Night World - Spellbinder Part 18

s bed, and said, "Bullets won't stop him."

"What?" Blaise looked up from creaming her elbows.

"I mean, spells won't stop him. Eric. They just bounce off. I'm telling you th is because you're going to notice that he's not with Mar."

Blaise snapped the tube of cream shut. She stared at Thea for a full minute before she said tightly, "What are you saying?"

Thea's humor drained away. She looked at the floor. "I'm saying we're soulmates ," she said quietly. "And that I can't help it. There is really, truly, nothing I can do about it." "I can't believe, after all that-" "Right. After all that work. And after me trying and trying to stop, because I'm scared to death. But there's no way to fight it, Blaise. That's what I'm trying to tell you. I've go t to find some way to try to live with it." She looked at her cousin. "Okay?"

"You know it's not okay. You know it's completely not okay."

"I guess what I mean is, okay, will you please not kill him or turn us in? Be cause I can't stand being in another fight with you. And I can't stop breakin g the law."

Blaise tossed the cream jar in the direction of the dresser. "Thea, are you all right?" she said, seriously. "Because you're acting very . . ."

"Fatalistic?"

"Fatalistic and generally scary."

"I'm okay. I just... I don't know what's going to happen, but I am sort of ...

calm. I'm going to do my best. Eric's going to do his best. And beyond that, nothing's guaranteed."

Blaise stared for another minute, her gray eyes searching Thea's face. Then she shook her head. "I SPELLBINDER.

won't turn you in. You know I would never turn you in. We're sisters. And as for trying to kill him . . ." She shrugged, looking grim. "It probably woul dn't work. That guy is impossible."

"Thank you, Blaise." Thea touched her cousin's arm lightly.

Blaise covered Thea's hand with her own red-nailed fingers, just for a momen t. Then she sat back and straightened her pillows with a little jerk.

"Just don't tell me anything, all right? I wash my hands of you two and I don't want to know what's going on. Besides, I've got worries of my own. I have to decide between a Maserati and a Karmann Ghia."

Halloween.

Thea looked out the window at the darkened world. There weren't any kids in the alley, but she knew they were flitting around the city. Goblins and ghos ts and witches and vampires-all fakes. Real vampires were sitting inside at fireplaces, or maybe at exclusive parties, chuckling.

And real witches were getting dressed for their Samhain Circles.

Thea put on a white shift, sleeveless, made out of one piece of material. Sh e pulled a soft white belt around her waist and made a loop pointing up with one side of the tie, then wrapped the other end around the base of the loop three times. A thet knot. Witches had used them for four thousand years.

She took a breath and looked outside again.

Enjoy the peace while you can, she told herself. It's going to be a busy night.

Eric's jeep pulled into the alley. The horn honked once.

Thea grabbed the backpack, which had been stuffed under her bed. It was ful l of materials. Oak, ash, qua.s.sia chips, blessed thistle, mandrake root. Th e hardened residue from the bronze bowl, which she had painstakingly sc.r.a.pe d off with one of Blaise's art knives. A wooden seal, also carved with Blai se's tools. And an ounce vial with three precious drops of summoning potion stolen from the malachite bottle. She started for the stairs.

"Hey, are you leaving already?" Blaise said, emerging from the bathroom. "

You've got-what?-an hour and a half before Circle."

Blaise looked gorgeous, and more herself than at any other time of year. Her shift was black, also sleeveless, also made in one piece. Her hair hung loo se to her hips, woven with little bells. Her arms were pale and beautiful ag ainst the darkness of hair and shift, and she was barefoot, wearing one ankl e bracelet.

"I'm going to run out and do something before Circle," Thea said. "Don't as k me what."

Blaise of course didn't know what Thea and Eric were planning. Not even Da ni knew. It was better that way.

"Thea ..." Blaise stood at the top of the stairs and looked down as Thea dash ed out. "You be careful!"

Thea waved at her cousin.

The back of the jeep was full of wood.

"I thought I'd better bring some more, just in case we need it," Eric said, th rowing her backpack in.

Then he added in a different voice, "You look- amazing-like that."

She smiled at him. "Thanks. It's traditional. You look nice, too."

He was wearing the costume of a seventeenth-century French soldier at Ronchain-or as close as they could get from looking at woodcuts in old books.

They drove into the desert, past the huge bare cliffs, off the main road and far out among the Joshua trees, until they found the place. It was tiny, ju st a dip in the ground almost enclosed in red sandstone pillars. The pillars didn't look like the monoliths at Stonehenge-they were k.n.o.bby and squished sideways, like towers of Play-doh that some kid had smashed-but they served the same purpose.

They'd found this place all by themselves, and Thea was very proud of it.

"The fire's still going," she said. "That's good."

It had been burning for the last three days inside the circle. Thea's hope had been that it would keep Suzanne interested-and away from the people set ting up in the old gym. And it seemed to have worked.

Not just the fire, of course. The three dummies lying on the ground tied to s takes were supposed to be interesting, too.

"These guys all look okay," Eric said. He picked up the smallest dummy and d usted it off. It looked something like a scarecrow when he thrust the stick into a hole in the ground, standing it up.

A scarecrow dressed in a black shift tied with a thet knot. With a sign hang ing around the neck: lucienne.

The other small dummy had a sign that said clement. The big dummy's sign said suzannb.

"Okay," Thea said when they had unloaded the wood, leaving her backpack in the jeep. "Now, remember, you don't do anything until I get back, right?

Not anything. And if I'm a few minutes late, you just wait."

He stopped nodding. "The Halloween party starts at nine. If you're not here a t nine exactly, I might-"

"No. Don't touch anything, don't do anything."

"Thea, we might lose her. What if she decides that nothing's happening here, so she might as well go to the party-"

"I won't be late," Thea said flatly. It seemed the only way to win the argume nt. "But do not burn those witches before I'm here to cast the cirde. Okay?"

"Good luck," he said.

He looked handsome and mysterious in his exotic clothes. Not like himself.

They kissed under the half-full moon.

"Be safe," Thea whispered, making herself let go of him.

"Come back safe," he whispered. "I love you."

She drove the jeep back to the city, to the maidens' Circle Twilight meeting.

It was being held this year at a Night World dub on the southern edge of to wn. There was no sign on the door, but the doormat, between two grinning ja ck-o'-lanterns, had been painted with a black dahlia.

Thea knocked and the door opened."Dani You look great."

"So do you," Dani said. She was dressed in white, in a pleated sheer gown that hung to her ankles and looked Egyptian. Black braids clasped with silver cascaded from a sort of crown at her head, falli ng over her shoulders and back and arms. She made a beautiful Queen Isis. "

You didn't wear a costume," she said, making it a question.

"Blaise and I are sort of going as Maya and h.e.l.l-wise," Thea said. The truth was that she was most comfortable in her ordinary Circle clothes, and that Blaise knew she looked best in hers.

"Well, come on down. You're the last one," Dani said, taking Thea's hand.

They went down a flight of stairs to an underground room. It had a makeshift , thrown-together look, with crates to sit on, and white fairy lights strung between concrete pillars. Metal chairs had been pushed to the periphery.

"Thea! Hey, there! Merry meet!" people called. Thea turned around and arou nd, smiling and getting hugs.

"Good Samhain," she kept saying. "Unity."

For those few minutes, she forgot about what was going to happen tonight. I t was so good to see them all again, all her friends from summer Circles.

Kishi Hirata, dressed as Amaterasu, the j.a.panese sun G.o.ddess, hi gold and orange. Alaric Breedlove- the soph.o.m.ore from Lake Mead High-as Tammuz th e shepherd, son of the mother G.o.ddess Ishtar. Claire Blessingway as the N avajo G.o.ddess Changing Woman, in a dress decorated with red flower petals and turquoise. Nathaniel Long as Herne, Celtic G.o.d of the hunt, in fores t green, with stag's antlers.

Humans put on costumes to disguise themselves tonight. Witches put on costu mes to try to reflect their inner selves-what they were inside, what they w anted to be.

"Here, taste," Claire said, handing Thea a paper cup. It was full of a thick red herb drink spiced with cinnamon and cloves. "It's hibiscus-my dad's recip e."

Someone else was pa.s.sing around shortbread cakes in the shape of crescent moons. Thea took one. Everything here was so bright, so warm-and she would have been so happy if all she had to do tonight was enjoy it. Have a norm al Samhain Circle. Celebrate ... But Eric was waiting out there in the dar k and cold of the desert. And Thea was counting the minutes until she coul d leave.

"Okay, people, it's time to get started." Lawai'a Dcua, a pretty, st.u.r.dy girl with hair like black nylon, was standing in the center of the room. She was wearing a red shift and lei-Pele, the Hawaiian fire G.o.ddess, Thea guessed.

"Let's get our circle, here. That's good, come on. Chang Xi, you're the youn gest now."

A little girl with big almond-shaped eyes came shyly into the ring of people. Thea hadn't seen her before- she must have turned seven since the last summer Circle. She was dressed in jade green as Kuan Yin, the Chinese G.o.d dess of compa.s.sion.

Still shy, she took a sprig of broom-real broom, the plant-and swept the area inside the ring. "Thea, you do the salt."

Thea was surprised and pleased. She took the bowl of sea salt that Lawai'a o ffered, and walked slowly around the perimeter of the circle, sprinkling it "Alaric, you take the water-"

Lawai'a broke oft looking toward the stairway, seeming startled. Thea saw o ther people look. She turned around.

Two adults, mothers, were coming down the stairs. As the light shone on the first woman's face, Thea felt a jolt.

It was Aunt Ursula.

In a gray suit, her expression as bleak as Thea had ever seen it.

n.o.body in the room made a noise. They all stood still as Joshua trees, watc hing until the women reached the bottom. Interrupting a Circle in the middl e of casting was unheard of.

"Good Samhain," Lawai'a said faintly.

"Good Samhain." Aunt Ursula was polite, but she didn't smile. like a displeas ed teacher. "I'm very sorry to bother you, but this will only take a minute."

Thea's heart had begun to pound, slow and hard.

It's just guilty conscience, she tried to tell herself. This doesn't have to be a bout you.

But it did. And something inside her knew even before Aunt Ursula looked the Circle over and said, "Thea Sophia Harman."

As if she doesn't know what I look like, Thea thought dazedly.

She damped down hard on a wild impulse simply to brush past Aunt Ursula an d head for the street. Now she knew why rabbits were so stupid as to leave a good hiding place and run blindly when a dog came near. Just panic, tha t's all.

She stepped away from a staring Kishi on her left and a dismayed Nat on her right. She could feel every pair of eyes in the place on her. "What is it?"

she said, trying to look surprised. Aunt Ursula's eyes met hers directly, as if to say, You know. But she didn't say anything, which was almost as bad.

"Dani Naete Mella Abforth." Oh, Eileithyia. Not Dani, too. . . . Dani was ste pping out of the circle. Her small head was held proudly, but Thea could see the fear in her eyes. She walked, linen swaying around her ankles, to stand b eside Thea. Dani, I'm sorry. . . .

"That's all," Aunt Ursula said. "The rest of you go on with your Circle. G ood Samhain, everybody." To Thea and Dani, she said, "You need to come out side."They followed her silently. There was nothing else to do.

When they were out in the cool night air, Dani said, "Is-something wrong?

" She looked from Aunt Ursula to the other woman, who was short but had c onsiderable presence.

And seemed familiar to Thea . . . and then she had it.

It's Nana Buruku. From the Inner Circle.

This isn't a Harman family matter. The Inner Circle itself is calling us.

"There are some things we need to talk about. Come on and let's get it all cleared up fast," Nana Buruku said quietly, putting a cinnamon-colored hand on Thea's arm. Gran's ancient Lincoln Continental was sitting at the curb.

Nana Buruku took the wheel herself.

Dani and Thea held hands in the backseat. Dani's fingers were icy cold.