Black Moon

been a second before. He took this one out almost like the first, stepping into its body and delivering the thrust to its corroded heart.

But this one didn’t die easily. As Kalen stepped back to let it fall, the creature made one last swipe with its claws, tearing right through his duster and the shirt beneath, into his side. Kalen swore as he stumbled back, clutching the tattered coat. Goddammit! He’d had that duster for years, and this asshole had messed it up.

Even wearing his pendant, he could get hurt. But he’d heal faster with it than without.

There would be plenty of pain to accompany the injury, he was sure. But for now, it hardly registered. A quick glance showed that the others had this part of the house under control. Kalen took off down the hallway just in time to see two Sluagh outside a closed door, one slamming his bulk into it again and again. As he burst through, pieces of wood went flying and the screaming inside ramped up to ear-shattering decibels.

“Hey, you fuckers!” Kalen yelled. The two attackers turned to face him, their wrinkled, batlike faces registering surprise.

Then they shrieked, flapping their leathery wings and beating their chests in an attempt to look scary. Mission accomplished. Fortunately these creatures ran on a severe shortage of brain cells. While they were busy attempting to see which one could appear the most frightening, Kalen uttered a word, held out a hand, and summoned his Sorcerer’s staff.

After leaving his bed in the infirmary to come here, then doing battle, this was going to drain him. But it was the most expedient way to remove the threat from the wide-eyed woman and teens beyond the gaping doorway.

Softly, he began a chant directed at the enemy, the ones in front of him as well as any remaining Sluagh outside. Their macho posturing halted and they looked puzzled—and then their skin began to shrivel like raisins in the sun. Almost every creature on earth was made mostly of water. Take away that element and there wasn’t much left. Malik’s trained dogs were no different.

This method of Sorcery was one of the most disgusting he knew, but effective. The Sluagh began to whimper in fright and he almost felt sorry for them, but the image of the poor man in the living room erased that feeling in a hurry. The pair shriveled to husks, dead in moments, and then he simply waved his staff, reduced them to dust, and sent the particles floating away.

Kalen raised his gaze to the woman beyond the door—and she promptly fainted. A teenage boy and girl stared back at him.

“Fucking awesome,” the boy said. The girl burrowed into her brother’s side and remained silent.

Kalen started for the door, grimacing as the burning in his side made itself known. He staggered a bit, dizzy, but he wasn’t finished here. Leaning against the doorframe, he nodded at the kids.

“What’s your name, son?”

“Travis,” he answered, his voice scared but strong. “This is Katie.”

“Okay, Travis, I need your help. You and your sister get your mom up on the bed. Then all of you stay in here until we say you can come out.”

“Where’s my dad?” His chin quivered. Still so young, on the brink of manhood.

Oh, kid. I’m so sorry.

“Just stay here, all right?”

“Tell me where my dad is!” Travis was starting to panic, and that wouldn’t do.

Holding out his staff, Kalen chanted a few soft words. The teens’ eyes fluttered closed, and their bodies lifted along with their mother’s. Gently, Kalen floated them all onto the bed and laid them down together. There they would sleep until the Pack could arrange to get them out of this place.

A hand clamped down on his shoulder and he turned his head to see Nick standing there, his expression grim. “Thanks for the help with those last few. There were more outside the house than we thought. Jax and Zan almost got their asses killed.”

“They all right?”

“Yeah. Because of you.”

Kalen flushed at the praise. It was nice, but strange to a guy like him. “What now?”

“We’ve got a dead civilian. Fuck!” the commander spat, losing some of his legendary cool for a moment. He heaved a deep breath. “I made a call to our buddy Sheriff Deveraux. The rest of the creatures hadn’t yet reached the citizens in town, so we’re okay there. He’ll spin this attack to the public as an armed robbery or something. Random attack.”

Kalen’s lip curled at Deveraux’s name. There was no love lost between him and Kalen. The asshole had tried to run him out of town more than once when Kalen had first arrived.

“A robber who bit a man’s head almost clean off? Yeah, that’ll fly.”

“They aren’t going to let that tidbit see the light of day.” Nick gestured to the forlorn figures on the bed. “Did they see what happened to the dad?”

“I don’t think so. The boy asked where he was, but I didn’t tell him anything. Figured putting them to sleep until this is cleared away would be best.”

“Good thinking. Can you do a mind wipe on them?”

Kalen considered it, and nodded. “That’s about all I have left in me, but yes. I can. They’ll wake up tomorrow with no memory of the Sluagh, us, or anything else that took place here. Then the good sheriff can spin whatever story he wants and they’ll never know any different.”

“All right. Do it so we can turn this over to Deveraux and get the hell out of here.”

“You gonna warn him that there’s more Sluagh where these came from?”

“Don’t see any other way. He needs to know, and he’ll call us if he or his men spot anything unusual.”

Unusual. Now, there was an understatement. It was on the tip of his tongue to smart off that he could tell Nick used to be an FBI agent, but he refrained. Barely. Instead he walked on unsteady legs over to the bed and knelt. He wanted this over with quick.

Starting with the boy, he pressed his palm to the forehead and literally pulled the memories of the last half hour from his mind. The scenes were horrid, filled with the terror of monsters at the door, and he began to sweat as they flowed from the boy. When he’d retrieved them all, he set them free, letting them dissipate like so much noxious poison. Until the day the boy died, there would forever be a gaping hole in the day he lost his father. Same with the sister and their mother.

Finished, Kalen pushed to his feet, barely able to stand now. He was beyond thrilled to see the sheriff standing in the bedroom with Nick, both of them studying him in fascination.

“It’s done,” Kalen told them hoarsely. “They’ll wake up tomorrow, and they won’t remember a thing about tonight. Ever.”

“Well, it looks like you’re good for something other than hanging out in the cemetery robbing graves and disturbing corpses,” Deveraux drawled, a hint of a snide tone coloring his words.

“Fuck you, douche bag.”

“Jesse,” Nick rumbled to the sheriff in warning. “Lay off.”

“Oh, sure,” the lawman said amiably. “Wouldn’t want to hurt the princess’s feelings, would I? Ya’ll have a nice night, Nicky. And don’t call me again for, say, twenty years or so.”

“You wish. This is only the beginning, I’m afraid.” Nick sighed. “But we’ll keep all of it away from the public for as long as we can. Forever, if possible.”

Nick shook hands with the prickly sheriff. Then he and Kalen turned to go. That was when Kalen’s body decided it was finished being abused for the day. His knees buckled and Nick caught him, placing Kalen’s arm around his shoulders.

“Easy, kid. I’ve gotcha.”

“I’m fine.”

“That would be more convincing if you could walk on your own and you weren’t bleeding all over me.”

“Shit. Sorry.”

His side hurt like a bitch and his head was swimming. As they made their way through the house, Kalen took note of the others. His friends were all accounted for, battered, some bloody and limping, but alive. That was all he needed to know for now.

And these guys were his friends. No matter what lies Malik spewed.

He just prayed he could remember that in some distant corner of his mind when the darkness rose once