Blood Moon (20 page)

I wanted to devour him.

He never once complained while we made love,
but he did try to reposition us a few times, only to be thwarted by
my newfound strength and unwillingness to be in any kind of
submissive position. At one point, I did allow him to sit up, and
he pushed my hair back off my face, threading his fingers into it
and holding it in place as we neared the precipice of our
release.

I smiled at the memory of last night, my
body tingling all over as my desire ignited again before vanishing
just as suddenly, giving way to a much less pleasurable feeling.
Suddenly, every muscle in my body tensed, leaving me on-edge and
jittery. My skin tightened over my body, my heart raced, and my
head pounded. This was the first time in days that I’d felt this
out of sorts, and I wasn’t sure if I should be concerned. While it
was an unusual sensation taking over my entire body, it didn’t seem
particularly life-threatening, so I decided to wait it out and see
if it passed on its own. I’d hate to go to the doctor just to find
out it was mild anxiety or something.

The tension in my body increased, forcing me
from bed before dawn, while David was still sound asleep. I figured
I could at least get an early start on the day, so I quietly padded
down the hall toward the kitchen and started brewing the coffee. I
really hoped that whatever I was feeling went away once I’d
eaten.

The smell of coffee infused the air, and I
heard David stirring in the bedroom. It was still a little strange
to hear every little thing, but over the last few days, I’d grown
accustomed to it, and had even learned to use it to my advantage. I
tried doing the same with my other senses, but the ability to smell
every little thing had yet to grow on me as much as the others.

I listened to see if David was awake, but
when I heard his soft snores, I knew he wasn’t. Not surprising
considering it was only five in the morning, and it was rare if he
woke before six.

Without any warning, my stomach cramped
painfully, forcing me to grip the countertop as I doubled over. It
was hard to distinguish whether it was due to nausea or hunger, and
it only strengthened the more I focused on it. Thankfully, it
passed as quickly as it had come on, and when my hands shook
afterward, I determined the cause to be hunger. I yanked the
refrigerator door open so hard, I almost tore it off its
hinges—literally—and I dug through it until I found the bacon and
eggs. Once I located them, I grabbed my frying pan and turned the
stove on so I could cook breakfast before David woke up. My mouth
salivated as I eyed the raw bacon, but I mentally chastised myself
for even entertaining the idea of it being edible like that.

No sooner had I started cooking, when I
heard David’s soft footfalls in the hall. He was trying to be
sneaky. I could tell, because, instead of the usual heal-toe
footstep, I heard a slower, tiptoe-like shuffling over the hardwood
floors. He was so adorable sometimes, and I just didn’t have the
heart to ruin his fun, so I carried on with breakfast, humming to
let him think I was none the wiser. When his hands grabbed my
waist, I pretended to be startled, jumping slightly and
gasping.

“Good morning,” he said, pressing his lips
to my shoulder as he wrapped his arms all the way around my waist
and rocked us both side to side. “Sorry if I startled you. You been
up long?” His hands continued to travel south, toying with the
waist of my skimpy sleep shorts.

“Mmm,” I hummed, looking toward the digital
clock on the coffee maker. “Not really. Less than an hour.”
Abandoning breakfast for a brief second, I turned in his arms to
greet him properly, and he gripped my ass, pulling me against him.
“Why are you awake so early? I figured you’d sleep in after last
night.”

Smirking, David leaned forward and kissed me
softly. “So did I,” he replied quietly. “I thought you’d sleep in a
bit today, too.”

“That would’ve been nice,” I agreed,
stretching my neck when it felt tight again. “I guess my body
figures it needs to be up before the sun now. It’s normally not so
bad, but today I think I could have used the extra sleep.”

Worry quickly filled David’s eyes as they
darted between mine, and he forgot all about his not-so-subtle
seduction. “Are you feeling okay?”

“Um, kind of,” I replied honestly. “I’m a
little jittery…almost like I’m anxious about something, and I was a
little nauseous this morning before I got out of bed.”

David placed the back of his hand to my
forehead, and his eyebrows pulled together. “You do feel a little
warmer.”

“Weird.” I turned back to plate breakfast.
“I don’t feel like I have a fever.”

I started eating right away, the heavenly
smell making my stomach growl. I was suddenly ravenous, unable to
get enough. It was a stark contrast to the nausea I experienced
earlier, and while this should probably concern me, something about
it definitely didn’t feel off. In fact, it felt as natural as
breathing—like it was my body’s way of preparing for something.
Something big. What, though? I had no idea, but I felt like I was
just supposed to go with it, so I did.

While David and I sat at the table, his cell
phone rang. After a couple rings, he picked it up. It was O’Malley.
Apparently a young woman had come into the station after an odd
exchange the night before, and as soon as the word
“Gianna’s”
left her mouth, O’Malley put her in an
interrogation room with a cup of coffee and called us.

My hands trembled for an entirely new reason
after that.

David and I rushed to get ready, agreeing to
worry about the dishes when we got home that evening. By the time
we were headed to the station, I was still feeling a little off,
but the strange cramps and rolling in my stomach had subsided. I
was still pretty anxious about something, but I couldn’t seem to
pinpoint what it was. All I knew was that I felt the deep need to
be outside.

Sitting in the car brought on an unusual
bout of claustrophobia as David drove. It wasn’t something that
plagued me in the past, but for some reason, I felt like a caged
animal. I couldn’t sit still, my skin broke out in a cold sweat,
and my heartbeat quickened with panic. David noticed my fidgeting,
but he didn’t ask and I said nothing, mainly because I wasn’t sure
anything was wrong. Just like earlier, I chalked it up to my meal
last night since it was the only “unusual” thing I could attribute
it to. With slight reservations, he accepted it as plausible.

When we arrived, I was relieved to get out
of the car, instantly stretching my entire body until my shoulders,
neck, and lower back cracked satisfactorily. I reveled in the
relief and tranquility that passed over me, a delightful quiver
moving beneath the surface of my skin which forced goosebumps to
prickle all over my body.

David led me into the precinct, and when we
arrived on our floor, we found our team already gathered around
O’Malley’s desk. When he lifted his head and saw us, his eyes
widened with excitement, and he waved us over frantically.

“What’s up?” David asked, shrugging out of
his jacket and silently offering to take mine, as well.

I took him up on his offer and then perched
myself against the edge of O’Malley’s desk while he hung them up on
the coat rack. While waiting for O’Malley to speak, I picked up on
something in the room. It wasn’t just the excitement that I saw
gleaming in O’Malley’s eyes when we first arrived, but the air was
infused with celebration.

It electrified the surface of my skin, and
not only could I feel it rolling off of everyone in waves, but I
swear I could smell it. It confused me, because how did one
smell
something like that? Even that day we were organizing
our investigation and I called Clarke out; while it was odd, his
fear was more than just satisfying. It was mouthwatering.

“I think we found that club,” O’Malley
announced, and my heart beat faster with elation.

“What?” I asked, stunned, but also to make
sure I heard him correctly.

His smile widened, flashing his teeth, and
he nodded. “We won’t be sure until we check it out, but we’ve got a
couple of leads from that club-goer we’ve got waiting for you. She
said she was approached by someone looking to recruit new
members.”

“So you’ve got an address?” I asked
excitedly. His smile was answer enough, and I flew to my feet in an
instant. “Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go check it out.”

David chuckled next to me. “You realize that
it’s likely not going to be open to the public at ten in the
morning, right?”

“No, but we can go take a look around. Maybe
the cleaning crews will be there,” I countered, itching to check
this place out and talking a mile a minute.

O’Malley held out a folder. “It’s possible,
but why don’t you wait until you’ve talked to the girl they tried
to recruit first? She’s been waiting for the two of you.”

We walked into the room together, and our
witness looked up. She looked a little worse for wear, a key
indicator that she’d been up half the night partying. This
deduction wasn’t solely based on her appearance—though her choppy
black bob was standing up every which way, and her black eye makeup
was smudged down her cheeks—but also because I could smell the
alcohol seeping from her pores.

The harsh light above the table glinted off
of her eyebrow, nose, and lip piercings when she looked around the
room. She seemed nervous, ringing her hands on the tabletop in
front of her and tugging on her lip piercing with her teeth as her
eyes darted about like a frightened animal, and when the sleeve of
her shirt rose up her right arm, I saw a small, familiar mark on
her wrist.

She was from Donovan’s club.

“So,” I started, glancing down at the file
in front of me, “Sarah—”

She released an annoyed breath and rolled
her eyes. “It’s
Raven
, actually,” she corrected me.

“Raven,” I repeated, suppressing an eye roll
of my very own. “Cute.”

Huffing again, her golden brown eyes
narrowed in my direction. I offended her, and I sensed her
annoyance like a gentle vibration that moved between us. Before she
had a chance to snap, David interjected gently. “Raven.” Even
though he was being as charming as possible, his voice indicated
that he was working really hard to not snicker at the cliché Goth
name this girl had chosen for herself. “Our colleague, Detective
O’Malley, said you called the precinct this morning regarding an
invite to an even more exclusive club than the one you’re a part
of. Is this correct?”

She turned her attention to him and nodded.
“Yeah. I was at
The Dungeon
, partying with Lucia and
Astrophel”—I bit my tongue, because there was no way to keep a
straight face otherwise—“and this couple walked in. It was hard not
to notice them, actually.” Raven’s eyes glazed over as she lost
herself in the memory, and I sensed her mood shifting. I no longer
felt the flare of annoyance, but instead picked up a trace of …
lust
. It was bizarre, and it made me uncomfortable.

“She was blonde and thin, with legs that
went on for days, and she had her arm looped through her
companion’s.” She sighed, her body relaxing even further into the
chair, and her voice took on a tone of longing as she described the
man. “He was something else, you know. His brownish hair was a
stark contrast to his flawless, bone-white skin, and the club
lights would pick up hints of red scattered throughout—dude’s got a
wicked-good hair stylist. He was unbelievably handsome, the strong
cut of his jaw made even more so when he would lean down and
whisper into the ear of the stunning woman on his arm.

“They strolled through the place like they
owned it—I don’t even know how they got in, actually. Donovan
noticed them from his spot near the stage and approached them
immediately.” Raven shrugged. “I don’t know what they talked about,
but the woman smiled at him, said something, and he nodded before
heading back to his office in the back.”

I turned to David and lowered my voice. “We
should call Donovan down.” David agreed with a nod and looked
toward the two-way mirror along the wall to his right. Behind it,
O’Malley and some of our other colleagues were watching, so one of
them would make the call.

“What happened next?” I asked. “Did they
approach you right away?”

Raven shook her head emphatically. “Not
even. They continued to look around, and then they split up. The
woman worked her way across the dance floor, drawing almost
everyone’s eyes to her as she stopped to dance with a few
people.”

“And the man?” I inquired.

Raven raised her big brown eyes to mine. “He
stood by the bar, ordered a drink, and scanned the room. Then his
eyes honed in on me.” She swallowed thickly, her eyebrows pulling
together somewhat nervously as her apprehension poured over me.

“And that’s when he approached you,” I
deduced, but Raven shook her head again. “Then…?”

She shivered, pulling her hands from the
table and into her lap, her eyes following them. “I don’t know how
to describe what happened. It’s kind of…foggy.”

“
Try
,” I encouraged, leaning forward
on the table. “Just, try.”

Her head bobbed slightly, but she kept her
eyes from mine. “I didn’t even realize I was walking toward him at
first—in fact, it didn’t feel like I was walking at all. I felt
like I was floating, being pulled toward him by some unseen
force.”

“Tell us more about this man,” David spoke
up. “What about him stood out to you?”

“His eyes,” Raven replied without missing a
beat, and her head snapped up, locking her gaze on me. “They were
green—kind of like yours, actually, but darker…almost
sinister.”

“And what did he say to you?” I probed
gently.

“Not much, really. He told me about his
club, and how I was exactly the type they were looking for. I
wasn’t sure what that even meant, but his voice was so hypnotic
that I’d have believed anything he tried to tell me.”