That was what hurt—my soul.
Angry and afraid, I got up and started upstairs to the bathroom. I had to shower this blood—this vampire’s blood—off of me. Right now.
Stripping off the robe in the bathroom, I noticed the moonstone necklace was gone. I hoped I hadn’t lost it or broken it. I would worry about that later. Now, the shower.
The warm water felt so good, like I’d just noticed how good a shower could be. But I didn’t want to scrub the blood off me, I didn’t want to touch it. So, I stood there and let the steamy water loosen it and wash it away. Only then did I use the soap and scrub, and only then did I begin to feel like myself.
That asshole! I should’ve known better than to trust a vampire. I have honored my oath to you, Persephone Alcmedi. Yeah, right. A shiver coursed through me as I remembered his words, his voice, the feel of his breath on my skin. Angry, I squeezed the soap hard enough to leave marks in it. How dare he use me like that, play me for a fool. Hadn’t I been played enough by Vivian?
I wondered what he’d done to her, but decided I was probably better off not knowing.
At least Theo would be all right.
Wrapped in a towel, I tiptoed to my room so as not to disturb Beverley—I could hear her soft snore in the other bedroom. I wondered if the doc had stayed. I hadn’t seen him, but I assumed he had been the one to bring me inside.
The mess in my room devastated me. Clothes the wolves had been wearing lay in ripped and distorted piles. My bed was a complete disaster.
Turning my back on the wrecked room, I went to the closet and picked a navy blue sweat suit with loose ankles and stripes down the legs that matched the stripes on the long sleeves. With a white tank top under the jacket and the hood adjusted flat, I was set. I grabbed a second sweat suit for Theo and carried it up the steps to the attic. There, I took clothes from Celia’s and Erik’s suitcases and returned to the first floor, where I set the clothes aside and unzipped Johnny’s suitcase. The smell of him hit me hard. I held his shirt up to my face and inhaled the cedar and sage scent of him and Gain detergent. I added the shirt to the pile, rummaged for a pair of underwear, didn’t find any, and took a pair of jeans anyway. It didn’t seem that Johnny owned any undies. I blushed at the thought.
Leaving the living room where Nana was still snoring, I went to the kitchen and started a pot of coffee while I grabbed up all the cookies and doughnuts I could find—and it wasn’t many. We hadn’t planned on four wærewolves transforming. Breakfast might get ugly.
Carrying all this and the set of keys for the locks, I went outside and headed for the storm cellar. After shuffling everything into one arm, I opened the cellar doors and quietly descended. I left the light off; I wanted wæres to sleep all they wished, but to find their things ready for them when they woke.
I put everything on the floor and sorted it out. I unlocked the first cage, the one I could see clearly in the ambient light. Celia and Erik were sweetly spooned together, naked on the hay. I put their clothes and a baggie containing some doughnuts and a biscotto on top. Erik loved biscotti.
Before unlocking the second cage, I stood staring at Theo. She was curled into the fetal position, her shoulder rising and falling with regular breaths. She was alive, and I thanked the Goddess for it.
I left her the sweat suit and a baggie containing some cookies. She didn’t like biscotti, but I knew she did like nuts, so I set a half-filled can of salted peanuts atop the suit. They were Nana’s, but I’d buy Nana some more.
As I turned to Johnny’s cage, I couldn’t help lifting his shirt to my face again and taking in the scent of him.
“I didn’t know you could sing, Red.”
I dropped the cage keys with a jerk. It was darker back here in the mornings; the light just wasn’t strong enough. I’d expected him to be sleeping too, and I’d just been caught sniffing his shirt. I blinked into the darkness, willing my eyes to adjust. He was sitting in the corner closest to the cage door, one knee bent up to be modest. There was a tattoo on his thigh, but I couldn’t tell what it was.
“You weren’t all supposed to change,” I whispered. “I’m so sorry.”
“You don’t have to apologize.”
“Yes, I do.” I passed the clothes through the bars, a baggie of Oreos on top. He set them to the side. “Menessos manipulated the ritual and took over. He wielded power a vampire just shouldn’t possess, and I couldn’t stop him.”
Johnny stayed quiet and just watched me, like the wolf had last night. Then he said, “He marked you.”
“I know.” My voice trembled. Tears welled in my eyes. To deny them, I snorted and tried to be cool about it. “He lied. Fucker.” I glanced toward Theo. “At least she’s alive.” If Johnny was going to see me cry—me who he was convinced was this tough Lustrata—then I wanted him to think I was crying because Theo was okay.
When I turned back, Johnny was chewing a cookie. He put the shirt and the Oreo baggie aside and grabbed the jeans. He stood to put them on, and I hurriedly looked away again. But my rebellious eyes slid upward just before the denim slid up to cover his buttocks. I got another look at the Celtic knot-work armband tattoos and the Chinese lion-dog and dragon battling on his back.
Across the way, Celia roused and groaned happily as she stretched and made a grab for the goodies. I heard the smack of kissing followed by giggles and “Quit it or I won’t give you the biscotto.”
“Biscotto?”
Johnny reached through the bars, took up the keys, and unlocked his cage himself, but he didn’t say anything else. He just leaned in the open door, shirt thrown over his shoulder like a towel, and munched his Oreos with a deeply thoughtful expression. Apparently, Oreos were the philosophical food of choice.
I, however, felt trapped. I couldn’t just dart out or saunter out past naked people waking and getting dressed. I wasn’t usually down here when they woke up. I opened cages, left doughnuts, and departed ASAP. But they deserved their privacy, and even if they didn’t care about it, I did—so I waited where I was.
Celia came out of her cage and saw me. She started to speak, but Theo roused, moaning and moving very slowly. Then she took the cookies. Celia and I shared a smile. After eating a few cookies, Theo sat up and lifted the sweat suit. The can of nuts rolled into the hay. “This…this isn’t mine,” she said.
“It’s mine,” I said. “I didn’t have anything of yours.”
“Seph? What are you doing down here? Wait—I didn’t change here.”
“No, you didn’t.”
Standing and jerking clothes on, she demanded, “What the hell happened?”
Everybody was dressed now. Erik came out and joined us. We passed looks around like hot potatoes.
In the doorway of her cage, Theo said, “I remember…” She shut her eyes. “My car. I remember tearing it apart.” She looked at me. “I remember…Goliath!”
“It’s my fault, Theo.”
Her expression hardened, and her words came harsh and full of attitude. “You mean that jerk ran me off the road because I took a peek into his public history?”
“He tried to kill you because I asked questions. When I asked for your help, I didn’t realize how dangerous he was. I’m sorry.”
Theodora Hennessey was not a frail woman. She had lean limbs and moved with the in-your-face kind of grace reserved for Paris runway models. When she approached me with smooth, slow steps, her bare feet making no sound on the concrete floor, I knew something bad was about to happen. A slap, a punch, a slash of nails. I didn’t care. Whatever she deemed necessary, I’d take it. I deserved it. Her arm moved, coiling for the strike, and snaked out. I resolved not to wince; I wouldn’t even shut my eyes.