Luna's Sokjan (Book one) (26 page)

“Go to bed.” I told them
softly.

I could feel his anger
moving around him, and it slowly curled around me. I leaned back
against the closed door and waited for him to speak.

“I told them no sneaking
out of the house at night, McKenna.” He stood up and moved
restlessly around the kitchen. “Imagine my surprise when I awoke up
to find you, and the kids gone. What the hell were you thinking?”
He didn’t yell at me, he didn’t need to. I felt all of his
anger.

“You said that you didn’t
want them to go out by themselves. I was with them Gabriel. I can’t
teach them to hunt properly if we don’t go out at night.” I pushed
away from the door and walked to the sink. His power hit me hard in
the back, and I shrugged it off with ease.

“You will never do this
again. Those kids have to learn the pack structure, and I am their
Alpha, everything I say is law.” He hit me again.

I dug my finger nails into
the counter top as the power fanned over me. My power wanted to
respond back but I tapped it down.

“What if something or
someone had been out there, McKenna? What would you have done
then?” He demanded in a yell and another wave of energy filled the
room.

I’d had enough of
this.

“I am their female Alpha,
are so you told me. Isn’t my word law among the pack also?” I threw
the question at him, “I would have never put those kids in danger
Gabriel and fuck you for thinking that I would. Had we been
attacked out there in the woods tonight, I would have sent the kids
back here to wake up Angus and you. I would have killed whatever
damn thing was stupid enough to attack us, because nobody fucks
with me and mine. I would have done what needed to be done,
Gabriel.” I slammed him back with my power.

“I may play like I don’t
know what is going on half the time, but I do know. I may fuck with
people, because I think it’s funny, but I am very capable of taking
care of myself and anyone with me. I am very tired of you acting
and treating me like I don’t know what I’m doing.” Turning around
to face him, and hit him again. He fell backwards a couple of
steps. “I have been taking care of myself for a long time, Gabriel.
Who the hell do you think took care of me during the ten years that
separate Angus and you? I don’t need your protection, but I could
occasionally use your help, but never your protection.” I yelled at
him.

My third wave of power
damn near took him to his knees. I had brushed off his last attack
without a thought. Looking away from him, taking several deep
breaths I tried to regain control.

“I’m sorry, that I didn’t
tell you what I was planning to do. Truly, I didn’t mean to under
mind you and your pack structure stuff.” Which I honestly meant,
but after reading Adam’s email on Willow, I needed to clear my head
and check out the grounds around the house.

So I had decided to make
it a training session with the puppies also, killing two birds with
one stone.

We stared at each other.
It was abundantly clear to both of us, that if we kept up this show
of power, who would win.

“Gabriel, I am trying to
do what you want, but I won’t stop being who I am. I can’t do that
for you or anyone.” I told him and turned my face away from
him.

“I can’t change who I am
either
,
McKenna.”
He said with a heavy sigh. He moved to stand in front of me and
gently turned my face back to his. “We have a lot to work on,
Tigress, but fortunately, for us we have a long time to work on
it.”

I truly hoped that, in
time, I could love him, the way he deserved.

The knock on the door woke
us up just after dawn. Gabriel grabbed pants and went to answer the
door. I rolled over and tried to go back to sleep, but a wave of
anger hit me in the back. I opened one eye and looked around. Would
I ever get any sleep again? I groaned, at the sight of the Celt
standing next to the bed with his arms crossed over has enormous
chest and closed my eyes. Maybe he would go away.

“What do you
want
,
Celt?” I
asked into my pillow.

Gabriel walked back into
the room before the Celt could answer.

“Come on, Tigress, time to
work.” he said smacking my butt. “My scouts have found another
body.”

Untangling, myself from
the covers I headed for the shower, after dressing quickly. We
hurried to the kitchen of a quick breakfast. The sun was coming up
slowly and dispelling the dark shadows of the night for another
sunny day.

“Where are the kids?” I
asked and filled two travel mugs with coffee.

“Angus has them for the
day. He said something about making them run out some of their
extra energy today.” He answered.

I handed him one of the
mugs. “I am sorry about this morning, Gabriel.”

He shook his
head.

“I know. “ He pressed a
kiss to my forehead. “Come on let’s go see what they have
found.”

The dump site was two
hours east of the house. I used the long drive to add the new site
to the data base. I made a mental note to get Ryan and the boys a
reward for all their hard work. Gabriel’s men met us at the site,
and gave us a quick briefing, before we looked at the body. It was
a gruesome sight.

The killer had damn near
ripped her apart. We were standing about four feet from the body
and judging from the angles of the limbs they weren’t attached to
the joints any longer. Blood soaked the ground around the body, she
had been killed here. My mind flashed back to another girl’s body
that had been nearly ripped apart and her large brown
eyes.

“Has anyone gotten close
to the body?” I asked out loud.

“No, we found the body and
called the Alpha.” Jack answered looking at the ground.

He was one for the scouts
that had found the body. He was young late teens early twenties
maybe. He was nice to look at and had a solid look about him. I’d
seen him around the house a few times.

“We did search the woods,
but we didn’t find anything.”

That was
interesting.

“No foot prints?” Gabriel
asked.

To get a body here to this
site without leaving footprints would be difficult or would it? To
get here, we had walked through some pretty dense brush. Again, I
wondered if someone had left opened a portal.

“Okay, would you give me a
minute please?” I said to Gabriel.

I closed my eyes, and took
several deep breaths. I sent my power out across the clearing and
over the body. I felt no magic anywhere on the ground or on the
body. I opened my eyes and began walking a circle towards the body.
There was nothing and that was unusual, normally I could find
something.

When I stopped walking I
was standing next to the girl's body. The killer had left her faced
down, but it was the condition of her clothes that drew my
attention. They were men’s clothes and way too bulky for her small,
thin frame. I knelt by the girl and lifted the shirt up to look at
the body under it. I gasped in surprise. Someone had whipped the
flesh off her back. I looked closely at the blood. It wasn’t
clotting properly. I studied the strange looking blood, before
shifting a finger into a claw and then dipped into the blood.
Inhaling deeply I detected a faint odor of
almonds
.
I licked
my finger. It had a slight taste of almonds and a sharp spice, I
spit out the blood.

“Gabriel do you have any
bottled water in the car?” I asked.

The poison had probably
been on the whip. It wouldn’t make any sense to poison a
shape-shifter our metabolism was too fast for the poison to work.
Gabriel handed me the bottled water.

“What did you find?” He
asked and knelt beside me.

I took a sip of water and
rinsed my mouth out.

“He whipped her, and there
was some kind of poison on the whip. It would have hurt like hell
but wouldn’t have killed her.” I told him. “Here help me flip her
over.”

Together we rolled the
body over.

“Do you know who she is?”
I asked him.

I studied the body, she
had been severely beaten, and she was missing her heart, and
intestines. Could there be another compulsion demon running around?
I dipped my finger into her blood again.

“What are you doing? You
just said she was poisoned.” Gabriel said and grabbed my
hand.

“That's right her back
was, and now I need to see if they poisoned her front.” I agreed
and jerked my hand free. “Gabriel you know that poisons don’t work
on us. It might make me slightly ill, but that’s all.” I sniffed
the blood. “I don’t smell any almonds. I don’t think she ingested
any of the poison.” I licked my finger and rolled my tongue. “She’s
clean. The poison was just on the whip.”

I sat back and examined
the trees. Taking another sip of water and I rinsed out my mouth
again. I would have put an observer in the trees. Someone to let me
know who came to collect the body and what happened when they got
there. I sent out a surge of power just to see if something would
answer.

“Patricia Bogenn she was
the first cat to disappeared. She was only fifteen.” He said softly
looking at the girl’s body.

I glanced at
him.

“You haven’t found any of
the missing wolves have you?” I asked him.

A spirit materialized near
the clearing in the trees. Gotcha!

“No. What did you find?”
He asked.

“A very hungry spirit,
let’s go see who he has an arrangement with.” I replied and stood
up.

I walked towards the
spirit. A well fed spirit would never change sides. It will always
come back again when you call it. This little guy was starving, and
I was more than willing to feed him.

“Greetings, Spirit.” I
called out
.

“Greetings Golden Witch.”
It replied.

“He didn’t feed you very
well did he spirit, but I will.” I said and pushed a small amount
of power at the mist. With the added power, the gray mist slowly
changed to a light purple color. “Tell me the precise wording of
your agreement.”

I pushed more power into
the spirit, and watched it change into a dark purple
swirl
.

“Bring me all the faces of
the people who come to see the body, upon returning I will feed
you.” The sound the spirit made could have only been a
laugh.

I did laugh, that was a
poorly worded agreement.

“What name did the creator
of this agreement use?” I asked.

“The master,” the spirit
answered.

“Did he forbid rebinding?
What are you earth, wind, fire, or water?” I questioned the
spirit.

“No he did not forbid
rebinding and I am fire.” It replied and again the spirit sounded
like it laughed.

“What was your final
payment for your service?” I inquired, watching the spirit swirl
around its self.

“He offered his blood as
my final payment.” The fire spirit said.

I gave this some
thought.

“What do you want for your
final payment, spirit?” I usually didn’t ask, but I thought in this
case it would be wise
.

“I would like a large
house fire, but I am willing to accept a bonfire.” Payment agreed
on.

Snapping my wrist I cut my
finger and offered it to the spirit. The spirit drank my blood and
it hurt.

“Fire Spirit, I am
McKenna, daughter of Luna, and I bind you to me with blood.” I
whispered to the mist. “I command you to complete your arrangement
with the master. When you receive payment for your
services
,
bring
me the taste of his blood and all it contains. Drink well spirit I
want a good taste. You cannot accept another binding from another
practitioner until our arrangement is done. There is a Wind Spirit
in my service also, find her and help her to complete her task.” I
stopped speaking and searched for any holes in our agreement. “Let
no human or supernatural sense find you spirit, be it smell, sight,
or magic. Come to me anytime night or day. In payment for your
service spirit, I will build you a bonfire to the sky. Do you agree
Fire Spirit?”

“Agreed, Golden Witch,”
The colors in the mist swirled and changed to a blue, purple color.
“That is why the spirits are willing to come to you Golden Witch.
You word the arrangements without holes for you or us.” And then it
was gone.

I stood for a moment
staring into the woods. I had always wondered why I never had any
problems calling. It had taken me several years to learn how to
word the verbal contracts correctly. For one had to be exceedingly
careful when you dealt with spirits. If the practitioner left any
holes in the contract, the spirits could eat you alive.

Slowly the sounds of the
clearing came back to me. Angry voices drew my attention. The cats
had shown up to our little party, and Daniel wasn’t happy to see
us. Apparently, Daniel and his little group wanted to take control
of the scene and Gabriel wasn't ready to let it go yet. At the
moment, Gabriel and Daniel were having a frightfully uncomfortable
conversation about something.