Daughter of the Tides, Servants of the Moon Book 2

After crossing the border north, Essie and Kaiyou drove the survivors further north and east to the hidden city in two large 18-passenger vans. Del, Ketsu, and Nyall ate in silence waiting for their escorts. The Delphi and her protectors headed back out and drove north of Lake Superior. It was a beautiful late Autumn afternoon and there were several large groups of motorcycles moving across the landscape enjoying the last of the warm weather. Between Yukon Alliance and Montreal United Territory with a dozen Yukon warrior wolves riding with them, Ketsu pulled beside her at a gas station.

“Delphi… I think we are being followed. There is a small plane that has flown over us twice in the last hour. I want you and Monique to switch riding gear.”

“I don’t want to put her at risk,” Del refused.

“It is her duty as a warrior. If they think she is you, she is less likely to be killed if we are attacked,” Ketsu reminded.

“What about Hope? She is wearing Essie’s gear,” Del asked.

“Same thing.” Ketsu waved to Hope and Monique. “Escort the Delphi inside. Switch gear with her, Monique, you will be riding her bike next to me.”

Grumpily Del complied. As she went inside, Nyall walked up to Ketsu. “Leon just called, there is a large group of wolves headed this way from Sudbury. Montreal is sending more warriors, but they are an hour behind.”

Ketsu growled viciously, then he looked at Nyall. “We will continue toward Sudbury as if we know nothing. But when we reach about White River forty kilometers ahead, I want you and Delilah to go north as fast as you can. Get her back to the Moon’s Gate. Abandon your bikes and go as your wolves.”

“No problem,” Nyall assured him.

The three she-wolves came out with their helmets on. Two got on Essie and Del’s bikes next to Ketsu and one got on Monique’s bike.

As the caravan of motorcycles pulled onto the road, a wolf who was watching them from a van called his Alpha. “They are leaving. The Delphi and her sister are with a Servant protector. They are both wearing black riding gear with blue stripes.”

Helios’ voice praised him, “Good job, Rich. You will be rewarded. Now give them a ten-minute head start and follow discreetly, a group of motorcycles that large should be easy to find again.”

“Yes, Alpha Helios.” He hung up and waited, listening to the radio and imagining the reward he would get, but when Rich tried to start his van the battery died. It took twenty minutes to find someone to give him a jump start. Then he raced after them, following the highway toward Sudbury.

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Nyall and Del rode their motorcycles as far north and east as they could, abandoning them in the woods outside of Fraserdale. They had received a two-word text from Ketsu hours earlier.

Attack imminent.

Nyall snarled and almost crushed his phone.

Del sent a single message to Essie. Headed to the Void.

Pulling out the battery, the phone went dark. She knew the phone was a burner and couldn’t be tracked, but she didn’t want to take the chance. She had no idea how far the Sunwolf’s influence reached.

“Don’t fret. Ketsu will lead them back south and to the east like they are trying to make it to Montreal.” Del’s worry wasn’t hidden by her calm statement.

“I know but I still need to get you to the Gate unharmed. I can protect you alone if we don’t encounter a group larger than six or any witches,” Nyall promised.

“I know you can, I trust you,” Del declared as she stuffed their clothes into a wolf pack. She snapped it around her body.

Shifting into their wolves they ran across country toward the Moon’s Gate. That night as they slept in a small den barely big enough for their wolves, Nyall had a nightmare. He dreamed he was falling through fire like he had fallen through the Tides but the place he woke was strange.

Ancient vine-covered walls held horrifying images. He walked up the steps to a stone altar surrounded by three giant censers. Unnatural fire burned in them. There was a woman standing at the top in an elaborate feather headdress, gown and wing-shaped cloak. She turned slowly to face him, and his heart seized. It was Moire, but her eyes burned like embers, instead of holding their soft citrine color.

“Comhnyall, ye came to me,” her voice purred, “I have been waiting. What took ye so long to find me?”

“I… I… What are ye doing here? Why aren’t ye in the Fields?” He demanded, approaching her cautiously.

“Oh Comhnyall, the Moon lied to us. The Fields are a prison to keep us apart from our loved ones after we cross over. She kept me from ye, but the Sun rescued me. He said he would bring ye to me.” She walked slowly toward him, dropping her cloak to the stone floor. She cupped his face in her hands, “I have missed ye so.”

He couldn’t help the need to kiss her. It made him feel like he was drunk. Somehow, she had drawn him up to the altar, she was naked as she laid back. “Please, Comhnyall. I love ye. Accept him and we can be together forever.”

Comhnyall groaned against her lips. “Aye, mo ciele. I love ye too.”

“Nyall, stop!” Delilah’s voice shouted at him. The female underneath him shimmered and became the Delphi. “It’s a trap, wake up.”

“Moire!” He howled as his claws closed around Del’s throat, “Where did she go?”

Del choked out, “She was never here, Nyall. It’s the witches making you see things.”

He released her slowly, then he realized he was standing between her legs. “What do I do? How do I escape?”

“Just wake up.” She said calmly as if they weren’t connected in the most intimate of ways.

Nyall felt himself falling, it was like he slammed into the floor. Del was leaning over him with her hands on his shoulders, her moon marks shimmered.

“Are you okay? Nyall… Nyall, say something.”

“Was that real? It felt so real,” he breathed out shakily.

“No, it wasn’t…” she started to say then he was kissing her, enjoying that she kissed him back.

He lifted his lips from hers, “I’m sorry. I…”

“I know… it’s okay. I know what it is like for a vision to feel real and not being able to tell if I’m all the way back.” She trembled slightly. The smell of their shared arousal was strong in the small space. She looked away, considering shifting back to her fur, she wasn’t comfortable with the way he was looking at her.

“I wanted to kill you when Moire vanished.” He confessed, drawing her eyes back to his. “Then I didn’t, I wanted something else.”

Ignoring the last part, she revealed, “It wasn’t Moire. You want to be with her more than anything, so the Sun-god offers you the thing you want most, her. It is all about temptation and luring the unwary.” Del sighed. “Get some more sleep.” She tried to divert his line of thought because he was still looking at her like he was going to kiss her again, like he wanted much more than a kiss and her wolf was unnervingly willing. She shifted back to her fur and made her wolf curl up like she was going back to sleep.

“I am going to check around.” Nyall shifted to his wolf instead of going to sleep and left.

Lying in the burrow alone, Del thought about Nyall’s nightmare, and how it was a perfect trap. The problem was Nyall wanted to be trapped as long as it was with Moire or someone he thought was Moire. She hadn’t realized how his loneliness might affect his choice, or how lonely she had become. Being kissed by him had surprised her almost as much as the fact she had kissed him back. Mentally, she shook her head, as attractive as Nyall was, as much as they shared a love of books and nature, she couldn’t ask him to consider her as a lover. She was his Delphi and she had accepted that she would be alone, even after she went to the Moon, if she went to the Moon.

She thought about Mamó’s plan to use the Wolf Moon eclipse to free Nyall to find another mate. To accomplish it and spare Moire from any further suffering, Delilah and Mamó were going to hold the Gate of the Tides open and Delilah was going to give up her bond to Luca for Moire. The thought of eternity without him made her wolf whimper, but Delilah had made the hardest choice any wolf could make. To strengthen the future Monarch so he could overcome the Sunwolf, Delilah was willing to sacrifice the thing most valued by every wolf, her own mate.

When the sun rose, Del slipped out of the den-like cave and started toward the Moon’s Gate. Nyall’s wolf joined hers quickly, offering a rabbit. Their wolves ate together then hers licked the blood from his cheeks in gratitude. There was something soothing about just living as their wolves for three days.

Their wolves stared across the lake at the rising half-moon. The wind was bitterly cold. Winter was coming. Del’s wolf stared at the small temple settlement and whined. Then she yipped at him and trotted into the trees. There was an outcropping of rock hidden by dense brush. She squeezed into a crevasse and down a cavern that smelled of rodents. Behind a canvas wall, was a large platform and a set of stairs leading down. She shifted, shrugging out of her wolf’s backpack, and started down the stairs. She only paused long enough to open an old wooden cabinet set into the stone; Del took out an oil lantern from a nook and lit it.

“So, this is the other tunnel?” Nyall asked curiously. His Scottish accent was thicker after being in his wolf for days.

“Yes,” she answered tightly as she pulled on his large tee-shirt instead of the tighter fitting riding gear. “It’s a long way down and a long way up on the other side. There isn’t a lift here. The sooner we get through the tunnel, the sooner we can get out.” She held out the backpack to him.

Nyall paused long enough to pull on the kilt he always carried when he travelled. “Ye sound like ye don’t like it down here.”

“You won’t either,” she answered enigmatically. “Come on, it’s a kilometer deep and three across. There are two exits on the island side, one north of the temple, and a side tunnel that leads into the temple itself.” She continued downward without another word.

Nyall felt cold and alone and realized there was something about this place hidden deep within the earth. He knew the moon was above them, but he couldn’t feel its vibration in his moon marks, then he realized Del’s moon marks weren’t glowing. When they reached the bottom of the long stairs, she hurried into the tunnel. He chased after her; he caught her arm and pushed up the shirt she was wearing. She stood patiently as he inspected her body. The glowing swirls that always covered her body like ethereal vines looked like smudges of pale ash on her creamy skin.

“What witchcraft is this?” He gasped and stepped back. “What is this place?” His wolf was suddenly afraid and wanted to be out of the tunnel. It made him feel a deep fear that he would never see the sky again.

“It’s called the Moon’s Void.” Del said weakly. “There is something about the rock under the lake. The Moon can’t reach us here. We need to go. Stay close, there are false tunnels to confuse any who try to sneak on or off the island.” She seemed smaller, and almost frail as she drew away from him.

She pointed to a mark on the beams. There were three moons, like the marks on the tunnel to the Eye. “Always remember to follow the moon’s waxing eye when going to the temple and the waning eye when leaving.”

She hurried ahead of him at a run. Nyall sprinted after her but a scent caught his attention and he stopped. “Delilah!”

He turned and stalked carefully down a dark side tunnel; it was so dark even his wolf’s eyes could see nothing. But he could smell the scent of witch blood with the smudge of burning blood, rowen wood ash, and wolf’s bane. Light came from behind, and his wolf sighed in relief as the Delphi approached.

“Nyall?” She held up the oil lantern.

He pushed open a door and inside were several dead witches and a few wolves bearing a strange pack mark. It was the shape of a sun like he had seen on the shoulder of his enemy. The dead were all decapitated with their hearts removed.

“Get back, Del.” But she pushed past him.

Looking at the corpses, she bent and poked at a silver censer with the corner of his shirt. Her expression was inscrutable. “The shadows don’t like it when the living trespass here, especially if they harbor ill intent. We need to go now.”

She shut the door gently, then roughly seized his arm and dragged him back to the main passage. She didn’t speak until they reached the stairs, “Now, we know why they haven’t placed new blocking banes around the Gate.”

“Who… What do you think killed them?” Nyall asked around his fangs. His claws were extended, and he was ready to fight anything that attacked them. His mind conjured up the image of the Bibre Cruor demon form Ainsley had drawn. He had met one named Anjeal and his wolf had feared her as did the wolves of the pack beholding to her and her uncle.

Delilah looked back as she started up the stairs. “One of the Shadows… but don’t worry,” she added quickly at his confused expression. “I know it is not a threat to us.”

“How can ye say it is not a threat? Half the dead are wolves!” Nyall growled.

Del looked at him with cold eyes, repeating, “This shadow is not a threat, Servant. You will accept my word as Delphi and my command to tell no one.”