Hallowed Circle c-2 Page 3

  Allergic to asphalt and iron, the fey had wanted to return to their own realm completely. They no longer wished to be bound to witches who could jerk them without warning from that world—where time ran differently—for the purpose of protecting a circle. Long before the other-than-merely-humans had come out of hiding, back in 1971, the Concordat Munus affirmed that the fey had, for lack of a better term, unionized. They were not to be summoned by witches ever again, or the witches would suffer the consequences. Elementals had agreed to stand—in spirit form—as our protectors in place of the fairies.

  While the fey remained free to visit our world, such sojourns were rare due to their allergies.

  I'd seen fairies on TV, but never in person. I was drawn to study her otherworldly face, so delicate and innocent. But I knew the fables. The fey only look frail. That misconception of frangibility had led humans to lose their fear of something very dangerous. "Why are you here?"

  "I am here because of Menessos." She followed his name with a tremulous "Ahh…" sounding like a lovestruck teen.

  "Oh. Great." There was no enthusiasm in my tone.

  "He is quite lovely, is he not?"

  Okay, so he was the walking, talking body double for Arthur Pendragon, my myth-based fantasy man who had romanced me in my dreams for as long as I could remember. He might be hot, but he was still a vampire. My fingers tapped on my thighs. "I suppose."

  "Suppose?" She flipped her tail and seemed to swoon, falling slowly to the side, her hair gliding fluidly up. Outside the bubble, the rain fell harder still. "He is gorgeous to my eyes, but I forget myself." She floated upright again. "Thou art Persephone and thou hast tempted him back into the circle."

  That was what Samson D. Kline had told me, shortly before Menessos beheaded him. Later, Menessos confirmed it. "I didn't know he'd been refraining at the time."

  "Regardless, I thank thee."

  "I'm glad you're happy about it." Maybe she would keep him busy and away from me.

  "I am his southern quarter guardian, and now I know I shall see him again."

  Did she not know of the Concordat?

  "The guardians of the north, east, and south are fearful, now that he hath returned to the circle. But I yearn for his beckoning." She paused, expression dreamy.

  I realized she and the other three «guardians» did indeed know of the agreement with the witches. I already knew Menessos was not just a vampire. He was a vampire-wizard, a sorcerer. I had no idea how or if the Concordat applied to him and it sounded as if the fairies were none too sure themselves.

  Her expression turned serious and she eased forward to slip a cold hand to my wrist. Her dark eyes, eerie with much larger irises than a human's, searched my face. "Be warned, sweet Persephone: the others have taken to plotting. And while I would do naught that would earn my master's wrath, the others seek only to dispense with their binding by any means. Thou art precious to him, else he would not have entered thy circle. This hath not occurred to my counterparts, sweet Persephone, but it will," she said gravely. "I beseech thee to take precautions and protect thyself."

  "I will now," I said.

  "I cannot linger." Even as she said the words, the rain slacked off.

  I wondered if my world was, to the fey, like my personal meditation world where a jackal named Amenemhab counseled me. "Go, Aquula. And thank you."

  She faded back into a mist. With a low pop, the bubble burst. The smell and sound of the ocean faded. While the fleeting raindrops pressed the mist back into the earth, the branches overhead shielded me.

  I sat in the grove thinking. Vivian's stake had been destroyed by my hand. Menessos owed me. Acceptable repayment, as far as I was concerned, would simply be him staying the hell away from me. But if his enemies were going to think of me as a tool to be used for retaliating against him, maybe I needed to call in the favor he owed me.

  I started back into the rows of cornstalks to make my way back to the house; it was barely sprinkling now. A few steps in, I heard a twig snap elsewhere in the field.

  I stopped.

  Probably a deer… unless it was one of Menessos's loyal beholders. If he commanded, any of those vampire-wannabe-muscleboys would keep an eye on me for him.

  This was my land, my twenty acres, damn it! I should feel safe taking a walk here, not paranoid.

  Of course, if it were the fey already making their move…

  Or… Menessos himself had told me of his enemies searching for ways to manipulate him via the connections he made…

  A breath caught in my throat.

  As I started moving slowly through the field toward the house, distant steps mimicked the rhythm of my own, attempting to disguise their presence. My hearing was definitely improved by the damnable stain I'd received, but I was far from grateful for that or any other «enhancements» it granted.

  I came to an abrupt stop to avoid walking face-first into the broad web of a corn spider, then heard a snap behind me. Silence.

  Stay calm. Think.

  Gauging the last sound, I guessed my pursuer was about fifty feet behind me.

  Adrenaline flooding my system, my flight instinct screaming, I bolted under the web and forward, using the biochemical boost to run for my backyard as fast as I could, swatting stalks out of my path. Though running blindly, I knew my steps were swifter than ever before.

  Another bonus from the stain.

  Air flowed more easily and deeply into my lungs, oxygen and adrenaline passed quicker into my muscles. My body was functioning like a new and improved machine, every component of the whole working more efficiently and smoothly, as if some residue that had always impeded the higher level of operation had finally been cleaned away. Like a long overdue oil change.

  Was that residue my humanity? My soul?

  I stopped dead in my tracks.

  Another huge corn spider, black and yellow, hovered in the center of a dazzling web less than an inch from my nose.

  Dropping to my knees, I fought to control and quiet my breathing and crawled underneath and beyond the web. I could hear steps approaching, following, but cautiously. Still, I'd be found. It was only a matter of time.

  It was close. I sensed it.

  I shot up and ran. Behind me I heard squealing, swearing, flailing. A big spider and its web across your face can elicit a startled reaction even from the toughest. But it wouldn't stop whoever it was for long.

  I took off again, sprinting through the crackling stalks, feet sure under me even on the rain-slicked soil. I pushed for more speed, telling myself this was a race, not a chase. And I ran, ran for the clearing ahead, ran for home.

  My mind flashed on a different cornfield in my memory, reminding me of how as a child I'd fled like this on an equally dark night. Then, I was running away from all the fear and uncertainty in my life. My mother had gone, left me with Nana. I felt so unloved and everything was terrible. Instead of walking to Nana's apartment after school, I left the little town behind, tromped through woods, crossed a wheat field, a dirt road, and pushed into a cornfield. I never considered going back. Not even when night set in. I grew cold and scared, but instead of stopping, I literally began to run.

  I collapsed that night, exhausted and sobbing, between the rows. The Goddess came to me there. The memory reminded me of Her comfort. That was something to hold on to, something to be inspired by.

  I'll make it. I will!

  My pursuer was gaining ground behind me, panting breaths like a locomotive rhythm in my ears. I suddenly felt exposed, like playing «It» and I so hated that game. It is just behind me… if it catches me, I'll be It! I could no longer trick myself into thinking this was just a race. Fear kicked in and a different chemical flooded into my bloodstream and seemed to soak up my energy. My breaths didn't do enough. My legs felt like lead.

  Call on the ley! But I couldn't think of a spell-rhyme.

  Chapter 4

  "Persephone!"

  "Johnny!" Expending the oxygen to call out cost me. I could feel my pace
slow.

  My pursuer was right behind me. I felt fingers grasping at my back, reaching for my flannel shirt.

  "Persephone!"

  Johnny was closer now. Thank the Goddess!

  I burst from the cornfield and slammed right

  into Johnny. I think he tried to hold on to me, but I fell. Breathing hard, all I could smell was the grass in my face. My heart thudded against my rib cage like a Bumble Ball.

  "Someone's out there." I rolled onto my back.

  "I know, I can smell 'em. Erik." He nodded at Erik—the drummer for Johnny's band Lycanthropia—whom I hadn't noticed until then. The stalks rustled as Erik stormed into the field.

  "Are you all right?" Johnny crouched beside me.

  "Yeah."

  He grinned and said, "Yeah! The way you came across that field—holy shit! I didn't know you were a speed-demon. I bet you could outrun a waere. Does the U.S. Olympic Committee know about you?"

  Fighting to catch my breath, I couldn't laugh at Johnny's wisecrack. Besides, all I could think was: the speed, the hearing, that extra sense—Goddess knew what else—were undeniably «gifts» of Menessos's stain.

  "Hey, what's with the frown? You sure you're okay?"

  "Yeah, fine. Just catching my breath."

  "Frowns always happen for a reason," he said. Straightening up from his crouching position, he stared down at me and crossed his arms. "Fess up."

  "Just winded and scared." I sat up, in the damp grass, still breathing hard. "It's nothing."

  That wasn't true. There was plenty to frown about. Johnny didn't realize I still carried Menessos's stain. He thought the stain had been burned away by the pain and consequent empowerment the stake had brought me. Johnny was partially right: I could have been unstained, but the vampire's bonding had fused itself to pieces of me I didn't want to part with.

  Johnny didn't know the stain was now integral to my being. I could not be free of it without losing too much of my self.

  I hadn't told him because he was still licking his wounds over his fight with Menessos. While I knew Johnny genuinely cared for me, he wasn't fond of the flowers and art and not-so-small fortune's worth of other gifts that the master vampire sent me after I destroyed the stake rather than use it to end Menessos's existence.

  How could I say to him, "By the way, Johnny, I can still feel Menessos in the marrow of my bones"?

  Maybe if I understood more about this Lustrata thing… but all I had were questions and no answers. Nana said the Lustrata was supposed to have a stain in order to have a reason to be a part of the vampire's world. Maybe Johnny thought I'd just pick one up from a more agreeable vampire later.

  "C'mon, tell me what's causing that furrow in your brow or I won't help you up." Johnny stood over me, somehow combining his teasing smile with stubborn concern as only he could. His eyes, tattooed with the markings of the ancient Egyptian god Horus—the Wedjat—twinkled in the light that came from the house. He wore tight black jeans and an unbuttoned black-on-black shirt, flat black with stripes that were just a bit shinier. Under it, a white tank clung to his lean body, revealing the curve of pectorals, the dip under the sternum, the wave of abs. In the near-dark, it was all just levels of shadow, but those contours made me yearn to touch him, to rip off the shirt and reveal the myriad tattoos underneath so I could trace them with my fingers, with my tongue. The tight jeans with their pocket accent chains and scarlet wolf's-head patches paired with the leather biker boots completed Johnny's bad-boy rocker style. Oh. Yeah.

  "I can't tell you. If I do it'll just embarrass me and you'll rub it in."

  "Oh, I've got something I want to rub in all right." His pose faded and he reached down to give me a hand up, but somewhere in the stalks Erik gave a loud yelp. Johnny twisted away, ready to charge to the rescue of his drummer.

  "Fucking spider bit me!" Erik shouted from somewhere in the field.

  Johnny turned back and offered me his hand up again. "Anyway, Red, that run was impressive." He had started calling me Red—as in Red Riding Hood—a few weeks ago, when Nana moved in. He joked that visiting me "at Grandma's house" made him feel like the big, bad wolf. Except it was my house and Nana hated to be called "Grandma."

  I slipped my hand into his and he easily had me back up on my feet.

  With a devious smile, Johnny said, "Oh, look! You're covered in grass." He began brushing the little green blades off the arms of my flannel shirt, then stepped behind me and fluffed my dark hair gently. It made a shiver flow through me. Wiping debris from the back of the shirt, his hands swept lightly all over me. "It doesn't want to get off," he said. I could practically feel him thinking, But I do. He returned to my front and crouched, one hand brushing down the outer leg of my jeans while the other rested—surely only for the sake of balance—high on my inner thigh.

  As he worked, I watched his face, remembering how swollen his eye had gotten after the encounter with Menessos. He'd earned it, lying to me by omission. But I couldn't forget his earnestness, his sincerity. Johnny believed in me more than I believed in myself.

  And he wanted me. For all these months, he'd kenneled alone. And according to Celia and Erik, he hadn't even responded to the advances of any females—and there were plenty who advanced—at the band's live gigs.

  So.

  It seemed he'd been waiting for me. Hopelessly heart-challenged, relationship-disabled me.

  Me.

  Now we'd lived under the same roof for two weeks and although he made his desires clear every chance he got, he'd never forced the issue, never been overbearing or less than a gentleman, albeit a seductive gentleman with an unending talent for innuendo-laden conversation.

  For a waere, sexual abstinence was ridiculous. Their libidos were stuck on hyperdrive—and he'd been denying himself, mastering himself. Or taking a lot of cold showers waiting for me to wake up.

  Well, I had fully roused, and so had my yearning for physical satisfaction. Long ago, while in emotional pain, I dealt with a broken heart by convincing myself that my libido had overdosed on sleeping pills and would never get me into such hurtful trouble again. But my desires had awakened from the long coma and now seemed intent on making up for lost time. Problem was… had Johnny awakened them or had my stain been the blaring alarm clock?

  The rain-wet waves of his hair beckoned and my fingers strayed to those misplaced tendrils at his brow, caressing them away, lifting the cedar and sage scent of him to my nostrils. I wanted to touch so much more of him. Right now I yearned to—

  No. He deserved my anger for the danger he'd put Nana and Beverley in!

  I almost groaned aloud in frustration. For the last two weeks, that had been the biggest battle in my personal mental war about Johnny.

  No one was harmed, my conscience reminded me. That was true—Nana was indignant about the whole thing and Beverley had spent her «hostage» time playing video games so she seemed no worse for the incident—but that wasn't the point. They could have been harmed, even killed, due to Johnny's deceit.

  And I was also still waiting for him to explain to me how he'd managed an at-will partial transformation. He'd turned his hands to claws during his brief confrontation with Menessos. A waere just shouldn't be able to do that.

  Under any other circumstances, it meant a waere had gotten close to a witch's spell energies and stirred up an incomplete transformation. Incompletes invariably lost their minds and never got them back. They remained stuck in a state between human and animal, crazed and vicious. Because of this, police officers were expected to shoot them on sight.

  In addition to that un-waere-like talent, Johnny always kept his human sensibilities while transformed. He was unique in many ways.

  We'd been becoming more than "just friends" since saving the life of our friend Theodora, but when he pulled a fast switcheroo with the stake, I learned he was willful to the point of deceit if he thought it necessary. I couldn't fully trust him.

  And furthermore, if he was deserving of trust and discovered I wa
s still stained and would forever be controllable by Menessos, could he trust me?

  The Wedjat tattoos sharpened as he squinted slightly, his focus intensifying. Surely he detected my pheromones. Desire. Anger. A scent cocktail that a waere would crave.

  Our mutual sexual attraction was trying ardently to overwhelm rational thought. I clung to my shield—made of trust issues that should keep us divided and that fear in me that was unsure which part of me spawned this deep yearning—but my grip weakened more each day.

  "Such a sad smile from my Lustrata," he whispered. He stood, hands sliding up my legs, hips, then under the flannel to rest at my waist. The aroma of cedar and sage grew stronger, then as his hands came to my neck I detected something else.

  "I smell metal."

  He smirked. "It's from the guitar strings."

  "I never noticed it before."

  The damn stain had amped my sense of smell too.

  It was a vaguely familiar scent to me, now that he named it. I'd tried to learn to play on an acoustic guitar as a teen, and I'd picked up a dorm neighbor's electric one occasionally when the weather kept us all inside. I knew some chords; that was all.

  Johnny leaned in, ready to kiss me.

  Erik burst from the field at a run. When he saw us, he stopped, realized what he was interrupting, and said a quiet, "Oh. Uh. Sorry."

  "Well?" Johnny looked at Erik.

  "Whoever they were, they were fast. Practically flew outta here."

  Flew? My spine stiffened.

  Johnny's hands squeezed me reassuringly. "The scent?"

  "Nothing I could identify," Erik said. "You?"

  Johnny shook his head. "No."

  "I'm going to increase the perimeter of my wards," I said.

  "Good idea," Johnny said to me, then to Erik, "You okay?"

  I slipped away from them and started gathering my cut stalks.

  "Just a spider bite," Erik answered.

  "Aww," Johnny teased, "little vampire-bug sink fangs into you?"