Blackthorne, Fiona - Moonstruck [Blue Moon 1] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (19 page)

She tilted her face up to soak in the weak sunlight, only to feel kisses dropped on her lips, her cheeks, her eyelids and her forehead. Was there ever such bliss as this?

“Come on, sweetheart,” Declan said. “Let’s go see Grace.”

* * * *

The Blue Moon Library stood across the street from the General Store. Ava traced in its lines a mid-nineteenth-century two-story building with white clapboard siding, black shutters, and bay windows. Tall oaks towered over it, dropping dapples of sunshine on the slate shingles.

Robert held the door open for Ava, and she stepped inside to find a surprisingly light, airy, and open library with tall ceilings. Tall windows lined opposite walls, letting in plenty of light. Shelves ran around the walls and stood in low rows. At the back of the enormous room was a fireplace that had a merry blaze going. In front of the hearth was a collection of faded sofas and easy chairs. A small shelf with a row of reading devices stood next to the seating area, and in the corner was a bank of sleek computers and printers.

“Nice,” Ava said, nodding and smiling in appreciation. “Very nice.”

“Thank you,” replied a light, musical voice to her right. “We do our best to keep up with the times.”

Sucking in a surprised gasp, Ava spun to see the most singularly soft, beautiful woman she had ever beheld in her life. The woman looked to be in her midthirties and had sunshine-gold hair that hung in full, silky waves around a delicate oval face. She had enormous gray eyes, naturally rosy full lips, and a creamy complexion that was both glowing and translucent. She was average height, but slender with perfect proportions, and as she came out from behind the circulation desk, she seemed to move with a flowing grace that was like a dancer. She wore a pale, dove-gray sweater and jeans with sensible flat brown leather boots.

“Grace Murray,” she said, her silvery voice transfixing Ava. “Librarian and Lorekeeper for Blue Moon.”

“Lorekeeper?” Ava replied, startled out of her reverie.

Grace smiled wanly, and now, Ava could see the strain of pain at the corners of her eyes.

“Yes,” Grace said. “Lorekeeper. Old title here in Blue Moon. One woman has always kept the records of the town, its families, bloodlines, and other, less tangible histories.”

“How are you today, Gracie?” Sean asked, concern and respect filling his voice.

Her smile faltered for a split second before she waved her slender, elegant hand in a dismissive gesture.

“The same,” she replied. “The important thing is that you all are here now.” She turned to Ava. “I’m very glad you’ve come finally, and it is nice to meet you. I hope you’ll understand, though, when I say that I hope I don’t see you again until this is all over.”

“What?” Ava exclaimed, floored.

“Now that I’ve met you, I can confirm that everyone is right about you,” Grace said. “You definitely are the one. That makes you very…potent…and, it’s very difficult for me to be around you.”

“I don’t understand,” Ava said. “What does everyone think about me? Why is it hard to be around me? Potent? I don’t get it.”

“No, you wouldn’t. Come, sit down by the fire. Sean, will you make me a cup of tea? It’s all there by the microwave. The amaranth tea, please?”

Ava watched in amazement as Sean hurried to make the tea for Grace, and she couldn’t help feeling a twinge of unwarranted jealousy. Obviously Grace knew Robert, Declan, and Sean. She had probably known them all their lives, but, for some reason, Ava felt a surge of jealousy at the thought that they cared anything for Grace, even as friends. Ava knew she had no right to feel that way, but she had to admit that was the unshakable emotion that filled her chest with rushing heartbeats.

“Amaranth tea helps keep the dead at bay,” Grace explained, seating herself in the easy chair closest to the fire and closing her eyes for a moment. “It can be used for calling the spirits of the dead, but it can also be used to shield oneself from the dead, especially the spirits of the evil dead.

“And you believe that?” Ava asked coldly, unable to keep from raising her academic hackles in a bitchy, catty challenge.

“No,” Grace replied, looking at her steadily with those eyes the color of rain clouds. “I know it.”

Ava let the cynicism radiate off her, and she noticed that Robert and Declan inhaled sharply and shifted uncomfortably in their seats on either side of her on the couch. Wait, could they sense that? Could they…did they
smell
that on her?

“Grace is trying to help you,” Robert said, the tension in his voice reverberating in every nerve in Ava’s body.

“I’m still waiting for this famous explanation,” Ava snapped, unable to contain the anger that suddenly welled up in her. Her eyes burned with heat, and she ground her teeth together. She felt nasty and mad and hot.

Grace stared at her, her eyes widening slightly. She sat perfectly still in her chair, even after Sean set the mug with the steaming, fragrant tea beside her. Slowly, she lifted the mug to her perfect lips and sipped a little bit. As she swallowed, she seemed to relax slightly, frowning and touching her tapered fingers to her temples.

Ava felt her lip curling disdainfully at this charade, her anger surging at the thought that Robert, Declan, and Sean were gullible enough to fall for this sweet act.

“
Stop it!
”

Ava was slammed back against the sofa as if she had been slapped by the sound of Grace’s voice. Her ears burned as if they were on fire, and a deep sigh was forced out of her chest, her breath coming out in a scorching puff of air.

She inhaled shakily, the scent of amaranth filling her nostrils with its gentle aroma. Her body felt cool and limp, and she lay against the back of the couch as her heartbeat slowed back to a normal rhythm.

“Ava!” Robert exclaimed, gathering her in his arms, crushing her to him. “Are you all right?”

“What happened?” Declan asked harshly. He turned to Grace. “What the hell just happened?”

“That’s exactly it,” Grace replied wearily, covering her face with her hands as Sean rubbed her shoulders. “Hell just happened. The evil dead tried to get through Ava.”

“Possession?” Robert snapped, and Ava looked up to see the fury snapping like a live wire in his golden eyes.

She suddenly understood what had just occurred, and she began to shake uncontrollably. Robert’s arms tightened like steel bands around her, and Declan held her hands in his, gently rubbing them and soothing them.

Sean went back to the microwave and returned quickly with another cup of amaranth tea that he held to Ava’s lips. The taste and the fragrance soothed her, muting the panic in her mind.

“Ava Bell,” Grace said quietly, “it’s time you learn about yourself.”

Ava could only stare helplessly at the other woman.

“Your mother did not die of epileptic psychosis when you were fifteen,” Grace continued, holding Ava’s gaze with unforgiving firmness. “She was killed by demonic possession. She was never supposed to leave the boundaries of Blue Moon, and as a result, she became the only case of Blue Moon demonic possession carrying beyond our town borders.”

“My…mother?” Ava whispered between dry lips, unable to comprehend fully what Grace was saying.

“Your mother, Evelyn Bell, died trying to save you from your destiny,” Grace continued sadly. “It couldn’t be done, though. You can’t be saved.”

Ava lost the feeling of Robert’s arms and Declan’s hands. She lost all sense of connection with her physical body as her mind reeled with terror at Grace’s words.

“Your bloodline goes back to the earliest days of Blue Moon, Ava Bell,” Grace said slowly. “Did you know that Eve Barrows’s maiden name was Bell?”

“You mean…” Ava’s voice died out in her dried up throat. “Are you trying to say I’m descended from Eve Barrows?”

Grace smiled wanly and pressed her fingers to her temples again, hissing out a breath.

“No,” she said weakly. “Not from Eve. From her sister Eliza and her sister’s lover, Ezra Barrows.”

Chapter 18

“What? No! What do you mean?” Declan, Sean, and Robert all exclaimed, even though Ava could do nothing but stare numbly at Grace.

“No one has ever heard of that,” Sean said, looking down at the blonde woman leaning tiredly back in her chair.

“That’s because it was a secret to be kept by the Lorekeeper and to be told only to a Barrows woman,” Grace replied. “Evelyn Bell knew it. She knew the whole story, but she had dismissed it as something she’d never have to deal with. That all changed after the three of you were born.”

“How’s that?” Sean demanded.

“Blue Moon had been slowly dying out as a town for decades,” Grace said. “Nobody new in town ever stayed for long. Something always scared them away. Only the old families remained, and once in a while a new family ended up staying when they had the misfortune of bearing a son within Blue Moon’s borders.”

“Why does that matter?” Ava asked.

“Because of the death bequest of Ezra Barrows upon Aristide Molineaux and Blue Moon,” Grace explained. “Ezra’s shade placed the gift and curse upon Blue Moon that all sons born on this soil would have the ability to protect the town from the demons his wife had summoned through her black magic. It’s unclear exactly how Ezra’s shade managed to do this and why it turned out that all the sons of Blue Moon would become werewolves, but I think I’ve come up with a plausible hypothesis. For thousands of years prior to the arrival of the white man, the Native Americans of the region had viewed the wolf as one of the strongest totems and symbols of all that was powerful in nature. If Ezra’s ghost was somehow able to summon and manipulate the energy and spiritual forces around him, I believe that he may have drawn the wolf totem from the spiritual world to the physical world.”

Grace drew in a long breath and sighed it out before continuing. “The Molineaux have always been the alphas of the wolves of Blue Moon, but none of them has ever been strong enough to drive the demons away, though all of them have tried. Aristide Molineaux predicted that it would take the combined strength of three Molineaux brothers, fighting together like the Holy Trinity—a nod to Aristide’s Catholic roots—to banish the demons back to hell. He also said that it would take a Barrows woman to avenge a Bell’s crime.”

Ava felt an uncomfortable twinge in the back of her mind, like an echo of something she already knew but couldn’t have known. She shifted nervously in Robert’s arms, trying to force herself to listen as an academic rather than as a…a…Barrows woman.

“So, where does that bring me to?” Grace asked after a moment’s pause, in which she had rubbed her face.

“Me,” Sean said, trying to grin, but there were too many shadows in his eyes.

“Right,” Grace replied with a ghost of a smile. “So, when you were born, the town knew that they had the trinity now, the three wolves strong enough to face down the demons. All that was needed to set the town free from the curse, the demons, and the cage of its borders was the Barrows woman.”

“Wait,” Ava interrupted. “The cage of its borders?”

“Part of the curse of the werewolves is that no man born of Blue Moon can be away from its soil from sundown to sunup,” Grace said.

“What?” Ava exclaimed. “You mean no man born here can ever leave here?”

“During the day, yes. But, they must all be within Blue Moon’s borders by nightfall, and they can’t leave again until sunrise. They’re bound to the earth here.”

“Wait, what happens if they’re not back by sunset?” Ava asked, her heart pounding as she dreaded the answer.

“They die,” Grace replied simply, her face a mask of steely grief.

Ava looked at Robert, Declan, and Sean in turn, meeting their saddened, withdrawn expressions, and a great wave of pity and love rushed through her, washing her clean of all doubts and fears.