had been. I was screaming when the spell hit him and didn't see him knocked aside. Ceri went to him when he rose, grasping his muzzle in both hands and peering into his eyes. She looked dwarfed beside him, his absolute blackness looking dangerous and somehow right beside her frailty, dressed in flowing white. 'Give this to me,' she whispered as she gazed unafraid into his eyes, and David's ears pricked.
Dropping his face, she paced forward until she was standing where David's footprints left off. Keasley joined her, buttoning his thick fabric coat as he moved from my right to halt beside her. He took her hand, murmuring, 'It's yours,' before letting go, and they both stepped back.
I wanted to weep but didn't have the strength. They couldn't help me. I admired Ceri's confidence, her proud and impassioned stance, but it was misplaced. I might as well be dead.
'Demon,' she said, her voice chiming thorough the still air like a bell. 'I bind you.'
Al jerked as a sheet of smokey blue ever-after blossomed over us, and his face reddened. 'Es scortum obscenus impurua!' he shouted, letting me go. I stayed where I fell, knowing he wouldn't have released me if I could escape. 'How dare you use what I taught you to bind me!'
Panting, I pulled my head up, only now realizing why she had touched David and then Keasley. David had started the circle, Ceri had made a second portion of it, and Keasley had made the third. They had given her permission to bind their paths together as one. The circle had been made; he was caught. And as I watched him pace to the edge of the bubble and a victorious Ceri, I thought it wouldn't take much for him to decide to kill me out of spite.
'Moecha putida!' he shouted, hammering on the force between them. 'Ceri, I will tear your soul from you again, I swear it!'
'Et de,' she said, her narrow chin high and her eyes glinting, 'acervus excerementum. You can jump to a line from here. Leave now before the sun rises so we can all go back to bed.'
Algaliarept took a slow breath, and I shuddered at the bound anger in the movement. 'No,' he said. 'I'm going to widen Rachel's horizons, and you will listen to her scream as she learns to take the full capacity of what I demand.'
He could draw more through me? I thought, feeling my lungs press together as I temporarily lost the will to breathe. There was worse than this?
Ceri's confidence faltered. 'No,' she said. 'She doesn't know how to store it properly. Any more, and her mind will bend. She'll be insane before you teach her how to make your tea.'
'You don't need to be sane to make tea or do my toast upon one side,' he snarled. Snatching my arm, he jerked me unresisting to my feet.
Ceri shook her head, standing in the snow as if it were summer. 'You're being petty. You've lost her. She outsmarted you. You're a sore loser.'
Al pinched my shoulder, and I gritted my teeth, refusing to cry out. It was only pain. It was nothing compared to the steady burning of the ever-after he was forcing me to hold for him. 'Sore loser!' he shouted, and I heard the cries of fear from the people in the shadows. 'She can't hide on holy ground forever. If she tries, I'll find a way to use her through the lines.'
Ceri glanced at David, and I closed my eyes in despair. She thought he could do it. God help me. It was only a matter of time before he figured out how. My gamble to save my soul was going to fail. 'Go away,' she said, pulling her attention from David. 'Go back to the ever-after and leave Rachel Mariana Morgan in peace. No one here has called you.'
'You can't banish me, Ceri!' he raged, jerking me upright until I fell into him. 'My familiar opened a summoning path for me to follow when she tapped a line. Break this circle and let me take her as is my right!'
Ceri took an exultant breath. 'Rachel! He acknowledged you called him. Banish him!'
My eyes widened.
'No!' Algaliarept shouted, sending a flow of ever-after into me. I nearly passed out, the waves of pain washing through me building upon themselves until there was nothing left but agony. But I took a breath, smelling the stink of my burned soul.
'Algaliarept,' I choked out, my voice a ragged gasp. 'Return to the ever-after.'
'You little bitch!' he snarled, backhanding me. The force of the blow picked me up, throwing me into Ceri's wall. I landed in a crumpled heap, unable to think. My head hurt and my throat was raw. The snow under me was cold. I snuggled into it, burning.
'Go away. Go away now,' I whispered.
The overwhelming ever-after energy humming through my brain vanished in a clock-tick. I moaned at its absence. I heard my heart beat, pause, and beat again. It was all I could do to keep breathing, empty with just my own thoughts in my head. It was gone. The fire was gone.
'Get her out of the snow,' I heard Ceri say urgently, her voice easing into me like ice water. I tried to open my eyes, failing. Someone picked me up, and there was the warmth of body heat. It was Keasley, a small part of me decided, as I recognized the smell of redwood and cheap coffee. My head thumped into him and my chin dropped to my chest. I felt small cool hands upon my forehead, and with Ceri singing to me, I felt myself shift into movement.
Nineteen
'Oh God,' I whispered, my words sounding as raw as my throat felt. It was a raspy utterance, more like gravel in a tin pail than a voice. My head hurt, and a wet washcloth smelling of Ivory soap was over my eyes. 'I don't feel so good.'
Ceri's cool hand touched my cheek. 'I'm not surprised,' she said wryly. 'Keep your eyes shut. I'm going to change your compress.'
Around me was the soft breathing of two people and a very big dog. I vaguely remembered being carried in, wavering on passing out but never quite managing it, hard as I tried. I could tell by the smell of my perfumes that Keasley had put me in my room, and the pillow under my head had a familiar, comfortable feel. The heavy weight of the afghan I kept at the foot of my bed was draped over me. I was alive. Go figure.
Ceri lifted the damp washcloth from me, and despite her warning, I cracked my lids. 'Ow…' I moaned as the light from a candle on the dresser seemed to pierce my eyes, going all the way to the back of my skull and ricocheting. My headache tripled.
'She told you to keep your eyes shut,' Jenks said sardonically, but the relief in his voice was obvious. The click of David's nails intruded, shortly followed by a warm snuff in my ear.
'She's fine,' Ceri said softly, and he retreated.
Fine? I thought, concentrating on my breathing until the light bouncing around in my head lost momentum and died. This was fine?
The throbbing in my head retreated to a mild agony, and when I heard a soft puff of breath and the biting scent of blown-out candle reached me, I opened my eyes again.
In the streetlight leaking past my curtains, I could see Ceri on a kitchen chair beside my bed. A pan of water was on her lap, and I cringed when she set it on Ivy's vampire dating guide, out where everyone could see it. On my other side stood Keasley, a hunched shadow. Perched on the bedpost, Jenks glowed a dull amber, and lurking in the background was David taking up half the floorspace with his wolf bulk.
'I think we're back in Kansas, Toto,' I murmured, and Keasley harrumphed.
My face was damp and cold, and a draft from the broken door mixed with the musty smell of the heater blowing from the vent. 'Jenks!' I croaked when I remembered the wash of winter air that had hit him. 'Are your kids all right?'
'Yeah, they're fine,' he said, and I slumped back to the pillow. My hand crept up to hold my throat. It felt as if it was bleeding inside.
'David?' I questioned softer. 'How about you?'
His panting increased as he pushed Keasley out of the way to snuff warm and moist in my ear. His jaws opened. Ceri gasped when David gripped my entire face in his mouth.
Adrenaline cut through the pain. 'Hey!' I exclaimed, struggling as he gave me a gentle shake and let go.
