by Aileen Erin
I walked around the circle, dumping salt over it, while saying the Our Father prayer. I would’ve thought that was enough, but the circle was still making my skin itch, so I went around it again.
And again.
“This isn’t working.” But I hadn’t tried the sage yet. I found a match by the edge of the circle, and struck it against the cement floor. The scent of the match covered everything up for a split second, but when it was gone, the rotting bodies smelled twice as bad.
I gagged as I lit the sage. “Hopefully this will help.” I walked around again, cleansing the circle, and then continued around the room. To the corners. The bookcases. I set my intentions on getting rid of the old and evil, and urging the ones who’d died in this room—human and not—to move on.
When I was done, I wanted the room to feel better, but it didn’t. Instead, it felt like the walls were closing in on me. “I think I can safely say that it didn’t work. I can’t break the circle.”
“It has to have worked.” Chris paused as he filled up the last box. “You were saying the right things. Maybe you just don’t feel it because of all the other crap in this room?”
I looked at Dastien for a second before shrugging. What do you think?
I don’t feel magic like you do. I’m a fighter and a werewolf. This place feels wrong, but I don’t know if what you did worked or not. It should’ve, but we both know that not everything works the way it should.
I glanced back at the circle. The white salt was covering up most of the black circle now. Salt typically neutralized magic, but I wasn’t sure what the deal was. The circle still felt evil as fuck. The only way to know if it worked is to cross the circle, and I don’t think I have the guts for that. “Any chance the Cazadores keep grenades in their bags?”
Chris let out a surprised laugh. “No, but now I wish they did.”
“What else do you have in your car that could—” A tingle of magic started tickling the back of my neck and I scrunched up my shoulders. The urge to look at the circle grew stronger, so I ignored it and stayed facing the guys.
This is bad.
What’s wrong? Dastien took a step toward me. I could actually feel him getting closer to the circle.
“You’re mine!” The voice sounded right in my ear and I jumped across the room. I slammed into the wall. A couple shelves broke with the impact, scattering books and jars to the ground. But I didn’t care. My body felt cold even as sweat started dripping down my forehead, but I couldn’t look at the circle.
Chérie!
I might have been imagining Astaroth’s voice, but I wasn’t about to take the chance. Not after what I’d seen in my visions.
I grabbed one of the totes from Dastien. “We’re leaving. You’ve got ten seconds to grab whatever and then we’re out of here.”
What the hell is going on? Dastien asked.
“He’s coming.” I forced myself to look at the circle. Nothing had changed, but I couldn’t deny what I’d heard. I ran to the armoire and threw open the doors.
Jackpot. Inside were some ceremonial knives, a few hidden baggies of things I didn’t want to look too closely at, and ten more books.
The circle in the floor started to glow, confirmation that the salt and sage hadn’t worked. Not even a little bit.
I scanned the room once more for anything I’d missed, but I kept going back to the objects in the center of the circle.
The goblet. The dagger. And the little jar with a feather.
The circle brightened, lighting the room with a red sheen.
He was almost here.
Dastien was grabbing some books, but it was past time to go. Come on! We have to get out of here. I yelled through the bond.
What do you see?
Don’t you see the circle? It’s glowing.
No. I don’t see anything.
Shit. I glanced at it one more time, but the same three objects were calling to me.
It could be a trap. I wanted to take them, but I didn’t know why. But Samantha had said to keep my eyes open. That I needed something that existed on both planes to cut the tie, and there was something about that dagger…
Screw it. Astaroth was coming anyway. And if any of those three things could save me from Astaroth, then I had to grab them.
Thinking about it more was a waste of time. I jumped into the circle. The black film of magic coated my skin like slime.
Ignoring Chris and Dastien’s cursing, I grabbed the things I needed, throwing them quickly in my bag. “Run!”
Chris was already jumping through the trapdoor with the bankers boxes when I turned around.
I sprinted to the trapdoor.
“You first!” Dastien picked me up and threw me through the hole. I landed on my feet and started running without looking back. I could feel Dastien jumping through the trapdoor after me and heard the thud as he hit the ground.
I’d never moved so fast in my life. Chris had gotten there first so he was in the driver’s seat. Dastien and I jumped through the open trunk.
I reached up to pull the SUV door closed. “Go! We have to get the fuck out of here! Now!” I screamed as Chris slammed on the gas, racing down the tiny road before I’d gotten the door fully closed.
I didn’t want to, but I couldn’t stop myself from looking back.
A figure flew out of the basement. I couldn’t see any wings, but they had to be there. I’d never seen anything move like that before—hovering for a second before swooping to the ground.
The little boy from the diner landed ten feet behind the car. The impact shook the earth. Dust and dirt splattered against the car windows.
I froze. Watching Astaroth come toward us.
Chris was driving fast, but not fast enough.
You’re mine. He was getting smaller in the distance, but I could hear his voice like he was sitting next to me.
Cold sweat broke out on my face and I covered my ears. I didn’t want to hear his voice. I didn’t want to be this close to him again.
There was a roar so loud I thought the windows on the car would shatter.
One of the witch’s abandoned cars flew through the air, landing right in front of us.
Chris swerved, barely missing it. “Shit. What are we going to do?”
“Go faster,” I said as I climbed into the front seat. “Samantha said that he loses power the farther we get from the circle. And it’s daylight. He should turn back.” I hoped she was right this time. Something about that circle felt different… “Just put as much space as you can between us and him.”
“Shit,” Chris said. “Shit. Just fucking shit.” He took a turn too fast, and the wheels of the car started to lift off the ground.
You can run, but you’re still mine.
I closed my eyes. “Did you hear that?” I whispered.
“No,” Chris said.
After a second, Dastien said, “I did.”
I spun to face him. His eyes were wide and lit with his wolf. His normally tanned skin looked ghost white, and a glimmer of sweat beaded on his brow. “You did.” It wasn’t a question because I could see it on his face. I could feel the answer from the panic I felt from him.
“Through the bond.” This is bad, chérie. His terror burned like acid.
Dastien being scared amped up my own fear. We couldn’t both be terrified, otherwise, I wasn’t going to get through this. I tightened up the bond, and he growled, stopping me.
“I can’t handle your fear and mine right now. Try to calm down, please.” I wanted to be able to send some reassurance through the bond like he had for me so many times, but I was struggling to find any, especially with how bad Dastien was freaking out.
There was something totally unnerving about seeing my rock turn to dust, and he couldn’t do that. Not right now. I needed him to stay my rock.
I’m trying. I just, I think I know why you’ve been having nightmares. And the terror when you had that vision or whatever it was… Tessa. Please tell me we’re going to
get through this.
“Can he come on St. Ailbe’s grounds?” Chris asked.
I shrugged. “She didn’t draw a circle there that I know of, but her magic is there. So eventually, maybe? He came through in some of my visions.” My heart started to slow to a more reasonable pace. “I’m hoping he’s stuck back there for now.”
“Me, too,” Chris said. “But I’m not slowing down.”
“No. Don’t you dare slow down.” The smell in the car was sickly sweet, and I knew it wasn’t just me and Dastien that were scared.
The terror from Astaroth was real. Tangible. It had weight, but as we raced back to campus, I realized that I had to shut the fear down. It wasn’t going to help me, not even a little bit. Fear never did. Astaroth wanted me too scared to think straight, and I couldn’t let that happen. He already had the upper hand. He was powerful.
I shoved my fear deep down, and built a wall around it. “That was way too close, but we got away.” Thinking positive would have to get me through this.
“Any ideas on how to keep from running into him again? Because I want to never be that freaked out again,” Chris said.
I wished I had a good answer for him. The truth was, we’d probably see him at least one more time. “I don’t know anything more than I did a few minutes ago, but at least we know for sure that the circles Luciana cast are still open. I don’t know how that was possible, but the fact that I don’t know isn’t that surprising. I’m so new to—”
“You’re not that new,” Chris said. “You’re learning fast and you have a good head on your shoulders. What does your gut say?”
“Claudia might know more…” I let out a breath. “But we got some stuff from Luciana’s lair, and that’s not nothing.” Going through it all was going to take time we didn’t have, so I was counting on Claudia to help figure out what was immediately useful.
“We’re going to stop Astaroth.” I said it aloud to make it feel more real. “I’ll make it happen.”
“Good,” Chris said. His grip loosened a little on the steering wheel. “Good. Thanks. I needed to hear that.”
“Me, too.” And so did Dastien. He was currently bowed over his knees with his head in his hands. His thoughts were choppy as he tried to come to grips with what he’d heard.
That voice. The way Astaroth could shake the earth like it was going to rip in two. The fact that he could drag us down to Hell with him.
It was one thing for me to tell Dastien about Astaroth, for him to run from a beast in LA, but it was another thing for him to hear Astaroth’s voice. It was like nothing else.
I’m going to figure this out, I sent through the bond, but he was still freaking out. It was understandable. I’d freaked out the night before, so he was due, but I had to make a plan.
First up was to get back to campus and sort through this stuff. And then I was going to have to find a way to get in touch with Eli. Because if I couldn’t make a deal with him, then maybe we really were screwed.
Dastien squeezed my hand. We’ll get through this, right?
Of course. I just prayed I wasn’t lying.
Sixteen
The second we stepped into the Admin building, I could hear arguing. There were a few voices layered on top of each other, which made it so that I couldn’t quite figure out what anyone was saying or what the fight was about.
I followed the sound down the hall and into the library, with Chris and Dastien trailing behind me. I’d gotten off easy, only carrying one of the totes. The guys had the rest of the haul from Luciana’s lair. The dark feeling that we were on borrowed time hung over my head, and the fact that my friends were fighting didn’t make me feel any more hopeful about our situation.
I braced myself as I opened the door to the library. My friends were all standing around the table. Adrian was quiet. He had a stack of papers and some books in front of him. He was the only one actively doing research in the room. The gold star went to Adrian.
The rest of them…
Lucas was red faced and seething in one of the chairs as he watched the commotion, which—shockingly enough—was mostly caused by Claudia. My sweet, proper cousin who blushed when I cursed was currently yelling at Mr. Dawson. And Raphael? He was yelling even more.
I was glad to see Raphael was back, but whoa. This was a mess.
I’d thought they were going to help me come up with some solutions, not sit around and bicker. What had gotten into my cousins?
I dropped the bag of books on the floor with a loud clunk, but the fighting kept going. “What’s going on?” When no one stopped talking, I looked at Dastien and Chris, both of whom looked just as confused as I did.
Dastien gave me one of his half-shrugs, but he knew what they were talking about. He was much better at listening to select voices at the same time.
I’m not sure, but I think Michael said something that basically blamed the witches for everything that’s happening.
Yikes. How in the hell did that come up?
Don’t know.
Fighting right now wasn’t helping. “This needs to stop. We just outran Astaroth. Again. I don’t think we’re going to get that lucky a third time.”
“I’d prefer if there were no third time,” Chris muttered as he set the two boxes on the ground.
“Ditto. We need to get them working again.” It was past time for me to step in. “Hey, everyone.”
Nothing.
I clapped my hands. “Hey!”
Nothing.
I couldn’t do the loud, fingers-in-your-mouth-whistle thing, so I did the only thing that I figured could work, even if it could be considered a bit rude. But I couldn’t think of a faster way to shut everyone up. “Stop talking! Now!” I shoved a ton of power with the words through the room.
Instantly the room went quiet.
I hadn’t expected it to work that well, especially on Lucas and Mr. Dawson. “Thanks. Now, can someone please tell me what you’ve figured out?”
Everyone started talking at once, and I held up a hand.
I scanned the faces of my friends, and found Lucas to be the most red faced. I could almost feel him pushing against the power, straining to answer. “Lucas. Please, tell me what’s going on.”
“I’d be happy to, but next time, less power.”
“Of course.” As long as they didn’t all start fighting again. “I’m guessing whatever you’ve found out, it’s bad.”
“The problem is that we’ve found nothing. I think most of this is stress. If we all just agree to put the poorly stated words from Michael behind us, then we can get back to work.”
“Poorly stated words?” The question was full of venom. Her gaze narrowed as she took another step toward Mr. Dawson. I didn’t think I’d ever seen Claudia this mad before. I had to admit, my cousin was kind of scary. “He’s repeatedly stepped in when it wasn’t his place. He still has yet to apologize for not notifying me about the demon attacks, and now—now—he says that it was my fault.” Claudia shot her mate a look, but he pulled her down on his lap. They were quiet for a second before Claudia sighed. “You’re right. We’ll deal with this later.”
“Fine,” Mr. Dawson said, even though I was pretty sure he didn’t mean it was any kind of ‘fine.’ “I have some other things to see to. I’ll be back later.” With that he stormed from the room, slamming the door behind him.
The room was quiet for a second, and Claudia sighed again. “What’d you find?” she asked me.
“Not sure, but we got a lot. Her basement was massive. Maybe a little bigger than her house.”
Claudia’s face went white. “No. How could it be so big? I don’t know for sure, but I really don’t think anyone knew about a basement. Right?” She looked to her brother.
Raphael shook his head. “It’s the first I’m hearing of it.”
“I wasn’t sure what I should take or not, but…” I looked back the pile of stuff the guys had placed on the floor. “Hopefully it’s something more than what you’ve found
.”
“Which is a whole bunch of nothing.” Adrian shoved away the book he’d been reading.
“Well, maybe we have something now.” I grabbed the bag from where I dropped it and walked to one of the tables. “So, there’s good news, bad news, and really fucking shitty news,” I said as I started putting the objects I’d taken last minute.
Claudia hissed when she saw the knife. “What’s the bad news?”
“There are a lot of dead bodies in Luciana’s basement. Not sure if it was Astaroth or Luciana—”
“My guess is Astaroth. Some of the bodies were fresh,” Dastien said.
How did you know that? I asked him.
I’m a trained Cazador.
Right. But I just pictured him staying around St. Ailbe’s and teaching martial arts all the time. I guessed there was more to my mate than I knew.
“What’s the good news?” Lucas said.
“We escaped Astaroth and made it back here alive.” That was pretty amazing news in my book. “Go us!”
Adrian jumped up so fast his chair toppled to the ground. “Is he coming here? Is that the really fucking bad news?”
“No. At least not right away. Eventually, probably.” I was trying not to think about that, though.
I put the last of the objects on the table and folded the bag before looking at each of my friends. “But the more important thing to note is that there’s an open, active circle down there that Astaroth can enter whenever he wants, and I couldn’t break it.” Claudia made a whispering noise, but I kept going. “Not with sage or salt or prayer. I didn’t have much time before he showed, so maybe it’s still possible? But I’m not going back and I’m not sure any of us should mess with it. The only reason we’re still alive is because—as of now—he’s still tied to that circle, but if he gets enough power to escape it, then we’re screwed.”
“What are you going to do?” Raphael asked. He was visibly shaking, and I didn’t blame him. He was still tied to Astaroth. Just like I was. And since I was Astaroth’s end game, Raphael was probably up next.
I sighed. “We’re going to make a new bond that seals this plane.”
