I said, “C’mon.” They followed me. At the squeaky step, Goliath—bringing up the rear—stopped and bounced on it. I turned back at the top of the steps and looked daggers at him. He grinned.
Now was not the time to let him distract me. I hoped that in the circle, with Beverley participating, he would behave himself.
“Okay. Beverley, I need you to leave for just a second, while I cleanse the space.” She’d been sitting with Theo and obediently left.
Nana came to me at the doorway and produced a necklace from her pocket, which she offered to me. “Wear this,” she said.
Feeling the easy vibration of the charged gemstones in the palm of my hand, I lifted the necklace up. It was like a three-row choker of pearls, but the round stones weren’t pearls. “It’s moonstone.”
“Yes.” She smiled happily that I’d recognized it. “May I?” She put it on me. “I’ve empowered it for protection,” she whispered.
It covered the parts of my neck that a vampire would most like. That made me happy enough to forget that it was much too fancy to wear with a Superman T-shirt.
“Everything you need is on the tray,” Nana gestured, “or at the foot of the bed.”
She’d made a makeshift altar out of a bed tray and wedged it against the foot of Theo’s bed, which had been pulled far enough from the wall to allow me to circle Theo, and someone had been brilliant enough to duct-tape the monitor cords to the floor. The book sat open to the proper page, with the translation page atop it. Various altar items were placed around it. Practical, my nana. “Thanks.”
Dr. Lincoln had removed Theo’s oxygen and feeding tubes and cut the temporary casts down the front. Everything had been removed except the IV, which he’d said he wanted to leave in to continue giving Theo fluids.
Aware that the others were intently watching me, I lit a tall white pillar candle. Nana reached in and flipped off the electric switch. I took up the pentacle incense holder and, lighting the incense, I began blessing the space with the elements. First with the incense representing the element of air. Next, a red candle representing fire, and then a bowl of crystal-water—water that has sat out under the light of a full moon with a charged crystal in it—to represent the element of water. Last, I sprinkled grains from a bowl of sea salt to represent earth. I circled the room in a manner that witches call “deosil”—pronounced jessel—which simply means clockwise or sun-wise. I walked the circle once with each representation of an element to cleanse the area, then faced the door. “Enter now this sacred space. Let all who enter here bring with them only harmony and peace.”
The doctor entered first and took a position just to the right side of the head of the bed. Nana and Beverley came next, leaving a space where the moonlight was shining through the skylights.
Celia and Erik headed toward the stairs. “Where are you going?” Menessos asked.
“She’s going to call the quarters next. We have to avoid the energy,” replied Celia.
“If you want your friend restored, you need to stay here.” Menessos shifted his weight and blocked them from the stairs with Vivian’s body.
“It won’t do any good to save Theo if it costs the rest of us our lives,” Celia pleaded.
“I have already promised Miss Alcmedi that no one will be harmed. I would not negate that now.”
“But the energy—”
“I know this spell, dear, skittish wolf. You will not be harmed.”
Celia and Erik stepped into the bedroom and backed into the corner nearest the door. Johnny stayed with them.
My room was rectangular, longer than it was wide, so Menessos had room to lay Vivian down beside the closet. “Move not and make no sound,” he said to her in a voice so kind and loving that the words that followed—“or your suffering will triple”—seemed even more terrifying. He stood and stepped nearer the bed. Behind him, Vivian turned her face to the carpet.
Goliath moved to his master’s side.
Three deep breaths to ground and center. It’s like taking a minute to check a map of the universe and find out exactly where your soul lives, and then feeling yourself connected to every molecule of matter and antimatter filling up that enormous universe.
With everyone in place, I lit two white taper candles in gargoyle candleholders placed on either side of the book. Then, with my old ritual broom in hand—the newer one now hung above my front door—I chanted and swept a tight deosil circle just around Theo’s bed, containing all of us in the room except the wærewolves and Vivian. My sweeping became faster when I moved between the vampires and Vivian. When I returned to my starting position, I said, “As above, so below, this circle is sealed, so mote it be.”
Nana repeated the last part: “So mote it be!” Menessos repeated it after her.
After I drew an equal-armed cross in the air to further seal the circle, my eyes closed. I called up the sub-alpha state.
This was the point in the ritual where things became truly magical.
Chapter 23
I took the first of four saucers from the tray. The saucers were prepared for the element invocations, each complete with an appropriately colored candle ringed in small stones. Each element had its own reaction, an undeniable physical presence that confirmed it was with me. This first saucer represented the element of earth and had a green candle and hematite stones. I lit the candle and held the saucer carefully aloft.
“Hail and welcome, element of earth!
Bring your stable strength and witness this rite.
Protect us and aid us as much as you might.”
Immediately I felt a tingle, as if glitter were raining onto my skin. The elements never seemed affected by my clothing; they could pass right through. Flexing my aura with a mental command, I embraced the energy to me, keeping it from drifting over Theo; it had a gritty, rooted feeling to it, and I knew earth was present. I placed the saucer opposite me, in the northernmost position of my circle.
The second saucer bore a yellow candle and green aventurine stones.
“Hail and welcome, element of air!
Bring your experience and witness this rite.
Protect us and aid us as much as you might.”
This time, a warm breath swirled around me, exploring. A breeze lifted my hair, but no one else’s. With air present, I placed the saucer to the east.
The red candle ringed in bloodstones was next.
“Hail and welcome, element of fire!
Bring your transformability and witness this rite.
Protect us and aid us as much as you might.”
Fire touched me in nips and little gnawing bites. It could be painful, but it wasn’t angry with me. It understood my respect, and I understood its volatile, consuming nature. I placed this saucer to the south, behind me.
Last was a blue candle ringed in coral.
“Hail and welcome, element of water!
Bring your life-giving womb and witness this rite.
Protect us and aid us as much as you might.”
Feeling pressure and current flowing against me, I stood firm until water’s greeting was done, then placed the saucer to the west. I remained there and combined my statement of purpose and deity invocation, saying:
“Persephone and Isis, goddesses whose names I bear,
Artemis, Inanna, and Ishtar, your lunar purpose I share.
Hathor and Hera, come to me, be present here tonight,
Hecate! Come to me now, give credence to my rite.
Encourage the elements to participate
And return Theo’s life from the Summerland’s gate.”
The wolves watched with interest and a healthy amount of wariness, but they didn’t really know what I was doing, so I didn’t feel judged. Neither Nana’s nor Beverley’s observance bothered me. Their approval surrounded me like a bath of warm light. But Menessos stared coldly, evaluating the ceremony and the reverence I gave to the ritual. He studied every gesture, considered every inflection, surely creating a mental critique. I had the distinct impression that he was gauging my performance of the ritual against that of someone else he’d seen perform it. I regretted letting my sweeping speed up when I had been near him. Maybe he didn’t like my statement of purpose or the fact that I called on eight goddesses, but to my thinking, it fit perfectly: eight is the number of transformation.