Indigo Moon

The road trip from Hell is paved with good intentions.

Hope Glassy and Godfrey Meyers are on a mercy mission. Their friend Isabelle has been attacked by a rogue werewolf and is in the throes of lycanthropic fever. With their respective partners out of town all Hope and Godfrey can do is get Isabelle to the safety of Little Dip and the Garoul clan before her sire comes to claim her.

In a desperate race against time, with the hounds of hell snapping at their heels, can they save her—and does Isabelle want to be saved?

Third in the Garoul Series.

Indigo Moon

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Indigo Moon

© 2011 By Gill McKnight. All Rights Reserved.

ISBN 13: 978-1-60282-501-7

This Electronic Book is published by

Bold Strokes Books, Inc.

P.O. Box 249

Valley Falls, New York 12185

First Edition: February 2011

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission.

Credits

Editors: Cindy Cresap and Stacia Seaman

Production Design: Stacia Seaman

Cover Design By Sheri ([email protected])

Falling Star

Green Eyed Monster

Erosistible

Goldenseal

Ambereye

Indigo Moon

For B.

Love Mum.

The first one sprinted from her right-hand side and bolted before the car. Isabelle braked and watched it cross the road. It was a magnificent beast. She counted nine, maybe ten points on its antlers.

“Oh. So beautiful,” she breathed, enchanted. Then she noticed its fear and alarm. Another whitetail, this one a doe, shot out of the tree line, eyes rolling with fright. They ran alongside the high banks of plowed snow at the roadside, confused by the man-made barrier. The larger animal lunged at the steep bank and began an ungainly scrabble over it. The doe followed, pushing and straining with powerful hind legs until it topped the bank and disappeared into the forest on the far side. Isabelle watched the snow fill their tracks long after they had gone.
Poor things were spooked by the car.

“Damn” She scolded herself for not remembering to grab her camera. It was rare for a city dweller to get this close to such beautiful creatures. It would be some time before a photo opportunity like that came her way again. She tsked in self-reproach and put the Toyota into gear. The car rolled forward just as a third deer darted out of the trees. Isabelle slammed on the brakes, thrilled at her unbelievable luck. Three in a row! This time she reached for her camera, then hesitated. The buck was limping badly. It was smaller than the other two and even more frightened. It stumbled before her car looking lost and confused. It hobbled over to the snow bank, following its companions. Isabelle saw the dark patch on its flank drip scarlet onto the snow. It was bleeding. A gash ran across its rump deep into the hind leg. It limped to the escape route opened up by the others, and with an exhausted leap tried to climb. The incline was too steep and it slipped and slithered back onto the roadside. It had no strength left. It tried a second time and failed. Tired and defeated, it stood trembling, trapped by the wall of snow, unwilling to return the way it had come.

Isabelle grasped for the handle but didn’t open the car door. What could she do? She was in the middle of nowhere with a wounded wild animal. Should she even approach it? What if it—

She jumped in her seat at the loud crash. Her car rocked violently from side to side and the roof crunched and buckled over her head. She cried out in fright, but the cry died in her throat as something springboarded from the roof of her car onto the injured deer, dragging it to the ground. It was a massive beast, red-furred and ferocious. It ripped into the deer’s gaping wound with huge, curled claws. The whitetail exploded, shredded in seconds. Flayed limbs, strips of hide, a severed head, flew off in every direction. The snow became a churning cauldron of crimson. The beast reared upright onto its hind legs; squat and awkward, it flung back its heavy head and howled an unearthly, wavering cry. A howl filled with bloodcurdling triumph and defiance. Then it fell back on the deer’s bloody carcass and gorged on the steaming entrails.

Isabelle was horrified. She gripped the door handle white-knuckled, her other hand squeezing the steering wheel, and sat frozen in disbelief. In less than a millisecond a…a…a rabid bear had just…had just wrecked her car and…
Oh God, that poor deer.

A growl rumbled long, low, and very threatening beside her ear. Slowly, she turned her head to meet cold, yellow eyes, filled with sly intelligence. A second creature crouched by her car watching her. It pinned her with a look of calculated malice as it weighed up her strengths and many, many weaknesses. Isabelle’s heart thumped in her throat until she almost choked. Ice water pumped through her veins and numbed her brain, her thoughts froze, her limbs turned into heavy, useless stumps. She couldn’t move, couldn’t think; she couldn’t even blink. The twisted leathery face was inches from hers with only a sheet of glass between them. Thin black lips curled back in a leer, revealing rows of long, pointed teeth. For an elastic moment they regarded each other, unmoving, unblinking, frozen—then the moment snapped.

Fangs flashed against the window, saliva lathered the glass. Isabelle jerked out of her stupor and screamed. She slammed her foot on the accelerator. This was no bear. This was a monster. A monster from budget horror movies and mass-market paperbacks; a monster from her childhood nightmares. The Toyota lurched, tires spinning. The monster flung out a huge clawed hand and shattered the side window, showering her in shards of glass. Her cheek stung with a dozen little abrasions. The side-view mirror was ripped from the door. Isabelle screamed again, scrabbled to release her handbrake, and kept her foot pressed full on the gas. The tires bit and the car shot forward, its back end fishtailing wildly. She had no control over the steering and no care other than fleeing.

The Toyota flew forward in a clean line and rammed straight into the red-furred beast still crouched over its meal. With a sickening thud the beast bowled off the windshield and onto the roadside, a blur of wet, matted fur and blood. The impact slowed her and she nearly stalled. From the corner of her eye she saw the stricken beast writhing in agony. It bellowed with pain and the forest around her reverberated with a multitude of answering howls. Isabelle’s ears burned with the eerie chorus. These two were not alone; there were more creatures out there. She gunned the Toyota harder as it zigzagged across the road.

A third creature hurtled from the tree line and flung itself onto the hood of her car. It crashed onto the windshield. The glass cracked but held. Her speed bounced the creature back off before it could gain any leverage. It fell back onto the road, only just missing her wheels. Through the crazed glass she saw another beast crouched farther along ready to spring at her car. Another crept out of the trees to join it. They were everywhere! Preparing to pounce. Everywhere!

Isabelle’s mind blanked out with terror. She swung on the steering wheel, trying to swerve past the first ambush. A loud bang and her car rocked sideways. One of them was on the roof! Through her broken windshield she could see two more racing toward her. She was surrounded. Like lions hunting a wildebeest, they had surrounded her and were dragging her down by sheer numbers.

She spun the wheel hard right. The next one to reach her would break through the weakened windshield. She swerved to avoid the creatures coming straight for her, and swung the car from side to side hoping to dislodge the one on the roof. It clung on, roaring in anger. They kept coming until they were right on top of her. The first one leapt. She closed her eyes and hit the gas. There was a splintering crash. The windshield popped, showering her with cubes of glass. Isabelle opened her eyes. This one had hung on. It was less than two feet from her, huge and black, and its breath stank. It bared its teeth in a victorious leer. She was caught. The chase was over.

Isabelle screamed and jerked the wheel to the left. The Toyota cannoned onto the snowbank and rode up the incline at full speed. It flipped over the top and with a perfect pirouette landed upside down in a trench on the other side.

*

She was curled in a tight ball, squashed in a corner of her mangled car. The air bag had deployed, but she had somehow slipped out from the seat belt that dangled above her. Had she lost consciousness? How much time passed? Snow and vegetation pushed through the shattered windshield, and she was covered in freezing muck. The air was heavy with the sickly odor of gasoline. She began to shake with pain and shock.

Isabelle twitched her fingers and toes; everything moved as it should. Her shoes were lost and her feet bare. Bizarrely, that upset her more than the possibility of broken bones. She stretched and straightened her limbs as far as the cramped space would allow. All movement was torturous and exhausted her. She was wet through and probably in the first stages of hypothermia. Blood was everywhere; its copper stickiness coated her face and clung to her clothes and hands. She didn’t know where it was coming from. The car lay upside down and the world around her was broken and disoriented. It was quiet, very quiet, as if the crash had stunned the forest into silence.

Then they came.

Muted growls and snarls surrounded the car. The creatures had arrived at the crash site and prowled around the wreck looking for a way through the twisted metal. Isabelle pressed deeper into her corner and shook uncontrollably. Her nightmare was not over. A second later the car shuddered as they tried to shake it loose and flip it over. The Toyota groaned in protest but refused to move; it was firmly wedged roof down in the trench. The car creaked and cracked as broken pieces of plastic and metal rained down on her. After several minutes, the shaking stopped. Isabelle waited with bated breath. Would they give up and go? Did they know if she was alive, or even in the car? She squeezed as far back as she could, careful not to make a noise to give herself away.