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.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
My unused dining room furniture was getting used. Johnny cooked up everything breakfast-y in the house. Omelets with peppers and onions, blueberry pancakes, biscuits. I hadn’t known I had bacon and sausage. They must’ve gotten them at the store before. Since I had fasted and the wæres had transformed, it was like a feeding frenzy. Theo ate more than Erik did, I noticed, but she deserved it. Beverley and Johnny shared a box of Lucky Charms and giggled and spoke with Irish accents.
Everyone was here except Nana and Dr. Lincoln. The doc had apparently gone home. I didn’t blame him, but I did wonder how much his circle participation would cost me and how he’d word it on his bill. Nana was in the shower; I assumed she was avoiding me. I wanted to ask her about being stained, find out if she knew anything about it, if she’d seen anything in the Codex to erase it. It made me think she didn’t want to be the one to have to tell me I was seriously screwed.
Beverley said, “So, Johnny, last night you herded the other wolves around. Are you, like, the pack leader?”
“Nah. No leaders here.”
“But you did seem to retain an uncanny amount of human sensibility,” I added.
“Yeah.” He shrugged. “Weird, huh?” He focused hard on his food.
It was the kind of answer that agreed without offering anything, the kind that said he didn’t want to discuss it. I wouldn’t have pushed him, because I believed that he’d share information if it was relevant. However, Erik, leaning in the doorway to the kitchen and holding a mug of coffee and an omelet-and-buttered-biscuit sandwich, didn’t seem to share my hesitation. He said, “Do you always retain your human sensibilities?”
“Yep.” Johnny kept eating his cereal and staring at the back of the cereal box, as if by sheer will he could force the subject to something else. But it wasn’t working. The tension level rose, though that might have had something to do with Celia and Theo adding their energy to it. Everyone had stopped eating, and the others openly stared at him.
No wonder Johnny had known I’d been stained. I hadn’t considered the oddness of that before. Did he also know Menessos had kissed me? Instantly, I pictured Menessos’s face and could feel his—
Damn it!
Could Menessos use the mark to create approval and desire for him in my thoughts? Like bespelling me with his eyes, only from a distance? He was a vampire. I shouldn’t have any contemplations about him that weren’t derogatory…so why was I thinking of him admiringly? Why was I thinking about him doing things that I hadn’t thought about doing in a long time—at least, until a few days ago when I started imagining doing those things with Johnny?
I scolded myself. My thoughts were about as nonsensical as those of a smitten teenage girl.
But I couldn’t put that thought away. Menessos had Vivian back. She had cause for a serious grudge against me. She would offer up anything she had that might spare her the pain and torment Menessos clearly had planned for her.
“How’s that possible?” Theo demanded, bringing me back to the situation at present.
Johnny, s
till not looking at anyone, poured more cereal into his bowl. “Don’t know,” he said, his tone a little sharper. His sore spot had been found.
Theo rested her arm casually on the back of Beverley’s chair. I knew this wasn’t over yet. “Those are interesting tattoos you have,” she said brightly, as if changing the subject. “I’ve always wanted to ask you about them.”
Johnny’s expression darkened, however, suggesting that the subject hadn’t changed at all.
Theo sipped her coffee. “How long have you had them?”
“Long enough.” He put down his spoon and focused his Wedjat gaze on her steadily, trying for the intimidating look that worked on me without effort.
If I had been Theo, I’d have stopped pushing right there, because poking around on a wild animal’s injury would get you mauled. But Theo was clearly not intimidated by Johnny, and frankly the nature of her business was asking questions. “Why did you choose the Egyptian Wedjat, the Chinese power-animals, and the Celtic knot-work on your arms, may I ask? It’s certainly an interesting mix of artwork and cultures.”
He said nothing.
“Do you perhaps have ancestral ties to them?” she pressed.
“Not that I know of.”
Theo cocked her head. “I don’t understand.”
“I didn’t choose any of my tattoos.”
Theo didn’t seem as surprised as the rest of us were. In fact, she seemed more like a cat watching a mouse walk into a carefully laid trap. “You let someone else choose the designs to be forever on your body?”
Johnny scooted his chair back as he pushed the half-full bowl away. He stood. “I remember being attacked.” He ran a hand through his dark hair. “And I remember waking, naked, in a park. I had the tattoos then. It was later that I learned I’d become a wærewolf.”
He looked so tough, so formidable standing there, spine stiff and muscles taut. Yet a vulnerability swam in his eyes and seemed to be begging for answers to questions he’d carried too long.
I glanced at Theo to see her reaction to this, but the only thing about her that seemed out of place was how pale her knuckles were, her fingers grasping the mug very tightly as she said calmly, “And what of your life before the attack?”
Johnny shrugged. “A blank.”
All of this stunned me, but I wasn’t alone. Clearly, the other wærewolves hadn’t known any of it either.
Johnny put his hands on his hips. “What does this tell you, Theo?”
“Don’t know. I’ve just always wondered.” She faced me. “Remind you of anything witchy?”
“No.”
Nana shuffled in, wearing a matching top and pants of pale lavender and sage and her fuzzy pink slippers. I hadn’t heard her come down the steps, and I wondered if she’d heard any of our conversation. Her cigarette case was in her hand. Since she had fasted for the ritual, she was probably as hungry as I had been. She seemed tired, more tired than I’d ever seen her, and she didn’t so much as look at anyone, let alone greet them. Nana set the cigarette case on the table, slid into a chair, picked up a biscuit, split it open, and smeared jelly across it. “Okay, then, so what now?” she asked.
“Wait for the vampire’s errand boy to come for the stake,” I answered. “There aren’t any options.”
Johnny crossed his arms. “I don’t think we should just hand over the weapon of the millennium. I mean, it’s the one thing that can bring him down,” he said. “It’s the weapon you should have.”
I knew he was referring to the Lustrata thing again. I didn’t want to talk about it. “I gave my word.”
“So did he. It meant nothing, so why hold yourself to yours?”
The attention of all the room’s occupants now focused on me. I understood why Johnny had seemed so sour when it had been him in the spotlight. “I’m better than that.”
“And what price are you willing to pay to be better?”
“You have a good point. In fact, it’s a great point. But, no. My security here is compromised. If I don’t give the stake to him, he’ll just send his lackeys out to come and take it.”
“I disagree, Red. With your security gone, that stake is the only thing that will keep him at bay.”
I groaned. “I just want to wash my hands of this mess! Keeping the stake will only keep this nasty wound open.”
His eyes pleaded with me. “If wanting the bogeyman to go away were enough, Vivian wouldn’t have needed to make it in the first place.”
The mood fell from tense to dismal. I rubbed at my brow. There wasn’t enough coffee in the world for a headache and soul-ache like this.
Nana took a second biscuit and put it on the serving plate with what little remained of the omelets. “Menessos is a vampire-wizard, in case you didn’t notice.” Nana’s sarcasm was thick. “And he won’t be restrained by a chant. Not even a full-out spell. Only that stake can stop him.”
Johnny gave me an “I-told-you-so” look.
“I did notice,” I responded irritably. “When I couldn’t stop him from staining me.”
Nana faced me, and all her tiredness had transformed. She was mad. So she was also able to take all her emotions and force them into anger as it suited her. I had a lot of traits like hers. But one I didn’t have: Nana fully pissed off was frightening. She said, “It is a mark you must have.”
“Must have?” Celia choked. “It’s a vampire’s filthy stain, Demeter!”
I winced. Filthy. True, but it still hurt.
Nana said, “If Persephone is the Lustrata, she must have it.”
Now I really, really didn’t want to be the Lustrata.
“Ummm…what’s a ‘lostraduh’?” Theo asked.
“Lus-TRA-ta,” Nana corrected. “She is the one destined to erase the lines drawn between humans and wærewolves, vampires, and witches. The one whose word will be law to the benefit of all.”
“Okay, that’s new,” I mumbled.
“Wait a minute, I’m not following you,” Johnny said. “Why does the Lustrata have to be marked?”
Nana poked at the eggs on her plate. “You know, Persephone, you were named for a goddess.”
I’d been patient with her rambling up until now, but now she was bringing up the meaning of my name? “What does that have to do with being stained?”
“The original Persephone walked in three worlds: the world of the gods, that of humans, and the underworld of the dead. As Lustrata, it is you who must be able to walk between worlds. You are a human and a witch, so you live in this world. You already have a presence in the wære-world through your friends and your column. But you need a mark to have a presence in the vampires’ world. It’s like…like a bus pass.”
My words came slowly, trembling with anger and fear. “I don’t want a presence in their world.”
Hard as nails, the Nana I remembered from my youth said, “What you want has become irrelevant.”
Johnny looked at me as if I had a new horrible disfigurement that revolted him. He left the dining room and stomped through the living room and out my front door. His shadow passed the window as he strode off the porch.
My phone rang. I slid from the seat with coffee mug in hand and went to answer it, fearing it would be the errand boy confirming a time for pickup. The voice on the other end of the line wasn’t one I’d expected. “Hey, Seph. You’re never going to guess what I’m calling about.”
It was Jimmy Martin, my contact at the syndicate that had agreed to try to sell my column. Suddenly, I wondered if he was the errand boy, if he had ties to Menessos, if—wait. He sounded happy; he’d never sounded happy. “What’s up?”
“I just got word that your column has been picked up for syndication by ten major newspapers, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the LA Times, and the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, among others. I didn’t even know they were sniffing around. We’ve never had anything like this happen before!”
I felt a cold shiver go through me. “That’s…that’s great, Jimmy.”
&nbs
p; “Oh, yeah, and there was a message, too. Where’d it go?”
“Message?”
“Yeah. Here it is. Says, ‘You have nothing to fear.’ Cryptic, huh? Like a fortune cookie or something. Just don’t start thinking you’re set, hotshot. Not yet. You do this right, and you can write your own ticket to television. Columns can turn into news segments and then into half-hour shows. And you don’t even blog! This is crazy…”
Nothing to fear. Nothing to fear. “That’s great, Jimmy.”
“You don’t sound too happy about it.”
“No, I am. I am. Just surprised. Stunned. Like you said, we didn’t even know they were interested. And right now, I’ve got company here….”
“Oh, sorry. Go share your good news. I got to get back to work myself. Bye.”
“Bye.” I clicked the button on the receiver, but kept hold of it.
Nothing to fear. That was what I’d told Menessos. What was that obviously well-connected jerk up to? Showing me how great he could make my life, only to use that as a means to tighten the screws of control and threaten me with ruining my career? Hell, he could do it, apparently. Without the column, I’d be delivering papers just to support Nana and Beverley.
I hung the phone up. Through the window, I saw Johnny in the backyard, staring out across the stubbly cornfield. His hands in his jeans pockets, his back to the house; his weight was evenly distributed on both legs, and it reminded me of the stance of the black wolf. I left my empty mug by the coffeepot and went out through the garage to the backyard.
That ache remained with me; I was aware of it most when nothing else was distracting me from it. Then Johnny’s body provided an adequate distraction. He made no move to indicate he heard me coming, but being a wære, he couldn’t have not known.
“Johnny.”
“Yeah.”
“I just got an interesting phone call from my syndicate.”
That surprised him enough that he faced me. “What about?”
“Seems my column was just picked up by most every major newspaper in the U.S.”
Vicious Circle Page 23
