No! Jane thought. Molly and Evan are mated for life.
Big-cats do not mate for life. Stupid to mate for life. I blew hard, clearing nasal passages. Stared at vampire. Hoping he would move so Beast could eat him.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Sharing the Moon-Call
Heard voices up stairs. Good acoustics, Jane thought. Listen.
“Tell your mama and me about this angel, Angelina.”
“He takes care of aminals, him and Thuriel, Mtniel, and Jehiel. He’s my protector, my guardnan’. He’s right there.” Voice grew sad. “Don’t you see him? Why not? Oh. He says you can’t see angels anymore. Or hear them. Why not?”
“Mmmm . . . Evan?” Molly sounded confused. Worried.
“Tell us what he looks like, darlin’.”
“He’s got black skin and golden eyes like Aunt Jane and golden wings with brownier, redder spots on them. Like the hawk mama likes. He likes Aunt Jane biscause he takes care of the aminals. I mean an-i-mals. He’s her guardnan’ angel too. Weeell. He was her guardnan’ first, and then my guardnan’ angel biscause of what she prayed when she became my godmother.”
“Oh, my God,” Molly whispered.
“And this angel—”
“Hayyel.”
“Hayyel. Will he help us bind the demon?” Big Evan asked.
“Yeeees.” The word was drawn out into many notes like a song.
“What do we do?” he asked.
Moments passed, and Angie Baby laughed. “It’s easy. Aunt Jane and me puts three drops of blood into a glass and you dip the knife into the blood and say, ‘Bíodh sé daor, le m’ordú agus le mo chumhacht.’?”
Evan’s voice sounded choked. “That’s Irish Gaelic for, ‘Be he unfree—or bound—by my command and power.’ And I know before all that’s holy that she has never heard that before.”
Angie laughed. “Hayyel thinks you’re funny.”
“D-Do we have guardian angels, honey?” Molly asked.
“Daddy does. He has two. You used to, Mama, but you stopped believin’ in ’em and they left.” Smell of grief came down stairs. Molly grieving loss of angels.
Loss of faith, Jane thought at me. Molly’s faith in God has suffered. So they left her.
Lincoln raised his head and opened his mouth, scenting-tasting Molly’s anguish. His killing teeth snapped down with little click. Long fangs. Longer than Beast’s fangs. I growled low, held him with my eyes. I will kill. I will eat. I have not hunted.
He seemed to understand predator stare. Fangs slowly went up into Shaddock’s mouth. So slow no click sounded. “Nice kitty.” I hacked and hissed at him. He closed his eyes and lay down on the floor. “I’ll be good. I am, after all, a guest in this here demon-ridden place.”
“Okay. The angel will helps us,” Big Evan said. His voice flowed downstairs like echoes down cavern walls. “And we have the ceremony. All we need is enough to make a coven.”
“Cia will be back shortly. That gives us a full coven . . .” A long silence trailed Molly’s words. “If we use the children.” Her words sounded sad. Resigned, Jane thought.
Big Evan said slowly, “Angie hasn’t been totally bound by our wards in months. She’s used her gift several times, even untrained. But Little Evan—”
“Is asleep. Maybe he’ll stay asleep. We can put his car seat in place and rout power through him.”
“If we wait until dusk, Cia will be at her strongest.”
“So will the thing in the circle,” Molly said.
“But I bet angels are stronger than demons.”
Molly sighed. “Yeah. I guess I’ll have to rethink my growing lack of belief, huh?”
“Up to you, darlin’.”
Kissing sounds came down stairs. Lincoln made snorting sound but did not open eyes.
“And what do we do about your sister? And the werewolf in the circle? Assuming he’s still alive when we get to him.”
“Leave her asleep until we get the demon bound. Then we have to turn her over to the witch council and—and I don’t know what they’ll do to her. For the wolf, we can call Jane’s friend Kemnebi to take care of him.”
Kem-cat not friend, I thought.
“I have his number written down somewhere,” Molly said. “Evangelina’s landline phone is still working. Only the cells are ruined.”
“This day is turning out to be an expensive one,” Evan said, growl back in his voice.