Unleash The Moon (The Preternaturals Book 6) (25 page)

Did her dad just smile?
Like
smile
? It might be time to
look for alien pods.

Cole growled in response.

Sydney turned to Noah. She knew he must see the
questions and hurt in her eyes. Did the werewolf alpha not like
her? She’d been so worried about her dad’s reaction, the thought
that the wolves wouldn’t want her around, stung. Especially in
light of the pack she was already half running with Noah. It wasn’t
like she couldn’t fit in with wolves. She’d already proven that she
could.

“
He’ll get over it,” Noah
whispered, pressing a kiss to her forehead.

Jane got up from her seat next to Cole and wrapped
Sydney in a hug. “Welcome to the family, dear,” she said.

The alpha werewolf growled again.

“
That’s it,” Jane said. “What’s
done is done. You’re hurting Sydney.”

“
You know I have nothing against
her, personally. It’s the
vampire thing,
” he spat, his arms crossed over his chest now like a
petulant toddler demanding a cookie.

Right, because hating Sydney’s race had nothing to
do with her or anything.

Anthony had shifted from psychopathic rage, to
acceptance, to near beaming and giddy in the space of about five
minutes. “We should have a party for them,” he said.

Everyone just stared.

“
What? We’ve been hiding out and
barely talking for years, let’s throw a party for once, to
celebrate the joining of our two mini-kingdoms, so to
speak.”

And now he was back to strategizing, calculating,
and controlling. The vampire king simply couldn’t help himself, but
at least he didn’t seem to have goals of world domination in mind
this time.

When Sydney had been told the stories, her mother
kept saying that it was because he wanted to protect them.
Charlee’s explanation was starting to sound true, rather than the
lies a woman told herself to excuse her husband’s crimes. Not that
her parents had ever married in the human way.

A throat cleared at the end of the table. Uncle
Cain. He stood. “Why don’t we secure our borders, and then we can
talk about parties?”

Anthony growled, and Noah didn’t look thrilled. It
didn’t matter who got together, Cain always ran things one way or
another. Maybe he simply had more focus than the rest of them.

Aunt Greta slid into the seat next to Sydney and
gave her a hug. “I’ve missed you,” She said. “I wish the
circumstances of this reunion were different.”

Sydney couldn’t imagine a happy set of circumstances
in which they’d all hang out together again. For years they’d lived
a few miles from one another but mostly avoided each other, various
feuds and spats getting in the way.

“
Hey kid,” Dayne said. The
sorcerer smiled and joined Greta.

“
Hey Uncle Dayne.”

She’d spent many weekends as a child in his cottage
basement watching him concoct potions and testing some of them for
him. Though her dad didn’t know about that part. Anthony might have
murdered the sorcerer if he’d known she’d been helping him perfect
potions that turned people into stink bugs.

On the other side of the table was Hadrian, a
vampire who used to work for her father. She’d only heard of him.
She’d never met him. He’d been a priest once and now lived in the
basement of the local abandoned church. There was a rumor that he
could go out in the sun for short periods without burning, but it
was probably just a rumor.

Sydney knew it was him because she’d met his mate,
Angeline, a few times over the years. Hadrian and her father hadn’t
spoken since Sydney was a baby from what she’d heard. He’d betrayed
them all and helped line up the events that had brought on the war.
So this fantastic existence she’d had? Probably Hadrian’s
fault.

He squirmed in his seat, clearly uncomfortable
facing everyone again. But Angeline was a guardian, and as a fallen
angel she was strong and could help in the fight. They both were.
It was the least he owed them.

“
Hey, missed you.”

Sydney looked up, startled. Anna
stood in the middle of the table. Not
on
the table, in the middle of it. She was Luc’s mate and also a
witch. But her ability to permeate solid objects like a ghost came
from her demon mate—Uncle Cain’s brother.

“
Anna, will you please stop doing
that?” Luc said.

“
No, Sweetie, but thank you for
asking. I’m about over this not being able to hold a solid form
unless you’re touching me, thing. It’s been like thirty years of
this!”

“
I told you it would last a
century or so. Then once all your other demon powers have
developed, you’ll be able to go solid on your own. It’s for your
protection.”

“
No, you said a couple of decades,
not a century!”

“
Did I? I forget,” Luc said. “Time
runs together for me. Maybe I meant a few decades.”

“
Luc! It better not be a
century!”

Anna had always been difficult. Sydney hadn’t seen
her in over ten years, but she remembered that much. Nobody
complained about banal shit quite like Anna did.

“
Oh just grab her,” Cain said,
annoyed.

“
I can’t without her getting stuck
in the table,” Luc said.

“
Yes, it would hurt. And then she
wouldn’t do it anymore.”

Anna rolled her eyes and got out of the table. Luc
held her hand so she could sit down.

Only one person at the meeting hadn’t spoken to
anyone, a guy in a black leather jacket. He sat next to a strange
blonde woman who’d been making small talk with a squirrel. They
were the two that weren’t on the guest list. He looked like a hit
man, and Sydney wasn’t entirely sure he wasn’t there to eliminate
them.

“
Okay, that’s enough!” Cain said,
growing tired of the meet and greet and wacky antics.

When everyone settled, the demon leader continued.
“When Jane came to us a few hours ago about the meeting, we weren’t
as surprised as you might expect. Tam, why don’t you take this? You
explain the magic stuff better.”

Tam stood as Cain sat down. “Some of you may know
that I had a very dear friend decades ago who was my familiar for a
long time. He was a raven therian and traveled with me extensively.
Henry is in the angelic realm now. Though we closed the portals to
physically come here, communication is still possible in dreams and
vision states. I asked Henry to do reconnaissance and bring some
information back to me.”

Sydney found her hand in the air like an overeager
school child.

“
Yes?” Tam said.

“
How do you know it wasn’t just
you imagining him? How do you know it was really your friend?” Tam
had a reputation for magic, but dreams and visions felt too unreal
to bet your life on.

“
I didn’t do this today. Henry
came to me two days ago. He told me you guys were on your way but
that the magic users in the hub city wouldn’t be far behind.” She
looked apologetic. “I didn’t say anything because if you didn’t
make it back, I didn’t want your parents to mourn you twice. And
there was always a chance my information could be
wrong.”

Jane and Cole nodded their understanding, but
Anthony looked like he wanted to kill her for withholding
information.

Tam ignored him and continued. “The people in the
city waited because they didn’t want to just chase you down and
kill you. They want to eradicate what is left of our city and take
everyone who survives the fight back with them. It’s a capture, not
a kill mission. Those require more planning.”

It hadn’t occurred to Sydney that they wouldn’t
simply rush up there seeking quick vengeance. The risk of death,
she’d weighed and accepted. She hadn’t considered the horror of
recapture or the capture of her family and friends as well.

“
Are you okay, Syd?” Tam
asked.

“
I-I’m fine,” she lied.

Tam arched a brow but went back into her speech.
“Even from the beyond, Henry has watched out for me. When I told
Cain about it, he suggested the same as you, that maybe it was just
a dream. But I started preparing, anyway. When Jane told us of the
meeting tonight, I got to say ‘I told you so.’”

Cain chuckled from beside her.

“
Jane and Cole know Fiona,” Tam
said. The blonde stranger gave a shy wave from beside the panther
therian in the leather jacket whose arm she clutched as if he might
keep her from going beneath the surface of the sea and drowning.
“Fiona and Z took Noah in when he was just a pup after Jane died
that one time.”

Z. Yeah, he looked like a one-letter-for-a-name sort
of guy.

Jane stifled a laugh.

“
What’s funny?”

“
After Jane died that one time,”
Jane said. “I love how casual you are about my untimely
demise.”

“
Eh, you came back,” Tam said.
Mystical deaths and resurrections and changing species was just
another day for the bad ass superwitch turned demon mate. “Anyway,”
she said, preparing to go back into catching the group
up.

“
Ummm, can I?” Fiona asked from
the table. “It’s my story.”

“
Sure, why not,” Tam
said.

“
Some of you met me that time we
had that big fight with Anthony.” She pushed a long strand of
blonde hair behind her ear.

Big fights with Anthony were fairly commonplace, but
the group seemed to know which specific big fight she was talking
about. Anthony had the good grace to look ashamed. He had briefly
kidnapped Fiona, after all.

Sydney had still been in the womb when all this had
gone down, but she’d heard the stories about fifty times, mostly
from Noah when they were kids, who she was sure had exaggerated
what he’d heard from his parents. The story had directly involved
Noah, as he’d been the one Anthony had taken to try to get Cole to
spill the beans about his den’s secret location.

Fiona continued. “I wasn’t a very good witch back
then. I was too scared of my powers and of everything else. It
didn’t become an issue until I spotted my first gray hair. Because
I wasn’t using magic to the extent and level that other magic users
were, I was aging like a regular human. Meanwhile I knew Z could
live centuries. I panicked and looked Tam up. She taught me how to
grow and channel my power. So that’s why I’m here, to help. I-I can
talk to the animals.”

Talking to the squirrel made sense now.

“
It’s a rare gift,” Tam said. “And
it’s one we’re going to use to our advantage. The forests around
here are teeming with deer, coyotes, wolves, bears, and birds.
Without the humans around encroaching on their habitats, the wild
areas have gotten very wild. We can use magic, but with only magic,
we’re simply fighting them with what they already know to expect.
When the wildlife comes after them as well, it might change their
vindictive outlook. Once we fight them back, we can strengthen and
create strong magical wards to keep them out in the future. But we
don’t have time for that now. We didn’t have time for it two days
ago. We’ll need the right moon and a lot of magic users. It’s not
something we can do under pressure or deadline. But we can fight.
We’re good at fighting.”

Anthony interrupted Tam. “I let us down.”

The group seemed startled by the admission. Her
father admitting to doing anything wrong was pretty much unheard
of.

“
It was foolish to try to control
everything and every one like I did. It was for Sydney and Charlee,
but it got out of hand. If I hadn’t set up a police state—no matter
the overall good I intended for my family—it couldn’t have been
taken over in so many places by the humans. We wouldn’t have had to
hide and stay invisible like this. I ushered us into another dark
ages for our kind. I’m sorry.”

Everyone at the table sort of sat in a freeze frame
until Cain clapped the vampire king on the back. “It takes a big
person to admit to that.”

Anthony seemed to search for a joke or insult, but
it wasn’t there to find.

Tam closed her eyes, and the wind swept up around
her as she lapsed into a trance. When she opened her eyes again,
she looked panicked.

“
They’re coming. They’ll be here
in less than an hour. They’re moving fast.”

“
I’ll start my part,” Fiona
said.

Tam nodded. “I’ll get everyone else ready.”

“
I’ll go with her,” Sydney blurted
out.

“
No,” Noah said, “I don’t want us
to get separated.”

Sydney felt her eyes flash, and her fangs begin to
push out. Noah must have seen her resolve and realized that now
wasn’t the time for a challenge fight between an alpha pair. He
nodded slowly as if to convince those assembled that it was his
call, and he’d decided to be magnanimous with his mate.

Sydney didn’t need permission. She was finished
getting permission to go on walks. She wouldn’t be locked inside
compounds or cells or penthouses or dens any longer. She’d lost all
her taste for cages.

Chapter Fifteen

Sydney followed Fiona through the woods. She was
surprised the witch’s panther mate had stayed behind with the
others, but Z seemed like a fighter by nature. He’d want to hear
the plan for the big confrontation.

Fiona pushed a long strand of blonde hair out of her
face with one hand and pulled back a tree branch with the other.
Sydney grabbed the branch before it could thwap her in the face.
While nice, Fiona seemed off in her own world and perhaps a little
scatterbrained.