Abel raised his elbow poking at the healing wound. Blood soaked into his jeans and t-shirt. He rolled his shoulder. He’d certainly met smarter humans maybe she was doing the world a favor by culling this one from the herd.
“It’s a risk,” he warned. Gentle a prod as he could muster.
Izobel made a face, her head tipped far to one side eyes squinted tight. Her hand slid inside the opening in his chest. Slippery and hot it seared her fingertips. Wetness oozed up the side of her wrist and she shuddered. She didn’t gag. It was a hard-fought battle but she won with a hard swallow and a sneer.
“No one will miss this guy, trust me,” she said emphatically.
Abel cocked a brow in question. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“He’s responsible for the brutal murders of two women. He got everything he deserved,” Izobel said.
She sat a gelatinous mass on the Sacrfice’s still stomach. Bloody hands pulled a silken scarf from her pocket. Izobel lay it out and placed his spleen, the heart and sucked in a deep breath to prepare for the next part.
When people think of magic it’s all about the instant gratification. So mote it be and the world bows to your will. The results spoke for themselves. But it was a little more complicated to get the powers that control the supply of such things to sit up and take notice of your petition.
“How do you know?” Abel asked.
“Magic,” Izobel said instead of listing the spells and divinations she’d been weaving together over the past week.
“You chose to sacrifice a serial killer?” he asked.
Izobel shrugged. It seemed like a good idea at the time. Finally, she picked up a rock. The thing was the size of his fist. She used it to stove his skull in. Even Abel turned away with a sneer. She pushed at the shards of broken bone.
She was trying to change the natural order. A price must be paid to balance the scales. That was the essence of magic. Balance. Everything spiraled out from there.
She nestled the bits of brain and bone into the scarf and folded it inside. Izobel rushed through the ending. Getting up off the cold ground, she held her right-hand perpendicular chanting whispers. She reached out and grabbed Abel’s hand. She guided him across the pavement to her side before she finished the incantation.
A flame kindled on the body. It burned blue consuming the man she’d killed. Izobel breathed in the smoke and the stench. The energy it becomes could be used for many an awful deed and those are the ingredients a witch prizes most. She would never be able to wash this from her hands. It had damned well be worth it.
64
Chapter
Izobel undid the clasp of her necklace and Zoe hunched outward trying to keep the silver from touching her skin. It ached like the most hyperborean ice she could fathom. It threatened to and crack and peel her skin. So dry. And that was over the shirt. Brushing it burned. And somehow that disparate sensation made it so much worse.
“Grab it,” Zoe commanded, her eyes a little wide.
Izobel’s eyebrows knit together but she reached for it. A three-inch polished piece of Opal shined at the center of a braided and beaded circle. Branches and roots grew from the jewel. The lines so delicate, myriad stones of all shapes and sizes sparkled as the leaves of a silver sculpted tree. The elongated thickness of the opal was clad in the armor of the roughness of its original geode. It reminded Izobel of a dream catcher. It had both size and weight.
With that clue, she worked it out for herself.
“The silver.”
Zoe nodded her head emphatically.
“It hurts so bad!”
Izobel carefully helped her take that and the string of red pearls along with it. She wrapped the silver pendant in the beads.
“In my Pocket,” Zoe directed gratefully.
“Where did you get that?” Izobel asked, Magda’s jewelry flashing in her mind’s eye.
“Johnny gave them to me. He said when all else fails, there’s still you.” Zoe swallowed past a tight throat. “No one in my life has ever believed in me that much. Not even Walter Horrawitz and what we had was true Love,” Zoe said, her eyes and expression selling the comical stakes.
“He only wanted you for your ice cream, Zo,” Izobel informed, shaking her head.
“Ah-ah,” Zoe said holding her finger up at her sister. “Don’t you dare! What we had was pure and true. You can’t take it away,” she mocked.
Izobel laughed at the joke. It died slowly and the silence between them mourned it. Izobel hated moments like these. In an infinite number of universes, one of them still didn’t work. In one of these layered realities, Zoe died. In a few others, it was Izobel who didn’t make it past the night. The chance that it could be them was a hard way of thinking to shake. It shoved Izobel’s pride out of the way. It crumbled her fear.
“I’m sorry, Zoe. I’m sorry I wasn’t there.”
Zoe’s eyes went soft, but her lips were still. She spent a moment or two considering her next words. Finally, she swallowed, and a sad scrunch broke through.
“Yeah, well, you’re not the only one who has messed up lately. How about we call our mistakes even and forgive each other.” She pressed her lips flat and wiped at her eye. “I really want my sister there with me.”
“I’ve always been here.” Izobel gathered her into a hug. “It’s going to be okay. Whatever happens tonight. You will make it.”
She reached into her pocket and lifted it holding this half of the amulet from a chain. She’d already given the other half to Abel. She promised this would help Johnny too. Izobel kept her word.
It wasn’t much to look at, especially after all the buildup. A teardrop-shaped moonstone edged in an unearthly blue. Zoe leaned in to look closer at it. Wrapped in delicate filigree, two starbursts of red danced around each other at its very center.
Zoe lifted her hair. Izobel walked behind her with a slow breath. The stone lay flat against Zoe’s breastbone. Heavy! It was so heavy. Izobel let the chain fall onto the back of her neck and Zoe stumbled forward with the weight of it.
Well, that had to mean it did something, right? Zoe flashed her sister big eyes and the both of them laughed. The nightmares were worth that smile. Izobel threw her arms around her baby sister and sobbed into her hair. The damn that held her emotions back sprung quite a leak.
“I won’t let anything happen to you. Do you hear me?” Izobel asked, cupping Zoe’s face in her hands.
She nodded. Zoe didn’t trust her voice to speak. She blinked trying to hold back the tears in her eyes.
“We’re going to make it through this.”
Izobel didn’t really believe that. But she said it loud and her lips didn’t tremble. That was all she could manage for now.
65
Chapter
Johnny swallowed, hip lips pulling down at the corners. He stared up at the ceiling. You wait your whole life for a single day. Then suddenly it’s here. His fingers drifted through her shiny black hair. They traced over her bare shoulder.
He wasn’t ready for what came next. Neither was Zoe, her trembling lips told him so. Her I’ll-be-fines and we’ll-be-okays tinkled and cracked fragile as glass. They didn’t fool him. Her kisses and soft touches didn’t either no matter how he enjoyed them.
Zoe sat up reaching for her clothes.
“We have more time than that, don’t we?”
She shot him a breathtaking smile over her shoulder. Johnny came up the sheet huddled in his naked lap. He leaned forward drawing a line with the tip of his finger over her forehead and down her arm.
“It will work. It has to work,” she said nodding her head.
He wrapped his arms around her from behind, pressing the side of his head against hers. They sat there with the silence and weight of the moment bearing down on them. A tear sparkled at the corner of his eye. He moved and the shooting star fell into her hair.
“I want to be there for you,” he whispered.
“The magic will work,” she stated again.
<
br /> “I know it will,” he said playing along.
Johnny had always been fond of little white lies. They make our lives easier. They let us hold onto hope. And both of them needed a glimmer to cling too.
Johnny took her hand lacing their fingers together slow. His eyes danced over her face memorizing every detail. He traced the fumbling steps that brought him here wondering at every detail.
“Are you…” he hesitated. “Are you happy here?”
“I didn’t think I’d be,” she answered honestly. “When I’m with you, John. I’m happy.”
He smiled. Johnny rushed in to kiss her, beating his admissions to the punch. Instead, he went straight into his excuses and apologies. Johnny pressed his forehead against hers, rolling it back and forth with his eyes closed. He reveled in each of his senses in turn, thanking his lucky stars for this mistake and hating himself for trapping her in this at the same time.
“I can’t imagine my life without you, Zoe! Please, come back to me.”
Car doors closing echoed even here in the tower.
“They're here,” she whispered.
66
Chapter
The stairs creaked. Izobel stood to one side, every bone in her body rigid and ready to attack. Abel cast a compassionate glance at Zoe as she emerged from the hall, her head down. Johnny stepped into the room behind her Rosalind tensed. Her face a mask of distasteful indignation.
“Why isn’t he locked up? That Metri should be wrapped in chains!”
“The moon won’t be up for hours,” Abel defended.
A scowl fought its way across Rosalind’s brown face. Though, it wasn’t much different from the barely controlled rage that fuelled her menacing aura. Her lines were straight. She held herself the way any four-star general would. Her cornrows were tight and her gaze was belligerent.
The black woman only had an inch or two on Zoe but her attitude more than loomed above all of them. Kylen sighed. He rolled his eyes shaking his head. He came to John’s defense because he felt bad for him. John Merrick was a good guy, didn’t matter the slur he carried.
“Relax, Ros,” he commanded.
“Oh hell no, I will not stand here in the presence of a Lunatic on the full moon. He will be behind bars or this train ain’t leaving the station.”
Kye shot a glance Conner’s way. Abel looked like he wanted to argue. And anything could trip Izobel’s detonator. Zoe turned and threw her arms around Johnny.
“I’m going to be okay,’ she whispered in his ear.
His fingers were tight as they traveled up her back. His lips trembled, jaw tight. Once more his apologies rose to the surface. He wanted to fall to the ground and beg her forgiveness.
“I’m sorry, Zoe. For all of it. I won’t let you do this alone.”
“No.” Zoe shook her head. “It will work. Be here when I get back. Promise me when this is all over you will hold me.”
“I swear it,” he breathed.
Zoe signaled Conner over with a jerk of her head. Her eyes begged him to get Johnny out of there. She’d been told. It wasn’t a secret the disdain Johnny suffered at the hands of the other Kin. But something in Rosalind’s manner sold it. She was looking for an excuse to kill him. They had to hide Zoe’s Metri status. Nora was right in the beginning. This was the only way.
Conner clamped his hands down around Johnny’s biceps and tried to lead him out of the room. He resisted.
“John.”
“I won’t let you do this alone. I won’t. I promise.” Tears in his eyes and a determined chin he glared at Abel. “I won’t!”
Abel nodded. Conner dragged Johnny out of the room. Izobel shifted her shoulders writing spells on the inside of her brain. Zoe sniffed and wiped at the tears glittering in the corner of her eye. She stepped closer to Kye.
“The state of house Merrick,” Rosalind snickered.
It was just a spark. But a single snap and the conflagration that filled her veins should have turned Rosalind to ash on the spot. Rage bubbled in her belly. Zoe took a step forward her voice a growl.
“Say another word about them and I’ll rip your fucking tongue out of your head.”
You could practically see the aura wreathing Zoe tinged with electric blue. Amber spikes shot into the dancing blue of her irises. Sleight in stature and cute as a button, when her beast flexed its metaphysical muscles Zoe transformed into the queen of the monsters. The sensation mugged the breath from Izobel. Izobel looked up and the expression on Abel’s face said he felt it too.
Rosalind nodded, impressed. She took a step back settling into a curious pose. “New girl smells like power. I like your perfume.” Rosalind’s glare was appraising. She regarded Zoe with respect. And it was clear that she didn’t deign anyone else here worthy of it. She turned with attitude and fussed with her braids. They glistened in the overhead light.
The flare took Izobel a little by surprise. And then it hit her. The Metri are elementals of rage. Zoe was starting to feel it. The realization had Izobel second-guessing her enchantments. Werewolf stomped all over her more delicate senses but somewhere deep in the base of her mana Izobel tasted witch. She watched Zoe walk through the front door wondering if her baby sister had come into her powers. Blood and bite carry different rules.
67
Chapter
The warehouse swarmed with people. Several of the Folk donned Kevlar. A rack of AR15s supplied enough firepower to Isaak’s personal army to make even lycanthropes on the full moon look up and take notice. Risguard tapped his foot impatient.
“Come on get them in the cages, the sooner we get them set, the safer the rest of you will be.”
He couldn’t hide his frustration or his fear. He could feel the moon like she was dragging her fingertips down his back. His emotions were tumultuous and mercurial. It made planning anything at all difficult, and worse he was already starting to get hungry.
Isaak wandered up curiosity plain on his demeanor.
“How you feeling?”
“How am I feeling?” Michael repeated. He shook his head, physically swallowing his annoyance. “Don’t you think we’re cutting it a little close?”
“What? Not ready to give your life for the cause you’ve chosen?” Isaak mocked.
“Don’t. It’s bad enough you did this to me. I will not be one of them!” He shouted pointing vaguely at the warehouse beyond them. And it was intentional at that. He wouldn’t be one of these Folk sycophants ready to throw their lives in front of Isaak. And he’d be damned if he lost it and was sent to die against the clan.
Michael bared his teeth and hissed. He dropped his arm angrily and went back to pacing. Isaak found it all rather amusing. Every argument about his tactics, every admonishment for being too passionate played out in his head and the track had him laughing at Michael Risguard.
“Not so easy to control as you thought, hmmm?”
A scathing glance was bad enough. It took everything Michael had to not hit him right in the jaw. Isaak rolled his eyes.
“Go. Before you do something both of us will regret.”
Michael did not have to be told twice. He was out the door and to his Mustang before Isaak looked back up. He turned the key in the ignition and hit the gas. Purple ate its way into the sky chasing the pinks, oranges, and yellows of a beautiful sunset away. He could spot a few stars twinkling already. Maria’s house was over an hour from here. He pressed down a little harder on the gas pedal.
The engine roared down the highway. A couple blocks out and he was sweating through his shirt. His heart thumped out a rhythm you could dance to. He mashed a few of the surrounding buttons trying to type in the number. The phone rang distant on the other end. His despair was palpable. Finally, a voice answered.
Michael whipped the car into a long driveway with fruit trees on either side. The engine whined with the speed he forced on it. He just couldn’t get there fast enough. Michael spent the last few weeks imagining what tonight would be like. So far, he wasn’t even cl
ose.
“I’m here.”
“To the house. Everything is ready.”
He hit the end button and dropped the phone onto the passenger seat. He parked the car between two large Sycamore trees and practically ran toward the house. A monster of architecture the manor sat on a high hill lost to the growing shadows of the coming night. The front door swung open and a young woman he’d never met before ushered him inside.
He followed her wordlessly down the winding halls. A recessed stair led him into a basement, nothing more than concrete and cinderblock. Around the corner, she appeared like an angel. Her face was wizened and her eyes rheumy.
“He’s in Germany until Friday,” she said as he sprinted into the cage.
The old woman closed the heavy wood door. It landed with a thunk that Michael swore sounded like a nail being driven into a coffin. All his life he waited for this day. Prepared to accept the birthright of his family name, he fantasized and dreamed about it. It wasn’t supposed to be like this.
“Thank you for this, Mary.”
The old woman touched his hand through the small barred window. She smiled, it was the same pull of lips from when he was a child and she was the closest thing he knew to a mother.
68
Chapter
Drumbeats lent an ominous rhythm to the howls echoing in her head. There were so many of them. Kin and Folk alike crowded a ring around the center of the square. Four enormous bonfires raged at the tops of the pillars that sat at the four cardinal directions and anchored the cage. The triangle pennants were cut from bright colors and festive patterns.
A man and a woman followed Zoe toward the cage. She had a few steps lead but nowhere to go despite every bone screaming at her to run. She looked over her shoulder trying to spot Izobel in the crowd.
Two hours ago, she told Johnny she didn’t need him here. It was a lie then, no less a lie now. She reached up and touched the amulet. It was cold. The moonstone and opal shimmered in the circle of inlays they created. Spirals of color worked into the metal. The chain pulled at her neck.
Aching Silver (House of Wolves Book 1) Page 24