Blood Sacrifice (The Astral Chronicles #1)

Chapter SeventeenLuna

Chapter Seventeen

Luna

Jethro was currently in a roadside diner waiting for Paulo to arrive for their meeting. He had told him he was following a lead and needed his assistance, which wouldn’t be outside their normal routine.

Salvator and I sat in a carpark not far away so we could watch what was happening, and when Jethro texted, I would walk into the diner and activate the spell to free Paulo from the enchantment binding him. Music played a low, rhythmic beat from the speakers in the car, and a breeze whispered across my skin from the open windows.

My legs were bent and my feet braced on the front dashboard while my fingers drummed on the armrest. To the average passerby we looked as if we were sitting listening to music, minding our own business. Inside the car was a different matter, with Salvator’s muscles tense, and all his attention set on monitoring the road outside the diner.

“You need to stop worrying,” I said, placing my hand on his thigh. “Jethro said he tends to meet up with Paulo in eating establishments as the man has a non-stop appetite. It would look weird meeting him in a woodland off the beaten track.”

His sigh sounded like it came from the depths of his soul. “When this is over, I think we should find somewhere far away from here and restart our life together,” Salvator said, shocking me. “I’ve had enough of wars and fighting and two-faced people who pretend they can be trusted.”

“Let’s just focus on finishing the war, and then we can decide what the future holds. A new war is emerging between the immortals and Hell, and I feel it may draw all of us into it.” I rubbed his thigh in time to the music.

“I think maybe we’ve fought in enough conflicts spanning several lifetimes. Someone else can lose years of their life to violence and death.”

I squeezed his thigh until he moved his attention to me. “We all have to live in this world,” I said. “Personally, I prefer it without hellspawn and other denizens of Hell lurking around.”

He glanced away, but I felt his turbulent emotions through our bond. I relaxed back into my seat, and continued to listen to the music, humming along to parts that I recognised.

“You do realise that if you keep doing that, you’re going to have a problem on your hands?” Salvator queried in that deep, husky voice of his that made butterflies beat against my chest.

It was only when he said it, that I realised my hand had moved slightly, and my fingertips were caressing his cock as I moved my hand up and down. Since we’d mated, I gone to sleep every night with my body languid and satisfied, and I woke every morning to his erect cock alert and ready for action.

I stopped moving my hand for a few seconds, before I curved my fingers over and rubbed the back of my knuckles over the bulge in his jeans.

“Luna,” Salvator warned, and I felt a flash of excitement deep in my stomach. “We’re on a mission.”

Technically, we had all arrived early, and there were still a few minutes before Paulo was due. Using my forefinger, I created a swirl pattern, my thumb stroking the side.

Salvator thumped his fist on the top of the steering wheel, sliding further down in his seat. “Right now, I want to drag you outside and bend you over the bonnet and show you what happens to naughty girls.” He groaned when I gently squeezed his cock.

“I think we might draw attention if you do that,” I replied, my teeth biting into my bottom lip when he lifted my hand and kissed my wrist.

I turned toward him, and I felt the heat of his gaze boring into me from behind his dark sunglasses. There was a link between us that had never been there before, a bond that connected us at a soul level. I felt his presence inside me as if he was a part of me, and could now understand why Balor didn’t want us to mate when we were priestesses in the temple. My magic was different, and my priorities had changed, with Salvator becoming the guiding North on my life compass.

In my head, a memory from last night flashed through my head of me riding his cock, my nails digging into his shoulders and my hips undulated up and down.

Salvator groaned, his grip tightening on my hand. “What the fuck was that?” he demanded.

“What?” My brow lowered in confusion.

“That image in my head of you riding me. I could feel you surrounding me, your heat welcoming me.” He lowered our hands until I could feel his erection straining at his jeans.

I closed my eyes, imagining him moving inside me in that delicious stretch that stimulated all the right places in my feminine core.

“Luna,” Salvator growled, his hips bucking against my hand.

I wiggled my hips, sinking down in my seat, delving deeper into my fantasy, retrieving a memory from all those years ago when Salvator caught me out getting water. He had pinned me to the side of the temple, lifting my dress to take me from behind, his hand covering my mouth to stop me from vocalising my pleasure. It was the closest memory I had to him bending me over the car as he suggested earlier.

His fist slammed against the steering wheel again. He made me lose control, drown in the scent and taste of him, a madness cascading over me in waves of passion.

I jolted when his hand slipped down the front of my leggings.

“Let me help you, baby,” his deep, husky voice made me widen my legs.

I moaned when the rough pads of his fingers landed on my clit, rubbing a circle that sent flashes of sensation deep into my womb. My legs quivered, and I pressed myself deeper into the seat to experience the full force of those magical fingers working a spell on my clit.

I allowed my mind to travel down a path of fantasy, all the sexual adventures I’d wished Salvator and I had indulged in when I read books over the years, envisaging him in the starring role.

“What the fuck, Luna?” Salvator gasped, his fingers pressing deeper against my flesh. “I don’t remember being involved in that!”

“Not physically,” I said, my breath catching when another pulse flashed deep in my stomach. “But you were my lover in every fantasy I had over the past four hundred years.”

I had visited many sexual encounter social events over the years, looking but never participating. The result had been me creating an enchantment when I returned home, invoking the memory of Salvator to join me in the illusion.

“I’ve been missing out,” Salvator replied. “Looks like I’ll have to create an entirely new set of memories that both of us can remember.”

He attacked my clit, using a pattern that left me panting, my legs widening and my pelvis tilting. My mouth fell open as he pushed me over the edge, my body spasming as pleasure pulsed in waves from deep in my womb.

Salvator leaned over to press a hard kiss to my lips. “We’ll visit this issue later,” he said, kissing me again and returning to staring out the window. How did he have so much control over his body, considering his erection was still evident in his jeans?

I touched his thigh and he lifted my hand in his, running his thumb along the side of my hand in a gentle caress.

“You—”

He stopped me with a shake of his head. “I will get my release later with my dick embedded deep inside your heat and your body begging for surrender. I’ll take your fantasy and show you what it feels like in real life.”

My stomach clenched and my heart beat double time at his words. I had believed that my imagination had captured the feel of his body on mine, but the past few weeks had proved that my mind was nothing compared to the flesh and blood man. He knew how to manipulate my body and bring me pleasure in unimaginable ways, playing me like a musician with the instrument he had mastered.

“Any sign of Paulo arriving?” I asked to try and distract myself from the flush that still coated my skin.

“No, but that black Jeep down the street arrived a few minutes ago, and I have a bad feeling. What if we’ve all been followed for years without knowing?” He chewed the corner of his mouth as he glanced in our rearview mirror.

I put on some of my magical lip gloss that would mask my appearance to anyone seeking me. “I’ll be right back,” I said, slipping out of the car before he could complain.

The heat outside was oppressive, the sun burning the pavement with its intensity. I wandered down the street with a pair of large sunglasses hiding my eyes and my hair tied in a high ponytail. I rubbed my fingertips together to activate my magic, muttering a locking spell, touching the car on my way past to keep the inhabitants in the vehicle for the next few hours. Then I added a jolt of electrical energy that would prevent the engine from starting. The two men inside would be incredibly sweaty by the time they managed to free themselves from their metal prison.

I wandered into a shop to allow me to stand and watch what was happening outside. I whispered an incantation to reveal those with ill intent against us, and waited to see what was really happening. Dark shadows stretched where there had been sunshine, darkening the landscape.

We had a bigger problem than two men in a car.

I paid for two bottles of water, slowly made my way down toward the carpark, and calculated the full extent of what was waiting for us. Technically, they believed Salvator had been in that building when it exploded, but then that wolf had continued to follow us. Someone could see more than we wanted them to, and were anticipating our moves before we took them.

Jethro sat in the diner, and I made a last moment decision, opening the bottles of water and setting them down at the side of the road. I opened the door to the diner and strode in, taking a seat opposite the lycan. His eyebrows raised, but he didn’t say a word.

“I need you to take a look at something for me,” I said, touching his hand so he could see what I did. He sat back in his chair and glanced out the window as if he was lost in thought.

“You shared this with anyone else?” he asked casually.

“My mate should be able to see what I do.” I had felt Salvator’s turbulent emotions since I activated the spell earlier.

“You think I’m being stood up?” Jethro asked.

“Possibly, or this could be a common occurrence.” None of us knew what precautions had been put in place to ensure their compliance over the years.

“Understood.” He nodded once, and lifted the menu to pretend to study it. “You want anything?”

The door jingled and Salvator prowled in, his energy filling the entire diner. I had already altered his appearance before we left earlier. None of his previous pack would recognise him right now, the illusion showing a geeky youth with blond hair and blue eyes since it was the opposite of his dark, sultry looks.

A red car pulled up, and a man exited it, checking his phone as he closed the door.

“Looks like my date has arrived,” Jethro said.

I silently stood up and went toward the toilets without a backward glance, standing just inside the doorway to give Paulo time to enter the diner. When I re-emerged a few minutes later, he and Jethro were in conversation with two mugs of coffee in front of them. The energy outside had begun to condense, and two men had entered the diner and sat not far from Jethro and Paulo. As I walked past Jethro’s table, I tripped and accidentally stumbled forward, Paulo putting his hand out to save me, our skin coming into contact with each other, the spell that existed on my right hand removing the magic that bound him.

“I’m so sorry,” I muttered, watching as he blinked in confusion.

Jethro took over the situation, chatting to cover the fact that Paulo was unable to talk right now as my enchantment sank into his body, eroding the spell that held him under the influence of another witch.

I took a seat at the counter, the waitress placing a glass of water in front of me as I smiled my thanks. From this position, I could watch what was happening as it unfolded. It was possible that whoever had infiltrated Salvator’s organisation had tightened security when he was released from their spell.

Magic was a strange creature derived from the essence of life, and manipulated by those who had an affinity with the elements. I followed the old ways, the symbols of the elements etched on my fingertips to ensure they were readily available to me no matter what the circumstance. Each combination generated a different spell that was created in my body and manifested in the world around me.

My hands were clasped in my lap, allowing me to rub fingers together without drawing attention to myself and the fact that I was casting. All my intent was focused on the “shadow people” that were in the diner. We were severely outnumbered, but our secret weapon was the massive predator currently sipping a cup of coffee under the disguise of a tourist who was enjoying the ambience.

I didn’t sense any other magic users, but there were supernatural creatures among us that were not Salvator, Jethro, and the incredibly confused Paulo. I lifted my glass of water, sticking my finger in and slowly stirring while muttering a purification spell, connecting to the open bottles of water outside.

The water bubbled gently around my finger, air entering the component of the spell. I carefully moved my attention to look at each shadow person in turn, adding them to the spell I created. One of the men who had entered after Paulo got up from his table and moved across the diner to Jethro’s table.

“Jethro, you disappeared off the map,” he said, stopping to stare down at Jethro. “There seems to be something strange happening, and Salvator has issued an order to bring you in for debriefing.”

I highly doubted that, and Salvator seemed to agree with me since his eyebrows shot up. I pretended to set my glass on the counter, spreading my ten fingers wide, and sending an electrical pulse through the room to disable any devices in the diner that could be recording or transmitting. It was a trick I learnt from a witch called Evelina a few decades ago when technology began to evolve and grow.

My eyes met Salvator’s and I nodded once.

“I would have remembered issuing that order,” he said, standing to reveal his true height. “Which brings me to the question of who you work for.”

The energy in the room condensed and pulsed as fear emitted from those gathered who believed they were unknown to us.

Jethro sat back in his seat and leisurely sipped his coffee. “There is no way, after all the time we’ve known each other, that Salvator wouldn’t have my back and me his,” Jethro said. “We’ve saved each other’s lives too many times to remember.” He set his cup down and pushed himself to his feet, creaking his neck from side to side.

A shadow man in a window seat was frantically typing on his phone. I walked over, placing a hand to either side of his head, and let the elements combine in a powerful surge of energy that left him slumped in his seat, phone on the floor, and blood dripping from his nose. I hated violence, but this was war, and no one won by having a baking contest.

The elements bounced across my fingers, waiting to be freed again, as I turned to face what was happening with the wolves.

The lycan who had approached Jethro appeared to lack common sense as he launched himself toward Salvator. There was a reason a hierarchy existed in the wolf world, the strongest being at the top because they were the most vicious and untameable. Salvator grabbed his attacker by the throat, his hand transforming into a furred claw, his other hand clasping the outstretched arm.

Bodies were able to endure large amounts of pressure, but at the same time, bones and ligaments were easily damaged when you had a six-foot-four angry alpha wolf with sharp claws and long canines. Salvator clenched his hand and ripped the guy’s throat out while twisting his arm until it cracked. He dropped him to the floor, glaring around the diner with his eyes glowing amber.

“You!” he snarled, pointing at another shadow person. “Who is giving you orders?”

The man paled under the anger of Salvator’s gaze, holding his hands up in silent surrender. “As far as I know, the command came from you.” He whimpered at the end of the sentence, his hands shaking as they remained up in front of him.

“Maybe it isn’t just the higher level lycans that have been spellbound,” I said, lifting my glass of water from the counter and throwing it high in the air, spreading my hands wide to control its descent.

I summoned the full force of my ancestors’ energy, and manipulated the water into a spray so that every person gathered in here was touched by it, chanting the words that would break through the spell binding them to a magical master. They had noticed the absence of Salvator, but I doubted with this many lycans that they kept track of all of them. I slammed my hands down, activating the enchantment, and watching as lycans collapsed and writhed on the floor.

“What the actual fuck?” Paulo said, finally finding his voice. “What is going on and where the hell am I?” He rubbed the side of his head.

“No time for an update, there is about a dozen of our guys outside who are about to attack us because they are spellbound,” Salvator replied. “I’d rather not lose any more wolves today, but I don’t have the time or the patience to negotiate, and I think we are all in agreement that none of us have a clue who whammied us.”

“I can barely tell you who I am right now,” Paulo said. “I feel like I’ve been drinking pisco sour for a week straight and have just sobered up.”

The waitresses were lying on the floor unconscious, which was the human effect of being hit by an enchantment. I went behind the counter, lifted the pot of coffee, and poured Paulo a mug, filling up Jethro’s at the same time. Salvator watched as I poured him a mug, stirring in an obscene amount of sugar that he tended to prefer when he was plotting murder and mayhem.

“This is civilised,” Jethro remarked, bringing his cup up in a silent salute. “In the olden days, we drank moonshine from bladders before we went into battle.”

“We’re getting old,” Salvator replied, his lips twitching into a half smile. “Next, we’ll be wearing slippers and sitting beside an open fireplace.”

“Our fans are waiting for us,” I said, nodding toward the window.

Something resembling a scene from a zombie apocalypse movie was outside. Tall, dangerous wolves prowled around the diner, trying to break through the wards I had placed on the building, driven by a need to complete a task assigned by their master. There was a wildness in their eyes that said they wouldn’t remember what happened here today when they were recalled to the base.

It was why spellbinding was an offence punishable by death from the elder council. Free will was something given to every living being, and it was against the divine laws to interfere with it.

Salvator flexed his fingers, his features sharpening as his wolf combined his strength with him. There was a raw, feral nature to this man, a predator barely contained in human flesh. Power radiated from him in magnetic waves that called me to him.

“Stay here,” Salvator growled, his eyes glowing amber, his hand grasping behind my neck and dragging me against him for a moment. His emotions crashed into me, stunning me before he strode toward the door, leaving me standing speechless.

Jethro and a still bewildered Paulo followed him out.

Chaos ensued with vicious growls rumbling into the diner through the closing door. There was no way I was sitting here when my mate was at risk out there. I was rarely out in the field, so in my head I imagined these wolves still fought in hand-to-hand combat.

Salvator walked out, pulling a gun from the back of his belt, shooting the first man who stepped in front of him in the centre of the forehead. The lycan fell back, a shocked expression on his face. He punched the next target in the face, swiping his leg to bring the guy to the ground. When he rolled over to try and crawl away, Salvator stomped on the back of his neck, breaking it and leaving him lying dead.

Jethro and Paulo fanned out behind him, each as deadly as the alpha of their pack.

I jolted when another gunshot rang out, pressing myself against the wall as I followed them. Guns scared me, they always had because they were unnatural and deadly. Someone grabbed me when I got to the end of the wall, trying to drag me down an alley.

Just because I didn’t like violence, didn’t mean that I hadn’t trained in many different fighting styles over the years. Strong arms wrapped around my waist to incapacitate me. I used my weight to propel myself up to hit them in the face with the back of my head. When they almost dropped me, I slammed my heels into their feet, and a grunt sounded behind me. It allowed me a moment of shock to help free myself, spinning to kick them between their legs, my hand coming up to break their nose.

A witch I met two centuries ago taught me that women had to learn to defend themselves, and it was something that I practiced to this day.

The man launched himself at me, claws extended, and blood pouring down his face. “Someone wants a word with you,” he snarled, his top lip lifting.

“No, thank you,” I replied, bringing my right hand up to hit him in the centre of the chest as he moved closer to me. He froze when I touched him, his body being flung back by the force of all the elements combining together in an explosive energy.

A shadow stole the light from the alley, an angry alpha dire wolf prowling down like a dark avenging angel.

“You shouldn’t have touched my mate,” he said, his form growing bigger with every step.

The guy should have stayed on the ground and pretended to be unconscious. His first mistake was standing up to face Salvator, the second was looking at me, the third was taking a step forward. He was so under magical influence, he didn’t register Salvator’s reaction, especially so close to his mate. He took another step, and a growl echoed in the alley, reverberating off the walls, and making my stomach clench.

“You are one of the chosen,” the guy said. “One of the lost children of the sun.”

He didn’t say another word because Salvator’s hand wrapped around his throat, his fingers clenching to turn his knuckles white.

“She is my mate,” Salvator corrected him. “And you dared to put your filthy hands on her.”

There was no hope for weaker souls who were spellbound. Their minds were permanently damaged and the person they were before lost. His aura reminded me of a dark, muddy pond with no light. If I broke the spell, it would kill him instantly.

Salvator lifted him by the throat until he was eye level to him, staring into his eyes as if trying to see through a two-way mirror. “Tell Balor I’m coming for him and all the cowards he hides behind. There’s nowhere left to hide, no rock I won’t overturn to find him. The war is coming to an end, and only one side will survive.”

I didn’t need to see any more. There was a finality to his words that heralded the fate of the lycan who dared to attack me. I walked in the opposite direction toward the light that guided me back to the street.

The growls and cracking of bones followed me, but I refused to look back, not even when a disarticulated arm flew past my head. Witches cast spells and collected herbs. Vampires were bloodthirsty, homicidal maniacs who moved incredibly fast. Lycans were violent psychopaths with anger issues and mood swings associated with the moon.

Jethro was dragging a body down the middle of the road to put with others when I emerged from the alley of death. Paulo sat at the side of the road with his head in his hands. I walked across to where I left the bottles of water. They had been infused with the enchantment I had cast in the diner earlier.

Chanting the words to activate it, I emptied the water on the ground, using the element of air to elevate it above my head. These lycans may be dead, but they deserved to be untethered in the afterlife, their souls free to evolve and grow. It was the least I could do for them.

The water droplets spun up into the air like bullets to go and find their target, dropping on the bodies of the dead to remove the spell that bound them into the slavery of a dark witch.

“May the great mother guide me to find who did this,” I said, the last of the water pooling in the dip of the palm of my hand. “I ask for justice in their names.”

It was a petition to the higher powers that still held dominion over magic. The old gods had not been seen for centuries, but that didn’t mean that they no longer existed. Physics alone didn’t keep this planet spinning, but the seasons blending seamlessly into one another. Humans spoke of biology and chemistry while witches talked of magic. The fabric of this world was fragile and the original sorcery that carefully knit it all together still operated today. It was the reason why the hellspawn that were clawing their way from the depths of Hell needed to return there.

I felt his presence approaching, the hairs on my body lifting in awareness.

“Feel better?” I queried.

His growl made me clamp my thighs together. “I’m not having a good day.”

“You’re having a better day than the man in the alley,” I replied.

“He should have learnt not to touch what didn’t belong to him,” Salvator snapped, his hands landing on my hips, his head pressed to the back of mine as he stood behind me.

There was no point in arguing with him because his possessive words and growly tone made my heart beat faster and my legs turn to jelly. He would never not be an alpha wolf, so I had to accept every part of him just the way he was.

“You do realise we just started a war?” Jethro stopped in front of us, trailing another body by the feet.

“I thought we were already in the middle of one,” Salvator replied.

Jethro wiped his forehead with his forearm. “Yeah, I’m only beginning to realise that we were just dancing on a chessboard all these years, being moved around to allow someone else to operate in the shadows.”

“We’ll need to be quick bringing Tarrack in,” Salvator said. “Whoever is orchestrating this is going to realise we are no longer under their control.”

Dominic had left to meet with his coven, but one of his colleagues had been given the assignment of bringing Tarrack in the same way Jethro had been. We tended to use operatives who couldn’t be viewed by seers, so they didn’t have time to intervene. By now, Tarrack would be in a containment cell awaiting examination.

Paulo slowly stood and walked over to us. He didn’t look steady on his feet. “What are we doing with all the bodies?”

“We don’t have a clean-up area this far out,” Salvator replied.

“There’s one of the company vans not far from here. I remember thinking it was odd that it was in this town as I drove in,” Paulo replied.

“Tell me where it is,” Jethro demanded. “We’ll get these bodies out of here and clean up as best possible.”

There was a deflecting spell currently on this area, which was giving us greatly needed time, but it wouldn’t hold much longer to keep the nosy humans away.

“I’ll go with you and try and clear this headache,” Paulo grumbled.

“It’ll take days to get rid of that,” Jethro replied, slapping him on the shoulder as the two men walked away. “It felt as if I’d received a magical colonoscopy that examined all my insides and readjusted my intestines.”

Paulo shot him a horrified look as the other lycan laughed at his own terrible joke.

“What does a lost child of the sun mean?” Salvator asked in a low voice when we were alone.

My stomach tied itself in knots because I’d read that term in a grimoire a long time ago. “I’m not sure,” I replied. “I need to do some research, as I remember it being in an old text I own, but I vaguely remember it referring to a type of magic.”

He glanced at the street and the remnants of the dead. “We normally use clean-up crews to get rid of the blood,” he said as if talking to himself. “The humans are going to freak out.”

I waved my arm as if to disperse his fears. “I’ll summon a storm to wash the blood away,” I replied, retrieving my phone to contact Maia. If anyone would be able to track information down, then she would, as she had been cataloguing old texts for years and converting them into a digital format that was accessible to everyone.

I shivered, the hairs rising on the back of my neck as if someone had walked over my grave. It felt as if death himself had arrived to personally collect the souls of the dead.