Moonlight Menage

Moonlight Ménage

Stephanie Julian

Book Two in the
Lucani
Lovers
series.

For eight years, Etruscan witch Tira Belludi has longed to give herself, body and soul, to the two shifter men who hold her heart. But visions of death and fears for her sanity have forced her to keep her distance.

Nic Rocca and Duke Ducati are brothers in every way but blood and partners who have each other’s backs. They share a home, a job and had planned to share their life with Tira between them…until the night she saw their future and built a fortress around her heart.

Now danger and death stalk Nic and Duke. And Tira must make a choice—grab love while she has the chance, or watch Nic die from afar and lose Duke forever.

Chapter One

“Nic! Kaine! Where the fuck are you?”

Varro “Duke” Ducati squinted through the thick smoke that muffled the sound of his voice. Stumbling out of the bedroom and through the hall, he headed in the direction he thought the stairs were in.

Gods damn, his head fucking hurt, he could barely think straight as it was. An oppressive heat licked at his skin, making sweat pour from his body and his oxygen-starved lungs felt like lead.

If he didn’t get out soon, he wasn’t going to make it out alive.

But he wasn’t leaving without Nic or Kaine.

Gods damn it, they hadn’t been expecting this.

They should have. They should have gone in expecting anything.

The house was empty. None of them had scented another person before crossing the threshold. They’d taken every precaution to make sure they didn’t trip any alarms, wards or spells. Kaine had assured them she hadn’t felt any so he had no idea what’d set off the explosions.

Nic had been on the ground floor, Kaine in the basement and Duke had been checking the top floor when the explosion had gone off below him.

He’d been knocked off his feet and hit his head on a nightstand in the room he’d been searching. When he’d regained consciousness a few seconds later, smoke had already engulfed the second floor.

Hands outstretched, he hurried forward, knowing the stairs could open at any—

A break in the haze revealed the stairwell directly in front of him and he ran for it, grabbing hold of the handrail, still cool to the touch, then took the stairs two at a time.

“Nic! Can you hear me?”

“Duke! Back here.”

Relief barely had time to register before he turned and ran toward the sound of Nic’s voice at the back of the house. The house wasn’t that big and it only took him seconds to reach Nic—

“Oh
fuck
.” He froze in the doorway.

“Where’s Kaine?” Nic’s voice sounded thready and weak.

“Don’t know.
Shit
, Nic. Don’t move.”

Tinia’s teat, the ceiling had fallen in, pinning Nic beneath a pile of rubble and a wooden beam.

Duke didn’t stop to think. He ran for Nic and started digging.

“No. No!” Nic shoved at him, strong enough to make Duke fall back on his ass. “Kaine. The explosion. Downstairs. I’ll be fine.”

No, he wouldn’t be.

Blood dripped from Nic’s temple and his ears and seeped from somewhere beneath his legs. His voice broke every couple of words to cough.

And the smoke continued to billow around them.

Duke shook his head. “I’ll get you out first then go down for Kaine.”

“Vaffan—”

“Shut the fuck up and help me dig.”

Duke continued to tear at the rubble with his hands. Splinters dug into his palms and fingers, cutting into his skin but he didn’t stop. He didn’t know how long it took until he could finally lift the beam off Nic but he was drenched and lightheaded when he shoved it just far enough away to free his friend.

Gods damn, so much blood.

No. Can’t think about that now.

With a strength he didn’t know he possessed, Duke lifted Nic off the floor and ran for the back door that had been blown off its hinges in the blast.

The house was secluded in the hills outside Lebanon, Pennsylvania, and it would take at least twenty minutes before any fire or police personnel could get here. He had to get his people out before they arrived.

Once outside, he placed Nic on the ground and tried not to notice how weak his partner was. Pale and gasping for breath, Nic slumped over and passed out.

Pushing the fear away, he ran back into the house, headed for the door to the basement in the hall just outside the kitchen.

In the narrow stairwell, the air was hotter and he scented something besides smoke the lower he went. Something his heightened sense of smell knew to be a spell.

Was it the one they’d tripped to set off the explosion? Didn’t matter now.

“Kaine!”

The only light came from the door above and it wasn’t enough to reach into the dark shadows of the basement.

Pulling the tiny Maglite from a pocket on his tactical pants, he shone its bright beam into the far corners.

His mouth dropped open at the sight of the iron-barred cells lining the walls.

“Oh, fuck.”

The basement extended so far beyond the footprint of the house above that he couldn’t see the end of the cells.
Vaffanculo
, what the hell was this place?

“Kaine, gods damn it. Kaine! Answer me.”

He heard something, a sound down the hall, and he took off, not bothering to check the other cells. If he had to, he’d make a more thorough sweep later if he didn’t find Kaine on this first pass.

More sounds, closer. Like someone trying
not
to make noise.

Duke slowed, trying to pick out where exactly the sounds were coming from.

And nearly didn’t dodge the fist aimed straight for his head.

His instincts saved him from getting cold-cocked as he ducked then grabbed the arm connected to the fist.

Sweat made the man’s arm slippery. Duke lost his grip and nearly lost his footing as a wave of dizziness overcame him.

“Don’t come near her, you bastard!”

Duke shook his head, trying to make his vision come into focus. Remembering the flashlight in his hands, he shone it into the cell.

A man stood there, naked except for a pair of basketball shorts. He had his hands up in a fighting position, though he dripped blood from a gash on his forehead and another on his powerful chest.

His short dark hair stood on end and he looked about as steady as Duke felt.

But his expression was determined and his words finally reached Duke’s short-circuiting brain. He sent the beam of light around the cell until it fell on the wolf lying motionless on the floor at the guy’s feet.

Shit.

Duke reacted without thought. Kaine was down and he had to get her out of the cell. Over this dead guy’s body, if necessary.

He took a step forward, ready to beat the guy into submission, but the man held his ground.

He wasn’t small and he was almost as heavily muscled as Duke. But the guy was
eteri
. He’d never win in a fair fight.

And Duke had to get Kaine out of there, so it wouldn’t be a fair fight.

Yet something about the guy’s stance made him pause.

Their mission had been to retrieve whatever
eteri
had been trapped in here. This guy was definitely
eteri
. And he seemed to be protecting Kaine.

He stood over her in a defensive position, almost as if he were ready to drop and cover her body if he needed to.

Knowing he could be making a huge mistake, Duke held up one hand in classic truce position. “Look, I’m not here to hurt you. I’m here to get you out. That’s my partner on the floor. Let me pick her up and we can all leave. Now.”

Before we die in here.

He didn’t say that aloud. Hell, he could barely think it but strength drained from his body with every passing second. He wouldn’t be able to stand soon and he still needed to carry Kaine out of here.

The guy glanced down at Kaine for one brief second before tightening his fists and shaking his head.

“I’ll take her. You don’t look like you could carry her right now. You lead the way.”

Since Duke didn’t want to argue and it was looking less likely that they’d make it out of here alive, if the sound of the house creaking around them was any indication, he nodded.

“Fine. But we gotta go now.”

Duke took a step back and watched the guy pause, as if weighing his options.

“Look, man, I’m about ready to keel over. Pick her up so we can get the fuck out of here. I don’t have the strength to carry both of you and if it comes down to you or her, I’m choosing her. Now move.”

The guy dropped his fists and bent to pick up Kaine.

Her dark gray fur looked black in the shadows and Duke caught a glimpse of what looked like blood trailing out of her mouth.

Vaffanculo, we’re screwed. All of us.

Duke turned and started back down the hall past the cells. He didn’t bother to make sure the guy was following him. He knew he was. He could hear him. His breathing sounded labored but he stumbled after Duke and managed to keep his hold on Kaine.

When they got to the steps, Duke figured the guy couldn’t make it to the top with Kaine.

Honestly, he wasn’t sure he could either but stopping now wasn’t a consideration.

He turned, ready to take Kaine by force if he had to, but the guy looked at him with clear, determined eyes. He wasn’t giving up Kaine.

Duke turned and led them out of the house.

Fresh air hit them in the face as they stumbled onto the grass just as Duke heard a loud groaning creak and the house imploded.

Reality wavered and swum in front of his eyes as soot and dust filled the air.

He couldn’t stop now. He had to get everyone back to… Back to the den. Yeah, that’s the plan.

Load everyone into the car and drive.

He could do it. He had to.

* * * * *

“I wish there was more I could do, Tira, but physically, she’s in good health.”

Tamra Rossini had her hand wrapped around a mug of tea as she sat at the island where Tira Belludi was chopping ingredients for her mother’s calming potion.

“Well, I appreciate your time.” Tira forced a smile and continued to chop, taking care not to cut her fingers. “I honestly didn’t think there was anything you could do but…”

Hope springs eternal. Wasn’t that the phrase?

Tira should have tossed that four-letter word out of her vocabulary years ago.

Tam shook her head, her expression soft with sympathy. “Do you know… Is this something that runs in the family? Like your, um…”

Tam paused, her face screwed up in a frown as she tried to find the right word. Tira sometimes forgot Tam hadn’t been part of the Etruscan world until only a few months ago when she’d met and mated Kyle Rossini.

“My Goddess Gift.” Tira nodded, trying not to think about the implications of her answer. “It can be, yes. My grandmother lived to be ninety but she lost her faculties around age seventy-seven. My mom’s only fifty-one.”

And that just absolutely sucked. But she couldn’t dwell on it or she knew she’d start crying and not be able to stop for hours.

She couldn’t afford that. She had responsibilities to the
boschetta
. She had her mother to tend to.

Panic wanted to strangle her lungs but she forced it back and continued chopping.

Tam absently tapped her fingers against her mug. “And there’s nothing you can do to stop the psychosis…or reverse it?”

Tira shook her head. “Nothing we’ve ever found.”

A hereditary Etruscan
strega
with the Goddess Gift of
praenuntio
, the ability to see future events, Tira was screwed no matter which way she looked at the situation.

The knife came down a little harder than she’d planned, causing Tam’s face to scrunch into a grimace.

“I’m sorry, Tira. I just…”

“Tira, I smell smoke,” Suvera Belludi called from her bedroom.

Her hand clenched around the knife handle as Tira took a deep breath. She smelled nothing but the mint on the cutting board. “Everything’s fine, Mamma. Nothing’s burning.”

“Well, of course not. Not here, dear.”

Concern licked up Tira’s spine and Tam started to frown.

It was probably nothing. Her mother hadn’t had a lucid vision in weeks.

Still…

Tira put her knife aside and headed for her mother’s room, just down the small hallway to the side of the kitchen. Stopping just before the door, she made sure she pushed every thought out of her head. Then she steeled herself.

Stepping into the room, Tira looked straight into her mother’s vacant eyes and forced a gentle smile. When what she wanted to do was cry.

Strapped to the bed, Suvera looked her way with a smile almost as vacant as her stare.

“Do you know where the smoke is, Mamma?”

Su shook her head, her gray-streaked ash blonde hair falling over her face in disarray. “No. But the boys can’t see well in the smoke. And the blood is making it hard for them to think. I’m afraid they won’t be able to get out, sweetheart.”

Tira’s heart tripped over the “boys” comment. There were only two men her mother called boys with that tone of voice. But she had to be sure.

She cleared her throat to get rid of the knot but didn’t quite manage it. “What boys, Mamma?”

“Why, your boys, sweetheart.”

All the air rushed from her lungs and black tinged the edges of her vision. She nearly fell to her knees before she grabbed the doorjamb and forced her knees to lock.

Su smiled. “They’ve always been such handsome boys.”

Blessed Goddess
.
Something was happening or was about to happen to Nic and Duke.

Tira ran to the bed to grab her mother’s hand, strapped with Velcro restraints to the bed, to see if she could tap into the vision, see what her mother was seeing.

Nothing. She saw nothing.

Behind her, she heard a faint beeping and turned to find Tam reaching into her pocket for her cell phone.

Tam’s expression made Tira feel like someone had kicked her in the stomach.

“I’ve got to go.” Tam turned on her heel and flew back to the kitchen.

Tira released her mother and ran after Tam.

“What is it? What’s going on?”

Tam had already grabbed her medical bag and was halfway to the front door. “I don’t know. But the code was 9-1-1. Four injured. That’s all Dr. Marone said.”

The
lucani
army doctor, Gio Marone, had worked on his own for decades before Tam had mated Kyle. But Tam was an LPN who had almost completed her degree work to become a registered nurse and Marone had taken to the young woman like a father with a long-lost daughter. He relied on Tam’s help with the more serious cases.

Tira grabbed Tam’s arm. “I need to come with you. Please. Give me one minute to find someone to take care of Mamma.”

Tam just nodded and said, “Hurry.”

* * * * *

Tam peeled out of the
boschetta
’s village of New Tarquin in Oley Township with the gas pedal to the floor of her classic black Mustang.