Page 1 of Total Eclipse of the Moon
Chapter One
"Didyou cop a feel of my boob?"
Shane Lanzo pried his fingers off his temples where they'd been nursing his headache. He searched the bar for the target of the bartender's accusation.
A Puerto Rican local leered at the bartender's curvy chest without apology.
The smile curling the petite brunette bartender's lips might seem flirty to her groping patron, but to Shane it warned of white-hot violence. Something on the darker side of magic was about to happen.
The bartender added ice to a cocktail shaker and shook. She poured a green-tinged beverage into two martini glasses and slid one the way of her leering customer. "We should have drinks together before getting friendly. On the house."
You foolish soul. Don't drink it.
She toasted her glass at the man but didn't sip.
The man raised his glass, leered at her chest, and drank.
Like an imminent train crash, Shane couldn't look away from the disaster.
The guy jumped up to cup his groin. "Bruja." You witch.
Everyone in the sparsely packed restaurant turned to stare at the spectacle of him moaning. Tears streamed down his cheeks as he fell to his knees. His high-pitched yowl hitched up an octave, which irritated Shane's sensitive ears.
"La bruja me envenenó." The witch poisoned me. He pointed at her.
Her eyes widened as if the effect of her potion stunned her.
She stood on tiptoe to lean over the counter and look down at him on the floor. "¿Quieres ayuda?" Would you like help?
"Ni a putas!" Oh, hell, no! He pulled himself upright using the barstool and hobbled out the exit like a man with glass balls between his legs.
The background din resumed now that the show was over. As usual, humans dismissed the possibility of magic. They rationalized the inexplicable into normalcy.
"You going to stop wasting payer space and order something?"
Shane spun his swivel-top stool back toward the bar counter to face the bartender's glittering hazel eyes. She tucked a strand of loose hair behind her ear. A black tourmaline crystal had fallen out of her shirt where it hung on a long silver chain around her neck. The protective stone was meant to absorb threatening energy and transmute it into something harmless.
"What'll you have?" Her accented English was a combination of several European languages.
"I don't want what he had." He nodded toward the exit but couldn't help admiring her hutzpah. To whip out magic in public was ballsy, although dangerous. If she did it too often, humans might stop ignoring it, which could incite witch-hunting behavior. The century mattered not. When faced with inexplicable magic, humans freaked out.
"You weren't planning to cop a feel of me too, were you?" Her gaze sparkled with amusement. "We don’t see many blue-eyed blonds who look like hungover movie stars down here in Cabo Rojo. So, I'm not sure what to expect from you."
"No, ma'am. Whiskey. Neat."
His mind clouded when the demon inside his brain surged. Like a T-rex flailing against a giant electric fence it tested for weakness. It wanted complete control of him in the classic sense of demon possession. Even though it'd failed its attempts for almost a year, it never gave up. The demon receded, but exerted influence on other parts of his body, fanning the fire of Shane’s fascination with the bartender until the urge to mate threatened to push Shane to transform into his feral lycanthrope form.
He thought to the demon,"I won't scare the humans here by growing nails and busting clothing like the Hulk. For the record, I don't want her."
Not that him thinking this in a screaming voice inside his head discouraged the demon. Most demon possessions resulted in chaos and violence, as in classic horror film portrayals, when the demon chose a human host. Shane wasn't aware of any other case where a demon screwed up and chose a non-human to possess. Perhaps that's why it hadn't been able to completely take over his mind and body.
"Your interest in her makes no sense. She’s your enemy, right?"The demon’s words came out in a harsh, guttural sound that echoed between his ears."Kill her. Make it brutal."
"No killing today, Baku. Definitely not her. Didn't you just see what she did to that guy? She's dangerous."
"Not as dangerous as me. I hate witches."
The demon pressed hard for dominance. Shane pushed back. Smoldering pain blurred his vision. He scratched at his arms where the long sleeves of his button-down shirt scraped his blistered skin. This bizarre side effect of fighting the demon's attempt to dominate him sucked. His accelerated healing ability resolved the burns within minutes, but it still hurt.
