I wiped my face on my sleeve and turned toward the pantry to see Zhan silently shutting it. She held the broom and dustpan. “Allow me, my lady,” she said. Her voice was so soft.
“I can get it,” I snapped, grabbing the broom from her. I wasn’t mad at her, I was just mad and I’d told her to get out and she hadn’t. But it wasn’t like me to be so rude. Even as I rejected the basic human kindness she was offering and got back to the mess I’d created, the tears welled up again. It wasn’t like me to be angry with an innocent bystander over something I did myself.
But it was like my mother.
Suddenly I felt so ashamed. “I’m sorry.”
Zhan took the broom back with a gentle smile and I fled to my bedroom. With the door locked, my shaking fingers sprinkled an imperfect circle of salt around me on the floor. I sat.
“Mother, seal my circle and give me a sacred space,
In which to think clearly and solve the troubles I face.”
My meditation switch flipped “on” and I hit the alpha state. In my visualization, the lakeshore stretched before me, and the familiar willow tree was at my back. The sun was blazing, the breeze anxious. “Amenemhab!”
The jackal, my totem animal, did not answer.
I stomped around the shore looking for him, but normally he appeared after I’d dipped my toes in the water and let my chakras cleanse. Realizing I was wasting my time searching, I jerked my shoes and socks off and sat where the lapping water would ebb and cover my feet. It took an effort to relax my chakras into opening and releasing my negativity—no surprise—but several minutes later, I had achieved it.
Letting go of all the negative energy made me calmer and more in control of myself … but my pain wasn’t resolved when the rumble of the garage door opening invaded my meditation and I knew Nana was home. I left the tranquil vision before I could get my totem’s counsel and awoke in my room.
I was grateful for something to do, even if it was hauling in the groceries. I met Nana in the driveway, Maxine on my heels. Nana climbed from the car humming to herself. As she loaded my arms and Maxine’s with bags, she was grinning.
In the kitchen, I saw Zhan had cleaned up the mess. I was unpacking box after box of Twinkies when Nana entered. “Leave them in the bags,” she said. “It’ll make carrying them out to the men easier.”
Out to the men?
I couldn’t imagine the big, burly Beholders eating Twinkies, but Nana could. She wasn’t naïve about what these men were, but she’d seen the building permit for her new bedroom: Nana was grateful they were going to build it. She was walking on clouds right now. I didn’t want to ruin her mood by telling her that my mother—her estranged daughter—had finally shown her face.
Eventually, though, I would have to tell her.
Nana had gone upstairs to quilt and I’d herded Ares into the room with her. Neither of them seemed to care for the women in suits. For the next several hours I worked on my column. Maxine interrupted me when the gravel trucks showed up, when the electric company arrived to put in poles, and again when men came to measure the back of the house. Since a noisy backhoe was about to commence digging up the area destined to be Nana’s room addition, I decided my work for the day was done, saved the document, and went to watch out the window.
The prefab walls of the first barn were going up, and gravel was being dumped into the footer spaces around the second. I noticed some of the odd concrete chunks had been deposited near the house. “Any idea what those are?” I asked Maxine.
“Mountain said they were precast panels for the footers. You can build on them right away, don’t have to wait for the concrete to cure. He said it was a miracle the right sizes were in stock, but we lucked out.” She handed me a paper with a rough drawing of the layout for the addition. “Mountain brought that earlier, while you were upstairs.”
“Wow. This is bigger and much sooner than we’d anticipated,” I said.
“Might as well get it done while the equipment is already here,” she replied.
I had to agree. Nana’s knees had failed her before, so I wanted to spare her from my staircase as soon as possible.
Minutes later, a truck rolled by with a giant cake pan on the trailer. “Any guesses what that’s for?” I asked.
“Not a clue,” Maxine replied.
Donning my flannel, I headed for the door. The sentinel blocked my path.
“You can come with me, or you can piss me off trying to stop me. Which is it going to be?”
“Give me two minutes to re-secure the doors and windows so we’re certain your home and grandmother are safe in our absence.”
“Or Zhan could stay here while you escort me.”
“One against that many Beholders?”
“Heldridge’s men may not even be a threat. And if they are, they’ve been up and working eight hours already.”
“We are both going with you.”
I shrugged and conceded. With a dog treat for Ares in hand, I told Nana what we were doing. Maxine locked the front door, then we headed out to the garage, intending to exit via the man-door. On a whim, I halted our little parade to fill a gallon-sized bucket with dog food.
Maxine and Zhan waited for me, both with guns drawn. I appreciated that they took their duty here very seriously, but their bared weapons didn’t make me comfortable. “Is that absolutely necessary?”
“Better safe than sorry,” Maxine said and opened the man-door. She locked it behind us and we walked toward the construction.
After we located Mountain and waved to get his attention, he walked over to us.
Behind me, Zhan gasped as she took in the flock of birds, strolling like peacocks from the far end of the grove. Their flame-colored feather configurations were brilliant in the afternoon light. “Phoenix?” she asked, incredulous.
I nodded. The unicorns and griffons remained hidden within the grove. The dragons were near the edge, curled in big piles.
“They’re eager to get into their coop,” Mountain said. The metal roof on the aluminum shed was being attached as he spoke. “They must know it’s theirs. They keep meandering out to have a look at it.”
He gave me a brief update about pipes being laid in trenches below the frost line. Goddess help me, but Johnny’s dirty mind was rubbing off on me; nearly all of the report sounded like innuendos.
“What is that?” I pointed at the newest arriving truck, backing into position according to the commands of onlooking Beholders. Before Mountain could reply, the answer hit me. “A swimming pool?”
“For the dragons.”
“Dragons?” Zhan echoed.
“There. They’re sleeping.” Mountain pointed to where the dragons lay. They looked like coils of giant drainage tubing. “Once we get the pool installed and filled, they’ll be much happier.”
“Did they eat?”
“Ten cases of those little cans of tuna! I think I killed the hand-crank can opener. I’ve got someone trying to contact the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, to ask about their suppliers. Bulk frozen fish would be far less hassle.”
The animals were being taken care of, their shelters were coming along fast, and Mountain had it all under control. Speaking of eating … “You’ll have dinner with us, right?”
“There’s no need to go to any trouble on my account.”
“You don’t want me to go to any trouble? Look at all this.” My hand flapped at the scene around us, and I nearly dropped the bucket of dog food. “I won’t take no for an answer.”
Apparently, griffon hearing is good enough to detect the rattle of kibble amid a cacophony of construction. Thunderbird emerged from the edge of the grove. The griffon arched his neck in my direction.
Immediately I started toward him. The sentinels followed.
As we neared, I held out the bucket. “You want this?”
Thunderbird lurched forward eagerly and his lame paw caused him to stumble. It looked as if he was about to attack.
We all halted, but movement t
o my right caught my attention and I realized that Maxine had raised her gun.
The griffon recovered his balance and stopped.
“Lower it,” I whispered. “Get back.” On my left, Zhan backed up several paces. The griffon considered Maxine with a steadiness that had an undeniable cognizance behind it.
She lowered her gun and stepped back.
“C’mon, Thunderbird.” I shook the dog food again. “This is all yours.”
His one golden eye assessed me in an altogether human manner, not at all like a bird. He came to me, dipped his head into the bucket, came up crunching.
I couldn’t resist stroking those black feathers gently.
He jerked away, but did not retreat.
“Sorry,” I whispered.
In one swift movement, his beak darted in, wrested the bucket’s handle from me, and swung it away from me. He limped deeper into the grove, tail twitching irritably.
Mountain returned to the worksite. Maxine and Zhan followed me across the field.
I’d hiked only a dozen yards when my back pocket erupted with the guitar riff and chorus of AC/DC’s “Back in Black.” I took another step before I realized: The protrepticus is ringing!
CHAPTER NINE
Stopping in my tracks, I jerked the phone out of my pocket and flipped it open so hurriedly I nearly dropped it. Samson D. Kline’s voice hailed me. “Heads up, little girl; Xerxadrea’s body has been identified.”
The phone issued a burp of static and the screen went black. I shook it, closed it, and opened it again. No light at all and no chance to ask him how the protrepticus could still work.
“My lady?” Maxine prompted.
“Nothing.” I pushed the phone back into my pocket and hurried on.
As we crossed the yard, a dozen witches swooped down from the sky. My sentinels raised their guns once more and, again, I insisted they put them away. This time my most authoritative facial expression accompanied the words, “Holster them, now.” The sentinels obeyed.
The witches hovered above my grass. That they did not dismount their brooms meant they weren’t staying. That they wore their formal black robes and charm-bedecked pointy hats meant they were on their way to or from official business. Thanks to my phone call, I could guess what.
Foremost was Vilna-Daluca. Ruya, the raven that once sat on the shoulder of the Eldrenne Xerxadrea, now sat on Vilna’s shoulder. The rest of them were high priestesses, members of the lucusi that I’d had the honor of being a member of … for about twelve hours. They had given me my own flying broom, amped up my house wards, and promptly severed their ties to me as Xerxadrea had instructed them when they learned I’d become Menessos’s Erus Veneficus. Ranking witches didn’t allow status, titles, or respect to witches who used their power in service to vampires.
Only Menessos and I knew that my becoming EV had been Xerxadrea’s idea and she had intended that severing to be temporary. She knew my role as EV had many purposes, and that Menessos’s “benefit” was the least of them. She’d assured me of this as she lay dying, having taken a bolt of fairy fire to save me.
“To what do I owe the pleasure, ladies?”
Vilna-Daluca dismounted her broom and advanced, steps soft and certain. She stopped before me, expression blank. Her long hair was loose, straight, smooth, and so white against her black robes. I was searching for a clue, scrutinizing the set of her mouth, the hazel of her—
She slapped me. Ruya screeched.
Before the bird could resettle its feathers, Maxine had her gun to Vilna’s temple. She cocked it for emphasis.
I recovered. “Max, put it away.”
“But—”
Without shifting my focus from Vilna, I said, “Either you do as your Erus Veneficus commands, or you suffer the consequences.”
I hadn’t pulled rank to threaten Maxine before. She obeyed.
Citing my rank, however, didn’t please the Elder before me. Blame hardened Vilna’s features. She whispered hotly, “We protected you!”
She was referring to the witches having aided me during the battle. “And I am grateful for that.”
“Grateful?” Her lips barely moved as she snarled the word at me.
Jeanine glided close. In a voice meant to lure jumpers away from high ledges, she said, “Our actions were still in the best interests of the council.”
Vilna-Daluca shrugged her off brusquely. Silent teardrops slid down her cheeks. She cleared her throat. “What came before is what Xerxadrea wanted. Out of respect for her, I leave it.” Her words cut like a keen-edged blade. “I leave your wards and even the elementals, as you are evidently accomplishing their house and, I assume, their care. But I am telling you now, before these witnesses: henceforth, we are enemies. Do not call on us. Do not expect our favor. What we had is gone.”
Xerxadrea was right. Vilna hadn’t asked me what happened, so it was clear she had her mind made up—without the facts. I considered defending my actions, but she needed someone to vent her grief upon more than I needed to be vindicated. Maybe in time …
I bowed my head slightly. “Blessed Be, Vilna.”
She mounted her broom and took to the air. The rest of the lucusi followed.
Knowing Beverley wouldn’t recognize the Audi if I let one of the sentinels drive me to the bus stop, I hurried inside to get the keys to the Avalon. Nana was leaning against the counter in the kitchen, arms crossed, slippered foot tapping again. With a jerk of her head she indicated the yard beyond the kitchen windows and demanded, “What was all that about?” Her tone was clipped, as if trying to decide whether to sound angry or sad.
So much for her good mood I tried to preserve.
I shook my head, searching for words. Upon coming home after the beach battle I’d promised to tell her and Beverley everything that had happened. In the telling I’d admitted we buried Aquula at the Botanical Gardens, but I had left out the fairy attack that followed. If I’d revealed Xerxadrea’s sacrifice, I would have broken down. It wasn’t that I didn’t want Nana to know, just that I wanted to wait until the sting of that loss wasn’t as sharp before I spoke of it.
Nana continued. “The news just announced the body found in the Botanical Gardens Friday night was the Eldrenne Xerxadrea. I knew they’d said the gardens had been broken into and that a body had been found, but I guess it was in my mind that they had found the body of the fairy or something.”
My chin dropped almost to my chest.
“Did their visit have something to do with that?”
I nodded.
“She struck you… .” Nana’s crossed arms fell limp at her sides. “There’s more to the story than you told me.”
I bit my lip and nodded again.
She snorted. “Makes an old woman wonder what else you’re keeping secret.” She shuffled out.
The hurt in her voice was like another slap in the face. Not only had I not told her about Xerxadrea, now I’d not bothered to mention Eris had showed up after ignoring us both for damn near twenty years. I’d just won myself an all-expenses-paid guilt trip.
There wasn’t time to fix it right now, so I grabbed the keys and left. The day had started with such promise, and then gone steadily downhill. Now it’s officially an all-out disaster.
Zhan elected to ride with me to fetch Beverley from the bus stop. My having wrongly snapped at her earlier left me feeling too guilty to refuse.
“How did you come to have those creatures?”
I had expected Zhan to make some inquiries, and was glad her curiosity was focused on the animals and not my mother. “Their forefathers were stolen from this world millennia ago by the fairies. We kind of inadvertently stole them back.” The explanation was radically over-simplified, but true.
“We?”
“Many people played a part.”
“Menessos?”
“Yes. He was a part of it.”
“He knew?” The blame in her tone wasn’t ambiguous. “He knew these creatures were real?”
Oh hell. I couldn’t be honest with her. No one was supposed to know he was the original vampire, and that he was there when the fairies entered our world. Though he was unaware the fey were taking these elementals from our world at the time, he did know of it later.
Will today’s disasters never end? “We only found out yesterday morning when the fey showed up with the elementals,” I lied.
Nana had put something into the oven while Zhan and I were gone, and now it smelled wonderful. I sat at the computer working on my column and, to counteract all the terrible things that had happened today, I was imagining this was just a normal evening for a normal family at home.
My make-believe was more convincing because Nana had gone upstairs to quilt while dinner baked, and the kiddo was doing homework at the dinette. The phone had rung a few times—Nana answered the cordless upstairs—but other than that, everything was quiet. Peaceful. Normal.
Then Nana trudged down the stairs and began fixing something to go with the scrumptious-smelling dish in the oven. She must have decided we should have a side of Raucous with Earsplitting Sauce—because she was being anything but quiet.
At the dinette, Beverley twisted around to watch Nana clanging pans. That caught my attention; it didn’t surprise me that Nana would be this angry with me, but to show her anger to Beverley was unexpected.
Two could play the not-talking-but-not-silent game.
Pushing away from my desk, I stretched, rose, and left the computer. Johnny’s stage pants were done in the wash and I decided to be helpful.
Once the dryer was jingling and thudding with the studded and chain-adorned clothing, I joined the kiddo. Even with a cantankerous old woman battering my cookware and some knight’s battle armor apparently rattling in my dryer, I kept telling myself we were just an ordinary family … until the Beholders began filing out of the field and boarding the bus parked out front.
Arcane Circle Page 8
