"Moon Dance by J.R. Rain is a brilliant urban fantasy novel with engaging characters, witty dialogue, a page-turning plot, and clever subplots that unfurl like a well-paced movie in your mind. ―Eve Paludan, author of Witchy Business

J.R. Rain is an ex-private investigator who now writes full-time in the Pacific Northwest.

He is the author of over eighty novels and forty short stories. Please visit him at: jrrain.com.

My warning bells sounded, starting first as a low buzz in my ears. The buzzing is always followed by an increase in heart rhythm, a physical pounding in my chest. I knew the feeling well enough to trust it by now, and I immediately began looking for trouble. And as I rounded another corner, there it was. Three men stepped out of the shadows in front of me. I slowed, then finally stopped. Four more men stepped out from behind a raised truck parked on the street. Next to the house was an empty, dark school yard. As if reading their collective minds, I had a fleeting prognostication of my immediate future: an image of the seven men dragging me into the school yard. Then having their way with me. Then leaving me for dead. A good thing the future isn't written in stone.

I smiled at them. "Hello, boys." I could smell alcohol on their breaths and sweat on their skin. The sweat was pungent and laced with everything from fear and excitement, to hostility and sexual frustration. None of it smelled good. If mean had a scent, this would be it. A smallish Latino stepped forward. A switchblade sprang open at his side, locked into place. For my benefit, he let the faint light of the moon gleam off its polished surface. He was perhaps thirty-five and wore long denim shorts and a plaid shirt. He was surprisingly handsome for a rapist. "If you scream, I?m going to hurt you."His accent was thick. "Gee, what a romantic thing to say," I said.

"Shut up, bitch." I kept my eyes on him. I didn?t need to look at the others. I could feel them, sense them, smell them.

I said, "Now what would your mothers all think of you now? Ganging up on a single woman in the middle of the night. Tsk, tsk. Really, I think you should all be ashamed."

The little Latino looked at me blankly, then said simply: "Get her." Movement from behind. I turned, punched, extending my arm straight from my body. Jacky would have been proud. My fist caught the guy in the throat. He flopped down, gagging and holding his neck. Probably hurt like hell. I didn't care. I surveyed the others, who had all stopped in their tracks.

"So what was the plan, boys? You were all going to get a fuck in? The very definition of sloppy seconds?--hell, sloppy thirds and fourths and fifths. Then what? Slit my throat? Leave me for dead? Let some school janitor find me stuffed in a dumpster? You would deny my children their mother for one night of cheap thrills?" No one said anything. They looked toward their leader, the slick Latino with the switch. Most likely not all of them spoke English.

"I'll give you once chance to run," I said. "Before I kill all of you."