Vengeance Moon Read online

  Lillian leaned back. “We are far from perfect, Madeline. I’ll ask you, do you have no secrets? Eunice and Mother Evelyn believe we’ve torn them all from you. I disagree. Will you now tell me one thing about you I don’t know?”

  I bit my lip. Yes, there was that one thing I’d been able to hold back. I didn’t need the Moiré or Solaire to protect me from magic. I’d been born without a witch’s power, but I was also immune to it. It seemed that I could tell Lillian that, but years of reserve were still ingrained in me. She was still a Sister and I kept my secret from her.

  She laughed. “I thought so. I swear, you would make a perfect Sister.”

  “I doubt it. There’s the obedience thing.”

  “Obedience? Eunice and I aren’t here because we obey orders.”

  Chapter 15

  Riggs needed help again. A hysterical woman in the bathroom and another escort to a cab took at least half an hour. Having little experience in my life with people who regularly overindulged in alcohol, it seemed a mystery to me. I went back to my observation and watched as a couple of attractive men approached Lillian. She quickly sent them on their way. Michael was in his second round of dispensing charm on the floor when he stopped at her table. Oh, this would be good. What I wouldn’t do for super hearing.

  He turned the charm on, smiling, acting so delighted to be with her, allowing her to worship him.

  Lillian stared, appeared interested, then threw back her head and laughed.

  Michael frowned. Like a mother with a misbehaving child, Lillian pointed at the chair next to her. And like a child, he sat. Sister Lillian had her own way of control. I’d faced it many times. She always won with me. And she won with Michael. He quietly listened to whatever lecture she gave him.

  Beautiful, charming Michael. How many layers were there to this man who had so captured my attention? Captured my attention to the point I rarely thought of my mission or revenge when I was with him.

  When Lillian finished, he spoke. He wasn’t smiling, but he wasn’t angry. His face seemed to have a look of sincerity. I saw no hint of artifice. I longed to hear the conversation. Maybe it was my own ego, or maybe paranoia, but gut instinct said they were talking about me. Riggs brought and opened a whole bottle of wine for them. It came from the most expensive one-hundred-dollars-a-bottle stuff in the locked wine cooler behind the bar. It wasn’t sold by the glass.

  A loud discussion began between two men at the end of the bar and I was suddenly occupied. After one of the would-be combatants left, I went back outside for a break. The arrival of Lillian and Eunice had disturbed me. I wondered if Hildy had called them. Had she told them about Michael, that he was distracting me from my mission? Lillian had paid special attention to him, after all.

  After a careful survey of my surroundings, I sat on the box outside the back door, my Barrows’ throne. Nothing stirred in the darkness right then. A chill came creeping in with a thin mist of fog. It smelled of rotting vegetation and fish, probably from the Bog. The sweet odor of the day died with the sun. After a few minutes, Michael came out to join me.

  He sat beside me. The box wasn’t that big, and he was close enough to scramble my senses. His leg was tight against mine. He grasped my hand. “I like your friend. Lillian. She’s interesting.”

  “And immune to your charm. Is she the first to see past it?”

  “No. Cassandra was the first. Cassandra was so interesting, so smart and full of fire. I tried very hard with her, but she wouldn’t have it. Now there’s you.”

  “You’ve never tried to charm me.”

  “I did. This morning. You ignored it. You should have smiled and come to me, eager to work in any capacity. Instead, you challenged me.”

  “The size of your ego astounds me.”

  “It’s not ego. It’s what I’ve lived with all my life. Now you, you demanded to know what I wanted from you. You asked for honesty, not fantasy. Lillian said I should always be truthful with you. So did Hildy. That’s what I’m going to do.”

  He held out his hand. “Let me hold your small knife.”

  I slid the small knife out of the sheath at my back and handed it to him. He thumbed the blade. “Sharp. Bronze.” Before I could speak, he opened his other hand and abruptly drew the blade across his palm. The blade cut through skin, deep enough to draw a thick line of blood. He held it and let the blood drip to the ground.

  “What the hell are you doing?” I was too stunned to move.

  He swiped his thumb across the wound and wiped away the blood. The cut had healed. “I’m not invulnerable, Madeline. But not many things in this world can hurt me.”

  I grabbed his hand and ran my own fingers across his palm. Smooth. On the surface of his hand, his blood felt thick—and far warmer than it should.

  “I need you to know this. My father, like the creature that attacked you, isn’t human. He’s close to human, close enough to be able to create a child, but . . .”

  I released his hand and stared at the blood, his blood, on my fingers. Not human? Could that be? He spoke so honestly, in an almost pleading tone. I wondered how often he volunteered this information. I thought of my own situation. Had I ever said, “My mother is a witch”? Certainly not to a virtual stranger. But then Michael had thrust himself deep into my life from the moment I first saw him. Did revealing secrets mean the same thing for him as it did for me?

  My mother had expected genetics to make me a witch, as her own mother’s had made her one. Genetics, which were the realm of the Earth Mother, failed her. Was it the same for Michael? If he was telling the truth.

  He’d been prepared for what he’d revealed to me because he drew a cloth out of his pocket, grasped my hand, and wiped the blood away. He wiped his own, cleaned my knife, and handed it back to me, hilt first.

  I couldn’t think of anything to say. What do you say to something like that? Prove it? You’re a liar?

  I had just sheathed the knife when Riggs rushed out the back door. “Madeline, one of your friends—”

  “Can’t you take care of it?” Michael scowled at him.

  “Not if it’s Eunice, he can’t.” The interruption was fine with me. I needed time to process what he’d told me. “She’ll use him or anyone who gets in her way like a rag to wipe the bar.”

  I could feel Michael’s reluctance to let me go. I had a feeling there was more to tell, but it would have to wait. I stood and hurried in. Michael followed.

  I expected chaos, but everything was over by the time I arrived. Tables were shoved aside and chairs tossed; the smell of spilled drinks filled the air like some barroom perfume. The patrons had stepped back to watch the brawl. Eunice stood in the middle of the floor and four men lay sprawled around her like dolls discarded by a child. One didn’t move. The others moaned. Eunice grinned like a kid with a new toy. Her face had a light I’d never seen. She didn’t look like that when she beat the shit out of me. She’d looked at me with a kind of grim satisfaction. Could it be that she really didn’t enjoy making me suffer? No way.

  One of the men on the floor rolled and drew a pistol from under his coat. Eunice grabbed it and twisted it out of his hands. He screamed when she deliberately broke a couple of fingers.

  “Oh, shit,” Riggs said. “He’s a cop.”

  Lillian stepped up beside me. She smiled happily. “Look at her, Madeline. She’s having such fun. We stayed at Justice too long.”

  “Why did you stay?” I suspected I knew the answer.

  “To train you, of course.” She chuckled.

  Of course. Matter-of-fact. But why? Two premiere Sisters of Justice had made me the prominent focus of their lives. Damn it, why?

  “Eunice?” Lillian asked. “Are you finished? I’m tired. We really should go.”

  Eunice grunted. The girl she’d sat with earlier sidled up to her. Eunice wrapped an arm around her. “You gonna be okay, honey?”

  “Yes. You’ll call me?” The girl had a soft, breathy voice. Eunice hugged her tighter.


  “You bet, baby. I’ll take you somewhere with more class. Come on. I’ll see you to your car.” They walked out smiling.

  That I had been specially trained was not news. That Lillian and Eunice were specially chosen to do it seemed incomprehensible.

  I helped clean up the spilled drinks and the crowd sat back down to talk about the fight. Apparently it was quite spectacular and I was really sorry I missed it. Eunice’s only violence at Justice had been directed at me.

  Michael and Riggs got the wounded men into the back storeroom and patched them up. I went in later. Apparently the blame game had ended, and they had agreed that maybe it wasn’t all Eunice’s fault. The girl was one man’s date and he had objected to her responding to Eunice’s advances. He had slapped her and snatched her away and Eunice had taken her back. Out of obvious prejudice, the cop had objected a bit more strenuously.

  “They started it, Becker,” Riggs told him. “So you decided to jump in and help the assholes?”

  “I’m a police officer. I was trying to break up the fight.”

  “You were trying to hold her so they could beat on her.” Riggs jabbed a finger at him.

  “Her kind don’t belong here.” Becker sneered.

  “I say who belongs here, Becker.” Michael stepped forward. “And you won’t, if you cause trouble.”

  Eunice had returned to the barroom when we came out, and Becker glared at her as Riggs escorted him across the floor. Riggs had called him a cab and sent him to the emergency room. I think some cash changed hands, too.

  “Will he say anything?” I asked Michael.

  “No. He’s been warned to stay out of bars. I could file a complaint, but I’m willing to let it go if he is.” His fingers brushed mine. I glanced at that wonderful face. I could read nothing in his brilliant blue eyes.

  Eunice suddenly had an arm around me. She dragged me away from him and kissed my ear. “You can do better than him, love. He’s too pretty to be real.” She didn’t bother to lower her voice when she spoke of Michael.

  “She could do better,” Michael agreed, more solemn sounding that the occasion required. “But I swear, I’ll do my best to be worthy of her.”

  I squirmed inside at Michael’s pronouncement. His words felt too honest—and premature. I wasn’t about to admit that I liked hearing them. He’d just finished telling me he wasn’t all human. I still had to deal with that.

  I relaxed and let Eunice hold me. It was easier than fighting. “Eunice, where are you and Lillian going to stay?”

  “With Hildegard.” Lillian approached. “After we fumigate. Tonight we’ll be at a hotel uptown.”

  “Be careful,” Eunice whispered in my ear as she released me. “That pretty one is not what he seems.” Great Mother, what an understatement.

  “No, he’s not.” I looked straight into her eyes. Something I didn’t dare do often at Justice. “You be careful, too, Sister. Nothing is what it seems in the Barrows.”

  She stared at me for a moment, then gave me a quick kiss and walked away. As they did, I realized I was glad to see them. A complication, but I knew they would stand with me should I need them—or interfere when I didn’t.

  “Are you tired?” Michael came to me and asked as we closed. He’d kept his distance since Lillian and Eunice left.

  “I’m okay.” I was tired and hungry, but I would, as I had at Justice, deny it. To admit fatigue would be to admit weakness. My traitor stomach betrayed me with a loud growl.

  “Would you come with me tonight? Please. I want to show you more of the Barrows.” There was no deliberate charm when he asked, which was, in itself, quite charming. His smile was simple and warm, not blinding.

  I nodded.

  We went out the back with the others and Riggs locked up behind us. Michael led me to his Jag. When he climbed in, he said, “Madeline, I meant what I said. About being worthy of you.”

  “Worthy of me?” I did not like where the conversation was going. “You assume too much. I’m your bouncer. Your muscle. Not your girlfriend.”

  It wasn’t a nice thing to say, but I didn’t feel nice at that particular moment. He had disturbed me. Worthy, my ass. I realized my fingers were rubbing my scar. When had I picked up that habit? It told the world that I was uneasy and confused.

  Michael didn’t speak as he turned the car out onto River Street and headed north. He drove to an all-night diner and I ate a wonderful burger, dripping with grease, while he sipped coffee and smiled at me. Apparently my appetite amused him.

  Back in the car he asked, “What do you think of me, Madeline? Will you tell me the truth?”

  Oh, no, I would not do that. I did have an opinion, though. “You’re eye candy. And a master manipulator of men and women. I don’t know what to think about the half-human thing. Other than that, I don’t know you, except . . .”

  “Except what?”

  I couldn’t say that he confused me and messed up my mind. I grasped for something. “You were fair to Eunice. I think Lillian likes you. That says something. Eunice didn’t try to squash you. That’s good.”

  “I’m grateful for Eunice’s restraint. Lillian is very perceptive. Will you tell me who they are?”

  “Not now.” I could not and would not talk about the Sisters of Justice. I knew them, but at the same time there was still a mystery to them I couldn’t explain.

  He didn’t argue. Just before Harry’s, he turned left and into the ruins.

  The streets were clear here, but the buildings loomed over us like a claustrophobic black fortress. The night closed in. Where there should have been some ambient glow from the city lights, only a few dim stars appeared above. Was that the see-but-don’t-see spell? Or could it be the function of the ward around the Barrows blocking out the light?

  Piles of blocks and the rubble of building materials were neatly stacked on the sidewalks. Recently repaired potholes smoothed the road under the tires. Having been raised in suburbia with abundant parks and green space, I would never find the appeal in living among the rows of look-alike buildings crowded close to the sidewalk, even in pristine condition.

  Michael drove into a wide plaza and parked.

  Other vehicles were parked there, a few trucks, too. Lights illuminated the area, but not like the high-powered ones at the Den. There were plenty of dark holes for things to hide. It still had the feel of incredible emptiness. He switched off the engine.

  Michael grabbed my hand and squeezed lightly. He instantly released me, as if afraid to touch me. I did appreciate his hesitation. He’d been sending me so many mixed signals since the first time he spoke to me that morning.

  “Riggs said you robbed the kitchen to feed the monsters.”

  “They’re not monsters. And the ones I fed were herbivores. I told him I’d pay for it.”

  “You were kind to them, those beings from another world.” He smiled. “I hope you feel the same kindness an hour from now. I’m taking you to meet my father.”

  Chapter 16

  I remained silent while I processed the idea. Then . . . “Why are you taking me to meet your father? I’m your employee.”

  He sighed and shook his head. “You’re not just an employee. I don’t . . . Okay, I’ll try to explain. That night I held you in my arms, after that thing had bitten you, I thought you were . . . Damn. I usually have all the words I need, but . . .” He ran a hand through that corn-silk hair. His former charming demeanor was gone and he looked thoroughly unsettled. “You fascinated me, with your hair and that incredible face and—”

  “Incredible face!” What was he talking about?

  “Madeline, that scar does not disfigure you. Never believe that. I wanted to hold you, know you. I hated to strip you down at Abigail’s, to invade your privacy . . . but it had to be done.”

  I was intrigued. “I know it had to be done. Keep talking.”

  “Okay . . . the honest truth is that from that moment on, I’ve just wanted you by my side. I don’t know what I’d have done if you hadn’
t agreed to work for me. You have to understand—I think you do understand—that I am different. And that means I don’t connect with most people. You’ll understand when you meet my father.”

  Something moved in me. I sensed his isolation despite his beauty and charm. I knew what it took for him to declare that he wanted me by his side. Did I want to be with him? Yes. Did I want him to desire me? That too. All that beauty, all that physical perfection drew me as it would almost any woman. And as he had begun to show himself to me, I realized that it was his difference that drew me, too. But I simply could not give my feelings back to him, at least not yet. I had a mission to fulfill, and until it was done, I had no time for that sort of thing.

  I lifted a hand in mock surrender. “Okay, Michael. Let’s go meet Daddy.”

  He laughed. “Daddy. That’s not a word I usually apply to him.”

  A whisper of caution slid through me when I stepped out of the car. The buildings were the same ruins, but they lacked that foreboding sense of emptiness that characterized the ones we passed on the way there. The streets met at odd angles, forming a wide plaza. A few dim lights made irregular rectangles and squares on the buildings. None higher than a second floor, but inhabited nonetheless. Who lived in such a place?

  Michael parked the car. “This is the Zombie. The dark heart of the Barrows.”

  The same place that everyone had been telling me to avoid. Great.

  “Your not-human father lives here?” My voice broke the silence.

  “Yes. Not by choice, though. He’s a prisoner. The Earth Mother won’t let him out. Apparently they have a history. Not that I blame her. He’s dangerous. When you meet him, you’ll understand.”

  Michael led me toward one of the buildings and into an empty, well-lit, high-ceilinged room. It might have been a bank at one time. A commerce center in what had to have been a vibrant part of the city. What had devastated this place? What happened to leave it so desolate that the patroness of this world shielded it from humanity? Was it really an earthquake, as Michael had told me? No, there had to be more to the story.