Another hand shot into my view, restraining her.
Theo gave a squeal of pain as Johnny squeezed her wrist.
“Let go,” she growled.
“You would have died in a State Shelter,” he growled back, “if not for her.”
“And I apparently wouldn’t have been hurt if not for her.”
“That’s true. And she could have said nothing and let you go to the shelter and die. Instead, she signed for custody and took responsibility for all the hospital and ambulance fees. She volunteered her home, her own bed, to be your personal hospital. A doctor I know has been tending you since the accident, but not even his skills could save your life.”
Suspicion replaced her anger. “Then why am I alive?”
I knew Johnny wanted me to say it, but I couldn’t. I just stared at the floor.
“Her skills saved you—at considerable risk.”
“Considerable risk? That means what?”
“It means she had to enlist help,” Celia said in a voice meant for easing jumpers off of high rooftops. “Vampires had to be involved.”
“Vampires?”
“She managed to get the very one that injured you to participate in healing you, Theo. It was no light task to gain that service. And it was no light risk to throw aside the barrier of her home protection,” Celia added.
“You asked them inside?” Theo said, focusing on me again.
“I did.”
“Damn stupid thing to do.”
“We couldn’t risk moving you.”
The anger and tension were fading. “So I guess we’re square, then?”
“No. I owe you, still. A vehicle. And repairs to your business and apartment.”
“What happened to Revelations?” Her concern returned.
“Goliath sacked your business and home looking for info on who hired you.” I could see the worries flashing across her face.
“No, you two are square,” Johnny said.
We both looked at him.
“Seph took a vamp’s mark, Theo. She took it to save your life.”
Chapter 25
My unused dining room furniture was getting used. Johnny cooked up everything breakfast-y in the house. Omelets with peppers and onions, blueberry pancakes, biscuits. I hadn’t known I had bacon and sausage. They must’ve gotten them at the store before. Since I had fasted and the wæres had transformed, it was like a feeding frenzy. Theo ate more than Erik did, I noticed, but she deserved it. Beverley and Johnny shared a box of Lucky Charms and giggled and spoke with Irish accents.
Everyone was here except Nana and Dr. Lincoln. The doc had apparently gone home. I didn’t blame him, but I did wonder how much his circle participation would cost me and how he’d word it on his bill. Nana was in the shower; I assumed she was avoiding me. I wanted to ask her about being stained, find out if she knew anything about it, if she’d seen anything in the Codex to erase it. It made me think she didn’t want to be the one to have to tell me I was seriously screwed.
Beverley said, “So, Johnny, last night you herded the other wolves around. Are you, like, the pack leader?”
“Nah. No leaders here.”
“But you did seem to retain an uncanny amount of human sensibility,” I added.
“Yeah.” He shrugged. “Weird, huh?” He focused hard on his food.
It was the kind of answer that agreed without offering anything, the kind that said he didn’t want to discuss it. I wouldn’t have pushed him, because I believed that he’d share information if it was relevant. However, Erik, leaning in the doorway to the kitchen and holding a mug of coffee and an omelet-and-buttered-biscuit sandwich, didn’t seem to share my hesitation. He said, “Do you always retain your human sensibilities?”
“Yep.” Johnny kept eating his cereal and staring at the back of the cereal box, as if by sheer will he could force the subject to something else. But it wasn’t working. The tension level rose, though that might have had something to do with Celia and Theo adding their energy to it. Everyone had stopped eating, and the others openly stared at him.
No wonder Johnny had known I’d been stained. I hadn’t considered the oddness of that before. Did he also know Menessos had kissed me? Instantly, I pictured Menessos’s face and could feel his—
Damn it!
Could Menessos use the mark to create approval and desire for him in my thoughts? Like bespelling me with his eyes, only from a distance? He was a vampire. I shouldn’t have any contemplations about him that weren’t derogatory…so why was I thinking of him admiringly? Why was I thinking about him doing things that I hadn’t thought about doing in a long time—at least, until a few days ago when I started imagining doing those things with Johnny?
I scolded myself. My thoughts were about as nonsensical as those of a smitten teenage girl.
But I couldn’t put that thought away. Menessos had Vivian back. She had cause for a serious grudge against me. She would offer up anything she had that might spare her the pain and torment Menessos clearly had planned for her.
“How’s that possible?” Theo demanded, bringing me back to the situation at present.
Johnny, still not looking at anyone, poured more cereal into his bowl. “Don’t know,” he said, his tone a little sharper. His sore spot had been found.
Theo rested her arm casually on the back of Beverley’s chair. I knew this wasn’t over yet. “Those are interesting tattoos you have,” she said brightly, as if changing the subject. “I’ve always wanted to ask you about them.”
Johnny’s expression darkened, however, suggesting that the subject hadn’t changed at all.
Theo sipped her coffee. “How long have you had them?”
“Long enough.” He put down his spoon and focused his Wedjat gaze on her steadily, trying for the intimidating look that worked on me without effort.
If I had been Theo, I’d have stopped pushing right there, because poking around on a wild animal’s injury would get you mauled. But Theo was clearly not intimidated by Johnny, and frankly the nature of her business was asking questions. “Why did you choose the Egyptian Wedjat, the Chinese power-animals, and the Celtic knot-work on your arms, may I ask? It’s certainly an interesting mix of artwork and cultures.”
He said nothing.
“Do you perhaps have ancestral ties to them?” she pressed.
“Not that I know of.”
Theo cocked her head. “I don’t understand.”
“I didn’t choose any of my tattoos.”
Theo didn’t seem as surprised as the rest of us were. In fact, she seemed more like a cat watching a mouse walk into a carefully laid trap. “You let someone else choose the designs to be forever on your body?”
Johnny scooted his chair back as he pushed the half-full bowl away. He stood. “I remember being attacked.” He ran a hand through his dark hair. “And I remember waking, naked, in a park. I had the tattoos then. It was later that I learned I’d become a wærewolf.”
He looked so tough, so formidable standing there, spine stiff and muscles taut. Yet a vulnerability swam in his eyes and seemed to be begging for answers to questions he’d carried too long.
I glanced at Theo to see her reaction to this, but the only thing about her that seemed out of place was how pale her knuckles were, her fingers grasping the mug very tightly as she said calmly, “And what of your life before the attack?”
Johnny shrugged. “A blank.”
All of this stunned me, but I wasn’t alone. Clearly, the other wærewolves hadn’t known any of it either.
Johnny put his hands on his hips. “What does this tell you, Theo?”
“Don’t know. I’ve just always wondered.” She faced me. “Remind you of anything witchy?”
“No.”
Nana shuffled in, wearing a matching top and pants of pale lavender and sage and her fuzzy pink slippers. I hadn’t heard her come down the steps, and I wondered if she’d heard any of our conversation. Her cigarette case was in her hand. Since she had fasted for the ritual, she was probably as hungry as I had been. She seemed tired, more tired than I’d ever seen her, and she didn’t so much as look at anyone, let alone greet them. Nana set the cigarette case on the table, slid into a chair, picked up a biscuit, split it open, and smeared jelly across it. “Okay, then, so what now?” she asked.