Back in the car, Cyrus popped open his beverage and took a deep swig. When he set the can down to start the car’s engine, the lightning bolt on the side of the can caught and held Marcella’s attention.
Her chest tightened inexplicably, and her hands closed into fists. It was like real lightning had struck close by. Her heart pounded, and she couldn’t seem to get enough air.
Cyrus looked over, concern tightening his features. “What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know,” she answered. The feeling grew into a panic that made her close her eyes and throw herself back in her seat, her body rigid with tension. She felt like screaming.
After a few seconds, the unexpected sensations subsided, and her breathing slowed. She opened her eyes, aware of a lingering sense of foreboding.
“Turn around,” Marcella instructed in a firm tone. “We’re going back to the Foundation.” Cyrus didn’t question her. He turned back onto the highway and put Post Falls in the rear-view mirror.
Marcella tried to sort out the odd experience she’d just had and what it might mean. The only thing that made sense was that someone had tampered with one of her wards. But could she sense that from so far away? Had joining with Iledaste amplified her abilities that much? What disturbed her more was that she only remembered putting an alert on the cash box ward. That meant someone had already defeated the main ward on the door and was inside the room poking around.
Cyrus accelerated to well over the speed limit, correctly interpreting her tense silence. Marcella put her hand on his arm. “Let’s get back as quickly as possible, but I don’t want to get pulled over.” Cyrus nodded and slowed the car to just above the speed limit. “I think one of my wards has been compromised.”
Cyrus narrowed his eyes at her. “You can tell from here?”
“I’m as surprised as you are. And, no, I can’t be sure, but it feels right.”
“Who? Why?” Cyrus asked.
“That’s what we need to think about. When we get back, we need to be prepared for whatever might be going on.”
Chapter 32
Skyler’s Plea
With Kyle downstairs and Jonathan keeping watch at the doorway, the witches had more space to move around the room. Amanda sat Jessie in the chair at the center of the casting circle and instructed the others to take their customary positions.
“Okay, here’s what we’re going to do,” Amanda said. She went on to explain her plan for conducting the exorcism. All of the women had studied Amanda’s revised exorcism notes, so they knew basically what to expect.
“This is going to be weird,” Jessie said, squirming in her seat. “Just sitting here while the rest of you do the work.”
“We don’t know what will happen when we cast out the demon,” Amanda responded. “But I’m pretty sure we don’t want you involved in the spell at that point.”
“I know, I know. It still sucks. At least I get to drive away the troublemakers.”
Jessie was unarguably the best purifier in their coven. As a water witch, purification came naturally to her, but she had strength that could not be explained by her elemental affinity alone. She would need every bit of that strength to drive away the dark spirits hovering around the dark witch’s room and the casting circle. Amanda and the other witches would lend their strength to Jessie while she did her thing.
Amanda smiled to herself. Marcella would be furious when she next went to use her casting circle and discovered the light spirit taint from Jessie’s purification. She might even figure out that they’d used her own equipment to perform the exorcism. Not that Amanda was thrilled with the idea of handling the dark witch’s tools of the trade. No soap was going to remove that spiritual grime. But Jessie was right—they were just tools. Although they wouldn’t amplify her abilities as well as her own equipment would, they’d do the job.
Amanda took several deep breaths and cleared her mind in preparation for the ceremony. She heard the others do the same.
She was about to signal Jessie to begin the purification when she remembered that they were all still connected through the Resonance Star. Jessie would have direct access to all of their power, which would be fine at first. But later, each of them would need to work independently to support the exorcism. Besides, having Jessie connected to the rest of the coven while they cast out the lupusdaemon seemed like a Very Bad Idea. Amanda removed the Star’s square center pendant from around her neck. It was the hub, so none of the other pendants would work without it.
As she severed the connection to her coven-mates, Amanda experienced both regret and relief. The sense of strength the Resonance Star granted was seductive, but it was also a violation of sorts. Amanda was much more comfortable being in full control of her own power and having the discretion to use it when and how she wished.
Tanya, who had her eyes closed, immediately opened them and touched her hand to her pendant. She looked toward Amanda, frowning with confusion. When she saw Amanda tucking the hub pendant into a pocket, comprehension dawned on the fire witch’s face. She started to remove her pendant as well, but Amanda stopped her.
“Keep it on,” Amanda suggested. “Just in case. Then all I’ll have to do is put mine back on to link us up again.” Tanya released her pendant with a nod.
At Amanda’s bidding, Jessie started her incantation to purify the room and push away the remaining dark spirits that infested it. Her voice sharpened with intensity as she fought against far more resistance than she was accustomed to. What would have been an easy task at Noreen’s house or in the moon shrine was more difficult from inside the dark witch’s lair.
For a large casting that involved the full coven, the normal sequence of events started with the water witch purifying the workspace and the air witch protecting it. The prime, usually Noreen, would then cast the primary spell while the fire witch added strength to it and the earth witch stabilized it.
However, Noreen wasn’t there. Amanda was prime, which meant her earth-borne stabilizing influence would be diluted by her efforts toward the exorcism. Cara would have to work extra hard to maintain her protections and Tanya would have to be sensitive to where her strength was needed the most. It would be a delicate dance, and Amanda honestly didn’t know if the coven could pull it off. They had trained together under many scenarios, but nothing like what they were facing.
In spite of the resistance, Jessie succeeded in clearing the room. As soon as she did, Cara joined the working and wove her protection spell to keep the dark spirits at bay. Within moments, a shimmering column of energy swirled around the circumference of the casting circle.
As soon as the protections were up, Amanda started the exorcism incantation. Distracted by their uncomfortable circumstances and the worry that one of the werewolves might show up at any moment, her first few phrases were weak and halting. Jessie’s slump of disappointment and frustration slapped Amanda back into focus. She shut out the distractions and spoke the next phrases clearly and forcefully. After sealing the casting circle against the lupusdaemon’s escape, Amanda held up the wolf skull and summoned forth the demon.
Amanda sensed Marcella’s casting circle augmenting her power, and she was surprised at how much of a boost it gave her. In that moment, she understood why she had succeeded where many priests had failed. To sever the lupusdaemon’s strong magical bond with the victim’s physical body, it had to be summoned before it could be cast into the abyss. Demon-summoning was not exactly a priesthood favorite. Among witches, summoning was gray magic at best. It all depended upon what you did with the demon once you controlled it. Regardless, the dark witch’s casting circle was in perfect tune for questionable magic.
Jessie’s eyes rolled back in her head, and she slumped forward. When her head came back up, her eyes darted around in panic, and she jumped to her feet.
“No! Don’t do this. I tried to help you. Don’t send me back to the abyss.” She slammed the base of her fist against Cara’s protections, but to no avail.
It was
a shock to hear Skyler’s words coming from Jessie’s mouth. The lupusdaemon seemed to instantly understand what was happening. The abomination of her presence put steel into Amanda’s response. “You think we’ll let you send Jessie in your place? Forget it!”
“There may be a way for us to share this body until I can find another one. That’s what Marcella and Cyrus have done. Just give me a chance to try.”
A “chance to try” meant someone else would be sacrificed instead. The cycle had to stop. “No,” Amanda said. “You don’t belong here.”
Skyler screamed in desperate fury and pounded both of her fists against the circle of protection. Amanda glanced at Cara, wondering if the demon might break through, but Cara’s sneering smile said she was having no trouble keeping Skyler in check.
This was getting out of hand. She should have tied Jessie to the chair before they started. Kyle had been able to keep the demon from taking over full control during his exorcism, but he’d had a lot more experience with fighting it by then. Amanda altered her incantation to bring Jessie back.
Jessie dropped her hands to her sides and collapsed back into the chair with one hand to her head. When she looked up, her frightened expression told Amanda that her friend had returned.
“What happened?,” Jessie asked. “I was … nowhere. It was horrible.”
“I couldn’t pull the demon into the skull,” Amanda answered. “It took over your body instead.”
Jessie’s hands gripped the chair arms. “What’s wrong? Why isn’t it working?”
Amanda thought back to Kyle’s exorcism. They had changed the spell somewhat since then, but the changes should have made it stronger, not weaker. The main difference was that Amanda wasn’t inside the circle with Jessie as she had been with Kyle, so she couldn’t hold the wolf skull directly over Jessie’s head during the summoning. But what could she do? The circle was too small to hold both of them.
She turned to Cara. “What do you think will happen if I reach through the protections with the wolf skull?”
Cara seemed surprised to be asked her opinion. She blinked a couple of times and then furrowed her brow in thought. “I’m not sure. If it were just your hands, I don’t think it would hurt anything, but I don’t know about the skull.”
Amanda focused on Jessie again. “This isn’t going to be easy. You have to let the demon come forth but stay in control of your body. Can you do that?”
Jessie shook her head in bewilderment. “I don’t know. I’ll try.”
“You must,” Amanda insisted. “I have to reach in there and hold the skull over your head. If Skyler takes over again, she’ll interrupt the spell, and I don’t know what happens after that.”
Jessie visibly gulped. “Okay,” she said in a small voice.
Amanda addressed Tanya. “Watch the protections. If they start to weaken, help Cara with them.”
Tanya nodded, accepting the instructions. At the same time, Amanda hoped it wouldn’t come to that. If Tanya aided Cara, Amanda would be on her own with the exorcism. She’d had Noreen’s considerable support for Kyle’s exorcism. Did she have the strength to complete the summoning and banishment by herself?
There was only one way to find out.
Amanda resumed her incantation. She altered it slightly, asking the spirits to help Jessie stay in control. The additional phrases felt right as they fell from her lips. It was as if the earth spirits approved of the stabilizing influence.
Before she reached the part where she would call the demon forth, Amanda slowly moved her hands toward the space over Jessie’s head. Her hands tingled as they pushed through the protective barrier. She paused and nearly drew them back, afraid of dropping the skull. Before she could decide whether to go forward or pull back, the tingle quickly spread up her arms and over her body.
Her view of Jessie cleared, and she gasped, thinking the protections had failed. Then Amanda realized that the tell-tale shimmer vibrated around them both. The protections weren’t down—they had enveloped her, effectively putting her inside the circle with Jessie.
The change in configuration must have strained the protections because Tanya added her voice to Cara’s.
Amanda held the wolf skull above Jessie while she called forth the demon. Jessie clenched her teeth and groaned as the demon fought her for control.
Jessie’s hands suddenly came up and clamped onto Amanda’s wrists. The eyes that looked up into Amanda’s were not Jessie’s, and she could feel the struggle for dominance between the demon and her friend.
Straining to keep the skull positioned over Jessie’s head, Amanda moved on to the part of the incantation that would draw the demon into the skull. After several attempts, she could tell it wasn’t working. She wasn’t strong enough.
“Try again,” Tanya said.
When Amanda repeated the key phrases of the summoning, she could feel Tanya’s strength adding to her own. As the final phrases left Amanda’s mouth, Jessie’s hands dropped back to her lap, and she tilted her head back to let out a scream that stunned Amanda to stillness. Then Jessie slumped to the side, nearly falling out of the chair. From within the wolf skull came a keening howl.
Amanda called upon the spirits of the light to banish the lupusdaemon’s dark spirit back to the abyss. The spirits responded, and silver lightning flashed from the protection barrier to strike the skull, cutting off the howl of the trapped demon.
Amanda let out a shuddering breath of relief. The lupusdaemon was gone. Jessie was free.
“What the hell?”
The exclamation came from the doorway, and everyone turned their attention to the source. Jonathan, who had moved into the room during the drama of his wife’s exorcism, turned and dropped into a crouch, aiming his weapon toward the speaker.
Reggie took in the scene, his eyebrows rising as he figured out what was going on. When his gaze met Amanda’s and he saw the speculative look she was giving him, he turned and ran.
Chapter 33
Access
Adolphus Rutlinger sat at his desk reviewing patient records in preparation for making afternoon phone calls to clients. The call-backs would be less dreadful than usual because all of the pet owners were receiving good news that day.
It was a relief to be done with the exorcism crisis so he could go back to his regular schedule at the vet clinic. His work at the clinic also gave him a break from the drama at home. Thanks to Marcella, the Foundation had become a place of strife rather than solace.
He was picking up the telephone handset to place the first call when Britney, his assistant, knocked on his open door.
“Sorry to interrupt, Doctor, but a Mr. Blackstone is here to see you.”
He let the handset fall back into its cradle. What was Blackstone doing here? His face must have revealed a lack of enthusiasm at hearing the visitor’s name.
“Should I tell him you’re busy and can’t see him right now?”
Adolphus doubted Blackstone would accept such an obvious excuse, and there wasn’t much point putting off the meeting.
“No. It’s fine, Britney.” Adolphus said. “Please show him in.”
The young woman nodded her blonde head once and bustled her rounded figure back toward the reception area. A moment later, she ushered Blackstone into the office. She softly closed the door behind him in response to Adolphus’s subtle head tilt.
The tall hunter was, as ever, dressed from head to toe in black. His expression revealed nothing about the nature of his visit.
Adolphus started the conversation. “How may I be of service, Mr. Blackstone?”
After a quick glance at the closed door, Blackstone answered in a low voice. “I apologize for interrupting your work, but I have a proposal for you, Dr. Rutlinger.”
Adolphus’s initial thought was forget it. It might be a case of blaming the messenger, but Blackstone had been the one to deliver the Order’s pardon of Marcella, leaving the witch in control of his pack. To be fair, Blackstone had also delivered the Order’s
exorcism ban, but Adolphus wasn’t convinced of the Order’s commitment to that new policy.
It was still too early to tell for sure, but Adolphus thought it possible that Nemotea, his one reliable supporter, might have successfully transferred from Skyler’s broken body to one of the witches during their entanglement on the basement floor. The true test of the exorcism ban would come if the witches learned that one of their own had been possessed.
Hmm. Perhaps they had. And that might have something to do with Blackstone’s visit. If so, the hunter was about to be disappointed.
“I’m listening,” Adolphus finally acknowledged.
“I’ve been investigating a series of robberies involving dark magic. Marcella Pedroso and Cyrus Fleming are my prime suspects.”
Blackstone’s direct statement was unexpected, so it took a few seconds to process. When the pieces fit together, Adolphus had his explanation for where Marcella was getting the Foundation- membership fees for her and Cyrus.
“Is that so?” Adolphus said, folding his hands on his desk. “What do you need from me?”
“Access,” Blackstone answered. “If you give me permission to search for evidence, preferably at a time they aren’t around, I can charge Pedroso and Fleming with using black magic against the mundane.”
The arrest of Marcella and Cyrus would be a dream come true. Their plans to take over the Foundation would disappear with them.
If only it were that easy. The Order had let him down before. “You seem certain that you’ll find this evidence you seek.”
“Do you doubt that I will?”
Adolphus considered his visitor for a moment. He didn’t really know much about Blackstone, except that Marcella seemed to fear the man. Could the hunter truly deliver what he promised? Adolphus didn’t doubt evidence existed, but he was less convinced that Blackstone would be able to locate and retrieve it.
“If there is evidence to be found,” Adolphus said, “it will be in her room, which is heavily warded. I haven’t been in there myself since she took up residence.”
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