Goliath neatly stepped to the end of the bed and picked up the book. He slammed it shut with the translation page still inside. He paused only to assess my breasts, then followed Menessos through. Menessos made a move as if shutting the energy door and said, “Sealed again is the door.” He lifted Vivian, and the three of them left.
Chapter 24
I felt drunk, but without the cheerful buzz.
I must have stumbled, because suddenly I was in Nana’s arms. “I’ve got you,” she said.
Nana quoted the barest of quarter releases: “Thank you, elements of earth, air, fire, and water! We release you now. Go and be free. Come willingly if we call upon you again.” She stroked my hair. “If ever we dare to call again. This circle is open. Now slowly,” she said, “Beverley, ease toward the door. No sudden movements. Nice and slow.”
A silvery gray wolf leapt to the doorway and snarled a deep, primal, guttural sound. Beverley stopped dead; to her credit, she did not scream. The wolf was bigger than Ares would ever be. Its muzzle turned slightly upward at us, nostrils flaring and all those gleaming white canines revealed. Slowly, the animal hunched down, preparing to leap—
A larger black wolf leapt onto the gray wolf, snapping and growling vehemently at it. The gray sank onto the floor, head and tail low. It growled low. The black wolf stayed standing over the gray, and clamped the back of its neck with his jaws. He continued snarling viciously until the gray rolled over and showed its belly in submission. Then the black wolf released the other and turned, keeping itself between us and the gray wolf. With one bark he commanded the tawny amber-colored beast to join the gray. With the amber down beside the gray, the black wolf barked to the remaining black-and-gray on the bed—though to this one, the barks were softer.
The black-and-gray’s ears pricked forward, and it crawled to the edge of the mattress, pulling a length of IV tubing with it. It paused and sniffed at the tubing and whimpered. “Dr. Lincoln,” I said softly.
The doctor inched forward. He reached out to the slender foreleg, and the black-and-gray wolf snapped at him, sending him backpedaling with a shout of alarm. He hit the wall hard, and his glasses went crooked. The black wolf leapt a pace forward and growled at the black-and-gray, until the black-and-gray whined and put her head down. The black wolf looked at me.
“Did she get you, Doctor?” I asked.
With a jerk and sudden realization of the danger he was in, the doctor righted his spectacles and checked himself over. “No. No, she didn’t.”
“I think she’s ready to let you remove it now.”
He pressed himself against the wall. “I’m not ready to risk being a wærewolf….” He swallowed so hard it must’ve hurt. “I mean, well…you know.”
I did know, but somebody had to do it. I pulled out of Nana’s grip and staggered to the bed.
Bracing myself against the side of the bed with slightly bent knees, I reached slowly to the wolf’s foreleg. When I gently gripped it, the black-and-gray wolf turned and looked at me steadily. There was no look of friendship or familiarity in those dark eyes, but I realized this was Theo. We’d succeeded! She’d fully transformed. If things had been normal, I might have cried from relief. I was so weary, though, I was too tired even to make tears. I pulled gently on the tape. It had been stuck to her human skin, but that flesh had split away and left the tape not exactly securing the IV anyway. Sliding the needle out was easier than I’d expected it to be. I dropped it onto the bed. Using the footboard as support, I put my weight on my feet again and stepped back.
The black wolf started making short, quiet howls again. The black-and-gray eased her forelegs down, then slid her haunches down as if it hurt.
The wolves needed to be safely kenneled in the cellar, and I had the thought the stairs were going to be difficult for the black-and-gray wolf. I inched forward. Nana grabbed my arms, thinking I was falling. “It’s okay,” I said. I moved along the footboard. I held my hand out to the black-and-gray wolf and said, “I can help you down the stairs.” She sniffed at my hand.
The black wolf came closer and put his shoulder against me and pushed me back. He turned to the other wolves then and barked an order. The gray and the amber stood and exited; the black-and-gray followed. The black one went last. I followed them to the door, grabbed my robe, and slipped clumsily into it as I watched them descend the steps. The black-and-gray wolf was steadied by the other two.
At the bottom, the front door stood open—thanks to a hurried exit by the vampires—and the wolves went out.
Feeling certain that the black wolf would herd the others to the cellar, I moved into the hall and started down the steps, grateful for the sturdy rail. Outside, the house supported me as I crossed the porch and went around the corner. There, three of the wolves lay in a row just beyond the cellar doors. The big black wolf stood before them, tail wagging.
I opened the door, and they all proceeded down and inside. I followed, wishing I could just stop and rest on the steps. If I stopped, I knew I wouldn’t get up again. Menessos had called too much energy out of me, left me so weak. But surely that had been the whole idea.
The black wolf put the gray and amber together in the first kennel. I shuffled over, shut the door, and clicked the lock shut. The black-and-gray went tiredly into the next kennel, lay down on the hay, and curled up. I stumbled, caught myself on the cage bars, then let my weak legs bend. On my knees, I shut and locked that door too. I turned to the black wolf. He stood resolutely at the far end, watching me. Head high, his weight distributed on all legs, he seemed like he was posing. He backed into his cage without taking his eyes from me.
I felt so drained. Darkness pushed at the edges of my vision. My limbs didn’t want to move. “I can’t,” I said.
The black wolf lowered his head, whimpered once. With a big paw, he reached out and pulled the door shut. He glaced at the lock, then back to me. Summoning what energy I had left, I rose to my feet and slowly made it to the last cage and secured the lock. He had not moved, even to lie down. He just kept watching me intently.
My knees gave. Grappling for a bar to hold, I managed to not fall, but I did crack my forehead on a bar. The wolf was suddenly right there, licking my hand and my head. He whimpered again and looked past me to the cellar doors and back to me. No one was there; he just wanted me to go. I began crawling across the cold concrete floor.
At the base of the steps I looked up—only eight of them, but I knew I couldn’t do it. One at a time, I told myself. If it takes all night, just climb one at a time. I worked my hands up to the third step and put my knee on the first. The last thing I remembered was hearing the lonely howl of a wolf.
Amenemhab sat on my couch in the living room. He looked around, panting, but seemed to like what he saw. I lay on the floor, watching him. “Well?” I said. “What do you think of my home?”
“This isn’t your home,” he said. “This is just where you live.”
I laughed. “Same thing.”
“No.”
My eyes shot open and I sat up all at once, the dream fading.
I was on the couch in my living room. Nana lay sprawled in the chair with an afghan over her, snoring loudly. Something hurt, but I couldn’t tell exactly what. My head did hurt, but there was something else too. Something that wasn’t my back or my feet, or anything like that. It was weird.
I swung my feet around to the floor and the movement flaked the dried blood on my chest. I realized I was in my robe and jeans still, and with that knowledge, flashbacks to being in the circle hit me hard.