Elemental Moon: The Eldritch Files, Book Three (10 page)

Or that's how it felt. I'd lost that battle in the shop when Prescott took Grey. And I was pretty sure I'd have lost it if I'd seen Circe taking Kyle and Jack.

Practical verses emotional? Was that it?

Dismissing the fireball I went back into the room and looked for my things. I did find my phone on a chest of drawers. It had maybe twenty percent charge on it but it might help me Google a few questions. My eyes felt hot when I closed them and my joints ached. I definitely had a fever. And I felt a weird anxiety knowing Bastien wasn't close by.

Nope. No signal. I always forgot Arden's houses were like that. No signal in or out. But then, electromagnetic fields and magic have never gotten along.

"Sam!"

The voice coming through the phone's speakers scared the crap out of me so I dropped it. Luckily it had a good case and it hit thick carpet. I stared down at it and realized I'd nearly jumped up on the bed.

"Hey, where did you go?"

That was Ivan's voice!

I knelt on the floor by the phone and looked at the screen. There was no picture so I held the microphone end to my mouth. "Can you hear me?"

"Wow…hell yes. It's good to hear you."

"How come I can't see you?"

"Because video will use more power and your phone's down to nearly nothing."

I stared at the phone. "How is it you're doing this?"

"Do you really want me to go into the Cyber physics?"

No. Just thinking about that made my head hurt. "Where are you?"

"I'm at the shop. Where are you? I've been trying to find somebody. I came in to open and found Grey shut up in your apartment, barking, and you know I don't speak dog—" I heard Grey
woof
. "Sorry. Wolf. But no one is answering their phone. And get this…Captain Prescott's been calling. I called her back and apparently Crwys and Levi were supposed to attend a briefing last night and didn't show. They're not answering either."

I wasn't sure where to start first. I was sure we didn't have enough power in my phone for me to tell him everything. "Hold on." I brought the phone with me as I got up and went to a window. I was pretty sure I was at Arden's home in the Garden District given the impromptu battle last night had happened in the same subdivision.

But what I saw outside weren't the streets of the Garden District.

I saw endless trees; many of them covered in Spanish moss. Cars littered a dirt parking lot below and to the left was an elegant garden with a working fountain.

"Sam?"

I put the phone back up to my lips. "Sorry. I had to check where I was."

"Where is that?"

"Gypsy Gardens." Arden's plantation in the swamp. How in the hell did I get out here?

The door to my room opened and Arden peeked in. She looked at the bed and then spotted me by the window. "The Alpha's back. I'd hoped you could get more sleep, but he's ready to fight and we don't want him running off on his own." She looked at the phone and smiled. "Tell your friend to come while you get a shower. We're going to need all the help we can get." She left the room.

"Ivan, can you get out here?"

"You sure you want me out there?"

"Yeah. It think given the circumstances it's not going to matter right now. And bring Grey. I need her."

"We'll be there in an hour."

I tossed the phone on the bed and looked out at the swamp for a few more minutes before I closed my eyes and thought of Crwys. I blew him a kiss before I turned and headed back to that luxurious bathroom.

B
astien looked
great for someone who just went several rounds with a monster. His red hair was pulled back in a ponytail and he wore a suit, which looked expensive, that was specifically tailored for his physique. I found him standing by the sliding glass doors looking out over a clover shaped pool. He had a mug in his left hand, a solemn expression on his handsome face. I could smell the chicory as I approached.

Either he heard me or smelled me, because he turned and stared at me as I approached. The stare was unnerving, especially under his golden gaze, so I stopped and looked down at myself. "What?"

"
Chérie
," he said and then cleared his throat.
"Trés belle."

I blushed. I hated that I blushed. But I continued my walk toward him, the heels of my boots clacking on the hardwood floor. "Thank you. This isn't what I'm used to wearing."

"You should wear it more often," Bastien set the mug down on a nearby side table and took my hand in his. His skin was warm, not as high a temperature as Crwys's always was, but it felt good. "Perhaps the detective wouldn't leave you alone so much." He leaned in to sniff and squeezed my hand. "The fever's started."

I took my hand back. "Yes." I felt torn at that moment. Every nerve in my body tingled standing this close to him. I had fantasy thoughts of doing naughty things and blushed from them.

"You and the cop are together?"

"I don't know."

"So, you're not a couple?"

There was hesitation in my voice. "I don't know. We dated just under a year ago. It was fast and furious and our magic…connected. But there's not been anything solid since."

"Then perhaps I have a chance?"

Awkward
. I didn't want to go down that rabbit hole so I clasped my hands behind me. "Will you give me the antidote?"

He hesitated. "
Chérie…
"

I knew in that one word he wasn't going to go back on his vow. He wouldn't free me from the bite until he had his people. "I see. And if she's already changed them? Transmogrified them into one of those monsters?"

"Then we're dealing with events beyond your control. I will not let you change."

That made me feel a little better. "So, why the suit?"

His face sobered and he looked out the window again. "We buried
mon frére
at dawn."

"Your brother? You found him?"

"
Chérie
, it was he who attacked last night."

I took a step back. "What?" I had very good memories of the thing that knocked me on my ass and then proceeded to slam me repeatedly into unmoving objects. And that wasn't a Lycan. Not from what I'd see of the Aces. "That's…that's not possible. How was that your brother?"

"Circe," Arden said as she joined us by the doors.

Her brows rose high on her forehead and her lips pulled to the left in a knowing smirk. "Mmm-
mmm!
I can pick clothes, can't I? Sam, if you'd wear things like this more often instead of keeping up with that dismal tough girl persona you've got going on, you'd grab a lot better men than Detective Holliard."

"I would agree," Bastien said.

And now we're heading into the weeds. "Ah…look, I obviously missed something while unconscious. Like getting out here into the swamp and that monster being your brother. You two care to fill me in?"

Arden put the back of her hand against my cheek, and then placed it on my forehead. "You still have a fever. This is no good. Let's go into my private parlor," Arden suggested and led us from the doors down the hall to a door on the other side of a bookshelf. From the other end of the hall this door wouldn't be visible. I wouldn't have known this room was there.

It was small, intimate, with a wood burning fireplace, two facing sofas, a coffee table and tea service as well as an antique roll-top desk to the right. The walls were painted soft blue and the furniture was more modern than the rest of the house. I sat on one sofa, Bastien sat beside me and Arden took the sofa facing us.

"The tea is English breakfast and it's hot. There's cream, milk, clotted cream, sugar, sugar substitute, honey, whatever you could possibly want. Samantha,
shugah
, there's some roast beef sandwiches under that dome. They're the best, and chips with it. You need to eat. Bastien's already cleaned out half of my kitchen," she smiled at him. "And charmed all the kitchen staff."

I fixed myself a cup of tea and dove into one of the sandwiches. She was right. Best thing I'd ever tasted. The beef was perfectly cooked, the cheese was asiago and the bun was toasted with butter. I nearly groaned aloud at the taste of the creamy horseradish sauce and mustard.

"Bastien, what happened? How did you three end up in Olivia Graham's house?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. I told Jack to stay in the car and I approached the door. The next thing I remembered was seeing the two detectives sitting in the front room. I was in a chair and we were drinking tea."

"Tea?" I made a face. "You don't remember Crwys or Levi coming in the door?"

"No. I awoke because I heard
mon frére
nearby. Crwys stood up and staggered to the window, he cursed in some language I've never heard and ran out the door. When I could stand without falling, I ran after him."

"Circe said she gave you her potion. I assume the same potion she used to create the two bodies we found."

"
Oui
. But how would that potion effect creatures such as us?" He winked. "It made me sick to my stomach and disengaged my mind."

It was an interesting way to say the potion knocked him out. I assumed whatever it was she'd given him wasn't the same as what she'd given his brother, or Bastien would be a monster as well. With Levi, I assumed his demon, Ashur, protected him from the potion's properties. So what prevented Crwys from changing?

Arden spoke. "I got Kyle's text and rounded up the coven, as many members as I knew who had had any kind of interaction with Circe. We got there just as Bastien's pack did, and having worked with the Aces in the past, my group and his corralled the spectres closer to you, especially once I saw what Kyle was about to do. I knew in order for it to work, they were all going to have to be within the sphere of his power, which normally isn't that large. But with your help, using magic you should not be able to use, the spectres were showing themselves."

"My pack and I were just shifting back when something came from behind the Magician's house. We all sensed it was one of us, but somehow changed. And Jack knew it was
mon frére
before I did. But he was changed,
chérie
, altered beyond anything I had ever seen. Like the bodies we saw in the morgue, but much, much larger."

I held a mug of tea in one hand and a half-eaten sandwich in the other. "What happened to him?"

"Circe happened to him," Arden said. "Apparently since her disappearance, she's been working on perfecting another potion like the one she used on her former husband's lover."

"Did she lose the original potion?"

"Who knows? It might have been something she mixed with inspiration. Whatever it was, it wasn't written down and she's been trying to make it work. She's been using Lycan blood, their pituitary glands, their brains, any part of them she can take to mix those potions."

"We've had many disappearances over the past two years," Bastien said. "But we never suspected this was happening to them. The night
mon frére
and Marilla ran off, thinking to help one of our kind—they had no idea what would happen to them. Why would anyone make a potion to change another into an animal?"

"She's crazy. But the potion didn't really work," I put the sandwich down. "We saw that in the morgue."

Arden poured herself a cup of tea. "She used one of her semi-successful experiments to reap what she needed from the body. The teeth and pituitary gland, which is why the face and throat were missing. A closer look would have shown the brain gone as well. She probably took the liver and other organs too."

I rubbed at my chin. "How do you know this?"

Bastian answered. "Because I saw it in
mon frére's
mind before I killed him."

Lady Darksome…I stared at him with complete understanding of his mood now. Of what happened after I passed out. "I'm so sorry, Bastien."

"
Non
. It was the right thing. He was in so much pain from what she did to him. She caught him and Marilla and forced the potion on him. You killed the first one, the one that mutilated the bodies and took what she needed.
Frére
attacked the two in the morgue because he sensed that magic again, the same magic we sensed before he was taken."

"Oh hell…that's why he used me as a chew toy."

"
Oui
. And when the detective tried to protect you, the two fought," Bastien sat forward. "He may be a puppy, but he's a brave one. He tried to save you."

I remembered that much. I needed to find out if Crwys was all right, I didn't think I had Levi's number. "I wish I knew how he was. Where he was."

"He was badly hurt. Miss Vervain told you the
homme mort
took the detective? I have no idea where they are," he nodded to Arden. "We have been trying to find him."

"I don't know. I don't even know where either of them live." I was shaking. I knew it was a combination of information overload, use of magic, injuries and lack of food. And full moon fever. Oy. I sipped my tea.

"So what does Crwys think of your bond with Bastien?"

And abruptly choked on the tea. That wasn't a question I expected Arden to ask. But it did make sense she would ask it because she saw the bite mark on my shoulder while I was unconscious and drooling in bed.

"The bond was necessary so
ma petite
could understand us," Bastien beamed.

I tried to hide in the cushions.

"Uh huh. You do know she's started the fever. You've got about ten hours before it's too late to give her the antidote."

My cup, tea and saucer ended up on the carpet. I grabbed the seat of the couch. "Ten hours? I thought I had longer than that," I looked at Bastien. "You said I had forty-eight hours!"

"It usually takes forty-eight hours for the venom to make the transformation. But once the fever starts, it's going to get harder for you to be up and moving," Arden glanced at Bastien. "He didn't tell you that, did he?"

"No."

Bastien held out his hands. "I thought we would have found them by now."

I was on my feet. "If I've only got ten hours, then we've got to find them. Now!"