“They start with your memories,” Jen said softly. “They dig into your oldest and dearest moments and suck them out of you. It’s as if they want to rob you of everything that makes you human before they kill you. I could feel my memories going … If Phoenix hadn’t gotten that monster off me, I would have lost my mind first and then my life. As it is, I lost whole chunks of my childhood.”
She broke off, trembling. Much to my amazement, Adelaide patted her shoulder and made a comforting noise. Phoenix continued Jen’s story.
“When I grabbed the nephilim attacking her, I felt Jen’s memories being sucked out of her. Then the monster turned on me, but when he sank his claws into me, he recoiled.” Phoenix grinned. “Apparently nephilim can’t absorb the energy of someone with my unusual brain wiring. As soon as I got rid of Jen’s attacker, I went after the one attacking Adelaide.”
“The nephilim had its barbs in me for only a few minutes before Phoenix rescued me,” Adelaide said, looking at me. “But in that short time I lost your mother’s face. It wasn’t until I felt it going that I realized how much I had lost by shutting her out—and how little I wanted to lose you, as well.”
Her lips were nearly white with the effort it had cost her to make this admission. I knew I should say something but was far too stunned to reply. In all the years I had lived with my grandmother, she was cool and distant, bothering to talk to me only when she had something to criticize. She’d spoken about my mother only to complain that I was like her and that surely I was headed in the same direction—a foolish marriage and an early death caused by recklessness. This summer she’d stood by while Duncan Laird tried to slash my throat. How could I trust her now?
“I don’t expect you to believe me, but I’ve come to make amends.”
“If what you say is true, you’ve come because you have no place else to go,” Frank said coldly. “Or you could be here as the nephilim’s spies.”
“I can’t blame you for doubting us,” Adelaide answered. “We are willing to bind ourselves to prove our intentions.”
“Bind yourselves?” I asked, looking around the group. “What does that mean?”
“A witches’ circle can perform a binding spell that holds each member to the good of the group and compels them to truthfulness with one another,” Moondance answered. She narrowed her eyes at Adelaide. “Would you be willing for me to say the binding spell?”
“Certainly,” she answered without hesitation. “We will submit to whatever binding you deem appropriate. As Mr. Delmarco here so delicately pointed out, we have no place else to go—and we are committed to vanquishing the nephilim.”
Moondance looked from Adelaide to me. “What do you think, Callie? She’s your grandmother. Do you want to be bound to her after what she did to you—to all of us?”
I looked at my grandmother. I had spent the last ten years trying to free myself of her judgments and criticisms, and yet, in my worst moments, I still heard her censorious voice in my head. Contemplating her now, I saw a tired old woman, and I wondered how I had ever let her have so much power over me. But, I realized, sending her away wouldn’t break her hold on me. Maybe having her as bound to me as I was to her would.
“Okay,” I said. “Let’s do it.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
Leon put out a CLOSED sign and reinforced the home-burner spell. He probably didn’t need to bother. Main Street, usually bustling on a Saturday late afternoon, was deserted. Fairwick residents were hurrying home as if afraid of being caught out after dark. Glancing at the lengthening shadows as I closed the blinds, I couldn’t blame them. When I turned away from the windows and saw the six people arranged in a circle of chairs around a single lit candle, which barely kept at bay the shadows in the corners of the room, I couldn’t help wondering if we would be able to stem that outer darkness.
Frank met my worried look and patted the chair next to him. “A bound circle exerts a powerful force, McFay,” he said with a level look. “Don’t underestimate it.”
“Why didn’t you bind your circle before?” I asked Moondance as I sat down between Frank and Jen. “Wouldn’t that have kept Ann Chase from betraying you?”
“A binding is not to be entered into lightly,” Moondance said. “Once we are connected to one another, anything that happens to any one of us will rebound on the others threefold. Ann always said she was reluctant to bind herself to us because we’d all suffer from her arthritis, but now I wonder if it wasn’t an excuse to betray us.” I heard the hurt in Moondance’s voice and remembered how she had watched out for Ann. The betrayal must have hit her especially hard.
“Do you really want to include me?” Phoenix asked. “When I absorbed Jen’s memories I also absorbed her witch’s power, but I’m still bipolar—or maybe even tripolar now.”
“I think Phoenix will prove to be an asset to us,” Adelaide said. “Her brain chemistry allows her to absorb the power of others remarkably well. And as for her mental instability—”
Jen cleared her throat to interrupt. “Who of us doesn’t have a little imbalance here or there?” she said, staring down Adelaide. “Anyway, the binding only lasts for one lunar cycle.”
“Just long enough to take us through Hallowmas,” Adelaide said, returning Jen’s stare with a conciliatory smile that surprised me more than anything else so far. “Are we ready?” Adelaide asked, looking around the circle. We each nodded. When her gaze fell on me, her eyes seemed to shine unnaturally bright. It was only when she looked away that I realized her eyes were filled with tears. Was she trying to find my mother’s face in mine? Was she sorry she had never performed this rite with her?
Feeling my own eyes fill with tears, I took Frank’s hand, which felt warm and strong, and then Jen’s. I was instantly struck by the difference in the energy Jen emitted. I’d shaken hands with her before and noticed she had a grip like a mula bandha lock, but now her touch was tentative, her energy wavering. The nephilim attack had depleted her life force dramatically. For a moment I felt my own life force weaken, but when Frank took Phoenix’s hand, completing the circle, I felt a satisfying click and a pleasant fizzing sensation, as if I’d just had a glass of champagne.
“That’s me,” Phoenix said. “I’ve been riding pretty high since the nephilim attack. To tell you the truth, I’ve never felt so useful in my entire life. You should also get the benefit of my immunity to nephilim incense. On the negative side, I’m probably due for a mood swing in a couple of days. They’re not as bad as they used to be, but I can still get a little cranky around that time of month.”
“Good to know,” Frank growled.
“I can’t say anything positive about my mood,” Moondance grumped.
“Someone’s been imbibing quite a bit of caffeine,” Adelaide remarked.
“Guilty,” Leon said cheerfully. “Perks of the job. I pretty much inhale the stuff, morning, noon, and night.”
“Great,” Frank said. “So we can look forward to sleep deprivation as well as PMS.”
I was beginning to see why witches were reluctant to bind themselves to a circle. I already felt as if I had six warring personalities besides my own inside my head. Talk about being bipolar; this felt like being sept-polar. I wondered suddenly what effect my energy had on the group.