The black wolf started making short, quiet howls again. The black-and-gray eased her forelegs down, then slid her haunches down as if it hurt.

The wolves needed to be safely kenneled in the cellar, and I had the thought the stairs were going to be difficult for the black-and-gray wolf. I inched forward. Nana grabbed my arms, thinking I was falling. “It’s okay,” I said. I moved along the footboard. I held my hand out to the black-and-gray wolf and said, “I can help you down the stairs.” She sniffed at my hand.

The black wolf came closer and put his shoulder against me and pushed me back. He turned to the other wolves then and barked an order. The gray and the amber stood and exited; the black-and-gray followed. The black one went last. I followed them to the door, grabbed my robe, and slipped clumsily into it as I watched them descend the steps. The black-and-gray wolf was steadied by the other two.

At the bottom, the front door stood open—thanks to a hurried exit by the vampires—and the wolves went out.

Feeling certain that the black wolf would herd the others to the cellar, I moved into the hall and started down the steps, grateful for the sturdy rail. Outside, the house supported me as I crossed the porch and went around the corner. There, three of the wolves lay in a row just beyond the cellar doors. The big black wolf stood before them, tail wagging.

I opened the door, and they all proceeded down and inside. I followed, wishing I could just stop and rest on the steps. If I stopped, I knew I wouldn’t get up again. Menessos had called too much energy out of me, left me so weak. But surely that had been the whole idea.

The black wolf put the gray and amber together in the first kennel. I shuffled over, shut the door, and clicked the lock shut. The black-and-gray went tiredly into the next kennel, lay down on the hay, and curled up. I stumbled, caught myself on the cage bars, then let my weak legs bend. On my knees, I shut and locked that door too. I turned to the black wolf. He stood resolutely at the far end, watching me. Head high, his weight distributed on all legs, he seemed like he was posing. He backed into his cage without taking his eyes from me.

I felt so drained. Darkness pushed at the edges of my vision. My limbs didn’t want to move. “I can’t,” I said.

The black wolf lowered his head, whimpered once. With a big paw, he reached out and pulled the door shut. He glaced at the lock, then back to me. Summoning what energy I had left, I rose to my feet and slowly made it to the last cage and secured the lock. He had not moved, even to lie down. He just kept watching me intently.

My knees gave. Grappling for a bar to hold, I managed to not fall, but I did crack my forehead on a bar. The wolf was suddenly right there, licking my hand and my head. He whimpered again and looked past me to the cellar doors and back to me. No one was there; he just wanted me to go. I began crawling across the cold concrete floor.

At the base of the steps I looked up—only eight of them, but I knew I couldn’t do it. One at a time, I told myself. If it takes all night, just climb one at a time. I worked my hands up to the third step and put my knee on the first. The last thing I remembered was hearing the lonely howl of a wolf.

Amenemhab sat on my couch in the living room. He looked around, panting, but seemed to like what he saw. I lay on the floor, watching him. “Well?” I said. “What do you think of my home?”

“This isn’t your home,” he said. “This is just where you live.”

I laughed. “Same thing.”

“No.”

My eyes shot open and I sat up all at once, the dream fading.

I was on the couch in my living room. Nana lay sprawled in the chair with an afghan over her, snoring loudly. Something hurt, but I couldn’t tell exactly what. My head did hurt, but there was something else too. Something that wasn’t my back or my feet, or anything like that. It was weird.

I swung my feet around to the floor and the movement flaked the dried blood on my chest. I realized I was in my robe and jeans still, and with that knowledge, flashbacks to being in the circle hit me hard.

That was what hurt—my soul.

Angry and afraid, I got up and started upstairs to the bathroom. I had to shower this blood—this vampire’s blood—off of me. Right now.

Stripping off the robe in the bathroom, I noticed the moonstone necklace was gone. I hoped I hadn’t lost it or broken it. I would worry about that later. Now, the shower.

The warm water felt so good, like I’d just noticed how good a shower could be. But I didn’t want to scrub the blood off me, I didn’t want to touch it. So, I stood there and let the steamy water loosen it and wash it away. Only then did I use the soap and scrub, and only then did I begin to feel like myself.

That asshole! I should’ve known better than to trust a vampire. I have honored my oath to you, Persephone Alcmedi. Yeah, right. A shiver coursed through me as I remembered his words, his voice, the feel of his breath on my skin. Angry, I squeezed the soap hard enough to leave marks in it. How dare he use me like that, play me for a fool. Hadn’t I been played enough by Vivian?

I wondered what he’d done to her, but decided I was probably better off not knowing.

At least Theo would be all right.

Wrapped in a towel, I tiptoed to my room so as not to disturb Beverley—I could hear her soft snore in the other bedroom. I wondered if the doc had stayed. I hadn’t seen him, but I assumed he had been the one to bring me inside.

The mess in my room devastated me. Clothes the wolves had been wearing lay in ripped and distorted piles. My bed was a complete disaster.

Turning my back on the wrecked room, I went to the closet and picked a navy blue sweat suit with loose ankles and stripes down the legs that matched the stripes on the long sleeves. With a white tank top under the jacket and the hood adjusted flat, I was set. I grabbed a second sweat suit for Theo and carried it up the steps to the attic. There, I took clothes from Celia’s and Erik’s suitcases and returned to the first floor, where I set the clothes aside and unzipped Johnny’s suitcase. The smell of him hit me hard. I held his shirt up to my face and inhaled the cedar and sage scent of him and Gain detergent. I added the shirt to the pile, rummaged for a pair of underwear, didn’t find any, and took a pair of jeans anyway. It didn’t seem that Johnny owned any undies. I blushed at the thought.

Leaving the living room where Nana was still snoring, I went to the kitchen and started a pot of coffee while I grabbed up all the cookies and doughnuts I could find—and it wasn’t many. We hadn’t planned on four wærewolves transforming. Breakfast might get ugly.

Carrying all this and the set of keys for the locks, I went outside and headed for the storm cellar. After shuffling everything into one arm, I opened the cellar doors and quietly descended. I left the light off; I wanted wæres to sleep all they wished, but to find their things ready for them when they woke.

I put everything on the floor and sorted it out. I unlocked the first cage, the one I could see clearly in the ambient light. Celia and Erik were sweetly spooned together, naked on the hay. I put their clothes and a baggie containing some doughnuts and a biscotto on top. Erik loved biscotti.

Before unlocking the second cage, I stood staring at Theo. She was curled into the fetal position, her shoulder rising and falling with regular breaths. She was alive, and I thanked the Goddess for it.

I left her the sweat suit and a baggie containing some cookies. She didn’t like biscotti, but I knew she did like nuts, so I set a half-filled can of salted peanuts atop the suit. They were Nana’s, but I’d buy Nana some more.

As I turned to Johnny’s cage, I couldn’t help lifting his shirt to my face again and taking in the scent of him.