Black Moon

when I first hit town and had a few bucks in my pocket.”

“Sounds good. I haven’t had Italian in ages.” Her stomach rumbled, reminding her she’d tossed breakfast after a nasty bout of morning sickness. She just prayed her body cooperated now that the nausea seemed to have settled for the day.

“Do you mind driving?”

“What, Nick still won’t let you borrow another SUV?” she teased.

“After I let the last one I took get ripped up by a Sluagh? Fat chance. He won’t even let me finish asking before he shouts no.”

“Well, that’s not fair. The damage wasn’t really your fault.” He made a disgruntled noise and she thought a second. “You can buy your own wheels now that you have a paying job with the team.”

“I will eventually. Soon as I save more for a down payment. Maybe I’ll get something cool like a Mustang Boss 302, fully loaded.”

He sounded so excited, she couldn’t help but smile. “Don’t shoot big or anything.”

“Of course not.”

By the time they got into her car, Mac driving, some of the strange tension between them had lessened quite a bit. Glancing over at him, she noticed that vibe of malice, or whatever it was, that she had detected in the rec room seemed to have vanished. He looked like Kalen again, green eyes clear, face more relaxed.

But as he met her gaze and returned her smile, she saw his pupils were still much too large. Opting not to mention it again until later, she put her car in drive and started down the long road leading away from the compound.

There would be time enough to figure out what was going on with him.

And she wouldn’t stop until she learned his secrets.

Five

“Wine?”

Mac shook her head. “I’d love a glass, but I’d better not while I still have half a day of work ahead of me.”

“You’re such a good girl, aren’t you? Never do anything wild or spontaneous?”

She could think of one time. However, she opted not to go there in spite of his obvious baiting. “Not too often. I guess that’s a hazard of being a general’s daughter.”

“I imagine he was tough.”

“Is tough. You have no idea.” She winced inwardly, thinking of how in the hell she was going to break the news of her pregnancy to her dad. Though she’d love to call him on the phone, blurt the news, and hang up, that wasn’t going to cut it. Not for Jarrod Grant. He’d expect his daughter to face him like a woman, not hide like a kid.

That meant a flight out to visit him. Soon.

“Hey, where’d you go?” Kalen asked, breaking into her gloomy thoughts.

“Just thinking about Dad.” That was no lie. “Being raised by him was no picnic, but he’s a good father and a great man. I learned everything I know from him.”

“You love him,” he said, his tone wistful.

“More than anything.”

Except this child. Your child.

“You’re lucky to have even one parent who dotes on you. I have two, if they’re still alive, and they’re just about as worthless as two people can be. If they aren’t already dead, I’d love to kill them both for the sheer pleasure of doing it.”

She stared at him, taken aback. He’d never spoken against them outright before, and with such anger. “That’s not a healthy emotion to live with,” she said softly. “Have you seen a counselor?”

He returned her stare, started to deny it. “When the hell would I— Hold up. Yeah. On second thought, I guess you could say I am, in a manner of speaking. Someone who’s helping me quite a bit, making sure I never feel like a victim again.”

She paused. “Who are you seeing? Maybe I know the doctor.”

“Didn’t say it was a doctor, did I?”

There it was again. A terrible shadow on his face and in his eyes, a certain unkind vibe that sent a nasty shiver down her spine. Who could it be? Was he seeing another woman? Fucking away his pain at night when he couldn’t sleep?

The awful nausea returned.

“You said you were raised by your dad. What happened to your mom?” he asked, changing the subject. Thankfully he seemed oblivious to her upsetting thoughts.

“She died of leukemia when I was ten.”

“I’m sorry.” His eyes softened.

“Thanks. It was hard on us, especially him. My memories of her are distant now, but not so for him. She was the love of his life. My dad was never the same, and he never remarried. He threw himself into moving up in the ranks in the Navy, but he loved me and made sure I knew it.”

The waitress came and took their orders, lingering longer and smiling more at Kalen than was strictly necessary. Mac tried not to bristle. After she moved off, Kalen went on, probing curiously into Mac’s past.

“How the heck did your dad raise you alone and still have the time to become a general?”

“I stayed with my aunt—his older sister, Gena—whenever he was deployed. She was able to do all the mothering he couldn’t, get me through the painful teen years when a girl needs a strong female in her life. He was gone less and less as the years went by, and now he’s pretty much a fixture in Washington.”

“Do you keep in touch with your aunt?”

“She passed away two years ago. Heart attack at age fifty-six.” Studying her water glass, she swallowed against the sudden burn in her throat. “In many ways, she was my mother. She’s the one I remember being there through all the skinned knees, awkward growing pains, boyfriend drama, and fights with best friends. She’s the one who took me shopping for my prom dress, styled my hair, took pictures when my date showed up. . . . Losing her was the saddest day of my life.”

One of Kalen’s hands reached across the table and covered hers. “You’ve had your share of loss. I’d give anything to change that for you, but I’m a Sorcerer, not a god.”

“I appreciate the sentiment, more than you know.”

He paused. “So, did you always want to be a doctor?”

“Since I was a kid. I used to make dad and Aunt Gena sit for hours while I ‘fixed’ them with my plastic doctor kit. It would be years before I realized that you can’t fix everyone, no matter how hard you try.” Crap, she hadn’t meant to say that last part. And sure enough, his curiosity was further piqued.

“Yesterday you asked me if I ever wondered why you left a perfectly good practice, came way out here in the middle of Bumfuck, and devoted yourself to studying paranormal creatures. And the answer is yes, I do wonder.”

His hand was warm and comforting on hers, his expression open and encouraging. Unlike the tense, smirking stranger from earlier, this man cared. This was the man who held her heart.

She took a deep breath. “I suppose it doesn’t make a difference telling you, since you could just Google my name and easily get the story.”

“I’ll do that if it’s better for you not to talk about it.”

“No, that’s okay,” she said, giving him a tremulous smile. “I was a psychologist, and a pretty good one, I thought. My practice was successful and I was content, if not totally happy and fulfilled.”

“No boyfriend?” he probed.

“No one serious. I was open to finding someone special, but it was just so hard with me being married to my career. My practice was going so well, I got caught up in complacency. Forgot exactly who I was dealing with— people with problems. Serious ones. A couple of my patients were extremely disturbed, but I wasn’t too worried. I