The Undead Pool

Ayer moved, and suddenly his last few men were surrounded by not panting wolves, but snarling ones. “Some of us will fall, but all of you will die,” the man said, without even a glance at me, but David was grinning, eyes bright in pride. “Leave. Now.”

“Look what’s in his back pocket,” Edden whispered, and I relaxed. It was a wilted dandelion.

I think it was my relief that turned the tide, and with a snarl, Ayer took three steps back, spun on a heel, and stalked off, looking neither to the right nor the left, passing within feet of the snapping Weres without flinching. His men followed with less confidence, almost running to keep up.

David exhaled, and the alpha male smiled at me before turning to a Were on four paws. “Follow them. Don’t let them back into that house. Get them out of my hills.”

The Were huffed, tail waving as he padded off.

I dropped my circle. The mystics were slipping from me again, but since they weren’t trying to kill anyone, I let them. It was the caps the Free Vampires were wearing, I suddenly realized. They’d focused on the caps as a signal of who to trust and who not to.

Suddenly shy, the thin male who had spoken to Ayer fumbled for the dandelion, extending it to me as he minced across where the circle had been as if it were holy ground. Two gray Weres descended upon the downed vampires, whining. “It’s a pleasure to meet you,” the man said, nodding to David. “Both of you. Can we be of any help?”

“I told you half the city was looking for you,” Edden said, and I took the flower.

“Thank you,” I said, thinking I didn’t deserve this. “Does anyone have a phone that works out here?”

Twenty-One

The heavy weight on my feet vibrated, the audible growl of discontent becoming obvious as it gained strength. My eyes opened, and I stared at the familiar patterns of dim light on my ceiling. Ivy was talking to someone at the front door with the terseness she reserved for news crews and siding salesmen. I was betting it was the former.

“Get off my stoop, or I’ll send pixy kids to play in your van,” came faintly, and the rumbling at my feet ceased.

My head rose and I smiled at David, even as I shoved at him to give me more room. I hadn’t been pleased last night when he’d insisted I wasn’t to be left alone, but you don’t argue with two hundred pounds of wolf—you make room.

“Let’s go,” an unfamiliar voice said. “We can get what we need with the telephoto lens.”

“I wouldn’t,” Ivy threatened them. “I really wouldn’t.”

The door thumped shut, and I sighed. Head flopping over, I looked at the clock. Eleven. I should be rested, but I wasn’t. Sleep had been elusive and so mixed up that I wasn’t sure it had happened. After the initial confusion over dreaming, most of the mystics had left, returning periodically to color my dreams with what they’d seen, giving me a skewed vision of what had been happening within the nearest ten miles or so. I hoped much of it was simply my imagination, because what the mystics had been bringing back for me to decipher was dismal.

Ivy’s steps were soft as she padded by my door. “Jenks, go send your kids to do something bad, will you?” she said.

“Sure, why the Turn not? Jumoke?” Jenks said, and then their voices became quiet—apart from the ultrasonic cheer that seemed to go right through the walls and into my head.

Maybe if I just rolled back over, I could catch a few more Z’s.

Z’s have to be caught? a mystic asked, and a handful of others drowned it out with their superior knowledge that Z’s were dreams, which only caused more confusion that some dreams were not sentient and an uproar ensued in the back of my head.

Yeah. I was awake. Stretching, I ignored them as I got up, tugged my nightgown in place, and looked at David smiling wolfishly at me. “You didn’t have to stay the night. Especially not on my bed.”

David yawned to show me his teeth as if to say nothing was going to harm me when he was around. Either that, or he wasn’t about to sleep on the floor. Hopping down, he padded to my door. I knew he could handle the doorknob himself, but why get his slobber all over it? “Go on. Get out,” I said as I opened it. “I want to talk to you when you can answer me back.”

Nails clicking, he trotted out. “David!” Jenks said, and I reached for my robe. “ ’Bout time you got the princess of perpetuity up.”

My hair looked like an eighties music video, and wincing, I caught it back in a scrunchie. When I’d gone to bed, new waves of mystics had been flooding Cincinnati almost hourly, and by the faint sound of emergency sirens, they still were. None were apparently making it across the river, Ayer probably soaking them up as fast as they came. Either he was calling them out or the Goddess was out of control, looking for her missing thoughts. I wasn’t sure which would be worse, and the effect was probably the same.

Not wanting to talk to anyone yet, I hustled to the bathroom. Most of the mystics were still ranging about, making me feel almost normal, and I carefully tapped a line.

Mistake.