She lit a red candle as he resumed his place on the table and placed it next to the yellow and blue candles on the tray. “I invoke the action of the planet Mars, of dynamic assertiveness and fearless heroics.” From the third Baggie, she sprinkled basil and allspice onto his thighs. With an oblong piece of red jasper she’d dipped into the Dragon’s Blood oil, she traced the image on his right thigh first, chanting odd Aztec names, and invoking the element of air.
These tattoos were the ones I had not studied much, because when Johnny’s pants were off, admiring the art on his legs was not my priority. However, I knew these images were blocky Aztec figures made with thick lines and curves, colored in with dark shades of red.
When she had completed the drawing on that side, she sat the stone on the top of his thigh and said,
“Xolotl! Dog of the Underworld,
Bringer of fire, at night the sun is in your keep.
Cipatli! Dragon primordial,
Your slain body became our earth, so deep.
Dragon and dog together,
Earth and fire forever!”
She moved around the table and drew the image on the left with a second jasper dipped in oil, then placed it atop his left thigh and said,
“Quetzelcoatl! Feathered serpent,
And ruler of the rains that cleanse,
You are lightning and you are thunder
Nahuatl! The lord of the Nine Winds.
Serpent and human together,
Air and water forever!”
She reached across the table to grip both thighs so the tattoos were under her palms, and her thumbs were on the stones.
“Elements four,
in Aztec gods once paired!
This seal is broken!
Separations are now repaired!”
She sucked down a trembling breath and enunciated the chant succinctly. “I take it back, I take it back, I take it back.”
Johnny cried out sharply. He rose up and instinctively swung his fist at her, but halted the strike at the last second. To my far left, Lance was on his feet. Both Johnny and Eris were in pain. She ground her teeth, the scream in her throat building, building until she couldn’t keep it down any longer. At once, both of them opened their mouths and anguish filled the room.
She jerked away, red jaspers tumbling to the floor as the room fell silent except for the mystical music on the stereo. Gasping, Eris clenched and unclenched her fists and shook them as if she couldn’t feel them anymore. She took a step back and stared down into the palms of her now badly shaking hands.
Johnny was inspecting his thighs. “What the—” He struggled for the words, and blurted, “The color’s gone!”
“No it’s not.” Eris showed us her palms. The palms of her hands were entirely red.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
How—?” Johnny demanded.
Her breath caught. “I took it back.” She stumbled.
Johnny leaped from the table. He couldn’t catch her before her knees buckled, but his grip on her arm kept her from tumbling out of the circle.
The rest of us rushed to that side of the table, careful not to cross the ring of salt.
Eris stared at her hands in dismay. “What I did to you was so wrong and I knew it.” She showed him her hands again. “Air. Air was the final element. Air powers the mechanism that injected the ink into your skin. And now it’s in mine, as if the universe has caught me red-handed.” She laughed. The maniacal edge to it made the rest of us toss looks around like a hot potato.
“You have to stop this,” Lance said.
“No!” Eris shouted. She twisted and struggled to get to her feet, obviously weak. Johnny helped her stand. “We can’t stop!” When her knees threatened to give way again, he made her sit on the table.
Johnny retrieved his jeans from under the table and stepped into them. As he tugged the zipper up he said, “I’m not convinced you’re able to finish this.”
“You can’t leave the circle partially free.”
“What? You took days to lock me up. You even said we could do this one at a time over the course of a week.”
The guilt in her expression was heart-wrenching. “Locking it down piece by piece was like building a pyramid with blocks. It was systematic and each built on the other. I’ve just removed your foundation. If you did this over a series of days, we could keep you shielded from any other magic. But if you left now and randomly encountered any other magic, any surge of energy, it would be bad.”
“But I’m—”
“Resistant. I know. This is different. You’d be walking around with magic in progress attached to you.” Before he could protest, she added, “If you were trying to pick locks to get in a place without damaging the door or letting others know you had gained that access, you wouldn’t pick half of the locks then let your impatience and temper get the best of you. If you ripped it off the hinges you’d defeat your own purpose and destroy the door.”
He released a breath and put his hands on his hips. “I’m the door.”
“Exactly.” She reached up to his shoulder. “Right now, you’re as fragile as an eggshell, tough guy.”
He shied away from her touch. “What do you need to finish this?”
She examined her palms again. “I need … to accept what the deities intend for me to pay.”
My thoughts ran to the Three-Fold Law. What you do comes back to you, three-fold. It was a karma-in-this-life notion meant to keep witches’ actions pure, good, and positive. Getting that goodness back in triplicate would be wonderful. Winning the trifecta of troubles, however, not so wonderful.
She flipped her hands over, hiding the reddened palms from her sight and pushed them out before her.
The hair on the nape of my neck prickled as she called to that ley energy and a pulse answered her. And the junkie takes another hit.
Eris eased from the table, onto now steady legs. “Unlocking that one hurt?” she asked Johnny.
“Hell yes. I nearly decked you before I realized what I was doing.”
“This one will hurt more.”
He rolled his shoulders as if preparing for it. “Why?”
“I told you before, each of the first four tattoos were locked to an element and set to a purpose. The fifth bound them all together. They weren’t exactly happy about that.” She showed him her palms again. “I need them free in order to unlock this one, which has your memories bound in it.”
“Why did you take my memories?”
“These last three tattoos are all spiritual. They each required an offering.”
“My memories were offered up?”
“Your past was relinquished. The man who paid me to do this requested that offering specifically. He said you had an unhappy childhood and wouldn’t miss it anyway.” Her tone had gone bitter and she was intently studying the floor. “That sounds stupidly weak now.”
“Just undo it.” Johnny sat on the table and stretched out.
This time a purple candle was added to the tray. “I call upon the expansion of the planet Jupiter, with golden rays of warmth and light.” The mixture of nutmeg and clove was strewn across his chest. A heavy padlock was placed upon his sternum, right onto the pentacle, and a golden key was laid between the upraised wings on un-inked skin. Using an amethyst point, she traced the elaborate feathered details, then lifted the lock and drew the pentacle and circle beneath. She whispered, “Jupiter, planet named for the Great Roman god of thunder and lightning. Be generous. Hear me.”
Slipping the amethyst through the loop of the lock and touching only the ends of the stone, she used it to hold the lock three inches above the pentacle tattooed upon Johnny’s chest.