It had been costly as hell to get what I had needed, all that had been left of one of the gym socks of diamonds. Normally, I’d have gone to the svartalves for my crafting, but that wasn’t really an option at the moment. Or ever, likely.
A second ring of silver had been placed around the copper one in the floor, and the original had been repaired to a pristine state. I’d used paint of actual gold to lay out the new sigils of containment and warding between the two circles. The candles of rare wax and rarer herbs that burned at five points stood ready. I’d used more paint of gold to lay out the infinity sign in the circle’s center. Natural clusters of semiprecious crystals were interspersed between the candles.
Building a greater circle was pricey. Like, supercar-plus-insurance pricey. And I’d gotten enough materials to make two of them.
Lara sidled into one loop of the infinity symbol and turned to look at me. “This is where you want me?”
“Ahem,” I said. “Yeah.”
“What do you want me to do?”
“Stay put a sec,” I said, and went over the circle again, which made the eighth or ninth time I’d done it that day, verifying that everything was clean, clear of any potential debris, and done correctly. I overlaid my drawn plans, careful one-to-one sketches on translucent paper, on each sigil and made sure every single one was exactly right.
Lara stood over me, and I could feel her gaze on me the whole time. I was close enough to smell her—shampoo and scented soap and some subtle, stirring perfume that I suspected was simply her. Part of my brain got distracted by various memories, and my body was into that.
“Okay,” I said, rising, tucking my drawings away. If I sounded a little out of breath, it was probably just the nerves of preparing the most complex symbolic structure I’d ever done on my own. Not close proximity to a woman who—
—to a vampire,I corrected myself. A succubus. An energy feeder who could leave me a chilly corpse or a drooling vegetable if I forgot what I was dealing with.
I put up the mental defenses almost as a reflex, establishing a barrier around my thoughts and will and pushing away that quivering, almost adolescent excitement that her presence was causing in my body and thoughts alike.
Dammit.
I liked feeling things that weren’t loss and grief and regret and fear.
“Okay,” I repeated, more firmly. “I’m going to bring up the circle and we’ll begin.”
“What do you need of me, specifically?” she asked.
I met her eyes and said, “After the circle is up…I need you to lose control.”
The faint, flirtatious amusement on her face vanished.
“What?” she said after a moment.
I drew in a breath. “Look. It’s got to be as difficult as possible to contain your Hunger, just like it will be with Thomas’s once he’s looseof the crystal. If what you say about his Hunger’s relative strength is true, I’ve got to test this circle out before we do it for real.”
She stared hard at me for a long moment. Her chin twitched up and down. “Logical.” She licked her lips again. “What is going to stop the Hunger from taking me straight out of this circle and over to you once it’s in control?”
“It’s like that?” I asked.
“Like being in someone else’s dream,” she murmured, eyes glittering. “The Hunger will come for you. It will kill you.”
“This is a greater circle,” I said firmly. “Been working on it most days since New Year’s. It should hold just about anything there is. You and your Hunger included.”
“Should?”
“We can’t know without testing it.”
“If it doesn’t work,” she said, “Mab’s going to be rather vexed with me. There will be a great many consequences at play.”
I studied her for a moment. Then I said, “Look, you’ve seen me doing magic in fights, mostly. Lots of blood and thunder stuff. Right?”
“Yes,” Lara said, her eyes unblinking.
“I’m fair at that,” I said. I pointed at the circle. “This stuff? Slow and careful and tenacious? This is what I amgoodat. It’s how I made my bread and butter, and you know how hard it is to be a small entrepreneur in this town. If I wasn’t sure this was going to work, we wouldn’t be here right now. This is what I do.”
Lara lifted her eyebrows, eyes growing more like mirrors. “I adore a confident man.” She closed her eyes, suppressing a smile, and slowly reached up a hand to free her hair from its ponytail, letting it fall down past her shoulders.
