Lunar Marked (Sky Brooks Series Book 4) (3 page)

He stood and closed the distance between us in a long, graceful glide. Now that he was next to me, his faced relaxed, a smile tweaking at his lips. His tone was low and inquiring. “So you’ll break the promise you made to me?”

I tried to think back to the conversation we had when I found out Ethan’s secret. Did I promise? Part of it merged together with all the things that had occurred that day.

He moved closer and his lips lightly brushed mine when he spoke. “You’re a lot of things Skylar, but a person who would go back on her word isn’t one of them.”

He gave me a little space, but he was still too close.

“I will tell him when I am ready. I don’t think it is necessary for him to know, so I will tell him when I damn well please. Let’s have enough with the idle threats. I don’t like it.”

“I don’t like keeping your secrets.”

“Then forget that you know it,” he suggested, his jaw set with the familiar tension that meant I wasn’t going to get any further with the conversation and it was over.

“You have two days or I am going to tell him.”

His smirk taunted me and my mind slipped back to the time I punched him in the face, the desire to do it resurfacing. Smug bastard.

“No threats. I will take as long as I need and will tell him when I am ready.” He leaned forward and kissed me, a light peck on the nose. “Tell Josh to stop being such a jerk.”

“If I can’t convince you to stop being one, what makes you think I can persuade him?”

He chuckled, and I could hear the deep rumble as he made his way down the hall.

I was going to tell Josh.

But I promised.

I didn’t care. I was going to do it.

Dammit. I promised I wouldn’t.

Ugh, why doesn’t he just wipe that smug grin off his face?

J
osh took more
than his usual twenty-minute break. I guess he wanted to make sure his brother was nowhere to be found when he returned.

“So how long do you plan on treating your brother like this?”

His shoulders sank with his sigh. “I don’t know. It pisses me off that he treats me like—”

“He’s treating you like the brother he will do anything to protect. He just does it really wrong. I don’t think he knows how to love like a normal person,” I asserted with a grin.

Josh laughed, and not because it was funny. It was true. The only relationship of Ethan’s that I knew of was with Chris, former hunter who was turned into a vampire, and it was the epitome of dysfunction. It lacked commitment, and they would sacrifice each other for their own interest. Yet, that was his longest relationship. Ethan and I had a couple of moments, and we almost slept together, but then he stopped it. I’m not sure why, but I was glad he did. Having a relationship with Ethan was like playing with a bee and being shocked when it stung.

We settled down to our work, both of us actively trying to forget about his brother.

T
he time crept
by and when I looked at my phone, it had been two hours and Josh and I were still sitting across from each other looking at the Aufero and its odd coloring, trying to figure out the magic that emanated off it, which was wrong—very wrong. Its new powers had a maladroit effect on my magic. Protective fields no longer protected me from anything; instead it converted the illuminant bubbles into gas chambers that slowly pulled the breath out of anyone enclosed in them. I’d destroyed several pieces of clothing while trying to use it to
travel
. Before Ethan had taken Ethos’s magic from me, my mornings were lively shows as my clothing danced in front of me, whirling and twirling in a manner that made all of Disney’s dancing silverware, clothing, and household appliances pale in comparison. Instead the clothes were mangled and destroyed at the mere use of the Aufero which made me more concerned about the magic that was in Ethan.

“Are you ready?” Josh asked, standing.

I hesitated before nodding. This appeared to be another act of futility, but he was convinced that if I borrowed his magic, as I had done on numerous occasions, I would be able to manipulate it. Converting natural magic to dark magic and vice versa was one of the gifts I possessed. Well, one that hosting Maya gave me. My mother was a witch, but since witches couldn’t manipulate magic, I knew it wasn’t a gift from my mother. Maya was something powerful, but we didn’t know what. A little voice in my head was a constant pessimist and had convinced me that she was something terrible. When I first found out she was killed as a child, it bothered me—as infanticide would, it was the act of a monster. But what if it wasn’t? What if what Maya was destined to be was a reason to prevent her from becoming it?

It had been a long time since I had borrowed Josh’s magic, and this time I did it with reservation. He was different, stronger. His magic was coarse, no longer the gentle oceanic breeze it once was, but now a tumultuous wave overpowering the room and capable of unspeakable damage. I wasn’t sure I would be able to control it. He stood closer, personal space being something he would never accept. His fingers lightly slid down my arm until they met with mine. He was too close, his warm breath bristling against my cheek as he spoke. Taking the knife in his other hand, he turned my hand over and sliced across it and then his. Once the blood welled, he took my hand in his and whispered the spell to bind us.

I wasn’t sure what I expected, but definitely not the cataclysmic wave of magic that beat into me like a blistering cold—I felt it to my bones as it chilled me. I ignored the feeling. I had borrowed before and this was his magic, no matter how different it felt. I relaxed into him. With everything changing, it was comforting that at the core of things Josh was still the same. He gave me a light, chaste kiss on my forehead, stepped away, and with his familiar miscreant grin said, “You worry too much.”

He winked.

Josh was one of the most perceptive people I’d encountered, but I doubt he needed to be very skilled when dealing with me. I wore my emotions on my face like a promotional sign.

Josh shuffled back a couple of steps and allowed me to work as I took hold of the Aufero.

It expanded, its odd coloring lightening. As Josh moved his lips frenetically, his eyes darkened to night as the strong magic took on a life of its own. The books in the library trembled on the shelves, and the Aufero continued to pulse at an erratic beat, expanding to the brink of destruction only to rebound and push us against the wall in retaliation. Bright orange burst from it like flames, and then the room calmed. Josh and I peeled ourselves from the wall and approached it with caution. Once drawn to me, it now seemed repelled by my presence, as if it had developed a mind of its own and didn’t like Josh too much either anymore. It responded as it did to Ethan, burst of color and magical posturing before forming a dark, clouded ward around itself.

“Try it,” Josh suggested in a weak voice. This was the third spell we had tried, and Josh was starting to show signs of fatigue.

I inched closer, the ward dropped, and I pulled the Aufero closer to me. Inhaling a small breath and preparing for the worst, I formed a protective field. Okay, things were better. Good. Once again, it became the orange illumination it had been prior to removing Ethan’s magic. After removing the magic from Ethan it hadn’t been the same. The field formed around me, my heart rate stayed the same, my breathing normal. And then things went wrong. Oxygen was quickly pulled out, and my heart thrashed so hard in my chest that it felt like it was trying to punch its way through. I tried to drop the field. It stayed firm. My mind became a fog as I tried to pull in whatever oxygen remained in the bubble.

It didn’t feel like a field but more like a chamber. I was reduced to pounding my fist against it trying to break it. Josh placed his hand on it and it finally shattered, leaving remnants of magic that felt as poisonous as they smelled. Something was terribly wrong and I didn’t know who was going to fix it.

I tossed the Aufero in the corner, no longer caring if I destroyed it or not. This was the third time it had tried to kill me and I was starting to take offense.

Josh plopped into a chair, his hand scrubbing over the light hairs on his face that had gone past just a simple shadow. It was time for a shave, or maybe he was going to grow a beard. He’d do whichever was easiest. His hair was longer, and he had to keep raking it away each time it dipped into his face.

“I don’t know what else to do Sky,” he finally admitted.

We sat in silence for a long time until it became too uncomfortable for Josh and he took another break. I knew that although he left, his mind would be on this. It was a puzzle, and he wouldn’t rest until it was solved.

W
hile Josh was gone
I flipped idly through a couple of the books we had on the table, looking for spells that would return the Aufero to normal. Every spell that I had tried turned into something draconian, pulling me into a state of darkness where I couldn’t find an anchor. I’d learned quickly not to use it unless Josh was present.

Quickly becoming discouraged with the spells in the books we had searched, I grabbed the Clostra, reluctant to accept that the spell we needed was probably in it. To fix a protected object, we probably needed to use another one. If that was true, we would need Samuel again, and I doubted he would be willing to help. And if he was, the debt would be too high.

He seemed so repelled by were-animals that he would probably only agree if he was allowed to prevent us from changing into our were-half. Sebastian and Ethan would never want to lose their ability to shift into the animal half any more than Josh wanted to have his magic stripped away. I wished I had the same feeling. I had accepted my wolf—we were one—and magic was part of who I was, but sometimes I missed my old life—the oblivious state of ignorance before I was yanked into the otherworld.

However, before I was part of this world, I didn’t have anyone except a handful of people who were casual acquaintances at best. Now I had people I cared about and who cared for me. Despite the pack’s questionable ethics that bordered on psychosis and their love that was a cross between an overprotective father and a deranged stalker, I believed they wanted to protect, in their own way. I guess the pack didn’t really know how to love, either.

The thoughts of the people in my life usually comforted me but I felt like I had one less person in it—Steven. He was leaving. I knew he was just moving out, but it felt like he was not only changing his address but also his position in my life. I hated that.

I shook off the thoughts and tried to focus on what seemed like a reversal spell, although I wasn’t sure because the third part of it was missing. My Latin was much better but I still needed a little help, which is where Google Translate came in, becoming the most used option on my phone. If experience had taught me anything, there was always something to magic. Spells were so simple, but a string of words linked together could have devastating results. Josh was teaching me the rules. In the past, he slacked when it came to the rules, but after being dominated by Ethos and Samuel, he had become a savant with his skills.

“You don’t think Kelly would just leave without telling us, do you?” said a voice from the corner of the library.

Don’t show fear
. I tensed, trying to keep myself from jumping to the other side of the room at the sound of Gavin’s voice, the pack’s fourth and resident problem child. Like a shadow, he withdrew from the wall and sat on the table next to me, moving with the lissome steps of an efficient and lethal predator. His tall, lean body, built for agility and speed, made him look all the more menacing. He was a skilled hunter with the temperament to match, and it was hard not to go into high alert when he was near. If I had to name someone in the pack as a nemesis, it was him. I was “wrong” and a danger to the pack, a belief he stood by and refused to change. He pricked at my defenses until they stood like a bastion ready to protect.

How long had he been there? When did he come in? But with Gavin you never knew; he moved in silence, his presence often unknown until he wanted it to be. And yet no one thought to make him wear a bell.

His sharp eyes seared through me with a force I don’t think I will ever get used to. Brushing his midnight azure mass of too-long hair away from his face, he spoke again after a long moment of silence. “Do you really think Kelly would just leave without telling anyone?” His eyes were desperate and searching.

I guess he sensed my discomfort because he moved a couple of feet back. It was hard to get used to his predacious nature and the stealth of his movements. The sharp way he tracked movements, assessing a person, was always so intensely wound and ready to recoil. He never relaxed. It seemed like it would be tiring to be at high alarm all the time.

Taking a deep breath, I pushed aside the anxiety that afflicted me each time he and I were in a room together. “It would surprise me if she did,” I admitted. Kelly wouldn’t leave without telling us why. Even if it was because of something someone did, she wouldn’t have a problem telling us. I had a feeling she wouldn’t mind telling a choice few to go to hell and which route they should take to get there. She was a mouthy malcontent with an altruistic agenda who didn’t mind violating pack rules to help someone. In the past she went against Ethan and Sebastian to help Chris when they had chosen to let her die rather than be changed into a vampire.

“Then tell Sebastian,” he said. Requests from most were-animals always came off like well-worded commands that you dared not ignore. “We all should be looking for her. She’s been missing for a while. I know she just wouldn’t leave but he doesn’t think so.”

“Gavin, it’s only been a couple of weeks.”

“Sixteen days,” he offered.

Gavin didn’t like most people; Kelly was one of the lucky ones who had gained favor with him. But as with anything Gavin, his affections were as dysfunctional and unusual as he was. An odd mélange of paramour and hater, psycho and nobleman, protector and stalker, and it was all Kelly’s. I was about to suggest that maybe his crazy brand of friendship was too much for her to handle and maybe she needed a break, but his overt concern restrained me.