed your Clan. You can’t keep sticking up for him.”

“I’m not. I plan to…”

“He’s at the clearing. Sarah, I have a bad feeling about this.”

“You’re not the only one.”

I dashed from the room, leaving Donavan and Monique alone. Donavan would protect his wife if things suddenly went bad. I ran into the woods, ignoring the sudden feeling that someone followed me.
Let the BMC attack me. I’d give them something to remember me by
. I crashed through the trees and into the clearing, skidding to a halt when I saw Dom.

He stood alone in the middle of the clearing with his head tilted back. Upon hearing me, he turned a fraction of an inch to see who it was. My senses felt his relief when he saw me.

“Good, I can explain,” Dom said, grief making his voice gravelly. “Dez would have just killed me.”

“Why shouldn’t I do the same? Dom, you betrayed my Clan. How could you do that?”

“I thought there was one child. I thought it would destroy everything and I couldn’t allow that. I fucked up, Sarah. I know that, and I’m sorry.”

As he spoke the darkness around us starting slowly turning gray. The sun was rising. The clouds in the distance started to turn pink and gold as the sun rose. I looked at Dom as the sudden realization hit me like a Mac truck.

“I know what I have done can never be forgiven, and if you all find a way to live through this it will be a miracle.” He looked up at the rising sun. “There is something I can do.”

“Meet the sun?” I asked, even though I already knew the answer. I heard footsteps behind me and turned to see Dez. He gripped a long, wooden stake in one hand.

“I thought they’d welcome me back,” Dom said. The sun light slowly made its way across the trees in front of me, and I knew in only moments it would rise. “Rose still wanted me to kill you. I couldn’t do that and told her as much. She said that if I cared about you so much then I could die with you.” He looked over his shoulder at the rising sun. “This is the only way to make it right.”

“It is,” I agreed. “We won’t tell them it was you.”

“What will you say?”

“That you left to patrol their woods,” said Dez. “After it’s over we’ll say you moved on. I agree, there is no reason for them to know.”

“You do,” Dom said, pointing at me. “Gods I wish you didn’t, Sarah. I wish you could remember me as a good man.”

The sun washed over the clearing. Dom turned his back to us as his skin started to smolder. Within seconds flames engulfed his entire body. I shielded my eyes against the brightness as tears blurred my vision. It felt like hours passed by before Dom turned into a pile of ash on the grass. I walked over, scattering the ashes across the clearing. Dom had met his end like the man he wasn’t, honorable and brave. It broke my heart that he couldn’t be that in life.

Dez came over and laid a hand on my shoulder. “I wasn’t lying. Besides Damian, I don’t plan on letting anyone else know about this.”

“Good.”

“You need to relax, little wolf.”

“Relax?” I felt the urge to hit him. “How can I relax? Dom, my mentor and friend, just betrayed my Clan to the BMC who, by the way, is trying their damnedest to kill me.”

“They can’t touch the twins,” Dez said with absolute certainty, and I looked up at him in shock.

“You can’t know that.”

“If they try, they will have to answer to me. Rose won’t risk that.”

I looked at the blue-haired vampire next to me. He wasn’t born a vamp, so the sunlight should be killing him. Instead he stood out here unharmed. He could teleport, again something that only a born vampire could do. Obviously, Dez liked to pretend he was a vampire, but I had to know.

“What are you?”

Dez laughed, clapping his hand on my back. “You wouldn’t remember even if I told you. You’ve got to trust me on this. Rose won’t hurt them.”

“What about me?”

Dez frowned. “I can’t guarantee that, Sarah. You broke a contract with them and there are no ancient laws to protect you from that.”

I sighed. “Worth a try.”

“I know.”

The air around us shifted and then Damian stood beside us. “All clear?” he asked.

“For now,” I answered.

“Then get back to the house. T.D.’s here and she wants to start working on our defenses.”

Dez disappeared, leaving me alone with the ashes under my feet. Damian, sensing the overload of emotions within me, teleported back to Donavan’s house as well. I heard his thoughts before he left; he thought that I’d be better after a good cry. He was right. I never thought I’d be the one to cry about my problems, but I had never been under this much stress. Jared was dead. Dom was dead. The BMC was coming to take more people that I loved away forever. I closed my eyes and leaned my head back, soaking up the sunrise.

“Sarah!”

I heard Damian’s cry in my head and my eyes snapped open. The sky above me darkened and I glanced over my shoulder to see what it was.

No way
!

A large, ginger dragon blotted out the sun. His wings arched back as he came down to land in the clearing.

Since when are dragons real
?

I chided myself;
since when were werewolves, vampires, and other out-of-this-world creatures I had dealt with over the years
. It only made sense dragons were real too.

As I backed up, I knew there was no way I could return to the house before that thing attacked. The large bat-like wings flapped as he maintained his balance, blowing my hair back behind me. With no weapons on me to defend myself, I tapped into the abilities that Damian’s blood had given me.

The change to my wolf form wasn’t as painful as it used to be, now that Damian’s blood ran through my veins. Within seconds I turned into a wolf and didn’t have the pain distracting me from the dragon.

The fucking dragon
!

It arched its wings to dive at me. I lunged at it, pleased to see the surprised expression in its jewel-toned eyes. Only a privileged few knew of this ability of mine, and I felt happy to see that these few kept quiet about it.

My claws clacked across its scales as I tried to inflict damage and didn’t succeed. Pushing off, I landed back in the clearing. Spinning around, I opened my jaws to latch onto the dragon’s neck when its tail snapped at me like a whip. An explosion of pain engulfed my side as the tail connected, sending me end over end to the other side of the clearing.

The world spun as I struggled to stand. I felt air blow through my fur as the dragon hovered above me, preparing to make its next move. I knew I couldn’t recover fast enough to avoid this.

Looking up, I saw the dragon open its maw and the red glow of fire building within its throat. I closed my eyes as the dragon arched its head back to fry me.

Chapter Seven

The silence lasted for what seemed an eternity before I heard the blast of gunfire and the dragon shriek in pain.

My eyes snapped open as I felt hands lifting me to my feet and shoving me aside. I saw only darkness as the person above me used his body as a shield, when the dragon landed on the edge of the tree line and swiped at us with its claws. Darkness lifted and I saw the dragon; wine-red blood rolled down the dragon’s scales from various points. The gun had penetrated the armored scales!

I turned to my savior, attempting to ask how he knew to shoot the dragon but forgetting that I was in my wolf form, and froze. Our eyes met and my world shattered.