Unleash The Moon (The Preternaturals Book 6) (22 page)

Cobwebs and dust covered everything now. Nothing was
gleaming. Everything looked dull and in disrepair. Sydney caught a
glimpse of herself in the clouded dirty mirror. Her demon form
looked back out at her, so strong it almost overpowered the human
side completely now.

Noah hadn’t said a word since they left, and he
still wasn’t talking. Sydney ignored the tension and went to the
front desk. She pulled a map from the drawer and put it on the
counter. The wolves gathered around.

“
Is this okay,
guys? I mean, obviously it needs a lot of work, but it’s got
everything we need. Plenty of rooms for everyone. There’s a big
kitchen and a restaurant we can use for meals when we get it fixed
up. There are conference rooms we can have pack meetings in.
There’s a gym and a pool as well as a pool on the rooftop. It’s got
everything. It’ll just need a LOT of work to get back to how it
was. And I know some magic people who might be able to help it
along.” It would need magic if it was ever going to go back to its
former glory. Assuming Dayne and Greta and Tam and Anna agreed to
help.

The pack tensed at that.

“
No… they’re
friends,” she said. But the wolves didn’t seem convinced. With the
exception of the witch that had given them the enchanted music,
magic users were
persona non
grata
with them.

Sydney took the penthouse key from the peg on the
wall. “We’ll have to take the stairs until the elevator is
operational,” she said unnecessarily. Not that any of them had
trouble with stairs. Sydney could move so fast now, six flights of
stairs were more like six stairs, and wolf fitness was beyond elite
human athlete level. Nobody needed elevators.

The wolves studied the map and picked their own keys
and Sydney headed for the stairs. She felt Noah behind her but
didn’t look back. She couldn’t let him see her cry right now. The
sun would be up soon, and she needed to get to safety.

She coughed when she pushed open the penthouse door.
The dark green carpet in the hallway was threadbare, and she
squealed and jumped when a field mouse ran by. At least it wasn’t a
rat. Three more mice ran out behind the first one, then they
squeezed under the door to the stairwell.

“
Someone needs
to do something about the pest problem,” she
said.

Noah still wasn’t talking.

“
I understand
if, now that you’re home, you think marking me was a mistake. But
between that and my claim, we’re tied together now. There’s nothing
you can do to fix it short of killing me.” Maybe that was a stupid
thing to say.

Noah brushed past her into the penthouse and dropped
their bags on the living room sofa. Dust flew up everywhere.

“
Oh dear God,
what is that stench?” Sydney followed her reluctant nose into the
kitchen. In the pantry, there were exploded cans of peaches
everywhere. Her dad didn’t eat people food. This was definitely her
mom’s food. “Shit, Mom, you couldn’t clean out the pantry when you
relocated back to the compound?” she said to the empty
room.

The building was worthy of being condemned but it
provided shelter, and that was all anyone needed. Nobody needed a
kitchen or bathroom. The wolves could go outside. There was a
freshwater spring nearby for water and bathing. And they wouldn’t
need heat for several months. But she wanted to live like a person,
not an animal out in the woods.

She climbed the stairs to check out the rooftop. The
water from the pool would have evaporated. Rainwater would collect
and there would be algae likely growing on the bottom. But like
everything else in this place, it could be fixed with some TLC and
maybe a few incantations from Aunt Tam. Not that she’d seen Aunt
Tam in years.

As she opened the rooftop door, strong arms pulled
her back into the stairwell. Noah’s heart pounded against her back
as he nearly crushed her.

“
Are you insane?
Attempting suicide to get me to fucking talk to you? Jesus,
Sydney.”

“
I-I
wasn’t.”

Sunrise. Oh yeah. It had been a bit light when she’d
opened the door. This not falling dead before sunrise thing was
still hard to get used to. And she was even less tired today than
she’d been recently. Even with traveling all night. She was too
wired and hopped up on adrenaline and distraction. Even if she were
exhausted, she had a feeling that if the sun didn’t force her body
to shut down, her mind wouldn’t turn off and let her rest.

She’d resented the power the sun held over her all
her life, the way it could command her to sleep with no argument
allowed. Now she wanted it back. She’d never experienced insomnia.
She didn’t understand the concept. Now the idea of not being able
to sleep felt terrifying.

Noah growled and dragged her down the staircase and
into the main living space. She wrenched free of his grip. The red
mark healed as soon as she got free.

“
What the hell
is wrong with you?” she asked. She rubbed her arm, even though it
didn’t hurt. But it had hurt a second ago, and he should know it.
He shouldn’t be able to get away with manhandling her like that
without being subjected to some guilt.

“
Me? I’m not the
one who decided to experiment with vampiric
sunbathing.”

“
I
wasn’t!”

“
Could have
fooled me. Are you blind? It’s light out, and you were just going
right for the door.”

“
What do you
care? You’ve been weird since I got up last night. You regret it
don’t you? It was just being locked up so long and seeing a
familiar face. I’m not really her am I?”

“
Her?”

“
Your true mate.
It’s not me.”

Noah growled. “Oh for fuck’s sake, of course it’s
you! It’s always been you.”

“
Then why are
you acting like you can’t stand the sight of me? I’m sorry I’m a
vampire. I can’t help it, Noah. I’m sorry I need blood. I won’t
feed from you anymore if it disgusts you that much.” She turned to
flounce off into the master bedroom to deal with whatever creepy
crawlies had made their home there, when two hundred pounds of
angry werewolf growled and shoved her against the wall, completely
ruining her flounce.

His eyes glowed golden, his fangs fighting to push
through his gums. “You will feed from me. Every day. I won’t let
you be weak and sick again.”

He pushed away from her suddenly, as if she were
diseased and started to back away.

“
That! Right
there. What is that? If you’re so insistent I feed from you, why
are you doing that?”

“
I can’t talk
about it.”

Sydney’s eyes glowed red. Unlike Noah she didn’t
fight it when her fangs burst forth. “Talk about it!” she
shouted.

By now the sun was rising in the sky. It made her
forehead feel prickly and odd. Her mind began to scream at her
louder and louder about the sun’s growing strength. But she ignored
it.

The tiny windows at the top of the walls only
allowed small patches of light in. They were easily avoidable. She
hadn’t even had a chance to see if the windows in the bedroom were
still properly blacked out. And she wouldn’t get a chance to
because the last thing she felt was Noah’s arms catching her as the
sun claimed her.

When Sydney woke, she was in the master bedroom. Her
dad’s Botticelli hung crooked on the wall, cobwebs covering it. She
couldn’t believe he’d left it here. He’d always claimed it was a
reproduction. But it was the original deal and priceless. Her mom
had confided in her once about it. Yet he’d left it here to rot in
the last fight when they’d retreated to the compound for good. He
hadn’t bothered to retrieve it. Maybe he’d had more on his mind
than old art.

The windows were still blacked out, keeping the room
dark and safe. She had no doubt the sun was still up, given the
pattern of the last few days. Noah’s wolf body curled around her.
She could almost forget the last twenty-four hours of weirdness.
Almost.

Sydney shoved her mate off her and got up. She
carefully avoided the patches of light in the living room. All she
wanted was to get out of here, but the sun still held her prisoner.
She wanted to get the parental confrontations over with. She needed
to warn them. She didn’t know why the magic users hadn’t come yet,
but she felt certain it was only a matter of time. They knew
exactly where Sydney had come from, and where she was likely going,
and with the body count they’d left behind, they would surely want
revenge.

Maybe they didn’t care. She was an oddity, a
curiosity, but both she and Noah had proven to be too much trouble,
and the humans wouldn’t worry the two of them might have an army to
fight back.

If Noah and Sydney were more noble they’d want to
rescue all the imprisoned preternaturals, but such a thing was like
saying you were going to end world hunger. It was too ubiquitous.
Even if they shut down that facility, there were thousands more,
located in every city that had been taken over.

The smell from the pantry was starting to get to
her. The cleaning products in the hall closet had all expired. And
there was no running water. She stared at the exploded peach cans.
Her mother had some homemade cleaning supplies at the compound.
Even if Sydney thought she could avoid her parents forever, now she
had to go. She needed to get this penthouse clean. The dust and
smells and cobwebs were driving her slowly insane.

She jumped when heavy hands landed on her
shoulders.

“
I thought
perhaps you’d made another suicide attempt.”

“
Shut up, Noah.”
Was that his attempt at a joke? It wasn’t even funny. It felt like
they’d lost their way. As if the chemistry she’d believed they had
had only been an illusion, like face-planting into asphalt after
trusting the mirage of a lake.

“
You need to
feed.”

She shrugged out of his grasp. “I don’t want to feed
from you. I’ll hunt an animal or something.”

“
No! You’re
feeding from me. You’re my mate. I have to provide for
you.”

The penthouse grew darker, with only moonlight
coming in through the tiny thin windows now.

“
Don’t make it
sound like such an obligation.” She made a beeline for the door,
but Noah was faster.

Stupid, Syd. She could have blurred up to the roof
and jumped off and ran. Maybe she’d just stay gone. Let Noah run
the pack himself. Inside of a week he’d be saying, “Sydney
who?”

She hadn’t noticed until now that he hadn’t bothered
to put on any clothes yet. Her eyes kept going from the muscles in
his stomach to the vein in his throat. Eye candy. Dinner. Eye
candy. Dinner. He could no doubt see she was losing the civilized
fight as her gaze drifted back to the throbbing vein. All. That.
Blood.

“
I was afraid I
would hurt you, okay?” Noah said. “That’s why I got distant. I kept
seeing how natural the pack was with you and something in me wanted
to challenge you and eliminate you. I think being locked up so long
really messed me up. I worry you aren’t safe with
me.”

“
You’d never
hurt me.”

“
You don’t know
that. You don’t know the thoughts that were going through my head.
I’m scared of myself with you.”

“
That’s
bullshit.”

“
Sydney…”

Her eyes glowed red; her fangs elongated. If she had
any doubts about him, she’d be wise not to do this before she’d
fed, but whatever other insecurities she had, the idea that Noah
would actually harm her wasn’t one of them. They had too many other
issues to deal with to be side tracked by this stupidity.

She moved into a fighting stance. “I challenge you
for the pack.”

Noah’s eyes widened. “What? Take it back. You don’t
know what you just said.”

“
Sure I do.
Which do you want more? The pack? Or me breathing? It’s up to you.”
She punched him in the face.

His eyes glowed golden, and he began to partially
shift. She knew it took everything in him not to shift completely
to the wolf.

“
Run, Sydney,”
he growled.

“
No.”

“
I knew you were
suicidal. First the sun, now this.”

Sydney rolled her eyes and shoved him.

Noah growled and pounced on her, taking them both
down to the ground. Looking into his eyes, she saw more wolf than
man. His fangs were inches from her throat. It would be such a
simple thing for him to rip it out.

“
Well? One
simple move, and the pack is all yours.”

She closed her eyes when she felt his tongue run
over the mark he’d left when he’d made her his mate.

“
I told you,”
she whispered.

“
That was so
stupid. You had no way of knowing I wouldn’t just kill you in a
rage.”

“
That’s not
true.”

Noah raised his weight off her and gave her some
space. “How did you know? You thought you weren’t even my true
mate.”

“
I thought maybe
you marked the wrong person, but the mark still would have
protected me. When we were kids, about a year before you got taken,
I was on my way to see you when I stumbled upon your parents. They
were in a fight about something and it was an alpha power struggle
thing, an argument they were having about the pack. She didn’t use
the words ‘I challenge you’, but she was definitely doing it. The
fight turned physical, and it looked on the surface like he’d lost
control. With her being a demon, she was stronger than him. But he
pulled every one of his punches, anyway. He wouldn’t let himself
hurt her. The mate instinct is stronger than the alpha
instinct.”