Lunar Marked (Sky Brooks Series Book 4) (22 page)

Ethan headed out the door with me close behind. Four were-animals were off to the side, cloaked by the wealth of thick trees that surrounded my home providing the privacy I wanted. Noticing our presence, Anderson, flanked by another man and Derrick, stepped closer to the house until he was just a couple of feet away.

He was as tall as he was broad, powerful-looking. His dark hair was scalp short, and caramel-colored skin was offset by cognac eyes that possessed a dark, ominous glint. His features were broad, including his lips and mouth and a striking jawline that was a good target for a punch if only to wipe off his smirk.

“The one on the right is Derrick, the shooter,” I whispered to Ethan.

Ethan and Anderson locked gazes and I knew this wasn’t going to end well. Surveying the area, I remembered that we were still trying to keep our existence quiet and a bloodbath in the middle of the suburbs wasn’t going to help with keeping our presence unknown. Rage pulsed off Ethan like a current; the air became hostility riddled and I knew it was a matter of time before this devolved into something so violent it couldn’t be contained. I pressed my hands against Ethan’s back and said softly, “This isn’t the time.”

“Oh sweetheart, this is the time. He no longer wants you as the Alpha—your protection is gone,” Anderson said to Ethan as the three men advanced closer. Four animals slowly padded closer, feral eyes glowing, teeth drawn back, and just a few feet away, they paused.

This couldn’t happen now. It was close to nine in the morning; the streets were quiet but at any time a neighbor could drive by. The last things I needed them to see were were-animals in my front yard trying to destroy one another.

Ethan exhaled the tension, but his shoulders still couldn’t relax, jaw clenched tighter than before, and his hand balled into a fist at his side. He knew this wasn’t the right time and we would risk being exposed.

“You all have grown soft. More concerned about your cars, your businesses, and the appearance of strength that you no longer have,” Anderson continued.

Diplomacy wasn’t something Ethan possessed much of and he was having trouble with it now. He’d forced a relaxed position, but the gunmetal still drowned out the blue in his eyes. He struggled to ease his tightly drawn lips. A rare display of diplomacy. Ethan sucked in a deep breath. “She is right; this isn’t the time. You want to challenge me, accepted.”

“Waiting, a coward’s approach,” Anderson said. Then a salacious smile overtook his face as he looked at me. “And the things I plan to do to you when he’s gone.” He licked his lips.

“Why wait.” Striking my hands through the air, I threw them to the ground and leapt from the stairs and had one hand around his throat, the other over his heart. It was horrible magic, dark and lethal, and I absorbed everything the Aufero had to offer. The magic flowed into me, curdled with darkness; the vile smell lifted and presented to me as natural and pure as Josh’s magic. It felt as much a part of me as my skin, as necessary as breathing, moving with the ease of my limbs. I owned the magic as my own, no longer something I used—I had become it.

His heart dragged to a slow beat. Sharp ragged breaths seeped out between his lips. His face was fear-stricken as I slowly pulled the beats from his heart and right before he drifted out of consciousness, giving into the darkness of a body that didn’t provide enough oxygen to survive and a heart that wouldn’t pump enough for survival, I stopped. Allowing the body to recover, and then I did it again.

I found pleasure in torturing him, watching the wistful look on his face when he thought there was a reprieve and he would survive, only to have his body forced into a state of struggling to survive. My face just inches from his, I watched the struggle, inhaled the fragrance of fear, and enjoyed every moment of the power I had over whether he would live or die.

His eyes bulged under my control, and a small voice inside me pled for his life. I ignored it. This power lust wasn’t mine. The adoration for the torture and pain of someone else wasn’t mine. The magic that I was wielding with a vengeful skill wasn’t mine. I was barely aware of Ethan on the side, keeping the other two men at bay while I tortured this man to death, in a cruel manipulation of his body. I was barely aware of Quell, who was off at a distance fighting off three were-animals that were trying to stop me from murdering their Alpha. I wanted him to beg for a life that I planned to take anyway. I had every intention of doing it to Derrick, too, and I hadn’t decided what I would do to the third man.

Stop!
The voice was louder, but I ignored it. Soon it would be drowned out.

The voice that pled for his life tried to temper the magic, suppress the lust, fight off the desire for power. I ripped my hand from his throat and pulled myself to standing, taking several steps back. Ethos was right: Maya wasn’t dormant anymore. She was awake, and I was a fool to let her stay. She played me, showing compassion and understanding as she ushered me into a life she wanted me to have. A life that she had every intention of taking over. A pack that she would infiltrate, magic that she would harvest and use in the way she saw fit. I was screwed.

Everything was a blur as I looked at the world through a haze of betrayal and suppressed magic. I could hear Ethan and Quell calling my name. They were close. I looked around the yard, and everyone was gone accept the three of us. Ethan’s hand covered mine and I pulled away. “Don’t touch me.”

I started to walk away when his hand snaked around my waist, hugging me to him. He spoke into my hair in a low soothing voice. “You’re fine. You are.”

Ethan was wrong. I wasn’t okay; and no matter how many times it came from him, we both knew it wasn’t true. I rested against him, my heart racing. He wrapped his arms around me tighter; slow exhalation wasn’t working for me. I simply rested against Ethan and eventually mine mirrored his; slow and steady.

I
don’t recall
the last time I had said anything since I tried to kill Anderson. I had just a vague memory of Quell’s concerned face in front of me talking to Ethan about something I couldn’t force myself to care about. When Ethan told me that Sebastian was awake, I cared enough to follow him to the car but the words just wasn’t there. The entire trip to the retreat, Ethan focused on me more than on the road, his hand resting over mine.

“I want her out of me,” I finally said as we pulled into the driveway of the retreat, which was full of cars.

“Okay.”

“Don’t just say it. Please, I want you to do something about it.” I tasked him with the impossible and it was unfair. And Ethan would never let me know that. But desperation had made me devoid of logic. I only seemed vaguely aware that if Maya and I were linked by a shared life force, I couldn’t live without her; but what was slowly happening wasn’t something I could live with, either. Maybe I was better off dead.

I had gotten used to the feel of the warmth of Ethan’s hand next to mine and when he released it when we got out of the car and kept his distance from me as we started toward the house, I didn’t know what to think. I expected him to take it again or at the very least close the distance that he kept between us. When I stopped walking a few feet from the house he released an exasperated breath. “What is it, Sky?”

I chewed on my bottom lip and shook my head. I didn’t have anything to say. For all I knew, last night was just sex for Ethan; after all it wasn’t his first time. This could very well have been just a one-night stand for him and nothing more. I felt foolish to expect it to be something more. It seemed like more, but what did I know?

S
ebastian sat
on a bed surrounded by vibrant blue-colored walls that were decorated with wildlife art. Steven was in the corner sitting in a sleek modern chair watching television. He looked like he’d been there for a while. The recovery rooms looked nothing like what I’d seen in hospitals.

Sebastian’s alluring amber eyes shone with the same strength and assurance as they always had, his satin mocha skin as vibrant as before. He was shirtless, and there wasn’t any evidence that silver-infused bullets had punctured through the muscle that covered his body. He was our Alpha, and he seemed as good as new. But I kept studying Ethan as he looked at Sebastian.

“How do you feel?” Ethan asked.

He shrugged and stood: he didn’t move the same. The lithe predacious movement had been lost to something more lumbering and purposeful. “I may need a couple of days, but I understand,” he said.

What exactly does he understand? Dammit, they’re talking about this challenge foolishness again.
“No,” I said.

“Sky,” Ethan said through gritted teeth.

He could grit them until they were ground to nubs, I didn’t care. They weren’t going to do this. I wouldn’t let it happen. “No.”

They had both dismissed me. I was white noise to them—they had been reduced to predators assessing the weakness of the other. Examining whether or not one was more capable than the other to lead. And every second, every moment of it made me despise the pack and them for being nothing more than primal beasts.

I waited for them to speak, and in the silence I heard my heart beating and violence that had become a significant part of my life echoing in my ears, overtaking my thoughts, and I couldn’t stand it anymore. I started to leave. I didn’t need to be there while they decided which one of them was going to die. I’d reached the door when Ethan said, “I feel very comfortable with you as my Alpha.”

It wasn’t until I exhaled that I realized I’d been holding my breath. A weight that I didn’t know was even there seemed to be lifted. Winter nearly knocked me over when she entered the room. She stood several feet away from Sebastian, her eyes wide, arms fixed at her side as though she didn’t know what to do with them.
What took her so long to get here?
I suspected she was afraid of what she might see. Like me she couldn’t bear to see him as a fragment of his former self, bloodied and wounded as he was the other day.

His lips kinked up into a smirk. “Hi.”

She swallowed but didn’t say anything for a long time. Instead she just looked at him, her eyes glistening under the harsh lights, and she made several efforts to speak but was unable to find the words. Sebastian approached her, a relaxed reassuring smile brightening his features. He touched her shoulders, and she let a light sob escape. “I’d like to be alone,” he said as he looked over the room. Winter started to back away. “No, you stay.”

As the door closed behind us I got a glimpse of him drawing Winter to him.

T
wo days later
, and the incident with Anderson wasn’t any less vivid in my thoughts. The feelings overtook me, the intoxicating feeling of power and the immense control I had over magic that for weeks Josh and I couldn’t manage to control. It wasn’t that I had more control than I had before; it was the diablerie. I didn’t care that it was dark and wrong. In fact, I welcomed it as a way to wreak more havoc.

Josh was less focused on me than he was on Ethan, who was sitting next to me, perusing the book in front of him. Josh watched him with a suspicious glint, his gaze narrowing on his brother. Ethan pushed the book away and crossed his arms over his chest. “I think getting rid of Ethos is what we need to focus on rather than getting rid of Maya. She was fine until a couple of months ago. It’s likely his resurfacing has awakened something in her. Get rid of him and things may go back to the way they were.”

“And if it doesn’t?” I asked.

“Then we worry about it then. Ethos is the immediate threat, and Claudia hasn’t been able to meet with Samuel. For all we know Ethos has all three books.”

Josh listened but his attention wavered between me and Ethan, jumping back and forth between us.

“Find out how we can draw Ethos out of hiding,” Ethan commanded, coming to his feet and leaving. Unless he could put the books in a chokehold he wasn’t really interested in them. I was surprised he lasted the two hours he had.

The empty space where Ethan had stood still commanded a great deal of Josh’s attention, and when he looked in my direction, he forced a smile.

“Come with me.” He scooped up the Aufero and grabbed me by the wrist. I hated being near it, and I damn sure wasn’t interested in anything Josh was considering. I followed him downstairs to what had become our “practice room.” Set up like the sparring room, the walls were padded as we had crashed into them one too many times causing damage. The open space allowed us freedom to practice without the threat of injury.

I took up a place in the middle of the room, still considering how the Aufero responded to Josh as opposed to how it did to his brother. It protected itself from Ethan, as though it sensed danger.

Josh’s light assuring smile always made me feel emboldened, as though magic was simple. Just an extension of my natural movements to be directed and controlled with the same ease I did my arms. And as usual, I held his gaze as the knife slid across the palm of his hands and we connected as the spell that would bind us fell from his lips. Surrounded by the coarse, draconian magic of the Aufero, his was a welcome feeling. Despite being darker than it was when I first met him, there was still something soothing about it. There was still a hint of “old Josh” in the magic. Perhaps he was suppressing it because he knew I needed to feel his familiar magic. It felt cleansing as it spiraled through me, the gentle but powerful breeze that rekindling my love for magic. It wasn’t ominous, deadly, and harsh. Josh moved closer and I was enveloped by the comfort of the first magic I had ever experienced. “Now use it,” he said.

A protective field billowed around us, its diaphanous covering shimmering a light lilac. The air inside wasn’t toxic, we could breathe. Taking my free hand, I placed in on his chest. Nothing. I smiled. Slowly I dropped the field. With a whirl of my fingers a towel danced across the room. Josh’s keys performed a clunky bounce as I sent them across the room. I had relaxed into the magic.

Josh took several steps from me. His keys soared toward me, and with a twist of my hands they went in a different direction. Flicks of my finger nudged him back. I pushed a little harder, too hard. He slammed back into the padded wall, his head bouncing a little against it. “It’s still a head, padding or not, it doesn’t like to be slammed against things,” he teased. I released him from the wall. The stress and worry over the past two days seemed nonexistent.