“I know where I belong, Persephone.”
I pivoted on my heel and was ready to leave, but Johnny stopped me with a gentle clasp of my shoulder, turning me to face him, studying me and searching for any sign I was being given a mesmerizing vampire command. To reassure him that wasn’t the case, I stroked his arm. “It’s okay.” I moved toward the steps. “C’mon.”
Menessos added, “And you, Johnny. You need your rest, as well.” He didn’t use a dog reference. My suspicions were soaring.
Johnny reiterated, “I can protect her.”
“Yes, and you will protect her, if this war is fought. In the meantime, if you want to be foolish enough to claim no rest in my presence, so be it, but do not be foolish enough to let your place at her side grow cold.”
Because my senses were amped up by the binding with Menessos, I could smell things like never before and, just then, the vampire’s insinuated threat riled the waere. A musky testosterone scent filled the cellar. Luckily, neither did more than glare at the other. As for me, the mention of war had knocked all thought of sleep from my mind.
Johnny took my hand and preceded me up and out into the night. Menessos extinguished the candle and tugged on the pull chain to turn off the light. He followed us, pausing to shut the cellar door behind us.
We walked silently around the house to the front porch. November’s eager fingers had chilled the air. A mist was settling in. The bannerlike leaves of the fodder-shocks rustled lightly at our approach, sounding like stiff paper scrubbing together. The jack-o’-lanterns’ tea lights had burned out hours ago and their dark faces seemed sad. Yup. Hallowe’en’s over.
Johnny opened the door for me. Menessos came around the corner slowly, intently staring across the cornfield.
Inside the house, my feet headed directly for the stairs, but I lingered with my palm on the newel post’s ball finial. I didn’t want to go to my lonely room and climb between cold sheets and sleep alone. What I wanted was Johnny’s warm body next to mine, and the security of his arms around me.
A few days before, I had felt overwhelmed because it seemed impossible to balance my new life with all its myriad complications, let alone being the Lustrata and somehow bringing balance to the world. Now my own actions were the catalyst for a war.
How the hell am I going to fix this?
“Stay with me on the couch, Johnny?” I asked.
“You bet.” Johnny lifted my hand from the finial and led me into the living room. We’d left an end table lamp on, and he sat near it, on one end of my tan corduroy slip-covered couch. Johnny and I had made love there. Once.
This room. This couch. Our first and, so far, only time.
Shortly after the intimacy, I’d been confused and hurt that he might have betrayed me with some women at a gig. He hadn’t, but at the time his supposed unfaithfulness had been such a concern. Not that we’d discussed exclusivity with each other or anything, but it was the kind of thing I expected and thought was understood. Now, infidelity seemed pretty insignificant compared to war.
When he sat, my hand fell away from his. I turned in a slow circle. This space was my sanctuary, filled with all my Arthurian books and posters. Over the mantel was Waterhouse’s painting Ariadne. A very impractical thank-you-for-not-staking-me gift from Menessos. The security system for the valuable artwork was supposed to be installed this Friday.
So many things had changed in such a short amount of time.
“Wanna put your head in my lap?” Johnny asked teasingly.
Some things, like Johnny’s constant innuendos, weren’t likely to ever change.
My exhaustion was reaching complete and the weight of my worries filled the room, threatening to suffocate me. Johnny could probably feel it too. He was trying to ease away the heaviness with humor.
I faced Johnny with a genuine smile. “You wish.”
“I certainly do.”
I gave him a mock scowl.
“Okay, okay.” In one motion, he turned out the lamp and moved the couch pillow onto his lap. “Now?”
I laughed and it felt good. “Now.”
As my feet carried me forward, a silhouette crept across the picture window behind Johnny. It was Menessos taking a sentinel’s position on the porch, but I could feel his presence, feel how he yearned to be the one inside comforting me.
CHAPTER TWO
It was nearly dawn. Freshly showered, wearing clean blue jeans and a long-sleeved creamy yellow T-shirt with some beaded embellishment around the scoop neck, I crossed to the edge of my porch, yawning. Even with the chill in the crisp air, the mist had held on, giving the morning a sense of magic.
The ground was wet with cold dew that soaked the hem of my jeans as I went to check the cellar door. Not to verify Menessos’s presence—the warmth caressing the underside of my sternum assured me he was still here. As expected, the door was secured from the inside as if people were huddling down there to escape a tornado. There were no people down there, however, only one insatiably obstinate vampire. There might be no storm to shelter from, but the cellar offered protection from the even more dangerous, for him, daylight.
Johnny’s footsteps shushed through the grass as he rounded the corner.
“He’s locked himself in down there,” I said.
“Wolves in your attic and corpses in your cellar.” Johnny’s hands rested on the black denim at his lean hips. “Just another glorious day in ‘Ohio: The Heart of It All.’ ”
I scanned over his long fingers, up the heather gray of his long-sleeved jersey to the black waves of tousled hair and the dark lines of his Wedjat-tattooed eyes.
My arm slid around his waist and directed him toward the front of the house. “I have a nagging feeling that this is going to get ugly before it’s over, and we’ll be appreciating any break we can get. Even if Menessos is the one giving it to us.”
He hung his arm across my shoulders.
When we rounded the house, I could see the east. There were thick clouds promising rain overhead, yet the first glimmer of true sunlight glistened on the less-cloudy horizon, and reflected off every damp particle floating in the air like a haze of glitter.
In that enchanting moment, six broom-riding witches in a V formation drifted down from the sky to land in my yard. It’s not every morning a girl sees Elders in street clothes. Xerxadrea, the eldest, was in the lead position and, apparently, a red, white, and navy blue velour jogging suit was the flying outfit of choice for ancient Eldrennes.
Every one of the witches wore some type of dark jogging suit and white sneakers. All wore goggles that any steampunk fan would love.
It made me want to race up to my closet and throw out the few jogging suits I was guilty of owning. Mine were solid pastel colors, though, stylish and cotton, and I’d never once considered wearing them with Red Baron goggles.
Johnny leaned close to my ear and whispered, “I never would have believed those old ladies could sit a broom. At least not without stirrups, handlebars, and broad bicycle seats attached.”
I elbowed him in the ribs. They could probably hear him.
“Merry Morning to you, Persephone.” Xerxadrea pushed her goggles to her forehead. Her raven landed on her shoulder. It had been perched in a nearby tree, watching.
“Merry Morning to you, Eldrenne.”
Xerxadrea had pallid skin, almost as white as the long braid draping over her shoulder. Only the splotches of pink above her sunken cheeks gave her any color. Most notable were her blind eyes, covered with a thin, bluish film. “You remember Ludovika, Jeanine, Celeste, Silvana, and Vilna-Daluca?” Though Vilna-Daluca was also an Elder, Xerxadrea was among the eldest, and she was afforded the name and title of Eldrenne. The rest were high-ranking high priestesses.
“Yes.” I silently repeated their names to myself again.
“I have news,” Xerxadrea said. Her voice was thin and a bit breathy. “The Witches Elder Council convened in emergency meeting last night after word of the fairies’ threat of war reache
d them. They recognized the Hallowe’en death of the air fairy as a sign of the Lustrata’s return.”
I nodded. It had to happen sometime.
“The Elders have begun trying to make contact with the fey to see if they can negotiate a peace. It may buy us some time. I will keep you advised as this progresses, but”—Xerxadrea extended her hand, receiving a satchel from Celeste—“on with the purpose of our visit.” From the canvas bag Xerxadrea removed four iron spikes, each topped with a huge black stone. My first thought went to onyx, but this was too shiny. Witches Armor. Better known as jet. She supplied one to each of the four priestesses. “Go,” she told them.
“What are they doing?” I asked.
“We are setting you a perimeter.”
“I have wards.”
“Not,” Vilna-Daluca said, “like these.”
Reaching into the satchel again, Xerxadrea brought out a palm-sized iron candle holder, at least that’s what I thought it was when she thrust it at me. Accepting it, I saw it was round and had an ornate latticework rim with four little spikes. Next, she offered me an obelisk-shaped piece of jet that fit perfectly into the square indention in the base. After surrendering the satchel to Vilna-Daluca, she said to Johnny, “You should jog up the road about a hundred yards or so. And you,” she said to me, “need to come with us.”
Johnny prowled across the lawn, passing two witches headed for the front corners of the property. Witchcraft and sorcery both stirred energies that could cause a waerewolf to go into a partial change. Xerxadrea had courteously cautioned Johnny to stay clear until the spell work was done and posed no threat.
“Here,” Vilna-Daluca said, stopping us in line parallel to the front door, but about twenty feet out.
Shoulder to shoulder, we faced the street. Xerxadrea smelled like harvest spices and the scent of anise and nutmeg filled the air as she spoke.
Iron spikes, fire-forged
Empowered and engorged
With defensive protection
and offensive rejection
Of fairy strike.
She tapped the ley line, and its response caused the hair at the nape of my neck to prickle. The other two witches had gone to the rear corners of the yard. Behind the house, one of them called out, a wordless sound of defense. Before me, the witch in the northwest corner gave the same cry and stabbed the iron spike into the ground. Then the woman to the northeast, followed by the witch in back. Finally, the witch who had started it gave her cry again, and I knew the ley power had completed the circuit of my property, at least the part that wasn’t cornfield. I owned twenty acres in total.
The obelisk thrummed, a light but steady vibration, one I could readily detect. Both of the witches with me gave a cry and threw their hands up into the air. My skin crawled as the ward rose up like a wave, and crashed down on the other side, pushing through and under to make an invisible cylinder of protection.
The Eldrenne set it spinning, and her gestures seemed to indicate she was adding power from the line in small amounts. When she was satisfied, she drew an equal-armed cross in the air to seal her magic.
“It is done,” Xerxadrea said happily. “You can check its power level with this.” She patted the obelisk. “If it feels weak, refuel from the line.”
Tramping along, using their brooms like walking sticks with floppy bottoms, the group rejoined and headed for my porch. Gently grasping Xerxadrea’s age-spotted arm, I held her back. “I have to tell you something. And I want it to be a secret between us.”
“As you wish.”
Johnny was jogging toward us. I felt a little pang knowing I should have told him this before I revealed it to Xerxadrea. “Weeks ago, Menessos marked me. Afterward . . .” We’d be here all morning if I gave her details. I went with the short version. “Somehow, I flipped it.”
“You transformed a stain into a hex?” “Stain” was the slang term for a vampire’s mark, but a witch’s mark was also known as a “hex.”
I swallowed. “Yes.”
“She tested you, and you passed.” By “she” Xerxadrea meant the Goddess. “Nothing I wouldn’t expect of the Lustrata.” The corner of her mouth crooked upward. Evidently this came as no surprise to her.
“My question is this: he wasn’t held out by my wards. Will this one you just set be any different?”
“Yes and no.”
I wasn’t sure how to phrase what I wanted to ask next.
“Come, come, Persephone, I know you have questions,” she said.
“The fairies who are bound to him, can they use the binding they have to him and get through?”
“Through your former wards, yes. This”—she gestured all around—“no. We’ve specifically empowered it against fairies, using iron and Witches Armor. He cannot call them here. He was supposed to tell you that.”
“He did . . . sort of, but I wanted to confirm it.”
“What about the ley line?” Aquula had ridden the line and appeared to me in the grove. “What if the other fairies ride it and show up here?”
“They could. We cannot block them from using the line. You’re safe inside.” Blindness notwithstanding, Xerxadrea—who had never been here before—released my arm and once more headed for the porch. Her pet raven leaped from her shoulder and landed on the porch rail, cawing. Johnny had passed us and was now observing from the doorway.
“Okay. About this war then . . .” I wanted guidance and advice.
“All in good time.” She patted my hand.
Vilna-Daluca called out, “What’s for breakfast?”
Until she asked, I hadn’t equated their dawn services with my being their hostess. As a solitary, I hadn’t any cause to practice coven etiquette. “Well.” I shot a worried, pleading look at Johnny. Even if this Mother Hubbard’s kitchen cupboards were bare, that waerewolf could whip up a feast.
“I’m on it,” he said, winking at me. He opened the door as they advanced onto the porch. “I hope eggs and pancakes will do?”
At the steps, Xerxadrea did her witchy-mist thing that was fast becoming her trademark to me. The fog enveloped her lower half and she rose up gently and smoothly. If Nana could do that, I’d worry less about the wear and tear the stairs did to her knees.
“Ruya”—Xerxadrea said the name of her raven—“will remain out here.” She added her broom to the collection leaning just beside the door.
I reached for the door but, hearing the popping of gravel under tires, stopped. Lydia’s mud-splattered pickup rolled up the driveway. She’d been the interim high priestess for Venefica Coven, when their former leader went missing. It was because of Lydia that I’d participated in the Eximium: she had nominated me to take the priestess position. Thankfully, the competition ended with Hunter Hopewell gaining the title and not me. Lydia was also the previous owner of this house and land.
“Lydia’s arrived,” Xerxadrea said.
“How do you do that?” I asked.
“Do what?” She used to add “child” to the end of her sentences. I wondered if she had stopped saying it because I was now a part of her lucusi.
“See,” I blurted out.
“Sorcery, of course.” She smiled enigmatically.
I knew that, but had hoped to get more of an answer. Since she didn’t offer, I didn’t press.
Lydia slid from the big truck easily and approached us. Her hair was twisted into her usual bun, and she wore a corduroy dress and flat-heeled boots. She bid us a proper greeting and apologized for being late, citing her chickens had gotten loose. “Is Demeter awake?”
Her question reminded me that Lydia and Nana used to be friends—and that, according to Lydia, they had parted on not-so-good terms. “Probably. She claims the crack of dawn is her new alarm clock.”
Taking a deep breath, Lydia nodded. “If need be, I’ll go.”
“Let’s hope that isn’t the case,” I said, holding the door open for Xerxadrea. Her warm, soft hand rounded my arm, obliging me to stay with her as we entered, but I managed t
o keep the door politely ajar for Lydia.
The rattling of dishes met our ears as we proceeded down the hall. The witches had gathered in the dining room around the big table, which seated six easily. After seeing Xerxadrea to a padded chair, I added the middle leaves to the table. With enlisted help, we moved the bench and two chairs from the dinette in the kitchen to fill in. The table would now seat ten—assuming Nana would join us.
To spare Nana’s knees, I’d promised to have the dining room renovated into a downstairs bedroom and add a bath. However, if, as a member of the lucusi or as the Lustrata, I was going to have pow-wows around my table with any regularity, not having this space might be a problem. Maybe I’ll ask Xerxadrea to teach Nana that mist-magic thing.
About that time, Nana, Beverley, and Ares came down from the second floor. Herding the Great Dane puppy out the front door to do his morning business, I stopped them there in the hall and asked, “I thought you two were going to sleep in today?” Last evening Beverley had been kidnapped by fairies. They had tried to kill her, but Menessos’s quick action had saved her. To me, kidnapping and attempted murder were definitely grounds for a day off from school. “How about we call the office and say you have a tummy ache from eating too much candy? Then you can stay home.”
“But I want to go.” Beverley’s smile was bright.
Before I could even try to dissuade her, Nana assured me, “We talked about it upstairs.” She was trying to see into the dining room; the chatter was drawing her attention.
“I won’t say anything to anyone, Seph,” Beverley chimed in. “I promise.”
Beverley was dressed and ready. Insisting she skip school would sound ludicrous, so I let it go. Ares came back to the door. I let him in and held his collar so he didn’t take off and knock little old witches from their chairs. “All right,” I conceded to Beverley. “Take Ares to the garage and feed him so he doesn’t bother our guests, please.”
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