Daughter of the Tides, Servants of the Moon Book 2

“Louis, what have you done?”

Delilah tried to edge away Louis and Alpha Charles standing behind him.

“Delilah don’t panic. Alpha Des Rues is here to help us. His pack and allies are going to help us protect the temples against the apostates. You don’t have to bear this burden alone anymore, you can take a break and let the Alpha handle it,” Louis entreated.

There was a movement behind them, and Del saw Acolyte Sharon and Ainsley peek out the door of another scrying room at her.

“Fine Louis, why don’t we go downstairs to the reception area and discuss a possible alliance. We can share some Chia tea.” Del straightened herself. “I need to put my bowl away and get my cloak, I have sad news for my petitioners.” Del prayed silently that Ainsley recognized the code word for emergency, Del hated Chia tea.

Ainsley gestured, Going. Then edged the door shut.

She stepped back into her scrying room, Louis and Alpha Charles followed her.

“Delphi, where are your attendants and staff?” Alpha Charles asked.

“Probably in their beds, it is a very cold night.” With deliberate slowness, she salted her obsidian bowl and placed it in its bag, then on its shelf. She lit a cone of incense, then went to the window and bowed her head like she was going to say a prayer. Leon and Alpha Charles stood next to the censer unawares. A moment later, the cone exploded with a giant flash blinding them and Del snatched her family’s silver ceremonial blade off the shelf by her bowl and bolted out the door. She slammed the door to the other scrying room open, but Ainsley and Sharon were gone.

“Delilah!” Louis, who was standing further from the flash bomb, staggered after her.

“You betrayed us, Louis! You betrayed the Moon!” She shrieked at him as she ran the opposite way from the oracle quarters.

Climbing the stairs to the Moon’s Altar at the top of the temple. Out the window, she could see a yellow fog covering the village through a window. The pack homes, common house and warrior barracks were burning. She was glad only a few were here but she prayed her acolytes would somehow escape.

Ainsley was sitting in with Acolyte Sharon who was practicing entering the Tides. She could feel Sharon on the Tides but there was also something else. From far away there came a familiar scent. Ainsley immediately jumped back into her body. She ran to the shelf of oracle tools and pulled a mirror out of a velvet bag. From her pocket she took a bottle of oil her Mamó had taught her to make and made her promise to always keep on her person. She drew the rune for sacred waters on her forehead. Sharon cried out and she turned to see her friend convulsing. Ainsley held her down with one hand and drew the rune on Sharon’s forehead. She waited terrified as she called with her soul across the Tides to bring Sharon’s soul back. Suddenly, Sharon inhaled and sat up.

“What happened?” She blurted out loudly before Ainsley could put a hand over her mouth.

Ainsley put a finger over her lips then signed, I think the witches are here.

Sharon gasped then whispered, “What do we do?”

We escape.

Voices in the hall made Sharon open the door, they peeked out at a large alpha standing behind the petitioner coordinator from the Eye of the Goddess. When the Delphi offered to have Chia tea, Ainsley recognized the code word for emergency. She knew Del hated Chia tea.

Ainsley gestured, Going. Then edged the door shut.

Sharon signed, What do we do?

Ainsley listened at the door, then she pulled it open a crack. Del’s door was open but she couldn’t see anyone, so she crept out, motioning Sharon to follow. They closed the door silently then snuck down hall to the stairs down to their Oracles Quarters. There was a howl and Ainsley seized Sharon’s hand and ran into the linen closet. Sharon startled in shocked when Larson appeared and yanked them both into a tunnel.

“Ainsley, are you hurt?”

Ainsley shook her head, signing too rapidly for Sharon to follow.

“Okay, I’ll get the others. Just stay here.” The vampire ordered her.

She snapped her fingers at him then drew the rune on his forehead. “I need to come with you, my shadow.”

He scowled and nodded. “Hold on to my back.” He pointed at Sharon, “Stay here where it is safe.”

“Who are you?” Sharon asked.

Ainsley smiled at her and signed, He’s my mate.

“I’m Larson. She is my beloved. No time now, just stay here.”

Then the vampire and Ainsley vanished from the dark tunnel. Sharon paced nervously. Minutes later, Larson was back carrying three other acolytes, he left them in the tunnel and left again.

Amber touched the oil on Sharon’s forehead. “What is this? Ainsley drew something on my head, and I could feel my wolf again.”

Sharon shrugged. “I don’t know but her Mamó was an oracle and a witch. Maybe Ainsley knows witchcraft.

Tilla murmured, “Her mate is shadow-walker.”

Dorien shrugged his shoulders, “The Goddess gave her a boon. We would all be dead if her mate wasn’t helping us.”

“But he’s a shadow-walker,” Tilla repeated.

“So what?... We had a Coven living with our pack, they were great. The Delphi sent them to safety after she ordered my pack to a safe place.” Dorien revealed.

“But they drink blood and... and... are vampires... wolves and vampires can’t be soulmates,” Tilla whispered.

Dorien opened his mouth to argue but Amber stopped him.

“At last, she found her mate,” Amber envied Ainsley more than ever now. “We should be grateful to the Goddess he is able to resist the witchcraft or we would be dead too.”

The vampire returned with Healer Lily and two other wolves. “Lily, lead them down the stairs and not out the other tunnel to the north side of the island.”

“Where are we going?” Lily demanded.

“Through the Moon’s Void.” Larson left in a blur.

Moments later, he was back with Kaiyou over his shoulder, Ainsley shut the door, she was carrying the bags containing the Delphi’s scrying tools.

“Come,” Ainsley whispered then she shifted to her tiny red wolf, picked up the velvet bags. They all sifted to their wolves and ran down the stairs, following Ainsley to a small room.

While Lily tended the Shogunate wolf, Larson and Ainsley argued.

“No, we are not going back up We already saved everyone we found alive.”

Her hands flew through the sign language. I am not leaving Del, she has not crossed the Tides.

“Ainsley, Mamó said I was just to save you, so did the Delphi, and my sister.” Larson hissed at her.

The fourteen-year-old folded her arms and glared at him, whisper-shouting at him, “I will not leave her. I will go alone if you won’t come.” Then she dropped into her coppery wolf and bolted down the tunnels.

Larson cursed in the ancient vampire dialect Baccussi and ripped open a chest, pulling out a sword.

“If we don’t come back, follow the waning moon to get out, go up the stairs and head south to Montreal pack.” Then he was gone.

Delilah slammed her shoulder into the frozen-shut door out onto the balcony and stumbled into the freezing air.

“Del, stop.” Louis growled.

She turned, holding the blade in front of her. “Stay back, traitor!”

He looked pained, “Del… please… I did this for you… We need help, the Des Rues are a powerful pack…”

“A pack that killed my birthpack and have tried to kidnap my sister and I more than once,” Del hissed in reminder.

“It was a misunderstanding,” he lunged and grabbed her wrist holding the blade between their bodied as she struggled. “Stop! I love you. I am taking you away for a rest. Your exhaustion has made you paranoid.”

“I am not paranoid!” Del glared into his eyes. “Is it a misunderstanding that the temple pack village now burns, Louis? That witchcraft keeps my wolf from tearing your throat out for wanting to keep me from my duty to the Moon?”

Louis looked confused. “What are you talking about? I can feel my wolf.”

“Only because you came with the ones who are using witches. Go to the edge and look!” She demanded.

He dragged her with him to the edge and he stared with horror at the truth. Dozens and dozens of warrior wolves and four witches were walking around below. Louis shook his head, “No, no, no… He promised to help me protect you. To let me take you away from the temples so you could rest.”

Alpha Charles laughed from behind them. “You are such a greedy fool, Louis. Nothing like your father and brothers… Whom I enjoyed having killed…”

Louis let go of Del and pulled her behind him.

“In fact, I believe my son Charlemagne just killed the eldest of Beta Dolbeau’s sons… What was his name again? Lee… Leo… Leon… Yes, Leon, the professional driver, protector, and sometimes assassin for the Montreal Alpha and the Servants of the Moon.” Charles laughed at Delilah’s quiet sob then he smiled malevolently. “Now, Louis, we had an understanding. The Delphi needs to come with me so I… I can protect her.”

“Our agreement was that Delilah comes away with me,” Louis snarled, “I love her, she’s mine.”

Charles stalked slowly toward them, “This isn’t a negotiation, Louis, take your money, give me the Delphi, and I will let you leave this place alive. The last Naphtal Oracle belongs to me.”

He looked past Louis at Delilah in a way that made her skin crawl. “I have wanted her ever since she was a little girl braiding crowns of tulips, jonquils, and freesia from around her mother’s reflecting pool.”

Del shuddered, and Louis turned his head slightly to her. “I’m sorry, Delilah… I just wanted us to be together. I wanted you to love me like you loved….” His words cut off suddenly as he was ripped away from in front of her.

Del flinched as she was splattered with Louis’s blood, his strangled scream lasted only a second as the Alpha’s beast tore his head off. Del didn’t hesitate to leap forward and stab the beast in the shoulder with her silver blade. It snarled and backhanded her hard enough to knock her across the floor. She rolled into the censer pillar. She gasped in pain from her ribs as she scrambled to get to her feet. The beast lumbered toward her threatening. Her hand tightened on the ceremonial blade of the Benjmin-Naphtal. It was her only defense. His claws swiped at her as she stabbed at him. He stalked and wounded her, toying with the fact she couldn’t shift to her wolf.

Finally, Del made a desperate lunge trying to stab him in the throat. He caught her as the blade nicked his shoulder. Her arms, abdomen, and legs were covered with claw-slashes. Blood ran in vine-like lines over her moon marks. As he held her against him, his beast’s head snarled in her face, but she didn’t flinch, continuing to glare at him in defiance. He twisted her arm until it snapped painfully. The silver blade rang like a chime as it fell on the floor.

“I will never submit,” Delilah declared in an icy tone through the pain.

Charles shifted back to his flesh. His cheek was bleeding from where she sliced it. He rubbed it against her cheek, smearing their blood together. “Your mother burned herself to death rather than submit, but you aren’t going to escape me that easily, Delilah Ayala. When I am done with you, I am going to give you to my Charlemagne for a breeder.”

“No,” She breathed out, swallowing her horrified sob because she knew what he was going to do to her. “The Moon’s hounds will come for you.”

He forced her to bend over the altar and tore her gown down the back. He leaned over her naked back and whispered into her ear, “I know, I’ll be waiting for them.”

Delilah screamed as he assaulted her. Her broken arm flopped uselessly as the other flailed to push him away. He punched her in the back of the head, but she still resisted. Her legs kicked weakly but she could not dislodge his claws from her hips as he brutalized her. He paused only to roll her over, before starting again. She closed her eyes rather than look at him the flickering firelight of the burning village below and prayed to die. Suddenly, he jerked as the tip of a sword pierced through his chest from behind. His claws ripping painfully from her flesh as he turned to swipe at his new attacker. Then his head fell on her chest and rolled off the altar, she stared at it unblinking as Alpha Charles’ corpse was pulled off of her.

“Delphi? Delphi Delilah?” Larson sounded desperate. “Goddess, Ainsley, she’s not going to make it.”

“Hush,” Ainsley’s almost silent whisper harshly reprimanded him. Ainsley leaned into Del’s line of sight, as she drew a symbol on Del’s forehead in strange smelling oil and she could feel her wolf again. “Hold on, Delphi. I’ll bandage yorn wounds soon. Pick her up, we must go.”

There were howls and shouting as they ran through the hall of the oracles’ quarters to the hidden tunnel. Ainsley paused to break a bottle of scent blocking tincture in several places as they fled then sealed the door to the tunnel. Ainsley and Larson ran down the stairs as fast as they could go. Larson laid Del on a bed. Ainsley poured something down Del’s throat, then she and Lily immediately began tending Del’s wounds.

Rolling her head, Del could see Kaiyou laying on the floor. He was bandaged up like a mummy. There was a glossy rune on his forehead above his painfilled eyes. “I’m sorry, Delphi. They were just children…”

She wanted to apologize for not warning him, but she couldn’t speak. With her next breath, the world swirled dark.