Moon Dance (Blood Bound Book One)

Chapter 1

“Moon Dance”

Blood Bound Series Book One

Amy Blankenship, RK Melton

Edited by Tracy Murray

Copyright © 2012 Amy Blankenship

Second Edition Published by TekTime

All rights reserved.

Prologue

Angeles National Forest is home to the dangerous cougars and imported jaguars that roam the vast forest. Sometimes, on clear nights, their numbers grow for a little while as the LA were-animals, or shifters as folklore has come to know them, roam the untamed land among their distant cousins. It’s those nights that the real animals hunker down in their dens while the predators from the city invade their territory long enough to hunt, or on rare occasion, settle fights that can’t be settled on human turf.

There’s nothing more vicious than when those shifters fight and, if one of them are injured, they become just as dangerous to humans as their animal counterparts. To protect the humans they live among, shifter disputes, when possible, are always done out of the range of those humans and the best place is deep within their native hunting grounds.

Tonight the forest became hauntingly quiet as the two owners of the biggest club within the city enter the untamed land, stripping the clothes from their backs to let their inner beast run free. Tonight they were hunting for the grave of a vampire that could destroy them both.

Deep within the forest where no humans could hear them, Malachi, the leader of a small jaguar clan, sprinted through the darkness toward his adversary… a man he should have never trusted over his best friend. His target was another shifter, this one with the blood of the cougar running through his veins, Nathaniel Wilder… his business partner for the last 30 years.

Malachi broke into the clearing to find Nathaniel standing there waiting on him in human form. Taking a couple steps forward, it was like walking from one form into another as Malachi reverted back to his human shape. Both of them were lethal no matter which form they shifted into. As humans they were both athletic with steely muscles tensed under soft skin. Shifters were slow to age and both men barely looked past 30 even though they were well into their 50’s.

Had this been a Hollywood movie, it would have taken several minutes to be grossly changed, but this was reality and there were no drooling monsters in this clearing. Nudity was nothing to a shifter and the moon beamed down like a spotlight through a break in the storm clouds above them.

“It doesn’t have to come to this,” Nathaniel said, as he held his ground while trying to talk reason into his friend. “Listen to me! It was thirty years ago and things have changed… I have changed.”

“Thirty years’ worth of lies!” Malachi thundered, his voice echoing in the clearing. His gaze trailed to the spot he’d buried Kane and he felt the sting of moisture gather in his eyes. “Because of you, I bound Kane to the dirt… because of you I have forsaken him for thirty years!”

“I can’t let you dig him up, Malachi! You know what will happen if you do,” Nathaniel watched nervously as Malachi gazed longingly upon the grave of the man that had once been his best friend. He’d never understood it. Kane was a vampire and dangerous.

Kane had also been one of the two things standing in the way of the partnership forming between the jaguars and the cougars… Kane and Malachi’s beautiful, deceitful, cheating wife Carlotta. Nathaniel had loved her first. He hadn’t meant for it to turn out this way. In the end, Nathaniel had taken care of the problem in a jealous rage… killing two birds in one fell swoop.

“He was my best friend and he never betrayed me! You were the one who stabbed me in the back!” Malachi blinked back the tears of fury, as he reached up and touched the earring he was wearing; Kane’s earring. What had he done? When he’d found Kane bent over his dead wife, he’d paused in confusion, until Nathaniel had confirmed Kane as the murderer.

She’d died right here in this field, so he’d thought it only right to bind Kane to this land… in this soil. He’d even stolen Kane’s spell book and used it against him for revenge.

Yeah, Nathaniel was right about one thing. Most vampires were evil, but there were a few exceptions and Kane had been one of them. But nothing was more evil than what he himself had done. This spell could only be reversed by Kane’s soul mate.

Malachi had thought it funny at the time because Kane had been ageless and yet had never met his soul mate. In the past, he and Kane had often joked that such a woman would never be born. His mind flashed back to Kane’s smile as he’d said, ‘god would have to have a sense of humor to ever create a woman that would put up with some of his antics.’

“He’s been under there too long.” Nathaniel warned. “With that kind of blood lust and insanity riding him… if you free Kane now, he will only kill us.”

Malachi’s head snapped up and he glared at Nathaniel. “He will only have to kill me because you will already be dead.”

With the threat issued, both men shifted once again into their animal forms.

*****

On the edge of the campground nearest the massive game preserve Tabatha King, or Tabby as everyone seemed to call her, sat on the steps of her parent’s huge camper looking up at the stars peeking out of the thick clouds. She blew her bangs out of her eyes glad it had finally stopped raining.

This was the first time she’d ever been camping and the last thing she wanted to do was be cramped up inside the RV. She’d been so excited about this trip and was even happier when they’d agreed to bring the small family dog Scrappy. It’d taken a lot of begging, but after promising to take care of her little best friend, a Yorkie puppy, she’d finally won her reluctant parents over.

Scrappy was currently barking out at the darkness, wiggling around on his leash, wanting to chase the shadows that had gotten his attention. The little girl gasped when Scrappy suddenly pulled free of his leash and ran off. She stood up on the steel steps when the puppy darted through a small opening in the bottom of the fence that separated the campground from the game reserve.

“Scrappy no!” Tabby cried out and ran after the dog. Her parents had trusted her not to lose him. Stopping at the fence, she inhaled while staring out at the darkness of the trees. “I’m not a coward.” She bit her bottom lip in determination before dropping to her knees to investigate the opening.

After a couple of small scrapes, she’d squeezed through the same hole in the fence and was running through the woods following the sound of distant yapping. “You’re gonna get me in trouble,” she whispered harshly, then started clicking her tongue knowing the puppy often came to the sound.

“Tabby, where are you?”

Behind her, Tabatha heard her mother calling but she was more interested in getting her dog back to the campsite. Scrappy was her dog and she had to take care of him. So instead of calling back to her mom or to the puppy, she stayed quiet and followed the sound of Scrappy’s high-pitched barking.

It wasn’t long before Tabatha had to stop for a minute and catch her breath. She leaned back against a tree and put her hands on her dirty knees, breathing and listening to the sounds of the forest. She’d always wanted to stand in the middle of the woods and just listen like the Indians did on the TV movies.

The rain clouds that had parted for a little while came back and the bright moonlight suddenly disappeared. Her eyes widened when she realized she couldn’t see the lights from the campground anymore.

Taking a tentative step forward, she looked around wildly but all she saw was darkness, barely discernable tree trunks, and even darker shadows. She whimpered when something growled off in the distance behind her. Deciding she didn’t like that direction, she took off running without looking back.

After what seemed like forever, she heard Scrappy barking again and darted in that direction hoping whatever had growled wasn’t chasing her. She heard another growl but this time it was coming from somewhere in front of her.

Digging her heels into the ground, she tried to slide to a stop but the soil was covered with slick leaves and muck from the rain. Instead of stopping, she slid even further on her side before dropping down a gradual slope.

The breath was knocked out of her when her body hit a fallen tree stopping her slide. The first thing she noticed after catching her breath was that Scrappy wasn’t barking anymore. She heard the growl again and started to climb back up the hill when she heard a soft whimper. Pushing up on her knees, she peeked over the tree trunk and saw a small clearing where the moonlight was shining straight down.

Right there in the center was Scrappy, whining like he’d just been beat up by the dog down the street at home. The puppy was flat on the ground and crawling backwards. Her blue eyes widened when she saw why. Two animals were slowly moving toward each other in the clearing and Scrappy was right in the middle.

“Dummy,” Tabby hissed under her breath.

She recognized the animals from pictures her dad had shown her before they went on the trip. One was a cougar and the other she recognized from television… a jaguar. She loved to watch animal shows and wasn’t squeamish like her mommy was when the animals on TV tried to attack each other. But this was different… it was real and a little frightening.

They were cats that could eat you, big ones too. The graceful animals circled each other growling deep in their throats and their eyes glimmered like golden medallions. The deadly sound carried on the breeze, blowing toward Tabatha as she continued to watch them with nervous awe.

“Come on Scrappy,” she whispered, hoping the huge cats didn’t hear her. “Get over here before one of them steps on you.” She was going to say ‘eats you’ but she didn’t want to scare the poor puppy any more than it already was.

The cats suddenly screamed making Tabatha cover her ears with her palms because it was so loud and scary sounding. They ran at top speed across the clearing, making Scrappy tuck his tail between his legs and squeal out of fear.

Seeing the traumatized puppy, Tabatha scrambled over the tree and ran toward Scrappy as fast as she could. She was closer to Scrappy than the cats were and dove down, quickly covering his small body with hers just as the two animals leapt up and collided in the air directly above her.

“Please don’t hurt my dog!” she screamed.

She screamed again when sharp claws raked her arm and another grazed down her back. The cats hit the ground directly behind her with a bone-jarring thud, growling and screaming at one another. She remained hunched over Scrappy, who was still shaking and whimpering softly, not daring to look at the animals fighting only a few feet behind her.

Tabatha was afraid to move and held onto the dog as tightly as she could. Her eyes were clenched and she started whispering to Scrappy to run and get help, if one of the cats got her too. Something wet and warm sprayed across her back but she still didn’t move. Finally, the fighting stopped and she chanced a look over her shoulder.

She started shaking and crying when she saw two men lying behind her with blood all over them. Tabatha slowly rose to her knees with Scrappy in her arms and started to back away. Where had the cougar and the jaguar gone? Did they attack these two men then run away? Why didn’t the men have any clothes on?

Nathaniel suddenly opened his eyes and bared very sharp teeth at her.

Tabatha stumbled backwards and nearly fell but regained her footing. Scrappy squealed again when the man’s growl mimicked that of the cougar and fought his way out of Tabby’s arms. He ran away into the forest yelping out his fear.