Vicious Circle

Chapter 24

I felt drunk, but without the cheerful buzz.

I must have stumbled, because suddenly I was in Nana’s arms. “I’ve got you,” she said.

Nana quoted the barest of quarter releases: “Thank you, elements of earth, air, fire, and water! We release you now. Go and be free. Come willingly if we call upon you again.” She stroked my hair. “If ever we dare to call again. This circle is open. Now slowly,” she said, “Beverley, ease toward the door. No sudden movements. Nice and slow.”

A silvery gray wolf leapt to the doorway and snarled a deep, primal, guttural sound. Beverley stopped dead; to her credit, she did not scream. The wolf was bigger than Ares would ever be. Its muzzle turned slightly upward at us, nostrils flaring and all those gleaming white canines revealed. Slowly, the animal hunched down, preparing to leap—

A larger black wolf leapt onto the gray wolf, snapping and growling vehemently at it. The gray sank onto the floor, head and tail low. It growled low. The black wolf stayed standing over the gray, and clamped the back of its neck with his jaws. He continued snarling viciously until the gray rolled over and showed its belly in submission. Then the black wolf released the other and turned, keeping itself between us and the gray wolf. With one bark he commanded the tawny amber-colored beast to join the gray. With the amber down beside the gray, the black wolf barked to the remaining black-and-gray on the bed—though to this one, the barks were softer.

The black-and-gray’s ears pricked forward, and it crawled to the edge of the mattress, pulling a length of IV tubing with it. It paused and sniffed at the tubing and whimpered. “Dr. Lincoln,” I said softly.

The doctor inched forward. He reached out to the slender foreleg, and the black-and-gray wolf snapped at him, sending him backpedaling with a shout of alarm. He hit the wall hard, and his glasses went crooked. The black wolf leapt a pace forward and growled at the black-and-gray, until the black-and-gray whined and put her head down. The black wolf looked at me.

“Did she get you, Doctor?” I asked.

With a jerk and sudden realization of the danger he was in, the doctor righted his spectacles and checked himself over. “No. No, she didn’t.”

“I think she’s ready to let you remove it now.”

He pressed himself against the wall. “I’m not ready to risk being a wærewolf….” He swallowed so hard it must’ve hurt. “I mean, well…you know.”

I did know, but somebody had to do it. I pulled out of Nana’s grip and staggered to the bed.

Bracing myself against the side of the bed with slightly bent knees, I reached slowly to the wolf’s foreleg. When I gently gripped it, the black-and-gray wolf turned and looked at me steadily. There was no look of friendship or familiarity in those dark eyes, but I realized this was Theo. We’d succeeded! She’d fully transformed. If things had been normal, I might have cried from relief. I was so weary, though, I was too tired even to make tears. I pulled gently on the tape. It had been stuck to her human skin, but that flesh had split away and left the tape not exactly securing the IV anyway. Sliding the needle out was easier than I’d expected it to be. I dropped it onto the bed. Using the footboard as support, I put my weight on my feet again and stepped back.

The black wolf started making short, quiet howls again. The black-and-gray eased her forelegs down, then slid her haunches down as if it hurt.

The wolves needed to be safely kenneled in the cellar, and I had the thought the stairs were going to be difficult for the black-and-gray wolf. I inched forward. Nana grabbed my arms, thinking I was falling. “It’s okay,” I said. I moved along the footboard. I held my hand out to the black-and-gray wolf and said, “I can help you down the stairs.” She sniffed at my hand.

The black wolf came closer and put his shoulder against me and pushed me back. He turned to the other wolves then and barked an order. The gray and the amber stood and exited; the black-and-gray followed. The black one went last. I followed them to the door, grabbed my robe, and slipped clumsily into it as I watched them descend the steps. The black-and-gray wolf was steadied by the other two.

At the bottom, the front door stood open—thanks to a hurried exit by the vampires—and the wolves went out.

Feeling certain that the black wolf would herd the others to the cellar, I moved into the hall and started down the steps, grateful for the sturdy rail. Outside, the house supported me as I crossed the porch and went around the corner. There, three of the wolves lay in a row just beyond the cellar doors. The big black wolf stood before them, tail wagging.

I opened the door, and they all proceeded down and inside. I followed, wishing I could just stop and rest on the steps. If I stopped, I knew I wouldn’t get up again. Menessos had called too much energy out of me, left me so weak. But surely that had been the whole idea.

The black wolf put the gray and amber together in the first kennel. I shuffled over, shut the door, and clicked the lock shut. The black-and-gray went tiredly into the next kennel, lay down on the hay, and curled up. I stumbled, caught myself on the cage bars, then let my weak legs bend. On my knees, I shut and locked that door too. I turned to the black wolf. He stood resolutely at the far end, watching me. Head high, his weight distributed on all legs, he seemed like he was posing. He backed into his cage without taking his eyes from me.

I felt so drained. Darkness pushed at the edges of my vision. My limbs didn’t want to move. “I can’t,” I said.

The black wolf lowered his head, whimpered once. With a big paw, he reached out and pulled the door shut. He glaced at the lock, then back to me. Summoning what energy I had left, I rose to my feet and slowly made it to the last cage and secured the lock. He had not moved, even to lie down. He just kept watching me intently.

My knees gave. Grappling for a bar to hold, I managed to not fall, but I did crack my forehead on a bar. The wolf was suddenly right there, licking my hand and my head. He whimpered again and looked past me to the cellar doors and back to me. No one was there; he just wanted me to go. I began crawling across the cold concrete floor.

At the base of the steps I looked up—only eight of them, but I knew I couldn’t do it. One at a time, I told myself. If it takes all night, just climb one at a time. I worked my hands up to the third step and put my knee on the first. The last thing I remembered was hearing the lonely howl of a wolf.

Amenemhab sat on my couch in the living room. He looked around, panting, but seemed to like what he saw. I lay on the floor, watching him. “Well?” I said. “What do you think of my home?”

“This isn’t your home,” he said. “This is just where you live.”

I laughed. “Same thing.”

“No.”

My eyes shot open and I sat up all at once, the dream fading.

I was on the couch in my living room. Nana lay sprawled in the chair with an afghan over her, snoring loudly. Something hurt, but I couldn’t tell exactly what. My head did hurt, but there was something else too. Something that wasn’t my back or my feet, or anything like that. It was weird.

I swung my feet around to the floor and the movement flaked the dried blood on my chest. I realized I was in my robe and jeans still, and with that knowledge, flashbacks to being in the circle hit me hard.

That was what hurt—my soul.

Angry and afraid, I got up and started upstairs to the bathroom. I had to shower this blood—this vampire’s blood—off of me. Right now.

Stripping off the robe in the bathroom, I noticed the moonstone necklace was gone. I hoped I hadn’t lost it or broken it. I would worry about that later. Now, the shower.

The warm water felt so good, like I’d just noticed how good a shower could be. But I didn’t want to scrub the blood off me, I didn’t want to touch it. So, I stood there and let the steamy water loosen it and wash it away. Only then did I use the soap and scrub, and only then did I begin to feel like myself.

That asshole! I should’ve known better than to trust a vampire. I have honored my oath to you, Persephone Alcmedi. Yeah, right. A shiver coursed through me as I remembered his words, his voice, the feel of his breath on my skin. Angry, I squeezed the soap hard enough to leave marks in it. How dare he use me like that, play me for a fool. Hadn’t I been played enough by Vivian?

I wondered what he’d done to her, but decided I was probably better off not knowing.

At least Theo would be all right.

Wrapped in a towel, I tiptoed to my room so as not to disturb Beverley—I could hear her soft snore in the other bedroom. I wondered if the doc had stayed. I hadn’t seen him, but I assumed he had been the one to bring me inside.

The mess in my room devastated me. Clothes the wolves had been wearing lay in ripped and distorted piles. My bed was a complete disaster.

Turning my back on the wrecked room, I went to the closet and picked a navy blue sweat suit with loose ankles and stripes down the legs that matched the stripes on the long sleeves. With a white tank top under the jacket and the hood adjusted flat, I was set. I grabbed a second sweat suit for Theo and carried it up the steps to the attic. There, I took clothes from Celia’s and Erik’s suitcases and returned to the first floor, where I set the clothes aside and unzipped Johnny’s suitcase. The smell of him hit me hard. I held his shirt up to my face and inhaled the cedar and sage scent of him and Gain detergent. I added the shirt to the pile, rummaged for a pair of underwear, didn’t find any, and took a pair of jeans anyway. It didn’t seem that Johnny owned any undies. I blushed at the thought.

Leaving the living room where Nana was still snoring, I went to the kitchen and started a pot of coffee while I grabbed up all the cookies and doughnuts I could find—and it wasn’t many. We hadn’t planned on four wærewolves transforming. Breakfast might get ugly.

Carrying all this and the set of keys for the locks, I went outside and headed for the storm cellar. After shuffling everything into one arm, I opened the cellar doors and quietly descended. I left the light off; I wanted wæres to sleep all they wished, but to find their things ready for them when they woke.

I put everything on the floor and sorted it out. I unlocked the first cage, the one I could see clearly in the ambient light. Celia and Erik were sweetly spooned together, naked on the hay. I put their clothes and a baggie containing some doughnuts and a biscotto on top. Erik loved biscotti.

Before unlocking the second cage, I stood staring at Theo. She was curled into the fetal position, her shoulder rising and falling with regular breaths. She was alive, and I thanked the Goddess for it.

I left her the sweat suit and a baggie containing some cookies. She didn’t like biscotti, but I knew she did like nuts, so I set a half-filled can of salted peanuts atop the suit. They were Nana’s, but I’d buy Nana some more.

As I turned to Johnny’s cage, I couldn’t help lifting his shirt to my face again and taking in the scent of him.

“I didn’t know you could sing, Red.”

I dropped the cage keys with a jerk. It was darker back here in the mornings; the light just wasn’t strong enough. I’d expected him to be sleeping too, and I’d just been caught sniffing his shirt. I blinked into the darkness, willing my eyes to adjust. He was sitting in the corner closest to the cage door, one knee bent up to be modest. There was a tattoo on his thigh, but I couldn’t tell what it was.

“You weren’t all supposed to change,” I whispered. “I’m so sorry.”

“You don’t have to apologize.”

“Yes, I do.” I passed the clothes through the bars, a baggie of Oreos on top. He set them to the side. “Menessos manipulated the ritual and took over. He wielded power a vampire just shouldn’t possess, and I couldn’t stop him.”

Johnny stayed quiet and just watched me, like the wolf had last night. Then he said, “He marked you.”

“I know.” My voice trembled. Tears welled in my eyes. To deny them, I snorted and tried to be cool about it. “He lied. Fucker.” I glanced toward Theo. “At least she’s alive.” If Johnny was going to see me cry—me who he was convinced was this tough Lustrata—then I wanted him to think I was crying because Theo was okay.

When I turned back, Johnny was chewing a cookie. He put the shirt and the Oreo baggie aside and grabbed the jeans. He stood to put them on, and I hurriedly looked away again. But my rebellious eyes slid upward just before the denim slid up to cover his buttocks. I got another look at the Celtic knot-work armband tattoos and the Chinese lion-dog and dragon battling on his back.

Across the way, Celia roused and groaned happily as she stretched and made a grab for the goodies. I heard the smack of kissing followed by giggles and “Quit it or I won’t give you the biscotto.”

“Biscotto?”

Johnny reached through the bars, took up the keys, and unlocked his cage himself, but he didn’t say anything else. He just leaned in the open door, shirt thrown over his shoulder like a towel, and munched his Oreos with a deeply thoughtful expression. Apparently, Oreos were the philosophical food of choice.

I, however, felt trapped. I couldn’t just dart out or saunter out past naked people waking and getting dressed. I wasn’t usually down here when they woke up. I opened cages, left doughnuts, and departed ASAP. But they deserved their privacy, and even if they didn’t care about it, I did—so I waited where I was.

Celia came out of her cage and saw me. She started to speak, but Theo roused, moaning and moving very slowly. Then she took the cookies. Celia and I shared a smile. After eating a few cookies, Theo sat up and lifted the sweat suit. The can of nuts rolled into the hay. “This…this isn’t mine,” she said.

“It’s mine,” I said. “I didn’t have anything of yours.”

“Seph? What are you doing down here? Wait—I didn’t change here.”

“No, you didn’t.”

Standing and jerking clothes on, she demanded, “What the hell happened?”

Everybody was dressed now. Erik came out and joined us. We passed looks around like hot potatoes.

In the doorway of her cage, Theo said, “I remember…” She shut her eyes. “My car. I remember tearing it apart.” She looked at me. “I remember…Goliath!”

“It’s my fault, Theo.”

Her expression hardened, and her words came harsh and full of attitude. “You mean that jerk ran me off the road because I took a peek into his public history?”

“He tried to kill you because I asked questions. When I asked for your help, I didn’t realize how dangerous he was. I’m sorry.”

Theodora Hennessey was not a frail woman. She had lean limbs and moved with the in-your-face kind of grace reserved for Paris runway models. When she approached me with smooth, slow steps, her bare feet making no sound on the concrete floor, I knew something bad was about to happen. A slap, a punch, a slash of nails. I didn’t care. Whatever she deemed necessary, I’d take it. I deserved it. Her arm moved, coiling for the strike, and snaked out. I resolved not to wince; I wouldn’t even shut my eyes.

Another hand shot into my view, restraining her.

Theo gave a squeal of pain as Johnny squeezed her wrist.

“Let go,” she growled.

“You would have died in a State Shelter,” he growled back, “if not for her.”

“And I apparently wouldn’t have been hurt if not for her.”

“That’s true. And she could have said nothing and let you go to the shelter and die. Instead, she signed for custody and took responsibility for all the hospital and ambulance fees. She volunteered her home, her own bed, to be your personal hospital. A doctor I know has been tending you since the accident, but not even his skills could save your life.”

Suspicion replaced her anger. “Then why am I alive?”

I knew Johnny wanted me to say it, but I couldn’t. I just stared at the floor.

“Her skills saved you—at considerable risk.”

“Considerable risk? That means what?”

“It means she had to enlist help,” Celia said in a voice meant for easing jumpers off of high rooftops. “Vampires had to be involved.”

“Vampires?”

“She managed to get the very one that injured you to participate in healing you, Theo. It was no light task to gain that service. And it was no light risk to throw aside the barrier of her home protection,” Celia added.

“You asked them inside?” Theo said, focusing on me again.

“I did.”

“Damn stupid thing to do.”

“We couldn’t risk moving you.”

The anger and tension were fading. “So I guess we’re square, then?”

“No. I owe you, still. A vehicle. And repairs to your business and apartment.”

“What happened to Revelations?” Her concern returned.

“Goliath sacked your business and home looking for info on who hired you.” I could see the worries flashing across her face.

“No, you two are square,” Johnny said.

We both looked at him.

“Seph took a vamp’s mark, Theo. She took it to save your life.”