“What do you mean?”
“Xerxadrea’s calling.”
A second of static was followed by, “Persephone?”
“Yes?”
“Are you attending the Ball tomorrow?” She sounded very happy.
“Yes. I thought showing my support for Hunter would be a good thing.”
“I agree. Several members of my lucusi are flying in to attend. I look forward to introducing you to them.”
I wondered if they were flying in planes or on broomsticks. With her, I wouldn’t have been surprised to discover it was the latter. “I’m looking forward to it as well.”
“Blessed be.”
Static again. I pulled the phone away and saw Sam sitting before a switchboard with a headset on, acting like he was chewing gum and filing his nails. “Can you believe it used to be done this way?” he said as he jerked the wire from one spot on the board and plugged it into another. Then, with a bored expression he waved his hand and the props disappeared. He stood and the seat faded away. “Go on, get your wicked witchery done. I’m out of here.” He walked out of frame.
Shoving the phone back into my pocket, I sorted through the supplies and gave another thought to the Tarot card I’d pulled for a quick reading on what I was about to do. It had been the nine of wands. It meant steadfastness despite resistance; it meant acquiring leadership, a journey, a new and freer way of thinking. To me, it embodied encouragement to proceed.
Not long after I moved into the farmhouse, I had created a ring of mortar and topped it with various stones. Inside the ring the grass grew just as it did outside of it. Admittedly, mowing the interior wasn’t easy. Measured precisely, the mortar had the compass points clearly marked, and five equidistant holes. Taking an eight-inch iron spike wrapped in copper wire from the basket, I dropped it into the first hole, leaving about an inch sticking up. After placing the other four spikes, I put candles on each compass point. Placing a tray in the center and assembling my supplies, I slipped out of my shoes, curled my toes in the cold grass, and began.
A new moon symbolizes the universe’s natural and unrefined resources. It’s a time to work, to begin projects, and apply that energy to good use. But this was the full moon, the manifestation of what was begun, and the answer from the divine. It was my intention to draw that culmination of events to me and embrace it as the Lustrata should. Through this ritual I would demonstrate my acceptance to the Goddess.
I cleansed and blessed the space with each element, lit the illuminator candles on the tray, and cast my circle just outside the mortar ring. Then, after lighting the quarter candles and calling the elemental spirits to guard my circle, I lifted a spool of glittering, silver ribbon. My fingers unwound it slightly and secured the end to the spike to my left. I unwound the ribbon to cross the circle and wind it around the right-side spike, repeating the move until I created a silver-ribbon pentagram. Starting from the left, this was also an invocation of water—the predominant element connected to this ritual’s aspects.
My astrological correspondences were such that the sun had entered Scorpio and the moon was passing through Taurus. Though I’m not the sharpest witch when it comes to astrology, my experience tells me the sun-sign lends regeneration and resourcefulness at this time. The moon-sign influence made me see that what mattered most is ending the suffering that people—be they normal, furry, winged, or fanged—cause each other.
This was the night to ask for the wisdom to discern where instincts can help or harm. Recognizing and controling impulses was the only way to bring balanced co-existence to all. Combine all that with the wish-making of a blue moon and it was an opportunity I couldn’t miss.
Stepping over ribbon to stand in the center of my circle, the center of my pentagram, I lifted my arms high and said, “I call upon the Mistress of the Mysteries! Upon She who is the Three Who are One! Past, Present, and Future … Queen of Heaven, Earth, and the Underworld. Maiden, Mother, and Crone! Queen of Witches! My Goddess, Hecate!”
Face to the moon, my breathing slowed and I centered myself, grounded myself. “As I draw down the moon, free its light, release its energy, impart your silver and gold power, entrust it to this body, and let it fill me.”
I kept my eyes focused on the bright moon above. My mouth opened and my lungs drank the moonlit air. As if my spirit could stretch out from my lifted arms and brush fingertips across the lunar surface, I reached above. Setting my will into the astral, my wish under this blue moon, I let the words sing through my mind and leave my lips in a whisper, “I accept the mantle of the Lustrata. Place it upon my shoulders and grant me the wisdom to keep my feet upon this path that I may be what You have made me, that I may accomplish the goals You set before me, that I may be Your instrument, humble and just, and that I may fulfill my purpose.”
Above myself, I saw my wish, my words, tumbling in the astral air. Symbols glowing, this pattern of light filtered down into the ethereal. There, to my amazement, each symbol became a circle. They looped in on themselves and linked together forming row after row like chain mail. Then this armor of light sank through the ethereal and down to my shoulders, my words, manifest. A badge with the balanced symbol of the scales rested over my heart.
Feeling this approval, this gift of Hecate, I felt my knees bend and I knelt.
“If I may be granted a wish, grant me knowledge that I may know when to dispense swift justice and when to offer aid. I wish to know my heart and trust it to be strong, to lead me well, and not to betray my purpose with foolish emotions. May my heart know the difference.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
The next morning, while Beverley brushed her teeth, I carried the box of doughnuts and two six-packs of orange juice around to the storm cellar. Cars were lined down one side of my driveway as they usually were for the full moon. Two of them I didn’t recognize. Assuming one belonged to Theo, she’d had to replace her wrecked SUV, the other made me mildly curious. It wasn’t unusual for some waeres I didn’t know to occupy the spare kennel. If they became regulars, though, it meant we’d have to add another section of caging to stay ahead.
Quietly, I descended the steps into this underworld of snoring waeres, pulling the cellar door shut behind me. Though I’d have preferred to let the light in, the cool air would follow me and I’d rather let them sleep. Their suitcases and duffels were piled near the steps. I stepped far out and around them as my eyes hadn’t adjusted to the near-dark. I set the food and drinks in the center, then approached the first cage. Here, a black couple I didn’t recognize cuddled together on the hay. After unlocking it, I moved on. Next, Celia and Erik spooned on their sides. Tom and Jericho Patrick—we called them Tom and Jeri like the cartoon—lay in the next kennel, and after them was Theo, lying with one leg over Feral, who sprawled on his back, legs and arms flung widely outward. I averted my eyes and tended the lock.
Lastly, I turned to the darkest, rearmost cage, knowing it was where Johnny always kenneled.
Even without their pom-poms, I recognized the blond twins that lay spooning on either side of him.
Busily attending the lock, my fingers performed the function automatically. Insert key, twist, pull.
Someone stirred in the hay. I looked down.
“Red,” Johnny whispered. He stretched, remembered he wasn’t alone, then seemed to realize what I was seeing. His mouth opened and closed but nothing came out.
“If you’re able to talk before you leave, there’s a conversation we need to have,” I said softly, giving him the blankest of expressions.
I left the cellar.
An hour later, someone knocked on my door.
From my bedroom where the busywork of sorting laundry kept me from nonproductive pacing, I’d heard the cars leaving and expected this. I’d asked Nana to remain upstairs so we could have privacy. She promised.
At the bottom of the stairs, though, I grew worried. The shadows beyond my door meant far more than one person was waiting. And I could hear them whispering hotly ba
ck and forth.
I opened the door to see Theo and Celia in front, Erik and Johnny behind them.
Before I could ask them to come in, Theo stepped forward. “What the fuck did you do to us?” Her tone wasn’t aggressive, just concerned.
“What?” Was something wrong with the doughnuts?
“When you did the spell that forced us all to change.”
Oh. This was the first regular change the four of them experienced since Theo’s accident. “You better come in,” I said, proceeding down the hall.
The four of them followed me into the kitchen. “Coffee?”
“No, just answers,” Theo said.
“I want coffee,” Erik said.
Celia cut around me, putting her hand on my arm in passing. “I’ll make it, Seph.”
“Thanks.” To Theodora I said, “Tell me what’s going on.”
She sank into a chair at the dinette. “I remember last night. All of it. We all do.”
I wanted to make a wisecrack, but refrained. Last time this group sat around my table, Johnny admitted that even in wolf-form he kept his human sensibilities. I slid into the bench seat and scooted down. I asked him, “Anything different for you?” Aside from sharing your kennel, that is.
He shook his head. “No.” His eyes flicked to the empty portion of bench beside me as if he were thinking of sitting there. But he didn’t.
“This is what it’s like for you all the time?” Theo asked. “Never losing yourself to the wolf?”
“Yeah.”
“I can’t kennel with Feral ever again,” she said, running hands over her hair and clasping them at the back of her neck. Her elbows hugged around her head as if she could hide her face.
“Why not?” I asked.
“He wouldn’t stop trying to mount me!” She peered through her arms at Johnny, who’d taken up a position in the doorway to the dining room. “Ugh! And Tom and Jeri, and Steve and Cherynna—all they did was mate!”
Johnny shrugged and said, “That’s what you guys always do. That’s why I always …” He couldn’t say he always kenneled alone anymore. His arms crossed over his chest and studied the floor.
Behind me Celia took mugs from the cupboard and set them on the counter none-too-lightly. Tense silence followed, broken when the coffee started perking. The smell of it seemed strong and ashy, repellent to me. “The soundproofing isn’t there only because you howl,” I said quietly, noting that Steve and Cherynna must be the new couple I saw. “It’s also there to mask the mating sounds.”
“If it’s the four of us, it has to be because of the spell you did,” Theo said.
I didn’t doubt her logic. “I didn’t know it would have this effect.”
“I don’t understand,” Celia said to Theo. “Are you unhappy about it? Do you not want to keep your sensibility about you?”
“It felt like I was trapped with a rapist all night, Celia!”
“Oh, god.” Her tone faltered. “I didn’t, I mean …”
“Forget it. It’s fine.”
“Let me get Nana,” I said, scooting from the bench. “Maybe she’ll be able to shed some light on this.”
I explained to her what was going on as we came down the steps. Entering the kitchen, I resumed my spot on the bench. Nana stood there considering the waeres. “Well,” she said to Johnny, “if Seph did this to the rest of them, who did it to you?”
Good question.
“And when?” she added, shuffling over to sit beside me. “And why? And did they know it would have that effect?”
“I’ve struggled with those questions for eight years, Demeter.”
“Can we assume, since Johnny maintains his sense of self, that we will likewise be aberrations from now on?” Erik asked, sipping coffee Celia had poured him.
Nana hit the tabletop and stared at me. “An aberrant pack of wolfen!”
“What?” Theo asked.
“I did some research on the Lustrata and—”
“And,” I cut her off, “before we get sidetracked, I have to ask something.” I paused. “I know I’m not supposed to know. I know you won’t want to tell me. But we’ve deepened the level of trust among us in the last month. Witches have their legends. Waeres must have theirs. Don’t they tell you about them in the six weeks you’re gone for your fortieth full moon?”
Looks shot around like wild pinballs. No one spoke. I turned to Celia, thinking she would be the one to break, to show me she trusted me. We’d been friends since college.
But it was Johnny who spoke. “No. The purpose of the den is other,” he said.
“Johnny,” Celia protested.
“She’s the Lustrata!” He came forward. “She must have a foot in our world.”
“What if that’s all bullshit?” Erik asked. “No offense, Seph, but this hero-witch business isn’t easy to accept.”
“No offense taken,” I said.
“She is,” Johnny insisted. “She gave you the gift, how can you not believe?”
“Gift?” I asked.
“Everyone knows waeres lose their humanity—body and mind—when they transform, but don’t you realize you have been given half of that back?” He faced Erik. “Once you told me that when the beast rose the man sank and it left you feeling robbed. Now you’ll be a man, always! You won’t act like an animal, unless you choose to,” Johnny said.
I decided to remember that last remark for later. “What about your at-will partial transformation?” Okay, it was a dirty Nana-trick to ask him in front of everyone, knowing he’d be forced to respond because everyone would pressure him if he didn’t, but I intended to get my answer. “Can they do that too?”
Johnny glared at me.
I glared back.
“You can do that?” Theo asked him pointedly.
Johnny turned like he would walk out, but his feet didn’t carry him away. He spun back, angry. Jaw closed tight, breathing hard through his nostrils, his forearms crossed before him, he made fists so hard he shook. With a low growl he lowered his arms, opening his hands as he did. Nail beds narrowed and elongated, fingers went dark and slightly furry. Bones popped as his fingers grew thick and long. He shouted and fell to his knees, panting. His head hung.
Stunned, we were all silent as his arms hung limp at his sides and claws reverted to normal hands.
“Domn Lup,” Nana whispered.
“How the hell did you do that?” Erik demanded, moving to offer Johnny a hand.
“Will.”
“Can you go all the way?”
Johnny brightened, opened his mouth, surely to say something lewd, but shut it without uttering anything. His answer was simply, “Not yet.”
“Yet?”
“It’s easier when I’m angry. I haven’t been that angry.”
Celia asked, “Does the dirija know about any of this?”
Johnny shook his head no.
“Dirija?” I asked.
“The title of the local supervisor.”
“And you’re pushing me to out myself to the Elders,” I said flatly.
“Speaking of the Lustrata,” he said, his attention transferring to Nana, “what did your research reveal, Demeter?”
“Oh no,” I cut in. “You still haven’t told me what goes on with the fortieth full moon and all.”
Hands on hips, he said, “At the end of our third year as a waere, the beginning of our fourth, we are called to participate in a group training exercise called the luna patruzeci. It means simply fortieth moon. We retreat to the Grimasa-azil, it is our home. The name means ‘grimace sanctuary’ because we change together, unkenneled, as a group. I attended the luna suta or hundredth moon, before I started kenneling here.”
“What kind of training exercise?” Nana asked.
“They say they’re teaching us for a worst-case scenario, but bottom line is, as men and women, we are taught to wage war.”
Nana twisted in her seat to stare and me and ask, “Now can I tell them?”
I conceded wi
th a small nod.
“I have foreseen the hostilities. They must be avoided at all costs.” She pursed her lips, then went on. “There are strong personalities among you. Strong minds. There are things you must do, things that may not soothe your nature, but will stir its opposition. And still it must be done.”
“What must we do?” Theo asked.
“You are a pack. More than that, you are the Lustrata’s pack. And she will have need of you.”
“You mean we’re her pets?” Erik asked, his tone clearly offended.
“Not pets,” Nana said, “but you must honor her summoning.”
Erik came forward. “No.” He stopped, facing Johnny. “No. For years we’ve worked on what we wanted. On the contract we now have in hand. I know, man, you’ve spent years on this Lustrata thing, but you can’t tell me you’ll blow off the label—your shot at fame—to stay in a farmhouse in Ohio and be the watchdog of a witch.”
Johnny hadn’t been slumping, but he rose up, shoulders squaring, chest broadening. Wordless, his posture said everything.
Erik asked, “You’re going to let this ruin the deal for the rest of us, aren’t you?”
Johnny didn’t flinch or blink.
“Celia,” Erik said, and left.
Head down, she followed him out.
“Nana, let me out.” I was going after them.
She didn’t budge from the end of the bench.
“Give him time,” Theo said. “He’ll cool down. They’ll be back.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Johnny turned and strolled into the living room, biker-boots tapping each slow step down the hallway.
Nana got up and motioned me to get off the bench.
“What?” I asked. She hadn’t moved an inch when I wanted out, but now she wasn’t giving me an option.
“Go talk to him,” she whispered.
After a glance at Theo, I scooted from the bench. Behind me, Theo asked, “So, Demeter, can you tell me about the spell that did this to us?”
Johnny stood in the living room. I couldn’t tell if he was staring out the picture window, with its view of Erik’s Infiniti just pulling out of sight, or if he was looking at the couch where we’d had sex.
Hallowed Circle (Persephone Alcmedi 02) Page 24
