The Beckoning of Beautiful Things (The Beckoning Series) (11 page)

Their fabulous night of dining over, Daniel drove back to her house. “So protection spells are simple,” he said, pulling the car into the driveway. “We’ll cast yours tonight.”

“It’s kind of dark, don’t you think?”

“I’m a Night Numen. Perfect for nighttime spell casting, don’t
you
think?”

“I’m feeling kind of tipsy. We drank a lot of wine.”

“That will make the spell even more potent.” He lurched up the sidewalk, pretended to trip, and executed a full Aikido-like somersault up to standing. “See what I mean? We’ll add the fool’s charm to the spell.”

Marissa laughed. “What do we do first?”

“Do you have any garden art? You know, statues?”

“I have a Quan Yin in the back yard. And I have a
Huitzilopochtli
in the side yard.”

“A
Huitzilopochtli
? He’s a fierce god. Where did you get that?”

“My sister brought it back from Mexico for me. She told me he’d make a better boyfriend for me than Jason.”

“Good call. A male and a female. Perfect. Let’s get them out and have a little talk with them.”

“The Quan Yin is kind of big. I had to have a couple guy friends help me put her in the back yard.”

“A sturdy, substantial female? Even better.”

“Didn’t you say you trained in Central and South America? Shouldn’t we be using some south of the border deities?” Jason was always telling her to not cross cultures when you preformed rituals.

“I don’t have a statue of the goddess
Coatlicue in my pocket, do you?”

Marissa patted her pockets. “Nope. Nothing. What kind of goddess is she?”

“Oh, she’s a ferocious one, that Coatlicue. She wears a skirt of writhing snakes and a necklace made of human hearts, hands, and skulls. Her feet and hands are adorned with claws and her breasts hang flaccid from pregnancy. Her face is formed by two facing serpents. Her head was cut off and the blood that spurted from her veins created the two snakes.”

Marissa shuddered. “She doesn’t seem like a goddess to be trifled with.”

“She isn’t. But we’ll ask Quan Yin if she is willing to be her gentle northern representative.”

“
Coatlicue sounds more like a Kali. Jason gave me a Kali once. I didn’t really care for the statue, but he insisted. She’s somewhere in the back.” Marissa unlocked the gate to the back yard.

“No. If your former boyfriend gave her to you, she needs to be consecrated first
, and we don’t have time for that. Did he give you Quan Yin?”

“My oldest sister gave her to me. She thought I needed some garden art.”

Daniel nodded, tramping through the wet grass. “Actually, I’ve reconsidered. That might work.”

“What might work?”

“If your ex gave you the Kali statue, it is already attuned to him. We can use that energy to keep him away.”

A shudder coursed through Marissa. “Really?”

“Really. Where is she?”

“I think I put her under the back deck. I need to let the dog out and turn on a light so we can find her.”

“No dogs,” Daniel snapped. “Dogs chase the spirits away. We want to invite the spirits.”

“I can’t keep him out of the yard forever.”

“Once we invite them, they’ll stay put as long as the ritual is active, dog or no dog. Just for now, dulzura. Sorry that came out so strong.” He took her hand and kissed it.

“Why didn’t my hand sizzle that time?”

“Probably because you are tipsy, as you put it.” He tapped her nose with his fingertip. “Actually, it’s probably because your powers are just forming…just being freed. They’ll be erratic for a while until you get them sorted.”

“I see,” she said.
Not.
She peered through the dark garden ringing the house. “Here she is.” Barks rang out from the room behind the kitchen. “Sober hears us.”

“He’ll quiet in a moment.”

“Not likely.” She paused to look at Daniel when the barking stopped. “What did you do?”

Daniel shrugged. “I asked him to be quiet. Now, let’s ask our goddess for assistance. Bring her out and tell her you’re sorry you shoved her under the deck.”

“Why me?”

“This is your ritual, d
ulzura.”

She seized the figurine and used her hand to swipe away the dust, dirt
, and cobwebs from the skulls dangling from her neck. “Um, sorry I took out my dislike of Jason Harmonia on you, goddess, and crammed you under the deck.” She shook her head and looked at Daniel. “Nothing happened.”

“Don’t be so sure. She’s a fickle fire goddess and may need another apology. Better yet, ask her for your help. That might wake her up. Use your desire to be rid of Jason and ask her for assistance.”

Marissa’s jaw tightened. “He’s such an ass. He let himself into my house the morning after we broke up – at five in the morning.”

“How did that make you feel?”

“Violated. Angry.”

“Yes. Feel that. Channel that. Ask Kali for help.”

“Goddess Kali, I need your help. I need you to help me keep Jason Harmonia Brown, that idiot with no boundaries, away from my house.” The small bronze figurine sizzled with heat. “Ouch!” Marissa dropped the hot metal. She shook her stinging palms. “How did that happen?”

“She got the message. She answered. You’re going to have to pick her up. We can’t leave her there.”

“How do I do that? She burned my hands.”

“Think of something cool. Think of that pond you told me about. Use your artist’s mind.”

Marissa closed her eyes.
The pond in the winter. I’m standing before the pond in the winter. My breath appears in icy puffs. I’m sure my lips are blue. I’m gripping a paintbrush with my teeth. The other brush is in my frozen fingers. The oil paint is thick, unwilling. The strokes appear as slashes of white and gray. I wish I’d brought a palette knife. The hairs of the brush refuse to yield. I tap the edge of the pond with my boot and it cracks, creating a spider web of texture, snaking out from the frosted soil cupping the water.
Her eyelids fluttered open. “Brrr. Now I’m cold.” She reached down and tentatively placed a fingertip on the goddess. No heat. Placing her palms around the figurine, she picked it up. Steam bellowed from the metal.

Daniel laughed. “Great, Marissa! Good job! Perfect! Ask her if she can be the representative of
Coatlicue.”

She closed her eyes again.
Goddess, we need you to be the northern representative for the goddess, Coatlicue.
“Nothing happened.”

“Ask again.”

Her eyelids fell.
Goddess Kali, I’m in need of your help. I need protection. I need you to act on Coatlicue’s behalf.

The ground began to vibrate. Marissa’s eyes flew open. A terrible screech erupted. The space next to Daniel split in two and Kali’s blue-black body emerged. She stomped her foot and a thunderous sonic boom ruptured the atmosphere. Her four arms launched out from her
torso, wielding a sword, a man’s head, and a bowl to catch the blood dripping from the man’s neck. It drip, drip, dripped into the bowl, creating small splashes. She held nothing in her fourth hand. She held it open facing Marissa.

Marissa stumbled backward.

“You’ve called me. I’ve come. Does this mean you’re prepared to face the darkness?” Kali’s voice was like a blade being ground against a spinning stone, deadly and insistent. Her red-rimmed eyes bulged fierce and huge. A necklace of heads hung from her neck, while her skirt was fashioned from rows and rows of arms, their fingers affixed to the waistband with leather bindings.

“I…I…I don’t know.” Marissa’s eyes jumped to the dried blood at the end of each arm and the vacant eyes of the heads.

“Should I ask the Numen?” One finger reached toward Daniel’s cheek and slowly snaked down to his neck.

He flinched and froze in place.

The goddess moved her finger down along his jaw and descended to his neck. She made a swift slicing motion. She extended a long, red tongue from her lips and gave one sweeping lick of the delicate skin in the hollow of his neck. “Mmm, Night Numen, you’d make a fine consort.”

Daniel took a sharp intake of breath.

Marissa yelped.

Kali twirled the tip of her tongue around and around in the well of skin above his sternum. “Your pulse is rapid. Are you scared?”

His jaw worked and his mouth clamped in a slit. “No.”

“I don’t believe you.” She threw back her head and laughed. The laughed echoed in every direction. “What is it you want, child?”

“P…p…protection.”

“That’s easy.” She smiled.

Her smile did nothing to ease Marissa’s shivering belly.

“And what will you give me?”

“Wh…wh…what do you want?”

The goddess seemed thoughtful. She cocked her head and scrutinized Marissa. Her long, long black hair fluttered in a non-existent wind, curling around her face like beckoning fingers.

Marissa’s mouth dried into a plaster-filled aperture.

“I’ve got it.” The goddess smiled again. “I want you to be like me.”

“What?” Marissa tensed.

“Wield your power, child. Use it wisely. Use your considerable skill to carve away chaos.” She beamed. Her dark blue finger extended to Marissa’s face.

Marissa cringed from the cold touch. She inhaled and exhaled in small, rapid puffs. Her skin seemed to ice over as the fingertip circled her face.

“Yes, you’ll do nicely,” Kali said. She withdrew her hand. “Your wish is granted.” Without another word, she slid back into the crack from which she’d emerged, the air whooshing with her disappearance.

Marissa took a deep breath, looking around wildly. “What was that?” she asked in a shaky voice.

“That,” Daniel said, swiftly resuming his composure, “That was a sign, Ms. Engles. Now place her over there, facing the East. Ask her if she’ll stay in place for seven moons.”

“Is that all you’re going to say? I just saw the scariest creature I’ve ever seen in my life and for you it’s business as usual?”

“I’m afraid so, love. We have work to do.”

She stood gaping in the moonlight. “Seriously?”

“Seriously. We have to keep moving.”

Marissa shook her head. “This makes no sense. None.
”

“Just…let’s keep going, Marissa. Please.”

She stared at Daniel. His face looked concerned and slightly disturbed.
Who are you? What are you?
She stomped to where he’d indicated. “Why seven moons?”

“It’s a sacred number,” Daniel said. “And honestly, if Jason is still bugging you after seven moons
, we may as well hang up our magic hats.” He smiled at her.

Marissa did as she was told.

“Thank her, and let’s move to the
Huitzilopochtli
.”

Marissa touched her hand to her heart, dipped her head.
Thank you, goddess.
She made her way around to the side. Stooping down to push away the fern fronds, she found the
Huitzilopochtli
, frowning fiercely in the moonlight.

“A cheerful companion, our
Huitzilopochtli
.”

“I don’t think so. He looks so mean. That’s why I put him out here.”

“He’s a fierce dude, true. But he’ll make a good warrior for protection. You don’t want Goofy guarding your house, do you?”

“No, not Mickey Mouse, either. Especially not Donald Duck.” She smiled.

“It’s decided then. You’ll have to invoke him, woman to man.”

She crinkled up her face. “Woman to man? What in the world does that mean?”

“It means you ask him for a favor the way you would ask a man. The way that you would ask me…”

She inhaled sharply.
Want.
The man was pure combustion.

“Yes, mi corazón…like that,” Daniel said. “Just like that.” His Adam’s apple bobbed up and down.

He wants it to. He feels it, just like me.

Still locked to her eyes, Daniel uttered. “Pick up the
Huitzilopochtli
. Don’t look away from me.”

She slowly crouched down to retrieve the statue, straining her neck upwards.

“Stand up.”

She stood.

“Now ask him. Keep looking at me.”

“
Huitzilopochtli
,” she croaked.
Weakling. I’m a weakling.
She cleared the combined fear and longing from her throat and tried again. “
Huitzilopochtli
.” “I need your help. I need your protection. I need you to keep me safe.” She quieted, breathing softly in the lunar illumination. “I need your assistance to keep someone away. Will you protect me?” Her eyes bore into Daniel’s.
I’m caressing you with my eyes. I’m holding you in my hands, Daniel. Cupping my palms around you.
You’re a butterfly. You’re a dragon. You’re a huge, raging fire. Stroking you. Stroking you. Stroking you. Stroking you with all of me. Stroking you.
The air around her felt thick and delicious.
I’m breathing you. Drawing you in. Savoring you. Exhaling and releasing you. I’m on fire with you.
“What do you think his answer is?” Her voice emerged barely audible.