Blade of Moonlight: Midnight Justice Read online

  “Black sedan. DC plates.” He sent a glance her way. “Sound familiar?”

  Luna blinked, so surprised she didn’t know what to say.

  He’d seen the car at the barbecue joint too? It would make sense that he didn’t like the Senator. Dawnie Durbin was part of the system, and therefore his enemy. She worked for the people of Newcropolis and the rest of the state. She was their voice. A major thrust of the campaign that had gotten her elected had focused on cleaning up the corruption that had infiltrated their cities and towns.

  Luna considered Scythe. He was clad from head to toe in black, and half of his face was hidden from view. He was big and muscled and a very integral part of that corruption. Without the cape he didn’t look like Death, but he still looked like its harbinger. Even now, he had that vicious-looking scythe in hand.

  Why would Senator Durbin’s car be here, at her house? Had it followed him? He had been at the New Q. She could smell the barbecue he’d bought for her in the air.

  “You should go,” she said quietly.

  His head snapped around, and his jaw went rigid. “Go?”

  Luna shifted uncomfortably and felt the slick material of his cape slide against her sensitive skin. She wondered at her easy betrayal of her own beliefs, but she couldn’t let him get caught. Not like this. “Before they catch you.”

  His gray eyes sparked. “Baby, I’m not the one they’re after.”

  Her chin came up. “What?”

  “You saw them.”

  Nothing he was saying made sense. “Saw who?”

  He crossed the room, the scythe a natural extension of his body. “Senator Durbin’s people.”

  “So?”

  He stared at her for a long moment, frowning. “What do you think you saw?”

  Her lips twisted. She still wasn’t quite sure of that, and in her line of work, she’d learned not to make assumptions. Still, there weren’t many options. “I saw a car with DC plates following RJ Tyson.”

  “Did you?” He planted the butt of the scythe on the floor and leaned against it. “Which way did the car turn when RJ left the restaurant?”

  It had turned left—away from the direction Tyson had been going. Luna frowned. She hadn’t considered that. It got her brain churning again on possible scenarios, but something else was stuck in her head. He’d called that thug RJ. Not Tyson or his full name. He’d said RJ like he knew the guy, and that didn’t sit well in her stomach.

  She was well aware of what Scythe was. She knew what he’d done, but RJ Tyson was a thug, an abuser of women. Scythe was…a villain.

  She couldn’t get around that fact, no matter how much she wanted to. He touched her in a way that made her body melt. Not once had he hurt her. He’d protected her and cared for her, but deep down he was still a bad guy.

  “Which way did the car turn, lightness?”

  The way he was pressing her reminded her of the courtroom. He was as bullheaded as Griffin Tate, but she wasn’t on the witness stand here. “It went in the opposite direction.”

  He nodded, watching her and waiting.

  The answer suddenly rang in her head, clear as a bell. “They were meeting with him?”

  “They were making a payoff.”

  The statement stopped her cold. Stopped her thought processes, stopped her breaths and nearly stopped her heart. Senator Durbin’s people had paid the man who’d beaten her assistant?

  “Virginia Samms found out something she shouldn’t have,” Scythe said, his voice as cutting as his blade. “The good Senator couldn’t let that information get out. Her people found somebody to shut her up.”

  Luna’s hand went to cover her exclamation, and she almost forgot about the cape. She pulled it back together, but the enormity of what he was telling her was almost too much to bear. The corruption went that far up the chain?

  “The Senator?”

  “Is an incompetent, vicious bitch hungry for power.” Straightening, he glanced back to the window. “You’d better get dressed.”

  Luna looked down at herself. Why hadn’t she headed that way the moment she’d gotten inside the door? She’d become entirely too comfortable around him. Nodding, she turned.

  “In the leather,” he called after her.

  She stopped so fast, the cape swished around her ankles.

  “I need Luminescence,” he said.

  He shouldn’t hold any sway over her. His opinions shouldn’t mean anything, but nobody had ever asked for her assistance before. Nobody had wanted a partner. They hadn’t even considered her good sidekick material.

  He did.

  Her shoulders drew back and she straightened a good inch. “Give me ten minutes. I need a shower.”

  He was suddenly right behind her, his heat burning through the thin skin of the cape. “You’ve got five. I like the idea of my scent on you.”

  Her breath shuddered. She moved away swiftly, heading up the stairs, but her knees wobbled on every step. She entered her bedroom and sagged against the door as she shut it behind her. Why did bad sometimes have to be so irresistible?

  It took her one of her precious five minutes before she could find the strength to move again. Only now did she feel the blade of grass that still stuck to her knee. Opening the cape, she peeled it off. Her inner thighs felt sticky, and dirt was under her fingertips.

  Overriding his decision, she whipped off his cape and hit the shower for a quick rinse. When she made it back to her bedroom, she had little time to spare. He’d yet to burst in the door, so she accessed the hidden panel at the back of her closet. Twisting the end hanger, the door slid on silent rollers and multiple versions of her costume appeared. She grabbed one and tossed it on the bed.

  Her hair was curling from the hot steam of the shower as she pulled on the bra. She eyed the hipsters with more concern. It used to be that putting on the outfit made her feel sexy. Now it made her feel sexual. There was a difference.

  She bit her lip as she zipped up her boot. She was looking at the other when she spotted their capes side by side on her bed. The picture made her come up short. They were identical. Black, hooded, flowing… His was bigger, but otherwise they were indistinguishable.

  Good? Bad? Light? Dark?

  The paradox struck a chord inside her. On auto-pilot, she tied her mask around her eyes. Good Senator Durbin was crooked and spiteful. The upper-tier heroes in her alliance were vain and distant. Could there be another side to amoral, anger-driven Scythe?

  She picked up both cloaks and stepped out into the hallway. She wasn’t surprised to find Scythe ready to kick down her door.

  Only he wasn’t. He stood outside her room with one hand braced on the hallway wall. He was looking at a picture. She paused, everything about her going brittle as fine china.

  He glanced her way, and she was caught by another surprise. For once, those steel-gray eyes were gentle. “Your grandfather?”

  Throat tight, she merely nodded.

  He pulled back and carefully straightened the picture so it hung right. The touch was respectful, almost reverent. And it should be. The photograph was of her grandfather in his astronaut uniform.

  “I didn’t realize you were related to Henry Masters,” Scythe said. “Was he the twelfth man to step on the moon?”

  “The thirteenth,” Luna corrected. She wasn’t quite comfortable with the conversation and wasn’t sure where it was headed.

  Scythe looked up and down the hallway. “This is his house.”

  She nodded. “I’ve lived here my entire life. He raised me after my parents died.”

  “How long has he been gone?”

  “A little over a year.”

  “About the time you started using your powers in public?”

  She flushed and was glad her mask hid most of it.

  For once, he didn’t push her. Instead, he ran his fingers down the center of her chest. He caught the stone at the end of her necklace and held it in his palm. “It’s a moon rock.”

  Luna swallowed
hard. “He brought it back with him. NASA never knew he didn’t give them all the samples.”

  Scythe’s thumb rubbed over the precious rock in wonder. “It’s the source of your powers?”

  Her lips flattened. “No.”

  However close they were getting, whatever she was feeling, she couldn’t tell him that. She couldn’t share that vital a secret, especially with someone with questionable intentions.

  Yet she wasn’t lying. The stone might have been her source at one time. It might have been the instigator for the powers that had developed inside her. So might all the other souvenirs her grandfather had stowed away for himself. And her.

  She’d loved the sky as a child. She used to lie on her back, watching the stars and seeking out planets. She’d soaked up any information she could about the heavens and the solar system, but the moon had been her favorite. She retrieved the stone from Scythe’s hand and let it drop back into place between her breasts.

  She’d worn the rock in one form or another since she was three. It was never off her person, had spent more time against her skin than any other item she owned. To say it had rubbed off on her was putting it lightly. At some point, she’d become one with the moon. She’d picked up its traits.

  But Scythe was right. It was only after her grandfather, the legendary astronaut, had died that she’d started using her powers for good.

  What he didn’t know was that she didn’t need the rock anymore to shine.

  She looked him in the eye, waiting for a smirk or a knowing cock of his head. He did neither.

  “What’s the source of yours?” she asked boldly.

  He shrugged. “I grew up on a farm.”

  Surprised, her chin came up. It put her mouth in the perfect place for his kiss. He moved before she knew it, sliding his hand to the nape of her neck and pulling her forward. His kiss was warm and intimate. His lips sealed to hers, and his tongue swept deep. There was lust in the contact, always lust, but something else too. Fondness? Tenderness?

  Possessiveness?

  He was catching her by the hand before she could discern the nebulous connection that was somehow growing between them.

  He gave her a tug, and determination hardened his jaw. “Lead me to your lair.”

  “What?” She tugged back. “Absolutely not.”

  The blade of the scythe rotated slowly, menacingly.

  “They’re looking for Luna.” He jerked his head in the direction of the street. “We need to get Luminescence out there. I’m assuming you have some nifty forms of transportation hidden around the place? A secret exit tunnel?”

  “What makes you think my lair is here?”

  For once, he actually laughed. The sound was rusty, but it came from deep in his chest. Almost embarrassed, he ran his hand over the skullcap of his costume. “An empty, echoing mansion… Vines growing up the thick stone walls… High-tech security cameras placed in interesting areas…”

  “Fine.” Her stiletto heels cracked against the floor as she walked past him. “But you’re wearing a blindfold.”

  He groaned. “Baby, we don’t have time to roll around together again.”

  She glared over her shoulder at him, but he had the audacity to flash a lopsided smile. “Well, if you insist.”

  In the end, he wore the blindfold, trusting her to lead him—a blind man carrying a big, sharp axe. When that blindfold came off in the hidden, subterranean vault accessible from the pantry, he became all business.

  His gaze swept over her superhero workspace. Luna knew she should have felt threatened or defeated. Instead, she felt pride. He was impressed. She could tell from the look on his face.

  It touched something inside her. Dipping her head, she pulled the bandana she’d used as a blindfold on him through her fingers. “Scythe?”

  “Yeah,” he said, eyeing her grandfather’s collections of space dust, star charts and robotic arms.

  “Be my partner?”

  His gaze snapped back to hers. “Absolutely.” Catching her fluttering hands, he kissed her knuckles. “It’s time to bring the game to them.”

  Scythe was in fan-boy heaven. Luna’s grandfather, Henry Masters, was a legend. An astronaut, an adventurer, a tinkerer and an all-around man’s man, Masters had been an American luminary. As Scythe looked around the secret laboratory, he saw experiments the man had started, woven in with other, more current technology and gadgets.

  His gaze swept over the fascinating blonde who stood by his side. Out of everything Henry Masters had produced, she was his masterpiece.

  And someone out there wanted to hurt her.

  Scythe’s jaw set. Not on his watch.

  “How do we get out of here?”

  She gestured towards a door almost hidden behind plant experiments. The stone exterior was echoed here in the basement. She might have blindfolded him, but he’d felt the steps going down and felt the drop in air temperature.

  “But we have some research to do first.” Bending over in front of a computer terminal, she consulted a notebook and began typing.

  Like a magnet to steel, his gaze snapped to the rounded curve of her ass. Even under the cape, the lines were sleek and taut. His mouth started to water and he forced himself to walk around in front of her. That only gave him a clear view of her breasts plumped temptingly in that snug black leather bra.

  Damn, he needed to get his brain off her and onto the situation at hand. It wasn’t easy. As Luna, she was sidetracking his thoughts by day, and as Luminescence, she was consuming his dreams at night. She needed him, though. She needed his mind clear, focused and determined.

  Because Luna and Luminescence, the full package, was in danger.

  His blade had already taken down one man who’d dared to hurt her. God help those who threatened her now.

  “Aha!” She punched a button on the keyboard and the printer began to hum. “The car belongs to David Littleton, a security staffer for Senator Durbin.”

  He circled around behind her, this time focusing on the computer screen. “Was there a red-light camera at that intersection before the restaurant?”

  Her hair spilled over her shoulder as she looked at him. “I don’t know. Why?”

  He gave a swift jerk of his head. She moved aside, and he sat down at the keyboard. He propped his weapon against the desk. Why? Because with photo evidence and identification like she’d just gotten, he could do insidious, vindictive things. He began typing and heard a soft snort near his ear. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw her laughing.

  “Hunt and peck?”

  He sneered at her. “Not all of us have fingers of fury.”

  She pulled back, looking at him in surprise. He flinched, realizing he’d given away more than he should. He concentrated on the screen and what he was doing.

  “Wait!” she gasped. “How did you get access to that?”

  “I hunted, and I pecked and I knocked their firewall down.”

  Her hand settled on his shoulder as she bent closer to watch the screen. The touch was light, but it shot through him like a pulse. He swore and had to backspace. She was sucking him in deeper and deeper. If he wasn’t careful, he’d go under.

  For good.

  Dawnie Durbin’s webpage was on the screen, and he glared at the Senator’s phony, smiling face. He could see it all in her—the superiority complex, the unyielding stupidity and the core of meanness. Her clothes were too loud and her hair too mod. She wasn’t working for the people, she was working for herself.

  He began typing in the email addresses of all the news websites he could find, sending them the incriminating link. She couldn’t smile this away, proof of her cronies meeting with RJ Tyson. The news outlets would go after her like piranhas after a bloody hangnail.

  “What did Virginia Samms find out about her?” Luminescence asked.

  “That her vote is for sale. She’s been collecting payments from lobbying interests since before the election.”

  “Oh my gosh! Did Virginia have proof?”
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  He nodded and hit send. “Of not only that, but about ten other infractions too. The bitch is going down.”

  And so were her henchmen. Standing, he grabbed his scythe. He gave it a whirl so fast, the blade whistled. “Want to go wreak some havoc, lightness?”

  Her smile was vengeful, but it gradually dimmed. She looked upwards towards the ceiling and eventually the sky. “I don’t have much power tonight.”

  He shook his head, and his gaze slid down her scantily clad figure. “You have more powers than you know. Just distract them, baby. I’ll do the rest.”

  Chapter Six

  The wind was whipping and the sky was churning as Luna steered her three-wheeled motorcycle through the empty downtown streets. It was late on a weeknight and most people were safe at home, tucked in their beds. Another storm was moving in, the heat and humidity charging up the atmosphere. She shifted as she turned a corner, and the engine growled as she accelerated down a straightaway.

  Scythe sat on the wide bench behind her. He’d wanted to drive the trike, but this baby was hers. Besides, she’d been a little nervous about handling that wicked-looking scythe on the back. The idea of giving up his weapon had changed his mind. So had the position of the footrests.

  His big body was wrapped around hers. His thighs pressed into hers, his hips nudged at her bottom, and his arms circled her middle like bands of steel. His face was buried in her hair, and he nuzzled her neck as she tried to drive. She couldn’t imagine the picture the two of them made, his scythe propped up in the air like an evil flag as they roared towards their combined enemy.

  By pooling their resources, she and Scythe had learned that David Littleton, Durham’s henchman, was staying at the Newcropolis Gardens. The hotel sat on the very edge of the downtown area, bordering on an inner-city slum.

  The perfect place for slime.

  It unsettled her that Littleton had been casing her house. He must have seen her when she’d seen him. What had he been planning to do? Take her out himself? Have her meet an unfortunate accident like Virginia Samms? A shudder ran down her spine but steeled in her gut. Scythe had been watching out for her.