Diana Racine 02 - Goddess of the Moon

wrong. I didn’t specifically see them in my vision, only that someone nursed in that chair.” She pulled Lucier toward her and told him the girls’ history, then kissed his cheek. “I’m sorry. I got pulled into their story. Edward didn’t want them to go through a police investigation. I was very verbal in my opposition, if that makes you feel any better.”
    “ Good. Y ou’re not completely oblivious to his manipulations.” He pulled a sheet of paper from his pocket and unfolded it, letting her see what was written on it. “I found this stuck in your door when I came looking for you.” Drawn on t he paper was a crescent moon and the printed words, “A crescent moon is near.”
    Diana read it, held it in her hand s and closed her eyes for a long minute . “No vibes,” she said when she opened her eyes.
    “Nothing we can trace either , ” Lucier said.
    “What the hell does it mean?”
    “It means on the day of the crescent moon I’m not letting you out of my sight, even if I have to lock one of those GPS tracking devices on your ankle , and even if you never speak to me again.”
    “When is the night of the crescent moon?”
    “The new moon is in a few days. A crescent moon is a couple of days after that. I checked.”
    “Weird things are supposed to happen on the full moon, not a crescent one.”
    “The crescent moon is the symbol of the goddess Diana, or have you forgotten?”
    “No, I haven’t. I wish now I were back in the days when they called me Diana, Goddess of the Hunt. At least no one was sending me scary notes.”
    “From the new moon on, and with your permission, madam, I will stick to you like glue.” He nudged his way next to her and studied the pad of paper she was doodling on. “Now, do you mind telling me what you’re doing?”
    “ Check this out . Brigid and Nona’s last name.
    FULCERI CERIFUL FURLICE LICUREF LUCIFER
    “Jesus,” Lucier said. “Remove one letter and it spells my name too, straight out.”
    “I didn’t notice that,” she said, “but you’re right. ”

Chapter Twenty- Nine
    Irresistible Magnetism

    W hen Maia arrived at the compound from New Orleans , Nona and Brigid were already there . She hadn’t seen her half-sisters in a couple of years. She remembered their transition into young womanhood. Brigid had developed early, and Maia remembered how the young girl relished the attention and flaunted her attributes with no inhibitions, as her mother taught her . Now, as Maia sat in the nursery watch ing them nurse the babies, she realized how perverted the group’s ambitious project was. She’d spent the last two days kicking herself for carrying out the pitiful act of revenge against her father instead of going to Lieutenant Lucier and exposing the whole operation.
    Instead, she’d been reprimanded and escorted to one of the Compton planes, flown to the compound, and confined.
    Do not pass go. Go directly to jail.
    She’d been allowed to see her half-sisters, but nothing she said to them counter ed the lifetime o f programming they’d sustained.
    Maia marveled at their startling beaut y . Phillip and Cybele Crane’s sons and daughters produce d perfect, brilliant, and beautiful offspring, exactly as Maia had. What she saw now was different. Her half-sisters were nursing not their own children, but babies stolen from the warmth of their birth mothers ’ arms .
    Brigid was pregnant, and not for the first time. A baby bump swelled under her clothes , her figure fuller, breasts heavier. Maia remembered the feeling well. Although she was well endowed, she couldn’t compare to Selene ’s obedient daughters. R aw sexuality comprised part of their genetic makeup, inherited from a great beauty and taught by the best of all teachers. Maia didn’t realize until now, looking at the two women, that Silas was nothing more than a pimp with a stratospheric intelligence, and that all his children were nothing more than pawns in the group ’s egotistical ambition to populate their fantasy world with their genes.
    She pulled up a chair to face the two women. “ Y ou know what you’re doing is wrong . ”
    Brigid switched the hungry child from one breast to another. “How can this be wrong, Maia ? Look at them. T hey ’re beautiful . ”
    “But they were kidnapped ―t aken from their natural parents who are grieving. Doesn’t that mean anything to you?”
    “This is for a greater cause,” Nona said , cradling her infant . “We love doing this.