Chapter 29

Chapter 29

She raced away from the scene of the crime and could only hope that the fools followed her voice. They were more likely to rush toward a woman screaming, she supposed, than they were to trust any of Crowley’s men. So she kept screaming. She ran through the streets like the werewolf was actively chasing her. Screaming about the monster with teeth and claws.

Just like that, London woke up. Countless people raced out of their homes to see what was the problem and then picked up her cry.

“Wolf!” they shouted. “There’s a werewolf in London!”

Once that happened, Luna didn’t have to try all that hard. The cries went up throughout the entire city where people screamed to put your children inside. Lock your doors. No one was safe until everyone was off the streets.

More men wearing badges joined the others. They did their best to control the hysteria, but at some point, they had to know this was a losing battle. Too many people were screaming and crying. There was too much commotion and even if they got one section of the city under control, it would fire back up into mass panic the moment they left it. There weren’t enough men to control what Luna had started.

Which was perfect, really, because that was what she had hoped would happen. London was on her side, while she hoped the real werewolf had found a good place to hide.

Luna finally felt like she could sneak away and not keep screaming when she spent a half hour listening to the cries that weren’t dying down. She snuck by a woman who threw both her arms back and screamed at the top of her lungs that she didn’t want to perish.

Luna raced past that woman because people were bound to flock to her.

If the authorities had found the bodies, no one would know. Even the other people who were trying to calm the city would have a hard time piecing together what was true and what might be people making things up because they were afraid.

Finally, she got back to a part of the city she recognized. The same part of the city where she always knew she was safe. She paused by one of the stores and knocked on the crate outside it. Normally, these were used for storage or trash. But this crate always had the same little boy in it who had done more jobs for her than she could count.

The street rat peered through a small hole in the crate. “What you want?”

“Need to find someone.” She leaned against the crate and stared out at the street, as though she were trying to stay out of the way. “Should be on the roofs near Spirit Quay, not sure about that though.”

“Whatcha paying?”

Luna fished into her pocket and pulled out an earring she’d taken off a woman on her way back here. “Real sapphire.”

“How’s I know that?” A tiny hand reached out and grabbed it, though.

“I can hear ‘em, remember?”

The little boy snorted. “Yeah, yeah. The magic and all that. Fine. I’ll find ‘em if you need the ‘elp that badly. What’s he look like?”

She glanced up at the sky and the sun that was slowly rising. “I think he’ll be the only naked man on the roof, love. Should be easy enough to find. But if you can’t, then you don’t need to come find me.”

“That’s real gross,” the little boy muttered, before clambering out of the crate. At least he’d put on a little weight since the last time she’d seen him. He had been getting real thin, and Luna wanted to make sure he didn’t disappear like so many other children who ended up in his situation.

His scrawny legs were covered by pants that had too many holes. He wore a sweater, though, and the wool would keep him a lot warmer during the winter.

She ruffled his brown curls. “You taking care of yourself, kid?”

“You know I stay out of trouble.” He bit the earring before putting it in his pocket. “Where am I supposed to find ya?”

She pointed at the building nearby. “Meet you on the roof up there in an hour, say? Just in case I don’t find him before you.”

The grin on his face revealed a lot of missing teeth and what teeth he still had were yellowed with misuse. “Are we racing, then?”

Oh, that boy. She’d have to teach him how to brush his teeth again or he’d rot all of them out of his head. “Sure, a race. What do I win if I find him first?”

“Nothing.”

The boy took off down the street and clambered up a pipe all the way onto the rooftops. He had to stop doing that or someone would catch him. He was too obvious climbing around, but at least he’d be safe for a little while longer. No one minded when children did that. An adult? That’s when people started asking questions.

Luna sighed and set off in the opposite direction. The gang would still linger around Spirit Quay, so she didn’t want to return too quickly. And Luther could have ended up somewhere else. She had to track him down, but she refused to put either of them in any more danger than what they already were in.

The image of those mangled bodies flashed in front of her eyes again. Damn it. She wouldn’t be able to sleep for a while because of that. Every time she blinked, she saw the organs spilling out around their bodies and the horrible way they’d died. Sure, they had wanted to kill her.

But damn. No one should die so horribly.

Except then her nose would kick up that heartbeat in it again and she didn’t feel so bad. Her arm at least had come back to itself, and the bruises turning it purple would take weeks to disappear.

Luna searched all the hiding places she knew of, and Luther wasn’t in all of them. Which meant it was highly likely he had stayed near Spirit Quay. Good. With the sun this high in the sky, she should be able to return without suspicion.

Climbing to the rooftops was the most natural thing in the world to her. She’d climbed these walls so many times in her life, and now she did it to find the one man who had crawled underneath her guard. Strangely, the mere thought of that was exhilarating. Luna had always thought that having another person in her life would be stressful at best. At worst? A nuisance.

Instead, all she thought about was how much she wanted to be with him. How much she looked forward to seeing him, even though they’d had a tougher time of it lately. He’d killed people in front of her. She’d stolen very precious jewels from him.

They’d get through it. At least, she hoped they would. She was willing to fight to keep him around in her life.

The kid she’d hired walked over the slippery roof of the building next to her, arms outstretched. The bright pink of the sky turned to blue behind him and the silhouette of pigeons fluttered to life as they stretched their wings in the morning.

Picturesque, really. What a lovely day to convince a man that she was worthy of his love.

The little boy hopped down in front of her and planted his hands on his hips. “Found him.”

“Did you now?” Luna reached into her pocket and dangled the matching earring between her fingers. “You beat me. I think you deserve this one if you tell me where he is.”

“Easy. He’s on the small balcony on the roof of Old Thomas’s house. The one where you took me to watch the moon when we first met.” He snagged the earring out of her hand and lifted it up to the sky. “You think this one is real too?”

“I know it is.” The earring was already muttering about what a handsome young lad he was. If only he wasn’t covered in dirt.

“Good. I’ll spend it on good stuff, I promise. I won’t buy what the other boys do.” He pocketed the earring and then saluted her with two fingers. “Food and clothes only, Miss Winchester.”

“I taught you well.”

She watched him rush off the roof, her heart skipping a beat as she noticed the risks he took. Too many, but he was still a child. She had to let him enjoy his life a little, and if that meant leaping from rooftop to rooftop without the right shoes, then he’d have to learn the hard way. Sometimes, boys had to be boys.

Standing, she made her way to the exact rooftop where she’d pointed Luther to go to. And maybe she had always known that he would take her advice without questioning it. She hesitated to see him because she still feared he’d be angry with her. Or maybe she was afraid of her own reaction when she saw him. Things were always so electric between the two of them, and she didn’t know what she’d do if he suddenly decided this wasn’t working for him.

He’d come and saved her from Crowley and his men. That had to count for something.

She found him tucked against the wall, away from sight and well hidden to the untrained eye. But then again, he was entirely naked. She doubted he wanted anyone to see him.

Luna snatched a sheet off someone’s laundry line and then landed hard on the stone tiles around him.

Luther flinched and let out a low curse. “Luna! You scared a year of my life off me.”

“Did I now?” She held out the sheet. “Take this.”

“Oh thank God.” He grabbed the sheet and immediately wrapped it around his shoulders, holding it tightly in front of him. “Do you know how terrified I was that some elderly woman would walk out onto this rooftop and see me in nothing but what God gave me?”

“She’d get the best show of her life, I’m sure.” Luna sat down on the ledge, back to the alleyway where all of this had gone down. She didn’t want to see if the bodies had been moved yet. Not yet. “I figured we needed to talk.”

“How did you find me?” He held up his hand. “Actually, I don’t want to know. Don’t tell me you put some gemstone inside me so you could always find where I was.”

She opened her mouth to tell him no, she wasn’t that insane. But then she stopped herself because, actually, that wasn’t a bad idea. All it would take was a very tiny gemstone, and then she’d always be able to find whoever she wanted to find. Whether that was Luther or Maeve or Beatrix or anyone, really.

Tapping her lip, she pondered about how easy that would be. Sure, cutting into someone wouldn’t be pleasant and she wasn’t even sure if a gemstone would stay in someone’s body. But, she supposed, they could at least try it. Maybe someone could swallow it and though that would be temporarily helpful…

Luther interrupted her thoughts. “No, I recognize that look on your face and I didn’t say that to give you any ideas. You are not shoving gemstones into people so that you can find them.”

“But what if it were only a temporary thing? Like if we were trying to rob some neighbor of yours and needed to know where the authorities took someone if they happened to get caught? It’s not a bad idea, Luther. I’m just saying. Not all of us have the nose of a wolf.”

His expression changed from one of horror to pleasure. Luther palmed her waist and dragged her tight against his chest. She could feel every inch of his hard body against hers and suddenly, she remembered why she’d been so captivated by him. Every inch of this man was a delight to the senses.

“We?” he growled. “If we are stealing from my neighbor?”

“Well, I assumed you wouldn’t want me to steal from your neighbor without telling you,” she replied, coyly tilting her head back so she could see all of his face. “Unless you want me to give up a life of stealing, because frankly, I don’t think that’s going to happen. There’s too many gemstones out there that need liberating.”

“Oh.” His hands flexed on her waist, one of them trailing up her spine. “And here I was thinking that you were stealing them. Liberating sounds so much better.”

“When they’re locked away from the sun and begging you to help them, you try to tell me it’s not liberating.” She eyed his lips, waiting, waiting...

Ah, there it was. He finally couldn’t stand the separation any more than she could. Luther pressed his mouth to hers and kissed her until she was breathless. Until her toes curled in her boots and her knees sagged. She leaned against him, so happy for once to have a man who could hold on to her. It didn’t matter how much of her weight she leaned against him, he wouldn’t move even a smidge.

“I really am sorry,” she whispered, when he drew away from her. “I know those were your mother’s. The gemstones told me everything, and I didn’t... I couldn’t...”

He pressed a finger to her lips. “I don’t want to talk about my mother right now, Luna. I think there are more pressing matters to attend to rather than thinking about the old lady.”

“Oh.” She felt something hard press against her hip, and then repeated, “Oh.”

“Exactly.” His hand scooped the back of her head and he tilted her so the angle was just right for another mind numbing kiss. “Unless you don’t want to. I know there’s a whole world down there and you’ll have to be very quiet.”

“I don’t want to be quiet, but I suppose I can.” And she supposed she wanted to. Even though they were out in the middle of the city on a rooftop where anyone could see them, she didn’t care. She was in his arms and he’d found her. Of all people, he had been the one to find her.

Luna melted into him and forgot about the world. She forgot about what she’d done or what he’d done. Instead, she focused on how much she adored this man. She touched all the hard heat of him, the long lines of muscle and the valleys between his shoulder blades. She kissed every inch she could find and, in doing so, found that she was the one who had to put a hand over his mouth.

When it was all said and done, she’d never been more happy than those moments on the rooftop with the sun kissing her back.