Elemental Moon: The Eldritch Files, Book Three (15 page)

I
na's house
was lit up. This was my first clue something was wrong because no one lived there. It'd been empty since Dionysus absconded with my aunt's body, the body he'd been puppeting since I was eight years old, and fled the area. I didn't know if he'd fled the country and if I ever saw him again, I wouldn't blink twice at doing to him what I did to Fred.

Was it possible he was back in town and Ina was back in her house? I hoped somehow if that were true, I'd know it. Maybe some seventh sense or something.

We sat in Kyle's Prius, in front of Ina's house where I always got a parking spot. It was an old spell Ina had cast on the area just for me. The spell would always work as long as I continued to park there occasionally. All four of us stared at the house.

"So…" Kyle began. "Anyone got any ideas?"

"Not really." My teeth chattered from shaking. I was trying really hard to pull it together but the chills that set in during the drive over weren't something I could control no matter how warm the scar on my chest became. I assumed it was reacting to my emotional anxiety. "I'm not sure I want to know who's in there."

"I have to get the snowdrop," Kyle said as he shrugged his backpack on. "I'm not giving up on Jack. Not like this."

A harsh knock against the driver's side window made us all jump. A person dressed in a black robe and hood stood outside of the door, wielding the toughest and most powerful magic known to mankind.

A Glock 9mm.

The figure stepped back and gestured for us to get out of the Prius with his free hand. Everyone glanced at each other, all silently asking what we were going to do, even though we each opened up our prospective doors. I stood to the side in the chilled night air and waited for Grey to jump out to the sidewalk.

"Hello," Kyle said to the hooded gunman. "Can we help you?"

"Inside. All of you." The voice was male and didn't click any memory bells. He stood back as we all filed in line behind one another and walked down walkway to Ina's front door.

There was a time I thought I knew this house as well as I knew myself. I had lived here with Ina since I was fourteen. I helped her upgrade the bathrooms, the kitchen and I helped her plant the garden. What I did not help her with were the bodies buried in the back.

Circe met us at the door, her hands clasped in front of her. A small part of me half expected, in a terrified sort of way, to see Inamorata standing beside the Magician. But Ina wasn't there. Ina was far away from New Orleans. We paused just inside the door in the foyer as the gunman closed the door and locked it.

The tall, half-blurred face of Olivia Graham took in each of us. Her gaze fixed on Grey and she frowned. "That's a real wolf."

"She's a dog." I know I shouldn't have said anything, but that was my go-to defense when anyone remarked about Grey. "Well, she's half Husky, half Labrador."

"But she's a real canine. Not a shifter."

I looked at Grey who looked up at me.
She can't tell I'm a paladin. Her limited magic won't reveal the real me.

The real you?
I made a face at her, not quite sure what that meant, so I put asking more questions on the back burner.

"Put the dog in the mud room and lock the door."

"No!" It slipped out as the gunman started toward Grey and I slipped between them. "She's my familiar. I need her with me."

"Then all the more reason to keep her away from you. Gydion, put her in the mud room."

Grey growled as the gunman named Gydion grabbed the fur and skin on the back of her neck, but I quieted her down with the reassurance I'd be back to let her out soon as I could. My anxiety level rose as I watched her being half dragged away and I felt the mark sear my chest. I put a hand over it and felt the heat through my shirt.

"It's so nice to see you again," the Magician said as she turned and headed into the house. Two more robed men with their hoods down flanked us as they ushered us to follow Circe. I fell in between Kyle and Ivan, with Ivan's hand on my shoulder. "I must say I was very impressed with the way you handled my spectres."

"What are you doing in Inamorata's house?" I had to ask, and I made sure to do it once we were through the dining room, heading to the open sliding glass doors. The house looked fine. Nothing broken or stolen.

She paused in the doorway and turned. I didn't much care for the look on her face. "Let's not play coy, Miss Hawthorne. You already know I was friends with Inamorata. I have a key to this place, and I know more about its hidden secrets than you."

As she turned to head out the door, I couldn't stop myself. I didn't like her and I was feeling very aggressive. The edges of my vision were tinged with red, sparkly power waiting for me to give it permission to destroy. And that realization frightened me more than anything. Would there be a day when it wouldn't wait for my permission and I would be the one watching from the edges as it wreaked its destructive power?

"You mean the secrets like the bodies? The deaths she used to create the Coyote Flame?"

Circe's back went rigid as she straightened her arms down at her sides. She obviously didn't like being one-upped and the bodies were a sticky secret.

"Oh…I get it." I stepped forward and Ivan's hand slipped off my shoulder. "You helped her kill those people, didn't you? That's how you know who I am. So, part of you is connected to that doorway, isn't it?"

I'd moved past Kyle as I spoke and stood directly in front of her. She turned fast, but I expected it. Or a sudden surge in my senses expected it. I knew she was going to strike and when she moved, it was in slow motion. I grabbed her striking wrist and held it between us. We were close to the same height—Circe had about an inch or two on me.

One of the gunmen stepped forward and slammed his fist down my arm. It hurt. I let go of Circe's wrist, snarled at the bastard and grabbed the gunman's forearm.

He disappeared in a swirl of black and red mist that smelled faintly of blood and smoke.

Kyle and Ivan both backed up. I felt them pull away as my shaking intensified. I was so, so cold and yet I could feel my skin crawling with heat. I looked at my outstretched hand. Arcane power popped and sparkled just beneath my skin like lightning within a thundercloud. Circe took two steps back, pulled her hands back and took off running into the center of the garden. The other gunman backed up as well as I turned and looked at him and said, "Boo."

He ran in the opposite direction toward the front door. I heard it slam on his way out.

When I looked at Kyle and Ivan my heart dropped into my already knotted stomach. Their eyes were wide and their fists up in front of them. Ivan's glowed brilliant green and Kyle's were blue and yellow. I looked between the two of them, shivering, then turned and looked back to the garden.

Circe was in the center of the Circle Ina and I had created years ago. Any Cowen looking to the back would just see a circular garden, with concentric circles of flowers planted in four quarters. But the magically inclined would see the significance and the base for a ritual space. It was the place where I'd killed Arwen at Samhain, and where Arden and her coven had opened the Coyote Flame and freed the Changeling children in December.

And here we were, back again a third time, with another bad guy threatening to do bad things to an innocent. I could see a girl lying on the ground in the center of the stone circle where the fire pit was. I could also see the swell of her belly where a child slept in anticipation of birth. And I could see the mother wasn't moving.

I glanced behind me at the two of them. "You two can stand there and look at me like I'm some kind of monster or you can get your asses out there and help me save Jack, Marilla and her baby. Kyle, free Grey from the mud room and she can show you where the snowdrop is." Whether or not they decided to help me, having just seen me obliterate a man, didn't matter. The only thing I could see was the girl, the baby and a Magician that needed to be put down.

So I took off running to that Circle, calling every ounce of Arcane I had at my fingertips, ready to get rid of this bitch for good.

Something grabbed my ankle in mid run. I wasn't running that fast. I had a fever that would probably send any thermometer into a fit and my muscles ached as if on fire, so I wasn't all that surprised that something caught me. What I didn't expect to see after I slammed into the damp, wet ground and bit dirt, was a bony, skeletal hand. It sprang out of the ground, pushing dirt and plugs of grass to the sides as it held my ankle in a vice-like grip.

The ground around it rippled and shot up as the rest of the body popped up like broken bones through skin. I screamed.

Ivan appeared at my side, stomping on the femur connected to the hand with his sneakers. The bones broke but the hand continued its death grip on my ankle. My Cyber Witch dropped to the ground where I sat staring at the skeletal hand on my boot and started pulling and yanking at the finger bones. "Damn! Sam! This is one of those bodies, isn't it?"

"Yes!"

I reached out and gingerly touched the knuckle of one bone and the whole hand disappeared in a poof of black smoke.

Ivan helped me to my feet as the entire garden moved and shifted. More bodies erupted from the earth and pulled their rotted selves out of the earth.

I pointed at them as I grabbed Ivan's arm. He flinched, but when he realized I wasn't going to make him disappear in a cloud of smoke he grabbed my arm back. "We got
zombies
!"

"No shit!" It was obvious Ivan didn't know what to do. His Gift dealt with Cyber Magic, and this was way outside his wheelhouse. "What do we do?"

I looked around at the bodies as they all turned at once and faced us. Just past them were Grey and Kyle on the other side of the Circle digging in the ground. No one had seemed to notice them yet, and there were more of them than us. Keeping their attention away from Kyle and Grey was the better idea.

I pulled him to the house. "We run!"

I
wasn't
in good shape. And it was obvious as I stumbled against Ivan and he worked to get his arm underneath my shoulder. I cursed Ina for having such a huge back yard as we neared the house, only to be blocked by one of the monsters. This zombie was still half dressed, with a yellow t-shirt, bits and pieces of jeans and yellowish hair. I recognized him as Bill, one of the last homeless guys Ina took in before I left for college.

He was fresher so he was faster and grabbed Ivan's hoodie. Ivan started hacking way with a very poor imitation of Kung-Fu. I reached out to make this one disappear like the others.

Only he didn't. Not immediately. He started smoking and moving in a jerky motion as bits and pieces of him caught fire and smoldered like glowing embers. It slowed him down but it didn't destroy him. Ivan took that chance, pulled his arm away—actually Bill's arm came with us—and we ran past him back into the house.

Ivan slammed the door shut and pried the still moving zombie hand off his arm and slammed it onto the tile where he promptly started stomping on it.

One of the doors opened and I turned at a dizzying speed. But it was just Kyle and Grey coming in. "They're right behind me."

I put my hand on my forehead. It was so hot. Was it possible for skin to be this hot and not set itself on fire? "Up the stairs. Ina's room is probably the safest. It's in the back and gives a good view of the back garden."

"Sam, are you okay?" Ivan asked as he pulled me to him and we started up the stairs.

"No. I'm not. But we can't worry about this."

It's starting. You need the antidote.

Yeah, Mom, no kidding.

We made it up the steps and into Ina's room. Nothing had changed inside. Everything looked as it did before, as if life had been interrupted. I sat on the edge of the bed, Ivan locked the door and pulled the chair from the dresser and wedged it under the doorknob as Kyle and Grey went to the window.

"What the hell is she doing?" Kyle asked.

"I have no idea. I don't understand the workings of a crazy Magician."

Ivan moved from the door and put his hand on my forehead. "You're burning up. Maybe that's why that weird magic didn't work."

I was thinking that myself. Grey was oddly quiet and I nudged her mind. She sent back a stream of love and adoration. She was just worried about how to save Marilla.

"About that—" Kyle started.

I held up my hand. "Not now. I don't know. Just get your potion made. We don't have time for arguing."

He did as I suggested, though I could feel the worry, hesitation and fear radiating off of him as he cleared off the dresser and set out the things he needed. Doors broke downstairs and I looked at Ivan. That didn't sound like slow moving zombies. That was something bashing into the doors from the garden.

I looked outside at the Circle where Circe stood over Marilla. She wasn't at the door. With a glance at Ivan, I went to he door, carefully unlocked it and peeked out.

At the other end of the hall appeared—the only way I can describe it is if someone were to take a wolf, a yeti, and André the Giant and combine their DNA. It was big and hunched over and stood up on its back haunches like a man, but it was covered in glossy black fur. Its arms stuck out in front, reaching for things. Its talons raked along the dry wall, pulling up long gouges as it turned in the hall and looked right at me.

Sweet Lord and Lady Darksome!

I squealed like a little girl, slammed the door and locked it.

"What?" Ivan said.

I looked at Kyle. He had his small cauldron going with a tiny fire inside and was holding a beaker over it with a pair of tongs and in his hand was the snowdrop. "What?" he said to me. "Is it Jack?"

I wasn't sure, but I was heavy on the maybe. So I nodded. "Kyle, I don't know how in the hell you plan on getting him to drink that."

"Answer me," Kyle stood and started toward me. "Is it Jack?"

I put my hand up. "Just finish!"

That's when the first slam against the door happened. The wood in the door cracked, the frame split, but it didn't open immediately. I turned and put my hand on the door and imagined it made of steel. Sparkling red covered the door and melted into the wood, creating something different. I just didn't know what. Jack smashed against it again and I was pretty sure he was body slamming it in his attempt to get to us. The new door didn't budge.

Kyle hesitated but he turned back to the little setup on the dresser and I watched as he lowered the snowdrop plant into the beaker. There was an instant reaction as the liquid turned bright red and then blue and then smoke billowed up and out over the beaker's edge as the potion settled on a dull orange. And the smell?

Like wild onions.

"Is that it?" I pointed to the smoking beaker.

"Yes. I'm just not sure how to get it into him."

I stared at it. "Will it work on me?"

Kyle glanced at the flask. "I don't know."

Sam…
Grey's voice had a warning note.

"Mom, don't. Bastien's not here. I can't even feel him through the pack link because my mind's just a jumble of worries and random thoughts as this fever eats away at it. We found Marilla. She's out there. And I'm going to need to be full strength to fight that crazy woman."

Kyle and Ivan looked between my mom and I as Jack continued banging on the door.

"Sam, the door might hold, but the wall around it won't," Ivan pointed out.

I stepped back and looked. Sure enough, the drywall around the door was cracking as dust fell from breaks in the ceiling. He was right. I gave it another three good slams before it all came down.

"Here," Kyle thrust the flask in my face. "You use it. You're right. We're going to need that seriously messed up magic of yours to get out of this and protect that baby."

I stared at the flask and then looked at Kyle's face.

Some say our eyes are the windows to our souls. I've always considered that a pick-up line. Until I looked into Kyle's eyes that day. They weren't as dark as I'd always thought they were. His eyes were a mixture of colors, but mostly green, gold and brown. All of that amounted to hazel. But it was the impression of emotion that overwhelmed me looking into his eyes. I saw desperation, I saw despair and worry, I saw fear and I saw…love. I didn't know if apogee wolves could force a link the way Bastien had on me, but I did sense their relationship had matured deeper than anything Kyle had ever felt before.

All of his life, Kyle had fought for acceptance. Acceptance for being gay, acceptance for being the only male Hedge Witch in the Vervain family. Acceptance within himself for what the God Mother gave to him. And now he'd found someone seeking that same acceptance. A young man with a wolf's curse seeking acceptance and Kyle was willing, ready and thoroughly able to give it.

In that second my eyes locked with his, I knew there was no way I could sacrifice Jack's only chance at living a life with Kyle. There was enough potion for both of us—that much I was sure of—having tried several of Kyle's brews. And this potion was super charged not only with the power of its roots, herbs and plants, but with the desire and belief it would give Jack back to him.

A slam against the door caused the frame to crack inward. I felt the door shift against me. One more hit like that to the door and the big bad wolf was going to blow the house down. I had one chance and if I screwed it up, Jack would tear me apart, and then he'd go after my boys.

I couldn't let that happen.

I faced the door, but I moved to the side so when the door fell in, it wouldn't crush me underneath it. I held the flask in front of me and concentrated on the glass. If I could make a body vanish, why not make the glass vanish? Or something even better, why couldn't I transmute it into a container of air? Something that I could grasp without worrying about cutting Jack or myself. My shaking wasn't helping, or the fact my knees shook. I didn't know if this was from abject terror or the wolf fever.

And then the door came down and I didn't have time to think anymore. Jack loomed big, loud and in full stereo in front of us as he came through the door. At that moment, I realized any idea I might have come up with was heading out the window like paper caught in a strong gust of wind. Instinct and the need to protect my bacon, as well as Ivan's and Kyle's, became the singular thought.

I couldn't fight this behemoth as it came through the door. I wasn't strong enough to wrestle it to the ground and pour the potion in its mouth. My imagination and my over exuberant positive attitude really hadn't thought this one through.

As he swung at me, I ducked and moved behind him. That left the boys vulnerable and in Jack's line of sight. I had to think in seconds of something that could stop him and help me! If Jack's human mind were in control, I could just reason with him to be quiet and let me pour it down. He'd thank me later.

Be quiet…and still.

I didn't think about how I would do it. Nor did I spare a moment to consider what I was thinking wouldn't work. Holding the flask in one hand I reached out with the other and touched Jack's back with the thought of him freezing in place. When he suddenly stopped moving, I knew it'd worked so I looked at Kyle. "Take the flask and pour it down his throat. Hurry!"

Kyle scrambled around Jack's unmoving form to get the flask, and once he had it I watched him run back around. I saw determination in his expression as he pushed up on Jack's elongated snout, shoved the long cylindrical end of the flask between Jack's sharp teeth and poured it down. Some of it spilled over but it didn't matter as long as some of it went in.

As for me, the strain of keeping the Arcane power focused was a battle I was losing. My muscles felt like they needed oiling as I moved and I was losing the strength to stand. Wavering from the intent worried me as I felt my eyes close. Exhaustion paired with the venom zapped my strength and I didn't know if I was going to be able to stop Circe. This might be one fight I'll have to sleep through.

"Sam!"

I jerked up and looked at Kyle.

"Sam let go!"

But I couldn't. When I tried to pull my hand away I discovered it was covered in ice. In fact, Jack's lower half was being quickly encased in ice!

"Sam you have to let go!" Ivan was at my side.

"I…I can't." I wasn't strong enough. The Arcane was happy doing what it did best—causing chaos. And it wasn't listening to what I wanted. I stopped trying to pull my hand free as I my eyes closed again and this time I was pulled down by the lull of the Arcane.

-Such a monster shouldn't exist.-

No…it shouldn't.

-And we have the power to stop it. We have the power to take that woman down as well. We can stop all of the evil. Make it all go away.-

Yeah…make it all go away.

I knew I was half hanging off of Jack's back, my hand in ice with Ivan and Kyle yelling. Or talking. I couldn't tell. My body shook as I succumbed to that voice. I was so tired and it wanted control. It wanted to do the work for me while I rested. It wanted to treat me like the Queen I was.

came Bastien's snort in my mind as voices whispered to me.

<my
Queen.>>

Crwys! How was he chiming in on the pack link?

And then he was there, his mind brushing against my own, his magic cradling mine. I felt the Arcane pitch, buckle and protest its control being taken, but as it had when I had my Elementals, his magic was now guiding my new power and forcing it to do my will. I heard people talking, I heard whispers and I heard…

"Sam? Please, baby. I need you to open your eyes."

I did and found his amber red peepers looking down at me. I followed the crease of his eyelids, to the arch of his brows. The slope of his nose was enticing and I wanted to lick it before I kissed his sensual, pouty lips.

"She's smiling."

"That's great. Now get her up. We have to go down there and stop Circe!"

That was Ivan. I was cradled in Crwys's arms and he was so warm. I didn't want to move. But he pulled me up and into a sitting position so I could see the room. Jack was on his side, naked, his eyes closed, but no longer a monster. He looked as human as he ever had. Kyle pulled the duvet off the bed and covered his lover with it before he rested Jack's head in his lap.

Ivan moved to the window to look out as Bastien accompanied him. "She's still down there with Marilla. But I can't see what she's doing. What the hell does she want?"

<>

I pushed away and Crwys and I stood. "She's going to kill both Marilla and the baby. We can't let that happen."

"But what about the zombies?"

Crwys led me to the window. I put my hand against the glass and watched the shadows of those Ina and Circe murdered for their foul magic. I didn't have the strength to run around the place zapping zombies into nothing, and if that last zombie was any example of my remaining strength? I'd just piss them all off by singeing them.

Abruptly, every moving shadow lit up like a roman candle and then disappeared. The whole scene reminded me of the day in the park when Dionysus's Ghouls ignited and went up in flames. I looked at Crwys and grinned at him.

"What zombies?"

I put my hand on his cheek. "I love you."

"I know," he grabbed my hand and entwined his fingers with mine. "LeBlanc, I need your pack flanking the garden. Keep her separated from anything or anyone else she might call in."

The big red wolf nodded.

"Ivan, you get on the net and see if you can bring in some help just in case we need it."

"Who?"

"Arden for one. Find out where the hell she is."

"Roger."

He looked at Kyle. "You stay here with Jack. Make sure he's okay."

And then he looked at me. "Ready to go kick some Ceremonial ass together?"