Moonlight Surrender

Chapter 6: Revelations In The Shadows

He cut her short with a curt movement. "You think I'm doing you a favor by leaving you alive? You think any of this is easy? You're interfering in things far, far beyond your understanding."

Rory’s voice rose, the dam of her frustration breaking. “Then explain it to me! Stop treating me like I’m some helpless child. Tell me what’s happening, what’s coming for me and why I’m suddenly at the center of all this madness.”

Asher's expression eased a little, the flame in his eyes wavering. He turned his face from hers, talking quietly but still full of intensity. "Because you're not an outsider, Rory. You're. bound into this world on levels you cannot even start to comprehend."

Raising his brow, appearing confused and partly frustrated as well, "Bound? How?"

He hesitated, his silence drawing out like a slow-moving torturer. Finally, he exhaled, the sound heavy with resignation. "You are greater than you think you are. Your heritage, your very existence, binds you to forces older than you can conceive."

Rory's heart pounded as his words struck true. "What am I supposed to know?" she breathed.

"I'm telling you, the rogue didn't strike you at random. They were stalking you and you're not just a target, you're a prize" he spat and his voice dripping with venom.

She stared at him and her head reeling "Why me? What am I so special?"

Asher took a step nearer and his large frame looming over her "Because of what you are" he replied again. "You're tied to the Moon goddess herself. You're her blood Rory. Her bloodline is through you."

The ground beneath her seemed to tilt. Rory shook her head, disbelief on her face. "That's… that's not possible. I'm just… I'm just me. A journalism student from nowhere. My parents…"

"Your parents were charged with hiding you," Asher interrupted, his voice firm. "But the truth always makes its way to the top. The rogues know what you are, and they'll stop at nothing to catch you. They think you're the key to freedom for them, to being able to sidestep the laws that keep them imprisoned."

Rory's air came in jagged gasps "And what do you think?" she asked and her voice trembling "Am I just some weapon to you too?"

His eyes were less hard and for an instant, he was almost vulnerable "No" he said quietly "You're not a weapon. You're more important than you know."

A sharp rustle in the underbrush snapped them both into high alert. Asher’s posture shifted and every muscle taut as his eyes scanned the darkness. Rory’s pulse spiked as she followed his gaze.

“We’re not alone” Asher muttered and his voice low and dangerous.

Out of the shadows stepped a figure Rory didn’t recognize but Asher’s reaction was immediate and his lips curled into a snarl and a deep growl rumbled in his chest.

"Cormac!" he spat and his tone venomous.

The man—Cormac—grinned, the hard planes of his face illuminated by a shaft of moonlight "Hello old friend" he drawled and his tone smooth and derisive "Fancy running into you here."

Asher stepped protectively between Rory and the newcomer and his body radiating raw power "What do you want?" he snarled.

Cormac's gaze drifted over to Rory and his smirk widened "I'm here for what is mine" he answered and his tone chilly "The girl."

Rory's gut flipped, fear scratching at her intestines. Asher's warning growl built in volume, and he bared his teeth. "Over my dead body."

Cormac's smile didn't shift. "If that's the way you prefer it," he said, with a weighty threat in his voice. "But let's not play as if this won't occur. She's a rogue's. She always was."

Asher leapt forward, his body a whirlwind. The clearing was a melee of confusion as the two men collided, their snarls and growls ringing out under the night sky. Rory took a step back, her heart racing, as she watched the savage battle.

And yet even in the midst of the savagery, her thoughts were sharp. She couldn't be a pawn and couldn't be paralyzed by terror. She scanned the clearing, looking for something that would tip the scales.

Her gaze landed on a thick branch and grabbing it, she took up its weight in her arms. She took a deep breath bracing herself.

And then she dived into combat.

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Rory walked the walls of Asher's black study, her temper fluctuating wildly between rage and desperation. Rain slammed against the high windows creating a staccato beat that contributed to the charged atmosphere of the room. Asher stood by the fireplace with his expression carved from granite and the leaping flames creating shadows on his face. The tension between them was palpable crackling with unspoken words and hidden truths.

"You lied to me" Rory exclaimed stopping dead in her tracks and pointing a accusatory finger at him "You knew everything about my past the whole time and said nothing. Nothing Asher! Do you have any idea how that makes me feel?"

He turned on his heel and his silver eyes meeting hers in a mixture of regret and determination "It wasn't my secret to tell."

"That's not a good reason" she retorted and her voice trembling "You let me walk into all this blindfolded. You let me believe I was nothing more than any other human when all the while I......" Her voice broke and she wrapped her arms around herself as if she was holding on by her crumbling world "I don't even know who I am anymore."

Asher's face relaxed but not by much. He stepped towards her, his movements slow and deliberate as if approaching a nervous animal "You remain Rory Perez" he said softly "You are still the woman who strode into my woods with a camera and more bravado than sense. All this does not change that."

“Doesn’t it?” she challenged and her eyes blazing “You expect me to just accept that I’m the reincarnated daughter of a goddess and that I’m somehow connected to all of this? That’s insane Asher, it’s too much."