Moon Thrall (6 page)

She’d assumed because Jo had taught her a few things that she was more than capable of doing research on the supernatural. What the previous night had taught her was that she only knew a thimbleful of what was out there.

Coffee in hand, Skye stood at the windows of her townhouse and looked out over the streets of the city. Vampires had almost kidnapped her. If not for Court and the others, Skye wouldn’t be standing there now.

It galled her that she hadn’t been able to take care of herself. She hadn’t looked the vamps in the eye for more than a second, so she knew they hadn’t used mind control on her. No one had spiked her drink. The vampires had touched her, that was the only thing that happened.

Skye jerked so hard the coffee spilled over the rim of the mug and burned her hand. She hissed and rushed barefoot into the kitchen to set the coffee down and wipe her hand.

Then she ran to her desk and tapped the keyboard to wake up her laptop. She might not know Court’s last name, but she had enough skill to find him.

Thirty minutes later, she sat back with a smile on her face. “Court LaRue. Looks like I’m going to be paying you a visit at Gator Bait.”

Skye got up from her chair and was headed into the bathroom to take a shower when her cell phone rang. She glanced at the phone to see it was her editor, Helen.

“Sorry, Helen. I can’t talk right now,” she said as she declined the call.

Turning on her music through her phone, Skye started the shower. She was taking off her sleep shirt when her phone dinged with a text. Skye tossed her sleep shirt on the bed and hurried into the bathroom where her phone rested on the counter.

She read the message, frowning as she did. Helen never demanded she come into the office when she was writing a story. What was going on?

Skye quickly texted back that she was in the middle of research and would try to get there later that day.

“Before lunch,” Skye read Helen’s reply aloud.

What the hell was going on?

Skye showered and got ready. Forty minutes later, she was walking out the door and headed to the newspaper. A short fifteen-minute stroll and she was at the office.

No sooner had Skye entered Helen’s office than her editor rose and closed the door behind her. “What’s going on?” Skye asked as she took one of the two chairs.

Helen sat down behind her desk and shoved her reading glasses on her head. She let out a long sigh. “Where were you last night?”

“Observing the supernatural.” Skye didn’t feel the need to lie to Helen. Yet, anyway.

Her editor leaned back in her chair and smoothed down her navy and white striped blouse. “Were you alone?”

Shit, shit, shit. In all the turmoil, Skye had completely forgotten about Matthew. She kept her expression blank. “Matthew went with me to a club, but he left me there.”

“When did you arrive at the club?”

“About ten-ish.”

Helen nodded. “And when did Matthew leave you?”

Skye shrugged, not liking the questions. “It was about midnight, I think. He always stays in the background. He could’ve left much earlier than I noticed. Why?” she added since she didn’t want to admit what a failure she was in spotting supernatural beings.

“What did you do when you discovered that Matthew was gone?”

Skye scooted to the end of the chair. “Why does this feel like an interrogation?”

“Please answer me, Skye.”

“I stayed until it became uncomfortable and then I left.”

“Alone?”

There was something about the way Helen said it that made Skye aware her boss knew something. Once again, she decided on the truth. Mostly. “I tried to leave on my own, but two vampires attempted to get me to go with them. Two guys and a girl helped me out. They walked me home, and here I am.”

“Good. Those are good answers. You’ll do fine, Skye,” Helen said as she leaned forward and rested her arms on the desk.

“Do fine?” Skye repeated. “What’s that mean?”

Helen’s face pinched in worry. “I hate to be the one to tell you this, but Matthew was found dead this morning.”

Even though Skye knew he was dead, hearing it again was like a punch to the gut. She looked down, feeling sick. “How?” she croaked out.

“The police are calling it a homicide. They think it was an attempted robbery, and assume Matthew tried to resist. His attacker used a knife.”

Skye could only stare at Helen. The police were covering it up. Aside from saving her, Court had given her no reason to trust him, but what he’d said about the supernatural in law enforcement made sense.

“They’re going to want to talk to you,” Helen was saying.

Skye mentally shook herself. “How do they even know my connection to Matthew?”

“Someone at the club said they saw the two of you enter together.”

Just freaking wonderful. Skye wished she had remained in the bayou with Court instead of insisting that she return to the city.

“I see.”

“I wanted to let you know so you wouldn’t be surprised.”

Skye ran her hands through her hair. “Should I go to the police?”

“There’s no need yet,” Helen said. “They’ll find you if they want to talk to you.”

Skye stood then. “I need to finish some research for the article.”

“Stay in touch,” Helen said.

Skye walked out of the office on shaky legs. Not even the fresh air calmed her. She spotted a patrol car driving slowly down the street, and she remained where she was, waiting for them to come for her.

It drove past.

She released a relieved breath and turned to the left. It was time to visit Court. Even in late September, the streets were crowded with tourists. October was a truly crazy month for New Orleans since everyone equated the city at Halloween with the supernatural.

It was all the innocents walking around that had prompted her to write the articles. The college kids just looking to get lucky, the high schoolers looking to score some alcohol, the families just wanting to make lasting memories, and the business professionals wanting to have some fun.

Those were the people the supernatural hunted.

Or so she’d thought before last night. Court had said some of the vampires didn’t kill. The thought boggled her mind. A vampire that didn’t kill? How was that even possible? And who made the laws?

Court mentioned that his family enforced the laws, but how could four brothers control an entire city of supernatural when a thousand policemen couldn’t govern the humans?

Skye spotted the LaRue’s bar situated at the corner of the street. The wooden sign hung above the sidewalk with a bite taken out of the side, as if by an alligator. The lettering was done in a deep green with a gator below the name, its mouth wide open.

It was after noon, and already, the bar was busy. The sound of music thumping could be heard even from outside. It wasn’t until customers walked from the bar that she recognized Godsmack playing.

Skye glanced at her reflection in the window before she stepped inside Gator Bait. As soon as she entered, she stopped and looked around.

The place was welcoming with its wood floors and highly polished bar. Hundreds of pictures of celebrities who had visited lined the walls. There were also alligator jaws of various sizes hung here and there.

All in all, it looked like Court.

“Court said you would come?” Riley said as she walked up with a smile.

Skye returned her grin, intrigued that Court would know her well enough to announce what she would do. “Did he?”

“He’s insufferably right most of the time,” Riley said with a wink.

Skye laughed at the remark. Whatever she might think of the LaRues, they were obviously a close-knit family.

“You hungry?” Riley asked as she motioned Skye to follow her. “We’ve got the best gator in town.”

“Sure.” Skye’s stomach rumbled, reminding her the banana she’d had for breakfast was long gone.

Skye took a seat at the bar and watched two men playing pool. Riley wasn’t the only waitress at the bar. There were three others, and all were busy.

A man with ash blond hair walked out from the kitchen with papers in hand and a pencil in his mouth. His blue eyes, as well as the shape of his face, reminded Skye so much of Court that she knew this had to be another LaRue brother.

He walked to a woman with jaw-length champagne blond hair and took the pencil out of his mouth to whisper something in her ear. She laughed and gave him a quick kiss.

“That’s Addison.”

Skye jumped at the sound of Riley’s voice. She turned and found a glass of beer in front of her.

“Addison and Myles are engaged,” Riley continued.

Skye tasted the beer and nodded in approval. “Does she know everything?”

“Yep.” Riley grinned. “It’s a long story. Suffice it to say, Addison had a crash course in it.”

“Ah. I’m surprised it’s not kept more secret.”

Riley tucked her hair behind her ear. “If people want to know the truth, they’re going to go looking for it whether we want them to or not.”

“Are you...?” Skye asked, not quite able to spit it out.

Riley chuckled and pulled at her black shirt with the Gator Bait logo. “Nope. That’s contained to the LaRues. I’m just a normal girl who keeps the supernatural in line. My brothers live a couple hours away.”

“But they know?”

“Of course.” Riley walked around the bar and came to sit beside Skye. “I’m going to just put it out there because you obviously want to know. The Chiassons, my immediate family, came to Louisiana from France with a stop in Nova Scotia. They were hunters of the supernatural. The ones that kill innocents anyway.”

Skye was listening raptly.

“There were two brothers and one sister. The sister came to New Orleans and married a LaRue. One brother chose to go west, and the other settled in Lyons Point, outside of Lafayette, which is a hotbed of supernatural activity. All of us, both the Chiassons and LaRues, are raised to protect the innocent and kill the monsters.”

“But the LaRues are werewolves.”

Riley lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “That they are. If you want that story, you’ll have to ask Court. The point is, the LaRues have always kept the peace in New Orleans. Before they were cursed and after. That’s never changed.”

“Nor will it,” said a voice behind Skye.

She turned and found Court. If she’d thought him handsome by the light of the moon, he took her breath away in the daytime. He was startlingly good-looking. The kind of gorgeous that left a woman speechless.

His chin-length hair was parted down the middle, the butterscotch blond strands having a slight wave as they framed his face. His brilliant blue eyes were just as powerful as before.

Skye glanced down and saw that he was wearing a pair of jeans, slung low on his narrow hips, and a cream henley shirt with a big bronze fleur de lis on the upper right side by his shoulder.

“I told you she’d come, Riley,” Court said without taking his gaze from Skye.

Riley slid off the barstool and paused beside Skye long enough to say, “He’s conceited. Feel free to bring him down a notch or two.”

Skye couldn’t help but smile. Court was self-assured. It showed in the way he held himself and how he greeted the world. Conceited? Skye didn’t know him well enough to say, but she could see it was a possibility.

“Why did you think I’d come?”

Court took her beer in one hand and grabbed her hand with the other, pulling her off the stool. He led her through the doorway into the back, but it wasn’t the kitchens he brought her to. It was an office.

“You’re curious,” he said. “I knew you would want to know more.”

He wasn’t wrong. Apparently, she was easy to figure out. Skye frowned. That wasn’t a good thing, was it?

Her thoughts stopped when she was shown a chair and given her beer. Court took the seat next to her the same time Myles walked in reading over some papers with the pencil once more in his mouth.

He didn’t look up at them even as he sat behind the desk and keyed something in the computer. A few minutes later, Kane and another man entered the office.

So, these were the four LaRue brothers.

Court hadn’t lied. She was up to her neck in werewolves now.

C
HAPTER
S
EVEN

Court watched Skye carefully. Her entire body tightened when Kane and Solomon entered the room. Solomon ran a hand through his dark blond hair as he leaned against the corner of Myles’s desk.

“I’m sure you’ve done some checking on us, but I’m Solomon,” he said. He motioned with his thumb over his shoulder. “The one buried in the computer doing the accounting for this place is Myles. You’ve already met Kane and Court.”

Skye held Solomon’s gaze. “I have done my checking. I know that you’re the eldest, followed by Myles, Kane, and then Court. You four have owned Gator Bait for years now and are upstanding citizens in all ways. And you have a very big secret.”

“Everyone has secrets,” Kane said, eyeing her. “Everyone.”