Hunter Moon: A Grazi Kelly Novel #2 (28 page)

In my mind’s eye I saw my Wolf. Brown with a
streak of pale gold down her muzzle. She was limping, but still
standing. She looked at me then turned and howled. An ear piercing
cry. I had an image of a large reddish wolf in my mind and an
answering howl. Slowly I was pulled from the trance or whatever it
was that held me down. I blinked my eyes.

“There you are. You’re back. You’re safe
now.” I trembled violently. Ronan shouted at Alessio for a blanket,
but he was on his knees on the floor completely drained. Ronan
growled impatiently then took off his sweatshirt and draped it
around me.

“Are you hurt? What happened?”

“Shhhhadowwws. There wwwerre shhhadowwws.” My
words came out broken and slurred. My teeth were chattering. I was
freezing.

“Here now. I gotcha.” Ronan climbed on the
bed and surrounded me with his body. His strong arms hugged me as
his hands rubbed mine. I looked down. My hands were trembling and
so pale they looked almost blue. My hair was wet. With sweat
perhaps? I didn’t know. It just felt so good to be held by him.

After a few minutes like that the trembling
stopped. Alessio sat at the foot of the bed, his head hung down. He
looked paler too. His long dark curls covered his face so I
couldn’t see his expression. When he looked up his brown eyes were
full of wonder and maybe a little fear.

“It’s true. You are a Dreamwalker. I thought
it was a myth.”

“You’ll keep this quiet, gypsy, or I’ll have
you for lunch.”

“Don’t worry,
dog boy
, I wouldn’t put
her in any more danger than she’s already in.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean this.” He stood up and walked over to
us. He lifted my right hand from Ronan’s grasp. Ronan tensed, but
didn’t move. Alessio carefully pulled up the sleeve of my
shirt.

On my upper arm running back towards my
shoulder blade was a mark. Some sort of symbol I didn’t recognize.
It was blood red and had a faint glow about it. As I watched it
seemed to get lighter.
Crap, I bet that’s not good.

“She’s been marked.”

I sat in Uncle Sean’s office and waited.
Ronan was pacing and Alessio was busy looking at a one of the
several old leather bound books that crowded the shelves.

“Oh wow! This is amazing. Do you know how
hard it is to get a copy of this in the original Greek?” The book
he held up said Plato, but that was all. Must be something about
philosophy, I guessed. I rubbed my arm. It didn’t hurt, but the
symbol showed no more signs of fading.

Uncle Sean walked in. Sascha, Dimitri and
Cara were with him. He turned and faced us. Alessio must have seen
the Wolf in his eyes because the normally curious boy dropped the
book and looked down at the floor.

“Sorry man.” He hurried to pick it up, but
Sascha got there first. He dusted it off and placed it back on the
shelf with such speed
I
nearly gasped.

“Do you three have any idea what you have
done!” Uncle Sean’s voice was low, but held no little amount of
ferocity. His wolf was very near the surface and he was angry.

“
The more dominant the Wolf, the greater
the instinct to protect those around him.”
I denied him that. I
remembered my grandfather’s words. A little too late.
Oh, well,
uncle. It probably won’t be the last time.

I was hardly used to this idea of Pack and I
could only imagine I would make many more decisions he didn’t agree
with. Besides it was my life. My entire world was upside down and I
had a right to try and figure it out. Especially when Uncle Sean
and Rolf and everybody else wouldn’t tell me anything. I was
brought back to the present with a slight nudge from Ronan.

“Gypsy magic? Dreamscaping no less! And none
of it sanctioned by the Pack never mind the Hounds! Rolf would have
your hide, girl!”

“Fr. Gallagher, it’s
my
fault. It was
my job to watch out for her. I’m sorry I didn’t come to you-”

“What?
Your job
? No, I watch out for
myself.” There was no way Ronan was taking the blame for this.
Besides if we were going to have any kind of relationship he better
get used to the idea that I am a modern woman. I was so not going
to take a back seat to him or anyone else. Ever.

“Look, Uncle Sean, there was
something
going on. And you and Rolf haven’t given me much choice but to
discover things on my own.”

“If you’d have just left it to us, we’d have
found something Grazi! But not this! Not magic.”

“And why not? Alessio is my friend. I trust
him.” Alessio seemed to stand a little taller as I spoke. He moved
to my left side. Ronan positioned himself to my right and I
realized together, we were strong.

“This is not how it’s done, Grazi.”

“Don’t you want to know what I found
out?”

Uncle Sean’s gaze did not waver from my own.
I could feel the discomfort of the other Wolves. After all he was
the dominant and I shouldn’t meet his eyes, but I did.

“Aye. Speak now, child.”

His clipped tone grated on my nerves. I told
him everything that had transpired in my bedroom only minutes
before. I tried to remain unemotional as I spoke, but it was
difficult.

As if being a Werewolf wasn’t fantastic
enough, it seemed I was capable of things that no one else had ever
heard about or that had long since been lost to legend. I trembled
when I got to the part about the shadow demons. I wondered if I’d
ever forget that open mouth or the writhing minions as they
advanced on me.

“It’s true then. What she says?” He looked at
Ronan. Again I was annoyed.
Am I some liar? I mean why ask him
and not just trust me?
I
knew
he could smell my
conviction on me.

“I ask Ronan, Grazi, because it is possible
you are too close to the situation to see.”

“She told it like it happened, Father. I was
there. We took the dreamcatcher down and almost immediately she
went out. Asleep or so I thought. Her eyes moved rapidly under
closed lids. I thought she was dreaming then or having a
nightmare.”

“She broke out into a sweat. Her skin on
fire, her hair soaked. At one point her eyes flew open and they
were white. All white…I, I couldn’t wake her. Blood spilled from
her nose. One more minute and she would have been finished. I’m
telling you all, Alessio was brilliant. I know it wasn’t
sanctioned, Father, but
he
saved her when
I
couldn’t.
She almost died.”

He was quiet a moment. As if that was just
sinking in. His heart beat pounded in my ears. The scent of his
frustration and anxiety filled my nostrils.

“Will you be telling the Alpha?”

Alessio’s head was down. He gave the
impression of being completely carefree and easy under all this,
but we, you know the
Werewolves
in the room, knew better. At
least I knew for certain that he was listening to every word
intently as Ronan retold the events from his point of view.
Good
for you, Less. Pay attention now.

Beneath Ronan’s matter of fact voice I could
hear the fear, anger, and the relief. I never took into account how
he would feel were this experiment of mine to fail.
Responsible
. That’s how he felt. I reached out and took his
hand. He squeezed mine, but kept his focus on Uncle Sean. I would
know why in a minute.

“Oh, Grazi girl, you’re a chancer, you are.
I’ll not be the one to go and tell Rolf that you went off
half-cocked and got into this bit of a mess all by yourself. We’ll
settle this in house.”

“But Sean, you can’t just pretend this didn’t
happen. You’ve got to go through the right channels.” Cara argued.
But I could tell by the set of his shoulders that Uncle Sean was
not going to budge.

“Look, Grazi is new to this. She doesn’t
understand our laws yet. That’s
our
fault. All of ours.
There’s nothing to be gained by beating the point to death and
that’s all that will happen if we get the Alpha involved. He’ll not
have a choice. No, the thing to do now is educate my
inion
dearthar
in the ways of the Hounds, before the 12th of
December.”

“Well Grazi, it seems you are going to get
some extra time off to spend with visiting family? Isn’t that nice.
With Thanksgiving coming up and all! Now, just a few more minutes
and I’ll have all your assignments ready for you. Oh and take some
of these fact sheets about wild animals in the area for your family
here. Now, you just have to sign here and your grandmother will
have to sign this paper as well for when you come back next week.
Okay?” I smiled as Sr. Diane typed slowly on her keyboard.

It was that Monday before the holiday weekend
and I would be missing the entire week. Uncle Sean wanted me to
catch up on a lot and I needed time. Especially with this deadline
of December 12
^th
looming in the not-so-distant
future.

I listened to the painfully slow clacking of
the keyboard and the equally slow printer as my papers were being
readied. I somehow managed a smile when Sr. Diane handed me my
packet and ushered me out of the office. Angela was waiting by my
locker when I went to gather my books.

“Is it true? You going on vacation?”

“Not really. It’s just some local trips with
some relatives who are visiting.”

“So what? Everyone has visiting relatives
over I mean hello, it’s Thanksgiving? Mine are awful, I’d stay in
school extra hours just to get away from them. Why are you taking
off?” Angela asked as she scrunched her orange curls into wild
disarray around her heart shaped face.

She looked great. I mean she was not
conventionally pretty, but neither was I so I never judged. But
with her hair all wild and loose like that and her brown framed
glasses, she looked cute. I smiled at her and shrugged.

“I never met these relatives before. They’re
coming from Ireland from my dad’s side of the family. I guess Nonna
just wants me to get to know them.” It wasn’t a lie exactly. I
wished with all my heart that I could just tell her the whole
truth.

“Well, I’ll be at CyberSodas Wednesday night
with Derek for a little informal pre-Thanksgiving fun. Why don’t
you meet us? Like sevenish? Okay?”

“I’ll try.”

“No way, Grazi, promise!”

“I can’t promise, but I will sincerely try,
okay?”

“Fine. I guess that will have to do.”

“Yeah.” I gave her a quick hug and left the
building. It was so hard to keep secrets from someone I considered
a close friend. It wasn’t the first time I felt like crap having to
keep things from Angela. I shrugged it off and kept walking. The
frost covered grass made crunching noises as I stepped on it in my
worn penny loafers.

Dimitri and Sascha were waiting for me when I
went outside. The SUV was started, but I knew the heat wouldn’t be
on. We didn’t really need it. It was all I could do not to break
out in a sweat with just my school sweater on and it was less than
forty degrees outside. Like that would be inconspicuous.
Ugh.
I’m so weird.

Ronan was in the back, headphones on, eyes
closed as he played an imaginary piano on his lap. He must have
smelled me because his green eyes flew open and smiled in welcome.
He took my bag and my hand and pulled me in.

“You well?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.” I tucked my hair behind my
ear and looked at our entwined hands. It felt so natural to just
sit there with him like that. I could hear Sascha and Dimitri
arguing over something. I think food.
It was usually food.
But it was as if they were miles away. Only Ronan and I were there
in a quiet sort of cocoon of our own making. I wished we were
alone. He squeezed my hand as if he could read my thoughts.

“Are you ready for this?”

“I guess.”

“I’ll be there with you, okay?”

“I know. Thank you.”

He nodded and we sat in comfortable silence
the rest of the way home.

Cara came at me from the side. The blindfold
around my head was thick and I couldn’t see anything. I rolled out
of the way, but not fast enough. She kicked me in the side and I
lost my breath.

I could hear Ronan growl, but he stayed out
of it. I jumped up and swung my left leg out catching Cara behind
hers. I heard her hit the mat with a grunt. She jumped and landed
on top of me. Her knees in my chest and hands around my throat. I
tapped the mat and she got up.

I sat up and took the blindfold off. Ronan
walked over and helped me up, handing me a bottle of water.

“You okay?”

“Yeah.” I nodded.

“You’re too slow. You’re overthinking every
move. You’re going wind up dead!” Cara stormed away angrily.

“Don’t listen to her. You were fine.”

“No, she’s right. With the blindfold on I
couldn’t focus. My hearing and my sense of smell were like battling
with each other instead of working together.”

“Give yourself time. Each of us was born
knowing what we are. You’ve had a few weeks to get used to the
idea.”

I rubbed my shoulder. It burned and I
realized it was the same arm where I had been marked. Ronan and
Uncle Sean and the rest of the pack took turns with me scouring the
library for any hint of what the symbol meant.

The only information we found seemed to tell
me one thing. I was marked and that meant I was being hunted. I
just wished I knew why and by whom.

I left the sparring room to head home and
change. Next was a history lesson with Uncle Sean. Ronan would be
there with me.

That made me smile. Our relationship was new
and undefined, but I never felt more complete than when he was near
me. I took off my sweaty gym clothes and turned on the shower. I
left the water lukewarm. I was too worked up for hot water. I
needed to cool off.

I closed my eyes and lathered up my long
hair. Cara had mentioned again that it was impeding my fighting. I
didn’t see how. Anyway I wasn’t quite ready to give it up. I rinsed
the conditioner out and worked on washing and rinsing the rest of
my body.
Ouch! Crap.
A searing pain shot through my head. I
sat down hard on the floor of the tub. It was all I could do to
remain conscious, the pain was so great.