Moonshine & Mayhem Read online

  Zoey grabbed Slade’s arm. “You have to save my dad! I just found him, I can’t lose him again.”

  “I can’t leave you, Zoey. We have to do this together.”

  “I’ll be okay once I know my dad is safe. The drink is working. I feel much stronger now. Please, Slade,” Zoey begged.

  Slade looked to Magnus Rode. He was fighting with all he had, but it was clear he was completely out of practice. He was only a young witch at a hundred fifty years old, and he’d never had another witch train him. He’d learned as much as he could on his own from the Book of Tenebris, with the strong powers of the Rodes in his veins and an innate sense of what to do with them. He was making Alexander work for it, but there was no way he’d win.

  Polly stood in front of Zoey, battling as Zoey chugged the rest of her drink. He was running out of time. He had to be there for Zoey. “Fine, but I’ll be right back.”

  “I love you, Slade.”

  “This isn’t goodbye,” he said, even though that was exactly what it sounded like. He grabbed her, kissed her hard, and in a split second grabbed her father and together they disappeared.

  “What the heck?” Magnus roared as he looked around Zoey’s house.

  “I’m sorry, but you weren’t going to win and Zoey can’t lose you again,” Slade apologized.

  “Your eyes,” he said with a sad smile. “I never got that with Zoey’s mom. She was human, but I’d heard about true bonds. You love my daughter.”

  “I’d give my life for hers.”

  “Then go. Help her defeat your father. Save her like you saved me.” Magnus took a deep breath. “I couldn’t say it then, but I can say it now. Thank you for saving me all those years ago. I had a wonderful life until I had to go into hiding.”

  Slade had never been thanked before. He’d been feared, but here was his future father-in-law holding out his hand in gratitude. A feeling washed over him that had to be from his mother. It was a feeling of absolute peace and well-being—of goodness.

  “Promise you won’t come back to the fight,” Slade said to Magnus.

  “I promise I’ll give you a head start.”

  Slade smiled and didn’t wait for Magnus to start his countdown. It was time to face his father.

  13

  With the battle raging all around them, Alexander turned to Zoey with a feral smile and lifted his hands. Zoey knew it was time. And when Alexander’s red energy slammed into her white, nothing else existed around them. It was if they were on the street alone.

  Zoey grunted under the force of the attack. Alexander was way more powerful than anyone she’d been up against before, and there was darkness to his energy. Instead of being a bright red, it was a deep blood red. Even the four men at once had been easier. And that said a lot about Alexander’s powers.

  “My son’s true love. We’re family, you and I. Stop this nonsense and join me,” Alexander yelled over the sounds of fighting to the death that echoed all around them. Their energy flows were so strong they caused leaves, benches, and anything near them not bolted down to float up from the ground.

  “Never,” Zoey managed to grind out between her clenched teeth. Her body shook, yet it felt as if her whole body was on fire. She didn’t know if it was from exertion or the fact that his energy was only feet from her outstretched hands.

  “Fight, Zoey!” she heard Grand Mistress Lauren in her head. “Dig deep. Pull back the layers of your power.”

  Tears of pain streamed down Zoey’s face as muscles cramped. It felt as if power was being ripped from her body as she sent a wave of it at Alexander. She was slowly pushing his power back from her hands, but it didn’t get easier. Instead of being worried, Alexander laughed. It was then Zoey realized he was toying with her. She wasn’t going to win. She was going to die, and all her sisters along with her.

  * * *

  The first thing Slade saw was the dark pink light casting a sphere of light around where Zoey’s powers and his father’s met. And they met too close to Zoey’s body for his liking. More than that, when Alexander laughed, his powers turned darker until they were almost black. Slade rushed toward Zoey. Together . . . they had to do this together.

  “Slade.” Slade turned briefly to see Grand Mistress Lauren running by his side. “She’s not going to make it, but she’s the only one with the power to defeat Alexander’s black magic.”

  “What can I do?” Slade shouted as he weaved in and out of ongoing battles around them.

  “Transfer your power. You’re bonded now. You can give her your power.”

  “I don’t know how to do it,” Slade admitted.

  “Place your hand near her heart,” the grand mistress instructed, “then close your eyes and open your heart. Feel her soul. You’ll gather your energy and send it to your hand. You’ll see it filling her soul. But Slade, you need to know this could kill you.”

  Slade didn’t think twice as Zoey dropped to her knees ahead of him. He could see blood dripping from her ears as her body practically convulsed under Alexander’s onslaught. His energy flowed forward, pushing hers back until it was nipping at her fingertips.

  Slade dropped to his knees behind Zoey and wrapped his left arm around her waist as he anchored her to him. He reached around her with his right arm and placed his hand over her heart. He closed his eyes and warmth filled him. Peace, love, and light filled him until his body could hold no more, and it poured from his hand into Zoey’s heart. He felt her heart slow from its short frantic beats to stronger ones as his body began to float. He didn’t know if it was from the energy flying around them or if it was the feeling one got as they approached death.

  “I love you,” Slade said, a moment before darkness overcame him and his body floated away.

  * * *

  Zoey was dying. She knew it. But then she felt Slade. He pulled her against him, and all the sudden her body was alive again. Her hair stood on end, her vision tunneled. She saw every molecule of energy, and it was as if she had slowed time. She was moving at full speed, but no one else was.

  Slade’s hands dropped from her body, and she stood as if she were a whole new person. Alexander’s eyes widened, and Zoey grinned. She felt powerful. She felt unstoppable. And her energy was no longer white. It was violet.

  She raised her left hand to the sky and opened her fingers wide. It felt as if the whole world was in her hand. Energy pulled from all around her into her left hand and gathered in the palm of her outstretched right hand. With a snap of her fingers she sent a violet ball of energy right at Alexander. She blew from her mouth as if blowing out a candle and the energy ball reacted to the air, growing larger and more powerful.

  If Zoey bothered to look around her, she would have noticed that the fighting had completely stopped. She would have seen her father holding Slade’s body behind her. She would have heard Alexander’s screams. But she didn’t. All she felt was the energy of the world, the universe, and the Goddess flowing through her.

  Zoey stalked toward Alexander. It was his turn to go to his knees. But unlike Alexander, she wasn’t going to play with him. She was going to end him. And fast. With flick of her wrist the white power of the fifth element rushed forward as if it were a swirling black vortex. Alexander gave up the fight and tried to run, but Zoey puckered her lips and gave a quick blow. The power of Air rushed forward, pushing the fifth element right into Alexander. He was there and then he disappeared into nothingness. The white energy swirled into itself, and then it was gone.

  * * *

  Zoey closed her fists, reining in the energy. She had to mentally pull it back until she could contain it. Then she looked up and saw people staring. Most of the men left from Alexander’s army put up their hands and dropped to their knees while a few, including the redhead named Ian transported away.

  “Slade,” Zoey said excitedly as she looked around for him. “We did it!”

  “Zoey.” Her father’s voice was soft and serious behind her.

  Zoey turned and found her father sit
ting on the ground. Slade’s head was pulled into his lap. Grand Mistress Lauren had her paw on his heart but was shaking her head.

  “I’m sorry,” Grand Mistress Lauren said a second before she collapsed to the ground, having transferred most of her powers to Slade.

  Grand Master Linus raced forward through the crowded street. “Slade!” he yelled as Samuel and Polly similarly ran toward them.

  “Lauren!” Vilma screamed. “Agnes, get your drink! Neferu, you’re in charge of the prisoners.”

  Zoey’s heart stopped. No. They’d defeated Alexander. The war was over. They’d won. Nowhere in the prophecy did it say one of them would die.

  “Watch out, Zoey,” Luke called as he raced past her with a medical bag and a portable automated external defibrillator in his hand. Luke dropped to his knees and pulled out the pads from the AED. He ripped open Slade’s shirt and pressed the pads to his chest. “Clear,” he called out and as soon as the AED charged he hit the button. Slade’s body jerked, but there was no heartbeat.

  “Zoey,” Grand Mistress Lauren said softly as she struggled to stay awake after she’d drained her powers fighting. “Put your hand on his heart and feel it beat. See his body filling with life.” Lauren’s teal eyes fluttered closed as Linus grabbed her into his arms and held her while Agnes forced her rejuvenation drink down the cat’s throat.

  Luke pressed the defibrillator again, and again Slade’s body jerked, but nothing else happened. He looked up to Zoey and nodded. “If you can do what you just did, maybe you can heal too. Every coin has two sides. If you can destroy, then you can repair.”

  The tears rolling down Zoey’s cheeks had nothing to do with power, but with her heart breaking. She’d do anything to bring Slade back. She knelt across from Luke, put her hand on Slade’s heart and closed her eyes to pray. She asked his mother for help. She asked the Goddess for guidance. And then she trusted in herself.

  Zoey’s heart pounded. Her body felt completely different from the battle. She could feel Slade through her hands. Not his skin or even the muscles and bones underneath it. She could feel the life force of his body. She could sense the blood filling his arteries, but not moving. His heart was strong, but not beating. His lungs were full of the air her father had pushed into them, but they were still.

  Zoey pressed one hand to his heart and one hand on his lungs. Her hands warmed. Not the feeling of being on fire like when she was battling Alexander, but a comforting warmth. She saw Slade’s heart fill with warmth, love, and her energy as she gently pressed against his lungs.

  She felt the beat before she heard it on the AED machine. There was no giant breath sucking in or Slade sitting up with a gasp. Instead it was a slow build as she kept her hands on him and envisioned his organs waking up and stretching before building up speed. Zoey felt the blood begin to trickle through his arteries and veins. She felt the shallow breaths become stronger. And she felt his heart grow into a steady beat. And then she felt herself dropping to the ground. She’d done it. Slade was alive.

  14

  “Zoey?” Slade asked as he ran his hand over her cheek.

  Zoey’s eyes fluttered open to find Luke, Slade, and her father staring at her. When she turned her head, she saw Grand Mistress Lauren eagerly looking on from her place in Grand Master Linus’s arms. And all her friends stood behind them.

  “Hi,” she said with a slow grin as if waking up from a long nap.

  “Thank you for saving me,” Slade said as he bent and placed an achingly gentle kiss on her lips.

  “I’m pretty sure you saved me first.”

  “You saved each other,” her father said before placing a kiss on her forehead.

  “That was . . . there are no words,” Luke said with wonder.

  Zoey reached for her friend’s hand. “You tried to save him,” she said as she got choked up with emotion. “You’re a good friend, Luke.”

  “You’re a good friend to us all. I know about you helping to heal the wounded,” Grand Mistress Lauren said as there were shouts of thanks called out to Luke. “However, we can’t have you telling anyone about us. Especially that doctor you love in Keeneston.”

  Luke looked worried as Agnes and Vilma laughed. “We’re not going to kill you,” Agnes said with a chuckle.

  “You’re too fine to kill.” Vilma winked.

  “What then?” Luke asked.

  “Nothing to be worried about. Just know you’ll always be a friend to the Claritase, and we take care of our friends.” With a nod to Agnes and Vilma, Grand Mistress Lauren winked and the two women stood on each side of Luke. They were gone in the blink of an eye.

  Zoey looked at the cat and tilted her head. “Grand Mistress?”

  “Yes?”

  “Can I give you some of my powers and turn you back into your human form?”

  The cat shook her head. “No, little one, you can’t. Only a bonded true love or a Grand Mistress or Master can do that.”

  “Then I can,” Linus said, but Lauren shook her head.

  “You’re not properly voted and appointed. Even witches have paperwork. And right now we have a mess to clean up.”

  Zoey looked around them. Around fifty hunters where on their knees as Claritase clamped something around their necks. “What are they doing?”

  “They’re enchanted and make it impossible for the wearer to use powers. When they’re all on, I’ll lock them and only I will be able to take them off. We’ll hold them until we can have a trial and decide what to do with them,” Grand Mistress Lauren explained.

  “What can I do to help?” Zoey asked as Slade helped her stand up.

  “We need to get this town put back together,” Lauren told her.

  Zoey saw that windows were cracked, benches where strewn about. Some were even on top of the buildings. The cute street lamps were all busted as if the electricity had surged and caused the bulbs to explode. Main Street was a disaster.

  “I’ll work on the lights,” her father said.

  “I’ll help you, Magnus,” Linus said. “We have a lot to discuss. Like how you taught yourself magic over the years.”

  “I’ve got the benches!” Polly called out as Samuel eagerly helped her. Maybe she and Slade wouldn’t be the only new Claritase and Tenebris couple.

  There were volunteers to care for the wounded. And more volunteers stepped up to fix the windows and clean the debris from the area.

  “We need to make it look as if there was an actual gas leak,” Slade said to her as he popped into the hardware store and came back out with a shovel and some bright orange construction cones.

  “What are you going to do?” Zoey asked.

  “I’m going to dig up a part of the ground, put some cones around the freshly turned dirt, and make it look like the leak was fixed.

  Zoey watches as Slade looked around, found a gas meter, and began digging nearby. Slade didn’t need her help, so Zoey slipped back into her bakery. It was filled with people. Many of the injured where already being cared for by Claritase and also some of the True Tenebris, well, just Tenebris now. She wasn’t needed there. Back outside there was a hive of activity as people cleaned up the small town. She wasn’t needed there either. Suddenly Zoey felt adrift. Her role had come to an end. Who was she now and what did she do?

  * * *

  Slade tossed the cones on the ground and looked at his work. It was believable. He felt Zoey’s presence begin to fade. He turned and saw her walking away from downtown. He dropped the shovel and jogged after her as people continued to work around them.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked as he put a hand on her shoulder to stop her.

  “Nothing,” Zoey said, but Slade knew that wasn’t true. First, when a woman said nothing it was never nothing. He’s learned that over four hundred years ago. Second, he could feel the upheaval she was feeling.

  “I can feel it. You can’t hide anything from your bonded love.”

  Zoey rolled her eyes. “Fine, but you’ll think I’m silly.”


  “If I didn’t think you were silly when you climbed onto stage to battle strippers for your client, I’m not going to find you silly now.”

  Okay, he had a point. “What do I do now? Who am I now that Alexander is defeated?”

  “That’s not silly, sweetness.” Slade put his arms around her as she nibbled nervously on her lower lip. “You’ve been breathing this mission twenty-four-seven. And now it’s over and you wonder what your purpose is, right?”

  Zoey just nodded.

  Slade cupped her cheeks with his hands and forced her to look at him. “Now you get to see what the Claritase and Tenebris were supposed to do—heal, promote goodness and happiness. You can focus your powers on helping people. Which, I bet, is the whole reason you wanted to be a lawyer in the first place.”

  “I don’t know how to do that,” Zoey admitted.

  Slade smiled down at her. “Then I guess it’s a good thing your fiancé does. And I have a feeling Agnes and Vilma will insist on teaching you too. Now that we can come out of hiding—with each other—we can begin teaching each other and helping humanity again. Our true purpose starts again today. Now.”

  “Now?”

  Slade nodded. “Now that Alexander is gone, we can be together once again. There will be voting, our upcoming wedding will be celebrated, we’ll talk about re-opening the schools, where to place our headquarters, and so much more. It’s a new beginning for us all because of you.”

  “And you,” Zoey said as she blushed. “We did it together.”

  Slade placed a kiss on her lips. “Always together.”

  15

  Zoey walked hand in hand with Slade back into downtown. The town already looked as if an epic battle between good and evil had never occurred. Grand Mistress Lauren had done what she needed to do with the prisoners. A mix of Claritase and Tenebris guards had been assigned, and they were popping away to place the prisoners in various holding centers until their trials.