Hunter Moon (The Moon Series) (29 page)

Laila nodded. “I saw him, you know. When we were all in the swamp and Zamiel was talking to me. I got to say goodbye to him.”

“Was that when you had the sword pointed at me?” Finn had seen her eyes go strange for just a moment—or so it had seemed to him. Maybe it felt longer to her. He didn’t doubt her words for a second. He’d just met a demon a few days ago; his girlfriend communicating with her dead brother seemed to pale in comparison.

She nodded. “We were in some kind of in-between place. Mebis knew I needed him and he came.” There was the sheen of unshed tears in her eyes as she spoke, but no tears fell. “That’s what brothers do.”

Finn watched as she ducked her head under the water. Even now she wouldn’t cry in front of anyone. Finn let her have her moment, not saying anything about it when she surfaced. If she didn’t want to show her tears, that was her right.

Laila slicked back her long blonde hair. “At least I got to say goodbye to him.”

“Your brother loved you more than anything else,” Finn said. “Hell, he pulled a gun on me to try and force me to go back to you when I was getting him away from the hyenas.” Finn hadn’t told her that before; it had slipped his mind in all the chaos of the night Kess and Samara fought for control of Miami.

Laila grinned. “Obviously you didn’t listen.”

“Nope.” He smiled back at her. “Like I told your brother, you were way scarier than he was. And he was holding a gun to my head.”

She laughed suddenly, a bright and tinkling sound, like chimes. “He said you were a good guy.”

“When did he say that?” Finn highly doubted Mebis was very fond of him.

“When we said goodbye. He gave you his seal of approval.”

Finn raised his eyebrows, surprised. Mebis had always been polite to him, but never what Finn would have called overly friendly. He’d just thought that Mebis tolerated Finn’s presence in his sister’s life, all the while waiting for her to get bored and find someone better. “Wow. I never would have expected that.”

Laila bumped against him, her hip striking against his leg under the water. “Why not? Mebis was an excellent judge of character.”

That’s kind of my point, Finn was tempted to say but decided it best to keep it to himself. “I meant, brothers are supposed to be suspicious of their sister’s boyfriends. That’s sort of their job.”

Laila smiled sadly, her scar crinkling. “He really was the best brother a girl could ever have.”

“No arguments there,” Finn agreed, putting his arm around her shoulder to pull her closer. He was half-surprised when she allowed it. “So are we okay?”

She was quiet for a long moment. He stared at her face, his eyes chasing the contours of forehead, cheek and jaw. When she spoke, he had to lean down to hear her. “Remember our conversation on the phone that day. The one where I didn’t feel like talking?”

Finn nodded, his chin brushing against her hair. “Yeah. You would hit a button once for yes and twice for no.” He wasn’t sure where she was going with this, but he was willing to play along.

“Beep.”

Finn smiled. It spread across his face slowly, but grew until he thought it might split his face in half. “Beep?”

She turned so she was looking right at him. She pulled off his sunglasses and laid them on the side of the pool. Laila put her face close to his, her eyes boring into his. “I’m sorry.” She put her hand against his cheek, a gesture as gentle as it was surprising. “I didn’t mean to worry you. Thank you for being patient.”

Finn leaned into her touch. He hadn’t been patient, not exactly. He’d only tried his best to be there for her. He’d only wished she’d have let him do more. He opened his mouth to say as much when her lips locked onto his, effectively cutting off his words.

When she let him up for air, she said, “I kind of love you too, Finnegan McNeil.”

He smiled into her warm brown eyes before claiming her mouth again.

Chapter Forty-Four

Cormac and Kess walked slowly down the street, hand in hand. She was taking him to a favorite sandwich shop, one where the portions rivaled even the epic scale of those served at Spanky’s back in North Carolina. She thought they deserved some alone time after the upheaval of the past few days. Laila and Finn had pretty much taken up residence in the gatehouse until Sebastian determined it was time for them to go. Kess suspected he was waiting for word of the new Keeper that would be assigned to Miami. Rafe had his phone surgically attached to his hand, texting Lenore every moment that he wasn’t in school. It didn’t give Cormac and Kess a lot of privacy.

She pushed open the door and led him inside. The restaurant didn’t look like anything spectacular: Formica tables, chairs with patched plastic seats, paper placemats that held the menu. At this time of day it wasn’t crowded, which only meant the line wasn’t snaking down the block. They scored the last available table and squeezed into it, letting the noise of a roomful of patrons wash over them.

“When you said go somewhere we could be alone, somehow a greasy spoon didn’t exactly spring to mind,” Cormac said as he settled himself carefully into his creaking chair.

Kess grinned at him and tapped his placemat. “Trust me. It will all be worth it.”

They took a few moments to peruse the menu, even though Kess already knew what they wanted. When the server came by to get their drink orders, they were all set. Orders placed and drinks delivered, Kess reached across the table and took Cormac’s hand. He rubbed his thumb over the back of hers.

“You haven’t asked me when I’m leaving,” he noted absently.

Kess looked down. She had deliberately been avoiding that conversation. She didn’t want to think about him going back to North Carolina. She hated that she had no idea when she’d be able to resume her life there, with him, and it hurt to think of being without him. They’d just gotten to a good place; she wasn’t ready to say goodbye and start the long distance thing again.

“I’ve sort of been actively avoiding it,” she admitted. “I know you’re going to have to leave soon.”

Cormac nodded, taking a sip of his Coke. “Yeah, I’ve been trying to coordinate with my dad about it.”

Kess looked at him in confusion. Coordinate what with his dad? Coordinate what exactly? Could he be trying to stay a little longer? “I’m fairly certain your Alpha dad isn’t thrilled with you missing any more school,” she offered, knowing that Alaric valued his son’s education—not to mention his presence among the pack. “I’m going to assume he nixed a longer stay.” She tried not to be disappointed.

“You could say that.” Cormac leaned back, unconcerned.

Kess gritted her teeth. He could at least act disappointed. Maybe they weren’t in the best place after all. “Blew a gasket, did he?” Her voice sounded a little frosty to her own ears.

Cormac grinned hugely, doing a fair imitation of the Cheshire Cat. “You are so easy,” he said, leaning forward. “I’m not leaving anytime soon.” He paused, clearly relishing the stunned look on her face. “In fact, I’m not leaving until you do.”

“Wha…how?” She was having a hard time forming full sentences, let alone coherent thought. “I don’t….”

“Wow. That’s incredibly well-spoken.” He ducked when she aimed a smack at his head. “I’m staying.”

Kess wasn’t given to huge outward displays of affection in public, but this time she felt an exception was called for. She squealed and launched herself across the table, grabbing him in a fierce hug. He caught her and pressed a kiss into her neck. They clung together over the table, until the awkwardness of their position made them break apart.

“I guess asking if you’re okay with it is kind of moot.” Cormac winked at her.

“Okay? Of course, it’s okay! It’s beyond okay, edging into the realm of fan-freakin’-tastic!” Kess couldn’t stop smiling. “But what about classes and school?”

“I’ll transfer.” He took her hands back in his. “I’ve already got the paperwork—I started it as soon as I went back home at the end of the summer. I was just waiting to see…,” he trailed off, a dark look fleeting across his face.

Kess squeezed his hand. “Hey,” she said, ducking her head a little so she could look into his eyes. “We’re okay now.”

He squeezed back. “I know.”

“How did you convince your dad to let you leave?” Kess knew his father’s feelings about Cormac becoming the Alpha and his need to stay in North Carolina. This was a coup of monumental proportions.

“I think he knew it was coming.” He stopped for a moment, gathering his thoughts. “You remember how I said I wanted to get out of the mountains?”

Kess nodded. It was on one of their very first real dates. He’d talked about his love of architecture and how he wanted to build more than just mountain houses for wealthy vacationers. She knew he’d always wanted to travel and see different places. It didn’t mean that he didn’t want to go back to the mountains; it just meant he wanted some time away.

Cormac continued. “Well, I told my dad all of that. We had a really good talk. And, after a lot of back and forth, he agreed that it would be a good idea to see what you guys were doing down here.” Kess beamed at him. “That doesn’t mean I won’t be going back to see them. Mom pretty much threatened grievous bodily harm if we aren’t back up there for Thanksgiving and Christmas. And Lenore will skin me and make a rug out of me if I don’t bring Rafe with me.”

“Of course!” Kess could think of nothing better than spending the holidays with his family, Alpha included. “I need to check in with Griff anyway. See if he needs any help at the Barn while I’m up there.” Kess had worked as a server for Finn and Burke’s father during her time in the mountains. She sometimes missed the work. She definitely missed the people.

Cormac shook his head, opening his mouth to say something, when the server slapped two groaning plates dwarfed by the sandwiches they held in front of them. Kess watched his eyes widen at the size of the Reuben he’d ordered. “Holy crap,” he breathed.

“Told you they were worth it,” she said smugly.

He picked up one of the halves and tried to negotiate getting it into his mouth without making a huge mess. Kess giggled; everyone did that their first time here. There really was no neat way to eat these sandwiches—the piles of meat alone made it impossible. Finally Cormac gave up and took a huge bite of his sandwich, closing his eyes in bliss as he chewed.

“Not bad, huh?” she asked when he opened his eyes again.

He swallowed, washing it down with a gulp of Coke. “Even if you weren’t here, the sandwiches alone would be worth the move.”

“Hey!” she cried, mock offended. “You can’t snuggle with a sandwich!”

“With this one, I’d try.”

Chapter Forty-Five

Finn was lounging on the couch in the guest house playing Modern Warfare while Laila mocked him when someone knocked at the door. “Come on in!” he shouted over the sound of a car blowing up.

“Hello?” Kess called from the front door. “You guys decent?”

Finn opened his mouth to say something crass, but a quelling look from Laila silenced him. “Yeah,” Laila called back. “I’m watching Finn making an ass of himself playing a video game.”

Kess stepped into the room, a frown on her face. “Rafe sent me to tell you that the Ducati is leaking oil.”

“What?!” Finn paused the game mid-shot and bounded up from the sofa. “How bad?”

Kess shrugged. “He was helping me carry in some boxes I needed to go through when he noticed it. He sent me to get you right away.”

“Damn it,” Finn muttered, heading out the door. Kess and Laila followed at a slower pace.

He’d been meaning to have someone look at the motorcycle for a few weeks now. It was still running fine, but he’d never had a machine like it and he knew he wasn’t up to the maintenance on the thing. If it was enough for Rafe to notice on the cement of the driveway’s floor, that was a bad sign.

He barreled through house, intent on his destination. He wondered how much something like a leak would cost to fix. He honestly had no idea—the dirt bikes he was used to riding around on were not what anyone would consider high performance machines, usually getting wrecked before annual maintenance could be performed on them. He and his brother were hard on dirt bikes.

“Did anything else look wrong with it?” he called back to Kess.

“How should I know? All I saw was that it was standing upright.” She threw her hands in the air. “I’m not a mechanic.”

“Is it really that big of a deal?” Laila asked in a bored voice.

He almost whirled on her, but decided that would take precious time away from seeing what was wrong with his baby. Finn wasn’t sure when he got so attached to the motorcycle, but he thought of it as his now. He managed to grit out, “Yeah, it’s a big deal,” before putting on more speed as he closed on the door that led to the garage.

He flung the door open, stepping into the garage. With a wet squelch, something soft, sticky, and chocolate flowed down over the top of his head. A bucket bounced off his head with a hollow thunk. Finn stood there for a moment, the feeling of cold pudding sliding down his skin making it difficult to talk.

Rafe laughed from his seat on the ground, snapping a picture with his camera phone. “HA!” the werehyena crowed. “I told you payback was a bitch!”