Circle of Blood (11 page)

“You know, I’m starting to see what my old roommate, Jill, was talking about when she’d say that having a boyfriend was great,” Samantha murmured.

“Am I losing my mind, or did you just call me your boyfriend?” Anthony asked, his face mere inches from hers.

“Oh, you’re definitely losing your—”

He kissed her. Time seemed to stand still as she kissed him back. Slowly she lifted her hands to the sides of his face and sent gentle electrical impulses into his skin. He groaned softly against her lips and held her tighter.

This was what normal people did. Normal people got to have relationships and spend time with those they loved.

Samantha started.

Loved. She had thought of Anthony not as someone she cared for or liked, but as someone she loved.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, searching her eyes.

“Nothing,” she breathed.

She realized she was shaking all over. Should she tell him? Would it be fair, given that there was a very real probability that Lilith was going to kill her? Then again, given all that they were facing, was it fair not to tell him?

“Are you sure?” he asked, cupping her cheek with his hand.

She leaned into it, savoring the sensation of his skin against hers. She closed her eyes.

“Anthony, we might not live through this,” she said.

“I know, so there’s something you should know,” he said, his voice, low, urgent.

“What is it?” she asked, opening her eyes to look at him.

“You might think I’m crazy, but I’m not. I’ve had a long time to think about this, even though I didn’t need any time at all, really. I know I said it earlier, but I’m not sure you really heard me. Samantha, you should know, I love you.”

Something inside her felt like bursting into song. She felt a grin spreading across her face that she couldn’t control. “I love you, too,” she whispered.

With a sob of joy he pulled her close and began to kiss her again. The kisses were sweet, tender, and they spoke to her on a level she had never known. She felt a connection to him she had never shared with another person.

“I will do everything in my power to see us both through this,” he promised her.

“I’ll do the same,” she said.

She didn’t want the night to end. She wanted to stand there, hugging and kissing him forever, but her body was beginning to shut down because of exhaustion.

Finally he pulled away. “You need your rest.”

“I’m fine,” she lied.

“No, you’re not. Don’t worry. This will not be the last time we’re together like this,” he promised.

He kissed the tip of her nose and it made her smile again.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” he promised.

He left and she listened until she could no longer hear his car; then she turned and headed upstairs.

Freaky was already passed out on the bed, and a minute later she joined him. She was too tired even to change out of her clothes. Besides, her shirt smelled like Anthony and she wasn’t ready to give up that scent just yet.

So much had happened in a single day and she was intensely grateful for how it had ended.

“Freaky,” she whispered to the sleeping kitten. “This might have been the most important day of my life.”

He just continued to snore away as she drifted off to sleep.

•   •   •

She stood, barefoot, a member of the circle. Her mother was always telling her that the circle was power. So was Mr. Black. She was tired. Her mother had woken her in the middle of the night for a coven meeting that she hadn’t known they were going to have.

Usually the coven meetings were scheduled, but this one was a surprise to Samantha. Her mother wouldn’t say what they were going to do or why it was starting after midnight. She told her to leave her things behind. She wouldn’t need them for this particular meeting.

Samantha couldn’t help having a bad feeling about everything, even as they silently greeted the others on the way into Abigail’s house. They walked through the kitchen and down into the basement. Light from the candles down there cast disturbing shadows on the walls.

Samantha hesitated. Something didn’t feel right. The air even seemed different somehow. She greeted each coven member as she encountered everyone, as was their custom. None of them would look at her. She felt as if she had done something wrong and she was being shunned for it. She searched her mind but could come up with nothing. Was it possible they were here to punish her? But what could it possibly be for?

Without preamble Abigail urged them all to join hands, forming the circle. “The circle is life, the circle is coven, the circle is blood,” she intoned.

The others mimicked her.

Abigail had an altar set up tonight in the center of the circle, another rarity. Usually she stood alone in the center of the circle with any objects she would need for the ritual in her hands. The few times Samantha had seen the altar had all been bad, terrible experiences. She hunched her shoulders, dreading whatever must be coming next.

On the altar rested a large book and a chalice. There were a variety of objects surrounding the chalice, and Abigail began to chant and to add them one at a time into the goblet. As the mixture formed, it created a powerful, sickly sweet odor that made Samantha wrinkle up her nose. She wanted to sneeze, but she knew from experience that would be met with severe punishment later from her mother.

At last the final item was added, and Abigail raised her head, a look of triumphant expectation on her face. Samantha wondered if something was supposed to have happened, because nothing did. Abigail didn’t look worried, though. Instead she looked more excited than Samantha could ever remember seeing her.

“Tonight we achieve ultimate power,” Abigail boomed to her followers. “For tonight we raise a creature who will be chained to us, who must do our bidding, an ancient demon, one of twelve that ruled this realm ages ago before they were banished. We will claim his power, his allegiance, for ourselves.”

Samantha felt something horrible curl itself into her belly. She shook her head violently from side to side. This wasn’t right; she could feel it. They were messing with something far stronger and smarter than them and it couldn’t end well. She didn’t want any part of it. Something terrible was going to happen, she knew. She had never been so certain of anything in her life. She was so certain, she was willing to risk whatever punishment might befall her as long as she could get out of that basement now.

“Mother, we must leave,” she whispered.

Her mother didn’t answer, didn’t even look at her. She just tightened her grip on Samantha’s hand until it physically hurt. Mr. Black did the same on her other side.
The circle must remain unbroken—
that’s what he would probably say. But this was different. They were all in danger. She didn’t know how she knew, but she knew it with all her soul. They didn’t understand. She couldn’t explain it to them. She didn’t have time, and she wasn’t sure they would listen to her anyway.

She had to stop this, had to make them see reason before it was too late for all of them. But what could she do?

“Only one last ingredient remains and then we shall see him come forth,” Abigail crowed.

Suddenly she fixed her laserlike stare on Samantha. “Come here, child,” she said.

Her mother and Mr. Black pushed her forward and then linked hands behind her, resealing the circle. This was her chance. She needed to tell Abigail no, even if the high priestess was angry, even if she hurt her. It was her duty to save the coven.

Abigail put a hand under her chin. “Do you know wh—”

•   •   •

Her phone rang on the nightstand and Samantha sat straight up in bed, shaking and drenched in sweat. The nightmare began to fade quickly and she shouted in frustration. She’d been dreaming about the night of the massacre. She’d been so close to learning the truth; she could feel it.

The phone rang again, loud and shrill. She reached over and picked it up. It was a local number but one she didn’t know.

Samantha answered the call, struggling to control her breathing, which was coming out in ragged gasps as the last vestiges of the dream slipped away from her.

She brought the phone to her ear.

“Help me!” a young, female voice choked out.

“Nala, is that you?” she asked, the voice sounding similar to what she thought the girl sounded like. “How did you get this number?”

“Help me! There’s someone after me.”

“Just hold on. Tell me where you are.”

There was a scream and the line went dead.

Samantha leaped off the bed. It was three in the morning and her body was still shaking from the nightmare and now also from the shock of adrenaline that was hitting it.

Nala, she had dealt with Desdemona and she was still sorting all those memories out. Where would the girl be? She’d said she knew somewhere safe to go, but clearly it was no longer so.

She ran downstairs and made it into her car, gritting her teeth at how long it was probably going to take to reach Nala. She had to go to her. She had to assume the girl would be unable to come to her, even if she compelled her.

She had nothing of Nala’s to use, so she repurposed Martin’s business card, since it had been, at least briefly, in Nala’s possession. As with before, the card began to spin about, the arrow pointing in the direction she needed to go.

She chafed under every minor redirect and delay, wondering what was happening to the girl while she was trying to reach her. Deep down, though, she knew that she would probably be too late, particularly if she had actually come face-to-face with Lilith.

If so, she wondered if Lilith would kill her outright or realize that she could use her to get to Samantha. Then again, she hadn’t made very much use of the leverage that Claudia should have given her, killing the girl without even giving Desdemona a chance to do something reckless to try to save her.

Not that she probably would have with that part of her personality in control. Still, she had been shocked that Lilith hadn’t even bothered trying. The logical thing to do would have been to kill the other girl, the stranger, first. That’s what she would have done.

The drive seemed endless, but she finally made it into a very upscale section of the Garden District. The streets were deserted this time of the night and it hardly seemed like someplace Nala would have been unless she was actively trying to find Lilith or someone connected to her. Given the time of night, that seemed unlikely. Her hopes lifted slightly. Maybe whoever had taken Nala had brought her here. Plus, the girl had to still be alive or the navigation system would have ceased to function. Maybe there was hope after all.

She finally pulled to a stop in front of a very large, old building. What she could see of it behind its high wrought-iron gates was imposing. A single light burned in one of the windows on the first floor, and she dared to hope that she wasn’t too late.

She wondered if this was where Lilith was hiding out, but that didn’t seem quite right. Even if she was confident in her victory, Lilith didn’t seem the type to lead anyone to her lair.

Samantha leaped from her car and approached the front of the building, having no time for subtleties. She could feel a ripple of power in the air, proof that she was in the right spot.

She lifted her hand and sent a wave of energy at the gates, which pushed open by themselves, creaking slightly. She approached the front of the house, eyes darting about, looking for signs of anyone else.

She could see nothing on the darkened grounds except some statues that she eyed carefully to make sure they weren’t people glamoured to appear that way. She thought for a moment she saw one of them move out of the corner of her eye but decided that she was just being paranoid.

She returned her focus to the house and debated about whether to try to find a window she could enter through silently. Whoever was inside would already have been alerted to her presence, though, so it seemed like a needless waste of time. The best approach was likely going to be head-on. She made her way quickly to the front door, putting up her hands as she reached it.

The door flew open and she ran through, hands raised defensively, ready to do whatever she must.

Two women were standing in what was the entryway of the mansion. A staircase swept up to the right, and the checked marble tile on the ground led back farther into the house. The two women turned and looked at her. The first was Nala, and Samantha blinked at her as she took in her appearance.

Nala was no longer wearing her raggedy clothes and oversized trench coat. Instead she was dressed in slacks and a cashmere sweater. She was standing next to an older woman who looked just like her and was wearing a very expensive dress.

Samantha stared intently at Nala, trying to process everything.

“You’re—you’re not a runaway. Or homeless,” Samantha realized.

“Very good,” Nala said. “See? You can catch on.”

“Neither is she in any danger, but we’re oh so grateful to you for coming so quickly,” the woman who was clearly her mother said in a simpering voice.

“I don’t understand,” Samantha said.

“No, I’m sure you probably don’t,” the older woman said. “Then again, it’s my understanding that you have no respect for the power of the circle.”

“Lilith! You’re part of Lilith’s coven,” Samantha realized. She had suspected that Lilith probably had others working with her. “You know when she’s finished draining everyone else she’ll just turn on you, right?”

“I very much doubt that, my dear. You see, she appreciates the power of the coven, the sacred bond of the circle.”

“You’re a fool if you believe that standing behind her makes you safe,” Samantha said.

“We’re not standing behind her. We’re standing beside her. That’s what a coven does,” Nala said proudly.

Samantha’s brain was busy putting all the pieces together. The demon had told Nala where to find Samantha. There was a decent chance she had told Lilith, or at least others in the coven. She would have thought that part of the story a lie, but the demon had confirmed that it told Nala where she lived and even drove her to just a few blocks away. Why would she even have bothered asking it in the first place, though?

“Did the demon know you were going to be lying to me about who you were?” Samantha asked.

Nala shrugged. “Probably. It is a demon, after all. They’re usually pretty good at figuring out what’s going on.”

“Why go through the demon? That just seems like an unnecessary step, and an uncertain one, given how notorious demons are for lying. There’s plenty of ways to find someone using your powers.”

“You’re not as easy to find as one would think,” Nala’s mother chimed in. “Don’t think we didn’t try. Several of us did. As it turns out, though, there seems to be lots of confusion about names and identity, which makes you harder to locate than the average person. Besides, the demon was there. It was convenient. It certainly gave us a leg up on everybody else who was looking for you.”

“You were looking for me, not for answers about what happened at the amusement park,” Samantha said.

“And you bought everything I told you,” Nala said, crowing with pride. “Every lie, every story I made up. You couldn’t tell the truth, even when it was under your nose.”

“How long have you been with Lilith?” Samantha asked.

“Two years,” the mom said, chin lifted high.

“So, then, of course, as part of her coven and having been with her so long, you know exactly what she’s got planned,” Samantha said.

The woman’s smug smile faltered.

“No?” Samantha asked, her voice innocent. “I mean, surely after all that time, and being sisters of the circle and everything, she’d trust you with that information, right? I mean, it’s only natural that you know what the goal is since you’re assisting.”

“She . . . she keeps some things secret, to protect them, to protect us, from outsiders and spies.”

“Spies?” Samantha asked, making herself sound shocked. “How could there be spies in the circle? Aren’t you all bound together, one big happy family? And wouldn’t she know if that wasn’t true?”

“Spies can be anywhere,” the woman said, trying hard to rally, even though Samantha had struck a nerve. “Plausible deniability. It’s saved us on several occasions recently.”

“Really, how?” Samantha asked.

“An FBI agent was following me, asking me a bunch of questions, wanted to know about you. I played dumb and scared, kept stringing him along. Then when his guard was down, I threw him into your car, and after that, you killed him for me,” Nala said triumphantly.

Samantha felt sick. When was she going to learn to stop trusting the wrong people? Then again, it hadn’t exactly been the best or smartest part of her that had believed Nala. She remembered thinking the girl was lying about the attack, but the part of her that had been in control had not been in a listening mood.

It was highly likely that the agent would have died from the damage he’d undergone anyway. And if not, Nala would surely have found a way to finish the job before he could identify himself to Samantha or try to fight back.

She knew that the FBI had a group of witches working for them, hunting down dark covens. She had met two of them before and she hadn’t known they were allies until it was nearly too late.

She couldn’t help thinking of Randy back in Salem, who had given her his energy to help her defeat the witches there, even though it had cost him his life. Then there had been Trina in California, who, fortunately, had still been alive when Samantha left. She couldn’t help wondering what had happened to her. It was possible that she or some other member of her team was already here, investigating. The agent that Nala had thrown into her car might not have been alone.

The thought both comforted her and upset her at the same time.

“How many are in your coven?” she asked, forcing herself back to the task at hand.

“I’ll never tell you that,” the older woman said.

“They’re all in danger, including you. It’s not too late to get out. You’ve gotten in over your head, involved with terrible magic that will destroy everything you hold dear. I can help you, though. You just need to trust me.”

The woman laughed. “Why on earth would we want to ‘get out’? Thanks to Lilith, we’re finally going to have everything we ever wanted and more.”

“That’s just the lies she’s telling you,” Samantha said. If she could win the women to her side, the information they had would be invaluable. “I’ve seen what she does to people, to other witches. She uses them and discards them when they are no longer of value to her.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Nala said heatedly. “Lilith loves us. She would never hurt us.”

“That’s just what she wants you to think. Lilith loves only herself. I was there in the coven she set up in Salem and saw firsthand how she used the people, trying to get them to raise a demon that she knew would kill them all. In San Francisco she actually managed to possess a powerful witch and force her to do terrible things, things that took so much power and energy that just attempting them put the witch’s life in danger every single time. Again she was trying to raise a demon that would destroy a lot of people and do so indiscriminately. Believe me, all Lilith wants is power and destruction and she doesn’t care who she has to hurt, who she has to use, to get what she wants.”

“A demon?” the woman asked.

“Yes,” Samantha said, hoping that maybe she was starting to get through to the woman, that she could talk sense into the two of them.

“Then the rumors are true,” she said.

“If you’ve heard that she’s planning on raising a demon here, I would think it’s a safe bet she’s trying to. I know that whatever she has planned, Salem and San Francisco were just the opening salvos to her bigger plan.”

“Do you hear that, Nala?”

“Yes, Mother.”

“We’re going to be queens!” the older woman crowed as Nala smiled greedily.

“You don’t understand,” Samantha whispered.

“We understand just fine; it’s you that has the problem,” Nala said.

“This will be nothing like the demon that possesses Martin,” Samantha said. “This will be a monster that kills, destroys everything in its path. None of you will be left alive. I know. I’ve seen what these things can do. There’s no stopping it, no controlling it, no surviving it.”

“And yet you lived to tell the tale,” the woman said. “The lady doth protest too much, methinks. What do you say, sweetheart?”

“I say, imagine how much more Lilith will favor us if we bring her the head of the witch she couldn’t kill,” Nala said, raising her hands into the air and throwing fireballs at Samantha.

Samantha dropped to the floor and slammed her fists into it, sending a shock wave through it that knocked both mother and daughter off their feet.

“You don’t have to do this!” Samantha shouted, giving them one last chance.

“Of course we don’t have to. We
want
to,” the mom said as she regained her feet.

Samantha felt a burst of sorrow. There was no way she was going to convince them, either of them. And she couldn’t let them live to be a problem, to fight another day.

“Don’t make me kill you,” she whispered.

“Did you hear that?” Nala said, sneering as she stood up. “How weak, how pathetic is that?”

“You see, my dear, that is what Lilith warns us against. You must always be decisive.”

Samantha smiled at them both grimly. “It’s tragic, really, how many people mistake compassion for weakness and kindness for indecisiveness.”

“You’re all talk,” the woman said.

Samantha leaped forward, placed a hand on each of their heads, and ripped the power from them. When it was gone, she dropped their bodies to the floor and watched as they rapidly began to decay, their eyes bulging with fear.

“Actually, you were talking about yourself,” Samantha said sadly.

In Salem the witches there had taught her to kill a person by pulling energy from him. Lilith had taught her a much more powerful, more effective way of killing by pulling the ability to use their power from people.

The two women were dying, almost gone.

Samantha called a fireball to each hand and dropped them on the bodies, letting them burn alive. For a brief moment she considered burning the house down as well but decided to leave things as they were, a warning for the other members of the coven. So instead she turned and carved words with fire into the floor right in front of the door.

Leave the coven now.

It was all the warning the rest of them were going to get, and it was likely far more than they deserved if Nala and her mother were any indication. She left, closing the door behind her.