Shadow of the Moon (16 page)

NINETEEN

The Dark Guardians closed their circle around me. The hounds bared their teeth, red saliva dripping from the sharp points. They crouched low, circling around us. I was on all fours, breathing heavily. I could feel the shift coming. My blood was rushing between my ears.

The harvester patiently waited. It was a hideous creature, at least seven feet tall. And broad. Although it wasn’t yet fully formed. It was like a mist. Form but no substance. I knew it would become solid when the time came. Those long, taloned fingers would reach out to me, would touch me, would suck out my soul.

Its snarling minions, however, were another story. They were solid masses, their red eyes gleaming.

Pain shot through me. I released a tiny cry. Kayla was the first to lose her concentration. No surprise. She hadn’t been raised among us. She jerked her attention to me—her fear for me blasting into me, weakening me further.

“Destroy them!” The harvester’s deep-throated voice echoed around us, shook snow from the trees.

The hounds sprang. The Guardians fought to ward them off, stepping out, swinging their swords.

Connor was the first to make contact. The dog yelped as a gash opened across its chest, but before blood had even begun to spill out, the wound closed.

“Crap!” Connor muttered, setting his feet apart, balancing himself. “They heal.”

“They’re not Shifters,” I said, panting, fighting to stave off the transformation. “They’re immune to the effects of silver.”

Gaps opened between the guardians as the hounds lured them out, nipping at them, springing at them.

A hideous scream rent through the night air. Seth!

I swung around just as his fears and horror blasted into me. Two hounds were tearing at him. His resignation encompassed me. If he didn’t shift, he couldn’t heal. If he shifted, the harvester would take his soul.

Lucas and Rafe fought their way to his side. Rafe managed to thrust his sword through the heart of one of the hounds. It turned to ash.

The Guardians had split up. Half trying to protect me, the others circling Seth now that they’d chased the hounds away from him. Seth lay there, struggling to get up, desperate to rejoin the fight, but he was too weak, the blood gushing from his wounds.

He sank back to the cold snow, his gaze glazing over. His emotions swirled through me: regret, sorrow. Finally love. There was someone he loved; he’d be leaving her.

“No!”

I knew what it was to give up the one you loved more than anything. It was enough that one of us had already done it. Besides, with my ability to feel emotions, maybe my soul could overwhelm the harvester with feelings and destroy it. It seemed unlikely, but I intended to continue fighting it through eternity.

“Take me!” I yelled. “Take only me!”

I forced myself to my feet, staggered forward a few steps. Raising my arms to the sky, I called on the moon, stopped fighting the transformation, let the pain ripple through me—

The harvester solidified. Even more terrifying, its face was a mask of pain and torment. My body shimmered with the beginning of the transformation—

It reached out with those long knifelike talons—

A black streak erupted from the forest and hit the harvester with enough force to knock it down.

Daniel!

The weight of his body held the creature down. I watched in horror as it scraped its talons along Daniel’s sides, creating rivulets of blood. Daniel buried his teeth into its throat, but still it fought. It bucked, yelled, and sliced into Daniel. I knew Daniel’s mouth would be blistering from the heat of the creature, I knew the pain he was suffering had to be unbearable, but he refused to relinquish his hold.

Looking around frantically, I spotted Seth’s sword, half buried in the snow. I lurched over to it and pulled it free.

Fighting my own pain, my own need to shift, while the others kept the hounds occupied, I lumbered over to where Daniel battled the harvester. I couldn’t get to its heart from the top because Daniel was sprawled over it, striving to keep his hold on its neck. I knelt. When the harvester lifted its arm to slash at Daniel once again, I pierced its side with the sword, driving it all the way through to its heart.

A piercing cry echoed around us.

Suddenly I was swamped with emotions dancing around me, through me, quickly darting in and leaving as though I provided a passage. Love, gratitude, relief. And I realized I was feeling what remained of all the souls the beast had harvested. With its death they were released from bondage.

A thousand souls, trapped in oblivion, providing energy to a creature that didn’t deserve to exist.

I felt love so strong, so purposeful—and for the first time in my life I knew who the emotions were directed to. Daniel. These were the souls of his family, reaching out one last time. I absorbed the feeling, hoping he sensed it. If not, I’d share it with him later.

And then there was Justin. Not blaming me for realizing too late the trouble he was in. He was free now. His soul was at peace. At last.

Abruptly…nothingness. The souls were all gone. The emotions with them.

The harvester shrieked again, then dissolved into ash. The ash was captured on the wind and blown into oblivion. With his destruction the hounds disappeared.

Utterly exhausted, I collapsed and crawled to Daniel, tenderly touching his wounds, which were beginning to heal. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. Even though I can’t feel your emotions, I know you. I knew you’d shift. Then it would have you, too. I couldn’t bear the thought—”

Purring low in his throat, he licked my cheek.

I was aware of a shimmering in the air and glanced back to see that Seth had shifted. His wounds would heal, and whoever it was he loved—he’d return to her.

Maybe it was because Connor loved a half human/ half Shifter, loved someone who didn’t shift into wolf form, that he knew what to do. He brought the quilt over and draped it over Daniel.

In the blink of an eye I was staring at Daniel’s beloved face. I touched his cheek. “You should have waited to shift until you’d completely healed.”

“I’ll shift back soon.”

“Daniel.” My throat clogged; tears welled in my eyes. “How did you escape?”

“Did you think a locked door was going to hold me? I shifted and used the strength I have in panther form to beat down the door.”

“You risked death by shifting.” I couldn’t prevent harsh scolding from creeping into my voice.

“I figured the harvester was occupied with you.”

“But what if there had been more than one? What if—”

He touched my lips. “It’s over, Hayden.”

But I couldn’t let go of what he’d risked. “I love you.”

He grinned, the smile that had first made my knees grow weak. “I know. Good thing, too.” He nuzzled my neck. “Because I can find you anywhere.”

I was vaguely aware that we were now alone. The Dark Guardians had left, quietly retreated. And I realized that my feelings for Daniel were so strong that there had been no room for their emotions to slip inside me. Or maybe I was becoming better at blocking what I didn’t want to experience.

Then pain rippled through me. My limbs, my entire body, went numb before the nerves burst with sharp tingles. I gasped.

Daniel cradled my face between his large hands. “Hayden, do you accept me as your mate?”

“With all my heart.”

He drew me close. “Concentrate on me.”

His lips touched mine, hungrily, as if for the first time. Then they settled into the familiar. My body began to feel strange; I felt little undulations, as though it were preparing.

I focused on Daniel, on the feel of his arms around me, the taste of his kiss, the heat of his skin.

His emotions didn’t slip inside me, but I still knew what he was feeling. He loved me. He didn’t want me to suffer. He would do anything—and everything—to protect me.

I heard his purr of satisfaction, low in his throat. In animal form we’d make different sounds; we’d look different. But deep down we’d be the same.

The pain escalated, then receded as he glided his hands over me and deepened the kiss. Passion ignited within me, drowning out everything else. Between one heartbeat and the next a thousand stars erupted within me, moonlight flowed over and through me.

When I opened my eyes, I was staring at a panther, knowing that he was staring at a wolf.

Hayden?

I’d been so afraid that, because I couldn’t feel his emotions, I wouldn’t be able to hear his thoughts. But they were there, whispering to me.

You’re beautiful in wolf form.

I nuzzled his snout.

Are you disappointed I’m not a wolf?
he asked.

Silly. Do you wish I was a panther?

I love you just the way you are.

The warmth swirled through me with his words, my heart beat harder. Even though I knew how he felt, there was satisfaction and joy in hearing the words.

I could see what remained of the wounds in his side, the long scrapes, healing quickly. The wolf in me scented them, then licked gingerly. Blood scent.

Now I’ll find you anywhere, too
, I thought.

The wounds healed, leaving no scars, no evidence that they’d ever been. It was our gift, our ability to heal.

What now?
he asked.

I glanced at the vast white landscape spread out before us.
I don’t think I can run as fast as you
, I confessed.

I can adjust my stride.

I raced off, my paws kicking up snow. Daniel loped easily alongside me. No, I’d never outrun him, never escape him.

But the truth was I no longer wanted to.

TWENTY

We raced through the forest until we reached the cavern where he’d brought me the night before. As I stepped inside, my eyes adjusted to the darkness. I could see with the vision of a wolf, could see through the darkness.

What I saw surprised me.

My backpack. I wondered when he’d brought it. Sometime in the afternoon, when I was with Kayla, Lindsey, and Brittany, maybe.

I glanced back at him.

You guessed right.

You can read my thoughts even when they’re not directed at you? Why can’t I read yours?

Because I’ve learned how to hold them back. I’ll teach you. So I’ll know only what you want me to know.

Maybe that skill will help me hold the emotions back, too.

I could hope.

I prowled through the cavern to the area in the back where the pool was. My clothes were set on a boulder, waiting for me in human form.

You can shift in here
, Daniel thought.
I’ll shift in there.

Okay. To shift, do I just think human?

Just think human.

When he was no longer visible, I closed my eyes, concentrated, felt a ripple pass through me. I opened my eyes. I was back in human form. Quickly I slipped on my jeans, my sweater, and my boots. When I walked into the front of the cavern, Daniel was standing at the entrance to the cave, staring out. Large battery-operated flashlights lit the darkness.

I took my time to study him leisurely: the broad slope of his shoulders, the length of his back. His hands were shoved into the back pockets of his jeans.

I’d almost lost this, lost him because of my fears. But it was also my fear of losing him that had given me strength to fight off my own transformation and reach down to destroy the harvester. Before Daniel I might not have fought so hard. I wouldn’t have given up quietly, but neither did I have as much to lose.

I crossed over to him, slid beneath his arm. There was comfort here, familiarity.

“You’re right,” he said quietly. “I brought the harvester here.”

“No, you didn’t.”

He looked down at me, his eyes questioning, wanting to believe my words.

“You’ve been here since the summer. If it had followed you, it would have shown up sooner,” I said.

“I want to believe that.”

“I do believe it. We don’t know everything about the harvester. It’s not as if it’s been on
Oprah
. We don’t know why it was dormant for centuries. We don’t know why it made its appearance now. I do know it was the one that killed your parents. I felt their souls. They love you so much.”

Tears welled in his eyes and he blinked them back. “Are they at peace?”

“They are now, yes.”

“I don’t know how it found my family. I don’t know how many more of my kind it might have killed. Like I told you, we’re not like the wolves. We don’t stay in packs.” He looked down at me. “I’d like to go in search of the others. Let them know about this place. We’re loners, you and I, but we belong together.” He touched my cheek. “But I won’t go if you want to stay here. And if the elders will let me stay. You mean more to me than anything.”

Before I could respond or give him an answer, he took me in his arms and kissed me. I thought I’d never have this again. Now here it was.

He was willing to give up what he wanted to do because he wanted me more. But I cared enough about him to be willing not to let him give up what he wanted to do.

I’d often felt love—coming from others, directed toward others. The love of a parent for a child, a friend for a friend, and with Connor, the love of a lover for a lover. In all cases love was a strong emotion, not easily contained once it was unleashed. I realized now that love was like a blossoming flower that continually added more and more petals. But there was no end point. There was no full bloom. It went on forever. Growing, strengthening.

I hadn’t known Daniel long, but I knew in my heart that he was my true mate.

When he drew back, he touched my cheek, just as he had that afternoon behind the chocolate shop. His touch was warm, his eyes sincere. I didn’t have to feel his emotions to know their depth.

“I love you, Hayden,” he said.

I went back into his arms, pressed my face to his chest, heard the thundering of his heart. “I love you, too.”

He took my hand and led me outside. We sat on a snow-covered boulder and watched as the moon began its descent. I thought I should have felt cold, but with Daniel’s arm around me, I was warm. Happy. Madly in love.