Blood Moon (22 page)

She walked across the hall to the kitchen where Rowan was busy at work with her back to her. Darby walked over to her side and said, “How’s it going?”

“Good, I think.
 
I had a little trouble with the hematite at first. I used a different pestle and mortar and that seemed to solve the problem. Shouldn’t you be working with Devon?” Rowan said, glancing at her.
 

She smiled and said, “I am.”

Rowan stopped what she was doing and turned towards her sister.
 
“You mean you are a projection?”

“Yeah, try and touch me.”

Rowan slowly moved her hand towards Darby’s projection only to find that her hand moved right through her. “That is really cool.”

“Are the guys back from the store yet?” Darby asked.

“Yeah, they both went next door.
 
Blake had some work for the new contracting job he got and Dean, well, I think he just needed some time alone to deal with all of this. Pretty crappy, all this happening to Allison.”
 

“Yeah, I wonder what this will do to their relationship?”

“What do you mean?” Rowan asked.

“I had a conversation with Allison a couple of weeks ago.
 
She seemed pretty uncertain about having a long-term relationship with him. She had all these questions and worries about what their children would be. How would her family react? Did she really want to deal with all the werewolf stuff for the rest of her life?”

“Oh boy! What did you tell her?”

“I told her to talk to him, that maybe he had answers to at least some of the questions.
 
Maybe he knew a couple with the same set of circumstances where she could see for herself that life with a werewolf could work.”

“Good advice! Have they talked yet?”

“Don’t know, but if they haven’t, this is going to be another negative whether it really has anything to do with werewolves or not.”
 

“Yeah, I see your point. Maybe I should talk to him and see if…”

“This is something she has to do, or the relationship will never work.
 
Who knows, maybe they have already talked and things are fine, but either way, it’s not our place to interfere.”

“You have learned a lot from Devon, haven’t you?”

“Yeah, he’s pretty wonderful.” She smiled from ear to ear. “So do you think this will work against the sisters tonight?”
 

“I think so, especially in the dark.”

“Why in the dark?”

“Because when I watch you, you seem to waver in your solidity, but in the dark I don’t think anyone would notice.
 
I’m sure that with practice you wouldn’t do that, but we don’t have time for that.”
 

“Yeah.
 
I don’t really want to be lying in the graveyard at night either. I wonder how relaxing that will be?”

“We’ll figure something out.
 
Go talk to Blake.
 
He’s the mind master. Maybe he can give you some ideas on how to hold your solidity a little better. Plus, it will freak him out,” Rowan said laughing.

“Okay.
 
I guess I should see how far I can go, right?”

“My sister the ghost witch,” Rowan said as Darby started for the back door and forgot again that she couldn’t grasp the doorknob.
 
“We’re quite the pair of witches. You look like a ghost and I’m a werewolf.
 
What would Mom and Dad think of us? And to top it off, we’re dating vampires, no less.
 
Mom’s probably turning in her grave.”

Darby grimaced at that thought and went through the door. Not only had she thought about her mother turning in her grave, but she’d also thought about the possible graves of another thirteen women.
 
It sickened her to think that someone would do such a thing. Now, she was fighting for Allison’s life.
 
None of it seemed possible.
 
She wished she could just wake up and find it all to be a dream.
   

She headed next door to Blake and Devon’s and went through the fence and the back door.
 
She walked up the hallway to Blake’s room.
 
Thank God his door was open; it would be a little hard for her to look solid coming through the door. She stood at the doorway and looked at Blake typing a mile a minute on his computer, concentrating hard. In order not to make him jump, she cleared her throat to get his attention.

Blake glanced up for a second, smiling.
 

“Hey, Darby, what’s up?” He turned back to the computer.

“I was just wondering if you could give me any tips on holding my projection solidity?”

“Your what…” he started as he turned towards her again and then it hit him, she was a projection. He stood up and walked over to her.
 
“Very cool, Darby.
 
Your family must have been very, very powerful once for you and your sister to be so natural at this.
 
You make this stuff seem so easy.
 
Solidity.
 
Hmmm.”

“Rowan said that being in the dark they may not notice that my projection wavers, but maybe you had some suggestions.”

“Yeah, I do.
 
I’m guessing that your projection causes some kind of weird sensation to your actual skin.
 
Like it senses part of you missing, am I right?”

“Yes, there is a tingling.”
 

“I think if you focus on that tingling, to make it more stable, you will stabilize the solidity of your projections.
 
Try to make the tingling more permanent, like the feel of a sweater being on and always touching your skin.
 
The more all over tingling you feel, I think the more solid you will become.
 
Does that make sense?”

“Yes, okay, I think I can do that.”
 

“Pretty amazing though, first time and all.”
 

“You think this will work?”

“With my brother to back you? Definitely.”

“I feel weird doing this without Rowan and you.
 
Especially you.”

“Why me?”

“Because the last time we were all in trouble it was you and I that did the rough stuff. Well, mostly you.”

“Trust me, my brother is stronger than I am and he can be very scary.
 
He’ll defend you to his death and I hate to admit it, but he looks better doing it.”
 

“I wish I could hug you right now, you giant string bean.”
 

“Hey now, none of that.
 
We don’t want everybody calling me that.
 
I have a reputation to uphold as a ‘bad ass’ vampire, not a giant string bean.
 
That’s just embarrassing.”

“All right! Wouldn’t want to ruin your reputation.
 
It’s bad enough you leave bug bites all over town.”

“I told my brother he shouldn’t tell you our trade secrets.
 
We do that because we like it here and we don’t want to hurt anyone. Besides, you won’t be seeing that anymore as Devon and I have taken up Uncle Dominic’s way of sustaining ourselves, from a baggy of blood. Per your request, remember?”
 

“Yeah, you sound like a real bad-ass vampire to me, with your baggy of blood.
 
Do you drink it from a sippy cup? Or a curly straw?”

“Don’t start with me – Ghost witch!”

She laughed as she left the house and went back to her waiting handsome vampire and, oh yeah, her body too.

She laid back down into her body and opened her eyes to see Devon smiling at her and stroking her hair.
 
“Hi, Love.
 
Do you remember anything?”

“I do, I remember everything.
 
So you think this could work?”

“I do,” he said.

“I’m not looking forward to trying to relax in a graveyard though.”
 

“You won’t have to.”

“I won’t?”

“No.
 
We’ll take the SUV and put down the back seats so you can lie down.
 
We’ll park far enough away for them not to see the truck, but close enough for us to be there when things get lively. I’ll carry you and we can be there in a flash.”

“So will you go all vamp?
 
I’ve never seen you with your fangs, being all scary.”

“If I have to. That won’t scare you, will it?”

“No, just the opposite.
 
I saw your brother do it.
 
I thought it was amazing.
 
A bit scary, when he set his eyes on me, but amazing, nonetheless. I’m looking forward to seeing you in action.
 
Your brother says you are quite the sight AND he hates to admit it, but you look good doing it.”

“Don’t believe everything Blake says, he’s full of it.”

“I beg to differ.
 
I find you pretty amazing myself.”

“I think you’re a little biased.
 
Besides, you’ve never seen me doing anything.
 
I’m a little nervous about that. I don’t want you to be afraid of me, ever.”

“I’m not afraid of you. You wouldn’t hurt me.”

“Well, if a vampire does feed on a human out of anger, it can be hard to stop. Like what you saw happen to Blake, it can be dangerous for you to be around.”
 

“You wouldn’t hurt me.”

“You can’t be sure of that. I certainly wouldn’t do it on purpose, but it’s a primal instinct and can be very hard to control. It feels wonderful, which is why humans who are turned are so crazed.
 
I don’t condone it, but I can understand it. I too have felt the urge and once came very close to doing the unthinkable. Blake now knows this feeling and he has gone so far as to kill with Paine.
 
He now respects the anger and emotion.”

“What happened? Did somebody hurt you? Break your heart?” Her hand came up to stroke his face and he practically jumped out of bed.

“I don’t like to talk about it,” he said and with that he left the room.

Shocked by his display of emotion, she followed him to the living room where he was standing in front of the big plate glass window gazing out at the street, but not really looking at anything.
 
His arms were folded across his chest and from behind this made his back look even broader.
 
She silently came up behind him, wrapping her arms around him and holding him tight.
 
She didn’t say a word, not even with her mind, she just held him tight.
 
After a minute his coldness melted and he turned around, sweeping her feet off the ground, and carried her to the couch, cradling her in his arms.

“I love you, Darby, I’m just not ready to talk about that yet.”

“I didn’t ask you to, but I’m here when you want me.”

“I always want you,” he smiled deviously.

“As do I, Devon, as do I.” She kissed him passionately as he collapsed into the couch with her in his lap.

He pulled away and said, “But I want you to understand.”

“I don’t want to talk about it right now,” she said coyly. “Besides we have more pressing matters, like what is the plan for tonight?”

“Well, I figure we get there kind of early, maybe 10-10:30 because I seriously doubt they are going to get there very early.”

“Okay. So we hang out in the truck hidden from the road.
 
Close enough to get there quickly, but far enough that they don’t see the truck.”

“Yes, then about 11:30 we get you into relaxed mode and get the astral projection going.
 
Then your projection goes for a walk to the mausoleum.
 
When you meet up with them they are going to want to know that you have the spell with you.
 
Pull it out of your pocket and show it to them; it will project too. But you insist on seeing Allison first, so that we know where she is.”

“Okay, then what?”

“My guess is they’ll throw some nasty magic at your projection and you’ll vanish and wake up in the car.
 
That’s my cue to get you back there quick.
 
They won’t know you astral projected, they’ll just think you magically dodged their bullet.
 
We magically show up where you were standing. If they get nasty, I’ll go vamp on them and at least injure them enough to get you, me, and Allison out of there. What I’m hoping is that seeing your disappearing act will scare them into thinking you’re a lot more powerful than they had first thought and they will instead do the trade peacefully. That way we all walk away unharmed and able to fight another day.”

“So what do we do in the car for two hours?”

“I don’t know? Entertain ourselves, I suppose.”

“Hmmm,” Darby said and giggled.

Chapter 21

Darby and Devon sat everyone down and let them know what the plan was.
 
It was killing Dean not to be involved with the exchange, but they told him that they would need him soon enough.
 
When they were done, Darby pulled out a piece of leather cord with a wood heart attached to it.