Fever (Blood Moon Rising, #1) (9 page)

She went silent, staring at him. Her
tongue ran over her lips, and she leaned forward, kissing him
slowly. When she leaned back, she licked her lips again, tasting
herself.

That alone was almost enough to make
him jerk down his pants and thrust into her right there in the car.
The ritual be damned. He needed to mate with her, and soon,
otherwise he’d lose his mind.

The car came to a stop, and Nik’s
voice spoke through the intercom. “We’re, er, here, sire,” letting
on he had heard them. “Not picking up on any paranormal signatures.
I don’t think she’s here.”

“
All the better. We’ll
still scope her place out.”

Gage reached over and straightened
Danica’s skirt and blouse. He helped her pull on her jacket,
leaning in to kiss her one last time. “You don’t have to come
in.”

“
I want to. This whole
thing started because of me.”

He cupped her face. “And I thank God
it did, because it led me to you.”

She smiled, leaning into his hand and
closing her eyes. Kissing his palm, she twined her fingers with his
and let him help her out of the car after he’d gotten out and
walked around the back. He pulled her close as they walked to the
door, with Nik on the other side of her. Erik stayed with the car,
in case something went down outside.

Nik and Gage listened by the front
door of the old log cabin a moment before trying the door. It was
unlocked. Nik shoved the door open, both of them waiting to see if
any wards would go off.

Nothing happened. The place had been
abandoned.

Gage swore, feeling that crushing
despair sinking in. They were already too late to catch the only
lead they had.

“
Let’s see what we can
find,” he said gruffly.

“
I’ll go first.” Nik went
in without waiting for Gage’s response.

Gage slapped a hand on his brother’s
shoulder. “Be careful.”

“
Aren’t I always, cupcake?”
Nik said with a grin, and went inside.

Gage had never known a more loyal
friend. They’d die for each other. Gage did owe him his life.
Without Nik, he’d be lost, probably starving in a gutter somewhere.
It was Nik who’d earned them the right to try out for the pack,
being the stronger of the two brothers at the time.

After a moment, Nik reappeared and
gestured them to come inside. “There’s not much here. Smells like a
hundred cats took a piss in here.”

“
So witches do keep cats,”
Danica murmured as she and Gage stepped inside.

Gage smiled slightly. “Familiars, to
be exact. A powerful witch or warlock can look through the eyes of
her or his familiar, often using them as spies. The more familiars
they have, the more powerful the witch or warlock tends to
be.”

Danica looked fascinated by everything
around her. Gage couldn’t imagine her hanging out in any New Age
shops, so she probably was intrigued by all this. Pentagrams,
cursing dolls, rows and rows of potions and dusty spellbooks took
up every inch of free space in the tight cabin. One room was set
off to the side, complete with a crystal ball and spooky lighting.
It was cleaner than the rest of the place, probably where the
reclusive witch met her clients and ripped them off. Most people
didn’t believe in magic, thus falling prey to the more cunning
witches and warlocks. All it took was one charm, and the client
would get home only to discover their bank account was emptied and
they couldn’t remember where they’d been.

Gage kept Danica close as they set
about tearing the place apart for any clue as to if Onyx had hired
her, or if someone else had hired both witch and wolf. Nik wasn’t
kidding when he said the place smelled like a gigantic litter box
that hadn’t been cleaned in weeks. Danica was handling it
surprisingly well, her cute little nose curled up in disgust the
only indication it was bothering her. Her full wolf senses wouldn’t
develop until after her first Change, bless her heart.

It became clear within the first few
minutes this witch was anything but tidy. It became apparent that
as they sifted through her dusty junk it was going to be highly
unlikely they’d find anything of any value in here. Gage was about
ready to call it quits when he moved aside a stack of papers and
his eyes fixed on a familiar symbol. “Check this out.”

Nik walked over to where Danica and
Gage stood. “It’s another one of those charms.”

“
We’re at the right witch’s
house, all right. It’s identical.” Gage frowned. “Now if we could
just find a ledger or a receipt book.” Paranormals weren’t exempt
from tax laws; the Underworld’s government didn’t differ much from
the human’s on that note.

They nearly tore the place apart
trying to find a receipt book, but at last they found one. They
combed through it, not seeing Onyx’s name but finding a “Mistress
Black” scrawled across several receipts. None of them indicated any
patterns or gave any clue as to what the buyer was needing the
spells for. Most were standard potions, though several advanced
cloaking charms of the variety Gage found on Onyx had been
purchased.

“
Do you think this Mistress
Black is connected to Onyx?” Nik asked.

“
I’m not sure. Possibly.
She could be involved in one of the witch mafias we’ve heard about
being active around here lately.”

Danica’s eyes widened. “Witches have
mafias? Weird….”

Gage grinned, nudging her. “Bet you
didn’t expect that, did you?”

She shook her head. “I didn’t expect
any of this. It’s a lot to take in.”

He winced, reminded how different she
was from him. When his eyes fell on the Mark, his regret went away.
It didn’t matter where she’d come from - she belonged with him
now.

Intending to hold onto the receipt
book, Gage tucked it into his pocket, then checked his watch. “We
should get going. Our scents will be all over this place, and
though it looks abandoned, I don’t want to take any chances.” He
reached for Danica’s waist and tucked her against him as he said
it.

They walked quickly toward the door.
The instant they set foot outside, Gage and Nik immediately
tensed.

“
What is it?” Danica said,
wide eyes searching the woods around them. Fog had descended upon
the place, but there was something off about it. It was shimmering.
Things moved within it as it stirred restlessly over the
ground.

Nik growled. “Black Magic.”

Gage swore. He hadn’t been able to
detect what type of witch they were dealing with inside. She looked
more like a dabbler. It wasn’t until the flock of wraiths came
swarming out of the trees like a hoard of angry bees that he knew
they’d made a grave mistake in coming here.

Chapter 9

At first, Danica thought there was no
way in hell she was seeing what she was seeing. Several slow, hard
blinks later, she knew without a doubt that she was seeing ghosts.
Or at least, they looked like a mixture between a zombie and a
ghost. Skin peeled off their exposed bones, and they were a murky
green color and see-through. They whipped through the air,
screeching and howling like a pissed off flock of birds.

As the commotion increased, Erik got
out of the car. The moment he turned around, he opened his mouth to
scream when the zombie-ghosts attacked him, tearing him
apart.

Bile rose in Danica’s throat, and she
forced it back down. She leaned into Gage, fighting hard to tear
her gaze away from the eviscerated werewolf but finding it
impossible to do so. It was like watching a train wreck. She wanted
to look away but couldn’t.

“
Run!” Nik yelled. With the
monsters swarming the car, the trio of wolves bolted back through
the house and out the back door. Danica nearly tripped down the
rickety wooden steps as they barreled toward the surrounding woods.
She’d give anything to be laying back in Gage’s bed at the mansion.
That was safe. Curiously, it was also starting to feel like home,
crazy as it sounded, and she had no idea why. Her shack used to
feel like home, but the joy she felt at actually coming home had
waned over the long, hard years. Maybe the difference was at the
mansion, she had someone to come home
to
.

And now she may never see shack nor
mansion again. Her calves burned as they ran. That horrible
screeching filled the air behind them, growing louder, spurring her
on. Muscle burns be damned. She was going to haul ass away from
those things.

The toe of her shoe caught on a rock,
and she nearly went down, making her heart slam against her
sternum.

“
I’ve got you,” Gage said,
holding her up and never breaking stride. “Keep going.”

“
Easy for you to say, Mr.
Gold Star Gym Membership,” she gritted out between heavy
pants.

He chuckled. It was exactly what she
needed, considering they were probably going to get eaten alive at
any minute by those ghost-piranhas.

“
Just keep moving,” he
said. “We’re going to make it. I won’t let anything happen to
you.”

Okay, considering what those things
did to Erik, she knew good and well Gage had to be bluffing. Still,
it sparked a small ember of hope inside her to hear him say
that.

Nik crashed through the trees ahead of
them. The woods seemed to grow thicker the farther into the forest
they went, like it was trying to choke out all the sunlight. That
eerie mist crept along her peripheral vision, closing in on them
and making her run harder.

“
We have to get to the
river!” Nik shouted. “Wraiths can’t cross moving water.”

“
What did he call those
things?” Danica yelled.

“
Something not of this
world,” Gage answered, a dark look on his face. Fear swam in his
eyes. Since meeting him, this was the first time she could honestly
say he looked scared. He seemed so fearless.

Branches snapped above them, and
something clawed at her hair. Danica screamed as Gage snarled, his
nails turning into claws and lashing out at the wraith that had
hold of her.

The sound of rushing water encouraged
them to keep running.

“
Almost there!” Nik
said.

There it was; the river lay only a few
feet away.

Run faster.
Harder.

Fists pumping, she ran with everything
she had toward the rushing water. Nik leapt clean over the river,
bounding over it as easily as if he were playing
hopscotch.

There was no way she could do that.
She was going to slam into the water.

“
No matter what, don’t stop
moving until you get to the other side,” Gage said.

Danica screamed as white-hot pain lit
up her left shoulder; one of the wraiths had clawed her. It swooped
down, going for her head, when Gage ripped it out of the air and
stomped it beneath his boot. It screeched, writhing before lying
still. “I’ll hold them off!”

“
No!” Danica yelled,
pulling on his arm. “You can’t do this!”

“
I can.” He kissed her
fiercely, then shoved her backwards. “Don’t watch!” The words were
barely out of his mouth before he was jerked backwards with a
cry.

“
Gage!” Danica screeched,
skidding as her footing slipped.

Gage was surrounded by wraiths. He
swung at them, grunting and snapping his jaws like a beast. Through
the blur of shadows, two gold eyes burned.

“
Get her, Nik!” Gage
shouted.

Nik bounded back across the river,
seizing Danica. She struggled as he pulled her toward the river.
“No! I can’t leave him.”

“
You don’t have a choice!
I’m not risking him killing me if something happens to
you.”

Without warning, he swung her over his
shoulder and ran toward the river, Danica kicking and screaming the
whole way. Her eyes remained glued to Gage, calling his name,
praying this was all a nightmare she would wake up from any
minute.

There was the sense of weightlessness
and the rush of cold air through her hair as Nik lifted them over
the river. The moment he set her down, she started back toward the
water, but he grabbed her in a bear hug, not letting go.

“
Gage!” she screamed.
“Gage! Don’t you dare die on me!”

Only the sounds of battle met her ears
as her mate fought for his life. She didn’t even know when she’d
started thinking of him as her mate. It was an unconscious
decision, something her heart decided without her common sense to
hold her back or screw things up for her.

“
Let me go!” she
cried.

“
No!” Nik said, sounding
anguished. “I’m sorry, love.”

Tears streamed down her face as she
watched the golden eyes slowly vanish beneath the mass of ghostly
bodies. Rearing her head back, she screamed into the sky, sounding
like a wounded animal. Her knees gave out from under her, and Nik
sank with her to the ground, holding onto her. Tears leaked from
his eyes as he silently stared at where her mate had been seconds
ago but now only a whirling mass of wraiths swarmed.

They were coming closer.