Binding: Book Two of the Moon Wolf Saga (26 page)

“No,” Stuart said. “It doesn’t work that way. At the moment of exaltation, you rise up together. But it only works with Cecil.”

“So, Cecil can levitate. But you can’t?”

“I’m sure I can too,” Holly said into the silence, but no one believed her.

“No wonder he wants a powerful demon,” I realized.

“We want it for him,” Holly said. “Why should you have it? You’re just a child, you haven’t the slightest idea what it could mean, how it could be used. A great man like Cecil could save the world!”

Already been done.

“It seems to us,” Benjamin said, “that such a power loose in the world needs a great man to control it, to bind it, to harness it so that it can do the world some good. Whereas having such a power running loose could be dangerous, especially to you.”

“Oh, no!” I said. I lifted my hands. “I feel it coming on! I can’t control it!”

“Concentrate on your breathing,” Holly cried. “In, in, in, and out, out, whoosh!”

“Picture a line of light, see it distinctly—”

“Close your eyes and imagine you are in a deep forest—”

“Close your second chakra like a fist!”

“Ah! Ah! Ah!” I yelled. I couldn’t stand it anymore. I let my wolf head grow above my human head, and I leaped off the couch and ran on two feet around the room. Oliver lifted his glass to me in a toast as I passed, grinning his head off. Holly was up on her chair, Phil pressed himself into the window frame, Sally stared with amazement. Elaine sat back smiling. Benjamin reached out his hand to touch my wolf head. I let the eyes go gold and flare, and he backed off. I reached for the fury that lived in a knot above my heart, and it was there. I released it, and grew as I changed. The room was suddenly quite small. I took a turn around on four feet, making sure to knock over anyone who was standing. Oliver dodged my head, and I let him, because there was peace between us now. When I’d gotten my fill of their amazement and terror, I let go of my anger and got smaller. I tore around one more time and then got up on the couch where Holly had first offered me a seat. I started to sit down as a wolf, and finished as a human. Damn! One of the boots was gone. Well, at least Oliver's white scarf was still around my neck. Maybe it was static cling.

“Now, I will give you a class of my own. As for what it will cost you, I haven’t decided yet.” I surveyed them where they sat, pressed back into the furniture, or against the wall. I certainly had everyone's undivided attention. It felt good. “I am not possessed, or controlled, by a demon. I am a daughter of the wolf kind. And we change form at will. As for your Tantric meditation, you all seem to go in for a lot of extra workouts, from what I gathered. Jeeves, over there, had a practice session on the beach early this morning, and another one in the left hand guest room at the top of the stairs, just before lunch. And as for yesterday…” I looked pointedly at Holly, whose eyes were wide with fury. Within them gleamed something else.

Phil stared at me, his mouth gaping. Holly's head whipped round on him, glaring. All other eyes turned to him, taking in his amazement and guilt.

“Why, you bad boy,” Oliver had moved in to lean against the wall by the door.

“Oh, Phil, how could you!” Holly shrieked.

I looked over at Oliver, and everyone followed my glance in fascination and terror. Oliver smiled, and raised his glass to me. “Cecil and me. In the hot tub. The last night before he embarked. We made quite a splash.” His eyes gleamed.

I raised my brows. He raised his back at me. I left it at that. It had been Phil with him in the hot tub, just a few days ago. But I kept the truce.

“But that's—Cecil wouldn’t—” Stuart protested.

“And as for your vegan diet,” I said to Stuart, who turned to me like someone just glimpsing a tree about to fall on him, “that bacon sandwich you had this morning is probably not on the list of pure, healthy foods.”

“No—turkey bacon!” he croaked.

“Nah,” I said. “It was pork. And so was the chili verde you had for dinner last night.”

“Stuart! No!” Holly's hand raised to her lips in horror.

Benjamin was laughing.

“And as for you,” I said to him—

“No, no, don’t spoil it,” he raised his hands.

“No?” I asked, my eyes glinting.

“I’ll confess,” he smiled ruefully. He looked around at the others, who gazed at him with bated breath. “It's the milkshakes. I can’t give them up. Or coffee. Or beer. Gotta have them. I’m so sorry.”

“Oh, Benjamin!” Holly's hand came away from her mouth. “I thought you were so advanced!”

He shook his head, smiling.

“And,” I turned to Holly. Her eyes changed. Something feral gleamed there, something that said to me, “don’t you dare!” But I did. “You’ve been practicing awfully hard too, for Cecil to get back. With Stuart in the bed, with Jeeves on the bench in the garden, and there was another guy, this morning, also in the bed, who smelled of chlorine…”

“No! It's not true! You’re lying!”

“I so am not. Just some extra workouts, right? So should I mention the waiter in the rec room?”

“No!” Holly shrieked.

Actually, that one wasn’t true. “No, but Cecil and you did some practicing on this couch. Several times.”

“Here?” Stuart asked accusingly. “You were with him here? You told me—”

“How do you know it was Cecil?” Benjamin asked, with academic curiosity. “Have you ever met him?”

“I saw him once, at a meeting.” I had, at Tamara's. The white scarves were a clue. “But I’m pretty sure he gave her the scarf she's wearing.”

“Ah,” he said, satisfied.

“Stuart, you have to understand—”

“No, no I don’t understand! We had an agreement!”

“We were studying!”

“And as for you,” I turned to Sally. Her mouth opened, and her eyes opened, and suddenly she looked very small, waiting for a blow that would knock her down. “Completely vegan diet, month after month, yuck! How can you stand it?” Her mouth relaxed and began to smile. “Does all that great sex you’ve been having really make up for it?”

Sally gleamed at me for a moment, then glanced around at the others. “I’ll have to think about that.”

“You! Get out of my house! Now! Now! Now!” Holly shrieked.

I turned to her, and changed, and grew, and lunged. I took her head and shoulders into my jaws and pressed down with my teeth just exactly enough, and let go and changed again before anyone in the room had a chance to react. She was still opening her mouth to scream. I leaned over and spoke in her ear. “Don’t touch me again. Ever.”

There are lots of ways to bite. They don’t all involve drawing blood. I must really be growing up, I thought, from the vantage of my glorious new height of five foot almost one inch.

And then she did scream.

H
olly's screams followed Elaine and me down the stairs and out of the house. They wafted us across the bridges, along the gravel to the four-car garage, where Elaine retrieved my wallet from the glove compartment of the dark green Porsche, whose keys Holly had thrown at her, “Take the damn thing, you sickening horrible bitch!” followed by another scream, “Don’t scratch the paint or I will fucking kill you!” And hey, the clothes I’d been wearing when they caught me lay in a wad in the passenger foot well, together with—hooray!—my tennis shoes. And all this would have gone much faster if we didn’t have to keep stopping while Elaine leaned on the wall or another piece of furniture or a fence post and howled with laughter, again.

Sally drifted out with us, wearing a smile of peace and satisfaction. It must have been the meditation.

By the time we got back to my car—and there was no one to bring it to us by this time—Elaine's laughter had subsided to occasional gurgles that bubbled up, with gasping reminders about the look on Holly's face, or had we seen the spittle in the corner of her mouth, or the way Stuart had looked at her. Elaine leaned over the hood of my car for one last howl. Then she straightened.

“Oh, god, that was the best party I’ve ever been to.”

“Yup,” Sally agreed.

“Listen,” Elaine said to me, “I am going to take you out for the best dinner we can find. And there's going to be a whole lot of meat in it.”

“Can I come?” asked Sally.

“How about me?” Benjamin came crunching across the gravel in the twilight toward his car, parked nearby next to Sally's. “I’d love a good dinner. With lots of meat. And a chocolate milkshake.”

“Sure!” said Elaine. She directed me back to Calabasas, and led the caravan of three cars to a steak house. And there was a whole lot of meat, and laughter, and milkshakes all round, and together we made a much better party than the one earlier.

I dropped Elaine off at her place and headed back across the great city toward Whittier. She still hadn’t forgiven me for her truck, but that was all right, since it wasn’t back from the shop yet. The not-so-evil vet and I parted on fair terms. It had been a really good dinner.

Traffic was light for a Saturday night. I hit a slow-down on the 101 near the city center. Some event breaking up and everybody heading home. My arms and body throbbed from the beating I’d taken. Now that the party was over, now that dinner was done, all I wanted was to curl up in bed until I stopped hurting.

When I got to Whittier, heading down Greenleaf for my turn onto Philadelphia, the downtown seemed more lively than usual, so I continued down the street, looking for what was going on. The club on the corner in the building that used to be a bank had a line around the block—the Whittier College students had to have something to do on the weekend. The cinema down the street was letting out its last show of the night, and a couple of the coffee shops were open, but the real noise and energy came from further along the street, on the other side.

The Amadeus Music Store's sign was lit, people crowded the sidewalk outside, and through the windows churning bodies bobbed to the sound of drums and fiddle playing. I found a parking spot around the corner and made my way back. Yvette was dancing to the sound of her own drumming, with half a dozen fellow drummers from the Wicca group, in counterpoint with a clutch of solemn young fiddlers, beating out a tide of joy to fill the room and spill out down the sidewalk. I got it, finally. This was the store's official opening day, and Yvette had organized a proper celebration. I went to stand by Yvette, and she nodded to me, without missing a beat.

“Hey,” she shouted. “Nice outfit!”

“Guess what?” I yelled back, “I’m taller! I’ve grown! Almost an inch!’”

She nodded to me, smiling. She hadn’t heard a word I said. And it wouldn’t mean anything to her; Yvette was tall as a mountain, maybe almost five ten. Well, I was probably going to grow even more. I wasn’t done yet.

I found Ariadne in the midst of a crowd of well-wishing guests and future customers. She wore a long black gown and glittering silver earrings, with her hair hanging loose down her back. One of the counters offered an array of snacks, and another offered drinks. I grabbed one of each and wormed my way in to greet my boss.

“I got my wallet!” I announced to her over the din. “I can fill out the application now!”

She nodded and leaned closer, so she wouldn’t have to shout. “You’re hired. Start tomorrow. Eight-thirty.”

“Thanks!”

“And Amber—”

“Yeah?”

She nodded at my clothes. “Nice look. Keep it up, when you’re working in my store.”

I could see that my days of dressing without looking at what I pulled out of the closet were about over.

I saw Jason in the doorway to the back room and headed that way. I thought if that's where the bears were, there must be better food back there, but I was mistaken. Tamara and the sorceress, head of the local Wicca group, were making signs over the back door with candles, incense, and salt. Well, that made sense. If Tamara was coming here to do a working, it would be only courtesy to contact the local sorceress. To get her to help was even better.

Jason and Jonathan stood watching. I waited until the two women of power finished what they were doing before going to greet them.

Jason took my shoulder and stared down into my face. “What happened to you, girl? You been in a fight?”

“You might say that.”

“You win?” Jonathan asked.

I grinned at him, showing my many white teeth.

“That's good.”

“All right, then,” Jason said, nodding, and let me go.

“Yvette arrange for this party?”

“How did you know?”

“The drumming pretty much gives it away.”

“She told me about Ariadne opening today,” Jason said, “and I told Tamara that this shop had no wards, and Tamara said she’d come and see to it, and we brought some friends, like, to help with the buzz.” He raised his arms and pointed one toe.

Jonathan bent down and pointed, and raised one huge leg behind him. “The groove!”

Jason twirled. “The atmosphere!”

Jonathan turned the other way, stamping his feet. “The beat!”

They both raised their arms and posed, big finish. If you have never seen bears dance, it is a sight to behold.

“The magic is definitely working,” I pronounced, and they both laughed, deep and loud.

“Looks like the ladies are finishing up,” Jonathan observed.

Jason agreed. “Shall we—?”

“Check on the supplies again?”

And the bears headed out to the food tables, clearing the way before them like a pair of tankers at a small boat regatta.

Tamara came over to me and examined my face, frowning. She raised her hand over my forehead, and held it there, not touching me. “What trouble have you found now, child?”

“It was a trap,” I told her. My head felt better, the ache lifted a little. It clouded again when she dropped her hand, but I still didn’t hurt quite so much.

“You’re all right?”

“I’ll be fine. Nothing damaged.” I couldn’t help it; I added, “You should see the other guy!”

Tamara was not amused.

“You were right,” I told her. “I was wrong. I’m going to have to raise my demon. In public, in front of everyone, so everyone can see him and talk to him. This has got to end. I keep being attacked, kidnapped, seized on for no reason. People are making stuff up about me out of their heads. And a whole lot of people are wasting a whole lot of time and energy fighting a fight that is over, and has been done with since the last earthquake. Did you know that Cecil, the Tantric Meditation teacher, is out on a boat trying to commune the World Snake?”