Fourteen

Moon

“ T hat’s new,” Daire gasps, as he leans back. We’re dressed now, and I let him take a quick bite…that sounds so wrong without knowing he’s a Vampire.

“What?”

“Your blood. You taste…weak.”

“Hey!” I smack his arm, glaring at him. “What the fuck?”

“Sorry, I meant, your magic. Last time, you felt stronger, but right now, I don’t know, you feel…like you have a low battery or something,” Daire explains as he stares me down.

“Well, I’ve been having a bit of trouble with my magic. I thought I was a Witch, but this half-Elf, half-Goddess said I’m not a Witch at all,” I explain, throwing my hands up.

“Maybe you’re a succubus,” Daire offers with a wink, and my eyes go wide.

“No way, do you think so?! What realm are Succubi from?” I tug on the front of his shirt, and he smirks, wiggling his brows.

“Oh, are you fucking with me?!” I demand, and he snorts a laugh.

“A little. You’re just so sexy, and you have so many Heart Bonds. But you don’t feel like a Succubus. You’re too… subtly alluring? I don’t feel like I need to fuck you until I literally die. So. That’s gotta be a sign that you’re not,” he chuckles, and I tilt my head from side to side.

“Fair,” I say, and then watch as he pushes his dark-rimmed glasses back on. “Why do you wear those?” I ask, and he shrugs.

“It’s not as exciting as you’re probably thinking.”

“Spill,” I demand, the curiosity finally winning.

“They help with the cravings. They block my enhanced vision, so I don’t see the blood running through your veins. This is only helpful if I’m not starving, though. I can still scent you, but it at least provides one of my senses a small break,” he explains, and I nod along as if I understood any of that.

“Why do you keep doing that?” I ask when I see him pat his pocket similarly to how I pat my pebbles.

“Why do you do that?” he counters, pointing at my boob stash, and I open the cup of my bra, flashing him my pebbles. And I don’t mean my small boobs. They’re not that small. More like grapefruits. Big ones…

“My pebbles. Some are from Silas and some from Cato,” I explain, and Daire nods, pulling a small object out of his pocket.

“It’s a locket from my sister. It’s a photo of her and me when we were young.” He opens it, revealing a young boy with a little girl that is clearly older than he is in the photo.

“She’s your big sister?”

“Yes, she’s six years older.”

That’s when I hear a crashing boom, and I yelp.

“Time to go!” Daire shouts, grabbing our bags of supplies and then my wrist, and dragging me out of there. We flee the showers, heading for the exit of the arena, and when we’re out, we’re in a whole new game, I swear.

Instead of a forest, we’re in what I imagine Human Hell looks like. A barren wasteland, filled with fires, lakes of lava, land so dark and lifeless it looks like tar, and a cloudy gray sky.

“What the fuck…” I whisper, looking around. There’s still a maze, but the walls are made of thick, gray, thorny vines that look ready to kill me…

“I guess the announcer wasn’t lying. Top twenty-five is getting real.”

“I guess-"

“Moon!” A giddy, girly voice screeches, startling me, and I spin to see Teresa and Percy.

“Hey there, Goddess.” I wave, but she throws herself into my arms.

“I’m so glad I found you. There were these guys looking for you! One of them was a total creep who said he could smell you on me!” she whines, and I snort. Sounds like she met…my thoughts are cut off by a familiar voice.

“I said, her scent was stronger on you because you’d recently been near her,” Silas corrects, and I spin to see my Light One standing behind me, looking very grumpy.

“I knew it!” I shout, wrestling myself out of Teresa’s arms, and launching at Silas.

“Knew what?” he asks, sounding confused.

“My spicy senses were tingling.”

“You mean spidy?” he corrects, but I shake my head.

“No, that implies I’m in danger. It was more of a shiver, than fear,” I correct, and Silas shakes his head.

“Your intuition is broken.”

“Hardly. You’re no threat to me unless, of course, we’re speaking only of my vagina. You’d definitely pound her?—”

“Moon!” Daire barks, and I snap my mouth shut.

“My bad…”

“The others are coming.” Silas gestures to the arena we all just came from.

“All of them?” My eyes go wide because I expected at least some of them to be eliminated.

“As far as I know. When we all split up for the showers, all your men were there.”

“I don’t think I like the way you just said ‘all your men,’ Silas.” I glare, and he frowns.

“Should I have said, all your potential mates? Lovers? The ones who wish to get you naked?”

“Did you just make a joke?” I lift a brow, and Silas shrugs.

“RUN!” a man I don’t recognize shouts, and we all pause, turning to watch as he runs for his life. I’m about to turn and high tail it out of there, too, when I see exactly who he’s running from.

“Sweet Girl!” I shove Silas aside and throw my arms open wide. Sweet Girl sees me, takes one last look at the stranger, and then veers left, heading straight for me. “Sweet Girl, I missed you. Oh, thank fuck, you’re okay!!” She’s about two feet away when the strange man shouts once more.

“Moonlight, no!”

I don’t have time to process his words because Sweet Girl is tackling me and nuzzling the fuck out of me in the next second. I suppose it might look as if I’m being mauled, but she’s very gentle. After the shock wears off, and she’s a bit calmer, his words click.

How did he know my name…

“Let me up, Sweet Girl.” I laugh, as she licks my cheek.

“I’ll kill you, bea— oh.” The strange man skids to a halt, and I lift my brow, crossing my arms over my chest as Sweet Girl takes her place by my side.

“Who the fuck are you? Why was Sweet Girl chasing you, and how the fuck do you know my name?” Silas and Daire approach my other side, while Teresa and Percy keep a small distance.

“Uh. I offended her. She did not like my offering of pigeon as a snack.”

“You didn’t answer my other questions,” I point out, narrowing my eyes at him, because his voice is slightly familiar.

“Ah. I am not important, and I don’t know your name.” He grins, and I just stare him down. His hair is silver and long. It makes him look older, but he can’t be much older than any of us, because his face looks quite young. His eyes are a blazing blue that reminds me of a burning fire at its hottest point. He’s hot, but I won’t be distracted by his looks.

“You called me Moonlight,” I remind him when he remains silent.

“Oh, I meant like, look! Moonlight!” He points to the moonless sky and then cringes. “Uh.”

That’s when it clicks. His familiar voice. Calling me Moonlight…

“JERRY?!” My eyes go wide, and I look him up and down, because damn. Despite his sexy voice, I always imagined Jerry to be far less…my type.

He looks like he’s going to deny it. Like he wants to keep pretending he’s not exactly who I think he is.

“Jerry…” I repeat.

“It’s Kili, actually.” I narrow my eyes, about to call bullshit, when he continues. “I gave you a fake name.” He shrugs, and my mouth falls open.

“Are you even a shifter?!” I demand, focusing on the wrong things right now.

“Well, yes. And no. I can shift into a Shadow Wolf, but I am also part Elf.”

“This is a great little reunion, but we need to get out of this open area,” Daire interrupts, and I shake my head.

“But Silas said the others are coming,” I point out, and Daire pauses.

“Fine, but then we move quickly.” He shifts his weight but makes no move to give Jerry and me privacy. Or, Kili I guess…

“This is bizarre. You’re in the games, why didn’t you say anything?” I ask, but realize I’ve never said anything to him either.

“Oh, about that. No, I’m not in the games, uh. Not as a contestant.”

“Are you a threat?” Daire asks, but Silas shakes his head.

“No, he’s another Bonded,” Silas announces, and everyone around us freezes. Kili’s eyes spark with something that makes my spicy sense tingle, and I scold my body for enjoying the thought of them fighting over me.

“That was not yours to tell,” Kili growls and Silas shrugs.

“You may not have told her. She needs to know the truth.”

“How many is that now?” Daire grumbles, and I lift my left hand and use my right pointer finger to check off as I list men.

“One Arlo, two Silas, three Tristan, four Cato, five Odas, six Fenrick, and seven, you Daire. So Kili, AKA Jerry, makes eight.” I stare at my eight fingers for a few moments, because damn.

“Crow makes nine. The Phoenix seems to be obsessed with you, but their Bonds form differently so perhaps he’s just a friend,” Silas says, standing tall, and looking completely unaffected. “I do not even like ten people, but now I find myself in an eleven-person love hendecagon.”

I blink at Silas several times, before throwing my hands in the air. “The fuck is a hendecagon?”

“A shape with eleven sides. Like a love triangle, but with eleven people rather than three. I thought it was funny, was it not?” He frowns, looking genuinely put out.

“It would have been funnier if I knew the name of an eleven-sided shape, I guess.” I nibble my lip, but he pouts, and I crack easily. His light hair and sweet angelic face are so deceptively harmless that I feel bad no one got his joke. “Oh, I’m sorry, it was a cute joke.” I walk over and give him a kiss on the cheek, and then smile when he blushes red.

“Thank you.” He nods, and I wink at my sweet Murder Noodle.

“If you take another step, I will stab you.” I spin, pointing at Kili. He pauses mid-stride. He was trying to sneak away by walking backward, but I was keeping my senses trained on him.

“Okay, little Chaos Goddess, we need to get to a decent campsite, and I don’t want to stand out here any longer,” Teresa interjects, and I sigh.

“We can’t leave without the?—”

“Others, yes I know. Fine, but if you get me killed, I will haunt you,” she huffs, wraps her arms around her Merman, and they take a few steps away from our group. Sweet Girl is pacing in circles around Kili, and he seems adequately frightened of her.

“Why are you in the games, if you’re not a contestant? Wait, did you say Crow?” I snap my head to Silas, who blinks, frowns, and then nods.

“Yes, I assumed you knew, but just forgot considering the long list of names you needed to keep track of. You also haven’t seen him since the start of the games, I assume. Out of sight, out of mind.” He shrugs, always so casual.

“I’m looking out for my Heart Bonded,” Kili adds, and I snap back to him.

“What?” I ask, mostly because my brain is short-circuiting.

“I’m not competing, but I needed to protect you.”

“What?”

“You weren’t safe.”

“What?”

“Moon, snap out of it!” Daire growls, making me inhale sharply.

“Right, my bad. Uh. Can we just wait in silence? I think I need to think…” I turn away from the herd of men I’ve managed to collect, and just plop down on my ass. I need a second. Or maybe I need a week.