The distant wail of sirens was heard.
Vilna-Daluca mounted her broom. “What are we going to do with them?” She gestured toward the elementals.
“Excuse me,” Mountain said. He had managed to stand as well. Blood stained his ripped football jersey, but the flow from his bite had apparently stopped. Truthfully, he seemed steadier than Johnny. “I have an idea.”
“What?”
“Well, you have all that land . . . If you and the others can find a way to transport them, I’m sure the Beholders can build you a barn.”
I put my hand on his arm. “There aren’t many Beholders left.”
“We lost twelve, but the Boss has all of Heldridge’s people to deal with. This can be used as a test to evaluate them with. It’ll work, Seph. They can have it up in a day or two.”
We weren’t at the haven and he used my name. It made me smile. I remembered he’d grown up on a farm. “Someone will have to tend them. Do you think the Boss would let you? Would you want to?”
“If you ask him, yes.”
“I’d be glad to.” If he wakes up. Goddess, please, let him wake up tonight. Let him be what he’s been meant to be for so long.
Into the approaching wail of sirens, Vilna-Daluca spoke. “Jeanine, take a group and contain the elementals for now. We’ll deliver them to Persephone later.” Jeanine called out some names and immediately the group left to gather the animals. In moments, the elementals—some being assisted by the witches—were retreating out over Lake Erie. The griffons and phoenixes flew low, as she did, the dragons swam, and the unicorns did their walk-on-water trick.
“The rest of you,” Vilna-Daluca instructed, “clean the beach of guns, casings, anything with fingerprints. Call in some waves to remove the broken brooms, the dead elementals, and other debris.” All jumped to action.
Kirk and the Beholders helped Johnny to my car, then the Beholders got into their own vehicle and sped off. The police would be arriving momentarily.
The waeres who’d fled earlier had taken their wounded with them; of those that remained to fight with Johnny, two had lost their lives to the beam. The Beholders had lost a dozen to the incinerating deathbeam. Someone had removed the Beholder with the eyes like a mistreated dog—I didn’t see him anywhere. The dead fey weren’t a problem. They disintegrated into goo.
Vilna turned back to me. “Anything else, Persephone?”
“Thank you.”
“Blessed Be, Persephone.”
“Blessed Be, Vilna-Daluca.” She swooshed out over the lake to join Celeste.
Kirk came back across the sand. “Domn Lup sent me for the vampire.”
“He’s dead.”
“Duh. It’s cloudy, but the sun’s up,” Kirk said. “Johnny didn’t figure you’d leave the body.”
Putting every ounce of hope into the idea that Menessos would rise tonight, I said, “Please help me get him to my car. He should be safe from the sun in the trunk.”
Yeah. Because the risk of leaving the scene with a guy toting a rifle isn’t enough. It’ll be a better headline if there’s a dead body found in my trunk.
EPILOGUE
A semitruck had jackknifed, for no apparent reason, without injury to the driver or much damage to the vehicle, on Lakeshore Boulevard and delayed the first land responders. A mysterious fog on Lake Erie had slowed the Coast Guard. We—Mountain, Johnny, Kirk, and me—were able to leave the area without even seeing a police car. Mountain was riding shotgun, filling the front space of my car, the seat all the way back and partially reclined. Johnny was in the back middle with Kirk beside him. Kirk’s rifle and Menessos were in the trunk.
Nobody spoke.
Of course my mind was still racing. Mountain thinks the Beholders can build me a barn to house the unicorns, griffons, dragons, and phoenixes. He says they can do it in a day or two even. Depending on the kind of job they do, I may ask them about Nana’s room addition.
Mountain didn’t ask me about his boss. He knew that Menessos had the ability to be up and move around the haven during the day, yet we’d just dumped his body in the trunk. While vampires are supposed to be dead during the day, Mountain wasn’t stupid, either. I was certain his thoughts were racing as well.
I headed toward I-77 South. I knew I couldn’t go back to the haven. I didn’t intend to drag Menessos’s body through the theater with whatever Beholders and Offerlings remained to see.
I was going home. Home.
I almost didn’t recognize Nana. She’d gotten a haircut. A major one. I stood there in the doorway staring. She ran a hand through the fluffy layers on top. It lay beautifully in natural waves. The sides and back were shorter. She smiled. “Saw myself on TV. Looked like a stump full of granddaddies.”
She’d always compared someone’s messy hair to a spider’s nest. “It really looks good, Nana.” I went forward and hugged her tight.
Johnny came in behind us and Kirk helped him upstairs. I gathered the Ace bandages from the bathroom and took them to the attic bedroom even as I called Doc Lincoln and left a message requesting a house call. After Johnny was wrapped in the bandage, Kirk and I brought down the mattress from my bed and put it on the living room floor for Mountain, who immediately crashed. Ares plopped right beside him. Both the big man and Nana’s Great Dane pup were snoring loudly within minutes. Then Kirk and I removed Menessos—wrapped in blankets—from the trunk of my car. Kirk let me know in no uncertain terms that he did not need a woman’s help to carry the vampire to the cellar. When he finished that, he wanted to call for a ride. I told him—also very directly—that he wasn’t going anywhere until he could be debriefed by his Domn Lup. So he went upstairs to wait with his king.
I promised Nana—who’d had the nerve to gripe about the sand we were tracking through the house—and Beverley that they’d hear the full story after a nap of my own. I stretched out on the couch. Nana busied herself in the kitchen. Beverley curled up beside me, watching cartoons and keeping the volume low. “I’m so glad you’re home.”
I squeezed her. “Me, too.”
A few hours later, Beverley woke me. A pair of semis had pulled into my driveway. By the time we made it to the porch, Vilna-Daluca had opened the back of one and a flurry of phoenixes filled the air. Griffons leaped out and paraded by. Some of them had wounds. The one that had lost an eye and the talons from his foreleg was among them.
Beverley, overjoyed at the sight of the glorious creatures, was barely able to contain herself. Even as the dragons slithered by she was shifting her weight and almost dancing. The unicorns, however, stunned her to slack-jawed stillness.
Once unloaded, the creatures headed straight for the grove, drawn to the ley line’s power.
I guess that’s where we’ll put the barn.
From my front porch, I watched the semis drive out and head down the road.
It was just after noon.
Nana called Beverley to lunch. The kid went in chattering and excited. “Demeter, did you see them?”
I stayed on the porch.
I had to wait for Johnny to wake up. I had to wait and see what the nightfall brought for Menessos. Heldridge was still out there somewhere, and whether or not he was the one who’d given the fairies info about the hanky, he had it in for Menessos.
Tomorrow would be Monday. I was sure Xerxadrea’s body would be identified. Then I’d have to deal with Vilna-Daluca and WEC. I also had to help Johnny unlock his tattoos. And speaking of waerewolves, though they had fled when the witches arrived, they had shown up at the beach and most had survived. They’d been promised the ritual to retain their man-minds. I had to perform it again. Then there was whatever Beau was going to want me to do before the next full moon.
And Beverley’s birthday party.
Still so much to do.