Hidden Moon (Nightcreature 7)

"No. " Grace paused. "I have no problem with nudity, but you can't be running around like this all over the mountain. People will freak. "

"There's a reason we asked for the contract we did. "

I recalled the bizarre clause that was supposed to keep locals away from the lake until opening night. I'd wondered what the Gypsies were hiding; I hadn't figured it was a pagan moon and fire ritual.

"After tonight, we'll perform," he repeated. "When the full moon comes - " He broke off, frowning for several seconds before he finished. "We will leave. "

I had a feeling he'd been about to say something else, but what? We'll sacrifice a chicken. A goat.

A child.

I choked and Cartwright's gaze came to rest on me consideringly. I had to look away.

When I did, my eyes caught on the cages, and I remembered what I'd been doing right before he'd emerged from the water. "Did you take your animals across the lake, too?"

"No. Why?"

"The cages are empty. "

He muttered something in Romani, then strode away.

"What do they have in those cages?" Grace whispered.

I shragged. I hadn't seen anything.

Cartwright disappeared around the edge of the nearest wagon just as the call of something big, with teeth, echoed through the night.

Chapter 9

I stumbled over my own feet as I hurried to join Malachi in front of a cage that I could have sworn had been as empty as my life. It wasn't empty any longer.

"Mary likes to rest at the back of the enclosure," Cartwright said. "I'm sure you just overlooked her. "

A long, sleek, muscular mountain lion slid along the bars. She didn't seem like a Mary to me.

"You have a cougar?" Grace snapped. "Are you fucking nuts?"

"Not lately," Cartwright murmured, seemingly uninsulted by Grace's question or her language.

The animal enclosures were built differently from any I'd seen before - with two sets of bars set far enough apart so that no one could stick a hand inside and lose it, yet visitors could see the animal, hear it, smell it.

Though I might not have seen Mary the mountain lion, there were other wagons that had been empty, too. I skirted Cartwright and headed for the next enclosure.

A grizzly bear waddled forward, flat, dark eyes fixed on my face. He stretched his neck, tilted his head, and roared. Grace appeared at my side, gun drawn.

She stared at the bear for several seconds before turning to Cartwright. "You have got to be kidding me. "

"We perform with animals, Sheriff. " He spread his hands and his towel dipped lower. I waited for it to fall off altogether, but it didn't. "That means we need animals. "

"A monkey, a goat, maybe an elephant. But a cougar and a bear? That's dangerous. "

"We raised them from birth. " His gaze rested on the still-roaring grizzly. "They are our family. "

"Well, your uncle appears a bit teed off. Can you get him to shut up?"

"The gun, Sheriff. " Cartwright flicked one long finger at the weapon. "He doesn't like them. "

Grace stared at her hand as if she'd forgotten she held the thing, then holstered it with an impatient shove. However, she didn't secure the strap of leather over the butt.