Linc’s eyes met hers and he grinned—insouciant, impossible, infuriating man. Together he and his vampires vanished into the dark.
“What are they doing?” Clara Anne asked.
“He’s hurt,” Mabs said. “They can heal him with their blood. But it means them bleeding onto his naked self and him drinking their blood and probably a lot of sex.”
Bedelia looked down at her hands. And there, right there, was the reason why she and Linc had never worked out. She had been a one-man woman, and Linc had been a vampire, always and forever. She sighed softly. Her hearing was mostly back, so she said, “Rule of Three. Three called, three answered. Evil sought the power and evil was defeated, as the Coraville prophecy claimed. Our time is done, this circle is no longer needed. Let us reseal the energies.”
“Let the energies we have used return to the guardianship of the buried stones,” Clara Anne said.
“May the moonlight protect it,” Mabs said.
“May the earth and the plants, may the air and the rain, may all that is good within the earth and wrought by the Divine protect this ancient place and the circle of three that claims it. Seals it.”
Together they raised their hands, mimicking the first time they’d sealed the energies into the ground. They brought down their hands flat upon the ground. Together they said, “It is done. And it is good.”
Bedelia pushed upright and felt movement from the cliff. She started to turn to see.
“Down,” Nubit screamed.
Bee dropped flat. The shotgun boomed, boomed, boomed. A massivebrown wolf landed in the center of the circle, so large the ground shook. The vampire landed beside him. “Close your mouths,” Nubit shouted over the ringing in their ears. “Don’t breathe!”
She fired. Fired. So many times. Reloaded and fired some more.
Blood went everywhere. All over the witches. All over the vampire.Were-taint.It was carried in saliva and blood, which was all over them.
A moment later icy water cascaded over Bedelia. Garden hose. Any in their mouths or up their nasal passages, in their eyes, or a tiny cut... Holding her breath, she stood and turned in a circle and let the spray hit her. She pulled off her clothes and stood naked, letting the water douse her. Her friends did the same.
“Inside with the others,” the woman said, barely heard. “Into the showers. Strip them and get them clean.”
“Apply your blood all over them,” Linc said. “Let them sip and spit and then drink. Hurry.”
“Yes, my master,” a man said.
“Bee,” Linc said. “Sip. Wash out your mouth and spit.”
Bee opened her mouth. Linc’s blood flooded in. She swished and spat and then his wrist was pressed against her lips. She drank. The first sip flooded her mouth and his fear crashed against her, through her. That bond she hadn’t known existed opened wide and she burst into tears as his love and horror flooded through her and twined her heart. She drank.
“I’m going to wipe you down with my blood.”
“I am uninjured, my master,” the female vampire said. “I have washed myself clean of the were-filth. May I take your place?”
“Yes, Nubit. You’re right. Hurry,” Linc said. Eyes still closed, Bedelia felt the cold, bloody vampire hands patting her down. A blast of air crested the cliff; the night breeze chilly on her wet and now blood-wet skin. But Linc and his vampires were fast and they quickly wrapped her in a blanket that smelled a little of Linc and a lot of horse. “Into my SUV,” he instructed.
“My things,” Bedelia said.
“Contaminated,” Nubit said. “I will burn them all for you. I will care for your personal items, anything that could call you. I will burn them into ash and mix them with the earth.”
“You know our ways,” Bee said, finally opening her eyes, to see thewoman. She hadn’t paid attention to Nubit when Linc first called her over. Nubit was short, broad-shouldered, and dark-eyed, with dark skin. She wasn’t exactly pretty. She was far more. A warrior. A fighter.
“Yes. I come from a people who had a holy woman. We all knew how to protect her.”
“Thank you, Nubit,” Bedelia said.
“I’m putting you into the SUV,” Linc said.” A helicopter’ll be landing here soon to pick me up.”
“You’re going after Liz, aren’t you,” Bedelia said.
“With the others, yes. I’ll bring her back safe.”
