Page 21 of Total Eclipse of the Moon
"No vampire tonight. Did you put a spell on Madeline, Roman?" He seemed the most logical of the three of them to do it since he understood all manner of magic.
"Who is Madeline?"
"The witch who cast the curse."
"You’re on first-name basis with her?" His gaze narrowed. "That sounds like it’s going to be a problem."
Shane closed his face to emotion. "Not a problem. I simply ran into her last year."
"I don’t buy it. Witches are your type, but she’s not acceptable for you to get your dick in a twist over."
"Witches aren’t my type. What about the spell?" he ground out.
"While you werefaking being dead—" he said it with a bite to his tone that made clear Shane wasn’t yet forgiven for disappearing and making him suffer, "—the curse tried to kill me when I refused an order to murder Nova. Now that we’re together, you understand why I refused. She put a stay on the curse’s magic by using her own skills. She also did a ricochet spell back at the witch who cast the curse to force her to feel our pain for however long the curse is in effect. Like this knife wound." He waved at his side. "She probably feels it."
An uncomfortable feeling settled in Shane’s stomach at the thought of Madeline feeling their pain, not that he’d vocalize his sense of guilt to his brothers.
Ky said, "If you’re on a first-name basis with her that means you can find her. I vote you go get the witch and we end this thing now. Tomorrow would be great. Then we don’t have to deal with the necromancer."
Shane asked. "Why can't God just erase our curse, free us from this mess? Didn't you say these strange angel tattoos we all now have are the archangels watching over us? That we've beenchosenas God's warriors?"
"God and the angels can't reverse magic. At least, that's what my archangel told me," Roman said. "Damned annoying. Something to do with it being a different religion."
Ky sauntered over. "I'm not convinced I want to go from one master to another. How do we know God will treat us any better than the monarchy?"
"At least he wanted me to be with Nova," Roman said. "Any master who'll allow me my mate and maybe let us have a personal life is better in my book."
"A personal life with vacations, right?" Ky asked.
"Sure," Roman agreed. "Your job, Shane, is to capture this witch and make her rescind the curse. If she refuses, bring her to us. The boomerang spell might make her irritable or give you a point of negotiation. Maybe Nova can reverse it. No guarantees."
"Looks like we're going to find the witch again. Finally."Baku sounded almost euphoric.
Chapter Seven
Shane pulledthe hatch on the small plane closed as he boarded. The night was still young, but he longed for uninterrupted sleep. Maybe the plane could lull him into an hour of straight rest. For the past year, he’d rarely gotten more before the demon, who never slept, bothered him into alertness. The restlessness of the being in his head required another hour to get back to sleep. The on and off took its toll on his ability to stay focused.
He tried many times to convince Baku his brain needed the recuperative rest of uninterrupted sleep. The demon behaved like a selfish three-year-old having a temper tantrum. He didn’t want to rest. He was bored. He wanted Shane awake so they could do things or talk.
His breaking point usually came around day eight. Shane would fall over and pass out from exhaustion. Then nothing could rouse him for hours. Right now, he was on day two.
Antonio had his feet kicked up in the cockpit and smoked a cigar. He liked to pilot from time to time, but they had others who were better. "Jillian’s coming back in a minute or so. She said she wanted a cola and there weren’t any on board, so she went to the main building to see if there was a vending machine."
Strange. He’d never seen her drink a soda and vaguely recalled a conversation about her despising bubbly drinks when he’d offered her a seltzer once. Just as quickly as suspicions rose, they subsided. Jillian had been with the Alliance for years, rising through the ranks to become a trusted leader and outstanding logistics manager despite the fact she wasn’t a powerful nonhuman. She was a half-witch with minimal spell-casting abilities.
Before he could lower the hatch again to let her board, his cell phone buzzed. With a frown, he stared at the number, recognizing the country code as Italy. His mother? She never phoned. Could be someone else. He answered.
"Get off the plane, Shane. It’s a trap," his mother said quickly.
"How’d you get this number?"
"I have resources. Stupid question on your part. Dump the phone as soon as you can. Dump every electronic that can be tracked. Roman told me to contact you. They interviewed those whom they got permission to speak with." She was being purposefully cagey. She must suspect someone could listen in. She continued in a rush, "There’s a traitor in your midst. The ones who run those prison facilities are linked to FenCor as we suspected. They want to make sure your death becomes reality this time. As in dead right now. That's you and only you. Your brothers they think they can control. The Alliance threatens them." Shane had spent years steering clear of FenCor, a secret society of global juggernauts that masked themselves as industry leaders, CEOs, and heads of state. That was human business he couldn’t care less about so long as it didn’t affect him.
"How do you know there's a problem right now?" He peered out a small oblong window seeing nothing on the tarmac.
"I had you-know-who do a future read."
The mage? Dom?
