Luna's Sokjan (Book one) (33 page)

Really? I grinned at him,
good to know.

We met with Gabriel’s men
in the office. There were four groups and each group consisted of
five men. We assigned one cemetery and the three neighborhoods to
one of the four groups. Which left Gabriel and me one cemetery and
the old Madison restaurant to check out.

Cemeteries during the day
aren’t as disturbing as they are at night, but it is close. It
still feels as though someone is watching you from every angle. The
Archer Greenville Cemetery is one of the oldest cemeteries in our
little city. It was named after Robert Archer, a famous human
general, and also, one of the founding fathers of Fall Branch. The
cemetery stretched out for seven city blocks and contained the
usual tombstones, and markers.

An old railroad train
track ran the distance of the cemetery in the back and the main
highway ran the length in front. The most noteworthy thing about
this cemetery was its old crypts, lots and lots of crypts. Meaning
there were lots of places to hide a body or bodies.

As a child, I used to play
in cemeteries
.
I
would read all the names and dates on all the tombstones, markers,
and crypts. I would spend hours imagining who the people were, how
they lived, and how they died. I have an advantage over other
cemetery hunters. All I had to do was talk to the spirits to see if
I was right. It was fun and helped me learn how to communicate with
the dead. The most crucial lesson I learned was what not to say to
the spirits.

Spirits like to stay near
things that are familiar to them. Houses, people, and objects that
once held a peculiar meaning to them. So isn’t a tremendous
surprise to find them in a cemetery. Getting them to talk you, on
the hand can be terribly difficult. I only had to speak to one
spirit to find out if the ‘master’ had ever been there, but Gabriel
didn’t need to know that. Reading tombstones with a thousand year
old spirit turned out to be very interesting. It was dusk when we
left the cemetery and drove down Madison Street, to look at the old
Madison restaurant
.

I told Gabriel everything
I knew about the old restaurant and was ready to explore the old
place. I wanted to see if any spirits had moved in since the last
time I was there. For me, it would have been the perfect ending for
the day, but Gabriel had other ideas.

We returned home and had a
quiet dinner in bed. Finishing what we had started that morning.
Which was in, Gabriel’s opinion was the perfect ending for the day.
It was an exceptionally good opinion I had to admit.

Chapter 21

The handsome face of
Anthony Robinson filled my dreams that night. He was speaking to
someone, but I couldn’t see who it was. He kept making wild hand
gestures as he moved nervously around the small room. Dead foul
tasting power flowed around him with each gesture. It oozed under
the door and out of the room. I gagged. Tortured screams from women
echoed in the distance. My stomach heaved when the spirit suddenly
spun to face the door. The poor spirits were scared.

What was on the other side
of that door?

My stomach heaved again
when the spirit spun back around to face Anthony. He was staring at
the closed door in panic. I purred in response to his fear. The
earthy moldy taste of death mixed with the metallic bite of blood
filled my mouth, and the mixture was over whelming. I snarled
before I emptied my stomach on the floor. Once again my vision was
filled with the closed door, but this time something was slamming
against it.

Something exceptionally
powerful was trying to get through the door. What would make both
spirits so terrified? Quickly I wrapped them both in my power.
Filling them with a new strength, I commanded them to come to me at
once. The door exploded into a million shards as an immense power
poured into the room. I never got the see what was coming through,
but I felt its power and it was strong enough to give me
pause.

I was kneeing on the
balcony when the vision left me. How did I get out here? With
closed eyes, I took a deep breath, trying to remember how and when
I had gotten out of bed. I gagged on the smell of my own vomit, and
raced for the bathroom. I threw up again, but this time in the
toilet.

“What has made you ill, my
love?” Gabriel’s slightly accented voice filled the
bathroom.

I got up slowly from my
knees and moved to the sink to rinse my mouth out.

“I’m fine Gabriel it was
just a vision, just an awful vision.” I told him, and brushed my
teeth, “Gabriel all I want to do is lay down for a moment, and then
I will tell you what I saw.”

His muscular body blocked
the door away and wouldn’t let me pass. Instead, he lifted my pale
face to meet his piercing amber gaze. He looked at my pale
complexion and the slight tremor of my body before he moved to let
me reenter the bedroom. I picked up a towel and headed for the
balcony.

“I have to clean up the
balcony first Gabriel.” I told him when he steered me towards the
bed.

“I’ll take care of it. You
just lay down.” He said quietly.

Ah, true love, wasn’t it
grand?

Snuggling close together,
I told Gabriel all about my vision from the spirits.

“I commanded them to come
to me. So hopefully they will be arriving soon and hopefully by
themselves. The power of that thing coming through the door was
incredible I wish you could have felt it.” I told him. “We need to
check with the other search parties and see what they
found.”

“Nothing, they found
nothing.” He said. I pulled away to look down at him. “What? I know
how to text message.”

I laughed with
him.

“Gabriel if I forget to,”
I stopped in mid-sentence.

The room had suddenly
gotten colder and power pushed the closed French doors open. We
went in to action at the same time, as if we had done this a
hundred times before, both of us jumped from the bed. I drew both
of my swords and threw one to Gabriel. Together we faced whatever
was coming through the balcony doors.

“Golden Witch, forgive us
for not coming to you sooner and thank you for the extra power. It
saved us from the creature the ‘Master’ has called.” A disembodied
voice filled the room. “It has for, the moment, gone back to where
it came from, but he will call it again, Golden Witch. He will call
it again very soon.”

“The Master’s name is
Anthony Steven Robinson.” Another disembodied voice filled the
room, but it was weaker than the first, as if it were hurt. Both
spirits were in the room now, and it was terribly cold.

“Wind spirit, are you
hurt?” I asked and retracted my sword, before moving towards the
spirit.

Gabriel grabbed my arm
stopping my progress. The wind spirit was a misty green with blue
swirls, where the fire was a black mist with red swirls.

“No, Golden Witch, just
very tired.” It replied.

Lifting, Gabriel’s sword
hand I cut my finger on the long black blade.

“Our bond is done. Wind
Spirit, accept your final payment and my thanks.” I said to the
spirit.

She moved forward and
drank my blood quickly before she left.

“We will build you a bon
fire today Fire spirit and tonight you can dance with the flames.”
I told the spirit.

“Can you tell us the name
of the building that the master hides in?” Gabriel asked the
spirit.

“You can see the Fire
spirit?” I asked and stared at him in surprise.

“Ah, Celt, I see you have
found your mate at long last.” The Fire spirit said.

Its swirling colors
changed to an entirely black haze.

“Yes, I have. Now answer
the question.” He responded looking at the swirling black
haze.

“In the Madison Street Pub
and Brewery restaurant,” the spirit answered.

“Thank you, spirit.” He
said and pushed his power at the mist.

Together we watched the
Fire spirit explode into colors. I gaped at him.

When had the world stopped
turning?

“You can see and talk to
spirits? When were you gunna to tell me?” I asked him.

“When you needed to know I
guess.” He shrugged at me with a lopsided grin.

What could only be
descried as a laugh came from the spirit. Nice, now the fucking
spirits were laughing at me, jerks
.

“Go spirit, you will
receive your payment tonight.” I commanded the Fire
spirit.

“As you wish, Golden
Witch, Celtic,” then the Fire spirit was gone.

I snatched my sword from
Gabriel and headed for the shower. Turning, the hot water on full
blast I stepped in trying to get warm again.

“Why are you so mad,
because I can see and talk to spirits?” Gabriel wanted to know
stepping in behind me.

“Honestly, I don’t care if
you can see spirits, but Gabriel, you have to be very careful when
talking to them. If, you do it wrong they can turn on you, and they
will Gabriel. That is what I am upset about.” I yelled.

In my anger, I turned
around to face him, and pushed his chest. He pushed me back against
the shower wall.

“I know how to deal with
spirits, love. I was a spirit for a long time, remember?” He
said.

I opened my mouth, and
nothing came out. Yes, I had forgotten that he had been a ghost.
Yes, I had forgotten he knew how to deal with spirits. Taking,
advantage of my open mouth he leaned down for a kiss.

“Now, what were you about
to say, before the spirits showed up?” he asked.

He rubbed his hands up and
down my arms.

“What?” I asked him. How
could he wipe my mind clear with just one kiss? “Oh, I just wanted
to tell you that I loved you, before I forgot.” I answered
him.

I ran my hands down his
back to his butt. His low laugh was deep in his chest. Water
dripped on my face as he grinned down at me.

“I already knew that, my
love.” He kissed me, “But I do like hearing you say it.” He kissed
me again, “Say it again.” He purred against my lips.

“Say what?” I asked him
and ran my hands back up his strong back and back down to grip the
sides of his hips.

“Branwen, say it again.”
He slid his loving hands down to my waist and rubbed the side of
his face against mine.

I felt his power stir and
my power surged forward to mix with his. I smiled up into his
face.

“I forgot what we were
talking about. You shouldn’t distract me if you want me to tell you
something. ” I told him as I rubbed my breasts against his chest
and enjoyed his groan of pleasure.

“Branwen, say it again.”
He demanded and bit my neck.

“I love you.” I whispered
into his hair.

I kissed him and drowned
in the thick emotions. I surrendered myself completely to him. I
drowned in my desire for Gabriel as his demanding hands and mouth
as they glided over my body. Matching his passion with my own,
showing him with my body how much I did love him. It was the
hottest shower I had ever taken.

Much later when we were
once again snuggled back in bed, we watched the dawns first rays
enter the room
.
I
marveled over this new emotion I felt for him. I fell into a
troubled sleep, memories of a life with Gabriel from long ago
surfaced. I could see our home, our children, our clan, and
understood Gaelic, the old language of the Celtic people. I didn’t
remember everything, but this was just the beginning. Maybe I
wouldn’t include Adam in the hunt for, the mighty laughing bitch,
Fate after all. Well, probably not right now anyway.

Chapter 22

A cold wind pushed trash
around the parking lot of the Madison Street Pub and Brewery. It
was after midnight and we sat in the SUV
.
We were waiting for Sam to come
back with the scouting party. I didn’t understand why we just
didn’t walk through the front door and beat the hell out of
Anthony, but Gabriel had some plan. I had pointed out to him that
this wasn’t pack business and the fewer people involved the better,
but Gabriel disagreed. So here we sat waiting for Sam’s report,
what a brilliant plan.

“Alpha, there are three
men in the building and at least six women.” Sam reported to us
when they finally returned.

I unbuckled the seat belt,
time to go. Getting out, I joined the men on the other side of the
car
.

“Can we get in without
being noticed?” Gabriel asked him.

“I believe so, Alpha.
There is a side door, and the lock looks very weak. We should be
able to break in without being noticed.” Sam answered.

I tilted my head as I
studied the structure. I didn’t remember seeing a side door the
last time I was here, but then again I hadn't been looking for
one.

“We’ll go in through the
side door.” Gabriel decided.

I moved with the group
towards the building, but Gabriel had other ideas.