Lunar Marked (Sky Brooks Series Book 4) (30 page)

When she finally got to the top step he sat next to her, but she refused to look at him. He lifted her chin until her eyes met his and leaned into her as he spoke. She seemed only casually interested in what he had to say. As he continued I couldn’t hear the conversation but reading their body language, seeing his grief and her determination to hold on to her misplaced anger, I knew they were going to be there for a while. I started people watching because it was in that moment I fully understood the depths of their friendship and how much he didn’t want it to end.

Josh was a hard person to begrudge. His expressive eyes were as enchanting as any spell he could perform and his confident but approachable personality made staying mad at him more work than most people were willing to put in. Only Ethan had the level of fortitude, and Josh just seemed to like to irritate him for fun. Whether she conceded to forgiving him because she quickly realized he wasn’t leaving until things between them were okay or she actually wanted to, by the time I looked back at them the anger had crumbled away from her cherubic face and she let him take her hands.

* * *

S
ebastian was still talking
, and I really tried to listen, but how long could a person talk about swords and blades? The answer was twenty-five minutes. He had been talking about swords for twenty-five minutes. A discussion about swords should start and end with “pick it up and swing.” The end.

Yesterday, both Ethan and Josh stayed at my place, and I still couldn’t sleep because I was expecting Ethos to just show up. Everyone seemed confident that he wouldn’t. I wasn’t sure what about the situation gave them that confidence. Yes, Ethos was injured, but a being that didn’t die from being stabbed in the neck probably didn’t need a lot of healing time and there was no telling what type of magic he possessed to help him heal faster. I just didn’t sleep, and when Ethan reminded me I was scheduled to train with Sebastian, it made sleeping even harder. Training with Sebastian. There were so many things wrong with that—especially the
training
and
Sebastian
parts.

At six o’clock I’d returned to the retreat, and Sebastian was waiting with several swords laid out. We hadn’t practiced because he was yammering on about the various swords.
Hey, Mr. Alpha, give me the one that can cut through a body part—I’m pretty sure that would be all of them, let’s get to training.

Then he asked, “Which one do you think is best for you?” with a smirk, and I was pretty sure he knew every thought that went on in my head.

I stepped closer to the katana. “I would prefer to use this one. It’s lighter and can cut off a hand or arm. Similar to the sabre Winter gave me.” I pointed to the straight thin one, the rapier. “Don’t want to use that one because stabbing him didn’t work the first time, no need to try it again.”

He continued to listen to me and the amused smirk remained but was brandished with intrigue.

Then I picked up the claymore. “His skin is so thick and scaly that if he’s not in human form, this is the only thing that will behead him. Nothing can live without a head.”

I really hope nothing live without a head.
But Ethos was full of surprises, and I wouldn’t be too bewildered if he picked the damn thing up and walked away.

Sebastian had the most melodious deep laugh; it was heard so seldom that it was enchanting. “And each time I looked at you, I could have sworn you weren’t listening.”

“Me?” I gasped dramatically. “I listen to everything you say.”

“
Hmm
, that must be something new you’re trying.” He picked up the katana and moved, whirling around in a coordinated dance of silver. As it crossed midline, cords of thick muscle contracted and relaxed under his t-shirt. He controlled the blade with the same ease as his own body, just a sharp extension of his smooth, graceful movements. I forced myself to listen as he went through the stances and the best way to hold it to gain an advantage.

After five hours of training, I was pretty sick of having a sword in my hand, but apparently I wasn’t leaving until Sebastian was metaphorically dead. He walked toward me, his blade moving in fluid and continuous figure-eight movements in front of him, a predacious elegance that pretty much screamed that death was coming. His light smile didn’t belie the fear of seeing him come at me with a blade.

I lunged; he parried then moved to my side and thrust an elbow into my ribs. Pain seared through me. I pivoted to strike and thought it would come close enough to get my so-called kill, but he blocked it. He grinned then swiped my leg. Collapsing to the ground, I kept the sword extended in order to defend myself. An impressed brow raised as I parried each strike. Spinning on my butt, I blocked and returned enough strikes to move to my knee. When he struck again, I blocked it and quickly jabbed into his solar plexus and thrust the side of my fist into his knee, hitting hard enough for him to feel and know that if it were at full force it would have brought him down, like he did with me. I felt the pain, but not enough to be seriously injured. He dropped to the ground, and I brought the blade to his throat.

He grinned.

“Did you let me win?”

“It was a good sequence; it would have worked with anyone.”

But not him.
If I weren’t so tired I would have wanted a rematch.

Coming to his feet, he placed the sword aside. “See you tomorrow, same time.”

“I slayed you. How about eight?”

He chuckled as he went up the stairs, passing Ethan, who had been seated there for I don’t know how long. “You defended yourself well. Six o’clock, Skylar.”

“I kind of kicked Sebastian’s ass,” I joked. My body ached and tomorrow I was doubtful I could go another round, while Sebastian looked as though he could go several more. Violence and fighting seemed to energize him, a pure adrenaline rush. Would they ever admit that violence was their drug of choice, an addiction that made them higher than any drug?

Ethan was silent as he approached me with a hint of a smile. His lips brushed against my cheek. “You did very well.” And then his lips covered mine, warmth pricked at my skin as his fingers dug into my side, walking me back into the wall. His kisses came harder, rough breaths beat against my lips. He tugged at my shirt, yanking it off, and then tossed it aside. Attentive lips coasted over my neck, my chest, down my stomach, leaving warm trails as his tongue licked at my skin until he had reached the edge of my pants, and then he pulled them off. He quickly discarded his. My legs curled around him as he lifted.

I was distracted, aware that we were downstairs in the gym, in the open. Anyone could come down and see us. I reminded him of it, but he couldn’t care less. I tried not to be pulled under the wave of raw sexuality that commanded his every move. “Someone can—”

His lips covered mine, kissing me harder, as the weight of his body draped over me and he pushed into me—hard. The wall bit into my sore back as he thrusted me into it. Warm fingers dug into my thighs and I tightened my legs around him and wove my fingers in his hair, I pulled him to me, the need to be as close as possible to him increasing. His intensity commanded the moment as his ragged breath beat harshly against my lips. I clung to him even tighter as he drew a moan of pleasure that exceeded the one before and then a deep growl that reverberated in his chest as we reached the height of our carnal pleasure.

He kept my legs secured around him as he rested against me kissing me lightly several times.

“Should I be freaked out that kicking Sebastian’s ass turns you on? Because I need to tell you this is all kinds of strange. And a little twisted.”

His fingers swept lightly against my lips and then he kissed me again. “Winter has trained you well.”

Violence wasn’t just their drug of choice, I’m pretty sure it was their aphrodisiac, too.

I
t had been
three days since the incident with Ethos, and I couldn’t blame Josh for getting restless sleeping in my guest room. He only left my side to visit London, who had been saddled with Gavin and Steven. It was hard hiding my surprise when he said that London had grown fond of Gavin. She disliked being pulled into the otherworld but didn’t have a problem with the ominous guy who moved in silence and nearly disappeared and when you least expected—
Bam
, he’s in front of you.
That’s the thing she’s okay with?

Josh had gone to bed, and Ethan lay next to me as I kept going through the book he’d shown me about the Faeries. I wished I could put it down—other than recounting the horror at the height of the population there wasn’t more information. I pieced things together operating mostly on speculation and assumptions. Emma was a witch, there wasn’t anything to disprove it, but it didn’t seem like she was as much the grieving mother as she was, like most of the witches, in collusion to help repopulate a dying race. I will never accept infanticide but understood why that was used as option to keep Faeries out of power again. So many people died to kill them.

I had conceded that this just wasn’t a coincidence. Maya and Ethos were the same, from the same ilk as he put it. He’d become known as the purveyor of dark magic, but to him it was just magic, it wasn’t dark and insidious.

Josh’s sharp groan alerted us before the crashing of the shattered magic that covered the area like a dense shawl could. We jumped up, Josh was standing near the front door. A blood ward when shattered has the same effect on the witch who created it. He was linked to it metaphysically, and he could control it, make it stronger if someone tried to break it. The ward was broken, and the door blasted open. A wolf lunged at Josh, pinning him to the ground, and before Ethan or I could clear our way to him we were hauled back by powerful force. Ethos walked in, wearing his human shell, his odd violet eyes sparking like fire. I struggled to rip myself from the wall but his magic was strong.

He went into my room and returned with the Aufero in hand. It attempted to form a field around itself, but Ethos’s hand waved over it, dissolving that into a diaphanous sheet of destroyed magic that coated the air. I dug deep inside, pulling in the magic from it, trying to draw in the connection and force it to me. I released myself from the wall and summoned the magic to me. I thrust him into the wall with force and then tossed him to the ground. Anger washed over his face. He smashed his hands into the ground, and fire blazed around me full circle.

“That’s for you,” Ethos said.

Panic made it harder to think. I needed a spell, something, but before it could close in too much it disappeared. The burns on the rug were all that remained. And it had done its job—distracting me.

His lips moved quickly and he said the incantation over the Aufero. It regurgitated black fog that formed a thin stream and wrapped around Ethan. He gasped a deep breath. I could hear his heart pounding at an erratic rate, and his face flushed red, his breathing shallow pants as he slumped over. Released from his magical binding, he lay on the floor struggling to take deeper breaths. They came slower, matching his heart rate. Too slow to be functional—to live. It dragged until it was nothing more than a periodic thump accompanied by shallow slow breaths. When his eyes rolled back and he stilled, I screamed curses at Ethos.

He smiled with pure deviance and malice. “You made your choice.”

Ethan hadn’t moved in several minutes. Not a breath, not a beat. I blinked back the tears I would never give Ethos the satisfaction of seeing. As he watched me with warped pleasure, I vowed I would kill him.

As though he had read my thought—but I was sure the anger and thirst for vengeance covered my face—he headed out the door with the Aufero in hand, the were-animals close behind, one of them leaving a trail of blood, injured by Josh. Josh had quickly come to my side, kneeling next to his brother saying a series of invocations that didn’t work.

Ethos stopped to glance over his shoulder at me, frowned, and turned around. Josh had taken a stance, ready to engage. Ethos simply rolled his eyes in disinterest. “If you want him to live, you will step back.”

Josh wasn’t able and I didn’t blame him. He couldn’t be trusted.

Ethos stepped closer to Ethan and blew over the Aufero. It crystalized to an odd color of red and started to pump. And Ethan took a breath, his heart beating slowly at first, a gentle beat, but the moment he saw Ethos it pounded harder.

“He will be as he should have been,” Ethos said. And then he vanished with the Aufero.

* * *

“
S
o he has them all
?” Winter asked. It was the first time she’d said anything since she arrived at the house and she, Sebastian, Steven and Gavin were told everything about Ethan and the Aufero. Most of their attention was divided between Ethan and the burned carpet. I expected anger and a stout sense of betrayal but they all seemed to understand.

“Yeah,” I said, leaving out the part about the Vitae, leaving it up to Sebastian to tell them. As much as I hated it, I’d promised Ethan I wouldn’t tell Josh, and I would keep my promise.

“If he destroys the Aufero, then Ethan will stay like this?” Steven asked. It was something I had asked myself over and over. Josh and I had discussed it and he seemed as desolate about another outcome as I did. If there were options, I really hoped they would explore them instead of going straight to “containing” the situation—murder.

The long uncomfortable silence persisted, but I could sense the worry from people extended further than Ethan. As far as they knew, Ethos had all the protected objects. What were his plans with them?

Dr. Jeremy kept checking Ethan, trying to ensure us he was okay, but he’d been asleep for over an hour. Although his vitals were all normal he hadn’t woken up. At the two-hour mark, Josh still hadn’t moved from his brother’s side. I was slowly moving to panic mode when he came to. He didn’t look like himself, and the tension that surrounded him made it apparent that he didn’t need to know.

“Don’t,” he said when I moved closer but kept several inches between us. It took a lot of willpower not to touch him although I knew I shouldn’t. The distant expression remained and he barely held contact. This wasn’t Ethan.

He was okay, or as okay as he was going to be as a
Dunkell
, dark elf.

“I’m fine,” Ethan snapped after Josh had inquired several times. It probably didn’t help with everyone there, and Dr. Jeremy was the one to suggest that everyone leave. Josh was reluctant to leave and settled on just leaving the bedroom.

Ethan’s frustration had created armor around him; he was guarded. When I moved to touch him, he rolled to his feet and moved to the other side of the room.

“You were able to control it before,” I reminded him.

“I know, it’ll take time.”

“Come with me,” I said softly. When I extended my hand it took him a moment to take it. He moved closer, and it took even longer before he leaned forward and kissed me lightly. But it wasn’t the same, he was off. He just wasn’t Ethan. Although it frustrated me, he was usually unrestricted in all his emotions and at times his words. I wasn’t fond of that part of him, but it was undeniably Ethan.

The symbiotic relationship he had with his wolf made his emotions raw, carnal, and unfettered. He was his emotions, and a simple kiss was like being swept into a wave. Now he was so subdued that he was unrecognizable. He followed me out to the backyard and I immediately took off my clothes and stood naked, trying hard not to wrap my arms around myself.

He grinned. “Not so modest, are you?”

“Yeah, it is still odd standing outside naked for the world to see all my lady parts.”

He looked around at the thick crowded bosk that stretched for several feet, extended leaves masking the sky. Ethan stripped quickly, changed effortlessly into his wolf, and rushed into the woods.

I changed and went after him, just steps behind as he took off, weaving past the trees enjoying a freedom that he must have felt he’d lost in human form. Ethan’s wolf was massive, nearly double my size, and keeping up with him was getting harder and I fell behind. When he noticed I was no longer behind him, he quickly turned around and was next to me. He nudged me with his nose and then buried his face in my neck, and I enjoyed the moment until he licked me. I hated that and he knew it. Playfully he tried it again, and when I bared my teeth, he grinned.

He rested his face against my neck before dropping down and resting on his paws. I followed, nestling in next to him. It was comfortable—we were comfortable.

* * *

S
ebastian
, Ethan, Josh, Winter, and I were in Sebastian’s SUV, with Gavin and Steven following close behind us. I was trying to hold on to my diplomacy, but anger was boiling in me and I bit down on my tongue until it was in a pain-induced numbness.

“Why are we going? There isn’t anything forcing us to go. Just because Marcia calls some kind of conclave doesn’t mean we have to accept.”

This was politics and I knew it. Every sect of the otherworld was invited, and I wasn’t naïve enough to think there wasn’t some malevolent intent behind it. Ethan was now a dark elf and a conclave was coincidentally called.

“Skylar.” Sebastian’s tone was soft but firm. “We need to go. If it goes well, we have an opportunity to end the covenant. If we don’t go, it would be an insult and slight to all involved and make us look guilty.”

“We are guilty!” We had been driving for nearly forty minutes; I knew we would be there soon and I really wanted to talk them out of it. “We violated it. So why the hell are we going?”

I was being petulant, but this was going to end badly. We were walking into the lion’s den to admit it, with indignation as though we had a sliver of hope to cling to. The covenant was simple: dark elf means death sentence. And we knew about Ethan and kept it hidden. As we pulled into a driveway, I became more desperate.

My debate was lost on Sebastian, so I turned to Ethan and said, “You don’t have to go.
We
don’t have to go.”

He inhaled a breath and sagged into the exhale. “What do you think will happen if we don’t, Sky?” he questioned.

What was the alternative if we didn’t? I knew it must have been worse because we were going into a situation that I couldn’t see ending well.

T
he conclave was held
at a large single-story stone building located on a grassy plain isolated from anything for miles. There were only a few windows and they were blacked out. Before Sebastian could ring the doorbell of the steel door, the only decorative thing about the nondescript building, the door opened and I saw the tortoiseshell-framed glasses before him. Bernard. The haughty man that Claudia had help us find a cure for Kelly’s paralysis.

As he stepped back to let us in his lips pulled into a straight line, his hazel eyes heavy with disdain. Although he didn’t say it, I knew he was calling us “the cursed,” which was what he considered were-animals.

I still didn’t know his title or job—maybe lackey. The same stern look steeled his appearance and periodically he pushed up the glasses on his face as we followed him past the entry to a narrow hallway. He stopped us before we could pass the second open door and was immediately flanked by two large men.

“We will need your weapons,” the largest of the two said to Sebastian.

“We don’t have any.”

“Do you mind if we check?”

Sebastian pulled back his lips in a tight smile that looked more threatening than anything and then he nodded. Once the guard had checked everyone, he stepped back. Both men kept a careful eye on Sebastian and Ethan, and based on the looks on their faces, they had concluded that they could be trouble if things got out of hand.

As we walked into the room, Josh was stopped by Bernard, and the other large guy advanced with two large iridium manacles.

“You will have to wear these,” Bernard told him.