Circle of the Moon (Soulwood #4)

Mud screamed, “Nell!”

Soulwood reached for me through the earth. Wrapped itself around me, much like Cherry had wrapped her legs around Rick. Or like roots wrapped around a rock in the earth. Danger, came from Soulwood. The communication wasn’t a word. It was more like lightning striking or rain flooding or wildfire roaring—

Rick, I thought. In his office. Not in his cage. With Mud here. My sister, in danger. I turned, dropping the plant. Running. Drawing my weapon. Knowing regular ammo would do nothing against a wereleopard. Hearing the pot shatter behind me.

A grindylow sped down the hallway from nowhere, sliced the air near my face. I dodged out of its way. It dove into Rick’s office. Screams of the two shattered the air.

Someone—Jason—was working the Circle of the Moon. Even with the moon below the horizon.

“Blood!” Mud shouted, staggering into the hallway. “Lots of blood!”

I recognized it then too, and would have sooner but my first thought had been Rick. Someone, somewhere, was pouring a blood sacrifice onto the earth. A huge one.

In Rick’s office, just ahead, out of sight, fresh blood flew, splattering on the walls.

I knew it. I felt it. Bloodlust woke in me. I stumbled toward the blood.

Want … It rose in me like water in a well. Want … I wanted to feed Rick to the earth. Wanted to help the blood-witch feed the earth. I wanted—Mud tore up the hallway after me, Cherry at her side. The dog was terrified, which I didn’t understand. So was Mud, also not something I understood. Except that Soulwood might have claimed my sister too.

“Get in the locker room and lock the door!” I commanded Mud. “Now!”

I didn’t look to see if she obeyed. She was church trained. She would hide. Sprinting the last steps to Rick’s office, I readied my weapon, held it in a two-hand grip, a round in the chamber, my finger on the trigger. If Rick had shifted, I’d need to shoot fast, empty the clip and hope I slowed him enough to get to safety. From the office came a strange sound, like cloth and rubber and metal rubbing together. And a soft, almost silent whine. And panting. I slammed my back to the wall and edged closer. Feeling the blood on the walls.

A metallic clang echoed through HQ. Rick’s cage door, shutting.

I whirled into the office doorway, weapon first. Feet planted. Took everything in fast.

Rick was in his cage. With the neon green grindylow. Rick’s fingers still holding the cage door he had, somehow, managed to shut.

My boss was a tangle of skin, human hands covered with black fur, cat legs, and bloody clothes. Blood splattered the walls in three long sweeps, like a crime scene. Blood … Want …

“No,” I whispered to myself and to my land. “No.”

I forced the want down. Away. Studied the scene in the office more thoroughly.

Rick’s hand fell off the door and his fingers made little crackly sounds as they tried to become paws. He was in half shift. Inside a silver cage. That was supposed to be impossible. Jason’s calling was stronger than silver.

Rick’s bones shattered and ground together, the sound popping and cracking and splintering. He was bleeding from his mouth and nose. It looked messy. And painful. The grindy, Bean, I thought, hissed at me and flashed her claws, telling me something. She looked at the padlock.

“Oh.” Rick could still get out if he wanted. He still had fingers on one hand. “Right. Right,” I said. “Yeah. Ummm …”

I didn’t want to move closer. I couldn’t catch were-taint, but I could be killed and eaten. If wereleopards ate plants. A hysterical laugh burbled in some crazy part of my brain.

I eased closer, hesitating before I holstered my weapon. I needed two hands.

Breath coming fast, my mouth dry, I stretched, reaching to the cage, and latched the padlock.

I backed from the office and closed Rick’s door. It wasn’t enough. I sped to Occam’s cubicle because it was closest and began to drag his desk out, intending to ram it up against Rick’s door. Which was stupid because the door opened inward. I stopped and repositioned the desk. Leaned on it and let myself breathe.

“Nell!” Mud. Screaming. Her voice muffled behind the locker room door. My sister didn’t know I was safe. She was terrified that I was going to be hurt.

I shook myself like Cherry might and put my shoulders back. And went to tell my sister everything was okay. But it wasn’t. I still felt Soulwood’s bloodlust. And my own. If I was a cursing woman, I’d be repeating JoJo’s words about sex. Saying them over and over.

I pushed on the locker room door, but it didn’t give. I wondered what Mud had dragged up against it, just as I had tried to do with the desk. Sisters, well trained to protect ourselves and others. I knocked, saying, “It’s me. You can open the door.”

“What if Rick has claws to your’n throat making you say that?” she said through the door.

A laugh stuttered in my chest. “I promise I’m good. On the soul of my land.”

I heard something heavy being slid across the floor. The door cracked open. A dog snout stuck through, then Mud’s right eye. The door went all the way open and Mud and the dog threw themselves at me, Cherry running in circles, wrapping us both in her leash. There was a line of benches stretching from the door to the wall opposite.

“I was scared,” Mud said into my shoulder. Into my shoulder. With her head ducked. She was growing so fast. Not a little girl, no matter how I still thought of her.

“It’s … not good. But it’s okay,” I said. “We’d make tea in the break room, but something’s happening. I need to get to work.”

“Something bad. I know.” She eased away and met my eyes, our eyes nearly on a level. “If it’s okay with you’un—with you—I’ll be in the sleeping room with Cherry with the door locked.”

“That’s good. Drag in a desk and a chair and anything else you need. I love you, sister mine.”

“Barricade. Yeah. I can do that. I love you too. Be careful.” My sister raced to my office, taking whatever she needed to be safe in the makeshift sleeping room. I went to the conference room and logged on to the communications channel of PsyLED. There were messages already waiting. I opened the one from the local witches, who had been avoiding this case and Unit Eighteen as if we had the plague. The greeting was to T. Laine, but the e-mail had gone to the PsyLED address available to the general public. It read:

Tammie Laine Kent,

A demon is being summoned.

The Knoxville Coven of Witches

I sent the message out as an emergency text to the cells of every PsyLED member, which was the easiest part of the communications I needed to transmit. I then sent them a text about Rick and the grindy, which was a little more complicated. If someone was listening in or reading the text, I had to make sure they understood that Rick had gone into the cage voluntarily, not been forced into his cage by the grindy. Then I had to tell the unit about Soulwood’s reaction, the most tricky part. I hadn’t exactly told them that my land was semisentient or that it wanted to be fed blood. I wasn’t going to tell them that now, either. I reread the last part twice before I sent it. It said simply, I felt it through the earth. A large blood sacrifice. I may be able to track it but need protection. I didn’t add that I needed protection from roots trying to grow into me. Or that the blood was still flowing. Or that Soulwood was awakening, reaching toward the blood. So many things I couldn’t add.

In less than thirty seconds I had replies from Tandy and T. Laine and the rest of the team. They were in vehicles, coming to HQ. Coming to me. Then a text came from JoJo, private, to me. Call FireWind. We need him.

I was shaking, so I made a pot of Community coffee, which was all the unit drank, wondering why Jo didn’t call our new boss. I poured a cup. Added milk and a lot of sugar to combat my shakes. I ate the last donut in the box, and it was stale and crumbly and it wasn’t the blood my land wanted, but it settled my stomach. I drank down the coffee for the caffeine.

Ayatas FireWind’s number was in my cell. We all had his number. I punched it. He answered.

“FireWind. Nell Ingram, right?”

“Yes.” I stopped.

“Ingram?”

I was shaking again, not sure why talking to the boss I hadn’t yet met was making me so shaky. “Are you in Knoxville?” I managed.

“Yes. I just checked in to my hotel.”