MIDNIGHT MOON

  by

  J.R. RAIN

  Vampire for Hire®

  Book #13

  Other Books by J.R. Rain

  STANDALONE NOVELS

  The Pale Cold Light

  All the Way Back Home

  Winter Wind

  Silent Echo

  The Body Departed

  The Grail Quest

  Elvis Has Not Left the Building

  The Lost Ark

  Broken Ice (with Matthew S. Cox)

  The Spear (with Randy Keys)

  Ice Wolf (with H.P. Mallory)

  The Journey (with Piers Anthony)

  The Worm Returns (with Piers Anthony)

  Lavabull (with Piers Anthony)

  Jack and the Giants (with Piers Anthony)

  Dolfin Tayle (with Piers Anthony)

  Dragon Assassin (with Piers Anthony)

  Lost Eden (with Elizabeth Basque)

  Judas Silver (with Elizabeth Basque)

  The Vampire Club (with Scott Nicholson)

  Cursed (with Scott Nicholson)

  Ghost College (with Scott Nicholson)

  The Black Fang Betrayal (with multiple authors)

  VAMPIRE FOR HIRE®

  Moon Dance

  Vampire Moon

  American Vampire

  Moon Child

  Christmas Moon (novella)

  Vampire Dawn

  Vampire Games

  Moon Island

  Moon River

  Vampire Sun

  Moon Dragon

  Moon Shadow

  Vampire Fire

  Midnight Moon

  Moon Angel

  Vampire Sire

  Moon Master

  Dead Moon

  Lost Moon

  Vampire Destiny

  Infinite Moon

  Vampire Empress

  Moon Elder

  Wicked Moon

  Winter Moon

  Moon Blade

  Sasquatch Moon

  Wild Moon

  Moon Magic

  Moon World

  Vampire Deep

  Moon Matador

  Sun Dance

  SAMANTHA MOON CASE FILES

  Moon Bayou (with Rod Kierkegaard)

  Blood Moon (with Matthew S. Cox)

  Parallel Moon (with Kris Carey)

  SAMANTHA MOON ORIGINS

  with Matthew S. Cox

  New Moon Rising

  Moon Mourning

  Haunted Moon

  SAMANTHA MOON ADVENTURES

  with Matthew S. Cox

  Banshee Moon

  Moon Monster

  Moon Ripper

  Witch Moon

  Moon Goddess

  Moon Blaze

  Golem Moon

  Moon Maidens

  VAMPIRE FOR HIRE SHORT STORIES

  Teeth

  Vampire Nights

  Vampire Blues

  Vampire Dreams

  Halloween Moon

  Vampire Gold

  Blue Moon

  Dark Side of the Moon

  Vampire Requiem

  Moon Love

  Moon Musings

  Moon Beast

  Vampire Widow

  VAMPIRE FOR HIRE

  COLLECTED SHORT TALES

  Moon Tales

  Moon Shots

  Vampire Vacation (coming soon)

  VAMPIRE FOR HIRE EXTRAS

  Vampire Alley (poem)

  Moon Extras (Bonus Scenes)

  Moon Dance (Deluxe Edition)

  JIM KNIGHTHORSE SERIES

  Dark Horse

  The Mummy Case

  Hail Mary

  Clean Slate

  THE WITCHES SERIES

  The Witch and the Gentleman

  The Witch and the Englishman

  The Witch and the Huntsman (with Rod Kierkegaard)

  The Witch and the Wolfman (with Rod Kierkegaard)

  The Witch and the Hangman (coming soon)

  NICK CAINE SERIES

  with Aiden James

  Temple of the Jaguar

  Treasure of the Deep

  Pyramid of the Gods

  THE WATSON FILES

  with Chanel Smith

  Sherlock Holmes and the Missing Shakespeare

  Sherlock Holmes and the Lost Da Vinci

  Sherlock Holmes and the Werewolf of West End

  WINTER SOLTSICE SERIES

  with Matthew S. Cox

  Convergence

  Containment

  Catalyst

  Catacombs

  ALEXIS SILVER SERIES

  with Matthew S. Cox

  Silver Light

  Deep Silver

  Silver Quarrel

  Silver Cauldron

  MADDY WIMSEY SERIES

  with Matthew S. Cox

  The Devil’s Eye

  The Drifting Gloom

  Dark Mercy

  DEAD DETECTIVE SERIES

  with Rod Kierkegaard

  The Dead Detective

  Deadbeat Dad

  THE PSI QUARTET

  with A.K. Alexander

  Hear No Evil

  See No Evil

  Speak No Evil

  Touch No Evil

  THE SPINOZA TRILOGY

  The Vampire With the Dragon Tattoo

  The Vampire Who Played Dead

  The Vampire in the Iron Mask

  FOUR ELEMENTS TRILOGY

  with Matthew S. Cox

  The Elementalist

  The Black Rose

  The Wakefield Curse

  THE ALADDIN TRILOGY

  with Piers Anthony

  Aladdin Relighted

  Aladdin Sins Bad

  Aladdin and the Flying Dutchman

  THE WALKING PLAGUE TRILOGY

  with Elizabeth Basque

  Zombie Patrol

  Zombie Rage

  Zombie Mountain

  THE SPIDER TRILOGY

  with Scott Nicholson and H.T. Night

  Bad Blood

  Spider Web

  Spider Bite

  TEAM QUANTUM TRILOGY

  The Accidental Superheroine (with Kris Carey)

  My Big Fat Accidental Superheroine Wedding (with Kris Carey)

  Accidental No More (with Matthew S. Cox)

  SHORT STORIES

  The Vampire on the Train

  Easy Rider

  Skeleton Jim

  The Bleeder

  SHORT STORY COLLECTIONS

  Dark Rain: Stories

  Blood Rain: Stories

  Black Rain: Stories

  Red Rain: Forty-One Stories

  Moonlight & Monsters: Ten Vampires Tales

  For Young Readers

  STANDALONE NOVELS

  The Enchantress (with Randy Keys)

  Spirit Mountain (with Alexandra Swan)

  The Emerald River

  Forever Silent

  The Angel and the Gift

  YOUR CHOICE BOOKS

  Deep Sea Danger

  The Legend of Eagle Eye Mountain

  Playoff Pressure

  THE ROBOT TWINS

  The Mystery of the Walking Statue

  The Secret of Stonehead Island (with Randy Keys)

  KIDQUEST ADVENTURES

  The Secret of the Sphinx

  THE DISTANT WORLD TRILOGY

  Dare to Enter a Distant World

  Midnight Moon

  Published by Rain Press

  Copyright © 2017 by J.R. Rain

  All rights reserved.

  Ebook Edition, License Note(s)

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

  Dedication

  To Jason and Lee.

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-one

  Chapter Twenty-two

  Chapter Twenty-three

  Chapter Twenty-four

  Chapter Twenty-five

  Chapter Twenty-six

  Chapter Twenty-seven

  Chapter Twenty-eight

  Chapter Twenty-nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-one

  Chapter Thirty-two

  Chapter Thirty-three

  Chapter Thirty-four

  Chapter Thirty-five

  Chapter Thirty-six

  Chapter Thirty-seven

  Reading Sample: The Grail Quest

  Reading Sample: Elvis Has Not Left the Building

  About the Author

  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 give 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.