Midnight Moon Read online

  MIDNIGHT MOON

  Vampire for Hire #13

  by

  J.R. RAIN

  (Second in the Devil’s Triangle Trilogy)

  Acclaim for the novels of J.R. Rain:

  “Be prepared to lose sleep!”

  —James Rollins, bestselling author of Subterranean and The Sixth Extinction

  “I love this!”

  —Piers Anthony, bestselling author of A Spell for Chameleon and Five Portraits

  “J.R. Rain delivers a blend of action and wit that always entertains. Quick with the one-liners, but his characters are fully fleshed out (even the undead ones) and you’ll come back again and again.”

  —Scott Nicholson, bestselling author of The Red Church and After: Whiteout

  “Dark Horse is the best book I’ve read in a long time!”

  —Gemma Halliday, bestselling author of Spying in High Heels and Lethal Bond

  “Moon Dance is absolutely brilliant!”

  —Lisa Tenzin-Dolma, bestselling author of Understanding the Planetary Myths and The Heartbeat at Your Feet

  “Powerful stuff!”

  —Aiden James, bestselling author of Immortal Plague and Witches of Denmark

  “Moon Dance is a must read. If you like Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum, bounty hunter, be prepared to love J.R. Rain’s Samantha Moon, vampire private investigator.”

  —Eve Paludan, bestselling author of Witchy Business and Bigfoot Island

  Other Books by J.R. Rain

  STANDALONE NOVELS

  Winter Wind

  Silent Echo

  The Body Departed

  The Grail Quest

  Elvis Has Not Left the Building

  The Lost Ark

  The Worm Returns

  Lavabull

  Jack and the Giants

  Dolfin Tayle

  Dragon Assassin

  Lost Eden

  Judas Silver

  The Vampire Club

  Cursed

  Glimmer

  Bound By Blood

  The Black Fang Betrayal

  The Journey (coming soon)

  Silver Light (coming soon)

  All the Way Back Home (coming soon)

  The Pure Cold Light in the Sky (coming soon)

  VAMPIRE FOR HIRE SERIES

  Moon Dance

  Vampire Moon

  American Vampire

  Moon Child

  Christmas Moon

  Vampire Dawn

  Vampire Games

  Moon Island

  Moon River

  Vampire Sun

  Moon Dragon

  Moon Shadow

  Vampire Fire

  Midnight Moon

  Moon Angel (coming soon)

  SAMANTHA MOON CASE FILES

  Moon Bayou

  Blood Moon (coming soon)

  JIM KNIGHTHORSE SERIES

  Dark Horse

  The Mummy Case

  Hail Mary

  Clean Slate

  Night Run (coming soon)

  THE WITCHES SERIES

  The Witch and the Gentleman

  The Witch and the Englishman

  The Witch and the Huntsman

  The Witch and the Wolfman (coming soon)

  THE PSI SERIES

  Hear No Evil

  See No Evil

  Speak No Evil

  Touch No Evil (coming soon)

  NICK CAINE SERIES

  Temple of the Jaguar

  Treasure of the Deep

  Pyramid of the Gods

  THE WATSON FILES

  Sherlock Holmes and the Missing Shakespeare

  Sherlock Holmes and the Lost Da Vinci (coming soon)

  Sherlock Holmes and the Legend of Atlantis (coming soon)

  ICE WOLF SERIES

  Ice Wolf

  She Wolf (coming soon)

  DEAD DETECTIVE SERIES

  The Dead Detective

  Deadbeat Dad

  THE ACCIDENTAL SUPERHEROINE

  The Accidental Superheroine

  My Big Fat Accidental Superheroine Wedding

  ALAN QUATERMAIN ADVENTURES

  The Spear

  The Garden (coming soon)

  THE SPINOZA TRILOGY

  The Vampire With the Dragon Tattoo

  The Vampire Who Played Dead

  The Vampire in the Iron Mask

  THE ALADDIN TRILOGY

  Aladdin Relighted

  Aladdin Sins Bad

  Aladdin and the Flying Dutchman

  THE WALKING PLAGUE TRILOGY

  Zombie Patrol

  Zombie Rage

  Zombie Mountain

  THE SPIDER TRILOGY

  Bad Blood

  Spider Web

  Spider Bite

  SHORT STORY SINGLES

  Skeleton Jim

  Moon Love

  The Vampire on the Train

  Vampire Requiem

  Ghosts of Christmas Present

  Easy Rider

  Dark Side of the Moon

  Blue Moon

  Vampire Gold

  Halloween Moon

  Vampire Dreams

  Vampire Blues

  Vampire Nights

  Teeth

  The Bleeder

  COLLECTIONS

  Samantha Moon: The First Eight Short Stories

  Vampire for Hire: The First Four Short Stories

  The Sands of Time

  The Indomitable Ten

  Red Rain: Over 40 bestselling Stories

  Dark Rain: 15 Short Tales

  Blood Rain: 15 Short Tales

  Black Rain: 15 Short Tales

  Vampire Rain and Other Stories

  The Santa Call and Other Stories

  The Bleeder and Other Stories

  Chronology

  Primetime

  Naughty or Nice

  POETRY

  Vampire Alley

  Midnight Moon

  Published by J.R. Rain

  Copyright © 2017 by J.R. Rain

  All rights reserved.

  Ebook Kindle Edition, License Notes

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  Dedication

  To Jason and Lee.

  Midnight Moon

  Chapter One

  “I trust that anything discussed between us will be held in the utmost confidentiality,” said the uptight man sitting across from me.

  “It will unless I deem otherwise.”

  “You mean, unless I give my consent.”

  “That’s not what I mean nor what I said.”

  The uptight man, whose name was Charlie Reed, studied me long and hard. I didn’t like to be studied long and hard, or at all. Studying me long and hard might bring into question, say, my particularly sharp nails. Or the fact that I didn’t, you know, breathe. Or that I was presently not casting a reflection in my office window, or on my computer screen, or even on the glass of beading water in front of me.

  Charlie Reed was an electrical engineer for Raytheon. He was maybe forty-five years old. He was trim and well-groomed. He smelled good too. There were no laugh lines around his eyes. If anything, there were dark circles around his eyes, and actual bags too. The man needed a nap, like pronto.

  “Ms. Moon, you don’t seem to understand. I don’t want my confidential information discussed with anyone.”

  “Duly noted, and I will do my best to comply.”

  “I’m not sure that’s good enough. Can you give me any other assurances?”

  “If I don’t get questioned by the police, you should be okay. If I don’t need to stop a crime, you should be okay. If I don’t need to report you, you should be okay. That’s all the assurance I can giv
e you.”

  He sat back in my client chair, tilted his head to the right and took in some air from the position. He thought about my words, then he started nodding. “I get it. You’re neither an attorney nor a doctor.”

  “Nope.”

  “So there’s no client or patient confidentiality.”

  “None to speak of.”

  “And should you need to go to the police, or the police come to you...”

  “I’ll decide how much I will tell them, if anything.”

  “You’ve been in this business a long time.”

  “Ten years and counting.”

  “And before that?”

  “I was a federal agent.”

  He nodded. His nerves were settling. He hadn’t liked me asserting myself. Whether or not that was because I was a woman, I didn’t know. Granted, I could have found that out easily enough. Yes, I’m one of those super-duper weirdos who can read minds. But I don’t read minds willy-nilly. Mostly because doing so sort of opens up a mindlink, and sometimes my own personal thoughts get through to them too. As in, he could know what I was thinking. I didn’t think Charlie Reed wanted to know what I was thinking.

  I waited for him to process the information provided. While I waited, I noted his slicked-back hair and neat suit and perfectly manicured nails. Now he started nodding. He was coming around to the idea that he needed my help more than he needed to tell me how to run my business.

  “Okay,” he said. “Your terms are reasonable. And Detective Sherbet had good things to say about you.”

  “Did he mention anything about my uncanny knack for getting out of sticky situations?”

  “No. But you are joking.”

  “I am, but I kind of do.”

  “Get out of sticky situations?”

  “Yes.”

  “Good to know. He also said you were, ah, particularly qualified to help me with my, um, situation.”

  “That’s a lot of ‘ums’ and ‘ahs,’” I said.

  Charlie rolled his head from one side to the next, which resulted in a number of pops and cracks. Next, he adjusted his position in the client chair, shifting from one cheek to the next, probably because my client chairs weren’t too comfortable. Or maybe because the conversation had taken a direction in which he felt less sure-footed.

  Of course, any time a client came recommended to me from Sherbet for my “particular qualifications,” there were going to be a lot of “ums” and “ahs” and neck-cracking and butt-shifting.

  “Ms. Moon. Do you believe in ghosts?”

  Chapter Two

  “Yes.”

  “So you’ve seen them before?”

  “Oh, yes.”

  “Do you see them often?”

  “Yes.”

  “Every day?”

  “Yes.”

  “Do you see one now?”

  “No, not now. My house isn’t haunted.”

  “Where do you see them?”

  “Just about everywhere else.”

  “Are you prone to delusions, Ms. Moon?”

  “Would I know it if I were?”

  He thought about that. “Maybe not. But you think you see them?”

  “I know I see them.”

  “And if you were to come to my house?”

  “I would see it, too, if it were there. I might even see a number of them, depending on how extensively your house is haunted.”

  “Have you always been able to see ghosts?”

  “No.”

  “And one day, it just happened?”

  “You could say that.”

  “May I ask what prompted this change?”

  “You may not,” I said. “But it’s nothing you need to worry about.”

  He had settled in evenly on both cheeks, which was never a bad idea. The topic, I suspect, interested him enough to ignore his apprehension. And as he sat and studied me, I studied him, too. In particular, his strange aura. Never had I seen a completely red aura before. Just red. Pure blazing roja, as they say in Spanish. Why I felt a need to think in Spanish at that moment, I didn’t know. Why his aura was red, I didn’t know that either, but I felt it endlessly fascinating.

  “Seeing ghosts on a regular basis...” Charlie shook his head. “I don’t envy you, Ms. Moon.” He was loosening up, which I liked to see. I don’t do well with uptight. Still, there was something off about him, and I wasn’t just talking about the massive bags under his eyes, or the weird red aura. He seemed... lost. Unsure of himself. It was the way he sat, the way his eyes sort of seemed to look through me. I would have guessed he wasn’t all here, despite his earlier tough-guy act.

  “Oh, ghosts aren’t so bad,” I said. “They mostly keep to themselves, except when they don’t. Are you married?”

  “Yes. I mean, no. Well sorta.”

  I waited.

  “She left me four months ago.”

  “When did you start seeing the ghost?”

  “About two weeks ago.”

  “Tell me about your ghost.”

  He did. The sightings were few and far between at first, and never did he see the ghost full on, which I found interesting. He could only see her from his peripheral vision, and then only in his hallway, which was adjacent, apparently, to his home office.

  “Can you describe the ghost?” I asked.

  “It’s a she, and she’s surrounded by blue light.”

  “Anything else?”

  “Whenever I turn to look at her, she disappears.”

  I nodded, trying to understand, but couldn’t. I said, “And you only see her in your hallway?”

  “Yes.”

  “Is she doing anything?”

  “Sometimes she appears to be standing.”

  “And other times?”

  “Kneeling. But it’s hard to say. I only get fleeting images of her.”

  “And you did say blue light?”

  “I did, yes.”

  I considered dipping in his mind to see what he saw, but I suspected I would probably see soon enough firsthand, if he elected to hire me. Besides, dipping into his mind opened my own up to him, and that was never a good idea.

  “Oh, there’s one other thing.”

  I just loved when there was one other thing. “Go on.”

  “I only see her at midnight.”

  Chapter Three

  Kingsley and I were at the brightly lit Mulberry Restaurant in downtown Fullerton. Perhaps too brightly lit.

  “Don’t you think The Cellar should be our hangout?” I asked, squinting, referring to the popular subterranean restaurant just down the street. “I mean it’s dark and atmospheric and kind of perfect for two freaks like us.” I pointed up. “These are Christmas lights, no? It’s only September.”

  “They’re not Christmas lights.”

  “They look like Christmas lights.”

  “They’re a string of lights. Patio lights, I believe. They add atmosphere.”

  “And light,” I said. “Lots of light.”

  “You are becoming sensitive even to artificial light?” asked my big (and hairy) boyfriend.

  “Maybe. I hadn’t thought about it.”

  “You’re squinting,” he said.

  “I’m doing my best Clint Eastwood impression.”

  “Or not,” he said.

  “Is the light thing a problem?” I asked.

  “Not for me, but it might mean there’s a change going on in you.”

  “What sort of change?” I asked, but suddenly I didn’t want to know the answer.

  “I might mean the thing within you—”

  “Elizabeth,” I said, surprising myself when I corrected him with her name. I usually called her far worse.

  “Yes, Elizabeth. It might mean she is, ah, asserting herself in ways you might not be consciously aware of.”

  “Asserting as in, taking over?”

  “Not quite, but perhaps closer than before.”

  “Not over my dead body,” I said. “Or my deader body. Or whatever.�
�

  “Wanna change the subject?” he asked.

  “Very much so, yes.”

  He asked about my newest case and I told him what I knew, even as I stamped Elizabeth back down into the deepest, darkest recesses of my mind.

  “Have you considered the possibility of a succubus?” asked Kingsley.

  Yes, I might be undead and, to some, creepy as hell. I might have seen things that no mortal would ever want to see, but that sure as hell didn’t mean I walked around with an Undead Dictionary app on my cell phone, although that wouldn’t be a bad idea.

  I said, “Suck a what?”

  “Succubus. It’s a beautiful female demon who has sex with men.”

  “How fortuitous,” I said.

  Kingsley gave me a huge, wolf-like grin. “I imagine the succubi were invented to explain a man’s indiscretions.”

  “And later were summoned into existence for real,” I said.

  I had been told that we vampires—and no doubt the werewolves and Lichtenstein monsters and everything in between—had been summoned into existence because enough people believed. Belief was a strange thing. Belief conjured real things from the ethers. Belief brought forth monsters. And angels, too.

  “And for women?” I said. “Is there a demon counterpart?”

  Kingsley nodded. “The incubus. A male demon.”

  “How convenient. And for homosexuals?”

  “Both succubus and incubus have been known to sleep with their own genders.”

  “And for the gender neutral?”

  “Oh, I assume there’s a gender-neutral demon out there too. Or on its way.”

  I grinned. “Ordered up by humanity.”

  “In a way,” said Kingsley, who had been at this immortal game a good deal longer than I had, like seven decades longer. “But think of it this way, the Universe can’t not deliver what man has summoned.”

  “Or woman. Go on.”

  “The summoning of new things is what keeps this universe from atrophying.”

  “Even new demon things?”

  “Anything, Sam. If humans can think it, or want it, or believe in it, the Universe will deliver it.”