Oracle's Moon

PRAISE FOR

Dragon Bound

“Black Dagger Brotherhood readers will love [this]!
Dragon Bound
has it all: a smart heroine, a sexy alpha hero and a dark, compelling world. I’m hooked!”

—J. R. Ward, #1
New York Times
bestselling author

“I absolutely loved
Dragon Bound
! Once I started reading, I was mesmerized to the very last page. Thea Harrison is a master storyteller, and she transported me to a fascinating world I want to visit again and again. It’s a fabulous, exciting read that paranormal romance readers will love.”

—Christine Feehan, #1
New York Times
bestselling author

“I loved this book so much I didn’t want it to end. Smoldering sensuality, fascinating characters and an intriguing world—
Dragon Bound
kept me glued to the pages. Thea Harrison has a new fan in me!”

—Nalini Singh,
New York Times
bestselling author

“Thea Harrison has created a truly original urban fantasy romance…When the shapeshifting dragon locks horns with his very special heroine, sparks fly that any reader will enjoy. Buy yourself an extra-large cappuccino, sit back and enjoy the decadent fun!”

—Angela Knight,
New York Times
bestselling author

“Thea Harrison is definitely an author to watch. Sexy and action packed,
Dragon Bound
features a strong, likable hero-ine, a white-hot luscious hero and an original and intriguing world that swallowed me whole. This novel held me transfixed from beginning to end! I’ll definitely be keeping my eyes open for the next book in this series.”

—Anya Bast,
New York Times
bestselling author

“Full of tense action, toe-curling love scenes and intriguing characters that will stay with you long after the story is over. All that is wrapped inside a colorful, compelling world with magic so real, the reader can feel it. Thea Harrison is a fantastic new talent who will soon be taking the world of paranormal romance by storm.”

—Shannon K. Butcher, national bestselling author

“Fun, feral and fiercely exciting—I can’t get enough! Thea Harrison supplies deliciously addictive paranormal romance, and I’m already jonesing for the next hit.”

—Ann Aguirre, national bestselling author

Berkley Sensation Titles by Thea Harrison

DRAGON BOUND

STORM’S HEART

SERPENT’S KISS

ORACLE’S MOON

O
RACLE’S
M
OON

Thea Harrison

THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP

Published by the Penguin Group

Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA

Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.) • Penguin Books Ltd., 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England • Penguin Group Ireland, 25 St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd.) • Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty. Ltd.) • Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd., 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi—110 017, India • Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, Auckland 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd.) • Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty.) Ltd., 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa

Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

ORACLE’S MOON

A Berkley Sensation Book / published by arrangement with the author

PUBLISHING HISTORY

Berkley Sensation mass-market edition / March 2012

Copyright © 2012 by Teddy Harrison.

Excerpt from
Lord’s Fall
by Thea Harrison copyright © 2012 by Teddy Harrison.

Cover art by Tony Mauro. Cover hand lettering by Ron Zinn.

Cover design by George Long.

Interior text design by Tiffany Estreicher.

All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.
For information, address: The Berkley Publishing Group,
a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.

EISBN: 9781101560785

BERKLEY SENSATION
^®
Berkley Sensation Books are published by The Berkley Publishing Group,
a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.

BERKLEY SENSATION
^®
is a registered trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

The “B” design is a trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the publisher, and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.”

Table of Contents

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Nine

Ten

Eleven

Twelve

Thirteen

Fourteen

Fifteen

Sixteen

Seventeen

Eighteen

Nineteen

Twenty

Twenty-One

A
ttracting a Djinn’s interest is generally not considered to be a good thing, Grace.

The babysitter Janice’s pointed words kept bouncing around in Grace’s head like a loose football on a field. That football was ten yards away from the end zone, and it had two teams of two-hundred-pound-plus NFL football players scrambling after it with all the intensity of their multimillion-dollar careers being on the line, and if that football could talk, you know it would be whining, “Oh geez this is gonna hurt.”

Which was pretty much how the whole day had felt to Grace, including the sense of impending doom.

So thanks for the snark fest, Janice. It wasn’t like Grace had any choice about the Djinn appearing in her life in the first place. He had been part of the group that had shown up on her doorstep at three thirty in the morning, because they couldn’t wait until a goddamn decent time to talk to her.

She should probably stop calling him “the Djinn.” He did, after all, have a name. He was Khalil somebody. According to one of his companions, he was Khalil Somebody Important.

Grace wasn’t sure, but she thought his name might be Khalil Bane of Her Existence, but she didn’t want to call him that to his…well, his face, when he chose to wear a face…because she didn’t want to provoke him any more than she already had, and she was really, really just hoping he might get bored and go away now that all the excitement had died down.

All the excitement was dying down now, wasn’t it?

The killing.

She had never seen anybody killed before that morning.

She shoved the memory aside. Right now she had her niece and nephew to look after, dammit. She didn’t have time to react any more to what had happened. It would have to fucking wait until Chloe and Max were in bed.

Maybe the Djinn would be gone when she and the kids got home from getting groceries. Grace could hope. She could hope for a lot of things. There was always the possibility that the grocery store was giving out free steaks today and that a herd of pigs might file a flight plan with air traffic control at the Louisville International Airport.

Actually, she had the suspicion that he had followed them to the store. She couldn’t see him, but she could sense his smoky presence at the edge of her mind ever since she packed Max and Chloe in the car and drove to Super Saver. The awareness of his acrid psychic scent jangled her nerves, like the feeling she got when fire trucks roared down a street with all sirens screaming.

It didn’t matter if you couldn’t see the fire. You still knew something catastrophic loomed nearby.

She managed to get a parking space by one of the cart stations. The humid, ninety-five-degree June day slapped her in the face when she climbed out of the car. In a matter of moments her T-shirt clung to her back, and she wanted nothing more than to tear off her shabby flannel pants above the knees, except she didn’t wear shorts anymore, not even around the house, since she couldn’t stand the sight of her scarred legs after the car accident.