Edge of Moonlight (13 page)

Lust rose up immediately but it wasn’t just that. Another softer emotion followed on its heels. She tried to ignore its presence but it snuck under her shield and infused everything with its lure.

As his mouth conformed to hers, she nearly sank into the spell that was John. Heat and warmth and forbidden dreams.

She wanted him so much, she was almost willing to accept the fact that she may never be able to shift again if it meant she could keep him.

The spell, stupid. Recite the spell.

The reason she’d kissed him flashed in her mind. She’d hoped to draw more power to her to fuel the spell and this time keep him under for a longer period of time.

Drawing on their mutual desire, she figured she might be able to power the entire eastern seaboard.

Instead, she funneled it into the spell and knew the second it took hold. When his lips went slack against hers.

Gently, she let his head rest against the cushion. With his eyes closed and his face relaxed, he looked much younger than his thirty years.

This time the spell would stick. It had to.

She needed time to do a little digging.

And then she would go tracking.

* * * * *

“Where’s John?”

Kyle’s sharp question made Kaine’s back straighten when she slipped through Nica’s door.

“Asleep on Tira’s couch. I put him under. How’s Evie?”

Kyle walked over to her, his gaze narrowed and his nostrils flaring. She knew he could smell what she’d been doing with John, knew he wanted to say something.

They were alone. Kaine figured Tam, a nurse, was in the bedroom with Nica, Dane and Evie, which was better.

At least she didn’t have to endure Tam’s questions as well as Kyle’s.

She waited, standing at attention. He was going to start in on her about John so she just waited.

After what seemed like forever, he finally said, “No change in her condition. Nica and Dane are still talking. I want you to head back to your place, provide support for Nic and Duke. I just sent them out on assignment.”

Shock made her blink at him stupidly for several long seconds. He wasn’t going to interrogate her?

Feeling like she’d dodged a silver bullet, she nodded then realized what Kyle had said. “Wait. Where’d they go?”

“Report of another possible kidnapping, this time
lucani
. Could be a false alarm.

The guy’s been known to go off radar but his parents are worried because of what’s happened and we don’t need a fucking panic on our hands.”

“Why didn’t you send me with them?”

She blurted out the question before she gave it much thought and nearly shrank under Kyle’s stone-faced expression.

Shit. He hadn’t told her because she’d been fucking around with John.

“You were needed here,” Kyle finally said, though she knew what he wasn’t saying.

You wouldn’t have been any good to them right now.

Which was true.

Vaffanculo
.

With a stiff nod, she turned on her heel and headed out the door. Kyle didn’t call to her. He let her go without a word.

Trying not to run, she slipped into John’s car, because she didn’t have her own, and started to drive.

She wasn’t going home, though. She had something else to do.

From her cell, she made a quick call to Camillus de Feo. The
linchetto
, an Etruscan night elf, ran a private investigation firm for those of Etruscan descent with his brothers Antonin, Teo and Rio.

Cam woke up fast when she told him who she was and what she wanted, and twenty minutes later, she had to shake her head as she pulled to a stop in front of John’s apartment building.

Small fucking world.

The address Cam had given her was directly across from John’s apartment. She couldn’t see the house though because of the thick rose hedge already in bloom. In April.

Cam had told her he’d call his brother Rio so he’d be expecting her. Then he’d told her how to find the gate to Rio’s house and how to open it so she didn’t get her hand pricked by thorns. When the gate opened inward, she walked through and headed for the front door of the stone home that looked like a miniature castle. Truly, it did. It had turrets and everything.

Enchanted, she thought. Had to be.

And smack in the heart of the city.

Cool.

On her walk through the small garden to the front door, her attention settled on a small rose bush that seemed to have fallen behind the rest in terms of blooming. To say it called to her would have been pushing it. Still, she stopped by its side, her hand reaching out to stroke the petals of its lone white flower.

She sucked in a sharp breath as the bush quivered beneath her hand. Like a dog begging to be petted. As she watched, her mouth hanging open, the leaves turned a little greener, and several buds appeared on the branches.

“Wow, my godmother’s gonna love that. She’s been babying that plant for months.

Nothing she’s done has helped.”

Kaine tore her gaze away from the plant to look at the woman standing in the now-open doorway of the house. She had a sweet smile, a pleasant face and purple eyes.

Elizabeth Taylor eyes. Wow.

“Hi, I’m Rosie de Feo. You must be Kaine. Rio’s still getting dressed. He needed a shower to wake up.”

“Kaine Giliati. Sorry to come so early.”

Rosie waved her concern away as she stepped through the door. And into an art gallery. Of some of the strangest art she’d ever seen.

Her mouth literally dropped open and her feet faltered at the statuary and artwork filling the open space of the first floor.

“My godmother Lora likes to sculpt.”

Okay. Kaine guessed Lora also liked sex because every one of the pieces depicted naked men and women in various erotic poses.

“And my godmother Fanny loves to paint.”

And Fanny apparently had a thing for horror movies George Romero would be proud of.

Paintings recreating the murderous shower scene from the movie
Psycho
, the zombie cemetery scene from
Night of the Living Dead
and the rape scene from
Evil Dead
hung on the walls.

“Wow. Good taste in horror movies. And the black velvet Elvises are, uh…”

“Pretty hideous.” Rosie laughed as she walked to the circular iron staircase winding up in the center of the room. “Don’t worry. I know. But Fanny loves them so they stay.” Following Rosie up the stairs as the other woman called out to her mate, Kaine’s enhanced sense of smell noted the fact that Rosie was
Fata
. She knew Rio was
linchetto
.

Rio supposedly had mad skills on the computer. Well, she was going to put them to the test—

A way-too-handsome dark-haired man stepped out of a doorway in the second floor hallway, an open smile on his face and a hand outstretched to shake hers.

“Hey, you’re Kaine, right? Nice to meet you. I’m Rio. Cam said you had a name or something you wanted me to run down?”

“Yes. I’m not sure if it’s an alias or an actual legal name but I need anything you can find on it.”

He smiled at her again and opened another door along the hall, this one filled with computer equipment. “Come on in and let me see what I can find.”

* * * * *

When he woke this time, John knew he’d been put under by magic.

Which sounded so fucking ridiculous but was the only explanation for the fact that he’d fallen asleep while Evie was in trouble and he’d had Kaine in his arms.

Kaine was gone now.

But he wasn’t alone.

He stood and turned to find the hard ass, Kyle, at the table in the kitchen.

The same table where he’d bent Kaine over and fucked her hard and fast.

Just the thought was enough to make his cock stir but he forced the lust and the other, heavier emotion down, far enough that this man wouldn’t see it.

But from the way the guy was eyeing him, he probably already knew.

And he wasn’t happy.

Again, John had the almost uncontrollable urge to stand at attention with the guy.

Kyle motioned to the seat across from him. “We need to talk.”

“Is Evie okay?”

“There’s been no change in your sister’s condition. She’s still unconscious and Dane and Nica believe that’s for the best.”

So this wasn’t about Evie. John’s back straightened as he approached the table, sliding into the chair so he could face Kyle head-on.

“Where’s Kaine?”

Kyle’s amber gaze held steady on his, giving up nothing of his thoughts.

“She’s on assignment.”

Yeah, right. John wanted to demand to know where she was. As if he had the right to know.

But a few rounds of high-octane sex didn’t give him rights to her.

Still, his hands clenched into fists on his thighs. “Is she okay?” Kyle didn’t hesitate. “No, she’s not. And yeah, that’s your fault.” The guy wanted to be in his face. Fine. But John was a god damn Navy SEAL. He didn’t back down. Not from anyone.

“You know, I really don’t give a fuck what the hell you think. The only thing that matters to me right now is Evie.”

“So Kaine doesn’t matter to you?”

He nearly bit his tongue in half. “My relationship with Kaine is none of your fucking business.”

Kyle’s gaze narrowed down to hard slits. “See now, that’s where you’re wrong. She is
my
responsibility. No one gets to fuck with her head, especially not some dipshit
eteri
who doesn’t know when to shut the fuck up.”

John tried to hold onto his temper. He generally didn’t get riled too fast or too easy.

But right now, his gut tightened with rage and he wanted to pound his fists into Kyle’s face and demand answers.

Hell, he didn’t even know the questions. Didn’t matter.

This man had something to tell him but he was taunting him with it.

And John had had enough.

He rose, slow and deliberate, so Kyle had no doubt what was coming.

“I’m sick of this bullshit. You want me to take a swing at you. You want me to fight you. Fine. Let’s take it outside and we can pound the shit out of each other. Frankly, I could use it. But I want to know what the fuck you’re not telling me.” Kyle didn’t get up, just sat there staring up at him. As if he couldn’t care less that John had basically challenged him to a fight.

“Are you really sure you want to know everything, John? ’Cause I gotta tell you, you’re not gonna like it.”

John set his fists on the table and leaned forward. “You don’t know anything about me. How the hell would you know what I like and don’t like?” Kyle leaned back in the chair, his mouth lifting into a sarcastic smirk. “I know more than you think. Sit down and let me tell you about the first time we met.”

* * * * *

John had to work pretty damn hard to keep his mouth from falling open as he stared at the large black wolf sitting in front of him.

A wolf with Kyle’s amber eyes.

Even though he’d seen the transformation with his own eyes, John’s brain was having trouble making sense of it.

Actually, his brain was simply blank with disbelief.

No way. No
fucking
way.

The wolf snorted and shook his head, his fur gleaming blue-black in the morning sunlight now glaring through the windows.

Beautiful animal. Absolutely gorgeous.

But it was an animal.

John blinked several times in rapid succession.

Kyle must have hypnotized him. Yeah, he’d hypnotized him so he wouldn’t remember Kyle leaving and bringing in this animal.

John looked around the room, searching for some evidence that he was right.

Looking for Kyle hiding in a corner somewhere.

John walked to the door and checked on the front porch. Then he looked in every room in the house.

When he returned to living room, the wolf still sat there, looking up at him with a bored expression on his face.

If a wolf could actually have a bored expression.

Maybe he was still sleeping. Maybe this was some weird fucking dream.

But he’d tried to tell himself that last night too and look what had happened.

Maybe this was just one long dream. Maybe he’d dreamed Kaine, dreamed the whole damn thing. Maybe when he woke up, it’d be morning and his life would be back to normal.

Including a job he barely tolerated and a sister with secrets.

And no Kaine.

“Kaine’s like you, isn’t she?”

The wolf cocked its head to the side and just stared at him. If it’d opened its mouth and spoke, John didn’t think he could’ve been any more stunned.

Shit, he actually felt dizzy. He reached for the nearest chair and lowered himself into it, his gaze clinging to the animal.

A werewolf.

Kyle was a werewolf.

Kaine
was a werewolf.

Holy shit.

The wolf rose to its feet. No, a wolf had paws. He rose to his paws and John couldn’t look away. He sat unblinking, mesmerized and dumbfounded as the wolf wavered out of focus. Its body shook, contorted and for a brief moment wavered out of view. Then Kyle stood in the exact same spot.

He reached for the pants he’d taken off earlier and hung on the back of a chair then pulled his shirt over his head. He didn’t bother with his shoes.

John watched as Kyle crossed his arms over his chest and cocked one eyebrow at him.

How the hell had he reacted the first time? The time he’d seen Kaine shift just after he’d shot her.

Kyle had told him that he hadn’t escaped from the house where he’d been kept.

Kaine in her wolf form and two other men had gotten him out.

When he’d run from Kyle’s home, where he’d been taken to recuperate after being left for dead, Kaine had followed him to his home and only when they’d been found by Kyle’s team had she shifted back into human form.

Which was when he’d shot her.

According to Kyle, he’d nearly killed her.

His lungs started to work a little harder, unable to keep up with his need for oxygen.

After she’d healed from the gunshot wound, that was when a group of Etruscans, with very little help from John, had rescued Evie. And when the
streghe
from Nica’s
boschetta
, from her coven, had cleansed Evie of all the spells—or at least thought they had—she and John had made the decision to have their memories of the Etruscans erased completely.