Blood Moon (14 page)

Rachel got to Darby’s house and all was quiet.
 
The light was on in the bedroom, but that just made it that much easier to get around in an unfamiliar house.
 
She very quietly went around to the backyard.
 
When she came to the back door it was locked so she whispered a tiny chant and the door unlocked. She opened it quietly, listening for any sounds of movement.
 
She didn’t hear any and continued into what appeared to be the kitchen.

A bedroom was directly across the hall from the kitchen and the light was on in it, but there was no sound.
 
From where she was standing in the kitchen she could see a large, rather old looking leather book sitting on top of a dresser in the bedroom on the right wall just before a door, which was probably a bathroom. She couldn’t see the bed or her sleeping victim as she figured the bed was to the left, and the spell had never failed her before. She was so sure of herself and so focused on the book that she never even looked to the left after entering the room to see if Darby was asleep.
 
She was halfway in the room and about two feet away from the book when she heard a man’s voice behind her.
 

“What are you doing here?”

She spun around, her long hair whipping her in the face as she laid her surprised green eyes on the gorgeous man who had come to pick up Darby the day she destroyed her car. He was now in a protective panther stance, staring at her, waiting for her next move.
 
She raised her hand in a waving gesture that threw a blast of energy towards him.
 
It was enough to make him stand straight up and take a half step back, but nothing more.
 
Seeing her reaction, he knew that she was not seeing the results she normally saw from this maneuver and a spark of fear showed in her eyes.
 
He jumped up, clearing the bed and came at her fast, grabbing her neck and pinning her to the wall.
 
She tried to spin out of it and swung one leg low trying to knock his feet out from under him, but when she hit them, his legs were like tree stumps. Now panicked, her brow furrowed in concentration, she brought both hands up this time and threw a much larger force at him.
 
This had obviously taken a lot more effort for her. This time, though, it did knock him back further, throwing him off balance.
 
As he fell back from her, the hand that was gripping her neck now ripped at a necklace that had been under his hand.

She took advantage of knocking Devon off balance and she took off out the back door very fast, but not vampire fast. She was about to round the house as Devon got to the back door; she seemed to be saying something softly to herself. As she went around the corner, his sight of her was obstructed for half a second. In that half a second it took for him to turn the same corner, she had vanished.
 
He could hear her at first, finishing whatever she had been saying, but it was faint as if she knew he was a vampire and she was doing her best to hide the sound along with herself.
 
He tried to sniff her out, but she was concealing that too.
 
She had obviously come across vampires or werewolves in her travels because she knew just what to do to hide. When he realized he was not going to find her with his senses, he turned on his heels and went back into the house.
 

While he walked back he looked at the necklace he still had tight in his fist.
 
It looked like some kind of family crest.
 
He’d never seen it before, but maybe Darby had. He locked up the house again and went back in the bedroom to find Harry and Darby hadn’t moved one inch in all the commotion.
 
He tried to rouse Darby and she did wake up but she was very drowsy and fell right back to sleep.
 
He figured the woman must have been the same woman who had put that spell on his brother, and now had put some kind of sleeping spell on Darby and Harry.
 
The spell must have been meant for the whole household; that would explain why she had been so surprised to see him.
 
He must have walked in the house after the spell had been cast and therefore it didn’t affect him. That too, must have been why she walked into the bedroom without even looking at the bed to see if anyone was there; she was sure that whoever was there was fast asleep.
 
But what was she after?
 

He thought for a moment, looking around the room.
 
He remembered when she came into the bedroom she seemed to be focused on something, something in or on the dresser. That’s when it hit him. She was after the book.
 
Hadn’t Darby told him a story about a family she had read about in a diary, who had something taken away from them by Darby’s family to protect the town?

Well he certainly wasn’t going to get any information out of Darby tonight.
 
He grabbed the book and took it next door and put it in the wall safe in which he and his brother stashed emergency cash.
 
He doubted the woman would be back tonight, but if she did return, at least the book wouldn’t be right where she’d left it.
 
He’d fill Darby in on the events of the evening in the morning. He checked the doors again, not that locking them had prevented the woman from entering, but he did it anyways.
 
Maybe Darby could set up some kind of ward that would not allow the tampering of the lock by magical means. He headed back to the bedroom and lay there for a long time before he fell asleep.
 
The adrenaline of the event made it hard to relax, but eventually he did.

Chapter 13

Hayley Jones was renting a summer cottage in Ben Lomond while she worked on her thesis.
 
She thought if she could get away from home and focus just on her thesis surrounded by the lovely ancient redwoods, that she could get her paper at least almost complete before the fall.
 

She worked all day in the tiny two-room cottage on her computer and walked in the redwoods along a creek near the cottage that she loved to frequent in the evening.

Feeling pretty pleased with herself after getting quite a few pages completed on her paper, she decided it was break time.
 
Time to go take her walk along the creek.
 
It was a little darker out than when she usually walked, but she had been there a million times now and felt confident. She got to her favorite spot and sat on the same mossy wood log she always sat on near a gigantic boulder that stood taller than her.
 
She sat and watched the beautiful clear water trickle down the creek carrying little leaves here and there, when something came up behind her and everything went black.

Darby woke up with Harry on her chest.
 
To her surprise, Devon was in bed asleep.
 
What a treat
.
 
She hadn’t expected him home until this morning.
 
She certainly didn’t hear him come in the night before.
 
She must be getting so comfortable with him being around that she slept too soundly these days knowing he was always there to protect her.

She snuck out of bed and fed Harry, then crawled back into bed next to her sleeping vampire prince. She started kissing his neck with tiny, soft kisses working her way to his chin, then down over his Adam’s apple and on to his broad chest.
 
He didn’t open his eyes, but he did smile and moan, telling her he was awake.
 
In absolutely no effort, he rolled her on top of him and started kissing her neck as her long hair tickled his chest and face.

“Good morning, Sweetheart! What a lovely surprise to find you home when I woke up.”

“The pleasure is always mine,” he said.

“I didn’t even hear you come in last night.”

“I’m afraid you wouldn’t have heard a freight train get into bed with you last night.”

“Should I be insulted?”

“No, but you should be worried.”

“Why?”

“You were under some kind of sleep spell, you and Harry.”

“Really, why do you say that?”

“Because a woman came into the house last night; I think she was looking for the book and we had a bit of a tussle, right here in the bedroom,” he said. “Her magic was strong enough to throw me back a bit and knock me off balance. I’m pretty sure she’s dealt with vampires before, although I don’t think she knew I was one at first.”

“Really! Why?”
 

“She knew how to cloak her scent, sound, and shape from me.
 
That’s how she got away. I did manage to get this off of her.” He turned to his nightstand and grabbed the broken necklace with the crest on it and showed it to Darby.

“That looks like a family crest,” she said.
 

“That’s what I thought.
 
Have you ever seen it before?”

“I don’t know, but it does look familiar for some reason. Did you recognize her?”
 

“I did.
 
I’m pretty sure it was the woman who hit your car at the bookstore.”
 

“Cheral Oktane? Are you sure?”

“Pretty sure.”

“What would she want with our Book of Shadows?”
 

“Maybe she’s related to the Keatons. I don’t know, but she definitely was using some powerful magic.
 
Do you think that you can set some kind of ward on the locks of the doors?
 
She seemed to have no trouble getting in and casting a spell on the house.”

“I don’t know, but I can look into it. How come you weren’t affected?”

“I think I showed up after she cast the spell.
 
She certainly was very surprised to see me, especially awake.”

“Did she get the book?”

“No, I put it in the safe next door. I just feel so stupid. I heard her come in, but I had assumed maybe it was Rowan coming home. By the way, when are Rowan and the others coming back?”

“Today or tomorrow, I think. Why?”

“I still haven’t had a chance to ask Allison something.”

“What?”

“The night she met Dean, she had a friend with her.
 
I could have sworn that she said her name was Allys, but Blake told us her name was Sally – the same Sally he took off with for three days. The woman I thought was Allys also told me that her sister was Cheral. So if she is Sally not Allys, then maybe Cheral isn’t really Cheral?”

“Are you speaking Chinese to me? I don’t get what you’re saying.”

“I’m saying if one sister is lying about who she is, then maybe the other sister is too. Maybe they are using fake names for some reason.”

“Oh! Good point. I’ve been wanting to show Rowan the page in the Book of Shadows that is heat sensitive, but haven’t had an opportunity yet. It is where the evil Keaton witch spell is hidden. If you apply heat to the page, the red ink shows.”