The Blood Moon

Return

"I'm going to be pulling you out, Del," said Hen, whose voice echoed within the chamber of my mind. "The curse is gone. There's nothing left but the darkness of sleep and the chaos of dreams. It will be better for both of us, if we bail out now."

"Don't have to tell me twice," I answered.

It took only a second for the veil of my memories to part and the reality of the present to emerge. With it came bright, searing lights and an aching, sore body. I crossed my arms on top of the cold steel of the table and then buried my face into the valley they formed.

All of me was spent.

"Do you want some time alone?" asked Hen, whose traditionally cheery disposition had grown dull and damp over the course of the afternoon. "I can step out if you want and get you some water. I can also get one of my crew to send over another meal — on the house, of course. You're owed that much after all you've been through."

"What about you?" I muttered into the folds of my arms. "You must be exhausted too."

"I am," she admitted without hesitation, though she still managed to pull herself out of her chair before collecting her various tools from the table. "But, I'll manage. I come from a strong stock of mages and it will take more than that bounty hunter's curse to knock me on my ass." She then paused, her hand frozen midway in her bag, before looking up at me from the tops of her painted eyes. "Not that I'm saying you should feel bad about being tired, I mean you're not a mage and..."

"It's okay," I replied with a small smile. "I know what you mean."

I didn't offer her more than that and she didn't pester me further about what my plans were. I mean, I didn't know what to do with everything I had just witnessed, nor did I know how I should feel about all the dead werewolves that were left in Grey Ravine's wake. However, what I did know was that I was tired. So very, very tired.

"Okay, well," said Hen with a sigh once she finished organizing her toolkit, "if you don't have any issues with it, I'm going to order you a nice heaping stack of pancakes with some bacon. I feel like this is a breakfast for dinner kind of day."

"As great as that sounds," I said, my words wet as my mouth involuntarily salivated, "what I really want right now is the comfort of my bed. I want to sleep for a day straight and then spend a week in bed doing absolutely nothing. I think Calista would understand me calling in sick from work for awhile."

I saw a twist of uncertainty in Hen's bright red lips, but she didn't stop me as I stood up and then shuffled towards the door. Instead, she held it open and allowed me passage back out into the main room of the station.

"Of course," I continued, "considering I had to take a few days off only a month or so ago because a ghost tried to abduct me while wearing my friend's skin, she may consider another leave of absence a sign that I might not be the best fit for the job."

"Doubtful," said Hen with a light laugh that brightened her dark demeanor.

"Ah, curse free, I see," cheered Armand, who still sat inside the prison cell as if it were a plush lounge. "I take it you can now corroborate my story."

"You still could have killed Alpha Zachary," said Hen with disdain. "Yes, I can confirm that you saved her from being mauled by the wolf, Heather, and that you were the curse's creator, but all we know about the actual murder is that you were there before she arrived."

"Did you not see the man's erection?" exclaimed the bounty hunter as he rose to his feet and crossed over to the bars of the cell. "Look, I'm not saying, I'm not a good looking guy." Hen responded with a dramatic eye roll. Armand, however, continued on unperturbed. "But I did my research on Grey Ravine before coming here — and I research everything. Alpha Zachary was only batting for one team and he loved his ladies. Unfortunately, the poor wolf never found a bonded mate. So he pretty much slept with any willing woman in hopes of creating heirs to his throne. With the Blood Moon, he just needed a pretty face, perhaps a bit of lace, and — most importantly — a ready and willing uterus to provide him some new pups. Meet those standards and it wouldn't take much to get him absolutely drunk on lust. But with me, he would have torn my throat out before I even batted an eyelash at him."