Bury Their Bones (Wicked Fortunes Book 2) Read online

  Bury Their Bones

  Wicked Fortunes Book Two

  A J Merlin

  Copyright © 2021 by A J Merlin

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Cover design by Book Cover By Design

  Bury Their Bones, Wicked Fortunes (Book Two) by AJ Merlin

  1. FIC009050 FICTION / Fantasy / Paranormal 2. FIC024000 FICTION / Occult & Supernatural

  3. FIC072000 FICTION / LGBT / Bisexual

  Paperback ISBN: 978-1-7348846-7-8 eBook ISBN: 978-1-7348846-6-1

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  4. Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  8. Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  13. Chapter 13

  14. Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  16. Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  19. Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  26. Chapter 26

  27. Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Thank you for Reading

  Acknowledgments

  Chapter 1

  The front door sat unlocked.

  Anyone could walk in, and I had a list of people who I did not want stomping through the red front door of the New Orleans suburb abode I shared with my cousin.

  Merric the Kitsune was at the top of that list…but the threat of a fox invasion had been dwindling as of late. I wasn’t relieved. If anything, I missed him. Just a bit.

  In fact, I hadn’t seen him at all since our last group date. I’d thought…well I’d supposed that he’d stick around at least to make good on his threats of the favors I owed him, but it seemed that he was no longer interested in even those. If his two-week absence was anything to go by.

  Truthfully, Merric didn’t need a door to fuck up my day, but having it locked anyway would do a lot for my feeling of security.

  I walked to the door and locked it firmly, casting a glance around the living room one more time.

  Couch pushed out of the center of the room.

  Television off.

  Side door closed.

  I checked my phone one more time, just in case Marin had decided to call me in on my day off from working at the small magic store in the preternatural quarter of the city.

  She hadn’t.

  “Okay, George.” I cleared my throat as if I was about to deliver a speech. I reached up to adjust glasses that weren’t there in an old habit that was slow to die.

  After losing control to my wolf and ultimately letting my wolves loose on Collette, I’d started to notice my vision rapidly improving.

  Not that I’d been legally blind before. I’d only needed them for distances. Now, those distances were as clear to me as if I looked through binoculars.

  When I’d told my mother about it, she’d attributed it to my magic slowly fixing it now that I was using all of my magic more.

  “Nothing to worry about. Nothing you haven’t done a hundred times.” I clapped my hands in front of me. As if that would do something to relieve the tension I felt.

  Except, that wasn’t quite true.

  I’d only successfully summoned the Form of the Moon once. And that had been very recent.

  Sucking in a deep breath, I checked the corners and the shadows of the room once more for my sly, foxy friend.

  Nothing.

  I squared my shoulders–aware even to myself that I was just stalling–before reaching a hand out in front of me like I was plucking my card from thin air.

  And, in a way, I was. Magic swirled and curved around my fingers, visible only as small glittering particles over my skin. I took my time. With my other two cards, the Devil and the Chariot, I could do this in my sleep.

  The Moon was so very different.

  The magic intensified, and the floor around my feet reflected the light from my hand as I closed my fingers around a corporeal tarot card of the major arcana.

  The wolves that danced on the Moon card seemed to glimmer at me in the dim light. I pushed my magic through the card, just a little, just to test the waters.

  Then the card pushed back. Hard. Like someone had shoved me backward.

  I gasped, barely keeping my grip on the magic that solidified the presence inside my card. I wouldn’t let it go as I had in the cemetery. I controlled this magic. Not the other way around.

  Slowly, the card disintegrated in my hand into a shower of sparks. Where the sparks landed on the hardwood floor, a shape grew into being, and butterflies flew around my gut.

  It was a wolf.

  The creature was just as white as my own canine shape, with ghostly eyes that seemed to glow and reflect the light from my magic.

  It felt different from my other two cards. Like it wasn’t an empty vessel waiting on my command, but waiting to see if it was willing to obey.

  “Why are you different?” I murmured, reaching my hand forward towards the wolf.

  It regarded me with that eerie, colorless gaze but didn’t reply. If it had, I would’ve assumed I was going nuts.

  My fingers touched the cold nose, traveling up the lightly furred muzzle. It was strange, as if I could press hard enough to make my fingers phase right through the creature.

  The wolf didn’t move.

  Instead, magic from the Moon seemed to pull at me, demanding more. I clamped down hard, hand coming away from the half-corporeal wolf’s face.

  “No,” I said flatly. “We’re not doing that.” Still my hand trembled at the effort of holding my magic back from the card. The wolf tilted its head, only watching.

  But how could it be watching, or even caring what I was doing? It was just a vessel for my damn magic. It wasn’t alive.

  If I didn’t know better, I would’ve thought it was absolutely alive and judging my fitness for the spell. Or trying to find the time to strike.

  The loud jingle of Poor Unfortunate Souls blasting from my phone made me jump, my attention diverted.

  The wolf lunged, leaping easily off of the floor and coming for my face with jaws wide and menacing, though no noise came from the form of the card.

  I yelped, stepping back and raising my hands in front of my face to guard myself. Belatedly, I severed the ties to my magic, just as the wolf’s jaws passed through my face to leave an uncomfortable tingle in their wake.

  Before the Form hit the floor again, it was gone. The card solidified in my hand, then disappeared back into the depths of my magic. As if it had never existed at all.

  My phone rang again and I sighed, eyes scanning the living room around me as if more wolves of the Moon might be sneaking through the room.

  But I was alone with the dulcet tones of Ursula the Sea Witch assaulting my ears.

  Grabbing my phone before it could go to voice mail a second time, I brought it to my ear.

  “Hey, Yuna,” I greeted, not needing to check the caller id to know who I’d assigned this ringtone to.

  So far, she didn’t know. I had a feeling she wouldn’t be as amused as I was by my choice of song for her
.

  “What are you doing?” Yuna asked, as abrupt as ever. No preamble. No useless hellos or ‘I hope you’re not doing something stupid like summoning forces beyond your control in your living room.’

  “Cleaning,” I replied, only half-lying. I pushed the sofa away from the wall easily with my foot, glad for my hybrid strength in harrowing times such as these.

  “…Are you?” She sounded disbelieving, though I was sure I didn’t know why.

  “Yep. What’s up?”

  “Do you want to go get lunch?”

  If she had been Indra, she would’ve danced around the question to make sure she wasn’t impeding on any of my already-set plans. As it was, Yuna didn’t seem to care much that I might be doing something else.

  “I could do that. Sushi?”

  “Yes. Ocean King’s Daughter again?”

  “Sure, I don’t mind.” Sushi wasn’t my favorite, but we’d found a place that catered to my need for more pedestrian foods such as sandwiches and burgers.

  Especially burgers right now.

  The thought made me subconsciously run my tongue over my teeth, as if the full moon next week had snuck up on me early somehow.

  That was another conversation I wasn’t looking forward to having. As a hybrid, I was just as prone to Bad Moon Behavior as any other were. None of my new friends knew it yet, and I wasn’t sure just how much they’d thought about it.

  Probably not at all, but I still needed to bring it up. I’d already started eating more red meat than usual, and had been a touch quicker to anger for the past couple of days.

  Unless I was planning on going on a three day vacation in the middle of next week, my friends needed to know what they were in for.

  Of course, I’d save them from the worst of it. While I did not expect to go full furry-melt down when the full moon rose, I knew that I would be rather intense and quite possibly hard to deal with.

  If anyone asked, I’d be home sick that night.

  However, it wasn’t like my calendar was filled with dates. I wasn’t expecting anyone to ask.

  “You okay?” Yuna’s voice snapped me out of my thoughts like a whip. “You went quiet on me there.”

  “Sorry. I was just thinking.” I finished shoving the sofa back into place. “When do you want to meet?”

  “I’ll head over if you want to go on and leave.”

  “I can do that.”

  “I’ll see you soon.” She hung up without waiting on a reply. I didn’t take it personally. It was just who she was.

  Instead I walked quickly to my room to change into a pair of nicely fitting jeans, sneakers, and a black t-shirt that I pulled out of a newly acquired bag. After ripping the tags off and pulling the shirt on, I checked the mirror to make sure I hadn’t missed any other stickers.

  Ursula graced the front of it and it brought a grin to my face. I wasn’t sure what Yuna’s familiarity with old myths and Disney movies was, but lately I felt like she was trying to keep the sea witch part of herself from me.

  I was doing everything in my power to persuade her in the opposite direction.

  I wasn’t afraid of her, or what she might look like when she wasn’t on land. She’d told me a little. And I had internet. Though admittedly, most of the search results for ‘octopus mermaid’ turned up purple and musical. I doubted Yuna became either of those when submerged. Sure, she was intimidating and commanding and a little bit brutal, but those certainly weren’t bad things.

  The pink in my hair was beginning to fade, but I didn’t worry about it now as I twined my mostly blonde hair up into a messy bun on my head. That was another task for another day.

  The trip in my SUV took only about fifteen minutes, and when I pulled into the restaurant’s parking lot I found Yuna standing against the wall, waiting. She hadn’t gone in without me, and stood instead like she was posing for any random photographer that might pass by.

  Her long, shiny black hair fell in waves to her waist, and reflective aviators hid her gaze from mine. She was pale, even during a summer of intense sun and time spent in or near the water. As always, she looked like she was dressed to either hang out at some exclusive club or stomp out a rival gang.

  When I opened the door to my SUV she grinned, removing her aviators to show eyes fixed on my t-shirt. “Be a little more direct,” she said to me slyly. “I didn’t get it last week when you hung that up.”

  She pointed at the plushie octopus keychain dangling from my mirror. I grinned sheepishly. “I wasn’t sure you knew who Ursula was,” I admitted.

  “Well I don’t live under a rock,” she shot back.

  How would I know? Yuna showed up when and where she wanted. I had no idea where she lived. Under a rock in the river was definitely on my list of possibilities.

  “I don’t,” she assured me when I only raised my brows.

  “Then where do you live?” She didn’t answer, only grinned. Because of course she did.

  As I followed her inside, I couldn’t help but sigh wistfully in envy. It wasn’t self-pity. Not really. I was very comfortable with myself, but I would never have the cat-like grace and serpentine elegance that Yuna seemed to possess at all times. The waitress stared at her as she walked in, the same one we’d had before, and I watched her eyes light up as she looked between us.

  Yeah, girl, take your shot, I encouraged mentally. Maybe get shot down now so I can stop watching you moon over my–

  I forced my brain to stop dead at that thought. It was surely too early to be staking any kind of claim over Yuna, or anyone.

  The waitress brought us to a window booth, laying the thin menus in front of us before hesitating.

  Yuna looked up at her, eyebrows raised.

  The soft music of the blue and black painted restaurant seemed to get louder in the time it took for the waitress to decide just what she wanted to ask.

  “Do you…” the waitress trailed off. “What do you want to drink?” She amended.

  “Water with lemon,” Yuna replied.

  The waitress barely spared me a glance.

  “Same,” I told her, a small smile playing at my lips that I was sure my lunch companion caught.

  The waitress nodded and walked away quickly.

  “So. Should I be grateful that you made time for me in your busy schedule?” I pressed, sliding my elbows forward on the black lacquered table. “Or was this a lazy day off for you?”

  Yuna thumbed through the menu like she might get something new. “You could just ask me what I do with my days,” she pointed out.

  “I did that last week, remember? At this same booth.”

  She grinned at me with a mouthful of shiny white teeth that could so easily become needle-like fangs at her whim.

  “Oh yes. I do remember, actually.”

  I pressed my lips together to keep from grinning. Now that our time together was less ‘fight-or-die’ and more ‘is-that-your-hand-on-my-butt,’ I had come to realize that while she was intimidating and always in charge of the situation, Yuna also seemed to take any chance to keep me guessing.

  The waitress came back, sliding dark-tinted glasses of water onto the table in front of us before focusing the brunt of her attention on Yuna again.

  Had she put on more makeup? Her lips definitely looked glossier and redder than I remembered. I rested my head on my hand, elbow propped on the table as I waited for my turn to order.

  Hopefully the waitress would remember I existed.

  “Do you know what you want? Are you trying something new, or do you want the OKD roll again?” The waitress asked in a rush.

  Yuna looked up slowly, surveying our waitress. Not for the first time I appreciated that she was the only person I’d ever met with teal eyes.

  At least I could swoon a little without her saying anything when she was focusing all that attention on someone else.

  Was it just me, or did the waitress gulp?

  “What do you want?” The cecaelia asked, looking towards me instead of answering
the waitress.

  “Me?” I blinked, surprised. “Uh, can I get a bacon cheeseburger? Rare? Just cheese and bacon and ketchup and the bun.”

  The girl hesitated, then scribbled down my order. “Fries?” She asked brusquely.

  “Sure.”

  “And I’ll just do the OKD roll again,” Yuna added, handing off our menus. “Thanks.” The word was clearly a dismissal, and the waitress left.

  “She likes you,” I pointed out, tearing off strips of the paper on one of our straws. “She wants you.”

  Yuna shrugged. “It’s not mutual.”

  “You sure? You give me a lot of leeway with the troublesome trio, and the least I can do is give it back.”

  “And with the fox.”

  “What? No. You know very well I’m not with him.”

  “For all I know, he kidnaps you in your dreams and spirits you away to some illusory sex dungeon.” She ripped her straw free of the paper and dunked it in her water.

  “Is that….really what you think about at night in your….waterside apartment?” I asked, making a guess as to where she might live.

  “Didn’t I live in an underwater cave on Sunday?” Yuna shot back.

  “You didn’t confirm that, so we’ve moved on.”

  “And up. Now it seems I even get a real bathroom.”

  I couldn’t help but roll my eyes, and I didn’t miss the triumphant grin on Yuna’s face. “Is it really a secret? You know where I live. You’ve been to my house four times!”

  “It wasn’t originally. But then you got really hung up on it and started guessing. So now, I like you not knowing.” She flashed her very white teeth in a wide grin.

  “I wish you’d tell me. Or invite me over.” I batted my eyelashes at her like it might do anything.