Shattered Circle

Pissed off, I stepped off the trail then, glancing back and forth between the ground and the fire, trying to make my approach as unnoticeable as possible. If it was him, I was going to need the element of surprise. Please let that fire crackle and pop and the hood dampen other sounds from his ears.

Then I saw Beverley. She lay as if sleeping upon the ground before the figure.

He raised his hands high. A green glow claimed the fire, and bolts like laser beams jumped into the air and circled a few feet over the flames. A purple swirl spiraled up from underneath the fire—from the ley line—and slithered into the fire, rising through it like a serpent, snapping onto the ends of the green bolts and swallowing them down. All the colors glinting and sparkling were mesmerizingly beautiful.

He lowered his hands over Beverley.

My hesitation evaporated. I plunged forward, heedless of the noise I made.

Abruptly, the figure turned, hood falling back.

Menessos!

His eyes widened and his head shook back and forth. His voice filled the woodland around me, shouting, “Don’t break the circle!”

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Johnny pulled into the driveway and saw Celia’s CX-7. Though several lights were on in Mountain’s trailer out by the barns, none were on at the house. Using his key, he let himself in and stood in the darkened hall with the open door at his back and sniffed.

Red wasn’t here.

He detected nothing to indicate that she had been there recently, either. She still hadn’t replied to his text. Did she make it home?

He jerked on his loosened tie, removing it altogether.

He breathed in the smells again. The kiddo. Celia. Mountain. That was it.

Moving closer to the stairway, he draped the tie over the handrail as he stared up at the unlit second floor. Aurelia said he needed to move, to live somewhere else. After what he’d done, Red might not let the Big Bad Wolf back in her home. He couldn’t blame her if she asked him to leave, but he wasn’t about to go up and preemptively pack his stuff, either.

Returning to the door, he put his hand on the knob and scanned the darkened house once more over his shoulder. He walked out and shut and locked the door behind him, heading for the trailer. His dress shoes were slick in the dew-damp grass.

Through the window, he saw Mountain open his refrigerator and remove something. As he approached the door, he saw the large man hand Celia a can of 7UP. He figured Celia and the kiddo must’ve been visiting the unicorns again.

At the same moment, Celia and Mountain turned. The w?rewolf and the Beholder had both detected him; he hadn’t been trying for stealth. Mountain approached to open the door. He didn’t look happy.

“Johnny.”

“Where’s Red?” Johnny asked, glancing around as he entered.

Mountain said, “She and Zhan left a few minutes ago.”

She’s avoiding me. Guess I deserve it after what I did and then standing her up at the coffee shop.

“He doesn’t know.” Celia sounded miserable as she dropped into one of the kitchen’s folding chairs with much less grace than was usual for her.

“I don’t know what?”

“Beverley found and used Great El’s slate,” she said, pointing toward the woods outside the trailer. “She used it in the grove. Now she’s . . . well, according to Seph, she’s in the line.”

Johnny tipped his head, squinting slightly. “You mean Beverley is inside of a ley line?”

When Celia’s chin dropped to her chest, Johnny’s gaze shifted to Mountain, who answered with a nod.

“The lines are just energy, right? How is that possible?”

Mountain shrugged. Celia began to cry.

Mountain headed into one of the trailer’s back rooms.

Johnny knelt. “Celia?”

“I was supposed to be watching her,” she said. “She was supposed to have come out here to see Errol. I didn’t even know she’d gone upstairs and taken the slate.”

“Don’t beat yourself up over it. Kids can be sneaky.” He had the urge to put his hand on her knee to comfort her, but she was the wife of his former best friend, Erik. He folded his fingers together over his own bent knee.

“But a kid shouldn’t be able to sneak like that around a w?rewolf.” She wiped her eyes. “I guess it’s for the best that I’m not a mother.”

“Celia.” His hand slipped onto her knee then. He felt the spark of energy that flared up whenever he touched a female w?rewolf. Their eyes met for an instant and her mouth opened. Before she could speak, Mountain returned with an unopened box of Kleenex and offered it to her. “Did Red say where they were going?”

“No,” Mountain answered. “Her phone rang, she answered it, and two seconds later, she told Zhan they had to go.”

Johnny took out his phone and hit the speed dial for Persephone’s satellite phone. It rang and rang, but she didn’t answer. When it clicked over to voicemail, he swore. Loudly.

Johnny paced. She has to come back here. Unless it was Menessos that called. Then she’d end up at the haven. He didn’t know if he should stay or go. Lifting his phone before him again, he stopped walking and texted Kirk: Inform whoever we have watching the haven that he or she is to report to you immediately if Red is seen there. You notify me at once.

When he hit Send, the pacing resumed. Moments later, when Kirk acknowledged the text, he didn’t even break stride.

Mountain walked into the kitchen, then returned with a short glass. “Here,” Mountain said, pushing the glass at Johnny, who gave him a questioning look. “Captain and Coke. You need it.” He put it into Johnny’s hand. “I’ll go see that all the animals are inside.”

Johnny watched the vampire’s Beholder go, aware that he was making an excuse to give the w?rewolves time to talk privately. His gaze fell and he stared down into the short glass, watching the ice cubes slowly spin but not drinking.

“At least you stopped pacing,” Celia said softly.

He tore his eyes from the glass to meet her gaze.

“What else is wrong?” she asked. “You’re wrapped in tension like a field of static.”

Not wanting to answer her, he drank.

Celia rose from her seat and drew close. “Erik misses you,” she said. A gentle smile claimed her lips. “He’d never admit it but I know. He feels guilty about taking the money.”

Under order of the old Rege, the Omori—the Zvonul’s version of the Secret Service—had bribed the two other members of Johnny’s band with twenty-five grand each. They had told Erik and Feral they were “no longer in Lycanthropia with Johnny.” The band was officially dead, and the cash was their severance pay. The former Rege meant to undermine Johnny in every way he could.

“He shouldn’t,” Johnny said. “When the Omori show up at your door, you comply.” He’d said those words before, but he hadn’t been the Domn Lup then. Now he wondered what else the old Rege might have had the Omori do. . . .

Celia started to put her hand on his forearm, then stopped. “Johnny, he’s not even playing his drums. He needs to. It . . . it gets the aggression out. He’s bottling it up and it’s feeding that guilt. You guys have to get together and play, if not for shows, then for the fun it was for all of you.”

He wondered if she’d felt that flare of energy as well, and if that was why she refrained from touching