Hunter Moon (The Moon Series) (10 page)

He waited several more minutes for the jackal to make a move. When it didn’t, Lukas slowly picked up his rifle, careful to make as little noise as possible. It wasn’t the one he would use for his kill shot; rather, this one was a motivator. He sighted just across the jackal’s flank then gently squeezed the trigger. The suppressor dulled the noise, but the jackal’s ears still pricked up.

The bullet scored a graze across the animal’s flesh, forcing it to move, just as Lukas wanted. A hunt was no fun if the creature being hunted refused to cooperate. The jackal streaked out of the cage and took off deeper into the swamp. Lukas gave it a few minutes head start, then began to follow.

Lukas soon recognized several tactics that the animal was using to try and throw him off the trail: backtracking in its own footsteps when near water, crossing standing water wherever possible, and even using a branch held in its teeth to erase signs of its passing. Lukas smiled with each successive evasive maneuver. He was right to choose this one, despite the paw.

Night passed. He stayed close to the animal, using his gun when it looked like the jackal might break for an area that led too close to an exit. Lukas wanted to keep the jackal away from any avenue of escape. He was impressed; this was the longest hunt he’d had. They were still several hours from daylight, but Lukas was aware that time was running short. Zamiel had been right to bring him such a challenge. The was no hunting from a stand for this one.

Lukas was near a marshy bog when he lost sight of the jackal. Dead trees pierced the still waters like skeletal fingers. Lukas stopped where he was and reassessed his surroundings. A shiver ran up his spine: he was being watched. He began to backtrack to the last area where he’d had a line on the animal, when something plowed into his legs, knocking him to the ground. The rifle fell from his hand. Something was on top of him, biting at his hands and arms.

It was the jackal. How the damned thing had gotten the drop on him, he didn’t know, but he had to admit he wasn’t expecting the attack. The beast snapped its jaws around his forearm, taking a chunk out of it. Lukas reared back with his free hand and punched the animal in the side of the head. The jackal released his arm, snapping at his face instead. Then it bounded off of him and away into the night.

Lukas levered himself to his feet, checking the damage to his arm. The wound was bleeding freely, but it wasn’t bad. The only down side was the blood would make him easier to smell, both for the jackal and anything else that might be out hunting tonight.

He pulled the other rifle from his back and took off after the jackal. He caught sight of it after a few minutes. It was moving south, toward a heavily forested area of the glades. Lukas dropped to one knee, holding the rifle up to his shoulder and sighted after the fleeing animal. This gun was loaded with the bullets that Zamiel had given him.

They never missed their target.

He held his breath, keeping the barrel steady. The sound of the rifle firing split the night—he never bothered with a suppressor for this gun because it didn’t matter once he fired. There was no escaping these magic bullets. The jackal was as good as dead.

Lukas used his night vision to watch the jackal juking wildly on the marshy ground, trying to avoid the shot, the lame paw slowing it down only slightly. It was nearly to the tree line. Suddenly, it flew sideways, blood spraying into the humid air as the bullet struck. The jackal hit the ground, jerked once, twice, and then lay still.

The hunter smiled. He counted this one as a hunt well done. He took a moment to savor it, then went to collect his kill.

Chapter Thirteen

Kess dropped her bag and keys on the entryway console table, making sure to lock the door behind her. Mebis had missed another sparring session and still no word came from him. She was at a loss. He’d missed a council meeting and two sparring sessions and none of the other members of her clan had seen or heard from him in over a week.

“Hey,” Rafe said as he passed by on his way to the den. He stopped in mid-stride. “You okay?”

She rubbed at the bridge of her nose. “I’m not sure. Where’s Finn?”

Rafe stared at her for a moment, as if he were taking in everything her face said that her words didn’t. “Want me to get him for you?”

She nodded. “Yeah. Can you both join me in my study?”

Rafe took off to find the werewolf while Kess headed in the opposite direction. Her study was across from the library; she’d repurposed an old bedroom rather than have to work the old study--in the place where both her father and brother had spent so much time. She sat down on the edge of her desk, a simple modern thing made of steel and glass.

“No Mebis?” Finn asked before he’d even fully entered the room.

“Nope.” Kess waved Finn and Rafe toward the chairs scatted around the room. “No one has seen or heard from him.” She met Finn’s gaze. “I’m thinking it may be time to call Laila.”

“Did you try calling him?” Rafe asked.

“Yeah. His voicemail is full.”

“That’s not good.” Finn noted.

“Thank you, Captain Obvious.” Kess softened the sarcasm with a smile.

“No need to get bitchy about it,” Finn said mildly, not bothered by the sarcasm at all.

Rafe spoke up suddenly. “Do you know what kind of car he drives?”

She shook her head. “It’s a black one.”

“That’s helpful.” Finn snorted. “Oh, wait. No it’s not.”

“Speaking of not being helpful…” Kess gave the werewolf a scathing look. She didn’t think now was the time for their verbal sparring.

“Can you two just focus for half a second?” Rafe broke in, still trying to solve the riddle of Mebis’ disappearance. He frowned at the both of them. “Kess, do you have any contacts at the police department?”

“Masud does. Why?” Masud was her clan counselor; he helped her make decisions that would directly affect her clan’s interests.

“I think it’s time you used them.”

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“Go ahead, Masud. I’ve got you on speaker.” Kess glanced at Finn and Rafe who had arrayed themselves in chairs in front of her desk so they could hear Masud on the other end.

“I’ve got some news, although whether it’s good or not remains to be seen.” Masud’s voice sounded tinny over the speaker.

“What did your guy find out?” Rafe asked.

Kess chewed on a thumbnail, waiting for news. She had a churning pit in her stomach, as if she had already been given bad news. There was just something inside her that warned, once again, that something wasn’t right. Between Mebis’ strange disappearance, the missing hyenas, and the signs that someone was hunting weres, Kess had prepared herself to accept the worst.

Masud continued. “The police have impounded a car matching the description you gave me. I did some digging and it is licensed under one of his aliases. It had been left abandoned in a parking garage. When he didn’t show up to pay, the garage owner had it towed.”

“You’ll have to tell me how you were able to dig up one of his aliases,” Kess said, impressed at her clan member’s ingenuity.

They could all hear the smile on Masud’s face when he spoke next. He was obviously pleased by her compliment. “They didn’t find anything in the car though.”

“No cell phone?” Finn asked.

Kess thought it was a long shot that Mebis would have been careless enough to leave his cell there, but it never hurt to ask.

“Nothing at all was found in the car.” Masud’s voice dropped. “Kess, do you want me to try to find out anything else? That’s all I’ve got so far, but I can see if I can dig up something that may have been missed.”

Kess scanned Finn and Rafe’s faces. Neither of them looked very hopeful. She frowned, nibbling on her thumbnail again as she thought things through. It looked like they were at a dead end, at least for now. She hadn’t wanted to ask this, but it seemed they had no choice. “Can you have your guy try and track his number? See if it has been active at all in the last week?”

“Sure, give it to me. I’ll see what he can find.”

Kess did, keeping her eyes on Finn. She was worried too about what this might mean for Laila. She raised a brow at him, but didn’t say anything until she had hung up with Masud, who promised to be back in touch quickly. She waited a beat before saying anything.

Rafe surprised her by speaking first. “What do you think happened to him?”

Kess drummed her fingers against the top of her desk. “I don’t think he was called away on a Keeper mission. Wouldn’t they have taken care of his garage fees so his car wouldn’t get towed?” Finn nodded slowly, and Kess continued her thinking out loud. “That seems likely to get attention and we know that goes against how the Keepers operate.”

“So what then?” Finn asked, although from the look on his face Kess knew what he suspected the answer was to that question.

“I don’t know.”

“The hunter.” Rafe said the one thing they were all thinking.

“How?” Finn asked before Kess could. “He’s a Keeper, a one-man wrecking machine. How do you sneak up on him?”

Kess shivered. The hunter was beginning to loom large in all their thoughts, she knew. But hunting hyenas and hunting a Keeper of Divine Order were entirely different. It didn’t make sense—how was this hunter able to hunt them at all? How did he even know about weres? And how did he determine who was a werebeast with enough surety to hunt them?

She stood up, sick of sitting. She needed to walk, and she wanted to get out of the room and into some fresh air before she felt the walls closing in on her. But first she had to ask Finn a question. “Do you think you should call Laila?”

“And tell her what? We seem to have misplaced your brother?” Finn’s generous mouth turned down in a frown. He shook his head. “Until there’s something to tell her, I’d rather her not worry.”

“No, you’ll leave that up to us,” Rafe chided.

Kess escaped from the ensuing verbal battle for the relative quiet of the pool and back yard. One question was on her mind: just where exactly was Mebis?

Chapter Fourteen

When Lukas called, Kess had been grateful for the distraction. Between Mebis’ strange disappearance, the missing hyenas, and the possibility of a hunter in the area, Kess was glad to focus on a mundane task like figuring out if Lukas was a werecreature. Best case scenario—he wasn’t and she could at least mark something off her checklist. Worst case, he was and then she had to figure out if he was hostile or not. Either way, it was something new to worry about.

But now that she was out with him, Kess felt like she was betraying Cormac. With every smile at Lukas, with every shared laugh, she was certain there was a special punishment being thought up for her because she was betraying her boyfriend with another guy. She’d spoken briefly to Finn, who tried to reassure her, but it hadn’t worked. It didn’t matter that she was only going out with Lukas to try and determine if he was a new were in town. It didn’t matter that she was too on edge with thoughts of Mebis and the hunter and the Keepers to actually enjoy herself. All that mattered was that she was out on what she supposed technically qualified as a date with someone who was not her boyfriend.

She couldn’t wait for the night to be over. All she wanted to do was huddle in bed with a movie with a lot of stuff blowing up or superheroes beating the snot out of each other and forget about everything for a night.

Lukas said something that she didn’t catch. She gave him an anemic smile and reminded herself to pay attention. Her focus wasn’t being helped by how uncomfortable Lukas made her. When they first met, he seemed completely normal, but the longer she spent in his presence the more unnerved she became.

Kess didn’t know what it was about Lukas that bothered her, but something was certainly setting off her warning bells. He’d been a perfect gentleman all evening: attentive, respectful, and interested. Still, Kess couldn’t shake the feeling that something more was going on beneath his surface of urbane charm. He was attractive, and Kess couldn’t deny that he was handsome, but it was tempered by the feeling that she had to be very careful around him.

If he was a were, then it made sense. If he wasn’t, Kess didn’t know what secrets he might be hiding that would give off such a vibe. She didn’t think she was being paranoid—she’d spent too long on the run and honing her danger sense to ignore what it was telling her now.

So when he’d invited her back to his condo because it was still early, she’d dubiously said yes. Kess figured if things went south, she could handle it, but she needed to find out what was up with Lukas. There were too many strange things going on in Miami and the surrounding areas that concerned her: the missing hyenas, the evidence of hunting, Mebis’ absence, strange signs in the Everglades. Kess needed to find out what was going on, and quickly, so she could figure out a way to deal with it before things got worse.

Lukas unlocked to door to his condominium and ushered her inside. He had the air conditioning cranked, so the cold air made the main room feel a little like the walk-in coolers in the restaurants where Kess used to work. She shivered as she stepped into the living area, her eyes immediately drawn to its wall of windows. The lights of Miami and the darkness of the water beyond lay spread out before her like a picnic. It was lovely.