Irish Moon (42 page)

My Weblog: http:// AmberScottBooks

BIO:

In between naptimes and dishes, Amber Scott escapes
into the fates, loves and complications of her characters lives. A
native Nevadan, she makes her home in Arizona now with her husband
and two young children. She often burns dinner, is addicted to
chocolate and believes in happily ever after.

~

April 2011…Blood is a drug and vampires are
immortals addicted to it.

Fierce Dawn

By Amber Scott

Prologue

Sadie Graves did not have time for this. But
the fear shimmering in her sister Heather’s eyes sent guilt pinging
through her. “What did she say?” Sadie asked, setting her backpack
on her bed before flopping down next to it.

“It was bad this time,
Sadie,” Heather repeated. “Real bad. It isn’t just
end
-
of
-
the
-
world
stuff anymore. She’s chanting about her daughters, about angels and
vampires.”

Sadie rolled her eyes despite the dread
clutching her belly. “I know she’s getting worse, Heather. But I
don’t know what to do. You want me to get her committed or
something? She’s our mother. I can’t live with that.”

“What about Aunt Molly?” Heather tugged at
her ponytail, worrying the tips of her long hair.

Sadie hated that she
didn’t have a better answer. One of them at least deserved a
childhood. A sixteen and fifteen year old girl should be worried
about boys and driving lessons not self
-
mutilation and social services.
“Aunt Molly knows. I told her. She has her hands full already with
Jen.” Jen, who was waiting for Sadie as they spoke. “Just make sure
she doesn’t get a hold of scissors again. I promise I’ll be back
before she wakes up.”

Slinging her backpack over one shoulder,
Sadie stood to leave out the window, recognizing the revving engine
outside as her cousin’s signal to hurry the hell up. Heather stood
as well, her pajama hand me downs too big on her young, slim form.
She dug under her pillow and shoved a book into Sadie’s hands.

“What’s this?”

“What do you think? It’s Mom’s. She tried burying it
in the backyard. I dug it up.”

“Heather, she does this.
She always has. I know it sucks
,
but you have to realize it’s nothing but words
scribbled on paper.”

“Just read it, okay? Read it and tell me it
isn’t different this time.”

Sadie glanced at the
window
,
but
seeing the urgency in Heather’s stance, dropped to her bed once
again. Jen and the club would have to wait. Wouldn’t be the first
time little sis did whatever she could to stop a good sneak
out.

She paged through the journal, pausing at
certain passages.

“…
three realms. He will
come for my girls. Wings to steal them and use them…”

Alright
,
so the tone of her mother’s
written mania had evolved a little.

“…
more than blood that’s a drug.
Sorrows and sorrows….Feeding off souls and leaving shells
behind….All the stories come true….three becoming two….hide the
Book…hide the book….the Book….”

“She thinks she’s a prophet,” Heather said in
a near whisper.

“And we know she’s not.” The heartache
pinched her chest and burned her throat. “I don’t know what you
want from me, Heather. I can’t do this. I’m sorry, okay? But in a
couple of years we can get jobs and keep her safe and have some
kind of life that is normal. Until then, we have to stick it out.”
Or go insane as well. “Okay?”

Heather’s sense of betrayal showed in her
intense gaze and crossed arms. Sadie knew the look, the same one
from every time Sadie had played with someone else as a child or
didn’t want to share a toy. Only this was worse. This, she honestly
deserved. But Sadie couldn’t stay. If she stayed, she’d go nuts
worrying about what to do. And how would that help?

It wouldn’t, she told herself again and again
as she eased out the window and sprinted through the shadows to
Jen’s car. It wouldn’t help.

Nothing would.

Chapter One

A shiver of wariness raced under Elijah
Stokes’ skin. The compass’s needle spun erratically, finding no
energetic trace of Lyric’s positioning. “Why would Lyric be
cloaking?” he asked Holly, who sat to his right pretending to read.
“Moreover, who would be helping him cloak?”

Holly put down the horror
novel. Elijah ran his thumb over the gold
-
framed face before snapping the
contraption shut. It fell with a thud against his chest, its chain
jangling in the quiet of the library. He sensed danger coming, but
couldn’t be sure his senses were on target.

“
Trust me, if Lyric needs
help, cloaking or otherwise, he’ll still know how to get it. Going
rogue probably improved his skills.” Holly’s eyebrows furrowed.
“And as for why, maybe he doubts how welcome he’ll be?”

“
More like how useful,”
Elijah said. Lyric could be the danger. Or Elijah could simply be
biased from their past. “And more likely evading
Enforcers.”

“
Well, useful, evading or
not, he’ll be here. He promised me.”

Elijah glared at Holly. If they weren’t in a
public—a mortal—place, Elijah would react to the reminder that
she’d contacted Lyric behind his back. But if he unleashed his
irritation here, the handful of humans studying nearby would pick
up on the violent energy.

If Lyric didn’t have enforcement on his
heels, an energy surge could snare some unwelcome immortal
attention on its own.

What if the danger he sensed wasn’t related to Lyric
at all?

“
Hate me later,” Holly
said, crossing her arms, making the plastic chair groan. “After
Lyric gets here and proves I’m right about Sadie.”

“
You should have waited to
summon him. We agreed to wait.” He inverted his magnetism, along
with his wings, again to be certain he and Holly blended
in.

Holly took the text Elijah had already
scanned, their latest dead end. “We put off summoning Lyric long
enough. We’re out of options, Elijah. If I don’t find Crusoe….”

“
Not you, Holly. We.” A
girl bent over a medical reference manual two tables away glanced
their way, her interest clearly resonating. Elijah exhaled an
indrawn breath, keeping his energy even keel. “We’ll find him,
Holly. I swear it. We will.”

Holly’s smile didn’t reach her eyes. The
worry in her words showed in her dark hair licking blue flames out
the tips. Her fingers sparked at every touch. She wasn’t herself.
The wear of stress over Crusoe’s disappearance showed.

Crusoe was more than a friend. More than
their leader. He was like a brother to Elijah.

“
Sadie’s
work shift started two minutes ago. But I haven’t seen her. Can you
locate her?” Holly
asked
.

Elijah retrieved his compass, this time
focusing on the human girl Holly had honed in on. The dial showed
Sadie’s signature energy immediately approaching the building.
Elijah concentrated on signs of Lyric again, asking the compass
with his own energy. The needle spun aimlessly.

"When did you contact him?" Elijah said,
hearing the edge in his voice. His frustration went beyond feeling
he’d failed Holly and Crusoe. Working with Lyric again, after what
had fallen between them, after the lifestyle the feeder had taken
to since, left Elijah cold.

"Four days ago," Holly
said, her gaze wavering. The flames in her hair licked higher. She
smoothed the locks
,
but attraction for him emanated off of her. Her stress must
be making her vulnerable to his ability to attract immortals and
humans alike, like bees to honey.

Elijah tried to invert his
magnetism further. Lust between friends sounded like a new layer
of
H
ell neither
of them needed at this point. Plus, the glancing girl was beginning
to stare.

Holly had sent for Lyric four days ago. They
were running out of time. Crusoe had been gone hundreds more than
just four days.

"Elijah, I know you don’t
want to hear it
,
but I’m on the verge of believing Crusoe is truly gone.” She
took a shuddering breath. “Dead. I’ll go crazy if we wait any
longer. Not if Lyric can help."

“
I know.” He scrubbed a
hand over his face. “When will he get here?"

Her hair sparked but Holly didn't answer.
She didn't have to. Elijah heard the feeder's approach, recognized
his vibration’s pitch. “Nevermind.” He examined the compass. Speak
of the energy sucker. Lyric looked to be within a mile of the
building, skyward. His pulse hitched.

He hadn’t seen Lyric in more than a year and
the last time had been ugly. The last thing Elijah wanted was a
spectacle. Would the feeder still be volatile?

"How much does Lyric
know?" He kept his voice low and his energy even keel. The
smattering of mortals present
wasn’t
evolved enough to detect
flames and wings, but violence and danger
were
palpable to any human
brain.

"The barest bones. That Crusoe is still
missing. That we are still trying to find him. That we need him. I
haven’t told him about Sadie yet if that’s what you’re worried
about."

Elijah absorbed what she said. And the
implications. Though Lyric had left them before Crusoe’s
disappearance, he doubtlessly heard of Crusoe being linked to the
Illeautians and their anti-human activity.

He honed in on Sadie, who
was in the building, coming up the elevator. Was it her? Was she in
danger? He was far from a messenger and would never claim to have
that kind of prescient power
,
yet his gut was warning him of something. “We
can’t meet him here. If he really has been blood using, even if
not, he could give in and feed off her energy just for a
fix.”

He hated the very thought
that his former friend and teammate had gone vampire. Blood
addiction might be the scariest, most
devastating
downfall Elijah had ever
witnessed for any immortal. And in a hundred years of hunting
criminal immortals, he’d seen plenty.

“
You don’t know he’s ever
used. Not for sure. And if he has, he’s sober now.

“
How would you
know?”

“
I asked. He promised
me.”

“
And you trust the word of
an addict?” Elijah kept his eyes on the elevators. Any moment now,
he’d glimpse them opening through the racks, Sadie exiting one. In
truth, trusting Lyric’s ability to control his powers was only one
of his concerns. "What happens if he can't sense any more than I
can in Sadie? Have you considered that?"

“
I did.
Of course I did.” She put a hand on his
arm
,
but
she sparked against his skin and pulled it away. “And
i
f he tries to get a fix
off of her, I’ll help you shield her.”

Loathe as he was to admit it, Holly was right. He
had to try to trust Lyric again. His energy drew closer to the
library. Elijah estimated no more than a few minutes until Lyric
arrived.

Possessiveness over Holly,
over their months of research, scouring archives
,
hunting down evidence of a myth,
reared up within Elijah.

“
Perceptive as Lyric is, bringing in anyone else feels wrong.”
But the question lingered unspoken
;
where else could they possibly
look? They were out of options. “Sadie shouldn’t be put in danger
to satisfy our curiosity.”

“
He won’t hurt her. I
promise you. We’ll protect her. If she is what I think she is, and
Lyric comes back on as well….” She carefully cupped his cheek,
forcing him to look her in the eye. For once, her hand felt cool to
the touch, revealing how certain she was of this test. “If there’s
a chance, the smallest chance, doesn’t Crusoe deserve
it?”

He couldn’t hide his pain or take the bare
emotion collected in and glowing in her gaze. He looked away.
“Crusoe would have done better,” he said and removed her hand. “If
it was us, he’d have found us.”

Crusoe was the best seeker in the entire
immortal realm.

“
Never
say that,” she said, gripping his hand as though it could force his
answer. “Once we’re all together again, we will find Crusoe.
Holding the last year against Lyric
won’t
help now, Elijah."

Time yet closed in on them.

Crusoe could be dead, or worse. He could be
converted, brainwashed by the Illeautians. Elijah was failing him.
Leave it to Holly to see his silence as a sign of hope.

Sparks flashed in Holly’s eyes. “You’ll
thank me for this.”

Elijah forced his gaze to the page of notes
under his clenched hands. Underlined random, repeating questions,
his inky stabs in the dark, mocked him. Sadie neared them now.
Despite his stress and fatigue, the edge to his emotions softened.
He concentrated, inverting his energy. He didn’t like to, but he
might have to repel her.

One thing he knew, Lyric wouldn’t be reading
her until Elijah knew she’d be safe from any wish that the feeder
would bleed her emotions dry.

*

The lemony Arizona
sunshine warmed Sadie Grave
’
s shoulders
,
but prickly dread iced her spine
as Sadie entered the ASU campus library—her work—where her internal
clock began ticking.