Wicked Circle

He made himself think the words: My son.

Was it possible? Comparing his school pictures and this child’s, yes it was. Not just possible, but probable.

So why didn’t an immediate course of action spring into his mind?

I’m not father material.

A wanna-be rock star lived a selfish kind of life. A wærewolf could be dangerous. A political leader lived with constant danger.

I should tell her to put the kid into children’s services. Let a normal family raise him.

His heart skipped a beat at the thought.

He’d only traveled his rock-star path searching for a sense of belonging, and didn’t family provide that? He knew plenty of wæres who were fantastic parents. Who were the political leaders trying to make the world better for if not their own offspring?

All he’d wanted since waking in the park was to know his past and to find his family. This wasn’t a possibility he’d ever considered, but he had some leads now that could help him find his parents.

That was still a goal in his heart.

Recognizing that, he knew that his own need to find that truth would never leave him. He couldn’t leave this kid—his kid—to grow up with the same need to know. He couldn’t let him grow up without real family. He couldn’t cut him off like he’d been cut off.

Johnny stood, and his voice was as unsteady as his legs. “Toni, if you’ll ride back to the den with me, I’ll get my car and drive you home.” He tucked the pictures into the diary and put it in the inside pocket of his sport jacket.

“It’s a very long drive.”

“I want to meet him.”

CHAPTER FORTY-NINE

I’d drifted in and out of sleep so many times and was so hungry and thirsty that I couldn’t be sure if only minutes had passed, or hours. My body was stiff and sore, and my shoulder still felt hot and swollen. My right fingers, however, weren’t prickly like before.

I hadn’t felt Menessos awaken, so it must not be night yet . . . but with this barrier up, I might not feel him rise.

If Liyliy’s sisters killed him . . . would I be able to tell the difference in the ache a master feels and all the pain I feel now?

Damn it, what if he’s gone? Johnny can’t help me.

I’m all alone.

Something creaked overhead and suddenly half of the ceiling slid open, retracting into itself with a terrible metallic clang. Dim evening light flooded into the darkness. I’d begun to think maybe I was in one of those domes where the Department of Transportation kept salt for the roads, but this was not like being inside of an upside- down bowl. In fact, the walls actually sloped in at the bottom.

I took in my surroundings. The place was a long rectangle with metal supports placed at regular intervals along the walls like ribs in—a ship? A cargo hold!

I wonder if she read me while I was unconscious?

Welded onto the far wall was an odd ladder with half-moon footholds. It rose toward the catwalk below the roof-door, where the silhouette of a giant owl suddenly appeared and dropped through. As she landed, Liyliy tossed a plastic bag to the side and resumed her human form. Her silken gown flowed down to her ankles. Quicksilver flowed and formed an owl-motif bracelet. She extended her arm, pointing a finger at me as she advanced; a crude knife formed in her grasp.

I said nothing as she neared. Creepy had said she needed me to do something; I had to assume that meant she needed me alive. I’d be doing very little if I was incapacitated any further, so I managed to counsel myself and keep my fear in check.

Until she poked me with the knife tip.

The first two or three pokes I could ignore. “You are brave,” she whispered, and jabbed harder. I felt the skin on my forearm tear with the fourth. She hovered over me to lick the blood. The tips of her hair brushed my skin, and even that was painful. I sucked air through my teeth.

She laughed and slapped the flat of her blade on my shoulder.

I screamed.

Liyliy dropped the knife behind me. “Now your blood has the flavor of fear and pain.” Her hands sank into the salt as her lips touched my skin, skimming between my neck and my swollen shoulder. When she bit me, there was no euphoria easing the sharp sensation, as when Menessos fed.

Menessos.

I hadn’t felt him rise. She had risen, so surely he had too. Unless they staked him.

Have I lost them both? Is our triangle well and truly broken? Loss and despair crept over me.

Liyliy drew back and licked her lips. “This is the side he feeds from, isn’t it? I can taste him.”

She hadn’t drunk much, but my energy was as low as my mood, and I was famished and dehydrated. The world swam before my dizzy eyes.

Liyliy grabbed up the knife again and I whimpered when she jostled the rope and began cutting. It occurred to me she hadn’t yet touched me with her hands. In fact, it seemed like she was trying very hard to touch only the rope, but then she was probably trying to keep from draining me too much.

When she had finished cutting, she backed away, keeping the knife pointed at me.

She’d severed only the portion of rope connecting my bound wrists to my equally secured ankles; I wasn’t free. In the dim light, I noticed the rope had silvery threads running through it. Remembering the pieces of her and her sisters that had floated up to cover the lights at the haven, I wondered if these were also portions of her, like the silver that adorned her leg.

“Sit up. Slowly.”

Keeping my arm against my body, I sat stiffly up. The light-headedness made me fear toppling over, and sitting made me aware my dress was a dirty, tattered ruin. Seeing it, I couldn’t help trying to smooth my hair. After a hundred miles an hour on the broom—where is my broom?—my hair must have looked like a fright wig.

My muscles complained and threatened to cramp; I lowered my arms. I swallowed hard. “When I blacked out at the amusement park there was enough night remaining for you to drag me back to the haven. Why didn’t you?”

She studied me but said nothing.

“If you didn’t need me for something, you would have drained me.”

“You should be grateful I did neither of the things I could have done.”

“I am grateful.” A wave of dizziness struck me and I leaned too far and nearly fell over. “I just want to know why,” I said firmly, as if I hadn’t just almost fainted. “It wasn’t an act of kindness.”

From the bag Liyliy produced a bottle of Coke, a Snickers candy bar and a bag of Sun Chips. She dropped them beside me. The Coke fizzed inside the bottle. “Eat.”

Famished and fully aware I had only myself to get me out of this mess, I worked at the bag of chips, holding it with my teeth and pulling. I was bearing the brunt of the lifting in my left, compensating to minimize the motion of the right. I poured a few chips into my mouth, where they promptly turned pasty with my great thirst. As I chewed, I wedged the bottle between my knees, slowly opened it and drank. It was warm, but it was liquid. The caffeine and sugar would help, too.

Liyliy paced about. “You are an Erus Veneficus who mastered your master, so you are very powerful. Having