Red Moon Secrets (Deadly Beauties 3)

"Hello?" Zee gripes, waving his hand in front of my eyes, sounding exasperated. "The ring? Where is it?"

"It's here," I murmur, digging it out of my pocket. "I thought I'd get something together for her tomorrow night. I know there's supposed to be a red moon, but I thought she and I could grab a hotel room for just one night. One night."

I sigh out, feeling weighted by all the disasters surrounding our lives. Zee studies the ring, looking confused. I'm sure he expected some extravagant diamond.

"Dude, you know you have money, right? Why'd you buy the girl a mood stone?"

I laugh. He has no clue what this is.

"This isn't some generic piece of crap you buy out of a ring machine. This is the real deal. It's been blessed by a chanter. It'll actually shift colors with each mood she has— like her eyes. Except this will be all the time. I thought it was a little more personal," I say, shrugging. "It cost a hell of a lot more than any diamond."

Zee laughs and shakes his head, as I smile down at the small ring that will fit her finger perfectly. I pray she says yes. She was hesitant before, but she didn't technically say no. She loves me. She's just scared.

"Damn, I wish she'd—"

A gush of dark specks invade the house, interrupting me. Gage materializes amongst the specks, looking like he just lost a fight with an ogre. His clothes are tattered, his bottom lip is bloody, and he seems breathless.

"What the fuck?" I blare, looking around for Alyssa to magically appear. "Where the hell is she? Did the widows do this?"

I start to punch him when he doesn't answer right away, in an attempt to snap him out of his deep thought, but he finally responds.

"It wasn't the widows—it was Alyssa."

Cold prickles climb over me, sinking deep into my core. "Alyssa? Did this?" Zee asks before I can.

"Yes, and I have no idea where the fuck she went after she left me unconscious."

"Back up and start over," I growl. "What did you do to her?"

The venom that glistens in his eyes lets me know he hates me just as much as I hate him. I let my night stalker eyes come to life as a warning not to fuck with me. He doesn't cower like he should, but he does finally cede.

"I didn't do a damn thing. She got sick while we were with the widows, so we left. She passed out, I carried her to the car, and I was on the phone with Drackus when she came to and fucking lost it.

"She hit me with a shot of power that was so massive it flipped the car. Shocked the hell out of me. I climbed to my feet, worried to death she was dead, but she was perfectly fine as she stalked toward me, acting like she wanted to rip me in half. I asked her what the fuck she was doing, only to see she her hair turn black and her eyes turn silver. Silver!"

All the oxygen is stripped from the air. She really is a descendent of Freya. A goddess by right. But this can't be happening right now.

"Silver eyes?" Zee asks, but I ignore him as I move on to the real problem at hand.

"She can't have silver eyes yet, Gage. She's mortal. She's not—it's not possible. She still bleeds like a human."

I'll spare him the details of why I know that. I'm sure he doesn't want to know how soft her flesh still is beneath my fangs when she offers herself to me, and how freely it runs through me just before I take—

"They were definitely silver. And she was pissed at me for reasons I have no clue about. Alyssa was gone. Nowhere at all to be found inside the thing that took over her body."

That infuriates me. "It's still Alyssa, you fucking idiot. She's not a thing. She has to learn to control the beasts."

His snarling response is quick, verging on becoming a challenge. "I didn't call her a thing. I called this possession a thing. She can't control it. Freya couldn't control all the pieces. Her eyes rarely went silver, and when they did, it was because she lost it under the—"

His voice trails off because we both realize how fucking stupid we've been. "The red moon," I grumble while considering slapping myself. "And Sierra can't track her while she's fucking crazy. What about her phone?" I ask, hoping he can track her that way.

I didn't think about the fact he would have already done that if he could have.

"This phone?" he snarls, pulling her phone from his pocket and tossing it to the table by the wall.

"Shit," I gripe while running my hand through my hair. "I have to go find her."

"I've been trying for over an hour to find her. It's pointless. We'll just have to wait until morning—when she's herself again."