bastard Xenakis plans to sacrifice her for some spell he’s planning. It’s going to happen tonight.”
16
“That’s a first.” Eve cocked her head to one side and stared toward the huge tree and the man kneeling beneath it.
“What is?” Lily settled herself comfortably on the grass. Her knees ached. They’d knelt before the Mother for a long time. At least it felt like a long time, though time itself on the astral was often a matter of interpretation.
“Being summarily dismissed by the Mother. Generally, her thoughts just end and she’s gone from my where. Instead, you and I were sent away, but she’s still here. Talking to Sebastian.”
Lily chuckled. “Eve, you sound a bit disgruntled.”
Eve smiled and shook her head. “I know, but trust me, Lily. I take this goddess gig seriously. And though Sebastian is certainly good-looking, he is still a man.”
This time Lily let it go and laughed out loud. After so much stress over the past few weeks, it felt good to sit here on the astral with her dearest friend and relax—at least, relax as much as one could, knowing all hell was breaking loose at home. She focused once again on Sebastian and realized he looked even sexier on his knees, which opened her to all kinds of wicked thoughts. She glanced at Eve. “I wonder what she’s saying to him.”
Eve merely shrugged. “I don’t know. I can’t read the Mother’s mind the way I can yours. I’m still surprised that he knows her. It’s not like the Mother is a social being.” Eve glanced at Lily and then focused once again on Sebastian. “It’s a mystery to me, but something unusual must be happening.” Then she sighed, reached into the air, and pulled out a tray of small open-faced sandwiches followed by two glasses of wine.
Lily took one of the crystal goblets and a sandwich and realized she was starving. Time had no meaning here, but her stomach seemed to think otherwise. She had no idea how long she and Eve had knelt in thrall to the Mother as the powerful spirit answered what questions she would before dismissing them to speak alone with Sebastian.
Long enough that they’d probably missed that beautiful rib roast her mom was fixing for dinner. Hopefully there’d be leftovers. Lily took a bite of one of Eve’s sandwiches. “These are good. I didn’t realize how hungry I was. How long have we been here?”
“A couple of hours, as time is counted on the astral, but I’m not really certain how much time has passed in your world. The Mother’s visit can affect the way we experience time.” She shrugged and nibbled on a sandwich. “There’s nothing to be done about that. So what do we know now that we didn’t know before?”
“That the wolves killing those girls aren’t regular Chanku. They’re the Berserkers of Norse legend, shifters who are more wolf than human. They’re bloodthirsty, feral creatures who have, for some reason, aligned themselves with Aldo Xenakis. But the rapist is an unknown human, not one of the shifters.”
Lily stared at her wineglass. “We have to suspect Aldo in the rapes, but why would he do something so awful? And if the Berserkers work for him, he must be directing the murders for some reason. It just doesn’t make sense, but at least we know why the rogue wolves haven’t shown up on your Chanku radar.” She flashed a sympathetic smile at Eve.
“I don’t sense them at all,” Eve said. “The fact there are very few Berserkers left—so few the Mother assumed they were all gone—and because they’re closer to the wolf side of their being than the human side, they just don’t register the way you do. Plus, they’ve historically kept more to themselves, their primary form is the wolf, and when they die, they die as wolves, not humans. It’s frustrating, not to be able to sense them.”
“Do you sense Sebastian?” Lily watched him, still kneeling beneath the tree.
Eve shook her head. “No. His magic is too strong. It hides his nature.”
Nodding, still studying Sebastian, Lily wondered about the unknown rapist. She hated to think it was his father. Goddess, that was too awful to contemplate. She glanced at Eve. “We can thank the US government, or at least one of the more clandestine branches of the military, for rediscovering the Berserkers, I imagine. Maybe they were already soldiers, if fighting and killing are basic to their nature. But how did Aldo Xenakis get control of them?”
“I don’t