Maikoda: Power of the Moon (Blue Moon Trilogy Book 2) Read online

  She closed her eyes, intent on finding Martin’s trail, then stopped, her eyes blinking open. She couldn’t see a scent trail. That was impossible. She should be able to see Martin’s at least, if not the other Were’s.

  Shaking her head, she took another deep breath before closing her eyes again, breathing evenly to allow her subconscious to take over, giving in to her wolf and not straining the bonds that connected her to her gift. She focused on the monochrome black and white of the landscape and allowed her nose to lead.

  Instantly, she was bombarded with a kaleidoscope of colors. The patterns flowed over and around themselves against the stark landscape. She had never seen so many Were colors before. Magenta, mauve, fuchsia, teal. All vibrant and alive. The hues were astounding. She gasped, her eyes opening and Brett touched her arm, alarm on his face.

  “Martin?”

  She had been so overwhelmed, she had forgotten to focus on his but dutifully looked back into the mish-mash of colors that spread over the landscape. Anchorage, Alaska either had a huge werewolf problem, or someone’s Were gift was making it hard for her to track him. She took a fresh breath and patiently sorted through the colors, following the intricate weaving in and out and up and down.

  Some of the patterns were not easily discernible and she had to backtrack several times to unravel it. Brett’s tension next to her was palpable, but he remained patient and she welcomed his support. She would not be able to concentrate if he hounded her. Several minutes passed as she whittled down the pattern and the ball of energy, the scent trails growing smaller and smaller.

  Time continued to pass and her body was starting to sweat from her intense mental activities. Suddenly she was done. There were only four trails now. Hers, Brett’s red and gray and orange weave, Martin’s gray and green weave and the mysterious Were whose scent trail she had sensed earlier. It was like the rainbow, switching colors and moving from one end of the spectrum to the next.

  She opened her eyes. “Got it.”

  Brett put the car in gear as Layla closed her eyes, giving him instructions, following the scent trail over the rough terrain. They left the city and moved along the interstate towards the wooded outskirts.

  “Do you know where it ends?” Brett asked in hushed tones, his face tense with concentration and worry.

  She shook her head. “I can’t see that far. I can only see about a few hundred feet in front of me.” She sighed. “I’m sorry.”

  Brett patted her leg and laughed ruefully. “Don’t be. You are much better than I am. Trust me. If I were alone up here I would be pulling my hair out right now.” He flashed a quick smile.

  The drive through the snow was slower than she would have liked, but she understood the need for caution even in their haste. Although outfitted with the snow tires, the rented Saab could only go so fast without the drive becoming hazardous. It was maddeningly frustrating as the scent trail glared bright against the darkened Alaskan sky.

  Tall trees loomed over them, the tops puncturing the night. The air was peppered with white that swirled around them and even in the warmth of the car, the overwhelming cold was still there. They were taking too long to get where they needed to be. The scent trails were too long.

  She wondered if she would be able to push her gift and go beyond what was in front of her; to see what was at the end of the yellow brick road. The scent trails were clearly marked and Martin had told her that she could train and enhance her Were powers just by practicing. Perhaps this would be a good time to put it to the test.

  Could she concentrate enough to see farther and follow the trail all the way to the end? Would she be able to sense the Were who took Martin? Would she be able to sense Martin? She closed her eyes to challenge herself and focused her energy, imagining her body as a separate entity, able to move ahead, to move faster and farther than she ever could. Her brows furrowed as she let her subconscious mind take control.

  Martin was a seasoned Hunter. If she could escape Kuruk’s goons, Martin had all the resources to be able to handle himself in this kind of situation, but a little bit of help never hurt. She took a deep breath. Her energy seemed to intensify and in the stillness of the snowy Alaskan night, she seemed to draw energy from the elements around her. Even the moon overhead seemed to brighten and Layla’s eyes popped open; in one moment of clarity, she had seen the end of the energy trail.

  “I know where he is!”

  Brett jerked around to face her, his hand jerking the wheel before he righted himself. “Martin? What do you mean you know where he is?”

  Excitement radiated from her every pore. “I saw where the trail ends. I actually saw the end of the scent trail. It’s a village about three hours from here. In the woods.”

  “I thought you couldn’t see the end of the trail. How do you know that’s really where he is?”

  Layla shrugged. “I don’t know. We have to trust it, I guess. I just tried something Martin had suggested and I…pushed myself. Guess it worked.”

  “How do you know that it’s not another Were who can project or something? They could be giving you wrong directions to throw us off.” He glanced at her. “You know I trust your gifts, baby, but we don’t know what the Weres up here can do. They could be crazy and have all kinds of twisted ideas. For us as well as Martin.”

  “Brett, come on. I know how my gift works. This was all me.”

  He sighed. “Okay. Okay. Well, let’s find him then. But,” he held up a warning finger,“we are not going in unprepared. We need to get some supplies. There has to be an all-night convenience store somewhere around here and we need to make sure we have everything, if we are going to do this right.”

  His hand thumped the steering wheel. “Something about this still stinks. No one should have known we were coming.”

  Layla swallowed and groaned. Kuruk. He had given her the Alaska clue. He knew she would come here. It made sense that he would have known this was where she was probably headed if she was no longer in Tampa Bay. And knowing Kuruk, he would’ve looked all over Tampa Bay for her by now.

  Brett looked at her quickly. “What is it?”

  “Kuruk knew we would be here. He told me about Alaska, remember?”

  “Shit!” Brett swore as realization dawned. “You’re right. He did. And he has the resources and the manpower to put together something this huge in such a short amount of time. But it doesn’t make sense.”

  Brett drummed his fingers on the steering wheel again. “Why would he take Martin? Why not take you? If you’re the only one who can find the blade and use it? Or kidnap all of us to force you to comply?”

  Layla agreed silently with Brett. She too wondered why Kuruk would kidnap the one Were who had shown time and again that he was quite capable of going through all of the Weres on Kuruk’s payroll. So, who did Kuruk contract that had the kind of strength to overpower Martin? And why was a Were that powerful allowing Kuruk to control them?

  It didn’t sit right with her, but Kuruk was the only logical answer. He was the only Were who knew she would be in Alaska and that she was a possible link to the Hania. Nonetheless, the Were who left the trail seemed too…sophisticated for the likes of Kuruk. He was too rough, regardless of how polished he tried to pretend to be.

  The trail weaver was graceful, lithe. It made no sense why they would want an alliance with Kuruk. She sighed again. They would have to figure of the why later. Right now they had a possible location for Martin and they had to get there as soon as possible.

  *

  Martin scanned the area around him. It was silent. Too silent. Even the wind had disappeared and the snow fell like noiseless rain. It was unnerving. He tested the bonds holding him captive. The thin fibers were misleading, the seemingly fragile threads containing a strength that even he could not break.

  He focused on transforming, curious when even his claws could not break the threads. Magic. It would explain the bonds and it would explain how one of the most decorated hunters in Were history had been taken
captive.

  His eyes penetrated the darkness as he continued to look around; using his gift to look for a weakness in his prison. He could spot the weak link a mile away, but so far, there was none that he could see. Footsteps sounded a few yards away and he paused to quickly take stock of his prison; he was in a warehouse of some sort, the dark, dank walls and echoing hallways confirmed that it was not a house.

  Perhaps he was being held in an industrial building no longer in use, he thought, thinking back to the compound used by the Werewolf Council in Florida. If he were able to somehow contact the Werewolf Council here, he could use his rank to plead amnesty until he could get away. His thoughts halted as the footsteps grew closer and he straightened his shoulders.

  A woman floated in, her scent masked. More magic. He could not tell if she was a Were or a hunter or some other creature. She walked towards him, her hair a graceful sheet of white around her thin body and stared at him with hazel eyes filled with green flecks; intelligence and humor shining from them.

  “Who are you?”

  She raised a brow as he spoke. “You do not know me?”

  He shook his head, his brows furrowed. Try as he might, he could not recall seeing the woman before and did not know why she would be interested in him. No one here even knew that he was a Were. He had not used any Were connections when booking the flights and had purchased everything under the radar to make sure of their anonymity. The mere fact that they had grabbed him at the airport scared him. It meant that whoever was responsible had contacts that far exceeded his.

  The woman smiled at him again. “You will discover who I am in due time. Just understand that I am like you. We share similar…gifts. Until such time, do not think of this place as a prison or think of yourself as a prisoner. You are our guest. Unfortunately, we cannot allow you to leave just yet.”

  She raised an elegant hand and waved it airily at the room and his confines. “It is for your own safety that we have acted this way, I promise you and I also promise that as long as you are our guest, no harm shall come to you.”

  He nodded curtly. As much as he hated his current situation, for some reason, he believed her. His years of experience as a Hunter; capturing, imprisoning, interrogating and even killing his own kind had made him an excellent judge of character, even better than any other member of the Council.

  He had even known that Suzette would eventually turn out the way she did, he had simply hoped that she would rise above the temptations and make better decisions. Use her powers for the betterment of the tribe. Unfortunately, she had chosen another path. So, he trusted his instincts. He trusted what had made him a successful Hunter. Something else was happening here, everything was not what it seemed to be.

  “When will you allow me to leave?” He eyed the woman in front of him, gauging her reaction.

  She quirked her lips. “When it is safe.” She looked at him as if she knew this answer would not please him and she was right.

  “When will it be safe?”

  Her voice drifted back to him as she turned and walked away. “When we have dealt with our little rogue wolf problem.” A wrought iron door closed behind her with a resounding clang.

  Martin frowned. Wolf problem? Just like him? That meant she was definitely a Were. Was she saying that there were others here who were not a part of their pack? If so, had he, Layla and Brett accidentally stumbled onto some turf war? Or was it something more sinister?

  Did Kuruk or even Suzette have the connections to make the local packs as nervous as this and if so, did that make this woman his ally? Could he trust them with their problem? He sighed, until Layla figured out where he was, he could do nothing but wait, unfortunately.

  *

  Suzette paced the small room, her hands clenched into fists. She was tired of this godforsaken land, this nothingness that marked this new territory. She looked over at the remaining members of her pack. Ouray and Amy were huddled together near the window as they watched the snow fall in flurries onto the dark ground.

  In addition to her cousin and her new second, only two other Weres remained in the room, their faces dark and brooding. She was less than enthralled by the snow than her pack was, refusing to see beyond the wet and cold.

  A pack of five. Less than a month ago, she was one of the most feared Alphas in Were society, now she cowered in a house in the barrenness of Alaska, barely surviving off wild animals and the occasional human.

  Walking into her bedroom, she sat down on the plush bedding. The two bedroom house was not as ideal as her old mansion on Bayshore had been, but she made do. As alpha, it was her right to take the master bedroom and she gave Amy the second room.

  The boys slept in the large living room on the floor as they deserved. She ignored the fact that Ouray had practically moved into Amy’s room and wondered if he had charmed her. It would serve her right; she glowered as she watched her younger cousin flip her long blonde hair. Her own hair had been longer…and prettier; the fine blonde strands her signature, until Layla had gotten lucky and almost killed her. She fingered her short tresses. Her father’s punishment. A shameful look; a shorn Were. Teeth clenched tightly, her nostrils flared. Layla would pay.

  Opening the silver attaché case that rested on her bed, she pulled out a sheaf of papers. Things were not going well. Her father had sent her to search for three things; the dagger, the bracelet and the Hania. According to her father, all of these were necessary in order to complete the ritual that would result in the transfer of power from Mai-coh to her father—to herself, she corrected with a smirk.

  Her father was really foolish to think that she would allow him to harvest the greatest power in the Were world. So that he could rule with his outdated and antiquated methodologies. There was also something he didn’t know about the dagger. Something she had discovered on accident.

  The dagger had powers of its own. Besides transferring power, the dagger was able to find and control the Hania if the right spell was used. She frowned. That was the problem. She was still trying to find that spell. But until then, it remained her little secret.

  She unfurled a map and ran a long finger down the trail she wanted to try. They were having difficulties finding the Were village that the bracelet was reportedly in. Someone had a really strong gift and was masking the village from her, but, it was simply a matter of time. With Ouray’s ability to charm, Amy’s ability to sense deception and her own strong sense of smell, they would find it eventually.

  The only problem was that Alaska was a fucking really big wilderness and even with five transformed Weres searching, it was still a lot of ground to cover. They also had to be wary of the local Weres. So far they had found two and killed them.

  It had been a necessity. Were blood helped her heal a lot faster. It was only because of Were blood mixed with the blood she had taken from Brett that she had been able to escape her ordeal with Layla. Her eyes flashed angrily as she thought back to the Were who had made her life hell.

  Regardless, Layla would be here soon to find the dagger and the bracelet, she mused. Perhaps she should let Layla do all the hard work and then simply take the items after they had been found. Hopefully, the stupid wolf knew that she needed to be in Alaska. Perhaps not, she thought.

  Layla might know Mai-coh’s location and might hide him until it was time. After all, the ritual wasn’t until New Year’s Eve which was months away. In waiting, she risked that Kuruk would also discover the secrets of the dagger and its location. Perhaps she needed to continue looking regardless.

  Suzette shuffled through the papers as she searched for one item in particular. They would have to hunt tonight. The local Weres were on the lookout, but she knew where she was going to hunt and she knew who she wanted. On her way into town yesterday she had passed a dance studio—Moondancer, it was called. She smelled the strength emanating from the silver-haired woman who ran the place.

  It would be difficult, but she was confident in the ability of her pack and in their combined s
trength. Besides, with blood that strong in her system, it was almost guaranteed that she would be back to her old self in no time. She smiled. It was time for the hunt to begin.

  *

  The glaring lights of the all night supercenter greeted them and Brett quickly parked the car. Layla glanced over at him. His jaw was set and she knew that this plan was going to be very risky. Already their team was falling apart and they had yet to even begin to search for her sisters, much less the tools she would need—if she was the Hania—to help her father.

  Layla swallowed thickly. She would have to kill. She turned her mind away from the horrible thought and unbuckled her seatbelt. It was something she would have to do and no matter how much she dreaded doing it, she had an obligation, if she was the one. Brett opened the door and the blast of cold air stole into her lungs. Shaking off her doubtful thoughts, she quickly gathered her purse and followed him into the store.

  “What do we need?” she asked as they walked to the auto and home improvement section. Not that she would have cause to purchase similar items in the future, but she wanted to know how much of this McGuyver stuff he was familiar with.

  His lips twisted into a smile. “Well, for starters, we’re gonna get a few rolls of duct tape, some pieces of PVC, a car battery and a couple of flashlights.”

  “We only need one flashlight. I can see in the dark,” she reminded him.

  “The flashlight is not for use as a light. I need the coils inside it.”

  “Oh,” she said, slightly embarrassed.

  Brett touched her cheek. “When making a flash bomb, you need a detonator. You can use better equipment, but a flashlight is cheap, easily accessible and does the job.” He shrugged. “Now, we just need to get some supplies from the garden center and the car care center. With the right ingredients, I simply throw it, they mix and boom.”