Blood Moon (7 page)

“Why do you say that? And why would you tell me that?”

“You’ve obviously bonded. You were there when I wasn’t. That’s huge in itself, but you have the added benefit of being the same species now. I can see the draw that would pull on you both.
 
You are alone, and now she feels alone.”

“Again, why would you tell me this?” Dean asked.

“Let’s face it, I screwed up.
 
My chances of winning her back are precarious at best, but that doesn’t stop me from loving her. I want her to be happy one way or another. I don’t want her to have that feeling of being alone forever. It kills me that I brought it on and she feels that way now. That’s why I’m here; if I can’t be with her, I still want to be there for her as a friend. She’s worth it; you know that yourself.”

“Yeah, I do. I’m just surprised you’d be willing to give her up to someone else in order for her to be happy.”

“Me too. Can’t say I’ve ever done that for anyone else, that’s for sure. Lousy time to realize it, though.”

“Yeah, man, that was pretty stupid. However, I’m not so sure that I wouldn’t have made the same mistake you did.”

“How so?”

“Before I met your brother, I had a pretty warped sense of vampires.
 
I hate to admit it, and if you ever repeat it, I may have to beat you within an inch of your life, but if given the same set of circumstances handed you, I may have freaked too. I grew up thinking that vampires were just bad.
 
Now I’ve spent time with you and Devon and you’ve shown me I was wrong about a lot of things.”
 

“Thanks, man,” said Dean.

“Don’t let it go to your head, kid.”

“Don’t call me kid. I’m probably older than you.”
 

“Maybe, but I’m still the ‘grovelee’ and you, Blake, are still the ‘groveler’, at least until I say differently.”

“Great!” Blake said sarcastically.

Dean didn’t let it show, but he was definitely laughing on the inside. “Are you going to stay for the full moon? It should be rising here in a few minutes.”

“I don’t know, should I?”

“If you want to see the transformation, yeah. Either way, I’m going to get undressed.”

“What?”

“It gets expensive tearing through clothes every month.”

“I don’t want to see you naked.”

“The sentiment goes both ways – I was going to put a towel on, stupid.”

“Good.”

While Dean was in the bathroom, Blake grabbed another beer.
 
When Dean returned he asked, “So does it hurt when you transform?”

“No.
 
You get a tingling sensation when the moon starts to affect you and then the hair starts to grow. Well, you’ll see, it’s about that time.”
 
Blake took a long draw on his beer and when he looked at Dean again his nose was extending and hair was bursting out of everywhere.
 
There was an unnerving sound much like bones being crushed and the rustling of leaves, but it was his knees turning backward and nose extending.
 
It went quite fast and was not gross at all. Blake found the whole process quite amazing.
 
Where Dean had stood, a large, scruffy, brown-furred wolf with hazel eyes now was standing. Aside from the sound of it all, it was much like the performance of some kind of odd dance.
 

Blake had always been very good at telepathy and heard Dean speaking to him loud and clear.
 

Are you up for a run? Your brother seemed to enjoy it quite a bit.

“Ummm.
 
Sure,” Blake replied verbally.

Dean took off out the door and into the cool night air.
 
Blake set down his beer and followed. It wasn’t long before they were racing through the woods, both incredibly agile, weaving in and out of trees and rocks and over downed logs. It had been ages since Blake and his brother had run like this.
 
Soon he and Dean came to a clearing where they could let loose and go full speed.
 
Blake was a bit ahead of Dean, which Dean felt needed to be rectified, so he nipped the hem of Blake’s pants, tripping up his feet and landing him on the ground.
 
Dean laughed and laughed as he put his paw on Blake’s chest as if to claim victory.
 
That’s when Blake rolled him, telling him with his mind,
I don’t think so, Fuzz Face,
and he took off like lightning.
 
He sent a thought to Dean as he headed back through the woods.
 
Last one to the house buys beer tomorrow.
 

Dean answered,
You sneaky son of a...
 
If I win you’re re-tiling the bathroom, you cheating vamp.

They ran as fast as they could and though Dean was incredibly fast, he was four paws behind Blake as he hit the screen door.

Ha! No new tile for you! Fuzz Face!

Not necessarily! Remember I am the grovelee…

Yeah! Yeah! I know and I am the groveler! I know. I’ll pick up the tile tomorrow where I am sure it is waiting for me as we speak. You have to supply the beer, though. That I did win fair and square.

Deal, but you call me fuzz face again and I will kick your sneaky vamp butt.

Fine. I’m beat, man.
 
You’ve been kicking my butt for two weeks.
 
Maybe if I can get some good rest tonight we can do this again tomorrow?

I suppose that could be arranged. See you tomorrow, Blake, and don’t forget that tile.

Night, Dean.
Blake headed out the door and started for the car as he saw Dean take off running after a rabbit. He had to admit he’d had fun tonight with Dean.
 
Maybe he was actually wearing on the guy, finally. He thought about that as he started the car and headed back to the hotel for some well deserved sleep.

It was one-o’clock when Rachel Keaton called her sister, Sally. They had arranged this a week ago, making sure to keep their contact as low profile as possible.
 

“Sally? It’s Rachel.”

“Hey, sis – how are plans going on your end?”

“Not well. I can’t seem to catch up with her. She never seems to be at the bookstore.
 
I’ve been there and left messages three or four times now. The goofy redhead, Allison, just keeps piling up my messages. Would this Allison be a candidate for one of our guests?”

“I don’t know? What’s her last name?”

“I think it’s Dover or Denver?”

“Nope; not a match.”

“Too bad!”

“Why don’t you just go to her house?”

“I think it would make her suspicious. My story wouldn’t really congeal with those circumstances. However, I do have a Plan B that she can’t ignore. I just have to find the right place and opportunity.
 
What about you? How are plans going on your end?”

“Oh, it’s fine here.
 
Our guests are sleeping peacefully.”

“Good. As more guests arrive, though, it’s going to get harder.”

“I know. I have it under control so far.”

“All right, I guess if there’s nothing else, proceed with the plan and I’ll call you next week at the same time.”

“Talk to you then.”
 

Chapter 6

Devon, Darby, and Rowan were all set for camping at Memorial Park for the weekend. It had been years since Devon had gone camping and with the full moon it was going to be great. Devon had already prepared Darby for the transformation, so Rowan could just relax and let things happen.

As it got closer to time, they had set out towards a meadow far from the campers now roasting marshmallows and telling ghost stories. Devon and Rowan set up a place in the grass with a blanket, and a light, along with some outdoor essentials.
 
Since Darby obviously couldn’t run with them, they would go off and run and let her enjoy the stars. They would stay close enough to hear any animals that might be a threat, but between a werewolf and a vampire protecting her, not to mention her own psychic bubble that could stop a freight train, there was not much that could hurt her. Darby had used this psychic bubble a few times in the past; once to stop the Van Helsing look-a-like from killing Blake and once to hold Terrence Paine hostage.
 
She’d only just learned this power, but the invisible force field was a valuable magical asset.
 

Darby sat on the blanket as Rowan excused herself with a blanket in hand.
 
She went into the woods to take her clothes off and wrapped herself in a blanket.
 
She brought the clothes back, setting them on the blanket next to her sister and said, “Okay, here we go!”

Darby and Devon watched in amazement as the metamorphosis began. As Devon had remembered, there was the sound of bones and hair, then in a matter of seconds, and as graceful as a butterfly flexing its new gorgeous wings, there stood Rowan in wolf form - same Caribbean blue eyes against reddish tan fur.
 
She looked amazing as a wolf and it took Darby’s breath away.
 
Darby focused hard to hear their voices and, sure enough, there they were. Over the last few weeks, Devon had been teaching Darby to use the power of her mind to speak telepathically and this was a great opportunity to use that new talent. Darby told her sister that she looked beautiful and that she and Devon should go have some fun.
 

Rowan and Devon ran in the moonlight playing tag, chasing rabbits, and just enjoying the freedom of the run and the cool summer evening.
 
Devon had remembered their first experience together playing fetch, but this time he had a Frisbee and they had a great time with that.
 
The grace and agility she had at jumping and catching was like watching poetry in motion.
 
This was something that they shared with Darby the next night.
 
She couldn’t run with them, but this she could do, and he knew how much she wanted to be involved. This would be something fun she could do with her sister and that gave him great joy.
 

The first night, Darby had decided she was going to soak up some beautiful moonlight and gaze at the stars while Devon and Rowan went for a run.
 
The smile on Devon’s face made Darby giggle.
 
He looked like a little boy at Christmas opening up the gift he had waited for all year.
 
They took off like a shot and it made Darby’s heart swell with love for them both.

The second and third night, Darby joined in the game of Frisbee and did some more moon bathing.
 
Rowan came over to her on the blanket and lay next to her with her head on Darby’s stomach.
 
They talked telepathically about how things were all going to work out just fine with Rowan’s new gift.
 
Finally, Rowan was accepting herself in this new form and to some extent starting to enjoy it. The oneness with nature that she experienced in her wolf form was soothing to her soul and gave her a calmness she had never really felt before. She could survive, as Dean had said, without other werewolves around, but there was certainly a new appreciation for being with another of her new species.

The three days of the full moon and camping in between, gave all three of them an opportunity to relax.
 
Since they had all met, it had been one stressful thing after another giving them no real opportunity to enjoy the little things.
 
Darby felt lucky that they had this opportunity to bond.