Daughter of the Tides, Servants of the Moon Book 2

Essie dreamed of the horror of another coven falling.

Helios’ witches forced the wounded vampires to pile the dead in a small lily pond. She wept watching them stab the only child and the wounded ones so they would bleed out. Then he and his witches set the whole thing on fire somehow. In moments, the screaming was over, replaced by the roars of a fiery vortex. She shouted and cried and begged for him to stop. When the flames died, there was nothing left of the bodies but ashen husks like those from Pompei. Four vampiresses sat, crumpled to the ground in a stupor. Essie turned away from the horror she knew waited for them, only to come face to face with the Sunwolf.

Helios reached out to caress her cheek, “Where are you, my mate? You are supposed to be close to me, but you feel like you are on the other side of the world?”

“I am not your mate,” Essie hissed at him, “I will never be your mate.”

“Tut tut, you above all should know you can only defy the will of the fates for so long. I will have you for my broodmare and my mate, perhaps I will practice with your sister who is so close I can almost smell her scent of moonlight and snow.”

“No!” She screamed at him.

Essie sat up suddenly, she was alone in the room she had slept in when the last of the Charlains Coven sheltered in this hidden place. She tried to call Del, but the aurora borealis was affecting the SatPhone. After a few hours later, Essie was desperate to reach Del and warn her that Helios knew the truth. Somehow he knew that Del was traveling with Zane and not her, she was sure of it.

Finally, Essie got out her mirror, salted a circle on the floor and lit a candle. If she couldn’t reach the temples or Del by conventional means, she would endure the pain of going through the Tides. The fall into the Tides made her seasick. But her tidal form sprinted across the strange landscape of a city she had only been to once. She and Zane had spent a wild Mardi Gras together while looking for leads on covens. It had been the week before they traveled to the Darkwood. Essie stalked through the streets until she got to a club she knew. She watched Del, Martha, Zane, a vampire, and a half-vampire go inside. She followed Del and saw her talking with Charlemagne under the vampire’s watchful eye. Turning, Essie went to find Zane.

Zane was in a back room, he easily killed two rogue wolves while the half-vampire freed a vampiress who was tied to something like a torture table. Essie wished she could hear and communicate in her Tidal form the way Del could. She watched Zane send the vampires away and tell Martha something, to Essie, it looked like he said Sunwolf. The other wanderer argued with him then he left so Essie followed him. Her Tidal form wolf tried everything they could think of to get his attention, but Zane could neither hear, nor see her. She watched Zane valiantly kill two wolves and mark the place where three kidnapped vampiresses were held, then the stench of burning caught them both. Essie howled at Zane to stop but he attacked Helios.

Essie could do nothing as she watched Helios threatening her sister then maiming Zane.

Helios turned and grinned at her with a mouth full of pointed teeth and eyes burning like embers.

‘You came, my lovely mate. This is what I will do to your lovers. And after I’ve broken him, your sister…’

‘Please, spare him.’ Essie begged. ‘I’ll come to you, just let them go.’

Helios’ laughter boomed across their mate bond. Zane said something Essie couldn’t hear and Helios looked at him with pure hatred. His beast’s claws dug into Zane’s chest as Essie screamed and screamed and screamed. Her voice wasn’t loud enough to express her grief as Helios put Zane’s heart in a jar.

‘Don’t cry, my mate. I saved his heart for you, but his flesh is mine.’ Helios shifted to his wolf and began eating Zane’s corpse.

Essie gagged and thrashed, fighting her way out of the vision.

“Esther, what did you see?” Kaiyou demanded then she got sick.

After vomiting on both of them, Essie sobbed out, “The Sunwolf killed and ate Zane. His warlock took Del…”

“What?” Nyall snarled.

Essie had not realized he was standing by the door with Marcus and Rairi.

“What do ye mean his warlock took Del? Took her where?”

Essie sobbed, “I don’t know… I didn’t see… He was eating Zane.”

Kaiyou held her tightly. “We are going to the Gate. It is a two-day run as our wolves. If Delilah has been captured, we need Essie to stand in her place at the temples until we can rescue her, or the wolves of the packs will panic and fall victim to the Des Rues’s manipulations.”

“Rairi…” Marcus turned toward his mate.

“I’m already packing for you,” she said as she left hurriedly.

Nyall shook angrily, breathing out tremulously. “By the Goddess, the Sunwolf will torture and murder her.”

“Not if we can prevent it,” Kaiyou vowed. “Essie, clean yourself up and be ready to go in an hour.”

As the males left, Marcus asked, “Where do we even start?”

Nyall’s jaw twitched, “In the heart of Des Rues, that is where they would have taken her.”

“What? Why?” Marcus demanded.

“Because Helios Des Rues is the Sunwolf.”

Del woke slowly, the bed she was in swayed slightly. She was on a ship.

“Welcome back,” the Augur Vampyr’s soft voice greeted her. “You gave us quite a scare, Delphi.”

“Lanea?” Del’s throat felt like she had inhaled a desert of dust. She greedily swallowed the water Lanea offered. “How?”

Lanea sighed and explained as she helped her sit up. “Lord Paul rescued you. The Sunwolf killed and ate Servant Zane. The survivors of Coven Orleans are coping with being surrounded by half-bloods. Lord Oliver was quite shocked by Max and Jack. Coven Rouge Le Moyne is a third half-humans who have been changed, but none of them have blood magic like Jack. Lord Le Moyne and Lady Le Moyne remind me of my grandparents.”

Del squeezed her hand. “I… I’m glad they listened…”

“Del, did… did you know Ouisa’s grandfather was a wolf?”

“Really? But she isn’t…” Delilah gasped out her shock. “Paul and his siblings…”

“Are hybrids, not halflings… Viktor knew what they were when he smelled them. Lady Le Moyne never knew who her maternal grandfather was. Viktor said not to tell anyone, or they… they would all be killed by the pure bloods. It’s why he could resist the magic used against both vampires and wolves,” Lanea revealed, and they sat in silence for a moment.

Del clutched her hand over her heart, as she confessed, “I screwed up, Lanea, I… I underestimated the Sunwolf… and… and he k-killed Zane.” Lanea held Del while she cried. “I killed him, the one who Essie loved, I killed him, and she will never forgive me.”

“No, shush, no, you didn’t kill him. He was a Servant, a Protector. He knew it was a risk…” Lanea started then Del interrupted, “But it was my idea to lure the Sunwolf out. He thought I was Essie until he touched me. Zane couldn’t fight him after they took our wolves… Oh, Moon...” Then her eyes widened, she scrambled out of bed and pulled the nightgown she was wearing off. Bones crackled as fur erupted from her flesh. A large coffee colored wolf stood in the small bedroom.

Lanea breathed out a rushed breath of relief, “Thank the Goddesses, you still have your wolf.”

Del’s wolf whined in agreement and licked Lanea’s hand, then Lanea rubbed the wolf’s ears, “At least the sorcery isn’t permanent.”

Del shifted back and pulled the nightgown over her head, “I was so…”

“Did you have to redress, Delphi? I thought you wolves liked to be bare?” Paul was standing in the door, grinning at them roguishly. “Augur, the Delphi has a call from one of the temples, someone named Esther is speaking with Ketsu and wishes to speak to you.”

Lanea handed Del a robe as she gave Paul a dark look, “The Delphi is not to be leered at, Lord Le Moyne.”

“I’m not leering, Augur Lanea, I am just a male who appreciates exquisite beauty when I see it,” Paul answered in a purring seductive tone without taking his eyes off Del.

Del gave him a cold glare, then looked back to Lanea. “Does that line actually work on vampire females?”

“No,” Lanea answered with a smirk, “I don’t even think it would work on humans or witches?”

Paul chuckled. “You wound me, females.”

The Augur stepped past him and Del followed then stopped and looked up at him with her enchanting cornflower eyes, “Thank you for saving me, Lord Paul.”

Her sincerity and the scent of pure snow and moonlight took his breath away, all he could do was nod and respond, “My pleasure, Delphi Delilah.”

“No,” Del snapped at Paul. “You need to go with the covens to Patmos.”

“Delilah be reasonable. Your fellow wolves can’t protect you like I can. My brothers and sisters and the halflings of our coven can protect the Augur Vampyr. Let me stay with you.” Paul argued. He bowed his head, his voice dropped to a whisper, “I don’t want your visions to come to pass. I don’t want them to murder you on the altar of your goddess.”

She took his face in her hands. “That is only one possibility.”

He inhaled slowly. Placing his hands over hers, he drew them down until they rested over his heart. “The others are just as terrible.”

“Do you only look for the ill and never the good?” She demanded softly, drawing away from the uncomfortable attraction she felt for him, she knew it was because he was partly a wolf, and they had potential. “There are many chances for me to be saved, for me to save my sister.”

“Then why did you ask Max and Lanea to take care of your acolyte when the temples fall?” Paul demanded.

Del held his gaze firmly, “Because I don’t know which vision will be true… But that doesn’t mean I will give up hope for us all in the end.”

“Perhaps you could teach me to have hope,” Paul suggested, then added cheekily, “Or at least leave me with a kiss.”

“Paul, don’t do this… Go with Lanea, be safe. Find your beloved and have a long happy life.” She looked across the gap between the water and the boat. “My escorts are here. Goodbye.”

Nyall, Leon, and Kaiyou had arrived to escort Del back to the Moon’s Gate. She walked down the gangplank without looking back. Standing beside the SUV with tinted windows, she watched the ship cast off. Paul stayed on the deck in the sunshine and watched her as the ship pulled away. He lifted his hand to her, and she waved back before getting in the vehicle and driving away.

Months after they left the western coast of Canada, Lanea stood at the deck of the ship that would take them to the safety of the oldest existing vampire haven in the world, the Isle of Patmos. Six covens, including the oldest on the continent, Coven Rouge Le Moyne had joined them with a surprising revelation that a full third of the old coven were half-humans and ones that had been changed into vampires.

More startling was that Lord Le Moyne’s children were also an eighth werewolf. The sunwalkers, as Del had jokingly called them, had quickly pledged their loyalty to Lanea and Max. The elder Lord Le Moyne had been shocked to see Viktor protecting the Augur Vampyr, and they had greeted each other enthusiastically. The only hiccup had been that one of the Coven Orleans was the beloved of the youngest son of Le Moyne and her half-brother was having none of it. He was also quite shocked by and biased against Lanea’s beloved being an unchanged half-human, half vampire.

“Sister?” She tore her eyes from the shore to look up at her younger brother.

This was the last of this land they would see before sailing across the ocean and she was clinging to Larson desperately. They had sailed most of the way around the continent. Down the western coast, through the Panama Canal and back up the east coast to New York. It grieved her heart that the last coastal coven refused to leave, while six others had joined her. Four others listened to her warning and fled.

“I’m okay, I’m just going to miss you, little brother.” Lanea had known since that fateful night all those years ago that she would leave her brother behind.

When they had fallen into the fountain, the Delphi Tamaza Ayala had carried them through the Tides of the Moon to safety. The same night the previous incarnation of the Sunwolf destroyed their birth coven and killed their parents and grandparents. Lanea had known since his third birthday that Larson would never leave this land. She had spent her whole life sheltering and protecting her baby brother and now she was leaving him to an uncertain fate in a war that was not of her kind.

If he survived, he would be mated to a non-vampire as she was. But unlike her, he would be forever outcast, his children rejected by their people. Viktor had warned him repeatedly to never tell another vampire who or what his beloved was. It may be that he would never belong to a coven again. If she had a soul, Lanea was sure it would be tearing into pieces, as it was, her heart was breaking. She glanced back to the coastline of Montauk. No vampire on board would know he had not stayed behind in New York with Jack, and the wolves there had seen them leave. Her brother was leaving his people behind to protect his beloved who belonged to their kind.

“I’ll see you soon, sis,” Larson promised.

“Don’t get into trouble, or I’ll have Del send you back to me in a shipping box,” Lanea tried to make light.

Larson smirked, cocky as ever. “As if, I only travel first class.”

Lanea swallowed and said seriously, “Be careful, Larson. One close to the Delphi will betray her, just as one close to the Sunwolf will aid her.”

Her brother tipped his head, giving a disgusted sigh. “Really, sis? Riddles? Can’t you guys just get the Goddesses to give you a name or two. It would make things so much easier, like Goddess Google or something.”

Lanea laughed, pretending not to be as bereft as she felt. “Nope, the Goddesses say do it the hard way, or you won’t learn nothing.”

Viktor came to stand beside them. “There is the point, young Larson. Be well. I was honored to have you for my student, brother of the Augur Vampyr.”

Larson bowed to him, “Thank you for teaching me how to use my grandfather’s sword.”

Viktor held out the Sword of Charlains and a backpack. Larson put them on, then gave Lanea one final squeeze before leaping overboard. They watched his rapid progress through the water with their soulless eyes that could see through the darkest night.

“Do not fear, Augur. He will survive, he will protect the next sacris lunae filiam aestus.”

“I hope you’re right, Viktor.” The Augur Vampyr stood on the deck watching the land fall away until the sun began coloring the horizon.

Entering her cabin, Max was waiting. He held out his arms and she hugged him. “He’s gone… he’s gone…” She sobbed.

Smoothing her white hair, he kissed her temple, “He’s not dead, Lanea. As long as he lives, there is still hope. Who knows, maybe someday, he and Ainsley will come to Patmos. The Coven Rouge Le Moyne seem very open-minded…”

Lanea cried softly, “Ainsley would only come to Patmos if Delilah died. And she might when…”

Max leaned back slightly and looked at his wife, “When what, Lanea?”

“I… I can’t tell you… Just hold me,” Lanea begged.

“Oh goddess, Lanea, did you see her death? Lanea? My brother is working with the Servants to find the last four covens.” Max demanded. “Is that why you wouldn’t let me join him?”

Her haunted ruby eyes glistened in despair. “I… I’m not as strong as Del. I couldn’t let you be killed, so I left Jacks behind in your place. Please forgive me.”

He breathed out in agony, but he didn’t let go of her, “Oh my beloved, I do... Is it certain?”

She shook her head, “Nothing is certain. He may live, he may meet his beloved among the wolves or hidden covens. They may survive. But if you had gone, Max, you would certainly have died. I don’t want to say goodbye to you... not ever, my beloved. When we get to Patmos, I want Lord Le Moyne to change you like he did his sons. Please, I need you to live for centuries too.”