Moonlight Calls (Demon's Call Series Book 1) (27 page)

I rolled my eyes
again.  “This sounds like the beginning of a really cheesy game show.”  Dominic
was not amused.

“Mya, you need
to take this seriously.  Your powers could save your life someday.”  He paused
meaningfully, “Or the life of someone you love.”

I arched an
eyebrow at that statement.  After all, most of the people I loved could pretty
well defend themselves.  But I resigned myself to the task.  I might as well
humor him.

“Okay,” I said
with resignation.  “Let’s go.”  Ailis had come out to watch.  I felt like a
circus freak. 
Enjoy the show folks.

“Try it now,”
Dominic commanded.  “Just close your eyes and think about what you need to do,
then place a finger on the map and we will see how close you are.”  I shook my
head, but did as I was told.  Opening my eyes I found that my finger was
resting on a large open space with no cities.  I looked at Dominic inquiringly,
but he just shook his head.

“You are looking
for a werewolf,” he said intently, as if that was going to help.  I closed my
eyes and tried again, this time thinking about werewolves.  Opening my eyes
once more, I saw Dominic’s frown.  Ailis snorted behind me and I glared over my
shoulder.  This was not going to work.

“This particular
werewolf is someone you know,” Dominic hinted again.  I rolled my eyes before
closing them and trying again.  Maybe I was looking for the Father Alpha.  I
thought about what a domineering ass he was and jabbed my finger at the map.

Dominic hissed
in impatience.  “Are you even trying, woman?”  I opened my eyes and made a face
at him.

“It might help
if I knew who I was supposed to find.  I’m thinking of Henry?”  There I went,
yelling the vampires again.  I never claimed to be smart.

Dominic raised
an eyebrow and studied the map again.  He laughed aloud and I saw that I had
pointed to the picnic table, off the map completely.  “Well, he is rumored to
be out of the state right now.”  I glared at him, and he relented.

“You aren’t
looking for Henry.  You are looking for
your
wolf.  I stared at him
blankly for a moment before it sank in. 
My wolf?
 I shot a suspicious
look at Ailis and she shrugged, looking guilty.

“You told me
that Christian went back to his place for a few hours,” I said mutinously.

“We sent him away. 
I told him about Dominic’s plan and he agreed it would be a good test.”  She
laughed at my betrayed expression.  “You will live without him for a few days,”
she said in exasperation.  I blushed and closed my eyes, pointing to the map
again.

This time
Dominic wasn’t scowling.  “It’s somewhat close, but that wouldn’t be all that
helpful if you were really trying to find him.”  I sighed in exasperation.

“By all means,”
I said testily, “show me how it’s done, oh lord and master.”  He narrowed his
eyes at me in warning and I shut up.  He could be uber creepy when he wanted
to.  Ailis rolled her eyes and returned to the house, hearing the oven timer
before it even began to beep, from outside the house.  I wondered if she could
hear the neighbors talking inside their houses.  Vampire senses must make for
great eavesdropping.  I rubbed my head.  I had a headache and it was getting
hard to pay attention to this stuff.

Dominic scooted
closer and took one of my hands in his.  “You need to focus.  I do think you can
do this, but it may be that you need to have some sort of emotional connection
to your target.”  He ran his thumb over my knuckles absently as he spoke.  I
glanced down meaningfully at my hand and he released it.  He leaned back and
crossed his arms over his chest as he looked at me.

“I would guess
that you are a very passionate lover,” he said, surprising me.  I blushed
fiercely and shrugged.  “I’m a demon in the sack,” I said sarcastically.  “It
must be another one of my awesome
powers.”

Dominic completely
ignored my sarcasm, as usual.  “Think of the last time you saw your pet wolf,”
he said, uncrossing his arms and leaning forward intently. 

I closed my eyes
and shook my head in disbelief.  We were not having this conversation. 
Nevertheless, now that he had planted the idea images of Christian and I making
rather creative use of a patio chair flashed through my mind.  I pushed the
images away quickly, but couldn’t help blushing even harder.  Dominic touched
my shoulder gently and I opened my eyes. I nearly fell backward off the picnic
table when I found myself staring into his big beautiful eyes, the long, dark
lashes framing pools of shimmering silver, vampire eyes.  Apparently, whatever
I was doing was setting him off. 

“That’s it,” he
said, his voice dripping with power and promise. “Now find him.”  He turned me
toward the map again and I closed my eyes, thinking of Christian.  I dropped my
hand to the map again, this time landing on the Porcupine Mountains. 
Wilderness State Park.  That sounded about right.

“Very good!” 
Dominic’s voice rippled over me in praise and I felt light headed.  I had done
it.  It wasn’t just a random guess.  I was sure of my success. I had actually
done it.

I opened my eyes
and turned to Dominic, glowing with triumph.  I had meant to congratulate him
on his idea, but the thought never found words.  He moved like lightning, his
hands cupping my face, sliding through my hair to cradle my head as he kissed
me.  His full lips covered mine with barely restrained urgency and I froze,
fighting to keep my sanity in the onslaught of the power rippling over my skin,
making me ache with need.  Something frightening stirred inside me.  My arms
slipped around his slender waist without my consent and he drew away to nuzzle
the side of my neck.

The screen door
banged shut and we jerked apart like guilty children.  Ailis eyed us
suspiciously, her gaze taking in my parted lips and Dominic’s silver eyes.  She
could probably hear my heart hammering away from across the lawn.  “Dinner’s
ready Mya,” she said in an exasperated tone.

I had almost
been
dinner.  She sounded so much like a harried parent that I burst out
laughing.  The tension broke and Dominic’s soft laughter joined mine.  Ailis
rolled her eyes and headed back toward the house and I stood to follow.

Dominic stopped
me with a hand on my arm.  I glanced at his eyes in the soft, lingering light
of dusk and decided that there was only a hint of silver still lurking there. 
He drew my hand to his lips, kissing the back formally as if he were still at
court in centuries past.  “Good evening Mya,” he said mockingly.  He bowed low
before turning to walk away.  I merely stared after him.  One of these days I
was going to end up bound to a vampire, and I would have no one to blame but
myself.

A couple of days
later, I was scheduled to work one of my rare night shifts.  I left the
hospital and hurried to my car.  Little chills were walking up my neck, but I
brushed it off.  I had always been just a tad bit afraid of the dark, and I
tended to creep myself out.  It had only gotten worse since I had learned that
there w
ere
things that went bump in the night.  I unlocked my car and
slipped inside, pausing to do my usual paranoid check behind the seats for axe
murderers- or vampires.  I started the car and headed home.

My mind wandered
as I left town on a quiet stretch of road.  There was never much traffic this
time of night, and I let myself slip into autopilot, scanning the roadside
occasionally for deer as I thought about my plans for the weekend.  I had
spoken with Christian on the phone yesterday as I fought yet another migraine. 
He was due home tomorrow, and I was planning on spending the day with him.  I
smiled softly, remembering his description of the mountains.  He had left at
Ailis’s request, but he had taken the time to run and I could hear the joy in
his voice as he described the countryside.

He had invited
me to join him at the next moon ceremony, a kind of outdoor celebration that
the wolves held at the full moon.  I had been reluctant to accept, afraid that
I would be an outsider and thus be unwelcome, especially if Camilla had
anything to do with it. She was  head bitch, literally and figuratively. 
Christian had assured me that I would be accepted, and he seemed eager to
include me in this personal part of his life.  I smiled to myself as I wondered
what it would be like to sleep outside, cuddled up next to your own personal
werewolf under the full moon.

I was jerked
from my daydreams by a sudden unexplained feeling of alarm just seconds before
I hit something in the road.  I hadn’t seen it until it was too late.  It
looked like some kind of metal bar.  I braced myself against the wheel as the
car lurched.  Whatever it was had popped my tires.  I resisted the urge to hit
the brakes.  Allowing the car to coast to a stop would probably be safer.  I
was slowing down when a man walked out in front of the car like it was some
kind of joke.  I did hit the brakes then, stomping down hard.  The car swerved
and ended up in a ravine.  I hit my head on the window as I bumped to a stop,
and my vision sparkled for a moment.

When I looked up
I stifled a scream.  The man was standing outside my door, dressed completely
in black and holding a very serious looking gun.  He jerked the door open and I
struggled out of my seatbelt, trying to dive across to the passenger’s side. 
He grabbed me by the back of the shirt and hauled me out.  I kicked him in the
shins as he dragged me out, and he cursed.  He shoved the barrel of the gun
under my jaw, efficiently halting my urge to struggle.  I hadn’t had much
weapon’s training. It was probably just as well.  The most I would have been
able to do was identify the weapon that was going to blow my brains out.  Not
very handy.

He hauled me to
my feet and I glanced around, realizing belatedly that we weren’t alone.  There
were about a dozen people, men and women all dressed in black, forming a circle
around us.  The guy with the gun spun me around and gestured to one of the
women.  She approached and the light from my car glinted off the pair of
handcuffs dangling from her hand.  I dropped to a crouch and swept my leg out,
tripping the man with the gun.  I was used to sparring with Ailis.  Using the
maneuver on a mere human was almost too easy. 

I leapt to my
feet and made a break for it.  I didn’t know who the hell these people were,
and I wasn’t planning on sticking around to find out.  Unfortunately, they had
recovered from their shock that I was fighting back and were closing in on me. 
I was heavily outnumbered and I knew I didn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell
of just running out of here.

I stopped and
closed my eyes. I willed myself to feel the anger and the rage that I needed-
cursing my refusal to practice using my power for offense.  Who were these
people?  Were they vampires or wolves?  I couldn’t feel their auras, but I
didn’t know what to make of that.  The man I tripped had seemed human enough. 
But why would a bunch humans attack me?  Panic welled up under my ribs.  I
would not be captured.  I would not be controlled.  I thought of living my life
as a vampire follow, drained of my free will, and my anger and fear began to
burn.

I glanced down
and saw a red sheen just beginning to haze my hands.  I was doing it.  I was
managing to purposefully use my power.  Someone shouted from the ring of people
around me. “What the fuck is she doing?”  This was followed by another voice,
“Look at her hands, someone stop her!”

I turned and
faced the last voice, raising my hands as I took a step forward.  I heard a
dull thunk from behind me and felt a sudden blinding pain in the back of my
head.  I staggered for a moment, struggling for control, but the blackness was
creeping in from the sides of my vision.   I registered the smug look on the
face of the woman with the handcuffs before my world blinked out into
blackness.

*****

I came to
sometime later, lying on a narrow cot in what appeared to be a large basement. 
I had no idea how long I had been unconscious.  I winced as my head throbbed in
time to my heart beat.  Sitting up slowly, I found my hands bound with a pair
of hand cuffs. They looked like normal hand cuffs, except for the engraving. 
They had all sorts of symbols etched into the metal.  I recognized one of the
figures as a pentagram and rolled my eyes, wincing as the motion caused my head
to throb again. 
What the hell was going on?

I blinked my
eyes repeatedly until the silver and black sparkles left my vision.  Picking up
my cuffed hands, I waved them in front of my face.  No double vision.  I didn’t
think I was really damaged.  I hoped like hell I didn’t have a concussion.

I found that my
feet were unbound, though someone had taken my shoes.  I padded across the room
slowly, finding the only door to be firmly locked.  It was a huge metal
contraption that didn’t belong in a house and I knew there was no way I was getting
out of here anytime soon.  The room, though obviously a basement, was decorated
with gothic artwork and various religious paraphernalia.  There were a pair of
overstuffed couches and some arm chairs grouped around what appeared to be an
honest to God altar.  I shrugged and flopped down onto one of the couches. 
Presumably someone would be coming to check on me eventually.  I lifted my
hands and awkwardly rubbed the sore spot on the back of my head.