Vicious Circle

by Linda Robertson

  “Might as well,” Nana said.

  Johnny grinned at me. “Go ahead. Open it.”

  “Me?”

  “Your house.”

  I joined him in front of the Codex and paused. I couldn’t think about the box. Just standing this close to him made me feel keyed up, yet at ease. I reached out to the box, feeling confident with him there, but footsteps on the stairs stopped us. “Just a minute,” I said. “I want to see the doc out.”

  Meeting Dr. Lincoln and Celia in the hall, I said, “Thanks for coming by so late. People-doctors aren’t usually that courteous.”

  “Well, I gave my word. You are all doing a fine job.”

  “Feeding tube?”

  “In, no problem. New machine I brought in up there. It will regulate the feeding tube. Celia here has instructions for it.”

  I paused, facing Celia. “Nana found a spell in that book that might enable us to force Theo to change. I want to explain it to all of you wæres. It will be your decision whether to do it or not, but I wanted to ask the doctor something about it before he left.”

  Dr. Lincoln put his hand up. “Uh, I don’t treat the wære-folk that often but, all that magic stuff aside, is that wise?” He pushed his glasses up his nose. “I mean, she’s very weak. How can you be certain she’ll survive the transformation?”

  “That’s what I wanted to ask: Can you do anything to make her stronger? Kind of rev her up and make sure her body has the fuel for a spell like this?”

  He considered it. “I have some…” He started to tell us the technical side of it, then changed his mind. “Well, hmmm. I just did something like that for the mare, to get her heart pumping and warm her up so she didn’t slip into hypothermia while we waited for the crane to arrive and lift her out. I could adjust a protein serving for Theo and make, well, a kind of monster energy drink version for her.” He scratched his head. “It…yeah, it might work.”

  “Great.”

  “There’s some in my truck. Let me go get it and think this through again.” He opened the door and went out.

  Ares started barking from the crate in the garage, and it occurred to me that I ought to get the doc to give him his puppy shots so I could at least do some normal business with him. I wondered if Nana had asked the previous owners about shots. I turned to ask Dr. Lincoln about Ares and saw him backing through the door, then standing there, staring outside. His jaw opened and closed repeatedly, but no sound came out.

  “What?” I asked, advancing toward him.

  His hand came up and he pointed outside. “I think I’ll wait a while.”

  I looked out the door.

  Standing just beyond the porch rail, directly opposite my open door, stood a man with luminous white skin and pale, pale hair gleaming silver in the waning gibbous moon’s light. I’d have sworn he had to be taller than Johnny’s six feet plus. On his elongated scarecrow of a body he wore shiny black, from his high collar to his toes. The intensity of his expression, the tight vibration of his very presence, and the faint smell of rotting leaves unmistakably identified him as a vampire. But it was his eyes that named him for me. I could detect the color even at this distance—blue, like summer forget-me-nots. I had seen them before, on a child’s picture.

  “Goliath,” I said.

  His mouth broadened slightly into the most condescending smile I’d ever seen. His chin lowered a minute degree in acknowledgment.

  I added, “You killed a friend of mine.”

  “Perhaps.”

  Beverley stepped into the hall. “Go back to the kitchen,” I said.

  “Goliath,” she whispered, her stunned expression turning into a grin.

  I stared at her. “You know him?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Hello, Beverley,” Goliath said.

  “You don’t think he’s the vampire that killed my mom, do you?”

  I didn’t know what to say. She moved toward the door even as I tried to stop her. “Goliath!”

  “Beverley!” he called. His expression too had changed.

  I pushed between her and the door. “For now, you let me handle this.” I was afraid she’d invite him in or something equally dangerous. “Go to the kitchen, now. Please, please.”

  For a tense second I wondered if she would obey; then she just walked away.

  I turned back to the vampire. He kept his tone cool and stated, “I have come for Vivian Diamond and for the book.” His voice was deep. Long vocal cords on a body that tall. It startled me, though. I think it was because from one with hair that pale and fine, I’d expected something softer. Shadows appeared under his cheekbones as he spoke.

  This made me notice the sharp angles of his face. Such sharpness should have made him harsh and cruel-looking, but instead he was stunning—in an undernourished, Nordic-supermodel way.

  My ears detected Celia slipping away down the hall with Beverley. Ares continued barking. Good dog, sensitive to smelly creatures outside. I stood there and concentrated on breathing normally. What was I supposed to do? Stall. Stalling was good. Get information. That was good too. “Why do you want Vivian and the book?” I asked.

  “Both belong to my master.”

  “Oh. So you’re a gofer, huh?”

  “Miss Alcmedi,” Dr. Lincoln whispered as he moved a step farther from the door, “I don’t think it’s a good idea to be flippant with a vampire.”

  “He can’t come in, Doc. And he’s not about to be invited.” It was the only reason I could afford to have a bit of an attitude. That and knowing—in the wild, at least—strength respected strength. I hoped a vampire would do the same.

  “That’s a wives’ tale!” The doctor’s whisper was panicky.

  “No, it’s a witches’ tale. I’m a witch, and my house has wards.”

  “Only holy ground can keep them at bay!”

  Through gritted teeth I said, “The average person’s residence can be invaded because they don’t have wards. Churches put up wards by blessing the ground. It’s kind of the same thing.”

  “But he’s on your grounds.”

  I should have swept a bigger circle around the house. “He’s staying beyond the wards. Now, please, shut up!”

  Johnny came into the living room via the dining room and stepped up behind the doctor. Erik followed a few paces behind him. Johnny tapped Dr. Lincoln roughly on the shoulder, and the doc turned to see his stern face and a “get-out-of-the-way” chin jerk. The doctor backed deeper into the living room, but to his credit, he didn’t flee. He stood near the end of the couch. The wærewolves moved into a flanking position behind me. It bolstered my courage, and my shoulders squared as I faced the vampire again.

  Goliath looked down his elegant nose. “Finished squabbling amongst yourselves?”

  I hated vampires. I really hated vampires. Obnoxious snots. “Quite.”

  “Give me what I ask for, and I will leave. If you don’t…” He let me see his fangs. “I might have to take offense at all the digging you’ve been doing lately.”

  “Your threat is empty. You can’t come in.”

  Even as the last word left my lips, I felt the pull. It slid across my thoughts like a boat on serene water then stabbed an oar into my brain and pushed. Come. Come to me, it said.

  I was floating, flowing, ebbing. And it was so nice. I put my hand on the screen door and pushed it open.

  Something suddenly jerked me under the water and weighed me down. I was sinking fast, and I couldn’t breathe. I clawed for the surface. I couldn’t breathe.

  “Persephone!” Johnny’s voice. The enchantment broke. His hands, the something that had grabbed me, jerked me back and spun me around, breaking the connection between me and the vampire. I gasped.

  I couldn’t do this. I knew it. I couldn’t face a vampire. I was such an idiot for even considering—

  The faith in Johnny’s eyes, in that Wedjat gaze, was like a buoyant lifesaver. My confidence clung to it, and he pulled me back to myself. “Don’t look in his eyes,” Jo
hnny whispered, and turned my body back toward the door.

  He didn’t expect me to run and hide, didn’t expect that I needed protecting. And he didn’t know my confidence was false, was based on knowing the vampire couldn’t get through my wards. But Johnny hadn’t laughed at me when I told him about Vivian hiring me as an assassin, he’d called me a—a—what was it again? Lustrata.

  I faced Goliath, staring at the top of his head. I hated it when people did that to me, and I hoped it irritated him as much. At least I’d learned something: that old saying that the eyes are the windows of the soul was true. Looking through the glass was good, but if you opened that window or left it unlocked, something ugly was likely to creep inside.

  “You cannot keep yourself and everyone you care about behind magic fences forever.” Goliath glowered. “If you taunt me again, I’ll have them one by one until you’re begging me to take you in their place.”

  “I don’t repeat mistakes.”

  “Perhaps not. But you do make so many of them.” He tsk-tsked me. “Your wards are good, but you must not be much of a witch otherwise. You couldn’t divine your data or scry for it. You hired a background checker. Ms. Diamond could have told you much if you had used the right method to ask.”

  He meant torture—of that I was certain.

  “I commend you for being able to lure Ms. Diamond to your home, along with her most precious objects. I haven’t been able to fake her into such stupidity, and I’ve been trying for years.”

  I wasn’t about to reveal that he had the wrong assumption. He clearly thought I had known about the “precious objects” and had acted purposely to obtain them. I hoped he’d think I could protect myself and keep them too. But damn it! I’d just been enchanted by his eyes—a stupid, stupid mistake. Surely he was wondering now if I could possibly be a lucky bungler.

  “At any rate, you have gained my attention, Miss Persephone Isis Alcmedi.” He proceeded to tell me my phone number, Social Security number, and credit scores, and then he rattled off a series he claimed was my Avalon’s VIN. “Shall I go on?”

  My palms were sweaty.

  “If your cerebrum is keeping up, you’ll understand now that I have also acquired information about you. And I can use my information to make your life”—he spat that last word—“a tragedy worthy of your bastardly Greek heritage.”

  Nana’s hand, holding a lit cigarette, pushed me aside. She stepped up beside me, Vivian’s box cradled in her left arm. “You better get your rotting ass off the lawn, and I mean now.” She put the cigarette to her lips, flipped the box’s lid up, and reached inside.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  From the box, Nana pulled a wooden stake caked with dried mud.

  Goliath hissed—not the kind of theatrical vampire hiss that Hollywood directors make actors embarrass themselves with. This was a hiss that took ten full seconds to build and occur. It started deep in his gullet and rose with such force that Goliath’s entire body shook in a growing convulsive wave. His mouth barely opened, but the sound was hellish: fear and loathing and vengeance with a voice.

  After that, he fled in an otherworldly blur.

  “What the hell is that thing?” I asked, pointing at the stake.

  “This is the product of a spell from the Codex. Come back to the kitchen.”

  “Excuse me,” Dr. Lincoln said to Johnny. “Would you, uh…” he stammered, and finally said, “Is he gone for good?”

  “Probably for tonight, anyway. Why?” Johnny asked.

  “Oh,” I said, getting it. “He needs his stuff to fix up a bag for Theo.”

  “A bag of what?”

  “To help her body have enough energy to change.”

  He clasped the doctor’s shoulder. “I’ll fetch it. A real doctor bag, right?”

  “Yeah.” He squinted apologetically. “But I didn’t mean you should fetch, I mean, you’re…and that would be…you know.”

  “Red, straighten him out, would you?” Johnny went outside.

  Nana headed through the dining room.

  “C’mon.” I motioned to the doctor. “You’re a brain with the medical stuff, but you don’t talk with people very well.”

  He shrugged and followed. “With owners of patients it’s almost like a script repeating over and over. When it’s not a script…you know. More so with him; he’s so…intimidating.”

  “Johnny? I know. I used to think so too.” The words came out and made me realize that I truly felt as if I was over that personal hurdle. Then I thought of something and stopped. “He recommended you because you treat wæres. I thought you two knew each other well.”

  “Not ‘well.’ I treated him once, a long time ago. He made it hard to refuse him.”

  I studied the doc. “I think that’s a story I’m going to want to hear someday. For now, you helped Theo and you came by at—what?—four in the morning. Nobody here is going to hurt you or intentionally let you get hurt.”

  “That’s reassuring.”

  It didn’t sound sarcastic, so I led him on to the kitchen, saying, “We had a break-in, doc. We’ve tied the culprit up, so don’t be too alarmed. We’re handling it.” Beverley sat beside Nana at the table, with her head on her arms. She yawned. I wondered how she knew Goliath. There was so much going on, though, and I had to focus on the enemies right now.

  Nana had the book open before her and a page of very modern notebook paper in her hand. “Vivian modified a spell of protection for the human servant of a vampire, transforming it from increasing the vampire’s protection into binding the vampire’s own power to use against him,” she said.

  Johnny entered with the black leather bag. Dr. Lincoln immediately took it to the counter behind me and rummaged through it. “I need one of the cans of protein supplement I gave you to use in the feeding tube,” he said.

  “I’ll get it.” Celia left.

  Vivian moaned as if she had something important to say. I pushed her gag down. “What?”

  “You guys are so stupid. He’s not about to let that thing slip away. He’ll come back, you know.” Vivian glanced at the clock. “It may be too late for action tonight, but he’ll be back tomorrow. Menessos will be with him. You can’t possibly stand against him.” The last comment she aimed at me.

  “We have your stake,” I reminded her.

  “But you’re muddling through the motions, guessing. You don’t know anything. All he has to do is torch your house. Bye-bye stake, and his buddies suck dry anyone who comes running out and throw the body back in, disposing neatly of all his threats at once.”

  “This is when you bargain information to stop him from doing that in exchange for our untying you, right?”

  Vivian smiled. “What a good idea,” she said mockingly.

  “Dr. Lincoln?” Johnny said, making Wedjat squints at Vivian. “Do you have any sodium pentothal in that bag?”

  “Truth serum?” the doctor asked back with a laugh. “No. I don’t usually need to question my patients.”

  “Well, I don’t need science or pharmacology,” Nana said. She left the book and shuffled over to stand behind Vivian. “Might be easier this way anyhow.” She placed her hand atop Vivian’s head, burrowing her fingers through Vivian’s hair to touch her scalp. “Now her protection charm won’t jolt me. Ask her what you want to know.”

  “Do you think pulling my hair will make me tell you the truth, you old crone?”

  Nana yanked her hair hard. Vivian squealed and shouted, “Bitch!”

  Nana smacked Vivian’s face with her free hand. “You were told not to use that language in front of the child.” She leaned closer to Vivian’s ear and said, “And no, I don’t think pulling your hair will make you tell the truth, but it would make me very happy to see your bald, bleeding scalp if you don’t lose the attitude immediately.” She straightened and gave me a firm nod.

  Celia returned then with her eyes wide and her expression otherwise surprised but agreeable as she smiled at Nana. I knew her wolf-hearing had picked up
what Nana had said. She handed the protein supplement to Dr. Lincoln. He began reading the label and cross-checking it with a book from his bag. I was interested and wanted to watch, but had other, more pressing things to do. “How are you connected to Goliath?” I asked Vivian.

  “None of your business.”

  With two fingers, Nana tapped Vivian’s brow in the area of the forehead chakra or “third eye.” “They were lovers,” Nana said.

  Beverley straightened. Vivian’s mouth flew open. She recovered and said, “Lucky guess.”

  “You think so?” Nana indicated I could proceed.

  “How are you connected to Menessos?”

  “I used to do divination for him,” Vivian said.

  Nana tapped her again. “True.” Vivian gave me a curt, unpleasant smile. Nana went on. “And they were lovers, as well. For a long, long time.”

  “At least,” Johnny quipped, crossing his arms as he leaned on the counter beside me, “we know how the vamp’s condescending manner actually got rubbed off onto her.”

  “How are you doing that?” our prisoner demanded.

  Sounding like Mrs. Claus on a shopping mall’s center-court stage, Nana said, “Why, don’t you know? With magic, dear.”

  Vivian sneered at her. In unison, the wæres all ooooo’d their approval of Nana’s insult like professional Jerry Springer audience members. I had never been as proud of my grandmother as I was just then. And now I knew why she had always wanted to fuss with my hair when I was a teenager and she was upset with me. It was comforting to know I’d never lied to her, but discomforting to know that, in a way, she was a mind reader.

  “Which of them marked you?”

  Vivian clamped her mouth shut. Nana tapped her and said, “Menessos.”

  I was surprised. If Menessos had stained her, she needed him killed, not Goliath.

  “Not Goliath?” I asked. “Are you certain?”

  Nana said, “Very. She couldn’t have been marked by Goliath; she’s much, much older than he is. Older than me, even.”