Thaumatology 02 - Demon's Moon Read online

  The huge creature looked down at her. ‘I’ll have you carried to the circle,’ he said, ‘and the fires there will keep you warm enough. Hurry and get dressed, or is the deviously clever act of the Fair One to detain me from performing the ritual by taking four hours to prepare?’

  Ceri laughed and took her jacket off. Once again the wolf-creature watched her as her skin was revealed. A long tongue ran over teeth which could rip Ceri apart with barely a toss of his head. She pulled on the tunic, settling it down over her body and shivering as the cool fabric touched her skin. There were rope sandals as well and the tunic would have looked terrible with walking boots.

  ‘Where did this come from anyway?’ she asked as she wrapped the blanket back around her shoulders.

  ‘I had Magnus obtain it for you when his rudeness dictated that your own garments would be destroyed.’ There was the undercurrent of humour again. ‘He believes that you are to be sacrificed during the ritual and should be dressed properly.’

  ‘Am I?’ Ceri asked.

  A soft chuckle invaded her head. ‘If things go according to my plan, you won’t survive,’ Remus said, ‘but I believe you know it would be better not to.’

  ‘If you succeed,’ she replied, ‘then yes.’

  ‘And you still believe you can stop me?’

  ‘Honestly?’

  ‘No secrets between us, remember,’ he said.

  ‘I don’t know,’ Ceri told him.

  ‘A good answer.’ He turned to the entrance to the tent and one of his minions stepped inside. ‘Take her to the circle,’ he told the wolf. ‘See that Magnus does no harm to her.’

  Stepping forward, the creature whisked Ceri off her feet, still wrapped in the blanket. They were out of the tent and running through the camp before she could pull the wool tighter and the cold air bit into her bare skin. She frowned, unsure she was seeing what she thought she was seeing, until they broke out of the trees and the first flakes of snow stung at her face. The ground was already covered in half an inch of white fluff. If Fenrir became fully manifest it would get much worse.

  The demon-wolf was not particularly fast, but it kept up the same pace, never slowing and not even breathing hard. They reached the A303 quickly and Ceri was surprised to see no cars at all on the road. The monster carrying her was across the road and into the field beyond with a couple of quick jumps, and she could see the henge in the darkness. There were a couple of large fires burning among the stones, turning the monoliths into vast, black shadows. Overhead, the moon was a little past full, but the sliver missing from it was hardly noticeable. Somewhere in London, locked in a cage in his cellar, Peter Mallow would be transformed into an animalistic beast-man. Here on Salisbury Plain, Ceri was about to stand among a horde of things far more brutal and savage than he would ever be.

  They entered the circle, passing through the outer ring of huge sarsen stones and into the middle where Magnus and three of his associates were working, setting out candles and slates with inscribed Futhark runes at strategic locations around the site. Tanner was nowhere to be seen; maybe Magnus had kicked him a little too hard. Ceri was placed carefully onto the thin grass and the wizards looked at her. It was certainly warm with two blazing fires nearby. She shrugged off her blanket and stood there, waiting as defiantly as she could manage.

  ‘Bind her,’ Magnus growled.

  One of the wizards started toward her and she began to raise her arms; it was easier and safer to allow herself to be tied rather than being forced. Her demon guardian, however, had other ideas. It stepped forward, looming over Ceri, and a deep growl sounded in the back of its throat. The mage stumbled to a stop looking uncertainly back at Magnus.

  Ceri suppressed a grin, but Magnus was uneasy and so were the others. If she had any chance of stopping this, she needed the wizard to be doing what he should be doing, not watching her. She looked up at the monster who was, despite all reason, keeping her safe. ‘You’d better hold me,’ she said. It looked back at her, appearing confused and unwilling. ‘Just hold my arms. It’s all right, if Remus is annoyed I’ll tell him I told you to. It’ll be safer for me if the wizards are happy I’m restrained.’ It was insane, she was reassuring a creature whose brothers had tried to murder her.

  Huge, thick-fingered, taloned hands gripped her upper arms firmly. Magnus looked disgusted, but he waved to the others to go about their work as he walked over. ‘You may have fooled Remus,’ he said, ‘but you don’t fool me. Not that it matters, soon you’ll be laid on that rock with your throat cut.’ He waved at the horizontal stone nearby which looked like an altar of sorts.

  ‘I haven’t fooled him, Magnus,’ Ceri replied. ‘I didn’t even attempt to fool you. Your own paranoia did that.’

  Magnus raised his hand to strike her, but the growling coming from behind her back stopped him. He turned dismissively. ‘When you’re dead, it won’t matter,’ he said.

  Ceri ignored him, looking around for something, anything, which might help her. The flow of magic around the stones caught her attention. This close she could see the field twisting and swirling around the rock pillars. She was standing in the middle of one of the most amazing pieces of magical engineering ever built. It was damaged now, fallen stones causing irregularities in the field. It generated around eight to ten thaums, depending on the time of year; the amount of power it would have generated when complete must have been quite phenomenal. Remus planned to use that power to reintegrate the parts of Fenrir’s metaphysical body. They would be pulled from the possessed werewolves he had inserted them into and patched together like a demonic Frankenstein’s Monster. It would take a lot of power, maybe more than the circle could supply. Maybe. There was a lot of power here…

  The demon-wolves filed into the circle, forming their own ring of flesh just inside the sarsen stone ring. Forty-nine of them, standing tall and waiting, with the last of the fifty still holding onto Ceri. Remus strode in after the circle was formed, walking to the “altar” stone and looking around. ‘We’re ready?’ he growled, his eyes glowing a dull red though it was difficult to tell whether it was a reflection of the firelight or some inner glow.

  ‘All is ready, Lord,’ Magnus said firmly. ‘The exact moment of the Solstice is…’ He glanced at an expensive looking watch on his wrist. ‘Three minutes away.’

  ‘I must prepare then,’ Remus said. He lowered his head, closing his eyes. Around them, the wind stilled. The candle flames flickered and then suddenly rose again, blinding, blue white columns of flame erupting upward into the night sky. The runes placed around the inner circle began to burn a deep red.

  ‘It begins,’ Magnus whispered, ‘prepare yourselves.’

  ‘No,’ Remus said quietly. One of the monsters from the outer circle marched up to them, dragging something which he dumped onto the altar stone before stepping back. It was Phelps, tightly wrapped in thick ropes, his mouth stuffed with what looked like a pair of socks. He was terrified and Ceri knew why; she was not going to die on the stone, he was. ‘Now it begins,’ the ghost-wolf said, ‘with blood.’

  A single strike tore Phelps’ throat open, blood splashing across the cold stone and freezing to it almost instantly. Ceri would have gagged, but she was overtaken by the sudden rush of power. The circle throbbed as blood ran out of the dying mercenary, soaking into the rock. The power flowed and Remus raised his head to the sky, stretching out his thick, muscled arms and howling to the full moon.

  The hands holding Ceri’s arms tightened and she winced as sharp talons dug in, breaking the skin. She felt it, the moment of the Solstice, the instant when the world changed and the light around her seemed to die entirely. There was only the gut-wrenching sound of Remus’ howl and the swelling power of the circle. The hands let her go and she felt the beast falling, slipping sideways onto the grass.

  There was light again, the light of the brilliant candles, twisting together over their heads. Ceri looked back to the spot where the monster which had been holding her had fallen. A werewo
lf lay there, unconscious. It was a female, grey-furred and looking quite content in its comatose state. She looked up in time to see the wisps of demonic spirit gathering in the flame-columns, twisting and writhing as they joined, slowly reforming into the steadily growing shape of a vast wolf’s head. She began to laugh.

  The men turned to look at her; all but Magnus were cowering in fear of the thing overhead. The lead wizard growled, a ball of flame growing in his hand. Ceri ignored him, her eyes on the thing forming overhead.

  ‘Glorious is it not, Fair One?’ Remus said exultantly. ‘My god comes. Nothing you can do can stop it now.’

  Magnus threw a ball of fire toward Ceri, only to watch it hit an invisible wall a few inches from her body, sputtering and dying as it fell to her feet. ‘I’ll tell you what you did wrong,’ she said. She raised her right hand, light beginning to burn between her fingers. Remus turned, a frown furrowing his brow. ‘It was a schoolboy error, and if I’m honest, the only thing worse than making it is the fact that I didn’t realise the mistake you were making until now.’

  Above their heads, the vast head began growing a body, ghostly and shimmering blue as yet, but solidifying. ‘What you did,’ Ceri said, ‘is to put a sorceress in the middle of a huge magical field and let her stand there for ten minutes, gathering up all that power, siphoning it from the circle and containing it. Hundreds of thaums of magical energy ready to be used to burn you down.’

  ‘My god is here, Fair One,’ Remus said calmly. ‘Killing me achieves nothing, even if you could kill me.’

  Ceri laughed. ‘But he’s not a god, Remus, he’s a demon. Demons can only stay here if they’re bound, and he’s bound to you.’ A flick of her wrist threw the ball of light in her hand at Remus’ chest. His eyes bulged as the blaze of white light blasted clean through him. ‘When you die,’ Ceri finished quietly, ‘he goes.’

  ‘Stop her!’ Magnus yelled, rushing forward. A clawed hand, covered in black fur intercepted him, wrapping around his throat and lifting him off his feet. Alec snarled into his terrified face before throwing him bodily across the circle to smash into one of the standing stones. The other mages turned, but they were surrounded, the North Hills pack and Lily, her daggers in her hands, were on them before they could move.

  Ceri ignored it all, her eyes on Remus. His body was unravelling, turning to dust as he staggered away from her. Still he existed and the monster wolf over their heads continued to grow in strength. As Remus’ wolf-form dissolved, leaving the immaterial ghost behind, Ceri stretched out her hand. ‘No,’ she said, ‘I’m sorry, but there’s no other way.’ She poured energy into him, solidifying his structure even as he tried to escape into the ground.

  She stepped forward, standing over the body of a powerfully muscled human with curly, blond hair. She looked down at him and he looked back, struggling to lift himself. Above them, the demon wolf Remus howled into the night sky. ‘My will…’ Remus said. ‘My will is done.’

  Ceri shook her head. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said, ‘but I know how this ends now. I’m going to show you something you haven’t seen in millennia.’ She raised her arms. ‘Let there be light,’ she said.

  The clouds overhead parted as though some vast fist was punching though, and the entire circle filled with bright, impossible sunlight. Remus looked up at it for a second, one arm covering his eyes, and a gasp which might have been awe escaped his throat. Then he screamed, his skin blackening and burning, his body decaying before Ceri’s eyes until there was nothing but dust which blew away in the breeze taking the scattering remains of the Fenrir with it.

  Part Five: Yule

  Salisbury Plain, December 22nd, 2010

  Ceri pulled the foil wrap closer around her body and sipped from the tin mug of coffee she had been given a few minutes earlier. It was instant, and too bitter, but it was better than nothing. Sat in the back of a military ambulance, she watched as soldiers and policemen, military and civilian, worked their way through fifty people who had been demon-werewolves up until just before midnight. The sun was just over the horizon and the cops had finally finished with her twenty minutes earlier. She had been glad of that, on edge the entire time the uniformed men had been asking her questions.

  Lily appeared beside her, moving in close immediately without the slightest care for who was watching. Soft lips sought out Ceri’s and for a few seconds there was nothing but the half-succubus’ gentle touch. ‘I did as you asked,’ Lily whispered. ‘It wasn’t easy, especially when we saw you being walked around the wood.’

  ‘I know, hun,’ Ceri replied. ‘How did you manage to keep Alec from charging into the camp with his teeth bared?’

  ‘I told him you wouldn’t be helped much by him getting torn apart by machine-gun fire,’ Lily replied.

  ‘And that stopped him?’

  ‘No,’ Lily said, grinning slightly, ‘but he couldn’t really run very far with a werewolf on each limb.’ Ceri chuckled. ‘Did they ask a lot of questions?’ Lily asked, gesturing at the various authority figures scattered around the Visitor Centre car park.

  ‘One or two, but it seemed like they were fairly well briefed.’ Ceri took a sip of her coffee, grimaced, and went on. ‘I think someone at the Ministry briefed them, and that someone knew more than a little about what was happening.’

  ‘Seemed like that to me too.’ Lily looked up as she spoke and nodded toward the car park’s entrance where a big, black Range Rover was pulling in, Alec behind the wheel. ‘Looks like our ride is here.’

  ‘Oh, Alec’s in a hurry to be out of here’ Ceri said and turned to look at the medic at the back of the ambulance’s interior. ‘Hey, fella, you got any tranquilisers?’ she asked.

  Soho, December 24th

  The Jade Dragon was closed until the twenty-ninth. The Jade Dragon was also full of people. It was Christmas Eve and the night of the staff party. The dancers and staff of the Collar Club, and the various partners of both clubs’ staff were there, many of them currently dancing in the space which had been cleared where the tables normally sat.

  Ceri sat on a stool at the bar, Lily standing right beside her. Lily had picked out a phenomenally tight, short dress to wear and was attracting a lot of attention. Ceri had gone for one of her shortest skirts and a teddy which was not exactly opaque, but she was not quite into the entire party mood and was not selling the look.

  Alec placed a glass of wine beside her. ‘Cheer up, kid,’ he said. ‘The end of the world was Tuesday.’

  ‘Damn,’ Ceri replied, ‘did I miss it again?’

  ‘Again? How many times you stopped it?’

  ‘Oh,’ Ceri said, ‘happens every other week to me. Didn’t you know?’ She picked up her drink and took a sip. It was not a Chianti, thankfully.

  Alec reached across the counter and patted her on the shoulder. ‘You did a good job, Ceri. My pack’s avenged, even if I didn’t do it. I should apologise for being an old idiot. I owe you.’

  ‘You don’t,’ Ceri said, ‘I…’

  His hand squeezed her shoulder and he looked at her meaningfully. ‘I owe you.’ He let her go and turned, heading back down the bar to sort out drinks for someone else.

  ‘He’s been acting a little weird since we left Stonehenge,’ Lily commented.

  ‘Alec is merely coming to terms with the fact that a twenty-four year old girl did what he couldn’t,’ Carter said quietly from behind them. ‘He’ll be fine. There’s some adage about old dogs and new tricks.’ He looked out at the dance floor and the various gyrating figures. ‘It’s funny,’ he said, ‘I get to watch scantily clad women strutting around this floor all year, but watching them dancing in casual clothes is somehow sexier.’

  ‘I dunno,’ Lily said, ‘Naira’s pretty hot in just her fur.’ The were-panther had, indeed, stripped and changed fairly early on and was twisting about the floor in only the way someone with the spine of a cat could manage.

  ‘It’s a good thing this is a private party,’ Ceri said.

  Lily shrugged. ‘
We usually end up with at least three couples shagging somewhere.’

  Carter grunted a short laugh. ‘We’ve had it end up with a pile of writhing bodies on the floor more than once. I generally abstain.’ Ceri looked at him, one eyebrow raised. ‘All right, unless I have a friend here and we end up in my office. I avoid having sex with the staff. It ends up causing problems.’

  ‘I thought you “tried out” all the dancers at the Collar Club?’ Ceri said.

  ‘I do,’ Carter replied, ‘but not like that.’ He gave a mock-serious frown. ‘Credit me with some professionalism, young lady.’ The frown slipped. ‘They dance for me, that’s all. I’ve had a number of offers, but I always refuse. Well, except for Jasmine, but I knew her before I employed her.’

  ‘Plans for Christmas?’ Ceri asked.

  ‘I’m going to my country retreat,’ he replied. ‘A quiet Christmas in the country, well, until Cheryl joins me in the evening.’

  ‘Oh really,’ Ceri said, smirking. ‘She said she was visiting her sister. She didn’t mention she was going down to see you after. This is getting serious. You’re not thinking of settling down, are you?’

  ‘I’d imagine I’ll have to eventually,’ Carter said, ‘but not quite yet. Cheryl is a very interesting and entertaining woman. There are very few I can enjoy physically entertaining and hold a good conversation with. What about you? Doing anything special?’

  ‘Christmas Day,’ Lily said, ‘is for Twill, and Ceri, and me.’

  ‘The last couple of days have been Hell,’ Ceri said.

  ‘Well yes,’ Carter said. ‘You saved the world, but it cost you…’

  ‘Oh God, not that,’ Ceri said. ‘I’ve been rushing around getting presents! I mean, I was so busy I just forgot and I’ve had to rush to get things. Last minute Christmas shopping makes a horde of werewolves seem easy.’

  Carter burst into loud laughter. ‘I suppose you may have a point,’ he finally said.

  ‘Boxing day,’ Ceri said, ‘the North Hills wolves are coming down to stay for a few days. At least until the weather improves.’