Page 78 of Demon Loved
That sounded like a whole lot of anthropomorphizing to her, but she’d be the first to admit that she really didn’t know too much about how any of this worked. Also, the energy that had settled here had come from generations of McAllister forebears, so it had a very human source. Maybe it was more responsive to people than she’d thought.
If that was the case, then she had to believe that energy, layered in this spot after decade upon decade of ritual work, would do everything it could to protect the people who lived and breathed now.
“It does want to help,” she said softly.
She’d been so wrapped up in feeling the tingling hum of the energy beneath her feet that she hadn’t realized Belshegar had approached and now stood only a foot or so away from where she stood.
“That’s good,” he said, his voice also an undertone, almost as if he didn’t want to disturb the energy flowing around them. “And it’s good that you can tap into it so easily.”
Another unexpected aspect to a talent she hadn’t even realized she had until a day ago?
But energy was energy, she supposed, whether it had traveled across unimaginable universes or had simply built up over the years, like layers of paint on an old door.
Thinking of it that way made the situation a little easier to accept. This was just another part of her, like the color of her hair or the sound of her voice. It wasn’t anything to get freaked out about.
Although she couldn’t help thinking there might be plenty to freak out about later, once the Collector realized what they were up to.
But doubting herself would only make matters worse. Belshegar believed in her, and that meant she needed to believe in herself as well, even though she’d never been very good at that kind of thing.
She twined her fingers with his and did her best to smile.
“Well, now that we’ve got this figured out, let’s get some lunch.”
Her father had told her she shouldn’t cancel her classes that afternoon, so Brianna had dutifully driven down to Cottonwood to give Callie her guitar lesson, and afterward, had gone to Luke Dawson’s house ten minutes or so away to work on his piano. It was inching past five-thirty by the time she started to head back up the hill.
Still too many hours to go until they performed the ritual, though. While she understood intellectually that waiting until dark was the only real way to do this, she hated the idea of trying to fill up the empty space in between.
In the end, though, it wasn’t too bad. She and Belshegar had already talked about going to Grapes for dinner, so she met him there and they had pizza and wine, and talked about everything except the upcoming confrontation.
If it turned out to be a confrontation at all. Maybe the Collector would realize what they were up to but would decide not to fight back. They were only one small clan, when you got right down to it, and there had to be plenty more artifacts scattered around the globe, just ripe for the picking. Why get into a big battle here when he could turn his attentions elsewhere?
That all sounded very practical in her mind. Whether any of it was the truth was entirely up for debate.
After dinner, she and Belshegar went back to her apartment and killed some more time by watching a couple of TV shows. She wasn’t very interested in either of them, but even though one part of her brain thought it might have been a better idea to take him into her bedroom and divert themselves that way, she knew deep down that she wasn’t ready for that. When they did become intimate, she wanted it to be because the moment was right, and not because she was trying to distract herself from the very real possibility that maybe none of them would survive this encounter with the Collector.
No, she was imagining worst-case scenarios because she didn’t know what to expect. However powerful he might be, he was still only one man. There was no way in the world he could beat Belshegar and her father and Angela and Connor and the two elders.
But if he brought enough servants with him….
Around and around her thoughts chased themselves, but eventually it was not quite nine o’clock and time to go. Belshegar had been quiet for most of the evening, as if he understood that any pep talks wouldn’t find a very receptive audience.
He held her hand as they walked down to the promontory, though, and she couldn’t help being comforted by the strength and warmth of his fingers. With the sun down, the mild temperatures of the day were long gone, and she’d had to put on a jacket before they left the apartment. Unlike her, he didn’t seem to need any extra protection from the cold air, and that small difference reminded her again that he wasn’t human, no matter what he looked like.
It didn’t matter, though. After all, half of her wasn’t exactly human, either, so what was the big deal?
Better to think about that, and to let her mind tease out the possibilities of a future with someone not of this world, than to allow her thoughts to run into dark alleys that might only lessen their chances of successfully banishing the Collector once and for all.
The others were already gathered on the promontory, all of them wearing jackets or wraps against the chill of the evening. Still, they looked like an ordinary enough bunch — and Brianna even spied a large telescope set off to one side, a device she knew belonged to Connor and Angela and usually had a place of honor in one of the eastward-looking bedrooms on the second floor of their home. Most likely, they’d brought it along as protective cover just in case anyone spied them out here in the dark and wondered just what the heck they were doing.
No moon yet; she’d checked the almanac online earlier today and knew it wouldn’t be peeking over the Mogollon Rim to the east until around midnight. In a way, she supposed it was better to do this under cover of darkness, and yet she couldn’t help thinking it would have been nice to have some friendly moonlight to guide them.
Her father came over and gave her a quick hug. “Are you ready?”
“Ready as I’ll ever be,” she said, even as she wondered where her mother was. Safe at home, she guessed; Hayley McAllister’s powers were strong, but she wasn’t an elder and didn’t have any real experience with this sort of ritual, which meant it was better for her to stand back and wait…especially when it didn’t seem as if her magic-amplification gift had any real effect on Brianna.
“Then it’s time to form the circle,” Angela said. She’d been standing a few feet away and obviously had realized that she needed to allow father and daughter to have their moment, but now they needed to get started.
No point in putting this off any longer, after all.
