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Rasmus held up a hand and laughed when we stopped talking to stare. “I have a question. Why were you in prison, Aran?”

“Shush,” Fiona ordered loudly, waving both her hands at him. “Neverask Mom that question. She can rant about it for hours.”

“Fiona Ann Derringer! That’s quite enough from you.”

Conn chuckled. “Wow. She pulled out all three of your names.”

Fiona rolled her eyes and looked just like me when she did it. Escaping my daughter’s company seemed better than making her oink like a pig, so I left my unfinished tea and the dreaded contract on the table.

“I’m going to prepare my scrying area. Conn? Bring Lina’s samples when ya come outside. Surely, the rest of ya can mind yer own business for an hour. ”

ChapterFourteen

Despite the emotional upheaval the new version of Rasmus caused me, I still managed to get into my scrying zone. I removed the scrying locket from my neck because I planned to use my other tools.

When the locket found Mulan, I ended up on my knees on her concrete office floor. If Lina Malcolm was dead and buried, I’d just as soon as not come to on the ground, flopping like a near-dead fish out of water.

I chose instead to float in ethereal form above the scene while looking down at what was going on. To allow my spirit to travel on the astral, I put one hand on my crystal ball and waited for the warmth to take me over. Then I picked up Lina Malcom’s hairbrush with the other hand.

I let the scrying magick take me where it would. I floated along until I came to a well-worn-looking motel before floating inside one of the rooms. On the bed was a woman that I assumed was Lina Malcom. The blanket covered them, but she was moaning and writhing under the male on top of her. Envy got the better of me for a moment or two, but I reminded myself that I wasn’t there to be a voyeur.

When the guy finally exhausted himself, he rolled to one side of the woman and fell instantly asleep. An equally exhausted Lina sighed loudly as she rolled in the other direction until her feet hit the floor. She trudged slowly to her purse and pulled out a tiny glass spray bottle. Walking back to the bed, she went to his face and sprayed what was in the bottle up his nose. The guy startled awake for a moment and blinked open his eyes. Two seconds later, he fell face down, unmoving.

Lina shook him but he never opened his eyes again.

She made a second trip to her purse to return the spray bottle and pull out a bag containing a syringe and other tools used to draw blood. With the efficiency of a nurse, she rolled the unconscious werewolf guy to his back and drew several vials of blood from his arm.

Everything got put back into the storage bag and returned to her purse. She used the bathroom and then got dressed. I floated out with her as she exited the room and locked the door behind her. Another woman waited impatiently on a bench outside the front lobby.

“I’ve been out here for ages, Lina. My werewolf lasted ten minutes,” she said.

Lina laughed. “Mine just now passed out.”

“Lucky you,” the woman replied with a giggle.

Then they walked off together.

So they definitely knew what the men were. That answered one question.

My floating suddenly sped up to flying speed. When I slowed again, I was in some cavernous basement. A variety of women huddled against damp concrete walls. It didn’t take long for me to zero in on Lina. She had her arms wrapped around herself and her face turned toward the wall.

“My turn hasn’t come yet. What did she do to you?” another shivering woman asked her.

Lina ignored her for a bit, then turned to answer. “She made me drink some mixture she said she made from the blood we took from those men. When nothing happened, she screamed at me, knocked me down, and then kicked me over and over. Some guy with her stopped her after the fourth or fifth kick. I think she would have killed me if he hadn’t. I wish I’d never met her.”

“We all wish that,” her questioner said.

Before I could hear any more, my scrying body flew fast again until I slowed to float above a witch’s cast circle on the ground. In the center of it lay an unconscious and naked Lina. Outside the circle, a scantily dressed woman with blood symbols on her face chanted fiercely. I couldn’t make out the words of the spell, but Lina’s body flinched and twitched within the circle with every word the woman spoke.

Time felt different in this new place. It felt like what I was seeing was more immediate. Did it happen last night? Or maybe a few days ago?

A moan from the unconscious Lina turned into a groan which eventually turned into a pain-filled scream as the bones in her body broke and reformed into a large wolf with demon horns between its ears. The creature leaped to its feet with its red eyes glaring at the spell caster.

“If you ever want to return to human again, you will do exactly as I say. I need eleven more of you for my task. When I am done with my business, I will reverse the spell, but only if you behave.”

The demon wolf snarled in rebellion, but the rebellious light in its red eyes soon dimmed. Then it sat in the center of the circle like a well-trained dog waiting for commands. The woman magickly broke the salt circle and let the demon wolf out of it.

I watched them walk off together but couldn’t make my floating body follow, no matter how hard I tried.