They stepped up to join the group where it had formed a loose circle around the domed gazebo situated at the bottom of the gentle slope that led up to the shrine. It was close to the ornamental fishpond that ended right before the terraces leading up to the museum began. It really was an incredibly beautiful place. Now the night had changed it from a place with pretty, well-tended gardens and marble water features into a magical fairy kingdom all washed in the light of the moon and shaded by layers of grays and silvers and midnight blues.
The gazebo itself was amazing. It sat on the top of huge round stairs, throne-like, so that they had to climb up to it. It was made of carved white columns, and the dome was lit from beneath, so that it looked like something that could have been found in ancient Greece, and then restored to its original glory and lit for the night to see.
Mana climbed the stairs to take her place in the middle of the gazebo, which immediately sucked some of the magic and beauty from it. Sam's Pack was with her: Sam (Consort), Paul (Water), Jared (Air), Collin (Fire), and Brady (Earth). Sam stood close to her, looking excited. They'd set up a little table in the middle of the gazebo and draped it with black cloth. Kuri could see that there were a bunch of candles on it, and some other stuff, including a goblet and a knife.
"I will cast the circle and call the spirits of our ancestors to dance within it with us," Mana said. She spoke softly, but her voice traveled around us like a poisonous mist. It was spooky to think about ghosts being drawn to Mana's circle, but Kuri had to admit that it intrigued her almost as much as it scared her. This ritual was obviously something Mana had been doing for a while. It couldn't be that scary or dangerous. Mana played all big and cool, but I had a feeling that it was an act. Underneath she was what all bullies are—insecure and immature. Also, bullies tended to avoid anyone tougher than them, so it was only logical that if Mana was going to call spirits into a circle it meant that they were harmless, probably even nice. Mana was definitely not going to face down a big, bad, boogie monster.
Kuri started to relax into welcoming what was already becoming a familiar hum of power as the four pack members took candles that corresponded to the element they were representing, and then moved to the correct area of the mini-circle in the gazebo.
Mana summoned wind, and Kuri s hair lifted gently in a breeze that only she could feel.
Kuri closed her eyes, loving the electricity that tingled across her skin. Actually, in spite of Mana, Kuri was already enjoying the beginning of the ritual. And Jacob was standing beside her, which helped her not to care that no one else there would talk to her.
Kuri relaxed more, certain suddenly that the future wasn't going to be that bad. Everything would be okay. Kuri opened her eyes and watched Mana move around the circle. Each element sizzled through her, and she wondered how Jake could stand so close to her and not notice it. Kuri even snuck a peek at him, half expecting him to be staring at her as the elements played over her skin, but, like everyone else, he was looking at Mana.
(Which was actually annoying—wasn't he supposed to be sneaking looks at Kuri, too?)
Then Mana began the ritual of summoning of the ancestral spirits, and even Kuri couldn't keep her attention from her. She stood at the table, holding a long braid of dried grass over the purple spirit flame, so that it lit quickly. She allowed it to burn for a little while, and then blew it out. She waved it gently around her as she began to speak, filling the area with tendrils of smoke. Kuri sniffed, recognizing the scent of sweet grass, one of the most sacred of ceremonial herbs because it attracted spiritual energy.
Grams used it often in her prayers. Then Kuri frowned and felt a tendril of worry.
Sweet grass should be used only after sage has been burned to cleanse and purify the area; if not, it might attract any energy—and "any" didn't always mean good. But it was too late to say anything, even if I could have stopped the ceremony. She had already begun calling to the spirits, and her voice had taken on an eerie, singsong quality that was somehow intensified by the smoke that curled thickly around her.
"On this Samhain night, hear my ancient call all you spirits of our ancestors.
"On this Samhain night, let my voice carry with this smoke to the Otherworld where bright spirits play in the sweet grass mists of memory. On this Samhain night I do not call the spirits of our human ancestors. No, I let them sleep; I have no need for them in life or in death. On this Samhain night I call magical ancestors— mystical ancestors—those who were once more than human, and who, in death, are more than human."
Completely entranced, Kuri watched with everyone else as the smoke swirled and changed and began to take on forms. At first Kuri thought she was seeing things, and she tried to blink her vision clear, but soon she understood what she was seeing had nothing to do with blurry vision. There were people forming within the smoke. They were indistinct, more like the outlines of bodies than actual bodies themselves, but as Mana continued to wave the sweet grass they grew more substantial, and then suddenly the circle was filled with spectral figures that had dark, cavernous eyes and open mouths.
Mana put down the still-smoking grass and picked up the goblet. Even from where Kuri was watching, it seemed that she looked unusually pale, as though she had taken on some of the physical characteristics of the ghosts. Her red dress was almost painfully bright within the circle of smoke and gray and mist.
"I greet you, ancestral spirits, and ask that you accept our offering of wine and blood so that you may remember what it is to taste life." She lifted the goblet, and the smoky shapes churned and roiled with obvious excitement. "I greet you, ancestral spirits, and within the protection of my circle I—"
She stopped, stared straight at Jacob.
"Come up here, human."
Like their eyes were magnets to her freaky attraction, Jacob and I (and, for that matter, the rest of the Quiluetes) stared up at her. Her body looked weird. Was it pulsing? How could it? She flipped back her hair and ran one hand down her body like a nasty stripper, cupping her breast and then moving down to rub between her legs. Her other hand lifted and she curled her finger, beckoning Jacob.
"Come to me, human. Let me taste you."
This was bad; this was wrong. Something terrible was going to happen to Jacob if he went up there and stepped within that circle.
Totally entranced by her, Jacob lurched forward without any hesitation (or common sense). Kuri grabbed his arms.
"Stop it, Jake! I want you to go. Hurry! I don't want you to get hurt!"
With an effort, Jacob pulled his eyes from Mana. He jerked his arm from Kuri grip and practically growled at her.
"If he refuses our summons, then we shall go to him."
My head jerked up to see Mana's body convulse as gray wisps seeped out of her. She let out a gasp that was a cross between a sob and a scream. The spirits, including the ones that had obviously been possessing her, rushed to the edge of the circle, pressing against it in an effort to break free and get to Jacob.
"Stop them, Mana. If you don't they'll kill him!" Seth shouted as he stepped out from behind an ornamental hedge that framed the pond."
"Damien, what—" Kuri began, but he shook his head.
"No time to explain," he told me quickly before turning his attention back to Mana. "You know what they are," he called up to her. "You have to contain them in the circle or he'll die."
Mana was so pale she looked like a ghost herself. She moved away from the smoky shapes that were still trying to push against the invisible boundary of the circle, until she was pressed against one edge of the table.
"I won't stop them. If they want him, they can have him. Better him than me—or any of the rest of us," Leah said.
"Yeah, we don't want any part of this!" said Brady before dropping his candle, which sputtered and went out. Without another word, he ran out of the circle and down the gazebo stairs. The other three who were supposed to be personifying the elements followed her lead, disappearing quickly into the night and leaving their candles overturned and unlit.
Horrified, Kuri watched one of the gray shapes begin to melt through the circle.
The smoke that was his spectral body began seeping down the stairs, reminding me of a snake as it slithered in our direction. Kuri felt the tribe stir and glanced around her. They were nervously backing away, looks of fear twisting their faces.
"It's up to you, Priestess." Quil said.
"Reiko!"
"I told you we needed to stick together." She smiled weakly at Kuri.
"Better hurry," Seth said.
"Those ghosts are scaring Jacob," Leah said.
Kuri looked over her shoulder to see them standing beside the white-faced, open-mouthed Jacob, and she felt a jolt of pure happiness. They hadn't abandoned her! She wasn't alone!
"Let's get this done," Kuri said.
Without needing to look back to be sure her pack was following her, Kuri hurried up the steep stairs to the ghost-filled gazebo. When she reached the boundary of the circle she hesitated for a second. The spirits were slowly dissolving through it, their attention completely focused on Jacob. Kuri took a deep breath and stepped inside the invisible barrier, feeling an awful chill as the dead brushed restlessly against her skin.
"You have no right to be here. This is my circle," Mana said, pulling herself together enough to wrinkle her lip at Kuri and block her way to the table and the spirit candle, which was the only one still lit.
"Was your circle. Now you need to shut up and move," Kuri told her.
Mana narrowed her eyes at her.
"Bitch, you need to do what Kuri says. I have been dying to kick the shit outta you for two years," Embry snarled, moving up to stand beside her.
"Me, too, you nasty girl," Quil said, stepping up to her other side.
Before Jake's best friends could pounce on her, Jacob's scream shattered the night. Kuri whirled around. Mist was crawling up Jacob's legs, leaving long, thin tears in his jeans that instantly began to weep blood. Panicked, he was kicking and shrieking.
"Fast! Take your places," Kuri yelled.
Her pack ran to the deserted candles. Hastily they picked them up and waited in the proper positions.
Kuri moved around Mana, who was staring at Jacob, with her hand pressed against her mouth as if to hold back her screams. Kuri grabbed the purple candle and rushed over to Seth.
"Wind! I summon you to this circle," Kuri yelled, touching the purple candle to the yellow one. Kuri wanted to cry with relief when the familiar whirlwind suddenly sprang up, swirling around my body and lifting her hair crazily.
Shielding the purple candle with her hand she ran to Leah.
"Fire! I summon you to this circle!" Heat flared with the whirling air as she lit the red candle. Kuri didn't pause, but kept moving clockwise around the circle to Quil. "Water! I summon you to this circle!" The sea was there, salty and sweet at the same time.
"Earth! I summon you to this circle!" Kuri touched the flame to Embry candle. She was abnormally pale, but she grinned when the air filled with the scent of freshly cut hay.
Jacob screamed again, and Kuri rushed back to the center of the circle and lifted the purple candle. "Spirit! I summon you to this circle!" Energy sizzled into her. Kuri glanced around at the boundary of my circle and, sure enough, she could see the ribbon of power marking its circumference. She closed her eyes for an instant. Oh, thank you, Hekate!
Then Kuri put the candle down on the table and grabbed the goblet of bloody wine. She turned to face Jacob and the ghostly horde.
"Here is your sacrifice!" Kuri yelled, sloshing the liquid in the goblet in a messy arc around her, so that it made a blood-colored circle on the gazebo floor. "You weren't called here to kill. You were called here because it's Samhain and we wanted to honor you." Kuri spilled more wine.
The ghosts paused in their attack. Kuri focused on them, not wanting to distract myself with the terror and pain in Jacob's eyes.
"We prefer this warm young blood, Priestess." The eerie voice echoed up to her, sending chills over her skin. Kuri could smell his rotting flesh-scented breath.
Kuri swallowed hard. "I understand that, but those lives aren't yours to take. Tonight is a night for celebration, not for death."
"And yet we choose death—it is dearest to us." Ghostly laughter floated through the air with the tainted smoke of sweet grass, and the spirits began to converge again on Jacob.
Kuri threw down the goblet and raised her hands. "Then I'm not asking anymore; I'm telling you. Wind, fire, water, earth, and spirit! I command in Hekate's name that you close this circle, pulling back to it the dead who have been allowed to escape. Now!"
Heat surged through her body and shot from her outstretched hands. In a rush of salt-scented wind that was burning hot, a shining green mist whooshed from me down the stairs to whip around Jacob, making his clothes and hair flap like mad. The magical wind caught the smoky shapes and tore them from their victims, and with a deafening roar, it sucked them back into the boundary of her circle.
Suddenly Kuri was surrounded by ghostly shapes, from which I could feel danger and hunger pulsing, as clearly as she had felt Jacob's blood earlier. Mana was curled up on the chair, cowering from the specters. One of them brushed against her and she let out a little shriek, which seemed to stir them up even more, and they pressed violently around Kuri.
"Priestess!" Embry cried her name, his voice shrill with fear. Kuri saw him take a hesitant step toward her.
"No!" Leah snapped. "Don't break the circle. They can't hurt Kuri—they can't hurt any of us, the circle is too strong. But only if we don't break it."
"We're not going anywhere," Seth called.
"Nope. I like it right here," Quil said, sounding only a little breathless.
Kuri felt their loyalty and trust and acceptance like a sixth element. It filled her with confidence. She straightened her spine and looked at the swirling, angry ghosts.
"So—we're not leaving. Which means you guys have got to go."
Kuri pointed down at the spilled blood and wine. "Take your sacrifice and get out of here. It's all the blood that is owed to you tonight."
The smoky horde paused in their seething. Kuri knew she had them. She drew a deep breath and finished it.
"With the power of the elements I command you: Go!"
Suddenly, as though an invisible giant slapped them down, they dissolved into the wine-soaked floor of the gazebo, somehow absorbing the blood-tinged liquid and making it disappear with them.
Kuri breathed a long, ragged sigh of relief. Automatically, she turned to Seth.
"Thank you, wind. You may depart." He started to blow out his candle, but didn't need to, a little puff of wind, which felt surprisingly playful, did it for him.
Seth grinned at her.
Kuri turned to Leah to say good-bye to fire.
"Wow…amazing," Leah sighed in happiness.
"Holy shit, that was awesome!" Quil exclaimed.
"Quil, you really shouldn't curse in a sacred circle. You know it's not—"
Embry trailed off, laughing. Kuri said goodbye to earth.
Kuri sighed. Hell, what now? She went back to the table and lifted the spirit candle.
"Thank you, spirit. You may depart," Kuri said.
"Why?" Mana stood up so abruptly that she knocked over the chair. Like everyone else, she was staring at me with a ridiculously shocked expression. "Why you? Why not me?"
Kuri's mouth opened, but words wouldn't come out.
"Kuri, he needs help." Leah broke through her shock and she looked up from her view of her own back to see her stumbling into the gazebo, half carrying an unconscious Jacob.
"Whatever. Leave him here," Mana said. "Someone will find him in the morning. We need to get out of here."
"This whole thing, vampire, werewolf, priestess, or human is hard enough without someone like you. Unless we want to be your"—Kuri glanced up at Damien and smiled—"your sycophants, you make us feel like we don't belong—like we're nothing. That's over, Mana. What you did tonight was totally, completely wrong. You almost caused Jacob to die. And who knows who else, and it was all because of your selfishness."
"It wasn't my fault! You invited him!" she yelled.
"No, Jacob wasn't your fault, but that's the only thing that wasn't your fault tonight. It was your fault that your so-called friends wouldn't stand by you and keep the circle strong. And it was your fault that negative spirits found the circle to begin with." She looked confused, which pissed Kuri off even more. "Sage, you hateful hag! You're supposed to use sage to clear out negative energy before you use sweet grass. And it's not surprising that you drew such horrid spirits."
Grams stepped from the shadows and into the gazebo, moving quickly to Jacob. She lifted the torn legs of his jeans and examined the bloody marks there and on his arms.
Then she cupped his pale, rigid face in her hands and closed her eyes. Kuri watched his body stiffen even more and convulse, and then he sighed and he relaxed.
After a moment, he looked like he was sleeping peacefully instead of fighting silently against death. Still on her knees beside him, Grams said, "He will recover." She looked up at Kuri as she said the last of it, her eyes kind and filled with understanding.
"Thank you," Kuri whispered.
Grams nodded slightly to me, before she stood to confront Mana.
"I am as responsible for what happened here tonight as you are. I have known for years of your selfishness, but I chose to overlook it, hoping that age and the touch of the Goddess would mature you. I was wrong." Grams' voice took on the clear, powerful quality of a command. "Mana, I officially release you from your position as High Priestess of the Quileute. You are now no different than any other trainee." With one swift movement, Grams slapped her.
Mana didn't make a sound but her face was chalky and she stared unblinkingly at Grams.
The High Priestess turned her back on Mana and approached me. "Kuri, I knew you were special from the day Hekate let me foresee that you would be Marked." She smiled at Kuri and put a finger under her chin, turning her around so she could get a better look at the new addition to her Mark. Kuri heard the packs gasp as they, all looked at their new Priestess. "Extraordinary, truly extraordinary," Grams breathed, letting her hand fall back to her side as she continued. "Tonight you showed the wisdom of the Goddess's choice in gifting you with special powers. You have earned the position of High Priestess, through your Goddess-given gifts as well as through your compassion and wisdom."
Then she made a truly amazing gesture. Grams, High Priestess of Hekate, saluted Kuri, fist crossed over her heart, head bowed formally, with the sign of respect. Everyone around us except Mana mimicked her.
Tears blurred Kuri's vision as her pack grinned at her and bowed too.