Something About Witches (14 page)

“Fine.” She punched in the number, forced herself not to hang up, even as her mind screamed at her to do so. When the throaty Russian voice answered through her hands-free earpiece, she couldn’t speak for a moment.

“Ruby? What is it you need tonight?”

She didn’t know how he knew it was her. Though, in truth, Mikhael probably had GPS coordinates on every major world leader, and the ability to off them with no more than the press of a button.

Or maybe, less dramatically, he just knew the sound of her erratic breath, because she couldn’t form words.

“Hmm. You have not called at a convenient time, and that irritates me. Your clothes are not off, so you have not prepared yourself for me. You expect me to wait on you?” His voice had that tone that pressed jagged glass against her broken heart. She wanted him to press harder, sever the muscle.

She stripped off the big sleep shirt, shoved off the panties. “I’m naked. Make me come.” She couldn’t keep the desperate demand from her voice, and his cold response was exactly what she told herself she craved.

“You give me orders? Who do you think you are, you little cunt?” The crudity prickled over her nerves like poison ivy…. both unbearable and irresistible to scratch. “I am hanging up now. You will spread your legs as wide as you can, keep them open for me, and you will pinch your nipples, Ruby. Pinch them so hard, that if I cared to stay on the phone with you, I would hear the pain in your breath. You will keep pinching them that way until I decide to call you back. Then you can beg to stop. Being the dirty little fucked-up whore you are, you will be dripping wet for me by then.”

She was now. But she didn’t say it. He clicked off. She scissored her legs out wide, the air generated by the ceiling fan blades raising goose bumps on her naked flesh. Grasping her breasts, she began to pinch as he’d ordered. She thought of Derek, the intensity of his blue eyes…. the way he’d touched her so ruthlessly, yet with such…. care. Love. She pinched herself so hard a whimper came from her throat and Theo’s head rose groggily from his mattress.
Forget, forget, forget.
She thought of Mikhael, how he would take off his belt after he fucked her, then whip her until the welts he made broke and bled; then he would fuck her again. Even if she begged him to stop, like he demanded now.

He punished her because that was what she wanted, what the Darkness demanded, and perhaps even the Light demanded it.
You have no natural ability…. Make me some tea, dear. You’re so helpful…. Don’t do magic. It will only lead to tragedy.

She wished her mother was alive.
She’d go back to that clean, loveless house, destroy all the beautiful clothes that Mary had bought on Rodeo Drive. She’d smash every tray of expensive makeup, tear apart every prop she used to disguise true power as parlor tricks to make more money. Oh hell, why bother with those things? She’d tear apart her mother’s perfect face, make
her
beg through the blood and pain, and she’d laugh and laugh….

Ruby stopped, hands still on her breasts, fingers clamped on her nipples so shards of pain radiated out from them. Horrified, she let go. The blood surge was an even worse pain, but she barely felt it. She curled in a ball on her side, hiding her head beneath her arms.
No, no, no….

“Derek.” She whispered it. Pulling off the earpiece, she put it in the nightstand drawer, turned off the cell phone. Then she rocked, and made herself remember every single moment of the time on the beach. The way Derek had spoken against her ear.
I love you, Ruby Night Divine.

He’d loved Ruby as she was then. This, no one could love. But she’d made her choice. In the darkness, like this, she could cry over it, wish things could be different, but in dawn’s light, she had to be what she’d chosen to be. With Derek coming back, and her being here…. It made her feel an end was coming, for certain.

But if that end meant a chance to face down Asmodeus, it was okay. She’d even welcome it.

In the words of the Collin Raye song, that was her story, and she was sticking to it.

“L
IKE EVERYTHING ELSE IN THE UNIVERSE, FAULT LINES
have a topside Light energy that feeds the surface, and a Dark energy beneath that feeds the Underworld. As long as everybody stays on their side, all’s well, but of course it doesn’t work that way. Magic users dabble where they shouldn’t, and Underworld beings seek ways to tangle Light energy up with Dark for purposes that could unbalance things. And if those fault lines get messed up, Mother Earth gets messed up. The saying, ‘If Momma ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy,’ becomes true in a big way.”

A ripple of chuckles ran through the women sitting in the circle. They’d completed a casting, called Quarters, welcomed the energy of the elements and the Lord and Lady, and warded out harm. An hour before they’d arrived, Ruby had done the same, since she didn’t yet have direct experience with the group. She needed to ensure they weren’t overheard by forces that could penetrate a weaker warding. But she was pleased with how they performed, the cohesive energy they had as a group.

Still, once they’d cast, she’d had them hold position and focus while she walked the interior perimeter, touching each woman to gauge her unique signature and strength. They’d sent a few quizzical glances toward Linda, who nodded reassuringly. Once she did that, they waited Ruby out in respectful silence. Also good. No power egos in the group who couldn’t take direction.

“Next time the circle is cast, you’ll have a different arrangement,” she continued. “The four strongest will be on the Quarters, and those most aligned with a specific element will be placed in those quadrants. The choice of Quarter callers is not a judgment. All parts of a fence are important, both the mesh and the post. But the post has certain properties, just as the mesh does. All right?”

As they nodded, Linda spoke up. “Ruby, would our normal five-minute meditation disrupt what you’re intending to do? It’s how we connect, prepare ourselves for whatever task we have before us.”

“Not at all.” Ruby swept her gaze over the group. “However, keep something in mind. What we’re going to do these next couple weeks will be like basic training. You’ll do certain key things, like casting and reinforcing your circle, over and over. We may even do an emergency drill or two in the middle of the night, where I’ll call you out of a sound sleep and tell you to get here immediately. You’ll get into position, cast and protect this area as fast as you can. That spontaneous casting will need to be as strong and unshakable as what you can do when you spend time meditating and preparing for it.” At their expressions, she added, “It’s like loading a gun when someone is breaking into your house and the children are upstairs, no time to get them out. You don’t have time to read a manual or fumble it. It has to be instinctual, fast and steady.”

Miriam raised her hand. As the youngest coven member in her early twenties, she had a quiet intelligence Ruby liked. But of course she was a little more uncertain of herself, a privilege of youth. She currently held the Air Quarter, but
was one Ruby would move, knowing she was better as “mesh” than “post” until she gained more experience.

“Ruby, Linda said we’d be learning how to strengthen and reinforce the fault line so nothing…. bad can get through. You sound like you think something
is
going to get through.”

“Derek didn’t send me to prepare you for the best-case scenario. If something does break out, you ladies are what stands between it and harm to your community.” Remembering her earlier thought, Ruby added, “Think of Derek as a sheriff, and he’s pretty much decided you’re capable of being deputies. That’s what I’m here to train you to be.”

Miriam pressed her lips together, but nodded. When they’d arrived, there’d been the usual atmosphere of chatter that punctuated an amicable female get-together. On a normal night, after the Grounding, when the general energy work was done, Ruby knew they usually sat down to the wine and tempting hors d’oeuvres Linda had waiting in her fridge. Hundreds of years ago, when the very first all-female coven had been formed, Ruby suspected it had been that way. They’d performed their vital magical function to help crops, protect or heal family, but in the aftermath, they’d bond over discussions of family, marriage and service, the building blocks of the female world. A different, but no less important, kind of circle.

She’d just introduced a new element to this coven, one most modern-day groups didn’t face. As a result, Miriam’s somber expression, her trace of uncertainty, was now reflected in the other faces in the circle.

“Let’s do that meditation,” Linda interjected. “The Lord and Lady are with us. They’ll guide us, steady us. Help us learn what needs to be learned, and know what questions need answers.”

The ladies settled into their preferred resting states, eyes closing. The five-minute meditation started with a Goddess chant to focus the mind. Once it was done, Marie lifted the flute she had resting next to her and began to play a haunting Native American piece that spoke of blue sky and grass-covered plains.
It was easy to imagine oneself lying between those two wide expanses, connecting to the energies above, below and within, as well as the surrounding elements, all infused with divine power. The focus of the coven intensified, that energy condensing around them. After several moments, Marie, her eyes closed throughout the playing of the piece, set the woodwind aside and joined them fully in the meditation, letting the night sounds take over as a natural extension of her music.

Ruby kept her eyes open throughout. She monitored the rate at which the auras changed around each of them, confirming her opinion of which coven members were strongest, most focused. But beyond that, she didn’t need the meditation. She could ground herself in a blink, pull magic into herself as needed, as easily as picking up a pencil to write.

A pink moon was rising over the trees while the dusk light settled. It looked vulnerable yet enduring, something she used to feel and no longer did. At least not until Derek Stormwind had walked back into her shop.

Holy Goddess, could she string three sentences together in her mind that didn’t involve that man? Closing her eyes, she took a few deep breaths, synchronizing with the others. While she didn’t need it for her magical purposes, the preparatory meditation connected the circle, connected her to the other women, and that was important, though she’d held off from it as long as she could, curiously reluctant.

As she tapped into that flow, the alluring peace and tranquility that came with such spiritual sisterhood, no matter how transient to the moment, filled her. It brought a bittersweet feeling. Grief. An emotion that would find familiar ground among thirteen women who’d experienced the joys and sorrows of marriage, childhood— of life itself, from the uniquely female perspective.

The Dark part of her recoiled from the dangerous provocation. Then Linda reached out, took her ice-cold hand. Robin, the woman on the other side of Ruby, did the same, connecting them as a natural part of the circle binding. Ruby
had an overwhelming urge to squeeze those hands tight, to imagine Raina’s long-nailed, elegant fingers, or Ramona’s chapped palm. Her chaotic friend’s nails were usually jagged, chewed off. Raina had sometimes playfully rubbed one of her own wicked nails across Ruby’s palm to tickle it and disrupt her circle casting, make her laugh.

“Blessed be,” murmured Robin. It was picked up and continued around the circle until it came back to Linda. When she lifted her head, Ruby sensed it, opened her eyes. Linda looked at her expectantly.

“Blessed be,” Ruby said, though the words stuck in her throat. “All right, then.” Giving Linda’s and Robin’s hands a brisk, functional squeeze, she drew her hands back to herself. “First lesson is feeling the fault line itself, its contours and shape, and taking our wards and protections with us when we stretch out in a line to do that. This circle is a powerful place, but that fault line is even more so. You can draw on that power even as you’re strengthening it, which is a different kind of ‘circle,’ just as three-dimensional, because remember the circle itself is a sphere….”

She hadn’t been lying. True magical energy work was an extremely intense workout, particularly while learning to do it properly, correcting bad habits or carelessness that developed from doing monthly routine prayer circles. When she called for a break three hours later, that moon was high in the sky and the women were drained. Some were sweating, the cotton ritual robes they’d donned clinging to their skin. As soon as Ruby said they were done for the night, they closed down the circle and headed up to the house in weary clumps. Miriam hung back, however.

“You did something extra to it, before, didn’t you?”

Ruby cocked her head. “I don’t know. Did I?”

“It felt like a different energy than our usual casting, an additional protection, of sorts. I thought it might have been something Mr. Stormwind left, but it felt like you.”

Ruby almost smiled. Mr. Stormwind, indeed. “Yes, I did
an additional protection before you arrived. You have good instincts. Keep working on that.”

Miriam nodded. When she didn’t move, Ruby realized the young woman was intending to walk with Ruby toward the house. Linda’s kitchen had a bank of spacious windows, throwing warm light onto the lawn. Open French doors brought the clink of glasses as wine was taken out and poured. The beginnings of soft chatter and tired laughter wafted down the slope. Just as she’d anticipated, the women were doing what women did so well, particularly when they shared a common purpose.