Demon's Moon: A Celia Winters Novel Book 2 (3 page)

Josh frowned in welcome as her and Ed walked out of the
store later that afternoon.  He’d come by to pick her up and deal with the two
wolf shifters in town.

“Why is he here?” Josh asked gruffly

She took a deep breath for patience, thank the goddess tiger
shifters didn’t have to deal with alpha instincts.  Sure, her cat would never
submit, but cats were also good at ignoring things that annoyed them.  She
never felt the need to establish her dominance or fight, she just wouldn’t
submit.

“Witch council orders, Ed’s my shadow until we figure out
this assassin thing.  Although right now we don’t have a lead, so that might
take a while.”

Josh grunted and nodded at Ed, as if to say no offense.

She quirked a smile, “Shall we?” and got into the front
passenger seat.

It wasn’t that she needed to be in the front, she just knew
Ed wouldn’t want to sit next to Josh.  As the one in the middle she found
herself in the role of peacekeeper all the sudden, just another reason to miss
Paul.

Ed shrugged and got in the back, and Josh got in silently
and they drove off. 

She asked, “So what do we know?”

“Not much, two shifters came into town, contacted the
shifter council last night and indicated they wanted to make contact.  Didn’t
say anything about why though.”

She suppressed rolling her eyes.  Shifters conserved words
like they might run out sometimes, usually when communicating over the phone or
e-mail.  She supposed in a way it made sense, they preferred face to face
conversations where they could gauge the truth, but that didn’t make it any
less annoying.  The tense silence started getting on her nerves, and she
resorted to small talk.

“So how are Kelly and Rose?”

Josh grunted, “Good.”

She sighed at his one word terse answer, and didn’t bother
to try and fill the silence anymore.  Maybe he’d warm up to her.  Josh seemed
to be the polar opposite of his garrulous and relaxed father, Joe.

They pulled up in front of an economy motel, which rented
dirt cheap for a week’s stay, and all piled out of the car. 

Josh muttered, “one oh eight,” and started for the large
building.

She noticed Ed leaned against the car, trying to give us
privacy for shifter business while still being close enough if things went
sideways.  She nodded to him and followed in Josh’s wake.  She almost giggled
when Josh knocked so loud the whole building must have heard it.  Subtle just
wasn’t in the man’s repertoire.

The door opened and a man took a deep breath, then moved
aside and waved them in.  The room was small of course, but had two double beds
in it.  There were some moving boxes piled up in the corner, and empty pizza
boxes and beer cans scattered around the room. 

She casually looked over the men, they appeared to be twins
at first.  Both of them had the same general build of wolf shifters, same
facial features, dark brown eyes, and black hair.  But she noticed slight
differences after a moment, very subtle differences, they were brothers but one
was a few years older.

She nodded to them both, “Celia, and this is Josh.”

The older brother replied in a pleasant tenor, “Nice to meet
you, I’m Cody, this is my brother Don.  Excuse the mess, we weren’t expecting
anyone from the council quite so fast.”

He waved at the table with two chairs by the window, and then
took a seat on the bed.

She quirked a smile as she sat and quipped, “Slow week.”

Josh gave her an annoyed look, but the two brothers smiled
appreciatively.

Josh asked bluntly, “So what brings you to Rock Hill?”

Don replied cautiously, “We’ve been searching for a new
pack, and we heard the local pack here is more than a few short.  Our only
interest is in finding a new home, and we mean no harm to any here.”

“Where did you hear that?” Josh asked suspiciously.

Cody raised an eyebrow, “The last town we tried.  The
council told us.  They all talk…”

Cody trailed off, as if feeling foolish stating the obvious.

Josh asked, “What happened to your old pack?  Are you
running?”

Don and Cody exchanged glances, and then Don answered with
anger in his voice.

“Witches happened.  And no, we aren’t running from anything,
not since we escaped those spell casting freaks.”

Celia fidgeted a bit, feeling rather uncomfortable now.

Josh’s eyes went up and he leaned forward in the chair, “We
have a rather solid peace going with the local covens here, will that be a
problem for you two?  The reason the local pack needs more members is partially
because two of them attacked a witch.  They died, one of them executed by the
alpha himself.”

Cody shrugged, “We’d only protect ourselves.  We don’t go
out looking for revenge against a whole race, even if we do hate em.  If we
wanted revenge we’d go after the coven that got our old pack, not some witch
that had nothing to do with it.”

Although the war was over, the peace depended on the local
packs and covens.  She was sure that coven would be taken to task eventually,
but it wasn’t a simple situation.  She also felt conflicted, should she mention
who she was?  Or more specifically what?  She held her council for now, they
would find out sooner or later, especially if they became part of the pack.

Josh turned to Don, “You feel the same?”

Don replied coldly, “Yes.”

Josh pulled out his phone and called Tony, the alpha of the
wolf pack.  They were on the phone for only a few minutes as Josh went over
everything.  He hung up.

“Alright, Tony said you can come out to the pack’s land
tomorrow, during the day, and he’ll decide after talking to you.  I’d advise
you not to stick around if it doesn’t work out.”

The brothers nodded, and Tony and Celia stood and let
themselves out.  She hoped it worked out regardless, the pack was a little
estrogen heavy, and despite their hatred of witches, the brothers seemed like
good people.  Maybe if Jennie took to one of them she wouldn’t feel guilty
anymore about Jennie losing both her brother and lover in a few short days.

That hadn’t been her fault, but she definitely claimed some
of the responsibility for it.

During the drive back to the store she wondered if Josh
would ever relax.  She smiled, probably in fifty years when he was his father’s
age…

It was strange having Ed in the shop all day, but it didn’t
get awkward until Dan came by around four thirty and picked up Berny.  Mia
wasn’t in tonight, so they were kind of… stuck in the store, together.  She
hoped nothing happened that required them to leave, although she was sure Mia
would be able to get in if she called in an emergency.

After closing she opened the back door for her normal
nightly run without thinking.

Ed brought her up short, “Where are you going Celia?”

She frowned back at him, “Running, I go every night.  If I
don’t I won’t be able to sleep.”

He pursed his lips, “Fine, give me a minute.  I’d never be
able to keep up with you so I’ll follow in the car.”

So there she was, jogging another twenty miles through the
streets of Rock Hill with Ed following along in the car.  It usually felt good,
but she felt a little exposed being watched running twenty miles in just under
thirty minutes.  It was a lot to run, twenty miles each morning and evening. 
Usually she would be running in the morning and then training at night with
Paul, but with him gone she had to dump the energy somehow.

Sitting in a store didn’t help with that at all.

She also had a random thought, and wondered if he was
staring at her backside, which made her feel… self-conscious.  What made it
awkward for her wasn’t the idea that he was looking, but more the idea that she
didn’t mind if he was.  She was starting to get a handle on her new libido, but
it could still be disconcerting at times.  Confused kind of summed her up at
that moment.

She’d never been a fickle person when it came to
relationships, but it was harder to not notice Ed with the intense chemistry
that Paul and her shared fading from her mind.  Then she started to doubt how
much she actually cared for Paul, and how much was just her bodies new
cravings.  Sure, Paul was nice, and solicitous at times, but there was always
that intense overlay of sexual tension between them.

She thought it would drive her crazy, and on this subject
Silva was no help at all, she’d be totally fine playing with either or both,
which she’d never consider.  She knew she’d regret it if she gave into the
impulse, but at the same time it was getting harder to resist her new appetite
that way.

She was living a life of abstinence, and she was starting to
wonder why that was.  Why shouldn’t she enjoy herself?  It was hard to answer,
except, she was still working out exactly who that was.  And perhaps she was a
little too stubborn to allow her proclivities to determine her actions.  Then
again, wasn’t she just fighting her own nature by doing that?  It was a balance
though, people fought their desires all the time, to stay faithful to a spouse,
or stopping themselves from killing someone annoying.

Just because it was more difficult now didn’t mean it was
right to just give in.

It was just so much more difficult now, when her emotions
and thoughts pulled her in different directions she wasn’t sure yet where that
balance should be.  That’s what she needed to figure out, what her new limits
were.  She was different now, a shifter, a tiger that couldn’t be monogamous
with one person her whole life.  That didn’t mean she couldn’t be a serial monogamist
though.  Maybe that could be her new line.  One person at a time, for as long
as it could last.

The idea of one night stands didn’t appeal at all, it
sounded to lonely, and empty.  Well, on one level it did appeal, but it wasn’t
hard to ignore.

When she finished the run she waited outside until Ed parked
the car, and they made their way upstairs to her apartment.  She got out some
sheets, a blanket, and a spare pillow and piled them on her couch before
jumping in the shower.  She got dressed in comfortable shorts and a t-shirt,
she refused to wear the new clothes in the comfort of her own home, and took a
seat on the couch with Ed.  He was watching the news channel.

Well isn’t this cozy.

She said tentatively, “So… I’m not sure how long this is
going to take us to figure out, so make yourself at home.  Feel free to grab
food or drink without asking.  All I ask is that you stay away from my ritual
room.”

He said gruffly, “Thanks, I won’t invade your personal
space.  I’ll stick to out here and the kitchen.  We need to go by my place
tomorrow though, I need some clothes and to grab some toiletries.”

She frowned, “We should have done it earlier.”

He shrugged, “Its fine, I didn’t think about it until after
Berny left, by then it was too late.”

She nodded, thinking about her safe in the floor a few feet
away.  She’d wanted to do some research, but that wasn’t happening tonight. 
She trusted Ed well enough, but not enough to risk her family’s legacy and
spell books.

She fidgeted a bit, then excused herself and went into her private
sanctuary and ritual room.  Was she attracted to Ed?  Had she always been and
didn’t notice because she’d been panting after Paul so bad, or was she simply
horny and Ed just happened to be there.  She pushed that all down and lit her
candles with her power and sat down. 

She took a deep breath and slipped into a trance.  Separated
from her feelings, it was a bit easier to sort out.  She liked Ed as a friend,
but that was it.  That didn’t mean he wasn’t attractive, because he was, plus,
she really… wanted sex, which was what confused things in her mind.  She’d have
to deal though, because she wasn’t giving in to a one night stand mentality
just to scratch an itch.

Even if she did think she might be going a little more
insane from resisting the urge.

She saw another one then, in the flames out of the corner of
her right eye.  Part of the flame looked darker… and somehow thicker.  She
couldn’t really make out the shape, it was too small.

She whispered in frustration, “What are you?”

“We are fire, daughter of magic.”
It answered in a
multi tonal voice directly in her mind.

Her head snapped in its direction in shock, but it wasn’t
there.  She turned her head back forward, still not there, it must have left. 
We are fire… and they called her daughter of magic… why did that send chills
down her spine?

Crap!

She didn’t need to research what they were, because it was
obvious.  They were elementals.  Air and fire, the two elements she had control
over.  But… she’d never dealt with, summoned or even considered summoning an
elemental.  So why were they watching her, and why didn’t they let her look at
them directly?

Elementals were from other planes of existence.  They
weren’t evil like demons… more neutral as far as good and evil were concerned. 
But they were completely alien in thought, and amoral, in the sense that right
and wrong had no meaning to them.  It was risky for a witch to deal with them,
almost as bad as dealing with a demon would be.  As if she didn’t already have
enough to deal with, and she still needed to do research, she knew a little of
the elementals, but if they had an interest in her for some reason, she needed
to learn more.

She snuffed the candles and went back to the couch, she felt
a lot less awkward now.  They chatted for a little bit about what might be
coming and what more they could do.  He laid down his own protection spells
over hers.  She didn’t think a bug could get in her apartment without waking
them up now. 

It was getting close to midnight, so she said goodnight and
went into the bedroom.  Despite Ed on the couch, and the possibility of more
assassins coming, she fell asleep quickly.