Daughter of the Tides, Servants of the Moon Book 2

Paul leapt from warehouse roof to warehouse roof. He hopped from one to another as if he were jumping between stepping stones.

“I smell them,” Del pointed to a flat-roofed warehouse two buildings over. “The Tides say they are there.”

Glowing scarlet eyes scanned the darkness. “I see them.”

He landed gently and set her on her feet. Her eyes shined with moonlight as her moon marks shimmered in vine-like swirls on her arms and legs not covered by the short club dress. He wanted to trace them but there were more pressing matters.

“Come out, Oliver.” Paul’s voice vibrated the darkness, “I can smell you.”

Three figures emerged from the shadows. “What are you doing here, Lord Le Moyne? And who’s the wolf,” a very young vampire demanded.

“This is Delphi Ayala of the Moon’s Temples. She had a vision that your grandfather’s coven would fall and that you are about to walk into an ambush,” Paul announced calmly. “We are here to keep you from getting yourselves killed.”

“They have my half-sister,” Oliver snarled, posturing in challenge.

Paul answered him just as aggressively, “No, my brother has Mina. She was never here, only her blood and the blood of the others.”

“You lie!” the one on Oliver’s right snarled.

Del put her hand on Paul’s arm. “I am sorry about your coven but killing yourselves won’t change what happened. They want to catch you alive so they can burn your blood for their god.” Her voice was soft and sympathetic, but it carried power, “They have witches that can render you helpless. Your swiftness and strength as a vampire is useless.”

“If they aren’t here, where are they, she-wolf?” Oliver demanded, “You wolves helped the witches.”

“The Sunwolf seeks to destroy both our kinds.” Del retorted calmly. “Some wolves have been deceived into serving him.”

“Lying bitch…” Oliver interrupted, stepping toward her.

Paul protectively stepped slightly in front of Del. “Mind your tongue, little boy. Show respect to the leader of the wolves’ temples.”

“Little boy?! We’re practically the same age, half-blood,” Oliver spat.

“Only physically, cousin,” Paul challenged back.

“Paul, he’s upset.” Del tried to calm the vampires. “This is getting us no closer to finding those the Sunwolf spared.”

“How did you and your entourage escape, Oliver?” Paul eyed him suspiciously.

“We were at a concert last night and stayed in the city so we could go to the anime convention that started this morning.” Beau answered. Then the youngest one begged, “Please Lord Le Moyne, Delphi Ayala, they have my mother and sister…”

There was a loud howl and Del turned her head. “I believe my fellow Servant of the Moon has found the real place the others are being held.”

Paul swept her up in his arms and ran leaping from building to building until they came to an area that was filled with shipping containers stacked two and three high. He stopped at the edge of the last building. Looking down at the gate, Del gasped in horror. As two black skeletal wolves with glowing red eyes tore the souls of two dead wolves apart. She looked away suddenly.

“What’s wrong?” Paul demanded.

“The Moon’s Hounds are here.” There was the sound of wolves battling.

“Lord Le Moyne, I feel ill,” the young Beau whined. The other two looked like they had been given poisoned blood.

“It’s the witches. Stay here,” Paul ordered the Orleans vampires.

“You can’t tell me what to do, half-blood!” Oliver spat his prejudice hatefully.

“Paul being a halfling means the witches can’t kill him the way they will kill you, shadow walker!” Del snarled as her wolf emerged, sick of his prejudice. She left her shoes and dress in a pile on the roof as her wolf jumped down and ran for the gate. She inhaled three strong sniffs and ran into the maze of containers.

“Save your hate for our real enemy.” Paul glared at Oliver, “Stay here, I will bring you the others. The Delphi has a plane waiting for us to the south at Lakefront airport. If we stay here, we will be hunted and killed.” Then he leapt down and pursued Delilah’s dark brown wolf.

Del’s wolf killed another smaller wolf then scratched at a container door. Paul opened it to find three unconscious vampiresses. There was the roaring growls of two beasts and Paul waved Del away.

“Go help him, I’ve got them.”

She disappeared at a full run. One at a time, he carried the females to safety. As he handed the last to Oliver, his cousin looked resentful but also ashamed.

“Paul… I…”

“We’ll talk later. Just go before the witches figure out what we’re doing.” Paul turned to go back through the gate.

“Where are you going?” Oliver demanded.

“To help the Delphi and the other Servant.”

“They’re just wolves,” Oliver sulked.

“Wolves who are risking their lives to help our kind. Delilah didn’t have to come but she did, she came to bring us a warning from the Augur Vampyr. A warning your grandfather ignored, and my father agreed to hear. The prejudice of your coven lord killed it as much as the Sunwolf and his witches. Maybe you should show a little gratitude.” Then Paul vanished into the maze of containers.

Del ran to find Zane and help him. She regretted sending Ketsu with the Le Moyne vampires to protect them, but the simple search and rescue had gone from bad to worse. She almost stumbled over her own feet when she saw who Zane was battling. It was Helios himself. Zane actually had the Sunwolf down. Del heard her sister yip a warning across the Tides and charged the witches and warlock who were chanting around a fire. She was about to leap at them when one threw a handful of wolfsbane into the fire while another poured blood. Del rolled across the floor and into her skin before slamming into the metal wall of a shipping container. She screamed in agony because of the forced rapid shift. She could feel her wolf being suppressed by the magic. Zane collapsed onto the floor, shifting from his beast to his skin and convulsing. The burning monster made a sound like a laugh before he kicked Zane in the opposite direction of Del. Its fur melted into flesh as he strode toward Del.

Helios was grinning evilly, but his expression changed when he pulled her to her feet by her platinum hair. “You are not my mate, she-wolf.” He leaned in and sniffed her, then licked the side of her neck and cheek. “Interesting.... You do not smell afraid, Daughter of the Moon, but you will. You will submit, they all do.”

“I am not like other she-wolves.” Del grasped his wrist with one hand, trying to lessen the pain of her scalp. She seemed to shrink against the wall but then she reared back and kicked him with both feet.

He doubled over gasping for breath. “Bitch!” He struck her hard across the face.

Del continued to struggle to free her hair. “I’m a werewolf, apostate, that’s not an insult.” She punched him in the face, making his nose bleed, so he grabbed her throat, crushing her against the cold metal wall behind her.

His body felt like it was burning as it pressed against her, his arousal hard against her stomach. “Tell me Delphi, have you ever been taken by a god?”

Del could feel herself blacking out from lack of breath as she failed to free herself. Her awareness of being dropped on the hard ground came with the painful rush of inhaling. She tried to push herself up and shout at Zane to flee, but no sound would come out of her swollen throat.

Zane tackled Helios, ignoring his arm was broken. It was his duty to protect the Delphi and it looked like the halfling was about to rape her. He couldn’t summon his wolf, couldn’t shift, could barely use its strength as Helios tossed him aside effortlessly.

“So, the last Alpha son of Numidi thinks he can overcome me. Does your wolf want to kill me to protect your lover, my mate, and her sister?”

“I don’t need my wolf to kill you.”

“Your dog wouldn’t save you anyway,” Helios mocked.

As Zane fought Helios, the Sunwolf shifted back to his beast. His fur glowed unnaturally as though he were on fire. The smell of heat and death filled the air. Helios toyed with Zane breaking one limb at a time; slicing Zane with claws. Del tried to call the Moon’s Hounds to aid them, but her head was buzzing like angry bees. She couldn’t feel the Tides or the Moon she could see above. The warlock knelt in front of her and blew dust in her face. She collapsed unconscious.

Paul staggered as Delilah’s scream came after the sudden cessation of the sound of battling wolves. There was a shift in the air, and he felt like he had been punched in the gut as he rolled across the floor. It was like he tripped on an unseen barrier. It felt like something was draining his strength away the closer he got to the place where wolves battled. Struggling, he made himself stand. He smelled the warlock and witches and wolves before he saw them and went the sides of a container. Creeping along the tops, he saw a giant golden beast holding a battered Zane by the throat. Its fur glowed like it was on fire and the smell reminded Paul of sunburnt roadkill. He knew he was seeing the Sunwolf that evaded Del’s visions and stalked her nightmares.

Zane’s arms were bent at disturbing angles, but he still growled his words at his murderer. “She will never be your mate. She will never love you.”

The witch standing next to them laughed, “My Alpha says he hopes she never loves him, he likes it when they fight back. He will break her just like he will enjoy breaking her sister. We will find the vampires you helped escape, their kind cannot escape our magic. Just as yours cannot resist it.”

Zane spat blood on Helios’ fur. “You won’t win, abomination... And Essie will always love me more. She will never call out your name in passion the way she called out mine.”

The beast snarled terrifyingly as its claws dug into the Servant’s chest. Zane screamed in anguish as his heart was torn from his body, then slumped. The abomination turned and put his prize in a jar held by the witch. It shifted into a giant golden wolf and began mauling Zane’s corpse. The warlock carrying a naked, unconscious Del walked away, he rounded a row of containers toward a waiting SUV.

“You are very beautiful, oracle… My Alpha will enjoy your flesh before we burn your heart.” The warlock’s words as he put Del in the back had Paul’s blood boiling.

When the warlock stepped back to close the hatch, Paul seized him by the throat. “I believe you have something of mine, witch-spawn.”

“You… You should be… be uncon… scious…V-vampire,” the warlock gasped out as he pulled at Paul’s hand.

“I am not an ordinary vampire.” Paul grinned malevolently, baring pearly fangs. “You witchlings are such pathetic creatures, without your magic you are weaker even than humans.”

There was the crackling of breaking bones as the warlock’s neck crushed in Paul’s grip. Paul dropped the corpse then carefully lifted Delilah out of the back of the SUV. She groaned painfully as a bruise bloomed dark across her cheek. He could see a bruise of a handprint around her neck and smell that the Sunwolf had licked her as he assaulted her. Hearing the snarling of the large unnatural wolf and the rending of flesh, Paul pushed away the sick realization that the Sunwolf was eating Zane’s corpse and fled with his precious cargo.

When Paul arrived at the airport, he rushed onto the plane and snarled at the pilot to take off. He still felt weak from the witchcraft. He knew that what the warlock said would have been true if he was an ordinary vampire, he should have been unconscious and vulnerable. If the witches attacked them now, they all would die. He carefully laid Delilah in a chair before he covered her in a blanket. His eyes noted every bruise and injury, the failure of himself and her protector to keep her unharmed.

“Where is Protector Zane?” Martha demanded. “What happened to the Delphi?”

“Witches attacked with the Sunwolf… Zane didn’t make it, he sacrificed himself to fight him, and I managed to save her… We barely got away… We need to go now.” Paul looked up at Martha. His eyes told her the horror he’d seen without additional words.

Martha inhaled sharply as she took in Del’s battered form and his disheveled state, then she turned to the cockpit. “Malcolm, get us out of here.”