Chapter 25

Chapter 25

Family first.

Luna told herself she ran to Martin’s home because she wanted to make sure her sisters were well. She told herself that it was more important to get them paid than it was for her to get to Crowley.

All of that was a lie.

Her heart felt like it had been ripped out of her chest, flayed open, and then shoved back in wrong. She needed to tuck herself into the arms of her much stronger sisters and let them tell her that everything would be all right. They always knew what to say to make her feel better, and right now, she needed that.

Martin could stay in the basement for all she cared. She needed her sisters and they would be here for her right now.

Which is why she slammed through the front door without even looking at his sweet butler or caring if they had visitors.

“Maeve!” she shouted. “Maeve, where are you?”

A huge crash echoed from upstairs, but then she heard Maeve shout back, “Luna?”

That was all it took for all her walls to break. One moment she was standing in the hallway and the next, she collapsed onto the floor in a heap of horrible, choking sobs.

Four hands grabbed onto her shoulders not moments later.

“What happened?” Maeve asked, her voice upset and angry. Although, she wasn’t asking Luna anything.

She’d apparently asked the butler, who cleared his throat and took a step away from the hysterical women. “I have no idea, my lady. She didn’t even knock. She busted into the house and then melted into a bundle of tears. I’m not good with crying.”

“Off with you,” Maeve muttered before she scooped her hands underneath Luna’s jaw and forced their gazes to meet. “What happened? When we last spoke, everything was going according to plan.”

The vision of her sisters was blurry, but they made her feel better. Even if that feeling also made her cry like a baby. “I fell in love with him,” she whispered. “I love him so much that I feel like I’m breaking without him.”

Beatrix frowned from behind Maeve. “That doesn’t sound so bad, Luna.”

Wordlessly, she handed the box to her youngest sister. Beatrix took it, still frowning, then opened it up. Both her sisters gasped at the sight of the diamonds and jewels that waited for their eyes.

The necklaces started singing. They were thrilled at the reaction. The diamond waited until Beatrix picked it up before it let out a shriek of happiness that made Luna’s ears hurt.

“Finally,” it screamed. “I’m finally free!”

At least she’d always have that. She had given up a lifetime of happiness, but she’d freed the gemstones from that horrible box.

Beatrix closed it again and then waved it at Luna. “You stole all this from him?”

She nodded, miserable with the truth flung at her like that. “Yes. I had to.”

“You didn’t have to do anything,” Maeve scolded. “I told you, if this job wasn’t good, then we wouldn’t do it. You didn’t have to take any of this from him! We’re going back. You’re going to take this all back to him and he’ll forgive you and we’ll... we’ll...”

She stopped talking the moment she saw how miserable Luna was. She hadn’t known she could actually feel sick because her heart hurt so badly.

Maeve cleared her throat. “Why can’t we bring all this back to the man you’ve fallen madly in love with?”

“Because Crowley and his gang have been hunting me down for a while now and if I don’t bring that diamond to them, they’re probably going to have me killed.”

She could have cut the silence with a knife. And she’d known this would happen. Maeve was about to lose her mind and start screaming, probably. Beatrix would start crying because the idea of losing either of her sisters made Beatrix cry. Luna was supposed to then fix the situation but... well. She didn’t know how to do that.

She wanted to go back to the manor, like Maeve said. Returning to Luther wouldn’t be easy. He’d be furious with her, and she’d probably have to grovel. But she was willing to do it if it meant she didn’t ruin both of their lives like it felt like she had already.

“He won’t forgive me for this,” she whispered. “These are too precious and I’m going to sell them on the black market because I need money. Because we need to live.”

Beatrix handed the box back to her. “You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do, Luna. We’ll figure this out. Crowley can’t be all that bad.”

Both Maeve and Luna stared at her, a little slack jawed.

“What?” Beatrix asked. “He’s just a man.”

Maeve was the one to reply first. “He runs the most dangerous gang in all of London, Beatrix. That’s like saying the King hunting you down is just a man.”

“The King is also just a man.” Beatrix waved her fingers in the air. “You tell me you’re frightened of people when you see their spirits all the time. No one is frightening when you know they end up in pieces and afraid of walking into the light. People are just people.”

Luna closed her mouth, but still muttered, “I always forget how unnerving it is to be around you, Bea. It’s like time away from you turns you back into a normal sister and then you start talking about seeing dead people and I remember how strange you are.”

“I take that as a compliment.” She nodded toward the living room. “Shall we have a sit? I’m going to guess a little whiskey would do you well, sister mine. And once you get all that crying out, we’ll be able to plan a proper way to handle all this.”

That sounded good. It sounded reasonable and honestly, that wasn’t at all like Beatrix. She always had the most hair brained, strange plan out of all of them.

Narrowing her eyes, Luna stood up and followed her sisters into the living room. “You’re never going to forget that whole situation of crying on the floor over a man, are you?”

Beatrix snorted. “Never. And if this all works out like the spirits claim, then I don’t think Luther will forget about it either. Because I’m going to tell him the moment I meet him.”

“You wouldn’t dare.”

Luna sat down on the plush cushion that had seen better days. The castle needed all the help she could afford, and more than what Martin had to his name. She’d gotten so angry with him when she first saw her sister dressed in silks and jewels. He had money, obviously.

But the longer she stared at the gemstones, the more she realized they weren’t singing. At all. Every impressive piece the Duke had was made of glass. The man had built a legend on a very shaky house of cards that had run out of money, wealth, and effort.

It wasn’t like he could sell hundred-year-old dresses. No one wanted that moth eaten velvet other than dear ol’ Maeve because her sister didn’t care what people thought of her. Clothing was clothing. Of course, the rest of the noble houses disagreed with her. But they kept their mouths shut considering a good number of them had hired her before to prove that their children weren’t possessed.

Beatrix handed her a steaming mug of tea. The tendrils of steam smelled very strongly of whiskey.

“How much did you put in it?” she asked, blowing on the top.

“Enough.” Beatrix sat down across from her and blew on her own cup of tea that was mostly whiskey. “Now tell us everything, please. We can’t help if we don’t know what happened.”

Face bright red at some parts and her heart racing at others, she told them every little detail of what had happened and she spared nothing. Not even the embarrassing parts. Even though it was awful to see the two of them look at each other when she admitted to sleeping with him. Or their wide eyes when she told them about the dead body that had been brought into his courtyard.

She knew what it sounded like. Even now, when she thought back over everything, she wondered if he’d actually killed that man. The whole situation changed if he had, except... it didn’t. Not really.

She still was head over heels for the werewolf, even if he’d somehow gotten out and killed someone during the full moon.

“So you’re in love with a murderer,” Maeve said. Her long fingernails drummed on the arm of her chair.

“A potential murderer,” Luna corrected. “We don’t know that he did anything, and you can’t assume that he killed that man because he’s the only werewolf in Dead Man’s Crossing.”

The hairs on the back of Luna’s neck stood up before a deep voice interrupted them. “We absolutely can assume that. He’s a werewolf, Luna. That’s what they do.”

Martin.

Of course, she should have guessed he’d be listening to this whole thing. The man was overbearing with her sister. Anything involving Maeve had to include Martin as well.

The damned vampire never knew when to leave well enough alone. This situation had nothing to do with him and everything to do with her sisters.

Grumbling, Luna scooted down in her chair and held her cup close to her face. “I don’t remember anyone asking you, vampire.”

“The mere fact that you’re currently huddled over whiskey while trying to hide from me is good enough reason for me to get involved.” Martin stepped into the room and all the air disappeared.

She had forgotten how he did that. Maybe it was the sudden fear that always rocked through her body at the sight of him. Vampires were ridiculously powerful beings, and he was stupidly old. It made his gaze look like he could see right through her. Maybe he did. His eyes narrowed on her and the disapproval made her skin crawl.

“What?” she snapped. “I brought you the jewels like I said I would. You can fix the holes in the walls and buy mattresses that aren’t stuffed with hay. Wasn’t that what you wanted?”

“I told you not to risk your life, Luna.” He sat down in the last empty chair and braced his elbows on his knees. “I told you that we wouldn’t want to risk your life over something so silly as money.”

“Some of us can’t live off other people.” The words were unnecessarily cruel, but she was feeling rather sensitive right now, considering everything that had happened.

He rolled his eyes. “Listen to me. Werewolves are not to be toyed with. I know you think this man is sweet and kind. I find it endearing that you’re willing to trust him without question, but I cannot trust him with your life or the lives of those who depend on me.”

Luna wanted to hit him. Did he think she would put her sisters at risk? She’d known the dangers of being around Luther, but he wasn’t here, was he? She wanted to talk about her heartbreak and how she had realized how difficult it was to breathe without him. Not be scolded by a man old enough to be her great grandfather.

“He’s a good man, Martin. But he won’t take me back after this, so you don’t have to worry about my safety.”

Maeve leaned forward, but stopped herself from talking the moment Martin raised his hand. He’d silenced her sister. She’d never seen anyone do that before.

He swallowed hard, then apparently chose his words carefully. “A werewolf will hunt its prey for the rest of its life. They don’t know how to stop, Luna. They can’t. If he has his sights set on you, which I assume the young man does, then he will get you back.”

The words rang in her ears. They came with a small sense of excitement. He’d hunt her down? He’d have a hard time finding her then, because she was very good at running.

Martin pinched the bridge of his nose. “Luna, I don’t think you’re hearing me at all.”

“I’m hearing you. You want me to be more careful because you’re worried about what he might do to me when he catches me. But I’m telling you right now, he’s a good man and I’m not afraid of him.”

“Well I am!” He shouted the words a little too loudly. Everyone in the room held their breath as the angry vampire glared at her. “You seem to forget that there are other people in this house. I will not risk either of your sisters because you can’t see how dangerous an angry werewolf is. You claim he’s barely got control of the beast and that means he’s likely to hunt you until you both drop. You will not bring this behavior or risk into my home.”

Her jaw dropped open. “Are you telling me to get out?”

“You can sleep here for the night,” he snarled and then stood. “Tomorrow, I need you to get out of my home. You aren’t welcome back until you’ve dealt with your werewolf problem.”

And he left. Walked out of the room as though he hadn’t just banished her from the only place she’d called home in a long time. Her sisters were here. Her things were sort of here, but also back in London.

Clearing her throat, she looked at Maeve, who launched into movement. “I’ll go talk to him. You stay right here. He’s absolutely not allowed to speak to either of my sisters in that tone.”

Maeve blustered out, ready for a fight. But Beatrix stayed right where she was, looking over Luna’s right shoulder as though someone else was talking.

Ah. Right. The ghosts.

Luna swallowed hard and asked, “What are they saying?”

“That you’re going to leave. He’s right. The werewolf will hunt you down until one of you makes a mistake. They said you should return to London and get Crowley off your back first.” Beatrix returned her focus to Luna. “Having a werewolf chasing you is way worse than Crowley, apparently. Though I find it interesting that they’ve heard of your gang leader.”

Luna groaned and held her head in her hands. Could today get any worse?