Red Moon Rising (25 page)

“It’s true.”  Leta mistook his silence for disagreement. 
She forgot herself and moved deeper into the barn to stand in front of him.

“She cries when you’re not around.”

“What do you mean?”

“She cries!  She cries to mama and to James almost every
day.  She’s sad because you won’t even stay for the wedding.”

She gave him a cautious look.  “I wasn’t spying.  Don’t you
tell papa that I was spying because I wasn’t.  I just – just happened to hear
them when I was playing in the closet in papa and mama’s room.”

“I won’t.”  He promised.

She stared gravely at him.  “You’re not a very nice person. 
I thought you would be nice like Bree but you’re not.”

Surprisingly, her words stung him a little.  “I am a nice
person Leta.”

“No you’re not.”  She insisted.  “You won’t even stay for
your own sister’s wedding.  That’s mean.  You’re mean!”

“Leta!”

The young girl whirled around.  Sophia had entered the barn
and she frowned at her younger sister.  “What did mom and dad say about being
respectful to Bree’s brother?”

“He’s mean!”  Leta was starting to cry.  “He’s making Bree
sad and he doesn’t even care!”

Sophia started towards her and Leta backed away until she
bumped into Kaden.  He steadied her with a hand on her back, and she turned and
growled at him. 

“Leta!”  Sophia snapped again and the young girl slumped to
the ground and began to cry.  Sophia sat beside her and gathered her into her
arms.

“Hush Leta, don’t cry.”

She glanced up at Kaden.  “I’m sorry, she isn’t usually like
this.  The thing with Draken frightened her very badly, and things have been
different around here lately.  She’s excited about the wedding and I think
she’s overtired and overstimulated.”

Leta crawled into her lap and continued to sob weakly.  “Please
don’t tell papa I was bad Sophia.”

Sophia stroked her dark hair.  “Honey, you know that dad
told you specifically to be respectful to Kaden.  You weren’t.  There are
consequences for your actions.”

“They won’t let me ride again for another whole week!”  Leta
wailed.  “I’ll die Sophia.  Die!”

Kaden sighed.  The girl’s dramatics would have been funny if
it hadn’t been so obvious that she was truly upset.  He crouched down beside
them and touched Leta’s shoulder lightly.

“It’s okay Leta.  I know you didn’t mean to be rude.  You
were just being honest right?”

She sniffed and nodded.  “Yes.”

“I’ll make you a deal.  I’ll ask Sophia not to tell your
father if you promise to help Ian brush the horses after I’m gone.  There are
too many for him to brush by himself.”

She eyed him carefully for a moment and then nodded again. 
“I promise.”

“Good.”  He straightened as Sophia kissed Leta’s cheek
gently and then stood up, pulling the young girl to her feet.

“Dinner is ready my love.  Go and wash up.”

Leta left the barn and Sophia turned to Kaden.  “Um, dinner
is ready.”  She said awkwardly.  “Will you be joining us tonight?”

“Aye.” 

It was the first time they had been alone together in days,
and his gaze flickered to the wall where they had kissed.  He cleared his throat
and glanced back at Sophia.  She had followed his gaze and was staring at the
barn wall.  Her cheeks were pink and her tongue darted out to flick nervously
at her upper lip.

She looked at him and her blush deepened.  He stared
silently at her and after a moment, took a step towards her.  She backed up a
step and smiled uncertainly at him.

“Is it true what Leta said?  Is Bree upset?”  He asked.

She gave him an odd look.  “Of course she is.  You’re her
brother and she wants you to stay.”

“For what?  She has your brother now.  She has no need for
me.”  Even he could hear the jealousy in his voice.

She gave him an impatient look.  “Loving my brother does not
mean she doesn’t need you Kaden.  You don’t strike me as a stupid human but
you’re certainly acting like one.”

He glared at her.  “I’m not being stupid, I’m being
realistic.  Bree no longer needs my protection; why would I stay?”

“You stay because she loves you.  You stay because it’s
foolish of you to leave when you have no money, and no place to go.  My parents
are willing to hire you to work with Ian in the barn.  You could earn a wage,
be a free man, and have protection from Draken.”

He scoffed lightly.  “Another reason Bree should be leaving
with me.  I know you believe that your family can protect us from Draken, but
you don’t know him the way that we do.  His pack is large and he’s crazy.  And
now,” he stepped closer and took her arm in a firm grip, “it’s not just my
sister and I he wants, but you as well.”

She swallowed nervously as he began to rub her arm with his
thumb.  “You think you’re safe.  You believe that Draken cannot harm you but
you’re wrong.  Your family has no idea what he’s capable of.”

“All the more reason for you to stay.”  She replied.  “You
can help us; you know what he’s capable of.”

“Aye, I do.”  He whispered.  He was standing so close to her
now she could feel his chest brushing against her breasts.

“Do you want me to stay?”  He suddenly murmured.

She nodded and there was a flicker of emotion in his eyes
that she didn’t understand.

“Why?”

“I – what?”  She stammered.

He lowered his face to hers and she parted her mouth for his
kiss.  Instead of kissing her, he rubbed the ball of his thumb across her lower
lip.  She moaned, her breath warm against his face, and he stared mesmerized at
the hint of her straight, white teeth.

“Why do you want me to stay?”

“Because Bree wants you to stay.”  She whispered.

“Is that the only reason?”  He slipped his thumb between her
lips and she closed her mouth instinctively around it and sucked gently.

He made a quiet groaning noise.  His eyes had darkened and
he slipped his other hand around her to cup the back of her head.  He slid his
thumb back and forth in her mouth, feeling the wet heat of her tongue and lips
holding him firmly inside of her.

His cock was rock hard, his breath coming in harsh pants,
and he couldn’t look away from her dark eyes.  They were changing, flecks of
green appearing, and he watched fascinated as the dark brown changed to a
light, clear green.

“Is there another reason you want me to stay Sophia?”  He
asked again.  He started to pull his thumb from her mouth and she tightened her
lips around it, stroking it roughly with her tongue until he groaned again.

“Tell me.”  He whispered as he pulled his thumb out of her
mouth.

“Kaden, I – “

“Gods be damned, it’s cold out there tonight.  You sure you
want to leave when it’s – “ Ian came ambling through the doors at the far end
of the barn and stopped short when he saw Kaden and Sophia locked together.

Sophia, her face flaming, pulled away from Kaden and ran to
the door.  “Dinner is ready.”  She called hoarsely before disappearing into the
darkness.

Ian stared shrewdly at Kaden.  “Sophia’s a pretty girl.”

“Aye.”  Kaden grunted.  He started towards the barn door,
ignoring the grin on Ian’s face.  “Are you coming for dinner or not?”

“Aye, I am.”  Whistling softly, Ian followed him out of the
barn.

Dark Moon
will be available at
www.amazon.com
in May of 2014.

Please enjoy a sample chapter of Elizabeth
Kelly’s newest novel:
“
The Recruit
”

THE RECRUIT

Book One

* * * *

“Sara, this really isn’t a good idea.”  Hannah stared
nervously at the darkening sky.

Sara rolled her eyes.  “God Hannah, you’re just like dad –
always worrying.  It’s perfectly fine.”

“How well do you know these guys?  I mean, you just met them
last night.”  Hannah chewed worriedly at her bottom lip.

As Sara turned off the highway and down a gravel road, she
shook her head.  “They’re perfectly nice Hannah.  You have to give people a
chance sometimes.  Live life on the edge, take a risk!”  She winked at her.

Hannah laughed.  Her baby sister was the exact opposite of
her in nearly every way.  Where Hannah was tall and dark haired with wide hips
and full breasts, Sara was small and blonde and impossibly slender.  At one
point in her late teens Hannah had attempted to become like Sara by crash
dieting and following an impossibly difficult exercise routine.  She lost ten
pounds before, weak with hunger and in agony from a torn hamstring, giving up. 
She learned to accept that her thighs would always touch a little, that she
would always have a soft, round belly and that she would always jiggle just a
bit when she walked.

It wasn’t just physical differences though.  Sara was the
life of the party.  Her laughter and outgoing personality had people flocking
to her while Hannah, quiet and reserved, tended to blend in and more times than
not become lost in the crowd.

“Listen,”  Sara glanced at her, “These guys are really nice
and I think Justin could be the one.”

Hannah snorted.  “You meet “the one” every weekend Sara. 
Although you normally don’t agree to party with guys you barely know, out in
the middle of nowhere.”

“It’s not in the middle of nowhere.  We’re only five miles
from the city.  Plus, there’s going to be a bunch of people at this party. 
It’s called a bush party Hannah.  If you hadn’t spent most of your younger
years with your nose in a book, you’d know what a bush party was.”

Hannah sighed and stared out the window.  Sara was right –
she did prefer reading to partying.  She wasn’t a complete hermit; she’d had a
pretty serious boyfriend in high school and they had slept together on the
night they graduated.  They were both virgins and although it had been pleasant
enough, there had been plenty of awkward fumbling and groping. 

They had tried to do the long distance thing when Hannah had
left for college but that had lasted less than a month.  One Friday night, in a
moment of weakness, she had agreed to go to a frat party with her roommate. 
There, she had met Toby and they had started dating a week later.  He was a
nice boy, much like her high school boyfriend, and while he was more confident
in bed than Mark had been she still wasn’t sure what all the fuss was about.  

There had been one night, feeling relaxed and tipsy after a
few glasses of wine, where the usual warmth and tingling she felt during sex
had started to become something more.  There was a slow, spreading ache
radiating from her core.  As Toby grunted and thrust above her, she had closed
her eyes and concentrated, digging her hands into the sheets and bucking her
hips against Toby’s.  The ache had grown with little spirals of pleasure
circling in her belly and she had panted and moaned, feeling like she was
standing on the edge of a crevice.  Before she could take that last step, the
step that would bring the release she was searching for, Toby had given one
final thrust, gasping her name as he came violently.  He had rolled off of her,
snaking an arm around her waist and falling asleep almost immediately.  She had
laid there, body quivering with frustration and a need she didn’t fully
understand, until finally she had drifted off into her own restless sleep.

She had dumped Toby after a few months of listening to his
off-handed remarks about her weight and his not-so-subtle suggestions that she
should eat less and exercise more.  She had stayed single for the remainder of
her college years and now, her first summer back, Sara seemed hell-bent on
making up for her lack of a social life. 

They could see a few cars parked on the side of the road and
Sara pulled in behind them, shifting the car into park and shutting the engine
off.  The wind was cool.  It had been an unusually damp summer and although it
was only late August, it already felt like autumn.   As they moved deeper into
the woods, the flickering light of a campfire could be seen just ahead of
them. 

Sara smiled at Hannah and moved eagerly towards it.  Hannah
cursed when she stumbled over an exposed root in the darkness and fell forward,
scraping her bare knee. 

Sara helped her up.  “Are you okay?”

“Fine.”  Hannah grumbled.  Her knee was aching and she was
pretty sure that was blood dripping down it but it was impossible to tell in
the dark.

Limping, muttering softly to herself, Hannah followed Sara
until they were both standing in a small clearing.  A large fire crackled in
the middle of it, shooting small sparks of light into the darkness above it. 

Hannah glanced around as Sara walked over to Justin and
slipped her arm around his waist.  There were a couple of other girls as well
as Justin’s friend Nathan, who she had met last night, and two other men she
didn’t know.

Nathan waved at her and picked his way across the clearing. 
He threw a friendly arm around her shoulder and smiled down at her.  “Hey
Hannah, it’s good to see you again.”

“Hi Nathan.”  She gave him a guarded smile and nonchalantly
shrugged her way free of his arm.  She had never cared much for having people
in her personal space, especially people she barely knew, and she ignored his
disappointed look and sat down on a log to examine her knee.

“Are there more people coming?”  She asked.  She hissed
slightly as she ran her fingers over the large scrape on her knee.  She had
been right – it was blood dripping down her knee.

When Nathan didn’t answer, she glanced up at him.  He was
staring at her knee, his eyes glowing in the light from the fire.

“You’re bleeding.”  He said.

“Yeah, I fell down.”  Hannah replied.  “I don’t suppose you
have any band-aids?” 

She realized that Justin and Sara had drawn closer, and she
frowned when a look she didn’t understand passed between Justin and Nathan. 

Nathan knelt at her feet and stared at her knee.  He reached
out with a slightly shaking hand and ran his finger through the thin trail of
blood that was dripping down her leg.  He stuck his finger in his mouth and
sucked the blood from it.

“Eww, Nathan!  That’s disgusting.”  She cried out.

He looked up at her and her breath stopped in her throat. 
His eyes were glowing green in the light from the campfire and he smiled at
her, revealing his very long, very sharp incisors.

“No, it’s delicious.”  He growled.  Hannah had one fleeting
glance of Sara, her face pale and frightened, before Justin pulled her against
him and sunk his teeth into her neck. 

Hannah screamed and leaped to her feet but Nathan pounced on
her, knocking her to the ground and pinning her down with his large body.  She
was vaguely aware of the screams of Sara and the other girls as Nathan nuzzled
into her neck. 

“Relax baby, this’ll only hurt a little.”  He whispered and
she shrieked again as his teeth punctured her throat. 

She struggled and kicked but she was no match for his
strength and her struggles turned into helpless whimpers as he suckled at her
neck. 

She was growing weaker, the light from the campfire seemed
to be dimming, but as she faded towards the blackness, the crushing weight of
Nathan was suddenly gone and she heard his growl of rage turn into a gurgling
scream.  She squinted as someone leaned over her and rough fingers prodded at
her throat. 

A deep voice said, “This one’s still alive.”

There was a sharp stinging pain against her face.  “Wake up
girl.  Girl!”

Another slap and she forced her eyelids open.  A pair of
startling blue eyes were staring into hers and using the last of her strength
she raised her hand and clawed weakly at the face above hers.

“Sara.”  She whispered.  The man grunted and there was the
sensation of being lifted before she was placed over one broad shoulder like a
sack of potatoes.

She whispered Sara’s name once more before the darkness
consumed her. 

* * *

“Good morning.”

Hannah stared blearily at the woman leaning over the bed. 

“Are you thirsty?  Here, let’s get you sitting up.”  The
woman smiled at her and helped Hannah into a sitting position.  She tucked the
pillows behind her back, and brushed her hair away from her face.

“How do you feel?”  She held a glass of water to Hannah’s
lip and urged her to drink it in small sips.

Hannah swallowed the water, it eased her parched throat, and
she cleared it roughly.  “Tired.”

The woman nodded.  “Yes, you’ll be tired for a while.  You
lost a lot of blood.  Honestly, I’m surprised you even survived.  My name is
Barb by the way.  And you’re Hannah right?  Hannah Torrington?”

“Yes.  How do you know that?”

Barb smiled.  “I checked in your purse.”

“What hospital am I in?”  Hannah looked around with a
deadened sort of curiosity.  It didn’t look like a hospital room with its walls
covered in badly-fading wallpaper and rough wooden floor.

“Well,” Barb hesitated, “it’s not exactly a hospital.” 
Behind her the door opened and two men stepped into the room. 

Hannah shrank back as they approached the bed, but Barb
patted her hand.  “Don’t be frightened.”

They stood at the end of the bed and stared silently at her
for a moment.  The smaller of the two looked to be in his late fifties.  He was
short and lean with warm brown eyes.  His bald head gleamed in the late
afternoon light, and he reached up and ran his hand over his skull before
smiling at her.

“Hello Hannah, my name is Richard and this is Will.” 

Hannah glanced at Will.  He was tall with thick dark hair,
broad shoulders and piercing blue eyes.  He wasn’t conventionally handsome
Hannah supposed, his nose was just a little too large and the angle of his jaw
a bit too severe, but as he stared at her she felt a little shiver run down her
back.   She gave him a weak smile and he nodded curtly at her.

Richard leaned forward, placing his hands on the footboard. 
“How much do you remember Hannah?”

She frowned.  “There was a man, his name was Nathan, and he
attacked me.  He – he bit me.”  She touched her neck.  There was a thin white
bandage on her throat but when she tried to peel it off, Barb pulled her hands
away gently.

“I don’t remember much else.  Sara knew them –“

She stopped, her eyes widening, and stared at Richard. 
“Sara.”  She whispered.  “Where’s Sara?”

“I don’t know who Sara is.”  Richard told her gravely.

“She’s my sister.  She’s small and blonde.  She has blue
eyes, and she was wearing a jean skirt with a pink tank top.  We have to find
her!”  Hannah pushed back the covers and slid off the bed before Barb could
stop her. 

She took two steps from the bed and her knees buckled. 
Before she hit the ground, the man named Will had caught her neatly around the
waist.  She leaned against him, feeling light-headed and weak.  She glanced
down at herself and blushed when she realized she was wearing only a tank top
and panties. 

Will’s large hand was wrapped around the bare skin of her
waist, and the sight of his tanned skin against her pale flesh made a shiver
run through her.  His hand tightened a little and she looked up at him.  He was
staring at her, his light blue eyes had darkened considerably, and she was
fascinated by the curly brown hair peeking out from his open collared shirt. 
The heat was radiating from him, and she was very aware of how well their
bodies fit together.  She was a tall girl but the top of her head just brushed
his chin, and with a weary sigh she let her head fall onto his shoulder.

“Please tell me where Sara is.”  She whispered.

Richard stared at Barb who sighed sadly.  “Hannah the thing
is - Sara is, well, we got there too late and she didn’t –“

“Your sister is dead.”  Will said bluntly.

Hannah lifted her head and stared at him in horror.  “You’re
lying.”

He shook his head.  “No, I’m not.  She was killed by
vampires.  You would have suffered the same fate if we hadn’t found the camp
when we did.  Your sister and the other two girls are dead.  You should be
grateful you’re not dead as well.”

“Vampires don’t exist!  They’re not real you idiot!”  Hannah
could feel hot tears starting down her face.  “I don’t know what kind of sick
joke this is, but I want you to take me to my sister right now.  Do you hear
me?  Right now!”  She started slamming her fists into his back and kicking at
his shins.

“I want to see Sara!”  She continued to punch and kick but
Will only stood there holding her passively.  Enraged that her punching had no
effect, she slapped him as hard as she could across the face.

His face rocked to the side and when he turned back to face
her, a small whimper escaped her throat.  His formerly blue eyes had turned
golden, and they were glowing with a terrible inner fire.  She was still tucked
against him and as his arm tightened around her waist, squeezing the breath
from her, she realized how defenseless and vulnerable she was. 

“Never touch me again.  Do you understand?”  He growled with
his face only inches from hers.

She nodded and let out a small squeak of fear when he dipped
his head towards her neck and inhaled deeply. 

“You smell of them.” He whispered.  “You reek of your own
fear and their stench, and it disgusts me.”

“That’s enough Will.”  Richard said quietly.

He looked coolly at the shorter man.  His arm was still
around Hannah’s waist, and his fingers were digging so tightly into her side
that Hannah suspected she would be bruised.  With a sudden, dismissive snort he
pushed her away from him; Hannah stumbled and fell, banging her knee painfully
against the wooden floor.  He turned and left the room, letting the door close
quietly behind him.