Wicked Circle

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Eris snorted as Persephone’s voice rattled out a standard “please leave a message” recording. She hung up and immediately went to her “woogie room,” her magical supply room. She kept her ritual gemstones in stacked compartmented plastic cases, in alphabetical order. Setting them aside until she had the right case, she put it on the table and opened it. The case wasn’t easy to open, but only because her thumb wasn’t accustomed to the dexterous little flick that it required. She reached inside for the petrified wood and noticed her opals were gone.

Puzzled, she selected the stone she was after and shut the lid. She replaced the cases as they should be. She rummaged through her runestones and chose Dagaz—the one like a letter X between two bars, and Ehwaz, the one like an M.

Spiritually, the former rune was associated with awakening and awareness, and the latter with movement and change for the better. The petrified wood was ruled by spirit, by Akasha. Eris dropped the stone and runes inside a small plastic cup, added a white candle and a lighter and carried them to her room. Persephone didn’t have to answer her phone, but Eris was going to enlist some help getting Persephone to come to her senses.

Johnny sat in a white office with his hands in his lap. It felt like being in a principal’s office. But he was on the wrong side of the desk—as in behind it.

The wide mahogany desk had lots of drawers. Matching filing cabinets were positioned conveniently behind him. There was a computer, a planner, stapler and a blotter. A metal cup contained a dozen ink pens. All the stuff a desk-jockey would need.

But the worn leather seat he occupied had long ago conformed to someone else’s body.

Ignatius.

This was the office of the dirija. Formerly, Ignatius Tierney sat here. For now, this was Johnny’s office, and presently Todd, the second-in-command of the pack, and Chris LaCroix, the regional adevar, were seated across from him. Todd was blathering on about a meeting they’d just had with the Ohio Department of Transportation. ODOT had put a new compensation package on the table concerning their bid to buy and tear down the Cleveland Cold Storage building for the new I-90 project. Johnny had opted out of the meeting because he hadn’t been to any of the previous meetings, but Todd had attended them all. Besides, after the coronation Todd would become dirija, and whatever decision they came to would affect his rule.

“Can you believe it?” It was evident that Todd felt the city was trying to bully them into accepting the bid. “If they think Ig was the only one with balls around here, man, are they in for a surprise.”

The adevar, a Zvonul agent in the wærewolf version of the IRS, had journeyed here with the former Rege. He had searched the pack’s financial records on that Rege’s order, and when he’d been made aware of this matter concerning the building, he’d sent a formal inquiry to ODOT, which had clearly made the area reps nervous. This new deal was part of the result.

A typical visit from an adevar was like being audited. They were accountants with all the authority of a governor, should they choose to exercise it. According to Todd, this particular adevar, Chris LaCroix, was the “least prickish” one he had ever met. Todd had told Johnny that they’d “lucked out” getting this guy, but Johnny wasn’t as impressed. He knew Chris was the little brother of the one major boyfriend Persephone had had in college.

He wondered if Chris had told his big brother that he’d run into her.

“What do you think, Mr. LaCroix?”

“I contacted Celia Randolph, a local Realtor and member of this pack. According to her report addressing real estate in this area, and considering the age of the structure and the revenue from the billboards, ODOT’s offering what this building is worth. But.”

“But?” Johnny prompted.

“That can’t even begin to cover the cost of purchasing an existing building in the area and making the necessary modifications, nor can it cover the cost of buying land and building a new structure. The mayor threw in some tax breaks, but it doesn’t provide what we need to relocate this den.”

“Options?”

Chris said, “I’ve sent a complete dossier about the matter to my diviza.”

The door to Johnny’s office was open, and in the room beyond he could see Kirk’s feet propped on the desk. A few other wæres were also lounging out there, listening to iPods or watching movies on their cell phones. Then Kirk’s feet plopped down.

“You told ODOT this?” Johnny asked Chris.

“Yes.”

“You should have seen their faces!” Todd sneered.

“I imagine in the next few weeks the diviza will visit Cleveland to negotiate.”

Kirk appeared in the doorway. “She’s here. Parking lot cameras showing Persephone and two idiots wearing field-camo who came in just behind her.”

“Send our men to the roof. Tranquilize William and transport him. I’ll bring her.” Johnny stood. “Chris, if you’ll excuse Todd and me, we have something to attend to.”

“Of course.”

Johnny walked out of the office and entered the elevator. During the descent he reached up to grip the upper edge, stretching to loosen stiff muscles. The contraption lurched to a stop just as Seph shut the door on her Toyota Avalon.

“Where’s Zhan?” he called.

“Unhappily left behind.” Seph pointed at the Audi parked on the far side of her. “She made these guys follow me.” She opened the trunk. As she bent and reached inside, the hoodie-blazer combo slid up her hips, and he admired the curve of her backside. Desire flickered within him.

“What can I carry?” he asked.

Seph handed him a duffel bag and a cardboard box. Two men sat in the Audi, wearing camouflage, just as Kirk had indicated. They weren’t going to blend into the concrete here. “What’s with them?”

Broom in hand, she shut the trunk. “Perimeter guards. This reassignment was unexpected. I told them that since they had to stay in the car, their duty here was going to be very boring and they might as well nap. I promised to wake them when I’m ready to leave.” She dropped her keys into a side pocket on the duffel. “Shall we?”

“No.” Johnny studied her. She squinted just slightly, as if she were in pain. “What’s wrong?”

“As always, there’s a lot going on.”

“What else has happened?”

“I’ll tell you on the way up,” she said as she gestured at the elevator. “It’ll keep my mind off the rickety ride.”

“Ig had everything mechanical regularly serviced,” he assured her as they approached it, “and the Omori updated everything after they assessed the security system around their Domn Lup. I swear to you: The elevator is safe. It’s just the wood gate that’s rickety.” He patted it as he held it open for her.

“Why keep such a rotten gate if safety really matters?”

“It’s a deterrent. Works brilliantly on non-wæres. As you know.”

Seph boarded the lift. Johnny lifted the false top and put his thumb to the real control button. The scanner quickly read and approved his print, and they started to rise. She asked, “How are you going to make sure the wolves get to their kennels after they’ve changed?”

“I’ll herd them into the stairwell. Remember the gates you noticed last night? They are at each level. A few of the men who aren’t going to be involved in the spell are going to lock all the gates except the uppermost and one of the kennel levels. Then they get as far away as they can.”

“So you’ll only be able to get to the levels with kennels. Will they all know what kennel to go to?”

“Yup.”

“Beau’s son hasn’t been kenneling with the rest of them.”

“Good point, but they aren’t territorial about their kennels, and it’s routine to be in them when transformed. Those not involved are supposed to head back in an hour to check on everyone. They’ll handle it if William is stubborn.” He added, “Don’t worry.”

The elevator shuddered. “Easy for you to say.”

“Those little bounces are no different than a car hitting a pothole.”

Seph crossed her arms. “If a pothole knocks a tire off my car, I won’t plummet twelve stories.”

“You won’t plummet here either.” The elevator doors opened.

He led her past the cages where the half-formed wærewolves were kept. On one of them, the cage door was open. “One last flight of stairs to the roof.” At the end of the hall they made a right, went under an arched entryway, and saw a wide set of metal steps rising through the ceiling. Johnny opened the door at the top and propped it open with one of the cinder blocks he’d had brought up just for this purpose. Here was a cold brick room with glass-block windows and a gritty floor. “Almost there,” he said, proceeding to the final door. “Ready?”

“Yeah.”

“You sure? You avoided telling me what was up.”

“Later. Let’s just do this.”

“Any last-minute messages for the men?” Johnny asked as he picked up the other block.

She considered it. “Stay together.”

Johnny opened and propped this door as well.

Atop the main building were two structures other than the one they were emerging from. The others were also brick and glass-block and, additionally, they bore colorful graffiti. In the center of the roof was a big formerly black water tower—formerly because it too wore the spray-painted lettering. The building was tall enough that drivers on the highway wouldn’t be able to see them, and far enough from downtown that people in the taller buildings wouldn’t be able to either.

Three dozen men stood gathered around the base of the water tower. William, half formed, was sprawled at the edge of the group, unconscious.

“There’s more of them than I expected,” Seph said.

“The Omori all wanted in on it.”

“They know their man-minds won’t be immediate? It’ll happen with their next cyclical change?”

“They know.”

She glanced up at the sky scattered with gray clouds. “All right. Have them gather in that far corner so the water tower doesn’t block the beam.”

Johnny directed them where to stand, then had Gregor and Kirk move William. Johnny wasn’t standing with them, however. When they were in position, one man noticed and asked, “You are still going to go through it with us, right?”

Johnny blinked. “Yup.” He’d promised to go through it with them to assure them that it was not some witch trickery. I can handle it. I’ll just change back when it’s done.

“Of course he is,” a voice from the back said. “He won’t let his woman see all of us naked without putting himself front and center of her view.” The men chuckled.

Johnny stood at the front with his best men: the Omori, Kirk, and the men who’d volunteered to stand with him and face the fey on the shores of Lake Erie. While they undressed, Persephone used her broom to sweep a huge circle enclosing them all. She called the elements and used candles in tall beakers of colored glass. Then she said,

Persephone and Isis, goddesses whose names I bear,

Artemis, Inanna, and Ishtar, your lunar purpose I share.

Hathor and Hera, be present here this hour,

Hecate! Come now, lend my rite your power.

Encourage the elements to participate

As we seek their man-minds to liberate

Reward the courage these men have shown

I beseech you, O wise and wonderful crone.

With her arms over her head for the last line, she formed a triangle with her thumbs and index fingers. She lowered her arms so she could see the moon through that open triangle, and remained thus for a long minute. Then she sang strange words.

Energy stirred around them and Johnny detected the men shifting uneasily behind him. He saw second thoughts betrayed in some eyes. “Steady, men. I feel it too,” he said to them calmly. “This is normal. She must call the power and contain it away from us until there is enough to fully change us all. Only then will that power descend.”

He saw one man’s mouth open, ready to ask for reassurance, then he clamped it shut, thinking better of letting his peers know he was worried.

Johnny added, “She is able to hold that much power, and more. Otherwise I wouldn’t allow this. I stand with you.” But I will change back as soon as I get you all to your kennels.

His skin abruptly itched, like he’d been dipped in icy water and coated in sand. She’s tapped the ley. He remembered that when she’d transformed him and Celia and Erik and Theo, she’d sung this hauntingly beautiful song, and her power had erupted as her voice had found the high note of the melody’s crescendo. She was building to that note now.

He rolled his shoulders. “Relax, men. Don’t fight it.”

“Look up,” someone whispered.

Everyone turned their faces skyward, where, ten feet above their heads, a mass of energy was forming. It swirled, shimmering like glitter on waves of heat. As the mass developed color, four arms stretched downward, one to each candle. When the energy-arms reached the candle flames, the center above them exploded, and that energy snapped into the candles like a tape measure recoiling.

Then, except for the single note Persephone was sustaining, there was silence.

Johnny remembered what Menessos had said during the first spell. He’d whispered, “Rise cone of power. Rise to our call. Deliver lunar energies, to one and all.”

In the sky, the exposed moon flashed, and a focused beam of reflected lunar light fell, encompassing Persephone’s circle. Her voice wavered. Her knees gave.

Johnny felt his skin crawl, felt it scrub against his raw muscles like coarse sandpaper. His beast growled savagely, exultantly, as it burst through his flesh.

His change was fluid and fast, and he stood on all fours in a beam of cold light, while the others’ transformations were more prolonged. He felt electrified and invigorated, yet a hunger gnawed at him, a hunger that had nothing to do with his stomach.

Change back.

He sniffed the air. He could smell well with his human nose, but with his wolf nose—it was like every molecule in the air was amplified, akin to a blast from an aerosol spray. So many compelling scents mingled at once.

Change back.

Nostrils flaring, he stared down his elongated black nose and sorted through the smells.

Human. Wolf. Sweat. Rooftop. Brick. Metal. Cotton. Candle wax. Fire. Car exhaust. Lavender.

Persephone was on her knees directly ahead and leaning to one side, unsteady in the buffeting wind. Her hair flapped about. She pitched forward—caught herself on her hands.

Change back.

He could smell her sex. He recalled their shower, the bubbles cascading over her ass, the water dripping off her tits. He’d made her writhe and scream when he’d been inside her. He’d made her wear his scent. He could smell that too.

Change back now.

The beast whimpered, stationary and ready to withdraw . . . then a new scent filled his nostrils. A scent that seduced him. A scent that seized his ambiguous hunger and made his jaws drip saliva. A scent that stupefied his man-mind, silencing his thoughts and leaving only the beast that quavered with a raging appetite.

He smelled blood.