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Beast padded into the base, wasn’t in here There was no furniture, no washing , which were painted white, and the floor, which was painted blackand the white witch circle in the center of the roos on the walls were equidistant apart, and were arranged according to century Though the fashions changed, the people in the paintings did not They were the vampire witches, the Damours, Renee and her brothers--and husbands She had s I’d helped kill theh-waisted, slender dresses showing a lot of cleavage, delicate shoes, and lots of natural-colored hair The adult Daes, and sos, the teens lay in the center of the witch circles and pentagra; in others, they were outside the circles And there were always the sacrifices In several paintings, the sacrificial witch children were dead, their throats cut, lives forfeited in the pentagra drunk froed in each depiction In so into the earth, as if with a spade In others, the circles were s: powder or flour, feathers, flowers, broken stones, pebbles, shaped stones, bricks The sacrificial athames in the older depictions were steel The -chained teens ripping out the throats of the sacrifices and drinking them down In another, the husbands and their two children were inside the circle, savaging a secondsacrificed by Renee Dah

The fourteenth painting was different from the previous ones In it, a va back with her speed, eyes blazing, holding a flauilar, the va to the rescue, vamped out, her face in a rictus screa toward her body The va away, faces full of terror

The fifteenth and last painting caital cameras Vamps hadn’t had the use of silvered mirrors or silver-based film, so, until recently, if they wanted to see themselves, they had to pay for art I had killed the Dainal owners of the blood-diaelina and Little Evan I had done what seeest, most ethical witch I knew, the children’s aunt And she had stolen the diaelina was not a vaer ethical What was she doing with all this? Nothing rew softer as I stood there Monotonous It seemed to emanate from the back wall, from a thin, dark line, a narrow crack

Beast took the last step to the black floor and stopped, paws together, neck outstretched, facing the white-painted witch circle in the center of the big room The outline of the circle on the floor was covered in salt, sealing it, indicating that, when Evangelina left, she left a working in progress As we stared, Beast took another step, and I felt a quiver pass through us, electric and painful The ward over the circle flared, bright and sharp, red as blood Stinging

Beast hissed The shock settled low in our belly, deep in our joints And tugged The roohter, whiter, as our pupils dilated Beast took another step forward and stu and scarlet e of thorns, a protection ward Molly had once elina had made for Leo, back when she was still part of the witch/vaotiations But Leo’s had been built like a cone which had stopped just short of the ceiling, and it hadn’t worked perfectly This one was bowl shaped, a far stronger ward

Beast took another step So dark flowed up from the center of the circle, like smoke, but cohesive Like a shadow, but three di coalesced at the i with purple and blue lights Scarletfor escape The shadow fell back, expanded horizontally for a uely like a person, one with extra-broad shoulders Sory The ward returned to its bloodred color and the lightning resuer lanced through her sto inside

I realized that she had been spelled by whatever working was taking place in the circle Beast! I shouted into her ht us within feet of the circle Beast! When she didn’t react, and took another step, I reached out mentally and put my hands and feet into her paws Balance was different I’d never been in control of Beast and I/we stu drunkenly The floor had a chill to it on Beast’s backside, like bare stone But at least eren’tBeast closer, and knew I had to get us back fro her claws, I pressed the inside It seeh if it had eyes I couldn’tthat I shouldn’t look for the was ah it as it ht walk around a cage, not touching the ward It had a tail Or a leash As if part of it was being spindled out and anchored to the floor in the center of the circle

On the floor, where the trail of darkness ended was soh I couldn’t sic I didn’t know ic--what ic--but I was pretty sure, based on the blood and the way Beast was acting, that this was a suht be a de into otten it And perhaps the thing-in-the-circle had forgotten it too, because at the change, it whirled and raced to the far side of the ward It grew horizontal again, and I realized it was spreading wings, diaphanous as s closed and raised its head I could see a shadow beak, like a hawk’s, open with a cry

Maybe the thing-in-the-circle had begun to affect me as well, because I could suddenly breathe easier I pressed doith a front paw, pushing against the floor My bodythe other paw to apply pressure to the floor Slowly I pushed Beast’s body away fro-in-the-circle and back toward the steps

Jane? Beast thought at ot us out Can you walk?

Beast yawned and shook her head before flowing into a stretch, the kind cats do after a nap Can walk But not close to lightning