Moonlight Menage (21 page)

This guy either had a lot to hide or was very, very paranoid.

Since they already knew they’d have to expose themselves to get to either the front or the back door, they decided to head for the front. Back doors usually led into mudrooms or kitchens, smaller spaces, easier to defend from inside. Front door meant front room, more space, more room to move.

After a nod from Nic, Duke headed for the entrance, not trying to hide. Nic waited in the shadows, waited to see if Duke made it to the door without alerting the guy inside. Maybe they’d get lucky—

Or maybe the guy would open the front door and level a Sig Sauer at Duke’s chest.

Duke immediately put up his hands. “Hey, man. I’m not here to hurt you.” But he would if the guy didn’t put the gun down. Duke had no intention of getting shot or letting him shoot anyone else, for that matter. “Why would I do that considering I’m the one who pulled your ass out of that house a few days ago?”

Green eyes stared at him, no hint of confusion or anxiety. “Who the hell are you people and what do you want?”

“We’re friends. We didn’t save your ass just to put it back in a sling.”

“Then why’d you follow me and why wouldn’t you let me leave? Seems like I traded one prison for another.”

“Look, you wanna be out here on your own so whoever took you can get at you again? No skin off my nose. Just don’t take Kaine down with you.”

The guy’s eyes narrowed but the gun never wavered. “She followed me. I didn’t take her. Hell, I told her to stay but that damn dog doesn’t listen worth a damn.”

Duke nodded, breathing a silent sigh of relief that Kaine hadn’t revealed her true nature. “Yeah, she certainly does have a mind of her own. Let me get her and we’ll leave and you’ll never see us again.”

Duke meant what he said, even if Kyle would kick his ass. This guy was the only link they had to the woman who was kidnapping
eteri
.
Still, Duke didn’t give a shit if he got himself killed but he wasn’t willing to risk Kaine.

The guy’s eyes narrowed. “Is the dog yours?”

Kaine would have his head for this one later. “Yeah, you could say that.”

The guy nodded. “She’s beautiful. What is she?”

Wouldn’t you really like to know. “She’s a wolf.”

The guy’s brows raised just the slightest bit. “If she’s yours, why’d she follow me?”

Duke sighed. “No idea. Look, man, I’m not here to jack you up. I’m here to get Kaine.”

After a second, the guy whistled, a short, sharp blast that made Duke cringe.

Duke looked into the room behind the guy, expecting to see Kaine’s small gray wolf trot out.

Instead, Kaine walked up behind him in her skin, wearing a hoodie three sizes too big for her and nothing else. She must have just shifted and grabbed the sweatshirt.

Duke never broke their stare but the guy realized someone had snuck up behind him. Someone who wasn’t a small gray wolf.

With unconscious ease and almost scary speed, the guy moved to put his back against the nearest wall, keeping both of them in sight.

Military training. The guy definitely had military training.

Kaine moved slowly, her hands held where he could see them. “John, please. No one will hurt you.”

“Who the hell are you? And how the fuck did you get in my house?”

Kaine never took her eyes off the man she’d called John. She kept her voice low and soft and stopped several feet away from him on the porch. “I’m a friend. We want to help. I know about your sister. I know you’re worried about her. We can help you get her back. You just have to trust us.”

Vaffanculo.
Duke wanted to spit out curses and maybe bang his head against the nearest wall.

If the guy really was missing a sister, that changed everything.

Not one expression betrayed John’s surprise that Kaine knew about his sister, but Duke smelled it on him. He couldn’t hide that.

“I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about. You all need to leave right now.”

“Listen, man.” Duke continued to hold out his hands as he listened for any hint of where the hell Nic had gotten to. “Why don’t you tell us what’s going on and we’ll help you get your sister back?”

“I don’t need any help.”

“Yes, you do,” Kaine said. “You don’t have any idea what’s going on. You need us.” She held out her hand, palm up, silently asking for the gun. “Please.”

“I have no idea who you are or what the fuck you want—”

“We only want to help.”

“No.” His green eyes grew even colder. “Go now.”

Duke sighed. He didn’t like having a gun waved at him and he especially didn’t like
eteri
waving guns at him or his partners. Kaine made it obvious she didn’t want him hurt but he’d had enough.

He knew Nic was just waiting for a signal from him to pounce, probably from inside the house.

Time to end this now.

With a flick of his fingers, he signaled to Nic. And in his peripheral vision, he saw the shadows flicker inside the doorway.

He moved his gaze to Kaine, warning her to be prepared.

In the split second before Nic attacked, Kaine tensed.

And tipped off John.

And everything went to hell from there.

* * * * *

“You’re sure this is what you want?”

Nortia leaned against the counter in Margie’s kitchen, arms crossed over her chest. Her expression held absolutely no hint of what she was thinking.

Tira stared straight back, her gaze never wavering. Even though her heart pounded so loudly the Lady of the Hammer could probably hear it in the silence hanging over the house and she could barely breathe around the knot of fear in her chest.

“Yes. I know this is the right thing to do.”

“You know your Gift isn’t like any other.” Nortia continued to hold her in place with her intent gaze. “This isn’t merely agreeing to take your mother’s place in the
boschetta
. You need to be absolutely positive. Downloading centuries of memories and the bulk of your mother’s powers could cause your brain to overload if you’re not fully committed.”

Tira nodded for what had to be the hundredth time. She knew all of this. For years her mom had been preparing her for this moment.

The Gift of
praenuntio
was different from all other Goddess Gifts in the fact that it was cumulative. When Tira accepted the mantle of
praenuntio
, she agreed to accept the collective memories of the
boschetta
back to ancient times. Though she may never have need to use them, Tira would have access to almost three thousand years of thoughts, emotions and memories of the
streghe
who had come before.

Those memories would be stored in her brain, as they were in her mom’s, until she had need of them or she passed them on to the next generation.

She’d also accept a huge portion of her mom’s ability with the transfer of memory because it could be done no other way.

Tira knew all the pros and the cons. She’d been debating them for years and her fear had always won out over her sense of duty.

But these past few hours with Nic and Duke had made her realize she’d let that fear dictate her life for too long. She’d been weak. If she’d been stronger, she could have spent the last several years living her life with the men she loved instead of living only half a life without them while waiting for Nic’s death.

Weak and stupid.

She could have saved her mother some of the anguish of the past year, slowly losing her mind to the visions.

No more.

“I know everything, Lady. And I’m ready. Now.”

Nortia didn’t hesitate. “Kotev, Margie,” she called to the
streghe
waiting in the front room. “Let’s do this.”

* * * * *

“Kaine, gods damn it, shift!”

Duke had his hand over the wound on Kaine’s stomach as it pumped blood through his fingers.

“No.” Kaine shook her head as she lay on the porch where she’d fallen after John’s gun had gone off. “Can’t.”

“Yes, you fucking can! I’m ordering you to do it now. Right now!”

Behind him, Duke heard the labored breathing of the
eteri
who Nic held with one arm around his neck restricting his breathing and using his other hand to crush the guy’s wrists together.

Duke didn’t care if Nic killed the fucker.

If Kaine died, he’d tear the guy limb from limb.

Her pain-filled brown eyes slid to where Nic stood with the
eteri
.

A minute ago, Nic had jumped the guy from behind but Kaine had tipped off John to the imminent attack.

Duke had reached for the gun, the gun had gone off…and Kaine had cried out in pain.

“Kaine, you’re going to die if you don’t shift.”

Once more she looked at the
eteri
and Duke automatically followed her gaze. The guy continued to struggle against Nic’s hold, his eyes glued to Kaine. To the wound in her stomach.

“Medic,” he finally breathed the word, “I’m a medic. Let me—”

“Shut the fuck up,” Nic growled in the guy’s ear. “She doesn’t need any more of your help.”

No, Kaine needed to shift. The change would knit her body back together. But she was holding back and Duke finally realized why. Greek fucking tragedy.

“Shit, Kaine, I promise. I promise he won’t remember. We’ll wipe his memories clean.”

The
eteri
wouldn’t remember what she was. Duke instinctively knew that was the reason she was holding back. She didn’t want the guy to see her shift.

And she was willing to die for it.

Well, Duke wasn’t willing to give her up. He’d promise her anything. He refused to lose the woman who’d become more than a partner. She was the sister he’d never had. Sarcastic and bitterly funny when she wasn’t quiet and thoughtful, Kaine had to listen. She had to obey.

“You swear?” she finally said, her eyes wide and filled with so much agony.

“On my pelt, I swear. He won’t remember. Just do it.”

After another glance at the
eteri
, still struggling against Nic’s hold, she rolled into a ball and let the magic take her.

As he moved away to give her room, Duke heard the
eteri
gasp, though probably not his last. If Kaine didn’t make it, Nic would make sure he didn’t breathe too many more.

Though most
lucani
considered it bad manners, Duke watched as Kaine called forth her pelt. He didn’t look away until she lay, panting, on the porch. No wound marred her fur and Duke finally released the breath he’d been holding.

Standing on her paws, she shook her entire body from snout to tail then sat back on her haunches, staring at Duke.

“No pain? Everything okay?” he asked.

He knew if she was in her skin, she’d give him a smart-ass salute and when he turned his back, she’d probably give him the finger. Now she settled for baring her teeth at him.

But he could tell even that was halfhearted. And the reason for that stood behind him struggling for breath in Nic’s hold.

Rising, Duke stepped forward, his hand shooting out to grab the
eteri
’s throat. Nic released him a split second before Duke made contact. With his hand on his neck, Duke walked him back against the wall of the house and held him there, pinned like a bug under a microscope.

The guy’s wide, dilated eyes were the only sign that he was freaked out.

Definitely Special Ops, Duke thought before getting down to business.

“We’re done screwing around. Tell us everything or I will kill you.”

* * * * *

Tira had expected the pain.

Agonizing, as if she’d plugged her fingers into a live electrical socket.

Her body jolted against Margie, who held her tight in her arms to keep her upright. Her hands tightened around Kotev’s. The eldest member of the
boschetta
and the most powerful, Kotev possessed magic that allowed for the absence of Tira’s mom, serving as a conduit for the information to be passed.

The pain seemed to last forever but just as abruptly as it started, it stopped, cut off as if by a switch.

Distantly she heard Nortia tell Margie to step away though Kotev continued to hold her hands. The connection grounded her in some way she couldn’t explain. As if the seventy-year-old with short, steel-gray hair and a body a forty-year-old would envy eased the throbbing pain remaining in her head.

It actually felt as if someone had taken a crowbar, pried open her head and dumped a million tiny little men with jackhammers in her skull.

And each of those jackhammers implanted a memory. Or twenty.

Bits and pieces of memories flashed through her head with each millisecond. People and places she’d never seen, languages she didn’t understand, smells, thoughts, sounds…

“Breathe, Tira. You need to breathe or you’re going to pass out.”

Nortia’s voice somehow made it through the cacophony in her head and she took a deep breath, gulping in much-needed air.

“Now open your eyes,” Nortia continued. “You need to focus on something that isn’t in your head. All that information needs to settle and you need to let it.”

The effort it took to open her eyes was tremendous, like prying off the lid to a box that’d been nailed and glued shut.

With a strength she never would have thought she had, she opened her eyes.

Everything was blurry for seconds but she fought through that, focusing on the large, dark blob directly in front of her.

She blinked and the visions tried to pull her back under. Crimson blood flowed, almost the same color as the licks of flame licking at the feet of the woman on the stake.

No. Blessed Goddess, let me focus.

She fought them off, fought to keep from falling back under the horrified, fascinated spell of voyeurism.

The blob reappeared, slowly, slowly forming into the body.

Suddenly, it moved and she blinked, startled.

“Cat.” Nortia’s quiet voice held a sharp note that cut into her head like a knife. “Don’t move.”

The blob froze and, little by little, Cat came into focus. Panting like she’d just run a five-minute mile, Tira stared hard at the familiar features of Margie’s daughter.

“Tira, can you hear me?” Nortia asked.