Darkening Moon Read online

  It was just paranoia.

  After the Munich Games, I’d had my fair share of warnings flare up for nothing. This was probably no different.

  Still, even when Melina’s lovely voice came over the line, I kept peering at the street past the low hedge, searching for shadows that weren’t there.

  2

  Dressed in a form-fitting light pink sweater that sped up my heartbeat, her sleek dark hair pulled back to accentuate her elegant features and the slight slant of her eyes, Melina watched me walk up the driveway.

  After the day I’d had, I couldn’t think of a better sight to kick me from the shroud of sour mood I’d sunk into.

  A smile curved in the corners of my lips, and I stepped past the threshold into the brightly lit hall. As the warm, vanilla-scented air engulfed me, I quickly shrugged off my jacket and relieved myself of the heavy biker boots. Better already.

  “Drink?” Melina asked over her shoulder as she made her way towards the Roman arch that opened up into an airy kitchen on the right.

  My gaze followed the sway of her hips, noting she’d put a little extra in it and loving her all the more for it. “Sounds perfect, thanks.”

  When she disappeared out of sight, I turned left and padded into the living room. Like the rest of her place, the open plan soothed my werewolf nature. Her impressive library dominated one end of the room, coupled with tasteful—and comfortable—armchairs, but I remained in the more “modern” part where I could curl up on her couch. I rearranged a couple of light beige throw pillows I just didn’t have the heart to squish with my leather-clad butt, then settled in.

  The aroma of red wine brushed against my senses, and Melina emerged not a second later, a glass in each hand. She eased herself down, close enough that our thighs ended up touching.

  “I have to admit, I didn’t expect to see you so soon.”

  I liberated one of the glasses from her.

  “I need to pay a visit to Albtraum tonight and thought I’d swing by.” I rolled the wine across my tongue. Cabernet-Syrah. Her favorite, as well as my preferred choice whenever beer wasn’t on the menu. “You don’t mind, do you?”

  She cocked her head to the side. “You coming here on such short notice?”

  “More like seeing me again after just three days…”

  Even before we’d hooked up, Melina had made it clear she was looking for nothing more than a casual entanglement, which was perfectly fine with me. Relationships were something I avoided like the plague. But since we had only been seeing each other for two months, there hadn’t been enough time to establish just how much—or little—contact that meant.

  “No, I don’t mind.” Her contralto caressed my ears. “Wouldn’t have invited you over if it were otherwise.”

  Relieved, I leaned against the backrest and took another sip of wine. Melina was a fantastic lover and a wonderful person to be around, which made it all the more important that I didn’t push her away.

  Although she wasn’t pure Vila but half Fae, keeping within the boundaries was a must—even when one had no intention of breaking them on purpose.

  She’d explained to me that the Vila side of her, saturated with sexual allure, tended to make people forget she wasn’t an exotic object to be owned. Few were immune to her magnetic presence, but luckily, all I felt so far was attraction of a perfectly ordinary kind. I hoped it stayed that way, too.

  “So you have, what, two, three hours left to kill?” she purred, resting her hand on my thigh.

  I placed the glass on the table before I spilled the wine all over her high-end couch. “Something like that, yes.”

  Her fingers played across my leg, rising higher.

  “Then it’s an excellent thing you called.”

  The instant her own glass found its way to safer ground, her lips claimed mine. I groaned as Melina’s taste spilled across my tongue, my hands snaking around her slender waist and pulling her up until she was straddling me, the heat of her body mixing with mine.

  I kissed her deeply, kneading my fingers up and down her back. Melina slipped a hand beneath my shirt and tugged on the cup of my bra, liberating a breast. She ground against me, teasing the engorged nipple with her nails as I cupped her butt, seriously hating the fabric that got in the way.

  “Strip for me,” I rasped when we came up for air.

  The heated look Melina gave me just about did me in.

  Gods, she was gorgeous, a mischievous smile tugging on her plump lips and a dash of color blooming along her cheekbones. With seductive grace, she rose from my lap and proceeded to do as I’d asked.

  There was no music playing in the background, but I could hear it clearly in every provocative sway of her hips as she shimmied out of her dark gray yoga pants, in the flex of her stomach and rise of her breasts as she pulled off that taunting pink sweater.

  A hungry growl rumbled in my chest, liquid heat blooming to life in the vee of my thighs.

  I wanted her so badly it took every ounce of my will to say seated.

  When she was in nothing but a lacy champagne-colored bra and matching panties that revealed more than they hid, she bent over and trailed her tongue across my lips.

  “Your turn,” she whispered.

  I stole a kiss before she could retreat, then liberated myself from the leather pants, socks, and the long-sleeved shirt with a lot less elegance, but far greater speed. Only I didn’t stop there. Melina sucked in a breath as I cast my bra aside, then flipped around and knelt on the couch, giving her a rear view while I slowly slid the panties over the curve of my ass.

  They didn’t even make it past mid-thigh when the warmth of her touch washed across my skin, her fingers trailing from the fabric of the panties all the way up to my molten core. Everything inside me tightened in anticipation.

  Melina waited—just a heartbeat, but a torturously long one—then slipped a finger inside me. I groaned, then growled as she slid in another.

  Hunger surged through my veins and dominated my every thought. I tried to turn around, needing to feel her own desire, but Melina pinned me against the couch with that delicious Fae strength of hers, her breasts teasing my back and lips caressing the curve of my neck.

  Shit, it felt good. My fingers dug into the soft fabric of the headrest, and I moaned, lifting my ass higher.

  For once, not being able to partially shift was a plus, because I was fairly certain I would have left claw marks behind right about now.

  Melinda chuckled lightly as if reading my mind. Although, given how her fingers reached deeper, sliding against my walls and teasing all the right spots, she only needed to read my body to know what I was thinking. What I craved.

  Perfectly attuned, my moans entwined with Melina’s soft sounds of arousal. She loved to have me in her power, and I was more than ready to submit.

  When her free hand travelled down my stomach, her fingers working on my clit, the tightness inside me became impossible to contain.

  My climax tore through me, ripping out a scream as I gripped the backrest hard enough to break. Melinda rode the wave, coaxing every last spark of pleasure from my shuddering body before easing back.

  My newly boneless state urged me to curl into her embrace and rest, but I had other plans in mind.

  Spinning around, I pinned Melina to the couch, then kissed her with all the fire and hunger still burning inside me before I slowly traced my path down. Delicate goose bumps followed in my wake, a soft gasp rising from her lips.

  I smiled into her fragrant skin, then unhooked her bra and sent it flying across the room.

  For a moment, I did nothing but drink in the two perfect mounds rising and falling in tune with her deepening breaths. Her anticipation was addictive. It woke the wolf within, tempting and teasing to the point where I had to claim her.

  Melina might like having control, might get off on my pleasure, but that didn’t mean she enjoyed it any less when our roles were reversed.

  Neither did I.

  When she let
out another weak moan, it only confirmed she knew full well what kind of devious torture I had in mind for her.

  My tongue teased one hardened nipple, then another—only the barest of licks that whispered promises but did not deliver. Not instantly. With a smile on my face, I inched back, then hooked her legs over my shoulders. And found the perfect position between them.

  “Lotte,” Melina warned, but her voice was a whisper, barely holding any substance as I allowed the heat of my breath to wash across her folds.

  I pushed her panties aside, laying her bare before me—and then Melina was writhing, her flavor filling my mouth as I licked every delicious inch of her, my name a mantra on her lust-swollen lips.

  Thoroughly sated and still a little flushed, we dug into the simple, yet mouthwatering meal Melina had warmed up. Her taste lingered on my lips, but a different kind of hunger filled me when I tried the first spoonful of the aromatic potato and vegetable soup. I wasn’t a shabby cook when I had the time to spare, but compared to Melina, I was a downright rookie.

  I had a suspicion her Fae and Vila blood gave her more than just bedroom prowess, because the dish alone was enough to make anyone consider spending a shitload more time in her company.

  Of course, werewolves were for the most part shameless freeloaders when it came to delicious food, so that might have had something to do with it, too.

  “How are the kiddos?” I asked once I was able to stop wolfing down the meal.

  “They’re great.” Melina smiled and scooped up the last of the soup before setting her plate aside. “I managed to put three newbies into the advanced group.”

  That certainly piqued my business interest. Giving her my best innocent look, I asked, “Planning on sending any my way?”

  She rolled her eyes and I chuckled. Me scouting for prospective players for the Zentrum to take under its wing was how we’d met in the first place.

  Melina needed someone to hand her protégées over to after their hormones kicked in and her Vila allure became a distraction they weren’t equipped to handle, so why shouldn’t that someone be me?

  Okay, it wasn’t that straightforward, but we did already gain two younglings thanks to her recommendation.

  “If you can arrange a field day at the Zentrum for the lot of them, maybe even have Rihard spend a couple of minutes in their company for some extra motivation to take the game seriously, you just might be able to secure the entire bundle.” Mirth teased her lips. “Do we have a deal?”

  “Sure you want to risk their parents’ wrath by bringing them to the drug-infested nest of corruption as the news had so lovingly put it?” I teased, although my voice was dry.

  Too much truth in that one to be funny.

  Some, like the parents of the two new players, saw the value of our coaches and what they could do for their kids’ careers. But they were definitely in the minority.

  Melina reached over and covered my hand with hers. “That was months ago, Lotte. People know your arrest was based on false evidence, and Schultz’s shadow can’t linger forever. They’ll see the asset you and your team are. They have to.”

  I looked up into her beautiful dark eyes, and realized that she meant every word.

  Although the suffocating tightness in my chest wasn’t convinced, I accepted her warmth and belief, stashing it somewhere deep inside so I had at least something worthwhile to hold on to.

  In a world ruled by change, Albtraum was precisely as I remembered it. A single-story lone building—more of a hut, really—situated just off the main street with a moderately spacious parking lot pooling around its sides and out back. Though only three blocks away from Melina’s apartment, the shift in the setting was staggering. There was none of that old-world appeal adorning the buildings, no colors breaking up the off-white and gray that was obviously the norm in this part of town.

  I parked my Vulcan in front of the entrance, hoping the narrow terrace roof would shield it from the snow that just wouldn’t stop falling. Giving the weather a stink-eye, I skirted around an empty flower bed that seemed to double as an ashtray, then pushed open the shabby wooden door.

  A blend of music and voices greeted me, although I was surprised by just how tame it was. The last time I was here, my ears kept ringing well until morning. Thank the gods someone was smart enough to remember weres with our sensitive hearing were part of the supernatural crowd, too.

  The volume, however, wasn’t the only sign alerting to Albtraum’s specific clientele. The interior was dim, shadows dominating the corners and swallowing up most of the floor. Without humans lingering about, there was no need to keep up the pretense that the majority of us didn’t have night vision good enough to make light next to redundant.

  I sniffed the air, noting the cacophony of species embedded in its lazily circling currents.

  Only five or so patrons were in the bar at the moment, but the scents of all those who frequented the place lingered, the aroma of the supernatural etched into the very bricks decorating the walls. Those few heartbeats it took me to get used to the lack of human traces were always a bit unsettling, and it wasn’t any different now.

  Out there in the world, humans had the greater numbers, the population so large their scent was almost like oxygen, ever present in the air. An integral part of life.

  In here, however, it was an entirely different story. Like stepping into an alternate universe.

  I walked up to the rock-maple bar with its polished countertop and perched myself on one of the high leather-cushioned stools. The bartender—a lean, unshaven were—slithered closer the instant he handed off another round of blood to a young vamp and the two buddies who were waiting for him at their shadowed corner table.

  My nose scrunched up at the high content of bitter alcohol I was betting was Stock. If the kid were human, he would have been carded in a second. As it was, even vamps who were born, not made, were never truly underage. No supe was, given the mostly austere nature of our childhood. And that, coupled with our naturally high metabolisms, earned us our right to drink a few years early.

  “Hi there,” the were said, his gruff, but surprisingly sunny voice snapping me out of reminiscing my own youthful ventures. “What can I get you?”

  “Hopefully your help.”

  He cocked his head to the side and gave me a once-over. “What kind of help?”

  “Do you know Voit?”

  I rolled my eyes when he kept his mouth shut with conviction, not even blinking lest a bit of information slip out.

  “Oh, for fuck’s sake,” I growled, “he isn’t in any trouble. I just want to know where he is. He didn’t show up for work, and when I dropped by his house, he wasn’t there, either.”

  Recognition stirred in his hazel eyes. “You’re his boss?” He whistled. “Never mentioned you looked so good.”

  “Thanks.” A smile wormed itself on my face. “But I really need to find him. A friend of his said he came here yesterday—”

  “He did. Came in around half past ten, stayed till midnight or so.”

  Schweiger’s words, at least, checked out.

  “Did you see him leave with anybody?”

  The were shook his head, sending his warm brown strands bouncing. “Voit came here alone, mingled with the other regulars, played some cards, then left alone. You know, the usual. But he did ask if he could leave his car out back since he was little tipsy and didn’t want any trouble on the road.”

  Which meant he took particle form to go wherever the fuck he went. Unfortunately, floating particles were impossible to trace. Great.

  “Is his car still here?” I asked, quickly masking the annoyance that threatened to seep into my tone. The were certainly didn’t deserve a bout of bitchiness when he was nothing but cooperative.

  “It was when I started my shift, but feel free to check.”

  “Thanks.” I slid off the chair, then halted and fished a business card from my wallet. “Please call me if you see him. It’s important. He might lose his job
if I don’t speak with him in time.”

  “Will do.” He snatched the card, but didn’t edge for any “accidental” contact. A rare gentleman among our kind. “Voit’s a nice guy for a demon.”

  “Yeah,” I agreed, “he is.”

  But being a nice guy wouldn’t save him from a major ass-kicking if he didn’t show up soon and provide some good answers as to why he’d missed the seminar.

  Cold air whisked across my face the instant I pushed outside. I zipped my jacket all the way up and walked around the building. I swore as I skidded on a thin patch of ice where echoes of last night’s rain had frozen in a shallow pothole, then caught my balance and proceeded with more caution. Much like elsewhere in the district, the asphalt here was cracked and uneven, a perfect trap for a werewolf with a temper to land on her ass.

  The parking lot was nearly devoid of cars, so it wasn’t hard to spot Voit’s beat-up silver Mercedes C-class underneath one of the three lamps that illuminated the concrete. I glanced around, scanning the seam between the parking lot and the surrounding brush where light gave way to darkness, then prowled over to the car.

  I wasn’t entirely sure what I was hoping to find, but aside from the faint trace I recognized as Voit’s that lingered on the driver’s side of the vehicle, there was nothing that even remotely pointed as to where he might have gone. Well, crap. For all I knew, he had been called away to the Shadow World, and someone simply forgot to deliver his message.

  Unless, of course, his tipsy state had made him forget altogether.

  My subconscious didn’t like the non-answer my mind provided, but with the snowfall increasing, I really couldn’t afford to explore further. A quick glance at the glistening pavement beneath my feet told me I was going to have enough trouble getting back home as it was.