Hunter Moon: A Grazi Kelly Novel #2 (27 page)

“It seems that accountant of Vito’s. He made
some mistakes, Grazi.”

“What do you mean mistakes? Like in the
taxes?”

“
Si
, the IRS, they come here before.
They say we owe them $240,000. They say Vito’s landscaping is not
worth that much, so they take the house instead.”

“What? They can’t do that.”

“It’s the government. They say they can.”
Uncle Vito slammed his hand down on the table and reached for his
cell phone.

“He’s still not answering!”

“They can do anything they want to. They are
the bosses,
si
.”

“Well, they are wrong.” I slammed my fist
down and the salt and pepper shakers went flying.
Oops.

“Don’t worry, Grazi, I’m telling you Andy was
a good guy. He wouldn’t have gotten me into this mess. I’m gonna go
see him tomorrow at his office and double check everything. It’ll
be okay, mama, I swear.” I could almost taste Uncle Vito’s
desperation. He was beyond reason right now so I just left him to
his ledgers and focused on Nonna.

She looked older. Fragile and pale. Was this
all of a sudden or was my supernatural vision allowing me to see
things I just couldn’t before? I took in her slight frame and
softly lined skin. Her springy white curls and clear brown eyes
that were now red and puffy. Her lips were thin and she weighed
less than before it seemed.

“Nonna? Who told you this?”

“It was the tax men. They came here today
with these letters. They say we have one month.
Como?
One
month! For all that money! If only Nonno were here! I don’t know. I
don’t know what to do. But you don’t worry,
cara
, okay? You
worry enough.” She patted my hand and stood up from the table.

“Vito, I’m going to bed. Tomorrow we see the
lawyer and that crooked accountant of yours. Go to bed, Grazi. I’ll
make it okay,
si
.”

I knew she was lying. She didn’t believe it
would be okay. I took the stairs two at a time my stomach clenched
and my breathing heavy. Ronan was waiting with the door open. He
held his arms open wide and I rushed into them.

“I heard. What are you gonna do?”

“I have to talk to Uncle Sean. My dad left me
money. I need it.”

“Right. Let’s go.”

We took our usual shortcut and seconds later
I was knocking at Uncle Sean’s study.

“Come in. Ah, Grazi, Ronan, how can I help
you this evening?”

“I need $240,000 from my trust fund.”

“Um, okay that was right to the point. Why on
earth do you need all that money?”

“For Nonna.”

“I’m afraid I’ll need more of an explanation
than that.”

I didn’t think I could speak right then.
Ronan must have sensed that because he spoke up. He explained
everything that had just happened.

“Alright look, we have excellent lawyers and
accountants in the Pack. I’m not sure if any are experts in
American law and taxes, but I’ll give Rafe Maccon a call and see
who he can recommend, alright? Don’t worry, Grazi, we take care of
our own.”

The knots in my stomach loosened a bit and I
nodded. Ronan walked me back over to my house. He leapt up to my
windowsill. I was right behind him.

“There you guys are. I’ve been waiting!”
Alessio looked up from my desk. He was on my lap top clicking away
at the keys.

“You know you need an upgrade right? This is
like trying to write with a stone and chisel.”

“What are you doing” How did you get in
here?”

“I’m
Romani
. I get in places norms
can’t. Anyway I’m here for the dreamscape. Remember?”

“Tonight?”

“Well duh. I’m here aren’t I?”

“Where’s Madame Magdelena?”

“Busy. My aunt is in labor.” I cocked my head
to the side.

“You know, what I mean, right? Labor. Babies
coming? She’s having twins.
Puri daj
is her midwife.”

“I understand what labor means Alessio. But
isn’t this dangerous?”

“Yeah, no worries. I trained up. It’ll be
great. Seriously.”

Ronan growled and I saw his eyes glow.

“If she gets hurt. I’ll eat ya.” Alessio
gulped and I had to hide my laughter. Though I knew his sentiment
to be real, he was just kidding. Werewolves simply don’t eat
people. Too fatty.

Ronan kept up his stare. I was impressed he
had such great control over his Wolf. He stared out through Ronan’s
eyes for a minute more. Just to get his point across I guess. When
I was sure it was safe, I left the boys alone and went to the
bathroom. I needed to splash some cold water on my face.

Seriously. What a day it was turning out
to be.
I came out drying my hands on a small towel covered with
pictures of rubber ducks. I tossed it into the hamper and walked
over to Ronan. He squeezed my hand. I held onto his as I laid on my
bed and tried to close my eyes.

“This is stupid I can’t sleep with both of
you watching me.”

“Okay look. Less go to the computer and do
whatever it is you do. Give her some privacy. Maria, I’ll lay down
with you. Okay?”

“Okay. That sounds good. Hey, where’s the
dreamcatcher?”

“Took it down, or this won’t work.” Alessio
showed me the now normal sized dreamcatcher in his hand. He sat
down at the desk and put on his headphones. Ignoring us completely.
Good that might help me sleep.

Ronan got on the bed next to me. He was stiff
and awkward at first. I rolled over and used his arm to pillow my
head. He caressed my face with his free hand. I closed my eyes. I
really was tired. The steady rhythm of his breathing blocked out
the rest of the world.
I could get used to this.
His voice
was low. So low I knew Alessio couldn’t hear.

“You are lovely, girl, you know that?
Beautiful.”

“I’m not beautiful.”

“Who told you such a thing? Course you are.
It starts here and runs through ya till it pours outside.
Beautiful,
you
Maria are so beautiful to me.”

He believed what he said as he tapped my
chest over my heart then caressed my face again. He bent down and
gave me a soft brief kiss on the lips.

“I’m scared.”

“I know. I’m right here and I won’t let
anything happen to you.”

“I’m not scared of this right now. I’m scared
of all of it, Ronan.”

“I know. I wasn’t talking about just right
now either. I meant I am
here
, and I’m not going
anywhere.”

“Because of the contract?”

“No. Because of your smile. Your smell. Your
eyes. My heart was yours from day one. It has always been yours. I
am sure now that that has always been God’s plan for me. I was born
to love you.”

My breathing stopped. I felt a tear trickle
down my face from the corner of my eye.

“No, no tears. This is a beautiful thing. A
good thing, Maria or Grazi or whatever you want me to call you.” He
laughed a little and I smiled too.

“I love you. It’s simple as that. Now close
your eyes, I’m not going anywhere.” He kissed my forehead and I
obeyed. I closed my eyes.

I didn’t think I could speak anyway. Ronan
seemed to know that. He seemed to know what all of my fears were
about.
Being alone, learning about this whole new world, my
parents’ deaths, my lost brother, losing my house, Nonna getting
older, everything.

I felt an immense sense of relief and
gratitude that he was there with me. And hope. For the first time
in my life I felt hope that there was someone just for me. I wasn’t
an outsider with him. I could trust him with my secrets. All of
them.

I knew he would keep his word.
My
protector. My companion. Always.
My Wolf sent the thought to
me. She was content in that moment.

I must have drifted to sleep. Staring into
green eyes that have become as familiar as my own. Ronan had become
more important to me than I knew how to deal with at the moment. I
forced myself to focus on the task at hand.

I was back in the tunnels. They were as dark
and damp as ever. My Werewolf vision allowed me to see as well as
if it had been daylight. I looked behind me briefly and saw no end
to them. Someday I’d have to go hunting down here. See where the
tunnels led.

I soon made my way into the same basement as
before. I was hit with the powerful smell of bleach almost
instantly. Someone had attempted to clean the mess. No bones or
rotting corpses littered the ground. And only the faintest whiff of
blood remained beneath the Clorox.

I walked to the stairs and listened. There
was no sound. Nothing. Silent as a tomb. My stomach sank, but my
Wolf remained calm. I climbed the stairs carefully. The old wooden
door opened with a small nudge from my lupine nose. I listened and
still heard nothing.

The kitchen was not at all how I remembered
it. There was no sickeningly sweet stench of garbage or bubbling
pot of witches’ brew. It was as if someone had gotten a huge vacuum
and sucked out the filth.

Still there was no noise. No sound at all. No
evidence that anyone or anything had been here recently. Not even a
crumb on the floor. I trotted over to the door where I knew a
little boy had been kept. I pushed it open. Again I came up
empty.

Something was wrong. There was no trace of
the underfed boy with the huge blue eyes who begged me to come back
for him. No bed where he had been tied. No blood stains on the
floor or walls.

It was as if no one and nothing had ever been
in this room. The walls were washed white and the floors completely
bare. No hint of the poor tortured boy who haunted me even when I
was awake. I was alone. Completely alone.

Not just in the room, but in life as well.
Why didn’t I see it before? I didn’t fit in anywhere. My own
mother called me an abomination. No friends. No one who cares for
me. I was an outcast. A loser.

These thoughts pounded away at my brain and
tore at my heart. Until- wait, there was Ronan.
He
was
waiting for me.
He
was with me now. On the bed. I was not
alone. He was there and Alessio was with him. What the heck had
just happened? The fur on the back of my neck stood up.

There was something watching me.
Something
evil.
I growled low in my throat. A disembodied voice seemed to
pierce my confused mind.

“I wondered when you’d be back. Couldn’t stay
away, tiny pup?”

It was deep, guttural, inhuman. Male or
female? I really couldn’t tell. Almost as if several voices were
combined to make the unholy sound. I looked around, but saw
nothing. There was no one here.

Then movement in the deep shadows of the
corner of the bedroom. Darkness spread from there along the walls.
I stepped to the middle of the room. Away from them.

Never looking away at the mass of shadows
that seemed to grow right in front of me. The shapes changed. First
a man, then woman, fat, skinny, a goat, a bull, one eye, three
eyes, a child, a snake. And it continued to shift. Too swiftly to
say for certain what I was looking at.

“You shouldn’t have come back here. You may
have had the chance before. But you will never stop us now.” The
shadow figure stopped as a sort of face. It opened its mouth wide.
Wider still. Big enough to be a doorway. Inside of it I saw the
shapes of thousands of creatures making their way towards me.

They ran, slithered and crawled from the
gaping mouth. Some even flew. I howled and growled at them. There
were so many. I was surely dead.

The shadows crept towards me and reached out
with claws so long and sharp they raked my fur. I howled in agony.
Blood welled from my shredded skin and dripped to the floor. It
made a sound like a nail being hammered into wood. Something
grabbed at my tail from behind and I turned trying to keep as far
from the walls as I could.

The shadow beasts raged and clawed and tried
to grab onto me. I made for the bedroom door, but it was gone.
Panic made my throat close. I didn’t know what to do or how to
fight them.

The hissing and clamoring grew louder. One
snake shaped beast tried to inch closer to me across the dark
floor, but a ray of sunlight from the half covered window hit it.
It shriveled back and screamed. Its cry pierced my ears. Inhuman in
its agony. I felt no pity.

I finally knew what I had to do. There was no
room for a running start. I crouched back on my hind legs and
sprang forward. I did my best to curl my body out of the reach of
too many claws and teeth, straight at the window. I hurtled through
glass and ripped down the dark curtains with my teeth and paws.

The sunlight came streaming in. I picked my
broken body up and stood on the glass and saw a glimpse of them
running back. Back to the shadows. That’s all I remembered. That
and the screams.

“Maria! Maria!” Ronan’s voice was frantic.
His hands were shaking me. I tried to pull myself from the
nightmare I was trapped in, but all I could feel was a searing pain
all down my back.

“Stop man! Wait! It’s dangerous. Let me put
up the catcher and finish the ritual!”

“What sort of ritual is this? Her heart
sounds fainter with each beat! She is bleeding! Do something, damn
it!” I heard Ronan growl. He sounded frantic. I wanted to get to
him, reassure him.

I was there. I just couldn’t move. Like I was
stuck on one of those carnival rides. You know the one where it
spins so fast you stick to the walls and it’s almost impossible to
pick up your arm or move your head for all the spinning. I always
hated that ride.

I could hear both of them talking. Then it
was just Alessio. He was speaking words I couldn’t understand. Then
someone stood or sat on my bed. I could feel the dip. Whatever he
was saying it was working. The spinning started slowing down.
Alessio repeated the strange sounding words again. This time
louder.

I could hear the power in his voice as he
struggled with whatever Gypsy magic he was working. The smell of
cinnamon filled my nostrils. I recognized Alessio’s
anima
magicae
. The scent of Ronan as he clung to my hand was stronger
still.