Moon Crossed (Werewolf Hunter Series): Season 1 (Episodes 1-6) (Crescent Hunter) (70 page)

“I was thinking
we could watch a movie or maybe play a game.” He raises his
eyebrows.

“Hmm, what
movie?” I can't remember the last movie I watched. Really, all
I want to do is go out on the porch, turn on the heater, smoke, and
put some whiskey in this hot chocolate.

“I'm not sure;
it's kind of crazy since you've seen almost no movies. Netflix is our
oyster.” He laughs, studying my expression. After a long pause,
he inhales and says, “I know what we can do.”

“Yeah?”

“Stay right
here.” He disappears through the kitchen door, returning with a
gleam in his eye. “Okay, put on your coat and come with me.”

Zane helps me with my
coat, then drags me out to the porch through the kitchen. I'm amazed
to see that he's put up clear tent sides to keep the heat in. It's
not warm, but it's not freezing either. There's music playing and
he's turned the Christmas lights on that haven't been used for
months. “Zane.” His name rides
out as a whisper.

“This is where
you like to relax, so now you'll be warm.” He smiles.

I throw my arms around
him. “Thank you so much.”

He buries his head in
my neck and it's feeling a little more intimate than I'm comfortable
with. Cole's presence shoots through me and Zane tenses at the
feeling of a wolf. I want to break away from him but don't. I turn my
head toward the tree line, looking for Cole.

“Is it him?”
Zane whispers.

“Yeah.” I
think for a moment. “How did you know it was Cole?”

“The way you
reacted.” There's a sadness in his tone, defeat.

“I can't see him,
but I know he's watching.” There's so much of me that wants to
run out into the woods and just have him hold me. That's the part of
me that's forgotten what he's done.

“What do you want
to do?” Zane whispers in my ear.

“I'm not sure. We
could stay out here and let him affect us or we could go inside and
let him affect us.” My eyes roll heavenward at the hopelessness
of this situation.

“Or we could not
let him affect us?” Zane puts his hands on my shoulders,
pulling back to look me in the eye.

“Fat chance.”
I quirk my brow, then look down. “But I could give it a try,
inside.” As much as I like it out here, I think it will be
better if I don't feel him looking at me.

I'm frozen for a split
second when I feel it. “Locke.”

Zane turns around,
scanning the tree line as Locke comes into the light. “Claire,
wait.”

Without turning around,
I say, “What is it, Locke?”

“Can I come up?”
he asks.

Zane looks at me
sympathetically as though he wants me to allow it. There's something
in me that just can't. “No, you can say what you came to say
from there.”

“Claire, I'm here
because I...
we
miss you.” He looks down, shaking his
head. “We all want to come back to see you.”

“Wow, really?”
I turn around so that he can see the sarcasm, if he can't hear it.
“So now, after you all left me, lied to me, battled against me,
you want to come back?”

He lowers his gaze.
“We've never fought against you.”

“Aunt Rain is
dead because of what you brought to my doorstep.” I hold my
head up with defiance.

“I tried to tell
you we weren't here to fight –”

“But you did, and
look what happened.” I pop my jaw to keep the tears from
coming. I want nothing more than to run down the steps and hug him.
My heart breaks every day without them. This house and my life is
nothing but empty with them gone.

“We came to keep
Trevor from doing...well, what he came to do. Cole lost it when he
saw him.” He ticks his head toward Zane.

“Cole can bite
me. It's none of his business who I have here.” There's a part
of me that's glad Cole hates Zane; I hope it hurts him that he's
here. But that would imply that Cole has the capacity to feel
anything for me, and he doesn't.

“I just miss
you.” He turns to walk away and I hear his voice in my head.
We
all miss you.

“Then you
shouldn't have left me.” I stomp into the house, Zane following
closely behind. My body goes limp, collapsing at the kitchen table,
and I want to scream, cry, yell, pitch a fit, anything to make myself
stop feeling this way. I just want to stop feeling any kind of way.

Zane puts his hand on
my shoulder. “I want to ask if you're okay, but I know you're
not.”

Looking up at him
through the moisture in my eyes, I say, “I don't think I'll
ever be okay again.”

Zane sits at the table.
“What is okay, anyway? Have any of us ever known what it was?”

“I
had
better than okay, and it doesn't matter that it was all a lie. I
loved every minute of it. The lie gave me life, hope, and made me
feel things I'll never feel again. Now the only solution is numbness,
to feel nothing at all because I can't cope with this...” I
wipe my tears. “Whatever it is I'm feeling.”

“One of the
things you do best is feel. Cole's a fool for letting you go.”
He takes my hand in his. “Is numbness really the answer?”

“Yes, I don't
want to feel one more thing. Not sadness, loneliness, joy, nothing,
because there's nothing more painful than the absence of those things
when they're gone. It's all fleeting; it's all a lie we tell, our
temporary condition to move us forward in the hopes of feeling it
again. It's gone, just gone.” Standing from the table, I take
my hand from his. “Thank you for being here for me, Zane. I'm
not sure what I would have done without you.”

“You would have
been fine.” He smiles.

Walking to the kitchen
door, I don't turn around. “I think it's time for you to go.”

“I'm not sure
Hayden will be okay with that, but I'll talk with him in the
morning.” I can feel the hesitance in his voice, and the lie.

I nod and head down to
the lab. My desk is nothing but a pile of crap and mail that should
get opened, but I'm not going to.

When I flip the light
switch, one of the bulbs flashes, then goes out. “Damn it. I
swear if I have to change one more bulb...”

I was making a little
bit of headway with a cure, having completely abandoned the idea of a
potion to keep wolves from shifting during the full moon. There's no
way for me to test them with everyone gone.

I check each one of the
different formulas I've created, making notes on how they have
changed with the different methods I've applied to alter them. Now,
to test. With a moon-touched blood smear on the slide, I put it under
the microscope, make a note of which formula I'm working with, and
introduce it. It feels like I've done this hundreds of times,
probably because I have. I’m always hoping that this will be
the one that's different.

One hundred seventeen days

The
timer on the condenser screeches, waking me out of a quasi-sleep on
the lab table. It's dangerous, but my eyes were only shut for a
minute or thirty. A breakthrough is coming and I can't quit now. The
lab is a mess: three half-eaten sandwiches, an empty bag of chips,
and more soda cans than I care to count. I've completely lost track
of time; it could be days, or even weeks, and I desperately need a
shower.

I press the button on
the alarm and take the condenser with the formula out, studying the
liquid inside the glass. “Are you the one?”

With a fresh slide of
moon-touched blood, I start the process all over again. Carefully
dropping in the formula, I start with a small amount, then wait for
mitosis. “Come on, come on,” I chant as if that will make
the formula work. It integrates with the abnormal blood cells,
settling around them and effecting no change. Sitting back in my
stool, I run my hands through my greasy hair and resist the urge to
sweep everything off the table. “God damn son of a bitch!”

“Knock knock.”
Zane's voice comes from my office.

Inhaling a calming
breath so as not to bite his head off, I smile. “Hey.”

“I just wanted to
check on you, see if you needed anything.” He doesn't cross the
threshold; I must be pretty scary.

“Yeah, a cure.”
I hop down off the stool. “I'm going to take a shower.” I
brush past him.

“Oh, yeah, good
idea.” He chuckles.

“Thanks.”
My lips twist with sarcasm.

“Hayden stopped
by.” He follows behind me up the stairs. Brave man.

“What did he
want?”

“Full moon
tonight.” He says it like I didn't know. I didn't.

“Patrol?”
I'm ready for a good hunt. Maybe tonight will be the night I get
Pike.

“No, he was
pretty specific that you're to stay in.” His mouth forms a
tight line.

“Really?”
I've never taken well to orders.

“Yeah, so I was
thinking you'd want to go for a run before it gets dark,” he
offers.

“It might be nice
to stretch my legs.” I stop on the second flight of stairs.
“I'll get my boots.”

Every run since Aunt
Rain was killed feels like a challenge, like I'm waiting for
something to happen. Aside from when we're out on patrol, it's been
so quiet around here, with the exception of the occasional visitor
like Locke the other night. It's not something I'm used to and I'm
really glad that Zane didn't leave. But no way am I going to tell him
that.

Isn't pride one of the
deadly sins? It will likely be my downfall; that, or loving too much.
Either way, it's times like this when I'm glad I'll likely die young.

We don't leave the
house anymore without being in fighting gear, and today is no
exception. It's dangerous out there since territory boundaries are no
longer respected with Pike waging this war.

Zane wears a wide smile
as I trot down the stairs. “What's with the stupid grin?”

“It's just been
so long since I've seen you.” He huffs a laugh.

“Yeah, funny. It
hasn't been that long.” I roll my eyes.

“It's been five
days. Tomorrow is Christmas.” He turns for the door.

“Really?” I
try to count in my head, but with no windows in the basement there's
no telling how long it's been.

“Yeah, really.”
There's a bit of frustration in his voice.

My stomach hitches as I
see the Christmas tree. “Sorry, I just –”

“It's okay,”
he stops me. “Besides, it's given me some time to take care of
some things.”

“Oh, good.”

“Did Hayden have
anything else to say? It seems weird he'd come over just for that.”

“Yeah, he wants
you to go to the next council meeting. He said that they are on the
verge of getting involved in what's happening down here,” he
explains as we get out onto the porch.

“I'm happy to go.
Whatever it takes to get them down here to rein Pike in can only be a
good thing.” Both of us are tense, even though we don't feel
any wolves nearby. We have to be on alert, be ready.

“You geared up
with silver?” he asks, raising an eyebrow.

“Only the sais,
not the daggers.” I cock my head to the side. “It's hard,
but I think that right now is not a good time to go on a killing
spree.”

“True.” He
walks to the bottom of the stairs and smiles. “You ready?”

“Yup!”

I have to really push
myself to leap onto the porch to beat Zane. “I win!” I
pant, bending over with my hands on my thighs.

“Barely.”
He laughs through his breathing.

“You're getting
faster.” I tilt my head, impressed.

“Or you're
getting slower.” He pumps his eyebrows challengingly.

“Possibly. I've
been doing a lot of sitting on my ass.” I inhale a deep breath,
trying to calm my heart rate and catch Cole's scent in the air. My
whole body stiffens with either fear, joy, or both.

“You okay?”
Zane questions.

“Yeah.” I
play it off; if he doesn't smell Cole it’s probably for the
better since he's not nearby. “But I
really
need a
shower now. I'm hoping the paint doesn't peel when I take my shirt
off.” I laugh.