kissed-by-moonlight by Rakhibul hasan (ebook reader for pc .TXT) 📕

to explain his loss of temper. I nodded in understanding, but refused to budge when he went to pull me along again.

 

“It isn’t safe for you.”

 

“I know that.”

 

“We need to leave, Phaedra. I have to get you, Asrai, and the rest of the Pack out of town before the Hunt arrives.”

 

“You say that you and the other Hounds turned on your Riders? That you’re no longer leading the Sidhe.”

 

He nodded.

 

“Then…that sort of means that there is no Wild Hunt anymore. It’s just a bunch of crazy Fae trying to get their dogs back.” I let that sink in. “You and the other Hounds, the other Alphas, are the real threat.”

 

“It doesn’t work like that.” But he seemed doubtful.

 

“Doesn’t it?” I asked gently. “The Riders have no power over you anymore, but you’re still running scared. Tail tucked between your legs.”

 

“The Masters of the hunt—”

 

“Former,” I corrected, finally growing angry. “They’re not the masters of anyone or anything. Not now and never again.”

 

“Asrai. The Pack.” He wasn’t arguing. Just talking out loud. Listing the casualties that could arise from a stand against the Mad Sidhe.

 

I straightened. “We’ll keep them safe,” I said, feeling confident that we could but not sure why. “This is your city. This is my home. I won’t leave it.”

 

Defeated, he bowed his head. “And I won’t leave you.” He rubbed his jaw and I noticed the stubble darkening his cheeks and chin. The bags beneath his eyes. My heart ached for him.

 

“The Riders.” Asrai spoke up, a tremble in her voice. “You’ve never seen them before. I have. They’re…there’s nothing else like them. They are nightmares made real. Bogeymen sent to frighten children. Even other monsters are afraid of them.”

 

“I’ve seen scary.” My words were for her, but my gaze was trained on Gabriel. For a heartbeat I looked at him, but it was the shadow beast I saw. The thing made of darkness and death that lived within him, hungry and waiting. “I’ve seen scary,” I said again, “And I think my nightmares will give yours a run for their money.”

 

A charged silence and then Gabriel sent me a lopsided grin. I smiled in return, and Asrai shook her head at us both.

 

“I’m supposed to kill the Riders of the Hunt. It’s all anyone ever talked about. The savior who would defeat the Mad Sidhe. But I can’t kill anyone. I can’t even pass the third grade. How can I be a savior if I never make it out of elementary school?”

 

—Asrai the Lightbringer

 

 

 

Chapter Sixteen

 

 

 

 

 

The great thing about Bob’s Burgers was that none of the staff judged you. When you wander in at 2:00 a.m. accompanied by a little girl and a grown man who was wearing the Examiner like a loin cloth, then lack of judgment was both essential and refreshing.

 

It didn’t hurt that most of the night shift were female or that Gabriel looked like a GQ model who’d lost his way. Hell, when he ordered a strawberry milkshake I was examining his bare chest with as much pleasure as our poor, flustered waitress. Asrai, dear, sweet, prepubescent creature that she was, was the only producer of estrogen in the restaurant with two good brain cells to rub together. She regarded the rest of us with a look of disgust children her age seemed programmed with. I’d asked her during our walk how her guardians would react when they found her missing and she’d responded with, “They won’t remember I was ever there in the first place.”

 

Her words had hurt something deep in me and I wondered how many times she’d had to do that. Live with a family only to wipe herself from their lives when she was prepared to move on. Now I was glad to find an excuse to ignore what a band of misfits we were. Like every other woman in BB’s, I was busy having eye sex all over Gabriel’s chiseled man parts.

 

I enjoyed myself for a minute, maybe two, before my brain overheated and my head slammed onto the Formica tabletop.

 

Tentatively, Asrai spoke up, “What’s wrong with her?”

 

I turned my head so that I could glare at them both through my bangs. Just as I suspected. Robust, healthy, and not the least bit winded.

 

“I’m old,” I answered the little girl with a sneer, my muscles already bitching at me from overuse.

 

“Old and grossly out of shape,” Gabriel corrected, ever willing to help.

 

“Shut. Up.”

 

“Someone’s cranky,” said sassy Miss Asrai. Gabriel laughed at the look on my face.

 

“Well, excuse me for being the only human at the table. Trekking through the wilderness for hours made me realize I’m not as spry as I once was.”

 

Gabriel tried to stifle the snort, but I heard it anyway. Even if I hadn’t, his raised eyebrow and his next words clearly expressed what he thought of me. “You? Spry? That’s cute.”

 

My inner Sean Connery picked that very moment to get bitchy. “Prepare for an ash kicking of epic proportions.”

 

He blinked.

 

“Did you just whip out Connery in the middle of an argument?”

 

This was awkward. I scratched my chin and regarded him, suspicious of his reaction.

 

“Maybe. Though, granted, it was more of a disagreement than an argument.”

 

He didn’t respond at first, but soon he was scowling and shaking his head in denial.

 

“What?” I asked, still bitter about being out-exercised by an eight-year-old.

 

“Nothing. It’s just. You’re just…” Words seemed to fail him momentarily. Then, “You’re just too damn cute.” He said in wonder, and I felt my heart stop. I was wondering if he meant it the same way I had, but before I could follow that line of thought too closely, a shadow fell over our cozy little booth.

 

At first I thought it was the waitress with our milkshakes and curly fries. It would have been nice if it had been.

 

“Sonya?” I gasped.

 

Shock wouldn’t even begin to describe how I felt in that very moment. I hadn’t seen her since she’d given me the spy equipment, but from the change in her we may as well have been out of touch for years.

 

Her blond hair had been cut almost to the scalp, and she wore the army fatigues as if she were more comfortable in their roomy confines than she had ever been in her Prada heels and brand name clothes. A gun rested in the holster at her hip, and her mouth was a tight line of displeasure as she glared down at us.

 

She looked like a completely different person.

 

She looked like a member of the Huntsmen.

 

Our waitress appeared at her back, tray laden with our orders. Clearing her throat, the woman placed a hand on her bony hip and blew a perfect, pink, bubblicious bubble in Sonya’s direction.

 

“Scuse you,” she said. Her nametag read Lottie.

 

The two women stared each other down, before, with a tinkling laugh that shocked us all, Sonya shook her head in apology.

 

“Sorry,” she said, still smiling as she plopped down beside me in the booth. “I sort of got carried away. Hey,” she nodded at Gabriel’s strawberry milkshake as the waitress set it carefully before him. “Can I get one of those?”

 

Eyeing her warily, Lottie the waitress nodded, set out the rest of our drinks and fries, and wandered off. Asrai, unconcerned with the turn of events, dug into her chocolate shake right away. I was too busy gawking at Sonya. I knew we’d talked about infiltrating the Huntsmen, but I hadn’t known until now that she’d be able to pull it off.

 

The girl was better than any of us had given her credit for.

 

“Are you here to drag us back to our cells?” I asked, amused as she snatched the bowl of curly fries out from under Gabriel’s hand. My voice was light, but I was only half joking. Across from us, Gabriel’s eyes began to darken in warning.

 

Sonya nearly choked on her first fry.

 

“God, no. I actually came to warn you. When you two never showed up at the rendezvous point, Liam sent a bunch of the Huntsmen out to search for you. Most of them are still out scouring the woods, but I figured you’d be where the food was. Since BB’s is the only restaurant open this time of night, I left my recon team and hauled ass over here to check things out.” She grinned, curly fries sticking out of her mouth like fried fingers reaching for freedom. “Am I good? Or am I a damn good?”

 

She’d followed the food. Was I really that predictable?

 

Since I wasn’t flipping out, Gabriel began to relax by slow increments, concentrating once again on his milkshake and eyeing the steadily disappearing basket of fries as if he were looking for the injured gazelle.

 

Sonya nudged me, leaning in close to whisper. “Who’s Mr. Tall, blond, and nearly naked?”

 

This time it was my turn to smile. “Gabriel Evans,” I stated, smug.

 

Her eyes widened, dark blue saucers in her heart shaped face.

 

“No shit?”

 

“No shit.”

 

“Holy ovaries, Batman,” she breathed.

 

Yeah. I understood that reaction all too well.

 

“Oh wow,” she gushed, speaking to Gabriel directly for the first time. “You’re not at all what I expected.”

 

“Really?” He pulled out that practiced smile and all of a sudden he was Mr. CEO. Dressed in a suit or not the man knew how to wear class better than some people knew how to wear their own skin. I wonder how long it had taken him to perfect that little trick.

 

“Oh yeah,” Sonya was saying, “In my mind I pictured you as some dictator. An asshole with a hard-on for power. But you’re a sweetie pie. Handsome too. I didn’t know you’d be so handsome. I mean, the second I saw you I dropped an egg.”

 

Sweet buttery baby Jesus.

 

“What?” Gabriel looked at me in confusion. Surprising, since even little Asrai started cracking up between scoops of chocolate. “What does that mean?” he asked helplessly.

 

“It means she saw you and started ovulating.” I explained. No point in sugar coating it.

 

At my words his face flushed scarlet, and I couldn’t help but chuckle at his look of helpless embarrassment. That’s when something occurred to me. If I hadn’t been staring right at him, hadn’t noticed the way his rising color contrasted so sharply with the silver collar around his neck, I may have completely forgotten that we were still wearing our trackers. Maybe the fact that we had been walking for hours without incident or recapture had made us lax, or maybe the Hunt had distracted us. Either way, when the alarm bells started going off in my brain, they did so with full force and I found myself surging to my feet.

 

“Sonya,” I said, “why are the Huntsmen searching the woods?”

 

She shook her head, confused.

 

“They’re searching for you.”

 

“No.” Damnit. This couldn’t be happening. Not when I was the one who convinced him to stay. “We have trackers on. They know where we are. Liam and his men could have picked us up at any time. So why are they in the woods?”

 

I met Gabriel’s eyes and saw that he’s come to the same realization as I had. His face drained of color and his lips thinned.

 

“I don’t know,” Sonya said thinly.

 

“Where does the Pack meet now for full moon nights? Where do they turn?” But I already knew the answer before he spoke.

 

“The park.” He looked as sick as I felt. “The Pack would have gathered at the park. It’s the only safe place they have now.”

 

* * * *

 

“Why?” I seethed. “Why would they go back there, knowing it’s where we were taken?”

 

I’d left Asrai with Sonya back at BB’s with strict instructions to head to my apartment if they didn’t hear back from us in a few hours. Sonya let us use her Camaro, and once again I found myself in the passenger seat while Gabriel broke every traffic law known to man.

 

The only reason why Gabriel wasn’t driving stark naked is because Sonya had an extra set of fatigues in the backseat. Whereas they had been roomy on Sonya, they barely fit him. But at least