Page 47 of Blood Moon
“Holy shit.” Zac laughed in amazement. “Try that shit again!” He reached out and grabbed Alexi. “Take this bitch and turn her into red sand, Brade.”
“God, no!” She shrieked, fighting against Zac’s hold on her arm. “Zac?” She screamed.
“What?” he taunted. “You want my girl dead because you’re a jealous piece of shit, so I want you dead.”
It was beginning to seem as though Zac and I both are starting to pick up on inner feelings on a psychic level. This was weird.
“The next dumbfuck who wants to come at us will end up like Tim,” Logan said. “Yeah, you heard us all fucking last night—that’s what happens when you areguestsin someone else’s home—but you know what the best part about that is? All the crazy stories you’ve ever been told about how badass the Banner cousins will be bypassed by a fucking mile because of the shit we’re charged-up on now because of it. Don’t make us prove jackshit to you. Get on our side, and help us fight to end this demonic war we’re up against.”
“We’re in,” a beautiful blonde woman said. “We’re all in.” She glanced back at the mob, and they slowly nodded along with her.
“Good. Now, I smell bacon, and I’m fucking hungry,” Braden said, parting through the crowd like he was parting the Red Sea.
“How and what do we do when Cole gets back with that Fae Queen?” I asked Logan, his mood dramatically shifted into party mode.
It was crazy. I felt a mental shift too, but I also felt the fact that I should have been the one to mentally persuade everyone that they should have jumped on our side. It was a nagging and an overwhelming sensation that I couldn’t shake.
* * *
That night,all of us were trying not to panic when Cole, Val, and Zane hadn’t returned. Braden was pacing floors while Logan and I were trying to get my mind to tap into this power I felt but had no access to.
“They’re all on our side,” Logan said, sitting next to Zac and me at the table. “Try and concentrate without the fear or whatever it is that’s holding you back.”
“I am,” I seethed, rubbing my temples in frustration. “I feel like I should be able to see them through my mind’s eye, but something is blocking it.”
“Holy fucking shit!” Zac barked.
My eyes snapped open, and we were all sitting in an elegant Victorian-decorated dining hall. I was now at a table covered with burgundy fabric and a silver dome covering what must have been my meal, and when I glanced up to get ahold of my bearings, I saw large, hanging chandeliers with candles flickering as the wax dripped from their tips.
“Welcome,” an eerie and deep voice that I immediately felt was menacing said.
I turned my head in the direction where the voice came from to find the long black-haired vampire, Enzo, standing at the head of the table in an outfit fit for a king from another era. I swallowed the lump in my throat, realizing some invisible force had my body frozen where I sat, and all I could move was my head.
“Daughter,” he nodded with brilliant white teeth that displayed his smile. “Wow, it’s all come together, and the time is drawing near.”
“What the hell?” was all I could get out.
“Enzo,” Cole’s voice from across the table alerted me to the fact that all of us had been transported here. I looked to my right, and the new, teenage version of my daughter sat with the stern black eyes she’d inherited from her father.
We were all here. Everyone except for Val and that fairy queen. The bastard managed to pull us all together, and with some power that he’d most likely created, he’d teleported us to his creepy Frankenstein factory.
“Silence,” Enzo waved his hand toward Cole. “I already know what you Banners want. I know what my daughter wants, my beautiful granddaughter…but most of all, I know what I want.”
“What exactly do you want?” Aria spoke boldly past Enzo’s little spell.
Enzo smiled and walked over to a mummified-looking woman with silver hair. Her face looked like old, dried-up leather, and all that was moving were her silver eyes.
What the hell? Is that mom?
Enzo’s smile fell on me. “Yes, it is.” He ran his hands through her stringy, silver hair. “Sadly, I’ve exhausted her.” He frowned.
“There’s a battle much bigger than your old feud with the Banner cousins,” Aria said.
“This I already know, and that’s why I had to exercise patience in extreme amounts to wait for all of you to be ready for this.”
“You’re joining forces with my mother, father, and uncles, then?” Aria asked, my eyes watching her command the evil man with her deathly and authoritative gaze alone.
“Your uncles?” Enzo trailed off with a laugh that made this whole situation concerning. “Call them what you want, but their merged blood with your mother at the time you were conceived with the alpha shifter is theonlyreason you carry true and rare blood that is needed for my war.” He looked around the table at all of us. “Barnabasis the demon who will wage war and who plans to dominate all supernatural and human-kind.” He sat at the head of the table, glanced at the deathly version of whatever he’d turned mom into, and then looked back to us. “This diabolical battle has been prophesied for years. Why else would I have created an army to battle him? If he wins total domination, he frees Lucifer to his rightful place. That will not happen, and all of us are going to work together to stop this demon of hell. It ends with us.”
