Maikoda: Power of the Moon (Blue Moon Trilogy Book 2) (12 page)

              Her eyes widened and she lowered the gun slightly. “Mai-coh gave you his blood? And it worked?” The gun clattered onto the countertop as she grabbed Brett’s face between her hands. “It’s time. She’s here!”

              Brett freed his face from her firm grip. “Time for what? And what do we do about them?” he asked, looking at the two Weres on the floor. 

              Paula glanced down and grimaced. “Every once in a while, I get attacked by the Weres. I’m like a magnet, drawing them to me. I can only do what I must.” She leaned over and touched the foreheads of the two werewolves and muttered a few incoherent words. It started slowly, but after a few moments, the two werewolves transformed back into men, their semi-naked bodies sprawled on the floor.

              “What did you do?”  He stared at her and then at the two men—human men—on the floor. There was no way she should have been able to turn them back, it was something only the wolf could do. “What are you?”

              She smiled. “I am the Peacekeeper. My job is to protect the innocents from the wolf. I can only do that by caging their wolves. This is why they fear me. This is why they try to hunt me. But I am old now and the last of my line. They have killed all the others.” She moved behind the counter, grabbed the shotgun and placed it back in its hiding place. “This is why it is so important that the Hania is here.”

              “The Hania? How do you know?”

              “The Power Prophecy.”

              Paula grabbed a key and walked quickly to the door, closing and locking it and lowering the blinds. “The prophecy states that in the time of the Hania, there will be one of Mai-coh’s blood but not of his seed who will receive the key and live. That has to be you.”

              Brett shook his head. “Wait, wait. How do you know it is me?”

              She looked over at him as she picked through the rubble of the store. “You just told me.”

              “Yeah, but I could’ve been lying.”

              “Were you?” she glared at him, her brown eyes hard and flat. 

              Brett sighed, “No.”

              “Then you are a part of the prophecy.” A cheap painting of the state of Florida was removed it to reveal a safe. Opening it, she pulled a sheaf of paper and a few boxes from it and placed everything out on the counter before giving one of the boxes to Brett.

              “What is it?” he asked as he moved closer.

              “What you came for.” She deftly opened the box to reveal a braided armband. “The bracelet of Mai-coh’s beloved, the mother of the Weres.”

*

              Layla held on tightly as the bike whizzed along I-4. She had finally figured out a system.  If she closed her eyes and prayed to every deity she remembered from her freshman world religions class, she would be fine.  She would even throw in a few angels to be on the safe side and was currently working her way through her list of Catholic Saints to keep her safe. 

              Ray zoomed around a car and even with her eyes closed, she felt the closeness of the vehicle traveling beside them. She squeezed her eyes tighter and clutched at his shirt. If she got through this, she was renting a car for the return trip. 

              She had imagined they would be laughing and flirting as they made their way towards Orlando but Ray was more of a speed demon than she had realized and he seemed determined to make his way to the city in half the time. She did not dare look at her watch. It was all she could do to keep her stomach from hurling up her meager lunch. 

              Finally, he started to slow and she let out the breath she had been holding. They turned off the interstate and onto an exit road before he pulled into a gas station and stopped.

              Layla released her death grip on him; her fingers cramped and lowered her legs to the gravelly road. 

              “Hey, watch out for the—!”

              Too late, the heat of the burn seared through her and she jerked her leg away from the tail pipe. She winced and closed her eyes at the onslaught as her leg registered the white hot pain.

              Ray grabbed her arm.  “You okay?”

              Was he out of his damn mind? Of course she wasn’t okay. He had nearly killed her on the ride here and now his machine from hell was trying to burn her flesh off. She smiled tightly. “I’m fine. Thanks.”

              “Sorry about that.” He leaned over to examine her leg and rolled up the bottoms of her skinny jeans. The skin was red and angry and Layla winced when his fingers prodded it.

              “Sorry.”  He apologized again and held up his hands as she glared at him. 

              “Don’t worry about it,” she lied unconvincingly. “I’m good.”  Her mind on 1000 ways to kill him and dispose of the body, she grabbed her purse and hobbled into the store to buy a tube of cream to rub on the burn. 

              As the cashier rang up her purchases, she became aware of one of the men in the store staring at her. She turned and stared back, annoyed when he continued to look at her. 

              “What?” she snapped, uncharacteristically moody. 

              “You know,” he drawled, “you look just like them girls that’s been killed.”

              Tell me something I don’t know, she thought and smiled at him. “Yeah, I know.”

              He continued to stare at her, his lower lip jutting out from the wad of dip he had tucked there, the rest in the can clutched in his hand. “You best be careful. FBI says it’s a serial killer and they don’t know what he wants. Last time we had us a serial killer was that prostitute who was killing all them men.” 

              He squinted at her.  You ain’t no prostitute now, are you?”

              Before she could open her mouth, she sensed Ray behind her.

              “No, she’s not. She’s my girlfriend and right now you are being a pain in the ass.” 

              The old man grunted and turned back to his purchases.

              She had never more grateful to see him; in fact, she was inclined to forgive him for trying to kill her earlier. Thanking the cashier, she asked for the bathroom key, determined to clean up before she got back on that bike. Her leg was on fire, her ass throbbed, completely numb and her chapped lips felt like they were about to crack. So far, this ‘date’ was not turning out as planned.                The evening air was nice and cool and she unzipped her jacket as she walked outside. She headed around the side of the building into the bathroom and carefully locking the door behind her. She was in the middle of nowhere and was not going to be captured by some inbred redneck family to breed with their slow cousin or whatever atrocities they did out here in the backwoods. Not today.

              Splashing a handful of water on her face seemed to revitalize her a bit and she scrubbed at her teeth. She didn’t want to know if those black spots were bugs because it would gross her out even more than she already was.  After rinsing her mouth again, she applied a ton of lip balm  and tried to ignore the flaking skin. 

              Tentatively, she rubbed the ointment onto her leg and grimaced as she noticed how red and sensitive the area had become. If she could transform, she could heal faster, but why the hell would she want to do that? Or better yet, how would she explain that to Ray?

              She readjusted her clothes and hair, determined to make it through this experience as she had all her life. As a human. The one thing she was never going to do once she got back home was ride a damn motorcycle. A car worked quite fine for her. She pulled her phone out of her purse and checked it. No missed calls. A text from her aunt that she quickly replied to and a text from Brett. 

             
“Have to spend another day. Sorry. Love you.”

              He was spending another day away and with no explanation as to what he was doing and why; imagine that. She reread the note, her eyes hard. 

*

              Layla sighed. She had to admit that once they got to Orlando, the evening was going a lot better than she had thought it would. They had parked at one of the theme parks and were now walking along the perimeter. Tons of shops and eateries made the walk fun and although she was a Native Floridian, she had never really taken the tourist route before. 

              Enthralled by all the different vendors, hocking everything from theme park paraphernalia to food, drinks and even natural made products, she moved from store to store, her interest piqued at some of the more morbid and weird tourist items. 

              When Ray grabbed her hand, she hesitated, but secretly reveled in the envious glances she got from other girls. It a bit weird though; while it was nice walking with Ray, she wasn’t feeling the overall weak in the knees, I just have to have you syndrome she always felt around him. It was more like hanging out with a good pal than with a romantic interest.

              They walked toward the movie theatre and bought tickets to a show. It was one of those slap-stick silly comedies about boy meeting girl, falling in love and doing something stupid which meant having to prove himself. She loved it. The characters’ antics had her snorting with laughter on more than one occasion and by the time the movie ended she was euphoric.

              She put all thoughts of Brett in the back of her mind. Here she was, out with a good-looking guy and for the first time in a long time, she was not worried about Weres, her father, or her dreams. 

              Ray reached for her again as they left the theatre and walked along the street.  “Hungry?”

              Layla nodded. She had worked up a pretty good appetite and her lunch had been pretty thin. 

              He grinned at her. “Good, cause I am starving. Where do you want to eat?”

              “Italian.”

              He nodded approvingly. “Good. I’m glad you’re a girl that can make up her mind easily.” He spotted a directory and they looked under restaurants, pleased that there was an Italian place nearby. 

              “Come on,” he said with a smile. “Let’s eat.”

              The restaurant was a bit busy and they had a few minutes to wait, but once they were seated, Ray seemed to want to get to know everything about her. Her giddiness was back but so was the churning in her stomach as she stared at him, her mind no longer at ease.

              She took a sip of her wine and watched Ray get started on his second beer, the responsible part of her wanting to caution him, to remind him that they had to ride back to Gulfport, but she didn’t want to be a nag.  He had already complimented her on being a ‘cool’ girl and she kinda wanted to stay that way for a while. 

              “So, tell me about your family.” Ray leaned back in his chair. 

              Layla thought for a moment, a wry smile on her lips. What could she say? My mom died when a werewolf attacked her and my dad is a mortal god stuck on earth? I dream of dead people? She took another sip and started slowly.               

              “Well, my mom died when I was ten and I never knew my father. Grew up with my aunt. She had just lost her kids in a car crash and we both needed each other.” She looked up at him. “What about you?”

              He shrugged, his eyes not meeting hers. “You know, normal everything. Parents, house, family. Same old, same old.” He took another gulp of his beer. 

              The uneasy feeling continued to course through her even as she smiled at him. It was the same way with Brett when he held something back. Ray wasn’t telling her everything, but it was just a first date. It would’ve been weird if he told her his life story when they were just getting to know each other, but she wanted to know what made him tick. There was something about him that just nagged at her.

              “So what about siblings? Any brothers or sisters?” she pressed, ignoring her gut. 

              He smiled tightly. “Well, I had a brother, but he died.”

              Her fingers covered his. “I’m sorry Ray,” she said sincerely. “Was it recently?”

              “Yeah. A few months ago. He was murdered in my cousin’s house.” His eyes hardened as he stared at her, his voice cold. 

              Layla shivered at the tone. The warning churn in her gut was going full tilt. 

              “They will pay for what they did to him. All of them. When I am done, they will wish they were never born.” 

              Okay. He was scaring her just a bit. She smiled lightly and patted the table nervously, her hunger all but forgotten. “The police never caught his killers?”

              Ray shook his head. “No.” He laughed suddenly and drained his bottle. “But I know who they are and I will get my revenge.”

              “I don’t think revenge is the best answer.”

              He smiled at her. “If you had the opportunity to get the people who killed your mother, would you?”

              Layla opened her mouth to answer and then closed it silently. How could she deny him what she had spent the last month doing? But it was different with her. Was it? How was it different? How was her want to kill Suzette for killing her mother and her friends any different? It was revenge, plain and simple. That’s why it didn’t sit well with her.