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Authors: J.R. Rain

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BOOK: Moon Shadow (Vampire for Hire Book 11)

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Chapter Sixty-seven

Luke didn’t know me, and he seemed shyer than I’d expected. Then again, he’d spent the last seven days in a hospital having a blood transfusion and recovering from his ordeal. I wondered if such a transfusion would dilute his own magical blood.

“It doesn’t work that way, Sam,” said the master alchemist, reading my thoughts, exactly like the weirdo he was.

“Of course not,” I said. “How silly of me to think such nonsense.”

“Not silly, Sam. And certainly not nonsense. Much of what we do here—you and I, and others like us—is done without precedent. Meaning, nothing like us has ever existed in the history of the world. Everything is new. Everything is strange. Everything is open to us. Everything is evolving and expanding and taking on a life of its own. It is all we can do, sometimes, to keep up with this expansion. So, I am often learning, side by side with you, even if I might have a few years of experience on you. In this case, I happen to know that the, ah,
life force
in young Luke can never be diluted. Indeed, if anything, it is stronger than ever.”

I appreciated that he used words like “life force” around the boy. No reason to freak the kid out more than we had to.

“Take a look for yourself, Sam.”

There it was. And the more I looked, the more it formed before me. The silver dragon. It wove slowly through Luke’s own brilliant aura. A few years ago, I had seen the exact opposite: a black serpentine creature weaving through the cursed Thurman family for generations.

Now, the silver dragon slithered purposefully, confidently, and continuously. Always moving, always weaving, always undulating. It could have been a sea snake gliding over the ocean floor, around coral and through drifting seaweed. The ghostly serpent’s face was often blurred, but sometimes, it coalesced into something frightening and beautiful. Sometimes, I saw a snout and teeth, and a sort of trailing, wispy, Fu-Man-Chu goatee. Once, it even seemed to pause and regard me, before continuing on, moving under his armpit and back around his shoulder, its graceful, thick, tubular body following behind, glowing, undulating.

“What am I seeing?” I asked.

“It is his mark, Sam. It is his bloodline.”

Luke watched us idly, but seemed more interested in the reading room itself, no doubt in the books that contained various levels of evil. In fact, I picked up his thought: he wanted desperately to take down a book on a high shelf that was calling out to him.

“It’s beautiful,” I said, slightly distracted.

“It is, Sam. And it’s also powerful.”

“But what, exactly, is it?”

“It is his animal totem, so to speak.”

“I don’t understand—”

“You have one, too, Sam. But in your case, his name is Talos.”

“Wait, what?”

“Within your aura, he swims. An aspect of him, of course. Not the true entity you call Talos. But an aspect of him is always with you. It is why you are so connected to him.”

“But Talos isn’t silver.”

“No, he is dark, just as he is in your aura.”

“You can see him?”

“Oh, yes.”

“But I thought I couldn’t see another immortal’s aura.”

The Alchemist smiled and asked the boy to have a seat away from us—and, I noted, far away from the darker books.

Luke looked at me, looked at Max, then nodded and slipped away, taking with him his magnificent aura and the silver dragon.

“He’s not immortal yet, Sam. For alchemists, it is a long process to achieve immortality.”

“How long?”

“Decades of diligent study. Sometimes longer, sometimes shorter. Sometimes, it never happens. And some don’t want it at all.”

“Okay, fine. But I thought I couldn’t see my relatives’ auras.”

“Only your immediate family, Sam. Your kids, sister, parents.”

“Who makes these rules?”

“The Puppet Master.”

“Who the hell is the—”

I saw he was joking and slapped his arm.

He smiled shyly and said, “Remember, many of us are learning as we go. And sometimes rules can change, too, when there’s strong enough intent. Nothing, I have discovered, is set in stone.”

“Do I have an aura?” I asked.

“You do.”

“What color is it?”

“You want to know?”

“I do.”

He hesitated only briefly before saying: “It is dark, Sam. Very dark. With only the briefest glimpses of light.”

“Jesus.”

“I’m sorry, Sam.”

“I shouldn’t be surprised.”

“If it’s any consolation, very few vampires have even the few bright spots that you do.”

“It’s some consolation, thanks.”

But not really.
A new thought occurred to me. “And my son, Anthony?”

“His aura is particularly brilliant, but...”

“But what?”

Max looked away, drummed his fingers on the wooden help desk. He nodded then said, “Your son harbors something dark that I have not been able to put my finger on.”

“The demon,” I said. “From last year.”

“I’m afraid so, Sam. Something attached to him. Something in this very room, as you recall. Something I do not yet understand.”

I’d suspected this. Sometimes, I spotted my son sitting up in bed, at night, staring at nothing. It didn’t happen often. Indeed, it happened infrequently enough that I was able to mostly forget that he acted so strangely.

“We’ll keep an eye on it, Sam. And so will someone else.” He paused and let his words hang in the air. The more they hung, the more I knew who he was talking about.

“Ishmael...”

“Yes, your one-time guardian angel.”

I might have snorted.

“Don’t knock him, Sam. Ishmael has done an admirable job of keeping your son safe, in ways you don’t fully appreciate or understand.”

“Fine, so he’s a saint.”

“Hardly, but he is trying to right his wrongs.”

“Well, he can just keep righting them for all eternity.”

“He just might.” The alchemist paused. “Sam, there’s a reason why the dark masters are targeting your son, and why Ishmael works so diligently to protect him.”

I nodded, suddenly sickened. “My son carries the mark.”

“Indeed. But in his case, it is a silver eagle. Sam, with his great strength and powerful bloodline, there is no greater threat to the dark masters. Sam, your son could be the greatest of us all, which is why he has a very big target on his back.”

“Are you trying to make me vomit?”

“I’m trying to get you to understand, Sam. Anthony Moon is safe enough now. Ishmael looks out for him, and so do you. So do Kingsley and Allison. And me, of course. For now, your son is insulated enough. But when he is a man, he will be mostly on his own. Although Ishmael will never be too far away. But he is only one angel.”

“What are you saying?” I asked. I literally had to hold my stomach. Vampire or not, I was feeling like I might heave my earlier lunch.

“I run an academy for young alchemists, Sam. We take them at all ages, although many are in their late teens. They come to us from around the globe. Often, they are orphans. Often, they have endured great turmoil. All are targets for the dark masters. We train them to become all they can be.”

“Like the Army.”

“Like the Light Warriors they are, Sam.”

“And what do these Light Warriors do?” I asked.

“We keep the balance of light and dark, Sam. When possible, we will engage the dark masters—”

“You mean vampires.”

“And werewolves, and other creatures they choose to return as.”

“Like Lichtenstein’s monsters?”

“Those and others that defy classification. Powerful others, and they walk among you.”

“Great.”

“We are preparing for what might be the next great battle.”

“Like the battle from, what, five hundred years ago?”

“Yes, Sam.”

“When you guys first banished the dark masters?”

“Correct.”

“This hurts my head.”

“I think that is a figure of speech.”

I drummed my long, pointed nails on the help desk, inadvertently pecking holes into the wood.
Oops.
I quit drumming.

“And Luke?” I asked.

“He will be enrolling in our school.”

“Hogwarts?”

“Close, but not quite. His education will continue, with an eye toward the real history of our world, and his place in it. He will be taught alchemy. He will be taught self-defense and mastery in all weapons. He will be shown the hidden mysteries of this world, too. Some of the greatest secrets will be bestowed on him. All in due time, of course. We have made all the necessary legal arrangements.”

I nodded. “You are adopting him?”

“So to speak.”

“And Anthony?”

“We want him to join us, Sam. Sooner, rather than later.”

“I will need to think about that. FYI: I am leaning toward probably not.”

“It could save his life, Sam.”

I took in some worthless air, let it out. “And this school?”

“It’s here, Sam. Behind me, in fact.”

“But. I thought it was just a bunch of offices back there.”

“To the uninitiated, Sam.”

I looked over at Luke, and he looked at me, too. I smiled at him, and he smiled back for the first time. Then, he surprised the hell out of me by getting up and running over and hugging me tightly around the waist. His thoughts and emotions poured out of him. I felt his appreciation for being saved, and his excitement for his new life. He was going to miss his mother, but not the mean men who came to see her. He missed his friend, Johnny, and he wanted to make Max proud. He didn’t know me, but he knew I had saved him, and he didn’t want to stop hugging me, even as he cried like a girl.
His thoughts, not mine.

I didn’t want him to stop either, and I hugged him back tightly, and let my own tears flow.

Just like a girl.

Chapter Sixty-eight

I’d recently watched
The Martian
with Kingsley. He watched it for the riveting tale of survival. I watched it for entirely different reasons.

As a commercial, of sorts. A commercial that just so happened to star Matt Damon as the pitchman. Hell of a yummy pitchman.

By the end of the harrowing movie, I’d made a decision. A decision I kept to myself. After all, Kingsley tended to worry when I ventured to other planets.

Now, with the latest picture of the Mars Rover firmly planted in my thoughts, I sat comfortably on my living room couch. The kids were asleep. Kingsley was asleep, too. It was a little past two in the morning.

I’m really doing this,
I thought.

I really was.

With legs crossed, I rested my hands on my knees. I took in some air, held it, held it some more, and then let it go because I was tired of holding it.

Then, I summoned the single flame.

***

I felt the wind first, and the intense cold. I smelled the ancient dust, not so foreign from our own... but lacking
something
. Something organic, perhaps.

I opened my eyes, and found myself high upon an untouched cliff. The rock beneath me was flat and windblown and blasted smooth over the eons. It was also a richer red than I was expecting.

I didn’t bother breathing, although I did inhale some of the scents, some of the dust, some of Mars itself.

The wind was icy and strong. I rocked gently on my perch.

And as the updrafts and crosswinds continued to rock me, and as the smell of something ancient and forgotten permeated my nostrils, I smiled and settled in for the night.

It’s good to be me.

The End

Samantha Moon returns in:

Vampire Fire

Vampire for Hire #12

Coming soon!

~~~~~

Also coming soon:

Samantha Moon Origins

A brand new series by J.R. Rain

As many of you know,
Moon Dance
begins six years after Samantha Moon had been turned into our favorite creature of the night. But what really happened on that fateful night, back when she was brutally attacked while out jogging? Who turned her and why? And what happened in the days that followed—in those lonely, scary times when Sam knew her life would be forever changed. And, as we all know, forever is a very long time for a vampire...

Samantha Moon Origins
is a brand new series that follows Sam in those early days of fear and uncertainty, back when her body first began changing, back when she was forced to quit her day job and work the night shift as a private eye, back when Danny Moon was still in love with her. I'm excited to debut this series later this year. I seriously think you are going to love watching Sam’s transformation from mother, wife, and federal agent into something far darker...and far more powerful...

~~~~~

The thrills continue in:

Moon Bayou

Samantha Moon Case Files #1

Available now!

Amazon Kindle
*
Amazon UK
*
Paperback
*
Audio

~~~~~

Allison Lopez is back in:

The Witch and the Huntsman

The Witches Series #3

Available now!

Amazon Kindle
*
Amazon UK
*
Paperback