Haunted Moon Read Online Free Page A

as I crossed the open swath of grass, past dilapidated headstonesthat were so old and weathered they were breaking apart. The bone-walker was near enough to worry about, but we still had a few minutes before it reached us.
    We didn’t have time for small talk. “Can you walk?”
    “I stepped in a pothole and twisted my ankle. I managed to hobble over here, but I think I’ll seriously fuck my foot up if I put my weight on it.” He winced but pushed the pain aside and nodded to the oncoming undead. “What about them? You can’t carry me, woman.”
    “You’d be surprised what I can do. I’m half-Fae, remember?” But the truth was, I
didn’t
think I could manage to carry him. I could outrun him, outwalk him, and probably fight him down to the ground, but I wasn’t Delilah with her athletic frame, and I wasn’t Menolly with her vampiric strength. “Put away the gun; that’s not going to do any good, and one of us will end up getting shot.”
    He tucked it back in the holster. “I didn’t think it would help, but I was feeling vulnerable, you know? From now on, I’m carrying an armory, like Roz.”
    “Wouldn’t fit in your suit jacket, babe.” I began to edge away from the gravestone. The bone-walker was getting too close for comfort, and still no sign of Morio or the others.
    I had to do something. “Hide behind the tombstone. I don’t want you getting hit by any backfire if this goes wrong.”
    Chase knew well enough by now that when I said duck, he’d better move.
Fast.
And duck he did—crouching down behind the marker as I called down the energy of the Moon Mother. There were enough clouds that I was able to find the key for lightning. As I summoned it, I prayed that I’d have the ability to direct the energy without causing massive damage to either Chase or myself.
    The familiar tingle ran down through my crown chakra, into my arms and through my fingers. My muscles and aura felt like they’d just been infused with a huge jolt of caffeine. I began to shake. Yeah, I was too tired for this, but we had no choice. I could run, but Chase couldn’t, and I wasn’t going to leave him alone to get attacked by the bone-walker.
    As I took aim, focusing the best I could, I let loose withthe energy bolt. The blast ricocheted out of my body, flaring out into the darkening sky. It wasn’t a fork of lightning. Instead, the spell spread out, blanketing a wide swath of grass and gravestones instead of just pinpointing the walking dead. Like a floodlight, my spell lit up the night.
    But the energy caught the bone-walker and knocked it on its ass. The creature went flying back, landing hard, giving us precious time while it tried to struggle to its feet again.
    Meanwhile, I heard something coming at us from the left. I swung around in time to see a goblin, wearing full leather armor, headed full tilt toward us. He was leading a band of at least twenty other goblins.
    “What the fuck?
Goblins?
You didn’t say anything about goblins!”
    “I didn’t know there were any here!” He looked as startled as I was.
    “Get that gun back out. Bullets might do some good against them.”
    Exhausted from casting the energy bolt, on top of everything else Morio and I had done earlier, I fumbled for my cell phone. We needed reinforcements and fast, or Chase and I were going to be mincemeat.
    But before I could extract it from the zippered pouch that also held my keys, the goblins were on us. I yanked out my dagger and engaged the leader. As I swiped, desperately trying to focus, Chase let off a volley of bullets and two of the goblins went down, though they weren’t dead.
    Panicking, I lunged for the goblin’s head and my blade connected with the flesh, plunging through to bounce off the bone. I didn’t have the strength to drive the blade through his skull. As he lurched back, taking my blade with him, I scrambled to summon up as much energy as I could. I might be able to manage one more energy bolt. But as I dodged,