Edge of Moonlight (9 page)

“Fine.” She nodded, trying to keep her expression clear. “I can do that.”

“Then I suggest we don’t waste any time,” Amity said. “Kaine, please call Nica and tell her to expect us.”

Even though she’d been expecting it, Kaine had to cover a wince. Nica was Tira’s best friend. As soon as Nica realized what was going on, she’d be on the phone to Tira.

And Nic and Duke would be on their way to Nica’s.

“I’ll do it right now.”

Five minutes later, Nica had sleepily agreed to be waiting for their arrival. In the background, Kaine had heard Tanner and Jensen questioning Nica just as she was hanging up.

She liked the Miller brothers, she thought as she tucked her phone back in her pocket. Even though they were
eteri
.

They’d fit into life among the Etruscans as if they’d always known about the existence of
streghe
and magic. And
lucani
.

Sure, they’d been freaked the first time they’d seen her shift in front of them. She’d actually been their first.

But once they got over that “Holy shit” moment, they’d been cool. Curious and fascinated, but cool.

They hadn’t recoiled from her, hadn’t hesitated to run a hand over her pelt.

John had wanted the
streghe
to wipe all memory of the
lucani
and magic from his and Evie’s minds.

And now the
streghe
would probably have to release their memories and he’d once again know what she really was.

He’d know he slept with a monster.

“Are you okay?”

Amity’s soft question just to her left drew Kaine’s attention out of her thoughts.

Could she lie to a goddess?

Probably not a good thing to do.

So she turned, not bothering with a smile. “I will be.” She had to believe that.

Amity nodded, though she didn’t have a smile either. “I do understand your fear, Kaine. But your John is strong.”

Your John.

Kaine checked to make sure he was in the bedroom putting together a bag for him and Evie. “He’s not mine, Lady.”

Now Amity did smile as she brushed a hand over Kaine’s hair, like a mother would do.

But Kaine didn’t have a mother. The woman who’d given birth to her had dumped her on her father’s doorstep and gotten herself killed, which wouldn’t have mattered to Kaine if the damn woman hadn’t screwed Kaine over by giving her half her genes.

“Okay, Kaine. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean…” Amity released a short sigh then nodded.

“If you need me, Sal will know where to find me. I’m sorry I can’t do much more for her but the
streghe
should be able to help her more than I can. Afraid I’m not much good for complex cases like this.”

Kaine heard a note of regret in the goddess’s voice that made her feel petty for wallowing in her own misery.

Though no one liked to discuss it or much less mention it, the Etruscan deities had lost most of their powers centuries ago. They’d been displaced, first by the Roman deities, then by science. Yet they still remained.

Kaine had never really wondered
how
they lived, what they did over the course of their ageless existence.

Maybe she was just that self-centered.

Behind Amity, Kaine saw John emerge from Evie’s bedroom, carrying his sister in his arms and a heavy-looking duffel bag in one hand. Curtseying to the Lady of the Singing Heart, which probably looked pretty stupid considering she was wearing jeans and combat boots, Kaine walked over to John to take the duffel out of his hands.

She scented metal and gunpowder and knew he’d stashed at least one gun in his bag and another in a holster at his back, covered by the loose cotton shirt he’d pulled on over a tight t-shirt.

“We can take my car,” John said, his expression unreadable. “If you can drive stick.”

“I can. Are you ready?”

He hesitated for two seconds before he looked down at his sister. “Yeah. Let’s go.”
Chapter Five

As Kaine drove, John paid careful attention to every landmark, every road sign they passed.

They’d driven through the city and into Mount Penn, the neighboring borough.

From there, she’d taken them through Exeter Township and into Oley Township.

Urban sprawl had given way to suburban developments then to fields and farms and intermittent patches of forest as the sky began to lighten with just a hint of dawn.

When she finally turned onto an unmarked lane cutting through a stand of trees, he knew he’d be able to find his way back to the city with no problem.

He still couldn’t believe he’d agreed to this.

Did he honestly believe his sister had magical powers that the people who’d kidnapped them months ago had purposely released from hiding? And that a bunch of witches could fix her?

Witches.

Well, how could he not when it would explain so many of the unexplainable things that’d been happening around her?

Christ, he should’ve taken her to the emergency room.

Yeah, and what would you have done when she blew out the glass in the windows and
caused the electricity to go haywire in all that equipment?

Shit. This was just too fucked up to believe. Maybe he’d wake up in the morning and find this all to be one long, drug-induced nightmare.

If only it were that easy.

But where would that leave Kaine?

The woman hadn’t said one damn word the entire ride. Not that he’d attempted conversation. He’d been thinking, turning things over in his mind, trying to look at all the angles.

Kaine had been stewing.

John knew guilt when he saw it and Kaine had a boatload of it sitting in her gut.

Amity, the witch doctor or whatever the hell she was, had told Kaine it wasn’t her fault, that she wasn’t to blame for what had happened to Evie.

Kaine thought she was. He’d read her expression clear as day back at the apartment. He couldn’t see her face now in the darkness of the car but tension continued to roll off of her in waves.

He was almost surprised Kaine hadn’t driven them off the road and into a ditch.

But she handled his temperamental ’73 Dodge Dart with the ease of a professional driver.

He’d had the Dart since he was teenager, had rebuilt the thing from the wheels up with his dad over the summer of his sixteenth birthday.

They’d finished it only months before his death.

“We’re here.”

Blinking, John realized Kaine had eased the car to a stop.

Since there wasn’t a streetlight in sight, he could only see the outlines of one-story homes clustered along a road that was little more than a lane.

The house they’d parked in front of had its porch light burning and three people stood in the open door.

Two men, one woman.

“That’s Tanner and Jensen and their, ah, mate, Nica. Nica’s who you’re here to see.

She’s a healer. She’s really good at what she does. She’ll be able to help Evie.” He turned back to look at her. “You know this all sounds crazy, right? All this magic shit. I don’t even know why the fuck I’m here.”

He watched her face, looking for who-the-hell-knew-what but her dead-serious expression never flickered.

“You’re here because you love your sister.”

“Who’s passed out in the backseat for a reason I don’t fucking understand.”

“Amity told you what’s going on.”

“But do you honestly expect a sane person to believe all this crap?” She shrugged, her mouth quirking into a rueful curve. “You came, didn’t you?” For one very brief moment, he remembered exactly how hard he’d come inside her body. Twice. And heat flooded through him.

But he knew she wasn’t talking about sex.

“Yeah, I’m here.”

“Then let Nica take a look at Evie. She can help.”

Despite the situation, despite everything that had happened and the general weirdness of the situation, John
knew
he could trust Kaine. He felt it to the bottom of his soul.

Reaching for her, he cupped her jaw in one hand. The bone felt delicate in his hand, her skin so damn soft. He felt her freeze like a deer in the headlights and watched a painful vulnerability creep into her eyes.

He wanted to pull her into his arms, hold her against his chest and—

She turned away and slid out of the car, heading for the porch.

His gaze followed her, saw the hunch in her shoulders, hands stuffed in her pockets. A slight breeze ruffled her gorgeous hair and she shook it out of her face with an angry snap of her head.

Shit.

With a sigh, he pushed out of the car then reached into the backseat for Evie, still out cold. She looked calm, peaceful, her breathing deep and even. She didn’t look to be in any kind of distress.

But she felt so light in his arms, so insubstantial. As if she was wasting away and he had no idea how to stop it.

So you’re going to consult a witch.

Yeah, he was.

As he walked up to the house, he catalogued every piece of information he could see.

The two men flanking the woman could be considered threats. They were both in shape and never took their eyes off of him. They even went so far as to keep the woman just slightly behind them.

Until she slipped through the space between them to hug Kaine.

Pretty and dark-haired, the woman—Nica, he remembered Kaine had called her—

had a comforting smile and kind eyes. Kaine allowed Nica to hug her but only for a few seconds before she pulled away.

Each of the men leaned down to brush a kiss against Kaine’s cheek before going back to staring at him.

When he reached the porch, Nica turned that smile on him. And for some reason, her smile seemed familiar and totally trustworthy.

“Hello, John. I’m Nica. Please, come in. I’ve got a bed all ready for your sister.” With a nod, he followed her through the door, the two men parting to allow him to enter.

When the front door closed behind them, the tall blond guy pointed his thumb behind him, an easy expression on his face. “I’ll show you where. I’m Tanner. He’s Jensen.”

The dark-haired guy nodded when John looked at him, his face an impressive blank slate. No idea what he was thinking, though John noted the way he held his hands at his side. Loose. Ready to reach for a weapon.

As if John could be a threat to their woman.

And Nica was most definitely both of theirs.

The men looked at her with identical expressions of possession, just as Nica did with both of them.

Not your typical couple. Hell, not a couple at all.

Again, he had the weirdest sense of déjà vu. And it was really starting to piss him off.

Shoving the nagging sensation to the back of his mind, he followed Tanner to a bedroom at the back of house and set Evie on the four-poster bed that’d been turned down already.

Everyone had followed behind him but the men stayed by the door as Nica approached the bed. Kaine remained just beyond the door and he had the almost overwhelming urge to force her to stand by his side. As if he needed her.

“John, I’d like to make Evie more comfortable, if you don’t mind.” Nica had moved to the other side of the bed. “Did you bring nightclothes for her or maybe just a loose tshirt?”

“I packed a bag. It’s probably still—”

“I’ll go get it,” Kaine volunteered and immediately turned on her heel and left.

He wanted to call her back but he forced his mouth to stay shut. He needed to be here with Evie. Needed to know how this woman was going to fix her.

“So, what can you do for my sister?”

* * * * *

“Hey,” Jensen said. “You okay?”

Standing at the window in Nica’s kitchen, Kaine stared out into the garden and the forest at the rear of the property, wishing she could shed her clothes and run in her pelt in the pale light of dawn.

Which, of course, she couldn’t do. Might never be able to do again.

So how did she answer Jensen’s question?

She’d heard him leave the bedroom and follow her here after she’d retrieved John’s bag from the car and given it to Tanner.

Nica and John were talking in the bedroom. She figured he wouldn’t want her there so she’d made herself scarce.

She couldn’t run, though. She’d told John she’d stay.

She’d known one of the Miller twins would come looking for her. They’d probably shot rock-paper-scissors to figure out who stayed with Nica and who talked to her.

Looks like Jensen had lost.

Which was an absolutely bitchy thing to think.

Jensen and Tanner had become more than acquaintances over the past few months.

Because Nica and Tira were best friends, the twin brothers hung out with Nic and Duke and, by association, with Kaine.

She spent hours training with them on the weekends, sparring or teaching them how to fight with the iron knives and swords most Etruscans learned to handle as kids.

Since iron was the only metal unable to be manipulated by magic, it made the best weapons. Conventional guns and bullets could be easily influenced by the slightest use of power because of the trace amounts of other metals in them. Most of the Gifted population fought the old-fashioned way—with their hands and their magic.

Jensen and Tanner had no innate magic. They were
eteri
through and through. But they were learning to fight like Etruscans and that set them apart in Kaine’s book. They also happened to be great guys.

She and Jensen, in particular, had formed a closer friendship than she’d thought possible with an
eteri
. So she didn’t blow him off like she would someone else.

Jensen didn’t say much so they had that in common.

Which meant this should be a short conversation.

“Not really, no.”

Jensen walked to her side and stared down at her. “That’s him, isn’t it?”
Vaffanculo
, did everyone know she had the hots for the guy?

Not a lot of people in the Etruscan community had been told about John and Evie Simmons. That info had been strictly need-to-know.

She sighed and leaned forward to rest her forehead against the cool glass of the French doors. “Yeah. That’s him.”

“You want I should beat him around the head for a few hours?” Her laughter at Jensen’s attempt at a Jersey accent caught her off guard. “Probably not a good idea. But thanks for asking.”