Page 17 of Lunar Desires
Tears streamed down my face. Any minute now, I’d collapsed into a ball of sorrow. Whoever this was, they successfully tugged at all the right strings to hurt me.
Deeply.
“I want my dad…” I whimpered. “I want my dad.” I did collapse then, backside slamming into the sofa.
“Son…”
I slumped forward, the room blurred in a watery lens of my sadness. “You’re not him. You’re not him.”
Get up. Get angry.
But I listed to the side, pulling my knees to my chest, wracked with agonizing grief, losing myself, paralyzed by overpowering emotion.
“Son. Come to me, son.”
I bunched myself up tighter, closing my eyes like a child afraid of the monster under the bed.
“You’re not him,” I repeated like a mantra, willing him to go away.
Voices again. Commotion in the room, the sound of my name. A thud, followed by something shattering.
What the hell?
“Drake…” I said.
“Moon…” Footsteps, the icy temperature taking a further plunge.
I opened my eyes, the figure almost on me, reaching out a hand.
And I didn’t move. I didn’t fight back, only watched as the hand came down, its blue fingers splayed.
“Moon is mine.”
I closed my eyes again, making myself small. Nothing but a cowering mess crying for his daddy, practically offering myself to the mercy of this figure.
Get up and fight!
Too late. The freezing hand touched my head, forcing the air from my lungs.
My eyes flew open, meeting a blaze of blue before the figure hauled me off the sofa, flinging me over his shoulder.
“Moon mine!” the figure bellowed.
In another burst of blue light, the room was gone.
Chapter 5
DRAKE
Launching myself at Riley got me thrown across the room. I crashed into the wall with a mighty thud, pain shooting down my spine.
Shit!
I hit the floorboards, hands bracing my fall, my knees taking the brunt. But I sprang to my feet, high on adrenaline.
This wanker wouldn’t be hurting Riley.
Molly tried intervening by taking a swing at the figure. I’d witnessed her punches many times, especially in the early days of our friendship dealing with the Gilligan Gang who once haunted Lower Marsh and the surrounding area. Man, they were bone-breaking punches, and she took out so many wankers on the final day of the Gilligan’s dominance. And what a day that’d been, the full power of the people rebelling against an oppressor. I’d only been hanging around here because of a decent number of scrying jobs, but found myself caught up in the good fight. Got to see Molly deliver the starting blow to the head of the gang, Ronald Gilligan. She broke his teeth, sent him tumbling into the gutter, and then the fighting began.
